A lone woman walks home in Udaipur

It’s a big question because India is a big place.

It’s huge in every imaginable way – population, religion, history, culture.

There’s so much to learn; I found it completely overwhelming.

Mughal ruins crumble beside open drains choked with rubbish. There’s traffic and noise and colour everywhere. Modernity and history squash together like passengers on a train.

Farmers in the most remote corners of the country have brand new mobile phones. Elderly gents wear elegant suit jackets with traditional Rajasthani turbans and lungis (similar to sarongs).

Everything is done by hand. Life is heavily specialised. One person sells peas. Another sells milk desserts. The system works so long as everyone stays in their 1m x 1m space and doesn’t cause a fuss.

India is a tough place. I had to stay resolutely positive to enjoy it. I kept telling myself, ‘You’re an observer. You’re just here to learn’. Somehow that helped me stay up whenever the pollution, traffic, cold showers and incessant parade of vegetarian curries started to get me down.

The thing I hated most? How dirty the streets were.

The thing I loved the most? How unpretentious everyone was.

My lasting impression? That India is complicated. That it would take a lifetime to even begin to understand it. Hopefully I have taken the first step.

Have you been to India? What did you think?

But no, this is not what Om means. Prepare yourself for some deep spirituality, my friends.

According to Wikipedia, ‘Om is not just a sound or vibration. It is not just a symbol. It is the entire cosmos, whatever we can see, touch, hear and feel. Moreover, it is all that is within our perception and all that is beyond our perception. It is the core of our very existence. If you think of Om only as a sound, a technique or a symbol of the Divine, you will miss it altogether. Om is the mysterious cosmic energy that is the substratum of all the things and all the beings of the entire universe. It is an eternal song of the Divine. It is continuously resounding in silence on the background of everything that exists.’

Lonely Planet describes it in simpler terms: the bit on the left is the creation (in Hindu philosophy, this is Brahma); the bit on the right is destruction (Shiva), the curved line above the main figure is the ‘mirror of reality’ (the way we perceive reality) and the dot is our essential spirit or soul.

The definition of cute

Name: Stephanie Ling

Age: 42

Occupation: Mum of 2, wife of 1, sister of 2, daughter of 2 which includes helping them run their lock/hardware company

Favourite travel destination?: I love to be by the ocean under the sun, somehow being on either a white or grey sandy beach soothes and calms my body and soul and puts me in a merry mood whether Im in Phuket, Southern France or Africa.

Worst travel experience?: I don’t think there is really any worst travel experience because they all end up with good memories somehow when its over! It’s only during the moment that you endure it makes it worse or the worst!

Best tips for beating jetlag?: Either you stay out all day or you stay in and sleep sleep sleep!

What is the one thing you don’t leave home without?: Aroma oils and my perfume, the smell is essential!

Do you stay in touch with people while you’re travelling? If so, what is the best way to do this?: Yes but minimal, the purpose of travelling is to get away and enjoy where you are so I don’t bother too much to stay in touch with the world. If so it’s only via sms unless its work related then I email via blackberry or call if it’s urgent.

Best meal you’ve ever had while travelling?: I love food and enjoy food from different places so it’s hard to judge what is good instead of what is not authentic. I hate to find myself in a touristy restaurant when the locals twist the flavor of their dish to cater to a foreign palate.

Best kiss?: N/A … My husband will be reading this! LOL

Best/scariest/funniest drive?: Visited Vietnam about 18 years ago, there was no highways in between cities, just narrow windy bumpy roads filled with bikes, cars and people, people just drive randomly so you would see corpse on the floor covered by a piece of white sheet, white sheets everywhere, people just hit and run as if part of life, it was scary!

The moment – what has been the big WOW moment of your travelling life?: Doing safari in Tanzania on our honeymoon and seeing two lions right next to our car. I felt I was filming National Geographic LIVE.

Climbing atop to one of the temples in Ankor Wat to catch the sunrise, it was stunning!

What is your number one travel tip?: Travel Light! Must travel light!

Seven planes, three trains, five buses, one boat, one ferry, countless taxis (old Ambassadors with very spring suspension), even more autorickshaws and a camel later, I am home from India – huzzah!

