OMG!!

Ok so I know I said last post, but I went out to get some takeaway for breakfast tomorrow and found COCONUT ICE CREAM!! The real deal. In a coconut. They gave me a cup with the coconut juice to drink then gave me the coconut with the ice cream (which they assured me had no milk in it) and then the coconut shavings on top. HEAVEN <3 A perfect end to the trip :)

Final Hours Recap

Well, it's finally here: April 24th. I leave for the airport in exactly 10 hours. I've had my last Thai massage, my last mango sticky rice, my last shop down Khao San and am ready to head back to reality (for a short while). But before I leave I thought i'd  reminisce a little and recap the past four months:

So here goes: (deep breath) Buckets, paint and dancing in Koh Phi Phi, climbing in Railay, getting kissed by an elephant (on the cheek, just to clarify lol) and learning to cook Thai in Chiang Mai, zip lining, massive spiders and sleeping in tree houses in Lao, boat rides spent drinking Lao whiskey from a gas can and playing UNO, morning yoga by the river, kayaking, teaching English to novice monks, my Auzzie/Kiwi/Canadian companions,  pretty much everything in Luang Prabang :), beer pong and buckets for Valentines Day in Vang Viang, sunrise from Angkor in Cambodia, sunset quading though rice patties, the amazing beaches of Koh Rong, riding motorcycles in Phnom Penh, sand dune sledding in Mui Ne, motorcycle tours and canyoning in Dalat, sleeper buses and broken cameras, Halong Bay in the fog, spending my birthday having color fights in Delhi, Indian trains, sketchy alleys and cow shit in Varanasi, amazing sunrise/sunset boat tours along the ghats, the worst food poisoning I've ever had (Betty, we know each other so much better now lol), the Taj Mahal, getting ripped off by rickshaw drivers, shopping, gurus, monkey temple, camel safari and sleeping in the desert in Jaisalmer, trekking in the Langtang Region of Nepal, my first bucket shower, being on top of the world! white water rafting, camping, power outages and wicked thunder storms, running from rhinos in Royal Chitwan, snorkeling, suntanning and kayaking in Koh Tao, sketchy hostels (and shopping!) on Khao San, lack of sleep, and a last bit of exploring the Grand Palace and Wat Arun in Bangkok. 

And that's just the part I remember! Just kidding Dad. An amazing ride, I feel well traveled, pleased to have achieved 4 months of traveling in 3rd world countries, tried lots of new foods: managing to eat and not get too sick being GF and DF, met a lot of awesome people, got some beautiful photos, tried a few things that scared me, did a lot of things I've never done before, and all in all had an amazing time. Did I mention I'm bringing home an Auzzie? :D Stay tuned for my next trip: New Nork, Morocco and Egypt in Sept!

Sent from my iPhone

Ram Buttri street at night..

So pretty :)

The Famous Khao San Road

...and shopping "heaven", well for cheap stuff anyhow. Good thing I only have one more day here, this street is DANGEROUS lol.

Wat Arun

These photos don't really do it justice, it's much prettier in person.

And...Wat Arun

Grand Palace

Grand Place

Grand Palace

Finally made it to the Grand palace today:

Breakfast!

It's going to be weird going back to shakes and oatmeal.

Off Again...

And so in true "Christina" fashion, sitting still for 10 consecutive days proved far too difficult/frustrating, even in "paradise", so after 7 days I am heading back to Bangkok tomorrow (to Khao San Road, no less) to do some last minute sightseeing, possible shopping and pass the time until I fly home. 6 days and counting :)

Sent from my iPhone

This reminds me of Hornby

Some pretty colors

The other half of the view

Did I mention the breeze is amazing?

Half of the view from my 350 B room

Morning View from my 400B a night bungalow

Day two and I have almost forgotten my nightmare from yesterday and am loving this place! (despite its price - I realized that even though it's more than I wanted to pay, it's still only $12 a night) It's really pretty here, there's no sandy beach but the snorkeling is amazing! I rented a snorkel for the day ($1) and front crawl snorkeled around the bay. It was awesome! If swimming laps always had this much to look at I'd swim more lol. I can feel myself getting in shape already! I might walk into town tomorrow (apparently it's doable and only takes an hour, slightly skeptical) and buy a snorkel and do this every day!) Oh and I got into a 350B place for the night which has an awesome view, I feel like I'm in a treehouse :) I did some laundry in my sink and am not sitting here enjoying the breeze before dinner. Almost finished my first book, two more to go...any bets on how long they'll last?

