Chelsea’s RTW Travel Log

We had the privilege of meeting a really interesting woman yesterday. My mom’s best friend knows a woman who lives in India the majority of the year. She had a really strong pull to India and ended up landing in Kashi.

She found a baby abandoned on the steps by the Ganja River in Kashi.  She nursed him back to life and found him an adoptive family that’s Indian. In order to support the family and herself in India, she opened a restuarant that uses ayurvedic principles in the cooking. Two months out of the year, when it rains, she’s in Sonora, CA teaching meditation, herbs, and the power of intention.

Shivani’s website is still in the works, but you can view the progress at Touch of Light.

Anyway, when we first sat down in her studio, she asked us to tell her about ourselves. As if in a job interview, we were both silenced and somewhat intimidated. Where to start?  I started off by telling her a little bit about our trip and my fears of traveling to India. I’ve heard its difficult, dirty, and unwelcoming. Her response, “If you’re afraid, don’t go. It’s not for the weak at heart.”  Wow, that’s not what I expected.

As the conversation carried on, she began to understand that we’re not some fresh out of college party-types with no life experience. We want to go to India to experience the culture in all that that means… In my experience, travel is hard, but has many benefits in the long run. She kept telling us where the young “hippies” hung out to do drugs. We continually impressed upon her that that’s not what we’re into.  She understood.

She told us some amazing stories about India, her restaurant, the people, and her family. Even though it sounds like the polar opposite of the West, her words painted a colorful picture of what we might experience.

Justin believes that where ever we travel, it’s all about how you look at it. 99% of what could happen includes various scenarios of getting sick or ripped off and neither are that bad, he says.

So, toward the end of our talk with Shivani, we picked cards for our trip that had phrases of intention on them.  She said she gives these to everyone that comes to her. I picked Obligation and Justin picked Go Within.  I am still not sure why I picked Obligation, but I am sure it will be revealed to me.

I learned that staying in an Ashram or something similar is probably our best bet for lodging. Ashrams feed you three times a day and filter their water, which is very important. From what Shivani said, good food and clean water is difficult to come by. We’d have to be into meditation and helping cook at odd hours, but I am definitely excited about the inner journey we could experience there.