BreatheDreamGo

Breathedreamgo wins a travel blog award

Mariellen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:59:04 +0000

Second place win in Canadian Weblog Awards

I am very excited to announce that Breathedreamgo won a Canadian Weblog Award in the Travel category!

Thanks so much to Ninjamatics and the jury for nominating and choosing Breathedreamgo. It couldn’t come at a better time as I am seeking sponsorship for the blog and for an ambitious travel blogging trip I am planning to India and South Asia! Read this Breathedreamgo Sponsorship Opportunities PDF to find out more.

At the outset of the contest, I was nominated in the Writing, Design and Travel categories. On the short list, I was down to Design and Travel. And when they announced the winners today, I won second place in the Travel category, in between Gourmet Fury and Have Baby Will Travel – both excellent blogs, and very different from Breathedreamgo.

As I have said many times before, this blog is a labour of love, and any recognition I receive is very welcome and much appreciated.

If you enjoyed this post, you can….

Get updates and read additional stories on the Breathedreamgo Facebook page.

Buy Song of India, a collection of 10 feature stories about my travels in India. E-book version is now only $1.99.

Subscribe to the free — and inspiring! — e-newsletter, Travel That Changes You.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

Breathedreamgo services and consulting

Mariellen — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:34:32 +0000

Do you want to stand out online?

Breathedreamgo Consulting offers writing, blogging, social media and travel services.

Please contact me if you need any of the services I offer: writing, blogging, social media strategy and India travel and business consulting. And read on to find out how I can help you and/or your organization. Please download a three-page PDF that outlines Breathedreamgo Consulting services.

1. Writing / Blogging

My expertise as a writer spans journalism, feature writing, blogging and copywriting. I have a BA in Journalism and more than 20 years’ experience as a communications professional under my belt. I have written entire websites for banks and mobile phone companies; travel brochures, websites and more travel blogs than you can count; health and financial e-newsletters; magazine and newspaper features; and much more. To see my travel-related portfolio visit the About Mariellen page. For my corporate website, see Mariellen Ward, Online Storyteller.

I have the expertise to tell your story in a clear, compelling and concise manner; and the experience to ensure it is accurate, timely and in line with your communication objectives. I write craft stories that engage on multiple platforms.

2. Social Media Strategy

The art of social media is relationship and engagement. Through my Breathedreamgo platform I reach upwards of 100,000 people every month — via my blog, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube and more. I have created a growing community of people interested in travel, India, yoga, culture and spirituality. And long before the rise of social media, I worked for 10 years in public relations and marketing communications. My social media understanding is built on a solid background of public relations and communications principles and strategies. I can help you create community, engage your audience and build your profile online. To find out more about the Breathedreamgo platform, read About Breathedreamgo.

“Mariellen was instrumental in our ability to raise our twitter profile with targeted followers. Her on line coverage of our initiatives also enhanced our profile among like minded journalists and consumers. I find her editorial commentary to be fresh, informative and always engaging. I look forward to working with Mariellen Ward on future projects.” – Melanie Coates, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts

As well as writing, blogging and social media expertise, I am actively involved in the global travel blogging community and very well connected. I co-founded the highly successful bloggers’ meet-up group, the Toronto Travel Massive, and I’m a founding member of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association. I can help connect with the world’s most popular and credible travel bloggers.

3. Travel in India

India is a daunting travel destination, even to seasoned travelers. I can tell you from personal experience, there is a steep learning curve to being in India! Add in culture shock and the sheer size and diversity of the subcontinent and, oh boy. Most people need some help to travel well in India; I’m the first to admit that a little hand-holding goes a long way.

“Mariellen is India’s best ambassador.” – IndiaTourism

I’ve traveled for more than 14 months, solo, in India — from Dharamsala in the north to the southern tip of the subcontinent; from Mumbai in the west to Darjeeling and Sikkim in the north-east. I’ve lived with an Indian family in Delhi, studied yoga at an ashram near Rishikesh and volunteered to work with Tibetan refugee children. I’ve traveled by plane, train, car, motorcycle, bicycle, autorickshaw, bus, camel and elephant.