Kathmandu to Koh Tao - Part 3

On the catamaran I sat up top with the wind in my hair, listening to music until the storm clouds rolled in and I went down below.

Kathmandu to Koh Tao - Part 2

After waiting in line for a half an hour I made it inside the office, showed them the booking on my phone and got my sticker (red 15) and my boat ticket for the next day and was told to come back in half an hour. I went and got a banana shake and bought some pineapple for the bus ride (I missed fruit!!) and then went and sat and ate my veggies and rice. After being herded down the street a couple blocks, buses started showing up and my red group climbed on our bus. To my disappointment it wasn't a sleeper bus like Vietnam but one with reclining seats. Still, it was much nicer than any of the buses I'd seen in the last month and a half! I put my earplugs in and tried to sleep, fairly unsuccessfully - so uncomfortable.

At 6am we arrived at the Chumpong Ferry dock and I brushed my teeth, washed my face and then ate my rice cakes with peanut butter (yup, all of this was in my carryon from the airport. I also had a pair of shorts I changed into! I was quite impressed with my packing abilities :) I watched sunrise from the dock and then got on the catamaran (first time on a catamaran!) bound for Koh Tao.

Chumpong Ferry dock to Koh Tao:

Sent from my iPhone

Kathmandu to Koh Tao - Part 1

I woke up at 5am Thursday and sat in the lobby of my guesthouse, in the dark, with my headlamp on and used the wifi to pick my shifts and send off emails to my work (to ensure i'd get summer shifts), ate my bananas and peanut butter for breakfast and then walked out to the street at 6:30am and got a taxi to the airport for 350R. My first flight was short, only an hour and a bit, I chatted with my neighbors (a lady from Uruguay and a guy from India) and ate three fruit salads because the flight crew said the catering company didn't give them any gluten free food for me. We were late landing because the pilot couldn't land the first time because it was too windy, so happy I wasn't staying in Delhi - It looked stormy. I ran to my connecting flight (boarding call was 11:15am and my plane landed at 11:20am) and made it 5 minutes before the gates closed, hoping my luggage made it :S The second flight was longer, about four and a half hours and I actually got fed, real food! It had my name on it and was curry, salad,fruit and corn patty thing. Yup, I took a picture of it :)

Did I mention I went book crazy??

This is me deciding which books to buy for my two weeks beaching it. I picked the two on the left and then Superfreakonomics. I almost bought all four but then decided maybe four was a bit excessive?? I can't wait to start my first one on the plane tomorrow :)

Elephant baths and the End of an Era

Our last day in Sauraha, Betty and I woke up bright and early and went for breakfast. We intended to have a ridiculously productive day and head off biking around the area but wanted to stop first to watch the elephants bathe at the riverside. We walked down and sat in the sunshine (a short lived pastime in Chitwan since it rains like every morning, afternoon and evening - sound a little like Vancouver??.) waiting for the elephants to show up. Turns out, you can pay 200 rupees ($2.50) to sit on the elephant's neck for about five minutes while it stands/sits in the river and bathes itself - essentially using its trunk to squirt the both of you, with river water (yum, mouth closed). Super touristy but so cool! (to ride an elephant in the nearby community forest for one hour costs 1300 rupees - and you're sitting in a box , lame) Elephants are so much more interesting up close! They have really rough wrinkly skin and spikey coarse hair on their head. And they're really smart gentle creatures. Ok, I want an elephant. So for five minutes we were bathed by elephants in the morning sun (pretty awesome) and then Betty and I walked back to our cottage to shower again to get the dirt and river water out of our hair. After lunch we hired bikes and pedaled around some nearby Tharou villages (the local people who used to live in the National Park but were relocated outside once it became a park). It was so pretty! Bumpy dirt roads surrounded by rice paddies and mud huts and colorful laundry drying on clothes lines. Or our last activity of the day we checked out the elephant breeding centre (mentioned, I might add, as a "must see" in the Lonely Planet) - for a total of two minutes. It was horrible. The adult elephants are all chained up, feet together and then chained to a pole while the babies roam around. The adults aren't able to get to their babies and the trainers hit them with sticks if they try to move and they cry out. Sickening. So mad we supported this and that it's a tourist attraction and so happy that I went to the Elephant Nature Park in Thailand and learned that training elephants doesn't need to be like this. Bit if a sad end to the day. Right on time (4pm) the clouds rolled in and the thunder, lightening and downpour started so we biked home in the rain to relax before dinner. At dinner time the storm as still going strong so we suited up in our rain gear to walk to "town" 5 minutes away. It was a bit scary walking to the restaurant, the thunder was so loud it felt like the lightening would hit us. We found a restaurant (most places you sit outside on the patio) but it was raining sideways so we were ushered inside while the owner boarded up the doorway and we spent an hour inside writing in our journals by candle light (gotta love the Nepal power outages) while we waited for dinner - dal bhat of course, yum :)

Safari Adventures!