Here are some fun pics of the local Indian transport:

Occupation: Artist, musician and filmmaker

Favourite travel destination?: Planet earth, because there’s so much to see here. Its sounds clichéd but each place we have toured through we have found true beauty in. The variety and dynamic of experience and interaction varies so much. It’s like singling out the myriad of colours in a magnificent oil painting. From Delhi to New York, Sydney to Heidelberg, Paris to Tokyo.

On tour through India in 2009 we stayed at a place called Mt Abu. This photo was taken of a large bull who came up to say hi while I was pondering. His tongue felt like a warm, wet sock covered in lawn bindies! 'Abu' according to a legend, stands for the son of Himalaya, the powerful serpent who rescued Nandi, the sacred bull of Lord Shiva, from a chasm. Mount Abu has been home to many sages and saints. I played an Indian blues instrument for a guru on top of the mountain who then invited me for meditation and prayer with him in his cave temple. Live Love, Ew

Worst travel experience?: One of the most gut-whirling ‘oh NO’ experiences we had was arriving to our accommodation near Venice Beach in LA to discover our computer bag was missing. We had just flown in from Canada to LAX and had a one hour shuttle ride to the family home we were staying at. Eating pizza and relaxing I went to grab the laptop that wasn’t there and so began the search and frantic re-tracing of steps. We realized ALL our hard drives, USB’s and memory cards were in that one bag too, everything electronic, all our travel photos and movies! After many phone calls to lost and found and plenty of pacing, we were told to expect that the bag of computers had been taken and I was trying to understand the concept of moving on, let it go. Exhausted, by about 1am we decided to sleep and head back to the airport in the morning.

Arriving at the airport at 7am, I felt like a sniffer dog and scoured everywhere we had been. I found the airline service desk and explained what had happened. He said if it was left outside it would be dealt with by LA City Council not the airport. We felt crushed. He then said he would have a quick check out back. I leant over the counter and saw a black bag – yep it was ours! All there, all good! We had left the bag on the airport trolley outside while packing the taxi and it was amazing that in such a busy place it was safely returned.  So keep the faith in good deeds and don’t put all important computer gear, photos, etc in the one place while in transit.

Best tips for beating jetlag?: Sync your sleep pattern a little to your destination before you leave, then just enjoy yourself and don’t worry about it. I try not to think about what time it is back home for a few days and just keep busy. Depending on your travel plans, sometimes it works in your favour to not adjust so you can be awake all night long and sleep all day at your destination.

What is the one thing you don’t leave home without?: My phone

Best meal you’ve ever had while travelling?: The variety and quality of cuisine has been so varied everywhere though I found Germany was consistently good all the way round and an enjoyable eating experience. I don’t eat much red meat but that didn’t matter at all. In Australia I performed on Dunk Island where every lunch and dinner was prepared by world class Chefs. Then there is India where my favorite dish is palak mutter (traditional blended spinach with green peas – tastes better than it may sound! ) -  oh and in Paris I got up to seven croissants per day … food glorious food!

Best kiss?: My girlfriend every morning and in many different places … around the world I mean.

Best/scariest/funniest drive?: Driving through many beautiful countries offers many great memories and really instills the ‘oneness’ of us as humans on a wonderful planet. One particular drive that was quite exhilarating was driving from Toronto to Montreal, then up through to Chicoutimi in Quebec. The start was sunny, gradually turning to rain, then sleet, then into snow, then into a snow storm. We couldn’t see the road or skyline and the wind was howling like a thousand wolves. I filmed some of the trip up and you can check it out here.

What has been the big WOW moment of your travelling life?: Arriving in New York on sunrise, I was really affected in a great way. A giant orange sun behind an amazing silhouetted skyline, then grabbing coffee and breakfast on Lexington Ave. The twin church towers in Cologne really had me in visual awe and so did the Ellora Ajanta caves and shrines in India – ancient temples carved mostly by hand from stone.

What is your number one travel tip?: Let go of the concept of time and really embrace the concept of living.

Eli Wolfe is a National Youth Ambassador who is currently touring Australia on a ‘Speak Lovingly’ Tour that promotes respectful relationships. Check him – and his tour dates – out here.

The freezing cold waters of Bahia Inglesa, Chile

Bahía Inglesa is a tiny village located near the port of Caldera in Chile that’s home to one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Only a few hundred people inhabit the town, with Bahía Inglesa becoming a tourist mecca in the holiday season.