I’ve learned how to get around in India — and I can help you have a smoother trip and a fuller experience by:

creating a custom itinerary, based on your interests, preferences, travel style
advising you on how to prepare for your trip including suggested alternative medicines
giving you tips on how to travel safely and avoid getting sick
teaching you the basics of what you need to know including: what to pack and wear; what to eat and drink (and avoid!); how to negotiate with drivers; how to buy tickets and much more
being a source of inspiration, help, guidance before and during your trip
providing you with tips and advice for getting off the beaten path and finding the “hidden gems”
suggesting pertinent guide books, online sites and other resources
offering recommendations for reputable and affordable accommodation
teaching you how to buy train and plane tickets
filling you in on what you need to know about customs, etiquette and rituals

“Mariellen’s knowledge of India is vast. After listening to my dreams about India, she offered practical advice on my itinerary and on how I moved and experienced this incredible country. Her passion for the culture and understanding of the challenges that westerners face within it are extremely helpful.” – Janice Waugh, founder, Solo Traveler

4. Business in India

Do you have an interest in India? Perhaps you would like to travel there. Or do business. Or maybe you’re interested in the modern culture of India. I have spent the last six years immersing myself in the culture of India. I have studied yoga, traveled extensively, read many books, done business in India and lived with an Indian family in Delhi. Whatever your interests or needs, I can help.

“Mariellen is a true life saver and a very informed champion and cognoscenti of Indian travel and culture. If you have any interest in the sub-continent, she is the woman to know. Not only pleasant to work with, but knows her way around the sites and sounds of India, and the local implications of getting there. A sherpa in the highest regard.” – Sean Moffit, author, Wikibrands

5. Speaking engagements

Over the past six years, I’ve traveled extensively in India, solo, and developed cultural knowledge and insight about India; and learned a lot about long-term travel, travel writing and travel blogging. I’m happy to speak to your group or conference on the following themes:

The reality of travel in India: Stories from the road
How to do business in India: What you must know before you go
How to get ready to visit India

In the last three years, since launching Breathedreamgo.com, I have attracted a strong readership, created an extensive social media platform, built an online community and created a profile for myself online as an India travel expertise. I’m happy to speak to your group or conference on the following themes:

Building a niche online
Successful social media strategies
The truth about travel blogging; and how travel writing differs from travel blogging

For a list of previous speaking engagements, including the annual international travel event Meet, Plan, Go, please visit the About Breathedreamgo page and scroll down.

Fully personalized service

You will get only what you need, what you ask for. Initial consultation (first phone call or email) is free; and thereafter I charge an hourly rate or project fee to answer your questions, and help you in whatever way suits your needs and your budget.

If your budget permits, I may even travel with you and help you get your “India legs.”

Contact me at mariellen [@] breathedreamgo . com and let me know how I can help you.

If you enjoyed this post, you can….

Get updates and read additional stories on the Breathedreamgo Facebook page.

Buy Song of India, a collection of 10 feature stories about my travels in India. E-book version is now only $1.99.

Subscribe to the free — and inspiring! — e-newsletter, Travel That Changes You.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

10 books about India that are better than Shantaram

Mariellen — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:44:12 +0000

Shantaram and Eat, Pray, Love are not the only books about India: Here are 10 of my favourites

There are two types of people in the world: those who think Shantaram is a great book; and those who think it is a spew of virulent air, driven by the criminal mind and maniacal ego of its Australian pseudo-writer. I guess you can tell which type of person I am. This post is 10 suggestions for books about India that are better than Shantaram.

I tried to read Shantaram when I was living in Delhi, but ended up literally throwing it across the room. I thought it was poorly written and more about the fevered imagination of its writer than about India. In fact, it offers very little insight into India, if you ask me; and the longer I spend in India getting to know it, the more true this statement becomes.

Since that time, however, I’ve read lots and lots of book about India, by Indians and foreigners, and almost all of them are much, much better. Except Eat, Pray, Love. If you actually want to know something about India — rather than about an ego-driven writer — I suggest the following 10 books, in no particular order.

(If you want to learn more about a book, below, hover your cursor over the image; and to buy it, simply click on the image and you will be whisked to the U.S. Amazon site.)

1. A Search in Secret India by Paul Brunton. A cult classic, this book was published in 1934 and it’s about the author’s sincere, strange and ultimately inspiring search for spiritual truth in India. After many false starts, dead-ends and kooky run-ins, he lands at the feet of Sri Ramana Maharishi. Which in itself a metaphor for the spiritual journey. This is the book that introduced Sri Ramana Maharishi to the west (and he still remains one of the greatest Indian saints of the 20th century).

2. Empire of the Soul by Paul William Roberts. This is the book I hope Shantaram readers graduate to read. It is about two lengthy trips journalist Roberts took to India, separated by many years; and about how he reconciles some of the extraordinary experiences he had there. Roberts is known for hard-boiled books about war-torn countries like Iraq, so when he writes about his spiritual awakening, it rings true.

3. Out of India by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. The introduction to this book of short stories is alone worth the price of the book. It’s hands-down the best piece of writing I have ever read about what it is like to be a foreigner in India. Absolutely priceless. If you recognize her name, it’s because she was the screen-writer for the Merchant-Ivory film productions (including A Passage to India, see #6.)

