by Nick
Leaving from Udaipur to Jaisalmer, we broke the journey up with a quick stopover in Rajasthan’s second largest city, Jodhpur.

Known in the guidebooks as the blue city, Jodhpur’s old town is just that, bright blue. The caste of Brahmin’s have chosen to paint their houses blue which makes wondering around the old streets interesting enough for an afternoon. We were even invited in for a tour of one of the brahmin homes by a local man who was clearly very proud of his residence and of his city. Some …

by Lianna
Udaipur is generally known as one of the (if not the) most romantic cities in India.

I wouldn’t deny that it has romantic qualities, but when in India everything is relative to your budget. More than most destinations, India can be seen from two very different sets of eyes – the budget traveler and the midrange traveler. In many countries there isn’t necessarily a huge gap between these types of travelers. Due to lack of infrastructure in many developing countries the line between midrange and budget is blurred …

by Nick and Lianna
After the chaos and hassle of Agra and Jaipur, Pushkar comes as a breath of well needed fresh air. Most know it for the carnival style camel fair each fall, but Pushkar is also an important pilgrimage place for locals who come to bathe in the holy lake. When we arrived we were surprised to see that there was no such holy lake and only a holy puddle left! This years monsoon was poor and thus the lake had dried up.

Due to its religious significance there …

By Lianna
Here’s a tip for anyone coming to India. Do not expect efficiency…anywhere. This tip is especially crucial when taking public transportation. Yesterday we were set to leave Katni station to go to Agra departing at 7:30pm, so like the good travelers we thought we were, we decided to get there 2 hours early. After 2 hours of locals coming up to us intrigued by everything about our lives and asking questions balancing on inappropriate (we are now pretending we are married for the rest of …

by Nick
Bandhavgarh National Park is one of three well known tiger reserves in the Indian state of Madya Pradesh. Our journey from Varanasi was an overnight 11hr train ride which went by quickly while we were in a deep slumber.

Once we exited the train and began haggling with a taxi driver who’s price seemed outrageous, we settled on an auto rickshaw for the hour or so drive to Tala, just outside the park. We soon realized why the taxi was expensive. As we bounced our way along the chewed up …

A city without shame or remorse, perched on the ghats which enter the great Ganges river lies Varanasi. Mecca or Jerusalem for the Hindu universe, it is here all Hindus wish to die before being cremated at one of the two burning ghats. Once ones ashes are thrown into the Ganga, (or Ganges) their spirit becomes free from the cycle of rebirth. Pregnant women, children, holy men or cows need not not apply, as they are already pure and enter the river without cremation.

Varanasi is one of the oldest continually …

by Nick
Picture a blue blue lake surrounded by the snow capped Himalaya and on the shore a small town with delicious restaurants, trekking stores by the dozen, Tibetans selling handicrafts, and every kind of accommodation and thats Pokhara.

Some tourists whiz through on their way up to the gorgeous Annapurna mountain range but some linger awhile by the lakeside, we were the latter. Due to our visas troubles our time for trekking was cut but this aloud us to lounge around on the lake front and kick back before the stresses …

by Nick
I was awakened at 6am yesterday to Lianna looking out the window confused asking “Are there elephants grunting out our window?” She wasn’t wearing glasses so I was called upon to verify and sure enough there were some elephants right beside our room.

Not long after we grabbed a coffee and were set to board our elephants for both of our first safari. Speaking to a fellow Canadian the day prior our hopes were not set high as he didn’t see any animals on his elephant safari and suggested the …