Photo Link:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/oVDaF6MvUVeFE4fJ8
After Afghanistan, I went back to Chennai for a few days (via Dubai) and met up with my grandma and my mom, who was visiting for a little. Spent a day visiting some relatives and otherwise just a few days hanging out, before bouncing again. It’s actually monsoon season in South India right now, so there were pretty frequent bouts of heavy rain…I was able to grab a quick recording of a lightning strike on my phone, and while it wasn’t *great* quality, it was still pretty cool to capture.
Since this is probably my last time traveling in India for quite some time, I decided to spend a couple of weeks seeing some places that I haven’t seen yet that I wanted to, so I was bouncing around the country a bit. Went with my mom for the first part of this trip, first to the west Indian state of Gujurat, then to the city Lucknow in northern India (but in the plains, south of the Himalayas). My mom then flew back to Chennai, and I went to the south Indian city of Hyderabad, before ending the trip in the central Indian city of Bhopal. Sort of all over the place, but after this, really the only parts of India that I haven’t been to yet that I would still be interested in are Sikkim (mountainous state in the northeast, culturally similar to Bhutan and Nepal), and the rest of northeast India (culturally VERY distinct and different from the rest of mainland India), and maybe Kerala as well (southwestern most state, very green and lush, went as a little kid with my mom, sister, and grandparents but only vaguely remember). And obviously there’s more stuff to see in places I have already been to (more ancient temples in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, some ancient Buddhist ruins up north, more trekking, more tiger safaris and maybe rhinos in the northeast as well). But in general, after this I have seen almost everything that I *really* want to see, so don’t really anticipate traveling in India at all much beyond visiting family in Chennai.
First stop was Ahmedabad, the capital city of Gujurat, with my mom. Was about a 2 hour flight from Chennai. While Gujurat is sort of the “home” of the current nationalist BJP movement (Modi and his right-hand man Amit Shah are both Gujurati), Ahmedabad is somewhat ironically known historically for its Islamic history from the various mosques here…even the name Ahmedabad is an Islamic name (any city name that ends in -bad is an Islamic name). There were a few other somewhat ironic Islamic links here, especially given the whole Hindu nationalist rhetoric of the BJP…many Hindu women here covered their heads with a scarf much like a hijab, and a good amount of Hindu women also covered their faces like in some of the more austere forms of Islam. And tons and tons of men were wearing either hats or turbans, which is yet another link between North India and Pakistan and Afghanistan (along with the “traditional” pyjama kurta outfit, which are salwar kameez in Iran/Afghanistan). I guess it’s just ironic that a so-called Hindu-first movement gladly ignores history when it comes to how Islam has directly affected supposedly “pure” Hindu cultural norms, but I digress. Across the world, all of these nationalistic clowns are the same with their blatant historic revisionism and wanton ignorance of the fact that history is never static and always changing. Also another ironic BJP note…the current government is trying to push a “Hindi first” movement to make Hindi more widespread as the national language. But yet in Gujurat, almost all the signs are in Gujurati and not Hindi, so yet another example of the state not exactly following in the footsteps of their prodigal sons in Modi and Amit Shah. So in the south, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerela, people really only speak the local language (Tamil/Malayalam) and not Hindi. And in other parts of India – west in Maharashtra (Marathi) and Gujurat, east in West Bengal (Bengali), etc. – people do speak Hindi but there is still a preference for the local language, especially in rural areas and outside the cities like Bombay and Calcutta.
The first thing we saw in Ahmedabad was an ashram that Gandhi spent time in for ~15 years prior to Indian independence. There were a couple of buildings that were in very good shape where him and his followers lived, but the best part of the museum was just sort of the informational guides it had on his life and movement. Honestly he is an incredible figure. One issue (among many) that I have with the current woke movement is its’ desire to tear down anyone who was remotely prominent if they weren’t perfect. Gandhi is a perfect example of this (along with MLK)…yes they might not have been the “best” humans in terms of how they treated their female partners, but that just serves as a ridiculous whataboutism to detract from their accomplishments. Nobody is perfect and that is good to acknowledge, but you can also acknowledge that imperfect humans have had marvelous legacies, and that the two are not mutually exclusive. Just because Gandhi or MLK did some borderline bad stuff does not wipe away all the good that they did. Likewise, I have always found it amusing (and mildly depressing) that guys like Gandhi and MLK were clear cut socialists, because, you know, if you are for the oppressed you are obviously for economic freedom, which logically leads to some form of socialism. Yet that has been whitewashed from both their legacies by the status quo because it’s always easier to co-opt messaging and remove the threatening elements so that you can remain in power. See: the entire BLM apparatus in the US.
