You know no matter how much you enjoy a place or how much fun you have on a vacation, when the end is near, you are just ready to come home? I think it is because we program our minds for the amount of time our vacation is and we just know when it is time to be over. Well, that was actually not true at all for me......until today.

My feelings about India are so hard to describe. It is hard to see such poverty, I want to cry each time a stray dog walks by me, and the smell is definitely something you have to get used to. But for whatever reason I enjoy every second of my time here. There is so much culture, diversity and history to this place, and of course the food is ridiculously amazing. Jaime was just pointing out to me that there are very few places in the world where I can just eat whatever wherever and not have to worry about if the food has meat or animal by-products, but here it is a snap! Such a great place for vegetarians. And it doesn't hurt that our dollar goes quite far, so shopping is nice. And even though bargaining and haggling can be exhausting, it is all part of the experience, and can be fun. But other than the fact that Jaime and I miss Winnie so incredibly much, we weren't really ready for this trip to be over, or to come home just yet. It seems that it just flew by so quickly. But......after today I am definitely ready to head back.

Classic Becky story coming your way....

We had to walk down a flight of stairs to get to our train platform today. I have a suitcase, not all that large, which I was carrying down the stairs. I twisted my ankle, and fell flat on my bum on the very hard cement stairs. Jaime helped me up, carried my suitcase the rest of the way and I walked it off. Luckily my ankle isn't too bad but I have a bruised tailbone like you would not believe. Not exactly what you want to happen the day before you have a 16 hour flight home ahead of you. The 4 hour train ride back to Delhi was also not a treat. One of the other girls on our tour slipped in the same spot as me and actually twisted her ankle so bad that she was not able to walk on it. I guess I was lucky.

But here is my situation as it stands....the cut on my hand hurts like a mother because I use hand sanitizer so much and alcohol on an open wound is not the best feeling in the world. But let me tell you, that cut is CLEAN! Definitely disinfected. My bug bites are all over my arms and legs, I have the sniffles and sneezes, and now my tailbone is bruised. I am doing real good over here. I definitely enjoyed my last day in India, as did Jaime, but it is time to come home for sure.

We made it to Delhi safely and Jaime and I along with several other people from our tour group headed out to a different part of the city to go on a guided street food tour. Again, a reason why I love this country so much, I can eat the (veg) street food and not get sick! These pictures are just straight food pictures. We had a guide take us to some local places where we tried local street cuisine of Delhi. I felt a little sick only because I ate a ridiculous amount. My only regret is that I didn't have more room in my tummy to eat more.

We were able to rest a bit and then we had our last group dinner at a restaurant just a few blocks from our hotel. We just had some soda and beer, we were not even hungry for dinner. Kuldeep then took us to the rooftop of our hotel for some more drinks and to light of some fireworks in honor of the religious festival that starts tomorrow. I said a little speech and we gave Kuldeep a card and tip money on behalf of the whole group. It was actually quite emotional. I am ready to come home, but not ready to leave these people.

Jaime and I skipped the fireworks as we need our sleep. After tonight, we will pretty much not get a full night's sleep until we get home on Halloween so we are trying to get our rest in now. Our flight leaves at 10am and then we have about 19 hours in Dubai before our loooooong 16 hour flight home. We will miss our group, Kuldeep, and most of all India, but we are ready to be home in our soft bed and be smothered with Winnie kisses. Nothing beats sleeping in your own bed after being away for so long. And nothing beats that combined with our cuddly Winnie snuggled up to us. ;)

We bought our tickets to the top of the Burj Khalifa and are very excited for our time in Dubai tomorrow!