Last post from India

It has been a long and full 3 weeks here in India. Much more managable than I expected, and in moments, fully living up to its reputation of chaotic, intense, colorful, wonderful, hard...

I went to Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab. It was built by a Swiss architect and team of city planners to be the new modern city, at a time of great optimism in India after the British left. Wide avenues, many parks, and strange cube buildings. Everything very organized. Strange to have that mixed in with all that is India. (Kyle: thought of you at the museum all about how they planned Chandigarh. Quite a philosophical foundation to it. Look it up...)

There was this amazing place there, the reason I went. It is called Nek Chand's Fantasy Rock Garden. It is a huge winding park filled with surreal settings, thousands of sculptures, gorgeous mosaics...all made from recycled building materials when they were removing old city to build the new. He worked on it in secret for 20 years before it was discovered. Rather than tearing it down, they made it a park and gave him a salary and a team of artisans. Soon I will have a whole folder of photos dedicated to this on my photo site. I loved it. A place that trancends the country it was made in. Magical.

Spent the day with the "Angel of Travelers" Narinder Singh. He is a lovely 74 year old Sikh man that lives in Chandigarh and has made it his "job" in retirement to meet and take care of foreign visitors. He had taken a friendly couple from New Zealand under his wing and I joined in. He walked us around the sites, showed us where to get cheap and good food, and told stories. We ended that day with the 4 of us in a blue swan paddle boat on the lake at dusk.

Tomorrow I leave Dehli, a little unsatisfied, but glad with what I did with the time I had. Unsatisfied because 3 weeks is too short to do anything but taste. I'll just have to come back. Now to Kathmandu for 3 days, then on to China!

I'm starting to get excited for Mongolia, and being in one place for awhile after all this movement. Peace to all--thanks for following.