Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into The Heart Of India - Erin Reese

FROM TRAVEL AND SOUL MEDIA:

Erin Reese is a one-of-a-kind travel writer – a spiritual seeker and solo backpacker who dropped out of a successful career in corporate America, hit the road,and never looked back. Her memoir, 'Bindi Girl: Diving Deep Into the Heart of India,' is a high-energy adventure travel tale, packed with plenty of spicy curry, cows, and comedy to make for one heck of a wild ride.

From Dharamsala and the Dalai Lama, to meditation melodramas and yoga schools on the banks of the holy Ganges, Reese educates and entertains as she goes. We discover the Hindu gods and goddesses, the tourist trap mafia, and the beach havens of the hippie trail. From the disappointment of "Guru Disney" to the heavenly hell of Varanasi during high festival, Reese has us clamoring for more masala chai every step of the way. But the real odyssey begins when she meets an attractive young stranger, an intrepid traveler who is more than her mental and physical match. He whisks her off to the furthest reaches of India - the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. There, in an isolated jungle, they attempt to live out a Robinson Crusoe fantasy. Will their love recreate Paradise, or end up a natural disaster? Set amongst the wild beauty and danger of the islands and the kooky madness of 'typical India,' Reese takes us into the heart of India and her very self.

Bindi Girl is a gift to the adventure traveler, the spiritual seeker, and the yoga practitioner as well as the armchair tourist – anyone yearning for honest inspiration and a real kick to get out and truly live!

PRAISE FOR BINDI GIRL:

"Erin Reese 'gets' the spirit of India. In reading her adventures, I could almost hear the crowds and smell the curry. But more than that, I felt blessed by the soulfulness of half-a-dozen millennia. Erin was born to be in India -- and to write this book."
~ Victoria Moran, author of Creating a Charmed Life

"… lovely, lyrical, gentle, and informative. It made my world bigger…"
~ James Fadiman, author of The Other Side of Haight and editor of Essential Sufism

"Erin goes places, physically and metaphorically, few travelers dare to go. Her stories amuse, outrage, inspire and provoke. This isn't the tale of someone who received a book advance jetting off business class for a few weeks in an ashram. This is third class train, steerage class ship, with a dash of indulgence thrown in. Erin is a gifted, special writer, and she' s the real deal as a traveler."
~ Lynn Braz, editor and travel writer featured in The Dallas Morning News

“Wow! My head is so full of images and Beatles song snippets and imagined smells of spices and cows. Thank you for creating such a vivid picture. You really do a great service to single women who are waiting to take the plunge into world travel, by making it seem so possible.”
~ Becca Costello, arts and entertainment editor, Sacramento News and Review

"It's like Eat, Pray, Love - with teeth."
~ Jessica Shepherd, author of A Love Alchemist's Notebook: Magical Secrets for Drawing True Love into Your Life

“Reese reports on an India few outsiders get to witness - not the Goa parties or tourist sites or political turmoil, no. Instead she dives into the throbbing spiritual centre of India and tries to place her California soul amongst the gurus, mystics and visionaries that remain a constant of Indian religion. Yet Reese is no New Age tourist full of cosmic waffle. Her writing is both beautifully descriptive and very funny. She captures the sweaty heat of India, its madness and charm. Her own spiritual quest mixes with her lusts and frustrations to create a new kind of travel writing. If I ever return to India it will be with Bindi Girl as my guide.”
~ Garth Cartwright, author of Princes Amongst Men: Journeys with Gypsy Musicians and More Miles than Money: Journeys through American Music

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