The Stans

I spent a rest day in Lahore, Pakistan’s cultural capital. The oppressive heat, dust and pollution irritated my eyes, nose and throat. It didn’t lend itself to exploration of this extremely historical city. I took a bus the next morning to Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad. This is the foot of the […]

While I was in Amritsar, I made an excursion to the India-Pakistan border at Wagah to watch the famous border closing ceremony. This visit was a prelude to crossing the border for real two days later. Around sunset, the Indian and Pakistani border guards took their places for an elaborate ritual full of posturing and […]

I’m in the back of a tuk-tuk, a three wheeled motorcycle with a bench in the back – on my way to the India-Pakistan border. Modern technology is amazing. I can write notes from the road, complete with photos, from the back of a moving vehicle. I’ve stayed two days in Amritsar. The hostel here […]

Agra doesn’t have much of a variety of attractions. It has an old Mughal fort built by Shah Jahan (seeing a theme from the last post about Delhi?) and the world-famous Taj Mahal. Construction on the Taj began in 1632 on the orders of – you guessed it – Shah Jahan. It is a mausoleum […]

Delhi, India’s capital, is one of the country’s most cosmopolitan and historical cities. The first day off the train, I did little more than lounge around the hostel and eat a delicious butter chicken at Moti Mahal, a famous restaurant in Delhi. That night, the father of a friend from university in England picked me […]

Mumbai, known until a few decades ago as Bombay, is India’s second-largest city and a major cultural center. It is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the Marathi people who live here are proud of their heritage. The Maratha Confederacy was one of the more powerful states in India before the arrival of the […]

On my way to begin this summer’s adventure, I arranged an all-day layover in Toronto, my first ever visit to Canada. After catching the UP Express train from the airport to downtown (return ticket just under $12 Canadian if you make the round trip within 7 hours), I stopped for lunch at Richmond Station, on […]

Another summer means time for another adventure. This time, I’ll be in Central Asia. I’ve booked plane tickets, flying into Mumbai (formerly Bombay) in India and returning from Almaty in Kazakhstan. I have convenient long layovers in Toronto and Frankfurt, and will hopefully be able to see at least a little of those cities. Ironically, […]