India Here I Come!

Ganges River:

Well it’s almost here. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by, this time tomorrow I’ll be waiting in Toronto airport for my flight to depart. It doesn’t seem like it was that long ago that I asked my boss for 2 months off when it was actually August. It’ll probably be hard to sleep tonight since I’ll be too excited and nervous. My mom is actually more nervous then I am and tomorrow at the airport she will probably be nervous for the both of us.

So my plans for my time aren’t really concrete but I have a good idea of the places I want to visit. Starting in New Delhi, India I’ll spend a couple days there just checking out the city and different temples in the area. From there I’ll make my way south to Agra which is the home of the Taj Mahal. I’ll probably spend a day or two there depending how much I like the city. From there I’ll travel to Varanasi which is east of Agra and the home of the much talked about Ganges River. The river is 2510 km and flows from Northern India and eventually into Bangladesh. After Varanasi I’ll make my way to the second biggest city in India: Kolkata. The population is around 14.7 million and the main language is Bengali. From there I’ll travel north to Darjeeling which is very close to the border of Nepal. Darjeeling has a population of 109,000 and the elevation is 2134metres. By comparison the elevation in Banff is 1483metres. Darjeeling is famous for 2 things: Tea plantations and the views of the Himalayan Mountains. I’m very excited to visit Darjeeling and will spend lots of time just taking pictures. After Darjeeling I will cross the border into Nepal and will spend a whole month travelling the country. The places I’m going in Nepal are still undecided but I’ll have time to plan that while I’m in India. So that’s the plan for my first 3 weeks in India, I’m sure it will be challenging and at certain times down right annoying and frustrating but I’ll just have to roll with it and do the best I can.

My next update will probably be from New Delhi. Boo Ya!