While traveling we meet a lot of people with different destinies, dreams, and lifestyles. We forget immediately about the majority of them, but some live in our memories as if we’ve just talked to them. Today we’d like to share the most touching stories of people from different cultures, social classes and continents we collected during our travels. KAREN GIRL This girl belongs to Karen tribe, also known as long-necks. When she was born, … [Read more...]
Borivali National Park, Mumbai: The Urban Jungle
Sanjay Gandhi National Park or Borivali National Park, as its popularly known, lies in northern suburb of Borivali, Mumbai. It is 104 km2 (40 sq mi) of forest surrounded by the traffic, noise and the chaos of one of the most populated cities in India. It is remarkable that such a large national park exists INSIDE a city! It has a vast population of flora and fauna; some rare butterflies, deer and even 22 leopards! It is a designated UNESCO … [Read more...]
Kodagu (Coorg) Southwest Karnataka, India
PART ONE Nature’s show On long circuitous winding roads, close your eyes to keep away the tumultuous feeling that erupts as bile climbs the ravines of your own inner system. Suffer motion sickness on a mountain road or keep Avamin and lime ready. Or just stick your eyes out, arrest your breath and stare in awe. This is for what you’ve escaped the humdrum of your congested city life. Wide vistas of undulating green and inhabitation of small … [Read more...]
Possible Himalayan Trek to Sikkim
I've been to India several times already; earlier this year I secured a 10 year multiple entry visa, for more exploring within this amazing country. We visited Chennai in July for my sister's wedding - as expected, the weather was hot and humid - frequent dips in the pool made the weather more bearable. It was nice to visit Southern India for the first time - although we were missing the mountains. A few years ago we got to experience the … [Read more...]
The Dave and Jim Show
Jim lives in London - Dave is regularly in the UK visiting friends and sightseeing. Jim has a popular International talk show where prominent and celebrated guests often make appearances. World traveler Dave has been his most common guest so we went ahead and just changed the name of the show to: "The Dave and Jim Show". We present the show to you in short webisodes. Enjoy! Essentially Dave goes on Jim's wildly popular International travel … [Read more...]
The Elephanta Suite
The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux Mr. Theroux brings to life three separate short stories - involving travelers, all of which are set in real life India. The first story features a long time married couple seeking relaxation at a spa and both husband and wife seek relationships with other individuals. The second involves a "middle of the road" lawyer from America who follows his lust in the seedy slums of Mumbai. The third story involves a … [Read more...]
Jetting from Chennai to Bangkok
We jumped on our Air Asia flight last night from MAA-BKK. The route opened up earlier this year and we immediately seized the opportunity to buy severely discounted tickets during Air Asia's promotional period. We paid £89 per person for the round trip ticket - about 3.5 hours each way! Course with Air Asia you get a basic flight - no food or drink, seats that are agonizingly tight for tall people and most of the time a middle or window seat … [Read more...]
Touring Chennai
We didn't find much in the way of inspiration during our short stay in Chennai (other than the people were quite friendly) - but we enjoyed touring some of the city's unique historical sites including the San Thome Basilica. This is one of only three churches in the world that are supposedly built on top an apostle's tomb. This one houses the remains of Thomas the Apostle - the other two are the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain and … [Read more...]
Wedding Celebration, Chennai India
After a busy few days spent shopping for clothing for the event - sari's, shoes, long colorful flowing robes etc - we now have our appropriate Southern Indian wedding ceremony attire. The celebration went off without a hitch - one of India's most famous violinists (T. N. Krishnan) and his daughter took the stage for over an hour with hypnotizing music. Hundreds of people came to celebrate the joyous occasion! … [Read more...]
Pre Wedding Ceremony Preparations, Chennai
After a hectic few days bouncing around the planet, we find ourselves in Chennai India. Today was a fun Henna party - and then shopping for Sari's. This city is chaotic on the streets - but so far not nearly as much as our experiences in some of the larger Northern Indian cities. … [Read more...]