Author: Valerie Stewart

Cultural Experience – Tamaki Maori Village – Rotorua, New Zealand

One of the things that I was most looking forward to about visiting New Zealand was getting to know a little more about the Maori culture. I had heard little pieces of information about the indigenous people of this beautiful place, and was interested to learn more. Although Maori people make up more than 14%…

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Train Tour of Northern India Part III: Agra, the City of Eternal Love

There’s really only one reason to visit Agra. I’m not saying that there’s only one thing to see there, but everything else really just pales in comparison. You know what I’m talking about, the Taj Mahal; truly one of man’s most beautiful creations. After you’ve seen the Taj, is there really anything else to visit…

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Train Tour of Northern India, Part II: New to New Delhi

Admittedly, we have “done India” backward. We arrived into the total chaos and craziness of Varanasi and have gone on to the 2nd most chaotic city, New Delhi. If we had it to plan again, I’m sure we would have started on the western side and traveled East instead to ease into the madness.
Things got off to a rough start for us with some trouble getting to our hotel…

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Train Tour of Northern India, Part I: Varanasi, The Holy City

We arrived in Varanasi from Kathmadu via a very long bus/taxi/rickshaw/train ride and checked into our hostel at almost midnight.

After a good night’s sleep, we headed up to meet our hostel owners and have some breakfast. Krishna, the hostel guy not the Hindu god, gave us the run of the city…

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