Jerusalem, Israel. Posted by Adam.

Throughout our stay in Jerusalem, there were three places that I liked the most. These places were full of archeology and while I was there I started to love archeology.

City of David: The tour started with buying our tickets. We walked of with our guide to a tiny theater where we watched a 3D movie about how King David captured Jerusalem and united the twelve tribes of Israel around it. Then, we walked to a view point and saw the hill that David’s City was on. The city was really hard to capture because there were steep valleys on each side of the hill. Next, we walked down to the remains of what archeologists think was King David’s palace. After some more hiking our guide showed us ancient tombs, under people’s houses! There was the tomb of an Egyptian princess (not as grand as in Egypt) which I thought was really cool. Then came what I had been waiting for, the cistern and tunnel that were used to transport water to the city. They were both fed from a spring, but people had to walk to the cistern while the tunnel that replaced it brought water inside the city walls where it was easier and safer to get. I could hardly tell that the remains of the cistern were a cistern, but the tunnel was carved out of solid

stone and perfectly intact. My favorite part of the whole tour was walking through the tunnel. At the beginning, the water was up to my waist but after a few feet it went down to my ankles. It took about forty-five minutes of walking in only the light from our flashlights to reach the end of the tunnel and get to the pool. I love thinking how King David helped Jerusalem thrive.

Western Wall Tunnels: At the beginning of the tour or guide showed us how the holy temple was built, destroyed and rebuilt on a platform surrounded by walls. One of these walls was the western wall. When houses were built above the valley around the temple they were supported by arches underneath them. There were also tunnels and cisterns. When we entered the tunnels we saw a stone as big as a bus! Nobody knows how or why they put it there and I thought that it was astounding. We walked down a long tunnel and

even though it felt like we felt like we were underground we were fifty feet above the ground! That means that when I was walking in the streets of Jerusalem I was one hundred feet off the ground. Next, we came to a cistern that used to be used by the people living near and above it. I was amazed at what I was walking on in Jerusalem without knowing it!

The Citadel: When we arrived we saw a tour was just starting and we got into the group. I learned that Crusaders turned what used to be a tower and wall into a fortress by building walls all the way around it. Then we went into a museum and learned how many civilizations occupied Jerusalem and how they all lived. Some of them included Canaanites, Jews, Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, Crusaders, Moslems, and then modern civilizations. That was just a few of the empires that conquered Jerusalem. It was conquered thirty two times in all! Next, we toured the actual citadel. I actually saw arrows and catapult balls from the battle in the Chanukah story which I loved. After some more touring we left, but we would be coming back the next night.

We arrived at nine p.m. into a large crowd standing in front of the stone entry gate and waited to be let in. Finally, the crowd started to slowly move into the citadel. Everybody walked around past small scenes projected on small walls or inside arches until we got to our seats. The show started with flute player projected on the wall right in front of the seats. Next, the same wall was transformed into a desert with three people walking across it. Then the sand melted away to reveal a library projected all over the citadel. From there, I was launched into scenes from the history of Jerusalem with all of the civilizations that conquered it. The show was completely amazing and also the best light show I have ever seen.

Elephant Festival 2011

Kira's post.

Everyone was excited when the day of Jaipur Elephant Festival arrived. We had just got to Jaipur and into our hotel the night before. I woke up alone in the bedroom the next morning. It turned out it was 9:30 a.m. I opened the door a crack and peaked through to see three members of my family drinking chai at a table outside of our hotel room. (Chai is a very milky kind of tea that is almost everywhere in India. Usually it’s very sweet.) I managed to get Mom to notice me inside and she came in and told me what the plan was for the day. I had forgotten all about the Elephant Festival. I was so excited when she mentioned it in our plan.

After breakfast we had to get clothes for Holi the next day (Holi is an Indian holiday that happens in the beginning of spring. They throw colored powder everywhere and it’s lots of fun.) because we didn’t want to get the clothes we’re traveling with colored. When we had found some clothes for a cheap price, we came back to our guesthouse to drop off our clothes and drove away to the Elephant Festival with the owner of our hotel. His name is Diggie. He is really nice and the night we arrived he gave Adam and me chocolates and Sprite.

