Explore the locations we will be visiting on our Spiritual and Culinary Adventure
This map takes you through the route of our spiritual and culinary adventure in South India next February 2012. Use Google’s interactive map below to zoom in on towns, explore neighboring villages and the surrounding countryside. Click on Vedic Odyssey’s logo to learn the name of the town.
View Culinary Tour in a larger map
A spiritual adventure of festivals and ancient temples.
The journey is very much focused on visiting temples, exploring deeply the mysticism of Hinduism, meeting the priests and monks, participating in mystical ceremonies in the sanctums of 1000 year old temples and more. I’ll conduct classes along the way sharing with you about Hinduism, its culture and traditions, and the simple practical tools that it shares to help us in our daily lives.
Join this life changing spiritual adventure as we journey to some of the most sacred locations in southern India, long the catalyst of many profound and ineffable inner experiences for countless spiritual seekers.
Click this link to learn more about our temples and festivals spiritual adventure to South India and Malaysia at the end of January 2012. We hope you will be able to join us.
(Continued coverage of our recent spiritual adventure) Our 16 day spiritual adventure has come to a conclusion. We leave the little town of Pushkar and the colorful camel fair and head northeast to the village of Samode. The last night of our stay is to be at Samode Palace in the village of Samode. Set in a rugged valley this old palace is now a luxury boutique hotel.
On the way we stop at the maharaja’s old palace gardens which are quite stunning and had lunch in this serene place. 3kms from here is the palace and we made our way through the small village then through the giant palace gates before coming out into a beautiful courtyard. The rest simply needs to be experienced in person.
At night we had a formal dinner, officially bidding farewell to our spiritual adventurers after a 16 day journey and wishing them a spiritually uplifting year ahead.
Enoying another delicious lunch
In the first courtyard in Samode Palace
Our final class of the trip conducted in an absolutely gorgeous room. "Now that we have these spiritual tools in hand the burden of responsibility lies solely on us to implement these tools in our daily lives."
At dinner we celebrate Mike and Heather's recent marriage. Congratulations you two!
So I decided to wake up early (4:45am) on our first day at the Pushkar Camel Fair and head in to see what life was like pre-dawn. I headed out with my camera on a camel cart and arrived at the fair about 25 minutes later. Traders were slowly waking up. Small fires can be seen here and there with men huddled around them. Masala Chai (tea) brewing over these fires. It’s quite cold relative to day time temperature and some men were even huddled up against their camel.
My favorite time of the day to explore when traveling overseas is dawn. You truly get to see local life waking up and springing into action. Here are some photos from my morning exploration of the fair.
Pushkar camel Fair 2011, Rajasthan.
Hot air balloons take off in the distance making their way slowly across the fair and scaring a few camels in the process.
Traders are intrigued by the sight of hot air balloons. Not something you see often in India.
All throughout the day buying and selling of camels take place.
Camels, camels and more camels. As far as the eye can see...
A camel trader who willingly posed for the photo
A hot cup of masala chai would put a smile on anyone's face in the morning
A good supply of firewood is needed to keep all the campfires going at dawn and dusk
The brownish desert landscape is dotted with Rajasthani men in colorful turbans.
Here are more photos from our morning in the Great Thar Desert. After witnessing a spectacular sunrise our camel drivers made us some very delicious masala chai. A nice way to wake up in the morning. The night was chilly but they has supplied us with enough blankets to keep us warm. With no stray light present the view of the stars was simply special. After breakfast we got back on our camels and rode about 2 hours before we were picked up by a jeep that took us back to our hotel.
Saddling the camels for the ride home
Morning meditation in the desert.
The topic of our study on this journey has been "Know Thyself" so our spiritual adventurers make an effort to spend time each day discovering themselves.
Starting the journey back ....
The monsoon was just over so things are stlll looking green in the desert.
We come across a natural oasis in the desert.
For sure one of the highlights of our spiritual adventure so far. We rode on camel carts through the village, past farming land into the Thar desert. Set up a campfire and watched the sunset, enjoyed a delicious dinner and wonderful company. The scenery and atmosphere was ineffable. Enjoy the photos below.
On camel carts ready to head out into the desert
The beautiful ride takes us through the village, farming land and then into the Thar desert
We arrive at our evening campfire location....it's absolutely breathtaking as we watch the sun set over the Thar desert
One of our camel cart drivers
We’ve been out of touch for the last couple of days as we’ve been in a remote village in western Rajasthan. We left New Delhi on the 27th of Oct night by train which is always fun in India and headed to Jodhpur arriving about 7:30am the next morning. From Jodhpur we drove about an hour east to the truly remote village of Chandelao.
And what a magical place this is. Truly untouched and a gem in the desert. Here we stayed for 2 nights and 3 days. During this time we spent many hours exploring this village and neighboring ones as well, diving into our study and just enjoying being in such a remote place. Here are some photos from our train ride and first few hours in Chandelao Garh our home in the desert. More photos to come.
Enjoying the view from the train at dawn as we head into Chandelao.
Our train zipping through the desert
At our beautiful hotel in the desert...Click the link above to learn about it. Highly recommend it,
A beautiful mural of Ganesha at the entrance to the main building
Local villagers
Sumptuous village meals.......soooo delicious!
Block printing
