The Singalila Ridge Trek - Part 2

Hello! second part of the trek summary follows...but first...happy new year's everyone!!! hope it was great! we spent New Year's in Calcutta. We met a fellow on the trek named Debojit, who is from Calcutta, and we met up with him on the 30th - he gave us a little tour of Calcutta, and then we went out for dinner and drinks at a local trendy hot-spot ... it was a pub with great music, great food, stylish people, and live bands! Basically felt like we were back home...especially when we got the bill and we realized that swanky Calcuttan hang-outs cost about as much as swanky Canadian hang-outs! Well it was worth it to see a different side of life here...the young, the hip, and the wealthy!

As for New Year's Eve - well, we were pretty pooped after our night on the town the night before, so we hung low and had a low-key evening...but it was nice. apparently this city is the place to be if you want to party on New Year's Eve (some discos even had bands/DJs flown in from Dubai, and Europe!)! too bad we weren't in the mood for it last night!

Ok, so back to the trek (i'll try to keep it brief)...


Day 2: "Doctor on-call"
Tumling to Kalapokhri - 13 km/8 mi Elevation gain 150 m.

Aaaah, do not be fooled by the minimal elevation gain on this one! We started the day going DOWN about 500 m, and then up about 650m (for your people still not on metric, that's around 2000 ft).

It was a beautiful walk which took us through small villages in Nepal and then through the Indian side as well. The evening brought us to a village called Kalapokhri (means "black pond") where we stayed with a family from the Sherpa Caste. We spent the evening in the family living space which was decorated with newspaper clippings, trying to shield ourselves from the blowing cold outside. There was no electricity and no heating in the rooms - just a small woodstove in the kitchen. Had a lovely time trying to chat with the owner's parents - one of whom was hard of hearing and a bit tipsy on the local homebrew (Tomba = fermented millet)! my broken Hindi came in handy...they mostly spoke Nepali, but spoke some Hindi as well...so we had a common language we could both partly speak!

Unfortunately our guide Arpan became quite ill that day - but fortunately i had a flashlight to help with my medical examination of him that evening! Looked like strep throat, and we had some appropriate antibiotics on-hand which he started...but unfortunately it didn't do the trick soon enough, because the next day he left us and a new guide was sent up from our trekking company to join us. poor Arpan :-(

picture: dad from the family and his Tomba



Day 3: This One is Quite Up
Kalapokhri to Sandakphu - 6 km/4 mi and lots of elevation gain


Hi everyone - it's Jen again. Happy New Year!


So, this day involved a "simple" 6 km walk that finished with a brutal uphill - "this one is quite up", in the words of our guide. The reward for all this is a great view of the mountains.

Ashifa, conquering the Himalayas:




Our first glimpse of Everest:



Kanchenjunga looming over the village of Sandakphu:

The village of Sandakphu doesn't consist of much besides trekkers' lodges and an Indian Army outpost. We saw several Army outposts along the way since the road comprises the border with Nepal. During Nepal's recent civil war, they were a little more active. Now they have to be among the most boring or peaceful places to be stationed in the world, depending on your perspective. Sandakphu was also the first place within a few days' trek where there was cell phone reception. There was one small spot in the middle of the village where there were about 10 people gathered around - you had to hold your cell phone just right, horizontally, and yell down into it. Because of the views, Sandakphu is a popular stopping point for not just trekkers but also those who want to endure the drive up by jeep.

Our lodge was a loud and busy place that night (the fact that the lodge sold whiskey may have contributed to this). Our new friend Debojit (that's him next to me in the pic) thankfully clued us in to the importance of the wood stove in the common area of the lodge. We were at a pretty high altitude by now, so the nights were very cold (almost Canada cold), so we were lucky to get good seats for an evening of socializing around the stove. We met several really interesting people from all over India. The conversation (despite the whiskey) was a bit higher level (Indian politics, the work of various non-profit agencies in India) than our usual fun fireside chat (favorite Bollywood star, the climate in various parts of the world, what time people eat dinner in different countries).