I was so excited to go to the Elephant Festival! When we got there we had to get seats in the front row for Adam and me because we couldn’t really see over the heads of all the other people. While we were waiting, an announcement came from the loudspeaker. “There will be a few activities after the procession has ended,” it said in a booming voice. “Please come to the front table if you are interested and get further information.” My dad was interested so he went over to check it out. When he came back, he told us he signed up for a race where you have to carry a pot of colored water on top of your head.

After about another 30-45 minutes of staring at the open field, the first elephant came into my line of site. There was the head, neck, and hind legs of a lion painted on it’s head. In the lion’s mouth was a small animal that, to me, looked a lot like a deer. But the coolest feature of all, I thought, was the lion’s eye. It was actually the elephant’s eye. That way the lion could blink! Of course, the first elephant was the best. The parade of elephants never ended. After quite some time I spotted something that didn’t look anything like an elephant. A camel! Lots of camels! Next came lines of dancing ladies, all with long flowy skirts twirling in the air. Then more elephants. It was such an amazing sight!

Finally the procession ended and it was time for my dad to go out onto the field and do the race. He got a shirt that said “The Jaipur Elephant Festival” on it. He was out on the field and then the speaker called “On your mark, get set, go!” He ran pretty fast but he didn’t win. The pots were really big and heavy. On his way to the finish line, he spilled his pot and it soaked about five different people with pink water, including him. Then the pot fell to the ground and shattered. My dad wasn’t the only one who broke his pot, though. It was fun to watch.

After awhile people started going onto the field and my family just had to go on too and see what was going on. We walked right up to the winning elephants. It was pretty cool seeing them up close. Adam and I got our picture taken with the elephant that got a trophy.

Then we noticed a big crowd in the center of the field. We came over to see what was happening. There were lots of ladies doing a dance with flower petals and men playing drums and singing. The ladies threw the flower petals up and spun them around in trays. After awhile the crowd of locals and tourists joined in, including my family. There were flower petals flying everywhere! Then people started throwing colored powder everywhere and we decided to get away because we didn’t have our Holi clothes. Then there were the “Holi-works”. Holi-works is a name my dad made up. It was like fireworks, but the colored powder shot into the sky instead of sparks. We decided not to get too close because we might be sprayed in powder.

Finally it was time to go. I was kind of sad to leave all the fun. The Elephant Festival was one of my favorite things in India.

The Kira & Adam Report - On How They Are Doing.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on our blog. My much more frequent posts, which are photos accompanied by short descriptions, can be seen on our Facebook group located at MAJKFam@groups.facebook.com . It's a lot quicker and simpler for me. If you would like access, FB friend me at http://www.facebook.com/lipson1 and I'll invite you in.

During these past months I've been asked how Adam & Kira are doing from several of our trip followers - so I wanted to post a bit about that. I admit I'm taking a risk doing so without clearing it w/them first (or giving Jeanne the time to contribute). I like giving A & K editorial control over what we do & don't share about them publically. But this is a topic that’s near and dear, and I find that if I don’t just write & post quickly it often takes weeks or more to publish - so here goes without further delay. There may be more to follow from another MAJK'cian:

As written to me by our friend Leslie H a few days back, "What a gift for your children as well as for you and Jeanne. Do you see them already changing and deepening as people as a result of this?"

The quick response I sent back was:

Yes, they for sure are changing - quite a bit, yet in other ways not at all. A number of their assumptions about life, the way "things work", what matters most, and day-to-day living have changed. How could it not? Also, they are becoming more tolerant, resilient, and less squeamish. I think on a deeper, less superficial level they have an expanded view of the role spirituality and faith plays in many people's lives (seeing so many poor people give offerings, how it is integrated into day to day life etc. - as compared to most spiritual practice at home in the USA which is partitioned into a separate and often private part of people's lives.)