4. India’s Unending Journey by Mark Tully. Mark Tully was the BBC’s chief correspondent in India for many years. He has the character to overcome his profession’s limitations and admit that the chief thing he learned in India was to be certain only about uncertainty. And he says it’s the most valuable thing he has ever learned.

5. India: A Million Mutinies Now by V.S. Naipul. What can I say? It’s the classic. Personally, I admire this book more than I like it.

6. Passage to India by E.M. Forster. Very recently, the Consul General of India in Toronto — a remarkably cultured woman — told me she thought Forster really captured India in this book. I told her I feel like Fielding. Mutual understanding was firmly established. It was the best book I studied at university, I still remember the discussion about the meaning of the Marabar Caves. The film is good too!

7. Maximum City by Suketu Mehta. This is one of the best books I have read recently. It has an ambitious scope and many small wonderful moments, and seemed Dickensian to me in its attempt to capture the spirit of the times in a big, broiling, magnificent city. This is Bombay (Mumbai): gangsters and hero cops, foot-path poets and down-to-earth movie stars. You will learn a lot more about what Bombay is really about in this book than in Shantaram.

8. Kim by Rudyard Kipling. This is my favourite book of all time. If you’ve never read it, throw out everything you think you know about Kipling, who was the most famous writer of his time. The book follows the story of teenage Kim, son of an Irish immigrant and ‘friend of all the world’, who travels the roads of India with his guru, an elderly Tibetan lama on a spiritual quest for a river of enlightenment. It is unique and uncanny in its ability to absolutely immerse you into the scene and the story. You can feel the oppressive heat of the plains and the crisp air of the mountains. You can imagine Kim’s excitement about rejoining his friend on the road after a stint locked-up at school. You can feel the old man’s pain as his quest seems to elude him, and the love he engenders in Kim, his disciple. And you will be carried away by the transcendent ending.

9. City of Djinns by William Dalrymple. I was torn, not sure which Dalrymple book to put on this list. They are all good, especially Nine Lives. He is a solid as a rock in terms of research, reporting and writing. But this is his first book about India and it’s about Delhi (Dilli), my home-away-from home in India — and in fact, his real home. He lives there now. He has an Indian soul. The book is both a personal narrative about living in India for a year and about the history of Delhi. (And if there’s one thing Delhi has, aside from crowds of people and traffic, it’s history.) It’s by turns informative and funny. I keep intending to find out if International Backside taxi stand really exists. P.S. Dalrymple is the found of the Jaipur Literature Festival.

10. Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. On the stroke of midnight, August 15, 1947, India became free. This is the classic book about the biggest event in modern Indian history: the freedom struggle, partition and birth of a nation. You cannot begin to know or understand modern India if you don’t have a grip on its struggle for independence and the larger-than-life players who made it happen, especially Gandhi, Nehru, Mountbatten and Jinnah. The film Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough, gives you a lot of the same information, but this book fills in all the holes.

If you enjoyed this post, you can….

Get updates and read additional stories on the Breathedreamgo Facebook page.

Buy Song of India, a collection of 10 feature stories about my travels in India. E-book version is now only $1.99.

Subscribe to the free — and inspiring! — e-newsletter, Travel That Changes You.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

Celebrating Indian writing and writers

Mariellen — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:08:14 +0000

Evening performance from Jaipur Literature Festival 2011, Jaipur, India

Indian writing is vibrant at home and abroad

In honour of the Jaipur Literature Festival, which kicks off on January 24 in Jaipur, India, I am publishing an article I wrote for the Maple Tree Literary supplement about my afternoon with four delightful Indo-Canadian writers.

Defining Indo-Canadian writing

Jasmine D’Costa sat solidly in her chair, looked at me with clear, wide-open eyes and talked with a sense of authority in her voice about her past as a banker in Mumbai and her present as a writer and editor in Toronto. Across from her, Mayank Bhatt talked about establishing himself as a writer in Canada, with an amiable mix of gentleness and conviction. Author Farzana Doctor listened more than she talked, but when she added something to the conversation, it was carefully considered and spoken in articulate tones, tinged with the formality of academia. Writer and book reviewer Niranjana Iyer, soft-spoken and well-bred, looked like an Indian Audrey Hepburn, and she drew me in with her huge, expressive eyes and the obvious intelligence in her voice. Each of these people is just that, people – unique in their background, outlook and experience.

Jasmine D'Costa and her mother in Mumbai, 2010

Jasmine D’Costa is a Catholic from south India who had a successful career in banking before immigrating to Toronto, Canada to begin her career as a writer of short stories (Curry is Thicker than Water) and editor of anthologies (Canadian Voices and Indian Voices). Mayank Bhatt, who is a Gujurati Hindu, is the most recent arrival to North America – he was a journalist in Mumbai and then worked in a trade office; he now has a full-time job as the Executive Director of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce, publishes a blog called Generally About Books and is also working on a novel.

