It's been five months since we returned from our two-year-long, 15-country adventure. Within days of our return, reverse culture shock quickly ceded to the bliss of hot showers, comfortable beds, home cooking, and washing machines. After 23 months of laundering clothes by hand in freezing water followed by mosquito-ridden nights on bug-infested beds, America seems truly luxurious. We've been taking advantage of our respective parents' hospitality, staying first with Randy's mom in northern California, and then with Jenny's folks in southwestern Colorado. Spending two years around the Equator didn't exactly prepare us for winter—but getting in some much-anticipated time on the [View Full Entry]

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We blame Bollywood. After two weeks surrounded by cameras and self-important men shouting "Action!", going back to still pictures just wouldn't cut it. That was also about the time we discovered that Jenny's point-and-shoot had a video function. Result? "How to Get Lost," a montage of our favorite video clips from India, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. Check it out at: http://hellotrain.blip.tv The movie is broken down by country and lined up in order. Production and narration by Randy, music by Randy and Jenny, special cameo appearances by Nadya, Georgia, and a very friendly baby black bear named Paula. Happy watching! [View Full Entry]

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Wanted: 40 foreigners to go on an all-expenses-paid cruise for two weeks to the postcard-perfect Lakshadweep islands (and sun themselves by the pool in the background of a major Bollywood production). Qualifications: willingness to work 12-hour days and ability to clap hands in rhythm to Hindi pop music. Check and check. Our first time in Mumbai, Bollywood was a distant glimmer of glamour. We’d heard stories of travelers who got recruited to work as extras on movie sets, but we figured they were the lucky few. The second time around, we couldn’t walk ten steps without getting hounded by casting [View Full Entry]

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On the morning of March 5, everything shut down. Buses stopped running. Stores closed shop. Tourists holed up in their hotel rooms, not daring to step foot outside. No, it wasn’t a terrorist threat or political riots, but one of India’s liveliest festivals: Holi, a giant multi-colored waterfight that brings anarchy to all of India. We fell victim to Holi in Pushkar, a small but highly touristed town in Rajasthan. The town’s temples rise around the edges of a tiny gem of a lake; legend has it that the waters sprang from a lotus flower dropped by Lord Brahma himself. [View Full Entry]

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Rajasthan is the “land of kings,” where every city has a fort, and every fort has a history chock full of daring soldiers and captivating maidens—all the stuff fairy tales are made of. Udaipur, our first stop in the state, was a fine place for Jenny to live out her long-suppressed princess fantasies. There are no fewer than three stunning palaces in and around the lake-side city. The labyrinthine City Palace, built on a rise in the heart of town, draws the most visitors, with its fun house-style mirrored rooms, stained-glass windows and meticulously painted halls. If only “Cribs” was [View Full Entry]

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When arriving in Baroda, state of Gujarat, we had a bizarre experience right off the bat. While checking in at the hole-in-the-wall hotel office, Randy and the hotel manager were interrupted by a “sadhu” (holy man in search of enlightenment). He was draped a long orange robe and dangling gold jewelry, with a painted face and wild hair. Exactly what happened next remains a mystery since they were speaking in a foreign language, but it went something like this: Sadhu insists manager look through album of naked-sadhu-in-desert photos. Manager protests that he’s busy with customer (Randy). Loud arguing. Manager reluctantly thumbs [View Full Entry]

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Cold Australian beers before us. Chips and salsa burning our tongues. French posters framed on the wall. A table full of loud Nigerians across the room. So where are we? Where else but Mumbai, India? “I want another beer,” says Jenny. “My armpits smell like curry,” says Randy. And from these humble beginnings, inspired by intoxication in a back alley bar, the hellotrain blog is born again. After nearly a year of fun under the sun (Randy) and hard labor (Jenny), we’re picking up not quite where we left off to carve out a new adventure through the Indian sub-continent. Dubbed [View Full Entry]

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Unfortunately this is where our African journey ends. For our final blog we decided to throw together a bit of Hellotrain miscellany. From the buoyant waters of the Dead Sea to the baboon-blanketed slopes of the Simien Mountains; from Jenny getting attacked by a monkey on a leash to Randy getting attacked by a sewer grate; from awful falafel in Egypt to mouth-watering matoke in Uganda…We saw a lot of places and did a lot of stuff. Countries Visited: Turkey - Egypt - Jordan - Ethiopia - Kenya - Tanzania - Uganda - Rwanda - DR Congo Days Traveled: 170 (just [View Full Entry]

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As if Africa didn't have enough problems, the continent came with volcanoes. Imagine facing poverty, disease, and war, and then one day a wall of lava comes and swallows up your home. This was a reality for residents of the Congolese city of Goma when the neighboring volcano, Mt. Nyiragongo, erupted in 2002 and destroyed a large part of town. People were forced to flee to Gisenyi on the Rwandan side of the border as lava passed through restaurants, churches, schools, and houses. Now, four years later, locals are still rebuilding their homes and their lives atop the jagged lava rock [View Full Entry]

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The grass is always greener on the other side…unless you’re in Rwanda. In the “Land of a Thousand Hills,” the scenery is so constantly spectacular that the camera never quite makes it back in the bag. Whether it’s tea plantations, terraced hillsides, or rainforest, there’s something stunning—and green—around every corner. Even in busy downtown Kigali, people go about their daily grind with picturesque views of the surrounding countryside as the backdrop. It’s hard to imagine the horror of the 1994 genocide, in which over one million people were killed, taking place among these streets and gardens. But take place it did—we [View Full Entry]

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