Most people come through Alice Springs to see Uluru, the largest rock in the world (and mother, is it big--they tried to get to the bottom of the thing to know how big it really was and had to stop digging after 6km because there seemed to be no end). There is of course the size factor but to many there is the spiritual significance Uluru has to the Anangu people, that count it as one of their holiest sights--in the 1980s, the Australian government finally relented and in the grand "handback" gave Uluru and the national park back to [View Full Entry]

---

---

The signs about say it all. The Northern Territory outback is supposed to be some of the roughest country in Australia--tales of mass aboriginal murders, counter attacks on colonizers and cattle breeders and "explorers" and rather harsh weather at times have created a certain "don't mess with me"-ness about the place. The best example is in nature itself--the spinifex grass found throughout this area is called porcupine grass and with good reason as I found out charging my way through to see a few boulders and crying out all kinds of obscenities at the sudden sensation of one hundred needles [View Full Entry]

---

---

As our "initiation" into Kakadu National Park before we had our lunch, our guide broke off a bulbous green tree ant colony off a branch (wrong, considering what it was about to be used for), passed the leaf bulb around to each of us where we were to pick off an ant, hold it firmly in our fingers (and carefully because they can deliver quite a pinch) and yes, lick it's bum to taste an exceptionally strong, heady lemony flavor. A sort of outback apertif. Before I had more than a second to consider whether, given that I'm opposed to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Shimla is probably one of the most filmed places in Bollywood. The plunging valleys, verdant landscape, and almost year-round beautiful weather make it perfect for those song and dance sequences between the hero and heroine when they first discover they are madly in love with each other. The shooting usually takes place in a clearing—the hero is surrounded on all sides by tall evergreens, a romantic mist hanging on the trees as he sings to his beloved. The heroine, dressed usually in a bright-colored sari to offset the deep green of the forest, is looking away shyly. The hero raises [View Full Entry]

---

---

If I were a poet, I would compose a beautiful verse about the mango. But I’m not. I can’t even write a limerick. So I will say only this about the mango: it is my salvation. It is the only reason why life is worth living during these miserable months of heat and rain and dust storms. There are green mangoes and orange mangoes, ovular mangoes and apple-shaped mangoes, firm mangoes and squishy, soft mangoes (these you roll on a table, pop the top and squeeze into your mouth like you’re eating toothpaste). And all, after another stinking hot day, taste [View Full Entry]

---

---

“You know Shah Jahan, life and youth, wealth and glory, they all drift away in the current of time. You strove therefore, to perpetuate only the sorrow of your heart…Let the splendour of diamond, pearl and ruby vanish…Only let this one teardrop, this Taj Mahal, glisten spotlessly bright on the cheek of time, forever and ever." --Rabindranath Tagore The Taj Mahal has the distinction of being one of the few places that truly lives up to the all the hype you’ve heard—when you get your first peek through the red sandstone arch that leads into the garden fa [View Full Entry]

---

---

There is that flickering moment, when the cyncism drops and I realize all the reasons why I love India. They include the following: 1. I love that I can take a yoga class 5 days a week with warm and funny instructors who chant their instructions in English with a Sanskrit bent (pleeeeeeeease to raiiiiiiise your right leg, namah) for a mere 250 Rs. a month (that’s 5 bucks) 2. I love that I can walk down the street and find a samosa man, a fruit man with 10 different kinds of mango, a chaat-valla with pani puri (crisp puffed puris [View Full Entry]

---

---

**ok, the title is a cheap ploy to catch attention, which I freely admit. Dad, don't worry--all I really learned this weekend is how much money people can make off of suckers seeking "spiritual enlightment"** My attempts at inner peace/harmony have been largely unsuccessful—I think because I find most teachings on spirituality to be hokey or silly. So then I thought, what better way to deal with my judgmental attitude than to spend a weekend at the Osho Meditation Resort in Pune? By reputation, a place where seemingly bizarre New Age ideas are churned out with rapid and commercial [View Full Entry]

---

---

Bangkok: I arrived at 5 in the morning, bleary-eyed and exhausted from the red-eye flight from Delhi. We were having a reunion of our Cairo posse in the only city we could all agree upon. Mariam came into town that afternoon from Kuwait from a 10 hour flight and we decided, rather than even make a pretense at being skilled adventure travelers, we would spend an afternoon in the comforts of staying in a tourist trap area. As we walked around looking for a place to eat, I could hear the voice of my father in my head on his impressions [View Full Entry]

---

---

Those words are inscribed on the pavilion of the Red Fort, Lal Qila, a majestic structure built by Shah Jahan in the heart of Old Delhi. Shah Jahan built the fort to serve as the new capital for his Mughal Empire, but his son, Aurengzeb, deposed and imprisoned Shah Jahan before the move from Agra was complete. The red fort today is a strange mixture of history, family outing ground, and tourist hot spot. Few images capture the Indian sentiment for nationalism and independence as the shot in front of the fort—it is from this location that the Independence movement gained [View Full Entry]

---

---