Buildings

JaisalmerHavelis in Jaisalmer

The lake at Kolayat.
Bikaner Old City.
Background: Jaisalmer Fort

Foreground: Cricket (It's like baseball, but even more boring!) Haveli noir

backpack(er)==> the person, thing, verb, etc.

I think it's time to describe this trip. First of all, "hello." It's time I set aside the Delhi nightmares and the usual cynicism for a moment. And in the spirit of conveying it, as it really is, I'll start with the most basic details, working from there and eventually communicating, in the modern "blog"-fashion, my innermost thoughts and feelings.

In the interest of realism, I'm going to start with a list of things. Real things, important things. The things inside my backpack. This is by no means a comprehensive list of things that should be inside the backpack of someone who wishes to be known as a "backpacker." This is just a comprehensive guide to all the crap I squeezed in my bag before 9 a.m. checkout this morning. If you're worried about what to bring for your "backpacking" (it's a verb too), just put a backpack on your back and think of the things you'll need when you aren't inside your house. You can do it pretty much anywhere, like in the park or anywhere.

A towel (I KNOW you read that one, you nerds. All five of them.)
7 shirts
2 pairs of long pants
10 pairs of boxers
7 pairs of socks
a pair of shoes
a pair of sandals
a belt
a hat
swim trunks
a cloth bag for dirty laundry
a little bag that contains ...
toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, comb, pomade, floss (for sewing), a needle, safety pins, soap in a soap pouch (I've been sewing. More about this later), a bar of laundry soap in a soap pouch, shampoo in a ziploc bag, a tube of sunscreen in a ziploc bag, High-DEET insect repellant, Medium-DEET insect repellant, scissors
A first aid bag with ...
neosporin
band-aids
antiseptic wipes
diarrhea medication
malaria medication
rehydration salts
water purification tablets
antifunghal cream
A secret money pouch that contains ...
money
traveler's checks
credit/debit card
passport
vaccination card
Other stuff like ...
a journal
watercolor pencils
space pen (it's a pen for astronauts. You can use it on any planet.)
small pocket notebooks
cassette/radio (with a built-in speaker)
tapes
CDs with my photos backed up
Maccabee pottery fragments
a goat's horn I found at Petra
a rope
books
travel clock
camera and accessories
minidisc recorder/microphones/accessories (more about this later)
lonely planet
power converter
small bottle for portable sunscreen
small bottle of hand sanitizer
tissues
ten albums on a minidisc that seemed like good albums to bring at the time but now seem to be, for the most part, not the ones I meant to bring ...
Morton Feldman- At Rothko Chapel
Animal Collective- Feels
Neil Young- Live at Massey Hall
Beach Boys- my own mix
King Tubby and Soul Syndicate- Freedom Sounds in Dub (This one sounded good on Mt. Zion. No joke.)
Steve Reich- Music for 18 Musicians
Joanna Newsom- Ys
The Kinks- Village Green Preservation Society
Can- Ege Bamyasi
Phil Spector- Back to Mono (Disc 2) (I heard it was a mistrial?)


Oh yeah, buy most of this stuff wherever you're going, because it'll be cheaper. Unless it's Europe or Japan or something! Happy trails!

People

Staring back from an epic photo-shoot. Dave's beard and hair are celebrities in India.

This man runs the power generator for Bikaner. He invited us to his home and showed us his paintings (on the wall).

A non-chronological journey back to Israel

Some cars are chick magnets. This car is a kitchy Israeli crap magnet.
The view from the roof.
This is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was crucified. Of all the cruel and inhumane things the Romans did, this was one of the worst. They killed the Lord's son, which was bad enough, but on top of that they had the nerve to crucify him--of all places--inside a church! Two by two at the biblical zoo. The biblical zoo has every animal mentioned in the Old Testament. Except unicorns.

This is the Dome of the Rock, where Mohammed ascended to heaven. This is also the place where the Jewish Temple Mount existed. Also, Jesus knocked over a table here.

The Dome of the Rock wouldn't admit Dave because he had a flute in his backpack and they were afraid he would rock so hard the Dome would be humbled. It was a good thing they stopped him because he had all kinds of strange shamanistic ideas about reclaiming the world's holiest site for the pagans or something.

(I pray ...)

I pray
For my family
For my family
Living and dead
Living and dead
In the name of KrishnaLaxmiShivaGanesh
In the name of KrishnaLaxmiShivaGanesh
(He pours some of the lake on my hands. I pour more of the lake on my hands)
For good luck, karma for the whole family
For good luck, karma for the whole family
For good health
For good health
For mother
(So if you've caught on, I'm repeating everything the priest says and I have a red mess of smudge on my forehead and I'm holding flowers on a plate with my eyes closed and there's also rice on my forehead.)
For father
(I repeat after him.)
For brother
For sister
(I shake my head.)
For grandparents
For wife
(I shake my head.)
You don't have wife?
(I shake my head twice.)
For future wife
(My mind draws a blank, but here I am it's too late to explain, praying "for future wife.")
For children
(He corrects himself)
For children in future
I give
I give
(brace yourself)
an amount
an amount
20 dollars US
(20 dollars US is stuck in my throat. I cough. I actually cough and draw my hand to my mouth which is ruining the whole thing, I can tell. I think we were probably working up something good for a second there with the holy lake and everything.)
I can't. No. I have a small amount, but I can't give that much.
(And he's watching me pull it out of my front shirt pocket and oh, the anguish, it's like all the relatives living and dead are crowded around in anticipation. My ancestors--all of them--are there on the bathing steps rolling their eyes, scribbling out calculations on napkins, stone tablets, papyrus, whatever. "50 rupees?!" "That's what." More scribbles. Someone has it. "That's--no--$1.25? A measly buck and a quarter?" A wave of sighs rips through the family reunion. Someone pipes up in back. "You just spent like 1,000 rupees on some weird jacket." It's true, I did. "Think of the family! We don't even want that metal elephant you bought us!" And then a voice from the priest.)
Why did you come to Pushkar, to holy lake?
(I'm sputtering again, like I'm swallowing the blockage in my throat slowly.)
I don't know. To see it.
Yes. But Pushkar is not a place for seeing, Pushkar is a place for holy things. This is a very small amount 20 dollars US. I think this is like a movie for two and dinner for two in your country. Ok, maybe 10 dollars US. This is a very small amount.
(And here we are back in familiar territory. I know how to bargain for a little metal elephant, but holy water and priests tend to make me uncomfortable.)
Are we bargaining? I ask him.
(And I smile and he smiles too, because why not. The lake is beautiful and the day is good. Everything is good.)