My longer response follows, along with the proviso that I will generalize my comments for A&K as a unit rather than separate between them out of deference to their privacy. (They are obviously very different people, with varying temperaments, inclinations and sensitivities:)

Adam & Kira understand much more about wealth and poverty, the more and less fortunate, and the difference between freedom and oppression. They now see that not all rulers rule on behalf of their publics, and that some chose to use power for themselves and their relations. And that democracy, freedom of speech and free choice/action is not ubiquitous. They see that there are plenty of social problems that can’t be fixed simply. For example, they get that the poverty in India isn’t reversible by simply having people like us give to the beggars. They understand that it takes schools to educate young kids, who often must work to put food on their barely surviving families’ tables, and that investing in a child’s future via education or simply allowing them to play with their friends for a few hours can be a luxury and not an assumed right. They see that many don’t have clean water, or sanitation – also a luxury for some. I’m not sure how they reconcile this to our world, where all this is a given. But then again, I can’t really reconcile it for myself either. Suffice it to say; while this is quite a lot to take in for the average American child, A&K have absorbed it with openness, integrity, curiosity and sensitivity.

Yes, they certainly are more aware of the human plight and where we fit into the overall World’s population.

They see that not everything is predictable and makes sense, that we have a lot less control over our circumstances than they previously thought, and that life is not always "fair."

A&K (like most all children) are curious and more aware of whatever's going on around them than most adults would give them credit for. They notice lots consciously, and probably even more sub-consciously. So, they’re taking in lots and lots every day. Picture that we are traveling through the impoverished, harsh, alien, yet lovely, spirited, colorful, magical 3^rd world and that we as parents have much less control over our children’s’ environments and what they are exposed to, than is true while at home. Also, recognize that there are plenty of times when it is far more important that they take on more responsibility for the “team” than would be the case at home, with a more direct and abrupt feedback loop. For example, “Guys - you have to wake up NOW and get your backpack on immediately. The train is about to stop and disembark, even if it is only 4:30AM.” or “Watch out. Stick close. The crowds are thick and confronting, and there’s puddles of fetid water about.” Then add 24-7 togetherness, an absence of peers and friends, and lack of any personal space. OK – you’re beginning to get the picture of their life on the road.

So - how’s all this affecting A & K, and how are they doing with it all?

First I’ll say that the allure of travel, and the promise of specific experiences that excite them the most (like elephant riding, seeing the Taj Mahal, going on Safari, etc.) fuel them quite a bit. It gives them more will to endure challenge than they had back home, which has a maturing affect on them. They appreciate they are doing something remarkable and challenging. They have been told countless times (ad naseum) by travelers and locals how fortunate they are to be on this tour. They get it! They are more realistic about things. Their Pollyanna bubble has been removed faster than if we had stayed home. Yet they still love this bubble and cling to it when they can – and I can’t blame them - I think most people, no matter their age, are seek this to some extent. They seem OK about this – not bitter, but rather accepting. This is another maturing factor. I think they know themselves and their capabilities better. They make friends with adults more easily, as there are few kids about. (I love watching them chat up a traveler or a local, order in a restaurant, or Make their own purchases.) So – in a very real sense they are growing up faster – it’s evident to me in just 3 months – trying new foods, tolerating the challenge of limited communications, and being required to fend for themselves all the more.

But on the flip side they are still children. They can drone on and on about “not wanting to tour today” or “do we have to do our school work?” or “I miss this or that at home.” They will often prefer to play, read or just watch the tube rather than go experience the outside world – understandable, yet it can be quite frustrating and create palpable tension. They still whine and don't listen at times when we really wish they would (and I find we sometimes have less tolerance for this away than when at home.) There have been several times when the desire (for them it may be more a “need”) to go back to our room for whatever reason far outweighs the allure of seeing the next amazing sight or experience. This can take away any momentum that we’ve generated – and put us back in the thick gravity zone of our room, which can easily take an hour or more break out of.

The armchair psychologist in me thinks all children want to exercise more and more control for themselves as they grow up. A&K are now in a situation where by definition they have less rather than more control over their environment, and that this is challenging for them. So they find other, often infuriating to me, places to exercise control (what to eat, how long to ignore our pleas to get out of bed or start school work, what to refuse to do, etc.) My hope is that my understanding this makes me a bit more gracious and spacious, when we begin downward spiraling into this dynamic.

