This should be the Face of Islam

[Dawood Khan]

Mohammad Khan (http://hereticdhammasangha.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/this-should-be-the-face-of-islam/)

[CATHYnKY]

Thanks for the write ups. Very interesting.

[capcat]

This is a great write-up of your experience, Dave. Because you've been a critic, it gives this perspective validity.

[Dawood Khan]

Beleive it or not and I'm sure it's hard to swallow, but, I love the people of Islam. Absolutely adore them. Some of THE most hospitable people on the planet.

My terps tell me that it's just me. My crazy, wide open and happy go lucky demeanor (I know that is hard to beleive for many WCN'ers who love the Tubster..lol) combined with my laugh opens doors for me that are closed to many Westerners.

My experience thus far in these lands has been extraordinary. I am in love with life. haha Life is my lady.

[Dawood Khan]

Before someone says it. I know. I before E except after C. For some reason, my hands just won't type it that way. lol

[capcat]

My experience thus far in these lands has been extraordinary. I am in love with life. haha Life is my lady.
That's cool, Dave. Can't ask for more than that.
Hope the trip to India is still on. Have fun and take care, wherever you go. If not India, I know it will be somewhere :cool: :beer:

[UedK]

That's cool, Dave. Can't ask for more than that.
Hope the trip to India is still on. Have fun and take care, wherever you go. If not India, I know it will be somewhere :cool: :beer:

Dave, I have several clients that are from India. In business, to date, these are my very favorite people to work for. One is from the coast near Mumbai, formerly Bombay. I have a very generous offer for a well hosted trip if I can get my wife and I there. It's is dream of mine, maybe when I get my boys out of college.

[Jeff Craddock]

Dave, I hope you get to go to India. I've been ten times and spent maybe a year total there. There is no place on earth that I love as much. I'm hoping to go back this fall, as it's been four years since my last trip. I was planning to move there in the early nineties, but those plans were ditched when I met my wife--she loves India, but could never live there.

India has changed a lot since my first visit, in 1971. The growing middle class has become much more Westernized and, IMO, the major cities continue to be more polluted and congested. But the people are the most generous and hospitable I've ever known.

[Dawood Khan]

I'm in India now. It's an incredible experience.

[DenCat]

Okay Dave, what gives? I tried the link and got your blog page, but there was the dreaded 404 error saying file not found. Come on, I want to read it.

[Dawood Khan]

It's fixed. Sorry about that.....Dave

[capcat]

Funny, I had just visited your blog to see what you were up to, at about the same moment of your post from earlier today. :beer:

[Jeff Craddock]

I'm in India now. It's an incredible experience.

Where have you been, what are you doing, and how is all of it affecting you? I love hearing other impressions of India, especially from someone who is there for the first time.

[Dawood Khan]

Jeff,

I was in New Delhi for the most part. Lots of bombs going off while I was there. Jaipur, Ahmadabad, etc.... We drove down to Agra as well for a day and watched the sun set on the Taj Mahal.

India.

Difficult to describe.

I was walking through the Taj Mahal and wiewing the [replica] tombs of Jahankhan and Mumtaz when it hit me. I'M IN THE TAJ MAHAL. I almost fainted. A lifetime dream come true.

India treated me nicely with one exception. I was treated as if I were some kind of Lord. My buddy Rebecca was treated nicely as well. IF I was with her. When I was not at her side, she was roundly ignored. Treated as if she were invisible or groped by Indian men. Kind of funny and kind of not. lol If she wanted anything, I had to ask for it or she had to say that "Sir wants this or Sir would like this..." Not real fun for women over there.

The Indian people were pretty awesome from my perspective. I'm a pretty happy go lucky dude and people react to that. I walk around singing and acting as if the world is a really, really fun place. And for me, it is.

Old Delhi was insane. The masses jammed into small alleyways and milling about. Smells and sounds and bright lights all about.

We took a rickshaw around Old Delhi. I got tired of having this dude pedaling me about...SO....I took over and pedaled him and Becca around for a bit. You'd think that I'd just appeared out of the clouds and was green with blue stripes. The open mouthed stares AND smiles. Children pointing at me and laughing. It was a good time.

The women are amazingly beautiful in the Sarees. Taking pictures out and about at the various sites, I always tried to get a couple of the women in the picture. They really add to the beauty of India.

That was also the one disappointment of India. The women would not talk to me. Understandably so. As Indian men see women differently than I. The women are very wary of men in general and firingi especially. Strangers, I think are looked upon by the women as suspect unless they are formally introduced in some safe and familiar setting.

