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Photo Journal: CA

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Photo Journal: Mexico

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Photo Journal: OR

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Photo Journal: Ireland

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Photo Journal: Australia

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Photo Journal: GA

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Photo Journal: Spain

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Photo Journal: Maui

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Photo Journal: Switzerland+Italy

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Photo Journal: India

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Photo Journal: Bahamas

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Photo Journal: Florida

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Photo Journal: NYC

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Exuma

"I could never stay long enough on the shore; the tang of the untainted, fresh, and free sea air was like a cool, quieting thought." Helen Keller

The island of Exuma, located in the Bahamas, holds the most beautiful ocean water I have ever seen. It is the color of a blue jolly rancher! I've seen photos of it before, but seeing this water sprawled out in front of you is incomparable to the photos. We rented a house right on the water with a private beach entrance, it was a secluded paradise. One of my favorite parts of the trip was waking up in the mornings with my family, making coffee, and sitting on the terrace looking over the never-ending bright blue ocean water before jumping right in! It was so quiet and peaceful. If there is one place I want to have a vacation home, it is on Exuma. My sister, Diana, and I are already starting to save up for it hehe. It is the perfect place for an escape since it is mostly untouched by civilization.

My mom, Stephen, Diana, and I spent the week exploring this little island. There is only one road that runs through it and only a few restaurants, maybe 2 grocery stores, and a few small clothing stores that line this road. This made our trip even better because it felt like we were on an island by ourselves half of the time with the local Bahamians (whom are so friendly)! Any homes and businesses that we did see were colored as brightly as the surrounding ocean water. We rented a car to get from the west side to the east side of the island, which takes just about an hour. We had plenty of time to see all the beautiful spots Exuma held. One spot being the Tropic of Cancer beach which lies on the actual tropic line and has some of the whitest sand. This white sand along with the bright blue water was a breathtaking sight. Since Exuma was pretty empty while we were there, we were the only ones at this beach and most of the other beaches. Seriously, Exuma felt like we were exploring a deserted island the entire time. It was a dream!

On top of that, Exuma has a cay (one of its 300+ cays), just 30 minutes away by boat, which is home to the infamous swimming pigs! These pigs were brought to this island many years ago in an attempt for the Bahamians to start farming and producing their own food (since everything has been imported). After the pigs were dropped off on this cay, tourists visiting Exuma and it's cays noticed the pigs and wanted to visit them. Through word of mouth, more and more tourists started visiting these pigs and the Bahamians realized this whole 'swimming with the pigs' thing could make them lots of money and decided to keep the pigs there as a tourist attraction (yay to saving the pigs lives)! It was about $75 per person to spend an entire day on the boat, visiting different cays, going snorkeling in the Blue Hole, visiting with wild iguanas and sharks, and swimming with the cute piggies! I would say it is worth the money. The Blue Hole is famous for being in the first James Bond movie, there were so many colorful fish and reef! 

Exuma is also known for having friendly sting rays whom would appear out of nowhere while you're floating around in the water. I heard this and thought "no thanks." Well when we were approached by a few of these wild rays, we stood in the shallow water and waited as the rays swam right up to our feet and kissed our toes eeeeek! It felt sooo weird! We fed them, pet them, and they kept rubbing against our legs. I am not sure to this day how safe that was but all of the Bahamians who lived on the island said it was fine.

There are only a select few places people visit and then want to go back to. I get it, when there are so many places in the world to see - why go back to one you've already experienced? Well Exuma is definitely one of the places I would go back to time and time again! Just being amongst all its natural beauty makes you appreciate the simpler things in life. If you like seclusion, beaches, and are itching to fulfil your dreams of being Tom Hanks in Castaway (minus the drama), this should be your next vacation. But better get saving fast because we talked to the only developer there and he said now is the time to visit or buy a house on the island because within the next few years it's supposed to get very popular with hotels, tourists, and lots of businesses. BRB planning my next visit!!!