After the Gandhi ashram, we went to this pretty cool ~150 year old Jain temple. Not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I learned that this temple was “only” 150 years old…in India that is pretty much cutting edge and modern. Still, very cool architecture, with super intricate marble work for the various figures and (especially) floral patterns. There was also a big prayer/pooja going on when we visited, so this was the very first active Jain temple that I have been to. We then went to the Jhulta Minar, which had this giant, 100+ pillared hall inside that straight up looked like a Hindu Temple, despite the fact that it was a 600+ year old mosque. And the two minarets by the entrance were gorgeously designed…more intricate carving work with some very cool tree motifs (this was a constant in Ahmedabad). The Jamma Masjid (Friday Mosque) in the center of the old city was similar to the Jhulta Minar but honestly not quite as intricate, but similar tree designs. And similarly, the Sidi Saiyyed Mosque which was just outside the old city (actually built by an Ethiopian trader who had made his way to Gujurat in the 1500s) had this absolutely stunning tree motif (the Islamic “Tree of Life”) carved into a window. In general Islamic monuments tend to have the most intricate stonework carvings of any religion, with highlights being Mughal and other Islamic monuments in India and (to a slightly lesser extent) the Islamic work done in Andalusia in southern Spain. And then you have another branch that seemingly is more about ornate colorful decorations, like the stuff you see in Uzbekistan and to a lesser degree Afghanistan and Iraq. But again, all beautiful, and as I’ve said before, regal Islamic architecture for me is the best type of regal architecture, and Rajasthan (which is influenced by the Mughals!) is the only comparable non-Muslim one.
The street food in Ahmedabad was great. One interesting highlight here was the prevalence of cheese…outside of paneer dishes, cheese is not really a thing in Indian food, which is weird because dairy as a whole is HUGE across all of India. But Amul, which is by far the largest dairy company in India, is based in the state of Gujurat, so a lot of the street stalls in Ahmedabad were heavy on cheese stuff. They all had these cheese sandwiches (with melting butter on top) with chilis, onions, and peppers, that were pretty great. And what they call “pizza” which is this circular bun toasted on a stove, with sweet tomato sauce on it and then onions, peppers, and chilis, and then an obnoxious amount of shredded Amul cheese on top. Tastes absolutely nothing like a pizza but it was great. Another Ahmedabad street food highlight that sounds godawful but was shockingly delicious was the pineapple ice cream sandwich. Chunks of pineapple, vanilla ice cream, pineapple syrup, all between slices of white bread (!!!) and topped with a metric ton of shredded Amul cheese. The salt/sweet combo really worked, and it was much greater than the sum of its’ parts. Another fantastic dish I had in Ahmedabad was this dessert called rabadi, which is not necessarily native to Gujurat, but is this incredibly rich condensed milk dish that is flavored with nuts. And while a lot of North India is big on lassi as a drink (a sweet yogurt-ish drink, can be bomb in regions like Rajasthan), here there was much more emphasis on buttermilk, which is basically more watery and less sugary than lassi, but still a vaguely similar yogurt-ish drink. Great drink but will never be as good as an amazing lassi, purely because it is a bit healthier.
In general, Ahmedabad was definitely one of the more chaotic cities I have been to. The bazaar areas were wonderfully crowded and an assault on the senses. I just love places like these, really makes even the most mundane walk that much more eventful. Overall, between the food, sightseeing, and city ambiance, definitely a well above average city that I have been to.
On our 2nd day in Gujurat, we did a day trip up north to see the Rani Ki Vav stepwell, the Modhera Sun Temple, and then the Adalaj Ki Vav stepwell that is just outside Ahmedabad on the way back. Our first stop was the Modhera Sun Temple, which was a few hours north of Ahmedabad. Interesting Afghanistan relationship here…the temple was built by the local dynasty after they defeated the Ghazni Dynasty nearby here…the Ghaznis were from Afghanistan and the ones who built the Minaret of Jam in Afghanistan and the Qutub Minar in Delhi. But these local dudes basically built a temple to the sun god Surya to thank him for their good fortune after the battle. It’s almost exactly 1000 years old (built in the 1020s), and in pretty good condition given the age. Tons of intricately carved stonework all over the temple walls and pillars, and the highlight was probably this very cool temple tank in the front. You could go down the steps and walk around it on the inside, and there were tons of like “mini temples” and small shrines all around the inside of this tank. The faces and features of all of these were almost completely faded, but you could clearly see both Vishnu and Shiva shrines here which is not that common as typically temples are dedicated to one or the other…since this was a Surya temple (sun god), I guess they were able to have both. And the temple itself was very impressive. Obvious similarities to the one other sun temple I have seen, the one in Konark, in Odisha, in terms of the intricacy of the wall carvings. Also reminded me a good bit of the hyper-ornate carvings in Karnataka, of the Hoysala Empire, though those were in far, far better condition.
After this was the stepwell of Rani Ki Vav, which was about 45 minutes further north of Modhera. This was also just under 1000 years old, and honestly one of the most impressive Hindu carvings I have ever seen. It’s a good deal older than the Hoysala temples of Karnataka, and almost as ornate as them. So it was a stepwell, which is basically an underground chamber that is built to retrieve water, and these structures were very common historically in the arid conditions of Western India. Rajasthan (directly to the north) is famous for stepwells (I saw a really cool one in the city in Jodhpur), but Rani Ki Vav is arguably India’s most impressive stepwell. This stepwell was unique in that it was effectively an inverted temple where you descended underground to the gods, and not just a source of water.There are literally 100s of ridiculously detailed statues of various Hindu gods and equally detailed pillars. The designs of these pillars were VERY Cambodian to me, especially from Banteay Srei, which was the small but super detailed temple in the Angkor Complex. From the apsaras (basically Hindu gargoyles) holding up all the pillars to the weirdly Asiatic faces carved in the pillars themselves. But obviously the biggest similarity simply due to the detail of the stone carvings were the Hoysala temples, and by function of age this was almost more impressive, though the Hoysala stuff remains the best carving work I have ever seen. However, a huge negative here was that some combination of UNESCO and the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) have basically roped off 90% of the site as off-limits for tourists, so you can barely get a taste of the stepwell before you need to leave as you literally cannot see the vast majority of it. It’s also pretty trippy to imagine what this all would have looked like originally, brightly decked out in colors. Honestly, I feel like modern Tamil temples are good representation with the color overload in your face.
On the way back to Ahmedabad, we stopped about 20km north for a final stepwell, the Adalaj Stepwell. “Only” ~500+ years old, this was radically different from what was basically a temple at Rani Ki Vav. Clearly influenced by Islam (yet built by Hindus), there were tons of those Islamic floral motifs that we saw all over the Ahmedabad mosques, and it was quite frankly stunning work. We were actually able to see the water well itself, and it was almost like one of those abandoned Rajasthani havelis (mansions) with the way it looked.
So interestingly enough, the way my mom and I found this driver was by just walking around Ahmedabad the day before. We got approached by a driver (I think my backpack was the giveaway that we were not locals), and he started talking quickly in Hindi. Of course I was totally lost, but my mom stepped in, and then we basically negotiated a rate for the following two days. He gave us his business card, but there was zero “official” confirmation, and he didn’t even have our names, just a pickup time and hotel location. That kind of brings me to a big observation of mine over the past few years of travel, which is probably common sense, but still. There is a massive, massive sense of trust that exists in the more informal economies of developing countries, that quite simply is just lacking in the western world. I think this stems largely from how the rest of the world is very community based while western Europe and the US are very individualistic. In the west, families are quite nuclear – you really are only in contact with your parents, siblings, grandparents, and parents’ siblings and their kids. Whereas literally everywhere else – sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, India, Southeast Asia – families are massive. Part of this is economic (lack of wealth means everyone supports each other), but here everyone is in touch with their 3rd/4th/5th etc. cousins (i.e. we both share the same great-etc. grandfather) and equivalent uncles/aunts. I think this communal sense of living manifests itself in ways such as increased trust between strangers (you have my word that I will show up for this car booking tomorrow morning at the hotel lobby), and also for things like COVID protocols…notice how the anti-mask “movement” was really only a thing in these individualistic western countries, while in more communal societies like East Asia, the Middle East, etc., people were not up in arms about a minor personal sacrifice for the common good. And maybe my brown skin color plays a role here, but I have found that the nicest locals tend to be in these developing economies as well…it’s almost as if the wealthier you get, the more closed you become as you selfishly want to protect what you have, as any gain by those below you is perceived to be a loss in status for you.
