Backpacking through India with a toddler

Gone are the days of leisurely flipping through magazines and sipping Coke on long flights. Lately I've been asking myself "what did I DO with my time before I was a mom??" I have never understood the term multitasking more than I do now. Leona turned 16 months old last week and loves to destroy the house. I'm learning to live with the eruptions of stuff she throws everywhere. She's like a little bomb. A bomb that loves to give kisses and make my heart swell... but that's another blog... back to backpacking.

I've been traveling a lot the last 9 years. I traveled the world several times by myself and countless times with Samuel, so I know a lot about packing. Packing is always a challenge for me though because I'm usually MOVING to a new country and dragging everything I own along with me. (As a matter of fact I have belongings on 3 different continents right now.) My first trip to India was backpacking for 6 weeks... Samuel and I arrived with no plans. We were just following the Holy Spirit. THAT was an adventure! Within the first few days we ended up on a 27hr bus ride through the Himalayas to Kashmir with a guy smoking drugs in the seat in front of us and we had one small bag of chips to share and slept with one eye open so that our stuff wasn't stolen... we survived. Later in the trip we stayed at a sketchy motel with dirty sheets and used baby wipes to shower... someone tried to break into our room in the middle of the night but Samuel lost his voice and couldn't shout and I didn't want to say anything because then they would think there was just a lone girl inside... nothing like a middle of the night adrenaline rush. THIS trip though is totally planned. We have never traveled like this! We have every hotel, plane and train ticket booked for our 3 weeks in North India. We will be traveling almost every day and knowing we have a place to sleep each night is probably smart.

I spent 27 hours of my life on this bus...

We moved to the states from Europe when Leona was 2 months old and then took her to Ethiopia when she was 6 months... that was our first home, so bringing her there was very familiar. India on the other hand is chaos. It is packed. The whole country is packed with people. And animals. And strong smells. It's beautiful. It's an overload to the senses. I miss it deeply. We lived there most of the time I was pregnant and I keep telling Leona that she is going to remember the sounds... it's going to be comforting to her ;) But like a good mom, I want to be very prepared. As prepared as I can be in a backpack I guess. Samuel has an 80 L pack and mine is 65 L. Most of Samuel's pack is going to be diapers. I keep telling him that diapers are light-weight and will empty themselves out (so that I can replace them with my market-treasures). And wipes. In Ethiopia we wiped down Leona and dozen other kids every hour... something happens to you when you become a parent... you wipe chairs, tables, toys, I even make Samuel wipe his hands when we've been out... it's a wipe frenzy.

I don't plan on bringing much for myself. My goal is always to blend in as much as possible, so I have a few kurtas from India already and will get a few more to pair with leggings or alli baba pants. I will wear a pair of canvas slip-ons which will probably end up being thrown away because I always get a hole in the toe and then step in something nasty. I'll also have a pair of flip flops for walking around the hotel and showering and one pair of sturdy gladiator-style sandals. You have to leave your shoes behind and walk bare-foot at all temples and other holy sites, so I wont bring anything flashy that would get stolen. My most used item is always a scarf. I will bring one and buy more there. I use it to cover my hair and shoulders (girls can't enter holy sites without being covered, and sometimes you just feel like being very modest), for carrying the babe, as a swimsuit cover, a skirt, to tie into a quick shoulder bag, as a sheet for those questionable hotel beds, and even as a towel when needed because it's lightweight and dries really fast. I have a clothes line to hang in our hotel rooms and laundry soap for washing. I will wash a little each day... sometimes the hotel laundry services take a few days, charges a lot or occasionally misplaces or destroys items(we have even received other people's undies - yuck!)... so since we will be moving around so much, I will save the change and do it myself.

You have to chain your pack on train rides. Love! Except for using the squatty on a train... the hole leads straight to the tracks and scares me. One wrong move and you're toast.

When we went to Ethiopia I overpacked Leonas clothes. I think I was expecting that she would have a blowout every day and constantly be covered in food and dirt... she never was though. This trip I will only bring a few rompers, dresses, onesies, PJs and a sweatshirt. She never let us put hats on her until we found a little cat hat with ears at H&M and now she wants to wear it every day... so that will offer some sun protection. I will bring her hightops (also from H&M) because they are super cute and sturdy for walking, a pair of soft leather slip-ons and maybe some sandals.

