Breakdance sign at Pushkar Festival amusement park | Photo by Lauren Girardin

I didn't expect to be homesick. Not at all. How could I be homesick when I am distracted by new experiences, tastes, and people every day? Yet, every day I think about how much I'd like to be back in San Francisco and be done with traveling. I'd even settle for a quick two week break at home – just to swap my well-worn clothes for new, take a hot shower with adequate water pressure, and see my friends and family. And don't get me started about super burritos or Eric Kent wine.

I've never been homesick before, not while in college at NYU, not after moving out to San Francisco with Todd ten years ago. Now, here in India – a country I love – homesickness has become an obsession. I constantly think about what I miss, who I miss, and what I'll do when I get home. The Pushkar Camel Festival is one of the most exotic, unrestrained, and straight-out fun places I've been in my life – how can I want to be anywhere else?

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Camel dancing in Pushkar | Art by Todd Berman

Happy Birthday Rob!

This art and story postcard about India is a gift from your sweet wife, Carly. Have a rockin' birthday!

The chaos and noise of the crowd overwhelms everything we've come to see at the Pushkar Camel Festival, even the camels - and there are a lot of camels. Taxi camels loiter in the shade as their touts tries to land customers. Decorated camels - lavishly covered in multicolored pom-poms, bells, mirrors, and fringe - wait for their turn in one of the many camel contests. Behind the fairgrounds, thousands of camels fart, spit, grunt, and bide their time until a buyer takes them home.

In the main fairgrounds, a camel dance contest is underway. Over the heads of the crowd that's equal parts foreign and Indian tourists, I catch glimpses of a camel's neck twisting and arching. Sadly, the camel is feeling the beat, not the rhythm, dancing in response to strikes by its trainer, not in time to the music.

All around, there are plenty of distractions. Chai wallahs pester the crowd, "Madam! Tea! Chai! Want chai? Madam?" Beggar children insist on money for chapati and, that failing, scoop up empty water bottles for later trade. Vendors hawk jewelry, each man desperately bargaining with himself when the tourists are unresponsive: "200 for one necklace. 150 then. For you, two for 250. 100 rupees each?"

Coins jingle in the bottom of brass alms buckets carried by orange clad, pot-bellied sadhus. Unintelligible contest announcements blast from bullhorns strung above the stands. Whiny Indian flutes and staccato drums provide the camel dance soundtrack. Sand scrapes against stone under hundreds of pairs of flip flops as the crowd mills about the fairground.

Overwhelmed and overheated, Todd and I push through the crowd to the exit. We hike towards a distant building that stands alone in the dunes, where we know we can get a cold drink and a quiet view of a landscape made mostly of camels.

XOXO
- Todd + Lauren

Lauren on the ladies' line at Raj Mandir | Photo by Todd Berman

Jaipur is a madhouse. Walking a kilometer can take an hour in this small (by Indian standards) Rajastani city as you step out of the street to avoid the relentlessly rushed traffic and step off the sidewalks to sidestep the pushy touts that emerge from the shops that line the narrow, old streets of the famous Pink City.

It possesses exactly the sort of crowded, colorful lunacy that Todd and I savor about India. A visit to Jaipur though, is particularly exhausting, perhaps because of the thick exhaust fumes that get caught behind the city walls and up in your sinuses; the grabby, grubby hands of beggars that swarm the moment we stop to double-check a map or address; or simply the oppression of the 100 degree dry heat.

After a couple of days in Jaipur, we're looking to escape both reality and the noxious air, and there's no better place than a movie theatre. Jaipur is home to one of the most famous movie theaters in India, Raj Mandir Cinema. Oddly, our guidebook doesn't offer many specifics on how to buy tickets, but we figure that, considering how popular movie going is in India, we had better get our tickets in advance.

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Save tiger sign in Ranthambore, India | Photo by Lauren Girardin

> Missed Part 1? Read it!

After a second fruitless day of tiger spotting in Ranthambore National Park, India, Todd and I are sharing a drink with the Patels, a Gujarati family on their Diwali vacation. It's dark but still early – the town adjacent to Ranthambore, called Sawai Madhopur, is a small place with little to offer beyond hanging out at your hotel once the safari winds down.

