Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Mariellen at the Taj Mahal, India

The best way to see India

I am very excited to share my passion for India by taking people to see the places I love. Together with award-winning tour operator Indus Travels, I am presenting two tours this winter in India.

Dream in India (starts Jan. 8, 2011) is for people who want to experience inspirational India and learn travel writing and blogging. Click here to learn more about Dream in India.

Breathe in India (starts Feb 5, 2011) is for people who want to experience the magic of spiritual India and do yoga. Click here to learn more about Breathe in India. And read Golden mornings on the Ganges, my Toronto Star article about what life is like in an ashram in India. We will be visiting both of these ashrams on the Breathe in India tour! Read the rest of this entry »

Ambling up to Amber Fort, Jaipur

Dream in India TOUR

Learn travel writing and blogging as you travel in India

Dream in India is for people who long to be inspired by India’s dazzling culture, fairy tale palaces and wondrous wildlife. Participants will experience the eternal beauty of the Taj Mahal, the excitement of Ranthambore tiger reserve and the fantastical art and architecture of Rajasthan. Plus, we will stop in Rudyard Kipling’s Bundi, the palace hotel where Bruce Chatwin wrote The Songlines and the Jaipur Literature Festival. The tour dates are January 08 to 21, 2011 (with a six-day extension in Jaipur, Samode and Delhi).

Along the way, I will teach travel writing and blogging; and will help participants get their own personal blog set up on WordPress.org or Travelblog.org.

For more information on the tours visit New! Tours to India or scroll down for dates, cost and detailed itinerary. Read the rest of this entry »

[NOTE: Originally published on Humantimes.com, September 2008.]

Mark Whitwell

After studying and practicing yoga for about 15 years, predominantly in Canada but also in India, I had the pleasurable experience of listening to a very outspoken yoga teacher pierce the veil of western illusions about yoga. He basically said the emperor has no lululemons.

I don’t know what it was like for others in the room, but listening to Mark Whitwell at the Yoga Festival of Toronto in August, 2008, was, for me, a sound for sore ears. I am at a point in my yoga journey when I want to try and understand the original intentions of yoga – without the overlay of western thinking, ideas and culture.

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women in Rajasthan

Traveling by bus in India

In the last four years, on three separate trips, I have traveled for about 11 months in India by myself. I have been on or in almost every mode of transport you can think of: plane, train, taxi, private car, autorickshaw, bicycle rickshaw, motorcycle, even elephant and camel. But until very near the end of my third trip, I had never been on a public bus.

I was beginning to think I was afraid. Public buses in India are known for being hot and crowded and free of modern amenities such as A/C and suspension. I had heard stories about leering men, live chickens and lunches cooked on small stoves.

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Originally published in Dreamscapes magazine.

View of the majestic Himalayas from Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram

As I sit writing this on the balcony of my room at the Anand Prakash Yoga Ashram in Rishikesh, India, the melodious sound of people singing kirtan (devotional songs and chants) floats up from the yoga hall below. From here, I have a breath-taking view of the imposing foothills of the Himalayas and I can feel the invigorating mountain air as it sweeps into this serene valley, through which the jewel-green Ganga (Ganges) River flows. It is easy to see why legend refers to the Himalaya range as Dev Bhoomi, land of the gods.

Rishikesh is a small and relatively (by Indian standards) peaceful town that meanders along the narrow valley on both sides of the Ganga, connected by two impressive suspension bridges, Laxman Jhula and Ram Jhula, which are open for pedestrian traffic, bicycles and motorcycles only. Seers – rishis – and sages have been gathering here, at this picturesque spot on the Ganges, since before recorded history to prayer, chant and meditate. Indian pilgrims and foreign yoga students alike flock here to stay in one of the town’s many ashrams and soak up the devotional vibes. It is often referred to as the yoga capital of the world.

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[Note: This was originally published on CBC.ca's Citizen Bytes on July 9, 2009]

I am a long-time yoga practitioner who just took up jogging. This morning I went to my local park as usual, and began walk/jogging in circles around the track that runs the perimeter of the park. Now that summer vacation has started, there is a lot more activity in the park, a lot more kids, and I had a lot more to look at than usual.

As I ran around the small park, I noticed a row of about 50 kids, in brown or pale pink t-shirts, each kicking a soccer ball down the length of the soccer field. It was a controlled melee with little ones sending the ball in all directions, including into the gulley; and one tall girl with long legs striding down the field, her pony tail flying behind her.

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