I’m back in my hometown, yay! If only I were feeling well enough to fully enjoy it though. I had tried to embrace the cold weather as much as possible when I was in London, the weather change however, may have made my ears extra sensitive. I managed to get a terrible ear infection once I reached Canada, the abrupt plane landing could’ve had a lot to do with it also. I’ve been here an entire week and am still in pain; the antibiotics aren’t working fast enough.

Once I’m up for it I’ll be adding some more photos of India. There’s lots to reminisce about.

Awful Cab Ride to Mumbai Intl Airport

I finally leave for Canada tomorrow! I can't wait to go home! In hindsight I think a week's long lay-over in London was a bit too stretched out for me when all I really wanted to do, was get home. Though catching up with my British family here has been wonderful. My nieces and nephew grew up so much during the last five months.

Everyone I'm meeting is asking me about about my Indian adventure. Some are inspired by it, others just curious. A few uncles were disappointed in me, and asked me to never travel alone to India again. They especially didn't like learning that I commuted by train alone on several occasions. I reassured them that I had been booking my tickets in advance, and that too, in first-class. And, there were always families or other women sitting nearby me. I think this was something the seating coordinators (or whatever they're called) were doing deliberately when they assigned passenger seats. You have to fill out your age, marital status, etc. when booking. This didn't convince some uncles though, they still think what I did was foolish.

My energy level's been really low since I left India but I think it's because all the travelling has caught up with me, plus I'm only getting about five minutes of sunlight per day in London. It hasn't been too too cold, about -4C on average, but I'm still missing them Indian heat waves.

My cab ride from Ahmedabad to Mumbai was awful. Like most of the men in India, my driver kept pulling out a new packet of chewing tobacco every 10 minutes - gross! The strong stench gave me a terrible headache for the entire 10-hour ride.

He spoke to me about NRIs and how once they're spotted in India, everyone just sees them as dollar signs, something I figured out very early on in my trip anyway. It's quite unfortunate actually, since many NRIs work extremely hard just to earn enough to make it to India. And then you have all these distant relatives expecting you to pay their bills and what not just because they didn't get their chance to make it abroad. Anyway, after warning me about Indians and NRIs being seen as dollar signs, he actually demanded 2000Rs tip money from me when I reached Mumbai.

By tomorrow evening I'll be back in my very own home. Can't wait!!