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Blessed in India

India was interesting. It was 30% how I imagined it would be and 70% much, much more different than I imagined. No amount of research I did of how India would be could have prepared me for what it was actually like. The sights, the sounds, the smells; India was a big old cultural smack in the face! Mumbai My friend, Sylvia, and I started our 10-day trip to India with 27 hours of travel to Mumbai. We landed in Mumbai and were ecstatic to get off of the plane from London and finally get a glimpse of the city. It was midnight so we didn’t get our glimpse but we did get to try some McDonalds (which is mostly vegetarian in India). Radhika and Jake, who arrived in Mumbai a few hours before us, greeted us at the airport with 2 crispy paneer sandwiches. It tasted just like a McChicken (from what I can remember when I ate meat). This made me more eager to be there because I remembered India is mostly vegetarian so it would be easy for me to enjoy the local cuisine. The next 3 days we explored Mumbai. Mumbai is wild. It is the epitome of a city – dirty, chaotic, loud, and smelly. Sensory overload! Honestly, I haven’t smelled so many different scents in one place like I did in Mumbai. The smell of food, trash, dirt, pollution, and animals filled the humid air. It was interesting to experience because I live in one of the biggest cities in the world and I have caught myself complaining about the smells and sounds of NYC before but this was a whole different sort of madness. Even the traffic was more intense in Mumbai! We spent quite a lot of our time in a car with a driver because getting from point A to point B was impossible by foot so we had our fair share of the traffic. On top of all of that, there were cows and wild dogs all throughout the city. Just imagine walking down the street with cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, and people everywhere and then seeing some cows crossing the street. It was really funny and crazy to see! I took so many photos of cows during our trip. I loved that the people didn’t harm them there like they do in the more westernized countries. The cows would also be friendly with the dogs, napping and eating in the roads together. It was sooo precious to see. Besides the car, most of our time in Mumbai was spent walking the streets where the famous markets were. India is known for selling beautiful items you don’t actually need for really cheap. It was all very tempting but I had to keep reminding myself it was all just cute junk and that I did not need it (this only worked sometimes). Vibrant sandals, mirrored satchels, flowy dresses, cheap stoned jewelry, basically anything you could think of – the markets had for like $2-$4. Besides visiting the markets, we were also able to visit where Radhika lived until the age of 9. This, and seeing Radhika’s nani-ma (grandmother), were my favorite parts of Mumbai. Oh, and the food but that’s a given if you like Indian food. Radhika was very excited to see her old building and to see her childhood friend that she was friends with since she was a baby until she moved to America. We visited the old playground she used to go to as a child and were even able to experience a Navratri celebration going on in the center of the community. There were lots of lights, music, people, and all of the children were dressed up and performing in celebration. I remember Radhika mentioning how different everything looked, especially the playground. I guess when you are a child everything is bigger and newer to you. Made me think of how time flies and how much our perceptions change with every day that passes. She also remembered performing as a child for the same Navratri celebration right where the children were still performing. I imagined Radhika still living here to this day with her family and thanked the stars her parents decided to move to America one day. Udaipur After 3 days in Mumbai we flew to North India; Rajasthan. There we visited Udaipur and Pushkar, two small towns in the midst of desert. Mumbai was cool to experience but the traffic and chaos was overwhelming after a day there so Udaipur was exactly what we wanted to experience next. Udaipur was a remote, beautiful, and quaint town with mostly white buildings lining small, hilly streets. The town was also located around 2 pretty lakes! Our hotel, Jaiwana Haveli, sat upon one of the lakes and had a rooftop restaurant overlooking it. We went to a temple in Udaipur and prayed for our families. I loved how spiritual many people in India were. Some Hindus even took it to the extreme of dedicating their whole lives to their religion. We would see them sleeping in the temples because they were so devoted and did not care about anything else. We also went on a beautiful boat ride around Lake Picchola during sunset. This boat ride on the calm lake surrounded by the old, white colored castles with elephant status encrusted in them evoked memories of movies I’ve watched taking place in India. I couldn’t believe we were all the way in India!!! The tiny shops, delicious food, architecture, and people