Last Fall, when travel was still possible and we weren’t in the midst of a global pandemic, E and I flew to China for two weeks. We were visiting our friends, Eben and Laura, who had recently moved to Shenzhen to work at an international school. (Yes, these are the same friends who were displaced by coronavirus and now kinda, sorta live in Berlin for the foreseeable future.) After two weeks in China, E flew back to Berlin to start a new job (which you can read about here) and I flew to Indonesia. I spent a couple days on Bali traveling solo for the first time in years, and…
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Underwhelmed by Indian Food
I love to eat. I have a board on pinterest called “The Opposite of a Picky Eater,” because that’s what I am. I will try everything once (or twice) and there is almost nothing I dislike because most everything is agreeable to me. My categories are more or less: 1. this is delicious or 2. this is not delicious, but I will still eat it. Of course, that’s one of the reasons I don’t blog about food very much: I don’t have the most discerning palate. I still manage to be something of a foodie though, because I’m always on the look-out for food experiences that fall into the delicious category.…
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Namaste, Delhi
(This post picks up where the previous one left off.) After we’d walked through and around and past the beggars, my tour group arrived at the Lotus Temple, which is a Bahá’í House of Worship. It’s open to people of any and all faiths and is meant to be a place for praising God without denominational restrictions. While the outside of the Lotus Temple is a beautiful work of architecture, the inside is almost plain — cavernous and filled with wooden pews, but simple. I realize the irony of pushing past people in need in order to visit a place of spirituality, but at the time, I just sat down,…
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This is a post about beggars
Walking down the street from my hotel to the metro, I was treated to the scents of urine, dirt, and exhaust. Incense, spices, and street food frying in oil. My tour group and I were on our first outing together to visit the Lotus Temple in Delhi. We rode the metro there, and when we arrived at our stop (Kalkaji Mandir on the violet line), we paused outside the station beside an orange vendor and his cart. The fruits were green, but we could tell they were oranges because the vendor peeled them theatrically and their smell was unmistakable. We watched as the fruits released sweet mist into the air…
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An Opportune Moment is Going to India!
Many of you who know me in real life have already heard about this trip because I’ve been planning it since I was still in Hawai’i. After a few months at home, I’m definitely feeling ready to embark on another international trip. Seriously, though, when I scroll through tumblr and see an inspiring travel photo, lately I’ve been having a physical reaction — my chest tightens, my expression unintentionally turns wistful, my gut says, “get thee to an airport!” It’s like the early stages of falling in love when you can’t stop thinking about them and you hope you’re on their mind too, and it’s blissful and distracting and a…
