And a breakthrough year for travel bloggersI’ve been travel blogging about India and meaningful travel for about two-and-a-half years on Breathedreamgo, and for several years before that on a previous blog, too. Slowly, I’ve been building my career as a travel blogger and advocate for travel blogging, and this week feels like a breakthrough week for me — as I think this year, 2012, will be a breakthrough year for travel blogging. Here’s what happened. (more…)
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.
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. (more…)
The moment it hit me I was in India: mosque at Qutab Minar complex, Delhi 2005
It was six years ago today, December 6, 2005, that I landed in Delhi, India for the first time. It was Day One of my six-month odyssey; the start of my trip-of-a-lifetime; and the beginning of a new chapter in life, I hoped.
On my first morning in India, I stepped out into the warm December sunshine of my friends’ big, white, marble terrace in South Delhi and felt I had landed in heaven. It was warm, I was surrounded by a loving family and I was finally in India — a place I had dreamed of since childhood, but never thought I would ever see. I felt an immediate affinity with India; it was like going “home.” But I had absolutely no idea where the next six months would lead, what would happen, or what I would get out of the experience. (more…)
Photograph of Patnem Beach, Goa, India
How to get started as a travel blogger
Blogging while you travel can enrich your journey in more ways than one. It helps keep your friends and family back home informed, creates a permanent record of your trip and gives you the opportunity to take time to reflect on your experiences. Following are my top tips for getting started as a travel blogger.
First things first – you need to decide where to set up your blog. There are three main options: (more…)
Gandhi statue in New York City
This weekend I was in New York for TBEX 10, the travel bloggers conference. As I was walking to dinner with several colleagues, we unexpectedly came across a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in a small garden in Union Square. I did a double-take. I have seen the same statue countless times in India, in the centre of Delhi, in small towns, on mountain ridges, at the seaside — basically, Gandhi is everywhere. His presence in India is palpable, though of course he has been gone for 62 years. For a moment, I felt transported to India or, at least, my idea of India. To me India represents both sights, sounds, tastes and smells — the kaleidoscopic circus of the senses — and a way of being in the world that is based on the belief that we are all part of the same universal life force — the Hindu ideal that underlies Gandhi’s worldview.
The next day I returned by myself, and touched his feet. I would never had made such a gesture before traveling in India.
[Note: Originally published as Recommended: Travel solo in India by Solotravelerblog.)
When I was 45 years old, I put everything I owned in storage, gave up my apartment and went to India for six months. It was the first time in my life that I had done anything like this. But it was time. I had always wanted to go to India and, after losing both of my parents, I knew it was now or never to go after my dreams.
Was I scared? You bet. But it was the “healthy” kind of scared – the kind that rises up from within and first whispers, then roars: if you overcome this, you will be forever changed. So I went. I jumped off the proverbial cliff to see how the universe would respond.
The largest gathering of humanity on earthMillions of people gather each year in North India to take a holy dip in the sacred waters of the Ganges, Yamuna and /or the mythological Saraswati rivers. Hindu devotees, pilgrims, saints and sadhus from all over India and the world turn up in huge numbers each winter. They believe that a holy dip in the sacred rivers during the Kumbh Mela washes away sins and can help them break the cycle of life and death and attain Moksha. (more…)
My India list: top places, events and festivals I want to seeI believe in magic. How else can you explain that the more I travel in India, the longer the list of places I want to go gets?! I was inspired to write this list by Mighty Girl’s Mighty Life List, so here goes. Here’s my list at the time of this writing (and I am sure I am missing several things …):
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.
[NOTE: Originally published on Journeywoman, July 2009.]
Moi, in salwar kameez, at Kanyakumari - the very southern tip of India
Aside from good walking shoes and sandals, a one-piece bathing suit and cotton bras and underwear – or, if you prefer, the synthetic kind that wicks away sweat – don’t bring any clothes to India. If you land in Delhi, head straight to one of the Fabindia outlets and stock up on inexpensive cotton “suits.” The three-piece suit (in Hindi, salwar kameez) consists of a long or short tunic over fitted or wide-legged pants, topped with a long scarf, called a dupatta. These outfits suit the climate, the need for modesty and will help you fit in, mitigating your status as a moving target for gawkers, touts and beggars.
On the morning of April 14 approximately 10 million people streamed into the sacred town of Haridwar in north India to bathe in the Ganga on the most auspicious day during the 2010 Kumbh Mela. I was one of them. Find out how I found myself alone, and at home, at the world’s largest spiritual gathering.
In Varanasi, where the veil between life and death seems very thin, a boat ride on the river can become a journey to the other side. Come along with me on a boat ride on the Ganges River in India’s oldest, holiest city and pierce the veil.
The Ganges / Ganga River is the Mother of India. The River speaks in many voices as she travels from the high Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal. At the source, her song is joyous, full of the the jubilance of youth, the rush of fresh mountain streams, the sincere chanting of pilgrims and the excitement of the onward journey.