Day 4: Kanchenjunga By the Toe

Sandakphu to Phalut - 21 km/13 mi

Today we reached Phalut, after a long 21 km hike from Sandukphu along an isolated stretch of trail along the ridge. We had the closest views of Kanchenjunga that can be had from these foothills. It was quite breathtaking! We also had a great view of Everest the following morning once the fog cleared! they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here goes!

Kanchenjunga - 3rd highest peak in the world:

me and Jen with Everest in the background:

Hi, Jen again.... filling in for Ashifa (one of us has finally succumbed to Delhi Belly). Day 4 was also Christmas day. Despite the lovely views and fresh mountain air, it was really sad to not be home for Christmas. Angelika and I appeared to be the only Christmas-celebrators in the bunch, so we toasted with Coke next to the fire that night at the trekkers hut.

Day 5: Oooh, Toes (or, What Goes Way Up Must Come Way Down, Although I Don't Think It's Necessary to Do It This Quickly)

Phalut to Ghorkey - 15 km/9 mi and 1300 m/4300' evelation drop

The day started with one of the best views I imagine you can have. We climbed up to the highest point in Phalut and had a fantastic panorama of Kachenjunga right in our face and Everest and friends in the distance. It was really just breathtaking and we found it hard to leave, despite the fact that it was windy and freezing and 6 a.m.

Below is the trekkers hut in Phalut - the most "rustic" of our accommodations on the trip. The numerous men trekking that busy day were very chivalrous and allowed us three women present to have one of the two private rooms, while they took the dorm beds.

After tearing ourselves away from the view, we started off on the shortest leg of the trip. Only three hours. However... in that three hours we dropped about 1300 m/4300 ft. Yes, it was nice to be going down for a change, but it was a serious knee-killer. Our day ended at the small village of Ghorkey. There were about 30 homes built onto the hillside amidst terraced fields. The economy here is pretty much agriculture and tourism. They had just harvested corn and were planting potatoes for the winter. The woman in the second picture was chopping some kind of root vegetable whose name I can't remember. In the tradition of sauerkraut and kimchi, it's one of those things you let ferment (rot?) for awhile and then eat as a delightful(?) sour dish. Our guide made sure we got some with our dinner that night.

Dr. J, Wilderness Doc, was called into duty again in Ghorkey. A couple of very nice and, I'm sure, very earnest guys from Kolkata had arrived to stay for a few days to "help these people" of Ghorkey. There are no medical services in the village, so they had brought various medicines that they were going to distribute. Unfortunately, they didn't really know what all the medicines were for. Fortunately, they met Ashifa before they did any damage to anyone. She wrote a lot of notes for them and hopefully the do-gooding turned was good.

Ashifa holding office hours and attracting a lot of attention:

Our lodge in Ghorkey also gave us one of our first chances to break free of the trekking trifecta of rice, dal (lentils), and aloo (potatoes). The omnivore has no dilemma on this trek. Anyone who knows me knows I love a good potato, but five days in a row is really enough. So.... it seems yaks are high-altitude dwellers and are common in this area - and I have to say they also make a tasty curry (sorry, Ashifa and fellow vegetarians).

Days 6 and 7: Back to Civilization

Ghorkey to Rimbick - 18 km/11 mi, then one scary 3-hour jeep ride to Darjeeling

The last day of the trek, and it was a long one. More downhill, although not as steep as the day before, with a few painful uphills thrown in just for fun. We also got to hike through a road construction zone - about a kilometer of road being built with rock - all being done entirely by hand, mostly by guys in sandals - busting rocks, moving rocks.

Six hours later we ended in a palace of a trekkers lodge - the primary feature being HOT SHOWERS! We were both completely done by this point - aching legs - but very, very happy. The next day we endured two insane jeep rides - first, 3 hours back to Darjeeling. Then, after getting the rest of our gear, another 4 hours to Siliguri in a "shared jeep", the local form of mass transit. Our jeep held 13 people most of the way - down the same hill we had ridden up in the train a week or so earlier. The train was, by far, less scary. It was all a rather brutal reintroduction to civilization after a week in peace and quiet with fresh air and sweet people. Honking horns, diesel exhaust, people everywhere.... We checked into the first decent hotel we found in Siliguri, collapsed onto the bed, drank tea, and watched cricket and the latest Bhutto assassination conspiracy theories.

The Singalila Ridge Trek - Part 1

Hi everyone! We are just now returning to civilization after a week in the mountains. We did a trek in the Singalila Ridge National Park in the foothills of the Himalayas, and it was really one of the most amazing experiences both of us have ever had - beautiful views of four of the five highest peaks in the world, and visiting lots of small villages. The trek we did involved hiking a total of about 84 km (52 miles) horizontally and a whole lot of vertical change in six days. We went through a trekking company and got an all-inclusive package - probably not the kind of "all-inclusive" most people are used to :) - that included a guide, accommodations in lodges or trekkers huts in small villages along the way, all our food (lots of rice and lentils!), lots and lots of tea, and use of sleeping bags, down jackets, and nightly hot water bottles (all exceedingly important given the season and location!).


We (well, I, more specifically) nearly backed out before we even started. We were looking at some of the daily trekking distances and elevation gains and comparing them to some of the hardest hikes we've ever done, and many of the days of this trek exceeded our previous "personal bests" by... a lot. I couldn't imagine doing six days in a row at our less-than-optimal level of fitness. So we went back to the trekking company to ask them if we were possibly insane. Our guide, Arpan, ensured us most honestly, "even people worse than you" have finished the trek. I felt much better.

Here is a day-by-day synopsis of our journey!

Day 1: "We're Too Fat to Be Self-Sufficient"
Maneybahnjang to Tumling - 11 km/7 mi and 1000 m/3000' elevation gain

We had originally intended to carry our own backpack. We thought if we just switched off frequently we'd be able to do it. Hehe.... so naive.... The beginning of this trek consists of about two hours or so of ridiculously steep switchbacks. We lasted maybe half an hour before visions of the sign at the trailhead referring to porters started dancing in our heads. So, we wimped out and got a porter to carry our bag for the entire trek. This turned out to be a very good move because there were many parts of the trek where we could barely carry ourselves up and down. We felt a bit selfish, but Arpan insisted the porter would be happy to get the work. We felt especially embarrassed because our pack looked massive, even though it was very light (10 kg/20 lbs or so) since it didn't contain much more than a lot of feathers (two sleeping bags and two down coats). Our porter, Topay, is a real live Sherpa (part of the Sherpa caste). It all felt very Everest - including our need for oxygen. :) I made the comment "we're too fat to be self-sufficient" after hiring the porter and needing Ashifa to help me zip into my very narrow sleeping bag and to extract myself from one of my many layers of clothes.

A Buddhist monastery along the trail:



We were very excited when we actually finished the day and felt pretty good. We stayed in a great lodge in the little village of Tumling. We had been expecting spartan trekkers huts, but we had a nice room with our own bathroom and a view of the hills. We found out soon enough, however, that the best part of the trek isn't necessarily the hike. We discovered that some of the other trekkers and guides were hanging out in what we were to learn is the place to be (especially in December).... the kitchen. We spent a couple hours warming our hands over a bucket of coals, chatting with people local and from far away, and watching our dinner being prepared over wood fires by the family that owned the lodge.

Around the fire in Tumling:


There were a couple sets of trekkers that were following the same schedule we were through the trek - a German woman and her guide Buddha, a group of photography buffs from Kolkata (Calcutta), and a school group of ninth graders. Our little group developed a nice camaraderie over the week. There was also an extended family group from Kolkata - the men were trekking and the women and kids were going up the trail in a Land Rover (in what had to be one of the most unpleasant rides of their lives - scary and bumpy). The women thought we were quite the novelty item and even wanted to take pictures with us.


Parts of the trail actually form the border between India and Nepal, and we crossed in and out of both countries - so this also counts as my first trip to Nepal (Ashifa's second)! At one point, Topay told us he needed to take a break off the trail, "Excuse me, ma'am, I'm going to the toilet. In Nepal." and giggled.

More pics and details on the rest of the trek to come....

Pics from India

View of the Himalayas from the Toy Train:

The main ghat at Varanasi:

Traffic in Varanasi:

At the Q'tub Minar in Delhi:

Merry Christmas from Darjeeling:

Keep reading below for details....

How to Be Less Cold

Hi everyone. We're on to our second week in India. It already feels like we've been gone for months. We spent three days in Delhi then were on to three days or so in Varanasi. You've probably seen pictures of Varanasi (hopefully you'll see some of ours later today) - it's the most holy city in India for Hindus, where people make pilgrimages to bathe in the Ganges at the ghats (steps) along the river, and where bodies are cremated at the "burning ghats". We did a bit of walking along the ghats and took a boat ride in the early morning one day to see all that was going on along the river. If you've read The Kite Runner you would have loved. Dozens of kites in the air at any time - it seems to be the favorite hobby of Varanasi boys - and some of them kite fighting. There was also a lot kite debris in the electric wires! One night we tried to locate a restaurant we'd heard of in the Old City. The Old City's streets are more like a maze of alleys - obviously this area was built centuries and centuries ago - no cars, for sure - but they got a bit clogged up with people walking, carts, motorcycles, and cows. It took quite a few turns and a lot of asking directions from shopkeepers and the unsettling number of policemen with rifles to get there.

We also took a day excursion to Sarnath, about 20 km from the city, to an excavated site of a number of old Buddhist monastery where the Buddha himself taught. It was a nice, peaceful break from the city, which was slightly less crazy than Delhi, but still a million things going on. I had thought the 20 km ride out to the site meant we'd be out in the countryside, but it was built up nearly the entire way. I was thankful for that later, though. We stayed until the site closed at dark. So, we're riding our autorickshaw back along one of the few quietish roads, and.... one of the back wheels flies off! Our driver tried to flag down another auto, but since the site was closed most of them had already given up on getting a load of tourists and had headed back to town. So we ended up walking to the nearest intersection and flagging down a ride from there.

So far we haven't done a very good job in escaping the Canadian winter. We were freezing in Italy. In Rome, I said it was the coldest I'd ever been in a place that has palm trees. Delhi was also very cold. The Delhi-ites are obviously not used to it. They were all freezing. So we kept saying we were ready to be warm. So, where did we go... the Himalayas!

(it's Ashifa now, as Jen had to run off for a bit) We then took an overnight train ride to a town near Darjeeling, and then boarded this tiny "Toy Train" to get up to Darjeeling where we are now. The Toy Train is a tiny tiny little train, which was built in the 1800's - it's mainly used now for tourism purposes. The tracks are only 2 feet wide! It travels at a painstaking 10-15 km/hour, and teenaged boys from towns/villages along the way have fun running up along side it and jumping on, and hanging onto the outside of the train for a short ride, until the conductor yells at them and tells them to get off. a beautiful way to see the hills though...(okay, Jen's back now so i'll give it back to her!)

Hello... I'm back. I've been desperately trying to find a place to make phone calls to Ohio before everyone there is in bed! No luck - this doesn't seem to be an early-rising town. Darjeeling was one of the "hill stations" built by the British so they could escape to the high altitudes (we're between 6000 and 7000 feet) during the hot summers. It has about 100,000 people now - many of them Tibetan and Nepali. It's definitely much more laid-back than the big cites. And it has a great view of the Himalayas. The Toy Train ride was really cool - great views of the mountains, the foothills (which are now largely covered by tea plantations), and little villages.

