Maloca Media

Looking back on the three years I spent in India with my family, I now wish that we had been able to travel more. It was always a challenge to coordinate our holiday schedules, but we did manage some trips beyond Delhi. One autumn, we went to McLeod Ganj, just above Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile. From here, we walked up into the Dhauladars and camped for a few days...small mountains by Himalayan standards but beautiful nonetheless. We made a couple of trips to Goa, which was relaxing and a relief after landlocked Delhi. We never did the full guided tourist tour of Rajasthan, but we did go with friends to the Pushkar Camel Mela, where we failed to buy any camels. Rishikesh, the Hindu pilgrimage site on the holy Ganga, was filled with an interesting mixture of devout Indian and Western pilgrims (the latter being the spiritual descendents of the Beatles). Sikkim was stunning: a mountainous region full of amazing Buddhist monasteries. On our very last day there, the clouds finally broke and allowed us to see the enormous pyramid of Mt. Kanchenjunga in the distance.