It's great to be home.

We ended up going to Goa after all, and that was fantastic. Goa was sort of this unspoiled tropical paradise. Hemant got us booked in this 5 star hotel with a private beach. It was a great way to cap off this trip to India.

After Goa, I spent one more day in Bangalore before heading off to Toronto with a stop-over in Delhi. Some of the guys got together and got me a kurta (I'm probably spelling that wrong), which is this Indian style garment. It was the perfect gift, because I was thinking about getting one, but not sure where to buy one. Here's a sample:

While I was in India, merchants would constantly try to take advantage of me. I would ask them the price of something and they would look at me, hesitate and name an obscenely high price (you could practically hear them adding a "foreigner tax" in their heads). So while I was wearing the kurta, I decided to experiment and go to a few stores to see what would happen. I'm sure they'd know that I wasn't a local, but perhaps they'd think that I was a foreigner who'd been here a while, and thus was aware of the prevailing market-clearing price (which I generally was). The response that I usually got was they'd look at me, snicker, hesitate and name an obscenely high price. :) I also wore the kurta on a final trip to the office to say bye to the guys. I'm really going to miss them.

I had about an hour and a half in Delhi, before I had to get in another plane. What did I do? I took a cab and went to the nearest McDonald's. I got 3 orders of large fries, a chicken maharaja burger, a McCurry pan and of course, a coke. It was absolutely one of the best meals I've ever had. It was so beautiful. I just had to take a picture.

I've been back for about a day now. It's been great seeing friends and family (my aunt and uncle from Oregon are also visiting!). I'll write more about my experience in India and post some pictures a bit later. If you're in Toronto, drop me a line before I leave on the 16th.