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…
Panaji, Old Goa, India | 15 January, 2007 | $5.64 I arrived in Old Goa during daylight hours and found another tourist to share a rickshaw from the train station. The driver was happy to take us to a hotel, but when we got out he asked for an astronomical amount for the ride. I…
Mumbai, India | 12 January, 2007 | $11.24 My last two nights in Mumbai were spent in a tiny, overpriced cinder block hotel room. I had grown accustomed to my own bathroom in India, even in rooms half this price. Mumbai was different. More photos of Mumbai can be seen in the gallery.
Mumbai, India | 9 January, 2007 | $20.56 Last year I fell behind on my “Where I Slept” series and jumped from Aurangabad, India to Ethiopia, leaving out January through March. Here’s where I fill in the blanks. This hotel room was the cleanest I stayed at in India and one of the most difficult…
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…
Antsiraraka, Madagascar | 18 May, 2007 | $63.47 (hotel, guides, transport, & food on river trip) Once again, I woke up to little kids giggling outside my tent. Sunsets and sunrises were some of the most impressive I’ve ever seen here. After some more time in the canoe, our third day, we climbed atop 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!