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June 7, 2009 Unless some unforeseen difficulty arises, I’ll be flying on June 16 from Buenos Aires , Argentina to New Delhi , India , by British Airways, with a one-year Indian visa in hand. I have lived in South America for four and a half years, and hope to live in India and environs for a comparable period. According to the Indian Embassy here in Buenos Aires , upon expiry of my visa, I will have to leave India to renew it. It should be easy to enter Nepal or Bangladesh for a few days for that purpose. India will be my 53rd country. I chose New Delhi because both Bombay and Calcutta experience terrible monsoons all summer long. Around the first of October, I may go to one or the other. India requires that visitors present proof of onward or return passage, along with the passport and visa. So I had to buy round-trip tickets, with a return date of May 23, 2010. At present, I am planning not to use the return ticket, but if I decide that I don’t like India , perhaps I’ll change my mind. I visited Southeast Asia and Indonesia in 1989 and China , Mongolia and Central Asia in 1997 and 1998. I’ve spent a total of a year and a half in Asia so far, but hope to increase that considerably. I would like to return eventually to Southeast Asia and Indonesia for a longer visit, but I won’t be going back to China . India is one of the three important countries that I haven’t visited but want to visit. The other two are Russia and Japan . I’ve covered Europe and North Africa already. I did study Hindi at one time, but I’ve forgotten it almost entirely. At any rate, Hindi is only one of many languages spoken in India , with the result that it is probably just as profitable to know English. I’ll just have to see. I’ve always been a language-buff, but learning a language even minimally requires a tremendous effort. At my age, it won’t really be worth the trouble to make the effort. Another thing that awaits me is a spell of vegetarianism, since, according to people who have been there, meat is not available even to foreigners. I tried vegetarianism once before for two years, and had no problem. At that time I was in the US , eating mainly in restaurants, where it is hard to conform to a vegetarian regime, so I gave it up, just out of practical considerations. My stay in South America has been motivated by economic considerations as much as by the desire to tour, but I did see many fine things. I sailed the whole length of the Amazon River, crossed the Andes many times, went to Machu Picchu and all the great cities on the continent. I also witnessed a gang-style assassination of two retired policemen in Colombia . I did not visit Bolivia or the Guianas. I’m financing my trip with money I earned speculating in the stock market since the crash. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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