“Time spent in India has a extraordinary effect on one. ” – Tahir Shah He clearly never spent much time at an Indian bus station, or perhaps that effect might be anger, frustration, or confusion. I jest…sort of. It’s 600am and we are wandering through the crowds of the city bus terminal in Hyderabad. Buses, cars, rickshaws, carts and people of … [Read more...]
Category: Travel
First Time Travelers Guide to Tokyo Japan
I start to realize that after having been to the city several times there are many things I had to learn along the way to make the most of my stay and help prevent from getting lost or in trouble. I was also recently running off a list of things to some coworkers who are heading there recently on how to get by and maybe it would help some other … [Read more...]
Egypt: Saint Catherine’s Monastery et al.
The way down was fairly uneventful for us. Whiskey seemed to reprise his role in our group or perhaps his uncanny body double. But the benefit of morning hiking is that you can actually see where you go. The clot of hikers slowly flowed down the mountain steps onto the trail below and Whiskey bounded along laden with our friend upon … [Read more...]
Into the Eastern Desert – Qasr-ain
In Arabic the word “Qasr” means palace. These were possibly palaces, although some were mere fortresses, and most were simply lodges and houses, which I guess could be seen as a palace. There were two famous examples on the outskirts of Azraq that see the most tourists (mostly from tour buses from the capital) and we opted to visit these before … [Read more...]
Into the Eastern Desert – Part 2
Check out Part 1 here Timing is everything and the skies began to drop rain as we started to leave Burqu for the afternoon. I imagine that rain is perhaps a rare but welcome occurrence out here in the deserts. I don’t know how often they actually do see rain, but for my limited time in Jordan I’ve seen far more than I anticipated I would see. I … [Read more...]
Into the Eastern Desert – Part 1
We’ve been trying for weeks now, maybe even months depending on when you check the calendar, but constantly our plans to explore the eastern desert have been derailed. Lately it’s been constant illnesses but finally it seems that our attempts at herding cats may have paid off this weekend. This is generally the last chance to travel as a group … [Read more...]
Renting a Car in Amman Jordan
There are various ways to rent a car when you are traveling in Jordan. Overall, there is a right way, a wrong way, and a Jordanian way to renting a car in Amman Jordan. There is one I was used to previously, the western car company approach. All the big car companies exist here in Jordan (Avis, Hertz, Sixt, Thrifty) and it operates generally how … [Read more...]
Chasing Trains in Amman – Jordan Hejaz Railway
It was just one of those decisions. We were all meeting up in Jabel Webdeh (a lovely neighborhood in Amman) to relax and talk before one of our friends left for good to the airport. It was a surprisingly warm March day and we were certainly enjoying the weather of the area. We all said our goodbyes and started walking back towards the downtown. … [Read more...]
A Spring Ski Weekend in Zermatt
As I have said I’m a bit behind on the travel updates…so this is from back in April. We were going to be in the UK for a few weeks and figured that this would be a good opportunity to see if we could get some skiing in. However due to work and it being late in the ski season we were very limited on where we could go. It seemed like … [Read more...]
Walking the High Line — New York City
In many cities, old unused train lines end up becoming big eye sores, but in New York City it gets turned into a park. The high line is an old elevated train tracks on the west side of Manhattan. What could have ended up as an unused piece of track or torn down for some other development ended up becoming a great park to wander through and hang … [Read more...]
Eastern Market — Washington DC
It’s funny really how often we forget to explore the areas around where we live. I used to try to make it down to Washington DC to explore when I got the chance, and now that I live in the area, I seldom actually do any exploring. I can become an expert exploring around places like Tokyo, but yet not really know local cities where … [Read more...]
Gunpowder Plot Day – Cambridge England
Remember, Remember, the fifth of NovemberGunpowder, Treason, and PlotI know of no reason why gun powder treasonShould ever be forgot. In November of 1605, a long planned plot to overthrow the king of England and replace him with a new leader was finally coming to fruition. The conspirators had planned an explosion at Parliament that would … [Read more...]