woo-hoo, vacation!

my vacation has officially started! ok, not really. i’m still at my apartment, obviously. but my bags are packed and i’m ready to go! my first flight is at 7am, it’s now 1am, so i decided not to go to sleep but to update everyone here about my trip. noticed that i said “first flight”? well, i won’t be going home to m’sia straight, but will make a “detour” first. hehe…

namaste! this is gil the globetrotter, the ami-inu who will be my travel companion this time… ;)

my first stop would be to nepal, where i’ll stay one night in kathmandu, before flying to pokhara the next day. pokhara, also in nepal, is a town next to a lake and is said to be a very beautiful place. it’s about 8 hours drive from kathmandu, depending on the traffic condition, so that’s why i chose to fly. it’s only 25 minutes via the air, so it really saves up a lot of my time, coz i’ll only be in nepal for 4 days. anyway, i’ll stay one night in pokhara and then fly back to kathmandu for another night’s stay before flying off to my next destination…

…which is new delhi, india. actually my decision to stop for one night in india was quite impromptu. originally it was only nepal, and then back to kl. but since all the airlines from nepal to kl will transit in india, i decided that since i’ll be going to india anyway, so might as well just stay one night there and see what the place is like. coz truth be told, india has never been in my list of places to go, and i’ll never wanna go there under almost any other circumstances.

anyway, in new delhi, i’ll be going up to agra to see the taj mahal before flying back to kl. agra is about 5 hours drive from new delhi, again depending on traffic condition and my schedule in india is really very tight! but the tour operator has assured me that we’ll be able to make it back to new delhi to catch my flight at 9.55 pm. so just keeping my fingers crossed.

so in short, my journey will be:

dubai – kathmandu – pokhara – kathmandu – new delhi – agra – new delhi – kuala lumpur

complicated neh? hehehe… actually for all these places, i’ve already engaged tour agencies to handle everything for me, with private guide and driver. actually i could’ve just taken public transports and do like what N and i did in siem reap. but since i’ll be traveling solo, and these places are not exactly renown for their safety, i thought i’d better pay a lil bit more money to be safe.

nice girl natalie, who went to nepal 2 years ago, kept reminding me to be careful of my belongings when on the streets, and to be careful of people trying to sell me weed. weed as in marijuana! on the streets! she also reminded me numerous times to be careful of my luggage when checking in at the airport, coz of drug trafficking. how scary is that?!

then when another colleague, an indian, he found out that i’ll be going to india alone, he looked at me as if i’m mad. no, he actually asked me out right if i’m mad. then while i was still wondering how i can get to agra from delhi, i saw on the internet that there’s train service between these 2 places. so i asked my colleague if it’s easy to travel by train. again, he looked at me as if i’m some alien from outer space and said i probably won’t even make it to agra before i disappear into thin air and not even a strand of my hair would be found again in 20 million years. so better be safe than sorry lar, i guess.

the last time i traveled solo was right after i graduated, where i went to singapore on my own for more than a week. well, i can’t say i was on my own in singapore, coz i was staying with my cousin there. just that since she’s working, i went out exploring on my own on most days. so in actual fact, this coming trip will be my first truly solo trip. so now, the feeling is apprehension mixed with excitement. also a tiny bit of heartache for the amount of money i’m spending for this entire trip. solo traveling is really blardy expensive!

neeways, i’m not sure how often i’ll get to go online while traveling, but i’ll try my best to update my locations on facebook, so that if ever anything happens to me (touch wood!), at least it’ll be easy for the authorities to track my last location, right? of course, hopefully nothing of that sort would happen lar.