But all in all, A & K are growing in leaps and bounds. They are certainly more worldly, accommodating and self-sufficient. They have tested their limits to further extremes than they previously knew (such as a very vertical and hot 12 mile “trek” in the hills of Laos, walking through the overwhelming density of Old Delhi, or digging deep to see a famous site while dealing with fatigue or days of bad traveler’s tummy or some other malady.) They are more aware of the importance of defending their personal boundaries & space, a by-product of dozens of people/day wanting to touch or photograph them, and countless vendors and beggars appealing to them all the time. They are more patient. They have a far better appreciation that there are many ways to live, be, and enjoy life. And they take far, far less for granted. Yet, they are still privileged kids with privileged expectations – and that’s just fine with all 4 of us.

I've felt road weary this past week. Sometimes the strain of making dozens of decisions into the unknown most every day, combined with moving from place to place, combined with having virtually no personal space/time (i.e. - living in a single guest house room together, doing almost EVERYTHING together, etc.), combined with vigilant watch over health/wellness combined with ........, can sporadically erode any or all of our spirits. And occasionally this spark gets fanned and spreads from one to another, and leads to a cranky MAJK Fam. So I began briefly wondering, "Are we beginning to get traveled out? Are we up for another 4 months of this? Do the gains justify the effort?" I checked in w/both A&K. “What do you guys think? Do you want to keep going? Are you enjoying this? Would you rather go back home early if you could?" Knowing they miss their friends, bedrooms, cat and access to our fridge (and much, much more), I was a bit surprised at the quickness and clarity of their response. "Of course we want to keep traveling! Go home now? Are you crazy? (Authors note - obviously I am, or I would not have set this whole thing in motion months back.) There's so much more we want to see and do. This is amazing. Plus, we would have to go back into the classroom 5 days/week? And miss seeing Israel, and Africa, and ...?"

There you go – the A&K report. Would be happy to answer any specific questions you may have – so let em fly if you like.

~Michael~

My Experiences in India

This post is by Adam.

First of all I am writing this on a train from Delhi, India to Goa, India. It supposedly was from 3:00 pm to 5:45 am so we woke up early to get off. When we were up, we waited and waited for our stop. By eight o’clock it still hadn’t come. By that time my dad was on the computer looking up when our train arrived at our station. It said 5:45 am…but the next day. Our train was twenty-four hors longer than we thought!
That was just an update on what I’m doing now, but there were so many amazing experiences that I had in India. This is my one favorite from each city, a tiny portion of all of them.

The Jiapur elephant festival and Holi. At the elephant festival they painted elephants and had a contest for the best painting. Later they did a dance and threw flower petals everywhere. On Holi, the festival of color, (it was the day after the elephant festival) everybody walks around and smears color on your face. I got so colorful! Hopefully you will hear more about this from Kira.

Ramana’s Garden children’s home and school in Rishikesh. When I went there I met a boy my age named Oinak. Together, we played Frisbee, swam in the holy Ganga river (Ganges in English), and just talked. He was the first boy my age I had met on the whole trip so it was really fun.

The bicycle rickshaw tour in Delhi. We were peddled though the extremely crowded streets, barely missing motorbikes, cars, horse pulled carts, and wandering cows (they’re holy and nobody owns them so they just walk around eating the garbage that is everywhere). My favorite destination was the wholesale spice market. There, you can buy one hundred to five hundred kilogram sacks of turmeric, coriander, and all the other spices used in Indian cooking. As you can imagine, the smells were overpowering. Sometimes we passed a stall with only hot chili peppers! I thought it was amazing

In Agra, definitely the Taj Mahal. It is GIANT! The inlaid stones are so amazing. I also loved how it is made entirely of white marble. Words can hardly describe it but a few pictures might.

I really loved those experiences in India and I can’t wait for more in Goa.

Three Great Days

Kira’s post.

Have you ever walked twelve kilometers in one day? Well, I have. On a three-day trek out of Chiang Mai, Thailand. (I walked twelve kilometers on the second day, plus more on the others.)

