Out last stop in Australia was Melbourne, a lovely city on the South East coast, a quick flight from Sydney.

I was getting pretty excited about visiting Melbourne as we had arranged to stay with a friend of mine I hadn’t seen in nearly a decade. (Wow, that makes me feel really old.) We were planning to meet up with my friend, Victoria, and her family and head to nearby Phillip Island to relax a bit.

Before meeting up with Vic, we checked out some of the scenes in Melbourne. Personally, I liked Melbourne a lot because it was so “green.” I don’t mean in the environmentally friends sense, although it may be, but that it was literally very green with beautiful flowers everywhere and Gardens to walk around in for hours.

We started with the Royal Botanic Gardens, which was just a short walk from our hotel. We could literally have gotten lost there and enjoyed the colors the whole time. We wandered around and checked out the huge variety of plant species. Everything is nicely labeled, which is awesome so you can know just what are looking at and finding some cool facts out. There are gazebos everywhere for relaxing while taking in the scenery. All around awesome place.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Griffin’s favorite bird of all time, which we found in Melbourne, the Cassowary. We like to call it the Dino Bird because of the oddly shaped crest on the top of its head that looks prehistoric in our minds, if to no one else. Anyway, Griffin has become obsessed with this bird.

After checking out the garden for a while, we stopped in the nearby Shrine of Remembrance, a military museum detailing Australia’s journey to freedom and contributions to world wars. It’s a solemn place of remembrance and touched our hearts even as foreign visitors. The place also boasts a pretty amazing architectural feat, which can be seen in the Sanctuary. A sunken stone plaque which reads, “Greater love hath no man” is read by the visitors in such a way that they much bow their heads to read it. The quote is part of the Bible verse, John 15:13, which states, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Every year on November 11th at exactly 11:00am, the sun shines through a open block in the roof and lands directly on the word “Love.” Daylight savings time has caused the necessity of a mirror to be placed to continue to tradition, but it is no less powerful. During the rest of the year, visitors can enjoy a simulation.

Finally we were ready to meet up with Vic’s husband, Chris, for the ride down to Phillip Island. I was happy to see my friend again and meet her sweet family. We had a great time catching up. As it turned out, we also got to meet Chris’ parents and Victoria’s parents as well, which was a blessing to us.

Vic and Chris offered lots of advice for things to see around the island, so we started with the Phillip Island Wildlife Park. This place is getting up close and personal with all kinds of animals and we loved every minute of it. We got to pet Kangaroos, Wallabies, and Emus and saw Koalas, Eagles, and so many more animals I can’t even think of them all. Basically, I didn’t want to leave there and tried to talk Griffin into letting me have a Kangaroo to take home. He said no. =(

We took an extended family trip with all ten of us to The Nobbies, a nature park with one of the most beautiful coastal walkways I’ve ever seen. There is a small island off the coast with hundreds of seals sunbathing, which we enjoyed seeing as well.

Finally, we had to do it, we went to the Penguin Parade. This is a natural phenomenon that occurs nearly every evening at the same time, when hundreds of penguins arrive on shore after a day of fishing and waddle to their beach homes. These are not just any penguins, though, they are “Fairy Penguins,” tiny little fuzzy penguins that stand about 12 inches tall. They are some of the cutest things you’ve ever seen. People have been coming to watch the penguins come home since the 1920’s and it’s still extremely popular. I tried to talk Griffin into letting me have a penguin to take home. He said no. =(

After a few days of seeing the sites on Phillip Island, we tagged along to Vic and Chris’ home back in Melbourne and had a great time hanging out and playing with her cute kids. From there, we booked a rushed flight to continue our journey in New Zealand!

If your in the area, I can’t recommend beautiful Melbourne or Phillip Island highly enough!

About midway through our time in Indonesia, we needed to decide our next destination. Griffin’s little sister had set a wedding date, so our time was limited, but we knew we wanted to see all we could of Oceania before heading back to the U.S. So, we booked our next flight to Cairns, Australia, the most popular access point to Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef.

We arrived in Cairns and got settled into our hostel before trying to determine what avenue we wanted to take to get out on the reef. Griffin had been diving before and easily talked me into wanting to give it a try. We looked into several intro-diving options, but they were all pretty expensive. Finally, we found an option that would grant us the opportunity to actually get our diver certification, as well as a way to get our budget around it.

We headed down to the Reef Encounter office to talk with them about their Hostie program. Basically, we needed to go out on the live-aboard boat as paying customers, during which time we would get our diving certificates, then we would stay aboard to help with things like washing dishes and making up beds, etc. In return, we would have free accommodation, free gourmet food, and at least two free dives each day. We figured out that in order to balance out the amount of money we needed to spend as customers, we would need to stay aboard for an extra 10 days. It seemed like a lot of dishes, but we decided to give it a try.

Early the next morning, we boarded the Reef Experience, a day boat by the same company that would dock near the Reef Encounter and serve as a taxi out to our floating hotel.

We settled into our rooms and got started with our course right away. I believe we had the best dive instructor possible in ‘Albie.’ The guy was patient, fun and extremely talented and knowledgeable. Not only was he a great teacher under the water, but his explanations of theory were easy to understand as well. Eight dives, several hours of book work and a test later, we were certified divers able to dive on our own up to 15 meters.

