I LOVE Thailand! I am not being paid by the Thai Tourism Office when I say that everyone should visit Thailand--it is a beautiful country full of kind people, incredible temples & delicious food. Bangkok I had thought might be seedy, dirty & chaotic--however, I love to be proven wrong! What a wonderful city. It's clean, filled with nice people, a fast & efficient public transportation system (the cleanest subway I've ever seen) & beautiful, brightly colored & intricately decorated temples & palaces. Love it! I've included pictures of some of the Temples I visited--they are gorgeous! Lot [View Full Entry]

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I got some action! I actually paid for it...hmmm... So I want to describe my adventures in massage because I just had another one today. I will be comparing the Indian Ayurvedic massage and the Thai massage. Here goes: The Ayurvedic masasge I got in McLeod Ganj. I had just traveled for 8 hours via 5 different means of transportation & wasn't feeling fabulous, so when I checked into my room & saw the sign for a massage, I was like 'sweet!' So she came to my room a couple hours later & briskly told me to take off my clothes [View Full Entry]

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I am enjoying my time in India, I am enjoying my time in India, I am enjoying my time in India....this is my mantra! Seriously though, I think that the sadness/homesickness/really want to leave-ness was caused by the Larium (malaria medication). It's side effects include exacerbating feelings of anxiety & depression & on the package perscription it says, Call you Dr. if you are experiencing extreme sadness....seriously! It was strange--uncontrollable crying off and on for 2 days. Totally weird & I am really excited that it is over. I am not going to take that stuff anymore! So I ended up [View Full Entry]

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I made it safely to India! I LOVE QATAR AIRWAYS!! My flights from Nairobi totally rocked! The planes, the movies, the fod, the service--all excellent! I arrived into Delhi airport & was greeted by my friend Muriel's childhood friend Subodh. He is this awesome guy who is 75, very friendly, a real 'thinker'. He has a very scientific mind and analyzes life situations & then synthesizes this information into 'knowledge'. I learned so much from him in 3 short days! I did a fast & furious bus tour of Delhi. It is an interesting city of which I did not spend [View Full Entry]

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So if people don't know, Nairobi (aka Nairobbery) is known as 'Africa's biggest & baddest city'. Therefore when I arrived at 4am, I did not have anywhere to go for 5 hours, so I stayed in the airport, read, wasn't able to use my ATM card, called mom & had a minor melt down. Tears are good for the soul, right? Have you ever felt semi paralyzed with fear? That is what I felt. S-c-a-r-e-d. I read somewhere once that courage means feeling the fear & doing it anyway. So I acknowledged that I was scared sh*tless & walked outside the [View Full Entry]

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I was sooo happy to get out of Cairo! Yay! For all of you thinking of traveling to Egypt--2 days in Cairo is more than enough. 6 is overkill. I met the rest of my family in Venice to begin our family vacation! Woohoo! We stayed in a hotel that was on an island in Venice. For those of you who have not been to Venice, you may not realize that this is redundant because Venice is made up of a bunch of islands! Apparently I did not pay attention in social studies class that closely--or to movies. I thought that [View Full Entry]

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My brother Matt arrived in Egypt & I should have taken a picture of him walking through the hotel room door--man oh man was he drenched! He arrived at 10pm-ish and got a treat of the Egyptian heat! We went to see the Pyramids (round 2 for me) & were off on an overnight train to Aswan (southern Egypt--also known as Upper Egypt...now we all get a geography lesson) which was pretty nice (by Egypt standards--comparable to a small jail cell in a low security prison...i'm guessing). Then it was time for the Royal Lily cruise up/down the Nile towards Luxor. [View Full Entry]

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Yay! We're in Egypt & staying in ONE hotel for 5 straight nights! Woohoo! After such a frantic pace in Morocco--it's awesome to stay in Cairo for a few days in a row. Plus that is a lot cheaper too. Cairo is a big city (about 20 million people) with TONS of taxis which don't have any meters. There are also tons of men constantly saying "Taxi? Where you from? Taxi? Need a guide? Taxi?" Ah! Our Hotel--thank goodness--has AIR CONDITIONING! Ahhhh...I have been getting so much sleep these past few nights--yayy! Cold + dark + (relatively) quiet = sleep It's [View Full Entry]

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Obviously I was kidding about the everyday thing! Thought I'd wrap up Morocco in one blog in an effort to save the earth, my fingers, your eyes & a couple of egyptian pounds... In Morocco we started in Casablanca, then went to Rabat, Fes, Tangier, & then Marrakech. I then came back up to Casablanca to fly out to France on my way to Egypt. If I were to sum it up--the highlights were: Rabat--beautiful, clean town with a low key atmosphere. Beautiful Tower of Hassan and masoleum with intricate Moroccan decoration. Fes--inland so it was HOT! Stayed at an awesome [View Full Entry]

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I had a layover in Paris. Although it is an expensive country, so far it is the one where I have spent the least! Yay Paris! I felt so welcomed coming & going--they had cute signs =) [View Full Entry]

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