Hey there! It's Erin! In order to give a little background and context I wanted to make a post giving a brief story of my travels over the past year or so before Colleen and I move fully to sharing our current combined journey together.
From people we meet we often receive questions about how much time we've spent in India, why we came here, where we've been, what we've been doing, how long, we'll stay, etc. I thought it would provide some insight and background to our posts here to provide some of the answers to those questions.
I left the USA in October 2015 and flew from there to New Delhi, India. Before leaving the motherland I had spent a year and a half working 3 different seasonal research technician jobs in environmental conservation for the National Park Service and New York DEC with some travelling throughout the US between these jobs. I really enjoyed this work, spending most of my time out in the wilderness taking data on plants, bats, and birds.
I felt however that I was craving something more deeply connected to building community and bringing people back to a closer connection with the natural world. I also felt that I needed to go somewhere completely unknown and to have an open ended journey to give myself the most space to grow and learn from the world, to find myself, and my direction. I wanted to travel slowly, to find communities living with the intention of making a better world for all and spend time learning from them, and also to learn from different traditions and ways of thinking. So I bought a one way ticket to New Delhi and prepared my visa for India and off I went! (Colleen and I now both have a 10-year (!!!) multiple entry tourist visa)
Initially I definitely found India overwhelming, particularly the cities, and had to learn to find the balance between remaining open to people and not getting carried away or taken advantage of. Over time I started to develop this balance and more strength and confidence.
My second trip to Delhi several months later was encouraging to see how much more confident and comfortable I am here. It also showed how our experiences are largely shaped by are attitudes and expectations, that we can make the decision anywhere that we are in a beautiful place full of beautiful people, and that will be what we find. :)
WWOOF india site
So back to the start, I WWOOFed on a farm in Rajasthan for a couple of weeks then I spent an extremely fulfilling growth filled month doing my yoga teacher training with Siddhi Yoga in Goa. I wanted to start my trip with first taking the time to look inward before I started to explore what was outward. I wanted and still am working towards cultivating greater presence, awareness, and inner peace. What's the point in travelling anywhere if I'm not truly there?
After my yoga course Colleen came and met me in Rajasthan, India at the end of spending her semester abroad in Bhutan. We spent Christmas catchings buses into Jaipur in our sarrees and backpacks and howling at the moon on a rooftop. For a month we traveled together through Rajasthan and up through Punjab into Himachal. The whole trip we were greeted constantly be generosity, smiles, delicious foods, and beautiful cities and landscapes. Colleen left me in Himachal at the end of January, saying that she felt she wouldn't be gone for too long, that India would be calling her back. (and guess where she's back to now!)
forts, henna, and bananas in Rajasthan
After Colleen left I traveled solo a bit more in the mountains but was feeling a bit lonely, craving being a part of a community where I could contribute and learn of new ways to live. I came across The Himalayan Farm Project (HFP), in Nanital District in Uttarakhand on WWOOFing and went there with the intention of spending at least 6 months as a long term volunteer.
https://www.himalayanfarmproject.com/
HFP is a volunteer run permaculture farm project in the Himalayan foothills. It's an hour up-hill hike through the jungle up to the farm which is completely off grid. After spending time on a buses with all the loud horns and pollution I felt immensely at home hiking up this small forested trail up to this unknown place that I was planning to spend the next several months.
My visa requires that I leave India every 6 months, but then I can come back without reapplying for a new one so I took a trip in the middle of my time at the farm and went trekking in Nepal. Here's some photos!
Annapurna Circuit
Trekking in Langtang with Jon
I called the HFP home from February to November 2016. By the end I had become the longest term volunteer and was serving as farm steward, coordinating finances and volunteer projects, a role I didn't expect to have as a volunteer! After several months I started to feel that I'd gained what I'd come there for and it was time to transition towards moving on. This was somewhat stressful to do as I had put my whole heart and energy into the project and the nature of the transient community left an uncertainty if the projects that were started there during my time would be taken care of. Will all the trees we planted in monsoon survive? What about the chickens?
