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Photo of the Day: Budapest

April 4, 2011 By Jillian

We spent only a few days in Budapest, but it got under our skin. A beautiful city to walk in, Budapest has so much on offer. From hot springs, to museums and even an underground cave complex, there was so much to do and see it felt unfair that we crammed in as much as we could in a few days. With it’s interesting history and mix of former soviet and western European culture, it was a wonderful place to explore.

Special thanks to Flickr user BeckaMcKnight for marking this photo as a favorite.

To see a few of our favorite photos from Hungary click here.

Our PHOTO PAGE has links to all of our collections on Flickr. Be sure to mark some of your own favorites so that we can include them on this column. We’ll be highlighting a different photo every day.

Mumbai: Surrounded by 17 million people

December 15, 2010 By Jillian

Getting to the commuter train station in a suburb of Mumbai, I was shocked when the seven car train pulled in full and hundreds of people on the platform moved to get on. Loading and unloading the train was a well choreographed dance and unfortunately we didn’t know the steps.

Mumbai Trains: 8 Million Passengers a Day — Thanks to babasteve on Flickr for this photo!

Welcome to Mumbai.

I was prepared for India, or so I thought before we got to Mumbai. Heavily traveled, we’d heard countless stories and warnings about the subcontinent. Love it or Hate it we were told and I was prepared to do both. Pity flashed in other backpackers eyes as we said we were going to India as a “break” before home. One guy looked at us like we were crazy and remarked that we must be literally out of our minds to look for peace and quiet in India before going home. Ouch.

Flash forward to that train platform where the air was so thick and hot you could cut it with a knife and the platform was so busy that the flow of people reminded me of a fast moving river current. The train I would learn, was a microcosm of Mumbai. As Becka and I crowded onto the women’s car and found a seat, the women around us looked at us in curiosity. Dressed in brightly colored sari’s, shalwar kameez, scarves, western clothes and jewelry they were a sight to behold. This was exactly what I was expecting I thought. Looking out the window trains passed us, crowded to the brim, many with men hanging half way out of the cars holding onto handles. There’s a scene in Slumdog Millionaire where Jamal and his brother are riding the rails. It’s chaotic and colorful and all I could think about on that ride was how much it was just like the real thing.

Riding the trains wasn’t all movie magic. Opting always to ride in the women’s car, Becka and I often had to separate ourselves from Danny as the train pulled in and run for the women’s car. Generally this was no problem, but hitting the trains at rush hour we experienced the Mumbai shove. Imagine 100 people jammed into space for 50. That’s what it felt like on the train and as we tried to push and shove our way on and off, the Indian women around us gave us helpful, but hard shoves onto or off of the train. It was always a congenial group of women, but women very serious about getting on and off the train. We emerged each time feeling like we had just been born.

The men’s cars on the other hand weren’t as congenial and Danny had to use some of his rugby skills to get off the train. Pushing and shoving, the crowd seemed to swallow him alive and his emergence on the platform was something more akin to Jonah being spit from the whale than being born. With his day-pack tucked carefully to his torso like a rugby ball, he hunched down and barreled his way towards the exit, launching himself onto the platform as a result of various well placed elbows.

We were pleasantly shocked every time we made it on and off together. Of course there was the time when we didn’t all make it on or off the train, but really that stories better to tell in person.

Bangkok

December 6, 2010 By Jillian

There’s a joke about Bangkok, but Danny’s heard it enough over the last few weeks that I fear for my safety if I repeat it again. Bangkok itself is a huge, sprawling, modern city. For two weary travelers like ourselves it was a place to catch up on a few housekeeping issues- like going to the doctor, the dentist and indulging in western delicacies like krispy kreme donuts, and brownie sundaes. For my sister it was business as usual and she spent a day telecommuting back to DC.

