I remember when we were driving

I left work on Friday and got to the bus depot where the car usually drops me. Tenam was already there and Dickyi was there too. It was funny because we hadn't officially made plans but I guess we all just kind of fell into the routine. We went to Western Union to get money for Dickyi, where the guys were kind of assholic and refusing to give her any American money, but I guess that's the policy. While she was waiting for the money me and Tenam went to get the Mandala. Again, it was awesome being with a local because he knew this little hole in the wall where they sold them for a reasonable price and we would know that they were hand-drawn. His dad is also a high lama so he can tell if the mandalas are complete or not. I was happy because I was planning to give it to my dad.

We split up after that and me and Dickyi went to her momo's house for the last time. We also went to visit Dickyi's friend, a fellow teacher she met in Tibet. Then we went to Tenam's house so he could take us to Dharamcode on his bike. The weather was perfect for going--we drove up and then walked for fifteen or so to a restaurant that is good for pizza. We had this yummy cake and pizza and while we were eating Khewang called and said he was in Dharamsala (he came to take us to Bir the next day) and he joined us. T and K spent awhile trying to decide where to sleep, again because 10 random people were at T's house just hanging out and playing playstation. You see how nice people are in this kind of situation...I proposed that he just tell them to get out because he needed to get sleep and that statement was met with horrified eyes. Apparently you can't just tell someone to get out. They slept at someone else's house that night. After dinner they dropped us off at Hotel Tibet, because Tenkyi was there with a bunch of people she did not want to hang out with and we had to come and get her. Again, too nice to not hang out. Dickyi was on an important call, so I hung out with Tenkyi and pretended I had to take her away. Dickyi was still on the phone so me and Tenkyi just walked and talked and we went to Last Chance and just talked and hung out. It was really fun and I was glad I could hang out with Tenkyi.

The next day was so amazing. We got up early, around 6:30 or something, and met Khewang and Tenam downstairs. I was riding with Tenam and Dickyi with Khewang. There are seriously no words for the trip. It was totally amazing. It was awesome to be driving so fast on a bike and the mountain roads were incredibly beautiful. The trees and the rivers all looked so pristine and kind of sublime. I thought I would be scared, but I wasn't at all. I had a helmet on, and Tenam is a really experienced driver, who is used to biking around in Delhi, and I really expected to be more worried than I was, which was not at all. Even on the curvy, narrow mountain roads or when we were passing trucks that were centimeters from us. I was surprised, since I am usually much lamer and scared. The drive was about two and a half hours to chauntara and it felt like two seconds. The weather was perfect, sometimes threatening rain but for the most part sunny and cool, and the scenery was really beautiful--more beautiful than Dharamsala and less spoiled somehow. We saw winding rivers lined with smooth gray stones, mountaintops fringed with trees, beautiful tea gardens, rice paddies, and all of it was gorgeous and we were going so fast and the weather was so beautiful. And the breeze felt so good. Khewang is a bit less experienced than Tenam so my job was to make sure they were sitll behind us, until it got a little exhausting and we just rode behind them. When we got to Chauntara, we went to Tenam's house and met his family and ate breakfast. Tenam's house was huge--pink and the biggest I've seen yet in India. They are well-off because his dad is a high lama. It was cool to meet his dad, and Dickyi got her prayer beads blessed. Tenam's older brother was there and he is so funny--he's the opposite of Tenam. He's kind of a thug and wears shirts that say things like "hustle 2 get paid 4 life" and doesn't work and just kind of hangs out. Apparently everyone loves him though--Tenam says he is very popular. He was just very funny. They took us to a big monastery there and it was really cool--we got to see thousands of little stupas in the making. Kunjodorje met us there and we all hung out for a bit. We also went to Khewang's house, which is at a TCV nearby. His mom works there and has worked there for 30 years, teaching Tibetan.

Khewang has a very sad story--his father died around three years back. Tenkyi and Dickyi say that Khewang's parents' marriage was the best they had seen among their friends. Their parents were very much in love and Khewang absolutely adored his dad. K went to Delhi U also and every break, he would go and be with his Dad, who was a high ranking army officer, wherever he was stationed. Three years ago, K had a break from school and wanted to go visit his dad, but his dad was like no, you stay in Delhi and do your school shopping. During that break, there was an accident and K's dad's car fell off the edge of a cliff. K told Dickyi that if he had gone to visit his dad, he would have died too, since he always went everywhere his dad went.

