For my mom’s sake I’ve decided not to go into too much depth about how transportation here works or what experiences I may or may not have had. But I do want to tell all of you why the rickshaw is the ultimate way to travel. In Delhi the streets are pretty narrow, and there are a whole lot of people trying to get to a lot of different places at the same time. Cars might be the most comfortable way to travel, but the streets here just aren’t designed to allow cars to get to most places. One day we sat in unmoving traffic for a solid twenty minutes right next to an ambulance with sirens going that also wasn’t getting anywhere. To get a sense of how traffic works here, just imagine buses passing one another on this rather large country road:

Motorcycles are faster and more compact than cars, and can weave in and out of traffic pretty quickly. But cars are really good at blocking them off, especially when there are twice as many cars as there are lanes. And driving a motorcycle is not only suicidal, but obviously impossible for groups of our size.

But rickshaws—those are amazing. They can compete with the cars because they are big and visible and people’s limbs are clearly visible sticking out of it. Especially when there are four college students packed into the back seat. As an added bonus, areas that are off limits to cars—like sidewalks, alleys, and spaces between vendors on the road—are totally fair game.

You haven’t truly lived until you’ve flown past doubled up traffic with one of your three wheels up on the median and you ass bouncing off of the occasional bicycle handle or car mirror on the way. Or so I have been told by other people who have travelled to India and had death-defying rickshaw rides.

Photo Credit: Tyler Sit

As an expression of how amazing these vehicles and their drivers are, my colleagues and I composed a short song (to the tune of Puget Sound’s alma mater, for those of you who know it). I will try to get a copy so I can post it here at some point. For now, check out this page that absolutely represents what I am talking about: http://www.ourbetterworld.org/story/fluking-around-india

So we’ve moved up into the mountains now, which is a whole different setting from Delhi. It’s absolutely amazing to see how much the different setting makes everyone feel and act differently. Even after just a couple of days we were all definitely getting a little overwhelmed, and now we are in a completely different place. Check out these mountains:

We are now staying at the Institute for Buddhist Dialectics in Sarah. We have Tibetan roommates, which presents a whole set of interesting language challenges. Also, for the rest of the trip we officially don’t have hot water, so that makes some of the bathroom traditions I’m used to in the U.S. a little different. But on the bright side somebody forgot to fix a couple of the dogs so there’s about a dozen of these little guys running around:

Also, the food is great but not necessarily the most traditional. I have a feeling they’re toning it down for those of us whose systems are still getting adjusted. Foods that I will miss badly on this trip: 1) A giant bacon cheeseburger. 2) Vegetables that are leafy and green and not blended. 3) Anything crunchy.

That’s all for now. If you were looking for more information go back and look at the puppy again, I hope you can forgive me for the short post this time. More to come. Here's another photo:

Greetings from India!

I want to keep everyone updated but not overwhelm you with pages of text to read. So I will occasionally send out an email with a few little anecdotes about things that are happening.

First, I wanted to talk about the Frankfurt airport. I set myself up with a four hour layover there just in case one of my flights happened to get delayed, so I had some time to hang out and get lunch and so on. It’s a beautiful airport and I had a great sandwich there, but the part that impressed me the most was the security. The airport was so big that I had to leave the terminal, take a tram, and then re-enter and go through security. First of all, there was no full-body scan, just a regular old metal detector. And miraculously, the lady who waved me through it actually smiled and said thank you as I passed. Can you imagine? Also, we got to keep our shoes, our jackets, and our dignity because presumably none of us looked particularly malicious. There were no less than six security officers for each line, but rather than trying to be intimidating or rush people through they mostly were just greeting people.

They didn’t like the looks of my backpack, so one officer invited me to come take a look at the xray image—also with a smile on his face. He pointed to the giant bag of liquids, and asked if I could show him. So I opened my bag and handed it to him. Then he handed it back, poked through the rest of my bag, and told me I was good to go. This whole process probably took under three minutes. Nobody involved felt stressed, and they still managed to make sure that I was not going to be problem. I sort of want to say that this is just German efficiency for you, but really I think the way airport security in the U.S. works is actually strange. They are so focused on finding devices that can be dangerous that they forget to look at the people—they don’t even try to see which ones are dangerous and which ones are just people trying to get someplace that still deserve to be treated like human beings.

One other little story for you. Myself and two of my friends went out to dinner our first night here. We stopped at a place that had North Indian food—the kind where you order small bowls of vegetables in different sauces and then rice or bread (naan) on the side. All of our dishes were absolutely delicious—one person got potatoes that were hollowed out and filled with cheese and herbs, I had cauliflower in a spicy orange curry sauce, and another had a green mixed vegetable curry with hunks of cheese and papaya. All of this (and more than the three of us could eat and drink) for under $10 total. Food here is amazingly rich and flavorful, and also surprisingly cheap every time.

The fun part of this story comes at the very end of the meal. We asked for the check, and the waiter said “how many?” We wanted to pay separately for our meals, so we told him three. Then we waited, for what seemed like a surprisingly long time given that we were the only people in the restaurant. After a few minutes the waiter came back—with three chai teas. Of course we all realized immediately what had happened, and could barely contain our laughter at how absurd it was that some so familiar to us had gotten so utterly lost in translation. For future reference, the appropriate word in India is “bill,” not “check.” Of course things like this haven happened consistently since this time, but it was our first experience with the kinds of misunderstandings that you just have to be ready for when travelling.

That’s all for now, because I’m not sure when we will have internet next. We were in Delhi for a few days and now we’ve moved to Pragpur, most of the way to our destination for the first portion of the trip, Sarah College, which is near but not in Dharamsala. Perhaps soon I will tell you about the hazards of asking for directions in a culture where not knowing means losing face, or what it’s like to ride in a rickshaw with four other passengers. For now, I wanted you all to know that I am safe and I wish you the best.