Last weekend I went with my family to our favourite beach in Australia known as “Treachery“. As the map below shows it is about 3 hours North of Sydney and is located just past Seal Rocks. We first started coming here around 1997 and have come almost every year since for 2 to 3 weeks in the Summer. It is really an untouched wilderness nestled in the middle of Myall Lake National Park where there is a camp ground just behind the Northern end of the beach. Treachery is known for it’s laid back atmosphere, impressive wildlife and year-round excellent surfing conditions which at times can be rather treacherous.

Click any image to ENLARGE.

Here is a quick map I made to show you were Treachery is in relation to Sydney. The beach faces South East which explains why it always has good surf because it picks up the South swells.

Here is a view of the headland at the Northern end of the beach.

And this is the view looking South from the Northern end of the 1 mile long beach.

The waves were quite good but a little too small.

This was my first surf in a year. I am very thankful for muscle memory!

It felt really good to be back in the water again. There’s nothing like the feeling of surfing.

When we go camping we always have a nice setup complete with a kitchen, dining room, lounge room and bedrooms (individual tents).

Here is my tent.

And this is the view from inside.

As I mentioned, Treachery is known for it’s fantastic wildlife. Here is a Goanna outside one of our tents.

Goanna‘s are large lizards found throughout Australia. They can easily grow bigger than 2 metres (6 feet) and eat all kinds of other smaller animals. Thankfully they are quite shy around humans and I’ve never heard of any serious incidents except for scratched arms. Notice it’s huge claws and long tongue.

Photo Credit: Utopia Images Online (My Dad)
Treachery is filled with a wide array of bird life. In the morning I counted at least 15 different songs that created a deafening symphony. The above picture is of the famous Laughing Kookaburra (from the kingfisher family) which is known for its song that sounds like laughter. They are often seen eating snakes so they’re a good bird to have around.

One night we made a fruit salad for desert and this mother and baby Possum came down from the trees hoping for a piece of the action. In a previous year I fed one and it bit me! so that wasn’t happening again…

My sister-in-law was about to flick this little insect off a chair when she realized that it was a scorpion! It posed nicely for the camera before I moved it to into the bushes.

Photo Credit: Ogwen
The Seal Rocks area and in particular the Treachery camp ground has always had a small dingo population. They are ancient dogs brought by the Aborigine’s and have lived in Australia for thousands of years. They never bark only howl.

Photo Credit: Richard Fabiszewski
On this trip I didn’t see any snakes but every time before I’ve encountered them including the red-bellied black snake pictured above.

I love making fire using only natural means except for a match stick. There is something very primordial and mesmerizing about fire that has always fascinated me.

I built the fire up quickly in order to produce coals that would be used for cooking our dinner – vegetarian lasagne!

Here you can see the lasagne in the camp ovens waiting for the coals.

We placed the cast-iron pots on a bed of red hot coals and then covered them as well. After about 45 minutes we could smell the delicious scent of fresh, wood-fired, vegetarian lasagne. My Dad swept the coals off with a brush to see if our noses were correct – they were.

Here is another view of the campsite and my family preparing the lasagne for serving.

Perfection!

Bellissimo!

Everyone silently enjoying the delicious meal.

My parents are avid campers going to the remotest parts of Australia in there Landcruiser. Here you can get a glimpse of how well setup they are with a fridge, storage drawers and fold down kitchen bench.

They even have whipping cream capabilities – heaven!

We had a mouth watering fruit salad with jelly topped with whipped cream for dessert.

The next day we went for picnic at Lighthouse beach where you’re allowed to drive on the beach.

My brother Ehren was testing his Jeep for the first time on the sand – he had a blast.

Here you can see where the beach gets it’s name with the lighthouse perched on the top of the cliff.

Beach driving is fun – the trick is to lower your tire pressure so that the wheel has more surface area and to not stop because that’s when you sink. Also it’s helpful to drive in the tracks of others because the sand is more compressed there.

Another example of how well my parents are setup to go to the “outback”. They have vital shade whenever they stop and it only takes seconds to setup.

After I’d had a surf and we’d eaten lunch we went for a stroll to the headland at the North end of Lighthouse Beach.

A shoreline wave.

An amazing view.

