In three months, we've come full circle. Our ticket into Region 2 landed us in Delhi. We started at the Delhi airport. Today, after one month in Nepal, two weeks in Mumbai, just under three weeks in Kerala, just over two weeks in Rajasthan and six days in Delhi – we head back to the Indira Gandhi International Airport to fly to Bangkok and Region 3.
We're sort of astonished. Region 2 has felt so long. It definitely didn't fly by before we knew it. We're ready for Region 3 and are wholeheartedly embracing the change. It's also a little sad to be at the point where there's less in front of us than behind us.
However, it feels like so long since we left home. We have been fortunate to truly feel our time away. None of it has rushed by. It's all very tactile and real to us.
Unlike Region 1 that was a constant high, Region 2 has had its ups and downs. Four weeks in Kathmandu was difficult – for me especially. The technological gaps made work long, exhausting and difficult for us both. It was the first – and really the only place where work was a complete struggle and we almost gave up.
Mumbai – ironically – was a breath of fresh air. Organized, clean, easy to get around, modern and technologically advanced, Mumbai was the anti-Kathmandu. Alleppey and our beloved Keraleeyam followed – and was like a fantasy world. Rajasthan was colorful, historical and vibrant.
We end in Delhi, which feels in some ways like Kathmandu. It's physically close. It's culturally closer than I'm sure people here would like to admit. And it's emotionally very similar.
If there's anything we've learned on this trip besides always carry hand wipes is that environment has a huge impact. We've all discovered that we do better in some environments than others. But it's tempting to think that our force of will and personality carries us through whatever. It does. To an extent.
Changing environments fairly rapidly, it has become so clear how we're affected. In the warm, tropical sun of Mumbai and Kerala, I awoke happy to face the day. I was happy to walk the big, wide, tree-lined sidewalks of central Mumbai. I felt safe almost everywhere we went at any time of day or night. Kerala was beyond all of that – it was just easy and magical. It was nice to step out onto the banks of the backwaters each morning.
Here in Delhi, the hotel room suits me fine. The hazy diffused daylight, the crazy streets, the aggressive people, the grime, the black stuff that falls out of my nose at the end of the day – they leave me without enthusiasm. I don't like being hassled. I like my personal space respected. I don't like being a walking dollar sign (or rupee mark). I don't enjoy feeling like everything I'm wearing needs steam cleaning when I get home. I grow agitated, tired and I become far less adventurous.
I felt this way in Kathmandu as well. By and large we were holed up in our hotel sucking down the semi-reliable trickle of Internet we had there. It was sort of fine in that everything outside felt like a hassle and a chore. It was all too grating, and too rough for me to flourish. Meanwhile, Emily would go outside and spring to life. She is a flower who sees all the cow manure as fuel from which to grow.
In Istanbul, we learned that the cold, dark autumn weather made us want to sleep in and stay under the down comforter in our comfy bed. Here too, I'm not eager to get up and go. Delhi isn't my cup of chai.
But it's okay. I'm a Southern India kind of guy. The truth is, I like my putu and idli in the morning with the other Keraleans. We can all raise a glass of freshly made toadee (coconut beer) on the backwaters, under the intense rays of the tropical sun.
India has been surprisingly enjoyable. I had my doubts before coming here. I expected it all to be Delhi. I thought it would be intense, rough and life changing. It turns out that it is – but it's also fun, and light and life affirming too. We have had some wonderful, rich experiences. I not only would return, but I hope we come back and go see some other cool and interesting parts of this massive country.
Region 2 constantly makes us ask why some people are born into such advantage and why others have so little. It reminds us that as Americans, we're taught that we all have the opportunity to pull ourselves up and become whoever we want to be….that stuff's only valid in the United States and participating destinations. It doesn't apply to India and Nepal. There are people who have little to no chance of getting beyond mere survival. There are handicaps and dead ends. The footing is never equal.
It also makes one face the equally true reality that having in a place of have nots doesn't make you bad. There are so many educated, successful Indians and Nepalis who deserve every bit of their success and have worked hard for it. They are good people, leading good lives and doing good things to help other when they can. They have as much right as anyone to pursue happiness and enjoy their successes.
India and Nepal remind us that nothing is black and white. There are no shades of gray either – no monochrome. It's a broad spectrum of colors and details where one thing merges into the next and into the next again such that the contrasts exist, but you can't tell where they begin and end.
I can only tell you where we exit – and that's today. Of course, that too is one exit turning into an entrance, which leads to another passage, and yet another adventure….or is it the same one? I can hardly tell anymore.
I can't remember being so excited to get to Bangkok since my first trip to Kathmandu. Bangkok is chaotic and full of questions and issues of its own. But they're questions and issues that have been already asked and answered – at least by me. I know Bangkok. We have a relationship. We lived together for a year and parted on good terms. I never regretted leaving, but I'm always happy to visit.
Region 3 is more of a homecoming for me. I spent 4.5 years in Asia and 3 of those in Southeast Asia. The stresses of figuring things out are over – at least for the next few countries. In Bangkok we can get Emily safe, affordable sushi; me some incredible som tam; and both of us two hour massages and dental cleanings. Before you know it, we'll be sabai sabai (just fine).
Still, I suspect that even when I'm happily lying in my deck chair on the white sand beach of Koh Samet next weekend, someone will come by and ask me if I want a drink or some fruit. My head might just waggle from side to side in agreement.
