Category: Uncategorized

It was an odd feeling, admittedly, arriving in Ha Noi (“land inside the river”). But, a lot of time has gone by since America’s intimate involvement with the people here and that is dwarfed in the Vietnamese imagination by the nearly 100 years of French colonialism resolved by almost ten years of brutal warfare and 1,000 years of subjugation by the Chinese, despite the horrific scale of the loss of life in the war we suffered through together. Times keep changing. Although a one-party state, we’re told the government is “communist” in name only and, of course, the West is eager to invest in any counterweight to China (and Vietnam is eager to play that role).

Hanoi is a dynamic city with a sense of energy and purpose and more to see and do than we had time. That’s not to say that it’s easy to get around on foot. It’s a motorbike city and pedestrians have no place to walk other than the street because the sidewalks are taken up both by commerce and as parking for all those motorbikes. Our adventure of walking to a restaurant in the neighborhood of our hotel was initially a little harrowing, but you get used to everything and we regained the skill of being cautiously intrepid.

Time Out for Banh Mi!

Tran Quoc Pagoda

As we awaited the start of our organized tour, we explored a nearby ancient Buddhist temple on a little island in the lake near where John McCain crash landed during the “American war.”

Hoa Lo Prison (aka the Hanoi Hilton)

Before it acquired infamy in American minds, Hoa Lo was a notorious symbol of French cruelty and oppression in their efforts to maintain iron fisted control of not only Vietnam, but all of Indochina. The guillotine seemed especially fascinating to the many visitors.

And, of course, some artifacts from the time of the inhumane imprisonment of Senator McCain and the other captured aviators are also on display.

Ba Dinh Square

Ba Dinh Square is a vast (80 acres) public space accessible only through security where, most importantly, Ho Chi Minh read a Declaration of Independence from France on September 2, 1945, hoping for international support, including from President Truman to whom he sent an unacknowledged request for recognition and assistance.

The Mausoleum

Ho Chi Minh’s request to be cremated was ignored and he got the full Lenin and Mao treatment instead, including periodic public viewing. It’s a rather imposing site and, we couldn’t help thinking, a bit ironic.

Presidential Palace

Yellow was the Emperor’s favorite color, so the French obliged, as did he. When Ho Chi Minh finally booted the French in 1954 (after nearly a decade of savage warfare), he declined to occupy the palace and lived in the much more modest quarters out back.

Ho Chi Minh Stilt House

“A grateful nation” built a residence more to his liking in 1958 in which he lived until his death in 1969. Unfortunately, they forgot to provide toilet facilities, so he continued to run back to his previous quarters, above, for those purposes. Other than that, it’s quite a nice place. Per the custom throughout much of Southeast Asia, the area under the house is also living space. The upper right photo shows the entrance to his bomb shelter in a separate building.

One Pillar Pagoda

Nearby Ba Dinh Square is a small, but beautiful and unique, Buddhist temple.

Van Mieu (Temple of Literature)

Dedicated to Confucius and Confucian study, the Temple was established in 1070 and became the home of the Imperial Academy to educate the princes and other elites from 1076 until 1779 as the capital shifted to Hue.

Beginning in 1484, Doctors Stelae (those big slabs of stone) were erected to record the names and birthplaces of successful graduates of the triennial royal examinations. The turtle supporting each of the surviving 82 stelae is, among other things, a symbol of wisdom and one of the holy animals of Vietnam.

Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

The Museum of Ethnology focuses on the 54 officially recognized ethnic groups within Vietnam, a country created by the gradual extension of authority by the Viet civilization centered on Hanoi and the valley of the Red River on whose banks the city lies.

Exhibits are inside and out for which, sadly, we barely had time for a quick look-see; and there’s a separate museum focused on Southeast Asian peoples and cultures that we didn’t have time to see at all. It’s a very impressive effort to provide some visibility to a wide range of internal ethnicities.

With that, we boarded our flight to Siemreap, Cambodia.

It’s hard to know where to begin when talking about historic Savannah, with its 22 remaining leafy, residential squares, city park, colorful riverfront, thriving restaurant scene, burgeoning art school and downtown cemetery where Union troops passed the time changing dates on tombstones (significantly older than Bonaventure on the city’s edge). So, we might as well begin with the 19th century City Hall that stares down Bull Street that both separates the Easts and Wests of intersecting streets and threads together one row of city squares culminating at Forsyth Park.

the squares

Every square has at least one – and typically several – monument(s) and then a plaque (or plaques), to different people or events and none of them seem to match up with the name of the square, rendering conscientious sign readers both confused and exhausted, effectively curing them of the habit.