Rounding out our adventure travels, Betty and I signed up for a safari in Chitwan National Park, hoping to see some fierce animals! Originally we were supposed to canoe for an hour and then do a full days walk in the park to see animals, but there was some confusion and we were no longer able to canoe. A little annoyed, all of my anger left when I actually sat in the canoe (we had to take one to cross the river to start our walk) and realized how unstable it actually was. "My iPhone!" Was the only thought that went through my head. Not "oh crap, there are crocodiles in this water that could eat me." But, "if the boat flips I need to be sure to keep my iPhone out of the water." Clearly I have my priorities in order. Once on the other side (relieved to have passed imminent danger) we walked along the river and into the park where our guide (one of two) explained some safety rules: If we saw a rhino and it started to charge us we were to run in a zig zag pattern (because rhinos have poor eyesight) and then climb a tree. For tigers we were supposed to stick in a group and be loud and menacing and try to stare it down. For sloth bears we were supposed to stick in a group and try to scare it but not look it in the eyes (sloth bears hate eyes/faces and will try to scratch your eyes out). Did I mention our guides had sticks for weapons and we were on foot? Right. The day turned out to be really good though, and relatively safe (with only one close encounter). We saw:
- a long snouted crocodile
- a spotted deer
- a massive deer the size of a giraffe
- a mongoose
- an Indian cuckoo and other birds
- red and grey monkeys
- some really cool red leaf cotton bugs
- a gharial (like a crocodile)
- some rare lizard
- a wild bore
- some wild chickens
- government elephants
- and two massive rhinos!

The first time we found a rhino we were trumping through the jungle (waving sticks infront of us to clear the cobwebs) like adventurers. Our guides told us to hush and we stalked it in the bush for awhile and then crouched while it crossed the path in front of us. Rhinos are massive animals! And quite scary in person when you realize how big they are and that there's literally nothing between you and it. I got an awesome video of it walking and peeing (who knew rhinos peed straight back??). Later in the day we found another rhino frolicking in the river. We creeped up to get a good look at it when another couple with two guides clomped up behind us loudly. The sounds angered the rhino because we were to close and so he lifted his head, looked at us and growled. "Run" our guide said. So we ran, all frantically and zig zag for about 200m until we realized it hadn't followed us, just growled. The noisy couple left and we crept back up closer and watched as this massive animal rolled over in the river and kicked its feet in the air, frolicking. This was when I need an SLR! It was incredible. We had lunch by one river, trekked bare foot through another (Chitwan has like three rivers bordering it) and checked out numerous observation towers before heading back to town for dinner. All in all an amazing day :)

First Sunset from Sauraha

View of Chitwan National Park (on the other side of the river)

River Rafting and Sleeping in Thunder Storms

Keeping with the adventure theme of our trip, Betty and I signed up for a one day river rafting trip on the Trisuli River. We met at the office in Pokhara, transferred to the local bus station and then hopped on a bus and drove the three hours to the local Adrenaline Rush (the rafting company) office and "put-in point". We met the four other people in our boat (three Swedish guys and a girl from Singapore) and our guide (Miley), were given a short little safety chat: listen for "forward", "right back", and "left back", if you fall out point your feet down river, head up river. Then we were given helmets, lifejackets, paddles and ushered in. Not sure what I was doing, I managed to figure out the few short commands pretty quickly, though it took me a bit longer to realize that screaming while going down the rapids lead to me drinking river water, something that took a few rapids to master, wasn't the screaming the point if it? The river was a combination of flats and rapids, some bigger than others, definitely a good beginner river. To add to the adventure, our boat nearly flipped once and filled with water another time though apparently this was part of the experience. One of the other boats paddling along with us flipped in big rapids and all eight of the people on it floated down the rest of the rapids. Me and another guy pulled two people into our boat and the kayaker lifeguards along with us rescued a few more in another boat. What excitement! Working while on vacation lol. We passed a funeral/cremation on the side of the river (literally a body wrapped in a blanket and lit on fire on the rocks - a bit awkward to row by) and then ate lunch on the shore of the river. After lunch the weather got cold, the clouds rolled in and the thunder started booming. I was really happy when we got to the end point and climbed out because the lightening started moments later (man my lifeguard training is stressing me out traveling lol). We changed into dry clothes at an office and then once the downpour started walked across a metal suspension bridge (in a thunder and lightning storm - not impressed), through a village, across a creek and around a mountain to our camp for the night. Drenched, cold and not impressed, thank god they had coffee and I brought packaged soya milk :) we spent the night in the open area because the tents were drenched but woke up to this amazing view, all the more battle hardened. Off to Sauraha and Chitwan National Park!

