Soaking up the sun

In June of last year, after months of asking myself if I should or should not, I took a deep breath and just did it. I booked two tickets, one from Amsterdam to Mumbai and one from Mumbai to Goa. I spent that month researching online a bit, booking a beach hut at a quiet beach and buying travel guides. Then I sort of 'forgot' about it. 

And all of a sudden it is the end of January and the beginning of my trip to India. I have spent the last 3 months working my ass off, for Stoffer + Blik November and December were busy months with lots of illustrating. But as always, everything happens at the same time. So I was working 3-double-shifts all this time. New jobs, new clients, new magazines...  I finished everything just in time and now I have stopped running and it's sinking in that I am actually going. I have my visum and, yes, a 'shitload' of Imodium. So I am kind of ready to go. I packed my brand new backpack for 5 weeks of traveling through the South of India. 

I am so looking forward to being amazed, excited, surprised, delighted and probably shocked, annoyed, scared and desperate at times by a country that leaves almost everyone with mixed feelings. I have been to India before (north), but that was with a group trying to see as much as you possibly can in a short 3 weeks. This time it's just me. I have 5 weeks and no plans. I want to experience it and not run past every sight, seeing it only through the lens of my camera. I want it to all sink in right there. Forget about work, forget about time, forget about my regular life. It's the mindfulness thing I guess. Just be there. Soaking it up. What better place than Incredible India?

So, this means Stoffer + Blik is closed for now. I will be back in March. Exhausted, probably. Homesick, maybe. Richer, definitely. See you then.