Our flight was entertaining, between Lindsay taking pictures of everything and everyone. There was a little boy climbing over the airplane seats and we chatted with the Spanish women next to us about Spain and adventure we were about to embark on.

We meet up with Alan and he introduced us to the “Royal Carthago”, our home for the next few months. She was a beauty. A 1994 Carthago Volkswagan Caravan, sleeps 3 with a sink, stove, refrigerator and plenty of storage. We had so many great moments with the Royal Carthago. My personal favorite is that we could park it almost anywhere. We had some incredible views of sunsets and sunrises. Although we didn’t see many sunrises…

We could also have lunch anywhere we wanted to…whether overlooking the sea or sitting outside IKEA.

I appreciated traveling via Caravan so much! Compared to our earlier travels of having to be on a set schedule or worrying about where to catch the next train or bus – it was such freedom! I think that it is the American in me. I loved being able to see so many different places and every night was a new adventure!

Of course along with any fabulous adventure, there were the not-so-fun things. A few of our top moments include:

1. Lindsay doing dishes

2. Drying the Laundry (it took 3 days for all of our laundry to dry!)

3. Finding a camping spot in the dark then realizing you are at a church and waking up to church bells every hour…and we made this mistake twice!

4. Getting the Carthago stuck. I got it stuck in the sand, thank goodness for some nice people to help us get it out, and the other one…well let’s just say Karla suggested going around the tunnel, but Alan decided we would be ok…you think the name of the tunnel would have been a clue. It was called “Mini Tunnel”….

and my most-not-so-fun moment in the Carthago…finding a place to go the bathroom first thing in the morning. Let’s just say, I had to dig myself a hole in the sand flats of a National Park for this morning experience. Alan was restricted to a 100 yard distance from me…I appreciated him not using the zoom lens on his camera.

We crossed over into Israel from Taba, Egypt (a small beach and diving resort) then through Eilat, Israel (another small beach resort town). We took a bus to Taba then walked to the border by foot and arrived in Eilat. When we arrived in Eilat, we were just in shock. Tons of cars and people camping out on the beach of the Red Sea, it felt like we were at a 4th of July BBQ on a lake in Colorado. but it was the Jewish holiday Passover (Pesach). So many different looking people running in bikini’s with pop music playing…I took a deep breath and smiled. Oh ya, we are out of women suppressed, worrying about what to wear, 3rd world countries!

I was so excited when I saw someone use a debit card at the mini-market, something I haven’t seen this since Thailand…we don’t have to worry about having cash in hand at all times! I started to realize how much I am missing the conveniences of America.

We arrived at Ryan and Inbar’s then headed to Inbar’s parents for dinner. It was a fabulous dinner that was “Kosher” for the Passover holiday – it was sooo yummy. To be ‘kosher’ there were no breads or grains that make bread, and the Matza was used instead of bread with yeast. Matza is bread that is flat and unrisen. Like big crackers. I was loving Matza with the hummus, baba ganoush, pate, peppers and tomatoes starters!! We talked a lot about basketball since Inbar and her sister are playing in the women’s Israel semi-pro league and asked a bunch questions about the passover holiday in Israel. We learned that nothing is open during Passover. There is only one gas station in all of Jerusalem that is open for the days of Sabbath (friday night and saturday day) and passover. All of the shops are closed and only restaurants that serve “kosher” food are open.

The next day we headed to check out some Holy sites. Ryan and Inbar had a place in downtown Jerusalem, which is in walking distance of the Old City where most of the Holy Land sites are located. Inbar and Ryan first drove us around Jeruselam and showed us all of the different areas. It was the day of Sabbath (Saturday), the a day where no one drives. I think we were truly the only car on the road. It was great! We saw the entire city in an hour and then headed over to Old City. We wanted to see one of the processions at the Church of Holy Sepulchre the place where Jesus died and was resurrected. The procession was for the Jesus walk of Via Dolorosa and was very beautiful with the re-enacting the path that Jesus took, carrying his cross, on the way to his crucifixion. There were 9 stops in the old city, where the procession would stop and preform a little ceremony for each station (i.e. Christ falling down or the meeting between Jesus and his mother), then finish at the Church of Holy Sepulchre. The picture below shows the Via Dolorosa going into the Holy  of Sepulchre.

