October 6, 2011 No visit to India would be complete to me without seeing the Taj Mahal, and as Sean and Jerlin hadn't been yet it was a perfect opportunity for the four of us to get out of the city and check it out... Agra is one point of what's known as the Golden Triangle of India, with New Delhi and Jaipur being the other two points. The plan was to drive to Agra and see the Taj Mahal in the morning/early afternoon, then drive to Jaipur to spend the night, get up and visit the Pink City in the morning and then head back to New Delhi in the afternoon...sounded simple enough to me, not exactly as it worked out... We did get up and on the road around 5:30am, and with the approximate ... read more

This is a bit of a catch-all entry; not a whole lot to say about Lovina itself but as most of these adventures/pics occurred either going to or setting out from Lovina I figured it was just as easy to lump them all together into one blog... So after our return to Ubud and our less than auspicious debut in the rental vehicle we pointed the Toyota Avenza north, destination Lovina! Michael and Sue (the Australian couple we had met in Padang Bai) mentioned they were heading there as well, gave us the name of the place they were staying and invited us to join them for a few days...hmmm, okay! We had had a good time with them, and they offered to show us around the countryside so it sounded like a perfect opportunity to ... read more

After much discussion in Ubud as to what our next destination would be we found an inexpensive bus-boat combo to get us to the Gili Islands, so Gili Trawangan it was! We heard and read so much about these islands off the northwest coast of Lombok; no motorized vehicles are allowed on any of the three islands, the snorkeling is supposed to be fantastic and it's a real laid back vibe, all of which would be proven true with a five day hang on Gili T.! Our pickup was late in the morning, and then it was a mad scramble to get to Padang Bai where we were to catch our boat but managed to make it in the nick of time...fast boat to the Gili's is the way to go, certainly more expensive but only ... read more

After far too long a break between trips it was time to get back on a plane and hit our next adventure: Bali! This was also a good excuse to get away and celebrate both a birthday and an engagement, and this seemed to be the perfect spot... Arrived in Kuta after a good 27 hours of flying and within the hour we were at our first hotel and cracking a Bintang in the wee hours of the morning, happy to have arrived and too tired to sleep...haha...on a recommendation from K's brother we were to spend the next three nights at the absolutely idyllic Poppies Cottages on Poppies Gang 1, completely recommend it; twenty individual private cottages, all with fantastic outdoor bathrooms, beautiful grounds, a gorgeous pool and very friendly staff. After wandering around the ... read more

Well, we made it to our last destination, Hanoi (well Hanoi and Halong Bay, lumping them into one post...). With only three days left on the trip this was unfortunately going to be a fairly brief stop... We arrived early afternoon and checked into our hotel, the Blue Paradise in the Old Quarter (as recommended by the agent at the Green Field in Hoi An...not sure if there was a sale on brightly coloured paint in Vietnam but it sure made the places easy to find...again probably from Space as well...). Anyway, dumped our packs and headed out to get our bearings...first impression of Hanoi was that the people seemed a little more reserved than the folks in the south...there wasn't the hard sell at most of the shops, which was kind of a nice change, ... read more