Be afraid, be very afraid

I'm not like most of my spontaneous friends. They go away on holidays, spur of the moment, and when they land then they figure out where they're going to stay, where they're going to go, etc. I'm not like that at all. I'm a self-control freak. As soon as I found out I was going to India, I surfed the net for places to visit, for maps, for train travel details, for restaurant information and general stories about those particular cities I'm visiting, plus of course, the history of the cities, culture and customs of the people, etc.

Plus I had fun over the weekend teasing Hubby, who's always paranoid that someone from Al Qaida is lurking somewhere very close to me.

"You know I'm not flying El Al" I said to him sweetly. "I'm flying Royal Jordanian airlines".

"Royal J-J-J-Jordanian???" he stammered

I expected that reaction from him. So I continued.

"And it stops off in Amman. You never know who'll be sitting next to me on the flight! Probably someone from Al Qaida! Al Qaida! Al Qaida!" I was delirious.

"You don't know what you're doing" He exclaimed.

I continued.

"Amritsar is 15 kilometers from the Pakistan border!!! Isn't that great!???" I neglected to tell him that the peace group there will be trying to organize a site visit inside Pakistan. I think he'll lock me away and not let me fly if he only knew.

Trouble is - India sounds scary. All the stuff I've perused on the internet made me think I'm crazy for going at this alone for part of the trip anyways. Everything scares me now - from the monkeys that climb in through your window and steal your food, from the 2 lane highways that turn into 4 lanes, from the very narrow mountainous roads and crazy drivers, from cows walking into restaurants, and warnings that women shouldn't really travel there alone because of all the seedy men on the buses and trains that try and squeeze up against you. Not to mention the luggage stealing, purse-snatching thieves in Delhi. HELP!

But then again, these aren't Israelis that are writing this stuff - mostly Americans and British. I don't think Israelis have anything bad to say about India. I have never met any Israeli who has been to India that had experienced anything negative. They all want to go back for longer stays. And they end up staying for at least a month at a time. It must be the karma...