Round the World Adventure
In and around World
We've successfully moved away from Trinidad and are getting ready for our trip. We had some serious work to do at the end to pack up our house and hand over work. Milo and Twiggy, our cats required a bribe to the Continental pet services to get shipped back to the US, but they are well worth it. Now they are settling in at their new temporary home in Tim and May's house in Dallas. There are some growing pains there: Inky the resident cat does not appreciate his new roommates yet. We're sure he'll come around soon enough.
Route taken and entries written by Michael & Erin
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1
Alistair and Ramona's Wedding (Calgary, Banff, and Panorama)
We started off our journey with a trip to Canada for the wedding of our friends Ramona Corbiell and Alistair Hill. It was a great time with ... Continue reading »
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2
Visiting Sandy and Gina
The side benefit of going to Alimona's wedding was to be able to make a trip to see Michael's brother (Peter),father (Sandy), and stepmother (Gina) in... Continue reading »
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3
Back to repack, and then we're off again
After our trip to Canada for the wedding and to visit family, we have come back to Grand Prairie to unpack, repack, visit some of Erin's family a... Continue reading »
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4
A quick pop over to London
Our first stop on our Round the World ticket was a quick one to London. Partially for us to see the sites but also to give our friends Mely... Continue reading »
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5
Visiting the Evan's Family and their newest arrival Mako!
After our tour of London, we took the train to Bristol to visit our best friends Melyssa, Ahmed, and Mako Evans. We were greeted by Ahmed at the train... Continue reading »
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6
Visiting kith and kin in Scotland
We arrived to Edinburgh with the following plan: hang out with sister Jean as well as long time friends (trying to avoid saying old friends)... Continue reading »
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7
Friends and Frites In Holland
We flew into Amsterdam late Wednesday, arriving at our hotel after 11 pm. It has been 8 years since Erin was last here, and about 7 years for Mi... Continue reading »
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8
Visiting Helen and the Boys in Paris
We arrived to Helen and Vlad's home with an intention of hanging out with them and also to get to know their kids, Michael's nephews, better. Oban is... Continue reading »
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9
Stop-over in Madrid
We bought a round trip flight through Easy Jet from Madrid to Marrakech for about 50 euros each. So from Paris we flew to Madrid for a day before goin... Continue reading »
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10
The circus of Djemma el Fna
Our first 48 hours in Marrakech felt like a week based on the abundance of sights, smells, and sounds. True it is quite dirty, and many of the smells... Continue reading »
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11
Cascades d'Ouzoud and the Source
From Marrakech we headed to the Cascades d'Ouzoud (waterfalls), in the Middle Atlas mountains. During the bus ride, we were graced with the vision of... Continue reading »
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12
Bus rides and the Middle Atlas
After the calm of relaxing by the water for a few days, it was time to continue making our way to Fes along the Middle Atlas. We took another Gr... Continue reading »
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13
The hustle and bustle of Fes
Our initial impressions of Fes was that it was an even more aggressive town than Marrakech, based on the onslaught of hawkers and guides in the M... Continue reading »
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14
A peaceful Portuguese fishing village
We took the train from Fes to El Jadida, a much preferred mode of travel than the buses. We were pleased to find very few other tourists in El Ja... Continue reading »
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15
Hanging out at the beach
From El Jadida we hopped on a bus (one with AC) to Essaouira, another town on the coast. Once we cleared the touts at the bus station we made ou... Continue reading »
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16
Camel trekking in the desert
The prospect of trekking into the Sahara on camels and then sleeping in nomadic Berber tents was quite alluring and exciting. The reality included som... Continue reading »
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17
Last days in Morocco
Our last days in Marrakech were bittersweet. We enjoyed a few more strolls around the souks, having grasped the knack of ignoring or talking back to t... Continue reading »
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18
Gaudi and Tapas
We arrived to Barcelona (pronounced Barthelona by the locals) by train from Madrid having flown in a few hours earlier with Easy J... Continue reading »
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19
Back to Madrid
Back to Madrid for the 3rd time this trip! We had organized our RTW (Round The World) trip tickets with some last minute changes, to include a flight... Continue reading »
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20
The Paris of the East?