Each time we went under the water was a new experience. It honestly could never get old to me. Sometimes we had an agenda, something special we wanted to see, sometimes we just went for a relaxed exploration. We enjoyed swimming through tunnels, or just peaking into some of the soft corals to see what fish were hiding there. No matter what, we always saw something new and amazing.

As hosties, our days started early with setting up for breakfast. As soon as that was finished, we would go out for our morning dive. From the water, we would grab a quick shower to get the salt water off us and then head downstairs to wash up the breakfast dishes. Then we would spend the rest of the morning cleaning up rooms for the incoming new passengers. Lunch setup, lunch dishes, afternoon cleaning… all just the next steps until we could get in the water again for the afternoon dive at 3:30. After the dive, wash off again, dinner setup and dishes, plating up desert and then waiting to see if there is room for us on the night dive. Head to sleep and then do it all again the next day. By the time we left there, we felt like regular crew members. We stayed aboard so long, we decided to go ahead and get our Advanced certification. Now we can dive down to 30 meters. =) Not to mention, we gained several new friends. Always the best part of travel.

When we finally got off the boat, we literally had land-sickness. For the first couple of days on land, we felt like we were constantly swaying. It was a crazy feeling.

We ended up sticking around in Cairns for another couple of weeks, catching up on some work and checking out the town. We even went back out to Reef Encounter for a another night and a few more dives.

Cairns is a beautiful place with a million options for checking out the reef. We met some great people and had some of the best experiences of our trip.

Have any of you been scuba diving? Share some of your favorite memories and locations in the comments. We would love to hear them.

From here, we booked a flight down the coast to Sydney. Check back to see what we got to do there. =)

I have rested my head on everything from plush amazingness, to a couch cushion, to nothing at all. A couple of months in, I was a little worried about the possible future pillows I might encounter, but I wasn’t thrilled at the thought of lugging around a giant pillow or fighting to stuff it into my bag every morning. So, I did some research on what other travelers suggest for the best travel pillow.

This is not ideal.

This is really not ideal.

It didn’t take long to figure out that a down pillow is the way to go. Firstly, I love down stuff. If I could surround myself in down cushiness all the time, I totally would. It’s comfortable, it has a nice cooling affect and it’s lightweight. Additionally, a travel size feather pillow can fit almost anywhere. Believe me, if there is an inch of open space in my bag, I can force my travel pillow into it!

The best travel pillow I came across was from GooseFeet Gear, a one-man company that makes custom down gear including everything from down socks to pants to pretty much anything you want.

I got in touch with Ben, the main man over at GooseFeet to ask about his options for a travel pillow and he quickly gave me some great advice. This guy really knows his trade. He asked me all kinds of questions about how I sleep and what I like in terms of firmness and loft in pillows, etc. By the time he was putting my pillow together, (and Griffin’s, who had to have one as well), I was getting pretty excited about it. Ben actually makes all his products by hand and to order. You can’t beat that!

Optimal.

The pillow was perfect! I chose a black color so as not to show much dirt and Ben chose a rip-stop material to make sure it was durable. The first thing I did was spend some time squishing the pillow down and checking to see how long it took to regain its shape. Then I practiced stuffing it into the smallest spaces I could find and then taking it out and shaking it back to its original form. The pillow passed every test I could throw at it, so I thought it was time for the ultimate test, sleeping. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, my hostel-provided pillow granted me a great opportunity as it was basically a rock with a pillowcase. I whipped out my down travel pillow and was ready to go. I woke up the next morning and decided Ben had done me a huge favor. The thing slept great and I woke up feeling refreshed, without the sore neck I knew would await me with the cotton rock I would have been sleeping on.

From that point on, the pillow has stayed with me on planes, trains, buses, cars, etc. I just shove it into my day pack and I’m ready to dream. It adds no weight to my bag, which is ideal, it’s withstood everything I can throw at it, and grants me the ability to sleep on those rocky overnight trains.

If you’re a traveler looking for lightweight, durable, stuffable pillow, GooseFeet Gear is the place to shop. If you’re like me and your idea of heaven has down clouds, just drop Ben a line and he can hook you up with pretty much anything you want! Don’t sleep on this advice… just get the pillow.

We’ve all sat through the recorded information that bores people to tears on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour. The information is fed to you through an ear piece, if it’s working, and then you’re left to wonder what’s been left out and wish you could ask someone directly about particular points that interested you. But there’s no one there but the driver, who may or may not speak your language.

Gray Line Tours was a refreshing change. Everything was streamlined and the tour ran like a well-oiled machine. The bus rolled on in a timely manner to all the places on our list, while a very knowledgeable guide told us information about places we were passing as well as the places we would soon visit. She answered questions for us about the tour bus operations and any other little questions we could come up with about the city and tourist attractions. This was extremely helpful as we had a limited time and wanted to make the most of it. Since we both love European history, having someone we could get facts from was welcome part of our time in Munich.

As guests of the Munich Tourism Board or, München Tourismus as is it official called, we were so excited to get tickets to Gray Line Tours Grand Circle tour, which visits virtually every touristy area in the city.

