Six Destinations for the Spirit
Traveling is a choice, and it is a choice to make traveling sacred. Travel can be more than an eye-opening experience into a new culture of relics, ruins, history and tradition. It can be more than a destination-oriented expedition from Point A to Point B. The way of the traveler can transform into a heart-opening pilgrimage. From this point onward, we choose to travel as a force of inner discovery, unpeeling layers of personality to reach the core of purpose: who we are, what we are here to do, and how best we can express this essence within ourselves. Now, come empty your bags and open your mind, body and soul to these six places of enchantment.
1) Big Sur, California
Resting on the cliffs of the central Californian coast, Big Sur pounds with emotion. Not necessarily a town, the area wraps around roughly 10 miles of Highway 101 where land meets sea. The byway transforms between open seaward vistas guarded by sculpted cypress trees to shaded hairpins fortified with aged cedars. Carved walls of stone ricochet roaring waterfalls and tall arching bridges pass over lethargic estuaries. The natural expanse of Big Sur comes and goes much too quickly along this scenic drive, but stop at the viewpoints and breathe. Stretch your body on the precipices. Walk the fragrant trails down to the beach or hike into the hills. And if you create the time and space for unique nourishment, you'll pull into the gates of Escalen and indulge in a massage at their clothing-optional bathes nestled into the cliff's edge. Outside and back along the highway, establishments like Nepenthe and fine art galleries create an aura of aesthetics where man and nature meet in uniform. Big Sur is a space in time where the powers of harmony are a natural way of being.
2) Costa Rica
The country is a namesake for peace. First off; there's no official military. Secondly; the national greeting is "Pura Vida" or exact translation: pure life-equivalent to your standard hello, goodbye, yes, and of course. Costa Rica is the Pure Life, a lush tropical climate with a serene Central American culture tucked between Nicaragua to the north and Panama down south. People are friendly, calm and almost reserved in their manners-but it's just the air of tranquility they carry, comfortable as their economy thrives off ecologically mindful tourism. It's the world's haven for this eco-tourism; adventure-based explorations that take into consideration the sensitivity of Mother Earth. From thick mountaintops in the cloud forest of Monteverde to deserted beaches of Nosara on the Guanacaste peninsula; economical, verdant, balmy and mastering the pure life of comfort, this ex-pat welcoming culture will make you slip into yourself and out of society forever.
3) The Highlands, Scotland
Far north there lies a land harsh and rugged where locals are as thick in skin as the wind that sweeps over thundering waves onto the open and vast land. These are the highlands, a realm of fascination where myths and fables guide daily life. It's a terrain where locals know their seasons; twelve months of sleeting rain with dense fog carpeting verdant glens of deciduous canopies. At their edges, built as brawny ramparts or collected in ritualistic circles, stones erode to smooth rounds as old castles hang at the lakes' ends. Take the famed Loch Ness and delve into the imagination of storytelling, or arrive at Loch Lomond as melodies are sung in heavy accented tones: "Me and my true love we'll never meet again on the bonny, bonny banks of Loch Lomond". The Highlands of northern Scotland encompass a terrain rich in history, as intense and defying as the Campbell Clan once was to the MacDonald's of Glencoe.
4) Bali, Indonesia
Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love, Bali transformed from the hidden surfer's gem and textile paradise to a lover's abode for honeymooners and wayward wanderers. It's the little Hindu oasis of calm, resonating deeply with serenity, sacredness and natural artistic beauty that permeate everyday life on this extraordinary island. Bali is a fertile ground rich with neon hues of green rice patties and Oriental shrines whose eves turn towards heaven. The tropical atmosphere relaxes the mind and body, setting the perfect ambiance for a vacation of relaxation or one of enriched yogic practice. The culture cruises at slow pace, contagiously soothing to the wired nervous systems of the West, coaxing the traveler to explore new possibilities in order to realize a deeper consciousness of the world within and without.
5) Ko Tarutao, Thailand
Welcome to isolation. Spirituality involves a degree of solitude where the noise of society is shut out and the silence of the inner landscape is heard and appreciated. Welcome to Ko Tarutao, an uninhabited island in the Andaman Sea off the western shores of southern Thailand. Located in a national marine park, the marooned land mass is available for the true adventurer where the sole accommodation is beach camping just above the high tide line. A ferry passes every couple of days supplying the local café with amenities for the minimalist. But I say, seek your inner psyche. Find that contentment with yourself. And enjoy an island beside your neighbors of langur monkeys, wild boar and king cobra serpents. Welcome to Ko Tarutao.
6) India
There is no place comparable to India. Mother India is a mini extension of Mother Earth. She's a whole separate being inside our very own world, removed yet connected through the bustling economic powerhouses of the continent's industries. You arrive from your familiar world and instantly land outside yourself, walking off your now seemingly comfortable airliner with no turning back, and you step without any medium directly into a reality filled with energy and a depth of miasmic movement tying closely to Hinduism's dizzying pantheon of deities. India is India, again...no place, no culture comparable. It's a land of diversity from the Himalayan Mountains to the backwaters of Kerala, where spirituality resonates from the sources of the Ganges to the very southern tip of Rameshwaram. Every site is a pilgrimage as you sit in a cave with sadhus in meditation or move through the chaotic city of Delhi with a yogi's intention. This is India, filled with enriched tradition, imaginary parables, epic spiritual roots and undefined opportunities.
At nineteen years young, Cameron Karsten left his formal classroom studies to indulge in dreams of travel, following his heart with an open mind. As photographer and writer, Cameron portrays the soul of his experience, focusing upon the creation of global awareness involving social and environmental issues. For more, please visit his websites:
1) [http://www.cam2yogi.com]
2) http://cameronkarsten.blogspot.com
3) http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/cam2yogi