On Checking In

A few months before she died, my friend Lisa walked in the door at a friends house and I’m sure I did not do a good job of hiding my shock at how thin she had become.  She had always been skinny, but this was something else — the kind of skeletal nothingness you see …

Allons-y!

Whomping the Wadi

The next morning we awoke to say goodbye to the sea and head a bit east into the desert, specifically Wadi Rum.  B and Zach set off on an adventure to get our rental car, a shitty, shitty Citreon.  We also stocked up on schwarma from a place that was a knockoff of a famous …

Float on

We woke the next morning and I was feeling mostly back to normal, praise Allah.  We packed our things and Zach got in touch with a nice cab driver named Waleed who he had met the day before and who offered us a good price to take us to our hotel on the Dead Sea, …

Amman, man.

When we awoke our first morning in Amman, Zach found that Istanbul had gotten the last laugh on him in the form of a sore throat and cold.  He wanted to go to a pharmacy and the grocery store, so I tagged along to get my first daylight look at the city. Zach got his …

To the east!

Christ, I need to step it up with these.  I’m going to forget everything that happened if I don’t move it along cause we haven’t even make it to Jordan in recap-land yet.  Ok… ready, go.. When I left off we were heading to bed very late Sunday night/early Monday morning.  As such, B and …

On the Banks of the Mighty Bosphorus

When we left off, our intrepid travelers were shuffling off to bed late, late, late their first night overseas.  Morning came exceptionally quickly, and we slept in a bit to give our tired bodies some energy… but we didn’t snooze too long because jet lag and sleep deprivation be damned!  We were in Istanbul and …

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

The back story: For a few years after he finished college, my friend and coworker Zach lived in Amman, Jordan to work with Iraqi refugees displaced by the war and teach them computer skills.  He always spoke fondly of his time there, and for several years had been trying to convince us that we needed …

One Two Ka Four

After the most ridiculous week of my life, we were finally at the apex of the wedding celebration.  First up was the Sangeet on Friday and then the actual wedding on Saturday.  Friday we all took quite the lie in.  It was necessary to prepare for what was to come.I took my only solo trip …

India 2014: We’re Getting To the Good Stuff

After my Wednesday night reprise, I was all ready for whatever the rest of the week was going to entail.  I yet again got up and had a wonderful and leisurely breakfast (consisting of chai and toast) in the hotel restaurant, and then fancied up for the mehndi party. So, mehndi is what one might …