On the night before we left we had to tell our hotel what we wanted for breakfast because we wouldn’t have enough time to order since our trek started so early the next morning. When I woke up, I had to get dressed very quickly so I would finish my breakfast on time. When my pancake came, I dug in because I was so hungry. I knew I had a long day ahead of me. The truck arrived just as I was finishing it. My parents were a little bit late because they were getting all our bags ready and making sure everything was the way we’d planned. Finally, they came out of the room and into the truck. The night before, our guide had said that we would be sitting in the truck for about an hour and a half to two hours before our first stop, which was an elephant ride. I wasn’t so excited about the elephant ride because I had already had an awesome experience with elephants in Laos. We were riding in a basket, not on the elephant’s neck. I like riding on the neck much better. When we were about half way into the ride, our mahout asked Adam if he wanted to ride on the neck. After a while, I told Adam that I was going to ask the mahout if I could ride on the neck, too. Adam thought the mahout would ask me later so I waited. But the mahout never did. I was disappointed. I didn’t really know how to talk to the mahout anyway because he didn’t speak much English. After about an hour more in the truck we stopped for lunch, which turned out to be fried rice wrapped in a banana leaf, the exact same thing we had on our eighteen-kilometer trek in Laos.

Once we were done with lunch, we got back into the truck and drove to the spot where we were dropped off to start our trek. I think you can tell that the truck ride was pretty long. That day was about 2-3 hours of trekking, about 7-8 kilometers. On the way we saw some huge spiders and lots of dry rice fields. There was too much cool stuff to tell you all of it. When we finally got to the Karen village where we would spend the night, we walked into a small room made of bamboo with mats on the ground and mosquito nets above them. I knew they were our beds because once one of our tour guides brought us to his house in a village and he slept on mats like that. Adam and I called it a five star hotel because you can usually see at least five stars from inside. I changed into my long pants and a warmer shirt. It was kind of cold that night. We all sat by the fire while our dinner was being made. Finally it was ready. It included steamed rice, like almost all dinners have, egg omelets, coconut milk stew with eggplant and chicken with green beans. I finally learned to eat chicken on this trip, but that's the only meat I eat. I ate quickly, but the rest of the trekkers took their time. My dad wasn't feeling well that night so he couldn't stay up and play his guitar like he normally would. I might have stayed up later, but I was feeling very tired so I went to sleep.

In the morning, I was woken up by roosters cockadoodling right under my bed. Oh, I forgot to tell you, almost all houses are on stilts. That's how the roosters were under the room. When I finally was awake enough to get out, I saw some of the other people on the trek out by the fire drinking hot cocoa. I hadn't had that drink for a while so I decided to have some. It was served in bamboo cups. I liked drinking out of them.

After breakfast, which was white bread and jam and scrambled eggs with tomatoes and onions, we began our second day of trekking. That day was 12 km. There were so many hills on that hike! It felt like the trek was going on for about 10 hours or more!

That day we had the same exact lunch – fried rice. I guess that’s just what you have on treks. At our lunch stop there was half a strip of bamboo with water flowing down it and we could go under to cool off. That day was really hot. Well, I guess all days are hot in Thailand. At least when I was there. Then we started walking again, up more hills and down more hills. Sometimes we were walking by the stream and jumping across stones and sometimes we were walking through a path in jungle or something that was kind of like a bamboo forest. Finally, we came to a small bamboo house on the river where we would be sleeping. The beds were exactly the same as the night before. We were all really hot and sweaty so we changed into our bathing suits and took a swim in the river. Everyone was gone by the time I was ready to get out. When I was walking to shore, I stepped on a bamboo raft, which we would take the next day. The bamboo was slippery and I fell on it. When I fell, a little stub was sticking out of the bamboo and it went into my foot. I had a very bad scrape on the bottom of my foot and that night I couldn't walk very well. The next day I was very careful not to slip on the raft again. We went down the river on the rafts for about an hour. We saw lots of water buffalo. There were lots of rapids, too. It was really fun. When were done rafting, we took the rafts apart and some people took the bamboo poles up on shore and we started up the hill. Finally we got to the truck again and we drove to a waterfall where we got to swim. I didn’t want to because there were lots of rocks on the bottom and they hurt my cut. When everyone who wanted to had gone in the water, we got back into the truck for the drive back to our guesthouse. That was a really fun trek.

