mjripple

It has been a long, fun 12 days since my last post, and with my flight from Heathrow back to the good ole US of A in about 12 hours, I figured that I needed to get some words down about whats been going on and some general stuff about the last 80 days. Although my experiences recently will probably not seem as deep and meaningful as my time in India or SE Asia, they were nonetheless just as important. So here's a quick rundown of the last two weeks or so. After Innsbruck, we overnighted to Rome to meet up with some of the family. Our time there with Grandma, Grandpa, Joanne, Peggy and Lori was nothing short of wonderful. Heres the short list of what we saw: the Coliseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, St. ... read more

Considering I only have about 40 rupees left and the internet costs 40 rupees/ hour, I need to make this short and sweet. That shouldnt be too difficult, considering my last few days have not been as spectacular as the beginning of my trip- but they were still pretty good. Due to poor planning on my part, I had about 3 days to get from Varanasi (north-central) to Mumbai (southwest-ish). It was about 1500 kilometers, and considering a train ticket costs about 700 rupees and a plane ticket costs well over 4000, I decided to go with the former. In order to avoid 28 straight hours on the Indian rails (something I wouldnt wish on my worst enemy), I decided to make a stop for a day somewhere in the middle. Pretty much the only place ... read more

Forget an intro, lets jump right in: The last time I left you all, I was heading up into the mountains... so at first, Wojcieck (the Polish guy I've been travelling with) and I had thought to use a guide. It was very cheap, only $30 per person per day, and that included all your gear as well as someone to carry it up for you. Then we started thinking... if it only costs 30 bucks, how much will they really do? So instead of the guide, we bought a map for a dollar and walked up ourselves. It was an 11km hike, with an altitude change of 1100 meters, no easy deal, but the view from the top was spectacular. I tried to take some pictures that could catch the feeling of the place, but ... read more

Every time I get on here I realize how long it has been since I last wrote... paying for internet is a pain. But now I'm at Dan and Gaby's apartment in Delhi, so I'll be able to spend a significant amount of time updating all my followers. So after Phnom Penh, I headed south to Sihanoukville (abbreviated Snookyville or just Snooky) to get a Vietnam visa and spend a day at the beach, but I liked it there so much I decided to save Vietnam for another trip and just enjoy the town for a few days (plus the trip to Vietnam would have been 12 hours on a bus, and I didnt want to lose a whole day like that). So the first night, I got into town pretty late and headed to the ... read more

It's been way too long between posts on here... but when it comes down to it, I'd rather spend time doing stuff than informing you all of what I'm doing. So here goes a rundown of the last few days... Dad and I went on a great snorkeling trip to the Similan Islands, off the coast of Thailand from the town of Khao Lak, just north of the tourist center of Phuket (yuk!). The snorkeling was pretty good, but dad and I both agreed that the scenery of the islands was worth the price of the snorkeling trip alone. And besides, snorkeling isnt as much fun when you don't have a spear in your hand. From there we headed to Kho Panyi, which is a stilt village hugging the side of a small mountainous island. Very ... read more