On our 2nd day with this driver, we drove about 3 hours southeast of Ahmedabad to the Champaner-Pavagadh complex. This was honestly a bit of a letdown in terms of the effort required – like a 3+ hour drive each way. It is a UNESCO site but quite easily the least organized/”tourist friendly” UNESCO site I have ever been to. It is the only preserved pre-Mughal Empire Islamic settlement in India, and had various mosques and other buildings spread out over a current town, and these were all largely unlabelled and hard to find on your own. Cool enough site but wish there was more information…this is definitely one where having a guide is a must, I think. We then went to a hill nearby which had some old Jain and Hindu ruins, all also unmarked and not on a map. There would have been a cool sense of exploration here, except we were navigating through a crowd of thousands upon thousands of pilgrims who were visiting a Kali temple (she’s the goddess in Temple of Doom), which was another negative experience. The highlight of this hill was definitely this 1000 year old small Shiva temple with surprisingly preserved carvings along the outside walls. Overall this was a decent stop, but I really don’t think it was worth the time and money (over 50 USD for the day for the car) to visit. On the way back we stopped by a large town/small city named Anand to visit one of my mom’s schoolfriends for dinner, before calling it a night and getting back to our Ahmedabad hotel.
We had about half a day to kill on our final day in Ahmedabad before flying 90 minutes northeast to Lucknow, which is the capital of the state of Uttar Pradesh. UP would be the world’s 5th largest country by population if it was its’ own country, and is notoriously India’s poorest state, along with its’ northern neighbor Bihar. UP is also really the home of the BJP support in India – Modi and Amit Shah might originally be from Gujurat but the population of UP and the poorer Hindi belt is the BJP heartland. From a foreign perspective, UP is where Agra is, as well as the holy city of Varanasi. Anyways, for our final half-day or so in Ahmedabad and Gujurat, we went to an empty stepwell that was ironically right near the old town area, called Bai Hari Vav. This was also around 500 years old and was Islamic, with the strikingly beautiful floral patterns everywhere as you descended. And you could actually approach the decorated fences that surrounded the wells, which was (despite the smell of bats) a beautiful experience. Overall, Gujurat was a very enjoyable trip, and definitely some cool stuff here…I’m a sucker for ancient Hindu temples and grand Islamic architecture so this had a good bit of both to keep me happy.
Gujurat was overall pretty nice – I would say a solid 3/5 for me. Great architecture and history and food and Ahmedabad was a fun city to visit. Really what I look for at a minimum for a good trip.
So next was Lucknow. Soon after the Mughals began their decline, various princes began to assert their authority, and many wound up collaborating with the British in order to remain in control. One of these princely states was Awadh (or Oudh), and Lucknow was its’ capital. Because of this, Lucknow was in many ways a homeless man’s Delhi for me (and this is a compliment! Delhi is my 2nd favorite historic city I have been to after Rome). There were tons of Islamic monuments from the 1700s, and these all gave off an image of faded glory, as they were maintained just enough to be touristy but still had seen better days (like much of Delhi). The first ruin we saw was the Bada Imambara, which is this giant mosque complex. Beautiful faded architecture, and again, like a lesser version of Delhi (and in a way, Agra) in the best way possible. The palace part of this complex weirdly reminded me of some other Islamic palaces I have seen in India, notably all the way down south in Tamil Nadu at the Thanjavur palace, or even the Mysore palace in Karnataka. Not really anywhere quite as grand as what you see in Rajasthan, or even other Islamic places like Cairo and Andalusia and Istanbul. Saw a few other Islamic monuments in this old town area, before heading over to the Residency. This was the home of the British “resident” (part of the agreement for these princely states to survive “independently”), and was basically totally shelled and destroyed during India’s failed revolution of 1857. Was very cool to walk through these relatively modern war ruins, where you could see the shells of all of these buildings and the cannonball and bullet holes in them, all set in a beautiful and tranquil park. And another Delhi callback…on the way to the Residency I had this street food lunch of aloo tikki, which was amazing but still a distant 2nd to the best aloo tikki I have had, which was at a street stall in Delhi (that was featured in the Netflix show “Street Food”). Given all the historic Islamic connections here, it was no surprise to see street signs in Urdu as well as Hindi…both are basically dialects of the same language, but Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet while Urdu uses Arabic.
