Owner: Contemporary Nomad URL:http://www.contemporarynomad.com/blog/ Join Date: Fri, 09 May 2008 05:20:41 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: We quit, we packed, we left! Follow along and travel the world with us as we take the plunge and go nomadic. Site statistics:Click here
Wicked Weather 2008-05-07 03:31:56 Traveling in India for an extended period of time presents you with all kinds of challenges. One of them is the weather. You almost have to be a climatologist to figure out how to intelligently move around the country without getting drenched by the monsoon rain, getting frost-bitten fingers, or being cooked by the intense [...] Read more:Wicked
The Karni Mata Rat Temple 2008-05-04 05:22:48 Video has finally made it to ContemporaryNomad.com! Our video premier had to be good, so we headed down to the famous Karni Mata rat temple in Deshnoke, a village an hour south of Bikaner.
It was a rather bizarre experience as you can see by the expressions on our faces. Notice the mother urging her [...] Read more:Temple
Bribery 101 2008-05-02 22:28:02 India is a first-class country to learn the fine art of bribery. Of course, there are no such courses offered anywhere (I hope), but life here teaches you very quickly. Among the sneaky “teachers” are train conductors, police men, immigration officers, and museum staff.
My first lesson presented itself somewhat unexpectedlyduring our visit to the palace [...]
Maharani Ankles 2008-04-26 10:17:42 Interestingly, in a country that produces one suggestive Bollywood movie after another, men and women don’t mingle much at all. I imagine this being a remnant of the purdah custom in which women were kept in seclusion, shielded from the eyes of men. To many of us this seems ridiculous. But just how seriously this [...]
Meherangarh Fortress 2008-04-25 10:17:02 Rigid and thoughtless organization is a highly developed art form in India - logical, common-sense organization is not. I have spent enough time traveling here that I can comfortably make this claim.
Imagine my surprise when we walked into the fort in Jodhpur and were greeted by a well-groomed young man in a clean uniform, “Welcome [...] Read more:Fortress
Chillin’ in the Blue City 2008-04-22 10:16:24 Thomas and I have made our way to the walled city of Jodhpur, known throughout Rajasthan as “the Blue City,” to explore its unique blue washed lanes, its colorful markets, and its incredible Meherangarh fortress, a sight straight out an ancient Indian fable. Jodhpur is the first place we have been that really lives up [...]
Baby Dropping Ritual of Solapur 2008-05-10 05:54:49 One of the major challenges in India is being confronted with customs and rituals that challenge your every notion of sanity. Check out the video and you’ll understand what I mean. Read more:Ritual
Jaisalmer - The Golden City 2008-05-12 06:11:08 The fortified city of Jaisalmer is the quintessential desert dream. Massive, ancient, and spectacular, the thousand year old fort, built to defend its residents from marauding invaders, is now being defended Read the rest of this entry and view pictorial » Read more:Golden
7.8 Earthquake in Western Sichuan 2008-05-12 05:44:07 I was sitting here in Rajasthan watching “Desperate Housewives” repeats on television when the news cut in and announced that there had been a 7.8 earthquake in western Sichuan in the very area we traveled through last September. This is an area that means a great deal to us, and we made many friends during [...] Read more:Earthquake
, Western
Blasts in Jaipur 2008-05-14 02:07:01 Our email inboxes were filling up with “Are you Ok” emails after the bomb blasts in Jaipur
. We are both fine, we were nowhere near Jaipur. Although it is rather eerie to see the debris in areas that we were walking through just a few weeks ago.
The old city of Jaipur is filled with people [...]
