After all the trekking, we were really looking forward to the benefits of some civilization, and Singapore didn’t disappoint. Singapore is civilization on steroids. This wealthy city-state slash tax-haven is clean, orderly, and safe. Continuing our string of luxury digs when the opportunity is available, Jesse used his points to book us the super nice … More Singapore is fancy
On our way back to Leh from Tso Moriri we stopped at the Hemis monastery, which is the largest Buddhist monastery in the area. And the Thiksey (also written as Thiksay or Thikse) monastery, which is arguably the most beautiful. … More Ladakh: Praying at Thiksey Monastery
A day that began by combining two days of hiking into one morning ended with a grueling 8 hour rally across some of the most scenic countryside in the world. … More Ladakh: Rally to Tso Moriri and other high altitude lakes
Each day, we learned what the plan was for the next day – we didn’t know it in advance. So after climbing two reasonably tall passes, Stok La and Madok La, we were confronted with what Tsering (our guide) promised to be our hardest day yet: two consecutive mountain passes reaching our highest altitude of … More Ladakh part 3: Let them eat cake
It was on Madok La that the cumulative time at elevation began to affect me (Jesse), which led to poor sleep and appetite … More Ladakh part 2: Thin Air and Brown Water
After about 30 offers of black tea, it was time to get down to business. Our trekking guru/salesman, Javeed, looked us up and down and offered an alternate trek, billed as “challenging”. He waved his hand over some blank spaces on the map with no trail markings and our fate was decided. … More Ladakh part 1: Trek Roulette and Himalayan Narcolepsy
On arrival, we hired a car. The driver spoke no English and would pull over randomly to smoke. Nevertheless we layed our lives in his nictotine stained hands as we drove to Agra and the Taj Mahal. … More The Taj Mahal and a little bit of Delhi
After a successful wild animal photoshoot behind us (catch up with Serengeti safari posts one, two, and three), we headed south to the Ngorongoro conservation area. Ngorongoro means “hole” in the Masai language, which refers to an incredibly large crater (caldera actually). Surrounding the crater is protected land for the Masai people. The Masai can also … More Ngorongoro and the Masai
As we began our Serengeti safari we kept hearing the term “the Big Five”. If we had seen the big five yet, wishing us luck on seeing all big five, and so on. Jesse, the calloused safari veteran, knew the term well (and happened to not have seen all five yet), but I didn’t know … More Serengeti: the Big 5
And then it happened. As we were spotting crocs in the river, a smaller herd (a few hundred) approached the river bank. Unaware or unfazed by their ill-fated brethren, they mustered their collective courage and then charged into the river … More Serengeti: The Crossing
round the world in sixty days 