It was hard to keep all the squares straight and it was the buildings that began to be our key to navigation.

Forsyth park

Forsyth Park was filled with people enjoying themselves eating, drinking, buying things and playing Ultimate Frisbee. Now at the bottom of the pattern of squares, we headed back towards the Savannah River to visit some of the historic homes and institutions.

Taylor square

Crossing Taylor Square on our way to the Massie Heritage Center, we came across a performance by the McIntosh County Shouters, a well known Gullah family-based singing group, as part of the celebration of the renaming of Calhoun Square in honor of Susie King Taylor, a teacher and nurse who rose from slavery to play a prominent role in the Civil War around Savannah and in the Sea Islands and to write a memoir about it.

Monterey square

One of those landmarks that help guide your way through Savannah is, of course, the Mercer-Williams House on Monterey Square, one of the squares linked together by Bull Street. It was one of the first houses restored in the 1960s and gained some infamy as the site of the killing at issue in the four murder trials of then owner Jim Williams as recounted in “the book,” i.e. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. It’s now a house museum owned and operated by Jim’s sister. It was the only house museum we visited that doesn’t allow photography (and wasn’t a non-profit), although the house was used in the filming of the movie starring Kevin Spacey (who bears a striking resemblance to our main character with the simple addition of a mustache). Bottom line: beautifully restored and furnished with absolutely top notch art and furniture (Williams was an art dealer, after all).

Lafayette square

Andrew Low House, Lafayette Square (1849). Photo Credit: Andrew Low House

Almost by definition, a house museum is going to be spectacular and, since Andrew Low II was a cotton merchant and reportedly the richest man in Savannah, his home (completed in 1849) was definitely not an exception. Touring it on what turned out to be the free-admission Museum Sunday in Savannah, we acquired a timed ticket and returned after seeing a few other, less popular, sites. It turns out that Andrew’s daughter-in-law was none other than Juliet Gordon Low, the founder of the Girl Scouts (who also lived here), married to his somewhat notorious son “Willy.” Perhaps we should just take William Makepeace Thackeray at his word (from 1856): “I write from the most comfortable quarters I have ever had in the United States . . . in the house of my friend, Andrew Low.”

An exception to that rule about house museums always being grand was just across the square at the childhood home of Flannery O’Connor; but writers aren’t expected to live amidst opulence and her father was a mere real estate agent. Dead of lupus by the age of 39 in 1964, this deeply religious Southern Gothic writer of frequently grotesque and disturbing stories had been “well-received,” but achieved fame with the posthumous publication of her Complete Stories. Visiting her childhood home felt to us like visiting the childhood homes of our own parents.

“[A]nything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.” Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor attended Mass daily. The truly beautiful Cathedral was on the other side of the Lafayette Square and easy to understand as a source of early inspiration as she later dealt with difficult Catholic themes in her fiction.

Monterey square (again)

42 English Jews sailed to Savannah in 1733 to participate in the fledgling colony’s experiment in religious tolerance and established the Congregation, the third in America.

When the emigrants were ready to leave in 1733, so the story goes, they asked for one of the Torahs to take with them to America and it was, as always, “Sure, you can take the old one.” It’s the oldest one in America, housed in the only neo-Gothic synagogue in America.

Madison square

Not particularly wealthy when he arrived in Savannah in 1833, Charles Green built his fortune as a cotton merchant and ship owner and then, as was the case with most of these houses, engaged a New York architect who completed this house in 1850. After inheriting the house, his son Edward sold it to Judge Peter Meldrim whose family sold it to the St. John’s Church next door in 1943 for use as a Rectory and to better assure its preservation.

Among the unusual features of the house is a rather complicated set of front doors where the outer front doors can fold back to create dual entry closets (pretty radical for the time) and two sets of inner front doors slide in or out to provide either glass or louvers, depending on the season.

The ornamental plasterwork was certainly the most extravagant we’ve ever seen. Interestingly, the church does actively use the building for its social functions, while seeming to be good stewards of the house that’s been entrusted to them.

