Tucson

I desperately wanted a week in the sun to just relax and do a lot of reading and have some beers. Goa is a cheap flight from Kuwait and hotels range from cheap to expensive, so I booked the flight, found an apartment to rent close to the beach, and I was ready to go. I arrived early in the morning and the owners of the apartment, which was privately owned, picked me up and a short while later I was on Benaulim beach getting a tan and drinking a beer. What a relief! Oh wait. Here the come. The hawkers. These beautiful Goan women in saris selling their wares. And there are so many of them. Sigh. This is the one negative of the beach in Goa. These women are very persistent and they definitely ... read more

This morning we went for a walk through the rice paddies. Sujee had been talking about this during our trip and we had passed many of them, so he would tell us about the rice paddies. Except he called them 'faddy fields'. I knew what he meant, but I didn't realize other people on the tour didn't understand him. When we were taking pictures in the faddy fields, I heard some people in the group talking and I was cracking up when I realized the whole time he was telling us about the faddy fields they didn't make the connection. The rice paddies were actually really beautiful and while I had seen a lot of them in Asia, I had never walked through one. Got some great photos. I would really like to try planting rice. ... read more

After breakfast this morning we drove a short distance on the bus to Polonnaruwa, a Medieval city. We toured the city on a bicycle which is definitely the way to do it. It is fairly spread out and the temples and structures that have been excavated and very well preserved. I wish I could remember more about it, but I just don't. I think being on a tour has made me very lazy. I had no guidebook and we weren't given any info about the site upon entry. I do know this was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982. And rightfully so. After visiting Polonnaruwa we went back to the hotel where the people who were not going on the elephant safari (40 USD) had the afternoon free. I went on the safari to Minneriya ... read more

This day was my last day in Santorini. Last chance to see the Akrotiri ruins. On this trip anyway. So after breakfast at the hotel, I took the bus to Akrotiri and arrived just before my motion sickness got really bad. I was turning a bit green on those curvy roads. I'm sure all that sambuka I had last night had nothing to do with it. The ruins at Akrotiri are completely covered and protected from the elements. Excavation continues, but the site is so impressive. At 5 euros, it is well worth a visit. Akrotiri is a Minoan settlement from the Bronze Age. It was destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 1500 BC and covered in ash, like Pompei in Italy. The ash actually preserved a lot of frescoes and mosaics and other works of ... read more

After a six hour bus ride from Chitwan, I was back in Kathmandu for two more nights. The bus ride was uneventful, but I was on the side of the bus with a view this time. That was good because I was able to see the view. That was also bad. Because I was able to see the view. Off the dropoff into the river. With little or no barrier in most places. And it is impossible to sleep on this bus, not because it was loud, but because it is so bumpy. We got thrown around pretty good in some sections. I was sitting next to a guy from Belgium who came to Nepal for two weeks, but he spent the first week building houses for Habitat for Humanity. Now he was checking out other ... read more