Quite a mixture of rocks compose this headland which is slowing washing into the sea.

More interesting rocks and pebbles.

This is the next beach around from Lighthouse called Boat Beach. And I think the rocks out there are the Seal Rocks.

This picture is of the South Celestial Pole. It is a 15 minute exposure that captures the star trails due to the Earths rotation on it’s axis. The circle at the bottom is me shining a torch light at the camera in big arches. I did an earlier blog post with a series of these type of images called “Self Portraits – Painting With Light.”

On the day we were leaving the back door of the Landcruiser wouldn’t unlock so we had to unscrew a metal cargo barrier that blocked access so that I could crawl through the tiny space unlock it from the inside with my long arms.

My Dad then tried to fix it by taking it apart but it didn’t work.

So I came up with a way to unlock it with a series of ropes that lead to the middle section of the car – ghetto rig!

Lastly my Mum snapped this photo of me taking pictures so you can see what I look like when I’m photo blogging…

The trip was very nostalgic and fun was had by all. I really love the Australian wilderness and feel lucky to be from this beautiful country.

All the best,

Asher.

P.S Comments and questions are more than welcome.

On Tuesday last week I arrived back home to Sydney, Australia for a 1 month long visit to attend my brother’s wedding and for a general family reunion. I am very happy to be back enjoying the early Summer in Sydney after missing it for 7 years! Today, Sunday, I went with my Mum to the local Organic Farmers Market right near where we live on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It was great to see the thousands of people flocking for the fresh food picked ripe for our enjoyment and nourishment.

Click any photo below to ENLARGE.

As the sign says this market is open every Sunday morning ’til they sellout by around 2pm. It has been going ever since I can remember and was a nice novelty for me to return to after a long fast.

They basically sell every “in season” fruit and vegetable under the sun. A vegetarian’s delight!

All kinds of apples and oranges are beautifully laid out as eye candy for us to eat with our mouths as well…

We went for the “marked” apples that had nothing wrong with them except they were bigger or smaller than usual and maybe a few little marks. $2 a kilogram is rather cheap, eh?

I came across some veggies that I’d never heard of such as broccolini. It’s obviously related to broccoli but with smaller florets and longer stalks.

Any takers for a tray of tree-ripe Australian mangoes for 12 bucks?

They have basically anything you would need but it is wise to get there early, like 7am.

They had nice flowers.

I was looking at these 2012 Australian calendars for gifts and for my room back in the US when this man came over and told me he was the photographer! So I asked if I could take a pic of him for my blog.

More of the same.

At many of the stalls there were different families running them descending from all over the world. This group were Italian.

Tropical plants were available including orchids and frangipani’s (plumera) – my favourite.

A lot of the food we bought was organic but not certified. This stand had exclusively 100% certified organic produce which was a bit more expensive.

In the foreground of this pic are endless varieties of seedling herbs and veggies for people to replant at home. We bought basil and mint.

This is to prove to you that we do drive on the left in Australia.

And this one shows how much natural bushland there is surrounding my home.

More photos from Sydney to come shortly.

On Friday September 30th, I woke at 3:30am to get ready to drive to the airport with two friends Narayana and Joey. We decided to go to New York City for 6 days largely because I’d never been there and also because I had some frequent flyer miles to burn. Plus we have a good friend, Austin, who has a nice apartment we could crash in. There were no issues with the flight and I was surprised how short the journey was, only 1 hour and 40 minutes from Chicago. By the time we arrived at the West Village apartment it was definitely past lunch time so we called a friend Trevor and found a fantastic little Thai restaurant with exquisite food for $8.

Soon after the meal Joey went with Trevor to stay with him at his place in Brooklyn while Narayana and I spent the night in Manhattan. The next morning we caught a bus which was hours late to Connecticut to visit Austin and his family at their home. It was very pleasant to be amongst the amazingly fluoro green forests.

Click on any photo below to ENLARGE.

We were experimenting with motion blur and Austin decided to stand in the picture and almost be hit by an SUV.

I tried a new effect I discovered where you use a flash in low light and then twirl your camera after the flash goes off. It works quite well, eh?

This lily was in the garden.

We had a great time at Austin’s house, hanging out with Anjuli and Matt (his sister and her boyfriend). On the Sunday afternoon we went to nice little lake nearby and went swimming and boating.

