From a30c790edea652494e7481f6798047a3bc1fd4ea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: luxagraf Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2023 13:43:36 -0500 Subject: added a backup of old pages that are no longer live --- bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/1/index.html | 396 +++++++++++++++++++++ bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/2/index.html | 96 ++++++ bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/index.html | 402 ++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 894 insertions(+) create mode 100644 bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/1/index.html create mode 100644 bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/2/index.html create mode 100644 bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/index.html (limited to 'bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia') diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/1/index.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/1/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01c861e --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/1/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,396 @@ + + + + + Luxagraf | Travel Writing from Central Asia + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+
+

+

Walk Slowly

+
+ +
+ +
+

Journal entries from Central Asia

+
+
+ Sunset Over the Himalayas +
+

Sunset Over the Himalayas

+ + +

+ + Pokhara, Nepal + + 28.210482777870325 + 83.95820616507119 + + – + + After about forty-five minutes of paddling I reached a point where the views of the Annapurna range were, in the words of an Englishman I met in Katmandu, "gob smacking gorgeous." I put down the paddle and moved to the center of the boat where the benches were wider and, using my bag a cushion, lay back against the gunwale and hung my feet over the opposite side so that they just skimmed the surface of the chilly water. + +

+
+
+
+ Pashupatinath +
+

Pashupatinath

+ + +

+ + Pashupatinath, Nepal + + 27.71057315568692 + 85.34853457216452 + + – + + Nestled on a hillside beside the Bagmati River, Pashupatinath is one of the holiest sites in the world for Hindus, second only to Varanasi in India. Pashupatinath consists of a large temple which is open only to Hindus, surrounded by a number of smaller shrines and then down on the banks of the Bagmati are the burning ghats where bodies are cremated. + +

+
+
+
+ Durbar Square Kathmandu +
+

Durbar Square Kathmandu

+ + +

+ + Kathmandu, Nepal + + 27.703363690641837 + 85.31737803225191 + + – + + After saturating myself with the streets of Thamel I went on a longer excursion down to Durbar Square to see the various pagodas, temples and the old palace. The palace itself no longer houses the King, but is still used for coronations and ceremonies and Durbar Square is still very much the hub of Katmandu. + +

+
+
+
+ Goodbye India +
+

Goodbye India

+ + +

+ + Delhi, India + + 28.6418241967323 + 77.21092699883451 + + – + + I have taken almost 750 photos and traveled nearly 4000 km (2500 miles) in India, the vast majority of it by train. I have seen everything from depressing squalor to majestic palaces and yet I still feel as if I have hardly scratched the surface. I can't think of another and certainly have never been to a country with the kind of geographic and ethnic diversity of India. + +

+
+
+
+ The Taj Express +
+

The Taj Express

+ + +

+ + Agra, India + + 27.17280401257652 + 78.04176806317186 + + – + + The Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and, given the level of hype I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed, but I was wrong. I have never in my life seen anything so extravagant, elegant and colossal. The Taj Mahal seems mythically, spiritually, as well as architecturally, to have risen from nowhere, without equal or context. + +

+
+
+
+ On a Camel With No Name +
+

On a Camel With No Name

+ + +

+ + Thar Desert, India + + 27.004078760567136 + 70.89065550770995 + + – + + The Thar Desert is a bewitching if stark place. It reminded me of areas of the Great Basin between Las Vegas and St. George, Utah. Twigging mesquite-like trees, bluish gray bushes resembling creosote, a very large bush that resembled a Palo Verde tree and grew in impenetrable clumps, and, strangely, only one species of cactus and not a whole lot of them. + +

+
+
+
+ The Majestic Fort +
+

The Majestic Fort

+ + +

+ + Jodhpur, India + + 26.29741635354351 + 73.01766871389577 + + – + + The next day I hopped in a rickshaw and headed up to tour Meherangarh, or the Majestic Fort as it's known in English. As its English name indicates, it is indeed perched majestically atop the only hill around, and seems not so much built on a hill as to have naturally risen out the very rocks that form the mesa on which it rests. The outer wall encloses some of the sturdiest and most impressive ramparts I've seen in India or anywhere else. + +

