I guess this will be my last post from India, although I’m not sure if I’ll get to post it while I’m still in India, and knowing me, I might put some more pictures us just for the sake of finishing this thing out, or actually I might feel like writing something more while I’m waiting in the airport, but anyways. I’m in Delhi now. I got in early this morning on the bus from Kathmandu. I guess I really haven’t written anything in a while. Tibet was quite a trip, and Lhasa was really a shock. I didn’t post anything about it while I was there because I was paranoid. Once I actually said the phrase ‘Free Tibet’ on the Barkor, and I immediately clasped my hands over my mouth and was scared that I would never be allowed in the country again or worse, but it seems to have been okay. Also, for the record, I think I was quoting something when I said it, but it may have just been quoting what I would have liked to have said at some point. Lhasa brings out those feelings though. I mean, I know we spent the semester learning that the whole Shangri-la myth is exactly that, a myth, and that especially with the railroad now, Lhasa is really modernizing, but it really made me sad. I mean, Dan speaks Tibetan, and there were a lot of places where that didn’t get us around. While I was there, I kind of wondered what Tibetans there felt. I mean, it was strange to going from a place where there were pictures of His Holiness all over to not seeing his picture at all, but there were little signs that there’s still devotion to him. I saw a few pictures around (I’m still paranoid, and I’m not going to say where though), and the people we gave the blessing cords too really appreciated them (it’s a nice story, ask me sometime), and some even asked if we had any after we had given them all out. There was one night too that something seemed to have happened. We were upstairs in a restaurant, and on the street there was a lot of yelling and a bunch of people went in one direction and a few minutes later a bunch went past in the other direction. There was a lot of tension in the air on the street that night, but we never found out what happened. Maybe it was really nothing, who knows, but it made me hopeful and sad at the same time to see how stifling it is, but also that there’s still hope. I don’t know.
I think my favorite parts of the trip were when we went out of the city. My favorite place was Shugsep, which we visited with Mike’s group. It’s a Chod nunnery up in the hills. It’s really beautiful there, and the nuns were really fun. A bunch of them wanted their pictures taken, so I have a bunch of pictures of nuns that I hope eventually make it back to them (I never had time to print them before I left, but I left them with Dan, so hopefully they’ll make their way to Mike and eventually to the nuns) and a bunch of pictures of us with nuns. I also really liked Terdrum, where Dan, Marissa, and I spent two nights. One day we went on a rather crazy hike/search for the abbess, because they said we could meet with her (she’s an incarnation of Yeshe Tsogyal, so she’s kind of a big deal), but alas, we never found her, and ended up just wandering around the hills in the rain. It was really beautiful there though. The landscape of Tibet is really beautiful. I really will try to post some pictures.
The trip back was a little nerve-wracking. Our visa expired on the 22nd, so we had to make sure to be out of the country by then. We found jeeps that were leaving on the 21st, and were supposed to make it to the border in one day. For most of the day it was rather pleasant. I had my ipod and book, and it kind of felt like the road trips we used to take (some of the scenery even reminded me of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado), but in the evening it started to rain, and one point we stopped in, what kind of looked to me like a stream (I think it was just that the road was really wet). At this point we were all afraid we weren’t going to make it, because there’s one part of the road between Neylam and the border where they’re doing construction, and we were told that it was only open in the direction we needed to go from around eight to eleven or midnight, and unfortunately, when we got to Neylam, the road was already closed, but we were told that it opened again at 6:30 in the morning, so we slept in the jeep, and in the morning set out again. It looked like all was well until our caravan stopped because there had been a landslide in the road, and we couldn’t get through. We sat there for another hour while they brought the construction equipment in and another hour while they cleared the road (I have to admit that I was terrified the whole time, because every time they pushed a big boulder over the edge, I was afraid it would cause another landslide), but we made it through eventually, and managed to cross the border around noon and to get back to Kathmandu in time for dinner, so it was kind of an exciting trip, and it ended in good food, so there goes.
The bus back to Delhi was less eventful, although the Indian authorities seemed to suspect someone on the bus of something, because they stopped and searched the bus twice. I don’t really know what was going on there.
So now here I am in Delhi, and today, after I dropped my stuff off at the guesthouse, I took a taxi over to Connaught place and walked around there. I shopped some and got ripped off but not nearly as badly as I did the first time I shopped in Delhi. I think I might even miss bargaining a little when I go home. I caved in and bought the new Harry Potter book too (I bargained for that too), and I’ve already started it, so it’s entirely possible that I’ll read it the whole way on the plane. It depends on how tired I am. I walked to the YMCA and stood outside for a few minutes and reminisced. It was so strange how far away it seems now. Steve always told us that we wouldn’t go back the same people, that the people who came don’t really exist anymore, and I guess he must be right. I didn’t think I’d changed that much, but I guess people at home and at Swarthmore will have to judge that, and everything at the YMCA seems so far away now. I passed what looked like a TYC hunger strike too. I kind of wanted to stop and talk, but what do you say to people who are on a hunger strike? How are you feeling? I think it might not have been quite as effective as they were hoping either, because I think next to their tents were like tents where families live anyway, and where families probably don’t get enough to eat everyday. I don’t mean to sound like I don’t value what they’re doing, but I don’t think a hunger strike on the streets of Delhi has quite the same effect as it would in more affluent cities. It’s admirable that they’re doing it though. I don’t think I could ever go on a hunger strike.
Last time I left Delhi, I was so ready to leave. I was just unhappy and lonely, and I couldn’t wait to get to Kathmandu. This time, I’m still really excited to leave, but I’m also sad. I think it’s a good mix. The weather and being ripped off and all that have made me happy to leave, but thinking about the first time I was here has brought some of it (I don’t know what it is exactly) back. I don’t think any of this makes sense. I guess I just mean that I’m ready to leave, but I’m ready to leave with a positive impression and a desire to come back, so if ever any of you want to come to India and want someone to travel with, give me a call. There’s so much of this country that I’d still like to see and some places that I’d really like to go back to. It really gets under your skin here (and under your nails, and if you’re unlucky, into your digestive tract too). I don’t think it’s possible to come here and be neutral about it. I know I’ll miss it a lot.