Last Day in Delhi

Sunday was my last day in Delhi and it has been a tradition, traveling with Uncle Kurt and Alex in Delhi so far, to skip at least one meal per day! It's not intentional. It just seems to happen that way! So while they were having breakfast downstairs, I was still up in my hotel room, listening to Hindi music while trying to cram all of my belongings back into my suitcase! I later needed some help from Uncle Kurt who is much more experienced in packing! That morning, Uncle Kurt and I went to the Krishna Mandir temple where you take off your shoes to go inside. The temple was beautiful and very clean inside and it smelled like insence. I think I learned a lot about the Hindu religion by observing the temple and the people going to pray. I was also learning about some of the Hindu gods when I went into the shop that was right outside of the temple. The store clerk was showing me some of the small statues of the Hindu gods and telling me about each one. The plastic in the shoulder bag that I had used for a couple days had started deteriorating and the smell of plastic was overpowering, so the day before, I had switched over my things to the small black, wallet/passport holder/camera case, combination bag that Uncle Kurt had gotten from going to the confrence, so on the front of it it had "HP" in white. I felt a little bit silly carrying that around while wearing my salwar kameez. I felt like it would go better with cargo shorts, a tee shirt, sneakers and white socks pulled up to my knees topped off with a baseball cap, so I swapped bags again, this time with a colorful patchwork shoulder bag with a zipper inside that I bought at the store near the temple. After walking around the park outside the temple for a while, we went back to the hotel to meet up with Alex. At the hotel we had "brunch", but it was already afternoon so I considered it to be lunch. That lunch makes the second time that I have been offered alcohol in a restaraunt! Its not a big deal but it probably would be if I were not the kind of 16 year old to make good decisions. After lunch, we were going to go back to walk around Old Delhi but since it was Sunday, all of the places were closed. It took a long time to get to the hotel where I was going to meet Vineet, the Ispiice staff person, so we didn't have much time anyways. After meeting Vineet and saying goodbye to Uncle Kurt and Alex, I watched cricket in the lobby while we waited for the taxi. I still don't understand the sport! We then took a taxi to the bus stop, which looked like an abandoned parking lot with piles of trash around and a lot of stray animals. While waiting for the bus, I met two girls who were waiting for a different bus, also going to Dharamsala. One of them was 18 and from England and the other was 24 and from Scottland. I talked to them for a while and they told me that they had been teaching English for a couple months so far in India. Our bus came first so I said goodbye to them and boarded the bus for the 11 hour trip. The bus was very old and the seat numbers were written in pen on the back of each one. The bus was also really stuffy and hot and there were little fans on the ceiling with a switch to turn them on but they didn't work. There were also little lights above each seat but those didn't work either. It seemed like nothing but the engine on the bus worked but I changed my mind when the bus broke down an hour after the first stop. The first stop was at a compound of a bathroom, a few stores, and a restaurant. Vineet and I had chai at the restaurant that I am deciding to call "Martha stewart's nightmare". It had stone floors, bamboo ceilings, and brick supports. One wall had a plasitc sheet with a beach scene on it and I am pretty sure that it was a shower curtain, but they hung it one the wall like art. The other walls had peacock tapestries and oversized posters of renaisance art and all of the glassware was missmatched but the chai was good and it didn't make me sick! I tried to sleep on the bus but it was nearly impossible when it feels like the bus is driving over jagged boulders the whole way! Every once in a while I would fall into a light sleep but then the bus would jerk or suddenly stop or bright, oncoming headlights paired with a loud honk of a car horn would startle me and then I couldn't sleep for a few minutes after that. I was almost asleep when the bus broke down while on a hill and everyone's shoes were sliding all over the bus. The bus stopped and the drivers stepped out and started inspecting the bus with flashlights then they would try to start the bus and when it didn't work, they would go back out with the flashlights and do it again. After a while, I was afraid that we were not going to get to Dharamsala but eventually they started the bus and continued the drive and I could relax again. That didn't last long because the bus broke down again and then I was getting really worried that it wouldn't make it all the way up to the mountains. After a while of them checking the bus and trying to start it again, I noticed that none of the people on the bus looked worried or anoyed at all by it and I got the impression that the breakdowns were not unusual. So by the third breakdown I wasn't worried and I just tried to enjoy the few minutes with no bumps or loud bus motor. Some of the places that we drove past looked like we were not even in India anymore. I was started to get really anoyed with myself because, no matter how much I tried to relax and sleep, I just couldnt fall asleep for more than a few minutes at a time. After so long on the bus, the seats feel really uncomfortable and I just wanted to stand. The bus is really crowded and the person in front of me put their seat back so far that I couldnt even touch my duffel bag next to my feel without smaking my head on the seat in front. For the second half of the bus ride, the seat was up more and I could reach my duffel where I kept my Benadryl. I took some, hoping that it would put me to sleep. Not long after taking it, I was sleeping in incriments of aproximately 10 minutes. It was better than nothing but when I got closer to Dharamsala and the sun started to rise, I wanted to look out the window and look at the view but I was too tired to take in much. I do remember seeing the bus winding around the rocky road around the mountain and the rock on one side and the big drop off on the other side. I've heard people complain about how close the busses come to the edge of the drop off but I didn't think it was too bad. I'm not afraid of heights so It didn't scare me when they swerved a little bit closer to the edge. I loved the view of the mountains from the window but I was so releived to finally get off the bus in Dharamsala!