Here we are, less than a week away from our travel date. Our plans are to travel to London- Heathrow on the first leg of our trip, and after an almost 10 hour lay-over, to board our Jet Airways flight to Mumbai the business capital of India. A relatively short flight change in Mumbai, and we will be onto the starting point of our ground trip- Kochi on the South-West coast of India.
Planning for this trip extended over the better part of a year as we whittled down the huge range of possibilities that is India to focus on a small elongated state on the west coast, Kerala. The choice we had was to expand our footprint to cover a large area, and expend a lot of time and/or energy travelling, or to focus on a small area and see it intimately and in a relaxed manner. We opted for the latter. The next set of choices had to do with where to stay. Again we were faced with an infinite range of possibilities. A choice made early in our search reduced these choices to a managable number. We agreed with our friends - who I have not mentioned yet- to live in Home-Stays, the Indian equivalent of B&Bs. The decision seemed to make a lot of sense. As strangers to South India, what better way to learn about the customs and food, than to live with the people of South India. Here let me explain. I was born and lived in India some 50 years ago, so it is not that I am a total stranger to the customs and food, yet the South is quite different from the North, in language, customs, food and perhaps a whole lot more. Danielle is a native Canadian yet she is familar with the customs and food of India. In fact she excels in a large repertoire of Indian food, but that is North Indian or perhaps the food more typical of Mumbai.
Here she is.
Bernie has given you all a good look at what we plan to see during this trip. What he has not mentioned is that we have been jabbed and proded for months now, having to swallow pills against Malaria, ingesting 2 doses of a vaccine to help with the infamous Delhi Belly not to mention the 3 vaccines against hepatitis..... and we have not left yet!
The friends he mentioned, we have really know in person for only 24 hours on our last holiday visiting the many beautiful canyons in Utah, Arizona and Nevada. We first met at breakfast at the Dream Catcher Inn at Zion National Park. We went out to walk a many hour trail in nature and again, enjoyed their company. That day, we all had dinner together and talked about our respective next holiday. They were going to Italy and we to India. We must have gotten them interested in India as they decided to join us and see Italy next year. We have since been getting together regularly on Skype. It will be nice to see Lloyd and Lynanne again.
Planning for this trip extended over the better part of a year as we whittled down the huge range of possibilities that is India to focus on a small elongated state on the west coast, Kerala. The choice we had was to expand our footprint to cover a large area, and expend a lot of time and/or energy travelling, or to focus on a small area and see it intimately and in a relaxed manner. We opted for the latter. The next set of choices had to do with where to stay. Again we were faced with an infinite range of possibilities. A choice made early in our search reduced these choices to a managable number. We agreed with our friends - who I have not mentioned yet- to live in Home-Stays, the Indian equivalent of B&Bs. The decision seemed to make a lot of sense. As strangers to South India, what better way to learn about the customs and food, than to live with the people of South India. Here let me explain. I was born and lived in India some 50 years ago, so it is not that I am a total stranger to the customs and food, yet the South is quite different from the North, in language, customs, food and perhaps a whole lot more. Danielle is a native Canadian yet she is familar with the customs and food of India. In fact she excels in a large repertoire of Indian food, but that is North Indian or perhaps the food more typical of Mumbai.
Here she is.
Bernie has given you all a good look at what we plan to see during this trip. What he has not mentioned is that we have been jabbed and proded for months now, having to swallow pills against Malaria, ingesting 2 doses of a vaccine to help with the infamous Delhi Belly not to mention the 3 vaccines against hepatitis..... and we have not left yet!
The friends he mentioned, we have really know in person for only 24 hours on our last holiday visiting the many beautiful canyons in Utah, Arizona and Nevada. We first met at breakfast at the Dream Catcher Inn at Zion National Park. We went out to walk a many hour trail in nature and again, enjoyed their company. That day, we all had dinner together and talked about our respective next holiday. They were going to Italy and we to India. We must have gotten them interested in India as they decided to join us and see Italy next year. We have since been getting together regularly on Skype. It will be nice to see Lloyd and Lynanne again.
Hi from Lynanne. Yes, this is a wild adventure we're going on with our new found friends. India wasn't on my bucket list, but Bernie, Danielle and Lloyd helped put it there! Video Skype is a great way to get to know each other. I just had my last day at work until our return. I'm a nurse at the University Health Service at UC-Berkeley. I now have to put everything I've thrown at my suitcase actually in it-the challenge will begin tomorrow.
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