My trip around the world started in November 2009 and for the first three months I traveled through Australia, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia – check out the first three months of my round the world travels, and then come back here for this installment and end with the final leg of the RTW route!

February ‘09: Goodbye SEA and Welcome to India

I was incredibly sad to say goodbye to Southeast Asia and could have easily spent several more  months here instead of just the six weeks I had. But my travels SEA had a deadline because I flew into Mumbai, India to meet up with Cousin H. I landed with no plans and Cousin H and I opted to head north for seven weeks. Hitting up Ahmedabad, which was so anti-climatic and uninspriring it hurts a little to think back to the city – the city’s one saving grace is Gandhi’s ashram – which was then aborted when we got mobbed for pictures.

Udaipur is an incredibly charming city while Pushkar was incredibly “backpacker-y” but had much more of the small town vibe, camel safaris, failed henna lessons and viciously nasty attacking monkeys.

March ‘09: Holi Festival in India and McLeod Ganj for Tibet

Still in India we made our way to Jaipur for India’s arguably most colorful holiday, Holi, or the Festival of Colors. The Hindu festival celebrates the triumph of “good” versus “evil” and involves throwing large quantities of colored powered and water on everyone within reach – Cousin H was on the same page and we were pink for a week! We were so pink in fact that if you look closely at the photos of me at the Taj Mahal the next day…I’m pink!

After the Taj we overnight trained it up to Amritsar to see the Sikh’s holy Golden Temple and then a bus deposited Cousin H and me in McLeod Ganj. The Tibetan government runs its government-in-exile out of the city and it was amazing to spend a week in the Tibetan community and hiking in the gorgeous mountains, and learning how to cook Tibetan momos. And with just a week before our volunteer program we headed to Rishikesh for rafting on the sacred Ganges and fun/intense yoga classes.

April ‘09:Volunteering in Pharping, Nepal

An absolute highlight, hands-down, of the trip was my two month volunteer program in Nepal teaching English to young Buddhist monks who came from the poorest regions all over Nepal to learn the faith, but more importantly, obtain an education. I really enjoyed the teaching, and, as is often the case, learned just as much myself as I was able to teach my young monks.

May ‘09: Vipassana Meditation and a Cloudy Hike

We wrapped up our time at the monastery and ended the quiet life in Pharping (an hour + outside of Kathmandu and where our volunteer monastery was located), took a trip down to Chitwan National Park and then headed to Pokhara for a 10-day Vipassana meditation course – an incredibly intense experience that was mind-expanding and amazing…and also something I’m not likely to do again any time soon. Pokhara is also the gateway to any of the Annapurna and Himilaya treks, so H, Cara and I booked a guide and porter and hiked to Poon Hill for five  days.

The Maoists began protesting heavily around this time and it was pretty ideal that, after some  major drama with the Indian Embassy, I flew out of the developing world and welcomed my reeeeally good friend Jenn to the RTW trip in Milan, Italy.

We spent a couple of weeks gorging on gelato, hiking through Cinque Terre,  supporting the Leaning Tower of Pisa, biking around Tuscany, snapping highly illegal photos of the David (yes, he is that gorgeous), wandering the Bobali Gardens and the Uffizi and meandering the streets of Assisi, Italy.

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Stay tuned tomorrow for the final leg of the RTW trip and the last big thrust as I finish up Eastern Europe and then head to the UK and Ireland.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the RTW travel route:
Part One: Australia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia
Part Two: India, Nepal, Italy
Part Three: Croatia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Czech, Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland