Route Map / Itinerary

First of all, I'll be in Europe (London, Amsterdam, possibly more) for the first two weeks (19 Jan - 2 Feb).

My itinerary for travels within India, then, should look something like this. Please note that plans could change for any old reason, from bum weather to my own little whims. What I know about each of these places isn't much; just little factoids from friends who've been and my trusty Lonely Planet. How I'll soon know more!

One bit that is set in stone is my arrival into DELHI on 2 February. I'll spend a few days acclimating to the food and time change, also having a look around. Then I'll hop the first of far too many Indian trains, bound for VARANASI. Set along the Ganges River, Varanasi draws millions of Hindu pilgrims looking to commit loved ones' remains.

Around this time I may visit two other cities, BODHGAYA and KHAJURAHO, though I don't know just how accessible they are. I'll write more if I actually visit them.

On to AGRA, where I'll take a single, horizontally-oriented photograph of the front of the Taj Mahal.

Next is JAIPUR, the capital of Rajasthan. Part of this city is colored in pink. Don't know much more about Jaipur. Then up to AMRITSAR, the capital of Punjab, and home to the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. I'm hoping to fit in a famed India-Pakistan border closing ceremony in nearby Attari.

Then the trip gets really cool. DHARAMSALA is the home to the Dalai Lama and thousands other exiled Tibetans. Few days there, then over to RISHIKESH, where I'll camp out in an ashram for a week of study as part of the 2006 International Yoga Festival. Also, Rishikesh is where the Beatles went in 1968 and wrote most of the White Album songs. Enlightened all kindsa different ways, it's down to GOA next, to chill on the beach at least a week.

My father, Gene Hennig, will be joining me at this point. (Or am I joining him?) He flies into CHENNAI on 18 March, where we'll form a kind of goodwill junket, visiting the various Bethania projects and tackling other business. This will take us to BANGALORE, NAGERCOIL, and finally KODAIKANAL, where my family lived in 1995!

Broken, beaten, and screaming for a glass of Kemps 1%, I shall return to St. Paul on 2 April.

L.