From Big to Little

Greetings from beautiful Mcleod Ganj, home to the Dalai Lama, who is HERE! But I doubt I'll get to see him. There is a certain excitement hanging in the air, though, brought only through his presence in this beautiful place.

Ok, so I last left you in wonderful Goa. Anne and I hopped on a plane to Mumbai to meet up with her best friend's parents, who asked to be called Auntie and Doctor Uncle. They graciously invited me to stay during my time in Mumbai, which I was SO grateful for because I would have been terrified to set foot in the city otherwise. Upon arrival, Auntie immediately quizzed us about what we wanted to eat, pizza?, and asked a lot of questions about why we haven't been eating meat. She was very confused, shaking her head and saying, "So sad." She ended up ordering tons of food, including chicken biryani, which was all very good. Anne and I were exhausted from another long day of traveling, though, so we were grateful when Auntie laid out some mattresses for us to sleep on. The next day, Anne's friend's boyfriend, Adi, took us out to see some highlights of Mumbai. The family has a car and a driver, so we rode in the comfortable air-conditioning to the southern part of the city, visiting the Queen's Necklace, which are buildings surrounding a water inlet that look like a shimmering necklace when lit up at night, as well as the Gateway of India, the Taj Mahal hotel (where last year's terrorist attacks occured), a museum (Anne's favorite), and the Hanging Gardens, which was a beautiful park on the other side of the Queen's Necklace. It was great to see such a beautiful side of Mumbai, because what is usually projected on television is the slums. Of course, they make up a huge percentage of Mumbai, but I'm glad I got to see more of the city than just that. Adi was a wonderful tour guide...I wouldn't have found better on my own. It was so hot, though, we were exhausted by the time we got back to Auntie and Doctor Uncle's apartment, and I ended up taking a long nap. When I woke up, Auntie took Anne and me out to dinner, where I tried pani puri, the first thing that has made my eyes water here. Pani puri is just a little tiny puri (basically puffed, fried bread) with a little hole poked in the top so it is like a little bowl that holds this tamirind/chickpea liquid. You are supposed to put the whole thing in your mouth at once, but that causes some of the spicy liquid to go down your throat before it hits your tongue. It was DELICIOUS though, and I have wanted more ever since.
VERY early the next morning, Auntie drove me to the airport so I could hop a plane to Delhi, where my friend Megan was waiting. She'd had a very bad experience with the taxi her hotel provided her with to get to the airport (he pulled over on a deserted road and demanded money from her, although her taxi was supposed to be included in her room fee, and then ditched her at the airport) and we headed back to the hotel and complained. So we got free breakfast and got to stay way past check-out time. We de-stressed by watching TV, munching on some great eggs, and sipping tea. We left late in the afternoon to find an invisible bus stop for our ride to McLeod Ganj. It took us FOREVER to figure out where the bus would stop because, as I said, it was not marked. So we found a guy with a suitcase in the general vicinity we thought it was in, bought a grapefruit bigger than my head, and waited for the bus. Eventually, more people started showing up and we realized we were in the right place. They FINALLY got us on a bus at around 5pm, but we literally drove aimlessly around Delhi for about 2 more hours. It was confusing and frustrating, but we eventually got on the road. No one vomited on this ride, but it was way bumpier: I think I have bruises on my elbows from them hitting the armrests. After about 12 hours, and maybe 2 hours of sleep, I woke up suddenly, freezing, and found myself in the mountains. Hotels here do not take reservations in advance, so Megan and I set off to search for a few hotels that had been recommended to us. (This place is tiny, so it is not as bad as it sounds.) We wandered aimlessly for awhile, and eventually passed the chorten (kind of a Buddhist temple), which is in the middle of the town, and a little, old Tibetan woman saw us and said, "Come." So, we followed her, to a hotel, and she gave us chai. It is a wonderful little room with a balcony and a view, but we are going to search for something a little bit cheaper for tomorrow. This place is SOOOOOOO beautiful, I could easily see myself staying for a while. Unfortunately, we only have a few days then it is back to dirty, mean Delhi to meet up with Anne again. Hopefully, before I leave, I'll post again about McLeod Ganj. So far, it is great. We got breakfast, banana honey porridge and ginger tea with real, huge pieces of ginger in it, met a few people from Australia with recommendations for hikes around the area, and saw someone really important get out of a car and ushered into a Tibetan school by a bunch of guards. I'm not sure who it was, but he shook a girl's hand and she started sobbing (with joy). I'm excited for what the next few days will bring!

(So far, I've covered almost the whole length of India. Ah!)