After watching the procession at the church, we walked the entire Via Dolorosa street and checked out all the stations. The street crosses the Muslim and the Christian quarters in the Old City, it was interesting to see the stations of Via Dolorosa marked really well in the Christian quarters and not so good in the Muslim area. We actually missed a few of the stations because they weren’t marked very well in the Muslim area. As we walked through both quarters I was really surprised how everyone was getting a long, there wasn’t much animosity displayed between the two religions and with the Jewish quarter close by. I expected to see more yelling and fighting in the Old City, but it seemed very harmonious overall.

The next day we went back to the Old City with Ryan and a few of his friends. Ryan’s buddy, Ben, was our personal tour guide, giving us all these great facts and info on the Old City. They took us to a Arabic restaurant (not kosher), then over to the Western Wall, where we put our prayers inside the wall. First we stopped at a lookout spot that overlooked the Wall. Up there we found some other people mainly orthodox Jews that were praying toward trees, bowing their head over and over and over. I had never seen this before, read a little about it, but I could help but wonder why the head bob?

As we headed over to the wall, they separate the men from the women so I took the camera in with me. The women’s side was incredibly packed with women and children. There were several women praying, sitting reading their scriptures and then you had to finess your way up to the wall, where women were praying, reading and touching the wall. I place my prayer in the crack of the wall, then said good bye to crowd of women. As I was walking away I saw all these girls walking backwards to leave, I had no idea what that meant…so I stood there watching for a minute to see if any other women would walk backwards…but they didn’t. I guess some orthodox Jews believe it is disrespectful to turn your back to the wall. But when I saw it at the beginning I thought, I was going to be on some prank TV show where a group of people does something really odd and other people just join in cuz everyone else is doing it and then  they are told they are on TV.

The next day was Alan’s Birthday! He’s 32! We initally were going to go to Bethlehem but we forgot our passports, so we didn’t get the chance to go, but we met up with a Alba a friend from Egypt and checked out the Tomb of the Virgin Mary and back to the Holy Church of S. After visiting more of the holy sites, Alan watched a big juicy burger for his birthday, so we had dinner at a burger joint and blew a few candles with his french fries.

That night we went to an concert of Jasmin Levy, a Sephardic musician, which is a mix of Ladino/Judeo-Spanish language and culture of Spanish Jewry and Flamenco dancing with Ryan and Inbar.

After the concert, we had some birthday wine and dessert with ice cream and brownies (kosher of course)! Happy Birthday Alan!

We decided to rent a car in Jordan, we are slowly realizing we are car travelers. I think we like the independence, but also Alan and I both grew up doing a lot of road trips with our parents as well, so I wonder if was home grown. Because of the cost of Jordan, we decided we could only stay a few days. So we rented the car from Aqaba, Jordan and drove the highway next to the Dead Sea. We hardly saw anyone on the road, only a few people at bus stops and look out towers, with Isreal only a few kilometers away. We also saw lots of shepherds with their sheep…lots and lots of sheep. Sometimes you would be waiting 20 minutes from the sheep to cross the road.

We ended up almost to Amman but decided to go the where Moses saw the Promise Land. It was gorgeous and really cool to be able to see all the way into Isreal. After Alan showed me the the Promise Land, we began to drive toward this amazing place called Colored Canyon…it is the Grand Canyon of Jordan. It was gorgeous….and very, very windy. We drove a lot of it at night and was the most incredible sunset, then camped out near by to wake up to the beautiful view.

After taking some pictures of the Canyon, we headed to Petra. I really didn’t know much about it, but Alan has seen some pictures of it and was really looking forward to taking lots of pictures. We walked the Siq about 500 yards and you come the first building carved out of the rock…I can’t tell you how breath taking it was to see The Treasury…

After Petra, we headed to Wadi Rum, another amazing surprise. Wadi Rum is a national park made from sandstone and granite rock in South Jordan. The home to many Bedouin tribes, they even had camps that you go to for the night. What I loved about Wadi Rum, were the camel crossing everywhere, so in the US we see lots of deer crossing signs but here it camels! We even saw some wild camels running around – so crazy.

We randomly came across one of the Bedouin campgrounds and decided to spend the night. We took a hike to watch the sunset, then came back to an amazing dinner and chatted with the owner about Google search rank…he was just stating to market on the internet. The next morning we asked him for a jumping shot before we headed back to Egypt to spend some time in Dahab.

Check out more pictures for Jordan, Petra and Wadi Rum.

Here are some of our favorite things about Egypt.

Staying with Lara’s Egyptian family – Boudy and Mother Su. We also got to meet Boudy’s niece, she was such a doll.

Learning about the Islamic way in the Al-Azhar Mosque

Spending the night on the Feluca and meeting our new friends JJ and Duk Yu.

