A proper send-off

Class Friday closed with a speech from one of my students, Phaivong, a Thai monk. He is heading back to Thailand and asked if he could say a few words before he went; in his speech he thanked, me, his classmates, and HH the Dalai Lama for his time in India and in English class. He has a tough time with listening (which I appreciate more now that I've got people speaking to me in Hindi and expecting answers), but when he reads he does pretty well. It was really sweet.

Gusti and me with my Elementary class.

Good luck, Phaivong! We'll miss you!

Before that happened, though -- before I left my room in the morning -- I noticed some bumps on my forearms. It wasn't so bad at first, just annoying, so I figured I'd keep an eye on it and go from there. By lunchtime it had spread a bit and I noticed some spots on the tops of my feet.

Wth?

I went down to the clinic at Tibet Charity where one of the nurses wiped me down with iodine and applied some Tibetan medicine; it itches a little but it's not so terrible. It looks worse than it feels. Today I think I'll hit up a clinic or one of the local hospitals and see if they can tell me what's going on. The theories I've gotten from my friends so far include: poison ivy, chickenpox, smallpox, cowpox, ringworm, allergic reaction, bed bugs, mosquito bites, spider bites, leprosy, fungal infection, and that flesh eating virus. It's definitely not mosquito bites or spider bites. All I had for breakfast yesterday was an orange and a cup of coffee (Starbucks Via > Nescafe... thanks, Mom and Dad!), so I thought maybe the acidity was messing with me... My other thought is maybe that Tibetan medicine isn't agreeing with me. I avoided accidents etc, but I didn't drink the saffron concoction... maybe this is what I get for not following directions?

Tibet Charity hosted a dinner for the volunteers yesterday evening at which we said goodbye to Gill and Verity, as they are both heading back to their respective homes this week. We also welcomed a couple of veterinarian volunteers and a couple of doctors from Denmark who will help out in the clinic. These dinners are a little more upscale than the average lunch we get at TC; we usually get rice, boiled potatoes with mutton (I don't eat that part) and herbs, cauliflower in garlic or something similar, and yogurt. Yummm... I do love potatoes. They're so simple but so delicious.

Dinner complete, a bunch of us headed up to McLeod Ganj to play table tennis. We wound up staying two hours and ordering some beers (I did not have any... it's not my thing), playing a whole lot of ping pong -- including a 4-person version that involved running laps around the table -- and afterward Brij, Verity, Kalden, Van, and I hit up one of the local Tibetan clubs. A few more drinks, some really hilarious photos I can't post here, a couple plates of French fries, and a bunch of dance music and sweet moves later (once we all started dancing everyone else joined us), we finally headed home, concluding what was easily my latest night out since I've been here (most places here close by 10). Brij and I rounded out the night with some sitting on the balcony eating sunflower seeds as we have taken to doing. In another few days we'll be on our way to Rajasthan and after that he's heading off to visit family and then out of India, so our nights on the balcony are limited; gotta enjoy it while we can.

The rest of today will consist of spending our last few hours we can with Verity before we see her off to the bus station this evening. After that I'll go study some Hindi, maybe get in an impromptu lesson with Kuldeep, and just chill. I've also been working on my end of a collaborative art project with my good friend Brandi, so I may do some brainstorming for that as well.

Adventure!

More Manali

One more way India differs from the US: if you want a cup of coffee in the morning – at least one that isn't the instant powdered kind – you're going to have to wait. You know how most cafes, Starbuckses, etc are open by 5 or 6 in the morning? Yeah, here they chill until 9. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the locals all drink tea.... I suppose it's a really nice thing if you work in one of these cafes, but if you are a visitor looking for that morning caffeine fix, you might want to seek alternatives.

So, dear readers, while I am waiting for 9am to roll around I will be a good little blogger and tell you about the last couple of days, since as you may have noticed I was slacking a little bit on that front.

We've arrived in Manali on Tuesday evening. The first couple of days were spent exploring, sightseeing, and generally wandering around.

Yep, real life snake charmer.

