I can't believe that we've been married and out of the country for more than two months now. It's been two months since I've: * worn heels or carried a purse * used a cell phone * seen friends or family (though the new friends we've made have helped immensely) * slept in the same place more than two nights in a row * cooked a meal myself * had more than three outfits to choose from However, those are small sacrifices for the amazing trip we've had so far. We've already visited so many countries, met loads of interesting people, [View Full Entry]

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We've stuck out in most places we've traveled because of Steve's height and my yellow hair, but India takes the burfi. Until we reached Varanasi, we haven't been in any busy Western tourist towns - even Agra was only filled with Indian tourists - so we've been the object of much curiosity and excitement. We were walking down one quiet beach in Goa when two girls came running up in a flurry of sari cloth. After they recovered their breath sufficiently to speak, they said that they saw my "very very white skin" from the other end of the beach and [View Full Entry]

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Short version: Lonely Planet India failed us again. We planned our itinerary based on a magical six hour bus between Udaipur and Agra that they listed. When we went to book, that same trip actually was listed as 13.5 hours from 5:30PM to 7:00AM. We decided that we could handle that, but with an upgrade to sleeper class. The actual journey took close to 22 hours with two buses, and we met a lot of interesting characters. Long version: After a day of sweatwalking through steaming Udaipur and still sopping from getting stuck in an sudden downpour (hello, monsoon gods? You're [View Full Entry]

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We read in our "Lonely Planet" that the off season for Goa ends in September, with cessation of endless rain during the monsoons. I can personally attest that Lonely Planet is incorrect. The off season definitely extends into October. A couple days ago we took a long (14 hour) train from Mumbai to Goa, opting for the day-time train so that we could see the beautiful scenery between those two destinations. From what I could see through my incredibly tiny window that was heavily tainted yellow, the land was quite lush (most likely from the recent monsoons), with many rivers and [View Full Entry]

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Botswana officially takes the prize for having the worst internet I've ever used. I was only able to find two cafes in the whole country, both of which shut down as soon as I hit "post" on my blog entries. Rather than embarrass myself with another round of internet cafe fury, I opted to ignore the existence of technology until we arrived in India. I'll try to recreate some of the posts that disappeared into the great Kalahari in the sky so the next few will be out of order. [View Full Entry]

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Kelly and I have made it out of Africa. After almost a month camping through the bush, we made it to our 3rd continent, Asia. Not suprisingly, the African bush has very little internet access, especially when camping. Even when we did have internet, it was pretty damn slow (this is my long-winded excuse for not blogging in awhile). In addition to having no internet, there was almost a complete lack of news. When new people joined our trip in Vic Falls, we peppered with questions about the outside world, one even had back issues of the Economist, though nothing more [View Full Entry]

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Poor Steve. Just over a month ago he married a young, healthy bride. Then she discovered that she's allergic to Africa. All of it. The pre-dawn sand dune climb in Namibia caused a hacking cough that put most emphysema sufferers to shame. A hand gently brushed against a rock during a San bushman paintings tour swelled to more than double its normal size, and then proceeded to shed all of the skin on the palm. Feet are cracked and bloody due to the extreme dryness of walking through the desert in flip flops. Legs are completely covered in a mysterious smallpox-like [View Full Entry]

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Thus far, I've been a little disappointed with the overall efficiency we've witnessed on this continent. I will admit that I expected a bit more chaos, discontent, and blatant government corruption. We finally got the show of shows today! We awoke very early so that we could reach the Botswana-Zambia border when it opened at 6AM. We arrived to the Botswana border station to see a line of people about 300 meters long, most of whom were balancing huge loads of bedding, bamboo wall rolls, and cooking utensils on their heads while small children. I felt a solid dose of white [View Full Entry]

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It's our last night in Namibia, and I'm a bit sad. I absolutely love this country. The days have been filled with lazy contentment as I read or knit on the bus periodically interrupted with gasps of disbelief as we pass a lion guarding a watering hole or a deep red sand dune towering against the brilliant blue sky. The past forty-eight hours were among my favorite on the trip. Steve and I celebrated our one month anniversary with a bottle of delicious South African shiraz while we sat at a watering hole and watched the steady parade of elephants (with [View Full Entry]

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We're in Swakopmund, Namibia. The majority of our group was eager to arrive in this adrenaline sport hotspot, and we all immediately booked 4-wheeling, sandboarding, and sky diving excursions. Less than an hour after arriving in this town, we were already seated on our 4-wheelers (or 'quad bikes')! I (foolishly) thought that the 125cc automatic quads were too wimpy and selected a 250cc semi-manual with a kick shift. Steve weighed enough to be permitted the use of a 350cc automatic. We listened to the thirty second explanation of how the beasts work and (again foolishly) hopped into th [View Full Entry]

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