Writer / Photographer
With the backpacking part of this trip done and dusted. I've been in a reflective mood and put together a montage of the journey so far. Now it's onto Melbourne where another new experience awaits - living and working in a foreign country. Is Australia really the land of Milk & Honey? _____
After 4 months on the road, travel burnout was beginning to kick in - sightseeing had become a chore and I was missing the sense of purpose that work used to provide. Thankfully my friends at OSCAR India supplied the antidote - and asked me to do some football coaching. OSCAR is an organisation that… Continue reading Teenage Kicks
Our 34th day in India takes us to Bombay, and my mind adjusts to the flagrant poverty people had warned me about. Even before my feet hit the tarmac my window seat shows me a sea of shanties that seemed to go on forever. We spend Diwali in Ambedkar Nagar slum (our friends at OSCAR… Continue reading Bombay Luck
Be Here Now by Ram Dass My rating: 3 of 5 stars In India and en route to an ashram, I was looking for a spiritual read to complement the trip. I heard this book led Steve Jobs on a similar journey, so gave it a whirl... It took me inside the mind of a… Continue reading Book: Be Here Now
When the missus first floated the idea of a week in an ashram, "reluctant" weren't the word. Don't get me wrong, I like my yoga as much as the next man, it was the "mandatory" schedule* and the prison-like house rules** that put me off. In the end my curiosity prevailed - if it's good… Continue reading Cell Block Hippy
There's something about a Hindu temple that makes me wanna sing a bit of Sanskrit. I've only gotta enter one of those places and the words "Govinda jaya jaya" or "acintya bheda bheda tattva", are in my head. So as I'm in India (the home of Sanskrit), I thought I'd find out what these old… Continue reading Temple Tunes
Coming from Singapore, India's like a different world; cows at bus stops, blokes in skirts*, people eating with their hands, shoeless pedestrians on dirty roads, entire families on one motorbike (sans helmets), regular power cuts, straight men holding hands, and incessant car horns during my siesta. It took a while to acclimatise. Three days into… Continue reading South India Road Trip
Ben Rook 