(This following entry was written in December, when I was in Tamil Nadu, India). The beaches in Tamil Nadu, the southern Indian state where we now are, are naturally beautiful. This state’s shoreline is blessed with and sapphire waters and smooth sand. But no one goes to the beaches, which are covered in filth and [...]

Click here to read more

More than a century ago, a 16-year-old mystic began performing miracles in Shirdi, a town in east-central India. He split his time equally between the Muslim mosque and the Hindu temple, spreading a message of unity and tolerance. His message and his miracles won him thousands of followers, who worshipped him as a living god. [...]

Click here to read more

Each corner of India – north, east, south, and west – is home to one of Hinduism four holiest sites. Puri, a beach town in the East Indian state of Orissa, is the holiest city in India’s east. It’s the home of Lord Jagannath, the “Lord of the Universe.” Hindu pilgrims have visited Puri for [...]

Click here to read more

In both Nepal and India, drug dealers are everywhere. We were offered hashish three times on the way to breakfast. Three times on the way to breakfast! A simple “no” won’t deter the dealers. These drug dealers are persistent. So we’ve started messing with them. Like last night. As we were buying apples at a [...]

Click here to read more

My parents have launched a Foundation to sponsor orphans in Kathmandu, Nepal. The day after I arrive in Kathmandu, I go with them to Bal Mandir, one of the city’s largest and most reputable orphanages, to agree to an ongoing relationship between our Foundation and this particular orphanage. In Nepal, its hard to decide whether [...]

Click here to read more

The trip started with us getting scammed. Like many scams, this one took place at the border. We were about to board a public bus taking us from an Indian border town into Nepal, when my friend came running, saying she found an agency that would put us on a private coach. Better seating, better [...]

Click here to read more

We ended our 1.5 months in Egypt with an expedition through the White Desert, a strange and mystical portion of the Sahara where the crystal sand gleams like snow. Anvil- and mushroom-shaped white rocks, as high as 40 feet, jut from the ashen ground. This desert looks like the moon. The White Sahara Desert is [...]

Click here to read more

We were in Aswan, Egypt; home to about a million sailboats. These simple wooden sailboats — called “feluccas” — carry people down the Nile River, toward Luxor. We had two desires: One, to visit Abu Simbel, a stunning Ancient Egyptian monument to Ramses II, carved in rock. Two, to take a felucca ride down the [...]

Click here to read more

SCENE ONE: JERUSALEM’S WAILING WALL. Bring an engineer to Jerusalem, and he’ll be the first to point out that the holiest site in Judiasm is a structural retaining wall. The “Wailing Wall” is an appropriate name — hundreds of Jews wail, sob and bow at this otherwise ordinary-looking 2,000-year-old wall at the base of the [...]

Click here to read more