India, UAE and Africa here I come!

At the airport it was all hustle and bustle.  People were running around, trying to checkin and in the midst of it all i managed to lose my second item, my walking stick!  I think I lost it from the initial security check in point to when I was standing in line waiting forever to check in.  While standing online I met this really friendly couple originally for South Africa who were now expats in Abu Dhabi.  Mohamed worked as a school psychologist at Abu Dhabi University and Faheema worked as a teacher in another school.  While we were waiting on this line to check in which was not moving at all, the three of us decided to use the family check in line.  I said that Mohamed was my uncle (he is black and from south africa).  After I checked in, got my tickets and checked my backpack I went downstairs to their very nice cigar shop. I bought some nice cuban cigars and mini nargile’s, one for me, one for my friend setton.  I didn’t want to get a proper one as they seemed expensive and these were cool and the lady who sold it to me claimed that they would work.  After I was done with all of that I happen to find Faheema and Mohammed talking at the coffee shop waiting to leave as well.  We chatted about about working in abu dhabi and I got their cards.

255am rolled around before I knew it and it was time to board the plane.  I obviously had a window seat as I arranged for those in January when I booked my ticket online.  I sat next to a girl from Swaziland, who lived in DC, Canada and now lives in London as a nursery nurse, but goes back to Swaziland every summer for 2 months. The flight wasn’t too bad, I couldn’t sleep which was typical for me on buses, trains, and planes. The food on the plane was not that great and gave me an upset stomach.  Instead of sleeping I watched several movies and ate my sharwama on the plane that I picked up in Abu Dhabi the night before.

I got off the plane in Joburg, South Africa, went through immigration and customs which were much easier than in Abu Dhabi.  I waited a little while to get luggage my, I said goodbye to faheema and mohammed and went on my way to the domestic airport.  I had to catch a flight on British Airways to Cape town, South Africa.  I would be spending a few nights there.  So I walked pretty far to the domestic terminal, checked in with British Airways which was a breeze and then headed off to the gate.  Right in front of the gate was an Irish pub so I grabbed a beer at this irish pub even though it was 1030am, my saying is that it is 5pm somewhere in the world, therefore it’s never too early to start.  While I was sitting at the bar, I took out my palm pilot to try and get internet, it really didn’t work but the workers took a liking to it so I showed it off to them.

I had to wait until 1215pm to board the plane, and passed the time by reading my book and listening to music.  When I got on the smaller plane, I sat in the aisle and for some stupid reason did not have the aisle.  I didn’t even bother to look at my ticket and just assumed I had one since I always get one.  But since I was half asleep at check in for British Airways I think I asked for a window, go figure.  I met this guy Aidan from Cape town, whose brother-in-law is Trevor Immelman, who won the very famous golf tournament this year called The Masters.  He invited me to Stollenbosch if I found my way out there.  Stollenbosch is the wine country and there are hundreds of wineries out there.  Overall I had a nice chat with him.  I got off the plane in the tiny domestic airport in cape town, got my luggage, and said to myself “where is my free shuttle to the hostel I arranged for months ago?” I called up Big Blue Hostel and they told me that the guy was coming to get me.  I ended up waiting 2.5 hours in this fucking tiny airport and was not happy when he arrived.  I should have just gotten a taxi but it was based on principle that part of the deal for getting a dorm room for 3 nights or more was a free shuttle pick up from the airport!  While I was waiting I got a new local sim card for my cell phone which ended up being a huge ripoff!  Never get anything from the airport.  Anyway the reason why I waited so long was this guy who works with the hostel picking people up didn’t want to drive back and forth to and from the airport so he waited for the other couple to arrive two hours after me and then came and got us.  I was really pissed off.

So I finally get to the hostel, and its really nice.  I met dana, rusty, Jaime and some of the people here.  The hostel is NOT crowded at all.  I guess since it’s the winter, and the weather in Cape Town in the winter is terrible that people don’t really come here as much as in the summer when apparently the hostel is full every night.  So it’s raining and cold and I really was not prepared for cold and rain so I had to break out my really warm tibetan handmade wool, fleece lined jacket. Later in the evening Dana, Jamie and I went to long street the famous street in cape town with clubs, bars and good food. We went to a place called Mama Africa’s where I ordered crocodile to share as an appetizer and ostrich fillet for my main meal, which was really good. I also get a robben island ice tea, which was cheap and strong.  I haven’t had a proper drink in days.

We ended up taking a taxi back. I played some pool with Rusty and this kid Gile from Durban, who was working in a clothing factory living in the hostel.  I ended up falling asleep quite early as it was a real long day.

I woke up at 1035 am still feeling tired.  I had probably overslept and was feeling drowsy and groggy from the benedryl I took last night.  I hung out in my room for a little while and then decided to head off with the hotel’s free shuttle to Marina mall.  Apparently this was the tourist mall, but I was burnt, hot and wanted just to be inside and kept cool.  The mall was really nice, brand new, and had a ton of shops.  I was really hungry since I hadn’t really ate much the past few days.  I have lost approximately 15 pounds since I have left, which just tells everyone how much weight I gained this past year in law school.  I have about 10-15 pounds left which I expect to lose over the next 6 months hopefully.

Anyway after hitting up Burger King which wasn’t that cheap, I then bought a movie ticket for a 1pm movie to see Incredible Hulk.  I love seeing movies when I travel.  I find it exotic watching movies in other countries.  Generally the theaters are quite nice, the one in Bangkok is still the nicest theater I have been too probably period.  I walked around, updated my paper journal to keep my memories in order for the next time I had a chance to update my blog.  I got some candy at a stand and went to the movie.  It was open I got a great seat and was able to put my feet up.  The movie was a little long, but action packed and I enjoyed it.

The movie got out at around 3pm and now I had to decide what I wanted to do.  I jumped on a free government bus and luckily it took me back to the side entrance of my hotel!  Before I took the free shuttle to the mall a worker there told me about this free government bus that had just started several days prior to my arrival, so I took advantage of it considering this country and city is so damn expensive!

I got back to the hotel and immediately grabbed a cab to the downtown area.  I picked a random place on the map that was suggested to me.  The cab dropped me off basically near nothing so I took the liberty upon myself to walk around and see what I could find.  I eventually stumbled across an internet cafe and spent an hour there emailing and stuff.  I couldn’t update my blog as for some reason it was blocked just like how it was blocked using my friend’s internet in Mumbai.  Anyway at around 425pm I left the internet cafe and just started walking around.  I was in the mood for two things.  Shawarma and Shisha both native to the Middle East.  It was really hot out and I had my back pack with me and I walked around for about an hour or so and actually picked up a nice nike watch along the way.  It was only 10 dhirams.  The guy wanted 20 and I got him down to 10 probably should have paid 5-7 but I needed a watch.  The watch I had traveled with since last year broke in the pool.  It was supposed to be water resistant for several meters but not the case.  It was a good watch and will be missed.  After walking around, and basically seeing that there was nothing to do in downtown Abu Dhabi I got a cab and told him I wanted to go to a cafe that had Shisha.  He took me to this place called “Special Cafe.”  The guy kept saying that the place was a “special cafe,” which could imply that it had marajuana or something.  I kept saying “I don’t want a special cafe,” and the guy finally said “no that is the name,” I responded with “oh ok thanks.”  He dropped me off and it was perfect.  It was airconditioned, I got some water and a sprite with ice, and a mixed cocktail of Shisha.  I sat, updated my blog, then read my book and smoked some shisha.  It is just something you have to do in the Middle East.  It is thousands of years old and was a must.

