It’s hard to believe that the trip is almost over. Since my last post we left Bodghaya and drove to Patna, the capitol city of Bihar, India’s poorest state. That night my roommate and I craned our necks out our open window to watch the merrymaking of a marriage ceremony. The slow parade in the street, complete with elephant and deafening booms of fireworks, danced its way into the parking lot of our hotel and lasted for over an hour. The band would fade away and then the din would pause for about a minute before the drums built up again and the party continued. From our bird’s eye view we could see the happy faces of the wedding party dancing and the exaggerated movements of the inebriated best man as he waved sparklers about.
The next day we flew from Patna to Delhi. Our flight was very delayed and so we missed our connection, spending the night in the city before leaving in the thick morning fog on what would end up being around 17 hours in the bus. Our bus driver grew increasingly agitated as he drove until finally at the end he was outside the bus, wildly gesticulating and yelling, complaining about narrow roads and saying he would drive them if he were paid 500 more rupees. Despite his best efforts to elicit more money, take every wrong turn, and take the slowest route possible, we made it to our hotel in Dharamsala. For the past two days we have been meeting with various officials from the Tibetan government in exile and absorbing the warm mountain air. Yesterday, we attended a ceremony blessing the Dalai Lama with long life. When the ceremony finished, he walked across the courtyard from his temple to his residence and he walked within ten feet of us, stopping to shake the hands of a few beaming Tibetans. To the north, the Himalayas begin to rise and over the first hill we can see the snow-capped peaks of steely gray mountains, short hints of the precipitous heights beyond. All too soon, we are leaving. Tomorrow is our flight back to Delhi, and then on Monday, we fly back home.
