There's something I really love about train travel in India. I find it to be my favorite form of transportation while I'm here, and a quintessential India experience. It's direct, no need to deal with winding roads or traffic, requires very little effort, a lot of beautiful scenery, and it's cheapcheap. It's amazing how popular train travel is in India compared to the west... it inspires me to seek out this transportation more in my life because it honors both the journey and the destination.
I arrived at the Canacona train station around noon and decided to walk the nearly 3km to Patnem Beach, which turned into a combo of me walking and hitching two motorbikes to cut down on the distance. I found myself on the beautiful Goan beach and walked along looking for Kelsey. After only a couple minutes I saw her and called out and then I was having my next beautiful beach reunion!
More than anyone in my life, I have the most similar overlap of locations lived/visited as Kelsey Hayden. We're both from Colorado, about an hour apart from one another. We both went to college at the U of O. Both traveled through SE Asia after college, in fact her trip really inspired and helped me to take on my trip that following year. It was almost no surprise when we discovered we'd be in India at the same time!
Kelsey was finishing up a challenging and meaningful month at a yoga teacher training course in southern Goa. When I arrived all she had left to do was attend her final ceremony that evening, so after some lunch with a couple of her friends at Patnem, we went back so they could get ready. I felt so blessed to get to stay with her in her lovely cottage and also to witness their heart-touching ceremony.
(Easily the nicest accommodation I'd had in a while!)
It was so sweet catching up with Kelsey. To hear all about her journey thus far and to see my own experiences of overcoming hardships reflected back... Traveling India is no easy feat and to share that experience with someone who I've shared so many other experiences with gave me a sense of recognition and home.
The next morning I woke up naturally early and decided to do some yoga in the shala. Some of the other new teachers trickled in and invited me to join them in a big 108 sun salutations practice. 108 is a sacred number and completing this many sun salutations (cycles of about 5 yoga positions) brings a powerful and spiritual energy to a space. So I went for it! We all flowed together through cycles of 10, pushing through pain and sweat and doubt to one of the most memorable and profound hours of yoga of my life. Those final 8 rounds felt so satisfying, and led me to the best savansana rest I can ever remember. Not a bad way to start the day!
After packing and breakfast, Kelsey and I moved down to Agonda Beach for the day. We split a room near some other folks from her course then we all had relaxing beach time together!
Soaking up the sun before heading back to rainy Portland! We had a very chill day filled with good food and great conversations.
Horseback rider and cricket games on Agonda beach...
That evening we bought some fruit for the morning and booked a cab to the airport. We had a 7am flight from Goa to Chennai, meaning we had to leave the guesthouse around 4am. Despite the very early wake up, the day went smoothly and we arrived into that familiar Chennai airport. It was my first time out of many arriving here domestically and I was surprised how comfortable it all was to me... And smaller somehow. I think I've been growing.
I ran into a wonderful woman who I'd previously met in Auroville and she was returning there from Goa as well. She shared a taxi with Kelsey and I down the coast and we had lovely talks about our experiences. Getting closer to Auroville felt a bit surreal. It was a homecoming, a return to the source, and the final resting stop of all the places my soul had been over the past three months. Auroville welcomed us with that familiar warmth (figurately and literally) and it felt so good to be "home" one last time before going "home" ❤️❤️