After about 2 hours or so I left the cafe and found myself along the beach.  I noticed that there were a lot of people hanging along the boundary of the beach so I went to check it out.  Apparently this was the inagural day of the Abu Dhabi Beach.  They produced the world’s longest ribbon banner ceremony which I was apart of technically.  I touched it and it went passed me!  I walked up the beach, I got handed a nice small wooden flag of the UAE and some drink.  I snapped several photos and just enjoyed the sunset overlooking the breakwater of Abu Dhabi.

I had to be at the airport for my 255am flight about 3 hours before, so I only had time to do a little bit more.  I went back to the hotel and hung out for about 1.5 hours and at around 9pm or so I took a taxi to this place called Lebonese Flower.  I wanted some local food that had sharwama and other local dishes.  It was recommended to me by the hotel and it actually turned out to be quite expensive but really good.  I got a grilled kebab and then took a hummos and meat sharwama plate back with me to take on the plane.  The flight from Abu Dhabi to Jo’burg south africa would be about 8.5 hours so I wanted some decent food on the plane.

I left the restaurant and was back home around 10pm.  I watched a movie till my watch alarm struck 11pm.  This was time to tie up loose ends and make sure I hadn’t forgotten anything around the room.  I brought my stuff down to the reception area, paid for my incidentals which was basically one drink at the pool and lunch, and it was certainly not cheap.  I think I was ripped off but I didn’t have receipts and didn’t have time to argue so I paid it.  All in all in one sleepnig night and two travel nights I spent quite a bit in this city.  It is definitely made for people who work there similar to how expensive sweden and the scandanavian countries are for tourists vs. how affordable it is for locals.

I got a taxi to the airport and had a little issue.  I forgot to make sure he would turn the meter on and as we pull away I said put the meter on.  He said no meter and then I said well how much will it be.  He said however much you like.  That is a basic trap and a scheme to guilt someone into paying a lot. Eventually he said 75 dhirams which is more than I paid coming.  He said 75 plus my tips you know for cigarettes and sharwama and stuff.  I was not happy, but had no choice.  I also only had about 110 dhirams on me so money was getting tight and was not about to take out more money.  When we got to the airport I tipped him 10 which was fine considering the bastard deserved nothing for ripping me off.  Using the meter it should be less I think for the ride.  It is decently far but not that far.

I arrived at the airport just before midnight and it was straight up pandamonium.

I arrived in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates at approximately 12am or a little after so technically July 1st, 2008.  I had no hotel reservation and hence no where to go so I was taking it easy.  I walked around the departures area looking to check my internet, but it was all busy and people were waiting.  The airport in Abu Dhabi is pretty small.  It circular and doesn’t have that many shops, but there is plenty to shop for.  I eventually made my way to immigration and had a little trouble.  When I got to the immigration counter I handed my passport to the gentlemen and just stood there and waited.  I waited and waited and waited.  Only once had I even had a sniff of trouble with immigration which was in Thailand leaving last year when the lady didn’t think my passport photo was me.  Eventually she let me go and it really wasn’t that big of a deal.  This time though I was scared.  The guy after ten minutes of not doing a whole lot with the computer he was sitting in front of, got up and went to an office right near the immigration counter and was there for about ten minutes.  He came back, sat down and started looking at his computer entering in something or typing something.  He reached over to the guy sitting next to him and said something in Arabic, clearly he knew I wouldn’t understand.  He then asked me “are you ok?”  I said yes, but my knee hurt from standing up.  I had a cane with me.  The reason why I had a wooden cane was because it was my monkey stick from Shimla.  If you remember I bought one to fend off the monkeys when I climbed up to the monkey temple.  Well the only way I could get it through security was to say it was my walking cane.  Anyway eventually the guy handed me the passport and said I could go.

In the end I think the whole mess was because he saw my Israel stamp.  Before I left I called the consulate who said that I would not have a problem with entry in to UAE with the stamp.  Well even if the country says you have to let a person in who has been to Israel does not mean that individuals agree, and clearly this guy didn’t.  I was definitely nervous about having to be detained or put through questioning or something.  Apparently they should have given me an eye scan and finger printed me but luckily I was not subject to that level of strict scrutiny.

After I got my luggage I picked up some nice cuban cigars.  One pack of mini cohibas, the best and moved on through customs.  Oh I also bought a bottle of Jameson in Mumbai before going to Delhi because I heard that alcohol was only served in hotels and it was quite expensive. The huge bottle of Jameson Whiskey was cheap and its good.  So it is now like 130am and I have no where to go.  I haven’t had a good night sleep since the 27th of June and I am real tired.  I have been able to doze off here and there but nothing substantial.  I end up picking up free wireless on my iphone and am able to check something and send out an email.  At around 2am I was fed up and decided to take a taxi to my hotel that I would be checking in to later that day. 

The prepaid taxi cost 70 Dhirams which is about 18 bucks, not cheap considering the hotel wasn’t that far away, maybe 20 kilometers or less.  After stopping to get money for my time in Abu Dhabi and to pay the taxi driver I arrived at the fabulous five star Hilton Abu Dhabi and went to the reception area.  This very nice asian man named Argy told me that the earliest I could check in would be 730 am when their system restarted.  My alternative was to pay for a room for the next 5 hours which I was certainly not willing to do.  See I got a really cheap deal for this hotel, at about 130 USD per night.  Since it is the low season and middle of their summer it was cheap, the same seaview room I got would normally go for about 500 USD per night!  This hotel was nice, but expensive.  So I took my stuff to the lobby, broke out my little palm and started updating my blog on the word file.  Shortly after I got tired so I broke out my small travel pillow, put the two chairs together and tried to sleep. 

I kept waking up thinking that people were staring at me and stuff.  I felt like a homeless person in a five star hotel.  A few hours later I moved to a more secluded part of the hotel with a couch, near the back entrance.  I got a little shuteye there but not much again thinking that I was being laughed at or watched by the cleaners and workers and whoever.  I thought that I would wake up at like 10am with people standing around me thinking I was a drunk who passed out on the couch.

730am rolled around and the new person at the counter checked me in.  Argy was in the back and totally hooked me up.  I got a nice seaview room 7th floor but there were double beds.  Apparently I had booked a room with a King size bed, but I really didn’t care I just wanted a room, shower, toliet and bed.  I got all four!  The bellhop brought my passport and my luggage to my room.  I relaxed on the very comfortable bed and watched some english movie on the movie channel the hotel had.  I was loving life.  I finally had a bed, my privacy, a warm shower and was living the lap of luxury.  After the movie I took a shower, and headed down across the street to the Hiltonia Beach club.  This was free for people staying at the hotel and locals and others could pay to use the facilities.  It was a gorgeous place.  Two pools, one for adults one for kids.  The kids one had a waterslide (which I totally forgot to go down), and it was right on the Arabian sea!  It had beach chairs, umbrellas, watersports the whole nine yards a full service beach club.  I found my spot at the adult pool and jumped right in.  I only had shorts as I sent my other sporty mesh shorts home since they smelled so bad.  The pool was so refreshing and even though it was 11am, the sun was beating down on me.  I had no sunscreen (sorry dad) and I was out till about 4pm with one quick stop in my room for a drink (nothing out of control Leonard I promise).