Picking up Mika from the airport…and heading to see the pyramids. Not only seeing the pyramids and being one of the last group out of the park, let’s just say it was my most adventurous cab ride from the entire trip!

Hiking Mt. Sinai and see the sunrise.

Doing a jumping shot off of a boulder down the path Moses took from Mt Sanai.

Before catching a cab to Colaba, we  walked the boardwalk across the street from the Seth’s home. It was a gorgeous setting, there were so many people out walking, sitting watching the water, and kids playing in a patch of water surrounded by rocks. As we were getting ready to leave three young men walked up to us and asked for us to take their picture. Alan took a few photos, and then would show them their picture on the digital camera. They would get such a kick out of see themselves on the camera they kept asking to take more, then they wanted a picture with me and then with him, then individually. They asked for the pictures to be sent to them, Alan suggested by email so they took down our email address, but we still haven’t heard from them. They were so funny, I think they would have gotten their picture taken all day if they could have, but Alan finally said we had to go.

Then we hopped into a cab, it was a old cab from the 1970′s. Poor Alan didn’t fit it the cab at all. He had to scrunch down just right to keep his neck straight, I guess cabs weren’t meant for tall people back in the day. The cabs used a really old meter where you had to use a chart to actually calculate the taxi fee. We didn’t learn this until a few days later…I am sure we paid a few extra dollars for our taxi rides. The taxi cars do not have rear view mirrors and their is a reason. The traffic in Mumbai is crazy! They fit four cars on a three lane roads, cars are inches away from each other. I am so amazed we didn’t see any accidents while we were there, but is must mean it works for them!

Colaba is where the Taj Hotel terrorist attacked was in November of last year. We were curious how the hotel would be only a few months after the attack. We had to go through 3 sets of security checks with metal detectors at all three, but when you walked into the entrance, it seemed like business as usual. We walked around the hotel some and talked to one of the people that works there and they said they have limited all their services to guests only so we did not end up being able to stay very long. It was great to see the hotel was busy with different business conversations going on and others lounging around by the pool. The hotel seemed very busy, especially if all the people were guests. I read later that the TaTa group reopened the hotel within a month after the attacks to show that India is strong and the terrorist could not impact their way of life. I definitely felt this as we were walking around the hotel and other areas of India.

We headed back after a little sightseeing and dinner to get a good nights rest. The next morning we headed out early (around 1030am – that is early for us!). We wanted to see the Slumdog Millionaire movie which was set in Mumbai, we had some time until the movie started so we headed to Mahalaxmi Dhobi Ghat, the place were 5,000 men wash about 100,000 pieces of clothing a day. I could not understand how everyone would get their cloths back, but I am told they have a system that works and all cloths get to their rightful owners.

Then we headed to the Mahalakshmi Temple, where the goddess of wealth Lakshmi sat. We happened to come during a time when people were preparing to give their offerings. There were so many people, and the women looked beautiful in their colorful sarees. They divid up the men and women on each side and they have to standing (I have heard it can take hours) holding coconuts, flowers and sweets to offer to the goddess.

After walking around the temple, we bought some India sweets, and headed to see the movie. It was fun seeing the movie Slumdog while in Mumbai. Little scenes like stealing someones shoes from the temples and then reselling them, made me think twice about leaving my shoes when siteseeing at the different temples. We also talked to the Seth family about the movie and how India hasn’t felt that it portrayed the true slums in Indian, because there is a sense of happiness and acceptance of where you live and who you are in India, and it is not just a way of life people are trying to escape as described in the movie. Priya, one of the daughters, is a cinamagapher in Bollywood (Mumbai or Bmobay’s Hollywood) and helped us get a better idea of how it was recieved in India. It was way cool to see the movie here, unfortunately, there were no beers sold at the movie theather like the one in Vietnam, Alan was a little disappointed…

After the movie, we walked through Mumbai University, where hundreds of cricket pickup games were going on and Kamala Nehro Park (spelling?) where there was an amazing view of the city. On our way back past the beach back to Mr. and Mrs. Seth, Alan took some incredible shots of the Bombay skyline as well.