The highlight of Lucknow was a street food tour we did that night. While many Indians (especially non-vegetarians) regard Lucknow as the food capital of India, I still would comfortably place Amritsar and Delhi as my 2 best food cities of India (and top 2 overall…an easy 3rd place here is Lyon, France). The food was still excellent…some of the highlights include a Galouti Kebab (minced Buffalo meat which literally melts as it enters your mouth, incredible texture and taste), a sheer mal paratha (sheer means milk in Farsi, and because it is made with milk this paratha has the best chewy/doughy flavor and texture), an unrelated sweetbread dessert called sheer mal, and what might be one of the richest kheers I have ever had (dairy based creamy dessert).
On our final half day in Lucknow, we visited the Ambedkar Memorial. A fairly new memorial from this century, it honors the author of the Indian Constitution (so the man I blame for the fact that I cannot have dual citizenship, as the Indian Constitution does not allow dual citizenship, hence my permanent visa with the OCI card). It is, quite honestly, a monstrosity. It is objectively majestic and grand, but one of India’s poorest states should not have been spending untold millions of dollars on this vanity project for the Chief Minister (governor equivalent) at the time. But I suppose megalomaniac projects like this often lead to cool historic sights (Egypt, Rome, etc. etc. etc.), so a part of these motivations are just to etch their name in history. But I think given what we know today, using money for these borderline fascist architectural projects (similar to what I saw in Tajikistan, or to what the Nazis and Mussolini envisioned) is beyond irresponsible given the needs of the people.
We went to the airport that evening, where my mom flew back to Chennai and I continued on to Hyderabad. Hyderabad is the capital of Telangana in southern India, and was the southernmost major Islamic outpost in India historically (there are exceptions like the Mysore Sultanate, but I am broadly speaking here). Overall, I thought Lucknow was nice, and in general it only adds to my appreciation of the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh area – having seen Agra already in UP. Varanasi in UP is still one of my worst ever travel experiences though. Only Barcelona is worse. But if I were to lump it, I think Delhi and UP minus Varanasi (so just Agra/Lucknow) is a 1a/1b/1c with southern Italy (Rome/Naples/Pompeii/Herculaneum) and Russia (St Petersburg, Moscow, Vladimir, Suzdal, Volgograd) as my favorite urban travel I have ever done, with Eastern China (Shanghai, Suzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou) after that.
I actually met up with a friend I had met on my Kashmir trek for a day in Hyderabad, and she was nice enough to give me a tour around the city in her scooter while also showing me some food spots, one of which absolutely blew me away. Our first stop was the Qutub Shahi tomb complex. These were built about 400-500 years ago by the Islamic rulers in the area, and is currently under renovation by the Aga Khan Foundation (like a lot of what I saw in Afghanistan, and stuff in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, and stuff in Zanzibar, etc. etc…they’re honestly doing wonderful work). They are sparkling white and had the usual intricate Islamic carvings, and it was like a cooler version of the Lodhi Garden monuments of Delhi since these various tombs and mausoleums were set in this scenic park – though the park in Lodhi Gardens is infinitely nicer. What was really cool to me was that some of these buildings had hints of colored tilework that you could see, which means that these were all colorful marvels back in the day that have since become white due to the tiles falling off/getting damaged (much like how literally every ancient ruin was colored but we only see it in white, like Greek/Roman ruins, Indian temples, and on and on). Afterwards we went to the nearby Golconda Fort, which was pretty cool I guess but I am not the biggest fort person.