More than a year ago we were advised to do any medical treatments we needed in Thailand before we returned to the US. With nothing really wrong with us, (although opinions among our friends and family vary), we decided to go in for a full check up, just to you know, see what fun things we’ve been playing host to these last few months. A friend from GW, who serves in Thailand as a Peace Corps Volunteer recommended a hospital for us in Bangkok, five star service, complete with an Au Bon Pain. Arriving in the international “welcome center,” which resembled the lobby of a five star hotel not a hospital, we knew we were in the right place. An enormous LCD monitor advertised complete surgery packages for less money than probably a pre-operation procedure in the United States and as the screen flashed things like “knee replacement,” “breast augmentation,” “open heart surgery,” classical music softly played over head and the Starbucks on the floor brewed a vanilla latte. Not exactly my local hospital in Pennsylvania.

Needless to say we were poked, prodded and the diagnosis was confirmed- there is nothing wrong with us, at least not physically. I’ll admit I was a little disappointed. I was hoping to be able to tell our readers that we’ve been living with {insert rare and strange disease here} for the last several months or at the very least playing unknown host to a parasite. Sadly, all was “normal” and we were sent on our way after a delicious breakfast.

With housekeeping out of the way, we decided to see the sights of Bangkok. From the Golden Palace to Wat Pho and numerous air conditioned shopping malls, we covered Bangkok from top to bottom. Fortunately our timing coincided with the beginning of the Loi Krathong festival and we were able to catch the opening ceremonies along the river in Bangkok. Enormous, brightly lit barges floated down the river like a river parade. Fireworks punctuated the end of the procession, and although we weren’t allowed into the King’s party (the dog ate my invitation), we enjoyed the hub-bub from outside.

Interestingly enough, the new Harry Potter was released in Bangkok Nov.18th not Nov.19th like the rest of the world.
Which means, with the international date line, we saw it a full day before anyone in the US. At least I think it was an official release. Then again, the titles were in Russian.

IF YOU GO: You can get everything you ever wanted in Bangkok. Seriously. Watch out for scam-artists, we were confronted by more scams in Bangkok than anywhere else on our entire trip and their ploys were creative. Some were even wearing fake tourist police uniforms (easily identifiable, the polo shirts are very different than the formal uniform of the actual tourist police). It’s worth it to stop at one of the tourist information booths and pick up a free map. The bus system was cheap and efficient. The street food of course is delicious, so don’t hesitate to indulge if something looks good. Avoid the BTS system during rush hour.

Beijing!

November 3, 2010 By Jillian

It’s official, we’ve made it around the world; or at least in my opinion. Beijing is just about as far east as we could go overland from Istanbul. Although Xi’an was technically the end of the silk road, Beijing was always the end in my head, so when we arrived I was elated.

There’s so much to do in Beijing, more than we had the time or desire for, but you have to start somewhere. Arriving into the station at 4am, we caught the raising of the flag in Tienanmen Square at dawn. Quite literally we were the only westerner’s there, but the Chinese tourists were going crazy with excitement when the color guard showed up, waving their flags and shoving their camera’s into the air. We were tempted to wave an American flag in that crowd…just to see what the response might have been. Didn’t have one with us though, and with the show over at 6:30am we were left with nothing to do for a few hours. This didn’t bother the crowd of Chinese tour groups, they promptly walked across the square to stand in line for two hours to view the preserved body of Chairman Mao.

Not interesting in standing in line for two hours to see the Chairman, we walked down to the Temple of Heaven, an ancient site for imperial worship and low and behold we found the place abuzz with activity. The park was full of Chinese participating in Tai Chi classes, music classes, aerobics classes, dance classes, playing cards, bands and even a few practicing martial arts with swords and sticks. It might have been 7am?

We stumbled into a group tango lesson practicing to a tango version of happy birthday- in English, and a few harmonica players, one who was practicing Yankee Doodle and My Darlin’ Clemantine over and over again. Our experience in the park was one of numerous moments that left us thinking “what?” Standing in the shadow of the one of the holiest sites for the Chinese Royal family, watching dance classes, listening to traditional Chinese music and an old man attempt ‘scarf’ dancing to the enjoyment of his friends, was a travel memory I’ll never forget.

