India in a Week

I started writing this post in the airport in Delhi but failed to finish it so now that we are leaving Mumbai and heading to Cairo tomorrow, I will try to be more diligent about getting this posted lest you all think that we have disappeared forever.
When we think of our visit to Delhi, we think of heat, dust, people everywhere, dust, unbelievable traffic, no order, unfinished construction projects everywhere, did I mention heat and dust, chaos, and the ultimate scammers (equally true in Thailand). That being said, the people have been very nice but you have to be careful and, unfortunately, as a tourist, not too trusting or you’ll be taken. It’s sad that when you try to be friendly, people often pester you to death, either to buy something or for a handout. Poverty is such a sad thing, but as we have been told, there is a huge mafia in Delhi, that auctions off the corners, and tourists areas to the highest bidder and that many of the people running the scams are multimillionaires. The beggars only get a pittance.
We had a driver for most of our time and made it to many of the big tourist sites in the area, including the Taj Mahal in Agra which is about a five hour drive from Delhi. It is a beautiful place but, unfortunately, the dryness, pollution and dust in the air distract from its beauty. This time of the year doesn’t do justice to many of the sites here. I know that they are nicer in the cooler months when things are greener.
We stayed with some new friends, Gloria and Isaac Shaw, who Roger had connected with at Taylor this last spring. They run the Delhi Bible Institute and have a wonderful ministry of training church planters. By 2025 their vision is to train 30,000 leaders and plant 15,000 churches. At present, they are ahead of schedule! We were able to stay in an apartment at the school and enjoy several meals with the Shaws.
There seems to be a huge Islamic presence in Delhi manifested by many mosques, Islamic food, and in the dress. Of course, Hinduism is in the forefront with many official temples and homemade ones visible everywhere. Christianity is barely noticeable.
Mumbai is a city of 16-17 million . . . in other words HUGE. There are people everywhere. Poverty and wealth are side by side as in many third world countries. Poverty is such a heart wrenching thing when face to face with it. Slums are everywhere here . . . children begging, mothers holding little babies. It makes one think about life and all of Jesus’ teachings on caring for the poor, women and children. Our job is to be obedient to his teaching. Only he knows our heart.
That being said, Mumbai is a beautiful, although tired, coastal city. British evidence is seen throughout with old beautiful Gothic buildings. However, it is obvious that there is little money to take care of them. Elaborate dilapidated sidewalks prevail . . . in other words, watch where you walk.
Speaking of walking, we have walked all over the southern tip of Mumbai which is the older fort area. Yesterday, we took a day taxi and were able to see more of the city including: the gate of India, the Hanging Gardens, Dhobi Ghat (the place where some men in Mumbai do much of the laundry for the city, outside, by hand), a mosque in the sea (which we could only see from a distance since the tide was too high to walk to it), and the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower which was bombed a few years ago. All very interesting.
We’ve managed to have some great curry and combo Islamic Indian dishes. They have wonderful cooks here. Tonight we had a malai chicken roll which was seasoned chicken, veggies and roti wrapped up. Yummy! You don’t see much beef here but veggie dishes are everywhere and they are very delicious.
Now our focus shifts to the Middle East and Cairo. We are anxious to see what adventures await us there.
Keep us in your prayers. So far, the Lord has kept us healthy and happy.

Chiang Mai: "The Rose of the North"