A group of local kids sat down around me and I struck up a conversation with them.  They were living in the UAE and most were actually born in other countries.  After I went back to my room and returned I grabbed lunch with them and again continued to chat.  At one point though one of the three guys who were with these four girls brought me to the side for a little shake down.  He was getting the impression that I was constantly hitting on the girls and chasing them around when in reality I was merely being friendly and going along with the group.  I think he was just jealous they were interested in talking to me and meeting me and wanted more time with them.  One of the girls was his cousin another a close family friend or something and another girl had a boyfriend who was also there.  Personally I didn’t want trouble but this did was a grade A loser.  Personally I thought he was a homosexual myself and I’m sure that it not highly regarded or accepted at all in a Muslim country like the UAE but I wasn’t about to call him out and start trouble.  I said no problem I’ll do my own thing, so I went to my lounge chair, broke out my book and read for a little while.

Eventually I was so burnt, tired and dehydrated from being in the sun and went back to my room.  I was still running on fumes with the lack of sleep I had the past few days.  I ended up passing out from 430pm till about 11pm.  At that point I got up, got changed and went downstairs to see what the nightlife of the hotel had to offer.  When I got to the main bar called Hemmingways I was declined entry since I was wearing “slippers.”  So  went back to my room, put on my black new balance sneakers and went back down.  This time I was allowed in.  I didn’t get a drink, my stomach was not feeling great and I was still so tired but wanted to at least see what I was missing.  I hung out for a little while then went back up to my room, took two benedryl and watched about half of this italian drama with subtitles.  It was quite good but I couldn’t stay up much longer I was down for the count and loving the bed.

Sarah’s flight was at 5am, mine at 1155am, but since I am such a mench I said I would go with her to the airport and just wait for my flight.  When we got to the airport at around 4am, we had emotional goodbyes.  We definitely had this connection throughout the trip.  Even though there are some forces pulling us apart, you never know.  I couldn’t bare to see her go.  She is everything I want in a woman.  Better yet, she is exactly the opposite from all my past girlfriends, which makes it even more unbelievable that I met someone in India, on a Law School Summer Abroad Program like that.  Deep down, I had this scary feeling before I left in May that something like this would happen.  I mean it was bound to happen.  When you travel as much as I have since 2004, I think the odds are in your favor to meet someone perfect, but you know the circumstance will not be.  Sarah is from California for starters, so that puts us at opposite ends of the country, and even more challenging is that we need to take separate Bar exams to be licensed in our respective states.  Even more unbelieveable is that we both have to take arguably the two hardest bar exams in the country and having to take both and pass both would be a miracle of biblical proportions, meaning I don’t see it happening on the first or second try.  Maybe I could pass one of them, most likely NY, but passing the California State Bar would be so hard.

Anyway, it is just ironic that I met someone on my travels, when back home I couldn’t find someone who even came close to Sarah.  After she left and walked through the security gate, I went outside and sat on the ground for a while.  I couldn’t get up, I was too sad to see her go.  I actually went back in to the airport to try and catch a glimpse of her one more time.  Even though I didn’t think this would be the last time I would ever see Sarah, you never know.  The last time I had been this upset and emotional was probably when grandma estelle passed away when I was in 7th grade.  She was like a mother to me, and when she passed away a part of me went with her.  At that point in my life, I had seen way too many close relatives pass away, more than people experience  in 50 years, I had seen in my short 12 years on this planet.

I tried to settle down, but I couldn’t, but I didn’t want to sit at this terminal any longer.  As it turned out I had to go to the other domestic terminal, which meant I had to bargain with an autorickshaw driver at this great moment of weakness.  I still bargained and got a decent price, still got ripped off and even got help from the airport security guard to get me a decent fare which he did.  I arrived at Indira Gandi International Airport, which houses both of the domestic terminals, which are completely separate from the international terminals and the domestic terminals, and waited from 5am till 1155am till my flight to Mumbai left.  I called Sarah on her American cell phone to leave her a message and hear her voice, it calmed me down and then I called Jenny to talk to her.  She could clearly her the sadness in my voice, but I swallowed the tears and she really helped calm me down (Mom make sure Jenny reads this post, if she reads one the entire summer).

So I finally got on the place on time and arrived at Mumbai domestic airport at 2pm give or take.  I was at the wrong airport.  I had to get to the international terminal for my flight to Abu Dhabi, UAE which left at 1100pm.  My original plan was to leave the airport, visit Rahul my friend who I stayed with my first week in Mumbai, but the weather did not agree.  It was pouring, monsoon type rain and Rahul and I both agreed that leaving the airport was taking a major risk of getting stuck in the shithole that is Mumbai.  Anyway, before we get to that, to get from one airport to the other I wanted to take the free shuttle, since my cash flow was low in rupees and I really did not want to take out more cash.  So I proceeded to the free shuttle and this lady guard asked me for my ticket.  I said I had an eticket and she said I needed to show her proof of my ticket.  Now before I left I very neatly organized and printed out everything I would possibly need on my trip, but when I left Shimla I think I threw out the papers along with junk I didn’t need so I had nothing with me.  No flights, hotel and hostel bookings, absolutely nothing.  She said there was a place I could check the internet and print out my ticket.  I took all my crap in the trolley and ran around looking for it.  I eventually find it and say I need to use the internet and print.  I print two pages my entire etihad ebooking and go to the lady.  When I get to the lady, I realized that the first page had my flight today on it and it had not printed correctly!  So I had to go back to the people, print 2 pages again, repay the amount (what assholes, they could have let that go and just hooked a brother from another mother up, but no they made me pay), fixed government rate my ass.

So I run back to the guard again, but now I have missed the bus to the international terminal, so I wait, and wait and wait some more and finally the bus arrives again.  This time I get on the bus and wave my ticket in front her face for literally two seconds and that was it.  What crap that was.  The bus ride took about 30 minutes give or take.  I got to the international terminal at around 330pm which gave me about 7.5 hours to wait for this flight.  My total wait time in airports on June 30th, 2008 would be about 14-15 hours!  What a great way to spend my last day in India, frustrated.  So now when I got to the international terminal, I schelpped my stuff down to arrivals and stored my luggage until the perceived notion I would leave the airport and hang out with Rahul or someone for a few hours.  Then we decided the weather was too bad so I had paid to store my luggage and really didn’t need to do so.

Then I needed money for food at the airport and to pay the luggage people.  So I had to argue my way in to arrivals.  Normally only people getting off the planes can use the services, but the guard looked at my passport and said I could go.  He first tried to tell me that my visa had expired, and kept asking for my passport but in the end he wanted a bribe to let me go and change money.  When I changed money, I asked him if there was an internet cafe or something.  I figured I would pass the time online, he said there was in another part of the airport and then asked me for my passport yet again.  This time I laughed and said “you just asked me for it,” and he responded “why don’t you put some rupees in the passport, for me, for helping you change money.”  I said “nehe” which is no in Hindi, he didn’t give me any trouble and let me go.  My first attempted bribe of a government official during my time traveling.  Wow. Leave it to my last day in India for that to happen, it’s alright.

After I change my money, I tried to get a recharge for my phone.  That was unsuccessful as they initially told me they could not do so, I don’t think they understood me properly.  From there I went upstairs to the departure check in and met these three kids from Reno, Nevada and we started playing cards.  They were here basically on a christian mission teaching english and stuff in southern India.  After about two hours I decided to get some food from the only restaurant suitable for eating in the airport, coffee cafe day.  I initially got a muffin and a tuna sandwich.  When I got back to my seat and took the tinest bite of the tuna I immediately threw it out as it tasted horrible and I certainly did not want to get sick.

