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That thing in the desert

Probably the most common question I get asked about Burning Man (other than why on earth did you want to go there) is what did you actually do? It turns out it’s remarkably easy to pass the time, and the week flew by.

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Recent wanderings have included a walking tour of street art in the new-to-me neighbourhood of East Harlem, as well as visits to my more regular stomping grounds, and as usual we’ve been enjoying opportunities for food and drinks with various friends.

Thanks to a calendar snafu Tom spent a weekend up in the Berkshires with friends, which I wasn’t able to attend thanks to prior work commitment – sadly, because by all accounts they had a lovely time eating their way through the lovely scenery and hearing another friend perform in one of the summer concert series at Tanglewood. I don’t have any pictures of that, so here is Central Park, which is (partly) where I was instead:

Like last year, we celebrated July 4th on a friend’s rooftop. Sadly this year the fireworks were much further downtown, so our view was limited to say the least, but it was still a most enjoyable gathering.

I’ve also been enjoying plenty of summer evening strolls along the Hoboken waterfront. Even when the temperature in the apartment is comfortable, it’s always pleasant to catch some evening breezes and admire the shiny lights of Manhattan across the water, and I never get tired of these views.

Finally, a couple of bonus pictures snapped on my peregrinations around the city:

No one I spoke to before the trip had anything enthusiastic to say about Cleveland, so I didn’t have the highest of expectations, although I wasn’t too worried as the conference program didn’t have much space for exploring. In the end I was very pleasantly surprised, the convention centre was modern and mostly underground, with an attractive park on its roof, the downtown area had some pleasant older buildings as well as fairly tasteful modern constructions, there were some excellent restaurants and bars to try out, and my hotel room had an amazing view of Lake Erie.

The one attraction that everyone seemed to agree was worth a visit was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, so as soon as I could tear myself away from the view I headed out to see for myself. As an educational experience I didn’t find it quite as good as the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, but they have an amazing collection of memorabilia and I spent an enjoyable hour or so wandering around admiring it all.

Food-wise, a couple of dinners were particularly excellent, and I’d gladly go back to both the Greenhouse Tavern and the Cleveland Chop tomorrow. In fact I did go to the Greenhouse twice, and on the first visit my group was seated in the kitchen which we enjoyed almost as much as the food:

For sheer fun, however, the night a group of us spent at the Big Bang piano bar was hard to beat – the pianists were excellent, taking all kinds of requests from the crowd, and we had a great time singing and dancing along.

As part of the conference programming, I had signed up for a tour of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s library and archives collection, and that proved to have been an excellent decision. Located separately from the main museum, the archives became a separate entity around nine years ago, and their collection contains some absolute treasures.

And then, on our final night, those of us who made it up to the hotel’s rooftop bar were rewarded by a spectacular sunset over the lake – a fitting end to a fun-filled few days:

Online research produced a fun-sounding itinerary which took in the spice market as well as walking through Chandni Chowk, but because the market closes on Sundays we decided to duck out of the organised conference tours on the afternoon of Saturday 16th and book an afternoon walking tour instead. (This turned out to be an excellent decision, in the end I spent that morning in the hotel room recovering from an inadvertent glutening the day before, and Tom found that half a day of visiting libraries around Delhi was quite enough!)

  We met our guide outside a cafe in Connaught Place before hopping on the metro for the ride into Old Delhi. We were surprised by how clean and nice it was – much more pleasant than NYC – and of course it was much more efficient than travelling by road.

First stop was the Jama Masjid mosque again, but we were happy to revisit it before plunging into the madness of the old streets. By now we were old hands at this sort of thing, but it really was an intense experience, made more so by the traffic jam in the centre of the narrow streets.

Having pushed, shoved and squirmed our way through the masses, it was pleasant to dive into a quiet side street and admire some old Jain buildings. We also paused at a small cafe to eat parathas (well, I couldn’t, but Tom enjoyed them), before squeezing into a tuktuk for the ride to the spice market.

The spice market was just brilliant – it’s mostly a wholesale place, so most vendors had huge bags of all kinds of herbs and spices for sale.

We climbed up through one of the buildings to a rooftop view point, and looked down into one of the most captivating courtyards I’ve ever seen.

Back at street level we stopped at one of the few stores which will sell small quantities of spices – admittedly somewhat touristy, but the salesman talked interestingly about a number of their spices and teas, and it was fun browsing through all the packs on display to bring home gifts and souvenirs. Purchases duly made, it was back into the tuktuk for a final ride through the darkening streets, and somehow the mayhem was even more enthralling by electric light.