Our time in Chiang Mai is winding down and tomorrow we fly down to Bangkok and catch a flight to Delhi in the evening. Just a quick note about our flight here. Sitting in front of us was a very large sheikh and his four wives (?) and his two very large children, and next to him was a Hasidic Jew with his wife and kids. Globalization at its best.:)
We have had a wonderful time here, especially spending time with our friends, Kelly and Htaw, and their two little guys, Jeremiah and Joshua and a soon-to-be baby. They have been very gracious and have taken us around to see the sites. Today, we went to an international church that meets in a shopping mall. There are four international churches here in Chiang Mai due to the large expatriate community. There are many mission organizations, NGOs, US government and business people living here. You also see a lot of sixty-something Caucasian men walking the streets with Thai women. You can only guess what that is all about.
This part of Thailand is very beautiful but still hot. Chiang Mai is in a valley surrounded by mountains and reminds us of Kingston. Yesterday, Htaw drove us up into the mountains where we were able to get a nice view of the city and see a hill tribe village of the Hmong people, where we walked around and shopped for awhile.
We have been able to do quite a few interesting things during our time here. On top of the usual shopping in the local open markets, we have gone to an Elephant camp and ridden one for thirty minutes . . . think very bumpy road, seen an orchid and butterfly farm . . . beautiful, a monkey school where they performed all kinds of tricks, and taken a dinner cruise down the Ping river. All very enjoyable.
There is still evidence of the old city in Chiang Mai in that you can see parts of the old city wall with its gates, surrounded by a moat. On our first day here, we took an extensive walk into the old city and saw many Wats, or Buddhist temples. One was made from teak which was different. They are still all covered with gold, etc. The western influence here is evidenced by a multitude of restaurants and bars, catering to all the expatriates. One night, we went to Jerusalem Falafel and had some of the best middle eastern food that we’ve ever had. They had homemade pita bread! Who would have thought that you had to come to Chiang Mai to get good falafels, etc.
We have continued to eat wonderful Thai food, as well, and last night went to an open market and bought some delicious Mangos with sticky rice. Excellent! Today we ate at the food court at the mall. It is set up differently than at home. You go to a central counter and purchase the amount of tickets that you want to spend and then go and shop around at the various shops, redeeming your tickets for food. Pretty clever and it seems to work well.
Last night we went to the Night Safari which turned out to be superb. It is one of Chiang Mai’s four zoos. The whole set-up blends in beautifully with the surroundings and the animals are kept in their natural habitat. The entire experience included a walk through the grounds, two tram trips through the grounds in the dark with stops to see the various animals and a light show at the end. Jeremiah went along and was still talking about the lions and tigers this morning. We all had a great time.
The people here are very kind, gracious and helpful. We will be sad to leave this beautiful country but are looking forward to our next stop . . . Delhi, India. We’ve been told that we will smell like curry. We’ll see.

Walking the "City of Angels" . . . Bangkok

We arrived safely in Bangkok after only a few bumps on our flight, and settled into our hostel and then hit the streets to start exploring. First of all, let me say, the first thing that hits you here is the heat. It is HOT . . . . like stifling hot. But not to be deterred, we have managed to go through countless bottles of water to keep us from shriveling up.
Approximately 95% of Thais are Buddhist and it is reflected in all avenues of their lives. We have seen all types of Buddhas: sitting, standing, reclining, gold, emerald, big, tall, short, fat, and tiny. If you get my drift, they are everywhere. There are hundreds of Buddhist temples in Bangkok, mostly layered in gold leaf . Gold, mother of pearl, intricate, elaborate mosaics and paintings are, for the most part, very beautiful but a bit redundant and expensive after awhile. If only the Thais knew that true "gold" is found only in Christ. Please pray that God will open their eyes to the knowledge of the truth.
So far, we have had some very delicious Thai food . There are vendors on every street selling all kinds of food, cheaply. You can get about anything that you want to eat on the street. Last night we went to Chinatown and had a delicious meal in a restaurant for about $6.00 total. At the place where we are staying, there are two elderly ladies who cook authentic Thai style very cheaply. We have eaten their food several times and it is always superb. Each meal cost about $2.70 for the both of us. Not bad, eh!?
We purchased several different kinds of fruit since we have been here. All new to us. Two had red, bumpy and thorny-like skin and all were gelantinous in texture and beige in color inside. They were very good and one reminded us of the ginnap (sp) in JA.
We have gotten around Bangkok by foot, sky-train, river-taxi, regular taxi and, of course, the elegant tuk-tuk. The later is a three-wheeled motorcycle with a compartment for passengers on the back. They are everywhere.
Today we went to the city center to check out some of the shopping malls. The first one we went to had been burned out during the rioting and was closed. The second one was much larger and fancier than many that we have at home. It had one floor that was just the food court and a gourmet market. No wanting for any type of foreign food at this place. Aunt Annie’s pretzels were even there. The last mall was a huge place that was set up more like a market, at least in parts. It catered to more of the regular Thai people.
So far, we have been pleased with our internet hostel-shopping. Hopefully, it will continue as we leave tomorrow to fly to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We are excited to see Kelly and Htaw Htoo, our friends who are working there. Kelly is a former student of Roger’s at TUFW and we have gotten to know them better through Global Christian Fellowship. Until next time . . .

Hong Kong continued . . .

