Arrival in Delhi

Just to say I arrived safely in Delhi last night at around midnight, was welcomed by vijay-the-taxi-driver (Jacob, thanks for the contact!)and am staying in a really clean bed and breakfast. No cousin Mariette in Delhi thanks to kafkaiesque admin story :(

Slow start to the day today, enjoying the day, getting my way around ... and getting my head around prices.
I'll be flying off to Gujarat tomorrow afternoon.

If I don't have a chance to post before Friday: Happy New Year to you all!

Love
Caroline

Getting ready for India

I would like to share some sources of inspiration I tapped in the past few months/years - I count on them during this trip!
matthieu ricard on the habits of happiness
(Mariette, thanks for pointing me to that ted talk!)

That led me to read:
- Plaidoyer pour le bonheur by Matthieu Ricard
- Imparfait, libre et heureux by Christophe Andre
- and of course, watch... Kung-Fu Panda ;)

Matthieu Ricard is a French Buddhist monk and Christophe Andre is a behaviourist psychiatrist.

During my first trip to India, I read Yoga school drop out by Lucy Edge - a fun and witty account of travels throughout India to experience and find "the right" ashram.
I'm still reading through Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - enjoying it very much (thanks, P., for sending it over!); also some time spent in an ashram...

On this list (rather than a note), I'll just go to bed before my early flight tomorrow...

Today is a gift...

The old wise turtle Oogway tells the young Panda: "Quit. Don't quit. Noodles, don't noodles. You are too concerned with what was and what will be. There's a saying: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called "the present"."
Kung Fu Panda

I hope to remember that during my 3-month trip to India!

I'll leave for Delhi on December 29th and I just mean for this blog to provide irregular updates on my whereabouts, share a few pictures and get comments, advice and news back from you!

So I've got my plane tickets, my visa, the India lonely planet. I'm also packing up the Nepal lonely planet and some warm clothes in case I decide to head up north...
Plenty of contacts and ideas of things I could do, but I won't share them now: I'd rather we discover together what I actually end up going :-)

I wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year!