Carol and Harold's India trip: October 15-18, 2010

The beginning and end of the weekend were terrible but the middle, the overwhelming majority of the time, was fantastic! Kathy, Kerri, Carol and Harold left the home base after dinner to take the subway to the main bus terminal. It was Friday night rush hour and the subway was so crowded you couldn’t move. When we exited the station, Harold reached for his wallet and found that someone had taken it somewhere along the way. The wallet contained some of our money, two credit cards, a debit card and his MD license. He was so very upset! We decided to find the bus in a very crowded bus terminal and see that Kathy and Kerri got situated on the correct bus. Meanwhile, we found a phone and cancelled the credit cards and debit card. Carol had the same two credit cards, but, luckily, had her own debit card and that’s what we’ll be using until we can get another MasterCard. At that point, with literally seconds to spare, we decided that there wasn’t much use in not going on our weekend trip, so, we boarded the bus for a twelve hour ride (departure 8 PM, arrival 8 AM). We were on our way to Dharamsala, a city in northern India and the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan Government.

On arrival, we had a wonderful breakfast, and then found the hotel where our rooms were booked – The 8 Auspicious Him View Hotel. Each room had a balcony with spectacular views of the Himalaya Mountains. It was much cooler and less polluted than Delhi and we enjoyed this as much as anything. The woman at the hotel was extremely helpful in arranging for us to see the highlights of the area. We first walked to the Tsuglagkhang Complex which comprises the residence of the Dalai Lama, as well as an excellent small museum which described the Chinese takeover of Tibet. There was also a temple which is the most important Buddhist monument in Dharamsala. We walked back to the hotel (doing lots of shopping on the way) and a taxi took us first to the Gyutoe Monastery. Although the Dalai Lama was there only as a cardboard fixture that day, we were able to witness a very moving ceremony while the Buddhist monks chanted. We also witnessed a group of monks making sand mandalas. Our next stop was the Norbulinka Institute. Set amid Japanese-style gardens, Norbulinka was established to teach and preserve traditional Tibetan art, such as woodcarving, thangka painting, goldsmithing and embroidery. After a Tibetan dinner at the hotel, we went out to the streets, where shops and vendors abounded. Carol and Harold even found a Baskin Robbins and had a double scoop of chocolate chip ice cream. Sunday morning, we returned to the area where the Dalai Lama lives; there is a path which loops around the residence and temple. The path is flanked by colorful mani stones and prayer flags and a series of prayer wheels. The woman from the hotel then took us by taxi to a tea plantation, where we were able to tour the factory and see how tea is produced. We made our way back to the bus terminal and began our 11 hour ride back home (8 PM – 7 AM). The journey started along the windy, hilly terrain and it wasn’t long before Kathy and Harold were sick. Those two had a terrible ending to the weekend, but still felt it was worth the pain. We took a taxi home (no more subways for us!), got hurriedly showered and dressed and went to our placements

exhausted, but happy .