This one goes out to my dad, and I guess Kay too.
Everybody's got family, no use in hiding it.

Most Buddhist monastaries in the north
have extensive English and Tibetan libraries that
sell books and the Dhamma at cost. That means lots
of cool books to read for almost nothing!

Wondering if I look the same? This is from 2 days ago
on Holi. As you can see that my teeth and eyes are stained
pink, don't be surprised that I'm still pink, all over. The day
was great, the chemicals toxic, and the public crazier
than usual. And now I'm so pink Dr. Suess would call
me gay.

I hated taking pictures at the Taj and
blending in with all the other tourists, but
there's just no ignoring the beauty of it. It
stands alone as the Indian government's only
well maintained historic building for tourists.

Hot sulphur springs in Manali on my
birthday. Actually a Hindu temple that
requires a hot bath before worshipping.
Or in my case, a hot bath that requires
worshipping when you're finished.

Damn right there was tea at this frozen
lake in Sikkhim. About 2km left of this sign
was the "shoot on sight" portion of the Indian-Chinese
border. On the long drive up we mostly saw army
trucks and soldiers in ski masks with AK-47s.

Note the sign in English on the left. Sikkhim
takes care of its foreign tourists, which takes away
some of the fun of figuring out a foreign country.
Jammu Kashmir doesn't play so soft.

The backyard of the Taj Mahal, right
below where I took my nap. Taj Mahal was
cool, but not as cool as the Golden Temple
in Amritsar, which is still a functioning part of
India. The Taj Mahal exisits purely for tourists.

Getting a free ride back to Jalgaon after
crashing my bike and having the chain
break in 4 pieces. This picture probably
only looks cool to me, because I remember the
purple sunset to the right, the kids fighting over
a chocolate bar on the left, and the feeling
of a fast breeze on a 90 degree day.

Adam and I snooped around the site
of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, where
more than 10,000 people died in a gas
explosion caused by American executives too
stingy to spend a pittance on safety equipment.
This building was 5 stories tall and rotting fast.
But it's India, so there was nothing stopping us from
walking around and finding gloves and employee passes
dropped days before the accident.


Manali looks like Washington State, or so
Adam tells me. No Himalayas near Seattle though.
Or Tibetan food. Or Buddhist monastaries.

Stone observatory in Jaipur. I slid
down the white part as much as I could,
but the 40 foot drop to the right deterred
me. A little bit.

40 kilometers from the Chinese border in east Sikkim,
our diesel 4-wheeler stopped for a few minutes to grab our last cups of tea
and vegetable momos before there was nothing on the side of the rode but
snow and cliffs.


Tibetan prayer flags are dotted all over north India. I'm still
looking for a direct translation, but basically they contain prayers
blessing the countriside. Most people borrow wood blocks from their local
temple, cut their own fabric and make flags at home. I plan to do the same.

Son and Pa ropin' a chicken. The son later
walked around with a chicken on a leash and a smile.

Serious fog at the Ardh Kumbha Mela in Allahabad.