Highs and Lows of 2019 – and What Iβm Looking Forward to in 2020.
Epic land journeys, under-the-radar destinations, getting featured in the Washington Post… 2019 was all sorts of awesome and unexpected.
Epic land journeys, under-the-radar destinations, getting featured in the Washington Post… 2019 was all sorts of awesome and unexpected.
Some secrets that authors seldom talk about.
Even though I unnoticeably flipped my life calendar to 29 a few weeks ago, the little voices within me wouldnβt go unnoticed.
I fell asleep withΒ local rum and Spanish music inΒ Nicaragua when the calendars flipped to 2015. The year feels like a racy dream – from the Himalayas to the Caucasus, from working on a vineyard in Germany to going vegan in New York, fromΒ livingΒ withΒ nomads in the Mars-like desert of Jordan to watching a meteor shower in the cracked salty desert of Gujarat.Β TheseΒ moments of incredulous beauty and serendipityΒ filled me withΒ an inexplicable love for the road. Behold, my 2015 in a nutshell: The Caribbean spirit: Trinidad & Tobago I knew nothing about the West Indies (well, except cricket) until I actually landed in Trinidad, thanks to an incredibly cheap flight from New York. And it was an instant love affair. Trinidadians have the coolest accent I’ve ever heard. We had pristine white sand beaches all to ourselves, pigged out on Caribbean-Creole-Indian influenced foodΒ like “Buss Ab Shut”, and hiked in the mountains of the indigenous herb-growing Paramin community. Giraffes in my backyard: South Africa I was a bit bummed out when my first South Africa trip, planned by South …
This post is dedicated to you, whoever you are and wherever you’reΒ reading from. Thank you. Thank you for being a part of The ShootingΒ Star, for leaving me words of wisdom and encouragement, for liking &Β sharing my posts, and for being with me virtually. I couldn’t have made it toΒ 100,000 views without you. I present you with a brand new look today. Shivya NathWelcome to my blog, The Shooting Star. Iβve been called a storyteller, writer, photographer, digital nomad, “sustainability influencer,” social entrepreneur, solo traveller, vegan, sustainable tourism consultant and environmentalist. But in my heart, Iβm just a girl who believes that travel – if done right – has the power to change us and the world we live in.
T hree-6-5 days ago, this was just another wordpress.com weblog H ere its umbilical chord was cut, it became The Shooting Star. E nchanted by its first post, first reader & first comment, this blog S ang its way into the blogosphere, with cliched themes & bizarre. H ome to 105 posts & graced by 16,000 readers, now is a moment O f reflection & joy, and gratitude & celebration. O nce upon a time, a blog was merely meant T o be a goofy forum; today it redefines communication I n a world where time & ideas are hard to find. N ow I deviate from this happy, proud occasion, G lad indeed that The Shooting Star has defined S omething in my life that was once mere anticipation. T hrough this journey, my blog has become a part of me A s I write this, I think about the future and what has been R eally, all I want to say is, dear blog, Happy Birthday! On The Shooting Star’s first birthday, I …