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You don’t need to go halfway around the world to escape from the stress of daily life.

A writer sets out on a journey to find Nepal’s elusive Raute nomads—and to buy a wooden bowl from them.

A jumping-off point for exploring Hoi An on Vietnam’s central coast, Da Nang is coming into its own with new attractions and resorts, yet it still feels largely untouristed.

When a traveler faces grief in Varanasi, his perspective on life and death goes up in smoke.

A UNESCO World Heritage site in a mountain valley about 40 miles west of Da Nang, My Son is a vestige of the Champa kingdom, a culture that was heavily shaped by Hindu beliefs and practices. Built between the 4th and 14th centuries, the temples pay homage to the god Shiva, though the deity is often referred to here by different names. While some of the shrines are partially restored, and others overgrown with greenery or showing their age (many were destroyed by American bombing during the Vietnam War), the sheer scope of the ruins are proof of the reach of Hinduism and the lofty ambitions of the Cham kings.

Meet Bengali Ma. She’s an aghori, part of a rare sect of Hinduism that has a reputation for very bizarre practices. In their belief system, everything is the same, which means they might eat meat but aren’t bothered if the meat came from an animal or....a human. They might have sex but it doesn’t matter if the person is alive or dead. They (fortunately) practice away from society and speaking to outsiders is very rare. When I was in Varanasi recently, a professor friend who studies the aghori took me out of the city for a very rare meeting with Bengali Ma, one of the few female aghori. The first question I wanted to ask was about the unusual way aghori are said to practice. Was it true? Bengali Ma was vague. She said she doesn’t do these things. But, she told me, when you’re in training, which consists of hanging around cremation grounds for about 10 years and doing ample amounts of mediation, you have to do a lot of strange stuff. “To get to the light,” she said, “you have to go through the darkness first.”