Curious Boho

The main thing that had attracted me to plan a trip to Jordan was the pink city of Petra. However when I started researching I realised there is much more to Jordan than just Petra.  We planned about 6 days in Jordan - going from north to south of the country. Indians have visa on arrival to Jordan, however if you buy the Jordan pass with 2/3 consecutive visits to Petra and stay atleast 4 nights, you are waived off from paying the visa fees. First up let me tell you- Jordan is quite an expensive country. So budget well. It is also very touristy; so quite easy to navigate.  We had planned to cover the Dead Sea, Petra, Wadi Rum and Amman. And fly to Bangalore from Amman. You can cover an additional place called Aquaba which known for snorkelling etc but we didn’t have the time. With that, route map done!  Day 1 - land in Amman in the morning.. picked car.. 1hr drive to Dead Sea  Day 2 - Dead Sea to Petra - 3.5hrs drive.  Day 3, 4 - Petra Day 5 - Petra to Wadi Rum ...

Being a 90s kid and growing up watching cartoons and movies on Egyptian pharaohs I have always dreamt of immersing myself in this mystical civilisation. Hence we decided to spend a few days in Cairo.  Egypt, over the last few years had had a bit of unrest and as a result we decided to restrict ourselves to the most touristy city - Cairo.  We planned about 3 days in Cairo hoping to get a complete flavour of the country.  Where to stay in Cairo - this was a dilemma - whether to stay with the view of the Pyramids or the city. We chose the city since we did read (and later experienced) that the area around the Pyramids is quite a slum. We chose one of the Hiltons over looking the Nile.  Day 1 - understanding how things work in Cairo! English isn’t a commonly spoken language. Even taxi plates are in Arabic! Post checking-in the first thing was to book an Uber. Only to realise we couldn’t figure out which was our car - couldnt read the number plate you see.. with some diff...

After the stunning Niagara we are back to the city to continue our explorations. We had taken the NY city pass which could be used for attractions over a span of 7 days and that was perfect.  NY has random weather and we saw rainy days, sunny days, windy days, cloudy days all in our 1 week there.  We had hence planned our itinerary such that we spent time outside on the sunny days and inside on rainy days.  Day 4 started off with the Flat iron building,  Grand Central Station where many movies were shot, Chrysler building and the UN building. All of them are situated close by and easily do able by walk or short metro rides. We then visited the NY Public Library one of the largest in the world. Spending some time there we then moved towards Empire State Building to enjoy some of the awesome city views.  Day 5 - one of the things to do in NY is shopping. We picked our last but one day here to visit one of the outlet malls. Jersey Garden Mall was the one we picked ...

We were in newyork and decided to visit Niagara Falls ( the US side) for 2 days. We did do a lot of research to figure out the optimum time, how to ge there etc. finally decided to go through a tour. One can also driver down to niagara or take the public buses  however the last mile connectivity was a challenge.  We took the Take Tours tour and met our tour guide at 8am at the designated spot. And off we were to witness the miracle of nature.  Niagara Falls is a good 7-8hr Bus ride from NYC. Enroute there are some beautiful sights one shouldn’t miss. First stop was the Corning glass museum - a glass museum which also demonstrates the process of glass blowing. After spending 2 hours including lunch we set off to the next spot - Glen Watkins State park. I really was amazed by the state parks and photos I had seen so far and was glad we made this stop. A nice, refreshing walk through nature, upto an awesome waterfall and one hour later we felt as refreshed as ever! Highly re...