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Episode 1 of WWFFD?

May 5th, 2025

Hoi An, Vietnam

India is a confronting contradiction. Spirituality and Capitalism co-mingle. The world’s largest privately owned residence overlooks the world’s largest slums. Temples are at capacity with devotees bringing food for gods, pouring milk on statues, while children starve in the streets. Women wear the same garment they’ve worn for thousands of years while taking customer service calls for tech companies. Food is medicine and antibiotics are over the counter. The sacred river that sustains millions of lives is poisoned by death by the time it reaches Varanasi, the holiest place in Hinduism.

Since my first visit in 2008, I’ve spent over two years traveling every inch of the Subcontinent. It can be intimidating to explore alone, but the reawrds, both tangible and ephemeral, are endless. The wealth of the culture is richer than the Ambanis. Over 40 languages are spoken in the giant, geographically diverse landmass, the country is a living Archeological museum and, of course, the food is fantastic. It’s my privilege to introduce others to the places that transformed me. You, too, will be changed by this experience, in ways you may expect and ways you never could. India invites the bravest travelers to follow in the footsteps of Shiva, The Buddha and countless teachers and students since.

I’m not promising you enlightenment. Though I owned 10 yoga studios in Brooklyn over a 16 year period, I’ve retired from teaching. That said, I’m thrilled to be a guide. You’ll learn about Hinduism from Hindus, Buddhism from Buddhists, Sikhism from Sikhs and so on. I’m just a well-meaning, woke, white woman who knows the etiquette of haggling in the market and how to eat with one’s hands while avoiding Delhi Belly.

I’ve streamlined this itinerary for almost two decades to strike the perfect balance between comfort and calculated risk and rest and activity. While leading my last group, a train got “lost” and we missed a flight because the internet was turned off by the government. For this reason, we’re traveling by luxury motorcoach. Though I prefer to stay in locally owned homestays when I travel solo, the size of our small group necessitates that we stay in larger, internationally recognized hotels. I’ve balanced this with a couple boutique hotels that served our standards, as well as my favorite tribally owned Himalayan Swiss tent Glamp…with slate floors and reliable Solar Heated water.

I’ve also left room for surprises. We’re not going to see EVERYTHING. It’s impossible and exhausting. I’m still exploring after two years! You’ll have a lot space to wander on our own, when you want to. That’s when and where the magic happens, but you’ll also have the safety and stability of your group of new friends.

For me, that’s the best part of hosting you: simply having your company. It’s so lonely on the road, traveling to a completely different destination every week. We’ll form friendships that will last far longer than our 15 days together. I can’t wait to share this time and these places with you.