That night we meet Mr. and Mrs. Seth, they were wonderful and so much fun. We had sooo many questions for them. I think the most questions we asked were around the servants, cooks, and drivers…just kidding, but we were very definitely fasincated with their way of life. And of course…also enjoying having our food cooked and bed made for us. We had a tasty Indian dinner at home, then Mr. and Mrs. Seth wanted to take us to a few places in Mumbai at night, so we headed out in the car and they took us around. Showing us the area Mrs. Seth grew up, the Queen’s Necklace drive with a beautiful display of lights, and the area where the other Mumbai attacks were and how there friends were injured and killed. After the drive we headed back to their home and got some sleep so we could get up early to go on their early morniing walk and tea at the race horse tracks.

So, we didn’t get up early enough for the walk, but Mrs. Seth showed us their morning stroll before getting picked up and heading for tea. A man selling fresh, vitamin packed juices right out of the back of his car, so had a taste then rode over to the race horse tracks. When we walked into the club, it was like walking onto a movie set with the trainer and jockeys exercising the horses. We sat with a group of the Seth family friends, they have been coming to the tracks together for exercise and tea for over 20 years. They were alot of fun, cracking jokes and poking fun at each other, sharing plates with each other, and knowing how each person liked their tea. I wish we would have gotten a picture of them together, but I remember them all very clearly. There was one moment, when one of the ladies asked Alan if he was a movie star, I was laughing so hard, he made a joke trying to play it off, but he was definitely grinning the rest of the time giving the women a little more attention the rest of the time. I was ready to strong arm her if she wanted him to walk her to her car, but they left

Mrs. Seth let us borrow her car and driver for the day, so we dropped her off at her women Gin Rummy card group at the country club, then took off to check out some of the bazzars and shopping. I was soo wonderful to have someone who lived in the area helps us get around, she told her driver where to take us and magically we were there without a worry. It was such a nice break from the battles of haggling for a price of a taxi and wondering where to go shopping or sightseeing. We firest went to pick up some beads for my mom, they street was full of bead shops – I went a bit overboard on the beads for her, but she is my mom!! Then we headed to the “Chor Bazzar” Thieves Market. Alan wanted to see where all the shoes they take from the temples steps are taken then resold. When walking around, you could see people reselling shoes, taking a part motor bikes and selling parts, even tearing apart cloths and sewing it back together in a different pattern. It was crazy!!! I wondered how much was stolen and how much just found on the street and of course paid for, but there was not way to tell. I didn’t see another women in sight the entire time we were there, so we were getting even more stares that normal. I wanted Alan to do a jumping shot in the middle of the street with all the hussle and bustle, but we soooo chicken…so of course I made a bet…thinking it would be the first time he would not take the bet, but he did it! I was so surprised! He was horrified after and everyone was laughing at him. After that he was ready to get out of there!

After our tour around Mumbai, we headed back to have dinner with the Seth’s. Priya and her husband took us to a restaurant where we learned all about cinemphotography, since they are both in the business. Her husband, Vishnu, is doing a big budget flim, it was fun to hear all about how they do the different scenes, and Priya has her film releasing in a few weeks as well called “Barah Aana”. At the end of the night, we tried to pay for dinner, but Priya had already told the waiter at the beginning of the meal she was paying in Hindi right in front of us! The waitor said to me later, “you better learn Hindi” after he handed her the check.

The next day we went with the Seth Family to a work celebration, where they invited all of their employees and family member to a lunch and to celebrate Holi. There were some employees that had been working for Mr. Seth for over 40 years, who brought their grandchildren and others brought their children all dressed up. The kids would greet Mrs. Seth by touching her feet, a custom in India, it was interesting to watch the little customs and traditions of India. I see the respect for the elders an focus on the family, as the most beautiful thing here. We took photos of all of the employees with their families and also some pictures of the factory, then had lunch a traditional Rajasthan meal where I kept eating with my left hand and the kids were starting at me (big faux-pa as that is the hand you wipe with) and then Mrs. Seth gave each child some color for Holi and some Rupees, and then we toured the factory.

The factory use to be for textile manufactoring, then it became a warehouse, and now Bollywood studios are renting out the one of the warehouses. So, it was fun to check out the one and the new areas of the factory. Mr. and Mrs. Seth have planted a garden and also are beginning to landscape the property. Mr. Seth says in a year it will look totally different, I believe it. They are also renovating the other warehouse to a studio, so it will be complete refurbished.

Right now, there are two studios, one studio for a new TV and the other for the #3 primetime TV show in India. We were able to walk around the sets and watch one of the show be filmed. It so interesting to watch the filming, at the end of the shot, the voice over was talking in to the camera while the actor would give all these different facial expressions, similar to a U.S. soap opera where the person would be talking to themselves during the show. It was so funny, I knew if I looked at Alan or Priya, I would just lose it and start laughing.