in Udaipur really stood out to me. Everyone was so kind and helpful. If you were looking for anything specific and mentioned it to a shop owner, he would try to accommodate you and find the item you wanted by bringing you out to other shops he knew of. We also got clothing made in Udaipur. It is really inexpensive to pick a fabric, design the piece you want, and have them make it there for you. I bought 3 dresses, a skirt, and 2 shirts all for under $40. This included them altering the clothing to your body. I now wish I bought more things because of how nice the tailor service was but my backpack couldn’t handle it. Pushkar From Udaipur we went to Pushkar with our driver. I was sad to leave Udaipur after just one day and a half, I could have spent a week just there! It was a really nice place. On our way up to Pushkar, we got into a car accident which was pretty traumatizing. Our driver hit a man on a motorcycle whom then proceeded to beat our driver up. This, I guess, is normal in some parts of India (as Radhika’s mom explained later). We were accustomed to the police coming shortly after any mobile accidents and people exchanging insurance information, definitely not throwing punches. An hour of tears and begging to let our driver go later (mostly Radhika yelling at the men holding our driver hostage), we were back on the road to Pushkar. Pushkar is known to be the most spiritual city in all of India. We visited the Brahman Temple here which was so pretty and bright, bright blue and prayed some more. We weren’t allowed to bring any cameras into this temple so I found an image on Google below of the temple. Afterwards, we visited what is known as the most sacred lake in India – Pushkar lake, where we were blessed after a long ritual of prayers. At one point, we were putting the holy water from the lake on our temples, eyes, mouth, and heart to rid ourselves of all negativity that seeps in through these areas. I really liked this part and felt lucky to be experiencing a blessing along a lake that thousands of people take pilgrimages to yearly. We spent the rest of the day looking for gifts while walking through the little vibrant shops, and of course, gawking at some more cows, dogs, and even wild monkeys! The next day, Sylvia and I were packing our bags and preparing for our 27 hour journey home – eek! All in all, India was cool to experience and very eye opening. Although I definitely enjoyed all of the positives and beauty in India and want to remember it that way, there were a few crazy moments we had which made me learn so much about myself and my friends! Seeing all of the poverty through the people and the broken down buildings, for example, was hard for me to handle. There were a few times I wanted to hop on a plane back home because I didn’t enjoy the intensity of some of the differences there and didn’t like seeing the sadness in some of the beggar’s faces. Another time I was ready to flee, was when we were stuck in Jaipur for 5+ hours trying to find a way to our next destination. This could have been avoided with careful planning of how to get from point A to point B (newbies) but instead we were able to experience a tiny bit of Jaipur in Rajasthan. From what we saw, Jaipur is busier than Mumbai in regards to the amount of people on the streets and the traffic and it is mostly Muslim occupied. I point this out because most of the women were completely covered up and we were not. We had to walk through the streets searching for a way to get out of the town because we missed the train and the buses were conveniently on strike that day. As we did this, we were getting gazed at quite a lot making me feel more out of place than I typically felt from having white skin but hey, we didn’t prepare. In retrospect, I see we were safe and I just had to keep reminding myself all of the stares people were throwing our way were because our skin looked different and they were excited to see us visiting their country. Either way, I learned culture shock is so real that day and when you’re undergoing sensory overload on top of that… it was definitely overwhelming and a learning experience. Needless to say, our driver found us in Jaipur a few hours into our homelessness and had us on our way.These were all of my perceptions and take-aways from my intense, one-week excursion to India. I have been dreaming of going to India with my friend, Radhika, for quite some time now and we finally did it! It was everything I expected and a whoooole lot more. My trip also made me appreciate life in the states more. I have never felt so grateful after a trip, as I do after India. I wouldn't take back our run ins with poverty, the chaos, and the crazy travel traumas we experienced because of the appreciation I have now. Traveling is, after all, all about learning and bringing this knowledge back home with you. This appreciation could also come from all of the praying we did at the temples for our families and friends' health ! It is easy to forget that our existence on this Earth doesn’t require much and that we do not need all of this extra cushioning we have in our lives. I hope to always remember this.

