There are three principal sites tourists visit in Amritsar. Though related only in geography, all three are distinguished by notable incidents of violence in the past, while perhaps also sharing the hope for peace. One…
Every so often, just when you think you know a bit, you find you're just a novice. We've been in India for a few months, but we still open the menu and find dishes whose…
(For our post on the role of Leh as a crossroads for ancient and modern visitors, see At the Junction: Crossroads and Borders of Leh, Ladakh) and for our post on the spiritual landscape of…
Ladakh, the eastern portion of Jammu and Kashmir state (J&K) - and its capital Leh - have long been at the crossroads of global trade. Or at least trade stretching from Persia to China. Here…
Traveling at dawn by river along the stepped riverbanks - the ghats - of Varanasi is surprisingly serene. In this early light, at 5 AM, the holy river Ganges flows imperceptibly northward, a half-kilometer wide…
"My baby does the hanky panky" - Tommy James and the Shondells Yes, it's an outrageous pun, but somehow we couldn't help but think of music by the American Shondells from the 1960s. Yet we…
We were losing the light. In the complex array of regulations under which Bandhavgarh National Park operates, the jeeps that take visitors on safaris start at 4pm and must be out the gate by 7pm,…
Despite all our reading in advance, but with plenty of warnings from those who have visited India before, we had steeled ourselves for a lot of hard times in India. Here are some of the…
(Part 1 about Bhopal shows what we saw at Sanchi, whose carved gateways from around 2000 years ago astonished us with their profuse detail and sophistication. Click here to see that post. ) In the…
Atop a huge flat-top hill in Umbria sits the small town of Orvieto, a beautiful site full of medieval buildings still being used for public purposes. At the center of town glows the most magnificent…