Mark & Jen's 'Around the World' Travel & Photography Blog

“Hold tight, hold tight!” The camel driver yells words of warning as my camel takes a dive down the sand dune. And hold tight I do!
In addition to dodging cows and dogs and vegetable cart men and bicycles and motorcycles and rickshaws along the roadway, we now must dodge the occasional camel and his cart. [...]

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My silky salwar kameez (tunic-like dress worn over pants) flutters lightly around my hips as I turn slow circles in the enormous ballroom, staring up at the intricately painted ceiling above. We are standing in Jaipur’s City Palace in Rajasthan– the “Land of Kings”–, still used by the maharaja today. Sparkling chandeliers, gold brocade crownings, [...]

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A man once loved a woman so intensely, so passionately, that upon her death, his grief was insurmountable. He was devastated. As an expression of his infinite love for her, he decided to erect a memorial that captured the essence of his love for her. He spent the next twenty-two years doing just that.
The Taj [...]

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Mark shines our torch (British for headlamp) along the narrow stone alley as we pick our way through the dark; we try not to step in the cow dung, trash, betel root spit, and discarded terracotta chai tea cups. It is 6:00 a.m and we are heading toward a sunrise row along the Ganges River. [...]

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Our 4WD Jeep passes hill after hill of Darjeeling tea bushes. Women with baskets on their backs, hung off their foreheads, bend over the earth. Even though it is winter, they are still hard at work. We arrive at Makaibari Tea Estate, the only organic and bio-dynamic tea garden and factory in Kurseong, [...]

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