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Road Trip Playlists

”Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Can't imagine a world without Spotify! Here are my favorite playlists to listen to while I am traveling but mostly, while I wish I was traveling!

Alabama Pool Hang:

Current Favorites:

For the Road:

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Australia Top 3

"No road is long with good company."

1.     Victor Harbor 26 hours of travel from New York later, I found myself in Australia! Words can not express how much I love this coastal town located in South Australia, an hour south of Adelaide by bus. Victor Harbor isn’t talked about enough as being a go-to destination when visiting the land down under, but it is by far my favorite! If you’re looking for an authentic Aussie experience and to get away from all the hustle and bustle, this is where you will be able to experience friendly locals, beautiful beaches, wineries, and even feed kangaroos and koalas at Urimbirra Wildlife Park! We stayed at the Anchorage Hotel which is a bed and breakfast looking out onto the ocean. It has Victor Harbor’s only latte type café on its first floor and the beach is across the street (4 photos down is the view from the bedroom). My sister and I ended up in Victor Harbor during the last 3 days of our trip and we wished we could have had another week there. Loved it so much that later that same year I returned from New York and stayed in Victor for another month. Photo above: One day, the town of Victor decided to invite some camel in... Within these two trips I was able to wine taste in the McLaren Vale region which is just north of Victor Harbor. There are so many cute wineries within close distance of each other in this region and the wine is amazing. Since this wine tasting tour, I have not bought a bottle of red wine from anywhere besides South Australia (it is that good). We also took the time to walk down the Fleurieu Peninsula which leads to Granite Island in Victor. Unfortunately, there are no more penguins on this island as described, but you could spot a whale while ocean gazing from one of the many lookouts on the little island. The views from Granite Island are panoramic ocean views, it’s so peaceful. Finally, we visited the neighboring German town Hahndorf for some pretzels dipped in mustard and beer! This town is only a 45-minute drive from Victor Harbor. It has only one main street lined with German restaurants, music, shops, and Aboriginal art galleries. 2.     Adelaide! I would live in Adelaide if I could live anywhere in Australia since it has the best aspects of a small town but enough going on to not bore you to death. During my first trip there with my sister, we fell in love with this happy little town. Did you know it was voted one of the happiest cities to live on Earth? I think it was number 3 on the list. It’s currently growing in popularity and in locally owned shops. This place is a coffee lovers’ paradise. The amount of amazing lattes I had in one town was great. There are also tons of bars, shops, malls, universities, and pretty parks. But the coffee, that is all my heart longs for now (just as good as the lattes in Sydney – side note: visit Blue Bird Café in Sydney this is a MUST). One place we really liked is called “Taste Baguette” because they offered a delicious avocado on toast to go along with your latte. Everyone was also very friendly there which helps in the morning when you’re hangry. Even while being in a bigger ‘city’ like Adelaide, the beaches are still 10-15 minutes away from the city center, just like in Sydney and Melbourne. You can be on your way home from work and go take a dip in the ocean! Besides the lattes, Adelaide has this indoor market that goes on year round filled with vendors from around the world. It is called the Central Market and you can spend hours walking around in there. One night, my sister and I visited the Central Market and bought a ton of fresh fruit, veggies, foreign dips, desserts, and ginger beer and had a picnic by our hotel room! 3.     The Whitsundays, QueenslandHamilton Island and Whitehaven Beach are the definitions of paradise. Whitehaven Beach has some of the whitest and purest sand on Earth. When we walked out onto the sand from our boat, we couldn’t believe how soft and clean the sand was, it was like walking on silk! The water is bright blue and clear, if you only have 24 hours in Queensland, Australia – I would spend all 24 hours on this uninhabited island and rolling around in its sand. This was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever witnessed! Hamilton Island is about 30 minutes by boat from Whitehaven Beach and the only way you can get to Whitehaven Beach is by boat (approximately $100 round trip using the Cruise Whitsundays company). Hamilton Island is filled with mostly resorts but clean and beautiful nonetheless. You can eat overlooking the ocean as we did, experience koalas first hand, and listen to live music almost every night of the week! The main mode of transport on the island are white golf carts but I found everything was close enough to walk to.