We were there in early January just before the crowds and had no problem securing real estate on the sand and at the restaurants overlooking the clear aqua water. And if there’s one thing the people of Chile know how to do, it’s food. Little old men and women wander up and down the beach selling hand-made deliciousness in the form of traditional pastries, chocolate stick rolls and the toffee apples of your dreams.

But the local treats won’t be the only thing keeping you on the sand. The desert temperatures may have been sitting at around 35°C, but the ocean was like ice. Spend more than five minutes in and you’ll feel an aching, almost numbing feeling deep within your bones.

The thing is this: if you rewind almost exactly 10 years, to almost exactly the same Sunday morning, I was in Sydney, rolling out of a club in the city and literally bumping straight into a marathon that was going on there. In my state, it took me a while to work out what was going on. Once I realised that there was a foot race right in front of where I wanted to stumble, I was immediately annoyed in only the way that a self-centred, youth-and-clubbing-sort-of-fit, 22-year old can be. “Jesus” I slurred to my friends, “if I’m ever up this early without having been up all night, shoot me, wont you?!” and I added, as I teetered along, “And if I’m running, shoot me twice!” … Ahhh, the innocence of youth. Or something.

Flash forwards 10 years to the first weekend of December 2011 and I am lucky enough to have friends who chose to ignore my demands. This has left me very much alive, and very much standing at the starting line for the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Gold medal not to scale

Somehow, in the time between the club and now, by some miracle of nature, I have become a woman that loves to go for a run. Also along the way, my sense of adventure has been relocated from exploring the bounds of consciousness inside a nightclub, to exploring the countries and cultures of the world. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the odd jaunt back to a late-night dance floor, and I’m still self-centred, but the me of my 20s would take great pleasure in rolling her eyes back into her head and calling me ‘soft’.

Standing at the start line of a 21km, Cambodian running race, however, I didn’t feel soft at all. I felt stupid. I had never run this far before. I couldn’t image what had possessed me to come to a place I’d never been before and do this. And then the starting gun went off …

What ensued for the next two-and-a-half hours was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I can’t overstate that. It’s actually hard to find words for it, which is pretty rare.

Not only did I run the entire race without too much discomfort, I ran the entire race with a huge grin on my face! It was totally unbelievable. I am no athlete either; my ‘run’ is not something you’d call competitive unless you had your tongue firmly in your cheek. But the marathon took place in a loop around the amazing temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, which I had never seen before. Every time I began to feel physically drained, another magnificent temple wall, or stunning stone arch would appear on my path.

Between these sights, the race coiled through little villages, and here’s the clincher: hundreds of children from the villages had lined up along race route to high-five the runners as they passed. The race is an event that raises money for landmine victims and the underprivileged of Cambodia, so these gorgeous, smiling kids were coming out to cheer us on. They’d hold their hands out for you to brush as you ran past, and I couldn’t stop smiling, and I couldn’t let myself miss a single little hand.

My time for finishing the race was average at best, and I couldn’t have cared less. I felt like I’d been part of something truly special. A personal best on every level. And a high that left the club-kitten looking like the soft one!

Just to avoid confusion, this is NOT me. I look a lot like this girl but I am brunette and way hotter

The silly season is killing me.

The drinking, the lack of sleep and the failure to eat anything larger than a 50c piece at parties means that I am turning from a normal human into a canape-eating zombie. The bags under my eyes need porters.

It was an immense relief when I checked into VIBE North Sydney last Friday night. It was quiet. There was a bath. There was a flatscreen TV and a new Marie Claire.

Room 1001 was not especially flash; I get the feeling this hotel caters to business travellers rather than luxury-seeking trollops such as myself.

Nonetheless, it was clean and, in a major bonus, a glittering Lavender Bay view revealed itself when I peeked around the black-out curtains.

The real benefits become evident in the morning. The curve restaurant breakfast room is enormous and the buffet is pleasantly generous. There are just two things that I insist upon, come Saturday morning: 1) good quality coffee and, 2) the Sydney Morning Herald Weekender.

To my pedantic delight, there were enough papers for everybody, meaning that I didn’t have to go begging for the Good Weekend or read the Drive or Sport section in curmudgeonly dismay. There was also bottomless self-serve coffee out of one of those push-button machines. I thought it would be crap but it wasn’t. I had two goes.

