Home Away From Home: The Beauty of Homestays

“Don’t tell me has educated you are. Tell me how much you have traveled.”

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Why do we cycle? We do it for the peaceful nights at 4,000m surrounded by the stars and the snowy peaks. We do it to explore and discover rather than to simply sit and wonder, and we do it for the lovely people we meet along the way. One of the main reasons Kevin and I chose to travel as we do, and one of the thing that has kept us going through each and every country, is the astounding kindness of strangers and the wonderful homestays we have been lucky enough to partake in. Though it may seem pretty crazy if you haven’t experienced it yourself, total strangers really will invite you into their homes for a cup of tea (or even a night), and despite what the media may constantly tell you, our world is indeed a truly wonderful place.

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Nepal Through the Lens: A Year of Memorable Moments Part 2

“If adventure has a final and all-embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans…”

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365 days of homestays, high altitude cycling, and beautiful landscapes throughout Nepal.

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An Ode to the Himalayas: Nights on the Road

“I can’t have bad dreams when I sleep under the stars.”

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As a final farewell to the Himalayas and to mountains in general for the next little while (ok, long while, the alps are still quite a few kilometers away) here are a few of my favorite camping spots (that I remembered to take pictures at) from my stay in the mountains.

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365 Days and Counting

“She loved life and it loved her right back.”

How do you sum up a year which has changed the course of your life? A year in which I experienced innumerable acts of kindness throughout my own country as well as in India and Nepal. A year throughout which I also learned the daily hardships of many women in our world who live in oppressively patriarchal societies . A year which involved cycling over the highest passes in the world, trekking in some of the most isolated regions, and camping for weeks on end beneath the stars in the middle of the Himalayas. A year during which I was invited in by families in every country I visited to eat with them, sleep with them, and live, if only for a day or a week, as they do.

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