Farzana Doctor was born to Muslim parents of Indian origin in Africa and grew up in Canada; she is gay, she is a psychotherapist and she is the author of two novels (Stealing Nasreen and Six Metres of Pavement). Niranjana Iyer, who told me to call her Nina, is Tamil, but she doesn’t speak the language. She grew up largely in Delhi, attended the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Ahmedabad and later moved to the U.S.A. to study creative writing at university. She now lives in Canada with her neuroscientist husband and three-year-old son and considers herself a global citizen. She writes for many magazines and publishes a book review blog called Brown Paper.

I gathered these writers together to find out about Indo-Canadian writing – and found out the closer you look, the more difficult it is to define. Like India itself, Indo-Canadian writers in Canada are extremely diverse and there is no set pattern of experience; no underlying theme they are collective exploring; no real commonality between them. Except that they are Indian. And after about two hours of discussing their differences, after several glasses of wine and after a feeling of camaraderie developed, the truth came out. They may have different experiences, backgrounds and viewpoints, but they tend to stick together, support each other and help each other out.

And this perhaps is the essence of their Indianness, this tolerance and helpfulness. In spite of a long history of communal violence back home – and also a long history of tolerant pluralism – Christian, Muslim and Hindu sat together in Toronto and talked with trust and freedom, pledging to help promote each other’s books and other writing efforts.

And here’s another thing, articulated simply, clearly and authoritatively by Jasmine: Their voices are Canadian, and an important part of the mosaic of Canadian multiculturalism. This is Canada, too, a tolerant nation made up of diverse peoples – not unlike India itself – though perhaps more so in Toronto, one of the world’s great multicultural cities. All of the ethnicities in Canada can lay claim to this inclusion, but perhaps Indians have a greater share due to their English language skills, their literary tradition, their large numbers (soon to be the largest “ethnic” group in Canada) and the rapid growth of both India’s economy and its profile on the global stage.

These writers have all found an identity in Canada as writers, and whether they are seen as Indian, Canadian or global depends on the prism you look through. The politics of identity became a central theme of the conversation, and how tricky it is to be an “ethnic” writer in Canada; how white, European culture is still considered the mainstream; and about how granting bodies and other organizations supported by the government are bound by CanCon (Canadian content) rules – in an effort to keep the American cultural tsunami at bay.

But being Indian may make it easier than not – Indian writers certainly are prominent in Canada, and especially in Toronto, home to Michael Ondaatje, M.G. Vassanji and Rohinton Mistry. Jasmine and Farzana passed around their books to show the very Indian-looking treatment the covers were given – women in saris, fonts designed to look like devanagari script. Their publishers told them the books would sell better if they looked Indian. For better or worse, the appeal of the exotic is still a draw, and so is the modern, Indian literary tradition.

Mayank exclaimed that they should all be thankful to Manmohan Singh and Salman Rushdie – for Singh reformed the Indian economy and laid the groundwork for the current boom and Rushdie’s success with Midnight’s Children – a book written in English – changed the way the world looked at Indian creativity.

And though it is not politically correct, perhaps they owe a debt of gratitude to Britain too – for along with plundering the country and denigrating it’s native-born citizens, the British Raj left behind a legacy of educational institutions, political and administrative bureaucracy, the train system and English. If you are among the educated elite of India, who are taught English at school, you stand a much better chance of blending in with the globopolis – the predominantly English-speaking, urban-based, global citizens of the world. English may be one of the reasons for the success of Indians – if not of India. And this was a topic of conversation too – that though they all had different mother tongues back in India, they can all speak with each other, and with me, in English.

But even though they speak English, it does not necessarily mean they have lost their cultural identity. These writers seemed very agile at skating along the surface of all of these contradictions, political considerations and attempts at labeling them; and they seemed energized by the excitement of being Indian in the 21^st century. It has been said before that Britain dominated the 19^thcentury, and America the 20^th, but the 21^st belongs to India. Each of these writers have their own struggles – as all writers these days do, of course – but I felt the excitement and energy of being part of a rising tide. There was a confidence in the room, the confidence born of knowing you have something to say and that you have a good chance of being heard.

If you enjoyed this post, you can….

Get updates and read additional stories on the Breathedreamgo Facebook page.

Buy Song of India, a collection of 10 feature stories about my travels in India. E-book version is now only $1.99.

Subscribe to the free — and inspiring! — e-newsletter, Travel That Changes You.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

My story, or why I write about travel in India

Mariellen — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:06:07 +0000

Elephant blessing in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India, 2006

Creativity: The missing link

I recently realized that my story doesn’t actually appear anywhere on my blog. By that I mean, a concise telling of why I blog about India. And it’s not like I just started this. I’ve been traveling in India, and blogging about it, for six years. But it feels like it’s time, especially since Sir Ken Robinson helped provide me with some new insight.

