Hello Delhi!.. and Dharamsala

I arrived into Delhi in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, which thankfully meant less chaos at the airport, which i imagine is what I would have met had i arrived later in the day.  I was expecting it to be light already at 5am, but it was not, and by the time i cleared customs and was in the taxi, the sun was rising.  It is quite weird how air pollution makes for the most amazing blazing read sun rise...

  I booked myself a prepaid taxi to Manu Ka Tilla, which is the Tibetan quater in Delhi.  My taxi driver was trying furiously to convince me that i should go to Para Ganj because they sell the best hot dogs... and that is where all the other tourists go.  I imagine it was closer, as he probably didn’t feel like trekking all the way to Manu ka Tilla.  Let me begin by saying that I am most grateful that I survived the taxi ride (bows in appreciation). It was great practice in not getting anxious, which I managed most of the journey, except where the taxi driver ran red lights – although after a while i was even getting used to that – and where he was not braking when vehicles slowed or stopped in front of us, but opted to swerve around instead with no regard for other cars.  I decided to trust that i would arrive safely and tried to convince myself this was how he always drove and was still alive, so that was a good sign.

Thankfully he dropped me off in the right place so it did not take me too long to find where i had planned to spend the day. As I had arrived in Delhi at 11pm UK time and 5am Delhi time, i had some catching up to do in the sleep department.  I had to clean my room before I could get to the bed, as the previous people had left the place in an utter mess, food all over, rubbish all over the place...  The other option was to wait 4 hours for them to clean it...  The toilet flushing mechanism in my room appears to have died many moons ago, so they have thoughtfully provided me with a bucket so that I can fill it with water manually .

I have ventured out already, been to the internet cafe, been on a little walk, and now I am waiting for my bus to Dharamsala, which leaves in a few hours.  That is going to be a 12 hour bus ride overnight, so I am hoping that it is not going to be too rough a ride....

Wednesday

It was a long ride, and at 9hours into the journey I reflected on how well i was doing in not getting car sick... That was also the point where we started hitting the mountain roads... All I am saying is that I am really glad i packed my ziplock jiffy bag! LOL!

I was shattered by the time i arrived and so did not go to the teachings, but will be there first thing tomorrow. Now for some more sleep... zzz....zzzz...