Blogging from Bangkok

Dear friends,

We know we have been less than diligent at regularly updating our blog, but I am sure you can all understand our difficult situation. We have been ever so busy these past few months… traveling in Asia can really take its toll. How can we be expected to regularly update a blog when there are so many pressing responsibilities and duties, such as the daily consumption of papayas and coconuts, the myriad of exotic flowers such as jasmine that require our olfactory attention and, of course, the continuing need to watch mangoes grow (how will they grow if we stop watching!?). We are sure you can all relate to these urgent responsibilities and will therefore not hold the delays against us.

Since our last update, we have spent an additional month in Rishikesh, finally tearing ourselves away from our lovely abode in mid-February. We left India and went directly to Bangkok, Thailand, scratching all our previous plans to travel in Southern India (and in the process learning the complete senselessness of making long-term plans while traveling in Asia). The modernity, fast-pace and general frenzy of Bangkok was first quite a shock to our systems after our rather meditative and “shanti" (it means peaceful in Hindi) experience in Rishikesh. We have used Bangkok as a convenient resting spot and a jumping-off point for travel in Southeast Asia.

We have just come back after a month-long trip to Burma (Myanmar) and are about to head off to Cambodia for a week or so. Below, you can find the freshly posted entries about our time in Rishikesh, our travel experiences in Burma, and Misha’s essay on meditation at a Vipassana center in Burma.

--M~R