Happy Halloween

While India (or at least this part of India) definitely doesn't celebrate Halloween, I briefly considered dressing up as a monkey and going around asking people for candy.

But then I remembered that this place takes the 'monkey menace' very seriously: besides huge billboards asking people not to feed them, the entire town is surrounded by miles perimeter barbed wire fencing.

So I think if they saw a giant monkey begging for food they probably wouldn't find it very funny. In fact, they'd probably just beat me up.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh, and I got quite an ego boost today. I had an excellent conversation with someone who spoke fluent English about Vietnamese, Chinese, and Indian history. After I dropped my usual historical trivia (i.e., Ho Chi Minh was once an employee of the US government) he absolutely refused to believe that I was an American, instead suggesting I either grew up abroad or was raised by immigrants.

An odd compliment, but hey, I'll take it!

I had planned to leave town tomorrow, but the area around here is just so beautiful I want to explore it for another day.