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

Hello! Well, the blog isn’t dead, yet. After returning to Denver last summer, Jen and I returned to our previous jobs. We bought a home (something about staying in a different place every other night), now own a dining room table and patio furniture, but honestly, the most luxurious item is still our very own [...]

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My deepest, heart-felt regrets to the number of begging children, women holding babies and an outstretched hand, crippled men scooting along the sidewalk, old women bent over their canes. My heart breaks to pass you by. I appear cold to you because it is easier for me not to feel. I cannot help all of [...]

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“Where can I buy a chocolate cake here in town?” The hotel manager hardly pauses before answering Mark’s question: “Why, Jitu’s of course. He’s the only one in town.” “Ah, good,” Mark answers, “it’s my wife’s birthday.” The manager pauses, eyebrows knit in serious contemplation. He presses his finger to his lips and then looks [...]

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“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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