We decided that to get the most of our experience, we would take the tour around in a complete circle, listen to all of the information uninterrupted, and then choose the specific places to “hop-off” at during our second time around.

This plan worked out great for us and we enjoyed getting to glean as much information about the city as we could before getting out and about at the sites of interest.

All in all, we can highly recommend Gray Line Tours in Munich. We very much enjoyed getting to see the city from the open top of the tour bus, get some extra information and avoid losing precious time by having everything organized for us. If you have the opportunity, please check Gray Line out in any city. You won’t regret it!

When someone says Munich, most people immediately think of Oktoberfest. Yes, this famous festival does fill up the city for 2 weeks each year, but there is so much more to Munich than beer and pretzels.

We had the opportunity to visit Munich as guests of the Munich Tourism Board, officially known a München Tourismus. Their website, with information on just about everything available in Munich, may be the only guide you need. It’s certainly one of the most comprehensive city websites I’ve ever seen… and I’ve seen a lot.

Upon arrival at the main train station, we walked just a few hundred meters to King’s Hotel, which was exactly what we needed to get rested for our whirlwind tour. After a quick and delicious dinner at the famous Augustiner Keller and a tour around the beer cellar, we spent the next several hours before bed trying to decide what to see for the next two days. It was no easy task! We could easily have stayed two weeks and still not see everything! Instead I turned page corners in a city guide book and then tried to cull it down from roughly 30 of my favorite activities listed.

We jumped up early the next morning and headed off to the city center to take in some of the sites. Munich has so much history to learn about that we barely had time to take it all in. We even passed by a little known building with just a plain marker indicating the place where plans for the holocaust were first hatched. From there we took a short walk over to The Frauenkirche, also known as The Cathedral of Our Dear Lady, a beautiful church with several unique aspects, including the legendary “devil’s footprint,” and a curious menorah on the ceiling. You’ll have to visit to find out why it’s there! (It’s quite a touching story.)

By then it was nearly 11:00am and we rushed back to the Marienplatz to get a glimpse of the Glockenspiel in action. We were delighted when the hour struck and the giant clock came to life. You really can’t miss it and it wasn’t at all disappointing to us! Below is a video of the clock in action. It’s a bit long, but fascinating, especially if you’ve never seen it before. Although, I highly encourage you to head there and see yourself!

We settled down to lunch with Isabella from München Tourismus and took her advice on some traditional Bavarian menu items. I think we would weigh entirely too much if we stayed in Munich for any longer than a few days. Wow, that food is amazing.

Finally we headed off to meet up with the famous New Europe Free Walking Tour group to catch some more history for a couple of hours. If you’ve never tried one of these walking tours, you don’t know what you’re missing. They are informative beyond belief, entertaining and will help you get oriented in the city in no time. Plus, they’re free! You should tip your guide at the end according to what you think their tour was worth. What a nice business plan.

When I say that it’s important to get into a tour, I really mean that. Any walking tour will take you around the city to places you never knew existed and give you more information than you could find in a thousand guide books. We had no idea about some of the landmarks in Munich as they are so subtle, yet so important. We saw an extremely unique memorial to the German resistance, the place where the army tried to block the Nazi’s from marching, fun things like the May Pole in the city center, markets, beer gardens and so much more, all while being thoroughly entertained and enlightened about each of these places. The more you know about a city, the more you will love it! München Tourismus can also set you up with a tour, and personally knowing how thorough they are, I know it would be a great option for sure.

When the tour was finished we took a closer look at a couple of beer gardens and had a bratwurst dog for dinner. Yum. Griffin tried out the famous Weissbier, or Wheat Beer, but I’m not crazy about beer so I settled for a Fanta. After Griffin grabbed some night photography time, we headed back to the hotel to catch up on rest.

As if day one didn’t hold enough, we quickly headed out the next morning to see what else we could get into. We were delighted to “hop” onto a Gray Line tour bus to hop on and hop off throughout the city. What’s great about this company is there is a live tour guide to give you information about the upcoming stops and different landmarks about the city. Other companies tend to have a recording, but recordings don’t answer questions, so we were happy for the change. A complete circle takes around an hour and half, which we actually did just to have some uninterrupted information about the city. Then we jumped off at the different stops that interested us the first time around.

Of course, no tour of Munich would be complete without a visit to BMW Welt (World). Here you can catch people driving their new cars around the indoor test facility or venture over to the BMW Museum and see how the company got started as well as all the makes and models! It was really cool, but there was no free gift of a new BMW at end! Too bad!

BMW Welt is the same tour stop as the Olympic Park, which is a beautiful site in itself. It’s easy to spend hours wandering around taking in all the athletic history.

We were also able to check out the English Garden, Opera House, City Hall, and the Nymphenburg Palace, all within a few steps of a Gray Line stop.

After picking up a few souvenirs, we finally and regrettably had to leave the beautiful city of Munich all too soon. I am absolutely sure we’ll be back again! If you get the chance, please make sure to visit Munich… even if it’s not Oktober!

We were greeted at the King’s Center Hotel by a friendly staff and a smooth and quick check-in. (Also a plus when you’ve still got those backpacks on!)

