Heading Home! 🌎➡️🏡

 

Heading Home! 🌎➡️🏡

Hi and welcome to the…FINAL…BLOG…POST! We are in our last hotel room in Delhi, India flying back to the United States tomorrow, and the giddy-excitement is pulsing through us. We are so ready - it is TIME! But it also feels impossible to process all that we have experienced in the last 16 months… and impossible to predict how we will feel and be going back to our home culture, community, and societal norms. Nevertheless, we are excited to pack up our bags just ONE more time and see what stepping back onto our home turf will feels like!    

Let’s rewind a bit to our time in India. All I can say to describe this place is WOW. Like WOW there are a lot of people, smells, sounds, and incredible, ancient culture here! Upon flying into Dehli, we took a taxi north to Rishikesh which sits at the base of the Himalayas. What was meant to be around 5 hours took closer to 8 after spending an hour in a gas line and sitting in unbelievable traffic at a 4 way stop where no one moved for 45 minutes. The amount of sights, smells (both good and bad), the HEAT, and the constant stream of honks was a lot to take in and just something we had never experienced before. I guess that makes India…India! 

Once in Rishikesh, the stimulation wasn’t AS intense, yet it still took a lot of energy to leave the apartment, but we eventually settled into our own routine. Rishikesh is similar to the Sacred Valley of Peru…there is an exuberant amount of spiritual activities and events there. We enjoyed trying out various types of yoga and meditation classes since this is truly the source of YOGA. We explored other things such as Vedic astrology, sound healing, breathwork, and many other alternative healing methods. Mostly, we dabbled in trying as many different curries, breads, and other Indian dishes we could find in this area, with Indian food quickly climbing to the top of our favorite food category. 

We then turned our attention to Ayurveda (India’s medical system using herbs and lifestyle knowledge) to continue learning more about this ancient wisdom. I had taken a course on Ayurveda back in Peru when I did my yoga teacher training, and since then the desire to learn more and go to the source of this knowledge slowly grew. Which led us here to India! We stayed at an Ayurveda clinic and experienced the process of healing our bodies with this perspective of ancient medicine. We learned how to cook balancing foods and practiced many other lifestyle changes to support healthy, grounded lives. We met people from around the world also learning this knowledge to share with others back home and practice it on themselves. Our goal with Ayurveda is really about gaining knowledge to become our own doctor as well as using this information passed down from 3,000 years ago as a way to reconnect to our nature and roots. We are really excited to bring this knowledge back home and continue to practice/learn. 

We were very lucky to have gotten to stay very near to the Ganga river, as we have learned is the most sacred river in India - also the world! It was beautiful to see that despite the area not being “the cleanest,” the people honored and maintained this part of nature due to its significance and holiness in Hinduism.  There were nightly ceremonies done each night called “aarti” and people (pilgrims) come from near and far to give offerings and to be blessed by Mother Ganga. 

We really enjoyed our time in Rishikesh and getting to fully immerse ourselves in this Indian, spiritual culture. We know that there are innumerable places in India to explore, so we know we will be back someday. For now, it was exactly what we wanted to get out of it - similar to the rest of our travels -  an authentic understanding and experience of this culture and their practices. Just like all the other stops along the way, we have been challenged, grown, and seen new perspectives that without a doubt have changed our views of life. And we are so grateful for it. 

Lastly, we wanted to say thank you and send so much love to our family, friends, and anyone else who happened across this blog. Thank you for coming along for the journey, and giving me an excuse to continue these writings for all 15 months! I know we will be grateful to look back on them and the pictures in the years to come. 

So for the final time… 

With so much love,

Abby and Connor 

First stop in India - FOOD!

Our apartment in Rishikesh - 

complete with 15-30 power outages per day

Just the local trash can

Monkeys rule the land here - 

don’t leave any clothes out or someone might steal them

Just kidding, cows rule the land here in India!

And they truly don’t care if they are in the middle 

of a road about to get hit by 20 cars, they are at peace. 

Getting our Vedic astrology chart read

Breads and chutneys GALORE!

Sound healing course

Sound healing teacher and friends!

Lots of time for cafes, reading, and journaling

Some delish juices in the most sweltering heat!

Our favorite restaurant - the BEST paneer butter masala

Ayurveda clinic time! 

Daily morning and meditation

May also be coming home with a set of these…

Ayurveda books and rose petal tea 

Learning some recipes from the Ayurveda chef

Mother Ganga!

Getting some good practice in with my teacher

Friends from around the world!

More food pics…because why not?!

The Aarti - nightly fire ceremony for Ganga

Monsoon season in India

Cooking class time! Trying to learn as many 

techniques as possible before heading home! 

Hi, welcome to Connor and Abby’s Indian cooking show!

Goodbye Mother Ganga and India…for now!

We will miss your toilets!

…And your delicious food <3 

Final Indian meal at the airport