A group of ten countries circles around in my head as places I really want to go: New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Guyana, Surinam, Angola, Mozambique....and India.

I had planned to go with a friend I made on Craigslist.org, but his idea of a good time was going from the North of India to the South of India stopping everywhere in between in two weeks. That sounded like transit terror to me.

After two and a half years of selling real estate at the beck and call of my clients 24 and 7, I'm in desperate need of some me time. India seemed like a good place to throw together as a package in just a couple of weeks.

I've traveled a lot before. Japan for a year studying at Kansai Gaikokugo Gaigaku in Hirakata, and traveling to Hong Kong, China, Macau, South Korea and all over Japan while making big bucks modeling and teaching English as a Second Language. It was the best year of my life easily.

I slowly degraded into a banking career trapped in a 9-5 that was really 8 to 8 not happy with my surroundings. So in 1993 I quit my job, moved to Brazil and wrote a novel. I both loved and hated Brazil. As time goes by I mostly have fond memories and lots of great stories to tell.

Now with the travel bug firmly rooted in my system, I decided not to go for long years at a time without travel. Instead, I work hard and take longish trips. Vancouver, BC for three months, Costa Rica and Guatemala for four months, Thailand for 6 weeks, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin for 6 weeks and now India.