After finishing my muffin I went back and got a chicken tikka sandwich, it tasted good, but my stomach was destroyed the next day, oh well.  At around 730pm I walked all the way back to the luggage storage place and picked up my luggage.  8pm rolled around and it was finally time to check in after getting in to Delhi at 230pm.  I had to get my bags screened first, and then checked in.  Instead of going through immigration I started talking to this girl who I had passed many times walking back and forth.  Her name was Nisha, she was 18 and doing a 2 month internship working in the airport.  She found the job quite boring, but we had interesting conversation in both Hindi and English.  She got yelled at for talking to me so her bossed moved her to an area with less traffic, as a punishment.  Here she would really have nothing to do.  When I walked with her to her new location I met another kid working there called Mahesh.  He claimed that if I stayed with him in Mumbai he would teach me hindi within a week, I said look at for my phone call as one day I might take you up on that.

After chatting with Nisha and Mahesh, I said goodbye and went through immigration.  Now I had about an hour and a half till my flight.  I made several phone calls back home wasting my minutes.  This is because I had finally got a recharge from airtel so I had something to do before my flight.  The flight would only be about 2.5 hours, so nothing substantial and it was later at night.  Oh a funny side story.  So one of my first times walking back and forth an armed guard asked me what I was doing.  I told him “I love walking around,” he laughed and I responded by saying “I have 8 hours here, and nothing to do, you will see me doing this a lot.”  I found this to be funny because later on the armed guard with the huge machine gun asked me “so how many times have you walked back and forth I see you every 5 minutes.”  I laughed and responded with “a lot of times, but it’s almost time to check in.”

Anyway I boarded the plane at 1025pm and found my seat.  I was next to this taller gentlemen who was dominating the armrest and it was quite annoying.

I got woken up by Vikash, our trusty tour guide from day 1 at around 450am.  He wanted us up and at em before the train got to delhi, ready to go.  The train wouldn’t be getting to Old Delhi Station probably for another 30 minutes but this is a classic tactic but him and train conductors who typically do the same thing to the passengers in their car.  I woke up, feeling very unsatisfied from the train ride.  I love train rides.  I normally sleep like babies on them, but this time it was not the case.  It was disappointing to say the least.  We rolled in to the station probably 520am or so.  I got all my crap together, and tried hard not to have a repeat performance in Vietnam last year when I forgot my money belt, ran back on the train and had to jump off like I was a stuntman in the movies, rolling several times on the concrete.

It was hot out even for 530am, which was just a precursor for things to come during the day in Delhi.  We all dumped our stuff with Vikash who arranged for porters to take our stuff to the bus.  I left my giant pack, and took my smaller stuff including my backpack with most of my expensive stuff in it.  My big backpack just really has clothing and tolietries, not nearly as important as my hard drive with my photos on it and other electronics I carry.  We were being shuffled by one of the professors who at one point told us to turn left out of the train station.  See there are two entrances at most train stations in India, especially the big ones in Delhi.  Well this professor who seemed so sure at the time, pointed us in the wrong direction!  So we walked all the way to the exit of the station, waited for a while in the heat, tired and hungry because she really didn’t have a clue.  At one point she went off to look for a student who got lost in the shuffle and she ended up in the bus, nice and comfortable with the A/C blasting, are you shitting me?  Eventually Vikash told us we had to go back up the long flight of stairs and over to the other side of the train station.  How ironic that the professors were resting comfortably in the bus while we were sweating, tired and hot.

Once we loaded the bus we headed off to the hotel.  Apparently this hotel was one of the nicest and oldest hotels in all of delhi.  It was spread out on 7 precious acres of land.  7 acres of land for a hotel where there are probably 20 million people crowded as hell in a city like Delhi is real valuable and special.  As we pulled in to the hotel, I think everyone gasped for air.  It was magnificient.  By far the nicest architecture and infrastructure I had seen in India, besides the Taj in Agra and the Taj Mahal itself.  This place was great.  But of course there was a catch, which just highlighted even more so, how the entire trip had been run from start to finish, classic Touro Rag-tag.

The rooms weren’t ready.  Well to be specific none of the student rooms were ready except for Becky and Rachel, but rest assured the professor’s had their rooms, ready to go, again how convenient for them!  I went in to becky and rachel’s room, read for a little bit, then passed out on the floor.  Oh this was after breakfast, in which I felt really naseous.  It turned out I was a little backed up, which was really the first time, making a BM had been a real problem.  After I chugged water, and got the system rebooted, I had some breakfast, then fell asleep on their floor.

After that, I went out to the main lobby and there were a bunch of people trying to plan their day.  We had one full day in Delhi with lots to see and do, but it would be hot, so that was a real consideration to factor in to our plans.  I decided that I wanted to see Gandi’s memorial, called Raj Ghat, the famous Red Fort, and Jama Masjid which is the largest Muslim Mosque in India.  Sarah and I jumped in to a rickshaw who I bargained with in Hindi and headed off for Gandi’s Memorial.  We picked this one first simply because it was the farthest away from the three so we would work our way back to the hotel.

When we got there, it was really basic.  It had some nice gardens and the tomb itself was all black with his name written in hindi, I think.  We snapped some photos, took it in and then left for the next spot, Red fort.  I had to bargain hard for a reasonable rickshaw.  Sarah was a little cranky so eventually I gave in a paid about 10 rupees more than I should have but at 30 rups it was still very reasonable.  As we were getting out of the rickshaw to go to the red fort, I see this really interesting looking temple right in front of this.  I exclaimed to Sarah “let’s check this out.”  It turned out to be Jain Temple.  Jainism is apparently a sect or spinoff of Hinduism.  It seemed like a cult to me, but I just kept saying that to piss Sarah off and it was funny.  When we got there first, there was this guy who took us in to this meditation center in the bottom of the temple.  After that we had to go one by one into the temple itself.  The reason was because they wanted us to leave our bag with this security guard, who was basically some dude just sitting there with a ripped white button down collared shirt who looked a little retarded to me.  I said “hell no,” so another guy suggested we each go separately and I agreed to that.

The temple was really cool, definitely one of the cooler temples I had been too.  They had a lot of g-ds and g-desses.  From the temple we walked across the hectic intersection in Delhi to the Red fort.  It was glorious.  I started to snap away.  I made Sarah take one of me, then I took one of her, and then the guy who we asked to take our picture, got his son in the picture, and I picked him up.  We tried to pick the son up so the guy would get the hint to pan up and get the red fort in the background.  That plan failed, the dude literally got everything except the Red Fort, ahhh go figure.

We took a few more pictures and then got one picture and two copies from a “professional photographer.”  He really wasn’t anything special, but they printed in like 2 minutes.  When we walked over with him to get the prints a cop walked over to him and started talking to him in Hindi, I didn’t know what they were conversing about.  I told Sarah quietly to walk away, and we did.  Once the cop left we went back collected each of our copies of the photo and went on our way.  Sarah did not like her photo, most women don’t.  I looked good in it and was quite satisfied as to how it turned out.

Since it was so hot out, we decided to NOT go in to the Red Fort but just look from the outside.  I was fine with that, its another fort and after Agra Fort it was just a little bigger and better, nothing to really cry over from missing.  Once we left the Red Fort and attempted to walk to Jama Masjid we were swarmed with hawkers and vendors selling all sorts of random crap.  Sarah bought a sikh mustache for her brother and law.  I bought some postcards, and wish I had bought that Sikh mustache, it was hilarious.  We finally gave up since we realized that it was actually farther than we had anticipated.  This is when we met our bicycle rickshaw driver.  I never got his name, but he peddled us in his rickshaw to the temple.  When we got there, we got ripped off and scammed in to paying 200 rupees to take photographs.  I was warned about this from the Indians, but it looked official and was written on the wall.  All I remember Abira saying was if it is written on the wall it is legit.  If it was legit, I probably directly funded terrorism, go me!

