Currency Crisis

Monday Night

Taylor and I arrived in Delhi late on Monday night.  First stop at the airport after passing Immigration was an ATM. Taylor likes to pay cash when possible, so he withdrew 10,000 rupees ($150).  Indian ATM's give out cash in 500 rupee notes so we had a thick wad. 

Tuesday

 We had about five hours sleep in Delhi and then caught an early train to Shimla, arriving late on Tuesday night. 

While we had a good night's sleep after our arduous adventures on the toy train,  Indian Prime Minister Modi announced currency reform. He declared 500 and 1,000 rupee notes were "worthless paper."

Wednesday  

Banks and ATMs were closed Wednesday.  People will be able to exchange up to 4,000 rupees at a time of 500 rupee notes on Thursday and Friday.   After that, our cash will be truly worthless.  

Thursday and Friday

Several times on Thursday and Friday, we tried with the help of our guide to  find a bank to do the exchange, but of course the lines were horrendous! In addition to going to banks in Shimla, we tried a bank in the small town of Mashobra.

Should Taylor jump into line at the bank in Mashobra?

 Do we give up sightseeing to spend a day in line or take our chances that we'll make the exchange later?  We decided to take our chances and continued sightseeing.  On Friday we still were looking at long lines, or banks that were out of their stock of the new reform notes. Only 40% of ATM machines had cash.  When we returned to our hotel Friday night we thought we would just have to bite the bullet and lose our remaining 4000 rupees (this is about $60.00).  $60 isn't that big a deal, but we had no other local currency to pay guides, drivers, etc. Our guide and drivers had nicely but reluctantly agreed to accept US $20 bills from us, given the situation (Taylor never travels without a stock of $20 bills for emergencies when we travel). 

At 5:00 on Friday, knowing we were flying to Delhi on Saturday,  we decided to walk up the road that goes past our hotel to see if we could find a bank still that still had legal currency.  By great luck, our guide was still outside our hotel chatting it up with another guide.  He very nicely insisted on going with us on our search.  Shortly before bank closing at six, he led us to a State Bank of India branch.  Despite the lines, some kind soul led us to the special desk for tourists set up in a corner of the busy bank.  No line, and we were out of the bank with legal cash before six!  Keep in mind, we now had about $60 worth of legal cash.  We figured this was enough to pay the guide and driver on Saturday, and the driver to take us to the hotel in Delhi.  We still weren't out of the woods because we had no other local cash.

 The newspapers are full of horror stories:  patients refused admission to hospitals because they were trying to pay with 500 rupee notes, workers from Nepal stranded in rural areas unable to get home because they had been paid in 500 rupee notes, and many more.  It is a mess! Our problems are nothing compared to the general population.

Saturday

We drove from Shimla to Chandigarh.  It was the car version of the tortuous toy train ride but it only took 4 hours.  At the airport in Chandigarh we tried to get cash but the ATM queues were way too long.

Back at the Delhi airport we checked out each ATM.  The queues were much more orderly than in the smaller towns, but long nonetheless.

We skipped this line

Good news, bad news.  Our guide didn't show up to collect us when we came out into the airport waiting area.  So...............Taylor joined an ATM queue and I scrambled through my belongings looking for an emergency number to call.  While I was undergoing a little panic, Taylor got to the head of the line and withdrew the maximum 2000 rupees ($30). It's hard to believe we're excited about such a small amount of cash.  In the meantime the guide showed up.

Here we are:  safely in our room at the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi with $30 in our pockets.  Life is good.

Arrival hall at Delhi Airport.

The Himalayan Queen, an unexpected journey

Now that we're here, in beautiful Shimla, with a good night's sleep under our belts, we are already reminiscing about the journey to get here.  We spent 20 hours on airplanes getting to Delhi, from Portland.  Then after about 5 hours in a hotel room before we got on a train headed for Shimla.

The train trip from Delhi to Kalka took 4 hours. We had "Executive Class" tickets.  Everyone on the train had an individual seat with a tray, and an attendant constantly brought us food and tea. The other passengers were a mix of Indian and western people. It was a fairly boring trip.

Executive Class train car to Kalka.  Notice the big ass suitcases above the lady in blue.

