My fight left New Delhi at 3:55am, which meant I needed to be at the airport in New Delhi by about 1am. The night before, we’d gotten in from dinner at about 10:30pm, so I went to my hotel room, and set an alarm for about midnight. I was heading to the airport with Maria who was also on my tour. I woke up suddenly to a phone call in my room. My phone alarm had gone off but alas it had gone off almost silently! So I slept right through it. I went as fast as I could to pack my stuff up and get it all together and…
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India’s Game of Thrones-Style Fort
On our second day in Jaipur, I woke up feeling quite a bit better. My cold was still there, and still getting worse (I was still trying not to dip into my antibiotics… I planned those for Delhi Belly, not a cold!). But the headache was gone, and I had a good night’s sleep. I also knew that we had a free afternoon planned, and I planned to use it to do nothing but take a nap and relax! In the morning, we went to the Amber Fort. It was like something out of Game of Thrones. Even by the standards of all the others we’d seen in India, this…
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Wonder #5: The Taj Mahal
I feel like one of the life lessons you learn just past kindergarten is that few things live up to their hype. The Taj Mahal was one of those things that absolutely lives up to and exceeds all expectations for it. On Tuesday, we set our alarms so we would be out of the hotel by 4:30 and in line at the Taj by 4:45. It was an early early morning, but so completely worth it. We were going for sunrise, but alas, the sun never did rise. It was a cloudy day, but it didn’t matter. Our group was the first one on the grounds that morning, so we…
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Chaos and Smells: New Delhi!
Time and again, people warned me about the absolute chaos that is New Delhi. I heard them and heeded their warnings – that’s why I took a group tour in India – but still I was unprepared for the utter madness that’s in the city. Driving is not for the faint of heart. I can’t begin to understand the rules of the road here. It’s a press the accelerator and pray kind of system. It’s constant gridlock, constant honking, and just constant everything. And then there’s the smog. I have sneezed more in India than anywhere else in the world. My allergies have flat-out rejected the country. For our first…
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Backpacker Moments: Adventure Outtakes Part 2
A collection of the moments that make you cringe. And help you remember everything in travel is not Instagram-ready. Electric Motorbikes The motorbikes in Bagan are more much more powerful than the ones in Siem Reap. I feel like we’ve already covered what an excellent driver I am, so naturally, nothing could possibly go wrong. Driving the motorbike through Bagan was amazing – going down the roads at 40 km/h with the sun out was fantastic. And then you go off the main road and onto the dirt paths. By dirt paths, what they really mean is sand paths. Deep sand paths. Driving over them was always an adventure. There…
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Plot Twist: The Magic of One-Way Tickets
So the blog right now is about a week to ten days behind where I am (just a heads up… and sorry – it gives me a bit of time to get the posts put together! And some days have more than one story!). This week, I’m in India – you’ll get to see posts soon! However, I thought this would be a good time to mention that my itinerary has changed. Originally, I was going to go trekking in Nepal for three weeks and enjoy the Himalayas, rainy season be damned. Then I got over here, and one too many people used the word “leeches” and alas, I will…
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Packing List Updates
Plot twist: I did not succeed in getting all of my luggage and everything I’m taking under 33 pounds. Shocker, I know, after the previous (thought to be comprehensive) list. Apparently I forgot things. All in, my luggage is about 38ish pounds (different airport scales said slightly different things). What did I forget? And there are no weights associated – I don’t have Internet while I’m writing this, so alas, it all added up to about 38ish pounds with the stuff from the original packing list! Sunscreen – Potentially a lifesaver for the whole trip. This one was a big contributor to me going pretty far overweight – I brought…