In early December of 2011, I marked the six-year anniversary of landing in India for the first time by publishing Six years of travel writing and blogging. A while later, I was on Twitter and saw a Tweet from @SirKenRobinson, which said he was writing about passion. You have probably seen Sir Ken’s video — the most famous TED video ever, about how school kills creativity in kids.

I tweeted my six year blog to Sir Ken, he read it and retweeted it, and the next day his co-author Lou Aronica contacted me and interviewed me for their new book, Finding Your Element — which is a follow-up to their bestseller about passion called The Element. The interview with Lou was cathartic and made me realize why I do a lot of the things I do: it’s because I am a deeply creative person who has never had my creativity supported. Well, certainly not in school.

Alice in Wonderland

So now I see more clearly a thread running through my life, which goes like this. I taught myself to read before starting school. I had a sensitive nervous system and was absent one-third of each school year, but was always at the top of my class. By the age of 10 I was reading Dickens. In short, I was bright, creative and “precocious” (the word my mom used to describe me, along with pensive and sensitive – she often compared me to Alice in Wonderland, and we even looked alike with long blonde hair held back by a hairband.).

But I experienced childhood trauma (too personal to discuss here) and my school didn’t know what to do with me so they had me skip two grades. I was too young when I entered high school, and quit the day I turned 16. It didn’t help that my family felt apart at about that time, and for a while I had no place to live. I was born sensitive, so add childhood trauma, a botched education and sudden lack of family support when I was about 17, and you get a mega-dose of teenage angst. My teenage years were filled with emotional problems. I was even hospitalized for three weeks for depression.

By the time I reached adulthood, I didn’t know who I was, and I was operating in a kind of survival mode.

When I was young, before everything fell apart, I wanted to study comparative religion, English and mythology at university. But instead, I went to college for journalism because it was more practical. My dreams were so deeply buried, I didn’t know they existed. I worked in communications for many years, drifting from one job to another. (And from one boyfriend to another.) Rootless. Passionless.

There were a few highpoints and I did have some fun, though. In my 20s, I was part of the alternative music demi monde scene in Toronto and partied “like it was 1999″ in the early 1980s, with bands like Duran Duran, The The and The Psychedelic Furs. After graduating with a BA in journalism I worked at a leading fashion magazine. Then, I worked in the film industry and attended several films festivals, including Cannes, and met loads of movie stars. (Big deal. Anthony Hopkins stands out, very gentlemanly.) I traveled a lot, through France, to central America, many times to London, New York and once to Paris. When I was about 30, I moved to Tokyo, Japan with my film executive boyfriend, and traveled from there to Australia, Hong Kong and Thailand.

My mom, me and my sister Victoria during my groovy years, circe 1983

There were some low points, too: my best friend killed herself. I had ongoing issues with anxiety and depression and became addicted to anti-anxiety pills. Financial troubles dogged me as I tried to pursue a writing career, and once found myself on welfare, and visiting a food bank.

In my 30s I experienced a crisis and started therapy, and realized I was deeply affected by childhood abuse. I dedicated many years to healing from it, and even gained a certificate in Gestalt Therapy, practising part-time for seven years.

Loss, trauma and my bleakest hour

In my late 30s I was hit by a series of traumas. In a few short years my father declared bankruptcy and we lost our family cottage (which was like losing a family member); my mother died suddenly and unexpectedly and I found her body; my fiance left me, with an expensive wedding dress in the closet; I had a bicycle accident and broke my elbow; and my father died of cancer.

During yoga teacher training. Photo courtesy Christine Lynes.

By the end of it, I was flattened. I was in my 40s, unmarried, no kids, no career, no parents, no money. I was in a deep depression, filled with feelings of grief and irreconcilable loss. None of my early potential had manifested, my dreams were long-lost. It was my bleakest hour.

Slowly, like the ice thaw in early spring. I came out of the depression by doing yoga, and by deciding to go after a dream: to become a yoga teacher. Though I was the oldest and least flexible person in my class, I threw myself into the training program and midway through, had a strange, kundalini-like experience.

A teacher who had lately returned from training in India really impacted me, and somehow I started releasing energy, or channeling energy, and went into a kind of altered state. It happened at the same time as the tsunami in southeast Asia; and for me, it was like a personal tsunami. In three weeks, I lost 15 pounds. And I was gripped with a compulsion to go to India. I had never felt anything like it before, and I had to obey.