Charles Green, as Mayor of Savannah, had ordered all of the Confederate troops and the police out of the city and issued orders that no one should display a firearm in the city as Sherman’s forces approached. He then invited the General to use his home as his headquarters during the Union occupation of the city. For this the residents considered him to be either a traitor or the hero who had saved Savannah from the fate met by Atlanta to the west. It was from this room that Sherman wrote to Lincoln, making him a Christmas gift of the city of Savannah and issued Field Order #15 granting freed slaves 40 acres of confiscated and abandoned land along the South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida coasts, along with an army mule to work it, an Order subsequently rescinded by President Johnson. (See also, posting on The Sea Islands)

Oglethorpe square

A Richard Richardson, ship owner and slave owner, built the house but soon suffered both financial and personal reversals, so that it was owned by the Bank of the United States which leased it as a boarding home in 1824 having among its guests the Marquis de Lafayette during his American tour in 1825 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Revolution. It was then bought by the Owens family in 1830 who ended up bequeathing it to the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1951. It’s been a house museum ever since.

The House

The Slave Quarters

along the Savannah river

Along River Street used to be a rough neighborhood, but now is a lot of fun. Lots of restaurants, shops and people.

Our driver Lyle, coming in from the airport after we dropped the car, told us we shouldn’t miss the Marriott’s repurposing of an old power plant along the river and the collection of geodes and other minerals they have on display. He was right. It’s amazing.

adieu, Savannah.
Sorry we couldn’t stay longer.

Reconstruction and the Gullah Geechee

A great mass of marshy islands hugs the coast of South Carolina and Georgia where we explored making our way between Charleston and Savannah. Here in the low country is where the Gullah Geechee live and where you’ll find the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park established by President Obama.

Early in the Civil War, Union forces recaptured the small coastal city of Beaufort (where much of Forrest Gump was filmed) and initiated the Port Royal Experiment nearby to gain experience in educating freed slaves to prepare for the coming transition from an economy and society based in slavery to one freed of the ownership and subjugation of humans. Education and the ownership of land were understood to be the keys to the success of future emancipation. The Penn Center was created as a school for freed slaves and founded by teachers from, among other places, Philadelphia (hence, the name). Early classes were held in the Brick Church. Even Harriet Tubman came down to help, although she apparently had some initial difficulty in understanding the dialect of the Gullah people in the area.

When the Union took the area, the white planters and other residents fled and left all of their enslaved people behind, abandoning their (other) property, providing the first opportunity for black people to purchase land in the area.

Indeed, after he took Savannah, General Sherman with the support of Lincoln issued Article 15 granting the freed people a significant swath of land along the coast (40 acres and a mule). However, upon Lincoln’s death, President Johnson rescinded this effort to create an economic foundation for the freed population.

Many years later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent a lot of time at Penn Center strategizing with other leaders to better realize the promise of reconstruction following the long shadow of the Jim Crow era. Here is where he wrote his “I have a dream” speech.

Cypress Wetlands, Port Royal

The Sea Islands are also home to a lot of wildlife. We were stunned by the numbers of alligators and turtles who had hauled themselves out of the water to sun themselves on the day we visited Cypress Wetlands in Port Royal, after walking some of the trails on Hunting Island.

Lighthouses on the Coast (where else?)

Inside Hunting Island State Park we found a picnic table for lunch and a massive lighthouse. We were also really impressed by a beautiful visitor center nestled in the woods by a small pond.

If you’re going to visit only one lighthouse in your life, this is the one we’d recommend. It’s the Tybee Island lighthouse on Tybee Island just east of Savannah, Georgia; a monster at 144’. It has a keeper’s house and two assistant keeper’s houses and all the outbuildings and explanations you’d ever want, having been through quite a number of stages in its existence. But, yes, we crossed the state line and kept going to take advantage of having a car before surrendering it for an urban adventure in Savannah.

Fort Pulaski, Cockspur Island

Between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, 42 masonry forts were constructed to protect the American coastline. Fort Pulaski at the mouth of the Savannah River was one of those forts, built over 18 years between 1829 and 1847.

The fort was never assaulted by foreign troops, but was taken without a fight by Georgia Militiamen and handed over to the nascent Confederacy on January 3, 1861, more than three months prior to the shots fired at Fort Sumter.

In April 1862, one year after Sumter, the Union bombarded Fort Pulaski from Tybee Island for 30 hours, demonstrating with their rifled artillery that the days of the efficacy of masonry forts were over. The Rebels surrendered the fort and the Union further strengthened its blockade of Southern ports.