I always like to get the feminine perspective of a country. I'm not just speaking of sex, either. The way that they see their country and their people. Their views on issues and culture. Every bit as fascinating as a mans views. Sometimes even more so.

I did get to talk to one gal who worked at the hotel in which I stayed. She provided me with valuable insight.

India is ageless. Timeless. Much like Egypt and China. You can feel the history in the air. Almost as if one can feel the spirits of the millions who have tread the ground before you. I love that feeling. It's rare in America as we are such a young nation and our spirit has mostly overwhelmed the Native spirit of our lands.

I don't think I've totally come to terms or come to a full understanding of my short time in India. But I will be back.

I want to go north into the mountains and I want to travel to Bodh Gaya to sit under the Bodhi tree of Shakyamuni.

India is wild and young even as it is ancient and mature culturally speaking.

Walking or driving around at night. Seeing the masses of homeless folks was shocking. The number of poor and displaced or homeless folks out there at night.

Walking up to the India gate and having a child of 5 or 9 who can communicate in several languages. I absolutely love the children of these countries. I wish I could take them all in and help them out in some way. Someday, I will. When I am finished in Afghanistan. Probably in Cambodia.

India is another country where people were fascinated by us. I can't count the number of folks who asked us to take a picture with them or wanted us to hold their baby and take our picture. I don't think there was a time in public when I wasn't being watched intently by scores of folks.

I hope that answers your question somewhat.

I loved it there. Give me a few years and I would conquer India. lol And I'm sure it would conquer my heart as well.

[Dawood Khan]

I have just arrived in Egypt.

Much has changed since my time here.

[Dawood Khan]

...

[CATHYnKY]

Good to hear from you. The pic is wonderful. Could you have smiled just a little? Keep safe.

[Jeff Craddock]

Jeff,


India.

Difficult to describe....


.....I hope that answers your question somewhat.

I loved it there. Give me a few years and I would conquer India. lol And I'm sure it would conquer my heart as well.

Very well done...it does give the flavor of your first trip to India.

It is difficult to describe. India has it's own rhythm. The best I can do is liken it to a giant river, churning on relentlessly and seemingly chaotically, but just beneath the surface flows a great calm. What is absent, even in the most crowded cities, is the kind of staccato existence that many in the West have come to accept as reality. Just step back and watch the chaos and you begin to notice an order to it--all the traffic close calls, how the drivers manage to miss each other by a hair's breadth, how all the seeming chaos seems to flow on seamlessly, how they manage to make all of it work.

But as many times as I go, I'll never quite get used to that first moment of stepping outside the Mumbai airport and filling my nostrils with....well, you know now. How do you describe the smells of India? ;) India can sometimes overwhelm the senses.

India isn't for everyone, so I'm glad you had a good experience. :thumbup:

[surveyor]

Thanks for sharing, Dave and Jeff.

I've always been fascinated by India and worked with a few Indian fellows years ago who were interesting and fast-made friends for sure.

It would seem that being in such places would leave one melancholy because there's so much beauty WRT the cultures but so much change needed regarding the social structure.

I recall an article in NG a few years ago about the "untouchables", sadness and fury all in one is the best way I can describe my feelings reading that article.

[capcat]

"Walking up to the India gate and having a child of 5 or 9 who can communicate in several languages. I absolutely love the children of these countries. I wish I could take them all in and help them out in some way. Someday, I will. When I am finished in Afghanistan. Probably in Cambodia."

From what you've written about and the things you've done :thumbup: in the past, I believe it.

After this trip...what other places would you like to see?

[Dawood Khan]

Well, I'm in Aswan right now. Southern Egypt or the upper Nile as confusing as that might sound. We will be going to see Abu Simbal tomorrow. It's a monument to Ramses the II (I think). Supposedly the largest monument extant of the Egyptian Pharoahs. Yesterday we visited the Colossi of Memnon and Valley of the Kings and the Temple of Hatcheput.

I'd like to see Macchu Pichu before I die. Rome. Athens.

The number one place that I'd see if I were allowed would be Persepolis.

Nepal and Tibet are on the list of things to do.

But I think my next few vacations. I'm just going to go chill in CAmbodia and Thailand with some friends that I've made there.

I re-visit the idea of becoming a Buddhist monk for a term of 3 months to a year (or two) from time to time. I may do this yet. One never knows.

I may just become semi-normal and marry one of the gals that I've met in Cambodia or Thailand.

[capcat]

My climber friend lived in Nepal for a year. She was young, early 20's, and lived with a Nepali family. She developed quite an affinity for the culture and people there. Her Nepali "father" encouraged everyone in the family to exercise in the evening and then would reward them with a candy bar. :)