1/3 gone...........................

So it is the last morning of my stay in India and I am officially 1/3 through my whole trip - at some ungodly hour tonight I shall board my plane and fly to Perth (albeit for some reason I can't understand I am adding on about 12 hours to the trip by flying there via Dubai...)

Tamil Nadu is completely unique, The people are kind and sooooooo hospitable - they will go completely out of their way for a friend or even a confused visitor & their music is definitely unique - tip: Anyone visiting Chennai must bring a new, healthy ipod filled with thousands of western songs or risk suffering an anuerysm caused by hearing the same 3 songs nonstop everywhere you go... The only reason I survived was by singing a compilation of broken Beatles lyrics and 80s Powerballads loudly to myself - it was as if they had never seen someone belting out Aerosmiths 'I don't want to miss a thing' before...

There have been some lows - the hospital, pollution and the withdrawal symptoms from McDonald's, but these were definately beaten 10:1 by the highs! I have had some great times here and i really will miss it... Just yesterday I visited Simiyon's village(Simiyon is one of the guys who run the Gummipoondi boys town and I really shall miss him!) and there we were sitting when one of Simi's friends drove up on a bike and took me back to see his baby boy... He was this tiny little bundle and I found out he was only 2 days old. I asked what his name was and the dad replied 'why don't you name him'...
Instantly my head was full of a dozen different suggestions including (and I'm not proud to admit these) Sonic, Zeus, T-dog or McNugget; but then I realised that the Father was completely serious - he really wanted me, someone he had known for just 10 minutes to name his only child a christian name and wish for him to be healthy. I held back my more immature side and thought deep and in the end christened the boy Paul after my own Dad... Wait a min - does this mean I'm the kids godfather?

Sorry this hasn't been a massive long essay of a post like normal but I have about 30,000 things to do before my flight... I will tell you this quickly though - this is the end of my trip in India but not the end of my blog... the content will completely change, the style will probably change just as much, I will almost certainly be even later in posting stuff up but I shall still be here on this site - until then Bye bye y'all! See you in Oz!!

Wow... It's really happening!

Hi and welcome to my pathetic excuse of a blog!

Ok - so most people who read this will probably know me... and be amazed that I have actually got this trip organized! This is my first post on this or any other blog so please bare with me!

In 2 days I am leaving my home in Belgium and traveling to the UK where I will board a plane to Chennai in India. From there my trip will start...

I will travel to India, Australia & the USA.

First things first, however - Chennai. The Boys Town is a charitable organisation that teaches young Indian boys the skills they need to suceed in trade and of course life... My big brother James went a few years back and really enjoyed it so it was top on my list of priorities for my trip... I am facinated by the whole of the culture and history of the country and really want to go and meet the people that live there. I dont want to do the Thomson package tour of India nor do I want to live in luxury. I want to live, eat and sleep like a local, I want to be at the grassroots of the country - actually seeing the real India not the 5 star resort India.

I have virtually no plans for this trip apart from my flights and no preconceived expectations of what may happen... It is to be a year free from School, a year free from Duties and a year spent almost completely out of my comfort zone! I will be living with my pack on my back, the shoes on my feet, and the road steching in front of me into the distance. my main contact with my family and friends will be this blog.

I will try and post once more before I leave but now I have to pack a solitary 70 liter backpack with everything I need for a year... good times!

Tim
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