Namaste November

Our India-themed November meet-up — at Kama Indian Restuarant on King St. W. — was a big success, thanks to our wonderful sponsors. Intrepid Travel sponsored a flowing array of warm and spicy appetizers, including samosas, pakors and sizzling tandoori chicken. Intrepid is currently holding a great contest — Win 30 trips in 30 days. Yup, they are giving away a Real Life Experience every day in November.

David’s Tea provided us with lovely gift bags. Inside were two types of tea — including one of my favourites, Assam. I have long wanted to visit Assam, which is a remote region in north-east India, further away than even Darjeeling. It was where the tea industry in India started, actually. And, finally, Incredible!India Tourism also gave us a swag bag, with a recipe book and very large and fantastically detailed tourist map of India. The incredible people at IndiaTourism are very helpful, if you are planning a visit to India, They have lots of materials, and of course online information, too.

And thanks to Kama Indian Restaurant, too, for keeping the food and drinks flowing, and allowing us to gab until we were the final patrons in the restaurant.

I took the opportunity of our India-themed evening to read aloud my latest blog post, which is about dispelling The 5 Top Myths of India. You can click on the link to get to my blog, BreatheDreamGo.com, and read the post, but in summary, here are my top 5 myths:

Myth # 1: Traveling in India is dangerous (it’s not!)

Myth #2: India is a country (well, of course it’s a country — but it is so incredibly diverse, that it’s more like a continent … a subcontinent …)

Myth #3: Yoga is a system of exercises (it’s much, much more)

Myth #4: India is poor (depends on what you mean by poor …)

Myth #5: Hinduism is a religion (it’s a religion, but it’s not like other religions …)

The upshot is that many people hold a lot of misconceptions about India, and I am trying to dispel some of them with this blog post.

So that’s it for Toronto Travel Tribe meet-ups for 2010, out first year (well, half year, as we started in August). If you want to join Toronto Travel Tribe, join the Facebook page. And if you want a link to your site or blog to be added to this website, come out to a meeting; likewise if you want to be added to the Twitter list. (This list is a work-in-progress so let me know, @breathedreamgo, if you’ve been to a meet-up and want to be added. Same for adding your blog or site to the website blogroll.)

Alicia and I have lots of ideas, and we are already starting to plan Toronto Travel Tribe meet-ups for 2011. We welcome ideas … and sponsors … and any travel peeps who want to join us.