We did fun things like visit one of the old local Hindu temples.

There is some really intricate wood carving on some of the old buildings in Manali, unlike I've seen in other places. Oh, and skulls.

Gill and I sat on a yak. It was very soft, but not quite as big as I expected. Maybe smaller yaks are easier to maintain here at relatively low altitudes (around 2000 meters).

We took some photos..

This is a Tata Nano. I see more cars like this here than any other... doesn't it kinda look like my Yaris at home?

The marigolds (and roses, and everything else) get really tall here, presumably from all the monsoon rain.

It's apple season in Himachal Pradesh.

If you look closely you can see both English and Tibetan writing on this wall under the painting. I found it to be a nice change from English overtaking everything it contacts; here the English has been covered up by Buddhist art.

Oh yeah, the hotels have cool names. Ours is called "The Dragon."

Yesterday for breakfast we decided to check out a little place we'd passed earlier called “Dylan's.” It, like the few other cafes that carry the stuff, advertises that you can get real brewed coffee there.

It was pretty darn good.

Verity finally found a good soy cappuccino!

What's that, you say? Fresh pineapple mint juice? Don't mind if I do...

There was a cast & crew running around Manali all day shooting some film, so we watched that for a while. They did not ask us to be extras (inconsiderate jerks).

After our nice relaxing morning we wandered down toward New Manali to purchase some gifts (and maybe a couple of things for ourselves, too).

Not the greenest city park I've ever seen...

No, I did not try one.

Later, Marie, Verity, and I took a detour through the woods near the river:

and found this cool tree:

and then on the way back into town we wandered down a side street filled with dhabas. They were impressed that I could decipher this sign:

In case you're wondering, it's: Chai - Coffee - Omelet in the red, and the blue reads: Veg momo, Chicken momo, Fried momo... (I'm actually not sure what the first word on the second line of blue says), then Soup, Chowmein, Dal, Chavel (which means rice). Cool, eh?

The three of us decided to try some dessert at the little place across the main road from our hotel, The Bee's Knees. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but in Dharamsala most of the businesses that provide wi-fi to their customers have passwords that reflect the spiritual, heavily Tibetan makeup of the town: “compassion,” “thankyousomuch,” “ilovemandala,” or sometimes more food-oriented ones like “bananacake” or “mochaccino.” It's cute. You get used to expecting a sweet, New-Age-y answer when you ask for the password after ordering your ginger lemon honey tea. That being said, you may be able to imagine our reaction when we asked for the password at The Bee's Knees and was told...

are you ready for this?...

“1nightstand69.”

Bahahahahaha.... well played, Bee's Knees cafe.

As I was telling my sister last night, I'd be alright with coming home any time now. I like it here, and I have actually been feeling a surprisingly low level of homesickness (maybe it's because I know I'll be back soon), but what I have been feeling lately is a sense that I have things to do – and I have to be home to do them. I miss my job and the paycheck it brings. Money certainly isn't everything, not by a long shot, but when you've spent two straight months spending your savings and not making much back, if any, then it gets a little tiring. Life in India is cheap, but it isn't free.

In closing, I leave you with photos of some of the local doggies:

I only threw up twice

After yesterday's all-day excursion to Triund, we were feeling a little skeptical as to whether we'd want to spend another entire day running around. We had planned to visit the church in town just because it's there, and then we'd hire a taxi driver for the day and visit the Kangra Fort, the Masroor rock temple, and some hot springs that are on the way.

We wound up doing all of it. This morning Marie and I went to meet Suzanne for coffee.

Then we got picked up and went to church. We weren't supposed to take photos inside but I managed to snap this one anyway.

There were about 50 people in attendance, a mix of westerners and Indians, and a few who looked to be Tibetan. The church itself was a rather nice old building: stone walls, a wooden roof with a tarp covering part of it outside, and really, really bright CFLs in all the light fixtures. There were Christmas lights around the stained glass window; in true xmas light fashion, half of them stayed lit the whole time while the other half cycled through blinking patterns. Why do they always do that? Can't anyone figure out how to get them all doing the same thing?

