itchy feet

The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things..For me, that means “Let’s talk travel.” With almost a year having passed since our last sojourn, it is trip time again…itchty feet are definitely searching for some foreign soil upon which to tread…I honestly can’t go too long a time without feeling the need/compulsion to see something which is going to bring me closer to some level of understanding myself and my world, which I didn’t have before. I’ve never had any trip which didn’t do that for me. It’s just that it’s been a long journey for me to get where I want to be. This trip has the potential to be even more powerful to the senses because a lot of divergent forces will come into play and rattle around in my brain. It began with the decision to go to India. It has been on my list for a long time, but, understandably, Carol has balked at the crowds/noise/total immersion trip that going to India presents. However, the lure of the Bengal Tiger has been sufficient to overrule those hesitations and so to India it was decided we would travel this year. In researching air fares, I found that the quickest flights were with Emirites Airlines…five hours shorter and also $300 cheaper per person….Gee, what a hard choice to make…So, Emirites it is, and a sweet non-stop from Seattle to Dubai . One Benadryl, two glasses of wine should cut nicely into a 14 hour flight. It didn’t make sense to pass through Dubai and not stop, so a 4 day stopover in Dubai was scheduled in. This is where the really weird, messing with my head, stuff comes into play…we are going to see the uber glitz of Dubai and then four days later land in Mumbai. I think that will be quite a jolt to the head space…. Further intriguing for me is the fact that I was in India in 1962 when we drove that old taxi from London to New Delhi….I traveled by train across India and I’m really curious as to what kinds of memories and thought processes going back after 53 years will bring. So, this is a trip with many more layers , or elements, to it than a trip to New Zealand, for example. We will travel by train, bus, taxi, and some flights and not have the convenience of the car which we often have. That in itself makes it a very different, closer to the ground, sort of trip, I think. So, as the eve of the trip approaches, I have great anticipation for a real adventure.