Washington, DC -In the midst of Pope-mania Arriving in Washington, DC we didn't know whether we were lucky or not. Pope Francis was arriving the following day to meet the president -roads were going to be closed, access to some of the sights were going to be limited. The whole event was kind of a big deal. We knew nothing about his DC visit until we were on the Megabus there. We are not Roman Catholic, so hearing of his visit we were more or less indifferent to it. We were coming to Washington to sightsee, get a glimpse of Barack and shamefully visit sights featured in the popular US TV show 'Scandal'. Washington, DC is definitely a capital built with the intention of being a capital. The wide roads are in grid format; vertical avenues ... read more

Sorry for the delay with this next blog, we decided to take a break with publishing blogs over Christmas. We hope you continue to enjoy our travels that follows on from India...to our adventures in the States! Pre-Trip For this world trip, along with visiting countries we could easily travel around on a budget, we also wanted to go to countries that we knew would stretch our finances a little. Japan and China were destinations we had to include so then it was a decision between countries like Australia, New Zealand the States and Canada. Our budget could not cover all 4 and in the end we decided on the States. It was the slightly cheaper option and we were eager to visit all the places we had always seen on TV as children. The places ... read more

Cruising through the backwaters of Kerala we slowly meandered through the lush rivers surrounded by calm, tranquil slow paced village life. The backwaters were nothing short of incredible. Another highlight and memorable experience. Gliding slowly through the waterways we were very content and relaxed as we witnessed this tranquil place. We passed many local houses, fish farms, men, women and children walking the riverbanks. It was so peaceful. We had the opportunity to witness the larger waterways on our houseboat we stayed on for a couple of days and the narrower waterways when we later hired out a small boat for the day on a separate occasion. These waterways were beautiful. There were so many different shades of green. From the bright green rice terraces to the darker green palm tree leaves, the light green mango ... read more

Hampi; described as one of the most bewitching and spell-bounding landscapes with sandy temples and ruins dotted across some of the most spectacular scenery. Now a world heritage site, but in its prime it is believed Hampi was once one of the richest and largest kingdoms in the world. Take that you other built up ugly capital cities. In other words Hampi is generally described as a place not to be missed on a trip to southern India. Furthermore it was off the tourist trail of Rajasthan. Saying all of this, before we arrived we could not get ourselves excited for Hampi as we enjoyed our few days of relaxation in Goa and had seen enough palaces and temples to last a lifetime by now. Did we really want to see another one, two or even ... read more

Dare a dip in the ganges When we hear people talk about India, one of the first things they mention is the famous Ganges river. Even after hearing the stories, watching the documentaries and even reading various blogs on it, we knew we had to visit this holy city. This is the city where Hindu's come to be put to rest. Like we said, we'd heard many of the stories and....well in all honesty for a long time we had been put off on coming to this place . Especially P! I mean who really wants to see the charred remains of someone floating down a river? Sorry to be soo blunt that's just what we heard. Getting here should've been straight forward from Jaipur. We had the trains booked already and the tuk tuk ordered ... read more