Thiruvananthapuram, India | 30 January, 2007 | $9.04 I’m not sure why this hotel was so expensive, perhaps because Thiruvananthapuram is the capital of Kerala? The town has some nice colonial architecture and grand universities to wander around. With a whole day to wander around I ran errands (like buying soap) and getting passport photos…
Madurai, India | 28 January, 2007 | $4.52 Madurai was fascinating! This was my first real taste of the chaos and jumbled, statue-covered temples of Tamil Nadu. After seven hours on the bus I was ready to get a look at the temple. Meenakshi Sundareswar Temple is like nothing I had ever seen before. In…
Kanyakumari, India | 27 January, 2007 | $5.65 Finally, I made it to the end—the Southern tip of India. After leaving Kerala, and certainly after leaving Varkala Beach, I encountered few Western tourists. Southern India has a vastly different feel than the North and I hope everyone traveling to India has time to experience both.…
Varkala Beach, India | 25 January, 2007 | $5.65 Another three nights on the beach, still recovering from India before diving back into the big cities. Varkala is really interesting because the town, hotels and restaurants sit atop a high cliff, and visiting the beach requires climbing down the cliff. Aside from a few chair…
Alleppey, India | 23 January, 2007 | $6.77 Alleppey was really just a one night stopover on my way South, but I stumbled upon some interesting sights. While walking on the edge of town after a self-made tour of the colonial canals running through town, I saw a large field of military or police officers…
Kochi, India | 22 January, 2007 | $6.77 Heading further South along India’s West coast, Fort Kochin and Kochi are solidly in the Kerala region. I attended a Kathakali performance put on for tourists which has been shortened for the Western attention span. Coming to the theater early is a special treat, because you can…
Palolem – Kochi, India | 20 January, 2007 | $9.21 (sleeper train) This train must have been pretty unremarkable since I didn’t bother to record how long the trip took. Perhaps after four nights on the beach I was too relaxed (or antsy) to care.
Palolem Beach, India | 18 January, 2007 | $5.64 How cute, my own little cabin on stilts! The markets around the beach in Goa cater to the want-to-be hippie crowd, full of sarongs, toe rings and patchwork bags. It’s fun to look at first, until you start to realize it’s the same mass-produced skirts and…
Bekopaka, Madagascar | 20 May, 2007 | $63.47 (hotel, guides, transport, & food on river trip) Our first day back on the road was a long one, bringing us to the ferry crossing at Bekopaka at dusk. Cars were loaded onto the barge in the water and we jumped onboard, dandling our feet over the…
Tsiribihina River, Madagascar | 17 May, 2007 | $63.47 (hotel, guides, transport, & food on river trip) Our second full day on the river meant more wildlife spotting (including lemurs!) and lunch and swimming at a waterfall. I was traveling in the shoulder season so none of these spots were crowded and we didn’t see…
Tsiribihina River, Madagascar | 16 May, 2007 | $63.47 (hotel, guides, transport, & food on river trip) Two nights of our trip were spent camping on the banks of the Tsiribihina River. We cut it close and set up our tents at dusk both night, eating fish from the river by candlelight. Each morning we…
Miandrivazo, Madagascar | 15 May, 2007 | $63.47 (hotel, guides, transport, & food on river trip) Traveling alone ensures a bit of uncertainty when trying to book trips that you can’t afford to do alone. My hostel had a few French tourists looking to round out their group trip on the Ttsiribihina River. I was…
Aantananarivo, Madagascar | 14 May, 2007 | $8.16 Tana is a lovely town but I never intended to spend five days there. After my debit card was swiped in Jordan and flagged while I was in Ethiopia my bank finally cancelled it and sent me a new one… to my mom’s house in the U.S.…
Aantananarivo, Madagascar | 11 May, 2007 | $14.15 After my crazy overnight ride from Moyale to Nairobi, Kenya I was totally exhausted. I did not take a photo of the cage I slept in overnight for fear that the other, somewhat hostile, passengers would realize why I wouldn’t put my daypack (holding my laptop, hard…
Moyale, Kenya | 4 May, 2007 | $2.26 (my share of a 2-bed room) While in Addis I met someone who wanted to travel together along the long, rough overland route to Ethiopia. Folks, don’t do it! It is not worth the hassle and discomfort unless you have your own car. If I could go…
Dila, Ethiopia | 3 May, 2007 | $3.40 One day on the bus from Addis brought me to the unremarkable town of Dila, for an overnight stop on the way to the Kenyan border. It was so unremarkable that the photo above is the only one I have from the trip. Enjoy!
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | 2 May, 2007 | $7.95 Arriving back in Addis, I did a little souvenir shopping, visited the restaurant with Mexican food and made arrangements for my flight to Madagascar. Sometime while I was up North my bank canceled my ATM card, leaving me unable to pay for my hotel bill or…
Dessie, Ethiopia | 26 April, 2007 | $2.84 It took two days to get to get to Lalibela and another two days to get back to Addis Ababa. Although I would have liked to head as far North as Aksum it was long, lonely trip and I decided to head back South. Traveling in a…
Lalibella, Ethiopia | 25 April, 2007 | $7.95 There was no direct bus from Nefas Mewcha to Lalibela and the local buses heading East were filled to standing capacity. Despite getting to the bus before dawn all were already full. Before I could think about my next move an official came by and kicked people…
Nefas Mewcha, Ethiopia | 22 April, 2007 | $2.27 The two Americans I traveled with in Southern Ethiopia flew to Lalibela from Addis and came back before I’d left town again. Good thing they came back, because they forgot to pay their hotel bill and stored all of their luggage in my room. I took…