My planning so far

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My first Travelblog entry...in fact my first real blog entry, even though I've played with the Internet for many years (yes, I even remember when it was all text-based).
I thought I'd try and record some the planning that can go into a trip in these first few entries.
I say "CAN", because it doesn't have to be all planned ... I remember my first journey out of Australia in 1978 was for a whole year through Asia and around Europe, and planning more or less consisted of getting smallpox and other shots, grabbing a copy of a Student's Guide to Asia, and buying tickets to Singapore!
These days with the 'net, many hours can be spent meticulously planning ... though I suspect the plans will still go awry ( and perhaps that'll be even more enjoyable).
So why Arunachal Pradesh?
Well, back on that 1978 journey, I met a really interesting guy on a train in Southern India, and I thought he was maybe Burmese, but he said he was a Naga and explained a bit about his home. It sounded fascinating, but impossible to get to. Still, the ambition to visit that area of India was born in me (you know, the old traveler temptation to go somewhere REALLY unusual/exotic/hard to get to/ etc!!).
The thought arose a couple of years ago to research the feasibility again, and I discovered that it might be easier to visit Nagaland these days...but meanwhile I also stumbled on information about Arunachal Pradesh: even more enticing since it contained Tibetan Buddhist areas.
And so the plan was born: to travel through Arunachal Pradesh, visiting temples, villages, and jungles.
Somewhere the thought also arose that I could perhaps weave some Geography and "Society and Culture" e-learning for students at my school into my journey...and thus the idea of blogging and also visiting one or two confluence sites became incorporated.
You can read more about confluences at confluence.org
The original plan was to do the trip in April 2007 - but my partner started a new full-time job at the beginning of 2007, and my son is studying for matriculation exams this year, so I decided I should be responsible and stay around being vaguely supportive this year. Neither of them want to do this trip, so the first few entries here will probably be about the trials and tribulations of putting together a travel group - since permits are only granted to groups of 4+ foreigners who want to visit this part of India.
I am already indebted to His-Dudeness and Banchory-to-the-Bosphorous-by-Bike
for inspiration and information.

I hated doing it but managed to advertise myself (or my trip at least..😊 ) on several sites that function as meeting forums for travel mates, ( I'm sure you can Google for them if you're interested), as well as HERE

Watch this space........

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