I don’t want to be too overly dramatic here, but I feel as if this trip has firmly closed a chapter of my life for good.  I started the trip as a quarter-life crises of sorts as well as because of a general yearning to see the world and break out of the borders of the United States.  A lot of friends and family have sent emails and made comments about how lucky I am to have a year of vacationing.  Let me clear something up just …

I’m not sure if any trip to India would be complete without a trip to see the sacred Mother Ganga – otherwise known as the Ganges River.  With our flight to Kathmandu just a week away, Helen and I made a four day stop into Rishikesh to do a bit of rafting, take a yoga class, and enjoy our last week of Indian cuisine.
Rishikesh is a really bizarre town - truly unlike the other Indian towns we have been in; even the Indians come here for a vacation/pilgrimage and a chance …

The blog is going back to India now for a bit longer although I made it to Italy!!  There was some visa drama and 22 hours from hell in Delhi, but I will go into all of that later  :)  My friend Jenn has joined us for a few weeks and she will be keeping an actual up-to-date record what we’re doing on her blog.  I am still behind on posts and have just two more cities to bring you all to until we reach Kathmandu – and then …

I have to say, now that I am on the other side of the Vipassana Meditation course I can only wonder just what prompted me to so strongly insist that I take this ten-day spiritual boot-camp of sorts.  I just don’t know why – I’ve never really previously meditated and have to admit that I wasn’t entirely prepared for what I was getting myself into.
Some of the rules and restrictions of all Vipassana courses:  you sign a contract stating you will stay for the whole course; noble silence means …

Trekking in the Himalayas – just saying this phrase conjures up images of beautiful sweeping mountain-scapes with some of the tallest mountains in the world right at eye-level.  Helen and I, with our friend Cara (also a volunteer at the monastery last month) decided that a five day trek into the mountains was the ideal length of time to: 1) see beautiful mountains, and 2) not kill ourselves from physical exertion.  We booked ourselves onto a five day trek through our guesthouse (Noble Inn) that would take us to …

A new blog will be up tomorrow but I wanted to get a post up for you guys now to let you know that I am out of the Vipassana Meditation course and safe and sound. The course was INTENSE and I almost didn’t make it through! But I did and will tell you all about it in a couple of days.
Right now I have a real headache on my hands…there has been an issue with my Indian visa because I got it in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and though …