India! OUT!

Bundi, India
Originally uploaded by An Smith.

It must be 45 degrees today and it's humid. I can't remember the last time I showered so I'm really hot and I'm jammed into a tiny cubicle with a pathetic excuse for a fan blowing hot air in my face. I am drenched in sweat head to toe and my butt is glued to the seat. Lovely.

We are in Varanasi waiting to catch our night train back to Delhi and I'm desperately trying to compose my final thoughts on India. For some reason the power isn't off today (it's normally off between 10am and 2pm daily and then frequently for the rest of the day!!!!). It's nice to escape the afternoon heat with something quiet to do. Besides, we are officially 'India'd Out'!!

Denise and I sat on the roof of our guesthouse last night and ate our last Indian dinner (by candlelight!), drank beers to celebrate and watched the world (happily high above the madness) while we discussed our time here and our experiences. While we were relaxing a man at the guest house came to pray in the temple (yes, on the roof). He was oblivious to us while he rang a bell, sang songs and chants and lit incense. Shortly after the Muslim Call to Prayer started echoing throughout the entire city. Beautiful. The manager of our guest house sat with us for awhile and read our palms telling us about our future; health, love, happiness; and he had some amazing insights into our past.

I've mentioned before that there is so much I love and hate about India. Things I will miss and things I can't wait to get away from!! There is a constant buzz in the air which is now so familiar, the honking horns, the buffalo, cows and gangs of dogs sleeping in mud puddles, people everywhere in constant motion, rickshaws threatening to slice off your toes and everyone calling you to ask you your name, your country and to buy from their shop, good smells, bad smells and then the really terribly bad make you nauseous kinda smells. Oh, and my butt has been grabbed way too much for my liking. It must be the blond ponytail.

I've enjoyed my time in India immensely, much more than I ever anticipated to be honest. I feel different in the sense that I feel more confident, tougher..stronger, more spiritual and more aware of the world. India is it's own action packed movie full of religion, hope, controversy, contradiction, generosity, happiness and love, hatred and corruption, colour and beauty, repression, filth and sadness. How can you not walk away with something in a place like this?

This last week we saw Tigers in the wild at Rathamborne wildlife park (so cool!). We did an early morning jeep safari with a few other hard core safari connoisseurs. They even had outfits made for them to wear (you have to see the pictures..they matched!!). I did a quick stint of Agra which I hated (we had McDonald's AGAIN!) and then we hid in Delhi for a few days (watched a Hindi movie which was hilarious) and then came to Varanasi to end our tour of India.

I honestly can't believe how fast our trip is going. Tomorrow night we board a flight to Tanzania.. and after about a zillion transfers and hours of waiting and many airports we will arrive to Mwanza to settle down for a month and teach kids. I honestly can't wait for the break but I'm not sure I'm qualified to teach! Anway, we've kept up a pretty steady pace for the last four months..and the thought of not having to re-pack every few days is wonderful. Our only concern... what is the food going to be like!!!?????? :)