Later that day I took a photo of the lake. You're not allowed to take them at the bathing ghats. But it wasn't really on the bathing ghats. Well it was on a bridge nearby but it wasn't the people bathing. There was no one around to say no and I couldn't resist a snap. Those steps looked beautiful in the light. Oh, what a postcard it was! And--I can't even tell it. Well, for mysterious reasons my camera's memory card went dead later that night and took a hundred pictures with it. Including my pictures of the lake. Karma be damned!

A helpful guy named Ravi I met on the bus. Thanks Ravi!

Friends and friends of friends.

A monkey at Galta, outside of Jaipur city. This temple is also called "Monkey Temple."

Humayun's Tomb, Delhi

Paharganj, Delhi.

Unspeakables (a nightmare)

Untouchables are hands reaching out. Babies paraded through streets like pity accessory dolls. If you know the unspeakables, the unspeakables haunt you worse. Hands walking in beach flip-flops. Strange human contortions. A kid in a loincloth barking on all fours for rupees. Melty face man, who follows you with melty face and melty hands until you pay him. He looks like his lower lip is stapled to his chest and the rest of his head got sandblasted off his skull. Teeth stick out wherever they want.
You can see tourists moving across the street to be alone, and that's when he really doesn't leave. I look straight ahead so I don't have to look, but I look anyway. I don't have anything to give today. It would mean a million hands outstretched, all of Delhi motioning toward its mouth.
Nomamanopapachapati
Nomamanopapachapati (chapati means bread)
Polio feet flopping around like flippers, amputees dragging themselves by their arms, on homemade wheely-carts or just pulling torsos behind them through puddles and cow dung. Humans pedal bikes with their hands. Lepers rub their wounds like sculptors. A man's scrotum, out in the midday sun, swells like a watermelon and bursts. Intact bodies pedal cycle-rickshaws of plump white and brown people. Rickshaw-wallahs eat dal and rice. When they tire of dal and rice they eat rice and dal. Calorie intake doesn't support bodies that pedal for a living, and they die on their 40th birthdays.
"Sir, you're going? Hallo?"

I used to joke about melty face man. It was a joke for a little bit. He'd show up wherever I went.
I tolerated him in my waking life so he wouldn't hang around in my nightmares. On the night train to Mumbai he'd be the other guy bunking in our compartment.
"Oh hell no," I'd say. "D21 and D22?"
Or another time. With one melty hand he'd throw bunny ears behind my head in Taj Mahal snapshots.
"Jesus Christ, melty, quit that shit and, at least, maybe you could keep your Freddy Kruegger face out of the frame until I get a good one of just me. Thanks."
I didn't want him around anymore. The guy was wearing on us, and pretty soon we didn't talk about him at all. You know the way a joke wears thin.
I think he sensed it too, because everywhere we went--even his favorite urinal corners where it was dark and he had a good spot to jump out and surprise us--we didn't see him. Like he turned unspeakable overnight. He stayed out of our sick jokes and it was better that way.
Then we saw melty face man in our nightmares. I did at least. He knocked on our guesthouse door and broke the lock on the thing but I didn't even notice I was so dead asleep. Just dreaming there.
It sounds weird, but I could have sworn the guy was trying to introduce himself to me. And do it properly this time, like with his real name and everything. Except, from what I could tell, he didn't have any lips or tongue to work with. So it came out like a moan that just breathed itself out of his throat-hole, and I couldn't make heads or tails of it.
That's when the whole scene--already a little awkward--turned pretty nightmarish. And like I said, the next morning melty face man had up and left town like he said to himself forget this town you guys none of you know how to have any fun anymore.

I love India. This is my first picture of India. It's already three weeks old, but to be honest I can't watch the upload thingy tick all day. I can do that at home, right.

Rooftop living in Jerusalem. Rooftops cost less and have better views than conventional four-walled accommodation.

Israel is a great place to visit, but ...

Are those? No. They couldn't be. Yes, yes they are! Packs of cigarettes wrapped in money!

Israel

A wall.

An important shaving event in Acko, Israel. After being shaved, the lucky man ran through the crowd clapping and disappeared into his house down the street.

Some new friends.

The dead sea. I think we're on youtube also. Check us out.

It's war-torn, get it.

I hope this works out.

"I'll tell you about it because I am here and you are distant. Wherever you are, we must do the best we can. It is so far to travel, and we have nothing here to travel, except watermelon sugar. I hope this works out."
—Richard Brautigan

The Gods Are Angry

Click this one and look at it.