After two weeks on tour with a fun group of folks, we bid farewell and set out on our own. Based on advice from our tour leader, we selected four locations in the state of Rajasthan to visit. Ranthambhore National Park Our first stop was Ranthambhore National Park which is renowned for its tigers. We took three safaris trying to find tigers but never saw any. We did see lots of other animals. We also spent an afternoon exploring the old Ranthambhore Fort. We hired a guide and driver to take us there in his jeep. The Fort is on the top of a hill. It uses the cliffs as natural fort walls and is huge, over 100 acres. There are several palace ruins and many temples both active and in ruins. They had reservoirs that ... read more

What comes to mind when you think of India? Women in colorful saris? Elephants? Hindu gods? Beggars in the street? India is all of that and more, as we are rapidly learning. Because India can be such a challenge, we decided to take a tour with the same company who guided us our first few weeks in China. The difference being that in China we shared a private tour with Bob and Meri Jo and in India we joined a group tour. Our guide on this tour is named Hemang. Delhi We arrived in Delhi from Bangkok after an uneventful flight (my favorite kind.) We were met by a car and driver at the airport but the driver did not know where the hotel was. We had the address but apparently that gets you within about ... read more

Luang Prabang is a restful, former capital city in the north of Laos. It is a wonderful combination of tourist services without the pressure or scams normally associated with lots of tourists. In addition, it has several low key but fun activities available. This great combination results in a lovely place to visit. We decided to take advantage of such a great synergy and spent five full days partaking of the amusements. Day Zero We traveled from Luang Nam Tha to Luang Prabang on a minivan. It was a curvy, twisty two-lane road for the entire eight hour trip. We had several stops but the first one was at a market which was just a line of about 30 women along the road selling stuff mostly for locals’ consumption. What was interesting were all the live ... read more

On the day before Thanksgiving we entered Thailand. Our plan was to spend about a week in the country then go on to Laos before returning to Bangkok. During this foray into Thailand we made two stops. First we visited our friend Janet who is serving in the Peace Corps in the northeastern part of the country and second we headed further north to visit an area called Chiang Rai. Because Janet is serving in a small village that is well off the tourist track it was somewhat of an adventure just to get to her. Our initial research said there were no buses from the Cambodian/Thai border to her village and that we would have to go to Bangkok first. Upon getting to the bus station at the border town of Aranya Prathet, Thailand, we ... read more

Phu Quoc is a tropical island off the coast of Vietnam and Cambodia that belongs to Vietnam. It has your picture postcard white sand beaches and palm trees swaying under blue skies dotted by puffy white clouds. We thought it sounded like a great place to take a break from our vacation. Once there, however, it did not live up to our hopes. Although Phu Quoc is very close to paradise, it has so much trash floating in the water that I took to calling it the city dump for paradise. It is really difficult to enjoy the swimming when there are plastic bags curling around your ankles. We took a day long snorkel trip and one stop was a scene that looked like a postcard you would send home to make people jealous. Once we ... read more