However it was a good lesson in letting go and in doing the best I can in the moment to ensure I'm acting in a way that makes the farm a better place for the future while not being overly attached to the outcome. I also knew that my leaving would open up the space for new volunteers to figure more things out for themselves and learn in the way that I had found so beneficial.
I had been playing with the idea of getting a bicycle and heading east across Nepal.When my brother came to visit and we went on a motor bike trip through the mountains I felt confident that a cycle tour should be my next step.I wanted to be able to spend more time in the villages full of smiling waving people, extending the length of the hellos and the time spent in the beautiful landscapes. I also love the idea of moving only by my own power, by the energy produced by the food I eat, moving further away from supporting energy sources that are damaging people and the planet.
So I went to Delhi and bought a used Trek mountain bike. It was difficult to find a good mechanic to explain much about bicycles and to find quality parts at a good price but I did the best I could with what was available. It was going to be my first time travelling by bicycle so I figured starting with a cheaper one was good to get the idea of whether I'd like it or not. I also can just get stubborn about not buying new things!
My friend Jon met me over at the farm with a cycle he had bought in Nepal and we started the journey together, taking two days to get to the Western Nepal border and then heading right out of the plains and up into the mountains. Jon and I travelled together for about 2 weeks, then I continued on my own for about the next 3, then I cycled across Eastern Nepal with another cycle tourist Matt, who was heading the same direction.
My ride across Nepal deserves a whole series of blog posts due largely to the beauty of the Nepali people. I found that as the terrain became more and more difficult, when cycling was turned more frequently into what I started to call 'hike-ling', that the smiles and 'Namastes' grew larger and the hospitality increased even further. In nearly every village a large crowd of kids and adults would surround us/me and just watch what we/I were doing which was usually nothing too exciting, just eating food, drinking tea, maintaining the cycles. But everyone was extremely curious as to what a foreigner was doing so far away from the main roads in their little village.
Frequently there were shouts from children, "CYCLE!!", "GEAR WALLAH!", "AMERICAN!" upon seeing the cycle(s) coming and all the kids would come running. I spent many climbs being chased by mobs of giggling shouting children.
I didn't carry a tent or cooking supplies on this trip so I had to rely on the kindness of the Nepali people for shelter and food when there were no guest houses or restaurants around. When I was on my own it left me feeling somewhat vulnerable when evening would start approaching and I hadn't found anywhere to sleep yet. I would ask some women (in Nepali) where I could sleep that night and after some discussion and confusion as to why and how I got there, why I was alone, what food I eat (just the local delicious Batt Khana!), etc. one woman would tell me that I could sleep and eat in her home, leaving me with a tremendous feeling of relief and gratitude. Many nights were spent in shared rooms and beds with the other female family members, giggling, sharing stories, and feeling like sisters. Without putting myself outside of my comfort zone and leaving myself open and a bit vulnerable I would never have gotten the chance to get this close to the Nepali people.
It's hard to really put my experience in Nepal into words... my memory shows flashes of smiling, hard working people, really long steep climbs on rough roads, enormous delicious plates of rice dahl and fresh vegetables, and beautiful terraced mountain sides with distant views of snowy peaks. Nepal filled me with love and presence, and taught so many lessons on hospitality, sharing, and community.
Without the bicycle I would never have had the chance to spend so much time in those 'places in between', and the roads that only locals tend to venture, with no real information on what to expect along the way.
The constant warmth and smiles, the adventure in not knowing where I would be that night when I set off in the morning, the feeling of moving myself across the land by my own power, all had me sure that this was the way I wanted to continue experiencing the world.
In order to continue cycling I knew I would need to work on getting a better stronger bike, with better parts. The rough roads in Nepal put my used Trek to the ultimate test, showing the importance of durable parts and a stronger knowledge of cycle mechanics. Without Matt along towards the end I don't know if I would have been able to continue on the rough dirt roads! He helped me immensely in keeping my cycle functioning, teaching me about cycle mechanics, and about which parts would be good to have on a touring bike.
