Thanks to Parasar's relations with Emirates, I got hooked up with a discounted ticket to Nairobi, via Calcutta and Dubai. :) Just when I was starting to get a fondness for trains, busses and bumpy roads... I wasn't planning on coming to Africa but ended up coming here on a whim. Actually, what had happened was I came across an internet ad for a flight from Kathmandu to Nairobi... and i thought, "Hm... Nairobi...interesting...Why not?" So I guess internet ads do work, at least in an inspirational sense. It took me a while to peel myself away from Nepal, but [View Full Entry]

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I have a garden of my own Shining with flowers of every hue I loved it clearly while alone but I shall love it more with you ...is the quote gracing the first of four fancy gold-scripted wedding invitation cards (with a gorgeous, contemporary Ganesh on the envelope), a preview of the elaborate wedding receptions and ceremonies that is follow in the coming week. I arrived in Kathmandu on Friday afternoon after a long but scenic bus ride from Pokhara. After settling down in Kathmandu Guest House, I met Tenzing and his friends Ashish and Prabhat for dinner. They have [View Full Entry]

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Coming back to Nepal a second time was a different experience than the first time I was here. Maybe it was because I left a chaotic, diverse, contradictory rollercoaster of a country (India), for a laid-back, predictably calm country (Nepal). But definitely, it's GOOD to be BACK! Elad and I took off from Rishikesh on Mike (the Bike) and covered a mere 80 km to a city called Dhampur, where we were the only foreigners in this mid-sized town that had only two guesthouses: a sh*tty one, and a sh*ttier one, where the sheets aren't cleaned and mosquitoes dominate the [View Full Entry]

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From Mumbai, I had a 5:50 a.m. train to Ahmedabad, from which I had connecting train to the romantic city of Udaipur. So imagine my shock and disbelief when I woke up at 5:50 a.m.!!! Somewhere in my sleepy brain, I actually envisioned that by some stroke of luck, I would make it on time. I grabbed my prepacked bags (see I'm not all that irresponsible) and bolted down the stairs and tumbled into the streets. I asked a cabbie driver, "How much?" to which he replied Rs50, so I threw my bags and myself in, and told the driver [View Full Entry]

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I wasn't going to write a blog about Mumbai, let alone do anything here, but WOW, I have to write a short blog (well, knowing me, it'll get long). I was only here for 2 nights, but my eyes and ears have seen and heard so much! The sleeper bus wasn't so bad...but from now on, I'm sticking with trains. The inconvenient thing about the busses is that you share your sleeper bed with someone else... so imagine sleeping on a smaller-than-twin sized bed with a stranger. Not fun. [Day I] Rodents and racists: same same, not different Our bus [View Full Entry]

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I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to change my plans and go south. I had originally planned on just going north from Agra, which makes logical and practical sense, but the beach was screaming my name, so I had to follow the voices in my head and get on a 36-hour train ride to Goa, one of the smallest states in India. Goa has an interesting history, as it was the first region in India to get colonized in 1510 and the last to be given independence in 1961 by the Portuguese; inbetween all this, the [View Full Entry]

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From Orchha, we drove to Gwalior and spent one night there. They have a fancy fort and palace (yawn), but we were not in the sightseeing mood, plus Orchha had spoiled us with its abundant supply of them. At Gwalior, I saw the first "mansion" in India, and there were plenty of them with their armed guards at front. I was confused, "Is this India?" Then, duh, I remembered there are many India's in India. Contemplating whether we wanted to rest one more day there and be lazy (the Orchha effect), we opted for efficiency and left for Agra, the [View Full Entry]

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There is nothing like traveling on a motorbike: the wind in your hair; the sun piercing and aging your skin; the smog in your face; the smiles you get 80% of the time; the waves you get 50% of the time; the confused "is that really a traveler on a motorbike and not a tourbus" stare you get 20% of the time; the sexy farmer tan you get from your sneaker, capri pants and tank top; the freedom to stop over wherever and whenever you want; having a bug or small pebble hit your face; having bug juice splatter on [View Full Entry]

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"It's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small, small world..." The day before I left Varanasi for Khajuraho, I was at an internet cafe talking with one of the workers, when a guy asks, "Hey are you American?" Grace: Yea. Are you? Him: Yea, from the LA area. G: Really? Cool! Me too! Where in LA? H: Redondo Beach. G: Oh really?!?! I'm from Torrance!!! H: Well, I'm from Torrance too, but I went to a school that was between Redondo and Torrance. G: Really?? ME TOO!!! [View Full Entry]

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"India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." -Mark Twain Being that India invented/founded/developed the number & decimal system; Algebra, trigonometry and calculus (yuck); Sanskrit (the mother of all the western languages); chess; and Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, & Sikhism, I would say that Twain was pretty on the ball with his comment. India is really a living h [View Full Entry]

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