Anyway, Khewang's mom is so nice and loves Dickyi and Tenkyi and she loves her teaching job. She's worried about Khewang right now, because I think he has kidney problems and he also has had recent problems with his stomach and feeling sick. Before we left I left him the Tums I brought along with me, in case those help. When we were there, she was all in a tizzy because the next day was the school fair and she had to run a pancake selling booth.

We left K's house after a short time to go to Pandoh, which takes about 2 and 1/2-3 hours to get to. Pandoh has a Tibetan settlement in it/is a Tibetan settlement (not sure)and we were going so that Dickyi could visit her grandfather on her dad's side and Khewang has some family there. Me and Tenam had no business there whatsoever, but just went along. The ride was, as always, amazing. They said that our bottoms would hurt from sitting on the bike and that our legs would cramp up, but nothing of the sort happened. I think it was around this time that we decided (or the boys decided) that it would be best to stay a night in Chauntara and head back in the morning in time for our bus to Delhi, since it would be too hard to drive all the way back. We would stay at Khewang's house.

When we got to Pandoh, it was kind of hot and kind of in the middle of nowhere. The community was walled and contained. It took us awhile to find Dickyi's grandfather's house, but it was such a small settlement you could just ask around. We weren't planning on spending a whole lot of time in Pandoh and we didn't--probably around an hour and a half. We visited Dickyi's grandad for about 30 minutes, some aunt and uncle for 20 minutes, and then Khewang's relatives for like 20 minutes. Then we hit the road back to Chauntara.

The ride back was CRAZY. It started raining/mnnsooning incredibly heavily and we were kind of run off the road. One minute we were driving along and the next we were soaking wet and couldn't see anything. It was too dangerous to drive that way. We found this little shelter thing on the roadside to wait in until the weather cleared up, which happened pretty fast. While we were waiting we ate Maggi and I thought of that poem, "When it Rains in Dharamsala". We got back on the road, thanking god that Tenam's brother gave us raincoats to take along, and made it back to Chauntara, but I was still freezing. We stopped at this roadside place close to Tenam's house and had tea and paranthas. I've never been so glad to have chai before. Me and Dickyi and Khewang then went to Khewang's house and then met up with Kunjodorje and Tenam for dinner at this roadside place where the food was pretty gross and there were incredibly huge bugs of an incredibly gross nature landing on you every couple seconds. Didn't really have much of an appetite. Dickyi hung out with Kunjodorje after that and me and Tenam and Khewang went back to Khewang's house and hung out with his mom and watched TV. Tenam went home and me and Khewang went to sleep. At around 1:30 I let Dickyi back in the house and we went to sleep--it was a good sleep.

In the morning we woke up early and helped Khewang's mom make paranthas. Tenam came over and after we ate breakfast, we went back to Dharamsala. The ride was beautiful but the air hung with a bit of sadness because we were leaving that day. When we got back to Dharamasala, we visited some people and rested and packed. When we headed to the bus depot, all Dickyi's relatives were swarming around helping us with our stuff. Tenkyi, Khewang, Japan, Tenam, and this other friend of Dickyi's were all there and everyone was giving us white scarves, that are supposed to make the journey safe. It was really sad, but no one cried except for Dickyi's cousin. I was reminded again of how kind everyone was. The goodbye was especially sad because it lasted about an hour and a half--the bus was late in leaving and it was just a very prolonged departure.

The bus ride started out horribly. The roads were very curvy and very bumpy and I threw up out the window within the first twenty minutes. I had to suffer through Lower Dharamsala without throwing up because I didn't want to throw up on anyone. As soon as there was a clear spot with noone around I would hurl. But I went to sleep right after that and woke up 11 hours later! Someone had to wake us up in Delhi because we both slept right through everything. It rained in Delhi that morning so it was nice and cool. We hung out with Youdon, Neema, Tum Din, and some other people in Delhi. The main thing we did was see Fantastic Four--we didn't do too much else. Tum Din's friend has a car, so they took us to the airport.