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As I mentioned before, smoking sheesha (water pipe) became Ashok's favorite hobby, which he indulged in at least once a day. I thought it would be funny to show some of the more interesting places where he managed to get a sheesha in:

Where it all started - at El Fishawi Cafe in Cairo, Egypt:

At our hotel in Luxor, while working on his computer:

He even convinced the internet cafe owner to bring in the sheesha from next door while we used the internet:

Smoking after breakfast on the beach in Nuwiba before heading to the terminal for the ferry to Jordan... little did we know how much waiting we had ahead of us:

What better way to watch the sunset by the Dead Sea? (note he's sporting his new Jordanian shmagh mhadab (scarf)

Tea Garden in Istanbul, Turkey.... maybe we can make our living room look like this:

In Istanbul, smoking Nargile (Turkish name for water pipe) is always accompanied by backgammon playing. Too bad we never picked it up:

As all good things must come to an end, Ashok's sheesha days came to an end when we left Turkey. That is, until we get back to New York and he can set up his very own. Now he's got a new use for the charcoal at the end of our BBQs.

Happy New Year, and Happy Chinese New Year! Can't believe I'm more than 2 months behind on my blog... just got busy spending time with family. Read on for my posts from the last couple of months of 2008, on Vietnam and Laos.

The rest of December was basically hanging out with family & friends in Kolkata and eating good local snacks. It was nice to have another break and not be in travel mode. Of all the pampering we get in Kolkata, my favorite is the ginger chai tea that is brought up as soon as we wake up in the morning. Ahhhh... what a nice way to wake up in the morning.

Ashok and I traveled up to the northern state of Sikkim, in the Himalayas, for New Years. Somehow we ended up in a club with the locals for New Years Eve, and the hard-rocker tough guy who invited us to the club ended up cranking out Bollywood favorites with his band in traditional garb.... all this in a small town in the middle of the Himalayas. We sure know how to party!

Mount Kangchenjunga, at 28,169ft, is the 3rd highest mountain in the world (after Mount Everest and K2). The view of the mountain range from Pelling, Sikkim, where we were, is really amazing. Most of the time it's so overcast that you wouldn't know the peaks were there. The best chance to get a clear view is at sunrise.

That little bit of cloud above the peak covered the sky by lunch time so it went from sunny blue skies to gray and gloomy in a matter of hours. Makes you really appreciate nature.

January was spent mostly around southern India. More on that later. For now, happy reading!

And we're OFF! For me, the start, and one of the highlights, of a trip (non-business), is the moment the plane takes off. At that point, everything that needs to be taken care of before you leave are either done, or there's nothing you can do about them anyway.... there's no more flight delays... all that's left to do is to relax and think about the fun adventure ahead.

After weeks of packing, moving, finding space to fit everything, packing for the trip, saying good-byes, and numerous to-do's before we go, we are finally on the road. We were really hoping to have a day or two of nice quiet time in NY/ NJ, but unfortunately we were busy up till the last hour. It was a little sad to leave our apartment (our first home!) knowing we won't see it for a whole year. It was also weird to not have a home and to have to pack up EVERYTHING. It was tough to limit what we bring with us on the trip to stay under the 50lb limit but at the same time have what we're going to need for the next 2 months (we're still worried that our bags are too big, but there's nothing we can do about it now). I know it's worth it, but it is crazy that we've turned our lives upside down to take this trip.

Thanks for visiting this site! Ashok and I are busy tieing up loose ends before we leave for our big trip so I've only had time to set up the blog. I promise there will be more interesting entries on this blog once we're on the road. Of course that's not too hard to do at this point (as one NYU professor said at my b-school graduation: set low expectations and then exceed them!).

Countdown to the trip:
6/27: Jean last day at Dannon (wow! can't believe I'm actually leaving!)
6/28-29: pack and move out of apartment to Ashok's sister's house in Jersey
6/30: Ashok's last day at Akamai
7/1-7/6: last minute packing... and probably a good idea to start narrowing down which cities we want to visit instead of just having a idea of which countries we want to go to
7/7: Take off for Prague!

Please check back after 7/1 and I'll have our itinerary listed. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for places to go please let us know.