I have always wanted to visit India but frankly, the whole thing seemed daunting and even scary. And going alone seemed just too overwhelming. Then one day in 1993, I ran into a friend who had signed up for a tour, led by a woman who had traveled extensively in India, to temples and ashrams.

Now up to that point, I was not "a tour kind of guy." Whenever I thought of tours, I imagined old ladies with blue hair boarding a huge greyhound buses. But when my friend told me about his tour, I became increasingly interested. Here was a chance to visit India with someone who was experienced with the culture and who would take care of all hotel and travel arrangements! The idea of a tour (well, at least this kind of tour) suddenly appealed to me and the idea of visiting India suddenly didn't feel so daunting.

So four months later I found myself walking on the soil of holy mother India. I fell in love with India; her people, the pervasive spirituality, the sensuality of the culture. Every day I was moved to tears of joy by my experiences. I felt like I had come home.

By being on a tour, most of the logistical hassles were taken care of, leaving me with the time and energy to just enjoy and explore. So much time in India can be spent dealing with logistics: arranging trains, booking hotels, ordering at restaurants, and just navigating through the culture. Every day things that we don't think much about in the US, like going to the post office or bank or making a phone call, can turn into huge hassles and time drains in India. By being on tour, 90% of this hassle was averted.

Since then, I have been back to India several times. I guess my enthusiasm was contagious as my friends began asking if they could join me on my next trip. Out of this, I developed my tour company, Scott's Tours of Sacred India. Since 2000, I have been designing and leading one tour to India each year.