Agra, Uttarpradesh November 24th 2010 Saw the Taj Mahal. It was very beautiful. The most beautiful building in the world? I would agree. At the end, I couldn’t leave. I just stared and stared at it, wondering how such a beautiful structure could exist. It rained that day. Walked by a restaurant that had a…
Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Jaipur, Rajasthan November 21st – 23rd 2010 Notes: Tried to fake being Japanese because I was tired of having to answer ‘Malaysian’ when every Indian person assumes I’m Japanese, Korean or Chinese. So at a restaurant, an Indian came up to me and asked if I was Japanese. I decided to say ‘Yes’ but then…
Udaipur, Rajasthan, India
Udaipur, Rajasthan November 18th – 20th 2010 I woke up freezing in the train from Ahmedabad. Now I know what it means to be in the Indian winter. As I move north, it’s going to be chilly compared to the hot and humidity of Mumbai. (The lake at sunset.) (Fireworks almost every night.) Udaipur has…
Ahmedabad, Gujerat, India
Ahmedabad, Gujerat, India November 15th – 17th 2010 The 15-hour (really, 17.5 hours) bus-ride from Aurangabad was quite brutal. As I couldn’t get a sleeper, I had to sit in a chair that, despite its ‘luxury’ status, had small roaches crawling on the walls beside me. I spent some time battling them but I soon…
Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India
Aurangabad, India November 11-13th 2010 Since Aurangabad was only 7 hours by train from Mumbai and it had the famous Ellora and Ajanta Caves, I decided to head there. I was expecting the place to be more touristy but it wasn’t. Let me clarify – I expected more foreigners but there were actually quite a…
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Mumbai, India November 4th – 9th 2010 **I stayed in Mumbai for a week, longer than I had intended, so I’m going to try to condense it all down. I would like to write so much more about what I did but it’s just too long. I arrived from Nairobi around 4:30 am. The humidity…
Short Update…
Just reached Ahmedabad (Gujerat region) after a 17-18 hour bus ride from Aurangabad (where I visited some awesome caves). Sorry for lack of updates, I’m working on it but haven’t had much writing inspiration lately and outside of Mumbai, the internet (and computers at cyber cafes) hasn’t been stellar.
Nairobi, Kenya
Nairobi, Kenya October 31st, November 1st – 2nd 2010 Got on a shuttle bus from Arusha and traveled 7 hours to Nairobi. It’s crowded with people and vehicles (especially old junky buses and ‘matatus’, the Kenyan sardine-vans), and full of smog. There were plenty of large buildings, hotels, banks, pharmacies, restaurants, cafes, small fast food…
Safari! (and drama for your mama)
Lake Manyara National Park Serengeti NP Ngorongoro Crater Tarangire NP (October 26th – 30th 2010) I got picked up on the morning of the 26th to the ‘Victoria Expedition’ office. A Korean girl, Alex, whom I had met the day before at the safari office, was the only one of the original group of 4…
Arusha, Tanzania
Arusha, Tanzania October 23rd-25th 2010 October 30th 2010 (night) Arusha is the city where most people launch their northern circuit safaris from. After taking a 10-hour bus from Dar, I stayed a few nights because the Tanzanian Tourist Board doesn’t open until Monday. The TTB has a blacklist of safari companies which have cheated people…