The North

I keep meaning to write on my blog but things keep popping up and I don't get around to it.  We leave in three days for the north tour and anticipation is running high for all the exchange students in our districts. I keep thinking of things I have to do and have to bring and then forgetting them only to remember a few hours later or the next day. That's how it always seems to be before a big event or travel.
The group will be smaller this time as there a several students not going for various reasons. The people who are going however, are all people from the previous trip except for one new girl who's staying in Hydrabad. For us in Indore the tour is just one day short of a month because we'll most likely be leaving here on the 27th of February and returning on the 26th of March. The other students will get on a train in Nagpur or when it stops in their respective cities and we'll get on the same train sometime in the night when it passes through a nearby city called Ujjain. We leave the 27th because Ritu is planning on having us spend a day and a night in Ujjain sightseeing and visiting her friends. Speaking of visiting friends, our first stop is in Jaipur where my friend Josephine happens to be living for a few months. Hopefully we'll be able to meet at least for a few hours when I'm there.
The tour agenda is as follows  (I've added a couple of the highlights on some of the days since I can't give the full details):

February 28th- arrive in Jaipur
March 1st- Jaipur
March 2nd- Jaipur and then to Jaisalmer where we will sleep in tents in the desert and ride camals
March 3rd- Jaisalmer
March 4th- Jaisalmer then to depart for Jadhpur at night
March 5th- Jadhpur then depart for Firozpur at night
March 6th- from Firozpur depart for Amritsar and then depart for Dharmsala in the night (Golden Temple)
March 7th- Dharmsala (Home of the Dalai Lama)
March 8th- Dharmsala and then to Manali
March 9th- Manali (maybe skiing!)
March 10th- Manali then head to Rishikash by rout of Shimla
March 11th- Rishikash (River Rafting on the Ganges)
March 12th- from Rishikash to Delhi
March 13th- Delhi
March 14th- from Delhi to Varanasi by rout of Agra (The Taj Mahal)
March 15h- Varanasi (Swimming in the Ganges optional)
March 16th- Varanasi to Bodhgaya (Sunrise boating on the Ganges)
March 17th- Bodhgaya and then to New Jalpaigudi by going through Patna (Bodhgaya is where Buddha was first enlightened)
March 18th- New Jalpaigudi and then to Darjeeling
March 19th- Darjeeling then depart to Gangtok (Watch sunrise over the third highest mountain in the wolrd, Mt. Kanchanjanga)
March 20th- Gangtok (Celebrate the festival of color, Holi!!!!!!)
March 21st- Gangtok
March 22nd- Gangtok then to Hawara stopping in New Jalpaigudi
March 23rd- Hawara
March 24th- Hawara and then departing to Nagpur in the evening
March 25th- Nagpur then depart by bus to Indore
March 26th- Indore

This is a hard trip to pack for because some of the places we're going might be very warm while several will be very very cold. We go between warm desert and semi-tropical temperatures and freezing ice and snow. We're going to spend a lot more time on trains than we did on the last tour. In the south we traveled from place to place by bus just as often as by train but on this tour more of our traveling is going to be by train. Because I got a new camera for my birthday I hope to take lots and lots of pictures. The things we see and do on the tours are once in a lifetime opportunities and I want to remember them as well as possible.
I'm not sure if I'll post another blog or not before I leave in a few days. If I don't I'll write something when I return or maybe I'll get the chance during the tour. I will have more regular access to the internet and emails this tour so if you want to send me something that's fine but I won't be able to respond or update this regularly.