One nice thing about going around on a scooter/moped is that you can really take in the city better than by just auto rickshawing around. Like Lucknow, it was cool to see the city grow around the history, with the old and new side by side. Another cool example of the living history of India. And I appreciate it more here than in places like Croatia or Turkey where you have old walled Roman cities because those are all sanitized and touristy while here it is raw and chaotic. And speaking of chaotic…the old town area is by far one of the most chaotic street scenes I have ever witnessed. I would say it is right behind Delhi’s Chandni Chowk and Old Cairo, and up there with Baghdad’s bazaars. Just a wonderful experience. And speaking of Baghdad and Cairo, the old town is predominantly Muslim, and I swear like 3/4 of the people we saw were wearing conservative Islamic clothing (women covering their faces and bodies, men in salwar kameez and hats). And all the signs were in Urdu (aka Arabic script), and tons of fading old Islamic buildings that have been repurposed to store fronts, just like Cairo specifically. I swear this easily could have been an Arabic country. Hell, outside of Afghanistan and Najaf (pilgrimmage city in Iraq), I have never seen so much conservative Islamic clothing in my life. The highlight of the old town (besides the chaos, which I just LOVE), was the Char Minar. It literally translates to four minarets in Persian (and Hindi), and is a much grander (and slightly less picturesque) structure than the identically named one in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
So on to food…Hyderabad is hyped up all across India for its’ biriyani, which is basically a spicy rice dish with mutton, or sometimes chicken. I went to a place that was supposed to be some of the best biriyani in the city, and it was good! Definitely better than a lot of biriyani I have had in India (which has also been good!). But still, this was “just” good, I don’t know. In terms of flat out amazing rice dishes I have had, maqlooba in Jordan and mansaf in Iraq are still head and shoulders above even what is allegedly the best of Indian biriyani. I would even say the mutton pulao in Afghanistan was better. But that night for dinner, we went to what might have been one of the best meals I have ever had. It was this glorified street stall dosa shop called Pancha Kattu dosa, and they made dosa in a style from a region of Andhra Pradesh (Hyderabad is the capital of Telengana, which until like 10 years ago was a part of the state of Andhra Pradesh before breaking off. Both states speak Telegu primarily). I knew right away from the 30 minute wait that it would be good (dosa is quick to make, it was ridiculously packed). But the dosa here…my god, just amazing texture. It was perfectly crisp but still had some thickness, so not too crisp where it gets flaky. Just cooked to perfection. And smothered with ghee so of course it was delicious. I was actually in awe at how good it was while eating it, just in total shock. And like all the food in Telegnana, it was casually spicy. Delicious flavor, but I could not have eaten in this part of the country at all before retirement…you need to build up a spice tolerance because literally everything here is spicy regularly, and there is really no such thing as “bland” food. Andhra and Telengana are the spiciest food region in the country.
The next day was a bit of a let down, to be honest. Did a day trip to Warangal, a town about 3 hours east, to see some temple ruins. They were fine, but I have seen far better in India. In some ways it was like “just another” historic temple and I don’t necessarily think it was a temple’d out thing for me, more that I am used to seeing outstanding ones and these were thoroughly meh in terms of architecture and ruin quality. And much like the Champaner-Pavagadh daytrip from Ahmedabad, it wasn’t really worth the time and effort to see it. I would say that Warangal was on par with Bhunbaeswar in Odisha, in eastern India – historic temples that ultimately were a bit “eh” because there are just way cooler historic temples in India.
After this quick trip, I flew up north to the Central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh to the city of Bhopal. Just using Bhopal as a base to see the 2000+ year old Buddhist ruins of Sanchi Stupa, a ~1500 year old Hindu cave carving ruins at Udayagiri Caves, a quick pit stop to see a 2000+ year old Greek pillar that is still standing from an old temple called the Heliodorus Pillar, and another quick pitstop to see a 1000 year old Shiva temple in the nearby town of Bhojpur.
First up was the Sanchi Stupa. This is roughly 2300 years old (!!!) and in crazy good condition for its’ age. Perfectly round and massive stupa, it was built by the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (same dude who wrote the edicts that I was not allowed to see in Kandahar!). The quality of the stone carvings were honestly ridiculous. Just super cool intricate stuff, and very accurate too – you could make out individuals, the city walls, the forest and trees, what was happening in each scene. Would have been extra cool to see it in color. I think this is probably slightly behind the Ajanta Caves in Maharasthra as the historic Buddhist stuff I have seen (some of the abandoned stuff in Myanmar, like Bagan and near Inle Lake, is also very much up there). Not including Tibetan Buddhist stuff like Ladakh and Spiti here because that is my all-time favorite aesthetic – even more than the Cambodian (and to a lesser extent Guatelmalan) jungle temples. But the site itself was tiny and I was able to mop it up in well under an hour, which is a slight negative compared to the vastness of the places in Myanmar and even Ajanta which took a few hours minimum.
Sanchi was also cool because I have now officially seen every monument featured on an Indian rupee bill. There are 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 rupee notes. The 10 features the Konark Sun Temple (in Odisha, I saw with my mom in early 2020), which was pretty cool. The 20 features Hampi (in northern Karnataka, saw on my own in Dec 2019) which is one of my favorite ever places I have been to. The 50 features cave/temple #16 in the Ellora caves (in Maharasthra, saw with my mom in early 2020) which is the single most *impressive* monument I have ever seen in my life, purely from a “How the F did they do that” perspective. The 100 features Rani Ki Vav, the stepwell I saw in Gujurat earlier this trip. The 200 features Sanchi Stupa (there were also OG 2300 year old Ashoka lion pillars in Sanchi, which is the official symbol of India), and the 500 features the Red Fort in Delhi, which I saw in like fall 2019 on my own and is arguably India’s 2nd most famous monument after the Taj.