Scrambled Eggs and Cobra 2008-05-14 02:00:40 If you’re still hungry after your breakfast of scrambled eggs and cobra, I suggest a vegetadrian send witch… Read more:Cobra
100 of the World’s Most Endangered Monuments 2008-05-16 02:41:55 The 900-year-old Jaisalmer Fort is a stunning piece of Indian desert architecture. As I mentioned in the pictorial, it is THE desert dream - almost a cliche - a medieval sandstone masterpiece of narrow, twisting alleyways, havelis, palaces and temples surrounded by massive walls with 99 bastions. What’s more, it’s India’s last living fort, a [...] Read more:World
Fortified Living 2008-05-18 03:03:56 Have you ever stayed in a stone tower in a huge medieval desert fort? No? Well, neither had we until we found this stunning room within the city walls of Jaisalmer’s fortress. Located inside a bastion atop the massive sandstone walls, our room has a 180-degree view of the surrounding town and the Thar desert [...] Read more:Living
Beverly and NomadicNarrative.com 2008-05-23 01:59:03 Our good friend Beverly
recently took the plunge and went Nomadic. As we love to feature fellow Contemporary Nomads, we asked her to share a little about her adventures, and tell us about her new blog NomadicNarrative.com.
What motivated you to pick up, take off, and start over abroad? Are you running from the law?
Well, if [...]
Anu’s Cooking Class 2008-05-25 09:35:30 Even with the apostrophe, it’s a most unfortunate name for a cooking class. All meals are prepared with extra virgin castor oil!
Rajasthan Camel Safari 2008-05-28 10:40:59 Our 3 day camel safari through the Thar desert here in Rajasthan was an adventure, to say the least. Such an adventure that we thought it merited a whole article/pictorial. Aware of the fact that many of our visitors are busy people with actual lives that don’t revolve around every move we make, here is [...] Read more:Camel
, Safari
Help Us Promote ContemporaryNomad.com 2008-06-01 03:35:21 Some of you have already noticed the Blogger’s Choice Awards graphic half way down the right hand column. We have submitted our site for consideration. Because we are still relatively new, it’s a long-shot; however, simply going to the site and voting for us will help bring us to a larger audience. So please take a couple [...] Read more:Promote
Badal House 2008-06-03 10:59:38 Recently we’ve been ranting and raving about all the negative encounters we’ve had with Indian people. Our friends and family are wondering why we are still here, and our friend Anne left a comment on the blog saying, “I am sorry to say that, despite the beauty that you have written about, I don’t think [...] Read more:House
Laughing Alex 2008-06-05 10:04:01 There were few tourists in Khuri. Alex was one of them. When we first met him outside of Badal House, he was wearing a baseball cap with a smiley face and the slogan “Heute schon gelacht?” (German for “Have you already had a laugh today?”).
Tony and I thought he had a distinct French accent but [...] Read more:Laughing
Portrait of a Lady 2008-06-09 05:55:12 You may remember the portrait of this Rajasthani tribal woman from our Jaisalmer pictorial a while ago. Many portraits of Indian women have quickly been taken during crowded market days or festivals. Unfortunately, most faces do not come with a story. But the woman in the photo above is a rare exception.
Personal interaction between the [...] Read more:Portrait
Udaipur - Octopussy Territory 2008-06-11 06:02:56 We’ve made our way to the Rajasthani town of Udaipur, home to the world-famous Lake Palace. Bond-aficionados will immediately recognize the name Udaipur as the setting for the 1983 film Octopussy, a spectacular example of 80s Bond kitsch featuring a band of Amazon trapeze artists slash jewel smugglers who help Bond prevent nuclear tragedy. How can [...] Read more:Territory
Flying Foxes 2008-06-13 06:12:40 It’s almost like getting ready for our favorite reruns of Seinfeld. Every night at 7:15 PM, we sit on the rooftop of our hotel (always at the same table, unless somebody dares to take “our” spot) to wait for the show to start. At around 7:30 PM, the first flying foxes appear in the sky, [...] Read more:Flying
Room with a View 2008-06-15 08:16:35 You need to pamper yourself a little to survive the onslaught of the Indian experience. Long term travelers, in general, must recognize the necessity for some downtime; in India, the need to pull back is a hundred fold. Sensory overload, or perhaps complete system breakdown, is a serious risk. For us, Dream Heaven comes just [...]
The Art of Hanging Around 2008-06-17 08:22:30 Elin is a chaos pilot. That doesn’t mean she graduated from some backwater second-class flying school. Oh no! She is studying at Kaospilot International in Sweden, a school for young entrepreneurs and project leaders.
What sounds rather dry and business-suit-like turns out to be quite the opposite. When we met Elin in our hotel in Udaipur, [...] Read more:Hanging
, Hanging Around