I'm Married!!!!

Yep - you read it right. . .I am now married. Those of you who really know me well, then this shouldn't really come as a surprise now should it?! I always said that it would be quick and fast and come right out of left field and boy does this ever! Seriously though, I figured about 4 days ago that I would be better off married while I am here - so 4 days ago, I found myself a husband, he doesn't have a name, he is a businessman and he is coming over to join me at the beginning of September. In other words - he is fictious - sorry for the heart attack mom. I have been routinely asked, mainly by my taxi drivers, if I am married and have realized it is much easier to answer "yes" than "no". Funny thing is, none of them seem to notice that I don't wear a wedding band (but I do have an explanation for that - my fingers swell in the heat, had to take it off). I have found that by having a "boss", as one driver called him, makes my life much easier and I don't have to answer so many questions.

Well I am about a week into my experience/holiday and I can finally say that I am starting to enjoy myself. I flew down to Goa from Delhi on Tuesday and let me tell you what a great change in scenery it was and it immediately put me in a better frame of mine (let's put it this way - I was looking for the first plane back to Canada by Tuesday!). Goa reminds me a lot of the Carribean - it is very lush and green, the roads are narrow and the people are friendly. I have booked myself into a resort in South Goa called the Royal Orchid - I found it on Expedia when I was in Delhi and it looked pretty good. I can tell you that it ain't no Four Seasons but it sure in the hell a lot better than some of the sh*t holes I stayed in in Rajasthan for double the price! All it all, it is a 3 star resort - rooms are clean, bed is comfortable, they have a nice pool. Given that it is still monsoon season down here, the resort is anything but busy! Speaking of monsoons, the only rain that I have experienced was this morning when I woke up - it was pouring out but it only lasted about 20 minutes and then it was blue skies and sunny all day! I even burnt the marshmellow. . .dumb me! I decided to take a walk down the beach and ended up going about 8km down to a little town called Colva. There I found a restaurant that is owned by a British guy and managed to finally eat some comfort food - mashed potatoes and chicken pot pie. The chicken in the chicken pot pie had a little too much chicken flavour to it, but the mashed potatoes were real and made me feel a whole lot better. I then spent the next hour teaching my waiter how to do Su Doku - we did 3 puzzles together and he didn't want me to leave. . .maybe I should have mentioned my husband! LOL! Given that I was pretty toasted by then (and had no sunscreen in my bag) I opted to take an auto-rickshaw back to my hotel - which was a good thing when I realized just how far it was. . . I am sure that I would still be walking!

So my thoughts on India (I know that you are all wondering and given that I haven't blogged much about my first week, I figure I should share with you a bit now) - well let's just say that the none of my pre-trip nerves were worth it. I have mentally prepared for the worst, but experienced something a lot different. Delhi was a lot less crowded than I expected, it didn't smell as bad as I was expecting and the proverty wasn't as extreme - don't get me wrong, it was bad (will blog about that later) but then again, maybe I was too sensitized before I left. Delhi was also a lot less cosmopolitan than I was expecting. I was expecting it to be much more of a commercial/business hub with some large office buidlings/downtown core or something but it had none of that. Rather, it was a dump. Yep, a dump - or at least I thought so. The only redeeming feature of Delhi in my opinion was the Domestic Airport - which was very nice to fly out of! After about a day in Rajasthan (which is the state that Delhi is in) I wanted to leave! I will fill you in on my Rajasthan experience in my next blog.

In the mean time, I have come to these conclusions. . . I am much more of a Four Seasons/Westin type of holiday person. I thought that I liked to do the "cultural" thing - but I want to do it by nice little day trips from a really nice resort! I have really learned a lot about myself and my travel preferences on this holiday and I am sure that I will keep on learning considering I still have almost 3 more weeks! Until tomorrow. . . .keep smiling!