birthday blog

What do I want for my birthday? A new home page. I got it. I hope my visitors can more easily find my content. I wrote my "static home page" with search engines in mind. Embedded in the HTML are metatags that Google and Yahoo can use to find my content more easily.  I hope this results in more hits to my website. The metatag ties into my new home page, blogs and photo tags. Seems fishing is more popular than travel.

Himalaya Top 10

map of our Route
Originally uploaded by patrickdowd.

I am somewhere off the coast of Greenland as I write this. Our B-777 left Delhi about midnight; it's now 11:30 a.m. Delhi time. We have about 2 1/2 hours more flying time to Newark. I arrive in Charleston about 30 hours after leaving Delhi. It was a great trip; the Top Ten are:

Everest Base Camp in Tibet
 homestay with Tibetan nomads
 pilgrim stempede in Jokhang Temple
  Tianamen Square and Beijing
 chanting monks at Kirti Gompa in Langmusi

Two Himalaya photo collections

Each photo collection includes about 100 photos, so it takes a couple of minutes for them to load.
I took a large number of photos. My hard disk shows 32 gigabytes including 3,367 files. I estimate 2,708 photos.
I have now sorted through all of them and created two collections.
Himalayan Adventure includes my favorite 117 photos.
moreAsia has 96 more.
I took all the remaining photos I already uploaded while I was traveling and put it in a collection named, Asia...on the road.
They are all available on my website page, myPhotos or directly on Flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickdowd

API, RSS, permalinks, a badge

I set up permalinks so you can more easily find keys posts. Under the "Himalaya" page, you can now click through to my favorite postings. I added a Flickr badge to the sidebar so you can see my latest photos. And best yet, I got an API key so I can integrate my Flickr photos into this site. The site is now enabled for RSS so you can receive my updates as I post them; see "Entries RSS" under Meta. There's more to do, but I'm making progress.

new, new, new

I've been busy since I returned from the Himalaya. You can read my new blog. You can see my photos in two galleries, Himalayan Adventure and moreAsia. You've found my new website.

I've upgraded to WordPress and bluehost. My blog now has categories and a search field so you can easily find what you want. Try a search on "momos" or "Ganga" I hope you like the new look and feel. Check out the pages about Himalaya and Patagonia.

Re-entry, the comforts of home

plane to home
Originally uploaded by patrickdowd.

Living at home is easy:
+ there are water fountains in the airport AND I can drink out of them
+ I don't feel compelled to lather my hands in antiseptic prior to eating
+ no one has thrust anything in my face this morning and asked me to buy it
+ the coffee tastes good
+ everything seems clean
+ I don't need to take my flashlight to dinner in preparation for the inevitable power black outs
+ toilet paper is soft and I can flush it down the toilet; there are toilets I can sit on
+ no one has stepped immediately in front of me as I was walking
+ no one has honked at me for being on the street. A driver stopped and waved for me to cross the street first.
+ I can wear shorts without fear of contracting malaria from mosquitoes
+ I can eat fresh fruit and vegetables that have not been peeled
+ I can choose from a wardrobe of clothes and shoes
+ I can shower without washing the day's underwear, socks and T-shirt

Gear Review

I packed well and my gear held up.
+ The Eagle Creek Cross Roads Convertible Pack was a good choice. It wheeled down the aisles of trains, fit in overhead compartments, squeezed through bus windows, never spilled its contents, easily converted to a backpack when we needed to hike 7 kilometers across the border from China to Nepal, and expanded to fit my tea and other souvenirs for the plan ride home.
+ North Face shirts, REI travel underwear, Columbia pants and sun shirt, REI trekking pants, Merrill XTR oxfords, Crocs -- no problems. I did wear out two of the shirts and threw them away.
+ Tilley Hat worked great at blocking sun. About a week ago while we were staying at a nice hotel in Delhi, I noticed it had gotten dirty with sunblock, sweat and dirt. It cleaned up easily with soap and a fingernail brush. Just yesterday, someone asked if he could take my photo with my hat on and then asked to borrow my hat and had me take his photo.
+ EMS packable rain jacket. I used it once as an outer layer at Everest and then lost it in a hotel room somewhere....
+REI down jacket, North Face fleece, LaFuma ultralight sleeping bag all worked great and kept me warm.
+ Photo Gear, Nikon D200 and accessories all worked fine. My Wolverines hard disk drives functioned at altitudes over 4,000 meters. 50mm f/1.4 lens added a whole new dimension for museums and temples. Never really used my filters. I like the photos I've taken with the 12-24mm lens and wish I had used it more, ditto for Bogen/RRS tripod and remote release. I'm really glad I took cleaning supplies for lenses, chamber and sensor. I had a "squiggly" on my sensor that hampered dozens of photos before I fixed it. If I hadn't cleaned the sensor, hundreds of photos would require touch-up. I probably should have cleaned chamber and sensor a second time.

on leaving India

Hardiwar, bathing in the Ganga
Originally uploaded by patrickdowd.