Testing the waters. I was the first to jump in because it was surprisingly warm.

The boat ride was very nice except I started feeling cold – maybe the water wasn’t so warm after all.

The Connecticut sky was beautiful that day.

That night we caught a bus back to New York City. The following day we met up with Trevor, Joe, Joey, Supriya, and Jeremy. Monday night (what you see in this pic) we went to Chinatown for some real authentic Chinese food.

Here is the street view on one of the corner’s in Chinatown.

It was a nice little restaurant that only had Chinese people in it. They welcomed us warmed but barely spoke English so it was interesting.

I was playing around with reflections because there were so many mirrors in the restaurant.

The food was fantastic once again. That was really one of the highlights of New York City – the FOOD! We used the website Yelp to help us find restaurants that were affordable with good reviews and I can honestly say every meal was absolutely delicious.

Here is Joe counting the money for the bill I think it was about $100 for 8 people – cheap!

New York typical night scene.

We caught endless trains to get around Manhattan. I concluded they are like teleportation devices because you simply walk down some stairs and a few minutes later when you walk back up the stairs your in a different country or at least a completely different neighborhood with a distinctly different feeling.

We finished the night at Magnolia Bakery on Bleecker St that had the best cupcakes I had ever had. Austin got a free one because he stuck his hand out first…

Another train blurring by.

Austin’s apartment was really nice and we’re very thankful for him inviting us over.

On the Tuesday we had a touristy day where we had to check out Times Square.

There were plenty of flashing lights and huge billboards everywhere.

We came across Hotel Eric Carter.

Almost at the main strip of Times Square – it kind of reminded me of the street scenes of the movie Blade Runner.

I think this picture of Times Square encapsulates what it’s like.

A stretch limo pulls through the intersection probably transporting a celebrity. Which reminds me, I passed the pop star, Pink, in the West Village near Austin’s apartment on Monday. There were like 9 paparazzi shooting away like there was no tomorrow. And actually that was something I noticed in New York City – there are an unusually high proportion of extremely beautiful people there. I don’t know why but maybe because they are trying to make it big and New York is certainly is the place for that. Any thoughts?

Here I am at Times Square, New York City to prove I was actually there.

Narayana wanted me to take this photo of him with the NASDAQ symbol behind him. I think it suits him, don’t you?

More outrageously large flashing billboards. On these streets there were lots of dudes outside stores and clubs hustling to get us to go to some comedy show or something. We just kept walking and then their standard line was “where are you from?”. Jeremy said “have you heard of Russia?” while we kept walking. The guy then said, “is that where you’re from?” We didn’t answer and kept walking and then he said, “I’ll meet you on Jersey shore.” Quite funny.

Just north of Times Square is Central Park which is literally breath of fresh air and a God send that they’ve at least kept some nature.

As soon as I saw this hotel I thought of Home Alone 2 where he stays at this Hotel Plaza and racks up a huge bill on his dad’s credit card. It also made me think of the homeless lady who saved him from the bad guys. Quite a beautiful scene.

In that little lake were gigantic fish! We concluded that the competition is so high in New York City that even the fish are the cream of the crop.

Our next destination on this day was the David Lynch Foundation New York City Headquarters. The elevator surprised me when I noticed there was no 13th floor! Crazy. I hate to break it to them but the 14th floor is actually the 13th floor. I found out that practically all buildings in the city are like this.

The David Lynch Foundation offices were very nice and they welcomed us and gave us chocolates.

We came in when they were in the middle of conference calls. Here is Heather Hartnett, Supriya Vidic and Austin Ayer. Austin and Heather work for the foundation and Supriya is interning there.

Another subway, another teleportation excursion.

The destination this time was ITALY or “little Italy“. We wanted to sample some authentic Italian food and had some sublime fresh homemade pasta – bellissimo!

One of the joys of living in America – you can practically buy a gun anywhere. This shop seemed quite fancy.

Joey has some Italian ancestors and in this photograph he looks rather Italian don’t you think?

Here is a NYPD cop talking to the restaurant owner. They talked for a long time, who knows what about?

We went to the fashion district SoHo and stopped by the newish brand UniQlo. I was impressed by the quality and the prices.

