My travels. Turned into stories.
When D first suggested that I sign up for a Buddhist meditation retreat in July, I have to admit that I was daunted. It was June and we were sitting in our hostel room in Rishikesh. D had been wanting to do a retreat like this and after a lot of research, he had finally… Continue reading Ten days at Tushita: how a silent Buddhist meditation retreat changed my life
June 2022. After the heatwave in Rishikesh, it had been raining for days in a row in Manali when the sun finally broke through, fittingly, on a Sunday. Since we had different interests for what to do on this beautiful day, D and I allowed each other to spend some time on our own. I… Continue reading The Jogini Waterfalls hiking quest
After a somewhat challenging start to our trip to India, we needed a place that was going to help us unwind a little bit. Following some research, we decided that Rishikesh had the best prospects for our purpose. Situated on the banks of the river Ganges with its sacred water, it is considered a Holy City and has long been popular with tourists looking for a spiritual retreat. Would we be able to overcome the challenges on our path and connect with the holiness of Rishikesh?
One recurring thing that we kept reading while planning for our trip, was that nothing can really prepare you for India. Of course, I was intrigued. Why would I not be ready? I've traveled to places like China, Mongolia, Africa, Southeast Asia... Surely India would not be that overwhelming for me, I thought, rather pretentiously. Little did I know just how wrong I was.
When I had planned out the bigger outlines of my itinerary to Southeast Asia and back, I decided I would not come back exactly via the same route as on the outward journey. One reason was that I didn’t feel like doing the Transsiberian twice on the same trip; the other was the idea of… Continue reading How my overland travel mission almost ended in Kazakhstan
I had given myself 11 days to make my way from Kunming in the south to the border with Kazakhstan in the northwest. Everything was planned out, as I had to in order to obtain the visa. My first stop in Yuanyang was already a bit off the beaten track as far as tourism in… Continue reading How I travelled through alienating places in western China
On December 5, 2017, the time had come for me to start the journey back to Belgium. Departing from northern Thailand, my mission was to arrive back in Antwerp before New Year’s Eve. The easy part: from Thailand to Laos It was with teary eyes and a very heavy heart that I stepped into the… Continue reading From Thailand to China: the unlikely overland route through Laos
In one of my previous posts, I told you about how I started planning my route back to Belgium as soon as I arrived in Thailand. But since I had an entire month to discover Thailand, the country still had a lot of adventures in store for me. I first headed south to Koh Phi… Continue reading Beyond the expectations: the ‘famous’ north of Thailand
It was now mid-November and I was back in Bangkok, with the important task of obtaining a new visa for China. I would be starting to head back to Belgium in early December, and crossing China was going to be a crucial part of that journey, which would be impossible without a new visa. And… Continue reading Getting a Chinese visa in Bangkok
Morgane's Travel Tales 