But seeing Sanchi also really reminded me of how much super cool old shit I have seen. Really fulfilling all of my history nerd fantasies from growing up. From the mind boggingly old in Egypt, to stuff in Greece and Iraq, to Roman stuff in Italy and Turkey, to Sanchi in India and then post CE early Hindu stuff in India and Cambodia, early post CE Mayan ruins in Guatemala, post CE early Buddhist stuff in Central Asia…just definitely very lucky.
After Sanchi, which was about 90 minutes northeast of Bhopal, I drove a further 20 minutes northeast to the Udayagiri Caves. These are these 1500+ year old caves with Hindu cave temples and carvings. While these are the oldest Hindu caves I have seen, they honestly paled in comparison to the really good stuff I have seen (Ellora Caves in Maharasthra, then Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. Even Petra is probably 3rd here, and Gegherd in Armenia not far behind). Definitely a step above the underwhelming caves I saw near Bhubaneswar in Odisha, but these were just OK. There were a handful of cool ones, especially one of a Shiva linga with his face carved on it.
After this was a five minute drive next door to see the Heliodorus Pillar. This was once a 2000+ year old Vishnu temple, but only this pillar remains. It is significant because it was built by a Greek dude named Heliodorus, who was the ambassador to the local king here from a kingdom in modern day Pakistan/Afghanistan area. After Alexander the Great’s escapades, there were Greco-Indian kingdoms set up in that area, and Greek played a huge influence in Indian culture. From the Greco-Buddhist art in Taxila (modern day Afghanistan) to similarities between gods like Herakles and Krishna. If you really dig deep, there are a ton of proto Indo-European connections…the historic use of the swastika across all cultures from Europe through the Iranian plateau to India, etymology of gods (dios is god in spanish, zeus (dios>zeus pronounciation) is the big dog in Greece, zeus-pater (god father) to jupiter is the big dog in Rome) and straight up similarity in gods (Zeus is basically Indra, Apollo is Surya the sun god, etc.). A lot of these similarities obviously pre-dated Alexander the Great, but still. Anyways, this pillar had some ancient Greek scribbled on it, which was very cool to see. Honestly astounding how big and wide an influence Hellenistic culture had, all thanks to Alexander the Great. And the final stop was a somewhat forgettable pit stop at this 1000 year old Shiva temple that had never been completed, called the Bhojpur Temple. Really the main noteworthy thing here was the absolutely massive Shiva linga that was built in this temple. Like easily 5+ humans tall and 3+ humans diameter.
Overall, I would definitely place Madhya Pradesh (including the Khajuraho temples, a few hundred km to the north of Bhopal, that I saw in 2019 en route from Agra to Varanasi) a notch below Gujurat. Definitely cool stuff (especially Sanchi), but Sanchi is tiny and the area is for me one that you see if you are already there, as opposed to going out of the way.
I flew back to Chennai for a few days just to hang out, before then flying to Bangalore for a few days. Bangalore was just meeting people, was a fun 3.5-4 day trip where I literally had zero down time the entire time. I first visited some friends I made while on my second trek, the Gaumukh Tapovan trek in Uttarakhand from a couple of months ago (the one I found shockingly easy). Stayed with one of the guys I met my first night, and 3 of his friends (who were also on the trek, but don’t live in Bangalore) also flew over and all 4 of us were staying at his place. The 5 of us went out that night and met 5 other people from the trek who all lived in different parts of Bangalore for dinner/drinks at some surprisingly swanky/upscale brewery called Byg Brewski. Shockingly delicious hefeweizens and lagers, and by US standards very reasonably priced (like ~6 drinks, beers and shots, plus dinner, was under 30 USD a person). Was cool to catch up with everyone from the trek, had a late night watching some World Cup games (12:30AM kickoff for the late night Qatar ones), and then slept in. The next day, I left for lunch at my grandma’s older sister’s place – she’s 93 and in amazing physical shape…no walking stick, can go up and down stairs with no help, and can sit down and get up from the floor with no help. After that, I went to my cousin and his wife’s place at this leafy suburban development just outside Bangalore – they have 2 of the quietest dogs you will ever meet, and an extremely talkative 6 year old daughter who was roping me into all of these activities. Spent the night with them, and the following day I went and visited a friend of mine, Adithya, in another leafy suburban section on the other end of the city. His mom was one of my mom’s best friends growing up in India, and he’s remote working his US-based job while visiting his family. Again, another lowkey day but just catching up etc. The next day, I met with two married friends who got me invited to their friend’s wedding in Bangalore. So I actually met these two for the first time at Tim’s wedding in Puerto Rico in March…Casey was a bridesmaid and college friends with Tim’s wife, Chelsey, in UMich. Matt and I particularly hit it off and stayed in touch, and their wedding in Bangalore lined up with when we could get the largest possible trek meetup in Bangalore and when Adithya would be back here visiting his parents, so it was sort of perfect timing for me. And once I found that out, they got me an invite to their friends’ wedding because Indian weddings are like that…any and all welcome as long as there is the most tenuous connection. It was a typical Indian wedding, pretty fun, and then the next day I flew back to Chennai.
