Change of plans - Nepal :)

The ultimate lesson of my journey: Plans are never concrete!

After finding out that I messed up on my India visa while in Chiang Mai, almost 2 months ago, I figured I would not be able to make it to Nepal. Instead, I worked hard to arrange other plans. Well, look at me now….Elana is officially in Nepal J With a persistent  tour guide who wouldn’t let me say no, tour mates who kept on encouraging me to come, and this intense anxious feeling I was getting from all of the overwhelm of India,  I decided to just get on the bus and continue on with the group. At this point, I guess we will just see what will happen with my visa. I’m certain it will all work out.

So…. Last week India. This week Nepal J Took us a 15 hour bus ride to get here, but you can already tell Nepal is much more GREEN (yay for trees!!), a bit more clean (it couldn’t get any dirtier), and the people are awfully nice.  And I am SO excited to get back into a country where Buddhism prevails. I missed the feel of monasteries around me and monks passing me on the streets. I have never in my life felt like I needed to meditate more than right now. India brought out this anxious side of me that hasn’t come out in a while. I find it interesting that I came to India thinking it was going to be the place that I will experience the most spiritual growth, and so far most of what India has done is provoked anxiety. But that is probably my lesson, my test…Realizing that meditation is such an important practice for me in order to deal with overwhelm and anxiety. I guess I have that to thank India for reminding me that!

 I feel in my heart this was the best decision for me to leave India for now and roam around Nepal. I’ll return to India the beginning of June for one last visit, but for now I will enjoy 12 days in Nepal!