India, Tigers and Christmas Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family. It is Christmas morning and I have not written a blog in the last ten days or so. We are in a beach hut in Palolem Beach in Goa, India. Nicola is in the hammock and I am sitting on our little porch. Our beach hut is not much more than four walls made of plywood covered by thatched palms and...
Burning Ghats, Taj, and Tigers In my last post, we had just returned from our Trek and were spending a couple of days in Pokhara. All in all, Pokhara is one of my favourite places so far. It is very laid back and a cool backpacker and trekker kind of hangout. It is slower pace than Kathmandu and there is no pressure to sell you things. We had some amazing meals and...
Namaste from Pokhara… Back from our Trek We have been in Pokhara now for a week. Pokhara sits beautifully in the foothills of the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. It is on the shores of a beautiful little lake, Lake Fewa. Life is quieter here which is so much different than the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu. People here regularly say things like “I...
Two weeks in Nepal… Nagarkot, Bhaktapur, and Chitwan… Rhinos but no Tigers We have now been in Nepal for two weeks. I am writing this post from our hotel in Pokhara. So far so good. We are having a great time. Nepali people are very friendly and helpful. And they are not pushy sales people. Last I wrote we had to make some changes to our plans. The Indian...
Waiting Patiently for an Indian Visa in Kathmandu I think I may have mentioned once before that one of the reasons for coming to Nepal is to get an Indian visa. We could not get one while back in Canada because we were going to be on the road for too long before so it would have run out by the time we got here. The process here is very frustrating and time consuming...
The Greeks and the Ottomans – A history in conflict After we finished our cruise, we stayed in Athens for a few days. Part of our plan was three days in Athens, three days in Istanbul, and then on to Kathmandu. I am writing this post now in the Istanbul Sabiha Airport waiting for our red-eye to Kathmandu. In Athens, I think I was maybe more excited about...
End of the Five Star Living on the High Seas We are now in Athens, Greece. We have spent the last three weeks living on the MS Rotterdam and allowing the Holland America crew to pamper us and fatten us up quite frankly. We had a great trip and met some amazing people. I guess after spending three weeks with the same people, following the same schedules, eating the...
Cruising the Adriatic and Dalmation Coast The rugged backpackers have settled in for a little bit of luxury. About a month ago we were looking to see if we could find a repositioning cruise from New Zealand back to Canada in May or June. I stumbled across this cruise that takes us to places like Israel and Cyprus. We had absolutely no thoughts about taking a cruise...
Thanksgiving with Friends, Geneva and Rome When last I posted we were arriving in Geneva. We went to Geneva to visit with friends who used to live in Fort Smith. Minoo and Bernie Sheehan left Fort Smith maybe six years ago now. They lived in Calgary for a few years and then moved to Geneva almost two years ago now. When we arrived in Geneva we were shocked that there...
Yo hablo espanol mas que antes!!! I am not sure this will be the longest blog entry yet. Mostly because it will reflect my week in Madrid. Hopefully, I can convince Nicola to write something for the blog as well about her week of the Camino de Santiago. We arrived in Madrid on the 3rd of October. If you remember from the last entry, we came from London and visiting...