Other times, the awareness of the limited opportunities of some people smacks us right in the senses. As we see, hear, touch and/or smell truly challenging places or aspects of places, and experience people who have a difficult journey through life, our hearts goes out and we are grateful we have avoided some of those circumstances. The infamous slums of Mumbai are real places with populations, thriving in their own way, in what we would consider very difficult conditions.

We try to keep an even keel, to focus on the positive and maintain our balance no matter the circumstances. Sometimes that can be challenging.

Here are some descriptions of some special places:

Then, we headed back to Ashland, Oregon for the summer. We had the usual wonderful time there. This year, one project was to set up a good-sized composting operation for the garden. Build the soil! Soil health is true wealth!

 Then, it was off to the continent…

We love Budapest. We immersed ourselves in the many thermal baths and also the street scene. Budapest is a city of spas and thermal bath complexes. We went to several - see In Hot Water In Hungary for more on that. There are quite a few walking streets downtown, with many cafes, restaurants, bars and shops. Strolling around on warm summer nights was really fun. 

This year, we rented an apartment, shopped with the locals for produce at the giant enclosed market-hall and often made our own food.

We also need to mention the surprising fantastic natural food/vegetarian/vegan scene: there are all kinds of restaurants with affordable and delicious offerings. Our favorite was Napfenyes’. 

This year, we stretched ourselves into a new realm - auto touring. Because public transport is difficult to the areas we wanted to visit, we rented a car in Budapest, drove to Slovenia, then down along the Croatian coast, over to Sarajevo, Bosnia and back to Budapest. See Notes On Driving in Europe for more on that. 

We had the opportunity to attend a spiritual retreat weekend in Slovenia. It was located in Zgornje Jezersko up in the mountains - a pristine alpine environment. 

Slovenia is a gem of a country. It is kind of a user-friendly, more affordable, small version of Switzerland in some ways; majestic alpine peaks, scenic lakes, charming towns, and friendly people. It is definitely a “hidden gem” kind of place.  

A highlight is Lake Bled, one of those special spots every tourist must visit, but it is still calm and picturesque, not the over-run tourist place you would find in a more main-stream destination. 

The Croaian coast reminds us of the central and southern California coast circa 1950.

It is a great area - highly recommended. It has big mountains going right down to the sea like Big Sur, but they look more like the granite Sierras, a couple of awesome National Parks, quaint artsy small towns and some small cities, but still with beautiful old city centers. warm sea water like San Diego. And it is pretty affordable. 

Some highlights:

We especially recommend Zadar: sweet small old port with an awesome raw food restaurant, which sits on a terrace on the top of the old city wall with great views of the harbor. I asked if they could deliver to Hawaii and California - just put it on a boat heading out of the harbor and it would get there eventually.

Also Split with the old town built out of a vast old Roman palace:

And Brela on the Makarska coast: great hiking and biking, like Yosemite right by the sea, a very fine beach walk, complete with coffee shops and restaurants, and a very inviting sea. We went swimming every day. This is our pick for a slo-motion triathlon (or cincathon): 5 events - hiking, biking, swimming, coffee sipping and pizza eating. 

From Croatia, we crossed the mountains into Bosnia. A highlight was a visit to an ancient Sufi monastery at Blagaj, which is located right where a river emerges from a cave out of a granite mountain - a really special spot. 

Then, it was off to visit friends in Sarajevo. It has a wonderful setting in a high valley. Unfortunately, that also made it an ideal target for a multi-year bombardment during the war in the 1990s. The scars from that war are still raw - in the psyches of the the people and some of the mortar shell pockmarked buildings. It has the vitality of a cross-roads place, where European Christians, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Muslims and even Jews have all had vibrant populations. Our expat friends have lived there for many years, and love it.

In late October we flew to New Delhi, India. (See, we are not so reckless. We did not drive there overland from Sarajevo, through the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East, we just flew over all of that.)

The air in Delhi has become the worst in the world. When we arrived, it was many times higher than “hazardous,” so we headed for the hills. 

We spent a few weeks in Rishikesh and Mussoorie, then on to our annual retreat in the Punjab region.    

A woman from Mexico, touring India, told us that Rishikesh was the most peaceful place she had visited. She had to yell this opinion over the roaring motor of the dilapidated motor rickshaw we were riding in. It is that kind of place.  

There are gurus, swamis, yogis, mahatmas, babas, fakirs (advanced yogis), fakers (people pretending to be advanced yogis), and also locals, tourists, pilgrims, hippies and yoga babes and dudes. (Many of the yoga students are young European and American, and a few Asian, men and women, who look like they just came from a ballet and/or gymnastic training and now want to learn and teach yoga.) There are approximately 432,000 yoga centers and training courses in Rishikesh. (This and following numbers only slightly exaggerated!) 

The streets are quite narrow and full of vendors, cows (and poop), scooters, rickshaws and cars and jeeps with large river rafts bobbing on their roofs. There are at least 4,356 river rafting and adventure outfits.  

There must be over 1,409 pure veg places to eat. We have found a few that we like, who cater to foreigners. In some, we could even safely eat the salad and get a decaf-soy-latte. That’s a big deal in this part of the world!  

For example, we found Pure Soul Cafe, which would be good anywhere in the world. It is modern, clean and airy, with walls of glass with views of the mountains.  

Another favorite was Ramona’s Garden. It is a special place. Ramona runs an orphanage/school for children of the nearby mountain regions and also a whimsical café right on a creek by the Ganga (Ganges river).

Now, we have finished our annual retreat in the Punjab, complete with international talent show and holiday party - a total love fest! Carola was in a a-cappella singing group and Robert was in a gospel choir and we were both in a country/pop group called “Red Hot Chick Peas.” Awesome fun!

We ended the year in Mumbai, visited friends in Lucknow and Bangkok. And now we are back in beautiful Hawaii.

Life is crazy, but life is also good. Our continuing practice is to focus and refocus on the positive and try to release the negative and keep calm while doing both. 

Here’s hoping you and we have as much positive fun as possible in 2017!

Love, 

Robert and Carola  

Beautiful Lake Bled in Slovenia