When we arrived in Kalka we had to run to catch the Himalayan Queen to Shimla. The Himalayan Queen is a toy train, which is a narrow gauge train built during the time of the Raj, to get the 'government' (i.e., the Brits) from the winter capital of Delhi to the summer capital at Shimla. On this train our tickets were "Chair Car."  There were no chairs.  Instead there were small bench seats that seated two small people, and there were about 30 of us crammed in to fewer seats. The train took 7 and a half hours to take us 60 miles to final  elevation of 6, 811 feet.  

The Himalyan Queen. This is our Chair Car.

Most of the passengers were vacationing Indians, so the car was filled with a festive air. Here are the highlights of the cast of characters:

• British couple with big ass suitcases.  It became apparent to us later that night at dinner that when you have a big ass suitcase, you can have dinner in elegant evening clothes, as opposed to our wrinkled, frumpy travel togs.
• Indian mom and daughter taking a celebratory trip to Shimla to note the daughter's recent master's degree in physics.  We learned that the daughter is a single child, which is unusual in India, since cryptic methods are often used in India to ensure live borns are predominantly male.
• Family of 7 Indians who booked 4 seats for the trip.  This was a problem for us because they had assumed they could have our seats. Fortunately our guide Vikrant did the arguing that freed our purchased seats for us.  During the course of the journey this family continuously overflowed their 4 alloted seats.
• Indian gentleman who was enjoying sitting in the open doorway as the train traveled up and around tortuous curves.  It turns out he didn't have a ticket at all and disappeared when the conductor arrived to collect tickets.
• Family of Indians enjoying their takeout meals during the trip up the mountain, and without a thought throwing all garbage out the windows of the train: plastic trays, lids, foil wrappers, water bottles, etc.  Taylor spent part of the trip standing behind Jamar, and noted that folks had to walk past the garbage bin to get to the open window to throw the trash through.
• Mr Eat and Pick, who ate his rice and sauce with the fingers of his right hand, while occasionally reaching up to pick his nose with his left.  Interestingly, he also had a cloth napkin in his lap, and he wore designer eyeglasses.
• Family of 3 who got on the train at a later stop and had to displace 3 of the family of 7 who were again in the wrong seats.  The family of 3 had a great time taking photos.  Mom and dad took turns hanging out the open door to get shots of each other.  Then mom made snacks.  This involved pouring cereal onto a plate, then adding chopped shallots that she peeled, leaving the peels on the floor.  I don't know why she didn't use the window.
• A young Sikh man who spent the first half of the journey taking selfies.  Most of which involved hanging out the door. There are so many creative ways to use a selfie stick.
• An adorable baby girl who had multiple changes of cute outfits throughout the day.
• The train conductor who mysteriously arrived at one of our unexplained stops in the wilderness.  Because there is no connecting passageway between train cars, the train would stop and he would walk along the tracks to go to the next train car to collect tickets.  He was very nattily dressed in blue suit and took his job seriously.  His presence also got everyone into their proper seats  or off the train at least until he moved on to the next car.

When we weren't totally absorbed people watching, we remembered to look out the windows to see the beautiful views.

We climbed through the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills to reach Shimla.

Between Kalka and Shimla we traveled 60 miles and made a 2131 foot elevation gain.  It was a very twisty, scenic trip.

We didn't know exactly what to expect when we decided to come to India. So far both the people and the physical beauty has captured us.  If only we can manage to keep our minds open to the experiences ahead.
    

  

Our Passage to India

Tomorrow morning Taylor and I will board a plane in Portland, OR, and two plane changes and a day and a half later we will land in New Delhi, India. That translates to about 20 hours of flight time! This is a huge trip for us on many levels.  We will be away from home for two months.  The second month we will go to Taipei to recover from India and reconnect with our grandson Solomon.

Follow the black lines from New Delhi to see where we are going. Delhi north to Shimla, back to Delhi and then in a counterclockwise circle to the south returning to Delhi.  Varanassi is a jog to the SE of Delhi.

We have been dreaming of travelling to India for many years.  Usually we have expectations of what a trip will be like.  In this case, we've done our homework, but have no expectations.  India is a mystery to us.  Here are the general details, the specifics will follow as we experience them.

