January 10th, 2007
Only nine days until liftoff and I've been thinking about my first trip to India back in 1986 when I trained it around India for 5 or so weeks with a backpack and a camera bag.
Then: one camera (a Minolta with a 50-200mm telephoto lens) and 20 rolls of slide film and a couple of extra batteries.
Now: Two digital cameras, (an Olympus with a 30-300 telephoto and a small Sony for portability when we go out in the evenings, 50-150 telephoto), extra memory sticks for each, convertors (2) one battery charger, 8 AA batteries and another convertor with various international plugs for cameras, hair dryer etc as well as a cell phone with it's separate wall charger with convertor, a small alarm clock. So much for new technology making things easier.
Then: One pair of jeans, 4 pair of underwear and socks, 3 shirts, one pair of shoes.
Now: Let's just say that the combination of biz and pleasure, Himalayas and Hawaii and upscale hotels means I'm packing a hell of a lot more this time.
Then: Six First Class flights took me from South Carolina to Bombay and back for $1,400, and a First Class unlimited train pass for 5 weeks added another $300.
Now: Eleven coach flights take us around the world for about $2,100 each, then we have 4 train trips in India, rental cars in San Francisco and Hawaii and a camel ride and elephant ride. I don't even want to talk about the train cost, but it does include all meals, tours and entrance fees for 15 days, so I could rationalise it to my financial advisor.
Then: No credit card or debit card, just 25 $100 bills zippered into the inside of a regular-looking belt. I returned with 18 of those bills.
Now: 95% of the trip paid for before we leave, credit and debit cards as well as cash taken withus. Credit card companies alerted as to our whereabouts, arrangements made for payments of bills made while we are gone, ncounselling scheduled for our financial advisor, contingency plans made with the snow plough guy, home security provider alerted, mail stopped....I could go on. I thought things were supposed to get easier as you got on in life. And I can guarantee you I won't be returning with $1,800 in cash.
Then: I had one hotel rez made before I left, then pretty much winged it from day to day on my own.
Now: Extensive preparations regarding hotels, flights etc have been made and 70% of our days are pre-determined and scheduled. This is necessary and preferred at this point in our lives because we are not getting any younger and have to work at keeping the unpleasant surprises of
spontaneous travel to a minimum. No matter how much we may laugh at travel disasters years after they occur, they are seldom funny when they happen.
Then: I was alone.
Now: I have Max to share everything with me. While it was exciting to be traveling solo when I was 39, I wouldn't enjoy it at all at this point in my life. Twenty years ago I was single and had just met Max. Now, I wouldn't travel without her.
Wednesday 10 January 2007
Monday 8 January 2007
The World's Most Expensive Bread
January, 2006
It's strange how sometimes a seemingly mundane incident or casual conversation can dictate the path your life takes.
I was planning on cooking Indian food. It was an overcast January day and I wanted something to spice up the dreariness of the winter in Upstate NY. I stopped by an Indian restaurant in Saratoga Springs to pick up some naan, the wonderfully moist unleavened bread of India.
While waiting for the takeout, I studied a map of India, which hung on the wall.
"You should go to India, it is very beautiful." The restaurant's owner had observed my interest in the map and, like all Indians, was extremely proud of his homeland.
I assured him I had been to India, told him what I had seen and said I wanted to take Max back some day. He encouraged me and suggested we look into the Palace on Wheels, an uber-luxurious train that tours Rajasthan in northwest India.
Within a week, we had decided to go, adding a stop in Morocco on the way back to break up the lengthy flight.
The four pieces of bread cost us several thousand $$ in the end. World Travel as a
naan - sequitur.
October 3rd, 2006 Plans Change (Part 1)
Nine months later, we've added Istanbul to our itinerary, the logic being We can't afford first/business class flights, so we should at least stop somewhere on the way over and back to make the flight in coach shorter and more bearable. Naturally, this would cost us more than the flight upgrade that we couldn't afford. Somehow though, spending slightly more on two new adventures for a few extra days makes more sense than spending the money flying in comfort for a few hours.
Some of our friends and colleagues have been aghast at our choice of destinations. There have recently been car bombs in Turkey and train bombs and an outbreak of dengue in India. Nothing has happened in Morocco, but the fact that it's a Muslim nation, in their minds makes it a dangerous travel choice.
That the Turkish bombs were in seaside resorts quite distant from Istanbul, the train bomb was in Mumbai and the dengue was in the south of India, places we will not even come close to, is not a consideration in the Fear factor of North Americans. More people have died in North America in the last week from 3 school killing sprees and an overpass collapse, than from the total deaths of the foreign situations cited by our acquaintances. But North Americans continue to attend schools and drive on overpasses with no concern for their safety.
It's strange how sometimes a seemingly mundane incident or casual conversation can dictate the path your life takes.
I was planning on cooking Indian food. It was an overcast January day and I wanted something to spice up the dreariness of the winter in Upstate NY. I stopped by an Indian restaurant in Saratoga Springs to pick up some naan, the wonderfully moist unleavened bread of India.
While waiting for the takeout, I studied a map of India, which hung on the wall.
"You should go to India, it is very beautiful." The restaurant's owner had observed my interest in the map and, like all Indians, was extremely proud of his homeland.
I assured him I had been to India, told him what I had seen and said I wanted to take Max back some day. He encouraged me and suggested we look into the Palace on Wheels, an uber-luxurious train that tours Rajasthan in northwest India.
Within a week, we had decided to go, adding a stop in Morocco on the way back to break up the lengthy flight.
The four pieces of bread cost us several thousand $$ in the end. World Travel as a
naan - sequitur.
October 3rd, 2006 Plans Change (Part 1)
Nine months later, we've added Istanbul to our itinerary, the logic being We can't afford first/business class flights, so we should at least stop somewhere on the way over and back to make the flight in coach shorter and more bearable. Naturally, this would cost us more than the flight upgrade that we couldn't afford. Somehow though, spending slightly more on two new adventures for a few extra days makes more sense than spending the money flying in comfort for a few hours.
Some of our friends and colleagues have been aghast at our choice of destinations. There have recently been car bombs in Turkey and train bombs and an outbreak of dengue in India. Nothing has happened in Morocco, but the fact that it's a Muslim nation, in their minds makes it a dangerous travel choice.
That the Turkish bombs were in seaside resorts quite distant from Istanbul, the train bomb was in Mumbai and the dengue was in the south of India, places we will not even come close to, is not a consideration in the Fear factor of North Americans. More people have died in North America in the last week from 3 school killing sprees and an overpass collapse, than from the total deaths of the foreign situations cited by our acquaintances. But North Americans continue to attend schools and drive on overpasses with no concern for their safety.
October 10th, 2006
It's strange how sometimes a seemingly mundane incident or casual conversation can dictate the path your life takes.
It occurred to me that the complexity of the trip might warrant employing a travel agent. On the way to the agency, I got a call from a business colleague inviting me to a meeting in late January in Hawaii. I bemoaned the fact that I would be starting my trip then and wouldn't be able to attend. Then I remembered that the world was round, like a golf ball, and asked if the dates could be altered. As it turned out, they could, and subsequently they were.
What this meant was that we would fly to San Francisco for a few days, then on to Hawaii for a few more, then just keep heading west to India, knock Turkey off the itinerary, continue on to Morocco and then complete the circle to NY.
I'd call that a change in plans.
We employed the help of Nephew Ryan to see what his travel agency could do for us, and discovered we could save about $3,000 on flights and get better hotel rates and availability by booking online.
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