Leave Your Comfort Zone and Travel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel        

                                                http://www.amazon.com/Exotic-Marigold-Hotel-Thomas-Newman/dp/B0073FIAK2  is the story of  six English pensioners  who for a variety of financial and medical reasons leave cold and wet England to "outsource their retirement"  and travel to warm and sunny Jaipur, India, There’s a great cast of actors including Judy Dench, Celis Imrie, Bill Nighy, Ronald Pickup, Maggie Smith, Tom Wilkinson and Penelope Wilton.  

There are multiple themes and subplots in the film and medical care for the elderly is one of them. Medical travel vacations have been an interesting topic especially for Americans, so it's interesting that Muriel Donnelly’s  (Maggie Smith) reason for traveling to India is that she needs a hip replacement and the wait list on the British Health Care System is months long. She determines that even with socialized medicine that she can’t afford the cost of a hip replacement hence the journey to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Despite the fact that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is not the luxurious retreat “for the elderly and beautiful” as advertised, friendships develop among the travelers and the hotel owner Sonny Kapoor (Dev Patel). While the hotel is not the charming resort promised to these English empty nest retirees, the story is very charming, and there are great street scenes in Jaipur, India.     

The Best Marigold Hotel has been described as a feel-good movie. It's sentimental and funny with a dose of real India for reality.  But the films  biggest message is that it's not too late to leave your comfort zone and explore new places and cultures. Which is exactly the message that we'd like to convey on this blog.