This is the first blog post since I’ve renovated and sold my house, given away my things, and left the rest of my life on the curb of the ARC donation center.  Turns out, walking away from everything you own is a lot harder than the romantic picture I had in my head of just dropping a key off someplace and fading into the sunset with my backpack.

A lot harder.

It’s been three months of toil and labor, giving almost everything I owned away and then illegally dumping the rest. Did you know that no one, No. One. wants a big old TV,  and I could find no place to dump it legally!  

At the end I was every form of exhausted one can be.

But, it’s done.  It’s all done.

Now, now, now…

I’m back in India with Amy Caroline. The 17th of October will be our one month mark.

Starting in Delhi we went north to Darjeeling, up into the most northern state of Sikkim, then back to the very holy city of Varanasi, to Delhi once more and now I write from Jodhpur, one of my all-time favorite cities.  Many adventures have been had that will be shared on this page soon. 

Tomorrow we travel to Jaisalmer to go on a Camel Safari. 

Amy Caroline is a wonderful traveling companion. She is laid-back, flexible and eats almost anything.  Perfect! Even when we had to pull an all-nighter at the Kolkata airport because of a taxi strike, it was nothing to her.

The only problem is…um…she draws a crowd. 

Tall, slender, porcelain skin, long brown hair, I am sure people think she is straight out of Hollywood and that is how she is treated, especially by young men. My lifelong nickname for her is “Doll-face”, a name that has been confirmed here by people telling her that her face looks like a doll’s. She’s gotten free stuff too. A free necklace, a free henna tattoo and just yesterday a free Thumbs-up drink. 

If I had a dollar for every time she has posed for a picture with someone, I’d be eating on this whole trip for free.  Hum. not a bad idea, actually. “You want a picture with my daughter? You want to put her on your Facebook as your girlfriend? Ten Rupees! Ten Rupees from you!!” I could be like…her agent.  I wonder if that would be illegal.

I have thought of doing illegal things when she gets propositioned.

I’ve taken to coming up behind the guy, who is usually much shorter than me, breathing down his neck and saying in my most Clint Eastwoody tone…  “I am her mother. Make… my… day.”

To make her elegance even worse, she is taller than I am and a fast walker, much faster than me as I tend to meander. So, most of the time I’m picking up the rear and I know I must look like I am attending the princess or something.

What a princess she is.  

I cannot tell you how many pics like this I have. I swear, she is probably the Facebook girlfriend on a hundred pages. 

*Bing!  I just had an idea!

In college, I had a group of guy friends who went clubbing in Destin, Florida over spring break – clubbing with swag. One had dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, so they put a turban on him, and called ahead telling the club that Prince Amed of Etwada was coming in. The other three dressed in dark suits and sunglasses and posed as his security. Not only did he get the best table in the house but free food and free drinks to boot.

I wonder if we could do something like this.  You know, make up some story like… she is the princess of Transvania who is wanting a backpacking experience but her father, The King, sent me along as a compromise because she wanted to go totally alone and he wouldn’t allow it.  How far that would get us?

 

It might be a good cover and throw suspicion of being from the U.S.A. off of us, since that status could be considered a bit iffiy in these parts if the wrong person finds out.

AND!!! OMG!!! There are so many princess things we can buy here right at the market!!! Bangels, tiaras, jewelry, beautiful bejeweled clothes.

Today, I have just decided,  is Amy Caroline Make-over Day. 

I wonder how she will take it.