I’ll miss the chaos, street food, masala milk chai, and sweets of India the most to be honest. Just the little things when traveling here day to day. Over the past few weeks here, I actually started reading Kite Runner since that is based in Afghanistan. So far it’s been a terrific book, but it really made me think about what I want in my future career…I know it’s cliched, but the phrase “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” absolutely applies to the NGO/international non-profit sector, and it’s something that I really am actively trying to avoid.
Had a couple more days in Chennai where I ate some good homecooked food from my grandma and visited some relatives/friends, before flying out to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for a day. Spent a night there with my uncle and it’s a fun city, very cosmopolitan and modern yet distinctly Malaysian with an amazing street food scene. Honestly it is sort of like a more lively Singapore – more gritty and not quite as sterile (but even that is a little harsh to the hawker stalls of Singapore). I did have this wonderful, wonderful dinner on a popular tourist street called Jalan Alor with my uncle. Just absolutely incredible Malay-Chinese fusion food, incredible curry sauces on the meat and seafood. Only had a pitstop in KL because the cheapest way to fly to New Zealand was to get a ~350 USD oneway from KL to Auckland. I had to do a bit of gymnastics on this with research…the cheapest way to leave NZ was either a 300 USD flight from Christchurch to Fiji, and then 30k AA miles for a free 12 hour flight from Fiji to Singapore (where I can resume cheap Asia travel), OR, a 300 USD flight from anywhere in NZ to Australia, and then a ~300-400 USD flight from Australia to really anywhere in SE Asia (miles not worth it for a flight that cheap…the sticker price for Fiji>Singapore was 1000 USD so great value for 30k points. Still have all my airline points from flying the past 3+ years and all my credit card signups for points in my 4 years in Chicago). As someone who is unabashedly not a beach person and finds them wildly overrated, I went with the Fiji option. Figured that would be a fun New Year’s spot, I could get a couple of dives in, and in all honestly, Australia does not interest me at all. Especially since I would probably need to spend a couple of weeks in Australia to do it justice and given my limited time (half a year, first world problem, I know), I wanted to prioritize getting back to Asia asap. Australia would have been fun but I feel like it would have been a worse South Africa – socially fun but eh at best otherwise. But yea, super pumped for New Zealand specifically for all the Lord of the Rings sightseeing that I will be doing there. 3 weeks in NZ, using public transport to work my way down from North Island to South Island and booked tours for LOTR stuff, then 5-6 days in Fiji for New Year’s, island hopping, and a little diving, then Singapore for a few days before continuing on. I think Indonesia (Central Java historic Buddhist/Hindu temples, Orangutan jungle trekking, Manta Rays and Komodo Dragons in Flores) and Japan are my big 2 to see in Asia, and if I have time, some combination of Vietnam, South Korea (might be able to meet my friend Adithya from Bangalroe here), and Taiwan as well. I’ll actually be back in Chennai in March for a quick pitstop, because weirdly enough, the cheapest flight I could find from literally all of Asia to Madagascar is somehow from Chennai, so I’ll see my grandma and my mom (she’ll be visiting for the 1 year anniversary of my uncle passing away) then. Planning on meeting my sister in Madagascar end of March/early April, as well as my friends Arjun and Nirali there…Arjun is doing like a doctor without borders thing there so he’s free for a week after that and Nirali is flying out to meet him there then as well.