And finally, our last day. February 17th found us back at Connaught Place again for some leisurely browsing at the Oxford bookstore, a drink in their cute cafe, and then a walk over to the Cottage Industries emporium to wander through multiple floors of handcrafts of all descriptions. We finished up with a tasty and colourful lunch at Garam Dharam restaurant, before heading airport-wards for the 15 hour flight home.

Built in 1799, this attractive yet strangely lacking-in-depth building is essentially a free-standing facade so the ladies of the palace had plenty of windows through which to observe the outside world.

Arriving in Amer, the custom appears to be that you ascend to the fort via either elephant or bone-shaking jeep, and having opted for the latter we clung on as we rattled our way through the narrow streets up to the entrance.

Safely back on two feet, we spent a little while enjoying the first courtyard, watching the elephants stroll in with their passengers, and all the various tourists milling about.

  Heading further into the fort itself, it quickly became obvious that this is a beautiful and fascinating place. The fort was the home of the Rajput Maharajas from the early 1600s onwards, and successive occupants contributed to the expansion of the whole.

Having left the fort and rattled our way back down to the main road, we happily transferred to the comfort of our regular car for the ride back into Jaipur, and were charmed to pass several elephants being walked home along the main road from the fort. (It was lovely for us to see them, anyway, I’m not quite sure how pleasant it is for the animals themselves…)

After a brief diversion via a fabric workshop, our next stop was the city palace, created when the maharajas moved their court from Amer in 1727 (the site was a former royal hunting lodge, apparently). The royal family still lives in part of the building, but a good amount of it is open to the public.

Once we were done with the palace, it was a quick step across the road to the Jantar Mantar observatory. This fascinating site was completed in 1734 by Jai Singh II, and contains various instruments to measure time, planetary movements and so on.

The largest gnomon sun dial in the world, accurate to within 2 seconds!

My one regret on the trip is that we didn’t make time for a stroll around the streets of old Jaipur, as it looked fascinating. Instead, however, we drove out of the city to the so-called monkey temple.

Walking around the semi-derelict site with our “Monkey master” was an interesting experience, although I became increasingly fed up with his insistence that we have the monkeys jump all over us. Tom, however, was perfectly happy to make some new furry friends, and reportedly enjoyed the experience.

Back in the city, it was only around 5pm but having skipped lunch we were starving. Raj (our excellent driver) took us to a restaurant he recommended, Aanandam, and upon entering we were struck with dread – it was completely empty. We were “those” tourists dragging the staff away from their pre-service tea… Happily the manager spoke excellent English, so I was able to order aloo gobi and daal without ghee, and it was all absolutely delicious.

Capital of the Mughal Empire for around a decade in the mid/late 1500s, Fatehpur Sikri, is an extensive site containing many interesting and attractive buildings.

It was a lovely sunny morning, so it was pleasant to wander around admiring it all.

Next stop, several hours of driving later, was the step well at Abhaneri. According to Wikipedia, the well “consists of 3,500 narrow steps over 13 stories. It extends approximately 30 m (100 ft) into the ground making it one of the deepest and largest stepwells in India.”

Even armed with such information in advance, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it really was impressive.

Nearby was the small and ancient Harshat Mata temple, complete with some beautiful carved reliefs, and a cheeky chipmunk snacking on the offerings to Shiva.

These sites were certainly a nice way to break up the drive, but I think my favourite part of the day was seeing all the colourful villages and towns we passed through along the road.

It was interesting to watch regular people going about their daily lives,

and made a nice change from the touristy activities.

All that notwithstanding, sunrise at the Taj Mahal was absolutely worth the trip!

We were extremely lucky to have a clear and sunny day – the ones either side were hazy and rainy – and the monument looked absolutely spectacular. Of course we stopped for a photo shoot on “that” bench, and I enjoyed the “is this real or am I dreaming” sensation I always get when seeing something so ridiculously famous with my own eyes.

Up close, the building is decorated with detailed and beautiful designs inlaid with semi-precious stones, but that’s pretty much all there is to see. Inside are replicas of the tombs of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan (the originals are in a crypt which isn’t open to the public), comparatively simple marble affairs partially concealed from view by a carved screen.

The monument is flanked by two attractive red sandstone buildings, which were a mosque and guest house, and we spent some time admiring their decorations too.

The entire site was set in a lovely garden, which managed to be somewhat peaceful even despite the throngs of tourists, and it was pleasant to wander around for a little while, before succumbing to the need for breakfast (these sunrise excursions are all very well, but I do like to start the day with food!).

After a leisurely breakfast back at the hotel, it actually made a nice change to have nothing to do for the morning, especially as I needed to spend some time working on my conference presentations.

Our distant view of the Taj was pretty special, too.

