travelin’ companion

Our nearly 7 weeks in India have been an interesting mix of activity and rest, friendly faces and pushy vendors, solitude and companionship. We started by making new friends in Mumbai, and then landed in a slice of heaven on the farm in Gujarat.

You can visit the photos from our time on the farm here, (all our trip here or here, all of India here) where you can meet the family

see some fresh dates

or see if I actually got milk from a cow

We were also thrilled to have our dear friend linda join us for several weeks, as we visited the farm, Bhuj, Ahmedabad, Jodhpur and McCleod Ganj (Free Tibet!)

And then we were sad to say goodbye… although we were happy to take full advantage of linda’s baggage allowance for her return flight! Between the three of us, linda went home with at least 43kg (90ish lbs.) of checked luggage, filling my very large backpack and a new duffel bag we purchased. Now I’m traveling with linda’s pack, which is much smaller. The moral of the story is that it’s hard (impossible?) to resist buying beautiful things in India.

After a week in Delhi, mostly taking it easy, we are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our sister(-in-law) Bianca to arrive… in about an hour! It should be a very happy moment indeed when we find her at the airport tonight. Then it’s off again, back up to McCleod Ganj for some nice weather and to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday. Afterward it’s back to Delhi for a day, then over to the Taj Mahal. Following that we do a nice little tour of Rajastan, soaking in the colors, forts and beautiful textiles (which, I’m just sure we’ll resist buying). Then it’s over to Bhopal to visit the former POW camp where my grandfather-in-law spent about 5 years during WWII, after which we hit Mumbai.

It’s been an interesting stay in Delhi, though, as we haven’t had too much we had to do. With Bianca coming, we didn’t want to visit the tourist sites we’ll be going to with her, and taking it easy, catching up on all sorts of internet stuff (like email!) and learning our way around this big city worked for us. Now we feel much more confident about the proper prices for autorickshaw rides, for example. We also found ourselves enjoying one large meal a day – usually costing us about $5-6US – and then snacking on the most delicious mangoes, plums and/or peaches our new favorite fruit vendor had to offer.

But one thing we also had to do was talk to STA, our travel agent, about our return flight home. We had to change our ticket – which we planned on – and so we had a credit to use, and we wanted to get something booked before we lost out on the best fares and our choice of dates. The basic itinerary? Depart from Delhi, stop in Paris so we can visit France for about a month, then end up in Toronto or Chicago. After a lot of searching, trying Air France or India for direct flight and Aeroflot or Sri Lankan Airlines for cheap fares, among others, we finally figured out that the cheapest and best flights available were with British Airways! I mean, it wasn’t even close.

So there we were, picking dates to leave India (made easier by not wanting to deal with getting a new Indian visa), and also, ultimately, which day we want to come back to North America. Which also means the day we will have to more seriously worry about a few other little things. Like where we’ll be living. Or how we’ll get all of our stuff to one city. Or what my immigration status will be. Or, you know, what we’ll be doing for jobs. Having an income does have its benefits, after all!

And as scary as all those things can be, it was also exhilarating. Plus it’s pretty cool to think that we’ve got 4 flights with British Airways coming up!

First we have more of India to discover and enjoy. And more thalis to consume.

But in the back of our minds, we also know we leave India 8 November. And come home 11 December. Kind of weird knowing that now. But I’m sure the mango will distract me.