India

Incredible, amazing, daunting, crowded, crazy, chaotic, in-your-face, everything you heard, thought, hoped, feared, and never guessed it would be!

No matter the hyperbole, India truly is everything you’ve heard, and still finds a way to be more.

We loved it and hated it, we hated that we loved it, we loved to hate it, and in the end, despite the number of times we thought:

“Yeah, I’ll be glad to leave India when that time comes,”

when the end indeed came near, we both felt a sort of pit in our stomach at the thought of never coming back.

This is, after all, the place of the Taj Mahal! There are camels in the street, or elephants, or water buffalo, or monkeys – and always cows!

See the Dalai Lama or the last footsteps of Gandhi, cruise the palm-fringed backwaters, climb the Himalayas, watch a Bollywood flick, grunt at a camel at the Pushkar Camel Fair. You’ll have to jump out of the way of dead bodies so often in Varanasi that within hours, you don’t think twice about dead bodies anymore.

It’s a place where once you come for any period of time, you’ll never forget.

And no matter what the rollercoaster of experience you ride while you’re here, you’ll probably find yourself with some kind of indeterminable pang when you leave that just may only be soothed by coming back.

We don’t just recommend that you go to India at least once in your life; we implore you.

Click here to read about The Best and Worst of India

Nepal

Beautiful, sweet, innocent, lovely Nepal…

So even if your past or current history isn’t entirely innocent, as all countries have their share of turmoil, there is something about you and your people that is still so warm and gentle and enveloping.

The streets and sights and frenzy of Kathmandu are unforgettable; like an easy introduction to or a welcome respite from the similar madness of India, your neighbor and cousin.

Because we came to visit Nepal from India, and because Nepalis at first glance look and sound and seem so similar to Indians, at first we didn’t notice the difference between the two countries.

But after five weeks and making a good square through the country punctuated with a 9-day rafting trip and getting a good dose of village and local life, now it is much clearer to see how very different Nepal is from its massive neighbor.

Inexpensive, easy to travel in, with a range of outdoor and adventure activities on tap in a small amount of space, Nepal is much like an Asian (or at least, Indian Subcontinental) New Zealand. You get all the natural beauty and fun stuff to do in it, plus a nice, palatable dose of the frenetic, captivating, swirling, pulsing spectacle that is life on this side of the planet. We were sad to leave, and will be happy to go back.

Stay tuned to read more about The Best and Worst of Nepal