Hawaii Here We Come

Wow, the last two days have been a mind bender! Kelsey and I are headed to India...our tickets have us leaving the US on Friday November 28th and landed us in Mumbai. Mumbai as many of you know has sadly been under attack by a group calling itself the Decca Mujahideen. Kelsey and I played phone tag for hours trying to figure out what to do. I was unable to tear myself away from the live CNN stream from India. We tossed around idea after idea...change our tickets to Delhi, go somewhere else like Bali. Our emotions were twisted up like a long strand of DNA, and our loved ones were freaked out at what was occurring.

The live news from Mumbai was heart wrenching and the terrorists seemed to be erratic, planned attacks, hostages taken, Americans and Brits targeted, Indian nationals killed, famous land marks on fire, a Jewish Chabad taken over by terrorists, and no reported demands made. And yet in the middle of it all, the news continued to report and it looked like people were walking and going about their daily business. There were all sorts of unconfirmed reports with no real clear information. The authorities knew that the terrorists arrived by boat, carried grenades, guns, plastic explosives and huge quantities of dried fruit. Yes, the news did report just that, huge quantities of dried fruit....which at first seemed really weird until someone pointed out that the fruit may have been their cover, merchants bringing in dried fruit. I still think there is something odd about it. One of the news anchors also reported that the attacks were something like and I quote "a long drawn out Bollywood movie" which made me giggle.

After hours of "what to do" phone calls, research on Bali (it's the rainy season) and pricing and repricing tickets we finally made a decision...................................................

We canceled our tickets to Mumbai (due to the chaos we were given a FULL refund) bought tickets to Delhi (that leave on 11/28/08)on a totally different carrier (for less than the tickets to Mumbai that we bought months ago) the only catch is that we have a 20 hour lay over in Oahu, Hawaii. Soooooooooooo we booked a hotel and will enjoy our brief stay on Waikiki beach at a 4 star hotel (thanks to Kelsey's mad hotel booking skills) and then the next morning we fly out to Tokyo Japan then Taiwan then Delhi (two places we have never been). The total time of travel is 63 hours and 30 minutes, that makes me giggle too!! Once we get to Delhi (a city we have no guide book for and no plans for) we are going to book a jumper flight to Goa.

I am very awake with travel jitters. Mondo and I just enjoyed a great Thanksgiving with friends and family in Mountain View CA and we are staying with family in Concord. As this journey begins I am filled with so much thankfulness, thankful that Kelsey and I did not leave for Mumbai earlier this week, thankful that I could make decisions about what to do from the comforts of my home, thankful that my family understands my need to see the world and be me, thankful to my husband for being so generous and supportive (even though his face said something else) and thankful to Kelsey for having an adventurous spirit.

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving and now.........................LET THE ADVENTURES BEGIN!!!!!