6 Days and counting

Well, the time has flown and the day has almost arrived. Now what does a week before travel signify? Beginning Malaria medication; finding your back pack; choosing clothing to take; buying American medication (Asprin and Imodium); and worrying about all the little details that you totally procrastinated on!

So those are my goals and necessities for the week. At some point, in theory we will all meet to discus further our plans for the trip and to purchase any inner-India flights. Though I have a bad feeling we are not going to do THAT much more planning, and I have a good feeling that I am not terribly worried about it.

Oh and I went and saw Darjeeling Limited. It was an inspiration. Now I know that we don't have to plan anything and can just ditch all of our luggage and still have a great time and a life changing/eye opening experience. Things that I have learned from American movies!

Tackling Southern India

It has been a while since those of us who are following the spice trail to India, have even thought about what we want to do while there! After the flurry of getting airplane tickets, hotels, and our visas...we all just sat back and took a breather! But life is to short...and December is too close to wait too long....

So while on my "vacation" in Seattle, I found a book store that had the Lonely Planet's guide SOUTHERN INDIA. And we thought we were silly for having problems picking places to go, there is a whole other book just about this region.

So first thing I did was tell myself that all my panicking and worrying about the enormity of the task was totally justified, and then I got to work.

I found a list of the festivals in Southern India during December, which then led me to find a section about Hindu temples. TEMPLES! Brilliant! And they tend to be in smaller towns, with a totally different culture than the north, and seriously historically significant! The age and wisdom of some of these temples puts Europe (really the only comparison I have) to shame!

So here is a map I made of the top five temples recommended by Lonely Planet, Southern India.


View Larger Map


Now that you have seen where they are (or not, since Google maps seems to only like to focus on America), check out just how cool some of them look! These pictures really get me fired up to get out there and oogle ancient beauty, climb some steps and concider converting to Hinduism....


Brihadeshwara, Thanjavur (UNESCO protected)


Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai


Sri Jambukeshwara, Trichy

And that is just a smattering, and example of the fun we have to see! Wahoo! Getting pumped (I wonder how you say that in Hindi....)

Vaccines and Shots

It's less than one month until we leave! Many of the vaccines required for India travel need to be started at least one month prior to the trip. Typhoid is one that comes to mind as requiring at about a month to allow your body to build up the immunity before being exposed to the disease, however at minimum it requires a week.

I have one more appointment at the Travel Clinic tomorrow morning to get the rest of my vaccine course finished.

Visas!!!!!!

Well it is official. Thursday afternoon we got our visas back from the out sourcing company!

Well actually FedEx just declared to us that they had left our passports sitting on our front door step. In Cambridge. In Central Square. On a busy street. Next to the projects. Upon hearing that news I promptly got up, and ran out of work with no excuses, coat tails flurrying behind me. But I got home, rescued the package from the door step, and all is well!

Check it out! So cool looking!