Follow the Journey

Yes, tis official….Grupo Shanti is no longer on Indian soil, having departed late last night en route to San Francisco (well, actually, Ian has the great fortune of heading to Paris!). From San Fran, they’ll say farewell and travel to their own destinations, to families and friends eagerly awaiting their arrival and the many stories to be heard. Welcome home, Shanti! Three months of travel in India can hardly be… Read More

HEY! Our last post left off in Bikaner, home of the Camel Man and the desert in which we safaried through atop smelly camels. Early in the morning on December 7th, we rickshawed our way to the train station and spent two 6 hour train rides playing tai-pan and laughing, finding ourselves in a foggy midnight Agra, eager to see the Taj Mahal the next morning. The day of the… Read More

Guys… we made it. And we’re going out with a bang a camel safari, an Indian wedding and the Taj Mahal in 7 days? With three trains, two buses and innumerable auto-rickshaws, it’s possible. We spent the first days of our free travel continuing our stay in Mcleod Ganj. On December 2nd we left our Tibetan homestay families with an exchange of white scarves and satisfied our sweet… teeth with… Read More

Our time in McLeod has been a whirlwind taste of independence and Tibetan culture! We decided to individually do activities specific to our interests and all of us participated in volunteering and an internship. Activities included a cooking internship (mo’ momos please), mala making/dream catchers, and flute lessons. All of us taught English to Tibetans (many of them monks) and found that looking at your own language from a new… Read More

After Amritsar we headed to Deer Park Institute in Bir where we did a Buddhist study for a week. Deer Park was once a Tibetan Buddhist monastery but eventually became too small for the amount of monks studying there. At one point the monastery reached 400 monks and it was decided that a bigger monastery had to be opened. Dzongsar monastery was later opened which is now one of the… Read More

NAMASTE Y’ALL. Shanti’s experience in Amritsar has been pretty interesting to say the least. Amritsar is known as the spiritual center for the Sikhs and home of the Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib. The temple is MAGNIFICENT. If you’d like to see images of the holy temple, feel free to Google: “Harmandir Sahib”. I guarantee the pictures hardly do it justice, you must come see it for yourself. I promise you,… Read More

OM Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, We are back in Rishikesh after a week of yoga, meditation, calm, and quiet. Before entering the ashram we spent a night in Rishikesh and celebrated Diwali the festival of lights, which is the most important holiday in Hinduism and also an important celebration for Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs. In Hinduism Diwai is associated with several events: Krishna defeating the demon Narakasura, the return of Rama… Read More

This is the view from the Tibetan monastery we visited in Gangtok. I’m not sure who those people are, but their silhouettes are so lovely. The temple itself was also beautiful. At the monastery we got to watch a bunch of monks get ready for dinner, which involved chanting and playing instruments. They didn’t offer us any food, but we were kind of eavesdropping so I guess that’s only fair,… Read More

Namaste family and friends! We have just arrived in Rishikesh in time for Diwali after an amazing two weeks of exploration in the Himalayas. We started out in Gangtok, the beautiful capital city of Sikkim, at a lovely homestay nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas. We spent our mornings taking long uphill walks to the Serenity Home to volunteer with men recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. We all… Read More

Hey USA This week began with a bittersweet ending in Kolkata. The Mother Teresa home is a quiet oasis in the middle of a bustling city. We’d go through a tight alley to reach the front door, admiring the calm blue hue of the outside walls accented with a dusty orange in the windows, metal gates shield every window with varying patters on a tetris-esque theme. At the door we… Read More

Hey loves! We are in Gangtok and it’s beautiful here. We just passed the one-month mark so it seems like a good time to post some photos. The internet is crazy slow. For a moment I thought I would be stuck with this single photo of us at the airport. Rickshaws in Delhi! We didn’t know where we were going and then we ended up shopping for two hours. It… Read More

So after three days of being in Bodhgaya, the place where the Buddha received enlightenment, we began our crazy journey to Calcutta. It was not an easy journey to say the least. We were wait listed for seats for the train to Calcutta, which we luckily did make it on; but we had to sleep two to a sleeper bunk on an overnight train. We were suppose to board our… Read More

Namaste from Bodh Gaya! It’s been too long since our last post… So sorry friends. Since the last posts, we’ve been in Jaipur and Varanasi – two very different {amazing} experiences. A quick list of highlights: In Jaipur First of all, our contacts Rekha-ji and Rishi-ji were wonderful teachers and hosts. They truly made every day chock full of Jaipur’s finest. From Hindi lessons to yoga and ancient architecture, our… Read More

The shanti India group has made it here to India, safe and sound! We have been in India for about four days now and getting to know each other, the country, the food, and the culture.  We have done a lot and I mean a lot of orientation stuff, but have incorporated fun ways to do it! We have gone out into the city of Delhi to explore! We have… Read More

yo what up we here at the cafe hittin up the internet yahh daz what we say love the lotus temple super zen and simple gonna see the red fort with Dinah my cohort the plane ride was long did singapore ended up in delhi gonna see some more PEACE OUT… Read More

Right now we are in an internet cafe near our hostel. So far India has been amazing! It’s overwhelming but we know we will gain so much from this experience. Our group has such a great dynamic already and have so much fun together. One of the best parts of each day is eating together. Here is a picture of one of our family dinners: Ian inspires us to rhyme,… Read More

We’ve received word from the fearless leaders that team Shanti has safely landed in New Delhi.  All subsequent entries on this blog will be left in the capable hands of the Shanti team.  … Read More

The mighty Shanti group has gathered together with their fearless leaders at the San Francisco Airport and checked in for their long flight to India.  Stay tuned to hear of their further adventures.   … Read More