Thanks Matt!!
Also, thanks to Matt I have a few photos to share here! (I had lost my camera at the beginning of the trip)
our new friend, a passionate young man Derien who took us on a walk to a viewpoint in his village
another wedding the same night. we were treated like honorary guests and then joined the dance party out on the street!
night out on the border town drinking the local beer 'chang' in the local spot
we made it! Nepal-India Eastern Border
Matt, David (who we met at the border), and I crossed the Eastern Nepal-India border into West Bengal at the end of December. It was exciting to be in a whole new place and culture with language, food, and customs that were unknown. We then went up to Darjeeling for a short time together and visited my friends Utsow and Ashana who have a new permaculture farm project there.
Take it Easy. Utsow and Ashana's farm in Darjeeling
Then Matt and David continued east towards Burma and I headed south to Kolkatta.
I took the train from Siliguri to Kolkatta, squeezing into the ladies coach in general class and leaving the cycle with the parcel office. From Kolkatta I took the train to Bangalore in Southern India.
Colleen and I had been talking for a while about travelling together once she finished her current job and we finally set a plan for her to come over to India in February and cycle through the country together! With this plan we had a lot to do to get our cycles together.
I spent a few days in Bangalore cycling back and forth across the busy traffic visitng cycle shops, trying to find somewhere that Colleen and I could source our cycles. Finally after a couple of days of searching I found Cadence 90 bike shop where they had just built up a Surly Long Haul Trucker, they let me try the one they'd built and we went over all the parts that we would like for the cycles.
Cadence 90 cycle shop in Bangalore
With the parts list all together that would be ready for when Colleen arrived the next month I hopped on my worn out Trek and rode 2 days across Tamil Nadu out to Auroville. Arriving with an excitement at settling down for a month and with sunburnt face and lips!
http://www.auroville.org/
Auroville is an intentional international city focused on creating a society with greater human unity and sustainability. Throughout the quiet, forested 'city' there are many organic farms, sustainable building projects, artist communities, herbal healing centers, yoga and meditation centers, alternative schools, and many non-profits working on social and environmental issues.
I spent a month there living on a farm just outside, working a few hours a day in exchange for food and stay and then spending nearly all my free time inside Auroville volunteering at and learning from different projects and taking advantage of the many music, dance, meditation, etc. events that were going on. It was really enriching to be surrounded by so much inspiration and passion in such a close radius!
Here are a few links/names to some really great organizations/farms/projects that I was able to connect with and would like to share!
Buddah Garden Farm
Terra Soul Permaculture farm/community
Sadhana Forest
Eco Femme
Solitude Permaculture Farm
this was just a bit of the surface I was able to scratch in my short month there!
In the last couple days of January my friend Subbu from Bangalore met me in Pondicherry and we set off on an 8 day cycle journey across Tamil Nadu and back to Bangalore following along the Kaveri river from its outlet into the Pacific ocean. We cycled through quiet roads along the river and forests filled with a diversity of birds (with an abundance of peacocks!) and through cities with rich cultural history and spectacular colorful temples. I really appreciated having Subbu along as he shared a lot of insight on the culture and places along the way, and his ability to speak the local language was invaluable! Many nights we camped right next to temples in villages with the local people giving an amazing amount of help in ensuring we always had a safe comfortable place to sleep.
Subbu took lots a pictures a long the way. Here are some of them!
Brihadeeshwara Temple at Tanjavur, Tamilnadu.
DOSAS :))
more temple camping!
selfie!
a map of our journey :]
We returned to Bangalore tired and ready to get off the saddle for a bit.
Colleen would be flying in the next day!
YAHOOIE!
From people we meet we often receive questions about how much time we've spent in India, why we came here, where we've been, what we've been doing, how long, we'll stay, etc. I thought it would provide some insight and background to our posts here to provide some of the answers to those questions.
