"Insert witty title here..."

Sometimes traveling is not all fun and games. Sometimes traveling is all about dodging sickness, catching trains, and negotiating prices with overly eager rickshaw drivers waiting to rip off single white girls. It's all about discussing the latest routes and best hotels with fellow travelers, trying to find clean and edible food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, while staying within a budget so strict it doesn't always seem possible. It's a tiring game of meeting people, getting close, and leaving all too suddenly. It's hopping from one dirty and often lonely hotel to the next, lugging a backpack through crowded city streets, sweat pouring out of every pore imaginable. It's packing, and repacking, and shopping, and spending hours in internet cafes pouring over facebook and email, the only connection to the world back home.

Today was one of those days for me. A day full of train travel, honking rickshaws bumping their way through ridiculously crowded streets, and saying goodbye to new friends who I may never see again. After a 5:30am start, a public bus, and another train ride, I am back in Delhi, spending my last night in the same hotel as before, getting ready to leave the wonderfully crazy country of India. I have found myself seeking Western comforts today, and the only food I have eaten has consisted of pizza and french fries. Luckily I am in the right place for travelers in need of Western food, but the comforts pretty much stop there. My hotel is actually quite nice, considering I'm in India, but it's hot and lonely. The plus is that is has a tv, with English HBO, and for most of the evening I have been sweating in my room, taking small naps, and watching American movies. Sometimes it's nice to avoid the world outside and just pretend to be in America, however short and fleeting the feeling may be.

But, despite all the small annoyances and hassles, the last week here has been amazing. I stayed in Rishikesh for one week, and loved every second of it. I'm glad I chose it as my last spot before heading to my next adventure, and couldn't have asked for better traveling partners than the people I met while staying at the best hotel on my trip so far. (I miss you guys like crazy already -- thanks for making my stay in Rishikesh so memorable!)

Tomorrow evening I will head to the airport in Delhi, and board an overnight flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nine months ago I had no idea I would be going to Malaysia, but that's the joy of travel, the freedom to change plans at the spur of the moment, to hop on a plane one night and wake up in another country the next morning.

I have a rough idea of where I will travel to for the nine of so days that I have in Malaysia, and eventually plan on making my way across the border to Thailand. In just under two weeks I will be meeting my sister at the airport in Bangkok, and then I only have a little over a month left of my trip. It's very hard to believe that I have been gone now for nine months, and have already traveled through China, Nepal, and India. It's easy to get caught up in the whirlwind that travel causes, and I sometimes have to remind myself just how lucky I am to be out here in the world, experiencing it for all it's worth, taking the good with the bad.

Overall, this trip has been the best time of my life. It has changed me in so many ways, many unexplainable. I miss home like crazy, but I'll get there eventually.

Pictures from my travels in China, Nepal and India will be posted soon, as I'm hoping to get a better internet connection once I get to the modern city of Kuala Lumpur. I'll keep you all updated.

For now, stay safe, and I miss you all like crazy. Much love, see you soon.