For the last week and a half we have been in the southern Indian state of Kerala, which sits on the western coast of India's southern tip.We chose Kerala because we had heard rave reviews from friends about its beauty and rich culture.The reviews were not false - Kerala is physically stunning with beautiful rugged coastlines, dramatic mountains covered in tea and spice plantations, and dense jungles filled with animals.We had also heard that Kerala is not as pove...

We have arrived safely in the southern Indian state of Kerala. We spent our first four days in the city of Cochin where the remains of British, Dutch and even Jewish settlements still stand at many street corners. Due to the depressing heat of the middle of the day, our routine has been to read and write during the day and to explore later in the afternoon. In Cochin we attended a Catholic mass, enjoyed an Indian cooking class and strolled through several spice ...

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) fortified by time away from cities in Hoi An and Halong Bay. Southeast Asia has officially entered the wet season so our first view of HCMC was through the rain-streaked windows of our taxi. Despite the rain (or perhaps encouraged to be decisive precisely because of the rain) we found a place to stay in a guesthouse near city center fairly quickly. After a number of days here, we are still confused by the family th...

For three days Christina and I enjoyed the quaint Vietnamese town of Hoi-An. Hoi-An is located in the middle of Vietnam along the eastern coast a few miles south of China Beach and Danang which the US military used as a major port of entry for the Vietnam War. Within Vietnam, Hoi-An is especially known for its ubiquitous clothing and tailoring industry so we decided to look into getting some inexpensive tailor made clothing. A few steps from our hotel we found To...

We are currently sitting on a boat in Halong Bay, Vietnam.We do not have internet here, obviously, but I will post this entry as soon as we are near a computer again.We arrived in Halong Bay two days ago and have had a fun time onboard the boat.This trip is our first "tour" since beginning our travels and we were initially rather wary of such a structured program.However, we wanted to visit Halong Bay and it is a difficult place to visit on one's own.Wh...