Tafraout, Anti Atlas, Morocco December 2018 – January 2019 “You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.” Pema Chödrön “Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you.” Neil Finn, Crowded House “Loneliness is the human condition.. that.. tunnels into you .. and.. allows your soul room to grow.” Janet Fitch “I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is ending up with people who make you feel all alone.” Robin Williams Tafraout (30.47028 -8.87695) is a small regional centre in Tiznit Province, Souss-Massa region of Morocco, in the central part of the Anti-Atlas mountains. It is 386 km south of Marrakesh. The population is around 6,000. It's off the main tourist route but is be... read more

Battambang, Cambodia August 28th 2017 “It is better to travel well than to arrive” Buddha “Few things are as exciting as the idea of travelling somewhere else. But the reality of travel seldom matches our daydreams” Allain de Botton My smartphone weather predictor tells me there is 70% chance of rain today. And as I conclude my pre-dawn rituals, I discover that the 30% chance of no-rain is not going to come true. Even so, I decide to go ahead with my plan to rent a motor-scooter at 8 am and head out to Phnom Sampov. I already have a premonition that in my weird state of mind I am not going to be swept off my feet by any 'attractions' that all media about Battambang tells me are 'must do' things here. But it's just ... read more

Himachal Pradesh June 2017 “...the freedom of awakening is a relative freedom from the constraints of self-centered confusion and turmoil, from the craving for a fixed identity, from the compulsion to contrive a perfect situation, from identification with preconceived opinions, and from the anguish that originates from such attachments. …..The freedom of awakening is grounded in the cessation of craving. Such freedom is possible because the changing, contingent, ambiguous, and creative character of reality is by its very nature free. Stephen Batchelor 'Buddhism without Belief' I am on the last leg of my trip. And the last blog of this series. What lays before presents a mind and courage challenge for me, as I have bad memories of coming on this part of the road the other ... read more

Himachal Pradesh June 2017 “Zen teaches vigilant carelessness and detached involvement. In a more high-sounding phrase, it teaches transcendental ordinariness. In a simpler, more sympathetic phrase, it teaches nothing but ordinariness.” Yoel Hoffman: 'The sound of the one hand' Mudh is at the end of Pin Valley which is an offshoot of Spiti Valley. It's a tiny place that has become yet another reachable destination in this moonscape that is Spiti. The road meanders alongside the relatively slow running and dispersed Pin River and one imagines it when frozen in the middle of a dark winter. On the way here, about 15 km before Mudh, I view a Buddhist monastery up a side road and decide to take a look. Besides the newer monastery building are the original monastery halls full of old p... read more

Himachal Pradesh June 2017 “The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself” Robert Pirsig (1928-2017) 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' “No conditions are permanent; No conditions are reliable; Nothing is self.” The Buddha Entering the district of Kinnaur on National Highway 22 (also called the Hindustan Tibet Road), I immediately felt a transition into another world of remoteness and unique scenery. While there were wonderful 'ski-slope' stretches of road that bikers dream of, others left me feeling I was now in seriously treacherous territory where one could quite easily just fall off a cliff-hanging road never to be seen or heard of again. The road itself is an amazing feat of engineering brilliance traversing one of the highest ranges in the world. Started in 1850, half-tunneling was done manually throu... read more