My Top 5 Travel Experiences...

So after a long winter's nap, here comes round two of this list and my top 5 travel experiences so far:

5.  Incredible India!  My friend Gioia and I met up in New Delhi over our Christmas break one year.  We hired a driver and took a tour through Rajasthan, staying in former palaces along the way for very reasonable prices.  The absolute highlight was getting up at about 4 am in Agra.  We took a taxi as close as we could get to our destination, and then had to walk the last several hundred meters in the pitch black.  A bit scary as we'd been told Agra was so unsafe.  All to experience the sun coming up on the Taj Mahal.  Yes, another one of those so-overwhelmed-I'm-weeping experiences for me!  Other fun parts of the trip were shopping for salwar kameez (Indian pants/tunic), riding camels through the Rajasthani desert, visiting the crazy Bikaner rat temple,  and New Year's Eve spent at another palace, being adopted by an Indian family and feasting on Indian food and dancing to Punjabi music!




4.  Siem Reap, Cambodia.  This was a hard choice between Siem Reap and Luang Prabang, Laos as they are both architecturally amazing places with friendly locals.  And both places I traveled with friends who made the trip so much fun.  But just from seeing Angkor Wat in a National Geographic as a kid and vowing I'd go there one day, I have to give this one to Siem Reap.  We stayed several days at a hotel in Siem Reap, and hired a tuk tuk driver who picked us up each morning and off we went to one of the many temples in the area.  Low light--falling off one of the temples from a height of about ten feet.  The guard came running over and said, "so many people fall in that exact spot every day!"  Um, you might want to think about a sign?  My ankle swelled to double but I wrapped it up and kept going!  (I found out later I tore a ligament and chipped the bone)  But seeing Angkor Wat--so worth it!  I would love to go back one day with my Nikon.

Strangler fig has taken over this temple!

See this pose?

I don't think we quite mastered it! (at Angkor Wat)

3.  Provinces in China -  Living in China I got to take trips to places few Americans experience. And since I can't choose between Sichuan Province and Yunnan Province, I'm just calling this one "Provinces in China".  Yunnan featured the gorgeous Li Jiang, a lovely little stone city lit with red lanterns, dancing with the Hua Hua girls, drinking yak butter tea in Shangri-la  (Tibet ) and seeing several groups of China's "minority peoples".  And Chengdu--holding a baby panda, of course!  And the Le Shan giant buddha, Mt. Emai, and gorgeous Buddhist temples--some of the most peaceful places on earth!  And getting to do these things with my lovely friend, Karen..one of the most peaceful people on Earth and fellow dancer!

Definitely a highlight of my life!

Hey, this minority woman looks familiar!

  

2.  Tromso, Norway.  My friend Cindi and I headed here in the Arctic Circle on February break for a possible view of the Northern Lights.  Mother Nature did not disappoint!  Highlights of this trip include dog mushing in a blizzard in the dark!  I could not see a thing and Cindi was shouting "trust the dogs!"  After a couple of hours, we made it back to the tent for some reindeer stew.  Another night we took a ferry and saw the best aurora activity of the trip.  And our chase trip with Guide Gunnar also turned up some Northern lights.  And I got to see an old and dear friend, Grete.  Norway is beautiful, but probably the most expensive place I've ever been!

With Roald Amundsen

A warm fire while awaiting the Aurora Borealis.

Trust the dogs!

So fortunate to have seen this!

1.  OK, this list is becoming like Sophie's choice!  How can I choose when I haven't even included "Mother Russia" on the list?  But since I'm currently living there, I'll leave Russia off for now.  I suspect #1 gets its rank mainly because it's one of my more recent experiences. But spending New Year's Eve on a boat in Sydney Harbor was definitely a top life experience!  Did it beat holding a baby panda?  Dog mushing in the Arctic Circle?   Hmmmm....Sophie's choice!   Once again it has a New Year's Eve, once again with my friend Gioia.  And of course don't forget there's 'roos and koalas!  And Christmas with my dear friend Diana and her family featuring Christmas Crackers and vanilla slice.  So #1 of this list gets to be....Australia (followed by a jaunt to New Zealand)!

In looking back over this list, I see that most places feature light--a beautiful sunrise, a gorgeous sunset, blazing fireworks or glowing candlelight.  It seems that I am a creature of light, and I can only hope I let a little of my own light shine wherever I go.  And it also features beautiful nature and wildlife--for what can compete with that made by the hand of God?  And of course dancing!  Because life is too short not to dance!  But there was a revelation for me in making this list.  If you'd asked me, I would have told you that I love to travel on my own.  It opens you up to meeting new people, being contemplative, and not annoying your friends when you want to spend half an hour getting a good shot!  But it seems that my top experiences are the ones I've made with friends.   So thank you to all my friends and family who have made these journeys and others with me!  I think you gave them that something extra that made them all the better--you gave them joy.  And I think the same can be said about the friends and family who accompany us on this journey through life...the one that-as the title says- I'm celebrating.  Wishing all of you love and light and peace this Christmas and in the New Year.