Someone once said to me, "If you have a picture in your mind, you will have direction in your life." It doesn't matter that this picture seemed very far away, just create it, bravely think about it, and this picture will appear in your life. When I was younger, I dreamed that I would travel around with my backpack, my stuffed dog Dood, and experience a different life. One of the scenes that always repeated in my mind was that I would travel to an ancient and far away country - India.

June 30, 1997
I had just come back from Mongolia, trying to prepare myself and get in the mood to welcome Hong Kong in its return to China - something that should be a historical and memorable time. But at that time, it wasn't that important to me; I didn't have any political opinions, I wasn't aware of the changes, and what was about to happen after July 1st. My mood was just a little bit complex.

The Idea
Actually, at that time, my focus was on a summer holiday, a long vacation. I just wanted to take a break. One day, I called my friend, Daisy, an Anthropology student at my University, to come out with me. As we talked about what we should do for the summer, I realized that she and I were having similar thoughts: we really wanted to travel together, we didn't know where we wanted to go, and we wanted to go somewhere that didn't have a lot of tourists.

After a few discussions, we planned to buy an air-ticket to India. We didn't think about it too much, we just knew it was something we really wanted to do. We didn't know what the political situation in India was like, and where we would go while we were there; we didn't know anything about India, just that we wanted to go to a place where people didn't often travel.

Getting Ready
With only a few days left until take-off, we didn't have a lot of time to prepare for our trip. In the short amount of time left, we bought a big piece of luggage, medicine, peel water medicine, PowerBars, a flashlight, many rolls of film, a travel guide book, mountain shoes...We also applied for the travel visas for India and Nepal.

As I was packing, I had no idea what I was going to bring along with me - I just packed up all my stuff, which was almost everything I had in the house. Things like canned food, noodles, laundry powder, tea, a mattress, alarm clock, magazines - I was so excited to be packing my things! In the end, my package finally weighed about 17kg, something I was supposed to carry for over 50 days.

Before I left, I told my friends that I was going to India, and they were all very worried about me; they knew that this was my first time traveling, and that I didn't have a lot of time to prepare. They were also very worried about my safety - but I didn't worry too much. Ah Dood, my lovely stuffed dog, who has always traveled around with me to many countries, always says, "life is full of the unknown and adventure. Just make your dreams come true."

July 7th - The Anticipation Ends
Before I was to meet Daisy at 3pm in Kai Tak airport, I went to a Shanghai-style salon and cut off all my hair. It might be safer to travel around if I looked like a boy.

After Daisy and I met at the airport, we waited until 7pm, but the airline staff wouldn't allow us to check-in due to a delayed flight. At 9pm, some employees told me the flight might be delayed until the next day, and it might be a good idea if we went back home. This was the first time I started to worry about my trip; how was I so supposed to see India if I couldn't even get there?

Suddenly, around 10pm, one of the airline staff members urged us to go check in, saying that the flight will leave in 15 minutes. Daisy and I ran to the gate immediately, with no one telling us any information about what had happened with our flight.

Anyway, we finally took off from home - I was so excited! Most of the passengers were Indian, only two Chinese (Daisy and I), and there were two Japanese people sitting behind us. During the first four hours of the flight, while I was reading the guide book on India, I suddenly found out that New Delhi, the capital of India and our destination, was in the Northern region of the country. On my God! I always thought that we were going to Southern India! Because of this new information, we had to change all our planning for the trip, and I started worrying again. We were going to an unexpected place with no plans - and look at the time! It was nearly midnight in India, which would make our arrival time to be 1am. We didn't even reserve any hotel rooms or guesthouses. What are we going to do? Sleep at the airport?

Dood