• Hotels,  Travel

    Maldives: Velassaru Islands

    To celebrate earning our 200 hour yoga and meditation teacher training certificate in Rishikesh, India we treated ourselves to a luxury vacation. What better place than the Maldives? With lush landscapes, exotics beaches and plus accommodations it was an easy choice. We arrived in Male, Maldives in the afternoon to find a crew member awaiting our arrival. We immediately boarded the boat and headed to Velassaru Resort. The ride was about a half hour with a scenic view of other small islands. In a matter of minutes we were checked into paradise. Our large bungalow was just steps away from the beach. It housed a comfortable living area, king sized…

  • Food

    Rishikesh, India: 5 restaurants you can stomach. 

    If traveling is not for the faint of heart then India is not faint of stomach. My thirty days in Rishikesh while studying yoga left an impression on my heart but also a dent in my stomach. The yogic diet did not fair well with the barbecue loving, macaroni feening, cornbread stuffing gal from Texas.  I am also my mother’s daughter so the OCD tendencies started to kick in when I would sit down to eat. Menus were stuck to the tables with God knows what, flys would swarm  and I got an eyeful of some not so pristine kitchen quarters. If you’re ever in Rishikesh, India here are five…

  • Travel

    Gili T: Modern day Woodstock? 

    I had never even heard of The Gili Islands. Some people described Gili as a modern day Woodstock. With beach parties, delicious cocktails and killer waves being the main attraction.  The Gilis are composed of three tiny islands Gili Air, Gili Meno and Gili Trawangan right at the foot of Lombok, Indonesia. To get to these islands from Ubud you pay a tour company to pick you up at you hotel, drive you an hour or so to the harbor, you then take a two hour “fast boat ride” to the island of your choice. We waited an hour to get on a fast boat which would stop at all…

  • Beauty,  Travel

     Bali Botanica Day Spa

    As I approached Bali Botanica Day Spa in Ubud at 9am I was summoned to  the reservations desk by a gentle fragrance. I was greeted by Berto and he made me feel at home immediately. He asked me to trade in my shoes for bright green flippers. He reviewed my service selections and provided me with information for an optimal experience. Berto lead me to the garden where Rudy, my Spa therapist, ushered me to the spa room. The room was clean, fresh and very inviting. It was fashioned with a garden tub, a door less showered, massage table, tools needed for shirodhara and a captivating view. Rudy began my…

  • Culture,  Experience

    Who leaves New York City?

    Before you get your whities in a bunch this is not some sappy good-bye letter swearing off NYC and damning everyone to hell who doesn’t jump ship NOW! Quite the contrary, NYC has been good to me in …its own way. The thing is one brisk night in October I woke up out of my sleep with an idea to study yoga, to take it seriously. I was failing a adulating nut yoga was he one thing that kept me balanced.  I began scouring the net for more information on programs and schools. I did a general search which lead me to bookretreats.com and there I found tons of schools, programs…