Before I Take My Leave - Final Update

I will always be glad to have had this chance to visit India. . .

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1) visit the Taj Mahal

2) gaze upon the Himalayas

3) swim in the Indian Ocean

4) stand on the southern-most tip of the Indian subcontinent.

5) experience the magic of Rajastan's medieval cities: Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur

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I take my leave of India at the end of this week. It's been an absolutely amazing 4+ months on the Indian subcontinent. I have somehow, someway managed to do most of what I set out to do. There are certainly things left undone, sights left unseen, experiences left un-experienced, but seeing most of the items on the above list crossed-off is quite satisfying.

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Correction to one saying: getting there is not always half the fun. Sometimes getting there is no fun at all!

Confirmation of another: For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these 'It might have been'. . .(John Greenleaf Whittier)

Travel in this country is certainly not easy. In fact, it's incredibly difficult. It simultaneously makes you want to scream, cry, curl up in a fetal position on the floor, and desperately wish you were back home safe and sound. While making various flight and hotel reservations, I stared at that confirm button for a very long time before finally clicking on it, all the time wondering what obstacles fate and/or the travel gods had in store for me. Obviously, it was always going to be far easier not to travel, but I didn't want to leave India with any regrets and certainly not with the feeling that I had wasted this probably once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fortunately, and without exception, the destinations and end-experiences were always worth the ever-attendant and oft-plentiful travel headaches. It certainly helps that the not-so-enjoyable experiences seem to quickly recede into distant, hazy memories with time, while the enjoyable ones remain fresh and vivid. I leave with no regrets and only fond memories.

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I want to thank and acknowledge all the Wikipedia contributors and the Lonely Planet India travel guide authors. I hope I gave them credit whenever it was due for the histories and descriptions of the people, places, and sites included in my blog entries. They were a tremendous resource.

Finally, I want to thank all of you out there. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my experiences as much as I have enjoyed bringing them to you. If my words and photos have been able to convey even the tiniest bit of wonder and amazement on offer in this land of India, I consider my time spent blogging time well spent.

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So. . .it's absolutely true that I will always be glad to have had this chance to visit India. . .but I am equally glad that it's now time to go home. . .

. . .speaking of which. . .

I have one more stop to make on my journey westward before arriving back in Hermosa Beach, California, U.S.A. I'll chronicle that experience on this blog as well. We'll call it the beginning of the repatriation of this current expatriate. It might be a couple of weeks before any new entries appear, but please check back right before Christmas if you get a chance. I'll certainly be finished with this blog by New Year's Eve, which just may be a fitting end date to this saga.

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season, safe travels, a very Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year. . .

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