+
+
+
+ Around Udaipur +
+

Around Udaipur

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.667610368715458 + 73.78486632273662 + + – + + Just out of Udaipur is a government sponsored "artist colony" for various cultures from the five nearby states, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. On one hand Shilpogram is a wonderful idea on the part of the government, but on the other hand the "artists colony" is slightly creepy. Amidst displays of typical tribal life there were artists and craftsmen and women hawking their wares along with dancers and musicians performing traditional songs. The whole thing had the feel of a living museum, or, for the creepy angle — human zoo. + +

+
+
+
+ The Monsoon Palace +
+

The Monsoon Palace

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.66199437588058 + 73.68804930614868 + + – + + We started out in the early evening quickly leaving behind Udaipur and its increasing urban sprawl. The road to the Monsoon Palace passes through the Sajjan Garh Nature Preserve and there was a sudden and dramatic drop in temperature, but then the road climbed out of the hollow and the temperature jumped back up to comfortable as we began to climb the mountain in a series of hairpin switchbacks. As the sun slowly slunk behind the mountain range to the west the balconies and balustrades of the Monsoon Palace took on an increasingly orange hue. + +

+
+
+
+ The City Palace +
+

The City Palace

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.591304879190837 + 73.69319914745653 + + – + + I spent some time sitting in the inner gardens of the City Place, listening to rustling trees and the various guides bringing small groups of western and Indian tourists through the garden. In the center of the hanging gardens was the kings, extremely oversized bath, which reminded me of children's book that I once gave to a friend's daughter; it was a massively oversized and lavishly illustrated book that told the story of a king who refused to get out of the bath and instead made his ministers, advisors, cooks and even his wife conduct business by getting in the bath with him. + +

+
+
+
+ Living in Airport Terminals +
+

Living in Airport Terminals

+ + +

+ + Ahmedabad, India + + 23.009675285624738 + 72.56237982693523 + + – + + Airport terminals are fast becoming my favorite part of traveling. When you stop and observe them closely as I have been forced to do on this trip, terminals are actually quite beautiful, weird places. Terminals inhabit a unique space in the architecture of humanity, perhaps the strangest of all spaces we have created; a space that is itself only a boundary that delineates the border between what was and what will be without leaving any space at all for what is. + +

+
+
+
+ Anjuna Market +
+

Anjuna Market

+ + +

+ + Anjuna Beach, India + + 15.58128947293701 + 73.73886107371965 + + – + + Earlier today I caught a bus up to the Anjuna Flea Market and can now tell you for certain that old hippies do not die, they simply move to Goa. The flea market was quite a spectacle; riots of color at every turn and more silver jewelry than you could shake a stick at. + +

+
+
+
+ Fish Story +
+

Fish Story

+ + +

+ + Colva Beach, India + + 15.277230227117771 + 73.91541479989145 + + – + + The Arabian Sea is warm and the sand sucks at your feet when you walk, schools of tiny fish dart and disappear into each receding wave. In the morning the water is nearly glassy and the beach slopes off so slowly one can walk out at least 200 meters and be only waist deep. + +

+
+
+
+ The Backwaters of Kerala +
+

The Backwaters of Kerala

+ + +

+ + Fort Kochi, India + + 9.958029970964114 + 76.2533569229791 + + – + + The guide showed us Tamarind trees, coconut palms, lemon trees, vanilla vine, plantain trees and countless other shrubs and bushes whose names I have already forgotten. The most fascinating was a plant that produces a fruit something like a miniature mango that contains cyanide and which, as our guide informed us, is cultivated mainly to commit suicide with — as if it was no big deal and everyone is at least occasionally tempted to each the killer mango. + +

+
+
+
+ Vasco de Gama Exhumed +
+

Vasco de Gama Exhumed

+ + +

+ + Fort Kochi, India + + 9.964370231041409 + 76.24091147315164 + + – + + Fort Cochin is curious collision of cultures — Chinese, India and even Portuguese. Many of the obviously older buildings are of a distinctly Iberian-style — moss covered, adobe-colored arches abound. There is graveyard just down the road with a tombstone that bears the name Vasco de Gama, who died and was buried here for fourteen years before being moved to Lisbon (there we go again, more Europeans digging up and moving the dead). + +

