I’m famous! (on the homepage of BlackBerry India)

Screenshot from http://in.blackberry.com/ on May 1, 2011 Hat tip: Aditya Bhandari Wait. Why does that QR Code go to justinsomnia.org?

Sunset from Mount Abu

After Udaipur we went Mount Abu, one of the lesser known colonial-era hill stations. It’s now a weekend tourist destination for Indian families from nearby Gujarat, many of whom come to visit their children at the local boarding schools. It…

I’m one of the biggest tourist attractions in India

I’d read somewhere about the phenomenon where some tourists (usually from Korea and Japan) will request other tourists (usually Caucasian?) to pose in photos with them. And indeed, the first time it happened, at Lake Bratan in Bali, I thought…

Full stop in Gandhidham

Maybe I just didn’t listen closely enough to my own advice. When we were ready to leave Mount Abu, we had about a week and a half left in India. We didn’t want to spend all that time in Mumbai,…

I’m famous! (on the front page of Dainik Bhaskar AND The Times of India)

Today I found out that BlackBerry India ran an ad (not unlike their current homepage) prominently displaying my QR Code on the front page of the Hindi-language Dainik Bhaskar (specifically the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh editions), which apparently has one…

India coda

I wanted to write about our time in Mumbai to finish off my series of posts on India, and I started writing something, but it was such a downer (and lacking photos…) that I just couldn’t bring myself to publish…

California State Park closures

Of the 70 California State Parks that will be closing due to the budget crunch, I was surprised to discover that I’ve been to 10 of them. Annadel State Park in particular, an enormous and beautiful park east of Santa…

Maasai Mara menagerie

What does the word “safari” conjure in your mind? I see a hot, dry savanna, deep in East Africa, several days from civilization. The grass is tall and yellow. The sporadic, solitary trees cling desperately to life. Transport is a…

Giraffes are cool

Giraffes are easily one of my favorite animals from our Maasai Mara safari. So cool, breezy, unaffected. They tower above everything else, including the foliage, making them easy to spot in the distance. The experience of seeing a giraffe in…

An elusive leopard

Though leopards are one of the more elusive animals to spot in the wild, we were lucky to see one twice on our Maasai Mara safari. Not only are they shy and solitary creatures, but they also spend a lot…

Elephants in the wild

After experiencing firsthand the plight of “domesticated” Thai elephants at Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, it was nice to come face-to-face with several herds of wild African elephants at Maasai Mara. On our second day, we stumbled across a…

Happy happy hippos

A highlight of our second day at Maasai Mara was seeing several hippopotamus “bloats” in the Mara River. One bloat in particular was basking on the shore, seemingly half-asleep, displaying their spectacular girth in full view. This was a rare…

Zebra moirés

I had no idea zebras were so numerous. Apparently a herd of some 600,000 zebras precede the famous July wildebeest migration into Maasai Mara. The zebras cut down the tall grasses and the wildebeest follow up with the shorter grasses…

Lion cubs at dawn

I already posted a series of lion photos from our first day at Maasai Mara (in a stupor after devouring a buffalo), but we were lucky enough to stumble upon several prides of lions over the following days, which gave…

Lion sex

All those cute lion cubs have to come from somewhere, right? We also saw lions getting it on! Apparently they mate for a full week, making “love” every 10 minutes! I am not making this stuff up. I couldn’t believe…

Cheetahs are awesome

We were driving back to camp after our second day at Maasai Mara, the sun had already set, and all of a sudden we skidded to a stop on the track leading out of the reserve. Right there, sitting beside…

Yawning animals

Several animals at Maasai Mara caught in the act of yawning. Hippo yawn Post-coital lion yawn, tongue out

Telephoto landscapes

I picked up a 50-200mm telephoto zoom lens back in March (see: More elephanty goodness) primarily for the Maasai Mara safari—and any other wildlife we might encounter on our overland trip through East Africa. Looking back at my previous posts,…