Namasté

Greetings! Namasté is a way to say "hello" in hindi. This will be my blog for the duration of my Asian travels. I plan to spend the majority of my time in India, but I also hope to see Singapore and maybe even Vietnam before I return stateside. I have a one-way ticket to Mumbai, and I do not plan on returning until I burn through the majority of my cash. I estimate this will take somewhere between 2 and 7 months. Yippee.

I have received a number of questions about this trip (you all seem to think me nutty), and I would like to address the question I have received incessantly - why India? My reasons are many, but chiefly I chose India because travel there is cheap, English is widely spoken, and there are a billion people to meet (literally). Also, the social scientist in me is fascinated by a country in such a period of rapid transition - economically, culturally and ecologically. Does that satiate your curiosity? I doubt it, but it will have to do for the moment.

Moving on, I fly out on January 20th. It now occurs to me that I am leaving on Inauguration Day, and it saddens me that I will only enjoy a few brief hours of the new Obama presidency. It's a funny thing to wait so long for the end of the Bush era (error) and then not stick around to gloat and bask in Obama's glory, as I was intending. Still, I am certain I will follow U.S. political news from abroad.

Alrighty, that is enough for tonight. I will post once more before I leave.