We Beat the Rain, Day 2: World Peace Pagoda

The Adventures of Betty and Christina: Woke up, had massive breakfast, hired a boat to paddle us across Tal Phewa (so peaceful! I miss fishing!), hiked up through villages to the World Peace Pagoda (under ominous looking thunder clouds as you can see), trekked down the other side, stopped along the way for a refreshing Coke, walked down a long windy road, tried unsuccessfully to flag down local buses (looking like idiots in the process), got stung by poison ivy-like plant (I can't remember the last time this happened to me??), wandered aimlessly along the main road with our rain jackets on, the wind picking up and the thunder booming (being gawked at by locals) until we came to a more populated area and found a local bus that we caught for 50 rupees (about $.75) that dropped us off near lakeside where we found a cafe and sat down to some hot ginger tea and curry just in time to watch the downpour (one that would make Vancouver proud) from our restaurant :)

Thunder, Hail and Lightening Storms

We spent three days in Pokhara, all of which went about the same way: cloudy morning followed by about an hour of hot sun tapering off to pouring rain, thunder showers, spectacular lightening shows and the occasional hail storm (see below picture of hail on the grass). Nevertheless, we did enjoy Pokhara, being the Vancouverites we are, we were out splashing about in the rain with our rain jackets on while everyone else hid undercover - and the bet part was the weather was so predictable!

Finished Blink, on to a new series...

Day 8: Homeward Bound

Today was again a travel day. We hopped a local bus again to take us back to Kathmandu and again it did not disappoint. No more than five minutes in we decided to disembark because the bus was trying to get up a rocky dirt road and was getting stuck in a big hole, to the point where the whole bus was rocking and I was worried we were going to roll down the mountain. So we got out and walked while men piled rocks in the hole so the bus could pass. It made it, and we hopped back on to continue our ride home. This trip we experienced two puking little girls on our laps, about 50 people inside the bus and another 20 or so on the roof (no animals this time). Oh local buses. We made it safe and sound back to Katmandu by around 3pm (oh the dirt and dust in the city! I miss the mountains already...) and then went in search of a hotel for the night. Off to Pokhara tomorrow!

Trek Days 6 and 7

Days 6 and 7 were our way back, we traveled from Kynjin Gumpa to Lama Village the first day and then from Lama Village to Seyabrubesi the second day. Both days were an easy hike and we had great weather, though it was a bit sad knowing we were almost done our trek and would be leaving this amazing scenery to head back to the city. I was also happy though, it felt good to have just completed/survived an 8 day trek in Nepal, and I now know I'm capable of such a feat. Everest base camp next!

Our Awesome Guides: Bijay and Sahadev

Sent from my iPhone

Betty with her expertly carved walking stick

Some Yaks

Me on Kynjin Ri!

View from the top of Kynjin Ri: Day 5

Highlight of the trip! Even though I woke up with a ridiculously sore back and started my day by rolling around on the floor with Betty's tennis ball trying to work out the kinks in my neck and back, this day was by far the most spectacular! I popped a couple of Tylenols to fix my back and after a yummy breakfast of friend potatoes and vegetables we bundled up for snow and headed up Kynjin Ri. Even though we were trekking in snow (which, by the way, my trusty fake North Face hiking boots held up well in!) by the time we got about 20 minutes up we were warmed by the sun - so we paired down our layers. We hiked straight up between the crevasse of two mountains (with quite a few breaks since it was our only plan for the day) and made it to the top by around 10:30am. The view was incredible! We had a 360 degree view of snowey mountains, glaciers and jagged peaks - the perfect end (well turn around point) to our trek. The way down was even better. We took an alternate route and ended up walking along the top of a ridge back down to the village, past a structure with prayer flags, a memorial plaque, stone inukshuk-like structures (which our guides called "houses" - Sahadev said "your dreams would be filfilled if you built a house" - so of course we built little stone houses :). We arrived back in Kynjin Gumpa just in time for lunch, a nap, and to enjoy the rest of a lazy, sunny afternoon.

