South Indian Food: A Few Favorites

Last Updated on December 6, 2019 by Audrey Scott

So you think Indian food is just chicken tikka masala and palak paneer?  Think again.

Recently, I’ve settled into a familiar morning routine: a masala dosa and sweet milk coffee in a simple canteen just down the street.  Attendants make their rounds with metal pails full of sambar and colorful wet chutneys, ensuring that all customers have ample supply, more than enough to eat.

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Nek Chand’s Rock Garden – Chandigarh, India

Nek Chand's Rock Garden near Chandigarh, India

Last Updated on July 23, 2017 by Audrey Scott

I recently shared our stories of Chandigarh with a group of new friends over a beer and was shocked to find someone who not only knew of Chandigarh but also asked me what I thought about the “Rock Garden.”

As cool as the Nek Chand Rock Garden is, the story of its construction and evolution in the unlikely city of Chandigarh is even cooler.

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Microfinance Diaries: Seeing is Believing in West Bengal

Last Updated on December 17, 2019 by Audrey Scott

The driver carved his way across northern West Bengal through territory unknown to most, including the mapmakers. Our SUV eventually rolled to a stop at the end of a dirt road where a group of village women dressed in their best and brightest saris were seated in a semi-circle on the ground. They had been waiting for hours.

And they were waiting for us.

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What India Taught Me: A Taxi Nightmare and Where Lost Baggage Goes to Die

First Trip to India, What to Expect

Last Updated on March 3, 2019 by Audrey Scott

To say that you’ve seen the world before seeing India is like saying you know yourself before taking a good long look at your naked body in the mirror.

Author's Note: As we begin to write about our last visit to India in greater depth, I’m reminded of my first trip there — also my first trip abroad that I took solo in 1997. Those were the days of traveler’s checks, thick stapled wads of Indian rupees, and exorbitantly priced, poor quality phone calls booked from telephone wallahs on the street. The ATM machines, internet cafes and easy-to-purchase mobile phone SIM cards of today’s India seemed only a pipe dream back then.

This chronicles the bizarre experiences and lessons – about India, travel and me – that first visit imparted. No other trip since has affected me in quite the same way.

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Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit: A Trek of a Lifetime

Crossing Thorong La Pass on the Annapurna Circuit, Nepal

Last Updated on January 28, 2023 by Audrey Scott

“What has been your best travel experience?”

Often asked, but impossible to answer.

However, if we were locked away and forced to choose just one experience in order to get out, the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal just might be it. This uber-trek (we took 17 days, some opt for several-day segments and others take a month or more) combines some of the best of what travel has to offer: rich culture, diverse people, stunning landscape, lurking adventure, breathtaking exertion and profound circumstances to clear the mind.

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Lunch with Friends in Chandigarh: Methi Muttar Malai and Aloo Gobi

Last Updated on April 27, 2018 by

Not long after breakfast, we were sitting with Sharan and his business partner Rajiv, our previously virtual friends. They were the reason we had come to Chandigarh. Sharan had completed a small software project for me (to help put the finishing touches on our photo gallery) the year before. After the project, Sharan and I continued to stay in touch.

When he found out we were coming to India, we received an invitation to visit.

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