So I am in complete denial that in less than five days I will be leaving for a two month trip. I can’t get my head around the fact that if I don’t pack something now that I won’t have it when I need it. Plus to make things a little more difficult, before we leave for India I am taking the kids on a three day jaunt to Florida to celebrate my father’s eightieth birthday. Not to mention the fact that I’ve been out of town for 95% of October while Lisa is out of town for 50% of October. So in place of doing anything productive, I’ve decided to spend my lunchtime writing a pre-travel post for our blog.
First of all, I thought I would answer the most popular questions that I’ve been asked.
How long are you going away for? We are going to be traveling for two months. We fly out of New York on November 4th at 8:30 am and return home on December 31st at 11:30 pm.
Really? Yes. We are pulling the kids out of school for two months and traveling around India. Lisa and I love to travel but when we have had the time to take a long trip like this we haven’t had the money and when we had the money to afford a trip like this we were both working. Now we are both not working so we thought a nice, long trip was just what the doctor ordered.
Why India? This is the hardest question to answer because we don’t have a particularly good answer. I have never made a significant decision with less thought than this decision to travel to India. Here was how it went:
Lisa: Okay. Let’s do it, Let’s take a two month sabbatical.
David: Cool. Where should we go?
Lisa: Where do you want to go?
David: I don’t know. How about somewhere that we would only go if we could go for a lengthy period of time? And how about a developing country?
Lisa: Makes sense. But I don’t want to go to China.
David: I have no interest in going to Russia and I’ve been to Brazil for business. So how about India?
Lisa: Sounds good. Plus I like Indian Food
David: Great.
Where are you going? We are flying into Delhi spending a month in the North (Dharamshala, Rajastan, Darjeeling) and then spending about a month in the South. If you are interested in seeing a more detailed itinerary, please let me know. Lisa has put together the mother of all travel spreadsheets which I’m happy to forward.
What about the kid’s school? We did let the kid’s school know that they are going to be absent for 7 weeks in a row so they have given us study materials and assignments. So we will be using train rides, car trips, relaxing afternoons and other random moments to make sure our kids don’t fall to far behind in their schoolwork while we assure they get a full measure of “life experiences.”
How can we call/email/speak to you? We have set up an internet based phone number with voice mail so feel free to leave us a message and if you are lucky to call while we are on line, then we can chat. Plus we will be able to call out from that number. Our normal emails will work as well. Keep in mind that we might be off line for several days at a time and operating with about a 12 hour time difference so we might be slow in responding. Hopefully this blog will give you updates on what we are doing both from my perspective but also from the kid’s eye view.
