First Post Recapitulation

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This blog has been set up a little after planning began so this first post will gather together everything that has been done so far, beginning with a rough outline of our route.

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The first flight has been booked. It leaves Heathrow at 10.30am on Saturday 6th December 2014, flies via Kuwait, and lands at Indira Gandhi International in Delhi at 4.55am the next day. It's going to be a long but no doubt worthwhile flight. There is a part of me that is nervous about this flight because it has been booked via a travel agent called Crystal Travel, which receives variable reviews on the internet. They've contacted me one already about a slight change of flight times however so hopefully that's a good sign of their service and honesty.

Last night we booked the second leg of flights, and also the last round of flights we'll be booking in the foreseeable future. This one leaves Delhi at 5.55am on Sunday 25th January 2015, flying once again via Kuwait, and lands in JFK Airport, New York, at 4.10m local time. We then fly from JFK four days later on Thursday 29th January. This will take us right across the country to Seattle, where we will begin our journey southward. Initially we intended to fly straight to Seattle but the cost of stopping in New York for a few days cost very little extra. Erika has been to New York before (I haven't) and says it will be a brief but totally worthwhile stopover so I can't wait. It'll be like being inside a film.

So the basic plan is to spend nearly two months in India, during which time we have two key things that we hope to do. First is a ten day Vipassana meditation retreat over the Christmas period. This has already been booked and will definitely happen. It will be at the Sarnath Vipassana Centre, a name I like because it reminds me of H P Lovecraft. Ten days of silence will be pretty tough, though, but it is the sort of crazy shit I want/need to do on this journey. The second key point of interest is to spend a couple of weeks in Nepal. Sarnath is relatively near the Nepalese border so we are thinking of going directly there after the retreat. If we're lucky, there might be one of two people from the centre also travelling in that direction and we could hitch a lift or at least have some company for the journey.

The more unpredictable part of our journey will begin once we hit the West Coast of the US. Our expectation is to travel down through Washington State, Oregon, and California before heading into Mexico. From there we want to continue south through Central America and eventually down into South America, where any real semblance of a cohesive plans tapers away. The only certainty is that we will likely be returning to the UK at the end of 2015, about one year after we leave. Along the way I hope to meet people and communities that help me gain a better understanding of humans throughout the world. I also hope to see landscapes and settlements that make my heart drip.

I don't know how our year away will change us but there is no way we can come back the same people that went away.

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Comments

[Rachel/Mom]

The beginning
This is a lovely idea and a great start. I was quite emotional reading it, particularly the sentence "I also hope to see landscapes and settlements that make my heart drip." That was beautiful. Although I'm sure you will be affected in many ways by your experiences please don't change too much! x