Day 4: Langtang to Kynjin Gumpa

Going from 1496m in Lama to 3330m in Langtang, it's definitely getting colder in the evenings. Betty and I bundled ourselves up last night to go explore Langtang Village and even more at night (in our rock hard beds) to keep ourselves warm. It's definitely a change from the desert we were in less than two weeks ago! We had another pleasant, short (3h, apparently we're quite speedy) hike today to Kynjin Gumpa. Everyone you pass here says "Namaste" or "good morning". It's nice and reminds me of the Coast :) We also saw a lot of local people on the trails, carrying food and supplies up to the villages. The size and weight of the loads carried is incredible and the people carrying them vary from as young as nine to as old as about late sixties? None of them complain and they all carry the massive loads by a single strap balanced on the top of their heads. It now makes sense why so many of the people I saw in villages on the way up had such stooped posture.

Today was our first sighting of the snowy mountains. We arrived in Kynjin Gunpa around 10:30am, had our first (and hottest yet!) bucket shower and then went to explore a nearby Tibetan monastery where we lit yak butter candles and then sat on a rock and enjoyed the view until the clouds rolled in and low and behold it snowed! It was pretty cool. Thank goodness for wood stoves and ginger tea. All of the people from the guesthouse huddled around the stove to keep warm to eat dinner before retiring up to bed.

Pilgrim Guesthouse: Langtang Village

Lunchtime Scenery Day 3: Lama Village to Langtang

Day three was much easier than day two, and it was a beautiful day even after the thundering and lightening the night before (thankfully it was only at dinner time and while we slept - it was still quite fun though :). I had my last soya milk (I bought two in Kathmandu that were non-dairy!) in my coffee which was AMAZING and gave the rest of it to Binita who devoured it like a crazed animal (apparently soya milk has a good bit of sugar in it?), had fried rice and egg for breakfast and then me, Betty, Sagadev (our guide) and Bijay (our porter) headed off. The small ups and frequent flats (and even some downhills) of the walk had me feeling like we picked the right trek: something that we would enjoy and wouldn't kill us. We had an awesome dal bhat (lentil soup) with curry and some ginger tea (my drink of the trek) for lunch and enjoyed the spectacular view, complete with prayer flags and ponies. We passed another army checkpoint and watched a helicopter fly overhead (to rescue someone? Somewhat creepy, though I was glad to see it was possible) and arrived at Pilgrime Guesthouse in Langtang at an early 1pm. We changed into dry clothes, napped and relaxed the rest of the day. Rough day :)

Binita: My little tag-along from Lama Village

In my first five minutes in Lama Village I befriended a little Tibetan (much of the Langtang area is populated with Tibetan refugees) munchkin. She spoke no English but we sat for two plus hours drawing in my journal. She followed me around the rest of the evening, climbing all over me at dinner and then painting my nails a neon pink (doing a decent job I must say!) before spilling the nail polish all over the cushions in the dining room and being dragged out by her mother lol. So precious.

Trek day 2 - Seybrubesi to Lama Village

Ok so I was a little apprehensive about our first day of trekking, having done nothing in the way of exercise for the last few months but I'm happy to report that although our first day resembled the Grouse Grind six times over, neither Betty nor I keeled over and we made it (relatively in one piece) in five hours to our first guesthouse in Lama Village (and we were even told we were speedy!). Our day consisted of us hiking up a beautiful trail through a valley, across a few suspension bridges, alongside a beautiful turquoise river, stopping for lunch at a guesthouse with riverside view (where I drank local water from a rubber tube and used the first of my water purification tablets) up to 1496m, aka Lama Village, where we seriously stretched (who knew what our muscles would do tomorrow morning!) and then relaxed for the rest of the day, washing our "slightly scented" hiking gear in a tub beside the guesthouse and hanging it to dry on the clothes line (this place has everything, talk about glamping! :) Ready for day 2!