I started planning and saving and about 11 months later left for India on December 5, 2005, for a six-month odyssey. I have written probably a half-million words about the affect that trip had on me. How it gave me back my dreams, recharged my life, made me feel I was finally home and provided me with the inspiration to finally start my writing career. I had wanted to be a writer since childhood, but I didn’t have my subject matter until I went to India.

1,001 Tales of the Arabian Nights

When I was a child I was obsessed with the 1,001 Tales of the Arabian Nights and painted huge murals on my walls, of genies coming out of bottles and maharaja palaces. In India, I found the real-life version of my childhood walls; and the inspirational spark to ignite my imagination. India is my soul’s home and my muse.

I’ve found my dreams, and they are traveling (especially in India and Asia), writing and yoga. And I have followed them whole-heartedly for the last few years, because they were buried for so long. Followed them irrationally and without thought to where they would lead. Followed them without knowing how I would support myself financially. I’ve been to India on five lengthy trips and published loads of blogs, articles, a book. I’ve been asked to speak, I’ve been interviewed and I’ve had some fantastic adventures like attending the Kumbh Mela and dancing with Shahrukh Khan. It’s been a magic carpet ride. But I’ve done it with almost no real support, or financial return.

My interview for Lou Aronica and Sir Ken Robinson’s book seemed to bring things full circle for me; it provided a big puzzle piece. I am the same pensive girl, lost in my imagination, dreaming of the “exotic” Orient, making up stories, wishing I could live in my imaginary world, that I was in childhood. A grown-up cross between Alice in Wonderland, having adventures, and Scheherazade, spinning tales. But now I’m trying to make a livelihood from it as a travel writer and blogger who specializes in writing about Asia and meaningful travel.

So, that’s my story. I am now trying to figure out how to bring the “real world” and the world of my imagination together, so I can live a sustainable, creative life. And I’m trying to break the pattern of not having enough support in my life. It’s hard.

If you enjoyed this post, you can….

Get updates and read additional stories on the Breathedreamgo Facebook page.

Buy Song of India, a collection of 10 feature stories about my travels in India. E-book version is now only $1.99.

Subscribe to the free — and inspiring! — e-newsletter, Travel That Changes You.

Thank you for reading. Please visit BreatheDreamGo or stop by my Facebook page at Breathedreamgo.

What is Immersive Travel?

Mariellen — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:08:02 +0000

Bada Bagh, Jaisalmer: India is my soul culture

Immersive Travel column on Travel+Escape

Last month, I started writing a bi-monthly “column” for the new Travel+Escape website — which complements the new Canadian TV channel — about immersive travel. What is immersive travel? It’s travel that takes you deep into a culture and changes you. Immersive travel can be voluntourism, solo travel or long-term travel. It can be embarking on a spiritual path or a going to a health & wellness retreat. Or it can be simply an attitude. It’s about being open to a new culture, learning from it, and letting it change your ideas, beliefs and assumptions about life and the world. If you go on a trip, and see things differently when you get back home — then, you have probably experienced immersive travel. Here’s a synopsis of my first three columns.

Are you a tourist or a traveler?

If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them, I want men who will come if there is no road at all.” ~ David Livingstone

There’s a difference between a traveller and a tourist. Maybe I’m old-fashioned: I prefer reading to television; trains to jets; long sojourns to quick getaways. I love reading stories about travellers who went abroad for months, even years, and became completely transformed. Like Ibn Batutta. He left his homeland, Morocco, to make a hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca in 1325AD that should have taken 16 months. He didn’t return home for 24 years.

In total, Ibn Battuta traveled for 30 years. He covered most of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia, all the way to China, for a total of 75,000 miles (121,000 km) – a mileage record that held for more than 400 years. Batutta recorded his travels in a book called The Rihla (Journeys) of Ibn Battuta.

I think of the 19th century as the golden age of travel. People packed steamer trunks and ventured out into the world before there was any kind of tourism infrastructure. These people had adventures!

To read more, please visit Are you a tourist or a traveler? on the Travel+Escape website.

Three hotels that off the comfort of luxury with the joy of cultural immersion

When you think of immersive travel, you may think of living in a local’s house, eating home-cooked food and following the family’s daily rhythm. I do like staying in small guesthouses and homestays when I travel, but I also enjoy finding higher-end accommodation that tries to preserve the spirit of cultural authenticity.

The three hotels featured here ― the Bhakti Kutir in Goa, the Windamere Hotel in Darjeeling and the Uma Paro in Bhutan ― each combine the best of both worlds, the comfort of luxury with the joy of cultural immersion.

To read more, please visit Comfort and Joy on the Travel+Escape website.

Have you found your soul culture?

There are many ways to experience “immersive travel.” You can travel somewhere to live for a time, or volunteer. You can study the culture, learn the language or master the arts. But the type of immersive travel I am writing about today cannot be engineered. You cannot make it happen.

