Update as of Aug 7th

Alright, here's the latest update (as of Aug 7th):

Get visas: Check
Sell off D’s lovely convertible: Check
Vacate Apartment, move belongings to storage, find new apartment and sign-lease: Check
Buy camcorder, binoculars, spare camera batteries, tripod: Check
Get yellow fever and typhoid vaccines, get malaria tablets: Check
Purchase summer reading: Check
Meet up with friends and bid them adieu: Check
Celebrate D’s birthday – "the Chicago Chapter": Check

So it’s official now: we are now two bums on the road! We have vacated our apartment, canceled all monthly utilities, and sold off our car (well, one of them)!

Lessons learned (yes, in typical consultant fashion, in three bullets):

• Amazon Prime is quite cool – at least the one month free trial. You can order stuff in the evening on day 0, and get it delivered on day 2
• Most doctors are wonderful, but some are more wonderful than others
• Never underestimate the amount of effort that goes into packing the kitchen

By the way, for anyone who’s interested, here’s our summer reading.

It’s not about the bike: Lance Armstrong
The Good Guy: Dean Koontz
Moscow Rules: DeSilva
When you are engulfed in flames: David Sedaris

As you can see, I’ve balanced out different themes and genres. Koontz is the only author that has been able to scare me shitless through his writing. Sedaris is just too funny – have read all of his books, and have also been to his performance in Chicago. His live performances come highly recommended from both of us – his speech delivery complements his hilarious essays superbly! You have to listen to his “Six to Eight black men” to comprehend his comedic genius. Lance Armstrong’s story is an inspiring one that I have wanted to read up for a long time. A few unfortunate recent incidents in the lives of a few friends have furthered my interest in knowing more about his battle with cancer. DeSilva is a new author for me – should be an interesting read – gets great reviews.

There’s another book that I have been wanting to read – The Last Lecture. Might pick it up if we finish the four mentioned above before the end of our trip.

Reviews on the books will be coming up as we read them.

Here we go again!

Open it.

Go ahead, it won’t bite.
Well…maybe a little.

More a nip, like. A tingle.
It’s pleasurable, really.

You see, it keeps on opening.
You may fall in.

Sure, its hard to get started;
Remember learning to use Knife and fork?

Dig in:
You’ll never reach bottom

It’s not like it’s the end of the world-

just the world as you think you know it.

(Rita Dove)

And so we get started: the bookings are done, the bags are packed, spare batteries have been arranged, visas have been obtained, and, most importantly, good-byes and hugs have been warmly exchanged. After months of dreaming, researching, planning, and executing, we are now off on our long vacation around the globe. And accompanying us on this trip right now are feelings of excitement, anticipation, and – yes, I’ll admit it – a tad bit of anxiety.

Here’s a little bit of background for anyone who randomly drops onto this blog (although I don’t expect that to happen). We – Neha (‘M’) and I (Saurabh – ‘D’) – are a couple that has been living in Chicago for the last three years. I recently finished my MBA program at the Chicago GSB, and the two of us decided that we deserved to take a break before jumping back into a “normal” life. So we started throwing around names of countries that we had always wanted to visit, and before we had realized, we had a pretty extensive travel plan ready for us. What followed was a crazy amount of researching that involved quite a few trips to the local Barnes and Noble to go through Lonely Planets, and visiting tripadvisor.com to read up on travelers’ feedback. This led to the final trip plan that covered Hawaii, some far-east, fair bit of Africa, and a bit of Eurasia:

Aug 8th: Bid adieu to summers at Chi-town
8th – 11th: Weekend in SFO, celebrate D’s birthday (Aug 9th) with friends and family
11th – 15th: Hawaii – Big Island
15th – 19th: Malaysia and Singapore
19th – 29th: Family Time at Jodhpur (India)
Aug 30th – Sep 1st: Egypt
Sep 2nd – Sep 11th: Kenya & Tanzania
11th – 14th: Zanzibar spice islands
14th – 21st: South Africa
21st – Oct 2nd: Turkey, Greek Islands, Athens
Oct 2nd – Oct 5th: Paris
Oct 5th: Back to Chi-town