Details

• Travel time:  we leave PDX at 7:58 am, arriving in New Delhi 9:20 pm the following day, about 20 hours of flight time
• Cities we will visit:  New Delhi, Shimla, Mashobra, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Sanganer, Ranthambore National Park, Lalakho, Abhaneri, Agra, Varanasi
• Number of hotels: 9
• Modes of transportation: train, toy train, 3 internal flights, motor coach, rickshaw, camel(?), boat
• Allowable luggage weight: 33 lbs

How did these pictures get into a blog about our trip to India?  This is our wardrobe, after spraying it with insecticide!!  Who knew?

We think we are prepared. More news to follow from the other side of the world.

2014 - York Remembered

Syvart taking a break from his Cambridge studies.

In 2014 Taylor and I went to Europe.  We had amazing adventures as have been previously reported in Twice Knit.  However,  the reason for this wonderful trip was to see our son Syvart.  Here he is, waiting for lunch in a tearoom in York.  What a wonderful memory for all of us. The Cambridge days are over. Syvart now works and lives in Arlington VA with his wife Iris.  Taylor and I are still travelling, trying to see what the rest of the world is like.  Next stop, India in November 2016, followed by Taiwan in December 2016.

May Heaven Bless Taiwan

Chiang Kai-Shek ruled Taiwan for 27 years. He was a ruthless dictator who came here from Mainland China in 1949 and brought his KMT (Kuomintanag) government. Previous to 1947 Taiwan had been occupied by Japanese for 52 years.  Japan was forced to relinquish Taiwan at the end of WWII. Chiang enforced Martial Law. He was responsible for the White Terror, when 10,000  to 30,000 citizens were slain.

Chiang died in 1975. Martial law remained in place until 1987. In 1996 Taiwan held it's first election and became a democracy. An outsider, like me, doesn't quite understand why this young democracy continues to have so many monuments to him, but there you have it.  I'm an outsider.

September 2015, we visited Chiang's bunker type home in the Yangming Mountains.  This year we visited a few more places where he has been memorialized. At the Yangming Mountrain retreat we learned that in private life Chiang was a poet and his wife a painter - lovely people. We also learned that he entertained important political figures from around the world.

The summer residence.

Our first stop this year was Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall and Cultural Center.  This is a gorgeous park, with a fabulous gate, two enormous performance halls, museums and a grandiose monument with an enormous bronze statue of him looking  kind and scholarly. It was difficult for me to take photos of the individual elements in the park because they are so big.

An enormous bronze sculpture of Chiang sitting on a chair is located in this monument.  Chiang died at age 88 so there are 88 steps leading up to the statue hall.  The statue is reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial

This is one of the two performance halls, and the white entrance gate is toward the left with the blue tile roof.

There are two covered walkways like this one.  Perfect for trying to stay cool and out of the sun. While we were walking through we came across a group of 90+ year olds singing old Japanese folk songs.  These people grew up during Japanese occupation so these were the songs they learned as children.

Reindeer sculpture near the children's playground

Another quirky sculpture.

Another day, we visited the Shilin Official Residence where where Chiang and Madam Chiang lived for 26 years.  This home was originally built by the Japanese in the middle of a lovely botanical garden.  According to the tour we took, Chiang was kindly and quiet.  He was a scholar, poet, husband, father and grandfather.  Just like at the summer residence, there was no mention of his politics.

The grounds of the official residence are lovely.  No photos allowed in the residence.

Because the grounds of the official residence are botanical gardens started during Japanese occupation, there are greenhouses.

We also visited the 2-28 Memorial Peace Park.  Here, we started to get the feel for the real Chiang.  The monument was built in 1996 in recognition of the murder of 10,000 to 30,000 people when riots erupted in 1947 after a woman was arrested selling black market cigarettes.  When police fired into the crowd and killed a bystander the crowd snapped and began an uprising against Chiang's harsh rule.   Just think, it took the government 49 years to recognize or apologize for this tragic period in history.

The monument itself is somewhat shocking with its angular design, but it works for me.

I love the final two sentences.

Within the park is a temple. We were lucky enough to discover this during the chanting session.

Offerings that are being blessed.

Our final destination in Chiang's memory was Treasure Hill. This small area on the edge of the Xindian River originated around 1950.  It was built by veteran KMT soldiers who came to Taiwan with Chiang from Mainland. They  built themselves homes on the side of a hill overlooking the river using recycled materials that they "borrowed" from army storage sheds.

Treasure Hill exists today as an artists colony.  We found it extremely charming.

