A proud moment for Clara

I would like to proudly anounce that one of my dearest friends from Colombia, Sandra Jaramillo, has just released her second solo CD: "Que Te Vaya Bien". Sandra was my best childhood friend and the closest thing to a sister. She had a tough year in 2007, in fact, she was one of my inspirations for cutting and donating my hair before going on this trip, but I know that 2008 is going to bring her nothing but love and success. So, I send her a huge congratulations on this great achievement and I hope her beautiful voice and unbreakable spirit propel this record to the top!
For more information on her and her music go to www.sandrajaramillo.com
Besitos.

Nice pictures, and positive thoughts of change for Super Tuesday

As Super Tuesday looms between Barack and Hillary it has been truly remarkable how so many people in the world are following along and care deeply about the outcome. Needless to say we have yet to find any supporters of our current president, more honestly we receive vile and filth that can't be printed in this family oriented blog.
It actually has been surprising that people are nice enough to separate us from American policies and give us the benefit of the doubt.

As we have traveled around it has become more and more apparent and overwhelming how much women are disadvantaged in the world. From the mountains of Peru, to the Flavellas of Brazil, from the Burkas of the Middle East to the plains of the subcontinent it is clear that women are doing more than their share of work, food preparation and child rearing and getting from nothing to very little in return. So many communities are made up of women doing the work in the fields collecting the food, watching and caring for the kids, and then preparing the food. So often the men are a few hundred yards away, drinking tea or playing cards and discussing the "important" things of the day.

I believe a Hillary Presidency could give identity and value and power to women across the Globe. A source of inspiration and resource that women can not only be equal but better. The key word here is could, because I'm not sure that Hillary would use that bully pulpit to the fullest extent possible.

Along the same lines, another theme has run concurrent with the oppression of women:
the blacker you are the worse you are. It has been amazing how many times people who have no exposure to blacks at all tell us that "black people are bad", or "that area is dangerous" because of the dark people or black people that live there. People who have no idea what they are talking about associate bad things with black people. Sometimes just to change things up for humor or when it is not a conducive time to be an American we tell people we are from Colombia, which is half true anyway. People who know about the problems in Colombia, will say "it is dangerous there because of the black people". If we are in one part of India and another part is mentioned as dangerous they will say it is because of the "dark people". In Nepal, where we didn't see a single black and where they advertise "facial whitening cream" on TV someone who works in computers and deals with Nigerian and Brazilian fraud schemes said something like "you can't trust the black people". He didn't know anything about the racial makeup of Brazil or what Brazilians look like, he just assumed that since bad things were coming from there, it must be due to black people.

Time after time around the world, out of the blue when the conversation had nothing to do with race someone would say something derogatory about darker people. This would come from different types of people, some with exposure to blacks, some without, some with money, some without, some people we liked, some people we didn't.
An Obama presidency would start the long, long, long, long, long road to changing these attitudes. However, there is a difference between he and Hillary. As I saw Rev. Jackson say on BBC the other day "blacks have been ready for a change, the question is whether whites (or browns, asians, etc) are ready." Even if Barack wins, his every screw up will be magnified as a failure of blacks. I don't think Hillary's potential failures will be seen as greatly as a failure of women.

With either person, there is going to be a better government and hopefully a change in the way America interacts with the World and how the World views us as a beacon of democracy, civil rights, and equality.

Clara Taking off to FLY!

Clara flying free in the Himalayan Skies

Still Alive...

He Said:
For those who have been worrying about us, yes we are still in one piece, but barely.

Stupid is as Stupid does. Please learn from our mistakes: when you and the boys decide to go for a 1.5 hour ride at 2 pm in the afternoon with 6 pm sunset that no one has ever been on through the Himalayas in January it is a good idea to be prepared. Unlike us. I wore jeans and took off the paniers with our extra stuff, Clara (despite me always telling her not to) decided not to wear a helmet. You know about our lack of horn. Still, it was a beautiful ride out to our destination (with only a few drops of rain from the threatening clouds) to look for hotels. We are thinking of starting a motorcycle adventure tour company with our local friend Rupendra and we want to visit and map out everywhere we will bring people. At 4 pm (halfway) Clara said we should turn back, but we were caught in the Newar Hospitality trap in the mountain village where our friend Robin had an "auntie". Everything ground to a halt while we chatted and were served tea and took pictures.

