Friends and vagabonders,
Early March finds me well into my second month in India — a massive and complex country that I am still trying to absorb and comprehend. And, as P.J. O’Rourke wrote, “just when you think you’re getting India, you get it even less.” But even trying to understand this place has thus far been a lot of fun. Right now I’m in the old British summer capital of Shimla, preparing to head north into the Himalayas.
When Alexander the Great marched his armies to the borders of India not far from here over 2000 years ago, he heard strange rumors of what lay in this fabled land: unicorns, pygmies, 200 year-old mystics, gemstones scattered in the dust, and rich stores of gold mined by giant ant-like creatures. I have yet to see any of this (although I did meet a grumpy 104 year-old yogi who acted like he was pissed off to still be alive), but I have witnessed other wonders: steam hissing from charred human skulls on the burning ghats of Varanasi; 10 million pilgrims bathing in the Ganges River on a single day of the Kumbh Mela festival in Allahabad; the colorful spectacle of the Hindu wedding in Jabalpur.
For other new online features this month, be sure to visit my Travel Writers page for an interview with Carl Parkes, a longtime Moon Handbooks writer, and the author of the forthcoming National Geographic Traveler’s Thailand. Aspiring travel writers might also want to check out a recent Salon article by Jason Wilson, entitled “Trip Lit,” which sheds some light on the simultaneous allure and lack of academic respect that surrounds the world of travel writing.
On my books page, I am this month featuring Not So Funny When it Happened: The Best of Travel Humor and Misadventure, which was edited by Tim Cahill and published by Traveler’s Tales. My contribution to this humor anthology is “Penny Pinched,” a madcap Thailand Tale (originally published in Salon under the name “The Scrooge from Planet Lonely”). Other authors of note in this collection include Dave Barry, Anne Lamott, and David Sedaris. Of this tome, the Washington Post book review read (in part): “A baboon ‘the size of an adult wookie’ at Victoria Falls! Rats done to death with dictionaries in China! Bathroom emergencies in Boston! It’s enough to make you long for a pukka Victorian tale of bwana, bearers and the source of the Nile. …kudos to Cahill and others for remembering to have fun.”
Until the next update, when I report with further news and images from India (and, hopefully, a publication date for my Conde Nast Traveler article on Laos) — cheers, and happy vagabonding!
Rolf
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