Jaisalmer Photos

Jaisalmer Fort (our hotel was in here!)

Megan on a camel!

Camel Trekking with our guide Suban

Wedding!

We had an amazing time getting married in India! Erin's sister Megan flew to Delhi where we picked her up, and then we were off to Udaipur! If you want to check out some photos, we have posted them here.

Varanasi Pics

After taking pictures of us, they invited us on their boat.... For them we were the tourist attraction ;)

Varanasi

After we left our foster family in West Bengal, we took an overnight train to the ancient city of Varanasi. The people in India have been incredibly friendly, as we've already recieved three legitimate invitations to come and stay with families in their villages! We spent an entire day on the Ganges river, walking up and down the Ghats, where we witnessed bodies being cremated right next to a pick up game of cricket! Truly wild. We visited Sarnath, where the Buddha Shakyamuni gave his first sermon, and did some shopping too! India is a tough place to travel (filthy, open sewers, and lots of noise/commotion), but for us so far has been incredibly rewarding ( beautiful people and lots of love). We were invited to take a boat ride with a big friendly group of Indians (Thanks Shiva!), and witnessed the nightly puja, or offering of thanks to Mother Ganga. What a wild place. Next we go to Delhi to pick up Megan and after that we're off to Rajastan to get hitched...... Looks like I'm going to have to save the skull bowl for another time (sorry ben and cam). Bye for now!

Makaibari

I should have put my Topens in the bank

Anjelina!

More Tibet Pictures

Gaining Merit

Cute

The Potala!

The Buddha (Gyantse)

You kinda had to be there

Tibet Pictures

The Friendship Highway... 5000 km to Beijing!

On the Road

Almost 5000 meters!

Darjeeling - Makaibari Tea Estate, Sept 5th - 7th

Namaste!
After Tibet, we spent a long travel day heading to the Makaibari Tea
Estate in Darjeeling (West Bengal, India- our last border crossing of
the trip til we're home). May not have heard of Makaibari but they
supply tea to Tazo which is distributed in the US. We stayed for
three days with an incredibly warm local family, the Lamas, who live
in a community of ~150 tea plantation workers. Darjeeling is beautiful
with the culture, language and food, a mix of Indian, Nepali and
Tibetan. The entire time we were there we drank amazing tea, ate very
well and generally just participated in the family's daily life -- a
very authentic and rewarding few days, only wish we had more time with
them. We've gotten behind in posting pictures but plan to catch up
over the next few days. Love E & W

7 Days in Tibet, Aug 29th - Sept 5th

Tashi Delek!
On August 29th we joined a group tour into Tibet, driving overland
from Kathmandu. The first four nights were spent on the road in
increasingly more developed cities as we went along: Nyalam, Lhatse,
Shigatse, Gyantse to spend the final three nights in the Tibetan
capital, Lhasa. The drives ranged in length each day from as short as
~2 hours to as long as 13 (with some unexpected delays factored in).
Absorbing the natural beauty of Tibet as we drove made the road trip
more than worthwhile: the arid Tibetan plateau, Kharala Glacier,
Emerald Lake... Needless to say we have many pictures to share (but
will be a bit before we can post as Blogspot is blocked in China). At
times we reached elevations of 19K feet, at one point on the 13 hour
travel day getting stuck at that level for several hours by road
construction!

The Tibetan people are amazing: warm, shy and beautiful, particularly
in light of the history with China. We were fortunate to join in a
midday prayer service at Drepung monastery in Lhasa- the most
inspiring religious experience of the trip.

We were also very lucky to have a great group of people in our tour.
Thanks and best of luck on the rest of your travels: Shani, Eduardo,
Lara, JB, Ben, Maggie, Lola, Axel, Hanna, Kerstin, Vera, Luis,
Catherine and Dorothee

More Nepal Pics

Self Portrait at Bhodhnath... If only Caribbean Connection knew the places these red glasses have been....

Row Row Row your boat

A very cool plane ride

Kathmandu Pics

Kathmandu Valley

A small shrine in Bhaktapur

Bhodhnath

Bhodhnath Stupa... To get an idea of the size, the buildings on the side are a full 3 stories!

More Bhutan Pics

Erin with the Bhutanese Olympic Archery Team

Tiger's Nest

On the Way to Tiger's Nest

Pokhara/Back in Kathmandu

After flying back from Bhutan we headed straight for Pokhara, a trekkers base camp set on the second largest lake in Nepal. We met some great people... Dave from Ireland and Aaron from Australia, and had a blast eating some yummy food, getting our laundry done, and paddling around the lake. We really didn't do too much :) We got back to Kathmandu yesterday and got right back to business, visiting Bodhanath ( Buddhist stupa and large expat Tibetan community ) and Pashupatinath ( Sacred Shiva temple ). William ate some crazy Bhel Puri off the street and we contemplated our own mortality as we watched the cremations happening next to the river at Pashupatinath. Next we're off to Patan and Bhaktapur... so we'll keep you updated. We're having some issues posting photos ( Nepal is not the most modern place ), but we're working on it. Bye for now... W and E

Druk Yul -Land of the Thunder Dragon

Bhutan is the most unique place we've visited and potentially will ever get to visit. From the moment we touched down at the airport ( known to be one of the most difficult airport landings in the world), we knew this would be a special treat. The country is filled with contradictions - it's a new democracy, recently converted from a monarchy, but the royal family continues to dominate the thoughts and daily rituals of the Bhutanese people. Most Bhutanese still wear their traditional dress daily, but enjoy many modern conveniences and have most are educated abroad. The government want to promote tourism, but at the same time are always raising their already high tourist visa taxes. We visited Paro, Punakha, and Thimpu, seeing many beautiful temples (called dzongs), but the ultimate highlight was a very strenuous trek up to the Tatshang monastery, which translates as 'Tigers Nest', where we were blessed by the abbot and entered a cave used in the 8th century by Guru Padmasambavha, who brought Buddhism to Bhutan. Words cannot describe so we'll leave it at that. Cheers!