So, just to be clear: we are about to ride home in the dark on steep mountain roads with many washouts and landslides which is against our rules. We don't have the proper clothing, and I have no horn which is the only way to pass the trucks which hang out in the middle of the road.

This is where my BMW decided to weigh in and teach me a lesson for being so negative about it, and for yelling (under my breath and in my helmet) at all the people whom we pass who tell me that my headlight is on. "Yes I know my headlight is on!! It is a safety feature, the fact that you can see me tells me that it is working!"

As soon as I switched the bike on to return home the headlight was blown. To those loyal readers, you will know that this headlight is only about 10,000 miles old after the previous entire headlight assembly was replaced. Woo Hoo!!!! Nothing like driving home in the dark.

Then the Gods stepped in and it started raining and hailing (we have had hail in Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Turkey, and Nepal). I'm not sure we picked the right seasons to travel. The boys left me behind on their manly 135 cc's with working horns and headlights. We got back to Pokhura about 7:30, frozen solid. I had a fever which I still have and Clara has had her first stomach problems on the whole trip.

Still, these are all our fault, the Nepali people are wonderful, the scenery is incredible, Blackberry's don't work here, power is out 6 hours a day (maybe moving to 11!), and we only have dial up service. Don't expect too many updates.

By the way, you know a mountain is BIG when you can see it from 180 miles away. The Himalayas are spectacular.

She Said:
...In fact, the Himalayas are so spectacular that they inspired me (Clara) to go Paragliding to get a closer look! The morning of our fateful ride, I got up bright-eyed-and-bushy-tailed as I had decided that this would be the perfect place for me to try somtheing I have been wanting to do throughout the whole trip: run off a mountain and fly off into the sky strapped on to another guy. So I did. The day was perfect (in the beginning, you know how it turned out though!) Blue skies and big white mountains beckoned and I answered their call. I absolutelty LOVED the whole experience and I highly recommend it to everyone. The wind whooshing past me, birds flying by, gorgeous scenery all around and the most peaceful and free feeling I have ever felt (even more than when on the bike on a perfect road). I took some video of the peaceful views and of the "death spiral" we did as we approached the landing spot. By the way, it was a perfect landing, right inside the red circle in the rice field. I can't wait to do it again....and again!!!!

Riding in the Himalayas

Clara and I are in Pokhara with our biker gang of Shyam, Bikhram, Rupindra and Robin, cruising the highways and byways of Nepal on a 135 cc, a 160 cc, and a 1200 cc beast from the east.

We love Buffalo Momo's which are like chinese dumplings made with water buffalo.

An article written about us in Pakistan by our friend Fasi

Carvillian Moto-Madness
18th January, 2008


A week ago I published an obituary of sorts for Benazir Bhutto, and like is common with my political columns, I awaited the for the hate mail to come. I got the usual tirades, they were quite vehement since the readers saw me mellowing out on someone who I had been very critical of. Look the woman is dead, she died unnecessarily and let’s not kick up dirt in the immediate aftermath.

But one email was interesting. It was from a man called Kevin Mccrea who said he was riding his motorcycle around the world. He read the piece which had been a mix of lament over her record and the promise we all saw in BB once. After having driven from India into Lahore we met when he came down to Islamabad. He went on to Peshawar and when he was in transit through Islamabad to Lahore to make his way to India I met Kevin and Clara one last time.

His story was incredibly interesting. He was a successful business owner in Boston with a deep interest in politics (he ran for councilor but lost). Kevin has a lifelong love affair with motorcycles, and in between he became a professional racer and participated in the Daytona 200. Next year he will be running for the position of Mayor of Boston.

They are an interesting couple. Clara is Columbian by origin and comes from several generations of Columbian presidents. Kevin worked his way up in life and became a successful businessman who dealt extensively with the local government in Boston, and after being disillusioned by the lack of transparency in politics there, he decided to take the plunge. On our first meeting, what was supposed to be coffee, lasted for several hours. Kevin is an anti corruption crusader, and is given to speaking, with forthrightness and has a disdain for the slick empty non specific promises that America seems to engender post Reagan.

