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 123► With my flight back to the states a day away I had finished my requisite Christmas shopping. Despite shopping 2 months before Christmas I had managed to get the holiday shopping experiences anyway, as I had unknowingly scheduled my flight on the Indian holiday of Diwali. In retrospect this unintentional scheduling was […]  I’ve passed through Delhi countless times during my past few years on the Indian subcontinent. Most of the time I use my stopovers as opportunities to fill up on nihari, kebabs, and Biryani in the maze of streets that surrounds the Jama Masjid in old Delhi. It’s kind of a rarity when I […] 2/21/2010 to 3/2/2010 | Andhra pradesh , India  12► In Hyderabad I stayed with my Taiwanese friend Sunny at her student accommodation on the campus of the Indian School of Business. The school sits on the outskirts of Hyderabad in the midst of the sprawling campuses of multinational companies such as Microsoft. The Indian School of Business is India’s premier private […]  Somnathpur is home to the 13th century star-shaped Keshava Temple built by the Hoysala dynasty. These masters of sculpture also built the larger more famous temples at Halebid and Belur, which I visited in 1994 and 2008. I made an effort to visit this temple in part on behalf of my dad. I […]  123► After wedding I tagged along with Vinay and a number of his cousins including the bride and groom on a short 4 day tour of Southern Rajasthan (a kind of group honeymoon). The major places on the itinerary Udaipur and Mt. Abu I had already been, so it was more an opportunity […] 6/3/2009 to 6/10/2009 | India , Uttar Pradesh  12► Is this Hell? No it’s the UP (Uttar Pradesh) in June, a slight variation on the “Field of Dreams” line that has gone through my head these past few days. My journey started out promising, boarding a micro (mini-vans that ferry people around Kathmandu like city buses) nearly as soon as I […]  1234► On my first trip to India, having seen my father’s pictures of Hampi, I immediately wanted to go there myself. The 16th century ruined capital of the Vijayanagar empire, set in a fabulous landscape strewn with boulders appeared to be a perfect place to live out my “Indiana Jones” fantasy. As soon […]  123► Central Karnataka was ruled by the Hoysala dynasty during the 11-13th centuries. Their temples were characterized by incredibly ornate sculptural detail, possible because the soft steatite soapstone used in construction oxidizes and hardens when exposed to air, beautifully preserving the artistry for almost a thousand years. The Hindu temples of Halebid and […]  123► Bijapur, the last in my three city tour of central India’s former Islamic kingdom capitals, was the capital of the Adil Shani kings from 1489 to 1686 AD. Bijapur became one of the major centers of power in the region after the disintegration of the Bahmani Empire centered at my previous abode, […] 1/22/2008 to 1/24/2008 | India , Madhya Pradesh  12► Sanchi is a small town near Bhopal (infamous as the site of the Union Carbide chemical gas leak in 1984 that killed over 20,000 people) in central India. Sanchi is the site of the best preserved of India’s Buddhist stupas. The stupa complex set on a hill above the town contains some […] 1/14/2008 to 1/16/2008 | India , Madhya Pradesh  12► Today Orchha is a small sleepy little village but it was once the capital of a princely state during the 16th to late 18th centuries. Decaying reminders of its grander past lie scattered around the village in the form of palaces, ruined havlies, temples, and cenotaph’s (monuments built on the sites of […]  12► After dropping Karin and Jeff off at the airport, I headed back to Jaipur, not because I really like the place, but rather to hang out with my father before he took his group south. Although the city is not as bad as the reputation it has, for being a large city […] 1/4/2008 to 1/5/2008 - | India , Uttar Pradesh  123► Karin and I had both been to Agra before but for the first timer among us, my brother-in-law, Jeff, it was a mandatory stop to see India’s most famous sight, the Taj Mahal. In addition to the Taj, Agra is home to a number of lesser known spectacular sights including […] 12/5/2007 to 12/9/2007 | India , Madhya Pradesh  1234► The collection of villages now scattered across the Mandu plateau sit in the shadow of a deserted capital dotted with ruined mosques, palaces, and tombs. It was once a capital and fortress of a Muslim dynasty that ruled the area during the 15th and early 16th century. Today it lies in a […] 11/9/2007 | Nepal  Patan like Bhaktapur is another of the old cities of the Kathmandu valley, closer to Kathmandu than Bhaktapur it has been nearly swallowed up by the expanding capital. But it remains not quite as crowded as and a little quieter than its bigger neighbor. This makes for the city slightly more pleasant walks […] | |||
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