We snapped a few photos with the walls of the mosque.  This mosque was built by the same dude who built the Taj Mahal and it was clear, because within the walls of the mosque everything was symetrical, which is this dude’s trademark.  It was getting hotter and hotter and Sarah was getting more cranky.  She wanted to get back so she could rest before her spa appointment at 4pm.  I said I would do my best.  We were running a little behind.  At one point at the mosque these muslim kids came up to me and wanted a photo, I agreed and then they started to get a little physical, joking around with me or making fun of me and got a little physical.  I got a little angry and just said that is enough in Hindi and they got the hint.  My next step was to say “go away” in hindi which is the next level due to how firm you say it and people usually get the hint.

When we left the mosque our same peddler was waiting for us trying to get another fare.  Eventually we gave in to him, I assured Sarah we weren’t that far away, she was skeptical.  I told him to take us to Kashmieri Gate because at the hotel that is what they told me to tell the Rickshaw drivers and they would know where to go.  There was one problem with that plan.  I didn’t know where the hotel was from this metro stop, DOH!  This dude was peddling his heart out in the blazing heat of Delhi.  Sarah was getting agitated after every block.  She felt this was demeaning and she was real tired and wanted to get back quicker.  Eventually I told the peddler to stop and he pulled over near the station.  We paid him his fare and Sarah gave him a generous tip for his efforts.  He was clearly happy about the tip and the total amount of money he got from us.  I thought it was definitely an experience, at least he wasn’t pulling the rickshaw manually and running with it!  Apparently that still happens in parts of India.  We stopped at a familiar sighting “The Golden Arches of Heaven,” or better known as McDonald’s.  Since it was 1250PM we both agreed it was time for lunch.  I definitely needed a dose of western food even though I had been eating heathier as of late and had lost a few pounds nothing crazy.

We got some food and then ice cream fudge sundaes to go.  While Sarah was getting the ice cream I got a rickshaw who insisted he knew where the hotel was.  I gave in to his crazy price for the rickshaw since we both wanted to get back to the hotel and finally get our room!  When we got back, we certainly got our room and it was so nice.  When you walked in there was a huge flat screen samsung HDTV with couches and then a door to our bedroom with a full walk in closet and exquiste bathroom with a marble glass enclosed shower and then a bathtub with that silver tray thing that goes on top to keep your stuff in it.  Very old school, reminds me of the end of the movie Maverick it was just like that (booo that Anti-semite Mel Gibson though).

Anyway the room was great, except for the construction right above us!  It’s like every time I got a little ahead throughout the program, I was shot back down by something.  We both thought to ourselves “did Anne (the coordinator of rooms and logistics of the program, know about this construction and screw us with the room anyway?)  Only G-d would know the answer to that question.  Regardless if it was done on purpose it was still right above our heads and it was loud, and we couldn’t sleep, it was so annoying.  When I got back I relaxed till about 530pm.  I took a shower, watched some soccer on the big screen, smoked a cuban cigar and this was after Sarah left for her appointment.  I was living large.  Nice robe that smelled real nice, air conditioning, cold drink ahhhh.

At around 530PM, I was down in the lobby just trying to move around and saw Arindum.  He asked me if I wanted to play some tennis.  I said sure, I hadn’t done any sort of exercise, minus walking in months.  I went upstairs, laced up the kicks, put on my yanks hat backwards and was ready to go.  Unfortunately my only pair of shorts were my nice jcrew ones, but with how hot it was out even at 530pm, I had no choice.  I had sent back my two mesh sporty shorts since they smelled so bad from Shimla and after they were washed in Dharamsala.  We got down to the courts and there were two young kids playing.  We jumped right in and started playing with them.  Arindum was horrible at first and got better as we played on.  Eventually the short fat kid left and then the better of the two kids was left.  Since I had popped the string on the racquet.  Hit it on the top of the racquet going for a slam, Arindum and I switched off rallying with this 12 year old kid.  He was good, considering and he had a coach which meant that he must have been privileged individual in Delhi, which is fine.  We played for about an hour and fifteen minutes.  By the end of it, Arindum and I were sweating, I was personally covered in sweat from head to toe.  Even my hat was soaked.

When I got back to my room, I relaxed for a while and eventually took a shower.  The plan was to go to this very famous indian restaurant in Delhi that was voted the best restaurant in India not five star.  It was 730pm and Sarah was still not back, she was supposed to be back by 7pm.  I was getting nervous.  When I got in the shower, she arrived and then I took a quick one to rinse off the sweat and dirt from the clay tennis court and then we all went downstairs to try and arrange this dinner.  There were initially 12 of us, and we were all a little frustrated by the lack of mobility of the group.  Since Heidi had to leave that night she didn’t have enough time, so then 5 others joined them.  We were down to 7.  Arindum got us two rickshaws at reasonable prices to this place.  I was in the rickshaw with 4 people which meant I had to sit up front with the driver.

I could barely get my right ass cheek on the seat.  The driver was giving me absolutely no love.  I was basically hanging of the side of the rickshaw, using all my strength and upper arm to hold on for dear life and try to keep my extremites within the rickshaw.  At any moment something could come zooming by and take off a limb.  I was very uncomfortable.  When we arrived at the general location of the restaurant, it was bustling with Muslims and locals.  The restaurant was right near the mosque so it was packed.  I think the girls found the right restaurant and got us a table of 7.  When we walked up stairs, who do we see by the professors, Ann and one of the professor’s wives.  Of course they had gone to this place, why not.  Well we only had to wait a little while before a table opened up. 

At first we left the ordering to Arindum since he been to this place several times and knew what htey were famous for and what was good.  After a little while people started to chime in about what they individuall wanted to order yet share with the group.  So to not be left out of this process I told Arindum I wanted a mutton dish (goat), and got it.  It was damn spicy but so good that Sarah and I decided to split another half order (as well as whoever else wanted some).  By the end of the ordering we had so many dishes it was insane, but the meal would be cheap since we had 7 and nothing was really that expensive.  The meal was hearty to say the least and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Now this wasn’t typical Indian food, but was Mughal food which is spicer and the Mughal’s ruled in India for a long time early on (I’m thinking like 400 years or something, but not sure, I know I have been told when we visited Mughal sites).  Anyway the meal was great, cheap and then it was time to say our goodbyes.  Some of the kiddos were going out for a nightcap drink, but Sarah and I had to wake up at 3am to get ready to head to the airport. 

I stayed at Sarah’s the previous night and got out of bed at 10am.  It was a good feeling to have nothing to do, with school being over.  To kill the time before our departure for the train, I went to the internet for cafe for about 2 hours to update my blog.  I want to print a retraction from my previous blog entry regarding some poor language and choice of words.  I guess I left my palm pilot in the classroom at the hotel and someone must have saw my blog opened and write some words, and I clearly did not see that, so I apologize to who was offended and I will delete it.

Anyway after the internet cafe I went to the store and picked up some snacks for the ride and for the train.  The snacks included chips ahoy, olives, cup o noodles, fanta and water, ahhhh can’t get much better than that.

When I got back to the hotel I saw Arrindum who wanted to get something before we left as well, so yet again I made the journey down the hill, around the corner and to the local bodega type stores near our hotel.  He picked up a cup o noodle also, after I assured him we could get hot water on the train, I mean I know I was able to on my train ride from Mumbai to Delhi.  After I went up to my room and brought my bags down, a bunch of us were just sitting around in the classroom reminicing about the time we had on the trip.  We also included some of the gripes about the trip, but those were kept to a minimum for the most part.

