Blog, Family Travel, Paris, Travel, Uncategorized

72 Hours in Paris is Never Enough Time

4 Comments

BUT…With an abundance of must see and do’s when traveling to Paris I’m here to say there is never enough time. Whether you have 3 days or 3 weeks you won’t want to leave. Book the trip in the capacity that fits what you can handle at this time. You’ll have no regrets and will always leave wanting more. Isn’t that the best way to see the world?

Below is my perfect itinerary for 72 hours in Paris. Listing a few highlights that are great for families or even just adults.

When traveling with kids I recommend booking a flight that leaves later at night and will have you arriving in France mid-day. This (hopefully) ensures your kids have at least 5-6 hours of sleep. For example, our flight left at 10pm and our kids were able to fall asleep almost immediately. It was a 9 hour flight and with their internal clock, they actually slept until we landed giving them about 8 hours of sleep! When we landed they were well rested and ready to hit the ground running! Another perk to landing mid-day means that your hotel room should be ready by the time you arrive. At the least, you can always drop your bags with the bellmen.

The best start to the City of Lights is strolling sidewalks until a cafe catches your eye. I’ve never met a happy hungry kid. This stop will be rewarding for all! Bonus points: People watching, cappuccinos and Hot Chocolates!

Next stop: The Eiffel Tower. This is usually the number one request for any kid visiting France so save yourself the trouble of them constantly asking demanding “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO THE EIFELL TOWER”?! Seeing it for the first time will have your kids in complete awe! The best way to go up the Eiffel Tower with kids is to climb the first 2 floors! There are 2 different tickets you can purchase. 

  • One is for the elevator from floor to top.
  • The other is to walk up to level two and then take the elevator. Our kids absolutely loved the chance to climb the stairs for a bit. We made lots of stops as they were just fascinated. There are little signs to read along the way for all the engineering nerds like us! On the 2nd floor (which is as high as you’re allowed to climb) we got in the high speed elevator. Kids loved having the best of both in Eiffel Tower Transportation. Regardless of which ticket you choose to purchase you’ll take elevator all the way down. Don’t forget to grab a glass of overpriced champagne to celebrate as you walk around the top two floors of the Eiffel Tower.

A stroll along La Rive Siene is an ideal way to enjoy the sunset before dinner. Also termed “L’Heure Bleue” – a French expression referring to ‘the blue hour’ at twilight each night. Take in the culture rather than trying to cram in another touristy stop before dinner. 

Our kids did a “food challenge” before Paris. 

Food Challenge = trying new foods we might find in France such as: Croissants, French Onion Soup, anything with garlic, escargot. *it doubled as an easy way to get them to eat a few more vegetables too! This challenge made dining at nice restaurants in Paris more fun. They were so excited to order and option to all the menu options!

DAY TWO

Take advantage of the time change and let the kids sleep in a little bit while you enjoy a cappuccino and croissant. At some point you will have to wake them up though – then head out for breakfast at another Parisian cafe. We are obsessed with both the St Germain and Montmartre area. I would introduce the kids to their first French Metro and get off at the Montmartre stop. Buy a pastry before you ride the funicular to Basilica of the Sacré-Cœur. You will enjoy your pastries while having magnificent views of the city. From there you will enjoy the vineyard and meandering through all the artists at work.

No Parisian list is complete without recommending a visit to the incredible Louvre. Quick Tip: Skip the Mona Lisa and head straight to Napoleon’s Apartment. And for a truly enjoyable family experience in the museum splurge on a family guide. If you have extra time before dinner everyone will enjoy wandering the Jardin des Tuileries.

DAY THREE

Time for family photos with the Madame Eiffel in the background. We booked an early morning appointment with LaMour De Paris and the photos we received back are true works of art (cute kids make us look cute.) This is the perfect day to have breakfast with a view of Madame Eiffel and now we are set to explore the quaint St. Germaine area. 

A light lunch is recommended before you head to your Chocolate Tour. While the highlight is tasting sweets from six local spots, the tour is so much more. You will learn the history of Chocolate with some fascinating facts about famous Parisians of the past. Our guide was a real life Mary Poppins and the kids still remember much of what they learned that afternoon. They also wanted to take a bit of Paris home with them. This provided the perfect opportunity to head to one of the fabulous departments stores. We suggest either:

Printemps Haussmann – It first opened in 1865 and is now home to some of the todays most elegant stores and unique window displays. Don’t forget to enjoy the rooftop bar if you are visiting on a nice day.