It's been a rather busy few days since we last posted anything and our time here in HK is winding down. We leave tomorrow morning for Bangkok.
We've had a great time riding public transport which gets you places quickly and fairly cheaply. It's about the only thing in HK that is inexpensive. Everything else is pricey! If we weren't on the MTR (subway) we were on our feet, hoofing it around. Our hostel is is in a very convenient location as far as getting places via foot.
Yesterday we went to a wetland park out in the New Territories which is north of where we are staying in Kowloon. It was HOT but the place was well laid out and had many interacative exhibits. You walked outside on a boardwalk through the wetlands. We enjoyed the park as well as seeing a part of HK where many of the people live. The tourist places are way too expensive so they have built up skyscraper cities. All of them look alike and are actually boring-looking, kind of like giant cookie-cutter houses.
We've eaten quite a bit of HK food which is OK . . .wouldn't say it's our favorite. We've had a lot of dumplings and noodles (those we love), congee or rice porridge as we knew it in JA but they add meat to it, and various soups, one which reminded us of 'manish water ' in JA . . . it was gray water with a chicken foot floating in it. The broth was tasty but I couldn't do the foot.
Friday we spent the day on HK island. We road the peak tram to the tallest point on the island and ate dinner at a restaurant near the top. The views from above were gorgeous and we got a good view of the harbour. We then road the public tram through the busiest parts of HK island and got to see the differences . . .some skyscrapers are definitely not as nice as others. We ended up our time on HK island by taking the travelator (escalator) up the mountain. It starts at sea level and goes up pretty far. It takes you up but you have to walk down. It is so steep that I'm sure that it helps the people who live up that high. We then took the ferry back to Kowloon.
Thursday we went to Lantau Island and saw the BIG Buddha and a monastery. We missed taking the cable car to the top because of maintainence so had to take a bus. The island is very green and moutainous. From what we have been told, this is where the people in the more congested parts of HK go to get away. It is more peaceful. After geting back to Kowloon, we went on a quick walk through the outdoor markets.They are fairly simillar to markets in other countries. . . in other words, a lot of stuff and people asking you to buy. Since we have only our carry on, we resisted for a good reason. That night we went to the harbour and saw the light show. The harbour is beautiful at night and the show was nice but not spectacular. To keep this place lit up like it is, must cost a fortune . . . maybe their lighting is energy efficient. Who knows.
Today we visited an international church that meets in the YMCA. The worship was siimilar to back home and a Canadian preached. We spent the afternoon walking through Kowloon park which is close to where we are staying. It turned out to be very beautiful. There were many people out, mostly Muslim women, non-Chinese meeting together in groups. Many Indonesian and Filipino women are here for work and who knows what else.
Our kids would be interested to know that, for nostalgia, we ate at a Shakeys Pizza for lunch. We would take our family to the Kingston Shakeys occasionally many years ago and we have fond memories of the place. The one here is close to our hostel.
Our time here has been wonderful. The people have been warm, friendly, and gracious(except for the little guys who are always pestering you to buy watches, purses, ties and of course, a suit).If you love to shop, this is the place for you! High end to low end and every thing in between. You can get it here .
Partially due to the British influence, HK reminds us very much of JA. but it is far more developed. It has been a wonderful experience that we would recommend to all travelers. Now it's on to Bangkok.

In the Beginning

" The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever more." Psalm 121: 7-8

Well, we made it to Hong Kong after a 16 hour very bumpy ride. Roger kept his little bag ready. We got through the airport wthout problems and took a bus to the city, close to our hostel.

People, skyscrapers, people, skyscrapers, oh, and shopping and rain. That pretty much sums up our first impressions of HK. Yesterday was free day at all the museums so we hit the History, Space and Art museums . . . all very well done. We are museum lovers.

We also walked down to the harbor and checked out the view. Pretty amazing! If it will stop raining, we hope to catch a light show that they do every night at the harbor.

Unfortuntely, the weather calls for rain for the next few days, so we are hoping that we will be able to take the cable car to the peak and do some other outdoor activities that we had planned. We'll see.

A little about our hostel. It is tiny! The rooms (9) are big enough for your carry-on, a bed and a bath shower combo, meaning the shower is right over the toilet. It's funky,industrial designed,clean and meets are needs just fine. The rooms were each designed by various HK artists. Ours has different birdcages hanging on the walls and the light fixture is a bird's nest. The location is perfect and we have been able to walk to everything.

We ate at a hole in the wall restaurant yesterday and, because it was so crowded, were seated with two young girls who were strangers. They didn't seem to mind. We had a HK soup with a little bit of everything in it, if you get the drift, and our favorite fried dumplings. Yummy! The girls barely knew English but we managed to communicate just fine. They were very accomodating to us old American travellers.

We hit the bed early since we had been up for almost for two days with little sleep on the plane. Both of us slept well and are ready to go for the day. My back was screaming a little after a full day of walking but I bought a cup of ice at the 7-11 store (they are everywhere) down the steet, made a makeshift ice pack for my back and did my exercises and now I'm good to go.

Remember us in your prayers, as we do you. Till next time . . .

We are excitedly preparing for our "trip of a lifetime" and are going to attempt at keeping our friends and family updated via this blog. We'll see how this goes . . . no promises. We do have good intentions, however.
If you will remember to pray for us while we are circling the globe, we would be most appreciative. . . that the heat and possibility of numerous medical issues won't steal our joy of seeing God's creation and how he is working in the world.