2019 was one of the most mentally challenging years of my life
I spent a lot of it feeling unsure of what my next move was and losing a sense of who I am as a person
I thought letting time go by would change things but nothing really seemed to change except for what day it was
I was just passively letting my life go by
Feeling unhappy and doing nothing about it, and I definitely wasn't doing the things
I thought I would be doing at 23
It wasn't until a few days before the end of the year that I realized time doesn't wait for anyone. So I
Met Kevin in 2014 when I went on my first North American tour, I'll add them to the guestlist and I'll let you know
I was 17 at the time and he was 19. It was one of the most exciting times of my life
He was the tour photographer and he's also debatably the person I've traveled with the most.
We drove across the continent to 16 cities over the course of like two months, but when tour was over.
I went back to LA and he went back to Boulder.
We've met up to shoot some more since then, but the last time I saw him was when I was 19
which was four years ago.
So I booked a one-way flight to New Delhi, India to take my longest solo trip and meet up with him on the other side
of the world.
Like that I'm so sorry. Okay. So I did it and it only took 21 hours and 30 minutes. I'm in India. Oh.
Good night.
I'm still not processing the fact that I'm on the other side of the world. It's pretty insane.
It was our first day in India and we had
no plan all we knew was that we wanted to spend today and tonight in Delhi before we flew to the next city.
Alright, so should we go this floor? I'm game
Okay, I'll be honest I have no idea where the hell we are I just blindly followed Kevin to a random location
Which turns out to be kind of the theme of this trip. Where are we?
Kevin went to go meet up with a friend. So I'm just hanging out until he gets back so far India is like
Wow, I'm so exhausted. It's
6:48 p.m. here and I've just been kind of struggling to stay awake.
Kevin has a friend named Kelsey and she's flying in tonight also
I'm sick. Have you ever flown while you're congested and when you're taking off and landing your congestion kind of just like
moves around your face? It made my ears pop and it's all I'm just I'm a little fucked up
that's why I traveled here with a mask on top of the fact that corona virus is spreading around the
world right now.
Anyway, when Kevin gets back
we're gonna go get something to eat and I'm fuckin hungry. I just got to stay awake
You can actually order a tuk-tuk on the Uber App, which is kind of so funny
So we took one to this restaurant called load up you got recommended to go try this place and the food was amazing
but the restaurant was so
weirdly
empty to the point where the waiters didn't really have anything else to do except watch us eat then we tried to visit the India
Gate, and
But I don't know
I think this is close enough Kevin pitched the idea of going to push car this kind of small city in the Indian state of
Rajasthan to be honest, I didn't really know anything about it at all
But we booked flights for the next morning. And when Kelsey arrived we figured out where we would stay
This is the small airport that we flew into and from there
We had to drive about an hour and 15 minutes in to push car
We decided to stay in a hostel so we could meet new people
I've never stayed in a hostel before so I didn't really know what to expect
But no one ended up getting the forth bed in our room. So we just had the whole room to ourselves
When are you leaving you said ten minutes? Yeah
Pushkar yeah, that's where we are right now
Kevin just put us on a plane and took us here. We had to drive an hour from the airport
to where we are right now and
It's so wild
I think to the top of that mountain bike pillow thing. Oh, yeah, I'm Ellen. Yeah, I think I think so
Okay, I guess they're about to go up there
Let's do it when we were checking in one of the guys working there told us about a hike we could take to this temple
On top of a mountain for the sunset and that they were about to go in ten minutes. So we went with them
Oh
My god damn
After a 30-minute hike we made it to the top of the mountain and the view was
Insane you could see the entire city of pushkar which as we found out is one of the holiest
Pilgrimage sites in India because of the lake Lord Brahma in Hindu mythology is believed to be the creator of the universe
He takes a lotus flower
Annie throws it downstairs all the petals fell and they easily
Created when the petals fell and you can see that lake right over there. It's the pushkar lake
We spent the next hour or so just hanging out at the top of this mountain watching the sunset
It's kind of crazy because we literally just met these guys like 10 minutes after checking into our hostel
But they ended up being super cool and it was really fun
We went got dinner with them after and something kind of interesting about pushkar is not only is it a completely dry city?
But it's also completely vegetarian. We still had one more day
We wanted to spend here and by the time we got back to the hostel. I was ready to pass out
We only booked our hostel for one night so that morning
We just kind of walked around until we found a cool-looking hotel and continuing with the theme of the trip
We didn't exactly have solid plans for the day. Hey, Jayden guess that
You see that tree right there. Yeah, that's dark fruit
Really? Yeah, so weirdly enough like an hour before we checked into this hotel
Kelsey had asked me if I've ever had star fruit before and I haven't thank you he won Sun
Wow, this is very good
We decided to go into the city and get something to eat
We got a recommendation to try this restaurant. And once again the food was amazing
I don't think I've ever been to a country where literally every single place
I ate at was just delicious and that has been India after we ate we walked around the city a little bit to just check
It out and do some shopping and then we decided we were going to meet up with the guys from yesterday and do something
I have never done before
We were going to ride motorcycles through India they wanted to take us to Ali Baba
A famous guru who lives about a half an hour outside of pushkar in a 1,000 year old temple
Because driving around India, especially like this town is
People bring Alibaba potatoes because apparently that's the only
Thing he eats he lives a life of simplicity and people come to visit him for his wisdom
That's a good one
You ask why
Even though we had no idea what anyone was saying unless it was translated to us
There was something really unifying about sitting down in a circle around this guru
Yes
Masala chai is an extremely popular tea in India Bhutan deal employs
It's good
Ready to shred
Quit game with the monkeys there's a bucket. Okay. Here's a packet for you
They do not have to steal the packet from you you have to feed them
Our last day in pushkar was coming to an end coming here
I had really no idea what to expect mostly because I've never even heard of this place before but the experience I had here was
Incredible very much. Thanks to the people that we went
Our next stop was Bangalore just for one night
We just landed and ordered six drinks
Pretty much all we did in Bangalore was drink by the time we actually got to our Airbnb
The day was pretty much over. So we just decided to go out
Our flight tomorrow was around noon so we had less than 24 hours here and I didn't film any of it
I'm not bringing my camera. So
Stay back, so I guess you'll never know
Our next and final destination was going a more tropical part of India, but we weren't all going together LC had to work. Bye
But Kevin and I still had two more days left of our trip
Oh
I
Was not
Well, I had no idea where I was going when I was coming in
but I was not expecting this and this is everything and I think
We are about to take a sunset boat ride
with drinks Cheers
You
The whole video is gonna be like so adventurous and then it's then and we're just like drinking laying our own
Goa was definitely a major change of pace for us but in the best way possible
We spent our last night in Goa just relaxing and hanging out with some of the guys who work there
It is our last day in India, it's super bummed
I have been having like did you believe the time of my fucking life here?
Yeah one Angeles
It's a pretty intense it's over
Almost
Another twenty hours. I don't think there's been another trip that has impacted me as deeply as this one has I'm not gonna lie
I was really nervous to go to India. I was nervous to travel there by myself
I was nervous to meet up with a friend that I hadn't seen in four years
There were a lot of excuses that I could have made for myself
But I found that when you don't wait and you take those steps outside your comfort zone
Those are the moments that really change your life