I bought an ultra light down jacket for $79. It only weighs 7 ounces or 200 grams and is super warm. Plus it folds into a little pouch that you can fit in your pocket! Score.

SoHo, New York City.

I was perplexed to see this Chinese man carrying two huge trash bags in the Asian style. Quite a sight and symbolic of the diversity of culture in the city. Did you know there are as many as 800 languages spoken in New York City?!

Another blurry train – I guess I got obsessed with taking a picture of every train I could.

We went to a comedy show at UCB East that was titled something like “Gene Hackman and Friends.”

It turned out that Gene Hackman had nothing to do with the show but that was a way to get us to come. Joe, Joey and Narayana were called on the stage to impersonate lines from different movies. They each got a crappy gift. It was an okay show with some really hilarious acts but mostly it was mediocre.

We stopped by a German bar where they were singing songs for Octoberfest – quite amusing.

Last but not least, we had a great a time and started wearing fancy clothes and didn’t want to leave. If you haven’t been to New York City I highly recommend it. It seems like this city is really a world city with so much influence on fashion, media, finance and education etc it can be totally mind boggling and addictive. I will go back there for sure.

I welcome your comments.

~Peace

Recently I came across this new website called Visual.ly that helps you create visualizations and infographics from raw data. Their “labs” for making the graphics are “coming soon” but they already have this awesome Twitter application that visualizes your Twitter profile. It pulled data from my @AsherFergusson account and then created this rather accurate infographic about me and my miniscule Twitter usage!

It also has a fun way to compare yourself to another Twitter user so I compared myself to my friend @EricCarterNow. HILARIOUS!

You can try it for yourself here – “Discover Your Twitter Character on Visual.ly“

Whenever I have had some time over the past few months I have been taking some fun self portraits in the evening around twilight. I have always had a fascination with time lapse photography and have been doing it on and off since I was 14. I love how in a single frame you can capture multiple moments in time and how it creates something more than the sum of the parts. All photos below were taken with a Pentax DSLR on the “bulb” setting with the shutter opened for about 2 to 5 minutes and the light used was an LED bike headlight. I did not do any editing with Photoshop – these are taken straight from the camera’s SD card… Click the images to enlarge.

^This one was taken near a rail road crossing just up the road from my office. I passed the light behind my back and above my head from hand to hand in order to get this effect.

^This one was taken outside the large Transcendental Meditation dome on the Maharishi University of Management campus (where I am studying).

^This one was taken on a full moon outside of the building that I live in.

^This one was taken a few days ago with B street behind me. Notice how I’m not wearing warm clothes anymore – finally it’s Summer! There are more interesting colors from the flowers and fireflies etc. It was quite lucky how the car headlights behind me went almost exactly through the center of the image…

^I thought to try and write something with this light painting technique so I wrote “RESPECT”.

Hope you enjoyed!

Best Wishes,

Asher.

On an afternoon in August 2004, I boarded a jumbo jet in Sydney, Australia bound for the United States. After a long and arduous 30 hour journey, I arrived in Maharishi Vedic City – a few miles to the north-west of Fairfield, home to Maharishi University of Management (MUM).

I enjoyed a delicious dinner at the friends house that I was staying and was in bed by about 9pm. I awoke the next morning at 7am feeling great and as if I had always lived in this strange new land. The thing that I found remarkable was that I proceeded to not have any form of jet lag despite my extended journey.

The only explanation I could give for this phenomenon was that my friends’ house was built according to the principles of Maharishi Vastu Architecture. This style of architecture follows the guidelines as prescribed in the ancient Vedic texts of India and revived by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The most salient aspects include orientation or direction of the building, proportion, placement of rooms and sustainably built using local and natural materials.

 
 
 
Click on the images to enlarge.
 
 
 
 

Since my initial taste of living in Maharishi Vastu Architecture I have traveled all over the world and tasted some of the finest Vastu houses and buildings around.

^ In 2005 I was lucky to move into a brand new residence hall building on the MUM campus just outside the large meditation hall (dome.)

My experience of Maharishi Vastu Architecture is more or less the same regardless of the location in the world. I am always struck by the deafening Silence that pervade the walls of these buildings. I generally sleep extremely well, like a baby, and always feel expansion of the heart and mind while occupying a Vastu building.