Odd as it was, I was struck by how my gut reaction was that it was Kevin who was making the mistake. By sticking to honest do gooder principles, the people weren’t buying the more genial messages of other candidates. When I met him for the second time, he asked me to become his political strategist when he runs next year as a Mayoral candidate in Boston. I wasn’t sure he was serious, but it was actually from Clara I realized he meant it.




KEVIN MCCREA
Mayor of Boston (2009 ?)









So it looks like I will be in Boston next year for three months to work on the campaign. Actually I feel somewhat excited about it because I believe in his message, when he made housing as part of a contract from his company, he issued 20% of the units to low income people. It’s a small opportunity for me to become James Carville for three months.








KEVIN & CLARA in
Peshawar








I had Kevin on my radio show on FM91, and the surprise to me was his gift for comedy. He connected with everyone immediately because he is a biker, and all the kids just lapped up his commentary on the best bikes out there.

Inevitably, some really great reactionary material came in. Someone asked Kevin, “Why do you Amercians tease us Muslim countries so much?”, and Kevin said “Give us your oil and we won’t bother you.”

Recently someone I knew (a vendor to our firm) told me that he burnt part of the Pindi hospital the day Benazir died. He doesn’t even support Benazir, but he just became a willful part of the destruction because, well, I presume it was fun. What’s worse, is he was there to get treatment for his daughter at the hospital at the time.

So for the next couple of days I will be organizing a lynch mob of friends to burn his motorcycle.

The Revolution is Back!

Yesterday the interim government of Nepal announced increases in the price of cooking and heating fuel and other petrols. The students staged protests that shut the city down, and they vowed to do the same today. We were riding around last night avoiding one burning tire protest after another to get to our destination. We woke this morning to students right outside our hotel burning tires in the streets. All the shops and businesses were closed and there was no traffic. We took the opportunity to see the sights of Patan in the deserted City. We saw the old Palace which has an excellent museum of the different Buddhist and Hindu gods amongst other things. We saw all the temples in Patan Durbar Square and the Golden Temple, both World Heritage sights. We saw the temple of 1000 buddha's. It was cold probably 40 degrees or less.

The streets were empty all day with roving protests going on, and as we found out, the whole country was shut down. By the end of the day the government run monopoly which controls the petrol prices backed down and rescinded the price increases. Public protests can have its effects. Noxious air not being the only one sometimes.

Nepal is very friendly place and the protests seem very tame actually and we do not feel in danger. At one point the police met with a group of marchers in the street and a quick decision was made that the marchers would keep marching down the street in one direction and the police would go in the other direction and put out the burning fires lit by the gang. Very convivial.

Nepal is going to have its first ever elections in a couple months. The country seems in its infancy of finding out about itself. The Maoists who have a few different factions amongst them have lain down their arms to participate in the government. I think the people are hopeful that the deposing of the King and the new democracy can lead to better things. I, unfortunately, have a bit of doubt that a country that is very corrupt by all accounts, with a bunch of thug terrorists trying to grab a share of power is somehow going to end up with a benevolent leader class. Still, there is definitely a feeling of optimism in the air and I think that if they can get some of the basic problems worked out this could be a country ready to move on to bigger and better things. It certainly is a wonderful place to visit.

Story from the Jungle

We have been at Chitwan Park on the border with India for two days. Our power as rain gods has continues, conjuring up a monsoon like thunderstorm last night to bring the first rains to this area since September. (We also brought 3 days rain to northern Pakistan for the first time in 5 months while we rode there). But the rains brought a cessation to the omnipresent cloud of particularite stuff made up of moisture, smoke, dust, and pollution depending on whom you talk to. It was such a pleasure to be able to see the clear blue sky, take deep breaths of fresh air into the nostrils and lungs, and see the snow capped Himalayas in the distance.

Yesterday I stripped the BMW Blue Mule (it always get there, although it might drive you crazy) down and took about 30 miles of dirt trails through the accessible areas of the park. I saw cranes, eagles, egrets and tons of other unknown birds. I shared the morning light of the jungle and the lakes and estuaries with multiple packs of spotted deer, one mule deer, and a 15 foot crocodile lazily floating down a stream.

