These Indian boys huddled with me for a photo while their mums on the balcony look on.We walked about five kilometers, and were on our way to the bus stop from Gandhi Memorial Museum when a group of boys ran toward us asking for a pen. We replied we don’t have any. Shervin and I…
Author: Gay Mitra
The Kandy House
We shooed taxi drivers off our backs upon exiting Bandaranaike International Airport. Shervin and I just arrived at Katunayake, Sri Lanka past seven in the morning on a hot April day. The country’s lone international airport sits in this town located more than 30 kilometers north of Colombo. There was one driver who persistently followed…
Meet My Backpacking Folks
I herded them past the terminal fee ticketing booth with much tribulation. They were fussing about the immigration form they had to fill out (and whinging about the travel tax and terminal fee even if they did not pay themselves). It was not my sister’s first time to fly overseas and she patiently assisted my…
Snapshot Saturday: Behind Barbs
Out Of Boxes And Backpacks
Is how we intend to live from this day on. Until when? We have not thought about it yet. Our destinations? Unknown. What I can tell you though is that we have just stepped on the land down under this morning. Australia is where this epic family vagabonding begins. Why a nomadic lifestyle? We’ve been…
Snapshot Saturday: Cure-Dillera
Mt. Pinatubo: A Geologist’s Dream Trek
She was four years old and on a different continent when the cataclysm of the Philippines’ Mt. Pinatubo occurred in 1991. She was already fascinated with rocks, and unbeknownst to her, she was about to become a huge Spice Girls fan. Fast forward to 2011, her fascination with rocks and earth grew to an obsession…
Snapshot Saturday: Morning Monkey Business
Man, ain’t that the cutest nose ever?!I shrieked as we chanced upon a bunch of proboscis monkeys, freely wandering and having brekkie by the beach. We were then striding towards our chosen forest trail for a morning hike in Bako National Park, Sarawak’s oldest national park, Borneo. I shrieked some more, and jumped, and sobbed…
Serendipity Beach: Sun, Sand, Sea and… Spliff?
Sleepy Sihanoukville succumbed to the basic necessities of summer pilgrims. Accommodations for every budget sprouted, restaurant menus altered to intercontinental, watering holes mushroomed, masseuses/manicurists peddled their services by the beach, banana boats and jet skis bobbed on the water… it’s got all the perks of Koh Phangan’s Sunrise Beach with a fraction of the craziness,…
Backpacking With A Baby
And I thought backpacking with a baby bump is cumbersome. Traveling with a newborn or infant is on a higher level of difficulty – well, more like on a different insane dimension… much challenging than the countless treks I did (no matter how long they lasted), or getting lost in translation, or hopping on dodgy…