The whole week before I was set to fly out, Heidi and I hadn't talked at all. All we knew was she was getting her retreat on and when she was done, we were meeting in Quito. The night before I left, I had a friend ask if I would bring some things down to a family. He had served his mission down there and he was very close with them. Of course I'll do it, I would love to meet them. He said they would be happy to pick me up from the airport and give me a bed for the night. Considering Heidi and I had not planned anything....sure why not. Heidi was coming into the city with a friend and they had booked a hostel. So I bailed on the hostel and went away with my new Ecuadorian family. Let me tell you, they speak zero English. And I speak barely passed high school Spanish. So you can imagine how many confused looks they were giving me. We get to their house and they start asking about my life and I sincerely tried to explain the Luge thing but sometimes you just gotta act like it never happened. And to be honest, a cute little family who lives in the heart of Quito could care less about the Winter Olympics in Russia. So as soon as I connected to wifi I get a hoard of texts from Heidi.
I've never been one to think I would enjoy retreating from the world and society. I'm a hit-the-ground-running type girl and someone with a severe case of FOMO. So escaping from society all together just wasn't my cup of tea...until last week. I've been wanting to do this retreat for awhile. Once I decided it was a must, Kate was the first to know about it...which also meant an obligatory sister adventure. It was decided she would meet me after I got my zen on in Ecuador. Last week, I arrived at a hacienda tucked away in the mountains of Otavalo. When I saw the hammock on my back porch and the hot tub overlooking the valley (it was heated with hot coals btw), I knew I was in for the real deal. A hippie, earthy, soul searching week. And I assumed that role quite nicely. I even found myself wearing socks with my Birkenstocks. You get the idea. Remember that time Heidi and I shared clothes because Air China lost her backpack. Proof.
http://youtu.be/U0V9RTdpPF0 So for the past few years I've always thought that girls with shaved heads were rad. Ok timeout, I'm not talking Britney status but I'm more talking Cassie in Chris Brown's "Crawl" music video. Follow? here are some visuals. I mean come one, if Britney can make it through 2007? you can make it through your Monday. So clearly I was going for the latter look. I had seen absolute babes pull off the side shave so I was determined to be one of those babes. I was thinking about doing it summer 2013 but then if in the off chance I qualified to be on Team USA for Sochi, I didn't want to give off that vibe to world. So I held off. Fast forward summer 2014, Heidi and I had just caught a flight to Rishikesh, India. It's this cool village/town in the Himalayas settled right by the Ganges River. Its embedded with Ashrams which are pretty much schools where kids live and train to be monks. It a pretty magical place, Heidi had heard about it and was pretty dead set on going so I naturally agreed. We went from a plane, to a bus, to a tuk tuk and found ourselves at the Ganges river. At first glance, you look down the river and you see gatherings of people alongside. There is smoke billowing above them and when you take a second look you realize they are burning something. Dead bodies. Ya that's real. Instead of burying their loved ones they will burn them to ashes then dump the remains in the Ganges because it is considered one of the holiest rivers in the world. It is one of those religious traditions your history teacher tells you about in high school but you don't actually believe it? Well she's right, happens. Talk about clean rivers? So we get to Rishikesh and go looking for our Ashram the we are going to stay in. When you stay in one of these Ashrams, you live in these barren dorms then attend meditating and Yoga sessions all day. You eat with the monks (1-2$ meals) and really just try and immerse yourself in what they actually do everyday. The best travel day of our lives happened on this trip. We both agree, nothing has topped this day on our adventures around the world. We woke up in our damp, sweaty beds to the sun rising over the mountain on the left. Sitting on top of that mountain was the Burma Wife Temple. We could hear singing prayers and music in the distance. The flies were out in full force -- swarming our heads. I'll stick to the fact that it was because my pillow was 'janky', not because I smelled that bad. All of a sudden, that band of men we had a sleepover with in the Indian desert came and served us tea and breakfast in bed. Let me repeat. BREAKFAST IN JANKY BEDS. Yeah, we thought we were still dreaming too. We noticed this old man sitting over by the fire who was dressed in all white. God? We ventured over to find out for ourselves. His name was Mangra. He was probably 65 years old and he had an instrument called the Rahmunta. I even asked him to spell it for me -- and given my ability to understand Indian-English, I'm certain that's correct ;) He spoke to us in whatever broken English he could muster. We gathered he lived in a nearby village. But for some reason that was hard for me to believe because you guys -- his clothes were SO WHITE. Bright white. That shade of white where you may or may not need sunglasses to actually sit and speak with him. Either way, we bought into his story. Kate then asked if she could wear his hat... and play his instrument. No boundaries here.
Our lousy musical talents on the Rahmunta didn't last long. So we resorted to what we know best. Dancing. We proceeded to break it down with Mangra. We all sang whatever note hit our vocal chords and we flung our bodies around in the soft sand. Occasionally we would stop everything because we were laughing so hard. Then we would pick back up and continue on with the nonsense. We finally stopped after realizing how sweaty we had just gotten at 7 am in the middle of the Indian desert with a man named Mangra playing the Rahmunta. Say that five times over. [super exclusive dance footy] Five days before leaving for India, we had to rearrange the whole trip… as explained here. I had been to India before and I wasn’t about to visit the same places I had already been. I made that very clear to Kate. So sweet little soul of hers decided a camel safari would be a fun adventure. Somehow, any idea either of us dreams up, we both jump on board like we just invented sliced bread. We literally look at each other thinking everything that came out of our mouths was genius. One perk of having a sister. You should get one. If you don’t have one, call us. We’ll give you a good sister moment.
The Taj. The place you incessantly hear about in school but never actually contemplate why it exists. I mean yeah you know it's symbolic of some love story... or some tomb for the King of India. Heidi had been to the Taj before but I demanded we go for obvious reasons. On arrival we were greeted by this wall of heat. Hear me, India in August. Is. So. HOT. We aren't just talking being slightly sticky...beads of sweat are running races down your forearms. Instantly all the necklaces and bracelets come off. Hair escapes to a necessary bun. Forget the mascara you put on back before the flight, not happening. Survival mode has engaged. That cute insta you were planning on getting? White flags on that one, full retreat.
Heidi and I met up in the Beijing airport then flew to New Delhi. TBT to clean clothes and Starbucks Why India you ask? Well first we were going to a real Indian wedding of a good family friend. We like to think of them as our adopted family in Delhi. It was going to be the kind of wedding that lasts 5 days, it's color over load, henna all over the hands kinda deal. So we booked flights, got the visa, went for it. A WEEK before, the wedding was canceled. So we planned a whole new trip in a matter of days which included those international calls with the airlines TRYING to understand what should have been English on the other end. |
AuthorYou like people? So do we. You want to be friends? So do we.
Categories |