Buncha (Bad) Photos

Baba

Neelkanth, from Badrinath

All over these roads were cool signs like this one. Also "Speed thrills, but kills", "Better Late Than Never", "Don't Overspeed".

Indian seating, Indian Bidi(cigarette)

The elusive Indian woman(background), rarely seen in public.

I shot this one maybe from a bicycle rickshaw in Haridwar, not looking through the viewfinder. I like it. Here's Promod, the guide.

We've come to that bridge...

Here's a shot from one of the mountain bus rides. Rocks lining the photo bottom is the edge of our road. Beyond that is certain death.
Get your news. I watched this cow eat the whole page of newsprint. At first, I thought maybe there was some delicious flavor attached which the cow was trying to clean off, but from what I could tell, it was just a page of newspaper. His face seems to say "Yup, I'm eating sewspaper, what's up?"
Billboard

Wow, someone actually cleaning up in India. I was genuinely surprised by this. I should've known better. See next.
The fate of that trash pile. The Mighty Ganga. Not a great pic, I know. Sad. Lisa and Gusti, what's that bumper sticker you guys have on the Outback? Something like "Everybody is somebody's upstream". They don't really have that here.

I don't remember the name of this mosque. It's the biggest mosque in India, built by Emperor Shah Jahan, same dude who built Taj Mahal. It was a horrible experience for me. I was harrassed one way or another at every moment. People wanting their picture taken, people wanting me to pose for a picture(these two I usually don't mind, but they contributed today), people becoming my tourguide who just wanted me to pay to go up the tower, teenagers following me around talking shit in Hindi, burning hot ground with no shoes allowed, etc. It just leaves no time to enjoy the actual place. The last time I got this angry was two years ago to the month working in the bike shop in New York. I had to find somewhere and sit down and breath deep. This was the last straw for me in India altogether, and when I lost track of time and missed my train to Agra, it took me about 10 seconds to decide to change my flight back to Bangkok and leave that night. I'm sure the Taj Mahal is absolutely beautiful. That's the way I want it to stay in my mind. If the experience was anything like that of this mosque, then I wanted no part of it.

As for the photos, not so good. George Skovera was saying once that if you get angry or if something is bothering you, the photos suffer. Well that couldn't have been more true a lot of the time spent in India. In addition to that, I couldn't really find the good light.

So I left and now I'm back in Bangkok. And India said, "Fine, you can leave, but not without a stomach infection." It was my fault, I ate a really filthy meal for 19 rupees. I got the right pills here for 77 Baht, and I'm partially recovered. It was nice in the airport when I met and chatted with the coolest girl in the terminal, who might be reading this. To you and the other Indian friends I made along the way, I apologize for some of the not so positive comments I've made here. I'm glad I went to India.

Mom,

My weight has fluctuated I think. In India, despite being 90% vegetarian, I think I gained some weight back. The food is heavy and generally quite delicious. I didn't miss the meat. In Thailand, I generally eat all day, and not always the healthiest. In Cambodia, there is a lack of snack food, so I'd pretty much eat three meals a day, and it wasn't heavy. I think I dropped some of the Thailand weight there.

My worldview...I don't know. I know more about what's out there. I know about squat toilets and cold bucket showers. I just went 2 weeks without touching a piece of toilet paper. I know I'll laugh anytime I hear someone say "there's no toilet paper" from now on.

Dad,

I can explain cricket now.

Check everybody later, I gotta go find another place to beat the heat, this place is dead anyway.