Cycling the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan as I descended from a 4000-meter pass, I spotted a Kyrgyz yurt on the right side of the road. Its colour and shape stood out in the barren landscape. I immediately pulled the brakes and asked a man getting out of the yurt if I could stay inside for … Read more
Once upon a time, back in the late 1480s, when the founder of the Sikh religion Baba Guru Nanak was in his teenage years, his father Mehta Kalu gave him twenty rupees and asked him to go buy goods from another village and sell them for profit. Baba Guru Nanak left home. On the way, … Read more
“Ricardo knows that my Spanish isn’t good, but I don’t need to say a lot. All I want to say is that I love you with all my heart and that I will always love you!” says Johnny. “Johnny, the love I feel for you is endless,“ replies Ricardo after a pause. Johnny is from … Read more
I see a swami talking to an indigenous man in colourful regalia—a Christian priest shaking hands with a Sikh—a rabbi talking about the need to overcome the ongoing Islamophobia—and a Muslim scholar condemning the recent terrorist attack on a synagogue. Hundreds of people sit together on the floor of the Langar Hall and share communal … Read more
When Hernando Cortes and his six hundred Spaniards arrived in Mexico City in 1521, the indigenous Aztec people believed that the white men must be the promised gods returning at last from across the Gulf of Mexico. Thus the Spanish conquistadors entered the city, not only as welcomed guests, but also as gods coming home. … Read more
A visit to the charming colonial Mexican town San Cristóbal de las Casas is not complete if one does not visit its nearby indigenous villages Zinacantán and Chamula. There is a picture of them in every tourist agency office and tourism brochure. These villages are somewhat different as even today the locals staunchly maintain their … Read more
Somewhere in the Guatemalan Highlands, there is a lake which goes by the name Lago Atitlan. Considered by many the most beautiful lake in the world, the Lago Atitlan is surrounded by a number of Maya villages, with Santiago de Atitlan being the largest of them. In Santiago de Atitlan, an elderly man guides me … Read more
Carmen is one of the many people who travel from San Antonio de Aguas Calientes to Antigua every day to sell handicrafts. She is of Maya descent and speaks the Maya language Kaqchikel as a native language and Spanish as a second language. Despite half a century of European dominance in Guatemala, most of the … Read more
© 2012–2022 Kamran On Bike. All rights reserved.