By all accounts, it was “the book” and Bird Girl that put the Bonaventure Cemetery and, indeed, Savannah on the tourist shortlist. The statue is now in a sort of protective custody in a museum because it had suffered from vandalism when still in the cemetery and the owners of the family plot wanted to reestablish some level of privacy for their burial plot.

”The book” is, of course, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, the 1994 non-fiction novel dealing with the four murder trials of Jim Williams (highly successful art dealer and house restorer) and the colorful lives of the citizens of this good city. Bird Girl was on the cover and has become an icon of salacious creepiness.

About 15 miles from downtown Charleston, South Carolina, are two substantial properties that survived revolution, civil war, and the perils of human development. Both boast Charleston addresses (a search for the city on your favorite map app will unveil a strange looking creature indeed). Both tell a story of preservation of times well past.

Drayton Hall (1752)

Built by John Drayton on land acquired in 1738, Drayton Hall was the main house on a plantation growing rice and indigo using enslaved labor. As in every house museum we visited in both Charleston and Savannah, great pains were taken to tell the story of the people enslaved there and to speak the names of those people whose names survive in a written record. Indigo was a significant crop up until the Revolution when the market for it (as a dye) dried up as the British withdrew their patronage in a snit. The house apparently survived the wholesale burning and destruction of plantation houses by Union troops because the house was being used as a hospital and quarantine flags were set out by the Draytons.

The house fell into disrepair after the Civil War, as can be seen in the above photo. However, the family began to mine phosphate on the property, generating a lot of cash, some of which was used to replace the roof, windows, and one of the ceilings, as well as painting the interior the blue it remains today, rather than the original cream. That said, it is remarkably well preserved in its 1752 state up to the present, as one of the heirs in the line of succession in family ownership determined that the house should never be modernized and enforced that determination through her last will and testament. Consequently, the only accommodation to modernity beyond candle power is a small battery operated smoke detector in the slaves’ work area under the house. The property was acquired directly from the family in the 1970s by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Middleton Place (1730s)

John Williams established a presence here in the 1730s and began work on the houses to occupy the site. After his passing, his daughter Mary married Henry Middleton who completed the main residence and two flanker houses to, among other things, accommodate guests. Henry ended up with 20 plantations and around 800 enslaved people, although Middleton Place was not a working plantation, but a vanity project with extensive and extravagant gardens; his son Arthur was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the surrender of British forces in 1783 in the area was signed at Middleton. Arthur’s son Henry’s friendship with a French botanist brought the first camellia plants to America where 3 of the 4 original plants still survive at Middleton, known as the oldest surviving formal gardens in the United States.

After the house and both flankers were burned by Union troops, only the South Flanker could be salvaged. Today, it’s a house museum. In 1974 the family placed the property into a charitable Trust.

We started our exploration of historic Charleston at the City Market, a many blocks long brick arcade in the heart of the city, filled with sellers of soaps, hats, hot biscuits, and sweetgrass baskets and children’s duds sold by their makers, and quite busy even on a chilly, cloudy, February Sunday.

Wandering the city, we found the historic center to be a great place to walk and admire the colonial era architecture (especially all those long, side facing porches or “piazzas,” as they say in Charleston) and soak up the atmosphere.

The Nathaniel Russell House (1808)

The Nathaniel Russell House was the first of many house museums we visited during our short tour through some of coastal South Carolina and Georgia and, as you can see, its restored elegance and opulence was jaw dropping, especially the three-story, cantilevered, “flying staircase,” helping us to understand the lifestyle a slave economy created for those at the top. Russell was a prominent merchant and slave trader who had come down from Rhode Island before the Revolution.

The Joseph manigault house (1803)

Photo: thisismysouth.com

We arrived at the Manigault house in heavy rain and, so, have poached the photo above (duly credited). Manigault was a Huguenot who left France for the usual reasons and established himself as a rice planter with multiple plantations and hundreds of enslaved people inherited from his grandfather. Planters would have a grand house on the plantation as well as one in town. The enslaved people in town were predominantly women due to the type of work required. This was another beautifully restored house, true to the period, typically with original furnishings.

the aiken-rhett house (1820)

The Enslaved Quarters

The Aiken-Rhett House is a preserved, not restored, house, complete with slave quarters which, especially if visited on a rainy day, can be pretty melancholy. “Preserved” means agnostic as to time period and maintained in the same “as found” condition as when taken on by the Historic Charleston Foundation in 1995 after it had been acquired in 1975 by the Charleston Museum directly from the Aikens (who had owned it for 142 years). The Aikens were politicians, slave holders and industrialists; and much of the furnishings and even the painted and papered surfaces have been undisturbed since the 1850s in both the main house and the slave quarters.

