Wandering in Asia

November 16, 2008

Back in Bangkok to my favorite hotel and amazing street food. The cooks, toiling above a coal fired wok, go easy on the spice when they see a Western face unless you plead for more. For me Bangkok is an ideal Asian city for a traveler where one can explore the exotic or take refuge in a familiar hotel indistinguishable from home.

November 12, 2008

I’ve photographed tigers in India for decades, but we had amazing luck at Bandhavgharh National Park in the center of the country. Seven different individuals permitted us to capture them in a variety of backgrounds and occasionally in excellent light. We could see and hear the reason the park supports so many tigers. We saw Chital aka Spotted Deer, sambar, and a barking deer every day. Langeur monkeys act as sentinels; we watch them to see if there is a tiger in the area. This is a modern day Jungle Book.

November 4, 2008

I’m midway through a trip to India with friends and we are all sick with food poisoning. I never get sick from street food, even here, but we were felled by cuisine in a five star restaurant.

The Pushkar Camel Festival was fun, as usual, a riot of noise, dust, heat, and chaotic activity. Just seeing a line of camels cresting the dunes evokes centuries of commerce at this Indian crossroads. The photographic opportunities were limitless.

I was interviewed by The World on NPR at the Fair and tried to convey the bustle and delightful strangeness of the scene.