In 2006 I had the opportunity to visit Maharishi European Research University (MERU) in Vlodrop, The Netherlands for about 2 months. This place is the international headquarters of the Transcendental Meditation movement run by Maharishi himself. Then in 2008 after graduating from MUM I moved to MERU to be the assistant to Dr. Harris Kaplan and Dr. Bevan Morris (President of MUM). For the first time I experienced Maharishi’s Vastu house from the inside and was utterly impressed by the galactic Silence permeating the building. The other noticeable quality is bubbling bliss and simply a magical feeling regardless of the day or night.

^ Maharishi’s house, Vlodrop, The Netherlands

^ The local newspaper did a story on us at Vlodrop. In the background is Harris and Arlene Kaplan’s beautiful house.

In 2009 I traveled to India with Dr. Morris and experienced a wide array of Maharishi Vastu buildings in different parts of the sub-continent. We were first in Allahabad, then later moved to the Brahmasthan (central point) and then went North to Uttar Kashi in the Himalayas.

I had already been to the Brahmasthan in 2008 for a couple of months after Maharishi’s funeral cremation in Allahabad. It definitely has the strongest quality of dynamism (or sound) in the silence. In fact, one morning I was actually woken by the sound of Vedic chanting but then I realized it was the sound of silence!

^ Here is the main campus at the Brahmasthan. There are literally hundreds of buildings already built and under construction spread over three campuses.

During my travels throughout Northern India I went through many towns and noticed buildings that looked like they built according to the principles of Maharishi Vastu and then realized that it was another Maharishi Vidya Mandir School. There are over one hundred of these schools across India with more than one hundred thousand students!

^ Gajoli ashram, Uttar Kashi, Himalayas, India

^ Kunsi ashram, Uttar Kashi, Himalayas, India

^ View down to Uttar Kashi “Valley of the Saints” from the Kunsi ashram

After this India trip I returned to Holland and also made some visits to Fairfield, IA and India again. In India I had a very nice and long stay in Bhopal at a fantastic campus built according to the principles of Maharishi Vastu.

^ Here is one of the buildings at the Bhopal campus where I stayed for three months in ’09 – ’10.

Then just a few months ago I attended a conference in Rendlesham, 2 hours to the Northeast of London in England. I was thoroughly impressed by the countless Vastu homes that have been built in this Village.

After a long, all day drive from Holland, through Belgium, France on a ferry and up to Rendlesham I was welcomed to a nice couples home. Upon entering the house and after meditating I was completely refreshed from the tiring journey. The deep well of silence enclosed within the building as if nourished my soul.

The three day visit to Rendlesham made me think of all the dozens of Vastu buildings I have visited around the world and how they all have this divine quality of subtle light and positive energy. I am truly a believer of the value of Vastu architecture and have realized that if done right it will be the same regardless of the country it is built in. I believe that by building a Maharishi Vastu home you are creating a little oasis of coherence and peace in your life. Maharishi coined the tag line for Maharishi Vastu as “fortune creating” and I think this it is true on every level.

So I guess you’re wondering if I’m living in Vastu now?…

YES!

In fact, over the past 7 years since I left Australia I have lived in different Maharishi Vastu buildings for about 5.5 of those years. And if I have my way I will never have to spend another day in a building that isn’t following these simple yet deeply profound principles.

Now I have a big goal of creating a Vastu village in Queensland, Australia.

If you have any questions about my specific experiences at any of the photographed places above please feel free to leave it in the comments sections below.

Also for more information about this style of architecture then visit MaharishiVastu.org

Lastly, here is a video slideshow showing many of the Vastu homes in Maharishi Vedic City, USA.

Last year I went home to Australia and was lucky to be able to go down to Melbourne and visit my Grandparents on my Dad’s side of the family. They built their house during the 1950′s and it’s in a nice neighborhood near the beach in a town called Parkdale. I have stayed with them at different times over the past 25 years and not much has changed in their house during that time. One table near the entry has this incredible picture (below) of five of generations in one photo taken in Victoria, Australia in 1929. Although I had seen this photo many times, the significance of it finally struck me and has motivated me to share it with you.