The Main House

Among the glories of the house faithfully preserved by the Foundation is the paint in the main reception rooms applied by Wes Craven in 1982 while shooting the horror classic Swamp Thing. Take a close look at the wallpaper to the right of the bust, above. You can see the pins holding small sheets of plastic intended to protect the 19th century wallpaper from further decay. A few more hurricanes and there may be less to see.

The Battery

Being granted a sunny day, we walked the Battery neighborhood, along the more southerly stretch of river with a view out to the harbor and Castle Pinckney, where lots of workmen were out repairing and painting the stupendous mansions.

Fort Sumter

Thanks to a break in the windy, stormy weather, the Park Service resumed boat service to Fort Sumter and we were able to make the 11:00 ferry, learning on the way that the “Fort Sumter” we spotted from the Battery was actually Castle Pinckney. It seems that the fort is rather low to the water because it was largely destroyed by the Union when they attempted to take it back from Rebel forces in 1863. The Confederates, of course, fired the first shots of the war from Fort Moultrie in April 1861 and gained the fort due to the Union’s hopeless position. More modern weaponry had made brick forts pretty much obsolete since the fort’s construction after the War of 1812 on a sandbar transformed into a manmade island. Just above the “l” in “Projectile Embedded” you can see what smacked into the back of the fortification from the Federal bombardment. As those lyrics by Francis Scott Key remind us, it’s not only what comes at you from the front that can be deadly (like the shrapnel from those “Bombs bursting in air”).

Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon (1771)

The British finished their Customs House just before the Revolution, so the cellar intended for secure storage housed prisoners of war instead. The building has long been owned and operated by the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) who maintain a small museum and run tours of the dungeon. It’s also one of only four buildings still standing where the Declaration of Independence was ratified.

The City of Charleston commissioned John Trumbull to paint a portrait of George Washington to commemorate his visit to the city. He presented the painting on the left, depicting a heroic Washington at the Battle of Trenton. This was rejected by the city because they wanted a depiction of Washington in their city. Trumbull complied, although wags have often wondered if there is a message from Trumbull somewhere in the painting. [For those who can’t quite grasp, and really need to ask: please see the hint below.*]

So, farewell, Charleston. It was a lovely visit to the “Holy City,” a place with too many churches to count.

*The insult is not: “You’re such a horse’s head!”

Approaching Los Angeles in late December, the weather clearing.

Joshua Tree National Park

The best time to visit a National Park is when you can, even if it’s Christmas and half the world seems to be in line to escape the everyday, even if the only restaurant you can find for Christmas dinner is Jack in the Box taken back to the hotel’s breakfast room. Of course, heading back into the park in early morning (how else could we capture a photo at Skull Rock?) is amply rewarded with magnificent landscapes unspoiled by traffic and fellow humans lost, as we are, in their own thoughts. Another park, living up to the otherworldly hype.

The Huntington, Pasadena

The Huntington Library, Museum and Gardens in Pasadena is one more major institution of which we had virtually no awareness, but that merits much more exploration. We had time only to scratch the surface of the, frankly, astonishing gardens and none to explore anything else. While Joshua Tree at times seemed so pleasing to the eye that it must have been designed, rather than simply nature left to its own devices, the Huntington gardens were a continuous delight of showing how nature can be displayed to astonish.

Floats from the Rose Bowl Parade, Up Close

Fulfilling Amanda’s childhood fantasy, we joined 150,000+ of our closest friends to wander among the Rose Bowl Parade floats the afternoon of New Year’s Day. Over the course of the afternoon, her skeptical companions began turning the conversation from never again to if we do this again this is what we need to do. The San Diego Zoo was our favorite, although the dogs and cats on the pet food float were incredibly cute. And, the up-close look gave a whole new level of appreciation to the artistry involved in such an ephemeral production.

An LA freeway at the magic hour, on our way home.

The Riverwalk

Everyplace you visit holds surprise. For us, the surprise in San Antonio was the Riverwalk in the old city that provides a very nice place to walk any time of day or night and seems to be the heart of what draws people into the city. It takes advantage of a natural loop in the course of the San Antonio river that is now supplemented with water from the aquifer to keep a major tourist draw afloat. We enjoyed it as a very pleasant way to walk below the city streets.