In the afternoon, Clara and I took a dugout canoe about 3.5 km down the river to the Elephant breeding sanctuary in the jungle. We again saw tons of birds (kingfishers, snakeneckbirds, egrets, etc), long thin snouted crocodile which only eats fish (and are dying mysteriously in India-Gee couldn’t be the toxicity of the water?), two mongoose playing with each other and a an old single horned rhinoceros who couldn’t be bothered to get up as our guide and I walked to within about 50 feet of him while Clara had the camera ready for the great chase scene through the high grass. We loved the elephant breeding center with about a dozen mothers and children. We played with one two year old running free who really liked Clara and the camera in her hand. Another young one stole some of her mom’s food and used her as protection against the keeper; meanwhile another one took advantage of that distraction to steal a whole burlap sack of wrapped rice balls. A fourth was playing with a length of steel pipe, first teaching himself to blow through it to make a sound, then trying to bend it using trunk and 2 legs. Elephants are clearly so smart, sensitive, deft and dexterous it feels like you are communicating with an equal when you shake their snout, or return a “namaste” salute with your own “hello” and wave of the hand.

Today we took an all day jeep ride into the depths of the jungle park in search of the elusive Royal Bengal Tiger and some rhinos. We were disappointed on both fronts, especially Clara with the rhinos, but we did see tons of other creatures and saw beautiful rivers, trees, with the Himalayas as a distant backdrop. The highlight for me was first thing in the morning where I spotted a huge black Sloth Bear up ahead. He rose up on his rear paws, looked amiably at us for a few seconds before shambling off into the tall plant life. I have always loved Kipling and Disney’s Jungle Book and my college brethren nicknamed me Mowgli, so the lattice of coincidence of walking past Mowgli’s Jungle Tours this morning and then seeing what looked to me to be Ballou the bear enjoying the ‘bare necessities’ of life was quite magical.

During the rest of our time we saw scores of spotted deer, mucho wild pigs, many beautiful peacocks and peahens, 2 types of crocodiles, rhesus and lemur monkeys, and a jackal. There are over 552 types of birds here, some of the ones we saw were kingfishers, wild hens, roosters and pheasant, hornbill, grey headed eagle, parakeets and multitudes of others. I tried to show Clara a two headed smoocher but she wasn’t having any of it.

To cap off the day, I dropped the camera somewhere along the way and it was run over by a tractor. The camera was on its absolute last legs, and Clara’s brother and I promised her a new camera for her last birthday so it looks like the present will be presented in Kathmandu.

New friends and lovely views from Nepal

OK, we bought a snazy new camera. So, without further ado...


Kevin rolled up his pants, took off his shoes and got "down and dirty" to get a taste of the back-breaking work that is the main responsability of women in the village.


Kevin's new adopted son from the village of Lele, whom we nicknamed "Bob."


Baby goats are adorable!!!! This one (nicknamed Shakira by me) belongs to "Didi Uma", Shyane's aunt and our gracious host in Lele. Alas, much ti my dismay, I had to leave her behind when we left the village this morning.


A lovely ancient temple in the village.


A three hour trekk in the mountains...ahhh, what fresh, clean air!


Bright skies over the hills of Lele.


Diner with friends at the local "tourist trap" restaurant in Kathmandu.

We are with Shyam in Kathmandu

Clara and I had two options this morning: the fast road to Kathmandu or the slow road that no one travels, that is all twisting and through the mountains with a distant view of Mt. Everest from an 8,000 foot peak. You can guess which one we took. It is a beautiful day, in the 50's, clear sky to see the Himalayas in the backround. We have met up Shyam, enjoyed some momo's, and now we are going to try and find a new camera.

go pats!

Getting out of India and into Nepal

As Clara and I got closer to the Nepal border we braced ourselves for what was to come. The last city in India was a cacophony of 600,000 people, horns, pollution and dust and dirt. We had of course heard about India being such an advancing country, and how poor Nepal was. The last 60 miles to the border became more and more poor, the roads narrower and more broken. I finally had an accident in India, when a guy on 125 saw someone he knew passing him in the other direction on the 10 foot wide road. He decided to immediately stop in the middle of the road, with me about 5 feet behind him. Luckily we were going less than 10 miles an hour, I slammed on my brakes but the crash was inevitable on the loose dirt and stone so I steered directly into his back wheel and just bumped him off to the side of the road. He remained upright. I slowed down and glared, as he looked back with a surprised but knowledgeably guilty look. The point is, that Clara and I were preparing ourselves for even worse, dirt track roads and utter chaos.