Our greatest greeting, though, was when we entered our room. The room was absolutely beautiful. It included a large, wood-framed bed carved with beautiful designs, a desk, a beautiful wardrobe and others. I have to admit to you that I love a clean bathroom… I wasn’t disappointed with the bathroom in our room. It was spacious and clean and had everything we needed, including plush towels. We’re both into nice linens, so we love good towels! Is that weird? =)

We asked reception for a recommendation for a good restaurant nearby and we were so glad we did. The staff didn’t hesitate in directing us to Augustiner Keller, the famous beer garden and cellar that we didn’t even realize was close to us. We had a wonderful dinner there and then took a walk around the cellar as well.

After dinner we settled into our room and spent some time looking through guidebooks at the limitless things to see in Munich. (No easy task.)

We both slept like rocks and awoke feeling so much more rested and happier. If you’ve done long term travel, you know the importance of good sleep and recuperation to help you travel well. Cranky travelers are not good to be around!

We crept downstairs in our PJ’s to have breakfast and we were, again, pleasantly surprised. A buffet of deliciousness awaited us and we couldn’t wait. I love breakfast food and I could eat it three meals a day. This buffet had everything I wanted and then some! I definitely ate too much, but it was so worth it!

It is so much less stressful to go see the sights of a city when you know you don’t need to worry about the place you’re coming “home” to that night. We knew our hotel was centrally located, comfortable, clean, offered good sleep and a delicious breakfast the next morning. You can’t beat that.

To top it all off, when we were getting ready to leave, the staff made it leisurely by offering to hold our luggage for us while we spent the last day in the city seeing the rest of the sites on our list.

I will say that we encountered one slight issue, which was a slow internet connection. Internet is not included in the room prices, which is annoying this day and age, so we purchased it separately. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t the connection we were hoping for, which slowed us down in our work a bit. Overall, not a big deal, but something we feel the hotel should work on.

If you’re looking for good accommodation in Munich, we can definitely recommend King’s Center Hotel, a fantastic place to get rest and then get involved in everything Munich has to offer!

After debating a while on whether or not to go to Thailand after an exhausting trip through India, we decided to give Indonesia a try, as we had previously visited Thailand on our honeymoon.

We did some research and found that you can rent houses in Bali, world renowned for surfing and beach life, for only a couple hundred dollars. We booked into a little hotel for a few nights to relax and find a place to spend a few weeks.

We arrived in Bali on November 23rd, which was pretty much perfect. Although a lot cooler temperature-wise than the burning sun of India, we weren’t complaining of feeling the Summer heat while our friends and family back home in the states were bundling up for Winter.

We quickly worked out a housing deal with Bernard, a seasonal worker in Bali, to rent his house for the next several weeks. Because Bernard’s place came with high speed internet and several other perks, it was a bit more expensive at right about $430 for just under a month. It was just what we needed to get away from the chaos of the surfer laden Kuta area, but still have internet access to fit Griffin’s growing freelance design business.

The house was two bedrooms and situated near the beach, although the walk down proved to be a larger task than we thought. It also had a full kitchen and pretty large bathroom. Strangely, the kitchen and bathroom were separate from the bedrooms. We’re still a little unsure of the architectural design there. Perhaps the best part: it came with a daily maid! Every day the sweetest lady would come and make the beds, sweep, dust, wash dishes, clean the bathroom, change the sheets or whatever else she noticed. It was awesome.

Meanwhile in Bali we took in the sights and even tried our hand at surfing. Griffin, who had been surfing before, got it straight away, while I had to work a little longer. I’m not saying we’re professional or anything, but… yeah. Throughout the month we had lots of opportunities to play in the water, walk on the beach, try out cool restaurants and just relax.

Finally toward the end of our trip we headed out of the island of Bali and ventured North to Java to check out attractions there.

We were a little disappointed because the famous Ijen Volcano, known for it’s sulfur mines and huge crater lake, was not open to visitors due to an eruption only a few days before we arrived. So, we carried on to our next volcanic destination, Mr. Bromo.

Mt. Bromo is known for it’s volcano inside a volcano structure and for it’s ash cloud eruptions that happen about every half hour or so. The volcano has spread ash over the nearby region of Cemoro Lewang at least a few times over the past decade or so.

We checked out Mt. Bromo at sunrise which was a beautiful and awe-inspiring site. To get there, we just booked a jeep ride at one of the mountain side homestays that took us most of the way up to the view point. From there, some stair climbing was a good way to get some warmth as it was pretty chilly in that higher altitude at 4:30am. We watched the sun come up over the beautiful landscape and stayed a little longer to see the ash clouds erupting from the mountain. Then back down to our hostel for a nap!

From Mt. Bromo we headed to Yogyakarta to visit Borobudur Temple. This magnificent architectural wonder is one the most spectacular buddhist temples in the world and probably the coolest one we’ve seen. It dates back to the 8th or 9th century. The bell shaped stupas each house a buddha statue inside. Again, we were up early for a sunrise tour of the World Heritage site. It did not disappoint. As much as I hate waking up before daylight, it’s always worth it to see such beauty.

