Sightseeing in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka
This is Part II of a travel journal. Here is Part I, in case you missed it.
This part is less adventurous and more of a photo essay. And somewhat nostalgic. So much has changed since 1970; the names of cities and countries, the political landscape, and the towns themselves. The 2015 earthquake in Nepal for example damaged and/or destroyed some of the temples I had visited and photographed in and around Kathmandu.
Continuing where I left off:
It was fairly easy to sell what I had brought back from Lebanon. Actually, I made a mistake in Part I because I only stashed 4 or maybe 4.5kg of hash in my suitcase. With the money I made, my then-boyfriend and I decided to fly to India and buy black hashish which was even more popular than the red kind from Lebanon.
Some friends who had done similar trips told us about an honest seller in Calcutta (now Kolkata), and we planned to do some sightseeing besides the business trip. Our first stop, flying from Munich, was New Delhi. As soon as I stepped off the plane (and in 1970 that’s what one did; you exited the plane and walked down a staircase) a film of palpable moisture settled on my skin. The air was not only uncomfortably hot for somebody used to German climate but also extremely humid. We spent one night in New Delhi and took off for Kathmandu the next morning.
Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas at an altitude of 4,600 feet, Kathmandu’s climate was a relief after New Delhi. We stayed on the third floor in a small, cheap hotel where I experienced my first earthquake ever – nothing serious, but it had me almost jump out of my skin. All of a sudden, the room and everything in it started to sway back and forth. I thought I was hallucinating. By the time I grabbed the thought “earthquake” it had already ended. When you grow up with the ground under your feet being reliably solid and unmoving, you just can’t believe it when this isn’t true any longer…
Either by foot or by cheap taxi we visited many of the stupas and temples in the region, almost all of them World Heritage Sites. Swayambunath and Bodhnath are stupas dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism. Many Tibetan refugees settled around Bodhnath which is situated about 7 miles from Kathmandu’s center, and a colorful, picturesque village arose around the stupa, surrounded by rice paddies, farm houses, and bamboo groves.
Some of the pagoda style temples we visited were in Patan and Bhaktapur (both World Heritage Sites).
The Dakshin Kali Temple is located about 14 miles outside of Kathmandu and is the site of animal sacrifices. I wouldn’t visit it nowadays, but 50 years ago it seemed exotic.
From Kathmandu we flew to Madras (now Chennai) and visited another World Heritage Site in Tamil Nadu, Mahabalipuram.
The temples there describe events from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata and were built between the 3rd and 7th century CE.
From Madras we went by train, then boat, then train to Colombo, Sri Lanka (which was still called Ceylon). We rented a car which seemed the best way to visit the highly diverse sites of this island. Stunning beaches; tropical rainforests that host elephants, leopards, deer, and monkeys; a cool, mountainous region with tea plantations and rice paddies are just a few of Sri Lanka’s remarkably varied landscapes.
We happened to reach Kandy, the capital of the Central Province, in time for the yearly Festival of the Tooth, or Perahera. A sacred relic, thought to be a tooth of the Buddha, is part of a procession that continues for five nights and includes musicians and dancers, acrobats, flame throwers, flag bearers, and numerous splendidly decorated elephants. An unforgettable spectacle.
Another remarkable attraction was the ancient rock fortress of Siringiya, also a World Heritage Site. The ruins of a palace built on top of a giant rock, some 590 feet high, can be reached by climbing a narrow staircase of 1250 steps. It takes about two hours to get to the top. On the way one passes some exquisite frescoes of beautifully adorned females.
From Colombo we flew to Calcutta to buy about 10 kg of hashish. Most of it went in a double floor of one suitcase, and the rest we stuffed into every bag and pocket we had with us. As on the earlier trip, we were transit passengers and arrived in Munich on a plane from Switzerland. Nobody looked at our luggage.
We sold some of the dope and stored the rest plus the money in the hotel room where we were staying. One afternoon we got back – and everything was stolen. How that had happened, and why this was the best thing that fate could have dealt me, you can read in the next installment.