It may be because I have just watched “Life of Pi”, or because once you go to India, if you loved it, you can hardly get it out of your mind. Anyhow, this week I would like to bring this article to your attention. It is an interesting series of suggestions for women travellers to...

Rickshawallas on parade, ready to strike!! “This is the place where the bodies are burnt. Women cannot access because a few times some of them have jumped over their husbands’ pyres and died. If you see a white cloth, is a man. If you see a red sari, is a woman. I work here as...

Let's face it: most archaeology work can be quite boring, compared to the Indiana Jones fantasy. You're more likely to be dusting off pottery than exploring lost cities. However, sometimes reality can trump fiction. The New York Times had this incredible news: Beneath a Temple in Southern India, a Treasure Trove of Staggering Riches ....

I have to confess: I don’t recall the last time I read a fiction story. While there are fiction books that I’ve enjoyed over the years, I yearn for the true story of a person or place. Every once in a while, I get my hands on a non-fiction book with such strong characters that...

The truth of a place is revealed by its scent. Forget political boundaries -- if you want to know what two places or lifestyles have in common, compare their smells. Tracing a fence along the back of the Allentown Fair last week, past the carny trailers, I smelled India. It was both a surprise and...

Western manners don't teach us how to respond to non-Western hospitality. I'm talking about generosity that's over-and-above what we're used to. The sort of generosity where saying please or thank you is shunned as unnecessary, or even taken as slightly offensive. India is famous for its hospitality, and lately I've been feeling confused about how...

Varanasi -- The leg of the stool started to buckle underneath him, and I warned my friend of the imminent collapse. "No worries," he said, "I have a feel for the balance of Indian things." The balance of Indian things? He was right -- there's a lot of precariousness here. Yet I hadn't realized that...

I like to criticize technology's effects on travel -- how it can shut us off from both sight and sound, turn soul-searching into wi-fi searching, and funnel hours of exploration into the confines of a monitor. But today, the man in dark glasses reminded me how blogging can push you further into the analog world....

Delhi, India I've written previously about the pleasure of a local newspaper set next to a cup of coffee. In this post I want to zero in on one of the benefits of this arrangement. Here it is: In addition to a hopefully pleasant aroma rising from your cup, inside your paper are stories about...

Wherever you are, pausing for a time with a cup of tea has the power of bringing you a sweet calming moment – even if you are squashed between backpackers in a crowded medina. A daily tea ritual can become an exercise in combating stress. No matter where you are, you can enjoy the sensual...

As a child, you often rode a bus that crossed a bridge over a river. You would look out the window at the river meandering toward its source in the mountains, and you would wonder. You grew up, went to college, found work on another continent and forgot about the river -- for a while....

Gatun Lake, Panama Canal A year ago this morning, Christmas Eve, I woke up on a sailboat anchored in the Panama Canal. Howler monkeys were making a wonderful ruckus in the trees on shore. The air was weighted with humidity. Our mooring buoy reeked of bird guano. The waters of Gatun Lake lapped softly against...

This seems like one of the possibly best services ever, if you're overwhelmed and jetlagged and don't feel like bussing it right away! Dianne says: "It only takes a little bit of research to see that the biggest hurdle for travellers arriving in India is getting out of the airport! I personally meet travellers no...

[Note: Each Saturday this month, Vagablogging is featuring self-published travel books reviewed by self-published travel authors. This week, Grant Lingel reviews Planet Backpacker .] Review by Grant Lingel On the back of Robert Downes’ book, Planet Backpacker , there is a caution to readers: "WARNING: Reading this book could cause your feet to wander." There...

[Note: Each Saturday this month, Vagablogging will feature self-published travel books reviewed by self-published travel authors. We start with Robert Downes's review of Two Laps Around the World .] Review by Robert Downes A book of ideas as well as adventure, Two Laps Around the World by Bob Riel offers the sort of insights that...