Yogyakarta also boasts another World Heritage Site, the Prambanan Temples, which are Hindu temples first built around 850 and rediscovered in the early 1800’s. It reminded us a bit of Angkor Wat, a site we got to see while visiting Cambodia on our honeymoon.

During our month long stay in Indonesia, we relaxed, saw some awesome sites and made some new friend. We even got to attend a wedding there, which was definitely a highlight of the trip.

After so much time in Asia, we decided to check out a new part of the world and booked a quick flight to Cairns, Australia. Check back soon to hear about our tour of Eastern Australia.

Big thanks to One Source Network for providing us with the Velbon UT 43D tripod as many of the shots in the post would not have been possible without it.

With a combined total of more than 50 countries visited, Griffin and I have stayed in our fair share of questionable hotels. It’s a rare opportunity to report accommodation that actually exceeds our expectations.

While checking out the sites in Brussels, Belgium, we had the absolute pleasure of staying in a fabulous boutique hotel called Pillows. This hotel is one of Sandton’s “concept hotels” being introduced throughout Europe. Basically, the concept is that the hotel is all-inclusive, with as many extras as you can possibly think up, all for the price of any room that you book. I think we must have asked the poor receptionist a million questions about this to be sure we had it right!

Upon check-in we were just in time for afternoon tea and sweets, which was provided in the downstairs lobby. We were permitted to help ourselves to whatever we liked. After settling into our amazing room and not really wanting to go out again for dinner, we went back downstairs and made a meal from the appetizers and drinks served in evening, which suited us fine. We were offered any drink we wanted and an array of finger foods that filled us up while we relaxed at the bar.

Initially, I thought the name Pillows was an odd one for a hotel, but after one night’s sleep in that bed, it seemed perfect! That was, hands down, the best bed I’ve slept in on our travels. It truly felt as if I were sleeping on a cloud for an amazing night of much needed rest and recuperation.

We slept in for an extra hour, which I can seldom do in most places, but the quiet location of Pillows afforded me the luxury. When we woke up, we padded downstairs in our PJ’s to see breakfast would hold for us.

This is just one of the three tables full of breakfast food to choose from.

We were not disappointed! If you’re counting the number of “bests” we’ve encountered, here is another: this was the best breakfast we’ve had in any of the 32 countries we’ve visited so far! Talk about a buffet! There was every kind of bread, spread, egg and sausage you can think of for breakfast, including what has to be my favorite kind of toast spread I’ve ever tried. (It tasted like a kind of ginger cookie, but with the consistency of peanut butter. I have yet to find this spread since, though I’ve been looking everywhere!)

After filling up on bacon and eggs, etc., we headed back up stairs to get caught up on some work. The internet was super fast, so that wasn’t a problem.

Before long we were off to see the sights in Brussels, feeling completed rested. We were pretty much just plain excited we had booked two night and could do it all again!

Honestly, after just two nights at Pillows, we felt like we’d had a week-long vacation. It was just what we needed and at just the right time!

My only complaint, if you can even call it that, was that the sensor lights in the bathroom (Yeah, I said sensor lights in the bathroom) were positioned just a little too far away from the shower, which prompted the lights to periodically turn off while I was in the shower. Not to worry, though. A quick wave of the hand and everything came back to life.

If the other Sandton Hotels are anything like Pillows Brussels, I can’t wait to try them! If you’re in going to Belgium, I cannot recommend Pillows highly enough!

Blue

I grabbed this photo while taking in Carnivale in Venice in 2007. Blue is my favorite color, so when I saw these two revelers, I knew I had to take this shot. The masks are not only beautiful, but also mysterious. I also liked how the texture of the material make the photo seem almost a little icy. (Incidentally, this is my wife’s all time favorite of my photos.)

Green

This photo is one I treasure. After the long hike up the top of these rice terraces, I looked out over the landscape and just had to pause at the beauty of the place. When I saw this farmer with his back to the view, going about his work, I had to wonder how he kept himself from looking back all the time to see what he had created.

Yellow

I love looking up to take photos! This is a simple photo taken from directly underneath The Eiffel Tower in Paris. At night, the tower lights up and puts on a great show. But not many people think to look up when walking right underneath!

White

I took this photo while waiting for a little friend who was enjoying her time on the Carousel. The movement of the whole apparatus, decorated with white lights for Christmas, really grabbed my attention. I couldn’t help getting this motion on camera by holding the shutter open.

Red

While living in Korea for two years, I saw a lot of gazebos, temples and pagodas. This one, however, really captured my imagination with its unique and secluded setting. I had to wait for a while for the rain to stop to get this shot, but it was worth it.

Thanks so much for taking the time to view these photos. I love photography and sharing with others the amazing scenes the world has to offer.

Nominations

Here are the 5 bloggers that I am nominating. If your name is not here and you think that it should be, no worries you can enter anyway. Just check out the link and make your own post. These are people who I greatly admire in both their photography skills and vision and find to be inspirational.

The 5 bloggers that I nominate that I think should participate in this contest are:

• Justin Troupe
• Trey Ratcliff
• Neil van Niekerk
• Gary Arnt
• Beth

Big thanks to One Source Network for providing us with the Velbon UT 43D tripod as many of the shots in the post would not have been possible without it.