Galeries Lafayette Haussmann– A little newer as it opened in 1894. Today it is still known for the incredible Art Nouveau Style and great deals. Time your visit right and you might even catch one of their weekly fashion shows!

Hope you’re jumping at the chance to visit Paris! Even if just for 72 hours!

Have you been to Paris? If so, let everyone know in the comments what your MUST see is? If not, let us know what you’re most excited about! Thanks for sharing!

Continue Reading

Blog, Travel, Uncategorized

Thaim for Meat

4 Comments
Brisket in my luggage

“I help you.”

The story of a Brisket, Spicy Spaghetti Sauce and Thailand Immigration control.

Banyan Tree pool with our meat luggage
Swimming up to the prettiest luggage carrying the juiciest meat. Featuring the BEST LUGGAGE

To start things from the very beginning, let’s go back to the week before we departed for our two-week vacation to Thailand. I was headed to meet a friend and her kiddos for an impromptu play date (one of many outings to stave off the mom-guilt pre-departure). En route to meet our friends, Heath called and said I needed to meet him. He had just picked up the frozen, vacuumed-sealed Brisket we would take to serve as our lunch on Day 4 of the sailing portion of the Thailand trip.

So I had to call my Vegan friend and let her know that I was canceling our date….because of a ‘Meat Situation’. How’s that for furthering her beliefs in avoiding animal meat. 

I rushed that 6 lb. baby brisket home and stored her in the freezer. Along with our Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage, the spicy spaghetti sauce, and Central Market jalapeño sausages. These would all make the trek to Thailand and need to be as frozen as possible before we travelled for 32 straight hours. 

Tasting the Spicy Sausage Spaghetti sauce
If you promise not to tell the other sailors, I might have double-dipped on sampling this mouth-watering spicy sausage sauce we froze for flight to Thailand.

Fast forward to the afternoon of departure and we filled a soft-sided YETI cooler with freezer packs and our frozen goods. Said a quick prayer over the bag (there is nothing too silly to say prayers over. God loves to provide!) (we use a vacuum sealer like this: Vacuum seal for better frozen transport!)

Dallas to Houston Hobby. Bags made it!

Press play to see how smooth rolling AWAY LUGGAGE is. Even filled with household supplies and scrumptious meat!

We loaded an Uber with all 5 bags. Checked in at Houston international and checked all bags onto Phuket. Houston to Taipei and the air temperature was -65* so we knew our cooler would be just fine! Taipei to Bangkok. Bangkok to Phuket. 

-67* Outside Air Temperature. Perfect frozen food flying weather!
-67* Outside Air Temperature. Perfect frozen food flying weather!

Standing at the baggage belt it is always thrilling to see your bags come thru the little window. 1, then 2 and finally all 4 checked bags appeared. Considering how many millions of people a day travel, I find it miraculous when bags arrive after an itinerary like that. I know sometimes we can get heated and frustrated when our bags don’t make it to our final destination, but isn’t it actually amazing that they can? But that is a conversation for another day.

Not wanting to celebrate too early, we walked confidently towards baggage immigration. Four bags went thru the scanner…and only three came out.

We came face to face with an Immigration officer looking at us incredibly confused. AHHHH! I looked at Heath and asked him what was in that one. Under his breath with ventriloquist lips he said, “the meat”. (Did I mention we brought knives, a waffle skillet, HORRIBLY tacky khaki pleated pants for a costume party. All things that could have been offensive to Thai Immigration). 

Somehow I was the one requested to open the offending suitcase. And then to open the YETI cooler tucked inside. As we stood next to the two large banners explaining the ZERO tolerance for bringing in fruit, the immigration officer pulled out the spaghetti sauce. 

Friends, insert the age-old debate determining if tomatoes are a fruit OR a vegetable. Which side did my immigration friend fall on? Does he know what spaghetti sauce is based upon?

The language barrier stopped us a bit…but Heath intervened announcing, “it’s a sauce. Made with lots of tomatoes. TOMATOES.”. I looked at him wide-eyed and whispered, “STOP. SAYING. THAT WORD.

Heath:, “huh?”.

Me: with gritted teeth, “Stop saying ‘tomatoes’.”

Then our immigration friend spotted the Brisket. 

“What is this?”, he asked. We quickly pulled out an ice pack and said, ‘Oh this is just an ice pack”. 

