The countdown begins...

I just can't believe I'll be flying to Dehli on monday! It's surreal!
There was a little stressfull moment last week concerning our visas; the people of the visa agency called that we had to send additional information for our application within the hour, or our visas couldn't be arranged in time. With stress levels reaching into outer space, eventually everything worked out. Tomorrow we'll hear if our visas have been arranged in time. I'm a little worried though, but if they aren't on time, we'll just fly in one or two days later. So one advice people; if you are about to go to a country where you need a visa, send you application a few weeks before you leave and also get your shots a few weeks before you leave! It's so stressful if there's trouble with arranging it.
Anyways, Eva and me skyped Kaylee yesterday and I think everything except for our visas is arranged! I'm packing lightely for the journey. I will only take two outfits with me and only the essentials. The rest I'll buy in India. This because I don't want to have to carry a heavy backpack for a month with me. That was the case in Italy last November and I can tell you; it's no fun. So yet another travel advice; Only pack the essentials for your journey and a good, thick book!
Having watched the movie Darjeeling Limited last week with Eva made me so excited for India! It's a very good movie about three brothers travelling through India together on this awesome train! I hope the trains in India do look like that! Anyways, I recommend that if you go to India, you watch this movie together with Slumdog Millionaire. That will get you in a good Indian mood.
I think I will have trouble sleeping this last week before I leave. This week is already going too slow. Please! Make this week go by fast! Please!

Preparations.

Here I am in gloomy, grey, cold Holland. Sitting at my desk at work. I probably should be working right now, but there is no work to be done right now. So I took this oppertunity to tell you about the preparations that I've done so far for India!

First of all, when you go to India you need shots. India is not the most hygenic country, so you should protect yourself against scary diseases and make sure you eat only good food. Good food in this context is cooked food. It kills the bacteria in them and for as drinks, you should only buy bottles that are sealed with a cap. I've also been warned about waiters serving your drinks with their fingers inside of the glass. Since I work at a company which makes vaccinations, I got the shots for free! I needed three of them and I got three different pills to take when I'm in India. Bad side of shots was that I had sore arms for three days afterwards...

Second of all; you need a visa. To be honest, we are still working on that. I had to fill out two forms with my information and what I was going to do in India and hopefully that will be sufficiant to get a visa.

Third of all is to book your first hotel in India. I got the news that Kaylee's mother booked a hotel in Dehli for us for three days! A shuttle will pick us up from the airport, which is really handy because we arrive in Dehli at one in the evening! I hope Eva didn't forget to thank her, I'm really gratefull!

It's really surreal to think that I will be in India in 18 days... many people already warned us about a heavy culture shock, esspecially about the beggars everywhere that won't leave you alone no matter what you do. I'm curious; I can't imagine travelling arround India with beggars EVERYWHERE you go. That would be annoying.

But I guess we'll see. Our plans for so far are to be spending several days in Dehli, than make our way to Rajasthan where we will be riding camels, after that to some kind of temple at a sacred lake and to going to visit Mumbai. We don't have anything confirmed so far! That means that we will be planning our trip along the way. Adventurous huh? Haha, we'll be fine though, I'm sure!

Ok folks, I have to get back to work! I'll keep you updated!