I left the USA in October 2015 and flew from there to New Delhi, India. Before leaving the motherland I had spent a year and a half working 3 different seasonal research technician jobs in environmental conservation for the National Park Service and New York DEC with some travelling throughout the US between these jobs. I really enjoyed this work, spending most of my time out in the wilderness taking data on plants, bats, and birds.
I felt however that I was craving something more deeply connected to building community and bringing people back to a closer connection with the natural world. I also felt that I needed to go somewhere completely unknown and to have an open ended journey to give myself the most space to grow and learn from the world, to find myself, and my direction. I wanted to travel slowly, to find communities living with the intention of making a better world for all and spend time learning from them, and also to learn from different traditions and ways of thinking. So I bought a one way ticket to New Delhi and prepared my visa for India and off I went! (Colleen and I now both have a 10-year (!!!) multiple entry tourist visa)
Initially I definitely found India overwhelming, particularly the cities, and had to learn to find the balance between remaining open to people and not getting carried away or taken advantage of. Over time I started to develop this balance and more strength and confidence.
My second trip to Delhi several months later was encouraging to see how much more confident and comfortable I am here. It also showed how our experiences are largely shaped by are attitudes and expectations, that we can make the decision anywhere that we are in a beautiful place full of beautiful people, and that will be what we find. :)
WWOOF india site
So back to the start, I WWOOFed on a farm in Rajasthan for a couple of weeks then I spent an extremely fulfilling growth filled month doing my yoga teacher training with Siddhi Yoga in Goa. I wanted to start my trip with first taking the time to look inward before I started to explore what was outward. I wanted and still am working towards cultivating greater presence, awareness, and inner peace. What's the point in travelling anywhere if I'm not truly there?
After my yoga course Colleen came and met me in Rajasthan, India at the end of spending her semester abroad in Bhutan. We spent Christmas catchings buses into Jaipur in our sarrees and backpacks and howling at the moon on a rooftop. For a month we traveled together through Rajasthan and up through Punjab into Himachal. The whole trip we were greeted constantly be generosity, smiles, delicious foods, and beautiful cities and landscapes. Colleen left me in Himachal at the end of January, saying that she felt she wouldn't be gone for too long, that India would be calling her back. (and guess where she's back to now!)
After Colleen left I traveled solo a bit more in the mountains but was feeling a bit lonely, craving being a part of a community where I could contribute and learn of new ways to live. I came across The Himalayan Farm Project (HFP), in Nanital District in Uttarakhand on WWOOFing and went there with the intention of spending at least 6 months as a long term volunteer.
https://www.himalayanfarmproject.com/
HFP is a volunteer run permaculture farm project in the Himalayan foothills. It's an hour up-hill hike through the jungle up to the farm which is completely off grid. After spending time on a buses with all the loud horns and pollution I felt immensely at home hiking up this small forested trail up to this unknown place that I was planning to spend the next several months.
I expected a larger, more stable community but found a small ever changing and evolving community of volunteers. The long term volunteers decide what projects to work on and what is needed to help to bring the farm closer to self sufficiency. It's a beautiful, peaceful place full of potential and space to experiment and learn. My time there was extremely empowering; I gained skills that enable me to feel much closer to really knowing how to survive. Through the sharing of others, experimentation, and a lot of reading and research. I learned many lessons on building community, buildings themselves, water conservation, indian cooking (!), and how to enrich ourselves by enriching the life in the land around us.
My time at the HFP added further clarity to the direction I want to pursue. It lit my passion for ecological agriculture, community building, and connecting people to the land and to eachother, and for living more simply through the cultivation of these life sustaining species we call food. :]
I called the HFP home from February to November 2016. By the end I had become the longest term volunteer and was serving as farm steward, coordinating finances and volunteer projects, a role I didn't expect to have as a volunteer! After several months I started to feel that I'd gained what I'd come there for and it was time to transition towards moving on. This was somewhat stressful to do as I had put my whole heart and energy into the project and the nature of the transient community left an uncertainty if the projects that were started there during my time would be taken care of. Will all the trees we planted in monsoon survive? What about the chickens?