I call it finding your “soul culture” and it’s like falling in love. It just happens.

Sometimes, people discover a corner of the world where they feel most at home. It is often in a country and culture far away, and far different, from their own, and it doesn’t make a lot of rational sense.

People who found their soul culture always intrigued me. And, I admit, I was a bit jealous. Though I had traveled to many parts of the world, and lived in Tokyo, I had never felt that special affinity, and didn’t know if I ever would. Then, in late 2004, at about the same time the tsunami struck Southeast Asia, a personal tsunami of sorts hit me.

I was trying to recover from a series of devastating losses that had left me feeling flattened, and was enrolled in a yoga teacher training program. That’s when the idea of going to India for six months grabbed hold of me.

To read more please visit Have you found your soul culture? on the Travel+Escape website.

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Breathedreamgo nominated for 3 Canadian Weblog Awards

Mariellen — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:51:45 +0000

Canadian Weblog Awards 2011 nominee

I’m really pleased to announce that Breathedreamgo was nominated for three Canadian Weblog Awards 2011 in the Writing, Travel and Design categories. The Canadian Weblog Awards are a juried competition intended to highlight good weblogs of all genres from across Canada.

This blog has always been a labour of love, and the product of several talented people, especially WordPress wizard Jennifer Johannesen of lowtotheground.ca. But I’ve never really promoted it or SEO-ed it as much as I could (or perhaps should) have; I’ve never really competed to be in the Top Travel Blog lists; nor have I (as yet) monetized Breathedreamgo, or thought of it as a business. Those days are all ahead of me. Perhaps.

But I have poured my heart into it! So, receiving recognition is doubly, triply sweet. Thanks so much to Ninjamatics, who run the Canadian Weblog Awards. I’m very proud to be nominated. And proud to be among bloggers like these, who won last year.

Award-winning bloggers

Here are four personal favourites who won Canadian Weblog Awards in 2010:

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My Jaunt to Niagara Falls

Mariellen — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 17:21:33 +0000

Natural ice sculpture. Niagara Falls was a winter wonderland on Sunday night.

Niagara Falls: From festive winter wonderland to desolate tourist trap

In my last post, Niagara Falls: The Taj Mahal of Canada, I mentioned that I was on an overnight Jaunt — a flash travel deal to Niagara Falls that included:

a huge, double-room suite at the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel, with jacuzzi, “fireplace” and a spectacular view,
dinner, lunch and breakfast coupons and
coupons for the casino spa and a sightseeing tour.

Read on to find out how I experienced both a festive winter wonderland and desolate tourist trap during my short 24-hour Jaunt to Niagara Falls.

Jaunt Experience: Smooth and friendly

I traveled from Toronto by GO Train, with connecting GO Bus, on Sunday afternoon, and traveled home again the following day, almost exactly 24 hours later. When the bus dropped me off on Sunday, I took a taxi to the hotel — and, oddly, had the same taxi driver, Derek, on the way back to the GO Bus stop on Monday.

Overall, I had a great time on my Jaunt, thanks to the well-organized execution. From the moment I checked in at the Hilton, I was greeted by friendly and knowledgeable staff, who seemed to have a thorough understanding of the Jaunt deal. They handed me a print-out with my coupons, which were clearly explained.

Staying at the Hilton was definitely one of the highs of my trip. I loved the extra-large jacuzzi tub in my suite, my 26th floor view of both the U.S. and Canadian Falls, and having dinner at the Watermark on the 33rd floor: I sat by the window and ate a lobster tail and seafood platter.

View of the Canadian Falls from my 26th floor room at the Hilton Hotel

Jaunt Ambassador:

The highs and lows of life in Niagara Falls

When I travel, even if it’s only two hours away (the distance from my hometown, Toronto, to Niagara Falls), I try and go with an open mind and no expectation of what I’ll find; I let “the story” find me. And the story I found in Niagara Falls was about the seasonal highs and lows of a tourist town. My short 24 hour Jaunt to Niagara Falls was an exercise in the polarities of life.

On Sunday evening, after checking into the hotel, I walked down to the Falls. The promenade was a winter wonderland. The mist from the Falls created a frozen sheaf over everything nearby — railings, trees, lamp posts — and at dusk it was gleaming with an other-worldly glow. Horse-drawn carriages jingled by, covered in bells and tiny lights. People were skating on an outdoor rink, taking pictures of each other with the Falls in the background — lit up after dark by spotlights that changed from red to purple to green — and warming themselves around an outdoor fire pit. The scent of the fire, jingle of the horse bells, roar of the Falls, and sparkling nightscape was festive and fun. It was Niagara Falls at its wintery best.

