First Things First!

So you've decided, like I have, to go to India? That's great! Now, you need to spend some serious time studying everything you can about being a tourist in India. There are a lot of things to consider before taking the plunge and wasting any more time and money than necessary. I hope I can save you that time by pointing you in the right direction. Here's how I did it.

1. I made the decision to visit this magical place, not next year, not the year after... but NOW. I made it an imperative to go, and the rest started to fall into place. I didn't have hesitation or doubts about it - the first few days in India will apparently be quite rough and if I wasn't 110% committed to it, I concluded that I may as well stop right now and consider Mexico instead.

2. Once I decided I was going, I had to examine a few things. First, why I wanted to go. For me this is a personal journey of growth and healing, but also a means to experience first hand, an ancient culture that I have always been fascinated with. I had to be sure of my reasons, because if I was going for the wrong ones, the trip would be a failure that I would likely resent. Next I considered my time frame, which is two months minimum. And oddly enough, I have access to that much time or more. Which inevitably lead to the question of money ... did I have enough?

3. The question of whether or not you will have enough money is a difficult thing to answer until you are there. Oh yes, you will find all sorts of prices on the internet, but let's face it - everything online does not reflect reality. The best I could do was make an estimate of relative costs versus time spent in India. This entails a lot of research which I'll touch on in another post later.

4. After I'd gotten determined to go, assured myself that the reasons were just and that the time and money were there, the reality of the trip started kicking in. And once I hit this stage, I started to get VERY excited. I want to go here! I want to do there! WOAH! Worry about that later ~ you need to figure out what you need to do to get there in the first place, I told myself. Which is what the next entry will be about...