Bhutan Pics

Real Bhutanese food. Cow Intestine Curry, Chilis and Cheese, Boiled Pork Belly Fat(with skin attached) with Spinich, and red rice. Wash it down with a glass of some sort of warm yogurt milk from god knows what animal. Erin refused to eat, but that's me digging in ;) Not the best meal ever but quite the experience.

Rice Paddy Trekking

Punakha Dzong

Kathmandu Pics

Erin's sadhu friend

Serious street food.... veg momos in a leaf bowl. Truly awesome!

Kathmandu

Well we spent only one day in Kathmandu before heading to Bhutan, but boy was it a day! This city is wild. The city is a total sensory assault... people everywhere in the streets of the old quarter, horns blaring, trash and refuse everywhere combined with kind people, amazing temples, and and great street food. We only spent a day, but are going back for 5 days to do day trips to the surrounding cities and temples. Have a look at some of the pictures!

Pretty

Hi from Thailand again

Hey everyone. As you can see from the pics we had a great time in Cambodia. The Angkor ruins were amazing and to top it off, we got engaged! We've been in Thailand for the last week, first Phuket, and then Koh Lanta in Krabi province. The weather has been amazing and we really haven't done anything too exciting, but we are fully recharged and are ready to get a little crazy again. Tomorrow we fly to Kathmandu, and from there on to some wild places! Now that we are going to be back on the road, we'll start taking lots of pictures again and hopefully try and stay current for your enjoyment ;) We will leave you with a nice sunset pic. Cheers!

Some Videos from Vietnam

Riding a cylco in Hanoi, Vietnam

An incense making village near Hue, Vietnam

Erin eats some fun food in Hue, Vietnam

Some Vietnamese Music in Hoi'an, Vietnam

Enjoy!

More From Angkor

Shiva Lingam

Literally the only two apsara dancers in Angkor Wat that are wearing hot pants. There are thousands wearing skirts, but only two showing some leg!

Probably Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara but maybe Vishnu.. no one is sure!

The Angkor Temples!

Bayon Temple at Angkor Thom

Angkor Wat!

Hi from Cambodia

Hey everyone. We got to cambodia this afternoon and immediately got out to do some preliminary temple viewing around Angkor Wat. Had to bail out early due to a massive storm ( the monsoon has arrived ;) Anyway we really want to post some cool vids from the last 10 days or so but haven't found a good connection. Hopefully in a few days when we get back to Thailand that will happen. Def not in Cambodia. Anyways... We miss you (you know who you are) and we'll keep you posted. E and W.

Hue and Hoi'An

After leaving the hustle and bustle of Hanoi, we were excited to relax for a short while in central Vietnam. We arrived in Hue on an overnight train at 8 am and immediately got out to explore the city. Hue was the imperial capital of the Nyugen emperors, so we spent our first afternoon wandering the forbidden city, in which only the emperor, his concubines and eunuchs were allowed. We ate some great Hue food, notably Nem lui, a sort of make your own rice paper spring roll and banh nam, a steamed cake of rice flour and sprimp in a banana leaf. All very yummy. The second day in Hue Erin got a litttle ill, but we saw some of the Imperial tombs and did some more eating (video to come)!

Hoi' An, formally known as Faifo, was a great trading capital in the 18th century, but today is a sleepy little town with tons of charm. We fortuitously arrived on a festival night and were treated to an absolutely amazing evening of traditonal Vietnamese performance, river boat cruising and lantern lit streets straight out of what seemed to us the Vietnam of past centuries! We've had so much fun in central Vietnam, but we're on the way to Saigon in the south so it's back to the city. Cheers!

Hanoi/Hue/Hoi' An Pics

William playing with rabid street dogs

Gate in the Forbidden Imperial City, Hue

E Chillin at Khai Dinh's Imperial Tomb, Hue

Quan Cong temple in Hoi'An

Our cyclo driver in Hanoi.... A good guy!

Hanoi

Hanoi was all about great food- from street food to higher end Viet-French fusion, we loved (nearly) everything. We ate the first night at a street food stall marked 'delicious area' on our map. Live massive prawns fished out of a tank and chargrilled squid were simply prepared and excellent. Another lunch out at the seafood stalls area was fabulous - best crab spring rolls ever. Perhaps the highlight (but tough call) was Cha Ca la vong, a nondescript restaurant that has been run by 5 generations of a family and inspired hundreds of knock-offs. The street was even renamed after the dish ... Cha Ca Street!! The original was a perfect combination of flavors in a 'make your own' noodle dish: grilled fish, spring onions, dill, basil, peanuts, chiles and fish sauce. Best on the higher end of the spectrum was Green Tangerine, a Viet-French fusion restaurant with meticulously designed dishes + tons of flavor.

Oh and we also visited Ho Chi Minh's emballed body in a massive, sterile mausoleum and the temple of literature. Great shopping too!

Halong Bay

Us

Sweet Jasmine Boat!

Floating Fishing Village 25 miles from shore!

"Surprise" Cave