By this point, we had enjoyed a lot of Indian food, some hot weather and some interesting places. However, for Jaisalmer, we were mostly interested in the Sam Sand Dunes, just about 30 minutes’ drive outside of town.

We quickly booked a jeep tour and headed out to the desert! The dunes did not disappoint. It was strange to see a sudden desert come up on the horizon and be able to access it from a main road. I can’t say that the desert stretched as far as the eye can see, because, frankly, it didn’t. The desert was big, don’t get me wrong, but you could easily walk to the end of it in about 20 minutes. Still impressive, though.

As we walked across into the dunes, we were spotted immediately by the touts we had grown so accustomed to in India. They were out in full force to sell everything from snacks to camel rides. (Point of advice, camels make this place one that is not friendly to bare feet. I recommend bringing sandals!)

We watched as costumed performers sang and danced and begged for tips. We enjoyed an ice cold water in the desert as we watched the sun set over the dunes. Then we headed back to our hotel and counted the day as a good one.

There were other cool places to see in Jaisalmer, which we quickly set out for. We took in the Gadisar Lake, which was near the place we met for the jeep tour. I found this one interesting mostly because of the giant fish that call the man made lake home. Apparently most Indians don’t eat fish, but like to feed them. =) The fish grow large and plentiful and are a lot of fun to watch.

Jaisalmer, like any other Indian city, also has a large fort, which we also scoped out. This was was honestly a little more decorative than some of the other forts we had seen, so that was a nice change.

We also spent some time looking at the Patwaon Ki Haveli and the Bada Bagh, two really beautiful pieces of architecture.

At this point on our journey, we had spent about six weeks in India, and to be honest, we were sort of itching to get out. We sped through the sites and booked our flight out of New Delhi, hopped a train to the airport and away we went.

We hope you will continue to follow along on our journey. Please check back soon to read al about our month-long vacation in Bali, Indonesia.

Travel Tips:
As I said, at this point of our trip through India, we were a little tired of India. We sprung for a nicer hotel, which did not disappoint. Hotel Roop Mahal, which had great food, nice room (with ac) and was in a good location. The price was steep for India at around $14 per night.

Transportation: We took an AC 3 Tier class train to from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer, which cost about $7 per person. Remember, if you want to book a train in India you need to do that as far in advance as possible. For help in booking train tickets, you can always e-mail us, or check out seat61.com and click on India on the left hand side.

For Jaisalmer, we actually didn’t hire a driver and just talked with the autorickshaw guys for the one-two times we wanted to ride instead of walk. This is mostly a walking city, so no need to secure a tour guide or driver. Your one-way trip in an auto-rickshaw should cost you no more than $1-2. We did book the jeep tour out to the Sam Sand Dunes, which cost us about $5 each.

Daily Budget: Our daily was $40.08 for 4 days including train travel, accommodation, food and all attraction entrances.

Griffin and I have had pleasure and opportunity to see some of the most beaufiul places on the planet. But, sometimes, it’s not the most beautiful things that are the most interesting.

Deep in the heart of China’s mainland, sits the city of Xi’An, one of China’s Four Great Ancient Capitals. Though it’s not much to look at, it holds one of the most fascinating scenes in the world.

Xi’an, with over 3,000 years of history, took its place as China’s capital city during several different ruling dynasties for a total of more than 400 years. Its significance is far reaching as the start of the “Silk Road,” one of the most important trade routes in history, interconnecting Africa, Europe and Asia.

Since we’re not trading anything, we came to Xi’an to see something different. That is, something different that you can find anywhere else on earth.

During the days of Qinshihuang, the first emperor of unified China, one thing became abundantly clear: this guy was paranoid about death. Though the man is credited with many of China’s historal feats, including the beginning of construction of the Great Wall, he is perhaps best known for one thing, the 8,000 life-size clay soldiers that now guard his tomb.

First discovered by a group of farmers in 1974, archaeologists unearthed the now famous, Terracotta Army, still standing at attention and in perfect formation for their job as the attendants of the emeror’s soul. Every soldier is unique, with their differing facial features most likely being attributed to the unpaid laborers who constructed each one. The soldiers are also ranked and stand ready for their individual jobs as messengers, horsemen (complete with horses), officers, and even those tasked to accompany the carriage believed to house Qinshihuang’s soul.

There are four known pits where the soldiers are burried, located about 1.5km away from the emperor’s burial mound. Each of the soldiers was once painted from head to toe, but the oxygen that reaches it upon excavation instantly fades the colors and the true clay color emerges with minutes.

Standing at the enourmous warehouses, where the army members are still being systematically excavated and restored is truly mind-blowing. The details of their armor and the eyes that search out enemies are hallowing.

We toured the grounds with a guide who filled us in on the history, as well as the rank and job of each of the soldiers. What struck me, was just how life-like the army actually is. They are not only life-size, but they are actually set-up to be efficient. There are clay guards at the meeting room doors of clay officers. There are clay horses at the ready for messeges that may need to reach the clay ears of an officer at another camp. Some soldiers stand at attention and some kneel in reverence, to an emperor who was afraid of being vulnerable in life and in death. By the time we left there, we were talking about the Terracotta Warriors like they were real men, suspended in animation.

