India Part III

Wednesday May 7, 2008

After we finish visiting the Tibetan children's school we take our cars into the town of Dharamsala to visit a Tibetan Refuge museum. While we walked from the car to the museum there were several little stations set up protesting the suppression of the Tibetan government. This one is from Poland. The museum was very disturbing. They had images of the violence against the Tibetan people by the Chinese government and show the history of their exile. There were also photos of people after they crossed the Himalayan mountains on foot. Most people who walk over the mountains suffer from foot and hand frostbite. The museum also highlighted prominent Tibetan citizens who fought for their cause.

Next, we walked to Dalai Lama Temple. The Dalai Lama was in residence and Kathy wrote a letter to try to get an audience with him but he said he had to teach the monks that day. This is a photo of the prayer wheel. Buddhist walk by and spin all of the wheels as part of the Buddhist custom. I had to try it...I think I was filled with happiness for the rest of the day.

This is a photo of me in one of the courtyards and of the other one is one of the Buddhist gods inside of the temple. As we walked around there were several people praying and many Buddhist monks in their robes. They had thin mattresses on the floor for these people to sit on when the Dalai Lama teaches.

After the temple our guide took us to a local Tibetan restaurant. This was the best food that I ate on the entire trip. We got to order whatever we wanted and try some new things. And I was able to convince my companions to grant me bites off of their plates. I always want to try everything. I certainly liked the Tibetan food way more than the Indian food.

After lunch the tour guide took us to a local art museum. This museum housed local artifacts and art going back several hundred years. It was interesting to see some of the local household items as well as local art. There was a gift shop and I was able to buy some postcards with reproductions of art on them. I know I will only send them to special people.

Next, we went back to the city and we were set loose to do some shopping. I was immediately separated from my Friends, but I had a fabulous time bargaining and finding unique things to buy. I got a ring for myself, I got some cute notebooks for my nieces, I got this large old fashioned lock for Wyatt...I had a hard time giving it to him as I really wanted it for myself. We had an hour but I made the most of my time. The next series of photos are when we were waiting to be picked up by the cars. There were miscellaneous cows walking around in the traffic and the streets barley held 1 car but they were 2 lane streets.

Thursday May 8, 2008

I did something very special this morning. We started are day as usual at 6am for our daily walk up the mountain. We walked fairly far uphill this morning, I would guess that it was about 1.5 miles uphill and then we turned around. We got back in time for our 8am Yoga class. We were able to arrange for a local Yoga master to come to the hotel and teach us an hour course. It was a wonderful experience to learn from someone so close to the origins of the sport. The teachers legs were so small and he could contort his body like it was made of a twizzler. I am not able to fully do all of the positions but I am glad that I tried.

This morning was a free day so after breakfast we decided to take another walking adventure. This being the 2nd of our day. We just started walking up a path on the side of the mountain and weaved around. We wondered off the mini path at one point and ended up in someones yard. We were fairly embarrassed as they watched us walk quickly through their yard to the path. We did this for about two hours in the morning. At the very end or our walk we saw this family's home on the side of the mountain and we all waved to them. G kept saying how she wanted to see the inside of their house. We kept walking up and as we get closer to the family we waved and said hi. We started talking to them and were able get get an invitation to tour their home. It was a brick home that was just recently built. The husband told us that the whole community came together to help them build it. It contained three rooms, a bedroom for the parents which had electricity, a big TV and a DVD player. There was a bedroom for their two boys who were about 7 & 9 and it contained simply two twin beds. They also had a kitchen, which consisted of a place on the floor where they build a fire in order to cook, a electric burner and cabinet which held their kitchen items. I didn't see a sink, refrigerator or a bathroom. It was the husband who showed us around and talked to us. The children said a few things but the wife just smiled. He tried to offer us tea several times but G told them the water would hurt our stomachs. As much as I wanted to be polite....there was no way I was going to drink the water. I am sad to say the none of us had our cameras so I have no photos to go with this story.

After lunch we made our way to the tiny airport that contained only one airline. We got all checked in and waited. They have some different baggage handling rules in India. We had to first check in at the ticket counter and then go to a separate area to have our bags x-rayed. We then we got them back after they had been marked by the attendant and they were also closed so we couldn't open them with plastic ties. After our long three hour wait we finally boarded the plane. It was fairly small only about 25 rows with 3 across. We got sat down and ready for the departure when we heard the captain give the most horrible announcement, "Excuse me Ladies and Gentlemen...Our departure will be delayed by one hour due to congestion at the Delhi airport and unfortunately we have to shut the plan off so we don't run our of fuel because the Dharamsala airport doesn't have a refueling station." We were all in horror of sitting on an increasingly hot and hotter plane with no air conditioning. After about 10 minutes of sauna like conditions the tall man in the front seat went in the back and talked to the pilot and flight attendant. I imagine that he bribed him and they let us all of the plane to wait the remaining time in the lobby of the airport. This would have never happened in the US...They would NEVER have let us off the plane. We were lucky that this was such a small airport and we were the only people leaving that day. I found out later that the tall guy was fairly famous. He was a basketball player for Chicago and had a show on ESPN, John Sally. Since I am not a sports fan...I didn't particularly care but I guess some people might think that it is cool.

We go back to the same Delhi that we stayed at before and have dinner right away at about 8pm. We did have a special surprise...Kathy one of the instructors, invited an old friend to come and speak to us about his experience working internationally. He works for Habitat for Humanity and he has traveled all over Asia working for them. I would have loved to have been more engaged in this but I was so completely exhausted by this time that I couldn't hardly keep my eyes open and I was staring ahead like a zombie. I hardly remember anything that he said. I am sad that I wasn't able to partake more of this experience.

More to come later in India Part IV.