Today I welcome Barb Taub to the Storage Room. I follow her excellent blog at BarbTaub.com and recently read her charming travelogue, Do Not Wash Hands In Plates: Elephant frenzy, parathas, temples, palaces, monkeys…and the kindness of Indian strangers. I laughed out loud so many times when I was reading about Barb and her buddies’ antics that my husband asked me to move to another room because I was distracting him from his work. I hope you find Barb as entertaining as I do.

Did you love ponies as a child? Maybe you learned to ride, even took a lesson or two? Too bad, because none of that matters when it comes to camel riding. I know.

After our travel adventures last year in which none of us technically died (although there were times when that seemed like an attractive option), Jaya and Janine—my two long-suffering travel companions—actually agreed…