The second "V"

Hi there from Varanasi...a city which is a 14-hour train ride from Delhi. Our trip here was fantastic (i know it sounds hard to believe that 14-hrs in a train can be fantastic, but it was!). We were sharing a section with some very interesting people and we had some great discussions about politics, economic development, and other in-depth topics which one would never discuss with strangers in Canada, but which in India seems to be commonplace! The thing that i love everytime i come here is that people don't have the same sense of personal boundaries that we have in the "west". Almost as soon as we pulled out of the train station, complete strangers were engaged in conversation with one another, just chatting away. Even just sitting in a (casual) restaurant, it is not entirely unusual to chat with people at the next table.

Before coming to Varanasi, we were in Delhi for 2-ish days. One of the days, we rented a car/driver and went around delhi to different sights. We had a big lunch at a small local shop..in my opinion, our best meal yet and it cost less than $5 bucks together! we were near Jammu Masjid at that time (a big famous mosque) which is a muslim area so there were alot of goats around, which Jen found quite amusing!..Jen even saw a rickshaw (3-wheeled vehicle with a roof but open sides) go by that had 2 goats and 1 person in it! how they all fit i have no idea! we saw a baby goat being carried by a little boy too. we sat on the steps of the mosque and watched a cricket match in the field below, while the call to prayer was sounded, and cows grazed below.... Jen has been amazed at the diversity of things going on at any one time...for example: cars, taxis, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, people hauling piles of sacks of potatoes on a trailer with their bicycles, cyclists, cows, goats, stray dogs, all share the road at any one time. Traffic lanes mean nothing, and there is an unwritten code of communication that people use to navigate the multi-purpose roads...it usually involves "might is right", and alot of swerving around and honking to let others know that you are coming and swerving...it is really an amazing use of shared-space without the same need for rigid rules and personal space boundares we have in North America...it looks chaotic at first, but if you stand a watch a bit you notice a highly evolved method to the apparent madness.

We stayed in Delhi with an Indian lesbian couple who run a casual guesthouse in their home... so we were basically living with them for the past few days. they run a small grassroots organization supporting and providing safe housing for women who have been kicked out of their homes for being lesbian, etc. They lived in a nice suburb of Delhi...so we also spent some time just been hanging around, relaxing, and enjoying life in the quiet delhi suburbs...so different from downtown.

Since the last time i was in Delhi (3 years ago) things have changed a bit ...it's a bit less crazy in downtown than before...definitely more infrastructure...you can see the signs of India's economic boom that is in the midst.... still cows on the street whether you're in old delhi, new delhi, or even the swanky suburbs! it's definitely more expensive now than it was a few years ago...though as you can see above, it's still pretty cheap! it has been very cold here too! we are freezing at night b/c it goes down to around 5 degrees C, but it's a wet cold, and there is no heating inside...so we're thinking we didn't pack for this weather and maybe we'll reorganize and head to south India first and then finish up the other northern India stuff we wanted to experience in february when it may be a bit warmer at least. i can't believe how cold it has been. we've been wearing 3 layers to bed and a thick blanket!

We'll write more in a few days about Varanasi...so far it's been very interesting...it's an ancient sacred Hindu town with lots of temples, and people come here on pilgrimage to bathe in the Ganges river and to cremate their deceased. It's thought that if you die here then you are liberated from the cycle of rebirth (Moksha). We went to a Puja (Hindu religious festival) tonite on the Ganges river...then we had dinner in a restaurant which had a classical music concert going on - it seemed to be a bit of a tourist-trap restaurant, as the food wasn't great and there wasn't a single Indian to be seen in the place, but the music was great anyways!

and now, off to bed! :-)

Ciao, Italia

We ended up staying in Milan for three days and we liked it more than we had expected. We did see a few excessively lipsticked women in full-length furs walking tiny dogs, but it was a bit more down to earth than we anticipated, despite it being the "fashion capital of the world" (obviously not a draw for us). One of the last images I have is of a small, well-dressed woman in a long white coat manhandling a Vespa around cars at high speed on wet cobblestones.

