Alexander the Great brought in Greek influence to the Gandharans in Northwest Pakistan around the 3rd c. BC. You can see the influence on a more masculine and musclar version of Buddha here.
I made a trip to the Lahore Museum. It houses, among many things, a lot of Buddhist relics .
This mosque was built in the 17th c. by Wazir Khan, royal physician, and later governor of Punjab.
The buses and especially trucks are elaborately decorated in India, Pakistan, and Nepal.
Lahore Fort is another Mughal fort from 1566. It actually is't that interesting inside as its Shish Mahal (Palace of Mirrors), the highlight, was still being renovated.
Lahore's Old City has a 9-meter-high wall with 13 gates. It dates from the Mughal period. It is a maze in there with lots of stores.
What's inside? I don't know, I didn't line up, but I suspect that it contained the holy book for Sikhs.
This is the holiest site for followers of the Sikh faith. It also lies in the middle of a water tank. Hundreds of followers circumambulate around the temple; some of them stopped to bathe (performing a puja like in the Ganges for the Hindi) and even fill up plastic bottles with the sacred water. It was so beautiful seeing the colorful clothing on the backdrop of the white marble. I actually enjoyed this far more than the Taj Mahal. It was free to visit. They also had a dormitory here for foreigners and a dining hall serving dhal and chapatis -- all free. This was a very cool place to visit.
You have to remove your shoes and step through a water trough before entering the Golden Temple complex. The water trough was filthy and it had rained earlier that day so all the mats stank. Keep in mind that many folks there do not wear footwear, so you can imagine how filthy the water trough was.
When I got to Amritsar, it was already past 1400, so I ended up getting on a minibus headed to the Wagah border closing ceremony. I was the only foreigner on board (the rest were Indian tourists), so we stopped at this Hindu temple first. It sits in a big water tank.
There is an eternal flame on the black marble ghat.
So called because it faces Pakistan, and the city of Lahore.
This is a "covered market" inside the red fort. Notice how this name resembles "Chatachuk", the weekend market in Bangkok. I am sure that this is cognate and not just a coincidence. I have noticed that a "psar" in Cambodia is a "besar" in Indonesia, which is a "bazaar" in Turkey.
Hall of Private Audiences in the Red Fort. It was once covered in white marble with a silver ceiling. It still looks pretty good in red.
In the back are buildings from the British occupation of the Red Fort from 1857 (when the fight for Indian Independence began), but the red sandstone structure is from the 17th c. when Mughals built the orignal Red Fort as the capital of the Mughal Empire.
The Roti Masjid, is Pearl Mosque, the private worshipping place of Aurangzeb, a Mughal empreror.
This is the entrance to the private living are of the Mughal emperor in the Red Fort.
Actually, this was a dump truck, but they put a cover over the top and all these folks came out the back. It looked like a pilgrimage of sorts.
The Red Fort was built by Shan Jahan in 1648. He had planned on moving the capital of the Mughal Empire from the Red Fort in Agra (where the Taj Mahal is) to Delhi, but he never made it because his son imprisoned him and took over the empire. Regardless, it stands as an important site in Indian Independence, as a place or repression and liberation. During the Indian uprising, the British garrisoned their troops here and placed their administrative offices in the confines of this "Green Zone". Later, it was the place where Indian nationalists made important speeches declaring themselves free of British rule. There really isn't much to see inside, however, but it does have a small interesting museum on Indian Independence.
Built in 1658, this is supposed to be the largest mosque in India, holding about 25,000 worshippers in its courtyard.
These CNG (clean natural gas)-powered beasts trawl around looking for tourists like sharks in water. They're essentially tuktuks, and like in Thailand, they like to overcharge tourists. I bargained a ride down to 50 Rs, but when I watched the meter, the long ride only cost 10 Rs! The driver smiled and shook his head, because he would never let a tourist use the meter!
I heard on the news that Tesco Lotus (basically Walmart) was trying to negotiate a deal to open up their massive SuperCenters in India. Apparently, there are no Hypermarkets or Supercenters in all of India -- Carrefour, Walmart, and Tesco-Lotus all want to get in to the potential 1 billion customers. For now, however, small stores like this seem to be the place to buy toiletries and snacks.
Chicken wings, sausage, som tom (green papaya salad), and sticky rice.
On the northern end of White Sand Beach were a few bungalows that looked like set decoration out of a Kevin Kostner flick from the '90's.
For 40 BHT, we rented a coupe beach sling chairs to relax the while away.
I rented a motorbike and drove down the hilly east coast of Ko Chang. I settled on this nice stretch of sand to spend the afternoon. It wasn't crowded with burnt package tourists, and the water was perfect.
In a few of the seafood restaurants at Bang Bao, they had fish tanks with wierd creatures. I assumed these were for eating, but I'm not sure.
I never read about these wierd flat-shrimps (next to the large prawn) in oceanography class.
A fishing village on stilts -- this reminded me of the "Muslim fishing villages" in Phra Nga Bay. There were plenty of seafood restaurants and bungalows there.
From Siem Reap, I headed back to Bangkok. The transportation options from Siem Reap were the same as getting there. I got a $4 ticket for the tourist bus that was supposed to have air-conditioning from my guesthouse. Well, most of the buses had air-con, but the last one (mine) was covered with red dust on the inside, so I knew it wouldn't be a fun ride. Sure enough, the air-conditioning wasn't working and the windows were rolled open to let the gravel and dust in. Not a great experience, but not my worst bus journey either. After a couple stops, I made it to Poipet at 2pm to make the border crossing on foot, took a tuktuk to the bus station in Thailand and caught a government bus to Bangkok's Mor Chit station. The tourists on the bus from Siem Reap had paid $15 to get to Bangkok, but including tuktuk fare, paid about $13. Not bad considering I got there faster and with more leg room.
With little over a week left in Emily's stay in SE Asia, we made a dash for another beach; this time we headed to Ko Chang, a large island near the Cambodian border. Once again, avoiding the Khao San tourist traps, we headed to Ekkamai, the eastern bus station, and caught the last two seats on the 0745 bus to the Laem Ngop pier, over five hours away.
When we arrived, we were surprised that most people going to the island were on prepaid minibuses to their designated hotels and resorts.
Ko Chang is much larger and more developed than Ko Samet (i.e., there are paved roads). I settled on the main beach, Hat Sai Kaew, or White Sand Beach. The bungalow prices change quickly here. The Lonely Planet's recommended place has jumped from 500 BHT to 2000 BHT/night with air-conditioning. I guess that's the way with progress. I got a large bungalow away from the beach ensuite with fan and a nice porch.
The base of this hill was a virtual parking lot full of tuktuks and tourist buses. There were even elephant rides ($15 going up and $10 going down) available. Everyone comes here to catch Angkor Wat in the setting sun's light, and to watch the sunset. I raced up here to catch the glow of Angkor Wat, but it wasn't too impressive as it was still quite a ways away.