Our Itinerary

* Friday, April 10

* Depart Your Origin in the Evening

* Saturday, April 11

* Arrive Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi

* Radisson Blu Provides Transfer from Airport

* Sunday, April 12

* Rest & Explore Delhi

* Stay at Radisson Blu

* Tour Delhi After Breakfast

* Jama Masjid

* Humayan’s Tomb

* The Red Fort

* Connaught Place

* India Gate

* Monday, April 13

* Depart Delhi After Breakfast

* Arrive Amritsar, Courtyard Marriott

* Golden Temple from Golden Hour through Evening

* Tuesday, April 14

* Stay at Courtyard Marriott

* Tour Amritsar After Breakfast

* Partition Museum

* Wagagh Border Crossing Ceremony

* Wednesday, April 15

* Depart Amritsar After Breakfast

* Arrive Dharamshala Himalayan Camp

* Lunch and Dinner Included

* Thursday, April 16

* Stay Dharamshala Himalayan Camp

* Breakfast and Dinner Included

* Explore Dharamshala

* McLeod Ganj, Home of the Dalai Llama

* Friday, April 17

* Stay Dharamshala Himalayan Camp

* Breakfast and Dinner Included

* Tour Tea Plantation

* Saturday, April 18

* Stay Dharamshala Himalayan Glamp

* Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Included

* Hike & Rest

* Sunday, April 19

* Depart Dharamshala After Breakfast

* Visit Virasat-E- Khalsa Museum

* Arrive Chandigarh, J.W. Marriott

* Bus Tour of Architecture

* Monday, April 20

* Depart Chandigarh After Breakfast

* Arrive Haridwar, Hyatt Place

* Sunset Ganga Aarti at Har Ki Pauri

* Tuesday, April 21

* Tour Rishikesh After Breakfast

* Maharishi Mahesh Ashram

* Where The Beatles Found Jah & Wrote Dear Prudence

* Stay at Hyatt Place, Haridwar

* Wednesday, April 22

* Depart Hyatt Place, Haridwar After Breakfast

* Arrive Hotel Atulyaa Taj, Agra

* Thursday, April 23

* The Taj Mahal

* Stay at Hotel Atulyaa Taj, Agra

* Friday, April 24

* Depart Hotel Atulyaa Taj, Agra, After Breakfast

* Arrive Click Collection Grand Gateway, Varanasi

* Golden Hour / Sunset River Tour

* Saturday, April 25

* After Breakfast, Explore Varanasi

* Attend Cremation (Optional)

* Stay Click Collection Grand Gateway, Varanasi

* Sunday, April 26

* Depart Click Collection Grand Gateway, Varanasi, After Breakfast For Varanasi Airport

* Connect to Onward Flights at Indira Gandhi International Airport

Rates

Double Occupancy: $3999 Per Person / Single Occupancy: $5500 Per PersonLimited to 15 guestsTotal cost is divided over equal monthly payments. Payment in full will be completed 60 days prior to start date.See Terms and Conditions for more details.

Includes

* Accommodation for 15 Nights

* 15 breakfasts, 4 dinners

* Transport in Luxury 16 passenger Minibus with Bathroom

* Admissions to Museums & Attractions

Your Additional Expenses

* Airfare to Delhi and from Varanasi

* Minimum medical and emergency evacuation insurance

* Trip cancellation insurance or any other travel insurance

* Visas

* Any activity not described in What's Included

* Meals on your own

* Gratuities

Travel Insurance

A minimum level of medical and emergency travel insurance is required in order to travel with me. Details are outlined in our Terms and Conditions and you will not be permitted to join the group until you have provided evidence of adequate travel insurance. Please read the trip details to learn more about recommended policy options.

Floating down the Blue River in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. 🇮🇩 River Man by Nick Drake

Expectations are the enemy of happiness. My most magical moments are unexpected.

December, 2023.After a month spent silent in Beppu, the Hot Spring capitol of Japan, I was wandering in winter wonder when I found Tapasan, a sliver of a bar with guitars on the wall. The owner and bartender was the only person present, jamming in solitude on the sofa.

I asked if he’d mind a jam mate. “Of course not!” I bought a beer, but I had no cash. I left my health insurance card as collateral. We spent the next hour or so sharing songs we knew or wrote. This is one of mine.

I returned a few days later with cash in hand, still wet from my onsen soak. A day or two after that, I received a text inviting me to attend his 4 year anniversary party. Would I mind joining in on “One Love“? “My pleasure,” I replied before I realized I did not, in fact, know the lyrics to the verse.

The party was the day before my departure. I crammed the lyrics into my brain on hte walk there. I had had almost no human interaction in the previous month. My breakfast was served by a robot and a cat was the gatekeeper at my closest ancient onsen. Tonight, though, I was warmly welcomed by the most outgoing Japanese I’ve ever encountered.

The musicians were so fantastic, I was so nervous about performing. The night wore on, and I hoped that there wouldn’t be time for me to join in. I was about to bow out for bedtime when Tapa called me up. He communicated with the crowd in Japanese. A new friend translated his far too generous praise. I was the closer. I was the “special guest from NYC.“ Humbled and moved, I did my best. A night, a place, and people I will never forget. I could never have planned a more perfect farewell.