Mid-afternoon we set out to visit the Red Fort. I didn’t have much of a preconception about what this would be like, so it was nice to walk through the various parts of the structure, learning about the various Mughal emperors who contributed to it.

Other than visiting the Taj Mahal, it seems that the main thing to do in Agra is to admire it from various viewpoints, and the fort had more than a few of those. Last stop on the itinerary was the Moonlight garden on the other side of the river for, you guessed it, yet more Taj views.

Back at the hotel, we took advantage of the rooftop bar, and, yes indeed, that view again…

It was wedding season while we were in India, and coming back to the hotel from dinner we came across a groom’s party assembling in the street.

After a couple of wonderfully hectic (or should that be hectically wonderful?!) days in Kathmandu, we flew back to India. Next on the itinerary: Varanasi, or Banaras as it is called by most of the Indians we spoke to.

In describing my experience of Varanasi to people, the word I keep coming back to is “magical”. There was just something about being in a place which is so ancient and so…

Despite sounding desperately exotic (at least to my ears), Kathmandu is actually just a convenient 1.5 hour flight out of Delhi., and visas are available for purchase upon arrival at the airport. Again we were met by our driver and a rep from the travel company, and this was more appreciated than before – Kathmandu is somewhat more condensed than Delhi, and the traffic is even crazier! Having settled into our hotel we set out to have a walk and change some money. Our first challenge: crossing the road. It seems that the Nepalese don’t really believe in pedestrian crossings, so the trick was to identify a likely gap in the traffic and walk boldly into it. This was made even more exciting by residual jetlag and adjusting to the altitude (Kathmandu is at 1400 metres / 4600 feet above sea level – not high enough to cause any problems, but I noticed it nevertheless), so for the first few attempts we loitered suspiciously behind other pedestrians and leaped into the road behind them as soon as they started to cross. Having survived our excursion, we opted for a quiet night and dinner at the hotel.

For our first full day, February 4th, we were collected from our hotel by our excellent guide, Mark, for a walk through the old part of Kathmandu city. We quickly became accustomed to the madness as we made our way through the narrow streets – people on foot, on motorbikes and scooters, cyclists, street dogs, everyone was on the move.

Kathmandu’s main Durbar (palace) square is still undergoing reconstruction (as are many other buildings across the city), but enough of it has been rebuilt to give an idea of how spectacular it all was before the earthquake.

(That the city’s air is full of dust from the construction is somewhat less enticing.) After admiring various temples, and other structures, we made our way to the Kumari temple in time for the living goddess’ morning appearance.

Having crossed the old part of the city we met up with our driver again and drove up to the so-called Monkey Temple, and Swayambhunath stupa. The air at the top of the hill was a little clearer, and in addition to the stupa and surrounding statuary, there were some fantastic views across the valley.

Once we’d finished wandering around the stupa and exclaiming excitedly at the monkeys, it was back to the car for the short drive across to Patan city for lunch.

  (Patan was historically an entirely separate place, and still seems to be regarded as such now, but on the ground at least it’s very much part of Kathmandu valley’s urban sprawl.)

After a lovely meal of Nepalese curry (me) and mo mo dumplings (Tom), on a rooftop with excellent views, we set off on foot again to explore Patan’s Durbar square and museum.

  Day 2 started with a longer drive out of the city, and up a significant hill, to the Changu Narayan temple. Conisdered to be among Nepal’s oldest Hindu temples, it boasts some beautiful stone carvings, and the lack of background noise thanks to its elevated position made it feel much more tranquil. Back down the hill, we spent the rest of the morning in the town of Bhaktapur . It’s laid-back vibe was quite a contrast to Kathmandu, and we enjoyed strolling around the old city. Naturally we visited the Durbar square, but the highlight was eating lunch at another rooftop restaurant right next to the Nyatapola temple – having admired it from ground level it was lovely to get a view of the structure from a different perspective.

Back in Kathmandu city, we stopped to walk through part of the grounds of the Pashupatinath temple. Dedicated to Shiva, this is one of the most important Hindu sites and the only place outside Varanasi where cremations are carried out around the clock. It was quite an experience learning about some of the history around the temple, and seeing several different death rituals under way – despite being a bright and pleasant afternoon, the place was absolutely saturated with a feel of ancient power.

The last stop on our tour was the Boudhanath stupa. (This is apparently the second largest stupa in the world, with Indonesia’s Borobudur in the number one spot.)

Bedecked in prayer flags, this was a much cheerier affair, and due to a local festival the surrounding streets were packed with Nepalese in colourful clothing.

