As I linger this morning getting ready to head out to explore another day in Varanasi, I'm struck by two things. First, how dang hot it is! 11am and it's easily above 90* in the shade, which is in short supply. I'm in cotton leggings and a thin tunic and I'm still sweating as I sit and enjoy black ...
In the hotel lobby
The other day, before we left Jaipur, we struck up a conversation with one of the lovely young attendants at the hotel. She told us about her hometown, quick to assure us it was not a village but a "proper district" several kilometers away. She'd moved to Jaipur for work, lived with a few other ...
On the River Ganga
I'm safely nestled away in my room at Hotel Alka in Varanasi, complete with a personal balcony overlooking the mighty Ganges river, a body of water that from what I've seen of it so far rivals quite easily its river counterparts in other parts of the world. Getting here was an adventure to say the ...
The Road to Jaipur
Where did we leave off? New Delhi, I believe? It's been just a few days since my previous post and yet, I feel like I've gone from outsider and observer to guest, participant in this crazy whirlwind of activity - sights, smells, textures, tastes. If you let it, this other side of the world will ...
Elizabeth Gilbert I Am Not
It's been four days in India and it already feels like weeks. The culture shift is immediate, the brushing your teeth with bottled water is much easier to get used to than you'd think. I wish I were as insightful or articulate as Gilbert in her Pray phase (where she spent three months in an ashram ...