The Alamo

The uniqueness of San Antonio to Texas and Texans is, of course, the Alamo, the symbol of Texan independence, pride and grit where the defenders of the mission/fort sought no quarter and received none, the prequel to the battle of San Jacinto which sealed the independence of Texas from Mexico when President and General Santa Anna was surprised, captured, and compelled to sign away his territory. That’s Davy Crockett fighting the Lego bear during the battle of the Alamo in the visitor center.

About the Town

In the name of romance, certainly, the city provided chain link fences along one of the bridges over the river that are now completely encrusted with symbols of enduring love. What we loved was this special pastry from a nearby, and extremely popular, bakery that marries Mexican tradition with French technique. And, this Hilton is notable for being built in 202 days for the 1968 World’s Fair by fabricating the rooms 7 miles away and lifting them in place complete with furnishing, down to the ashtrays (n.b. 1968). The first guests rode their room into place on national TV.

San Fernando Cathedral

San Fernando Cathedral in the heart of San Antonio was founded in 1731 by 16 families from the Canary Islands who were persuaded to settle there at the invitation of the Spanish king because there was little interest by the mainlanders, given opportunities elsewhere. The Canary Islanders remained among the most prominent members of the community. The nightly sound and light show is actually quite good, presenting a whirlwind history of San Antonio in 20 minutes.

Briscoe Western Art Museum

The Briscoe Western Art Museum, with an entry from the Riverwalk, offered an interesting mix of artifacts and art, well presented.

SAMA

In addition to “the usual,” the San Antonio Museum of Art features the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection of Popular Mexican Art (which appears to have been an out of the blue gift).

Botanical Garden

San Antonio Botanical Garden was another surprise – lots of bloom inside and out – and a great place to wander among the plants and the buildings brought there from the Hill Country.

Missions

North of the nascent city the Spanish established a string of Missions to secure territory against the French moving into east Texas and, of course, to save the souls of the Native Americans they persuaded to live under their protection and conform to their demands for labor and obedience. We visited a couple of reasonably well preserved Missions, as well as an aqueduct that formed part of the irrigation technology the Spanish picked up from the Moors. The separation of church and state is alive and well at the Missions, as the churches are owned, run and maintained by the local diocese, while the surrounding Mission land and buildings are owned and run by the National Park Service. Indeed, the Ranger guiding our tour of San Jose Mission was not permitted to enter the church and met us as we left to continue her narration.

LBJ & His Boyhood Home

Lyndon Baines Johnson, of Johnson City, grew up here a Texan from the Hill Country through and through, immersed in local politics learned at his father’s knee. With his social education jump started by teaching in a school built for Mexicans, he became the most consequential civil rights President, doing all he could for “the people,” only to be undone by a war that wouldn’t bend to his formidable powers of persuasion.

Next to his boyhood home is the headquarters of the rural electrical coop he brought to Johnson City (named for his grandpa) with a blazing display of exuberant excess during the holidays.

The Ranch

LBJ bought the family ranch from his widowed aunt and it became the Texas White House during his administration, which meant that the Air Force had to come up with Air Force One-Half, small enough to land on the ranch’s landing strip. Among the diversions for his guests, he enjoyed driving his Cadillac down the middle of his show barn to admire his Herefords or stocking the pond to take fellow Presidents fishing. (Lady Bird came from money.) You can see by expanding the photo of the bull, that LBJ branded his cattle on their horns, not their hides.

Fredericksburg

German emigration to America was really hitting its stride by 1846 when a syndicate of princes left would-be settlers stranded on the beach when their transportation fell through. The enterprising local agent improvised, purchased another large parcel not claimed by Comanches (as was the unpromising original tract of land) and (ta da) Fredericksburg was founded by 120 hardy and determined souls desperate to start a new life. Today, the Hill Country remains a place dominated by German stock and the town a popular (but, really rather nice) 19th century-quaint tourist destination for which Amanda’s cousins claim some bragging rights. We went through the Pioneer Museum and learned all about the tiny Sunday Houses, the plots for which were included in purchases of farm land so that all community members might have a place to stay in the city come Sunday. The hexagonal building, above, is the first church/meeting place built by the settlers.

The other cities we’ve visited during this journey through just a small part of India – Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur – have all been centers of secular power and wealth and contending fortunes through the ages. We’ve come to Varanasi to see more clearly another side of life, that of the deep spirituality that lies at the heart of the faiths drawn here on pilgrimage, as well as the traditional culture of one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.

