After leaving Diu it felt like our trip was just about finished, and, in fact, it would have been a great place to end the trip, being so completely relaxing. However, we still had 3 weeks left. So, it was back to Ahmedabad. I always read about the booming Indian economy, all the high tech & call center jobs, a middle class of 300 million. The TV commercials here are always showing Indians wearing western clothes, driving fast cars, and living in modern apartments. But after two months, we often wondered, who are these people, and more importantly, where are these people, because we certainly haven't seen them. That is until now. Ahmedabad is the biggest city in one of the richest states. Across the river from our guest house in the "New City" we found the ultimate symbol that you have arrived as a true international city, a McDonalds. India's one billion plus potential customers is a market that McDonalds has probably been salivating over for some time now. Yet they've only recently started setting up shop here, probably because of the dietary restrictions of the major religions here. No pork for Muslims and no beef for Hindus, a bit of a problem for a burger joint. So instead, they're working the chicken angle. Yo had the Chicken Maharaja Mac and I had the McChicken Curry Roll. Interesting, but not something I feel a need to try again. Unlike at home, McDonalds here is the domain of the rich, the famous, and their kids. On my way to the cleanest bathroom I can ever remember in India I passed an Indian Ronald MacDonald entertaining a birthday party of screaming kids.

After lunch we stopped at a Borders-like bookstore with a Starbucks-like coffee shop. I sat reading the newspaper while I enjoyed my first ever latte in India. Then it was on to the movie theater. India's Bollywood is the world's biggest movie industry. Every year over a thousand films are made and exported to over 70 countries. Worldwide a billion more people a year buy tickets to Indian movies than to Hollywood ones. Bollywood movies show none of the harsh reality of everyday life and are intended to be pure escapist fun. There's lots of singing, dancing, and costume changes. The streets are clean and uncrowded. The movies are always three hours plus to give the maximum entertainment value for the rupee. Ten minutes into "Superstar" and the guy in front of us was already on his third cell phone call. I asked him to be quiet and he looked at me like I was crazy. And he was right. We soon realized that we were the only ones not yakking away into cellphones during the movie. The only time they stopped was during the intermission. And then about five minutes before the movie ended, just as you could feel the formulamatic story winding down, everyone got up, put away their cellphones, and left. Like those leaving the baseball game early when one team is up by too many runs. So we sat there and watched the end of the movie alone. I could spend the rest of my life here and I would still not even begin to understand India.

After this day of cosmopolitan city life it was another overnight bus south to Maharashtra state. The last two days we've spent visiting the famous 2000 year old rock cut cave temples at Ellora and the Buddhist cave frescoes at Ajanta. The highlight was the Kailasa Temple. This amazing architectural wonder was carved out the side of a mountain by 7000 laborers over 150 years removing over 200,000 tons of rock in its creation. On the crowded bus back from Ellora, Yoshimi snagged the last seat and was interrogated with the usual questions asked by Indians, which curiously were the same questions we were taught as children not to ask adults: How old are you? What is your religion? Why don't you have any children? How much do you make a year? I got called up front to share the engine block seat with the driver's nephew. They asked me basicaly the same questions, plus a couple of bonus ones: How much does a car cost in America...in rupees? Who is my favorite cricket player?

Tonight we catch an overnight train to Mumbai, our last stop in India.

-Shawn