Planning, learning, researching, ..! I can’t but laugh! 😀

Planning an India trip is vastly different than what I have ever planned before, and now I don’t even have a pet to take into consideration.

There’s a lot to learn and I felt it was time to do another little update on everything.

(By the way, here’s an old post about how to travel with cat from Norway to California, USA: mariaerving.com/travel-with-cat-from-norway-to-california)

Okay, so you all know that I have now bought the tickets and sent my visa application to Sweden – so that part is done, phew! 🙂

I have also purchased some Indian clothes that one of my readers gave me as a gift (via Amazon), got a backpack too, and even that has been a whole new world for me to explore!

You don’t just go and buy a backpack haphazardly; you need to do some research into what you need, what kind of backpacks there are and so on, so anyways, I chose a 65 liters rucksack with zip closure at the top so I can lock it on trains etc.

Hm, .. what else is there to share..

Oh, maybe you’re interested in knowing what everything has cost so far?

Except from clothes and the rucksack (which can be very expensive) that I got as gifts, here are some of the expenses so far that I can think of right now:

Visa application:

The application fee: about 94 Euro.

Picture to application, postal charges to send application (recommended) to Sweden, copies of everything etc etc; about 20 Euros in total.

So about 115 Euros in total for visa expenses.

(I will also need an additional $30 to get a visa so that I can travel to Nepal and back to India, but that you get by the border at arrival).

Flight tickets and other cost involved in getting to Delhi from Malaga:

Tickets: 486 Euro.

Getting from Gatwick to Heathrow: about 40 Euros (must do some more research on how to get there cheaper).

I also need somewhere to stay from January 12th around 8 PM to the next day when my plane goes around 11 AM from Heathrow.

If you have a couch to lend me let me know 🙂 Otherwise I have to find something else, a hostel or something. (Contact me here).

So that’s almost 600 Euros in total (unless I can find someone to stay with in/around London).

Ah, and then we have the vaccinations!

They were about 134 Euros, plus bus to Malaga and back: about 150 Euros in total.

I think that’s it so far, a total of almost 1000 Euros. 

Hope this is helpful to know, maybe it can inspire others to take the leap as well and just do it.

The time will never be ‘right’ and we will never be 100% ready to do something so we just have to do it before we are ready and hope for the best, trusting our path! 🙂

A few words about my itinerary might be interesting to know about too.

So far I have 5-6 collaborations in place, which includes an Indian tour (about Buddha), a few retreats and a hotel experience and they begin in Delhi (where I by the way have a place to stay when I arrive. It feels wonderful to have that in place especially since I will be arriving at night).

After Delhi – Nepal etc (the Indian tour) I’m going to Rishikesh and then back to Delhi before I head south towards Mumbai and Goa.

And then from Goa I’m going to Kerala where I’ll arrive around the middle of March.

The different collaborations will take place both in north of India and also south.

In the middle or end of March sometime, that’s when I want to do a ten day Vipassana meditation retreat somewhere but it’s too early to apply because you can only apply approximately three months in advance.

After the Vipassana retreat I have no plans; I leave it all up to the universe because that’s what I feel intuitively I should do.

I feel very strongly that I should not plan pass this date so I haven’t got any collaborations in place after March yet either.

No plans at all, other than the thought that it would be nice to visit Chennai and Tiruvannamalai, but we’ll see about that 🙂

So the next steps for me at this moment in time is to figure out how to get from Delhi to Mumbai and then to Goa by train and buses and that too is a whole new world for me.

There are so many things you need to know, for example one thing that is different with India is that you need to book a train ticket at least a month before you plan to travel, you can’t just hop on a train there, or buy a ticket at the station whenever you fancy going somewhere.

It has to be planned ahead, sometimes even 2-3 months ahead. I had no idea about this.

All the things I’m learning in this process really shows what I always say when people say they want to travel; start planning!

Sometimes people can be a bit too “spiritual” about practical things like planning and I have heard it more than a few times that people say things like “if God/the universe wants me to go, then I will go” (meaning they wait for opportunities to magically land in their lap without them having to do anything), or they say things like “I just go, you know, when the time comes; I just go”.

Well, you can’t “just go”; every journey needs some planning, even a little bit of planning.

I haven’t planned where I’ll sleep; the only sure place I have is the place in Delhi where I’ll stay for 4 days at arrival to ‘land’ and rest (in case I have jet lag) and then the places that I’m collaborating with.

Other than that I only know that ‘okay, in February I’ll be in Goa’ and so on and then I pretty much wing it when it comes to where I’ll stay (sleep) since I have learned that there are many guesthouses to choose from everywhere in India, but that too I have to look into more.

In large cities like Mumbai for example it might be a good idea to have something booked before arriving.

So there’s always planning to do, and anyone can begin planning even if they don’t have enough money at the moment.

If you want to travel next year; start planning, researching, and learning about the destination and the practical aspect of the journey/trip today.

It’s about building momentum and going with the flow of things and if something withing you is pointing towards travel then I really urge you to say Yes to it.

Things will unfold and be show to you that you didn’t even know existed before you made the conscious choice of ‘going with it’.

In my personal journey and this whole process things seem to unfold in a way that feels a bit like I’m been taken on it; it’s difficult to explain but I feel strongly that this is meant to happen and it has to happen now, not later.

I had a moment of hesitation and doubt maybe a week before I bought the ticket and paid the visa application fee (thinking maybe it would be best to postpone it) but I quickly recognized it for what it was;

It’s the fear you feel just when you’re about to do something big, something life-changing, something that really pushes you outside of your comfort zone.

I spoke about these things in one of my Teleclasses as well as; please see “The Dreaded Unknown On Our Own Individual Hero’s Journey”: mariaerving.com/teleclasses if you’re interested in listening to it.

So, that’s it for now.

Is there anything you’d like to ask me about any of this then please do not hesitate; Ask away – Comment below! 🙂