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It seemed as if Bobby had been gone for months instead of sixteen days. When she returned home from England where she had attended her only sibling’s funeral following his unexpected death, the excitement of being together kept us awake talking long after our usual bedtime. Two days after our joyful reunion, on September  27,  Bobby waved goodbye as she pedaled off to return a sweater at the…

We’d made the decision to stay in India only three instead of our usual four months for an easier and gentler experience now that we’re older. Indeed, the trip began smoothly. After ten days quiet meditation in Bangalore we took the overnight train directly to Gokarna. The new train was abnormally empty and clean and we agreed the most comfortable ride we’ve yet taken in India. We arrived in time…

As our time in Pushkar was drawing to a close, we took up Marina on her promise to show us Ajmer. Only a half an hour away, the main attraction is a Moslem Dargah (a shrine built over the grave of a revered religious figure, often a Sufi saint or dervish). Rajiv’s daughter, Pryanka and her friend, Nadine joined us. Before the Dargah, we visited the ruins of Adhai Din Ka Jhonpra, the oldest mosque…

In the morning we prepared to take a tedious five-hour bus ride from Bundi to Pushkar. Raghu, our guesthouse owner, announced that he was going to Ajmer and would we like to join him. (His wife had moved there with the children to attend school) We happily agreed. Pushkar is only a half hour bus ride from Ajmer. It was still a tedious drive but far more comfortable than the bus and on the way…

This is our third visit to Bundi and the Haveli Katkoun guesthouse which sits directly below the palace. In 1945, the grandfather bought what was then a stable for elephants from the Maharaja of Bundi for 2500 rupees. It is now a four-story guesthouse with three generations of the family also living in it. Rudyard Kipling spent time in Bundi and supposedly wrote part of Kim here. He describes…

We first came to Udaipur 24 years ago and haven’t returned until now. On our first visit, when we only came to India for three weeks and were still working, we stayed in a Heritage haveli on the edge of the lake in the honeymoon suite for a mere $25. Today, we’re still paying $25 for a room that’s definitely one of our better ones in India, four large breezy windows with a lake view. But it’s…

Sitting opposite us at breakfast, the German woman had piercing blue eyes and skin more sun weathered than mine.  When she went to New Zealand to see her daughter; the landscape was spectacular but compared with India, she found it boring after a few days. As an anesthesiologist, she comforts her patients during the last two minutes of their consciousness with tales of the Mystic East. We used…

I didn’t have much difficulty in persuading Gerard to repeat a hike we took through the jungle last year. This time it went more smoothly, as we set out early to reach a lonely beach, ahead of the full sun. The bus back to town arrived before we had a chance to take a quick dip. Our guide, Irish Tina a birdwatcher, became ecstatic seeing a pair pied hornbill. Shafts of light turned the jungle…

Here at the beach my life revolves around the sea. We swim every morning, in the afternoon I walk along the water’s edge (one swim a day is enough for my dry aging skin), and in the evening we go back to the beach before sunset for dinner at one of the restaurants there. I’m drawn to the sea like a magnet. Today there were high waves that made it too difficult for swimming, but I still had to…

The other day we chose not to go into town because the Hindus were celebrating the consecration of the new Ram Mandir or temple built on a long-disputed site between Hindus and Moslems, in Ayodhya, northern India. You may have already heard about this since the national media gave it quite prominent coverage. The Hindus believe Ayodhya is the birthplace of Ram, a major Hindu deity, and…

After a rewarding ten-day meditation retreat at a small ashram in the country outside Bangalore, a taxi took us the two hour drive to Bangalore railway station where we caught an overnight train direct to Gokarna. We arrived at 7 am quite refreshed from an unusually good night’s sleep. Gerard was looking forward to the train ride, his preferred mode of transportation ,and it didn’t let him down.…

The decision of how to spend the winter was avoided until I finally asked Gerard if he was happy to just stay home. “I can think of worst places to be but no, I think we should go to India one more time.” Then the reality set in that our life might not fit into that small case any more with all the pills and supplements that old age now requires. Even my chiropractor questioned our decision.…

As many of you already know, Gerard has completed his memoir spanning the years 1966 to 1968. He started writing his story three years ago, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination. Gerard can be a great story teller, but story telling doesn’t always translate easily into writing, especially for a dyslexic. Settled at the beach in south India for a month he took over my…

“I’ll drive you up to Rumsu,” said Manju, the sweet young woman who serves us breakfast every day at the roadside restaurant she runs with her father and sister, and who we’ve known for many years. “If you take us up, we’ll walk back.” Up the mountain side, Rumsu village soars 7,215 feet into the sky, and is primarily made up of buildings built in the traditional style. Only recently has the…

If Bhaktapur is the most exotic place we’ve travelled, then Bandipur is the most idyllic. The only fly in the ointment was the mountains weren’t clear. But the flowers in bloom made up for it. It’s rare that a place is even better on the second visit. Our guesthouse has an excellent view of the valley below on a clear day. The town center has a Mediterranean feel. The stone-paved plaza is…

Our taxi brought us as far as cars could go inside Bhaktapur and the guesthouse owner came out to greet us. But he did not recognize our booking. “I don’t work with Expedia.” “But we’ve prepaid for seven nights!” He showed us a room. The pictures online had little resemblance, but our window looked right out on Taumaudh temple, the tallest in Nepal. “When is breakfast served?” I asked him,…