Ann came in and informed us that we were now departing 115pm instead of 1245pm, due to a malfunction with one of the jeeps.  No problem here, better safe than sorry.  This gave people some additional time to pack up and enjoy their last few moments in Dharamsala.  I have to say that I definitely enjoyed Dharamsala a lot more than Shimla.  It just had a better overall feel to it and had more to explore and do I feel.

When the jeeps came, I carried my stuff down to the jeeps.  I don’t know why I did that considering my knee was still a little stuffed, but I did it anyway.  Getting everyone in the jeeps was straight pandamonium.  It was hard because we all had so much luggage, and space was tight.  We even had a jeep just for luggage and we will had to pack each individual jeep up with luggage to make it fit. 

Before we left I decided to go to the bathroom one more time just to make sure I wouldn’t have problems a long the way.  They told us that stopping would be an issue so I wanted to make sure I could survive the three hours of so it would take to get to the train station in Pathankot.  See the train station wasn’t just simply in Dharamsala, we had to trek all the way to the next major citiy in order to catch the train, what a pain in the ass I know.

When I got back from the bathroom, Rachel, Sarah and Becky saved me a spot in their jeep which was nice, considering I really wouldn’t have wanted to travel in some of the other jeeps anyway.  On the way we noticed that most jeeps had 3 people in them, one other had 4 and so did ours.  This imbalance was caused by the fact that one of the professors and his wife inexcusably had a jeep to themselves.  We all found that to be ludacris and was not happy about it.

After moaning and groaning about us getting stuck in the jeep with 4, we put that aside and made the driver turn up his Punjabi music.  I love punjabi music.  The beat is always the same, but it never gets old.  People dance the bangra to punjabi music, it is just how it is.  Once the driver blasted the music we all started dancing a version of the bangra that felt comfortable for us.

I have a patented move.  Pointer finger in each had pointing up, shoulders moving up and down, and when your standing you do this sort of Elaine from Seinfeld leg kick, but not quite.  Unfortunately that trip really didn’t go as smooth as we all would have hoped.  For some reason we kept stopping along side of the road.  I would continually ask the driver why are we stopping in  Hindi, and each time he would get out of the jeep and ask the other drivers, he definitely didn’t need to stop and wanted to know what was going on.  Several times we stopped to let the rest of the jeeps catch up to us, and other times we stopped randomly and really short together because people had to pee.  At one random stop along side of the road, Rachel spotted this man weaving his own rugs and low and behold she bought one of the rugs for really cheap like 120 rupees or something and Sarah bought a cheap blanket for 150 rupees, thanks to my bargaining and conversing in Hindi.  It definitely pays off to speak hindi to the locals, I think you get respect and they know that you know what they are saying to a certain extent, enough to bargain with.

After almost 4 hours we arrived in Panthankot.  This place is on the way to Amritsar which is where the same 4 of us in the jeep went the following weekend to see the Golden Temple.  Anyway when we got to the station it was stiffling out.  So hot, humid as heck, and the sun was blazing.  We were used to milder temperatures and rain everyday for a month, so this weather was certainly a shock to my body, not sure about the others.  I refused to get a porter and instead carried my stuff in to the train station, plopped it down and really couldn’t sit still.  We had just been in a car for a while and I didn’t want to sit any longer.  After a little while I saw the chai guy rolling his cart down to us.  I got the best chai of my life right then and there and for a measely 3 rupees for a 4 oz cup i believe, maybe 6 oz not sure.  Anyway it was darn good. 

After that I picked up a refreshing pepsi, and then Arrindum and I went out to find some shirts.  Apparently he had seen an army detail store, so we decided to go check it out.  He was all giddy for the chance to buy some alleged authentic indian army paraphenalia.  I was skeptical that it was real until I bought a shirt myself.  Arrindum paid 120 rupees, while I paid only 80 rupees.  When Arrindum went back to make his case for being ripped off the vendor simply stated that  you had cotton and that I had gotten something of lesser quality.  I don’t know my shirt feels pretty darn nice.  Anyway we were both happy about the purchase and by this point we only had another hour until the train was supposed to arrive in the station.

When we got back to the station we were informed that the train was late by 30 minutes.  Ok, not so bad considering it could be delayed hours, you just never know.  This gave me more time to get some more chai.  But before I did from the same vendor I got some local food served in some shell of either a plant, fruit or vegetable, I’m not really sure.  After walking around with it, I decided if it was best not to eat it and get sick so close to the end of my time in india.

I walked around for a little while longer and before we knew it, it was time to board the train.  I gathered up my stuff and helped the group local our car which was Second Class AC A1.  Only three kids were stuck in A3, but truthfully they weren’t my concern.  I was looking for A1, greatest good for the greatest number I suppose, call me selfish but that’s how I role.

Sarah and I boarded the train along with the rest of the gang in A1 and looked for our beds.  They should be closed together as we were 14 and 16 respectively, and they were.  Both top bunks in the same berth.  There was one major issue though, the people below us had dominated the floor space which is where our bags were supposed to go.  I tried to remain calm, as I was really hot, tired and not happy about the situation.  The people below us kept trying to tell us that we would work it out, well we really never did.  I ended up sleeping with two of my bags and really didn’t sleep much.  The rest of the night Sarah and I chatted.  Thank g-d I brought snacks and drinks as the food on the train was not appeitizing at the present moment, but definitely eatable. 

At around 130am I tried to doze off, but with two bags with me on a tiny bed, it was so hard to get comfortable, and everyone knows how particular I am with my sleeping arrangments.

Today would be my last full day in Dharamsala, India and there was still plenty to do.  I first want to say hi to my cousin Judy, what’s up?  She is a very loyal reader and I had previously left her out of my shout outs from a few days ago.  So here, you get almost a full paragraph of your own shout out!

I woke up today and decided I was NOT going to my first class.  We already had the exam in that class and I had too much to do.  I woke up feeling not so good and I thought that my sickness had passed but I guess I was wrong.  So of course it was raining, but at around 825am I walked up the road in to town and stopped at the internet cafe to kill some time.  The post office and the Tibetan co-op both told me to come at around 9am, so instead of waiting till after the test I tried to go before class.  This was a mistake.  I walking in the pouring rain with my trusty, rainbow colored umbrella that just about every tourist has walking around and made by way to the shop.  At around 9am I went to the post office and they told me that they would not be open till 930am!  Those bastards lied to me.  I had wasted an hour of possibly studying for the International Human Rights exam.  I had not studied one iota yet and the test was at 2PM.  Now I was frustrated, wet, cold, and feeling like crap as I was walking to the hotel unaccomplished with plenty to do.

I got back and really felt sick.  I went to the bathroom which helped and told Sarah I didn’t feel good.  She came in to my room and took care of me.  She gave me some of her medicinal herbal crap and told me to drink water.  At this point it was time to break out my oral hydration tablets.  I had brought these just in case I got sick or couldn’t properly rehydrate on my trip and today they paid off.  I dropped one of the tablets in my bottle of water and drank it pretty steadily.  I guess since I had been going to the bathroom so often, and with my lack of drinking water, that I had been pretty dehydrated.  The tablets are basically super gatorades and fill your body with a lot of electrolytes.  After drinking the water I felt substantially better and was able to sit through my last International Human Rights test.

