India Ink

A Walk Along the Kanawha River

One of my favorite things to do in West Virginia is to walk/run along the Kanawha River. The river cuts through Charleston and provides a tranquil 6+ mile walking trail. Here, some scenes from my almost-daily walks along the river.

(This one's for you, J, in case you were missing the riverwalk this week...)

Asia Highlights and Lowlights

Bicycle rickshaws in Chittagong, Bangladesh	For those of you who have been inquiring, yes, I am safely back from traipsing around Asia. Catching up at work. Recovering from jet lag. Processing the highlights and lowlights of this Asian adventure. Here are a few. Bangladesh Highlight: The sweet and confident faces of the wonderful women of the Asian University for Women, providing inspiration in the midst of chaos and adversity. Lowlight: The power of a hartal (political strike) to paralyze a country.
Burma (Myanmar)   Highlight: A serene birthday exploring picturesque villages, gliding on Inle Lake among snowy egrets and herons. Waking up birthday morning in an exquisite cottage on stilts. Lowlight:  Losing my brand new $600 zoom lens, purchased just before this trip, to the exuberance of soggy New Year festivities.	Cottages at Inle Lake, Burma
With Aashika in Chennai	India   Highlight:  A dress-up photo shoot with Aashika. Reconnecting with EK friends. A very special donut run. Seeing how little has changed in Chennai. Lowlight: Having to pony up an extra $800 at the New Delhi airport for rerouting my return flight, because the first leg of the trip (Chennai to Delhi) was delayed. This turned out to be a rather costly adventure!   I have more pictures to share; it's just a matter of finding the time...

Burma: Lotus Silks

Unique to Burma: lotus silk textiles - fabric made out of the lotus flower. It has a silky texture and is produced only in the Inle Lake area of Burma.

From this:

To this:

A worker pulls out strands of resin fiber from the stem of the lotus flower

To this:

The strands are dyed and woven into textiles. Like silk, it's not cheap - one yard of fabric uses 32,000 lotus flower stems!

Description of the process from The Village That Makes Lotus Thread:

"The fibres must be used within three days after the stems are pulled from the lake. The stems have a thorny surface which must be scraped smooth first. About five stems are held together in one hand and a small blade used to circle around the whole fistful at about four inches from the end. This is broken off and pulled apart so that silken filaments flow out from the cut ends. The filaments are laid gently on a wet table surface and with a quick turn of a wrist, the fibres are rolled into a thicker thread. The next batch is twisted onto the end of the previous one so that bit by bit, the thread grows. The collected yarn is washed, starched and spun before it can be woven. Its natural colour is an earthy, light brown."

Burma: Water Wheel Still Life

A moment of stillness on Inle Lake, Burma

Burma: 1000 Stupas

More gold from the Shwe Inn Dain Pagoda near Inle Lake, Burma. This Buddhist shrine is home to over 1000 stupas (the mound-shaped structures shown here). The term seems to be used interchangeably with "pagoda" here.