+
+
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/2/index.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/2/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2d78df --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/2/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,96 @@ + + + + + Luxagraf | Travel Writing from Central Asia -- Page 2 + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+
+

+

Walk Slowly

+
+ +
+ +
+

Journal entries from Central Asia

+
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + diff --git a/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/index.html b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/index.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc8cf77 --- /dev/null +++ b/bak/oldluxpages/jrnlold/central-asia/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,402 @@ + + + + + Luxagraf | Travel Writing from Central Asia -- Page + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
+
+
+

+

Walk Slowly

+
+ +
+ +
+

Journal entries from Central Asia

+
+
+ Sunset Over the Himalayas +
+

Sunset Over the Himalayas

+ + +

+ + Pokhara, Nepal + + 28.210482777870325 + 83.95820616507119 + + – + + After about forty-five minutes of paddling I reached a point where the views of the Annapurna range were, in the words of an Englishman I met in Katmandu, "gob smacking gorgeous." I put down the paddle and moved to the center of the boat where the benches were wider and, using my bag a cushion, lay back against the gunwale and hung my feet over the opposite side so that they just skimmed the surface of the chilly water. + +

+
+
+
+ Pashupatinath +
+

Pashupatinath

+ + +

+ + Pashupatinath, Nepal + + 27.71057315568692 + 85.34853457216452 + + – + + Nestled on a hillside beside the Bagmati River, Pashupatinath is one of the holiest sites in the world for Hindus, second only to Varanasi in India. Pashupatinath consists of a large temple which is open only to Hindus, surrounded by a number of smaller shrines and then down on the banks of the Bagmati are the burning ghats where bodies are cremated. + +

+
+
+
+ Durbar Square Kathmandu +
+

Durbar Square Kathmandu

+ + +

+ + Kathmandu, Nepal + + 27.703363690641837 + 85.31737803225191 + + – + + After saturating myself with the streets of Thamel I went on a longer excursion down to Durbar Square to see the various pagodas, temples and the old palace. The palace itself no longer houses the King, but is still used for coronations and ceremonies and Durbar Square is still very much the hub of Katmandu. + +

+
+
+
+ Goodbye India +
+

Goodbye India

+ + +

+ + Delhi, India + + 28.6418241967323 + 77.21092699883451 + + – + + I have taken almost 750 photos and traveled nearly 4000 km (2500 miles) in India, the vast majority of it by train. I have seen everything from depressing squalor to majestic palaces and yet I still feel as if I have hardly scratched the surface. I can't think of another and certainly have never been to a country with the kind of geographic and ethnic diversity of India. + +

+
+
+
+ The Taj Express +
+

The Taj Express

+ + +

+ + Agra, India + + 27.17280401257652 + 78.04176806317186 + + – + + The Taj Mahal is one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and, given the level of hype I was fully prepared to be underwhelmed, but I was wrong. I have never in my life seen anything so extravagant, elegant and colossal. The Taj Mahal seems mythically, spiritually, as well as architecturally, to have risen from nowhere, without equal or context. + +

+
+
+
+ On a Camel With No Name +
+

On a Camel With No Name

+ + +

+ + Thar Desert, India + + 27.004078760567136 + 70.89065550770995 + + – + + The Thar Desert is a bewitching if stark place. It reminded me of areas of the Great Basin between Las Vegas and St. George, Utah. Twigging mesquite-like trees, bluish gray bushes resembling creosote, a very large bush that resembled a Palo Verde tree and grew in impenetrable clumps, and, strangely, only one species of cactus and not a whole lot of them. + +

+
+
+
+ The Majestic Fort +
+

The Majestic Fort

+ + +

+ + Jodhpur, India + + 26.29741635354351 + 73.01766871389577 + + – + + The next day I hopped in a rickshaw and headed up to tour Meherangarh, or the Majestic Fort as it's known in English. As its English name indicates, it is indeed perched majestically atop the only hill around, and seems not so much built on a hill as to have naturally risen out the very rocks that form the mesa on which it rests. The outer wall encloses some of the sturdiest and most impressive ramparts I've seen in India or anywhere else. + +

