I’m back!
Happy 2024! It’s been 6 months since I was last on here, and I’m determined to get back into things.
What have we been up to?
Working- Things may look adventurous and exotic on the outside, but the truth is we are in the grind of life like everyone else, doing the same monotonous stuff albeit from a more exotic location.
Traveling- No complaints here- see below for an update on all our travels over the last 6 months.
Planning for what’s next- I’ll share where we are headed next in an upcoming blog post. We are super excited for a COMPLETELY different part of the world.
I’m more active on Instagram so follow my travels, musings and occasional clinical topics @AWanderingNP
African Travels
The reason why we joined the foreign service was for travel and adventure, and so we have been doing just that!
We took advantage of a local holiday and escaped to the Kenyan coast for a long weekend. Diani beach is a beach town on the Indian ocean- think blue water, and white sand- it was gorgeous. Just a quick 90 minute flight to Nairobi and then another one hour fight from there. Truth be told, traveling in Africa is never an easy endeavor, the flights are notoriously delayed, layovers are often missed, and luggage is lost (we are 0/3 with Kenyan Airways). Despite all this, traveling in this region is still 100% recommended, just maybe bring a carry on with a change of clothes in case it takes 5 days for your bags to arrive…..
We went on our second R&R, and spent two weeks exploring the islands of Zanzibar and Mauritius.
Zanzibar is an island off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian ocean. This place is special- like bucket list must see. The photos below speak for themselves!
** Be sure to click and view pics on www.AwanderingNP.com as the gallery view doesn’t work great in email.
Mauritius
Another island in the Indian ocean about 1100 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, east of Madagascar. Mauritius is a fascinating place. It is nearly 75% ethnic Indians, with Hinduism as the dominant religion. As you can imagine the cuisine is heavily influenced by the Indian ancestry of the island- Chapati, curry ALL the things. Mauritius also has a lush verdant mountainous region, with tea plantations, lakes, waterfalls and some insane hiking.
More recently another trip to South Africa for NYE.
V wanted to see team India cricket team play South Africa, and while I’m not a cricket enthusiast, I will never turn down a trip to Cape Town. (side story- this inability to turn down a trip to my favorite city resulted in me agreeing to run a half marathon there in April… but i digress).
This is our third time going to Cape Town (our first visit was for our honeymoon)- and each time we have a moment where we look at each other and think- “Do we need to move here?”. South Africa has it’s problems no doubt but it is a stunning place to visit, with so much to see and do.
The bonus was that i actually really enjoyed the cricket match, it was such a fun time cheering for Team India as a family in our matching jerseys. The cherry on top- India won!!
