Author: Nick
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Ethical Travel in Myanmar
We’ve visited countries such as South Africa with a sordid political and social history, a few such as India where class- and gender-based discrimination is rampant, and at least one–Uganda–where the current political reality is somewhere between worrisome and deplorable, but none can compare to Myanmar in terms of its government’s repression and persecution of…
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Video Dump 5: India and Nepal
It’s time for another round-up of videos we took that didn’t quite make it into our posts. This one will cover India and Nepal. Enjoy! First, from our first stop in India, an aerial view of the madness at the Howrah flower market in Kolkata Click here to see the video from the Howrah flower…
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Railay: Rock Climbing Above Gorgeous Beaches
Are you a bro on spring break from college looking to score? Then you’re going to hate this place! Which is exactly why we loved it. After the overdevelopment (and the relatively high prices and lack of pristine surroundings that come with it) of Koh Tao, we set our sights further south and on the…
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Yum: Cookie Walla
A small sign in the bustling and over-saturated backpacker area of Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal calls to us. It’s small, shares no details, and is overpowered by the other bright signs around it, food carts, hotel- and trek touts, and live music coming from all directions, but it proclaims simply, “Cookie Walla”. We must go. We…
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History, Religion, and Yogurt in the Kathmandu Valley
A few days after a precarious exit from India, my dad met us in Kathmandu: he had been looking for a chance to catch up with us somewhere along our journey, and something about Nepal piqued his interest. A few weeks earlier, he pulled the trigger on a flight, spent some time researching the mountain…
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Yum: Thali
The thali was probably our favorite Indian meal, or at least the one we had the most times. Present on nearly every menu in India, and differing a bit from region to region, it’s generally a generous portion of rice, another carb like the crispy, fried papad cracker or a flatbread such as roti or…
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Khajuraho: Sex Sells
After Varanasi, we got off the spiritual track and threw ourselves full-force into India’s formidable archaeology circuit: the country boasts thousands of palaces, temples, forts, and other historic structures, showing thousands of years of history from dozens of different tribes, kingdoms, and religious sects. We opted to start in Khajuraho, a backwater town famous for…
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The Holy City of Varanasi
Our next stop was Varanasi, one of the holiest Hindu cities on earth, and also one of the oldest living cities in the world. It sits on the Ganges River, and according to the Hindu religion, anyone who dies here will attain instant moksha, or enlightmentment, so the city is said to be teeming with…
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Bodhgaya: Buddhist Disneyland
Still on a Buddhist kick, we made our way from Sikkim to Bodhgaya, a trip that took about 30 hours in total between Jeeps, trains, and rickshaws. Bodhgaya is the most important Buddhist pilgrimage destination and is the place where the Buddha himself apparently attained enlightenment under a pipal tree now known as the Bodhi…
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Seeing Uganda through the Eyes of an NGO
One of the main reasons we decided to visit Uganda–besides not feeling totally ready to leave Africa, and some scheduling particulars that made it make more sense–was because we have a connection in Kampala. Lynn, one of my parents’ oldest and dearest friends some eight years ago sold the business she owned and started a…