Houses are built higgelty piggelty up the hills.

Artists were taking advantage of the charm.  School children were working in a community garden and singing.

These kids put on quite a show for us with their singing and hand motions.

Treasure Hill even has it's own temple perched on the side of a hill.

This was my favorite god.  I think it must be the god who takes care of children.

I love all the hidden corners of temples.

Disclosure:  My history lesson is over.  Taiwanese history is very complex, and these are high points that stuck in my head as we toured the various sights.  There may be inconsistencies or errors in my over simplified telling of the stories. The important point is that Taiwan is now a democracy and they fought hard to achieve this.  I admire this country for their dedication.

Restaurant Row

Taylor and I normally go to bed quite early, so we aren't out at night to see what our neighborhood in Portland is like after dark.  Here in Taipei however, we go out every night at 8:40 p.m. to meet the trash trucks. A consequence of this behavior is we have discovered that we live in a lively neighborhood.

One night, on our way home, we realized that the lane around the corner from our back door is a regular restaurant row. During daylight hours it's shuttered and quiet, but it opens up late in the day to become a vibrant gathering center for those who stay up later than us.

Here's the address in case you want to visit any of the restaurants.

Here's the view from our table at the Samovar.  In addition to restaurants, this lane is also home to quite a few bookstores. Can you see the bookstore across the street?

Hot latte for her, cold latte for him.  This was the most expensive coffee we had in our entire month in Taipei.  But, isn't it pretty?

Samovar from the outside.

You've got to love the name, "Piglet friendly cafe."  It serves coffee and pasta.

A fancy looking display of pastries at L'Amor.

L'Amor.  Possibly French?

We think the Apple Diner serves American. I just noticed there's a mailbox right there.  We had trouble finding a way to mail post cards.  There was a mail box right here all the time.

Mr. Martin is an ex pat Londoner serving up British fare from his closet sized cafe.

Mr. Martin has one table.  I don't know if you have to make a reservation to get to sit there, or what?

What could be a better place than Kitchen 66 for my 66th birthday.? We never did have a burger here, but David liked the fish and chips that we got for him.

Gardening in Taipei

Those who know me know that I am an enthusiastic gardener.  I'm not an expert, but I like to get my hands dirty and surround myself with peace and nature. I also love to look at gardens and parks.  I think many people in Taipei feel the same.  However, I've got a small yard in a moderately urban setting in which to indulge my gardening needs. Taiwanese live in a crowded urban environment, most often in multistory buildings.  No matter, they find a way to enjoy greenery.

The gathering of pots next to this temple is typical of the gardening efforts of people who live on the ground floor of multistory buildings located in lanes and alleys.

This is a typical sight while walking down lanes and alleys. The planters may be official pots, or random plastic containers salvaged from the recycling truck.

Look closely at our alley. The folks who have the ground floor property have filled their garage area with trees that are poking out into the alley.

This is the lush window garden that is in our bedroom.

I've seen these living walls all around the city.  This one is at the National Taiwan University. The wall is filled with individual potted plants.

Some shops and homes are lucky to have small courtyard areas where they have created green hideaways in the city.

Can you see how this small garden is wedged right up to the building next door?

It's rare to see large open grassy areas. Perhaps that's because they are so hard to maintain.  We didn't see any riding lawn mowers.

I like discovering informal gardens on the edge of alleys,  on balconies and window ledges, and I love the formal parks. However, I think my favorite gardening experience in Taipei was the lot that I walked by every day on my way to the MRT.  When we first arrived I thought this space was an overgrown abandoned lot.  However, I started noticing people digging around in it and taking photos of the flowers.  Before long it became apparent to me that this area, overlooking the entrance to an express way, is a community garden. I hope to show by my photos the progress the community made in transforming it from a winter weed patch into a structured and welcoming green oasis.

Some local gentleman has been weeding, as you can see from the far left of the photo.

If only I could talk to the people I've seen working here.  I have so many questions. I wonder if they are an organized gardening brigade, or do people just drop in to dig as the mood dictates?  I wonder if they had a landscape plan, or is this a randomly planned garden?  Did they have to get a permit from the city? Whatever the answers, the community certainly notices and enjoys this small plot. Those who work in it, are able to indulge in their gardening needs. I know I would be among them if I lived in Taipei.