Stopover in Delhi

We arrived in Delhi about 10:20 AM local time after a short flight from Kathmandu. Susie, Chris, Sveta and I all stayed at the Marco Polo last night and got up at 4:30 AM to get to the airport on time. I'm staying at the Ga-Khyil House in the Tibetan Colony (AKA Mandruk Ten La). All the businesses in the entire colony is shut down except for guest houses and in-house restaurants, in protest of the the stituation in Tibet. I was told there is a hunger strike going on as well. I went to the home where I stored a suitcase while I was in Nepal. Apparantly the man of the house was participating in the hunger strike, so it took them a few hours to track down the key to the room where the bags were locked up.

Tomorrow we will get up early and rendezvous at the airport at 5 AM to catch our flights. Susie, Betsi, Chris and Sveta are all flying back the states, and I'm off to Bangalore, where I have two goals, 1) to recover the thousands of photos on the hard drive that failed early in the pilgrimage, and 2) to meet Gonga and Tara (Chris and Kevan) and spend a couple days at the Penukonda Ashram where they have been studying for the past couple years.

Yesterday everyone from the pilgrimage and Khenpo's family all spent time together in various groups and solo explorations around Boudhanath Stupa. Geydak Rinpoche bought tea for a handful of pilgrims including me at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the stupa at sunset. Spectacular lighting and I got some great shots. I was able to purchase the final two offerings for the spring retreat, a pecha (Tibetan style loose leaf book) and a gold and silver plated mandala offering set.

At about 7 PM we all converged over at the nearby Hyatt Kathmandu, a very upscale new hotel. I imagine it is the nicest hotel in the Kathmandu Valley right now. We hung out in Khenpo's room and Chris helped me burn some DVDs of my photos so I could clear off my memory cards and have backups of my photos from Derhadun onward. Then we went to the Hyatt restaurant, and each had the NRS.1250 ($20 USD) buffet. That was easily the most expensive meal we ate on the trip, but it was very nice. The hotel is built to Western standards, so it was a bit like being briefly back in the States.

After the meal we retired to the huge patio near the pool and enjoyed the cool evening weather. Khenpo lead us through the conclusion of the pilgrimage, recalling some of the highlights and then having each of talk to the group much like the end of our Dzgochen retreats with our tradition of expressing, 1) appologies and saying sorry for any regrets, 2) giving thanks and rejoicing in anything good, 3) dedication of merit, and 4) personal aspirations. That's always inspring to hear such personal statements from friends. It it it a great tradition and allows people to let of of regrets and say good things they might not ordinarilly say.

I'm just borrowing a local Tibetan man's computer at the guest house since the local Tibetan Cyber Cafes are all closed, so I'd better sign off for now. I'll be able to write more in Bangalore.

Please pray for my successful hard drive recovery and may it be inexpensive. Prayers also for everyone's safe return to their homes after the amazing pilgrimage. We had so many remarkable experiences together. I've only just barely touched on some of them in this blog, but hopefully I can write more about what took place here or in another medium.