It’s hard to believe that our India 1 group recently returned from their Journey to India, and our India 2 group begins their long journey home in just a few short hours. What an amazing journey we all had! From the beautiful palaces in Rajasthan, to one of the world’s most loved landmark, the Taj Mahal ….to the Kama Sutra temples of Khajuraho to some of us spotting a tiger in Rathambore….from seeing cows in the street, dancing at a wedding procession, and our visit to Varanasi and the River Ganges, where the heart of India beats and where it all came together for us…the cities we visited, the culture we embraced, the history we learned will not soon be forgotten. Our two groups of travelers experienced so much in just two short weeks.

Our Top Ten list of things we learned while in India:

10. Any country with 1.2 billion people can have its own way of doing things. Some things we’ll never understand, and that’s OK

9. Traffic in India is crazy! The lines on the roads in India are merely for decoration, and the “rules of the road” are simply suggestions. Honking one’s horn as one moves through traffic is expected.

8. Organized chaos is a way of life. To the outsider it may look wild, but that’s just how it is.

7. We’ll miss livestock wandering through city streets.

6. There is a lot of curry used in Indian cooking.

5. Sunrise is a beautiful time of the day. Things look so much clearer at sunrise. The world is at peace.

4. A wedding celebration lasts 5 – 7 days and includes a parade. Being one that loves a great party, I think this is a fantastic way to celebrate wedded bliss.

3. The Taj Mahal is everything it’s cracked up to be. One cannot appreciate its beauty in a photo. You have to see it to believe it.

2. Strong family ties and traditions that are centuries old make for a people who have a value system that is unwavering.

1. The people of India are some of the most hospitable in the world!

What could be better than celebrating New Years with 70 friends on a Caribbean cruise?  After spending a week on the beautiful Celebrity Solstice enjoying the sun, spending time poolside, making new friends and dancing the night away, we look back on the memories and friendships that are only just beginning.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow we arrive home after a fabulous and amazing week in New Zealand.  The week really flew by as we enjoyed nature and excitement daily!  The journey began in Christchurch where visited the Antarctic Centre and experienced a real earthquake!  We were a little shaky but anxious to see what this breathtakingly beautiful country had to offer.

Still on the South Island, we traveled to Mt. Hood, before arriving in Queenstown, which has to be one of the most magnificent spots on earth!  Surrounded by snow covered mountains on all sides, and overlooking a reflecting lake, this “Lord of the Rings” backdrop was heaven on earth.  Our days were filled jetboating and sailing along the deep fjords and narrow passages of Milford Sound.  

Heading onto the North Island, we were entertained by Maori’s in a cultural show that including native dancing and dinner.  We visited Rotorua, with it’s geo-thermal pools and geysers…the entire town smelled like sulphur!  Actually, this city is where the earth’s crust is the thinnest, and mud pools bubble and spew and churn as we observe nature. It’s really fascinating.

Continuing north to Auckland, we enjoyed the “City of Sails” before it was time to head home.  It’s hard to believe our tour to New Zealand is over, but with it come fabulous memories of one of the most beautiful spots on earth!

Our Amazing Journeyers arrived in Melbourne on Tuesday after flying over the international date line.  On the first day of our adventure, we enjoyed  kangaroos and koalas on a guided ecotour. We took an easy walk through the gum trees of the You Yangs Park looking for koalas, wallabies, kangaroos and birds in their natural settings and found them!  The cute koalas in the tree tops were just as we imagined!   Next, we traveled to the Serendip Open Range Sanctuary, developed by the Victorian government to provide refuge for a large variety of Australian fauna.  With our guide, we discovered water birds and dry land birds along with the exclusive viewing of wallabies, kangaroos, emus and other Australian wildlife.  This is what we came to Australia to see!   After our “outback lunch”, we took a short walk through the forest alongside a quiet stream.  Yesterday, we had the opportunity to explore Melbourne on a city tour, and in the evening, many of us got together with local singles.

Today we fly to Ayers Rock in the heart of the Australian Outback.  The huge monolith called Ayers Rock and the sandstone domes of the Olgas were created through the process of upheaval and erosion.  We’ll tour the Olgas and around the base of “the Rock”  and have some free time to relax or hike around the Olgas.

Tonight, we’ll partake in a Shabbat service with the base of Ayres Rock as the backdrop. Here we will be surrounded by a carpet of bright red ground beneath our feet and only the sounds of our voices to fill the night sky. We’ll then have an experience like no other during the “Sounds of Silence” dinner under millions of stars. We’ll sip on a glass of champagne with the sound of a lone didgeridoo filling the air as the sun slowly sets over the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and Ayers Rock (Uluru).  We’ll dine on a gourmet BBQ of Australian delicacies and then sit back and take in the mystery of the desert at night as an astronomer takes us on a tour of the clear Southern night skies.

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Two weeks flies by when you spend it with friends…and wild animals. It hard to believe that on June 6, thirty Amazing Journeys adventurers embarked on a trek to the remote bush of Africa for 12 days and nights of exploring a world of unpredictability, randomness and unparallelled beauty. Over this course of time, we saw elephants protecting their babies, baboons strolling with their families of hundreds, giraffes “necking”, wildebeest migrating, lions lounging, buffalos chasing…..even cheetahs prowling and a leapoard just hanging out in a tree.

It was….Amazing!