Guesthouse View 2: Seybrubesi

Trek Day 1: Kathmandu to Seyabrubesi

Ok so the first "day" of our trek was actually a travel day but it was definitely an adventure. We opted for the local bus (being the cheapies we are) and so spent 9 luxurious hours in broken seats with springs sticking out bumping along windy "roads" that were often no more than dirt, boulders and the occasional creek bed (again I was wrong about what I thought was a piece of junk, our bus was a beast! How it made it to Seyabrubesi I will not know, but I was so happy it did. I closed my eyes for a good while there and may have been praying. Looking out the window and seeing no ground between the edge of the bus and the edge of the mountain does not inspire confidence. Thank god for talented bus drivers!). When I did have my eyes open, the scenery was spectacular: we saw so many villages, people in colorful dresses and hats, drove past army checkpoints and saw hundreds of rice patty terraces. Our bus even had live chickens and goats on the roof along with about 10 people. It was incredible! And the guy puking out the window just added to the adventure lol. Happy to be safe and sound in Syabrubesi :) Trekking day 2 (real trekking) begins tomorrow!

Swayambhunath, Nepal

Probably the best part of Nepal (though we've only been to Kathmandu) so far. Durbar Square in Kathmandu was nice, the one in Patan was also pretty, but the monkey temple (they seem to have these everywhere - though there were far fewer monkeys at this one and quadruple the people) was by far the highlight. We took a cab there for 150 rupees and it dropped us off half way up a hill just outside of Thamel. From there we walked up thousands of steps underneath millions of colorful prayer flags to the to of the little mountain. At the top was this massive stupa where people walked around (counter clockwise) spinning the prayer wheels and saying prayers. The view of the city from the top was amazing, there were even a few monkeys.

Our Trek!

We booked our trip! Betty and I are off on an adventure in the Langtang Region if Nepal. We will trek from Syabrubesi to Kyanjin Gompa and then up to Kyanjin Ri and back, staying in tea houses (and getting in fabulous shape) along the way :)

Found You!

Soy Latte - Himalayan Java, Thamel Nepal :)

Camels, turbans and 50 degree weather - Part 2

The first day of our safari was spent meandering through the desert (in 50 degree heat - thank goodness for my safari gear :) checking out a little village in the middle of nowhere, lounging under a tree for three hours (waiting for lunch and then digesting lunch - why don't I ever do this at home??), riding to an "oasis" (translation: a well with a trough) and then finally making camp around 6pm where after resting and stretching our sore muscles, drinking warm (but satisfying) Pepsi we rolled down the sand dunes and then watched the sun set and the dung beetles go about their business (they are massive!). Our guides cooked us curry with rice and roti for dinner, set up our bedding (lounge chair like bed platforms with blankets that I'm sure had never been washed) and then left us. We were alone in the desert (they even took the camels!). One of the guys on our tour had brought his guitar and he played random cover songs and sang until we fell asleep. Of course I was the last one to fall asleep and I lay there letting my imagination digest the fact that I was alone in the desert and thinking of all of the creepy/scary things out there that might want to eat me (thankfully we were off the ground and so safe from snakes/mice/dung beetles). I woke up around 6:30am, still in one piece and realized I was the first one up. I watched the sunrise over the dunes from my bed and thought of watching the sunrise on Hornby.

Our guides arrived and made breakfast and hot chai (so choked all chai here is made with milk!) and then we set off on another camel trek across more amazing sand dunes and it occurred to me that this is the most peaceful place I've been in India. Points for Jaisalmer. We spent another afternoon relaxing under a tree in the shade, were fed an awesome curry lunch and then shipped back to our hotel in the city. A perfect end to our time in India :)

Camels, turbans and 50 degree weather - Part 1

With a sole purpose of riding a camel in Jaisalmer, we immediately booked a two day one night camel safari in the desert upon arrival and then set off to get some gear. The next day, armed with our newly purchased long sleeved white safari shirts, scrub pants and colorful turbans we set off in the hotel Jeep into the desert. Around 11am we were dropped off in the middle of the desert, had our turbans tied properly (I vow to get it right by the end of this trip!) saddled up our camels, and set off.

Sunset #562??

Diet coke and a sunset from the Jaisalmer Fort :)

Sent from my iPhone

Pure talent

Flours/beans

Chillies in the Pink City

Breakfast of Champions

Aloo (Potatoe) Masala

My First Henna!