With a giggle he very obviously pointed to the brisket.

Ohhhhh that! Heath responded, “It’s cooked meat. Smoked. Brisket. You know it? It is cooked.”. (because only monsters would bring raw meat?)

The immigration officer asked us how many we had. We proclaimed, “only one sir!”. I mean, again, we aren’t monsters.

So there we stood with 6 lbs of USA meat and a bag of tomatoes.

He turned to Heath and said, “I help you.”. (WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!)

We remained confused as he walked to a desk, opened the top drawer, lifted a yellow legal notepad and grabbed a crinkled well-worn pamphlet from underneath. You know, the kind of pamphlet that looks like it’s been in your back pocket for about a week.

I knew this is where the Immigration Officer would show us line by line how we’d have to leave this all behind. All I could think of was how I wished I had eaten more of the spicy sausage spaghetti sauce now. What a waste…I started hoping that he would at least take it home to let his family try it (and you know me…I was going to beg him to let them try…tell the full story of how we made it, annoying him with my long-winded story hoping it would bless his family).

But in flash, he just placed the pamphlet in my hand and began gesturing for us to go ahead and enter Phuket. Contraband and all! What? Was this were we should have snuck him a $20? We didn’t know and didn’t want to cause more trouble so we just packed it up, bowed profusely, and thanked him a million times. Then sped to our transfer car waiting outside.

As we drove away from the airport, Heath and I high-fived each other in disbelief that we got away with it all. I pulled the ratty old pamphlet from my purse to have a look. Wait! What? He had given us a pamphlet about Quarantining your pets. 

 

Please quarantine your pets!
The well-worn pamphlet that somehow allowed us to bring in USA meats and fruits.

Immigration rules not applying to food.
None of this applied to Brisket or spaghetti sauce. But I suppose that was the point? Thank you Thailand!

Oh my gosh!!! This Thailand trip is going to be amazing! No rules….just real good fun!

What have you ‘snuck’ into a country before? Any wild things you’ve travelled with that made you nervous? You know I love a good story…let me know!

Continue Reading

Travel, Uncategorized

CheerioooOH NO my laptop is gone.

4 Comments
Sunrise from the sky

Leaving my purse with all my cash at a pay phone in Sevilla. Booking my flight home from San Juan TWO weeks later than my husband (found this out at the airport when I couldn’t check in). Missing my fight by 3 minutes because I just wanted one more sushi roll in Miami. Crashing my 4-wheeler in Mexican sand dunes. Twice. All things I’ve actually done. #survivor. And my trip to Africa didn’t ‘disappoint’ as I can now add another heart-stopping story to the list.

After a relaxing afternoon spent napping and lounging in my London hotel room (a day room at the Sofitel London Heathrow) we headed to the airport. The hotel is just a 20 minute cab ride to Terminal 3 where my flight that evening would depart. It was such a perk having that day room and getting to shower and lallygag around all afternoon. But we quickly rushed out in hopes we could grab a pint in the lounge preflight. Lounges mean you get to avoid terrifying airport food.

Cheese layered salad is not a salad. It is cheese
Things I DID NOT eat on my London layover. Cheese layered salad. So basically, cheese?

My flight that evening to Cape Town, South Africa would depart at 6:10pm.

4:41pm. I neared the security belt and bent over to grab my computer out of the assigned pocket in my carry-on backpack and place it on the tray table. S#@T. It wasn’t in there. Panic. Looked inside my rolling bag. No luck. F%$*!!!!!!!! The look on Shelley’s face, my very experienced and organized companion, was priceless. In her shock she was certain that I had placed it elsewhere. This is possible as I’m not totally organized, but I know myself better than that. My characteristic that trumps my disorganization is forgetfulness. I looked her straight in the eyes and said, “I know I left it sitting on the bedside table. I remember leaving it there. I’ll be back”. Then I darted.

Have you seen Phoebe from ‘Friends’ running? Her arms waving wildly and legs all askew. Every limb independent of the other. That was exactly what I looked like as I took off to hail a taxi. My carry-on and purse flailing behind me.

Phoebe running wildly
Visual reference for anyone that missed F-R-I-E-N-D-S. Please tell me you already knew what I was describing.

