It's dark out now, and the narrow, dirty streets of Varanasi are crowded with revelers blaring music so loudly we hear it straight through our barely-there hotel walls.
Read MoreStories about finding your heart and soul around the world.
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Exploring the Khajuraho Temples of India
"There are no mistakes. Only new paths to explore."
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Dust storm and desert flowers in Black Rock City, Nevada
A Journey Home: Stunning images of Burning Man 2014
We need to be reminded that amazing places such as this can and do exist—communities where creativity, innovation and art come together to inspire humanity. This is Burning Man, 2014.
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Traditional puppets for sale at the street market in Fort Kochi, Kerala
Exploring the heart of Fort Kochi, India
Luckily the local government hospital isn't the only thing we see while in Fort Kochi. A casual rickshaw tour offers a different glimpse of life in this South Indian spice capital. It's not the churches or museums that grab my attention with the story of this place, but the people. And the street goats.
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Holy men sitting by the Ganges river in Varanasi
How to find something to believe in: the search for a guru in India
Searching for a guru is trendy in India, especially if you're a Westerner. I've begun to theorize that this eternal quest is driven by what is lacking back home in the West––a culture with belief in something more meaningful than the self.
India is the perfect place to visit, then, because spirituality is so omnipresent in a non-preachy sort of way. I should have known of its importance months prior to arrival, simply from the visa application. Halfway down the form I was required to check a box indicating my religious affiliation. For the record, agnostic and atheist weren't even listed as options.
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A working elephant at the sanctuary carries palm branches near Trivandrum, Kerala
A theater of humanity, images of village life in Kerala, India
"In the West, you save up all your money in order to spend it on an experience. You are searching for something," our Indian travel agent winks at me. Her sparkly nose ring catches the light and her bangles jingle as she hands us our train tickets. "Us Indians, we think you're a little bit crazy; we would never travel like you. We'd rather spend our money on gold jewelry, land, or a new house." This explains her inability to tell us more about popular sights at our next destination in India.
In the West, we do believe in the almighty experience. And for me, like many, the ultimate coveted experience has always been to travel.
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Checking out beautiful decorative designs from a puja ceremony at the yoga ashram in Kerala
Sometimes you have to surrender before you win + Answering Mother India's call
Stepping out of customs and into a crowded pen of late-night travelers, the warm Mumbai air reassures me we are no longer in China. Bunches of people are waiting, but not for us. Unfortunately, that appears to include the taxi driver we'd supposedly hired in advance.
"Sometimes you have to surrender before you win. Surrender is at the heart of the Indian experience." — Gregory David Roberts, from Shantaram
If there's one thing I've learned about India, it's that surrender really is at the heart of the Indian experience. There are so many inexplicable hoops and loops to everything here, and the method in which they are worked out rarely makes logical sense.
In this instance, in order to find our driver, we have to pay someone to contact someone else who eventually discovers our guy sleeping in his car.
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Peeking inside the communal living space of a hutong
It all comes down to perspective + Exploring a traditional hutong in Beijing, China
Beijing is famous for its hutongs.
No, this is not a type of food, nor is it a Chinese rapper.
Hutongs are charming courtyard residencies clustered together and scattered about the city––they're a glimpse into old-world China. In Mongolian, the word means 'town,' a remnant from their 13th century invasion. Back then, single families lived in communal spaces such as this. As times grew tough, haphazard additions filled the once open-aired inner courtyards to accommodate family growth. Sadly, most traditional hutong areas were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.
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Mengwi royal Balinese temple palace, from old times
One month of impermanence + Farewell Bali
It's been one month on the road, but it feels so much longer. I am in southern China now, and after days of being blocked out of my own blog (even with a VPN), miraculously the Great Firewall seems to have peeked open for a moment, time enough to post a farewell to beautiful Bali.
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