As I sit here waiting for my 6am flight to Nairobi, I feel compelled to jot one more post before I leave India. I spent the last two days in Chembur, a residential part of Mumbai that was absolutely charming. There was absolutely nothing in my guidebook about Chembur, so I didn’t know quite what […]
Last night, I rolled in to Mumbai’s domestic airport, and it almost felt like routine. While it took me two taxi drivers, one nearly successful scam artist, and a stop at an ATM for me to reach my hotel in the Chembur area of town, I did finally reach the Hotel Pearl, my digs for […]
My time in Varanasi has been well-spent. I took a tour through the city last night and saw the Ganges at dusk. In addition to walking through a couple of Hindu temples that sat on the riverbank, I also watched a holy man do some sort of ceremony involving fire and incense (sorry…that’s all I […]
Yesterday, I caught my 6am bus (which left at approximately 7:30am) to Agra to see what everyone goes to Agra to see: the Taj Mahal. The bus ride was pretty jarring, but I had the best view in the bus, sitting on a makeshift bench next to the driver. Because the seating on the bus […]
When I was in Hong Kong, I spent many meals at a restaurant chain called Deli France, mostly because I could recognize everything on the menu and they made a mean cup of coffee. Today, I would have given an arm and a leg (of a chicken) for some Deli France. I spent most of […]
I woke up very early this morning to the sound of a dog barking. This went on for a very long time, so I eventually threw in the towel and got up to start my day. At breakfast in the hostel lounge, I read and chit-chatted with the other tables-for-one. One was a Kiwi ecologist named […]
This morning I was wide awake by 5:30am. Never mind that check-out was at 9am and my flight was at 3:30pm. My body said it was time to get moving. Must be a travel day. With only a small amount of foot-dragging, I collected my things and headed off to Goa’s airport to make my […]
Goa has been a really nice place to hang out…the pace is comfortable, the beaches are warm and breezy, and the food can’t be beat. But I only have nine more days in India, so it’s time to get back on the proverbial horse and see the sights. Tomorrow I’ll fly up to Delhi to […]
Cultural differences can be an endless source of confusion, amusement, and occasional frustration. At the beach, many Indians swim in the ocean wearing their Sunday finest (shoes included), while others strip down to their skivvies and think nothing of it. In many restaurants, wait staff will seat complete strangers at the same table to make […]
Yesterday I arrived in Calangute, a beach town just south of Anjuna that has more tourists than you can shake a stick at. Here, the roads are a bit wider (two cars’ width) and most of them are paved, at least until you get out of the populated part of town. While it’s nice to […]