Then, we walked over to the other set, Mrs. Seth was explaining all the different areas of thet set and what was going on in the TV show since we was a big fan. I made her walk down the stairs of the set, since she it is the stairs where something takes place in every show.

After the factory, we stopped off for some coffee and donuts in a nearby mall. We also checked to see if Pryia’s movie was advertising yet. And they were! So we of course took some pictures of the poster with her name on it!

For dinner, the Seth’s took us to their Cricket Country Club, where we dressed up in saree’s. Mrs. Seth gave me this beautiful saree, I was speechless when she gave it to me. Alan recorded how to put the saree on since I have a feeling I won’t be able to do by myself! I was the joke of the evening with the nickname “Indian Princess” but that is ok. I was enjoying my saree!!

I have to thank the Seth family for their amazing generousity and making our trip to India so wonderful. Through the rest of the time here in India, they have take care of us in so many ways, and connecting us with their friends and family in India with places to stay in Armistar, Jaipur, Agra and Delhi. Their generiousity makes be think about how I want to create a home as welcoming as theirs, I will forever be thankful for all their generousity. And as Alan and I keep saying, the Seth’s will be our first guests at our villa in Tuscany!

More Pictures of our time in Mumbai: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alanseideman/sets/72157615073477098/

We found a hotel fairly quickly after getting dropped off by the bus then headed out to check out the city. The amount of motor bikes are insane! So many people buzzing around the city. We crossed a stop light in the main area of the city and just saw this sea of motor bikes, like a massive school of fish only on land. They seem to use their motor bikes more than in any other country we have been in so far.

The first night we walked through the main park, and there were hundreds of young Vietnamese teenagers hang out, talking and sitting in their motor bikes – their version of ‘parking’. We also bought a “hacky sack” for lack of better term. It is a plastic thing with a feather on the end of it, I think it is called ‘shuttlecock’… everyone was playing it in the park, so we decided to join in. As we were starting to play three young teenagers came up and started to play with us. Alan and I both thought great, we will never get to play, but they were as good as us (not so good), and very sweet on taking turns. After playing for a while, we headed back to our place, walking back through the park.

The next morning I woke up with a headache, so we hung in until I felt better. I was cold, so Alan wrapped me up tightly in anything he could find. He says he didn’t have any intention of making me look funny, but I don’t believe it…by the time he was done wrapping me up, he had to take some photos. I slept like this for 2 hours…not moving a bit!

By noon, I felt good enough to walking around so we went and found a place to have pho soup, and then started to do a walking tour through Saigon. First up was this cool market, but learned very quickly to not walk through the small aisle in the market since people will grab your arm and try to pull you into their shop. They were a lot of beautiful things in the market, I would have loved to buy, but with many months left to go on the traveling, it is hard to buy a lot of the things. We came across this Snake wine that Vietnamese supposedly use for healing all sorts of sicknesses. It literally has a snake and a scorpion in the wine bottle. I dared Alan to drink some, but he was not having any!!

After the market, we decided to do the walking tour described in the Lonely Planet. Alan was our navigator, we were able to check out the different art galleries, museums and parks. We decided to relax on the grass at one of the parks, but quickly realized, that you are not allowed to sit on any of the grass in city parks as a guard was yelling and whistling at us. Now we know why everyone was sitting on their motor bikes at the park the night before. Saigon was a fun town, I loved the different architecture, there were streets that felt like you were in France, San Fransisco, and of course Vietnam!

After our self guided city tour, we stopped at a roof top bar and watched the sunset. It was a nice ending to a fabulous day in Saigon!

The bug also make me happy. I have energy during the day eventhough I haven’t had a good night of sleep. I’m generally happy to see people and I appreciate the little things throughout the day – even if it’s the freazing cold weather because I know that in two weeks I’ll be in Thailand and that I may not see snow again for quite a while (which is 100% fine with me).

The travel bug is a real thing and I have it. I have 2 more full days of work left and after that I leave for New York. I’m hoping that the cold sweats and the butterflies in my stomach will stay behind as I take off from the Denver airport this Sunday. Maybe that pressure we feel when an airplane accelerates from 0 to over 200 miles per hour before takeoff will be enough to suck out any of the remaining shakes. After all, the only thing that can cure the travel bug is traveling.

Karla is planning on coming back to the US in May and right now I’m not. Mostly because of the cost and because I could use May to do some traveling solo or with some friends, not sure yet. As I write this post, what I’m most thankful for is Karla. She is a light in my life.