+
+
+
+ Around Udaipur +
+

Around Udaipur

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.667610368715458 + 73.78486632273662 + + – + + Just out of Udaipur is a government sponsored "artist colony" for various cultures from the five nearby states, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Karnataka, Goa and Madhya Pradesh. On one hand Shilpogram is a wonderful idea on the part of the government, but on the other hand the "artists colony" is slightly creepy. Amidst displays of typical tribal life there were artists and craftsmen and women hawking their wares along with dancers and musicians performing traditional songs. The whole thing had the feel of a living museum, or, for the creepy angle — human zoo. + +

+
+
+
+ The Monsoon Palace +
+

The Monsoon Palace

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.66199437588058 + 73.68804930614868 + + – + + We started out in the early evening quickly leaving behind Udaipur and its increasing urban sprawl. The road to the Monsoon Palace passes through the Sajjan Garh Nature Preserve and there was a sudden and dramatic drop in temperature, but then the road climbed out of the hollow and the temperature jumped back up to comfortable as we began to climb the mountain in a series of hairpin switchbacks. As the sun slowly slunk behind the mountain range to the west the balconies and balustrades of the Monsoon Palace took on an increasingly orange hue. + +

+
+
+
+ The City Palace +
+

The City Palace

+ + +

+ + Udiapur, India + + 24.591304879190837 + 73.69319914745653 + + – + + I spent some time sitting in the inner gardens of the City Place, listening to rustling trees and the various guides bringing small groups of western and Indian tourists through the garden. In the center of the hanging gardens was the kings, extremely oversized bath, which reminded me of children's book that I once gave to a friend's daughter; it was a massively oversized and lavishly illustrated book that told the story of a king who refused to get out of the bath and instead made his ministers, advisors, cooks and even his wife conduct business by getting in the bath with him. + +

+
+
+
+ Living in Airport Terminals +
+

Living in Airport Terminals

+ + +

+ + Ahmedabad, India + + 23.009675285624738 + 72.56237982693523 + + – + + Airport terminals are fast becoming my favorite part of traveling. When you stop and observe them closely as I have been forced to do on this trip, terminals are actually quite beautiful, weird places. Terminals inhabit a unique space in the architecture of humanity, perhaps the strangest of all spaces we have created; a space that is itself only a boundary that delineates the border between what was and what will be without leaving any space at all for what is. + +

+
+
+
+ Anjuna Market +
+

Anjuna Market

+ + +

+ + Anjuna Beach, India + + 15.58128947293701 + 73.73886107371965 + + – + + Earlier today I caught a bus up to the Anjuna Flea Market and can now tell you for certain that old hippies do not die, they simply move to Goa. The flea market was quite a spectacle; riots of color at every turn and more silver jewelry than you could shake a stick at. + +

+
+
+
+ Fish Story +
+

Fish Story

+ + +

+ + Colva Beach, India + + 15.277230227117771 + 73.91541479989145 + + – + + The Arabian Sea is warm and the sand sucks at your feet when you walk, schools of tiny fish dart and disappear into each receding wave. In the morning the water is nearly glassy and the beach slopes off so slowly one can walk out at least 200 meters and be only waist deep. + +

+
+
+
+ The Backwaters of Kerala +
+

The Backwaters of Kerala

+ + +

+ + Fort Kochi, India + + 9.958029970964114 + 76.2533569229791 + + – + + The guide showed us Tamarind trees, coconut palms, lemon trees, vanilla vine, plantain trees and countless other shrubs and bushes whose names I have already forgotten. The most fascinating was a plant that produces a fruit something like a miniature mango that contains cyanide and which, as our guide informed us, is cultivated mainly to commit suicide with — as if it was no big deal and everyone is at least occasionally tempted to each the killer mango. + +

+
+
+
+ Vasco de Gama Exhumed +
+

Vasco de Gama Exhumed

+ + +

+ + Fort Kochi, India + + 9.964370231041409 + 76.24091147315164 + + – + + Fort Cochin is curious collision of cultures — Chinese, India and even Portuguese. Many of the obviously older buildings are of a distinctly Iberian-style — moss covered, adobe-colored arches abound. There is graveyard just down the road with a tombstone that bears the name Vasco de Gama, who died and was buried here for fourteen years before being moved to Lisbon (there we go again, more Europeans digging up and moving the dead). + +

+
+
+ + + + +
+ + + + + + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3-70-g09d2