The spicy mingling of scents when you step foot into the country is, perhaps, my favorite memory of India. The food selection in the country is simply outrageous. They have hundreds and hundreds of traditional dishes that vary from region to region and the entire country is suffused with the scent of spicy curries emanating from street stalls and local restaurants. (In addition to the dishes – have you tried the curd…it’s divine ;-)
And as a vegetarian, India meant I was in foodie heaven. I actually  fear what’s in store …

A trip around the world just wouldn’t be complete without a highlight of some of the best foods and local treats I found along the way. And while traveling around the world as a vegetarian has its obvious draw-backs, I still managed to sample plenty of delicacies and specialties along the way.
An example of something I skipped? Fried tarantulas in Cambodia.

A vegetarian friendly highlight? Fruit salad and curd.
In fact, who ever knew that curd could taste so good?! India’s rampant use of curd (it’s a whole lot like yogurt) in …

Having Jenn join us for this leg of the trip has really given me a bit of perspective about the months spent traveling in developing world. For me, after five months of backpacking I really lost track of the delineation between my developing world experiences and life back home in the states.
Jenn though had no such confusion when she arrived with shiny-clean clothes and a backpack that smelled distinctly better than mine (what is that funk!?!). Jenn knew two things about herself when deciding to join a leg of …

I have come to a pretty clear conclusion from my four months of travel in Asia -the name Shannon is not common, normal, or in some cases, even comprehensible. It’s completely normal in the United States…and Ireland for that matter!…but Asia is a whole other story. I dare-say that the theme for my journey over the past seven months could be summarized as “The Changing Names of Shannon” or, perhaps even more appropriate:  “The Complete Bastardization of my Name.”
Where did this start you may ask? Well, in Australia actually. Shannon …

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 …

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 …