Going home

It's our last day in India. Tonight we're headed home. The flight leaves out of Delhi at almost midnight. The first leg of the trip is only about five hours, and we have a stopover in Hong Kong. For about six hours, we get to enjoy one of the nicest airports in the world: it's clean and safe, and has decently comfortable seating, wifi, and a great food court. Hungry? You can eat at Western classics such as Popeye's or Burger King, or you can do what I'm going to do and take advantage of the noodle shops. The last time I was at the Hong Kong airport, I had a fairly tasty bowl of wonton soup.

After noodles, internet, and possibly a nap, we'll be back on the plane for a 12-hour flight to San Francisco. We leave Hong Kong around 2pm and arrive in California at 10am, thanks to the magic of time zones.

I'm happy to be going home, but I'll miss it here. I'm a little sad about leaving the street dogs and the monkeys. I'll miss my favorite restaurants, like Green Chilli and Dosa Yes Please here in Paharganj or Govinda's at the ISKCON temple.

It's definitely been an adventure, and there have been ups and downs. I don't know if I'll ever come back for 15 weeks all at once, and I may try to avoid northern India and spend some time exploring the south. Danny is already planning to come back late next year to do more research and wants me to come with. He's even promising to rent a beach shack in Goa, where he can write his dissertation and I can enjoy the beach and tropical weather everyday. We'll see what's happening in my life at that point!

There are a number of things I've been wanting to write about but haven't had the time to include as posts here. In the coming weeks, I will be putting up some of those entries, so don't assume my blog is over and done with. In fact, I don't plan to keep this as an India-only travel blog – I will blog about any and all of my future travels, whether that's to Minnesota this summer or whatever part of the world I decide to go to next.

I'll also be creating photo albums for Facebook and Picasa, and I will post the links here. I must have taken thousands of photographs while I've been here, only a minute fraction of which I've shared here on this blog. The highlights will be available for all to see at some point next month.

Goodbye, India. It's been quite an experience. Now it's time to find out what the next chapter holds for me.