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Yoga Ashram in India
Created on July 09, 2009 by Tabatha Smith, WriterIndia abounds with yoga ashrams and they vary widely. Yoga Vidya Dham, located four hours drive east of Mumbai, is an ashram of the highest quality. The food is delicious, the yoga well paced and the instructors real, not the least pretentious and abounding with yogic philosophy and knowledge. The desert setting is picturesque and perfect for the study of yoga, set in an environment much like one imagines the very Yoga philosophy was developed in thousands of years ago. Two weeks here helped calm the frazzled mind I'd been battling with since arriving in the noisy and confronting subcontinent. The first thing I learned is that yoga is not just the postures (asanas) that most people think it to be. Yoga is an eight ...
Hunter Valley Wine Tour
Created on June 26, 2009 by Tabatha Smith, WriterDriving from Singleton in New South Wales towards the town of Pokolbin, the winter sun warmed the inside of the car. My husband and I were on our way to the Hunter Valley Wineries to spend the day sampling some of the most delicious wines on offer there. As Australia’s oldest wine producing region (the first vineyard opened its doors in 1828) and one of the most scenic, a day spent in the Hunter Valley is a delight for the senses. As we set out on our Hunter Valley wineries adventure, we passed a few closed wineries before happening upon IronBark Hill Vineyard. Travelling down the long driveway we were surrounded by barren grape vines, backed up by mighty gum trees. Upon entering the tasting ...
Hampi - The World Heritage Site
Created on June 26, 2009 by Tabatha Smith, WriterAt 7:00 am I’m jolted awake by the sudden lack of noise and movement. The last nine hours have been spent on a bus, making my way to the city of Hampi, located in the state of Karnataka. Disheveled and weary I grab my rucksack and stumble out into Hampi Bazaar. The surrounds look like something out of an Indiana Jones flick: ancient archways slowly crumbling to oblivion; boulders piled on top of each other in unlikely formations; hundreds of people bustling about, shopping, begging, bargaining; and off in the distance a temple, in typical Vijayangara architectural style, stepping its way to the sky. I reach the river after being ripped off by a sneaky rickshaw driver. Just down the way from where the scoundrel ...
Temple Hopping in India
Created on June 12, 2009 by Tabatha Smith, WriterIndia is a country rich in religion, the predominant one being Hinduism, but Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Jainism and Sikhism have also made their mark on the subcontinent. The Hindu religion is rumored to contain upwards of 33 million gods, one can only imagine the abundance of temples in India there are for worship. Attempting to visit all of these would be foolish, but from Karnataka to Himachal Pradesh, you can visit temple after temple, from obscure to immaculate. Everywhere in India there are celebrations of the divine - on the bus a Ganesh (the elephant headed God) is surrounded by small, multi-colored blinking lights; in a rickshaw a picture of Lakshmi (Goddess of wealth) is garlanded in marigolds; and a hotel lobby has a shrine ...
Trek Langtang Nepal
Created on June 02, 2009 by Tabatha Smith, WriterLangtang National Park is located north of Kathmandu and stretches all the way to the Nepali/Tibetan border. The remote and stunning views offered here of the Himalayas are unparalleled and well worth the strenuous trek that it takes to see them. The region is home to the Tamang people who have built several Buddhist monasteries among the peaks, which house brightly colored Buddha’s and cradle hundred-year-old silk brocade paintings called Thangka. Setting out to trek Langtang region, we took the bus from Kathmandu to Thulo Bharku, a spine shattering, nerve-wracking, patience-trying ride, that took 11 hours to travel a mere 130km. Driven and conducted by two boys whose ages added together couldn’t have equaled my own, the bus broke down twice, each time causing a ...
Visit the Architectural Jewel of India: The Taj Mahal
Created on April 24, 2008 by Tabatha Smith, WriterSunrise at the Taj Mahal in India is truly a sight to behold. As the ancient wonder awakes, this is the perfect time of day to begin exploring the great Mughal Mausoleum. The air is cool, the people are sparse, and here you can enjoy some rare tranquil moments in the morning sun, often hard to come by in India. Described by many scholars as the world's greatest monument to love, the pristine Taj Mahal in India draws upwards of three million visitors each year. Emperor Shah Jehan ordered the mausoleum be built to honour his wife, Mumtaz, after she passed away giving birth to their fourteenth child. Construction took over ten years and was completed in 1648. The Taj Mahal is now listed as ...
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