On the Road As A Family – Chapter 2 - Getting to India

Written by Michael - 03.19.11

We arrived in New Delhi, India 1 week ago, braced for an inevitable assault on our senses. India, if you didn’t know, is a land of extreme contrasts: old and new, wealth and poverty, magnificence and squalor. Here’s the story of our entry.

I took my first India task very seriously: to orchestrate as easy a transition into this predictably unpredictable land as possible so that AJK would be more turned on to India than turned off. Last I was here was 21 years ago when I coined the phrase “India takes you by the throat” – and I saw my job as minimizing this phenomena for us all. I think first impressions are particularly important with the kids – so the strategy was to create a soft landing by pre-booking transportation from the airport to safe and clean accommodations in an area that wasn’t teeming with people, filth, beggars and tourist touts. Sounds straight forward, right? FALSE!!!

• First challenge: Where in Delhi won’t be too intense yet not too inconvenient? Fact: Delhi is quite large. Tour books list places w/the most guesthouses for obvious reasons, aka “traveler ghettos”, which are conveniently located but also logically attract the most sham artists and tourist pariah, which is precisely what we were trying to avoid.
• Next: Which hotel will truly be clean and secure without costing us several arms and legs? (Note - What you see on the net is not always what you get, particularly in India. And even if it is a good place, the traveler grapevine says there will probably be a basement room or 2 that could rival a mid-evil dungeon.) Arriving at midnight with all our backpacks is not the best time to discover this.
• Lastly: Try making a Skype voice call to India from the Eagle Guest House in Chiang Mai, where we were staying. It’s as though sound quality was akin to the process of making taffy, continually stretching and contracting over and over again. I can’t do the hilarity of the Internet garbled Indian accents we were hearing justice. The kids were literally rolling with laughter, and Jeanne wasn’t far behind. It eventually became so frustrating that all I could do was to respond in my own very extreme Indian accented garble – to create one more layer of entertainment to a futile and frustrating exercise.

Well – this obviously wasn’t going well. It seemed every place recommended was booked, and the choice was looking more and more like either risk staying in a pit and tainting our India experience from the get-go or spend $350 or above for an unmemorable, antiseptic Radisson-like hotel room with the hope that they would take in the 4 of us even though the web site stipulated “2 people per room”. (Money much better spent on something amazingly memorable.) The clock was ticking. Even though we had started our accommodation research prior, we had purchased our flights only one day before, since when we tried to transact on Air Asia’s website over multiple days it wouldn’t accept a US credit card, and when we went to pay at their office in person they couldn’t process our card either – shades of India to come, but I digress…

The stress & despondence of “where are we going to stay” was beginning to take its toll on Jeanne & I. But I had a job to do, and after quite a bit of persistent research, I finally located a B&B in South Delhi, quite a ways from the tourist areas, and rec’d confirmation via email of an available room for one night only (no more were available) including transport from the Delhi airport. Hooray for MAJKFam! Happy times again – let’s go enjoy our last Thai meal and sights. (Note – This type of travel is chock full of ups & downs – very high highs, and pretty low lows. One advantage of doing it as a family is there’s often one of us who can hold a higher notch while the rest of us are low.)

We splurged and took a flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok rather than a 12 hour sleeper train, and overall the flight to BKK and then onward to Delhi was pleasantly uneventful. Well… almost… There was this one little hair-raising glitch in Bangkok. Turns out 3 of our 4 passports were never stamped when we entered Thailand overland from Laos. We all had exit stamps from Laos, but only I had a stamp showing that I had entered Thailand and when that occurred. We actually noticed this several days prior, but were advised it would easily work itself out at the airport, since “it was their mistake and we would already be in their system”, and we should just proceed as normal. We did so, expecting that we would have 3 hours layover in BKK and that would be more than enough. That was theoretically correct, at least until our flight to BKK departed an hour or so late.

