Two great flights (thank you Cathay Pacific) and I arrive in Singapore. From the zaniness of India to the homogined Singapore, a place where you can spend a night in jail for spitting gum on the street. Thanks to my friend Kirsty, I am at the Mandrin Marina hotel, a far cry from the low budget huts and rooms in India I was staying in. While Kirsty has some work to do with HP, I spend my time visiting the malls and shops of Singapore...cause that is all there really is to this place. One of my first stops is Carl's [View Full Entry]

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My flight from Goa to Mumbai was without incident, but the cab ride from the airport to the Colabra section of Mumbai was a nightmare. The ride took over two hours with lots of traffice, the cabs are really small so I had to schootch down in the rear seat, and no air con with the hot air of Mumbai baking me. I had planned to have dinner with a friend but my late arrival cancelled that so I went to Leopolds (a Mumbai landmark among travelers) for dinner solo. Then to bed as I was in need of some serious [View Full Entry]

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Malte and I say goodbye to our friends in Arambol and head south to Palolem. It only took 4 hours and 4 different local buses (total cost of $4 USD) and we made it. We immediately let a local tout take us to a group of beach huts at a placed called San Francisco. For only $3.25 per day, we got our own huts....nice. It did not take Malte and I long before we made Palolem our home. We met two Swedish guys (Kris "Iceman" and David "Mavrick"), two Israeli girls we had met earlier in Arambol (Tamar and Julie), a [View Full Entry]

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Ahhh.....I finally reached the beach and oh, so nice. On the flight from Delhi to Goa, I met up with some Israelis girls (go figure) who told me I should go to Arambol beach in the north. Since i did not have a plan, i said OK. Funny how life works out because as I stroll onto the beach with my backpack in search of a place to stay, i hear someone yell "Larry". It turns out to be Malte, my German friend I traveled with from Pushkar to Jodhpur! I spent the next few days enjoying the wonderful beach of [View Full Entry]

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I took the overnight bus from Udaipur with two girls (they chose to go with a twin sleeper and I got the first regular seat). After spending so much time in smaller cities, it was a bit of a shock getting to Delhi. We immediately went to the Main Bazaar area to secure a hotel (Palace Hotel...but I end up switching the next day to the My Hotel which is down the street). The frist thing I noticed about Delhi's Main Bazaar area is how many Israeli's there were. They are EVERYWHERE. Even the signs for some shops are in Hebrew [View Full Entry]

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The overnight bus was not so bad namely because I insisted on seat number 1 which meant there was no one in front of me to recline into me. There was a bit of a mix up during the bus switch in Jodhpur as someone else had seat #1 on their ticket but I was having none of that. I passed time showing the bus drivers' assistant my photos before I caught a few hours of sleep before we hit Udaipur at 5:30am. I tagged along with two Korean girls on the bus to a non Lonely Planet hotel named Minerva. [View Full Entry]

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First, let me thank Scottie B for recommending I visit Jodhpur. I was going to bypass this town and head straight to Jaislamer but I'm happy I did not. Second, after a rough beginning, I have come to love this foreign land called India. It is truly a magical place with gracious people, rich history, delicious foods and an unexplainable force that invades your body and lifts your spirit. Sure, as with any relationship, their are hardships but that only makes for a memorable experience and stronger bonds. Now, to my latest travel happenings.... Once again I was able to sit [View Full Entry]

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We grabbed a morning bus from Jaipur to the small, very religious lake town of Pushkar. Unfortunately, the bus was not one which I could ride on the roof so I made do with reading the local newspaper and chatting with two Isreali girls. Upon arriving in Pushkar, we were unable to find a suitable guest house. So Natalie and I set out on a whirlwind tour of Pushkar's muddy streets in search of a good guest house (we left Ollie and Nadia to look after our backpacks). After an hour and a half, we stumbled upon Hill View Guest House [View Full Entry]

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The 7 hour bus ride from Agra (although we were told it was only 5 hours) was fantastic as I spent most of the time on the roof enjoying a wonderful breeze and fantastic views. The scenery changes dramatically as you leave Uttar Pradesh region and enter Rajasthan where the landscape becomes greener and peppered with small mountains. Rajasthan is the "Land of Kings" and Jaipur is its capital. Here I met up with many other travelers and took in information for many of my upcoming travels (SE Asia, Africa, etc.). The intense heat during the day made for some uncomfortable [View Full Entry]

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We took the overnight train from Varanasi to Agra and once again, I did not sleep much given the heat. But I feel refreshed having arrived at the Shanti Hotel (thank you to my Japanesse friends for the recommendation), taken a shower and had some food on the roof top with its amazing view of the Taj Mahal. Thanks to a helpful autorickshaw driver, we took in a few bazaars and the Agra Fort before heading to the Taj in the late afternoon. Spending time at the Taj Mahal was a magical experience. Never did I dream I would be sitting [View Full Entry]

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