As far as toiletries go, I picked up a bottle of natural baby wash for the whole family to use (much more practical than each of us bringing a big bottle of our own), I will have small bottles of shampoo and conditioner, contact solution, face wash, toothpaste, deodorant, makeup and a mixture of coconut and lavender oil to use as a lotion. (Coconut oil is available all over India and only costs a dollar or two). I will have a tube of diaper cream just incase. Sunscreen. Thankfully I have pretty easy hair and don't need to use any products or appliances. Fighting Indian humidity wont work anyway, so go natural! Samuel's only toiletry is deodorant, so we are a pretty easy family! I am bringing some medicine for Leona just in case.... benadryl and something for pain/fever, also pedialite packs to mix in her sippy cup.... but we are believing for health and strong tummies on this trip!!!

I have been picking up goodies for Leona's carry-on for a few weeks... our long-haul flights might be intense for a want-to-explore-all-the-time one year old, so hopefully pulling out a new toy or book will pass the time. She has a new baby doll and bottles, coloring books, pink headphones to watch movies that we will download on the ipad, small princess books, a dry erase board, stickers, tattoos, goldfish crackers... Target has great little activity packs and treats in that little section when you walk in the doors, I got lots there! Leona also has a backpack of her own that she might enjoy carrying(one of us will carry)! Our first layover is 10 hours in Boston! We hardly get anywhere and then we have this huge stop... but it will be lunch time and we will try to leave the airport and have a "normal" day so that by the time we get back for our 14 hour flight, the babe will be ready for bed. We were not able to book a basinet for that flight, so Sam and I will take turns holding her. Leona is super social and wants to hug and kiss new kids, so we might have a few pow wows in the aisles too. We will probably have made friends with everyone on flight :) She is too long to change on the airplane bathroom changing tables - did you know those changing tables fold down above the toilet!? I always change her on my seat instead... no one even notices and its better than dropping something in a toilet and trying to keep her little curious hands from touching all those germy surfaces. Samuel will fly to Switzerland from India so we will be flying home with our bff Lauren who is joining us for the trip. I'm so glad I don't have to fly across the globe alone with her... I know I could do it, but it would be a huge challenge at this age.

I will bring my Nikon D 7000, 2 lenses, 2 batteries and a flash for photos, I'll use my iphone when I dont feel like lugging the Nikon around. I always dump my pictures onto my ipad during trips and then back them up on our external hard drive when we get home. I will bring a power strip for easy charging and protection. That's it for electronics.

As long as I can order mild versions of Indian food... Leona will love it! Chicken, rice, naan, veggies, cheese cubes, eggs. I have a few Gerber meal kits for emergencies... she has never eaten them but will probably like the pasta, turkey and chicken options I picked up... they are heavy though, so I'm only bringing 4 for the 3 weeks away. We will not have microwaves, but I think I can ask someone to heat them up on a stove. Some people say you should never eat street food but I think it's the best! I've never gotten sick from it (maybe I have, but it always passes) and you get to be with the people... sitting in the dirt, sipping lassi or masala chai and eating with your hands. I wish all my meals were spent that way.

We will be on lots of planes, trains, bike and auto rickshaws, motorbikes, an elephant or two, maybe a camel? We are so blessed that God gave us Leona to share this adventure life with. She will play hard and sleep hard and make a lot of people smile along the way. I know Ethiopian culture like it's my own but when I was there with my baby, everything changed. I would get stares and occasional crowds on my own before but with Leona it was like a parade whenever we were out! People would even spit on her for "good luck"... I'm curious to see the reaction in India. Adventure usually isn't glamorous, it's sometimes exhaustion, occasional panic, stinky sweat, some tears... but with the Holy Spirit, it's sure to be wildly wonderful. We go because God asked us to. We go because we LOVE the unreached. Backpacking with a toddler is just another adventure on this journey. I'll be sure to write up a part 2 to this entry... after I've learned and experienced a thing or two ;)

Thanks for your prayers as we go!

Varanasi, city of my heart. Birthplace of hinduism. 

On the rooftop of a houseboat in Kashmir

Goa, where you can sunbathe with cows

At the Blue Lassi shop in Varanasi. If you sit here for 30 minutes, you'll see atleast 2-3 corpses being carried through the narrow cobblestone streets on their way down to the cremation spot on the Ganges river. To be cremated at this spot is every hindu's goal. It's a dark city. That's why I love it so so much.