GOA General Impressions: Goa, along the southwestern coast, is known for its beaches, its European hippies, and its acid-house rave parties. Anyone who has traveled even the tiniest bit will tell you that it is not “the real India.” Many European tourists fly to Goa for the beaches and the parties and leave one month […]

Holidays in India: Thanksgiving: We spent Thanksgiving in Jaipur (the Pink City) in Rajasthan. Decided to celebrate in a chic restaurant, with mirrored walls and ceiling, white-jacketed waiters, plush seats. Our first fancy restaurant since France. We tried goat brain, which was served with a ginger and garlic sauce (for only $3.25!). It was so […]

Natural Parks and Reserves: We’ve only been to two Natural Reserves so far, but we hope to see the Tiger Park near Calcutta before leaving India (if we have time). The Keoladeo Ghana National Park near the town of Bharatpur in Rajasthan was fabulous. The Park is known as a bird sanctuary, but in fact […]

The City: We crossed the entire city of Mumbai from north to south – 40 km. just in the city itself. With 16 million inhabitants, Mumbai is the largest city in India, and it took us the entire day to cross its length. The heat was intense, my migraine was intense; I tried to concentrate […]

The Locals: Our experience with the local people was enriching and eye-opening. Indians don’t generally invite strangers into their homes, like in the Middle East, but still more often than in Western Europe. The people that we stayed with were very friendly and curious about our lives back home. Many were very helpful. As a […]

Religion: Pilgrimage Sites and Temples: If there is one thing that you learn very quickly in India, you learn that religion is alive and well in this country of 1.1 billion. It plays an important role in the daily lives of most of its inhabitants, and Indians as a whole are known to be a […]

Biking in India: the Rajasthani Road and the Coast a) The Rajasthani Road: Camels and Monkeys The three main things that distinguish biking in India from biking in other countries are the wildlife, the villages and people, and the roads and traffic. The Wildlife: Biking in Rajasthan was remarkable for the wildlife that we encountered. […]

Indian Cities: Biking obviously allows you to pass not only through the large cities, but also through many lesser cities, towns, and innumerable villages. I’ll talk here about some of the more interesting towns and cities that we spent time in. – – – – Agra, Home of the Taj Mahal: Agra was our first […]

Train from Delhi to Agra – “For the Experience”: We had been told to travel by train at least once while we were in India – “for the experience.” Since we had already traveled the route from Delhi to Agra with Vince by car, we figured that this would be a good time to try […]

Vincent Arrives! My brother arrived a couple of days after us. For over two years, we had planned on meeting him in India, and here we were finally together! We couldn’t have been happier! I was sick the first day, but it was to be expected after the first couple of days in India, and […]