--------------------------------dorothy@travelwithdorothy.com---------------------------------------
---in this issue------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Letters------- Quote of--------- What to Wear---------- Foods to aid Recovery------------
----- and Prizes---- the Month-------- and Not to Wear------- from illness-----------------------

"Kim to the lama: ‘I heard thy talk in the Wonder House of all those new strange places in the Hills,
and if one so old ...may go out for the small matter of a river, it seemed to me that I too must go
a-traveling. If it is our fate to find those things we shall find them--thou thy River, and I, my Bull, and
the strong Pillars and some other matters that I forget.’ ‘It is not pillars but a Wheel from which I
would be free,’ said the lama. ‘That is all one. Perhaps they will make me a king,’ said Kim, serenely
prepared for anything.’ " -----Kim------------by Rudyard Kipling-------------

---------------------------------THE ROAD TO IXL--------------------------------------------
When I was a child, IXL was the brand name used by a local dairy farm. More recently I learned
the letters also mean the code for the airport at Leh, Ladakh, India.
Once the traveller has made his or her way to New Delhi (Delhi, or DEL) and is more or less safely
ensconced in a hotel room (don’t ask) , the next question is how am I (impersonating the traveller)
going to get to Leh; and the question after that is does this hotel serve good BREAKFASTS? Since
most international flights seem to arrive in Delhi in the middle of the night, there isn’t much I can do
with either question, so I read a bit of one of my guide books and fall asleep. Morning brings
complete satisfaction on the breakfast front. The Marina is not a first class hotel, but while the rooms
are ghastly they do have a telephone and a TV: and a wonderful buffet breakfast. The Indian dishes
(most of the guests are Indian) are not too hot for me and are nicely balanced by eggs, baked beans
and bread (this WAS once a British colony, you know.) There is coffee, or tea, and an Indian
Express to read. Altogether so very pleasant and civilized that the need to go to Leh becomes much
less important.
However, duty is duty, and I have signed up to attend the Sakyadhita Buddhist Women’s
Conference and so to Leh I must go. (I have ignored the niceties of my not being Buddhist and am
assured by faceless email correspondents that I will be welcome.) And, of course, I have an air
ticket on Indian Airlines DEL-IXL-DEL, in business class for this particular trip portion because I
understand that the Leh flights are mobbed by Europeans, Americans, vacationing Indians, leftover
hippies and anyone else who wants to come and go during the few summer months that Leh is
"open." My particular reservation is for the next day and the flight leaves about 5am, meaning I leave
for Palam (the old international and now the national) airport about 3am. No buffet breakfast. And
certainly not a very civilized way of travel to start off at that hour. I realize that the flights to the
Himalayas have to be in and out again before the sun is up, or has risen too high and called up the
clouds and winds and cut the airport off from "civilization" for days or even weeks. But still, 3am? I
have to admit that I had, all along, been hopefully planning an escape to a more civilized time of day,
as well as to more adventuresome modes of transport as I read my various guidebooks on the plane
from the US. I wanted to travel overland to Leh using the route through HP (the state of Himachal
Pradesh) . (Srinagar-way is now, of course, out of the question.) The guidebook was explicit: take a
local bus or taxi to the cross-country bus depot in old Delhi, get a ticket for the sixteen-hour ride to
Manali, and then reserve a seat on the tourist bus for the over-the-Himalayas two-day (meals and
tent accommodation included) trip to Leh. Well, this was more like it, providing the Manali buses still
left at the times suggested in the book. But 16 hours on a bus, followed by two days on a bus, and
immediately preceded by hours in the air seemed a bit much. I was unable to get an answer to the
phone of the Delhi conference contact. I finished reading the Indian Express. I was fretful, and yet
excited. I left the hotel and found the airline office practically next door so I confirmed both my flight
the next morning and my return to Delhi two weeks later. (Behaviour like mine could very easily be
one of the reasons why there are mobs of people for the flight and why the mobs very often turn
angry.)
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- LETTERS AND PRIZES-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The LETTER answered in this issue is submitted by A.B. from the USA and asks,"Since I will be in
Hong Kong for several weeks, shall I take my (folding) bicycle in order to help me get my usual
amount of exercise?" No, A.B., there is really no need to seek exercise in Hong Kong. Just limit
your taxi or bus rides to the trips to and from the airport. The rest of the time you will find that
normal sightseeing done on foot is sufficient exercise. If you are there to study or some other
sedentary reason, just make it a point to walk to the top of the Peak once a day, or take the lovely
pedestrian paths which wind around the mountain tops (carry drinking water). If you will be staying
in the New Territories where it is flat, there might be biking possibilities but perhaps you could
borrow one from your hotel staff and ride to a nature preserve. But no distance is very great and
there is so much to see in crowded Kowloon and on the hilly island that the extra luggage (and risk
of having it stolen once you start using it) isn't worth it. And you will be walking in elegance! Your
PRIZE of a cheap gewgaw is a very rare (rare since midnight June 30, 1997) tie-tac (or pin) depicting the Hong Kong
flag, BCC (British Crown Colony). You will not see its like again. It is on the way to you via the
USPO------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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It had been years since I had been in New Delhi and I paused at a busy crossing and spent too long
deciding my direction. I had already refused one of the shoeshine men there, but now another
approached me saying that I had obviously stepped in some droppings and he would clean it off.
When I looked down sure enough my right shoe had a liberal blob of foamy greenish goo covering
the toe. "You take that right off," I instructed and he did and when he held his hand out for payment I
had a very soothing minute or two of accusing him or his friends of putting the goo there in the first
place. He began to shout as I left and so I turned back and announced to the whole little band that
next I would be calling the police. I turned and left very quickly and congratulated myself on not
being angry. After crossing the busy road via an underpass I again had to stop to find my way. This
time I didn't linger and quickly decided to ask a nicely-dressed couple strolling by. But they didn't
know where the Imperial Hotel was. Then I was aware of a child at my side jumping up and down
and telling me he knew where it was. He must have been only ten or so and after just having been
taken in by the shoeshine men I wasn't going to let some beggar-child lead me astray so I kept on
asking well-dressed pedestrians for directions. Finally I gave up. My "Kim"
----------------------------------------------------------------(continued on next page) -------
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-------------------Copyright dorothy@travelwithdorothy.com 1997-----------------------------

e-mail me at dorothy@travelwithdorothy.com

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