I’ve arrived in Sofia. Right now I’m hanging out in the lobby of what seems to be a lovely hotel. It’s too early to get into my room, so I’m chilling and charging my phone. I’ll head out to explore the neighborhood in a bit, but I thought I’d share the fun I’ve had over…
BULgaria + roMANIa + budaPESt + four sTANs = Bulmanipestan, my first big adventure of 2026. And I am leaving in just four days! I’m ready to get moving again after almost three months at home. Here are all the details:
It wouldn’t be a new year for me without having a whole lot of travel plans. So here’s a quick overview of what I have coming up in 2026. You can certainly expect more details, like a detailed itinerary, as we get closer to each departure date.
I typically post all the details of my upcoming adventures before I depart. But since my next trip is a secret (which I previously wrote about), I’m not doing it this time. However, I do want to have a post that shows the complete itinerary for my upcoming trip to India and the Himalayas, so…
I’m now back in Delhi, in a hotel near the airport, and tomorrow I begin my journey home. The last stop on this wonderful adventure was Dharamshala, in the state of Himachal Pradesh. This is the home of the Tibetan government in exile, and it is the home of the 14th Dalai Lama. Visiting Dharamshala and…
This is going to be my feeble attempt to encapsulate all I’ve seen and done in the last day and a half. We flew from Delhi to Amritsar, arriving late yesterday morning, and I have had a whirlwind introduction to Punjab, a part of India so different from Delhi or Rajasthan or Uttar Pradesh, the…
I’ve managed to get to Delhi three separate times on this trip through India, Bhutan, and Nepal. This time, the highlight was Qutab Minar, a stunning sandstone brick tower dating from the 13th century. Along with its surrounding monuments, this UNESCO World Heritage Site might even be the highlight of all the beautiful things I’ve…
I was hoping to see a tiger (or two) in Chitwan National Park, but it was not to be. I guess I will have to settle for the two tigers I saw in Ranthambore, India. There were a whole lot of Indian rhinoceroses and gharials, two animals I’ve never seen before, and a number of…
It turns out there’s more to Nepal than the majesty of the Himalayas. We drove a couple of hours from Pokhara to a point along the Seti River where we started a rafting adventure. We paddled downriver, stopped for a picnic lunch on a sandy riverbank, and continued to an immensely comfortable camp, where we…
Just yesterday we arrived in Pokhara, but I’ve already been up in the air twice, as well as on water. And I’ve explored on foot, of course. Tomorrow we move on, so here’s my rundown on this popular tourist destination, gateway to the Annapurna range of the Himalayas.
We spent three nights at a mountain lodge in the Annapurna Valley. This is possibly the closest I’ve ever been to heaven. A good portion of the experience was trying to photograph the view (up top) in different light at different times of day and from different angles. And a better portion was spent just…
After an early morning flight for spectacular views of the Himalayas, the rest of the day today pales by comparison. Actually, that’s not entirely fair. We visited some very interesting, UNESCO-listed sites in the Kathmandu Valley, and we also had the opportunity, which I passed on, to meet a living goddess. But I did meet…