As expected we landed in BKK from Chiang Mai, collected our bags, checked our bags to India, got our seats, and proceeded to passport control with what appeared to be over an hour to spare for eating dinner. Nice! So smooth in fact that I had entered a pleasant traveler sense of familiarity, ease and flow. Then the boom dropped. “Would you please step over here and wait in this line?” Jeanne and I glanced at each other. “OK, just be polite… This is straightforward… They messed up at the border… They’re sure to fix it”, we both thought. At least we thought that until we met our nemesis. She was a stiff and gruff, bulldog of an official who curtly told us to go get an Air Asia representative after several minutes of mulling over the situation. “But why?” I responded and calmly presented our side of the story. That went over like huge brick – so all 4 of us dashed to Air Asia and corralled a very nice fellow to help us. I won’t give you a play by play of the next 30-45 harrowing minutes. It’s enough to mention a few snippets we heard including “we don’t have entry stamps here, only exits”, “you need to go back to the Laos border (note: 24-36 hrs away at least) to get your passports properly stamped”, and “there is absolutely nothing I can do.” I need not detail how we’re feeling (and particularly those of us who have not directly dealt with such unyielding, illogical adversity before), as the clock was ticking and our bags had already been loaded onto our India flight. Then there was an alternative offered by our stonewalling official: “Fly to India without a Thai exit stamp,” to which our Air Asia angel mentioned “and if they notice that in India they won’t admit you and either bounce you back to Thailand or send you home to the USA.” Hhhmmm… things were looking very grim, and our attempts to remain polite, positive and optimistic were running extremely thin. But – another official stepped in at the 11.5^th hour and actually tried to help us. (What a concept! A Thai official who seemed to take a modest interest in our plight!)She made a few calls, seemed to undermine and upset our Anti-Christ official, and actually compelled her other listless colleague to scrawl several lines of Thai into AJK’s passports which then magically opened up the gates, allowing us to proceed through security.

We had maybe 15-20 minutes before our flight was to depart. Our Air Asia angel worked his radio, directed us through various lines, told us to run as fast as we could, and ultimately sprinted ahead of us to prepare the gate attendants so they could process us quickly. Remember – Kira’s legs are half my length and had a painful cut on the sole of her foot, and we’re all touting carry-ons, but we made it in time nonetheless. On the plane - phew!!! With maybe 2 minutes to spare even! Of course the plane then waited another 20 minutes for half a dozen straggler Indians whom we initially saw ahead of us at the ticket counter, each checking in a sizable Samsung flat screen TV and a large remote controlled toy helicopter. But, we took off, took a few deep breaths, and India here we come!

To end this mini saga, we arrived in Delhi to a pristine and modern airport, which is an extreme opposite of the Delhi airport I flew into 21 years prior. What I recalled and was therefore envisioning was a large, thin walled hangar with windows showcasing shoulder to shoulder Indians who were begging and banging from the outside. But instead there were gleaming advertisements, “travelators”, and all the conveniences of the most modern of airports. We collected our bags, quickly found our diver holding a “Lipson” sign, got into his private car, and took a half hour drive on modern roads and bland cement boulevards to a residential neighborhood. We squeezed our way through a narrow doorway wearing our packs, wearily climbed a few flights of marble stairs, and entered in the K One One “B&B” well past midnight. It looked more like a high ceiling urban apartment than a charming “B&B”, but no matter. We had arrived! Finally! The room was a bit strange, but nice. Everything is a bit strange when you first arrive in a very different country. But we were so exhausted we barely minded the rock hard double bed or the super saggy spare cot in our $125/night room and off to sleep – knowing we would need to find yet another place the next day.

Epilogue:

Turns out that having only 1 night available at the K One One was a blessing in disguise. The next morning I located the “Likir House”, a Tibetan operated guesthouse on the web that had a few open rooms and whose ownership was supposedly connected to the Dalai Lama in some remote way (which projected a sense of caring and trustworthiness). Adam and I walked and then bicycle rickshawed to see it (and getting there was no small task in and of itself – seems even the most ordinary events in India can turn into a mini odyssey.) We liked the $60 room quite a bit. Safe, clean, calm, and even kind of cozy – the respite I had been hoping to find for us to comfortably acclimate into this marvelous, crazy,confronting, colorful, spirited and illogical country.