However it was a good lesson in letting go and in doing the best I can in the moment to ensure I'm acting in a way that makes the farm a better place for the future while not being overly attached to the outcome. I also knew that my leaving would open up the space for new volunteers to figure more things out for themselves and learn in the way that I had found so beneficial.
I had been playing with the idea of getting a bicycle and heading east across Nepal.When my brother came to visit and we went on a motor bike trip through the mountains I felt confident that a cycle tour should be my next step.I wanted to be able to spend more time in the villages full of smiling waving people, extending the length of the hellos and the time spent in the beautiful landscapes. I also love the idea of moving only by my own power, by the energy produced by the food I eat, moving further away from supporting energy sources that are damaging people and the planet.
So I went to Delhi and bought a used Trek mountain bike. It was difficult to find a good mechanic to explain much about bicycles and to find quality parts at a good price but I did the best I could with what was available. It was going to be my first time travelling by bicycle so I figured starting with a cheaper one was good to get the idea of whether I'd like it or not. I also can just get stubborn about not buying new things!
My friend Jon met me over at the farm with a cycle he had bought in Nepal and we started the journey together, taking two days to get to the Western Nepal border and then heading right out of the plains and up into the mountains. Jon and I travelled together for about 2 weeks, then I continued on my own for about the next 3, then I cycled across Eastern Nepal with another cycle tourist Matt, who was heading the same direction.
My ride across Nepal deserves a whole series of blog posts due largely to the beauty of the Nepali people. I found that as the terrain became more and more difficult, when cycling was turned more frequently into what I started to call 'hike-ling', that the smiles and 'Namastes' grew larger and the hospitality increased even further. In nearly every village a large crowd of kids and adults would surround us/me and just watch what we/I were doing which was usually nothing too exciting, just eating food, drinking tea, maintaining the cycles. But everyone was extremely curious as to what a foreigner was doing so far away from the main roads in their little village.
Frequently there were shouts from children, "CYCLE!!", "GEAR WALLAH!", "AMERICAN!" upon seeing the cycle(s) coming and all the kids would come running. I spent many climbs being chased by mobs of giggling shouting children.
I didn't carry a tent or cooking supplies on this trip so I had to rely on the kindness of the Nepali people for shelter and food when there were no guest houses or restaurants around. When I was on my own it left me feeling somewhat vulnerable when evening would start approaching and I hadn't found anywhere to sleep yet. I would ask some women (in Nepali) where I could sleep that night and after some discussion and confusion as to why and how I got there, why I was alone, what food I eat (just the local delicious Batt Khana!), etc. one woman would tell me that I could sleep and eat in her home, leaving me with a tremendous feeling of relief and gratitude. Many nights were spent in shared rooms and beds with the other female family members, giggling, sharing stories, and feeling like sisters. Without putting myself outside of my comfort zone and leaving myself open and a bit vulnerable I would never have gotten the chance to get this close to the Nepali people.
It's hard to really put my experience in Nepal into words... my memory shows flashes of smiling, hard working people, really long steep climbs on rough roads, enormous delicious plates of rice dahl and fresh vegetables, and beautiful terraced mountain sides with distant views of snowy peaks. Nepal filled me with love and presence, and taught so many lessons on hospitality, sharing, and community.
Without the bicycle I would never have had the chance to spend so much time in those 'places in between', and the roads that only locals tend to venture, with no real information on what to expect along the way.
The constant warmth and smiles, the adventure in not knowing where I would be that night when I set off in the morning, the feeling of moving myself across the land by my own power, all had me sure that this was the way I wanted to continue experiencing the world.
In order to continue cycling I knew I would need to work on getting a better stronger bike, with better parts. The rough roads in Nepal put my used Trek to the ultimate test, showing the importance of durable parts and a stronger knowledge of cycle mechanics. Without Matt along towards the end I don't know if I would have been able to continue on the rough dirt roads! He helped me immensely in keeping my cycle functioning, teaching me about cycle mechanics, and about which parts would be good to have on a touring bike.
