Tuesday 4-12 Fly Cape Town to Jo’burg, to Abu Dhabi, to Istanbul in 24 hours. A VERY long day of flying, sitting, eating airline food and having to sit next to some very smelly people. At least it gives me some time to work on the blog, right? ;o) Wednesday 4-13 to Tuesday 4-19 I love Turkey! And not just the poultry kind! We arrived in Istanbul and were immediately smitten with the city. It’s cool to think that we’re straddling both Europe and Asia right now. Nick Note: Here the politicians can truly say “I can see Asia from my house” to boost their foreign relations credentials. Istanbul is really a beautiful city with tons of history and gorgeous architecture. Our first truly European city and it’s a welcomed sight. After driving around South Africa, ... read more

Tuesday 4-5 to Wednesday 4-6 Around Tsitsikamma, we visited the largest and oldest (700 years) yellowwood tree in South Africa, known as the Big Tree. Considering the giant red woods in the U.S. and the giant fig trees we’ve seen in Australia and Costa Rica, this tree paled in comparison. Not so impressive and sadly not very yellow ;o) But it was nice to take a stroll in the crisp morning air. I didn’t realize how much of South Africa is managed forest. Everywhere we drove, we passed acre after acre of planted pine trees and logging trucks. More impressive than the Big Tree was the world’s tallest bungee jump (217m) at Bloukrans River. We watched the jumpers while sipping our hot, creamy beverages from the safety and comfort of a viewing platform. It was cool ... read more

Sunday 3-27 to Tuesday 3-29 Well, the honeymoon in Africa is over. The first few days were great and Kruger was amazing, but then we went to Swaziland and were thoroughly unimpressed. Nick Note: We went to some pretty poor countries on our trip; Cambodia, Nepal, etc., but none were as obviously poor as Swaziland. But while Cambodia and Nepal are beautiful and enjoyable in many ways there was little, if anything, attractive about Swaziland. Our accommodations were filthy and customer service seriously lacking. Add to that the fact that we were seriously ripped off by the travel agent we booked our trip with in South Africa and you have two very unhappy campers. We’re trying to work through it, though. We have two days in St. Lucia on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It’s ... read more

Most of our photos have been updated to Flickr (ahead of the blog) if you want to take a look. If you need the link, let me know. -Catherine... read more

Friday 3-18 to Saturday 3-19 Once off the stalled train, we got into our Jaipur hotel around 3am, f’ing exhausted and poor Allen was sick as a dog. We’re not sure if he caught something from the food or just from the surroundings, but he ended up spending the better part of Jaipur sick in bed. Poor guy :o( He was unable to join us for our first jaunt into the city to see the bazaars and the old Pink City (so named for the pink coat of paint the maharaja decided the city needed). The bazaars were a trip! With the Holi Festival only days away, the bazaars were full of people stocking up on everything imaginable, especially tikka powder. One of the main reasons Trent, Allen & Amy decided to join us in India ... read more