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Preparing is so much fun
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Every great trip starts with some form of preparation.
It can be very basic, like packing your stuff and closing the door behind you, or it can sometimes be more stressful or tiring than the real trip.
For India, we are planning a lot, although maybe not very effectively. Only time will tell. But there are so many things to consider. On the following pages we will give you an insight in all the different issues we had to tackle. Maybe it will help someone who has never been to India before.
1. When & Where & What
2. Visa
3. Health
4. Literature
5. Using the computer
1. When & Where & What
Can you believe I don't even remember when we first talked about India? When I met Claudia for the very first time, we talked about travelling to Bulgaria or Albania, but conflicting time schedules made it impossible to do that. And then we left for Valencia and Estonia, and didn't think about the Balkan anymore.
But then somewhere last year (maybe on the beaches of Estonia?) the idea came to make a big trip. And one of the first suggestions was India. A country so big that it is almost impossible to know where exactly to go. We decided to let ourselves be guided by the weather of all things :)
Since Claudia works for the Bavarian Education System, she is only entitled to 6 weeks' summer holidays from the beginning of August till mid-September. Which means Monsoon rain & wind, hot temperatures and not very pleasant travelling weather.
The southwest monsoon begins around June and dies down by September. It generally begins in the coastal state of Kerala on June 1 and takes about a month to reach the rest of India. The monsoon accounts for 80 percent of the rainfall in the country.
After posting questions on the HospitalityClub Forum and asking Indian people, we more or less understood that August should be hot but relatively dry in the region south of Chennai (madras), in the provinces/states of Kerala & Tamil Nadu. So now we had our WHEN (August) and WHERE (Tamil Nadu). The only thing left is the WHAT?
What is there to see? To do? Who can we meet? What experiences await us?
This was actually our biggest problem. Because how can you go about finding things to do in such a big country? India is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, and the second most populous country in the world. Even if we concentrate on only one or two states, it is still a humbling experience.
Anyway, here is a short list of things to see :
- Chennai, 4th largest town of India;
- Pondicherry, a former French colony where a friend of ours works;
- Hindu temples with Dravidian architecture;
- Brahadeeswara temple in Thanjavur (1000 years old and on the UNESCO's list);
- Hill Stations;
- Megalithic tombs known locally as muniyaras;
- oh, and temples, temples, temples....
Latest Comments (1)
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dil (reply)
Aug 20, 2006 13:17 EST by dil
Cool that is pretty hard ground to cover and bravo ! you guys are sure holding up good. If you need advise email me dil_k51@yahoo.com as I live in Bangalore.
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