masala chai and prayer flags - nepal photo diary

six months ago i left for a trip that started as a whisper. “go to india”. what followed were two months of magic; a yoga teacher training and a journey through northern india and into nepal.

i don’t think i’ll ever be able to fully explain how special this trip was to me. india and nepal simultaneously broke my heart and filled it up. countries of such immense contrast. beauty and pain and chaos. raw and wild. a richness of spirit and faith. 

it took me a long time to process everything i experienced during that trip. i’ve tried so many times to find the words for the things i felt. the things i saw. the parts of myself i felt crack open. i always seem to fall short trying to explain how deeply this time affected me.

my time in india and nepal broke down walls in me and built me up in beautiful ways. i’d never felt so present. so at home but free at the same time. experienced so many days so sweet they felt dripped in honey. how completely satiated with joy i felt. all the learning and unlearning and expanding. finding peace with it all.

if there’s one thing i’ll forever remember most about those two months it’s the love i felt. i was shown the beauty of human connection over and over again. reminded of how many wonderful people there are to love and be loved by. i’m so deeply grateful for every person that let their hearts and hugs serve as a place for me to unfold. 

for a while being back home felt really heavy. i had to remind myself how lucky i am to have experienced all these things so special it makes it hard to move forward. 

the following photos are from my time in nepal. like india, nepal brought both really confronting moments as well as the friendliest faces and beautiful scenes. i barely scratched the surface of this incredible country, and as i stared at the himalayan mountain ranges on my plane ride home, i vowed to return and dive deeper.

keep scrolling for the next two posts of my indian journey.

A xx

mama india - india photo diary

if someone had asked me a couple years ago where i saw myself travelling, india would be close to the last place that would have drifted through my mind. a mix of stories overheard and media reports led me to the belief that india was a place unsafe, unsanitary and unappealing. then without apparent rhyme or reason, sometime last year i felt this sudden pull to visit this crazy country. if there’s one thing i’ve learnt so far, it’s to listen to those calls of the heart, even if they don’t at first make sense. my first few hours after stepping off the plane i remember just having the deepest appreciation for listening to the voice that told me to come here. exactly where i was supposed to be.

i’m yet to find the words to explain all that india is. i think it’s a place you either love or hate, but either way it seeps its way deep into your heart. there’s nothing that compares to the functioning madness and captivating beauty of this country. there’s so much life everywhere you look it’s intoxicating. the streets are filled with the richest colours, sounds and smells. street stalls oozing with the sweetness of chai and the smell of chillies wafting down pavement. 

from the markets of old jaipur to 16^th-century palaces. the ghats at varanasi, where life and death coexist simultaneously in such a striking way. hindu pilgrims bathing down the river from the burning bodies of the cremation sights. where the energy was raw, intense and almost palpable. to walking around local villages in tordi, sharing smiles with a mutual understanding of our completely different backgrounds but shared humanity. my time travelling around north india was filled with magic around every corner.

i fell so deeply in love with this country that in five days i’m actually returning. this time to dharamshala to first do my next yoga teacher training. then wherever the wind takes me after that. it’s all happened very last minute, but my heart feels really good about it. i’m both terrified and exhilarated to have a one-way ticket and no plan of when i’ll next be home. it’s a huge leap of faith and one that i’m so excited to surrender to. here’s to chasing more magic.

A xx