"Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller" –Ibn Battuta
December 28. Oh, Bombay! Isn’t it the most populous, cosmopolitan, stylish, commercial, liberal, rich, Bollywoodish place in the whole of India? Take my word for that, it is. But also, it is home to infamous Mumbai mafia and the world largest slums (with 60% of Mumbai’s population living there). Most Indians would still call Mumbai…
December 27. I have never heard of Ellora or Ajanta Caves and after seeing Agra, I haven’t expected Aurangabad to impress me, however, it turned out to be a pretty remarkable place, worthy of a detour from the “standard India package” destinations. Malik Ambar, the Prime Minister of Murtaza Nizam Shah of Ahmadnagar, made Aurangabad…
I can’t call it anything but The Long March Forward. Just like Mao Zedong, we made a lot of sacrifices to get to our next destination, despite all the obstacles and obvious insanity of the idea. The original plan was to leave Khajuraho by train in the morning and transfer in Jhansi for an overnight…
December 25. The best way to get to the sexy temples of Khajuraho is to take a 45 minutes flight from a military airport in Agra. After a morning visit to the Tomb of Akbar the Great in Sikandra, we drove to the airport, where I, simply by chance, went through my belongings and found…
After spending a day discovering the ancient cities of Vrindavan and Mathura, Dimi and I arrived to our hotel, ITC Mughal, in Agra very late at night. The hotel is an oasis among the dirt and ugliness of the city. I have read a lot about Agra and its importance as a Mughal capital, 300…
December 22. I left Varanasi on the luxury overnight Shiva Ganga express train, which, according to the schedule, was supposed to arrive to Delhi at 7.40 am. Dimi arrived to India the evening before, thus it made me even more impatient to reach the final stop. Morning arrival would also give us enough time to…
December 20, 2013 Oh, Varanasi! Brace yourself, you will either love it or hate it! Many say, it is a place of the best and the worst India has to offer, and even though it is only my 2nd and 3rd days in the country, I feel I’ve experienced India. The history, the river, the ongoing funeral…
Delhi, Dec 19, 2013 My Aeroflot flight to Moscow was delayed by several hours and I completely lost all hope in catching a transfer to Delhi, nevertheless, due to a large number of Indians traveling from the US to India on the same flight, the plane in Moscow waited for us, so we made it…
The day has finally come to pack our suitcases and embark for yet another journey; this time, to India. I am excited to finally “live” the itinerary that took me 3 months to put together, yet apprehensive to encounter dangers many of my friends warned me of – aggressive men, food poisoning, suffocating odors etc….
It has been one of the most beautiful years, thanks to you. You let me be myself, yet your presence in my life, taught me quite a few things. You always made me feel loved and cared about, you always stood by me and my decisions. You were my greatest fan and faithful friend. You, who…