Travel Diaries of a Truth Seeker in Kathmandu, The Indian Himalaya & Calcutta

In 2009 I gave up my job, my apartment and life as I knew it in Ireland, threw on a backpack, and ventured East to seek truth and find meaning. I was 28, about to turn 29, and I just knew there was “something more” – a supreme truth to life that I yearned to directly experience.

I traveled solo for the year, living in Kathmandu for 5 months, exploring the high Himalayan lands of Ladakh just west of Tibet for 3 months, and finishing my journey close to the mouth of the Ganges river, on the hot humid plains of Calcutta in Mother India.

I’m writing a book based on my travel diaries from this profound truth seeking adventure in Nepal and India. My spiritual travel memoir – a blend of travel narrative and mystical quest – will be ready for publication in 2025.

A Transformative Journey to Discover Who We Are & Why We’re Here

In my quest to seek and find truth, I immersed myself in Buddhism and received life-changing Dharma teachings from a lineage of high Tibetan Lamas. I meditated many long hours in Tibetan Buddhist gompas (temples) and Theravada Buddhist meditation centers in Nepal and India; practiced Yoga; was initiated into Reiki and Pranic healing; had the sweet privilege of being part of a rural Nepalese community in the Kathmandu valley; co-ordinated English Conversation Clubs and classes with Nepalese girls and Tibetan refugees; trekked through the highest mountains in the world; stayed with Ladakhi nuns in the Himalayas; attended the teachings of the Dalai Lama; traced some of the steps of Jesus in his supposed lost years in India; meditated for many many more hours in a Himalayan meditation cell on the borders of Tibet; and worked in the Mother Teresa homes for children and for the dying in Calcutta. And somewhere along the way, I met the man that I am married to today!

While 2009 was a wild and wonderful adventure, the real spiritual odyssey took place within. The longest journey for me that year was not the flight from Ireland to India, but the journey from my head to my heart. Letting go of the Western obsession with doing, and resting more in the Eastern way of being. Navigating the territory beyond the conceptual thinking mind, and settling into the true center of my being, in the deep stillness of my heart. It is my deepest intention that this book helps people remember who they truly are and why they’re really here. That it leads them out of the exile in their heads, and back into the vast spacious home and wisdom of their hearts.

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My 2009 Travel Photo Log

Kathmandu, Nepal

Ladakh, India

Kolkata (Calcutta), India

My 2009 Enlightened Reading List

Around the time that I was finishing up my master’s thesis in Dublin, I stumbled upon a small spiritual bookshop hidden down one of the city’s cobbled back streets. It was here that I bought my first “spiritual” book. I remember sitting on my bed the following day, taking a break from my academic research, and reading this new book as the light streamed in the window. As I sifted through those pages, it was as if time stood still. I had never quite read anything like this before – soul, consciousness, spirit, awakening, truth. My whole being was thirsty for it. A heavenly type of stillness washed over me, and I knew in that moment that I was exactly where I was meant to be, doing exactly what I was meant to be doing. I looked over at my laptop and the stack of books I had yet to read to complete my thesis. I wished from the deepest core of my being that the thesis I had to write was about spirituality, and that the research books I had to read were all these new illuminating books about consciousness and truth.

Well this is the profound gift I gave myself in 2009. Over 5 years later, I gave up everything and ventured forth on my own self-created higher education journey to find truth and pursue deeper meaning in my life, and built my enlightened reading list as I went along. These spiritual books below were my cherished companions and precious way-finders of truth throughout my year’s travels. They’re ordered in the sequence I read them in, from Kathmandu to Kolkata …

Kathmandu

The Power of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment, Eckhart Tolle (Thomson Press, Mumbai, 2001) (original work published in 1997)

You are here to enable the divine purpose of the universe to unfold. That is how important you are!
Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Spiritual Fable about Fulfilling Your Dreams and Reaching Your Destiny, Robin S. Sharma (HarperElement, London, 2004) (original work published in 1997)

Siddhartha: A Classic Work Dealing With The Meaning of Life, Hermann Hesse (Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2008) (original work published in 1922)

The Art of Living: Vipassana Meditation As Taught by S.N. Goenka: The Ancient Meditation Technique that Brings Real Peace of Mind, William Hart, (HarperCollins, New York, 1987)

The only way to experience truth directly is to look within, to observe oneself. All our lives we have been accustomed to look outward … We remain unknown to ourselves.
S. N. Goenka, The Art of Living

The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo, Translated by Francesca Fremantle and Chogyam Trungpa (Shambhala South Asia Editions, New Delhi, 2000), (original work published in 1975)

The Spirit of Reiki: The Complete Handbook of the Reiki System, Walter Lubeck, Frank Arjava Petter and William Lee Rand (Pilgrims Publishing, Varanasi, 2001)

The Way of the Bodhisattva: An Entry into the Activities of Enlightenment, Shantideva (Shambhala South Asia Editions, New Delhi, 1997)

For as long as space endures, And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide, To dispel the misery of the world.
Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva

What Makes You Not a Buddhist, Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse (Shambhala South Asia Editions, New Delhi, 2008)

Lam-Rim Outlines: Extended Beginners Meditation Guide, Compiled by Karin Valham (Foundation for the Preservation of Mahayana Tradition, Nepal, 2008) (original work published in 1996)

Making Life Meaningful, Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Boston, 2008) (original work published in 2001)