What we found shocked and surprised us in such a positive way, that we were singing with Glee as we rode along the wide, well paved highway with well behaved traffic, smiling waving children, and well spoken women unafraid to talk to us giving us directions. We started singing the “What a concept!” game.

Not many Indians have been outside India. If they would take the time to visit their northern neighbor of Nepal they might learn some concepts that would improve their quality of life. The best part is that many of these changes are free of charge and the tools required are readily available. For example:

Turn Signals: What a concept!
Mirrors folded out to see behind you: What a concept!
Everyone driving the correct direction: What a concept!
No cows on the roads: What a concept!
Bikes and pedestrians on the shoulder of the highway: What a concept!
Shoulder of a highway: What a concept!
No trash in the rivers: What a concept!
Which leads to: clear water: What a concept!
Air you can breath: What a concept!
Answering questions, not staring: What a concept!
Forests: what a concept!


Some things might cost some money, but investment reaps rewards:

A tourism office at the border with information about your country: What a concept!
All children going to schools: What a concept!
Clean roads: What a concept!
Limited population: What a concept!
Clean drinking and non-suspicious bottled water: What a concept!

Finally, it is amazing sometimes what a difference a border can make. One side of the border the cow is sacred, on the other it is our dinner. Food for thought.

Welcome to Nepal!

How Less Big is the Taj Mahal

People in Pakistan have heard the rumors that the Taj Mahal is not that Big. I think they have seen too many of these pictures!

India v. Pakistan

India:

More smells per mile than teeth in their smile!

There is a difference between a male dominated society and a female oppressed society. Neither is desirable, but there is a stark contrast. To experience it, just cross the Attari border between Pakistan and India and the change is readily apparent. It was such a pleasure to come back into India and see brightly dressed women laughing and smiling in the streets. You don’t realize what you miss until you don’t have it anymore. In Pakistan women are rarely seen in public, and when they are out they are dourly covered up especially outside the cities, often in full burka. As we were passing through one tiny village waving at the children, one girl about 14 waved at us and her friend quickly knocked her hand down to stop her, clearly afraid they might get in trouble for such a public display, however innocent. In India men run all the businesses, men make up 89 percent of elected officials, men dominate the household and men leer at the women. But, you do see women walking around in their bright saris, usually in groups, doing their shopping or chores, or working. They drive, they laugh, they even do heavy construction, often with men standing idly next to them. An example of the limits of their freedom is that the divorce rate is only 11 per 1000 because of the extreme ostracism for any women who doesn’t fulfill her proper role in the family. But it is still apparent that women have a far better chance in India than Pakistan.

The experience for males in the two countries, however, is quite different. We had dinner with 23 year old Greek motorcycle overlander Ilias Vrochidis in Agra. He has been on the road for 9 months from Thessaloniki, through Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal. We asked him what he thought of his time in Pakistan and he said he had a great time there last fall in September and October. The people were extremely friendly, as is the Muslim way where guests are a sign of God’s grace on the hosting family. He would often pitch his tent somewhere, and people would inevitably come over to him to offer him some chai tea and very often invite him to stay in their homes. We asked him what he thought of the Indians and he gave us a smile and a leaning back head nod coupled with the rolling back of the eyes which said “come on, you’ve been here, do you really need me to reconfirm for you how bad they are?” But, we pressed him so he continued. When he would go to camp in India, even in out of the way places, people would often come to him and tell him that he couldn’t sleep there and that he needed to move on. No one has invited him in, or tried to make him feel welcome.

Our experience has mirrored that. In our one month in India, only one time did some extremely nice young motorcyclists invite us back to their home. Even then, they warned us not to trust or believe anything an Indian told us. This was echoed by other European, Turkish, and Indian friends. We were also hosted by the wonderful Daruwala family, but they are friends from America which I don’t really count. We were only in Pakistan for the 10 days following Bhutto’s assignation and in that time we stayed in a Pashtun home, had evening meal with family of 6 in the NWFP, and were treated to dinner twice in Islamabad by a journalist I coldemailed. In addition, we were invited to tea and people’s homes in Rawalpindi and on the SWAT border which we had to refuse due to time constraints. All this on top of the fact we spent most of our time staying with Kathy and James of the RAF on a Pakistani Air Force base.