Milan, like most European cities, has great transit - intercity rail, commuter rail, light rail, bubway, big articulated buses, tiny circulator buses. I love spending a week in Europe and being able to never sit in a car once, even a taxi. However, there are still plenty of private cars. Parking has to be a bit creative at times, given the centuries-old street widths. But we did see a lot of parking restrictions in both Milan and Rome, which helps cut down on congestion.

While Ashifa was being further enlightened at the Dalai Lama, I decided to check out more of Milan and ended up at the Duomo, the third largest Catholic cathedral in the world - after St Peters in Rome (more on that later) and the one in Seville, Spain. It seems all of my overseas travels have been in very Catholic places, so I've been in my share of giant cathedrals. Regardless of your religion, they all leave you with a feeling of awe and peace. They just have a certain weight and atmosphere. The Duomo is also the only place I've been that has a no balloons rule. :)

We were orginally planning to go to Venice and/or Florence after Milan, but decided at the last minute to go to Rome instead. We spent two days there and did a pretty good job of packing in a lot of sights and relaxing a bit too. We stayed at great B&B really close to the train station (which is great when you have a backpack and it's raining). The owner of the hotel was incredibly sweet and helpful. In fact, we met a lot of incredibly nice people in Rome - three different people gave us their cell phone numbers in case we needed help (this is not as creepy as it sounds!). We're not in a downloading-friendly spot right now, but we'll add some pictures later.

We did the usual tourist circle in Rome - Colosseum, Forum, Vatican. The Roman ruins were great, but not quite what I expected. I always imagine the Colosseum on some dusty outcropping overlooking the city, but you basically walk right up to it on the sidewalk in the middle of a neighbourhood. We spent a bit of time at the Vatican. St Peters is indeed huge. Incredible and full of amazing artwork to look at. But so big, it almost doesn't have the same power as places like the Duomo. In fact it's so spacious, Ashifa may have expressed it best when she said it felt a bit like a mall. Lightning did not strike, so I guess it's okay to say that.

So, after a very quick tour of Italy, we've moved on and we've made it to Delhi. Italy was great but we're happy to be somewhere cheaper. A Coke now costs me about 40 cents, not 3 Euros ($4.50) - and if you know me, you know this is important. Our first night in Delhi, we had dinner at a very nice Indo-Chinese place and paid less for entree, bread, beer, and chai for two than we did for a single entree in Italy. I was also ready for some meat other than ham. :) Oh well, that could be my last pork for 5 weeks.

Ashifa, however, will miss the coffee. She may have become an espresso convert over the last week. Espresso seems to be like a drug in Italy. You walk into a bar, order it at the bar, drink it there in a sip or two, and leave.

More from India soon!

Jen

Dome and Rome

Hi everyone. A quick post for now. We have lots of pictures to share from Milan and Rome. And a story or two, including witnessing a near-brawl between two women in a restaurant today in Rome! You have to love a good travel story. Anyway, until we have more time, here a few pictures.

Buongiorno

So, we made it to Milan. A few potential disasters were averted - Air Canada tried to lose my suitcase on the way back from Ohio Tuesday. Fortunately, it reappeared before we left, but we had to spend some time in the Delayed (Not Lost) Baggage office right before we took off for Milan transferring things we needed from the suitcase to our backpacks. The Air Canada guy tried to convince us to take the suitcase with us, instead of delivering it to Ashifa's dad like we asked. He didn't seem to really understand that we were leaving for three months with only our backpacks.