After class it was time to study, but before doing so I went back to the tibetan co-op to pick up my boxes and then bring them to the post office.  I had to get back to the hotel with enough time to study for the exam.  So I walked back up the hill, seeing all my homeless lepers, and vendors and tried to send my stuff back to the USA for the second time in as many hours.  The packages were wrapped in cloth and ready to go.  One of the two guys I had met the previous day helped me carry the boxes to the post office.

Oh I first went to the ATM and took out enough cash for my remaining time in India and enough to send the package home, I hope.  Then I went to the Co-op.  Oh I also took a taxi to the ATM.  I didn’t walk my fault, and I paid the 60 rupees for the short ride that I refused to pay the day before.  I was short on time and needed to get a lot done.  OK, so ATM, then Co-op, then Post office.  When I got to the post office the line was out the door.  Indian post office’s are notorious for being slow, worse than in America and quite frankly they really don’t care.  Mcleod Ganj post office is a small post office, but since it is located in such a touristy city, it has to be efficient.  I got to the post office and this monk helped me put my boxes on the seat.  I told the worker behind the counter in Hindi I wanted to send two packages, to the USA.  He asked me the weight and I responded in English.  This was classic Hinglish.  He handed me two forms, I borrowed a pen from a local and filled out the forms.  While waiting in line for about 35 minutes I struck out a conversation with this dude from Kentucky who had been traveling around the world with a buddy of his for a total of a year when the trip would be finished.  He had already been to South America and Africa and after India would maybe head elsewhere, I forget.

We had good conversation and it killed the time waiting on this painfully slow line.  At around 1225pm, the guy behind the counter told another guy standing on line to lock the door.  Even though they officially closed at 1 for lunch, they did not let anyone in past 1230pm I guess and would just finish the business in front of them.  I had no problem with that.  10 minutes later one of my professors banging on the window to be let in.  He argued that it was open till 1pm, and eventually they let him in.

For 5650 rupees I was able to send two packages, totaling almost 14 kilograms in weight, by air to America.  I really hope they get there.  I sent a lot of clothing that I initially brought with me, 10 pairs of sandals and shoes, and lots of things I bought.

After the post office I walked quickly back to the hotel to study for my test.  I had about an hour or so to study as the time at the post office took a lot longer than I had anticipated it would.   I did some high quality cramming and then it was time to take the test.  The test was 2 hours and was by far the most serious and real deal law school exam.  I wrote a lot, used my notes efficiently, and I think I did pretty well.  I mean granted it was not perfect by any means, considering I had no prior knowledge of international law or international human rights, I think I did pretty well.

After the test I was feeling pretty good.  My real vacation was starting as I had another 5 weeks or so left of freedom before it was time to head back to America.  So here is the rest of the plan:

Overnight train to Delhi on June 28th with the law group.  One full day in Delhi on Sunday, monday morning I fly back to Mumbai.  I have a layover of about 6-9 hours depending on when I get in, how long it takes to get my baggage etc…I plan on meeting some of my friends from Mumbai when I get there to kill the time, but we will see.  Traffic in Mumbai is crazy and everywhere takes a long time to get too.  Plus if it is  raining it will be impossible to go anywhere.  Monday night I fly to Abu Dhabi.  I plan on sleeping in the airport monday night in to tuesday morning.  Early in the morning I will take a cab to the 5 star Hilton Abu Dhabi were I will be spending two nights enjoying myself.  I might do a day trip to Dubai if it is affordable and then on wednesday night, I have to go back to the airport for my 3am flight on thursday to Joburg, South Africa.  When I get to Joburg hopefully on time, I will have to quickly grab my stuff, hopefully just be able to transfer, but if not go through customs and make my 1245pm flight on British Airways to Capetown, South Africa.  I will then take a cab to my hostel in Ctown and enjoy the next few days there.  I will be spending 3 nights in Capetown and then start my 26 day trip through Southern Africa.  I get back to Joburg July 31st I believe and will be spending a few nights with this lady I met on couchsurfing.com

So the next few days will be extremely hectic, but hopefully fun filled and exciting.

So after the test I really didn’t do much.  I went on the internet, and packed up my stuff.  At 8pm we were having a farewell party at a restaurant called Ashoka which I had been too twice already.  The party was fun.  The teachers and Ann bought us the food, water and most importantly beer!  Massive amounts of pictures were being taken at this shindig and aftewards, Becky, Sarah, Rachel, Martine and I went to the bottle shop to pick up a night cap.  When I got back to the hotel I was so tired.  I couldn’t do anything let alone drink another beer.  Since I have not eaten as much the second half of India, my appetite has been suppressed significantly.  I get full really quick and last night I just ate way too much.

I went to bed at around 130am, and tomorrow we would be leaving for the train station at approximately 1pm, for a 3 hour jeep ride to the train station in the next major city called Pathankot.  The train to Delhi leaves at 7pm and missing it is not an option!

Today I rolled out of bed for the Tibetan class. Today was the day that Cait and I had to present on the Tibetan Government in Exile. I forgot to mention that yesterday. I did the preparation from 8-9 and studied afterwards for several hours until I could not look at the list of vocab and my class notes anymore. The presentation went fairly well, people were listening because Professor had told us that our presentation would be on the exam, and as it turned out she was right. Our next class only had 4 kids in it. I felt bad for this professor as that was probably a little rude on everyone’s behalf, but they were all studying for our Tibetan final that was later today, even though our Professor assured us that it would be easy. After our last class, and before the final exam then before final exam, I shoved all the stuff that I needed to be sent home in to my large backpack and ran with it down the roa, up the hill the to Tibetan Cooperative. Basically in order to send a package from India via the mail the box or items you are sending must be stitched and sealed by wax on the part of a tailor. This was such a pain in the ass, as you have to find a good tailor, that won’t rip you off and that can do a good job. This place seemed nice and they were not going to charge me all that much and it would be done after my exam.

From the co-op I came back, took the exam which was really easy. I had to guess on my last two questions, but as it turned out I could have gotten at least 1.5 of the 2 right, which I was happy about. After the exam I went scrounging around for a box large enough to fit all my stuff. Even though you could send your stuff in the cloth, as the tailor wraps it in plastic first, I felt more comfortable putting it all in a box. So I ran around the took looking for one and even after I begged a local shop owner for his box, offering him as much as 500 rupees for it (almost 12 USD), I found one that was being used for garbage, that another story owner let me use. After bringing the box back to the hotel, I loaded up the rest of the stuff I wanted to send back that I had forgotten to bring to the co-op in the first place. I tried to get a taxi at first to bring me up the hill as I really did not want to carry it back and forth yet again. The taxi driver, clearly saw how desperate I was and tried to gauged me on the price, I said hell no and decided to walk with the huge box myself.

As I was walking back and forth, first with my huge backpack and then with the huge box, the local vendors clearly remembered me as they were laughing at me, running back and forth, commenting about my huge backpack. I embraced it all, smiled back at them and kept chugging along. I was on a mission to eventually send all this crap home. So I eventually got to the co-op with the rest of my stuff. They told me that I would have to pick up both wrapped boxes tomorrow as they were about to close for the day. I said no problem, and was very happy to have this get done, fast, and cheap.

A side story. When I first arrived at the Tibetan Co-op, two of the guys there were really admiring my backpack. They asked me about my patches. For those of you who don’t know, every country I have been too I have a patch on my backpack, signifying the achievement. They asked me if I had really been to all the places on my bag, to which I very proudly responded “absolutely.” One of the Tibetan worker’s there actually took a picture of my backpack with all the patches, with his camera phone. It made me feel proud to have people appreciate such an accomplishment. They asked me how I did it and I just told them that I traveled whenever I had free time and that I have still managed to almost finish becoming a lawyer.