Besides sightseeing we did do some rather “Chinese” things that hadn’t yet been attempted on our trip. Although moto-bikes and cars are more common than they used to be, the bicycle is still a main mode of transportation; and often with passengers hanging on the back as well. A true Chinese experience, we got the opportunity to try it our first night in Beijing. I rode on the back rack of our couchsurfing host’s bike to dinner. Jostling around in the back on her rickety second hand Chinese bike I thought I was going to die, fall off, or at best end up with a broken bone or two. My legs were too long to straddle the bike properly but sitting side-saddle left the bike precariously unbalanced, so I resorted to straddling the rack and awkwardly lifting my legs at weird angles to keep them off the ground. It was a work-out just trying to stay balanced, keep my legs up off the ground and close enough to the bike not to knock into something all while riding down a pot holed alley. Our couchsurfing host knew the road however, and as we bounced along the worst injuries I got were bruises to my butt and pride. Dinner was delicious and tucked into a small Sichuan restaurant in a huotong, or alley, surrounded by a mix of young Chinese and expats. Although I was just happy to have made it to Beijing, don’t expect me to willingly ride on the back of a bicycle again. I’m going to leave that one to the Chinese.

Tbilisi: Isn’t Georgia north of Florida?

September 9, 2010 By Jillian

With a Central Asian visa ticking away, we headed north from Trabzon to Georgia. Arriving in Tbilisi early in the morning we promptly went in search of a hotel and got to work on some logistics, mainly a way across the Caspian. With some helpful advice from relatives in the USA, we set out to find a flight to Kazakhstan. We spent two full days searching for one airline which, by all accounts does not exist, and finally found the one travel agent in town who could sell tickets for the airline that does exist, Kazakhstan Airways. Finally, with hand written air tickets in hand we set about exploring the city.

Most of the museums in Tbilisi were closed for the weekend or renovation, and having completed the walking tour four times over in search of air tickets, we were left with perhaps only one thing to do: shop. Tucked into a park by the river, a weekend flea market of sorts held all sorts of interesting treasures. From vintage jewelery to soviet era gas masks to electric fuses and full sets of old china, the diversity was astounding. Some sellers looked as though they had raided their basements in search of something to sell while others looked like serious collectors, displaying stamps, coins and tons of soviet era military supplies. Diving right in, we negotiated using pad and paper, cell phones and held up fingers like preschoolers. In the end we found ourselves with a pre-WW II Russian made camera instead of the “KGB first edition” spy camera the vendor was trying to sell, a few pieces of jewelry and a half kilo of old soviet era coins from behind the iron curtain including a few East German deuchemarks.

Compared to Turkey, Georgia feels very European. Tbilisi is a modern thriving capital, that due to the existence of some very upscale patisseries and cafes appears to have a large expat population. It’s the exact type of city that we love, one that has balanced modern and western conveniences with traditional culture. Georgians are welcoming and open people and nearly every single encounter we’ve had here has been with a smile. IMGP6738 From atop the fortress overlooking the city Danny declared Tbilisi to have a modern- medieval atmosphere, which although I don’t necessarily agree with, staring at the ruins of another fort and an enormous statue of a knight on horse back I can see what he means.

If You Go: You can easily spend a few days in and around Tbilisi. Modern comforts abound, but its not hard to get to the “real” neighborhoods. Georgian people are incredibly friendly and even if you can’t speak Georgian they’ll try to communicate with you. Unfortunately the Georgian National Museum was closed during our visit as were a number of other museums. The “Dry Bridge” market is held Saturdays and Sundays in 9th of March park along the river. Bring small change and bargaining skills!

Photo of the Day: Budapest

Mumbai: Surrounded by 17 million people

Bangkok

Beijing!

Tbilisi: Isn’t Georgia north of Florida?

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