This experience was one that I will truly never forget. Looking out at this sea of soldiers made me feel small and and yet safe. I can’t recommend this destination highly enough.

If you’re making your way to China, it’s good to remember that Qinshihuang built more than a wall. His creations are still standing ready to greet you.

This article was originally published on Indie Travel Podcast

On from Jaipur, we took about a 5 hour train ride to Jodhpur, also known as The Blue City.

We were pleasantly surprised that The Blue City is actually blue. Since visiting Jaipur, which was supposed to be pink, but really wasn’t, it was cool to look out over the city and see a whole lot of blue.

Jodhpur boasts an amazing asset, its incredible Mehrangarh Fort, which is set up on a hill, visible throughout the city. What’s more, the tour of the fort itself, is fantastic. A thorough tour of Mehrangarh will take several hours. What’s unique about this fort is that it’s not just old city walls, it’s an actual museum throughout the tour. You can visit the rooms where former Indian kings met with foreign dignitaries, see the actual palanquins (lifted chairs carried by servants) that the royal families used to ride on, battle tested armor and swords, and other really amazing artifacts. The fort is actually one of the best stocked museums in India.

Jodhpur also has a pretty cool building, which we didn’t take the time to visit, called Umaid Bhawan Palace. The palace is actually split up into three parts, a museum, a hotel and the primary residence of the Erstwhile royal family. If you do get the time, please go visit it.

Another cool thing we did see was the Jaswant Thada, a really cool white marble mausoleum which has walls thin enough that the sunlight shines through the marble and creates a cool glowing effect. It’s a small place, but well worth the visit.

We knocked out everything we wanted to see in Jodhpur fairly quickly, so we headed on to our last stop, Jaisalmer.

Travel Tips:

Our visit in Jodhpur included some work time, which worked nicely for us because although Jodhpur is a great city to visit and I highly recommend you stop there, the tour time you need there isn’t that much. I recommend only 1 1/2 -2 days.

Hotel: We stayed at a place called Shivam Paying Guesthouse. The cost, per night was about $8 per night for the two of us. This included a free breakfast and free wifi. The food was good and the beds comfortable. We did have a couple of problems. Our first night was spent with an “air conditioner” that was actually an extremely loud fan which just circulated hot air. We had to open the windows for fresh air, which invited mosquitos. We finally upgraded to a room with an actual a/c. We then had some trouble with the free breakfast, which they wanted to charge for. We had a discussion with the manager guy and eventually got what was advertised.

Transportation: We took an AC 2 Tier class train to from Jaipur to Jodhpur, which cost about $11 per person. Remember, if you want to book a train in India you need to do that as far in advance as possible. For help in booking train tickets, you can always e-mail us, or check out seat61.com and click on India on the left hand side.

For Jodhpur, we actually didn’t hire a driver and just talked with the autorickshaw guys for the one-two times we wanted to ride instead of walk. This is mostly a walking city, so no need to secure a tour guide or driver. Your one-way trip in an auto-rickshaw should cost you no more than $1-2.

Daily Budget: Our daily was $41.78 for 3 days including train travel, accommodation, food and all attraction entrances.

Photo taken using Tamron AF 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD LD Aspherical IF Macro Zoom Lens

While touring North India via the Indian Railroad, we spent some time enjoying the beautiful and detailed architecture of the walled city of Jaisalmer witch is located about 100 miles west of the Pakistan border. While there, we made an afternoon trip out to the Sam Sand Dunes about 1 hour away for sunset.

The dunes are not as expansive as we had hoped and, due to the culture of India, were littered with trash. They were also spotted with people trying to get paid for singing & dancing or selling camel rides, cold drinks or strangely, something we would never really crave in the desert from our experience – potato chips.

Because of all this, it was not as beautiful or as peaceful as we might have hoped a subset sand dunes visit would be, but it was a unique Indian experience all the same and, we felt, worth a visit if you are in the area.
The picture here is of one of the dancing women with a boy selling potato chips from his bag walking towards some other travelers to offer their services in hopes of making some money for the day.

Travel Photo Of The Week Sponsored By Tamron USA.

For more information about Tamron and the lenses we use, check out our sponsors page here.

If you ever get the chance to visit China, we would highly recommend a trip to Guilin.  The beautiful and unique landscape and the kind and genuine people have made it one of our favorite travel experiences yet.

We will be posting more updates from our trip to China soon, but in the mean time, you can see some pictures from our trip here.  And, a video of the Li River Cruise in timelapse below.  Enjoy!

Highly Recommended Tavel Guide Service

While looking for information and recomendations on Guilin, we came across a great tour guide and decided to try him out. I’ll let our Trip Advisor review tell you the rest, but the main point is, if you want a great experience, book a tour of Guilin with Jack at Yangshou Private Tours.

