I GOT IN!!! One of the things I really wanted to do in India was to get into the holy river Ganges. I am not a Hindu but I think their beliefs and rituals with mother Ganga are beautiful. When I was in Varanasi, it was pretty easy to change my mind about getting in, as it's basically a giant Petri dish! However, up here in Rishikesh, very near the origin of the river in the Himalayas, the water is much more clean (and extremely cold!) I had an opportunity to...

There are so many wonderful things about coming to a beautiful spa retreat in the mountains. During the past month, I have questioned the wisdom of being here during the monsoon. I have not been able to enjoy lazy afternoons poolside/beachside as it's either been WAY too hot or raining . So I'm basically as white as when I left home in March, instead of coming home brown as I had expected. The trade off is having afternoon spa treatments, listening to the rai...

Coming down from Ananda to Rishikesh and the Dehradun airport, I was treated to a wonderful monkey turnout. At every turn of the road, there were families of monkeys, mostly resus macaques although there were some groups of common langurs too. It was as though they were all coming out to say goodbye to me!! Driving through the national park, I was scanning the forest for the elephants that live there, although, due to the heat, there were none out in the day. ...

Some time in the past 18 years I've fallen in love with the 5* spa experience. I think I can both thank and blame my friend Christina Brown for this addiction. To think could have blissfully gone on forever doing my own toenails and thinking wraps were a kind of sandwich... Anyways, I've been lucky enough to visit some of the best spas in the world; including an unforgettable stay at Como Shambhala at Begawan Giri in Bali, the One & Only in the Bahamas a...