A little last minute...

HAMPI!!


So in typical Emma fashion I've left booking trains and getting immunizations till the last minute. So far it's working out alright. I have an appointment with a travel clinic on Thursday.. I've been reading and Oonagh sent me a whole bunch of information. As far as I can see I need anti-malaria pills, Dukoral (travelers diarrhea) and typhoid immunization. Hopefully they'll be able to prescribe them for me.. and hopefully insurance covers most (or all) of the costs.

Booking trains was a little ridiculous.. India is 10.5 hours ahead of us (yeah a half an hour.. weird?!) and the train websites aren't open during their nights which are our days. And then one of the trains (Mumbai to Hubli) is currently full so I'm on the waitlist. I'm hopeful though, I went from 14 to 9 already in less than a day. If that doesn't work out I'll have to find another way to get to Hubli. From there I'm going to Hospet and then Hampi. I'm trying to find climbing partners online but from what I've heard it'll be easy to meet people to climb with while I'm there.

I also booked my train from Hospet to Goa on February 23... that gives me about a week in Hampi. Not only for climbing but it has tons of history and great places to see.

I'm getting more excited as my plans become more concrete. When I tell people I'm going to India everyone's got little tips or ideas for me. It's great to hear from people who have been there to learn some insider tips.

New York City

Tomorrow is our last day in NY... we've been all over Manhattan and over to Staten Island. Our first night here we saw Sister Act on Broadway- it was pretty good. They didnt have my favourite song from the movie but it was still goos. During the days we did the 'hop on, hop off' buses that take you around the city. We saw (and walked around) Greenwich Village, SOHO, Times Square. We took the Staten Island ferry to see the Statue of Liberty. We also saw The Lion King on broadway and it was amaaaazing!! The music and dancing was unreal. Last night i went to Manhattan Climbing gym which was also awesome. The location was neat... on a rooftop gym just outside Times Square. Mum and I got facials this morning which was good timing because it was snowing/ raining/ slushy. We checked out Rockafeller Centre and then relaxed this afternoon. We're catching a shuttle to the Newark Airport tmrw morning. Hoping for no weather delays AND hoping they get our luggage on the plane! Been quite the week, done SO much, I'm exhausted.

Baaahstan (Boston)

Got into Boston last night... stood at the carosel for 45 minutes and then we realized that the bags werent going to be coming. There wasnt anybody in the terminal from Porter or anybody who knew anything. A craaaaazy lady in a fur coat was running around yelling at people and people on the phone trying to call Porter... finally some airport lady made a call and found that our bags hadnt made it on our flight and they were put on another flight that would be an hour or more. Should have seen crazy fur coat lady when she heard that... haha. We decided to wait rather than trust the airport to send our luggage to our hotel. We grabbed dinner and then tried to figure out where our bags were. The people we were waiting with were interesting- 2 theatre master students from some college in Boston they described as "the hipster Harvard" and a student in his first yr at Harvard who was very impressive... and then these 2 blonde women who called eachother "giiiirrrrrl" and documented the whole thing on their iphones, and tweeted their pictures for all their friends #somadatporter. I thought for suuuure Ashton Kutcher was gonna come out and tell me i was being Punked. More than 4 hours later we got our bags and took the subway to Cambridge.

Today we walked around, sat in on a tour of campus for a bit. Harvard is gorgeous and has lots of cool history. There are tonnnes of bookstores that we've checked out. Its frreeeeeeziiinng here but its supposed to warm up tmrw. We're heading across the river tmrw to highbury street among other things.

Better get it together if i want to do my masters here- I think competition is preeeettttyyy stiff.

India!

My next adventure is India!! I`ve booked my flights for February 13 and I`ll be coming home April 9. From February 26 to March 25 I`ll be doing a yoga teacher training course at Ashiyana in Goa. The accommodations look AMAZING and I`m so excited for some yoga and meditation in such a beautiful place. The rest of my trip is to be determined. I`m doing research right now trying to decide my best options.
So far places/ things of interest are...
- Hampi (amazing climbing!!)
- Bangalore
- Mysore
- Bijapur
- Mumbai (I fly in and out of Mumbai)
- Goa (obviously spending a lot of time here already but the surrounding areas look gorgeous)
I'm sure I'll find more things of interest as I continue my research and reading.

My thought is that I'll arrive in Mumbai and take a train to Bijapur or Hospet. From there I can get a bus or train to Hampi. The train from Mumbai to Hospet is almost 24 hours... and if it's anything like the sleeper train I took in China it'll be an experience.
So far my attempts to book trains online have been futile... the websites are so confusing it's almost funny. Oonagh has helped me out with a website that she used to book train tickets, she said it's much more straight forward so I'm going to try that.
If the train is anything like the website I'm in for some fun.

VERYYY excited, but definitely a little apprehensive!