We met the Patels last night at a special Rajasthani dinner and traditional dance performance at our hotel. The Patels cheered on as Todd and I each took a turn dancing with the performers, and were surprised that we had a few Indian-style moves.

Tonight, over big bottles of Kingfisher beer and spicy vegetable pakora, we tell Hardik and his wife Suhani how we got our first introduction to Indian dancing in the streets of Chennai at our friends Raja and Sarah's wedding, four years ago on our first trip to India. Hearing of quick affinity for the food, people, pace, movies, and even the train rides, Hardik declares "You are both probably Indian in a past life!" Though we don't believe in reincarnation, this conclusion still somehow makes perfect sense to me and Todd.

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Chaos on the train to Ranthambore, India | Photo by Lauren Girardin

When you travel through a well-trod area like Rajasthan, India, you sometimes feel like you're on a route that follows a checklist of the top things to see and do. Jaipur's Monkey Temple? Check. Udaipur's Octopussy-made famous lake? Check.

Since it's on the checklist and not out of the way, Todd and I head to Rathambore National Park to see its famous tigers. We're in Rajasthan - it's what you do. Despite taking two safaris, we saw no tigers. Instead, it was the getting in and getting out of Ranthambore that were the wild experiences.

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When you travel for a long time, it's easy to forget that back at home, life goes on without you. Life also stops too, without regard for how far apart you are from your family.

A Long Awaited Return | Art by Artie Poore

I just found out my aunt Jul died suddenly and unexpectedly back in Long Island, New York, far away from where I am in Hanoi, Vietnam. This painting is by my uncle Artie, Jul's husband, called "A Long Awaited Return," reminds me of Artie and Jul and how much they loved each other, their family, and creativity.

Jul was a memorable woman, unlike anyone I've met in this big world. I can't believe I'll never see her again.

Diwali ferris wheel in Udaipur, India | Photo by Lauren Girardin

"Rides and attractions! Non-stop action! Folks, animals, fireworks too. It's the single most fun thing you can do!!"

This hokey siren song got stuck in my head during Diwali, a multi-day holiday celebrated throughout India. New Yorkers who weren't off at sleep-away camp will recognize the lyrics from commercials for the Westchester County Fair, ads that repeated relentlessly every summer on local TV stations.

Apparently, my brain could dredge up no more appropriate a theme to latch onto as Todd and I maneuvered through throngs of small-town Rajasthani families who'd flocked to the relatively big city of Udaipur ("Folks!"); stepped around doorway idols sculpted from fresh cow dung ("Animals!"); and dodged flaming crackers tossed into the narrow streets and sometimes directly at tourists ("Fireworks!"). All this and more in celebration of the Hindu Festival of Lights, the holiday equivalent of those exasperating birthday cake candles you can't blow out. Between the county fair ditty and the constantly booming crackers, I had a persistent headache for the many days of Diwali.

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If you're looking for that perfect something to get for anyone who travels – ever – after five months of round-the-world escapades, these are the seven items in our backpacks that Todd and I couldn't do without:

The wonders of our Eee PC | Photo by Todd Berman

• Kensington all in one plug adaptor - No snap on pieces to lose, it's almost a magic trick. You might want two.
• Silk sleep sacks - We thought we wouldn't need these, but Todd's mother insisted and was she ever right.
• Eee PC - Without this handy ultra-light laptop, we would probably have had a password or two stolen by now.
• Eagle Creek Pack It Cubes, full size, half size and the sac - How did we ever travel without these? Whether you use a backpack or rolling suitcase, these cubes are ridiculously helpful.
• Petzl LED Headlamp - The power's out? You're good. Want to stay up reading when your friends are all exhausted? No problem. The bathroom's a squat toilet outhouse? Well, maybe you're better off not knowing what you're getting into.
• Canon G9 Digital Camera - When every other traveler is struggling with their bulky, heavy D-SLR, you'll be clicking away on your 12 MP fancy G9.
• Creative Zen 8GB Portable Music Player - We're anti-iPod, so the Zen was the best alternative on the market. Great for backing up photos too since, if it isn't in two places, it doesn't exist.