I took lots of photos, inspired by the majestic Falls, gleaming ice and festive lights, and went back to my hotel to dress for dinner feeling that I’d had a fun and creatively stimulating experience. Dinner and jacuzzi was great, and I enjoyed the comfort of my room, and my panoramic view.

On Monday morning, I walked back down the street to the Falls and the promenade and felt I was in a completely different town. This time, I experienced Niagara Falls as a desolate tourist trap. The warm temperature had melted all the ice sculptures, there were few tourists and workmen were milling around a huge crane that was parked right at the most scenic point on the promenade. The overcast day cast a gloomy grey tone and drained the colour from the scenery. Music blaring from the empty skating rink, and from the empty Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant, only added to the surreal feeling of the barren streets. I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Niagara Falls was a winter wonderland on Sunday night.

Monday morning melt and desolation in Niagara Falls.

I asked my taxi driver, Derek, about the extremes I experienced during my short stay in Niagara Falls and he said that about summed it up — though he sees the highs and lows as more seasonal in nature. “As soon as they take the boat out of the water in October, the whole town shuts down,” he said, referring to the Maid of the Mist, which ferries tourists up the river to the base of the Falls in summer. Talking to Derek, I was able to glean how difficult it must be to live in a tourist town, and deal with rambunctious crowds in summer and desolate streets in winter. I felt I had both experienced the magic and majesty of Niagara Falls, and also a glimpse behind the tourist facade.

Niagara Falls was a winter wonderland on Sunday night.

Monday morning melt and desolation in Niagara Falls.

The Magic Moment

My short trip afforded me three magic moments in Niagara Falls: photographing the ice-and-snow covered parkland surrounding the Falls; eating a very large lobster tail while looking out at the panoramic view from the Hilton’s Watermark dining room; and soaking in the jacuzzi tub in my suite. Combined, they epitomize the idea of a jaunt, a short trip packed with fun highlights.

Travel Tip

To get the best rooms and the best view of the Falls at the Hilton Niagara Falls Fallsview Hotel, book a room in the new tower, above the 20th floor.

NOTE: My Jaunt to Niagara Falls was sponsored by Jaunt.

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Photo of the Week: Jodhpur Blue

Mariellen — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 03:56:45 +0000

The Blue City revealed

I met photographer Jean-Pierre Muller during the Kumbh Mela in India April 2010, and loved his enthusiasm both for India and for photography. This photo is a part of a series, called JODHPUR the Blue, which was shot in the famous Blue City of Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India.

From the series JODHPUR the Blue by photographer Jean-Pierre Muller

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Niagara Falls: The Taj Mahal of Canada

Mariellen — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:17:25 +0000

Niagara Falls in winter

People in India are fascinated by Niagara Falls

This weekend I am in Niagara Falls on a Jaunt. Whenever I travel in India, and tell people I’m from Canada, I often hear, “Oh, I would love to go to Niagara Falls!” It’s always been a bit strange to me, as I grew up within driving distance of “the Falls” and never took them all that seriously. When I was in high school, we used to drive to Niagara Falls in the middle of the night for a lark. We thought the place was silly. So to hear people in a far-off country — a country that I always deemed to be the height of “exotic” — say they long to visit Niagara Falls seemed bizarre. But of course perspective is everything.

So, I asked my Twitter followers: Why does almost everyone I meet while traveling in #India want to go to #NiagaraFalls?” And these are some of the responses:

I can’t tell you how happy I was to see this tweet, above, because she validated my theory and headline! Here are a few more, that help explain the fascination.

Bollywood loves Niagara Falls, too

And then I did a search and found that Niagara Falls has made it’s way into several Bollywood Films, going at least as far back as 1967. An Evening in Paris, with Bollywood greats Sharmila Tagore and Shammi Kapoor, “taps into a certain ‘occidentalism,’ an Indian fetishization of the west that is the mirror reflection of the west’s orientalist exoticization and fetishization of the east. It is a whirlwind tour of romantic locales – strolling along the Seine, skiing on the Jungfrau, water-skiing at a posh resort in Beirut, and spinning to a dramatic climax in the swirling rush of Niagara Falls,” according to FilmiGeek, who notes: “Unfortunately, as is often the case with masala thrillers, the film gets bumpier when the plot, such as it is, gets going in the second half – but the dramatic climax at Niagara Falls is worth hanging on for.”

More recent films shot in Niagara Falls include Taal (1999) with Aishwarya Rai and Anil Kapoor; and Thank You (2011) with Sonam Kapoor and Akshay Kumar — who, by the way, is an honourary Canadian. The film Kismat Konnection (2008) with Shahid Kapoor and Vidya Balan was actually based in Toronto, but the location for this song, below, is downtown Niagara Falls.

My Jaunt to Niagara Falls

For more, read My Jaunt to Niagara Falls.

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