I literally thought I landed on the moon when I flew into Leh, Northern India. Ladakh is situated at a height of 3505 meters and is towards the eastern parts of Jammu and Kashmir.  Ladakh is a cold desert laying in the rain shadow of the Great Himalayas and other smaller ranges. Little rain and snow reaches [...]

After spending 3 weeks at the Aurovalley Ashram I decided to head to the area of India where the Dalai Lama resides. I was not aware if he would be at his home as he does alot of traveling promoting the Tibetan cause. The area was beautiful. Dharamsala has been connected with Hinduism and Buddhism [...]

I decided to make a stop enroute to Dharamsala. Since there was not a train that went from Rishikesh to Dharamsala I went by car hire, which is very common in India. It took 10 hours to get to my destination, Pragpur. It is India’s first designated official Heritage Village. Set in the hymalian hills, [...]

I did some research before I left home on what different ashrams provided. There are many and some provide only a safe, low cost hostel environment while other provide a place for deep reflection. I decided on Aurovalley because of the 2 main evolutionary founders; Sri Aurobindo and “The Mother”.  They wrote countless books on how [...]

I have been in India for 10 days and it has been intense. I recieved a gift right away when I arrived in Delhi, The second morning I awoke to read the newspaper headlines of the day. Hottest days in over 50 years! I then understood why my little walk of 8 blocks the day before was difficult. I felt [...]

I am traveling to India in less then 2 weeks.  After spending a couple days in Delhi to get over jet lag, my first stop is to an ashram called the Aurovalley, which is located between Haridwar and Rishikesh in the area of Uttarakhand. Haridwar is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world [...]

This past week I had the opportunity to visit one of my very special aunts, Ruth.  I had seen her a few times over this past year and kept in touch by phone.  She has been courageously working at getting cancer out of her body.  When the medical profession told her that it was stage [...]

There are travel company’s and wellness centered organizations that are providing innovative trips focusing on providing an environment of learning and jump starting their participants to a more healthy lifestyle.
You can choose from Yoga retreats such as the www.omyoga.com  They have a cleanse program this December that looks tempting. It is for 5 morning’s from [...]

A typical Dover Sole meal

Oysters from Brittany on the West coast of France.
the food does seem to be on the rich side, but it is amazing how many people are not obese. I believe that is because people do alot more calorie crunching by walking. People walk every where and would never dream to take the car to go only 6 [...]

Many famous photographs and movies from France all have one element in common. The people have a cigerettes dangling from their hands.  I have been going to France for the last 10 years and the non-smoking zones in restaurants were simply a joke. From my experience, everybody just ignored the law. I had times where people sat down, and [...]