The oldest lady in the front left of the picture, named Mrs. Reade is my Great, Great, Great, Great Grandmother and was aged around 90 at the time of this photograph. The next lady in the front right is Mrs. Baker and she is my Great, Great, Great Grandmother aged around 70 here. The lady in the back left is Mrs. Clara Maud Fisher and is my Great, Great Grandmother aged around 50. My Grandfather’s mother is in the back right and her name was Mrs. Gladys Fergusson and she was around 30 at this time. Lastly, the young boy in the front center of the picture is my Grandfather, Jack Fergusson. Jack (I call him Pop) is still alive today and recently turned 85.

In another place of my Grandparents house is this amazing picture of my Grandma and Pop’s wedding in 1950. I really find it fascinating to see my ancestors faces and to think that I am related to all of these people.

On the left are my Grandfather’s parents Jack and Gladys Fergusson. On the right are my Grandmother’s parents. And in the middle are my Grandparents, Jack and Joan Fergusson.

I got thinking about all these ancestors and I realized that the “5 generations in one photo” picture is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, Mrs. Reade is one of sixty four men and women who are the parents and grandparents of all generations between me and her! It is mind boggling to think that there were sixty four people just like her all living around the same time who are all related to me. Every generation that goes back, the number doubles. This means that if you go back only ten generations there will be 1024 ancestors responsible for you, one individual. Isn’t it INCREDIBLE!?

And here are my dear Grandparents today. It is always so nice to see them and to spend time chatting about life and adventures.

I hope you enjoyed these photos.

Best wishes,

Asher.

In December last year I ventured over to Europe for a meeting in Brussels and then soon after went to South India. I traveled with David Jung (my work colleague) to some very beautiful places in India during a 20 day period. After this little adventure we returned to Europe for some more meetings and business talks. We ended up changing our return ticket to Fairfield, Iowa three times and the trip turned into 10 weeks instead of 3.5 weeks.

Below is a photo blog of these winter adventures in South India, Belgium, Holland and England.

One of the first things to do once in India is to get RUPEES! I find that the best way is to either withdraw from an ATM or do an exchange with a forex company such as this one www.vkcforex.com. My other recommendation is to get a lot of 10 rupee notes because otherwise you’ll be dishing out 100 rupee notes which is more than $2 and this quickly adds up.
 

Here is a view of a typical Indian street with mainly motor bikes and auto rickshaws like the one I’m sitting in to take the picture. The streets are very noisy and usually quite polluted. So I normally use ear plugs and definitely cover my nose with cloth!
 

Another street view from a little local restaurant in Tirupati, South India.
 

This is the road up to Tirumala, the home of Venkateshwar or Balaji. The temple town of Tirumala is located on the top of beautiful hills surrounded by lush forest. It is one of the most well known temples in India with around 60,000 people a day visiting it! The other interesting fact is that approximately 100 million dollars per year is collected in Dakshina (donations).
 

The atmosphere on the top of the Tirumala hills is really quite amazing and very well kept. To give you an idea of the scope of this place there are about 12,000 employees for the temple grounds alone!
 

These foot prints are where Venkateshwar once stood. This spot had a great view of the temple in the distance to the East.
 

Here is the view of the main temple. In the center you can see the solid gold ornately decorating the roof of the temple. The darshan queues can also be seen in a circular shape surround the main temple grounds of Venkateshwar. Sometimes people wait for days to get a 10 second view of the deity. I was lucky to get 3 minutes viewing this time.
 

This is a closeup of the solid golden temple roof. It is rather impressive…
 

This the statue of Venkateshwar or Balaji who is an incarnation of Vishnu. Notice how the eyes are covered? It is said that if they didn’t put the covering the whole Earth would be scorched from intense darshan or light. The other cool thing about this temple is that any wish you have while standing in front of the statue will be granted. I made some very big wishes and they already started coming true.
 

We met a nice family with cute kids who showed as around the 7 hills of Tirumala. David is receiving a Tilak (or dot) on his forehead.
 

These hills are covered with large untouched jungles where saints have walked and meditated for millenia. The atmosphere up there was really special and much less polluted than down the hill at the bustling town of Tirupati.
 

I stumbled upon a great little outdoor shop with all kinds of different Indian art.
 

