NedHopkins' VirtualTourist Home Page

Having lived in Japan and France, and having traveled extensively in Europe, the Caribbean, the Mideast, and Africa, I decided -- after retiring in 1997 -- that I wanted to see more of South America. (I"d been only to Peru and, briefly, to Venezuela.)

Between May 1998 and February 2004 I visited Brazil four times, seeing some of all parts of that country except for the 'Europeanized' southeast.

In December 2004 I spent four weeks in India, perhaps the most fascinating land I've seen: I visited Delhi, Jaipur, Mumbai, Chennai, Varanasi and Sarnath, and Agra and Fatehpur Sakri.

In January/February 2006 I did a week in Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap) and two and a half in Vietnam (Saigon, Hanoi, Hue, and Hoi An).

Because my wife's travel interests do not match mine, in October 2006 we went together to some of the more oft visited places in Europe: we spent three days in Rome followed by a week on the Sorrentina Peninsula and then four days in Paris and five in London.

Earlier we had gone together to (1) Panama and through the canal; (2) Paris and Berlin for a week each; (3) Italy for a month, visiting Rome, Viterbo, Orvieto, Siena, Firenze, and Ravenna; (4) Kenya; and (5) Haïti. (Alone and with a variety of companions, I visited Haïti two dozen times — mostly on art–collecting expeditions — between 1972 and 1989.)

I went back to India for three weeks in October 2007 -- this time to Bhubaneswar (with Puri and Konark), Madurai, Aurangabad (and the Ellora caves), Udaipur (and Ranakpur), and Delhi.

In June/July 2008 my wife finally overcame her fear of crime, malaria, and dengue fever and joined me on a three-week visit to Brazil, my fifth time in that amazing land. We spent several days in Ouro Preto, in a 'jungle lodge' outside Manaus, and almost a full week in Rio at the fabulous Copacabana Palace Hotel.

Eight months later we took what was our first vacation within the U S, spending seven days, six nights on Hawaii's Big Island, also called Hawaii.

And in October 2009 we visited Spain, a country I avoided when Francisco Franco was in power and later because of my revulsion at the brutalities of Francisco Pizarro and his fellow conquistadores (especially the cold-blooded murder of Atahualpa, the last independent Inca ruler).

About 2.5 hours from Udaipur, the Jain temple at Ranakpur -- almost 700 years old -- is one of India's many glories. No two of the temple's 1,444 columns are identical.

The fabulous Lake Palace Hotel, a view from the very fine Jagat Niwas Palace Hotel.

My wife feeding a fish to a dolphin during our stay at the Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge on the Rio Negro, three to four hours west of Manaus. Several of the beautiful animals visited the dock as each member of our party was given six (6) fish to feed them. Who said 'there's no such thing as a free lunch'? (Ans: Milton Friedman.)

The massive Sri Meenakshi Temple, with its 12 towers and massive interior, is a relatively recent construction.