Of course you can’t just grab any cab outside the busy Heathrow airport. But I didn’t realize that because in times of distress I don’t do anything intentionally. I’m more of a ‘panic and act’ type of person. I rushed up to the first cab I saw like a lunatic banging on the window. He sent me away. Saw another cab a little further off. He was appalled at my madwoman behavior but was at least helpful and pointed me in the direction where taxi’s were properly lined up waiting for guests.

I hopped in the cab at the front of the line where I was greeted with a “Cheerio”. No cheer here mate…instead I let him know this was a ‘Fast and Furious‘ mission.

Oh great. It was now 5pm and London also observes the fun tradition called ‘rush hour traffic’. I assume that’s why the famous movie is titled, ‘Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift’, rather than ‘Fast and Furious: London on a Weekday’. That cab ride TO the hotel was painful. I passed time by panicking. And praying. And checking my carry-on 8 more times. Could God make my 15” MacBook appear? Not this time. I then called the hotel in hopes they would have my computer ready to hand over at the front Concierge Desk.

5:10pm (now one hour before my flight departs). I arrive at the hotel and encounter many staff people who have no idea about the missing computer, nor seem to realize the urgency. Grabbed a ‘fit-ish’ looking guy and we ran to the room I had only checked out of an hour prior. No computer. Now I was just pissed. I might be missing a flight all for a computer that has randomly disappeared.

5:14pm. There are literally 4 people just looking around the front desk confused about a computer, yet they think someone may know something. Hey, no rush. Just let me know when you have an update. Should we grab a cup of tea and talk about it, while picking up stacks of paper to look for it?

5:15pm. Knight in shining armor (armor=the shiny Sofitel name badge), runs up with my precious Apple MacBook Pro! I screamed a million thank you’s (everyone loves a loud American!) as I ran back to my taxi. As we cruised back to Terminal 3 my incredible driver kept giving me his traffic updates and encouraging me by telling stories of other forgetful and disorganized travelers who had no chance of making flights. I was feeling totally pumped that I wasn’t near as idiotic as those other tourists.

I returned to the airport (and hugged my £120 chauffeur – the equivalent to about $500 billion USD by the way. No one said mistakes were cheap). But now the security line was total bananas. An entire Japanese school was ahead of me, along with every other overnight flyer just arriving. Rules are made to be broken. I began ducking and weaving my way through the security line maze. My genuine panic as I begged person after person to be let in front of them had many endeared towards me(naive thinking?). Or maybe it was just sheer sympathy as most knew, as well as I did, that I still had another security check to go and then needed to book it past 30 gates before my fate would be realized. Nevertheless, many strangers happily let me cut in front and wished me luck.

Oops. I forgot to separate my liquids. It’s truly embarrassing when you cut in front of no less than 100 people, dash thru the security line like a pro, then stand there. Waiting. And waiting. All while they re-run your bag of liquids. I almost just told her to trash it, but my SkinCeuticals serums were included and there are ZERO FLIGHTS WORTH ABANDONING THAT GOLD! Humbled, I waited. Then repeated this whole ‘poor desperate me’ act at the next security check point.

Finally…free!

5:50pm. (the flight doors would close in 5 minutes). Although I had word from Shelley that the flight was still boarding. Actually her exact text from earlier said, “It’s a hot mess of people. Gonna take a while”.

Texts from Shelley - a hot mess of passengers
A HOT MESS! My kind of travelers!

I sprinted. Well, it felt like a sprint. I was winded like I had been sprinting. I must have look fatigued (or at least desperate enough I would be a hefty tipper) that a man in a cart quickly drove me the last 12 gates worth.

My Zippy Chauffeur ride to the gate
My Chauffeur reminded me 3 times that he likes tips. But he didn’t specify a currency!

I SAW SHELLEY! And an open door! I couldn’t believe it. I got in a work out, solved a problem and now was going to arrive in South Africa as regularly scheduled. There was just one last piece of this ridiculous puzzle. And it wasn’t too pleasant:
So as I take a seat in what will be my home for the next 12 hours, IN coach, I start to get an oh so familiar feeling….let’s just say things were already a getting a little “cramped”. It’s going to be a great flight!!!

Tell me – what’s the worst thing you’ve left behind while traveling?

Cheers to mission accomplished.
Klassy in Coach! No one toasts with cheap champagne when they have 12 hours in coach ahead of them. Except for us. Making the flight WITH my computer kept me giddy for a solid hour. Then reality set in…as did the cheap champagne headache.

