Because You Asked

Posted from Alleppey, Kerala, India

Q: What about the strangest person you've met?
A: I think it's important that both Lizzi and I take a stab at this one, because I think we'd have different answers. Luckily, I met my strangest person yesterday on the bus from Kumily to Alleppey. He was a middle-aged Indian man, who sat in the seat directly behind us and immediately started up a conversation. As soon as he opened his mouth, the rank smell of liquor washed over both of us. I knew this wasn't going anywhere good.

The conversation started pleasantly enough, the same as any other conversation we have had in India: "What country are you from? How long have you been here? What do you think of [insert name of town/city/state/country]? Where are you going next? What is your job?" Next, there was a brief quiz about whether we were Christian or not, which is NOT a conversation we expected to have in India. Then came a whole dissertation on the virtues of Kerala people. Somewhere in the middle of his rambling Lizzi had decided that I was going to take one for the team, and politely readjusted her seat to look straight ahead. But as he wrapped up, he posed a final question to us: "You know what the worst problem in Kerala today is?"

I could think of any number of responses, but clearly, it was a rhetorical question. I waited a beat, and he filled in his answer, "sexual anarchy." Yep, that's right, folks, the problem facing Kerala today is sexual anarchy. From here, the conversation could only go one direction -- downhill...and fast. Thankfully, we weren't disappointed. "Kerala has gone to the deviants," he exclaimed. "They are morally wrong," he continued, politely adding, "not like you." Of course not. And so it went until we arrived in a small town outside of Alleppey, where he got off the bus, and we breathed a collective sigh of relief.

Ask the Internet

So, how does one travel with one's partner on a 4-month journey around the world? Yeah, I don't know either. Luckily, the Internet, knower of all, got us looking in the right direction. In fact, The Lost Girls posted an answer to this very question nearly over a month ago (thanks!). Whatever you do, don't look too closely at who posed the question in the first place ;)

PS: That's not us in the picture. I'm not that pretty.

As with all great questions, this one too has no clear answer. What works for one couple on their adventure may not work for us. Neither of us is naive enough to say that we won't fight or that parts of the trip won't be difficult, but what do you do when you're sleeping in a hostel with four perfect strangers and your partner is dancing on your last nerve? Simply knowing that others have worked through these moments and are still holding hands on the other side is quite a comfort. At this point, I think it's fair to state that we'll take the good days with the bad, offer to share the load, and try like hell to know when it's time for a timeout.

It's ALIVE!

The moment you've all been waiting for has finally arrived: this blog is going public! Welcome! For those of you who are just joining us, this is the place where Matt and I will document our 3-month trip to Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and Nepal. We hope to provide you with witty repartee, pictures, and assurances that we are alive and well. Our earlier posts were for our own benefit, as we were trying to wrap our minds around the fact that we are actually taking a 3-month sojourn from life. You're obviously more than welcome to read those earlier posts. Please also feel free to comment. On anything, really. Comment away!

Since this is an introductory post for most of you, let me give you a bit of background. A little over a year ago, Matt and I started talking about taking a TRIP after he graduated from school. This wasn't going to be a small trip, it was going to be a TRIP wherein we would visit someplace kind of unusual, someplace different from places that other people visited, and we planned to be there for about a month. And then as we talked about it and got more excited about it, and thought about it some more, we realized that maybe it was time to take a journey, to take the kind of trip where we would leave our worldly possessions in storage, leave our cats to the kindness of friends, and say a temporary goodbye to American capitalism/consumerism. It soon became clear that not only were we ready to take this journey, but that the window of opportunity to take it would grow smaller and smaller unless we jumped on the chance right now.

Fast forward through what was an undeniably difficult year in Pittsburgh (read: grad school is hard, and finding a job in a less-than-friendly legal market is also hard), and here we are. We
plan to leave from New York on December 20, 2007 and return on April 4, 2008. That's just over 100 days for those of you who like to count. In those hundred-plus days, we plan to visit Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, and Portugal. We've mapped out an itinerary but we're still tweaking it, so stay tuned for details.

Right now we're in the midst of figuring out a couple of key things before we go: how not to die from a strange illness while we're there (vaccines, vaccines, vaccines) how to make sure that we can get into the countries we want to go to (visas!), and the logistics of saying goodbye to every single person we know BEFORE we get on a plane (including people who haven't yet made their appearance in the world – hi miniMart!).

What we need from you is excited encouragement! We need you to be thrilled for us! We need you to tell us that this is the trip of a lifetime, and that we will have experiences beyond our wildest dreams! We need you to give us all of the advice you have to share, and to tell us about places we absolutely cannot miss. We also need you to give us your warnings, your public service announcements, and your concerns for our safety. We know that your worry means you love us
(we're Jewish).

So with that, I give you our blog. Welcome! Enjoy! Come and go in Peace!
Love,
Lizzi and Matt