For the evening’s entertainment, we had booked a “cultural dinner with dancing”. This turned out to be a series of courses of delicious Nepalese food – appropriately adjusted for my dietary requirements where necessary – accompanied by a dance performance. Sadly the audience was small and the restaurant was chilly (despite checking the forecast several times whilst packing the temperatures ended up being slightly cooler than expected, and we didn’t quite bring enough layers), so we didn’t feel like lingering, but it was all most enjoyable nevertheless.

I know I’m waaaaay behind in writing up my notes from our trip to India, but I just wanted to post quickly about this season’s ski trip.

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I have been interested to visit India for as long as I can remember, so an invitation to speak at a conference provided the perfect excuse. Even the prospect of the 14 hour flights to and from Delhi wasn’t sufficiently daunting, and the better part of a fortnight was allocated for pre-conference sightseeing. After much debate about possible destinations, we decided that trying to make our own arrangements would be more stressful than we needed, so we engaged the services of an online tour company, Odynovo, to sort it all out on our behalf. This turned out to be an excellent move – our travel consultant was fantastic, and helped us put together a sensible itinerary taking in as many of the places we wanted to see as was feasible in the time.

We arrived in Delhi late on January 31st, and it was so nice to be met at the airport by our driver and a rep from the travel company. Normally I’m all in favour of independent travel, but not having to immediately figure out our public transport options made for a much more relaxing arrival. This continued the next morning, as we were collected from our hotel after breakfast to embark on a whistle-stop tour around Delhi.

I remember this day mostly as a series of snapshots. We started with a brief look into Jama Masjid, India’s largest mosque, with space for up to 25,000 worshippers:

A quick dip into the old market area, Chandni Chowk, by cycle rickshaw:

Raj Ghat and the Gandhi memorial:

A more modern but beautifully decorated site of worship, the 1933 Laxminarayan temple (sadly no photos are permitted inside):

A drive by the British-designed Parliament house & government buildings:

A quick photo stop at India Gate (a more meaningful monument than your average triumphal arch, this serves as a memorial to many thousands of Indian soldiers, and has been the site of a perpetual flame since 1971):

A glimpse of the Lotus Temple from the roadside:

Other than deciding I wanted to spend more time in Old Delhi (which we did, much later in the trip…), my favourite part of the day was our walk around Qutab Minar. This is the site of India’s oldest mosque, dating from 1193, now mainly in ruins apart from the remarkable minaret. It was a beautiful place to spend some time wandering around.

  At some point during the afternoon we’d found time for a late lunch, so the day ended back at our hotel, with some much-needed refreshments:

Old Monk Indian rum – delicious!

As before, the food and drinks were excellent. I had less opportunity for eating out than last time, but still managed to find some tasty treats.

I also took part in a mask decorating workshop one evening, as part of the activities attached to my event. Design is not my strongest suit, so being presented with a blank silver mask was daunting to say the least, but it was fun to play with glitter, glue and feathers, and I was really pleased with the result!

I also managed to spend a couple of evenings listening to music in one of my all-time favourite bars, the Spotted Cat. As always, the crowd was lively and the bands were excellent, I really wish we had somewhere like this closer to home.

Until next time…!

Our Christmas visit to England took us up to Northumberland for a few days, a part of the country which I’ve previously only passed through on the train. It was bright and cold, and we saw a lot of castles in a short amount of time!

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2018 ended on a low-key note, with dinner and a bottle of nice champagne at home, but we started the new year on good form by heading to the woods with some friends for a hike around the South Mountain reservation.

Despite complaining about the unseasonably warm temperature, it was lovely to be out in the sunshine, and it was considerably more pleasant than when we walked the same trail back in…

The displays of festive lights around Hoboken are as bright and twinkly as usual, but I seem only to have photographed this delightful duo:

… however I did manage to capture the lights on Saks 5th Avenue and the Rockefeller Center tree, both as spectacular as usual:

And, just in time for the cold weather, T has a new hat, hand-knitted of course:

This will probably be my final post for 2018 (although you never know…), so I’ll close by saying Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and very best wishes for 2019.

I have been wanting to visit the collection of modern art at Dia:Beacon for as long as I’ve known it existed. The building is a former Nabisco box printing factory, and this pared-down industrial setting provides the perfect backdrop for a range of interesting artworks and installations.

Minimal captioning meant that we mostly just wandered around the space looking at things, which made a nice change, and I enjoyed the light in different areas of the building.

Once we had finished in the museum, we had a swift and chilly stroll around Beacon (small, cute, scenic) before stopping in Denning’s Point Distillery for some warming refreshments.

Next on the schedule was a visit to the Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Croton-on-Hudson. We went to this in 2015 and have been meaning to go again ever since, so our visitors provided the perfect excuse.

Despite being seriously cold by this point, the blaze was just as much fun as we remembered, and we had a lovely time looking at all the amazing carvings, whimsical designs, and spooky installations.