Trip Advisor Review:

We recently had the most terrible experience in our combined history of travel.  We have traveled to over 30 countries between the two of us and this is by far the worst experience we have ever had booking a flight.  We highly recommend never dealing with China Southern if you can avoid it!  Here is the saga we have gone through:

• Found the best price on Kayak.com for our somewhat complicated multi-destination, open jaw trip to China
• Clicked to book the trip and were told that We would have to re-input the travel dates and location as China Southern’s website did not allow information transfer with Kayak.  OK, not the most convenient, but not a big deal.
• Re-input travel dates and times and came up with a different price by about =$400!  Not cool!
• Searched around and called and asked if they could match the kayak quote.  They said no.
• Finally, after lots of searching and calling, found the same price after trying five other websites including two different China Southern sites.  They have a Chinese website for only people in China, and and international website for only people outside China.
• Put in all the information again, went through the whole booking process only to find in the end there was some kind of error with our card, but no indication what the problem was.  The screen very helpfully said “Credit Card Error” and that was all.
• Called our bank to check on holds etc. and they said there were no issues.
• Called China Southern to ask what to do and how to pay for our flight and they gave us the number for the Mandarin-only speaking internet company they use for charging.  This would be like if you called up Delta because there was an error charging your card and they gave you PayPal‘s service number.  Who does that!?
• Talked to charging company to no avail.  Tried our other cards on both websites, also to no avail.  Finally Valerie found a site that she was able to book through for about $60 more and our original card worked without any issues.

This whole process took about 8 hours of phone calls via Skype and hours of trying to book and re-book.  It was a terrible experience and we both feel it should not be so hard to pay a company for a service they are trying to sell you that you want to buy!

We have not even seen a China Southern Plane or representative in person yet and we are already not excited at all about traveling with this company.  We are hoping we will be pleasantly surprised for our trip, but our expectations are lower than the sea floor at the moment.

UPDATE:  We returned from a very enjoyable trip to China about a week ago.  We had a blast and will be posting some pictures and video sometime in the future for your enjoyment.  As for our experience with China Southern, it was better than we expected, but still left some things to be desired.  (Air conditioned planes for one.)  Despite the travel anomalies, we had a great trip and recommend visiting China if you ever get the opportunity.

In the article linked above, our friend, Biscuet, mentions one of the key things about avoiding jet lag, and that is to adjust to the destination time zone starting with you flight.  I go about about it a little differently than he does, and my method may not be possible for all or for the faint of heart, but don’t worry; it does not involve anything crazy, just determination, willpower and creativity.

Biscuet recommends sleeping on the flight during the destination time zone’s night.  While this is a great method if you can do it, some may find it more difficult than others.  I have huge problems sleeping on planes as I can never get comfortable and usually wake up about four or five times and hour with a neck ache, back ache or some extremity coming painfully back from falling asleep via circulation issues.

Sleep Deprivation For Jet Lag Prevention

I use sleep deprivation to effectively reset my body clock within 24-36 hours.  What I do is stay up for the entire flight.  I find that if I put my mind to it and occasionally with a little help from a coffee or caffeinated soft drink I can do this rather easily.  Here are some ideas for things to fill the time.

• Watching movies
• Reading magazines
• Reading RSS Feeds
• Listening to music
• Listening to Podcasts
• Drawing/sketching
• Playing games/cards
• Talking to people/flight crew
• Occasionally walking the aisles
• Thinking about the future
• Thinking about past experiences
• Writing down thoughts and notes/goals and ideas

Upon arrival at my destination, I will, as Biscuet suggests, stay up until at least 9 or 10PM at the destination time zone and make myself get up before 10AM.  The following day I am usually a little sore from the flight and slightly fatigued, but after the following night I have no issues and can go about my activities with no ill effects.

I hope this method will be helpful either for you or someone you know.  We’d love to hear you ideas and recommendations for beating jet-lag below.

Awesome Time Zone Tool

While searching the inter-webs for images to use for this post I found this awesome site I wanted to share with you.  It gives you a dead simple to understand visual of the different times zones and you can easily move the time around in order to figure our when a good time to call or meet someone in a different time zone would be.  It works in most modern browsers that support HTML5 and works great on the iPad as well.  Hope it’s helpful!  Check it out here.

The secret is we go to class four to five nights a week.  This is normal in Korea and we actually get a lower grade on attendance if we miss only two classes in a month and a half.  In The States people usually attend class two or three nights a week max.  This is one of the reasons for the time discrepancy.  We have been taking lessons for about 6 months now and are five belts into our ten belt training, so we are half way there.  Due to vacations and not coming five nights a week every week, we are guessing it will take us about a year and a half to achieve a black belt.  Valerie and I are both so excited about this future achievement and mostly about being able to accomplish it together in the country where the sport originated!  Thanks so much for following along on our journey as we work towards this goal together.

The other night I decided it would be fun to do a time lapse recording of our one hour class to share with all of you.  Our typical class look like this:

5 mins– Jump rope
10 mins– Stretching, push-ups and sit-ups
10 mins– Form practice (repetitive stances, punching, kicking, blocking)
10 mins– Kicking/Punching paddle
20 mins– Poomsae practice (Specific moves in order. So far we know three forms and are learning the fourth.)
5 mins– Cool down stretching

Enjoy the video!

Here is a video I put together of the first trip we took.  This is part 1 of 2 and in this video we make a traditional Korean Mask and visit a traditional Korean Paper Factory.  Enjoy!

For pictures from the trip, please check out our Flickr set here.