Our next destination was the small town near the Southern tip of India called Rameshwaram. This town is home to one of the 12 Jyotir Linga’s. It was the tail end of the monsoon so there was quite a lot of water everywhere. The food and accommodation was very basic here so we had to be very careful…
 

This temple was very powerful with the qualities of Shiva – silence, peace and bliss. There are 22 wells here that they dunk a bucket in and then poor it over your head. It was a very pleasant experience with each well having a different feeling or flavour.
 

The next day we took a four wheel drive out to Danushkodi which is the start of Ram’s bridge to Sri Lanka. I bathed in the confluence of two seas here and it was very nice.
 

In this NASA satellite image you can see the remnants of Ram’s bridge. It is believed that this bridge was built by Ram’s army around 1 million years ago in order to walk across to Sri Lanka to save Sita (Ram’s wife) from Ravana (a demon). It really was an amazing experience to visit this place and also to see the place where Maharishi first came to after his years of Silence in the Himalayas.
 

Our next destination was Madurai, a town about 5 hours west of Rameshwaram. This bustling city is home to one of the most ornate temples in the world known as the Meenakshi temple.
 

The temple grounds here were very beautiful. There was this great elephant at the entrance to the temple who was very good at posing for the camera! I find elephants to be really incredible animals. Some people have told me that an elephant never forgets anything and this was felt when I looked into it’s big, glossy eyes.
 

Here is another view of the amazingly ornate carvings on the temple pillars.
 

Most of our travels were done on buses. The gigantic bus stands all through India are very well organized and transport lakhs of people every day. You can literally just turn up here and find a bus that is going exactly where you want and the cost is unbelievable. For example a 7 hour journey on a luxury bus cost us $2.50.
 

On my birthday we arrived at the Southern tip of India, Kanyakumari. This place is home to a goddess and has a very special feeling. We were lucky to stay in a lodge just meters from the temple grounds.
 

The streets surrounding temples are always laden with souvenirs and handicrafts such as shell covered mirrors.
 

We drank coconut water everyday – it is sooo good and refreshing!
 

Ambitious salesmen tried to sell us plastic pearls for 200 rupees. He proved they were real by putting a flame on it. There are a lot scams like this throughout India which definitely keeps you on your toes .
 

Thousands of pilgrims visit Kanyakumari everyday. It was very interesting to watch all the different types of people and to see the fantastic array of colours.
 

Just outside the Kanyakumari temple is the confluence of three oceans – Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. The water here was so nice to bathe in, it was like warm silk.
 

South India is filled with palm trees, rice paddies, banana plantations and sugar cane fields.
 

There are never ending amazing sights to be had while traveling India. Here you can see a baby fast asleep on the back of a speeding motorbike with it’s mother balancing precariously.
 

South India, particularly Kerala, has a lot of influence from Christian missionaries. As a result there were Santa Claus’s everywhere! Some of them are really scary with skeletons and all kinds of weird things…
 

Our next stop was a beachside town in Kerala called Kovalam. The food in Kerala is incredibly fresh and delicious. I heard that most of the spices come from this state and this contributes to the exquisite tastes.
 

We found many wonderful artists here.
 

Lal the tailor made us some very cheap custom yoga pants.
 

This is Lighthouse beach at Kovalam. I was able to go surfing here a few times. It was paradise with much less pollution than other places in India.
 

Another amazing artist. I bought an wonderful artwork here for one of my brothers.
 

A nice place to have a meal! The pond was filled with fish and there were kingfisher birds all around feeding on the fish while we ate our Indian breakfast.
 

I was able to visit my friend Harshal at his university in Chennai. I hadn’t seen him for 9 years! His university is called the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and the campus was really impressive. Recruiters come here every year to pick up the cream of the crop for companies like Google, Facebook and different investment banks. It is ranked amongst the 10 best schools in India.
 

The view from the back seat of a rickshaw in Chennai on a rainy evening. They all have metres but no one uses them. I recommend always agreeing on the price of the ride before getting in. If you’re not happy with their proposed price the best thing to do is to walk away and they’ll usually come down closer to your price.
 

This is the view from the top of our cheap hotel in Chennai. The pollution in this town is fantastically asphyxiating!
 

Brussels train station – back to civilization.
 

