The first strings of a melody slid into the corners of the room as the musician strummed her guitar. The nearby interpretive dancer stood frozen in place, eyes cast upward as she waited for her cue. The tiny grandma behind me bobbed from side-to-side over my shoulder, attempting to see past my tall frame. I slouched deeper into my …
Have you ever found yourself completely lost in a moment, engaged with every sense you have and unaware of the larger world? When this happens while you travel, you’re experience the best of what is now called “cultural immersion.” Moments and anecdotes from my travels flutter into my memory as I go about my day-to-day …
The sound of emphatic clapping first greeted me as I walked into a Tibetan monastery in McLeodganj, India. The monastery is located at on the edge of town and my cousin and I had decided to visit. We hadn’t realized that this was examine season! But it turned out to be good fun and a well-timed visit. The monks …
Legs crossed and boiling hot chai in hand, I sat on the floor in the back of Sunil’s shop swapping stories and chatter. Sunil’s shop was popular, and not just with the backpacker crowd haunting the cramped streets of Thamel, Kathmandu, his friends regularly popped into the shop. And as is the case with any …
Is it wrong to admit that I’ve developed a strange fascination with McDonald’s restaurants around the world? This one is in India and, as you’d expect, there was no beef on the menu. Stateside, I eat McDonald’s maybe once a decade … and I even find myself apologizing to other travelers on the road about …
Asking for a to-go container in India yields some pretty interesting results… and to be honest this may have been the only time I asked so I’m not sure what I would have gotten elsewhere. You see, a lovely little Tibetan restaurant in McLeod Ganj had amazing momos. I don’t jest; these were some of the tastiest …
Two weeks ago, I was playing around on Facebook as a way to procrastinate the real work I should have been doing when a chat window popped up—from a sweet young woman I met at the orphanage in Cambodia where I volunteered more than a year and a half ago. Then, a decade later, it …
A local artist I met in Udaipur, India (who honest-to-god proposed marriage to me a few days later) insisted that I attend a cultural dance show while I was in the city. We had met on my wanderings around town and then we motorbiked through the city a bit with my cousin and his friend …