Starting off

I have always had a passion for travel. When I was a kid, reading "Mary Poppins" and listening to "My Fair Lady", I had a burning desire to see England -- of course, loving the Beatles didn't hurt that at all!

I finally got to England when I was in my 20's. It did not disappoint. I saw most of the things I had dreamed about, but, more importantly, it flipped a switch that has been driving me ever since -- the passion and joy in seeing new places, new cultures and meeting people whose life experience was so different, yet so similar to mine. I was working full time by then, only getting, at most, two weeks of vacation a year. I dreamed of a career in travel and sought out airline jobs and looked at being a travel agent. Nothing came of that, but I continued to travel.

At first, I stuck to Europe. I went back to England a few times, spent some time in Paris, Amsterdam and Germany. I signed up for a summer course to learn German in Salzburg, Austria (I had taken German in high school and college). It was my first time staying in one place for a couple of weeks and I loved it. I took an extra week off of work to do this so I could travel through Germany and back to England before going home. It was exhilarating traveling on my own; before this I had taken group tours, leery of traveling "without a net" in a foreign country. My German was good enough to book the train and converse with my landlady at the hotel in Cologne, and my confidence bloomed.

In a few years, I decided I wanted to see India. I loved the cuisine, the beautiful saris and wanted to experience something vastly removed from my own culture. I was still wary of traveling on my own, especially in a place where I didn't know the language or the customs. I called my friend, Estelle, who had traveled extensively through India, China, Africa and Papua New Guinea, for advice. "Eat only foods that are baked, boiled or in a peel" and "Drink bottled water" were her messages. I found a group called "Overseas Adventure Travel", an American company that specialized in small groups (16 or less) and traveled to the more exotic locals.

Tomorrow, my adventure in India.