The Tibetan people there took good care of us. We stayed for one week and left yesterday with an increased appreciation for Tibetan Buddhism, some warm memories and new friends, recommendations of places and guesthouses to visit throughout the country, and enough seasoning to more comfortably explore other parts of India.

Stay tuned for what lay ahead…

One Half Hour in Luang Prabang, Laos

Written by Michael Feb 23, 2011

Here I sit in Luang Prabang at 6:30am amidst so many contrasts. The main attention grabber is a procession of 100’s of electric orange robed monks receiving food alms during their daily ritual. I first glimpsed them after turning just a few steps out of our guesthouse, “Villa Le Tam Tam”, which is built in French colonial meets Asia architecture out of rich, dark woods that seem burnished to a gloss from decades upon decades of footsteps. As I walked our side street a few hundred yards to the main drag, where the monks were calmly shuffling past the alms givers in long lines, I passed a man urinating in the street business-like and unaffected. Some mangy dogs barked and chased each in circles and I heard a few stray rooster crows came from different directions in thedistance. I turned the corner, entering the periphery of the alms giving scene and took a seat at an outside table at “Joma”, a very well liked Café/bakery which Adam previously commented “looks like the Roasters” (a coffee house in our town in California) and their menu isn’t all that far off from that, where I am now writing. Note – a random slice of home like Joma is such a grounding and welcome respite, particularly for A&K, now and then. The tourist paparazzi were thick – all clicking away capturing irresistible images of the monk ceremony, which truly is absorbing. Some were respectfully distant, viewing and shooting from across the streets. Others participated, buying sticky rice and bananas from way too aggressive local vendors who pitch “The monks coming. Feed the monks.” and provide a turnkey alms-giving package of a bamboo woven container of sticky rice, tray of bananas and cheap woven mat place on the sidewalk and sit upon. And perhaps the largest group of tourists are almost aggressively (and certainly not reverentially) shooting photos up close and personal, of the monks and the many older local woman who are seated on low stools and give to them daily. I feel very conflicted and at dis-ease. On one hand I'm very drawn to and steeping in the rich, sanctified spirit of the age-old ritual, and in particular the giving by old, relatively poor women to young, innocent monks. but on the other hand I'm uncomfortable and even ashamed by my insensitive tourist brethren who are all about the photo opp and barely registering the meaning and magic. And as this inner stir is occurring, a 20-something backpacked traveler walks up to me and asks me in what sounds like an Israeli accent where a particular guesthouse is located. My synapses immediately traject me back to living in Jerusalem when I was 20 and what it felt like solo traveling on the cheap at that age.

I become present again, as I notice a woman beginning to set up her portable sandwich stall across a side street 15 feet away, complete with a little a clay urn in which she’s lighting charcoal in order to warm the baguette buns. Tuk tuks and motorbikes start whizzing past, more and more of them as time passes. It’s now 7am and the monks and alms givers are gone, replaced in a blink by a fleet of shiny silver minivans with decaled Laos and English lettering in the rear windows, several of which say “VIP” amongst other things. Some older women walk slowly by in plastic sandals, dressed in old worn skirts and attractive and brightly patterned broad scarves wrapped diagonally from 1 hip across to the other shoulder. Soon the tourists will be getting their coffee fixes and whisking themselves off to various day trip sites.

I sit still, taking in what i can and letting the rest slough off me. Such is but a single half an hour on the road. Practically every half hour of our 7 month trip contains such a rich opportunity for observation. It’s ever present, yet tough to really capture, as it takes (me) focus and quietude to absorb it. I'm often walking a tightrope between thirst for insight, sensory overload, desire for A&K to experience, navigating our course, and fatigue - so where does heightened awareness fit into this soup. I guess that all depends... but for now I wouldn’t have it any other way. It's nice to capture this fleeting half hour, and remind myself of ow much there is to notice whenever I want.

One last note: I tend to wake up before rest of MAJK Fam, and get an hour or so of solo time wherever we are. This translates into taking a photo walk or going for a run (both allow me to play the “advance” role to scope out spots that we should visit together), or sometimes just writing and posting. I like these early morning times, and this one is a great reminder to just sit "take it in" sometimes.