Category: Uncategorized
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Rishikesh and the Hare Rama Institute
(Editor’s Note: For reasons which I’ll get into a bit more in the next segment of our blog, after the Taj Mahal, Colleen and I did something we had not done before on this trip – we went our separate ways. Following is Colleen’s account of what in the world she did for a week…
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Taj Mahal
I think it is safe to say that the Taj Mahal was the one place in India we were most excited about visiting. For those who may not have spent countless hours watching NatGeo documentaries about all of the intricacies of the Taj Mahal’s construction or the love story that lies at the heart of…
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Rajasthan, India
Located in the northwest of India on the Pakistan border, Rajasthan is the largest state in India by area (132K sq. mi., comprising over 10% of India’s total geographic area) and the 7th largest state in India by population with over 83 million people. Rajasthan’s economy, which accounts for about 5% of India’s GDP, is…
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Fort Kochi (Kerala Part 2)
Kochi (or Cochin as it was once called), which is about two hours north of Marari Beach, is a city of about 800,000 people in a metropolitan area of about 3.3 million, making it the largest and most populous area in Kerala. Fort Kochi is an island neighborhood of about 200,000 which is Kochi city’s…
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Marari Beach (Kerala Part 1)
We decided to begin our India adventure in the State of Kerala which stretches along India’s southwest Malabar coast, sandwiched between the Arabian Sea to the west and the Sahyadri mountain range to the east. Kerala found its way onto our itinerary because of the strong recommendations of a friend whose family came from there…
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India (Introduction)
While both Colleen and I were very interested in visiting India, I have to say that we did have some reservations about it. Of all the countries we have considered and researched, India stood out as one of the most challenging for travelers with great potential for it to become overwhelming or for us to…
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Zanzibar
Back in October 2020 when we first pulled out our Rand McNally map and made a game of proposing travel destinations for The Big Trip, Zanzibar was one of the first places identified (Colleen proposed it, but it was on my list too!) and it is arguably the most exotic place we decided to include…
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A Layover in Cairo
Cairo was a late addition to our itinerary which we added once Colleen determined that the best option (meaning least expensive option) for getting from Dahab, Egypt to Zanzibar, Tanzania was to take a very long bus ride (10 hours) to Cairo and then fly to Zanzibar from there. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) our bus…
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Dahab, Egypt
Blame it on Croatia Neither Dahab nor the country of Egypt were on our original itinerary for this trip, which anticipated spending the month of August (including our 35th wedding anniversary) relaxing on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, taking a break from the more active and engaged sort of traveling which has become our staple. …
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True Confessions on the Jordan Trail
While Israel had been on our list of places to visit from the very beginning, Jordan was a rather late entry which I suppose is understandable from an American perspective (when is the last time you talked to someone who was planning a trip to Jordan?). But Jordan is an ancient place with a rich…
Burning the Inheritance 