Thanks Matt!!
Also, thanks to Matt I have a few photos to share here! (I had lost my camera at the beginning of the trip)
wedding day! these ladies invited us into their wedding preparations for lunch, some dancing, and photos
Matt, David (who we met at the border), and I crossed the Eastern Nepal-India border into West Bengal at the end of December. It was exciting to be in a whole new place and culture with language, food, and customs that were unknown. We then went up to Darjeeling for a short time together and visited my friends Utsow and Ashana who have a new permaculture farm project there.
Take it Easy. Utsow and Ashana's farm in Darjeeling
Then Matt and David continued east towards Burma and I headed south to Kolkatta.
I took the train from Siliguri to Kolkatta, squeezing into the ladies coach in general class and leaving the cycle with the parcel office. From Kolkatta I took the train to Bangalore in Southern India.
Colleen and I had been talking for a while about travelling together once she finished her current job and we finally set a plan for her to come over to India in February and cycle through the country together! With this plan we had a lot to do to get our cycles together.
I spent a few days in Bangalore cycling back and forth across the busy traffic visitng cycle shops, trying to find somewhere that Colleen and I could source our cycles. Finally after a couple of days of searching I found Cadence 90 bike shop where they had just built up a Surly Long Haul Trucker, they let me try the one they'd built and we went over all the parts that we would like for the cycles.
Cadence 90 cycle shop in Bangalore
With the parts list all together that would be ready for when Colleen arrived the next month I hopped on my worn out Trek and rode 2 days across Tamil Nadu out to Auroville. Arriving with an excitement at settling down for a month and with sunburnt face and lips!
http://www.auroville.org/
Auroville is an intentional international city focused on creating a society with greater human unity and sustainability. Throughout the quiet, forested 'city' there are many organic farms, sustainable building projects, artist communities, herbal healing centers, yoga and meditation centers, alternative schools, and many non-profits working on social and environmental issues.
I spent a month there living on a farm just outside, working a few hours a day in exchange for food and stay and then spending nearly all my free time inside Auroville volunteering at and learning from different projects and taking advantage of the many music, dance, meditation, etc. events that were going on. It was really enriching to be surrounded by so much inspiration and passion in such a close radius!
Here are a few links/names to some really great organizations/farms/projects that I was able to connect with and would like to share!
Buddah Garden Farm
Terra Soul Permaculture farm/community
Sadhana Forest
Eco Femme
Solitude Permaculture Farm
this was just a bit of the surface I was able to scratch in my short month there!
In the last couple days of January my friend Subbu from Bangalore met me in Pondicherry and we set off on an 8 day cycle journey across Tamil Nadu and back to Bangalore following along the Kaveri river from its outlet into the Pacific ocean. We cycled through quiet roads along the river and forests filled with a diversity of birds (with an abundance of peacocks!) and through cities with rich cultural history and spectacular colorful temples. I really appreciated having Subbu along as he shared a lot of insight on the culture and places along the way, and his ability to speak the local language was invaluable! Many nights we camped right next to temples in villages with the local people giving an amazing amount of help in ensuring we always had a safe comfortable place to sleep.
Subbu took lots a pictures a long the way. Here are some of them!
cycling along the beautiful forested trail along the Kaveri River
Srirangam, Tamilnadu
stopping traffic so the men up in the trees don't drop coconut on anyone's heads!
being the excitement of this small river side village, answering many questions, being shown a safe place to sleep, taking selfies, and being cooked some delicious food!
hilltop Shiva temple full of pilgrims, sleeping on a rooftop in the town and eating a wonderful free meal in the temple!
back to Bangalore traffic
We returned to Bangalore tired and ready to get off the saddle for a bit.
Colleen would be flying in the next day!
YAHOOIE!
Very well put together Erin. Wishing you both all the best!
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