Sarnath

Sarnath, just outside Varanasi, is one of four places of pilgrimage Buddha recommended to his followers. It is where he preached his first sermon after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya under the famous Bodhi tree. It is also where the Buddhist community was established when his first five disciples attained enlightenment.

The Temple was lined with murals of his life from the prediction of his birth to his death.

In 1931 a graft was taken of the Bodhi tree and planted here in Sarnath to establish a deer park and temple. Throughout town there are complexes set up to accommodate Buddhist visitors from different countries. We noticed the one catering to Thai Buddhists in particular. It wasn’t far from the chain coffee shop (no, Indian, not Starbucks) where we relaxed from our trip until things opened.

In the archeological park at Sarnath is a stupa built by Ashoka around 250 B.C.E. Unpacking that, Ashoka was the third Mauryan Emperor and ruled much of the Indian subcontinent, stretching all the way to Afghanistan. Part way through his career, he converted to Buddhism and played an important role in its spread. A stupa contains the relics of a Buddhist monk or nun and devotees use it for meditation, typically a walking meditation circumambulating the stupa. This stupa is one of the oldest surviving ones in India and was one of many established by Ashoka by spreading more widely the relics of the Buddha from the original eight stupas holding his remains. In the medieval period after the decline of Buddhism in India, it was plundered for building materials and the stone box and casket within holding the relics were removed.

Near the stupa are the remains of a Buddhist monastery, apparently also from the time of Ashoka. There is no archaeological trace of the site of Buddha’s sermon or the launching of the faith with his five disciples. However, there is overwhelming literary evidence placing that here.

Among the ruins of the monastery, in a plexiglass case, are fragments of the pillar erected by Ashoka around 250 B.C.E. to commemorate the spot where the Buddha preached his first sermon almost 300 years previously. The Lion Capital which surmounted the pillar is housed in the nearby archaeological museum. You’ll notice that the wheel figure below the lions is featured on the Indian flag. The figure of the lions is the official emblem of the country.

Different animals are featured between the wheel figures, all related to Buddha. Here, the elephant refers to the white elephant seen by Buddha’s mother in a dream predicting his birth and greatness.

Works in the archeological museum recovered from the Sarnath site, mostly from the 1st century B.C.E. through the 12th century C.E.

The Ganges River in Varanasi

The Ganges is a busy river, especially in Varanasi, tasked with bringing purification, remission of sins, and assurance of release of the soul from the cycle of transmigration for those believers fortunate enough to die in Varanasi. Our guide always referred to the river by the name of its embodiment as a goddess (Ganga) and insisted on the inherent purity of its waters, telling us there’s a special bacteria that assures that purity, so that it is quite safe to bathe in and drink. There were no takers in our group.

We walked through the evening streets of Varanasi to the ghats (steps) down to the river where we boarded a boat to head out into the river for our first adventure on the Ganges.

The ghats were quiet as we set out on the water.

On the main crematorium ghat, however, demand keeps operations continuous, as the government now covers the cost of cremation for those who can’t otherwise afford it. One of the big costs is wood, as it requires 250 kg (helping to explain the large amounts of firewood we kept seeing on the highways and then in boats on the river). Perhaps as a reassurance to you, we can confirm that the cremations do not smell. This is due to the use of sandalwood, camphor and other spices. When the fire is finally extinguished, the family gathers the “relics,” some of which are retained at the crematorium with other relics and then washed away with the monsoons and some released immediately into the Ganges by the chief mourner of the family.

At sunset, following Hindu tradition, we each made an offering of deepak (oil lamps) to the river goddess Ganga from our boat idled in the middle of the river, before moving on to another ghat.

Every evening after sunset monks celebrate the Ganga Aarti with chanting, music, incense and choreographed thanksgiving to the river and the goddess Ganga. As you can see, it’s very well attended and a very colorful event.

In the morning, we returned to the ghats and our boat before sunrise, passing a small temple and catching a glimpse of one of the Jain Ascetics (upper right) who renounce everything, including clothing, and keep warm by covering their bodies with ashes. Jainism is one of the world’s oldest religions.

The buildings fronting the ghats are quite interesting.

But, at sunrise the ghats are full of the faithful who come to greet the sun, pray for an auspicious day and, bathe in the holy waters of the Ganges. For many pilgrims this is a first experience and deeply emotional.

