Hello everybody, hope you enjoyed Gari's time as guest writer on the site; it's been great to come back after a few days and read everyone's comments. I spent the time in Darjeeling thinking about when I should finish this round-the-world trip. I'm coming to enjoy India a lot, but still, it feels like the time to call it all day is drawing near.

I wrote this in Darjeeling, on September 19th:

Here at the edge of the world, I'm trying to decide whether it's time to stop travelling. I feel a deep kind of fatigue in my mind, as though my brain has taken all the journeying and new vistas it can take for a while. Certainly my drive to get up and go on big explorations in each town I come to has greatly reduced. My dreams are increasingly not filled with the pink and blue cities of Rajasthan or hectic Mumbai, but rather more homely pleasures. Living in the same place, owning things, knowing people.

I think one of the key aspects to life is about feeling joy and vitality in one's situation, to be listening to how one's spirit wishes to be fufilled. One can achieve very little if drive and delight are gone - one insteads spends time clinging on to what is already lost. Part of the reason for leaving the Bank of England in the first place was that I didn't feel that kind of energy very frequently, that sense of being in the right place for me at that particular moment. Right now, travelling is starting to feel the same way, something that my spirit is growing tired of, a way of life that I need to take a break from. Something else out there is what I need to now - I feel ready for a change.

I think my plan is to leave India somewhere between the start or middle of October, between four and six weeks after my arrival.

The plan was for Louise and I to meet in Australia at the end of November, which gives me one to two months to fill. I think what I will do is go back to Chiang Mai, a city I've come to know very well, and study some more with my leather working teacher. The idea of being in one already known place for a month or so and doing very little, before the more difficult experience of looking for work in Sydney, is more wonderful sounding to me than I can describe. Hopefully Louise will be able to join me in Chiang Mai too.

I'm currently trying to reflect and gather up everything this period of travelling has given me - but I suspect I'll need to stop travelling before I can begin to assess it properly. I'm going to draw this particular story "No Place As Home" to a close over the next month or so, but plan later to begin afresh some kind of blog, to describe my adventures in Australia or wherever going forward (although hopefully not as frequent and voluminous as this one has become). I'll post up the URL address once I've got it all set up and I've worked out what to call it - so if you'd like to keep reading about my experiences in the world, you can. All suggestions for what the snappy title should be are very welcome.
That's all for now I think. It's our last day in the peace of Darjeeling, so going to potter around more shops, and, I hope, soon the roof of my mouth will recover from the too hot Tibetan fried bread I had for breakfast.

Wishing you all the best, and thank you for reading,

Cheers,

Daniel