And again, there is the view and the pool with the view and the proximity to the view. Wendy Whiteley’s garden is just around the corner, the Sydney Harbour Bridge is an engagement ring’s throw down the street and Kirribilli Markets, held on Sundays, are directly opposite.

If you’re planning a trip to Sydney between now and 29th January 2012, I recommend this sweet VIBE North Sydney deal, starting from $209 per night:

• Two nights accommodation
• A scrumptious free full buffet breakfast for two at curve cafe + bar
• A free Vibe towel – the ultimate poolside accessory for summer. I scored one of these towels and it’s very good quality.

To book the best online rates guaranteed, check out vibehotels.com.au

So what are you kids getting up to over Christmas and New Year? Will you be lounging around beside a pool or are you planning to do something fun like server maintenance?

Fortunately for Julia, she has just spent the last few months in Russia and Ukraine with filmmaker Stuart McBratney, documenting the life, culture, people and food of former Soviet countries. They’ve filmed 57 hours of footage, and are currently editing it into a 4-part tv series, hopefully the first of many.

Julia makes being Ukrainian look awesome

So, what is it like? It is true that the woman all want to marry a rich Westerner, all the men are drunk on vodka which is cheaper than water, and that their version of democracy is the same president/PM for 24 years?

In the show, Julia interviews people from all walks of life. Fans of Eurovision on SBS will enjoy her interview with Ukraine’s #1 megastar Ruslana, who chats about helping the Orange Revolution overthrow a corrupt regime. At the other end of the social spectrum, she chats to homeless Roma (the pc term for those formerly known as ‘gypsies’). In between, she chats to grandparents living on $20 weekly pensions. She hangs out with socialites in Moscow’s trendy fashion scene, learns about street gymnastics in Kherson, drinks home-squeezed tomato juice in a ‘dacha’ or country house, and dances with an 80-year-old jazzman. He’s on a boat.

And while it’s not strictly a food show, Julia definitely qualifies as a foodie. She’s a trained Chef and has learnt the art of Russian home cooking from her mother and grandmother since she was very malenki. Let’s just say there’s more to Soviet cooking than borsch.

So how true is this whole vodka-bingeing thing? Is it a myth? And does the series bust it? Well, it turns out that beer and cocktails are becoming increasingly cool but home-distillation of spirits is still a popular pastime. And for those who speak a little Russian, yes, Julia’s surname really is ‘Nalivaiko’. For those non-Russian speakers out there, this translates roughly as ‘yes, pour me another!’.

If you’d like to help Julia and Stu complete their epic Soviet extravaganza, you can pre-purchase dvds and order coffee table books by visiting their Kickstarter page here.With a little luck, and a little help from their friends, they can pour the world another helping of Russian weirdness/wonderfulness.

Na zdarovye!

The main street is relaxingly daggy. The service is friendly, the shops are cluttered and the overall feeling is that you can go barefoot and no one cares.

This laid back vibe extends to Ocean Beach, an NRMA Holiday Park set right on the Umina beachfront. From the moment you check in into your Seabreeze Townhouse, the overall feeling is aaaahhhhh.

Seabreeze townhouse: at least double the size of my Sydney apartment

The interiors are beautifully functional and tasteful, with a solid timber table and chairs in the kitchen, modern cane couches in the lounge area and, impressively (for a linen snob like me), fresh, colourful bedding in all the rooms. It feels beachy but kitsch-free; something of an art form.

Tasteful linen!

The townhouses are perched directly opposite the beach access so it takes about two minutes to climb out of bed and splash into the freezing cold surf. The waves are gentle and the beach is dog-friendly, a total bonus for a puppy stalker such as myself.

The major benefit of Ocean Beach, beyond the pristine natural setting and the whooping bellbirds, is the fact that this place is Child-Friendly with a capital ovulation. There are several playgrounds, jumping pillows, a rainforest-themed pool and spa complex, a cafe and a Kids Club with lots of things that actually sound pretty fun (chocolate crackle making, pancakes and cartoons, a treasure hunt and tractor rides).

My spirit animal (according to a fairly unreliable website)

I don’t have kids but I know plenty of stressed out people who do; people who could use a break from their sticky, ungrateful offspring. Ocean Beach is the perfect solution to a multi-generational holiday. The littlies can play with other germ-ridden brats, the adults can relax in the knowledge that their children are safe and the teenagers can lurk moodily in the fresh air, texting their friends.

Have you been to Umina? What did you think?