Insight

I finally got around to buying all my clothes (a daunting enough task), and finally sending them off.

The plan was to then hightail it to Amritsar, to see the closing of the border with Pakistan.

However - pretty suddenly, my thoughts began to clear, and a flash of insight hit me - I have less than 3 months of travel left.

I was going to need to get serious about my last few destinations - no more casually wandering around, alas.

I spent a couple hours sitting by the ghats in Pushkar, thinking things through... and I've made a few decisions.

I plan to go to the following destinations next:

1. Dharamsala (1 week)
2. Parvati Valley, not so far from Manali (1 week)
3. Varanasi (1 week)
4. Andaman Islands (1 month)
5. Northern Laos (2-3 weeks)

That'll essentially have me in Thailand for the 3rd week of April - give or take a few days here and there, and suddenly, i'm flying back to the US.

This means i'll be skipping a number of places (and countries).

I'm still flip-flopping in my head over a visit to Burma or not. I'll decide that soon-enough (especially as I'll need some form of visa for Burma, I think - which may not be available upon arrival as in laos). However, northern laos/burma are somewhat similar, so we shall see.

Laos was easily one of the best countries I've been to. I went to the very south a year ago, and missed out on what is aparantly a great part of the country (the north).

In any case. I had to change my plans from Amritsar, to Delhi, where I now find myself - after a all night non-sleeper bus journey. Ick.

Here, I need to:

1. Buy warm clothes and shoes for the next 2-3 weeks.
2. Find a place with Skype/voicechat, so I can call united and change my airplane ticket (goodbye Japan stopover).
3. get on a night bus to dharamsala.

I'm hanging out in a tibetian ghetto in delhi for the morning - it just seemed better than descending into the backpacker ghetto/red light district of delhi itself.

If I get all my errands done, I may reward myself with a movie later. Who knows.