Live with compassion. Work with compassion. Die with compassion. Meditate with compassion. Enjoy with compassion. When problems come, experience them with compassion.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Making Life Meaningful

The Joy of Compassion, Lama Zopa Rinpoche (Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive, Boston, 2006) (original work published in 2000)

The Future of Humanity: A Conversation, J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm (Kristnamurti Foundation India, 2003) (original work published in 1987)

Ladakh

The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus’ 17-Year Journey to the East, Elizabeth Clare Prophet (Book Faith India, 1994)

Light on Yoga: The Classic Guide to Yoga by the World’s Foremost Authority, BKS Iyengar (HarperCollins, India, 2008) (original work published in 1966)

The emptying of the mind of the whole of its illusions is the true exhalation. The realisation that ‘I am Spirit’ is the true inhalation.
BKS Iyengar, Light on Yoga

You Can Heal Your Life, Louise L. Hay (Full Circle, New Delhi, 2005)

Brida: A Novel, Paulo Coelho (HarperCollins, New York, 2008)

Masters in the New Energy, Adamus Saint-Germain, channeled through Geoffrey Hoppe (Crimson Circle Press, USA, 2007)

A New Earth: Create A Better Life, Eckhart Tolle (Penguin Books, England, 2009) (original work published in 2005)

You are the universe expressing itself as a human for a little while.
Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth

The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret & Science of Happiness, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche (Three Rivers Press, New York, 2007)

Cave in the Snow: A Western Woman’s Quest for Enlightenment, Vicki MacKenzie (Bloomsbury, Great Britain, 1999) (original work published in 1998).

Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda (Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, 2007) (original work published in 1946).

… You realize that all along there was something tremendous within you, and you did not know it.
Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

Finding the Joy Within You: Personal Counsel for God-Centered Living, Sri Sri Daya Mata (Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, 2004) (original work published in 1990).

Kolkata

The Holy Bible, (The Gideons International, 1974 Edition)

Conversations With God, Book 1: An Uncommon Dialogue, Neale Donald Walsch (Penguin Random House, 1996)

Conversations With God, Book 2: Living in the World with Honesty, Courage, and Love, Neale Donald Walsch (Penguin Random House, 2003)

Conversations With God, Book 3: Embracing the Love of the Universe, Neale Donald Walsch (Penguin Random House, 2011)

There is only one reason to do anything: as a statement to the universe of Who You Are.
Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations With God

The Existence of God is Self-Evident, Master Choa Kok Sui (Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation India, 2006)

The Ancient Science and Art of Pranic Healing, Master Choa Kok Sui (Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation India, 2009) (original work published in 1992)

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams, Deepak Chopra (Hay House India, 2007) (original work published in 1994).

Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Malcolm Muggeridge (Collins/Fount Paperbacks, London, 1980) (original work published in 1971).

We have been created for greater things, to love and to be loved.
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Something Beautiful for God

My Travel Resources & Helpful Links

Lonely Planet Guidebooks

My Lonely Planets were my ever-present partner and trusted guide during my solo travels through Nepal and India. To me, they are the backpacker’s bible! While things have gone all fancy and digital since 2009, there’s still something special about holding a guidebook in your hands and navigating a brand new world from its pages. “Lonely Planet indisputably makes the most far-flung destinations seem instantly accessible.” – The Times

Lonely Planet Nepal: Travel Guidebook, Latest edition 2023

Lonely Planet India: Travel Guidebook, Latest edition 2022

Places to Meditate & Volunteer in Kathmandu, Ladakh & Calcutta

Kopan Monastery, Nepal: A large Tibetan Buddhist monastery in Kathmandu and home of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), offers their world-renowned 5, 7 and 10 day Discovering Buddhism Courses year round.

Himalayan Buddhist Meditation Centre, Kathmandu: A small meditation centre in Thamel, Kathmandu (the backpacker area), offers drop-in meditation classes and Dharma teachings. This centre is part of the FPMT centres worldwide. Volunteer opportunities may also be available.

Nepal Vipassana Centre: Based 12 kilometres north of Kathmandu, the Nepalese Dhamma Centre offers 10-day courses in Vipassana Meditation as taught by S.N. Goenka.

The Tara’s Homestay in Nyerma Nunnery, Ladakh: A small guesthouse on the grounds of a Buddhist nunnery, not far from the famous monastery in Thiksey, offers accommodation and food, and an ideal place to relax, meditate and experience the life of Ladakhi nuns. Volunteer opportunities may also be available.

Mahabodhi International Meditation Centre, Ladakh: An extensive Dhamma campus a good few kilometres outside Leh town, offers vipassana meditation courses (led by teachers in-house) in their Sambodhi Retreat Centre, accommodation and food in their Global Family Guesthouse, and access to meditation cells for personal retreat.

Pranic Healing Kolkata Centre: Situated on the 14th floor of the Technopolis building in the Salt Lake City region of Kolkata, this centre offers pranic healing courses following the guidance of Grand Master Choa Kok Sui.

Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata: Information on volunteering with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, with options of working in homes for the dying and homes for physically and mentally challenged children.

Other Solo / Soul Traveling Gals!

Get more inspiration from other women who ventured out on their own to find their truth and reach new heights that they never thought possible. These are two of my favorites …

Eat Pray Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, Elizabeth Gilbert (Penguin Books, 2007)

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, Sheryl Strayed (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013)