Things I'm Excited About / Things I'm Nervous About

Excited

Waking up in Bombay and getting to eat real Indian food, really in real life India! I don't know why I've gone so food crazy lately. It's probably because I'm trying to do my research and come up with good restaurant recommendations via the web (did this for my Montreal trip last year to TOTAL success), so I'm reading a lot about Bombay's cuisine. Especially my favorite genre of cuisine, street food. Which Bombay is famous for. There's bhel puri of course, and pav bhaji, and vada pav, and chaat, and pani puri, and... See, this is why I'm like 99% sure I'm not going to lose weight in India.

Indian train travel in general, my overnight trip from the famous Victoria Station (Bombay's answer to Grand Central or what Penn Station used to be) to rural southern Goa. I'm especially excited about getting on a train at midnight in a city of 16 million, and waking up the next morning to the Maharashtrian/Goan countryside. And then getting out in a medium-sized town, taking what my dad would call "The Chicken Bus" out to an even smaller town, from where I'll get to take a motorbike taxi (or maybe some species of rickshaw) to the beachside village I'll be staying in.

Weirdly enough, long hours on the plane enjoying everything my new iPod has to offer. I cannot explain this. Probably because the new iPod has this really addictive game on it which is sort of a combination between Tetris and Jezzball (I know, really!!). I also have some cool new audiobooks, including Jane Eyre and Bob Dylan's "Chronicles Volume I". I also want to use my iTunes credits to buy some movies and TV shows.. Very annoyed that iTunes is not yet offering any Buffy past season 2, though.

Being in Switzerland just long enough to use the restroom.

Flying by the seat of my pants. I love the fact that I don't know where I'm staying after the first few nights, can't figure out exactly where to go or what to do once I hit Kolkata halfway into the trip, and aside from the obvious at Hampi (huge city of ancient ruins, gee, wonder what I'm gonna do there?) don't even have any sightseeing plans.

Going from temperatures in the twenties to temperatures in the eighties within about 24 hours.

The stereotypical menagerie of camels and elephants, holy cows, and crazed monkeys you hear about so much anytime anyone talks about India.

Nervous

What's safe to eat, and what isn't. I mean, I've done my reading, and I know to avoid tap water, salads, and raw fruit that can't be peeled. But then there are all the really yummy things that seem to fall into grey areas. Like nimbu pani (basically limeade, made fresh on the spot) and bhel puri (a Mumbaikar snack food kind of like Chex Mix on crack, unfortunately topped with raw tomatoes and red onion). Reading my guidebook and the writing of other travelers, these things seem to be essential parts of the Indian food experience (OK, remember how I said this was not going to be a culinary thing? Well, um.). So I can I eat that, or not?

My hotel. I'm actually less nervous about this by the day, because I've gotten numerous emails from them, and they seem to be on the up and up. However, typing that makes me think I'm jinxing myself. I guess I'll just have to cross this bridge when I come to it.

Technical difficulties. Especially regarding using my iPod to store photos and video I take along the way. I've been unearthing all kinds of potential problems with hooking my iPod up to computers in Indian internet cafes.

Missing my very tight connection in Zurich.

Not planning right, or enough. Not being able to get a train ticket, or a hotel room. Getting horribly lost. Picking the wrong places to go, or not giving myself enough time in the right places.

Looking forward to the heat so much I underplay it and end up really miserably hot all the time.

The stereotypical menagerie of vermin that totally freak me out, like roaches, disease-carrying mosquitoes, and bacteria/viruses that could ruin my trip.