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To commemorate the halfway point in my mission to 330 countries, colonies, territories & exclaves I’ve decided to release an expanded 2nd edition in November, 2025, so I can include 30 more countries than the original.Read the preface below:

I was a traveler long before I was a photographer. I lived in West Germany on an American Army Base until I was 5. My mother traveled the Schengen states extensively with my sister and I. I returned to pre-Euro Europe after my freshman year in high school as an exchange student. Based in a Parisian suburb, I spent that summer traveling revisiting the Schengen zone with a retinue of routards. I’ve returned numerous times since, amounting to more than a year, maybe two.

Israel & Palestine in 1999 were my first adventure beyond Europe. A Red Sea road trip along the Egyptian Border with my Tel Avivian boyfriend included a chance encounter with soldiers from both sides of the chain link fence who, like all races, religions and creeds, shared a love of Bob Marley.

After 8 years, 3 trips to Europe, all of the lower 48 states, Mexico and a 24 hour flight to my Kiwi Boyfriend’s native islands, I finally made it to the other side of that chain link fence in the desert. Egypt, more than any prior experience, ignited my passion for travel, despite, or perhaps because of having been, briefly, kidnapped in Cairo.

18 months after my escape, I was off to Sri Lanka to teach Yoga in a recently tsunami’d southwest surf town while the 25 year Civil War raged in the northeast city of Jaffna. My students were journalists, NGO Contractors, Foreign Diplomats & British Cricket Fans. Following my 2 month contract, I traveled through India, Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand for 4 months, earning my Thai Massage Certification along the way.

Upon my return to NYC, I opened a 9 bed guest house in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, so I could write off travel expenses as Research & Development. Goodpoint incubated Goodyoga, which was, when I retired from brick and mortar in May of 2023, Brooklyn’s Oldest Studio with 10 total locations over 16 years.

During the best period, pre-pandemic, I was able to travel 18 months out of 24including:

* a 4 month overland itinerary from Argentina to Mexico

* 6 months traversing a counterclockwise sorta circle around Europe from Malta to Iceland

* a month in Castro's Cuba

* a 4 week overland round trip circumnavigation of Hispaniola from Port Au Prince

* a month teaching on the Big Island of Hawaii from which I traveled directly to

* Rwanda to meet the Gorillas then overland to Tanzania to host a Kilimanjaro summit hike and Zanzibar recovery.

​It was during this period that I became a photographer in earnest. Having followed my Instagrammed iPhone Album, my dear friend and notable photographer, Merri Cyr, insisted that I buy her 2007 Canon 5D Mark 2. Most of the photos published in the 1st Edition were taken with that camera or the lighter 6D I quickly upgraded to.

There were a few from a 2001 early Olympus digital I carried in Egypt and my first trip to Asia. It produced great shots, but most of it's full size files have been misplaced. Archiving was a gargantuan task that produced hundreds of contenders from over 10,000 images. That said, the final selection are from only a handful of places because I simply didn't have the right tool for the job until 2015.

I've recently traded in my bulky Canon body, with her suite of 3 prime lenses and a Flash, for a petite, powerful used Fujifilm X100F. At 2 pounds lighter and 2” smaller all around with a 4.3 MP advantage, she’s a better daily street rig than the Canon. A rangefinder, I’m restricted to it’s built in 35mm lens, but I’m a traveling portraitist. That’s all I need. It took me 150 countries, but I finally found my aesthetic.

Armed with little else, as little as possible, in fact, I intend to visit every Country, Colony, Territory, Exclave and Enclave. I’ve made it to 150, so far…If I’m blessed with the health to visit the remaining 180, I’d love to return to many that I’ve already explored, to create a cohesive collection of 330 portraits to represent each. If I can accomplish that, why not continue? Can I collect every culture and ethnicity?

Of course, this entails a life of perpetual travel. I live out of my carry on and personal item, stuffed with more gear than clothing. I’ve sold, donated or gifted everything I own, except for my personal archive. It’s a monastic existence that I’ll share in detail at www.flanneryfoster.com, where you can purchase your own print of any image that might move you as you flip forward. Thank you for allowing me the time to introduce the people I’ve met on the road. I hope we’ll meet along the way, as well.