The only major inconvenience this caused, besides a lot of anxiety, was that the suitcase contained a couple guidebooks for Italy that I had gotten from the library. We were going to copy pages out of them, but didn't have time. We already have about ten pounds worth of guidebooks in our backpacks, so I spent our cab ride to the airport cutting out relevant parts of an old Italy book my sister gave me several years ago with a Swiss Army knife. :)

We didn't sleep at all on the plane ride (5 pm to 2 am Toronto time). Thankfully, our hotel let us check in at 8 am, and we slept most of the day. After our Milanese happy hour and dinner, we wandered around town for several hours. A couple pictures:

Milan's Castello

A photo exhibit along one of the pedestrian streets:

Ashifa misses Binda, so she's been smiling at every dog she sees.

The view from our hotel room.

Armani in Milan...

We've arrived in Milan and we are "fitting into" the world of high-fashion quite well...being the "fashionable" ladies that we are, we are sporting easy-pack raincoats, quick-dry pants, and hiking boots. Fortunately none of the Armani-wearing people (including police officer uniforms) are blinking an eye at our poor taste in fashion. Seriously, it is like the whole city is a giant Yorkville (swanky shops, even for children's clothing).



Aside from the impeccable people however, the city itself feels quite unlike what we expected. It is a bit dirtier, and has nicer, older architecture than i had imagined (we had heard that the entire city was destroyed in WW2 and had to be all rebuilt, but alot of older building seem to still be here). Overall it has quite a nice feel.



We had a nice dinner with a woman from Toronto we met on the plane. Tradition here is to go out for aperitifs (sp?) first which is basically a buffet of appetizers and a glass of wine for about 6-8 euro. Then after that you go out for dinner. We ate so many appetizers at the first place we hardly had room left for dinner! :-) the most incredible cheeses - just platters and platters of them!



Tomorrow we start our 3-day workshop on "The Way to Inner Peace" with the Dalai Lama - hopefully our simple and modest choice of clothing will be better appreciated there! :-)



the next time we blog we will be fully enlightened and mindful.. :-)

How Not to Do This

We're leaving in an hour and a half and I haven't put anything in my backpack yet. :)

The Frantic Rush...

Well, we've got just over 24-hours till departure, and looking around at all the stuff lying on the floor and NOT yet packed in the backpack, you'd think we had a week (or two perhaps!).

The adrenaline is rushing, the excitement is mounting, and the nervousness is starting to set in. (parallel structure to keep Jen happy!) I just called to book our hostel in Delhi and learned that prices have almost doubled since the last time i was there (just 3 years ago!)! Should be interesting to see all the new changes that have occured in the past few years, now that India is in a technological and economic boom!

well, speaking of things strewn over the floor reminds me that i shouldn't be wasting time blogging just now....so i better get to it!

ashifa

The Plan

So... here's what we're thinking we might do for the next couple months. After quick family visits to Vancouver and Ohio, we're leaving Wednesday for Europe and Asia. We fly into Milan and we'll be spending a week in Italy. Where in Italy, we're not so sure. We know we'll be in Milan for a few days, then we'll decide how much of Venice, Rome, and other interesting places we can fit in.

From Milan we fly to Delhi. Right now, we're planning to spend about 5 weeks in India and about 5 weeks in Southeast Asia. Our wish list of places to see in India could probably consume about 5 months, so we'll see what happens (as you can see, there isn't a lot of structure yet - obviously the experience will be more important than the itinerary). So, at some point, from somewhere in India, we'll fly to somewhere in Southeast Asia. This is another area where we'll have a long wish list to try to fit into a few weeks. Countries currently slated to enjoy our presence are Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Then we're back to India and on to home.
So, following this simple vacation, we enter the polar portion of our journey. Since we'll still be on leave from our normal jobs, we decided to do a little work tour in northern Canada for four weeks or so. Well, Ashifa will be working. I'm not sure I'd be able to do much transportation planning in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. New dogsled trail infrastructure maybe?

Jen