I am glad I went to India to see then Indian Himalayas, visit places off the typical tourist track, witness Hindu religious ceremonies and meet genuinely friendly people.

I found India more difficult than I expected. The language barrier is formidible; people speak Hindi, not English. People who speak English are typically in the tourism business meaning they want to sell goods or services. Transportation is difficult. At least in Uttar Prakesh, the roads are rough and travel is slow. Where trains are available, they are often fully booked. I wanted a foreign, different experience; I got it. After my challenging overland tour of China, a couple of weeks at Thailand's beaches would have been welcome.

When I return to India, I plan to choose either city or mountains, not both. For mountains, I would book with a trekking organization in advance and let them handle all the logistics of transporation to remote locations (and probably food and tents as well). I would begin the trek right away while I am still fresh. For a city tour, I would either join a tour group or plan to stay at better hotels and have them make local arrangements. I would return in Dcember, January or February (when it's not 44 degrees Celsius).

Perhaps I had some bad luck, but I was constantly subjected to a unwanted and relentless solicitations that detracted from enjoying the people and geography. Perhaps I am bumping into cultural stereotypes. A middle-class American couple is not expected to take care of their luggage or walk down the alleys of commerical neighborhoods. India still has an active, caste system. I'm not sure where I fit in the hierarchy but traveling upper class is the clear expectation. For example, at the museum we were courteously redirected from the canteen to the VIP dining room. I'm not a twenty-something backpacker, but I don't always need a waiter to serve me a soft drink.

I am used to traveling and purchasing lodging, transporation and food myself. In India, I probably also need the services of a guide, translator or advisor. I say this reluctantly because I like doing things myself, acting independently, and traveling without a set itinerary.

Delhi Taxi Drivers

tourist taxi
Originally uploaded by patrickdowd.

Most Delhi taxi drivers are hard-working, do their job, take you to your destination, charge a fair rate and appreciate a tip. Some are crooks. One taxi driver agreed to take us to our hotel for 200 Rs. When we got to the hotel, he demanded 300 Rs. The reason was, I had held up the hotel card and asked how much to go to New Delhi, which was the location listed on the card. But he gave the name of the neighborhood and said it wasn't New Delhi.
One driver who left us a 15 minute drive from our hotel and told us it was around the corner. Originally, he said we could pay him what we liked, but instead demanded 500 Rs. A ride to the airport is less than that. I gave him 200 Rs and wound up hiring another taxi to take us to our hotel for another 50 Rs (plus a 10 Rs tip).
In the future, I plan to use the hotel for all cab bookings. The day of our taxi tour, the driver tooks us to various destinations and waited for us to return. When we went to dinner, the driver waited for us as well. It is expensive, but not much more (1000 Rs for 8 hour day). It is safer, less aggravating, and gets us back to our hotel. Because the hotel books the driver, a complaint from us would result in the driver losing fares. When a cab driver drops us in the middle of nowhere or demands an outrageous fare, we have no recourse. If a policeman is called, they will speak in Hindi and and we won't even be able to talk about distances, neighborhoods or agreements.

Delhi

India Gate
Originally uploaded by patrickdowd.

We took a long and bumpy seven-hour bus ride from Rishikesh to Delhi. And then took a short, overpriced taxi ride to our hotel. In our travels, we had given a ride to a man with a propane cylinder. He works at a nice hotel in Delhi. We are staying at his hotel. Mr. Govind is courteous and introduced us to his friends. We took a taxi tour of Delhi at his suggestoin and went out to dinner with him and a friend.
Today the temperature was 44 degrees Celsius or about 115 degrees Fahrenheit. I try to remember the morning we hiked in the snow and wind to Everest Base Camp, but I am still hot and sweaty. I wanted to visit Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, but they require all shoes and socks be removed. The bare soles of my feet fried on the solar-heated stone and I retreated. The soles of my feet are still burned.
The taxi tour was a good suggestion; the taxi was air-conditioned. We spent a lot of time riding around and looking without stopping. The driver took us to an air-conditioned shoppers' emporium. Later he asked us to tuck our purchases into our knapsacks, hide our shopping bags and tell the hotel that we were looking, but not shopping. I guess he gets a commission on our purchases and did not want to share it with the hotel.
We continue to meet people. At the Red Fort, one family of nine people came up to us one by one, shook our hands and said, Hello. A serviceman with a rifle interpreted for us. They were from Rajistan. We are from America. they spoke no English. We spoke no Hindi. After that was established, each one came back up to us, shook our hands one by one and said, Hello. We rode a shared taxi with eight women in colored saris . They laughed and giggled about us the whole way. When we got off, they all waved, cheered and wished us well in Hindi.
We visited the samadhi of Gandhi and spent an afternoon at the National Museum. India has many treasures from a long cultural tradition.