Around the World in 68 Days
London
Even when you are traveling at such a hubristic pace as to presume you can see the WHOLE WORLD in less than ten weeks, there is no reason to subject yourself to back-to-back ten hour flights. London is conveniently placed. They have things to eat and look at there. More pictures...
South Africa: Royal Natal & Lesotho
We spent a few days exploring the Drakensberg escarpment, from the bottom in Royal Natal National Park, and then from the top in Lesotho. In Royal Natal we walked up the Tugela River to see where the Tugela Falls would be if there were any water. We drove up the very steep Sani Pass to Lesotho, which has very barren highlands. More pictures...
South Africa: Graaf-Reinet
We went to see the Owl House near Graaf-Reinet, a fascinating "outsider art" site featuring dozens of cement sculptures and very unusual decor. There's also a scenic outcropping of rocks nearby called Desolation Valley. More pictures...
South Africa: Cape Town
We spent a few days in the wine region near Cape Town, doing lots of tasting, marveling at how good yet how inexpensive all the wine was. We also saw a botanic garden and went to a great restaurant in Cape Town. More pictures...
South Africa: South Coast and Swaziland
We drove along the south coast of South Africa from Cape Town through Knysna and Port Elizabeth and Durban, then up the eastern coast towards Swaziland. In Swaziland we stayed at a little game preserve. More pictures...
South Africa: Eclipse
On December 4 there was a total solar eclipse, the second in southern Africa in two years. This one went along the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe. It happened on the first day of the rainy season -- every day had been sunny in the morning until this one. We had to do lots of driving to outrun the clouds, and saw the eclipse near the edge of the zone of totality. More pictures...
South Africa: Kruger National Park
The day after the eclipse, we drove to Kruger National Park where we saw an amazing variety of game from our car without a guide. It resulted in a difficult drive to Pretoria the following day, but I'm still really happy we went. More pictures...
India: Bombay
We flew to Bombay, now Mumbai, for the next segment of our trip. It is a very crowded, very polluted city. A taxi driver took us to the major tourist destinations (he waited for us at each one, and waited for us each morning). More pictures...
India: Agra
Agra was the capital of the Mughal Empire beginning in 1526, and has many palaces and monuments of that empire, including the Taj Mahal. Today it's a large industrial city that's even more polluted than Bombay. The pollution has been tarnishing the Taj Mahal and the other palaces -- there's been a prohibition on cars near the Taj to try to address this, but even dirtier 2-stroke tuk-tuks have taken their place. More pictures...
India: Varanasi
Varanasi is one of the holiest cities in Hinduism. Bathing there in the Ganges washes away all your sins. Dying there liberates you from the cycle of birth and death. Nearby is Sarnath, a place Buddha went after enlightenment. Many monasteries and monuments were built, ruins of which remain today. More pictures...
India: Darjeeling
Darjeeling is a delightful little town in the foothills of the Himalayas. It's the center of a major tea-growing region. It's unpolluted, and populated with lots of Tibetan refugees. And it was by far the coldest part of our trip. More pictures...
India: The Toy Train
The Toy Train is an old tiny-gauge railway going up the hill from Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling. It's so steep that there are six switchbacks -- the train reverses direction -- and a few loops. More pictures...
India: Calcutta
We spent a couple of days in Calcutta, another crowded city. We stayed downtown, and were able to walk all over the place. One day we took a taxi to a few other major tourist spots. More pictures...
Thailand: Bangkok
We spent Christmas and New Year's in Bangkok, explored its major tourist sites, and used it as a point of departure to Angkor Wat and Ayutthaya. With the Skytrain and the river ferry, it was pretty easy to get around. It was definitely a return to civilization from Africa and India -- a clean, paved city. Ray noticed that the canals had been completely cleaned up since he was there previously. More pictures...
Cambodia
We went from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia, by land -- we took a bus to the border, and from there took a taxi to Siem Reap, where the Angkor Wat temple complex is located. We spent two days exploring the many temples there. More pictures...
Thailand: Ayutthaya
Ayutthaya was the capital of the Thai kingdom before it moved to Bangkok. There are many ruins there today including small monuments and the Royal Palace. More pictures...
Australia: Sydney
Sydney was a connection point to our real Australian destination, Tasmania. It's a pleasant city with good public transportation. We got the impression, especially after visiting Melbourne and Canberra, that after building the Opera House with its very unusual architecture, that Sydney was fulfilled -- all the other buildings we saw there were pretty plain. More pictures...
Australia: Tasmania
Tasmania is a beautiful island with a fairly small population. We found lots of interesting scenery, flowers and trees, and animals, gracious hosts. and good food. More pictures...
Australia: Melbourne
Melbourne was a very interesting cosmopolitan, architecturally interesting city, easy to get around in without a car. We were only there for two days, but we got a pretty good taste of it (including an awesome Sardinian restaurant where instead of ordering we were served what they thought we should have). More pictures...
Australia: Canberra
We'd planned on driving through the mountains from Melbourne to Sydney, but we were rerouted by huge forest fires and so we went to Canberra, Australia's capital, which had two very interesting buildings. More pictures...
Hawaii
We stopped in Hawaii for a few days, visiting an old Opcode friend in Honolulu, and staying with Ray's cousin on the big island. More pictures...
Desktop Textures
Many of the pictures we took on the trip were intended for use as a background for our computer screen. I tend to like fairly uniform pictures for this purpose, essentially textures. Here are some of our favorites. More pictures...