More later….

On to nepal?

We are 60 miles from the Nepal border, we head to the Himilayas in a few hours.

India, land of the sweater vest, can be described in one word: annoying. Clara is getting grouchy with the starers, and I'm flummoxed with the traffic, lack os signage, and misdirections.

The food however is delicious, although a bit spicy for Clara and I was punished for eating street food wrapped in dirty paper.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Scenes from the sacred Ganges

Not horny for Once

Yet another reason not to trust a BMW 1200gs for your round the world trip: faulty, phantom horn.

The horn on the bike has taken on a personality all its own, as if possessed by one of the 16,000 Hindu gods. Basically it decides to stop working at inopportune times. In India, any time you don't have a horn is inopportune. Trucks paint "horn please" on the back of their trucks and then throw away their mirrors. Everyone else just throws their mirrors away or folds them in. I'm not kidding, 80 percent of the vehicles on the road have no mirrors, everyone just honks at each other, and if you don't hear a honk you hog the road.

The horn first went in the narrow winding streets of old Bikaner. Just stopped working after 7 hours of constant use. Then it worked fine for about a week. Now it always works the first time I use it, then sometimes goes dry on the second try. So, I shift into neutral kill the bike, turn it on and start it all while coasting down the road to "reset" my gun for that one potential lifesaving honk. I have sometimes resorted to "honking" out loud with my voice in slow city traffic when fighting bikes, rickshaws and cows. Clara ends up laughing which kind of defeats the purpose. Sometimes the horn will work perfectly for hours and then die right before we almost do.

So, thanks BMW for selling me a bike worth 10 times all the Honda Heros on the road without the single most important safety device in India.


Oh, we also shared food and prayers today with the second most important Buddhist after the Dalai Lama, the 20 year old kid who walked from Tibet to here to escape the Chinese.


We are in Sarnath where Buddha gave his first sermon to his first five disciples about the "middle way" to achieve Nibbana.

Very serene and calm here, different from much of India.

Do you know what's fun in Uttar Pradesh?

About 20 miles outside Agra I was enjoying a nice Sunday ride on a four lane divided highway. I let my mind wander for about 10 seconds as there was no traffic and looked to the green fields to my left. As I calmly reverted my gaze back to the road, I nearly had a heart attack: a semi was heading straight for me in my passing lane at about 50 miles per hour about 75 yards away just as I swerved he hit his horn, and we missed him by about 2 feet. If we survive India, I will look back fondly on our insane time here as things are so crazy and illogical you just have to laugh.
But, they have good peanut brittle.
Some of the fun things to do in India we saw today:
Sleeping on the highway is fun.
No road signs around work projects is fun.
Popping a monster wheelie in your tractor across the highway is way too much fun.
Herding your water buffalo the wrong way down the highway is fun.
Driving your car, motorcycle, scooter, truck, bus or rickshaw the wrong way on the highway is fun. Or just walking in the middle of the road.
Parking your trailer on the highway is fun.
Leaving your truck to truck head on collision in the highway is fun.
But the most fun we saw right in front of us was a tanker truck squeezing onto the highway in the same space as a big hauling truck. As Dolly Parton once said "you can't get 100 pounds of feed into a 50 pound sack" the two trucks collided, crushing the front right corner and knocking parts off the hauler. The tanker gave a look back but kept on moving! We were about 100 meters behind as this happened and as we caught up to the tanker we were following a black path on the road. I was a bit worried it was oil, but as we cruised by (on the inside of course) we saw the left side of the tanker crumpled and gored with a metal mud guard eating into one of the tires. Now that is a lot of Fun!

Many people have told us that if we have an accident and we can still move that we should get out of there ASAP.

We are now in Kampur a city of a million with no tourists. I think we may set an all time staring record here. We look like we just arrived on the Startrek Enterprise and we have two heads. But people seem pleasantly happy here, and there aren't the annoying hawkers surrounding the tourist sites.

Tomorrow we goto the sacred Ganges the most important place to be cremated on the gnats in the Hindu world.

We got up at 6:30 this morning to see the Taj Mahal. It is without Equal, truly stunning and living up to all its hype.

Go Pats!

Driving in India Video--"WooHoo!"