two weeks to go

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I don't like blogs. I'm not exactly sure why this is -- I think it's because I spend plenty of time online as it is, and the first things I think of when I hear 'blog' are self-important political/media types and the kind of drivel you can find on fourteen million inane geocities sites. However, I'm going to be traveling in India for four months, and I recognize that people might be interested to see what's going on from time to time, hence this.

Here's a rough outline of my plan (at this point, the outline and the plan itself aren't really distinguishable). I arrive in Delhi on March 1st, and I need to be in Uttarkashi (in Uttarakhand aka Uttaranchal) by March 19th for the start of the mountaineering course at the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering. In addition to spending four or so days in Delhi, I'll be visiting a few places in Rajasthan -- Jodhpur, Shekhawati, and Keoladeo NP (birds or no). Once the course at NIM is over, I'm going to head south. There are a few places that I definitely plan to go, but overall I have what can only be called an "itinerary" in the loosest sense of the word. Assuming I get sick of the searing heat (a certainty) and the mountain passes are clear (not as certain, but possible), I plan to go to Ladakh in late May or early June, before heading back to the US.

Preparations are progressing well enough, I suppose. I've heard good things about Rohan pants, and since I have a day layover in London on my way to Delhi, I'm going to pick up a few pairs. I tried shopping at two places here in NYC, but the crushing defeats sent me straight back to the keyboard. My brother, Sam, shipped me some assorted backpacking gear that hasn't seen the light of day since August of 2004 (the horror!) as well as a new Leatherman, which I put to immediate use by cutting my finger. I still need to get a mosquito net and a week's supply of malaria prophylaxis, until I can restock in Delhi for a tenth the price.

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