Earlier this year I was invited to participate in a business trip to India. Of course, I love to travel and immediately accepted the offer. For the last few months I have been busy preparing for the trip of a lifetime and on September 22 2003, I leave Canada for India.

Including travel time, I will be in India for 7 weeks, hence the title of the site.

Why a web journal?

During one of the many legs of my journey, I decided to keep a travel journal to record my experiences. The more I thought about it, the more the idea of a web based journal appealed to me. I have a tonne of free web space that hasn’t been used in the last few years and figured this was as good a time as any to christen it.

Since the cost of phone calls home is somewhat prohibitive, the site will provide my friends and family with a window on my trip. It’s a method of letting everyone know how I’m making out without having to incur the expense of calling a dozen people each week.

Ground rules and other important notes:

• The purpose of this trip is business, but the purpose of my journal is to keep my friends and family informed on how I’m faring. While there will be the occasional mention of people from the India office or cultural differences between work environments, there won’t be anything specific to my roles and responsibilities.
• The journey begins in Mountain Standard Time (MST). I transfer to India Standard Time (IST) early in the trip and will be maintaining the journal in IST during my stay. Sometime – during one of the many flights – I crossed the international date line. This causes the event timeline may seem very confusing in the beginning. If you think you’re confused, imagine what it was like for me! Stick with me and it will all make sense eventually.
• I’m not sure how often I’ll have access to the internet, or how much time I’ll have to spend on the uploading of information. I’ll be updating my journal on a daily basis, but may not be able to upload information to the web site with the same regularity. Unless you’re fixated on what I’m doing, you probably don’t need to check back more than 2x a week for updates.
• I’m uploading all the pages which will eventually comprise the entire site at the beginning. This means, that weeks one through seven and the trip home will appear as available links, however, the future dates will not contain information at this time. If you’re curious, the links all work.. there just isn’t any information on those pages at this time.
• I’m equipped with a digital camera on this trip. Pictures will be updated regularly in the Photo Gallery.
• I’ve added a Discussions page to the site in the hopes that some of you, when you email, will have questions about the local area or customs for which I might not think to ask or investigate. With your permission, I’ll post the question in the Discussions area of the site and allow everyone to learn along with me. Of course, the content and success of this portion of the site depends on you, the reader, sending an email and asking questions. Please don’t send me emails asking why this section of the site isn’t updated if no new information appears.
• Bill Spoonster’s journal is online and definitely worth checking out for an additional perspective on India. His 2 week trip ends on October 24th.

Preparation:

If you’d like to visit India, there are a number of things you’ll need to do before you can start off on the 32+ hour journey. It’s best to begin by contacting the Consulate General of India and reviewing the Government of Canada – Travel Advisory.

In order to travel to India, you’ll need the following:

• Passport
• Visitor Visa – Contact the Consulate General of India for questions or assistance.
• Vaccinations – Required vaccinations will vary depending on your country of origin. Don’t leave vaccination to the last minute as some vaccinations, such as Hepatitis and Rabies, require multiple shots over a specific amount of time. Contact your physician, local Travelers Health, etc. to determine which vaccinations are required. In addition to vaccinations, some medications (eg: anti-malarial) can be taken in pill form and the prescription can be obtained from the same location as your vaccinations. These pills often require you to begin treatment prior to leaving home. Be aware that many vaccinations are not covered by health insurance. Contact your health care insurance provider for additional details regarding your limits of coverage.
• Travel Insurance – Not all personal and health insurance plans will cover travel to international countries. It’s best to contact your healthcare provider and ensure that you are covered in case of emergency prior to leaving the country.

Contact Information:

I’ll have sporadic access to email and will do my best to keep in touch while I’m away.

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