Kellie, Michael and I are venturing to India for Divya and Vinay's wedding!
The cast
I met Vinay during a booze cruise... er, a "work orientation and training" event at our first employer out of college in 2007. I met Kellie, Michael and Divya during a booze cru-- "career change" at my second employer in 2008. Today, none of us actually work together anymore, but we all still reside in Denver and remain close (or is it naive?) enough to agree to being inseparable for several days/weeks in a challenging foreign environment. It's kind of like the Amazing Race, except without the cute Aussie host... Or a race.
Kellie and Michael both have more international travel experience than I do. While I've only been to New Zealand, Kellie has been to Thailand, South Africa, Spain, Australia, Dominican Republic and several other places, and Michael most recently went to Peru in 2009. Collectively, we've spent countless hours making poor decisions domestically. Now, we're taking it international.
Michael is well over 6', and Kellie is 5'10 or 5'11, and both are extremely white, so they will stand out a bit. I'm hoping that as a tiny Asian girl, I will often be overlooked in favor of my ginormous peers. Hopefully I can blend in a little, though I'm sure I'll still stand out... but it's all relative, right?
The plan
On January 28th, Kellie and I will fly from Denver to Dulles to Dubai where we will rendevous with Michael. During our 8 hour overnight layover in Dubai, Kellie and I will attempt to escape the airport to see the Burj Khalifa before wandering around the largest duty-free store in the world. Once we gather Michael, we will fly into Kochi, Kerala in the south of India. I'm not sure how long the whole journey takes, but I have enough Benedryl to knock out an elephant, so I should be all set.
After we get over the shock of being in India and being severely jetlagged, we will rush to get on a houseboat to take an overnight tour of the Kerala backwaters. From there, we will take a train up to Cochin to join up with the rest of the wedding party -- Divya and Vinay will have been in India for over two weeks to prepare for the wedding. For the next few days, we will stay and travel with the wedding party for the reception on February 3rd, and the wedding in Bombay on February 5th. From there, Kellie, Michael and I will break off to go to Jaipur, Agra, and Delhi -- also known as the Golden Triangle. We'll visit the Taj Mahal on the 8th before going back to Delhi to shop in the bazaars for a day before flying back home on the 11th.
Items that I hope to cross off my bucket list with this trip
- Attend an Indian wedding
- Ride an elephant
- Visit the Taj Mahal
- ride in a tuk tuk
- ride a train in India
- perfect my Indian accent (I'm told that it currently makes me sound more like Arnold than anything remotely Indian)
Items I hope to not add to my life accomplishments list
- Contract malaria
- Contract typhoid or dengue fever (or both)
- hallucinate due to malaria medication
- have to enjoy a "first class experience with an eastern latrine"
Expectations
- It will not be a vacation -- it will be an adventure. I've been told many times in the last few months that India will be very frustrating at times. A friend of mine who has traveled the world extensively warned that India was the most challenging place he's ever been to. Duly warned.
- Poverty: While it's an up and coming world power, India is still a third world country in places. The largest slum in the world is in Bombay.
- It will be crowded -- Bombay is the fourth most populous city in the world with 20.5 million residents. Delhi is the 8th largest city with a paltry 16.7 million. And I'm told they have a different concept of "personal space".
- It will be dirty, smoggy and smelly.
- I will get sick. I've been told to just accept the fact that, at some point, I will get sick while in India due to the food. This is unfortunate since we really want to try the street food in Delhi.... If we're going to get sick, we might as well try it, right?
- I will be bitten by mosquitoes. Despite dousing my clothes in permetherin and bathing in DEET, the mosquitoes will seek out the foreign blood. Hence, malaria pills.
To blog or not to blog
Both Kellie and Michael are going off the grid while we're traveling because they want to be completely disconnected while on vacation. But I will annoy them and attempt to stay in contact because I am horribly addicted to the 24-hour share cycle that is social networking and fear being disconnected from all those facebook friends that I never actually talk to in person and secretly hate.
I blogged / emailed almost daily while I was in New Zealand, but that was because I was mostly traveling alone and wanted to let people know I was ok and to be able to share the adventure with people back home. India is different because I won't be alone, but I still want to share the experiences we have and to document it for when I'm old and crotchety to prove to my kids that once upon a time, I was adventurous and fun. However, connectivity may be sketchy or we will be so lost in our travel schedule that I have no time to connect and send out updates, so don't be surprised if I go silent.