Continue Reading

Blog, India, Travel

Scootin’ around India

12 Comments
Taj Mahal India

I have thousands of emails from my years of escorting the demanding, the wealthy, the elderly (and sometimes all three in one!) around the world. I could certainly re-tell these stories (and I will as time goes on), but I want you to really feel the passion of my experiences via actual emails I sent from the road. Today’s email brings us to the fascinating country of India. You can imagine my surprise when I met one of my unforgettable guests – Let’s call her Ms. Malhoun (Joan was her first name and she corrected my pronunciation on day 5 of this trip. I didn’t even know you could mispronounce ‘Joan’. But she figured out a way to make it sound like ‘Jean’. Also, everyone knows you correct the name problem right away or you just go by your ‘new’ name for the remainder of the relationship).

Below is the ACTUAL email I sent my family to update them on where I would be for the next two weeks of my life (parenthesis added to help fill in some gaps for you):

Hey y’all,

Upon arriving at the gate in Chicago for my 15-hour direct flight to Delhi, India, I couldn’t find any of my guests that were traveling with me. {The company I worked for liked to completely punish us and make us find our guests before the international long-haul flights. They probably thought this ‘rule’ helped keep the airport expenses down because we would hang around the gate chatting with our guests rather than paying for 3 glasses of $15 wine that tastes 1/3 of the price. O contraire my friends.}

Hi Speed Liquor in the hands of a local
Found in the hands of a local. I loved her for carrying this around a temple and I loved the ‘straight-to-the-point’ marketing! I was going to need a few bottles of this to get me through the next 2 weeks. #HiSpeedWhiskey

It should have been easy to spot my typical passenger seeing as how the only people I spotted were Indians crowding the gate. The large hair turbans, huge beards (unless they were covered by beard hair nets…have you ever seen such a crazy concept!!), and elderly Indian women lingering in their shadows were pushing the very few Americans that were present to the back of the pile.

Gorgeous Indian Woman
Hard to find anyone more beautiful than a fully adorned traditional Indian Woman. Always impressive!

I did wonder briefly if I would actually survive the next 15 hours of my life. Thank goodness I loaded up on protein and wine at the airport bar because who knows when I’ll see those delicacies again!

A few hours into the flight (pre-Ambian) I make friends with a super cool girl going to visit her boyfriend in Qatar. How cool to have a boyfriend that lives in Qatar!!! I don’t even know where that is!!! I totally didn’t admit this to her and silently wondered if she knew where it was before she started dating the mysterious man. {I was never one for geography. Embarrassing but true. Going to visit these places did help increase my knowledge, but I can affirmatively say that I still use GOOGLE to look up the whereabouts of cities I’ve spent significant time in}.

We continued chatting and she starts telling me about this crazy lady sitting next to her. I was ‘suspect’ right away and go spy on this lady. Damn – she looked very “Intrav”. {INTRAV was the name of my former company. I will use their real name until I’m so famous and sharing every secret that they ask me not to. You are reading this blog early so you get the ‘inside scoop’. LOL! I suspect instant fame and fortune. My Chinese takeout fortune cookie last night told me so}.

FYI…in this particular case of looking ‘Intrav’ – it means old and a lot of tacky
jewelry.

I decided to suck it up and ask the attendants for a list of my passengers….to which they then complain about this same lady (face palm!!!) to me just as I am noticing she is one of mine. I end up walking the aisles and meet the rest of my passengers and thank God they are all nice and normal.

But then we have our ‘suspect’. The crazy lady next to my mile-high best friend lays into me about random things and I just act like the plane might be landing soon and make a quick escape for my last few moments of enjoyable freedom. As I leave the plane, the flight-attendants all wish me luck with Ms.Malhoun….great, that’s always a positive sign! (double face palm, with a side of eye-roll and a prayer).

So here is where it really gets good! After getting off and having the most delicious smelling flowers being hung around my neck (woo hoo I did get Valentine’s Day flowers!) and meeting the rest of my “normal” group, we wait for Ms. Malhoun. She is nowhere to be found so the rest of the group and I head to the hotel while our guide waits for her. 30 full minutes later he calls me and the first thing he says is, “She has a MOTORIZED SCOOTER!” I mention that I had heard that she brought one and ask him if it seems like it will be a pain…..

Lady on Scooter. Vroom Vroom
Vroom Vroom! She has arrived! Blurry photo to protect the ‘innocent’

Hotel with lots of stairs
Don’t be deceived by the available elevator in the first photo. Most of these hotels are littered with stairs. Everywhere! And no way to avoid them!

