Loose of Limits

...In the meantime, check out this video I made of a bunch of hippies in Arambol. Ugh...Shave your armpits! Put some clothes on your baby! "Fire twirling" is not an applicable life skill! Read about our time in Arambol here . Check out our pics from Arambol  here .

If you're looking for a retreat from the chaos of India, and you can afford to splurge, Dewalokam Farm Stay is well worth the time and money spent.  After spending a few days with Emily and Anna on the lake in Kumarakom (read here ), we all hopped in a taxi for the long ride just past Thodhupuza, Kerala . Emily and Anna had been introduced to Dewalokam through a travel agent and, when we saw the website for the property, we decided we would splurge and join them. It's definitely not cheap ($170/night), but that price includes 3 meals a day, tea time (tea/coffee and pastries), and all activities on their property. This kind of place is the exact reason why we search to find $8 and $9 rooms to stay in when we can - spending less when it's not important to us means that we can splurge on somewhere fantastic from time to time. Us and some of the Dewalokam staff

You might remember that we did a canoe trip on the backwaters of Alleppey, Kerala, back when we first got to India (see here ). On that trip, we saw a lot of the gorgeous house boats made of teak and palm and were looking forward to sharing the experience with Emily and Anna for months. After we met up with them in Mumbai (see Steph's post here ), we flew down to Kochin and had a taxi drive us two hours south. For Steph and I, it was good to be back into southern India, with the warm weather, palm trees, coconut curries and smiley people.

It feels kind of funny to write a blog post about Mumbai because we were barely there, but we have a few photos, so you get a (short) post! Lucky you! India Gate, Mumbai

Though we had crossed off many Rajasthan destinations of our To Do list because we wanted to travel at a slow pace for our remaining time in India (Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bundi), we had known for awhile that we definitely wanted to visit Udaipur , which is lauded as India's most romantic city. Though most Rajasthan towns and cities are located around or near a lake (sometimes man-made), Udaipur's lake is one of the most beautiful, and the town surrounds its waters, creating an almost Venice-like feel. So, after our disappointing 4 nights at Ranthambore National Park (read here ), we were looking forward to our time in Udaipur. The first sign that things were going well was when we remembered that, remembering my night from hell in the budget-class sleeper car of a train (read here ), we had booked A/C 3-Tier tickets for the overnight (8 hour) journey from Sawai Madhopur to Udaipur. When we got to the train station, we were exhausted and we boarded the train around midnight and ...

When we asked one of our Indian friends back in San Francisco about the countries many parks he recommended Ranthambore National Park  in Sawai Madhopur, Rajasthan. It's considered one of the best places in the world to view the wild Bengal tiger. At this point there are more Bengal tiger in captivity than exist in the wild. We really wanted to see a tiger but realized even if we didn't it would be nice to see other wildlife and get some fresh air- much needed after the polluted haze of Agra (read here ). We're on safari!

Hi All! We're in Burma now and are absolutely in love with the people here. And, while it's true that the country has come a long way in modernizing (tourist busses, for one), the internet is still super slow. We can access Blogger to write posts, but the internet is too slow for us to upload photos, which is a bummer because we have all of our remaining India posts written and ready to share. BUT - for now, we will have to put the blog on hold and we'll be back to you at the end of February with tons of updates! (Seriously, we have 7 more India posts and will have posts about our short stay in Ko Samed, Thailand, and about our 3.5 weeks in Burma ready for you.) Hope to "see" you all in a few weeks! xoxo, Loose Of Limits