When I got back to the hotel, it was getting kind of late. Sarah and I went to dinner at this Italian place. I initially wanted to go to another Italian place called Jimmy’s, which is where Sarah, Grady and I had gone in week one, but this time Sarah wanted to check out another place. The food here was not that good. I wish I remembered the name so people in the future could use this as a reference, but basically if you ever find yourself in Dharamsala, India and are looking for Italian food, if you walk and see the downstairs version of Jimmy’s keep walking, and the next Italian place you come too is the one I ate at and it really wasn’t that good. I think Sarah and I both had a stomach ache leaving that place. After dinner Sarah and I did a little shopping. I picked up a black jacket, with the Tibetan flag sewn on, and on the back it says “Save Tibet.” It is a standard price and usually goes to the Tibetan cause. I really wanted the jacket that said “Team Tibet” but I couldn’t find it around the city, as so many tourists and travelers by it and my time in this place was running short. After shopping I went to the ATM to get some cash, then we went to the internet cafe. It was getting late and I had still not began studying for my International Human Rights exam which was from 2-4 on the 27th, but since it was open notes, and I felt confident in my notes and what I knew, I wasn’t worried. At the internet cafe I actually printed out my notes so that I could use them efficiently during the exam the following day. It cost me 10 rupees a page, and 250 rupees in total! That is exorbitant considering what I have bought for that much and how much food you can buy with that money. After Sarah and I got back from the internet cafe and our little mini excursion in to town, we attempted to watch a movie, but after a while I got tired and wanted to get to sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day and I had lots of things to do.

Today we didn’t have any tests but I had my Tibetan Buddhism test the next day.  This was the only exam we had that would be closed exam, meaning no notes or anything.  Lucky for me it was in a subject I had no prior knowledge about before I came, so I was a little nervous.  I mean every credit and test counts towards my gpa, so I take the tests extremely serious.

After class we had to meet at 105pm to head to the 17th Kalampa Lama.  He is the head of another one of the Tibetan Buddhist sects.  The Dalai Lama is the head of the Gelupa sect while this other lama is the head of another.  Janeen and I crammed in to the back in the jeep for what was going to be a very bumpy ride.  I was under the impression that the ride would only be 15 minutes, but as I have learned in India, nothing takes 15 minutes.  The ride was well over 30 minutes and sitting sideways in seats in the trunk of a jeep is not very comfortable and by the end of the ride I was actually feeling a little queezy which doesn’t happen to me often.  When we arrived at this Lama’s complex it was quite nice.  There was housing for many monks, I snapped a few photos by myself and with some others and we waited for the rest of the jeeps to arrive.

The place was pandemonium.  There were many people trying to get blessed by this famous lama and we were just one of the groups of people there.  We all had to have a white scarf, as that is what the lama will customarily bless.  Karma our guide from the Chonor House Hotel, who was tibetan, was having trouble getting us all scarf, and our professors were getting a little nervous.  In the end we all got our white scarfs, but we stood in line waiting for this dude for quite a while and it was hot.  I was dressed in my fancy indian attire from head to toe and was sweating bullets.  I mean this guy did not want to be standing there waiting to bless all these people, as much as I didn’t want to be standing their either.

In the end we were shuffled in, I briefly glanced up at the 17th Kalampa Lama as he put the white scarf around my neck and handed me a piece of blessed red string.  I left the room feeling very inadequate about the situation.  Not only had we driven all this way, but we got to see the guy for about 1 second, a small consolation for our school not getting us an appointment with the His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

After getting the scarves, we went back in to the room to take a group photo with the lama.  I have yet to see the picture that our professor has on CD, and I doubt I will.

From the Kalampa Lama’s complex (I am definitely spelling his name wrong and will correct it when I return to the states), we headed to this Tibetan preservation institute called the Norbulinka Institite.  This was set up by the Tibetan government in exile as one of the ways they have tried to help the Tibetan Refugees maintain their religion and culture, and oh by the way they also sell lots of expensive Tibetan handmade crafts.

We got a brief tour which took us around the complex seeing how different things were made and then we were shuffled in to the store, but of course.  I ended up buying a few things, mostly for myself, adding to the amount of crap I have bought so far on this trip and then a bunch of us heading for the cafe.  It was so hot, and I needed a drink and a little pick-me-up, so I grabbed a pepsi, recycled glass bottle, as usual and we waited for the rest of the group to be done.

A bunch of us were getting really antsy because we wanted to get back to do all the reading and studying that had to be done before tomorrow.  Not only did we have our Tibetan Buddhism class, we also had to do reading for our International Human Rights class.  We eventually left at around 5pm and got back home whenever after.  I studied briefly for the exam, mostly just messing around and wasting time.  After studying I hit the hay and was ready to go for the test tomorrow.

I woke up feeling a little bit better but not great by any means.  Today we had our second final, which was in the class of comparative race and gender led by my professor from Touro.  I went to all my classes today but everyone was buzzing with the anticipation of our final.  Immediately after class, the entire group minus the students who were not enrolled in the Tibetan Buddhism class, who were not mandated to go on this field trip, went to the relatively famous Tibetan Children’s Village in Dharmasala, India.   When we got there we saw kids ranging in age from 6 months old to 14 years old.  The person we met took us around the entire village, from a classroom for kindergartners, where we sat with them, took pictures with them and played with them.  We then went to where the very young children lived.  There were these little tibetan refugees running up to us, hugging us, and playing with us.  Again I walked around and snapped a few photos.  We then went to where the older children lived.  Basically each home housed 35-40 kids where an older and younger kid each shared a bed.  The last stop was going up to the temple. Cait was feeling sick so I stayed back with her, and then it started raining so I stayed under cover and waited for the rest of the group to get back.  On the way back, Ben and I get dropped off in town so we could grab some food at the Snowy Lion where Grady was staying.  After we got there, Abira, Haarsh, Grady and his wife, Arrindum, Martine and Michelle all coincidentally came as well.  Apparently this tiny restaurant at the bottom of a small hotel was the place to eat. Ben, Arrindum and I shared some fried mutton momos.  I ordered mutton Thanktuk which is basically mutton, and huge, broad almost wonton style noodles in a broth with spices, chillis and vegetables.  It was very good.  For dessert I had a piece of lemon curd pie, which put me in a food como. It again started to pour and this time I was far away from the hotel with no cover and no umbrella.  A funny side note.  As I was trying to wait out the rain with Arrindum at the entrance to this restaurant, these two old tibetan women started looking at me.  I had just put my money belt underneath my shorts, as I usually do to hide it and quite frankly its the most comfortable, secret place I can hide it.  One of the lady’s standing next to me taking cover as I was from the rain started poking me in my crotch with the metal tip of her umbrella.  Every time she did it, her and the other lady started to laugh.  Arrindum and I were looking at each other saying “what the hell is she doing?”  I will leave what she was doing to your imagination. Eventually Arrindum and I just decided to make a run for it.  We had to be back before 3pm as we were having a guest speaker who works for the tibetan center for human rights  After buying an umbrella for 180 rups, I made it back just in time for class.  We had about 20 minutes of class before the speaker came.  He gave a brief introduction and basically just opened up the floor to questions.  I had several questions and the best part was when the speaker gave him his own opinion about the Dalai Lama and the status in Tibet. 

After the speaker we all waited around for our final exam in our race and gender class.  We got it around 630pm, and I got to work after a few hours of eating, and procrastinating.  We had three hours to complete it from when we read it, I started working on it around 10pm and finished before 1am.  It was a damn hard test!