In case you havent heard... 03/14/2012
We are getting married! Check out our wedding website: www.lisadavidlove.weebly.com Add Comment By the Numbers: Lisa's Wrap-Up 03/01/2011
A few of MY favorites: I can't sum things up as well as D has, so I'll let these numbers speak for themselves. It is with a big smile on my face that I begin my trip from NYC to Boston, KC, and Chicago. This is the only type of travel I can conceive for awhile - hopefully full of family and friends! Thanks for remembering us while we have been gone. It has kept us going at different points. Popping into an internet cafe in Flores, using wireless at a coffee shop in Singapore, getting your notes and comments were always a surprise. The lesson most worth noting is just that - nothing in the world substitutes for relationships. On that note, goodbye and goodnight. Until next trip! Unpacking: Dave's Wrap-Up 02/28/2011
 Ivanesky We're home! Lying around Amy and Eric's place in Hoboken now, looking after my favorite nephew, Ivanesky.
They've just left for Australia and, for once, we don't envy them the trip. We're happy to be home, jet-lagged and sleepily bemused by little things like hot water on command. I was shocked to step on a scale last night and learn that I'd shrunk to 145lbs. If I'm going anywhere, it's to the refrigerator. So, from the delightful comfort of this centrally heated roost in New Jersey, how to put a bow on this thing? Final Stop: Bahrain 02/27/2011
 When Lisa searched months back for the cheapest flight home from Delhi, the winner had three legs and included a twenty-hour stopover in Bahrain. We gave each other a mischievous look and said, "why not?"
Fast-forward to present day, protests are threatening the stability of authoritarian states across the Middle East, including Bahrain. Prior to landing, we weren't at all sure how it would go - or if it would go at all. And in the end... 02/24/2011
It has been a whirlwind end of the trip, and I have made a liar out of David regarding an Amritsar update. In the last two weeks, we have enjoyed the unparalleled hospitality of the Sikh people, the expertise of the yogis in Rishikesh, and the willingness of shopkeepers in Delhi to come down to our prices. Oh yeah, and we visited a little place called the Taj Mahal. Big Things Afoot...Bad for Travel 02/19/2011
Family and friends up on this blog may remember that we were scheduled to have a full day layover in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Now, the democratic fire that began blazing in Egypt recently seems to have spread to Bahrain and Libya as well. Governments are cracking down and firing on protesters. Bahrain is a funny case because, while we (the U.S. - the royal we) are great lovers of democratic capitalism, Bahrain is perhaps more useful to us at the moment as a stable regime housing the Navy's 5th Fleet. Serious times. Just want to put you at ease, we're staying up on the situation and won't leave the airport if there's the slightest safety concern. Tear gas is not our bag. Rajasthan 02/16/2011
The tendency to name things, classify them, and then equate them with other things in the same category - what is this called? Surely some meticulous person out there has given this a term. For example, Belgium is a country and China is a country. Each has its own unique history and cultural traditions worthy of our attention. Never mind that Beijing is bigger than Belgium on its own, they're both sovereign nations and equal in some sense.
This bias leads guidebooks to dissemble the true nature of places in the same way, incorrectly suggesting that, because we happen to be in a particular place, there must be SOMETHING to see. So it is that a small, crummy temple in Ubud receives the same attention as the Great Wall. Phooey. To Mumbai 02/05/2011
It has been a bit of a whirlwind so far in India. After Varanasi, we had lots of time and very little schedule - our fate was decided by the National Rail Service of India. Mumbai was on the list but how we got there was determined by the availability of Sleeper berths. Easier said than done.  After a few hours and some mental yoga, we had discovered a route to get us to Mumbai within a week. Our first stop was Orchha. A small town with a couple large palace, it has managed to remain fairly untouristed. For two days we discovered the 17th century palaces built side by side on a hill overlooking the town. Staircases, cut windows, columns, and doorways... these castles were worth the view from the top. The star of the show, however, were the vultures. At the top of every torrent and temple, the massive feathered scavengers looked down at us. A bit disarming but certainly unique!
Viva Varanasi 01/27/2011
 Some of the Ghats India has caught my eye, winked, seduced me, and tossed me aside. Repeatedly. The smells lure you in. A friendly smile lowers your guard. A scene unlike any other will make you fall in love, and then... "AUTO? BOAT? CANDLE? Good Karma for you." All relationships with the people and the land are tarnished by a neediness and insistence that something is owed. The honeymoon stage, one might say, is over.
It is important to note that there WAS a honeymoon, however. Letting David take on the blogging as I adjusted to India was a smart move - for the first few days I didn't have much to say. After pushing to get to India for six months, the arrival was not as smooth as I imagined. Unlike when I first arrived to Thailand four years ago, or China six months ago, I was not shocked or speechless. The land was foreign, loud, and full of unusual sites. That was it. I didn't feel the romance of India that has so often been described - the mystery or magic travelers seem to rave about. At least, not until we reached Varanasi. Buddha Bodhi 01/23/2011
 We took an overnight train from Kolkata to Bodhgaya, the geographic home of Buddhism. It was here that Guatama, son of a wealthy noble, finished his search for reconciliation between causality and mortality and became the self-proclaimed enlightened one - the original Buddha.
Here is what I like about Buddhism: after, he went for a stroll and found a handful of ascetic crazies he used to hang out with and was, like (and I paraphrase), "Look, try it, and if it doesn't make you feel better then go back to starving yourselves in the forest." His path to enlightenment was conceived as a cure to be administered to the human "diseases" of suffering and death. Its effectiveness was determined by the patient, and while it later developed into a number of different, sometimes even deistic, beliefs and practices, the original message was all about understanding and transcending the negative aspects of reality through the power of each individual's mind. Who can't appreciate that on some level? | Lisa Dover
 David Kingsley
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