canada is cold. i miss india.

Worst travel blog EVER. I know. I KNOW. It started out well, then fell off terribly in the last couple of weeks. Erica and I got so busy, there was just never any time to sit around in the internet cafe and talk about all the things we were doing. But to be truthful, there wasn't much to write about. We were out enjoying Mumbai, but most of our time was spent riding in taxis or in coffee shops. Tourism was minimal. I think two weeks passed where I didn't take any photos at all. To make up for that, Erica and I are posting our travel videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/glitterspoonprod

Erica also has a blog, and is slowly but surely posting some backlogged updates from the trip here: http://ericareddywrites.blogspot.com/

Our last few days in Mumbai were quite low-key. Erica came back from Hyderabad on Sunday morning, and that basically just left us with one day to do some last minute shopping before flying home. Which we did, but not until after we spent 2 hours stuck at the airport with all our luggage and nowhere to go, because the airport was renovating and didn't have anywhere to leave luggage for the day, and the Continental desk was closed until evening. In the end, we hired a taxi for 6 hours, so that we could drive around wherever, and leave all our bags in the car when we wanted to go somewhere. By some wonderful miracle, I found the loveliest taxi driver ever, who drove us around all afternoon (and by some miracle even charged us a fair price) and guarded our stuff while we shopped.

We took the opportunity to drive past Shah Rukh Khan's house, which was dorky but fun. We did some shopping, then I tried to go to McDonald's to get one last Paneer Salsa Wrap, which is the best item on a McDonald's menu to ever exist in the history of McDonald's, but they were sold out! It was devastating. I have withdrawal. I need to go back to India just for the McDonald's. How sad is that?

Anyway, here are a couple of photos from our last day in Mumbai.

1. The taxi driver wonders why the hell we have so much luggage. (Note: He isn't the aforementioned nice driver.)
2. Good times in the taxi.
3. Shah Rukh Khan's house. Ooooooh.
4. Random steamroller.
5. Crazy sky in Mumbai.
6. Forgot to post this one awhile back. A cafe had poutine on the menu! A nice idea, but wasn't so great in practice. I ordered it for the novelty but trust me - it wasn't anywhere near poutine! Also... foo tayn?! What the hell?!

The flight home was decent, but sad. It was really depressing getting off the plane and having it be cold out. I miss India. But, I have a funny feeling I'll be back there at some point again. I said that last time I left, and it happened. So, I'm staying optimistic.

The future now is... strange. And uncertain. I have decided not to go to Korea. Basically, the longer I spent in India, the more I realized that I really didn't want to be in Korea. I think ideally I'd like to just live in India, but obviously that's not an immediate possibility. Even so, I don't even want to be in Korea for a year. I just don't think it's where I am supposed to be right now. So I am back in Halifax, indefinitely. Which won't be for too long - I have a few ideas in my head, and I am going to figure out the right direction soon. Wow, what a vague and pointless paragraph.

I shall keep updating my blog with random stories of India as they come to me, and photos when Erica sends them to me. I leave you now with the theme song of our trip, which we probably heard about a million times in 4 weeks. With a suitably Bolly-esque video to match!

thane

I am officially sucking at the travel-blogging thing. I have just been too busy and had too infrequent access to the internet to maintain this properly. Also, I haven't been doing anything new or touristy that would be good to write about. Erica and I have been very very busy, but this trip has turned into more of a business trip than a pleasure trip, so we've been working. I don't think either of us has taken a picture in 2 weeks.

At the moment I'm in an internet cafe in Thane, which is just outside of Mumbai, where we're staying. Erica is in Hyderabad for the day, I am just waiting for her to get back tonight, then we'll probably go out one last time in Mumbai - we fly back home tomorrow night. Originally we were supposed to come back last Monday, but we pushed our flight back. A bunch of funny things have happened which I will write about, but it'll have to be once I get home, because this keyboard is kind of stiff and hard to type on for extended periods of time.

I don't know what the hell is going on with the weather right now, but the sky outside is a weird hazy yellow-orange-peach color. Not like a sunset, it's all over. So kind of ominous and scary looking. I am going to get some dinner and go hide inside.