At this moment I clearly did NOT understand what a motorized scooter really was. So I wait for them in the lobby and in drives Ms. Malhoun in this big yellow seated scooter. Bumper stickers included. Oh my gosh, I couldn’t look at my guide because I thought I would laugh or cry right there.

Scooter with the Indian locals
I had a total of 15 guests on this trip. This SCOOTER became guest #16. To be looked after by anyone and everyone. Even the locals finally found some amusement.

I have attached the photo that I made him run and take after she drove off to the elevator. The only thing missing from the picture are her 2 (TWO!) canes, one of which is wooden hand-carved gnome of some sort. I can’t even begin to think how we will take this scooter on trains, check this on airplanes, and maneuver it through the 5 million people that are in this city each day. Help!

Scooter at the hotel
She would roam (scoot?) the hotel grounds with anywhere from TWO to FOUR employees by her side. Bless.

Carrying a 98 pound scooter
With stairs EVERYWHERE, I was often left to tend to this 98 pound scooter. Lugging it down stairs helped me earn extra helpings of Tandoori Chicken and Naan!

This should be a really “special” trip.

pool with multiple steps in India
Another beautiful hotel. Still not handicapped accessible. Even the pools required multiple steps.

The only people I have left to meet now are the couple that:

  • *doesn’t eat any spices
  • *doesn’t eat anything green
  • *doesn’t eat fish
  • *doesn’t eat milk
  • *They will eat turkey (impossible in this country) and pancakes occasionally.

If you don’t hear from me again, it is because I’ve stolen Ms. Malhoun’s Motorized Scooter and driven to the nearest Ashram for some serious soul-healing.

Love,

Meredith

FOLLOW UP EMAIL:

The below email was sent to my boss. As I read it now I realize how embarrassingly inappropriate it is. The office has to be horrified that they let me loose in a far away land with guests paying well over $10,000 to be escorted by me. In my defense, when I was living life on the road I never found time for proof-reading or being professional towards those back home in their cozy offices. I had to reserve what very little professionalism I had for the constant face-to-face interactions with my high-paying guests. Here is my email to Vice President Doug:

Hi Doug,
Of course I hate to interrupt your time off but I just want to keep you posted on the latest.  {I totally did NOT care that I was interrupting his time off}.

So this morning was our early am departure and as I was running around doing luggage, ect., Joan was in the breakfast room ordering around other guests to get her food. I only know this because 3 of them came to me and said, ”Joan is a bitch” and then told me how they had to get toast for her then help her back in her cart so she could go to the bathroom and she didn’t even thank them. I know this is true because she doesn’t thank me when I get her food either, which is fine since I am working. I have tried to keep her away from the others and help her as much as possible but there was no way I could be sitting in breakfast with her at 5 am when the luggage needed to leave then as well. I know you don’t feel we have a reason to send her home, but I am just keeping you informed of the continued comments from passengers. oh…as I am sitting here typing this another passenger has just come to show me a ‘disabled traveller’ warning in her guide-book. Thank God for their great sense of humor!

Thanks!
Meredith
P.S. Woo hooo we are on the way to the best hotel in the world…these passengers will be soooo happy after all the craziness!

Do you like the quick ‘P.S.’ after that bombshell email? Like, hey boss, it’s all good no trouble at all. Never mind that I dropped a casual curse word while interrupting your family vacation. #majoreyeroll #itsokimworking

Hotel with stairs everywhere.
Yet another amazing Indian Hotel. FILLED with stairs EVERYWHERE!

READER – please leave a comment as to why the heck you think this company kept me employed. Would you have kept some yahoo employee writing emails like the above? And here is one more insider scoop for you – the actual email had several typo’s that I corrected for a better reading experience for you. So basically my company sent me off to care for their clients and the only feedback they were getting from me was in the form of horribly inappropriate emails with typos and a bad attitude. They had to be freaking out.

INDIA FAVORITES

My HOTELS: Oberoi Udaivilas || Oberoi Amarvilas || Rambagh Palace ||

Riding the scooter
I have to admit, that scooter was fun to ride! Just not fun to load on and off buses EVERY DAY!!!

Indians in a trailer being pulled by tractor
But I can not complain too badly….at least I was riding in an air-conditioned bus.

Riding the scooter in India
Peeling out of the Oberoi to the nearest Ashram!

Continue Reading