The sermon was about Abraham and the whole sacrificing his son thing. The preacher talked about how Abraham was able to have a son at 99 years of age and then be willing to kill him "because he had great faith"; the most disturbing part of this for me was how it was said with a smile. That and some of the other things that were pointed out to us today were perfect examples of what the book I'mreading has to say about, and I'll be gentle here, the dark side of monotheism. Nevermind thinking for yourself, just repeat what we say and don't question it. Faith is better than reason.

I could have stuck around and took notes on the brainwashing a little longer, but Marie had had enough so we left after about 45 minutes. The taxi driver picked us up and we headed out.

We'd made it about 20 minutes before I started really feeling the effects of the winding roads out of the mountain. I don't get motion sickness easily (I'm one of those people who usually has no problem reading in the car), but I had some on the initial bus ride up from Delhi, and I definitely felt it as we made our way toward the Kangra valley.

Eventually I made my way up to the front seat because the general consensus was that it would affect me less there. You know, though, how once you feel nauseous you can't always shake it until you actually throw up? I had that going on. Or at least I thought I did. We got to the hot springs and so I got a bit of a respite.

They really were warm, like bath water!

Then it was back in the car for another hour-plus. My personal nausea situation went from bad to worse, and once we stopped the car at the rock temple I got out and spent a few minutes vomiting off the side of the road. As tends to be the case, I felt much better once I'd gotten it out of my system and had a little water.

Ruler of all I survey.

This shrine looked like the dolls/statues/whatever in it had real shrunken heads... like they were someone's actual mummified remains. O.o

I spotted a few of these little guys chilling on the rocks.

The view from atop the temple.

There are always dogs around! These ones were quite friendly.

After an hour or so at the very cool, very big, very old rock temple, we had a snack of fruit and headed out to the fort. I did have to stop the driver one more time somewhere in between so I could get out and hurl again. I kept thinking of Garth's famous line; eventually I just couldn't hold it anymore and gave in. So it goes. The combination of the heat (it was probably around 90 in the valley), the constant sharp hairpin turns, and the fact that all the taxi drivers in India seem to drive in such a way that they accelerate, then brake hard at the last second, and take turns very, very tightly – over and over and over again for the entire trip, no matter how far you're going – made for a veritable trifecta of misery for our otherwise spunky heroine.

Whatever. By the time I really felt sick it was too late to go back, so I just stuck it out like a big girl. I didn't even cry. (Though at one point I did seriously consider it.) Brij even commended me later for “manning up” when it would no doubt have been much easier to wuss out, which I took as quite a compliment.

Behold: the Kangra Fort!

Whee, fountain!

Verity listening to some Kangra Fort history.

A little altar to Shiva.

Arrow slits.

Apparently we hadn't even made it inside the actual fort yet!

Oooh, ahhh...

A carving of (for?) Lakshmi that took 10 years to sculpt. It's also part of the restorations that are happening at the fort.

The courtyard on the roof of the fort.

There was a little ledge outside one of these windows where you could perch like Altair or Ezio... the only thing missing was a haystack on the ground below. Yes, that was the first thing I thought when I saw it.

I reeeeeeeally wanted to go for a swim.

Go ahead and try to tell me this isn't one of the most beautiful scenes you've ever seen. I dare you.

We all survived the fort and the trip back to Dharamsala was quick and easy, and I didn't have any further issues. I even managed to finally get some food to stay in my stomach more than a couple of hours. Victory!

Lesson learned: if you are either prone to motion sickness or have never traveled much in the mountains, do yourself a favor and take prophylactic measures if you are planning such a trip. I'm going to stock up on peppermint, ginger, a bottle or two of pop, and probably even some OTC anti-nausea stuff just in case. I've got some trips planned and I don't want to be “that person” who makes the driver pull over every hour because she can't handle it.

Other recommendations are gladly accepted! What works for you?

In any case... Bring it on, Dhauladhar mountains. I see what I'm up against and you won't catch me unprepared next time.