Sampling some local Belgian fries. They are made completely fresh including cutting the potatoes only moments before frying them.
 

Me outside the Atomium in Brussels. This structure was built for the 1958 world fair in Brussels. Everyone loved the design so much that they left it there.
 

One of the balls of the Atomium. The lights were moving around like electrons in an atom.
 

Here is the view from inside the lift that goes up to the top of the Atomium in Brussels. At one point it was the fastest lift in the world.
 

We ate dinner inside the top most ball of the Atomium structure in Brussels. It was an unusual but cool experience.
 

Belgian waffles!
 

Our bed and breakfast just outside of Brussels.
 

Working hard on some really cool, “secret” Internet projects.
 

The road up to MERU (Maharishi European Research University) in Vlodrop, Holland was very slippery so this truck had some trouble.
 

Buildings at MERU, Vlodrop.
 

This is the old, abandoned building at Vlodrop that they want to knock down. I am guilty of smashing some windows with snowballs.
 

These are the elephants that welcome you to MERU and the new master plan for the campus is seen behind.
 

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi‘s magical house where he took Mahasamadhi in 2008. It still has such a sublime feeling of peace and bubbling bliss, especially upstairs. Here is a blog I wrote about my experience of Maharishi’s funeral ->
 

In one day we drove through Holland, Belgium, France and then caught a ferry across the English channel to the UK. The ferries are huge and quite luxurious inside.
 

We attended a conference at Rendlesham which is about 1.5 hours drive northeast of London. It was a fun weekend and nice to see Maharishi Vastu architecture in action. The main feature of these buildings is that they face East to receive the nourishment from the first rays of the sun every day.
 

A typical scene in London.

We had lunch with my brother Jair who I hadn’t seen in almost 1.5 years. It was very nice to catch up and see what he was up to.
 

Catching the underground in London back to our car.
 

Next we caught the ferry back to France and then drove back to Holland. It was a killer day with 17 hours of travel!
 

Then we flew from Dusseldorf, Germany to Dublin, Ireland and on to Chicago, USA. Now back in snowy Fairfield, IA at Maharishi University and very happy to see all my friends again!

So that’s a quick recap of my Winter Adventures in India and Europe. I hope you enjoyed the pics and if you have any questions please leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer.

Below are some of my most recent favourite photos from my travels over the past 2 years. I have now been to India every year for the past 3 years in a row with the first time being for Maharishi’s funeral. I have also spent a lot of time in Holland and now I am back in Fairfield, USA. I have only been home to Australia twice in 6 years!…

Man with his goats – Brahmasthan (Central Point) of India

Lotus – Delft, Holland

Shoreline wave – Sydney, Australia

Dhuandhar Falls – Jabalpur, India

Maharishi’s house, Vlodrop, Holland

Early morning light – Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA

Beautiful scenery – Seelisberg, Switzerland

Rainbow Lorikeets – Sydney, Australia

Maharishi Vedic Pandits, Brahmasthan (Central), Madhya Pradesh, India

Yesterday I went surfing with Joss Paling who thankfully lent me his spare surfboard. It was my first surf in 2 years! Really it was the first in 6 years because the surfing I did 2 years ago was only for about a week. I am happy that I still know how to do it – I suppose it’s bit like riding a bike… I grew up by the beach and went surfing almost everyday from the age of 12 to 17 so I’ve probably done about 1000 hours of practice…

The beach I surf at is called Narrabeen and is on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. It’s just down the road from where my parents live. I can even check the wave conditions from my balcony with a pair of binoculars. The water is quite cold since it is winter but not as cold as last time I was here. Below is a video my Dad made yesterday. He is really good at landscape photography and has a website called Utopia Images Online.

I am only in Sydney for another 10 days so I am going to try and surf as much as possible before I return to the US where I am land locked! I feel surfing is a very spiritual sport. When I am out surfing there is nothing on my mind except the ocean and where to position myself in order to catch a wave. Sometimes it is like I become the ocean and it makes me feel so good.

I highly recommend surfing to anyone but warn that it takes a lot of practice and is a very physical sport. After 6 years I am quite out of shape and so it is difficult to even paddle when I’ve been out there for more than 1 hour.

Best Wishes,

Asher Fergusson.