“Chandigarh??” Travelers often squawk in confusion when we share our India itinerary with them. While places like Rajasthan, Kerala, and Varanasi register as usual suspects for visits to India, Chandigarh – a planned and rather atypical city in the northern Indian state of Punjab – rarely finds itself on travelers’ must-see checklists.
Daniel Noll
Oh, What a Night
It was our India moment. You know, the kind of travel moment when you’re on a trip and you think to yourself, “Now this is why I came here.”
No, we weren’t sipping masala tea and eating chicken tikka while admiring the image of the Taj Mahal in its reflecting pool. Rather, we were tucked into the sticky folds and the dingy creases of an uncontrived real-life Indian experience.
It was awful; it was amazing. Maybe not amazing, but eye-opening. Uncomfortable, certainly.
Robbed Redux: Sticky Fingers at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Part 2
Perhaps you'd like to know what happened after I was robbed at Bangkok Airport security last month. Well, the saga continued with more “investigations” and a mysterious wire transfer. Transparency is not the first word that comes to mind.
Geotagging Your Photos, Part 2: Importing and Embedding GPS Data
The title sounds like a daunting little geekfest, doesn't it? Not at all – even Audrey has managed to figure it out.
Once you begin logging location data with your Sony GPS-CS1 (Sony GPS-CS1KA) GPS device, you'll need to import data from the device, convert it into something usable, and finally embed it into the EXIF data of the photograph. Although this may sound complicated, it’s not. It just takes some patience the first few times around, after which it becomes second nature. We’ll explain it all in this portion of our case study.
Geotagging Your Photos, Part 1: Concepts and Basics
15 Months, 16 countries, and 1000s of photos taken on the road – from boats, trains and buses, and on horseback – all of them geotagged and many displayed with GoogleMaps. How do we do it all?
We’re going to tell you in a three-part series – starting now.
Myanmar, Where Hope Dies Last?
News stories take on increased significance when we’ve actually visited the place being covered. For example, we've recently been reading more about the effects of a harsh winter on the lives of ordinary people in both Tajikistan and China. As we read these stories, images of the people we’ve met become superimposed on a piece of news that we might otherwise regard with detachment.
We now follow Myanmar (Burma) more closely, as well. Just a few days ago, the junta (military government) there made news by announcing another “road map to democracy” and elections in 2010.
Travel in Central Asia and the Caucasus: Best Sights, People and Scenery
From mosques and mountains to hats and limousines, the often unusual sights and scenery of the Caucasus and Central Asia always kept us guessing. Here are some of the more memorable landscapes, religious buildings, cultural artifacts, animals, and people that we encountered during the five months we traveled across these regions. If you check out the categories and keep reading, you'll see why this is a unique part of the world and travel experience.
Golden Camel Awards, Part 2: Logistics
No place takes the logic out of logistics, from pillar to post, like the former Soviet Union. Inspired by our own experiences, the following entries are in no logical order. Let’s dig in.
Robbed! Sticky Fingers at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport
I was robbed.
It didn't happen at a grungy guest house, in a crowded local market, or down a dark alleyway at night. It happened in Bangkok's shiny new Suvarnabhumi Airport at a gate security checkpoint. Worse yet, the thief was a security employee.
Tajikistan Visas and GBAO Permits
When we traveled across Central Asia years ago no one seems to know what was needed to get a visa to Tajikistan and a GBAO Permit to visit the Pamir Mountains. At that time it seemed to be embassy specific and heavily dependent on the relationship between Tajikistan and the country from which you happen to be applying.
Fortunately, a lot has changed — for the better — regarding obtaining Tajik tourist visas and GBAO permits.