March 21, 2004

Tashe Dalek

This is apparently how the Tibetans say hello, or good day, or good evening ... sort of a universal greeting.

So - one day remaining here before it's time to pack it up and make the mad dash to make the boarding process for the 11:15 PM flight to Singapore.  Henny's convinced, based on anecdotes from others, that we can do this in a single day (albeit leaving at 3 AM in the morning), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  Most people I've talked to recommend allotting two days to get to Dehli and catch your flight.  If we miss the flight I'm sure we can simply rebook on the next one, but it'll be painful, and there are no guarantees that we'll actually make the next day out.

So the flight itself to Hong Kong is 5 1/2 - 6 hours to Singapore, a four hour layover (time, I hope for a shower and a change of underwear), and then another 3 1/2 hour flight – getting there in the afternoon - about 36 hours later.  After the flight out here a piece of cake - right?  I've yet to hear back from my brother Eric so I'm not sure that he'll be able to meet me at the airport - but I have his address and phone numbers - I'll figure it out.

All in all this has been a great trip to date - a few hiccups on the health front, but nothing I haven't been able to deal with. 

I'm just getting over some severe de-hydration that I experienced on the Thursday hike up to Triund - but this was probably my best day here yet - a wonderful and peaceful 3 1/2 hours upon a 9000 foot ridgeline - above the hustle and bustle and polluted air and honking of the horns from auto rickshaws, trucks and cars alike.  You could hear the wind in the rocks and trees below, stare in awe at the mountains - so close - and the wisps of vapor that accumulated into storm clouds and then dissipated again - all without a drop of rain.  Three majestic peaks close by - wrapped in their cottony shawls, waiting for the sunset to glow in ambers and oranges before turning to deep purples and finally merging to the blacks of the heavens above - outlined in their absence of stars and planets.

 

While up on Triund I managed to do a headstand on the grass – this is where two weeks ago there were remnants of snow drifts.  Today it’s green grass and warm and sunny.

The other evening I saw three satellites fly overhead - which is three more than I've seen in 7 years in San Francisco - fast moving points of light that appeared out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly into nowhere.  The heavens have been spectacular, even through the perpetual haze that hangs over McLeod Ganj.  Venus has reigned supreme in the western sky every evening, with Jupiter rising in the east shortly after sunset. Mars remains obscured to me - there are too many reddish stars in sight overhead - at least 4 or 5 more than I'm used to seeing and I can't tell which one is the god of war, and which ones are simply lesser celestial beings.

On the way down we stopped to help a poor Hindu man - he had collapsed on the path and was groaning. Fortunately he spoke enough English that we could tell he was suffering from heat stroke (he'd been walking since before daybreak with no water), give him my 3/4 full bottle of water, a couple of Odwalla bars, and understand his younger daughter had ran ahead to get help.  He was concerned about the energy bars (“No eat mutton”), but I assured him they were vegetarian if not vegan, and that they would surely help him.

A couple of men carrying enormous bags of rhododendron flowers (to be made into jam from what I understand) also stopped and were able to converse with him as well.  As we started walking down he had gotten to his feet and was making his way down the mountain.  About 30 minutes later, we'd stopped at the first sign of a road for a brief break, and he made it to a waiting van.  He waved and held up his water bottle to us as he passed - hopefully to some medical attention.

On my way down I discovered I was terribly sun-burnt (having forgotten my sun-screen in my bag until after it was too late), and began to shiver uncontrollably in the dusk that covered us as we stumbled down the broken rock trail.  Dinner was a hilarious discussion on top of a building in the middle of McLeod Ganj that I’d never been to before – me wrapped in a shawl I bought in the market to get warm in, Irena and a chance friend providing witty repartee.

The teachings are over - today was a long life puja - I was able to stay for His Holiness arrival - in full regalia, lead by the leaders of the four schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Lamas with ceremonial headsets and blowing from gigantic horns, and a complete procession. They ascended to the roof of the temple and began the puja (service).  And my bowels would not cooperate.  Leaving was a real trial - there already was not a spare place on the ground, and the tide of humanity crushing (literally at points, I saw an elderly woman fall from the pressing behind her, but was lifted up a second later) in made it difficult to step over the seated masses of people.  I left by a back way (under the security tape labeled Do NOT CROSS) only to be surrounded by a 1/4 mile double line of monastics and lay women trying to enter through the side - a door I didn't even know existed.  How, or if, they all fit I do not know - I made it back to my room through the completely stalled streets in the nick of time.