Our arrival to Bucharest was signified by the first taxi driver that tried to con us at the airport: "I'll take you where you want to go cheap, 20 eur... Continue reading »
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21
Mountains, Castles, Fangs, and Heavy Metal
After our underwhelming visit to the capital we headed to the countryside to get some fresh air, what better place than Transylvania, home to the Carp... Continue reading »
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22
Hot sun at the Black Sea
Our sleepless night in Sibiu was followed by a 4 hour train to Bucharest then a 5 hour train to Constanta, on the Black Sea. The trains were too crowd... Continue reading »
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23
Back in Bucharest
After plenty of R&R in Mamaia, we hopped a slow train back to Bucharest for one last night before flying to Istanbul the next morning. Luckily we... Continue reading »
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24
Wonderous Istanbul
As we flew into Istanbul from Bucharest we were first surprised at how big the city is, spreading out for miles and miles before we even reached the a... Continue reading »
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25
A trip to the capital for a visa
We finally caught our overnight train to Ankara, and were quite happy to find such nice accommodations. Our conductor took good care of us, after firs... Continue reading »
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26
The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia
We arrived to Goreme, located in the heart of Cappadocia, and were pleasantly surprised by the approach to the village from the dry lumpy landsca... Continue reading »
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27
Hanging out in Tree Houses then cruising to Fethiye
We arrived in Olympos with much anticipation to stay in the famed tree houses. I, Michael, was still recovering from a running belly, and we were tire... Continue reading »
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28
Mr and Mrs Bumble visit the Ephesus Ruins
We arrived at about midnight to Selcuk and a tout at the bus station offered a hotel at a decent price. And it included a shuttle service. So we got o... Continue reading »
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29
Back in Istanbul
In a continuation of our misadventure in Selcuk, our bus ride to Istanbul was not straight forward. The tickets we bought the day before were for a bu... Continue reading »
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30
Summer heat in Delhi
Our arrival to Delhi should have prepared us for what was to come in the rest of India. That sounds ominous, so let me preface it by saying that I had... Continue reading »
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31
Touring Varanasi with Babu
The day we left Delhi we had both been feeling crummy with sore throats, but I (Michael) was definitely getting feverish and had sore joints by the ti... Continue reading »
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32
The Hill Station of Darjeeling
Our overnight train ride to Siliguri had a couple of interesting events to relate. We shared bunks with a couple of experienced travelers from New Yor... Continue reading »
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33
Cool Gangtok
Like Darjeeling, Gangtok was a cool and moist city, perfect for our escape from the summer heat. The people of Gangtok were a little different from th... Continue reading »
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34
Pelling and the journey to Uttar Pradesh
Our time in Pelling was rewarding despite cold and rain. We met interesting locals and travelers, and seemed to spend most of the time huddling around... Continue reading »
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35
The Holy Cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh
Our time in Haridwar was good and authentic. It is a very holy city and the streets were filled with pilgrims and Sadhus in bright orange. Street stal... Continue reading »
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36
Riding around Manali on Pooja
We arrived at about 6am to Manali and the bus was swamped with hotel touts as soon as it stopped. We struggled to get our bags out from under the seat... Continue reading »
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37
Friendly and fantasitc Leh
We arrived to Leh and decided to stay in the same hotel as a French man and Isreali woman we shared the bus ride with. Our guest house was built in th... Continue reading »
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38
Back in Colombo 21 years later
We arrived to Colombo a few hours after 3 large earthquakes struck in the same region as the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. There were no major waves that d... Continue reading »
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39
Kandian dancers and baby elephants
We arrived to Kandy and hitched a ride to a great guest-house overlooking the Knuckles range and the Mahaweli river. We enjoyed breakfasts in the open... Continue reading »
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40
Bawa's Kandalama and the Cave temples of Dambulla
We used the same driver, Fawmy, to take us on a 4 day trip around the Ancient Cities area. The first day saw us visiting a spice garden, an ancient te... Continue reading »
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41
Sigiriya and Polonnurawa
We started early, trying to get up the 200 meter highsteep climb of Sigiriya's vertical plateau walls before the heat of the tropical sun whipped us.... Continue reading »
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42
The ruins of Ritigala and Mihintale
Driving part way to Anuradhapura, really only about an hour and half, we veered off the road, near by some elephants heading to a lake, in search of t... Continue reading »
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43
The sacred Bo tree at Anuradhapura, Puja at the Sacred Temple of the Tooth
We started the day with a visit to the Sri Maha Bodhi tree. This tree has been nurtured and somehow survived from 247 BC, when it was brought to... Continue reading »
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44
Back in the Hill Country
Going to Nuwara Eliya was like going home. My family had spent many weekends there and the places had changed so little, it was so familiar and welcom... Continue reading »
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45
The old Dutch fort of Galle
Our bus ride from Nuwara Eliya involved traveling down the windy windy (both meanings: lots of wind and many hair pin curves) road from the mountains... Continue reading »
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46
Relaxing on the beach in Bentota
Our time in Bentota was relaxing: lounging by the pool at the Bawa designed Bentota Beach Hotel, walking on the beach or playing in the surf. The pool... Continue reading »
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47
Revisit Colombo before take off
We came back to Colombo for the last 2 nights. We had some serious crafts shopping to do and hoped also to get a peek in at my old house. The visit to... Continue reading »
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48
The golden fort in Jaisalmer
On the flight back to Delhi, my (Michael) crown became loose and fell out. We had to wait about a day and a half to get a dentist that was open and ha... Continue reading »
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49
The Mehrangarth Fort of Jodhpur
Try as we might to not be robbed, the wicked taxi drivers of Asia always seemed one step ahead of us. In Jodhpur, we caught a taxi near the train stat... Continue reading »
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