A Moment for the Arts

In addition to the various workshops featuring textiles of different sorts, works in stone, and so forth, we found ourselves in a concert space created by the current star sitar player from a family of musicians tracing back 500 years. Yes, Ravi Shankar (also from Varanasi) was a friend of the family. First up, however, was a traditional dancer backed by tabla and a singer playing harmonium (introduced from France in the 17th century). In short, he was fabulous. The rhythmic complexity was astonishing, achieved by slapping and dragging his feet and jangling the 300 bells fastened to each of his ankles, interposed with hand movements and rapidly transforming poses to tell a story also being relayed by the singer. By the way, in training he uses 500 bells to increase his strength. Upper left is the Shiva posture.

Deobrat Mishra, the sitar artist, put Indian music into better context for his western listeners, explaining among other things that there is no harmony in Indian music, but more tones in between those in the western modes, with the Greek Lydian mode coming closest in feel to the music. Again, the rhythmic complexity and difficulty also made for an amazing performance and a fitting summing up of our experience in Varanasi.

With our brief visits to Delhi, Agra, Jaipur and Varanasi, we barely scratched the surface of India, but better appreciate how shallow our understanding continues to be. Wondering where that came from sets you back through the bewildering layers of time and contending traditions and influences of many peoples making their way through the mountains, valleys and plains of Asia.

On our way from Agra to Jaipur (remember, you’re probably reading these blog entries from the last day of our journey to the first), we passed a truck packed with happy, singing people our guide advised us were undoubtedly part of some religious movement.

Just 15 minutes further up the road, we started to see lots of buses parked along the highway and a steady stream of ordinary people walking behind the guardrail, going our direction, when we encountered a sea of people (our consensus estimate was 30,000) gathered for what we came to believe was a talk by a guru or other religious leader.

No, not him! The puppet master of a show at our Agra hotel recruited guests to help set the scene (very convincingly).

It’s the Brahmin cow, in particular when it’s white, that’s sacred, although the flat backed ones we’re used to are also revered. (Is that one actually being taken care of a water buffalo, rather than a cow?) In any case, we came to be sorry for the cows out there. We’re told that people watch after and feed them, but we mostly saw the cows scrounging in the trash or in very awkward situations like the one lower left who was up against the median on a very busy multi lane road, though we must admit that on our return trip he had somehow managed to work his way to the other side of the median. Impressive.

Amber (Amer) Fort

A few miles from Jaipur outside the town of Amer, is a very substantial and stunning hilltop fortress (1592), organized around four interior levels, that was home to the Rajput Maharajas. As sensibilities evolved over the treatment of animals, the prevailing means of transport up the slope became by jeep, although it isn’t nearly as romantic.

Upon entering the fort proper, there’s a stairway/gate up to the next level.

The Maharaja would use the Audience Hall to receive petitions and conduct public business. The Ganesh Gate is the entrance into the private quarters for the Maharaja and his family. The women could discreetly observe events in this main courtyard from behind the latticed top floor windows.

Through the Ganesh Gate and into the private quarters.

Lots of mirror mosaics, silver, colored glass and alabaster relief work makes for a dazzling impression.

Finally, the fourth and most private courtyard for the wives of the maharaja. With 12 wives, there were 12 apartments each with separate entrances. (At this point, we contemporary humans were all standing in the shade when we had the chance, as you can see in the photos.)

Jantar Mantar

In the beginning of the 18th century, the Maharaja of Jaipur constructed 5 solar observatories (Jantar Mantar) in different Indian cities, including Delhi and Varanasi, but of course also Jaipur. In Jaipur is the world’s largest stone sun dial from which the time can be told within an accuracy of 20 seconds (upper left). The observatories were used to compile astronomical tables and are, apparently, still in use today.

City Palace

After lunch at a nice restaurant inside the palace, we called it a day!

Dinner at the Smithie-Singhs

Dinner was unusual. We arrived at the home of a family with 12 daughters and got to visit with them. One of the many themes of our visit to India had been the status of women, as it certainly receives a lot of attention outside of the country. Indeed, one of our guest university lecturers was an expert on women’s issues in India. Of the 12 daughters, 11 had been adopted through social services and all are receiving a good education, encouraged to find their own way. They may sleep three in a bed, but it’s a large bed in a nice home. In fact, they’ve all changed caste and found themselves in a family that’s part of the nobility. The Bollywood dancing was a special treat.