well, my passport is in the mail, i gots my tickets, i gots my shots, i am really leaving this saturday.
kolkata - delhi- mumbai- kochin- kottayam is the plan. which will probably change a few times.
at the end of the rope with my energy though, my parents are visiting this week and i was staying up till 4-5 in the morning for the past few weeks really working on stuff for india. i am sooooo dead. i will post from the trip hopefully, definitely when i get back. wish me luck, i will need plenty of it!
Dag--
Hold your dominion.
Good luck, Dag. How long will you be gone? I'll miss you!!!
Don't forget my camera is yours for the trip if you want it. I'll need to find the software so tell me soon if you do.
I'm excited for you. Take care of yourself in the meantime, get some sleep!
5 pages of a trip abt India and no one even mentioned the prince of the country
Dag babes,
1. Notmuch idea abt Calcutta - but is the most populous city of India - and was the subject of the book "City of Joy". Not sure what you can see out there but the only thing I can think of is the Victoria memorial !!
2. You will love Bombay - it is one of the most happening place in the country. Take a trip across the harbour to Elephenta caves, and shop till you drop. You can buy ANYTHING in Bombay. Where are you staying there ? There are clothes shop which defy belief in terms of size and variety (try Shopper's stop in Andheri - it used to be a cinema which has now been truned into a clothes shop). Buy gold jewellery - the designs will boggle yr mind.
3. Kerela is described as "god's own country" it is one of the most beautiful parts of India !! Take a backwaters cruise - I assure you that you will not regret it for a moment. Go to Kovalam beach.
You have any specific questions ? Else I can go on and on .....
Fantastic. I won't have much time to shop, but I will have 2 days in Kochin, in Kerala, to explore and just be a tourist. Otherwise it's work work work. We are working with the police in Bombay, hopefully meeting also Ali Engineer, which I am excited about. If all works out as we plan, I might be going to India a lot more in the future! I hope we'll get to stroll around Bombay a little, I an certainly going with an empty suitcase and hope to fill it up over there. I am yearning for interesting clothes, jewelry, art, anything, and I don't care if I go bankrupt!!! i am sooooo excited.
3 days til your departure? Wow......
i knoooow. and i still don't have my passport. should arrive tomorrow. it better arrive tomorrow. i got my digital camera today though! and new computer comes tomorrow. whopeee. must....sleeeeep.....now.
When does your plane leave? I want to be specificially envious.
specifically tomorrow at 9:10 pm from neward. so first i have to take a train to newark. leaves at 1pm. will be in kolkata on 21st in the morning - their time, i don't even know what the time difference is, it will be sunday night here. i am just going to pick up my passport at the post office today - missed the ups truck yesterday, it was a bit nerve wrecking. so all should be well in the end, quite unbelievable. i am typing on my brand new laptop - as of yesterday, i have a new digital camera, all set to go. ok, gots to get da passport! i'll try to post every now and then.
Have a wonderful trip dag and enjoy my country !!
We'll be thinking of you...
thank you all. now i have everything, including the darned passport, ready to sail out. will write from kolkata or mumbai!
Bon Voyage. Hold your dominion.
Schniff.. waving with nose pressed against the window...
Will miss my drinking buddy..... please do try to write home.
I got an email from Dag from India! I'll try to post some excerps from her wonderful travel diary tomorrow.....
Some of my favorite bits:
In Newark I get in line at the Air India counter, trying desperately to get some clues, and pretending that I fly to India every other day. I catch myself sniffing around to see whether I am really going into some putrid smelling universe. I don't smell anything, I reprimand myself for being a sissy. (Deep down I am also clandestinely relieved that I can't smell anything and upon realizing it, I conclude I indeed am a sissy and that I deserve to go to a putrid smelling universe.)
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There indeed are cows in the street, we nearly hit a few. For a little while I am afraid that I got into a madman's taxi. Later I realize, to no relief, that everybody drives like a madman. There is a near death situation every thirty seconds, it's a miracle there aren't bleeding creatures scattered around everywhere.
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Taxi driver does not know the way, so we get to see lots of back streets. Very interesting, although we are awfully late. He jumps out of the car every now and then and herds crowds of people around him, who then start an argument which way the Merkhajid Street is. Everybody points in a different direction. We move on, repeat the group exercise, move on again. We pass a street where the corner shop happens to have address written on it's window sign. 4 Merkhajid Street. I attempt to explain this to the driver, he doesn't get it. He jumps out and starts caucusing again. We climg out and try to pay, pointing behind us to the street. Yes, he got it. He forces us back in and insists on driving us those three and a half meters to the foundation.
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I have no idea who is who, what they really do and want from us. I know there is a lamb saag in front of me, I want to eat it and resume sleep STAT. We are meeting with them all day tomorrow, I'll get a better sense of them then. After dinner I sleep like I haven't slept since after the Comprehensive Exams. My room overlooks Sudder Street, full of street vendors, beggars and dogs and rikshas and cars honking at all of them. Sensory defensive or not, I sleep as a lamb. I sleep as a little slaughtered lamb. I dream of lamb saag.
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I wash my face and brush my teeth like every night at home. I drink my glass of tap water like every night at home. I realize I am drinking tap water. Not worldly and street-smart at all. I wonder if I'll pay for it tomorrow. I decide to bet on my dumb luck. After all, it has a good track record.
