By Tom
Missoula, MT
Last Sunday started and ended with guide books. I woke on this sunny Missoula morning to the sound of the spring birds singing outside. I also woke with a Julia sleeping peacefully on my shoulder. Not wanting to wake her before she'd gotten all of her requisite beauty sleep, I noticed the Rough Guide to India was within reach. By the time Julia awoke, I had planned our entire 3+ weeks in India, from the week-long yoga aashram retreat in the North to an elephant-back trek into tiger country in Central India. She agreed with my ideas and threw in a few ideas of her own, including a visit to the region around the South Indian city of Chennai (formally called Madras). We're of course going to visit the Taj Majal (with hopes of visiting in the very early morning to avoid at least some of the crowds). I took a course in college on classical music of India and we're excited to see a live performance of Indian classical music and dance. And of course, we're thrilled to spend our time there eating traditional Indian food!
Missoula, MT
Last Sunday started and ended with guide books. I woke on this sunny Missoula morning to the sound of the spring birds singing outside. I also woke with a Julia sleeping peacefully on my shoulder. Not wanting to wake her before she'd gotten all of her requisite beauty sleep, I noticed the Rough Guide to India was within reach. By the time Julia awoke, I had planned our entire 3+ weeks in India, from the week-long yoga aashram retreat in the North to an elephant-back trek into tiger country in Central India. She agreed with my ideas and threw in a few ideas of her own, including a visit to the region around the South Indian city of Chennai (formally called Madras). We're of course going to visit the Taj Majal (with hopes of visiting in the very early morning to avoid at least some of the crowds). I took a course in college on classical music of India and we're excited to see a live performance of Indian classical music and dance. And of course, we're thrilled to spend our time there eating traditional Indian food!
The basic things that we want to do and see in India, for now at least, are all the expected, well-known, traditional things to see and do in India. Not that this doesn't make them any less special or exciting or new to the uninitiated. It's just that these are many of the common things that come to mind with a visit to India: a dreadlocked Yogi meditating on the banks of the Ganges, a tiger in the misty dawn light, women in brightly colored clothes. Sometimes I wonder if people travel only to confirm for themselves that the images they've seen on postcards really do exist.
via manaltheeram.com
But then this evening, while flipping through the Lonely Planet Turkey guidebook, Julia mentioned that I should look up the town of Cappadocia in west-central Turkey. She said it's a place that she'd really like to visit while we are there. I googled it on the computer and the images I saw gave me a rush of excited adrenaline. A city built out of caves; mushroom-like rock structures carved with doors and windows; hotels built right into the rock walls! I'd never heard of Cappadocia, never seen any pictures like this, and never knew anything like this even existed! This was like something out of children's fairy tail! Even the Smurfs couldn't have designed anything this incredible. It excited me that we might visit something so unique, but it gave me great hope because I'd never heard of it. If something like this is out there and has slipped under my radar thus far, what other treasures might we come across that I'd never before imagined? If there are regions of the world where people build homes and businesses by carving into mushroom-shaped stones, what other ways of living will we encounter on our travels?
You could spend your whole life looking at pictures of the Taj Majal, and that wouldn't diminish it in the least when at last you gaze upon the blindingly white walls for the first time. But what about all of the other magnificent sites of the world that you've never seen in pictures? They could be the most extraordinary of all.
via kerdowney.com
via drseussjuice.com
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