I was scanning headlines yesterday and I came across this one: “Tourist kills mugger with bare hands”. Basically what happened was a group of American tourists (senior citizens, mind you!) booked a day trip as a separate excursion from their Carnival Cruise, which stopped for the day in Limon, Costa Rica. While out they were attacked by three armed assailants, one with a gun, the others brandishing knives. One member of the group was ex-military, and managed to put one of the attackers in a headlock. He broke his clavicle and eventually killed him with his bare hands, causing the others to flee. more»

Internet cafes are very widespread these days, particularly in areas frequented by backpackers. Connection speeds, however, can often leave much to be desired. Some places have broad band and some places have dial-up. And of course sometimes you’re working on a fairly new PC, and sometimes you find yourself on something that can barely run Windows 95. more»

Our hotel in Pushkar said there weren’t any tourist buses going to Bundi from Pushkar, and that the local option, involving a transfer in nearby Ajmer, would take something like nine hours. They offered to arrange a private car to take us, which would cost 1700 Rupees. That’s like $40, which is ridiculous. “If you book now, we can get you a nice car. If you wait, you might not get a nice car.” We decided to take our chances on the bus. more»

After a couple of days checking out the pink capital Jaipur, we hopped on a tourist bus bound for Pushkar. The bus station in Jaipur isn’t very big, but we were directed to “Platform 1″ by the information office, which had about a dozen buses idling there. Fortunately as the time for departure drew near, it became immediately obvious which bus was bound for Puskhar: the one with all the people who looked like us standing by it. more»

From Calcutta, we flew across the north side of the country to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. The desert climate and world-famous palaces beckoned us to the Indian state known as “the land of the kings,” still the stomping ground of the maharajas. more»

In this episode we’ve got footage from the fascinating city of Varanasi, located on the banks of the holy Ganges river. There’s not much more to say than that, the place speaks for itself.

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This must be a form of culture shock, because it’s starting to get to us: Indians in the places we’ve been don’t seem to like smiling. At least not the ones in the hospitality industry, which are kind of the ones you’d expect to do the most smiling. more»

As the former capital of the British Raj, you’d think that a visit to Calcutta (or Kolkata, as it’s now called, though many people still use the old name) would be rewarding. In our humble opinion, this is just not the case. It’s a polluted, congested, noisy place with little to offer the traveler, particularly when compared to India’s other major cities. more»

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we produced a short video for Travelistic, and portion of it (small portion…) is up and in “The Map,” their weekly show. Check it out! more»

We’re finally in double digits! Come on safari with us as we go searching for wildlife in beautiful Royal Chitwan National Park. We’ve got elephant rides, elephant baths, rhino sightings, a strange relative of the crocodile called a gharial, and a whole lot more.

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