Three weeks to go!

Wow!  Only three weeks today until we leave!  I anticipated that the day would come quickly after Christmas, but...

So.... how are preparations going?  Hmmmmmm.......  Well, they are going.  House sitting is all set up, which is greatly relieving.  But the person who was going to take in our birds is having back issues, so I am not sure how that will turn out.  She is currently in very bad shape, to the point where she is having significant difficulty moving about.  Hopefully she gets better soon, both for her sake and for that of my birds.  They are such cuddly animals it is reassuring to think of them being with a person who likes to cuddle back.... 

The logistics of shutting down the piano studio for our absence have been managed, which is also a big relief.  I will miss my students - best wishes out to all of you!  And I will send postcards!

Otherwise, I have made some discoveries during this process, some of which are of the obvious type which nonetheless escape notice until they actually occur....

For instance, the realization that getting ready for a 5 month trip is a lot more work than getting ready for a three week one, even the three weeks of independent travel my son and I did to Cambodia and Vietnam back when he was 10.  Yes, this makes sense logically, but true realization of this did not occur until I was actually working on it....  organizing everything has kept me very busy, it's a good thing I didn't have too much else going on!  Even after we found suitable places to go to and made the travel arrangements there were immunizations, insurances both for here during our absence and on location, gathering our supplies, gathering supplies from others (which is still ongoing), deciding what to take, getting in all those routine appointments that were scheduled for during our absence, house care, animal care, Visas (and we're still waiting on the India one!), notifying friends (still ongoing), trying to get together with friends before we leave (still ongoing), bills, banking, and, of course, my son's education (definitely still ongoing)! yikes!  Even though there are a lot of "still ongoing"s in there, most of this has been accomplished to a satisfactory degree thus greatly reducing what could otherwise turn into a rather panicky time period. 

So, now that we have a lot of the logistics sorted out for our official travel reasons, we have been able to turn our attention to some other things, like touring!  We do intend to do some of that while we are away, after all, we are traveling a very long ways and that is part of learning about the world too, but organizing this is also a lot of work!

We have less time in Thailand, so our looking around is limited to the weekends when I won't be teaching, but our host at TMVolunteers is proving to be most helpful in terms of suggestions and even in making arrangements for those activities which would require such.  So far we have some beach time and some rainforest time planned, as well as the turtle festival (Thai Muang Turtle Release Festival) over our last weekend there.  We are very excited about the turtle festival, conservation is an interest of my son's and he also really likes turtles, and I am rather fond of turtles myself, so this is quite relevant to both of us.  The rainforest I expect will be fantastic, I love trees, I expect there will be lots there, and reportedly we will even get to ride an elephant, which my son is greatly looking forward to.  And our host has recommended a quiet but beautiful beach for us to visit for some more peaceful snorkelling that what one might experience in the more crowded areas.  I will post about that after we go, maybe.....  :). 

In India our hosts have invited us to join them for the Holi celebrations.  These sound like a lot of fun and my son and I are very much looking forward to them!  Before that we will be taking a few weeks to tour around India, primarily Rajasthan and Maharashthra, although we will be making a quick run to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, who couldn't!  I am an architecture and art lover, so I am very much looking forward to seeing the Ellora and Ajanta caves, some forts, Ranakpur temple, and quite simply all the different architecture within the towns and cities we will be visiting.  We're planning on getting out to Jaisalmer to see some desert, which will be exciting, as will be the anticipated camel rides!  And then we'll see some Indian elephants (as compared to the ones in Thailand) in Jaipur before heading to Jodhpur and our work with Sambhali Trust. 

Whewf!, so much to do, and so much to experience!  And I am sure it will be here in what feels like the blink of an eye...