Jamal Metro

Frankfurt, Germany

The first stop towards my gate was EU customs. There were several lines and the one I needed was the "foreign passport" holder line. Unfortunately, there were was a huge crowd of people in line. Knowing that waiting would truly screw me over I ran over to the only empty line entitled "EU Diplomats." I ran up to the sleepy German customs officer and quickly told him of my predicament and that I was about to miss my flight. Checking my passport, he said "Ja, Ja, Ja, its always Americans who are late, go ahead." Thanking him I headed to my next obstacle, airport security. Thinking that it was like security back in the states I stripped off my shoes, belt and took out all of my liquids as I waited in the security line. Much to my dismay, I actually didn't have to do any of those things and embarrassingly but put back on all of my clothes before I went through security. Emerging from security I realized that I was at Gate 2 and needed to get to Gate 67. I began my 2 km run down the terminal, I could almost taste India. The Frankfurt International Airport really is a beautiful airport, unfortunately, I wasn't really able to enjoy the architecture. I must have run past hundreds of stores along the way and felt like an idiot as I was the only one running while everyone else was walking leisurely. 65 gates later, exhausted, sore and sweaty I got to the gate just as they were beginning to pull up the ramp. The Indian attendant at the gate saw me and exclaimed "Glad you could join us today!"as he scanned my crumpled ticket. I tried to say in response, "Glad to be here!" but it came out more like "ghuh to bheh he" . As I walked in the plane, the female flight attendent greeted me with a warm "Namaste! Oh Sir! Your panting!" I gave her a grunt as I walked to my seat at the back of the plane. I sat down, completely drained, it felt like I'd just run a cross-country race back in high school. I popped in my headphones as the engines on the plane revved up I checked to see what the in-flight movies were. Mamma Mia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. It was a nine hour flight to Delhi. FML.

New Delhi, India

Two bad movies and nine hours later I was walking off the plane and taking my first steps in India. Heading off the plane we were funneled into a health check line, as apparently I lived in a N1H1 flu country. Apparently, people in Germany, India and rest of the world have dubbed it the "American flu" as for some reason were to blame for everything that goes wrong. After the health check which was a joke(all they did was check my health questionnaire card that checked if I had flu symptoms) I passed through customs to the baggage claim. The Indira Gandhi Airport is pretty like any other airport, huge terminals, tons of people and signs everywhere, except the one difference was the dozens of soldiers patrolling in pairs with rottweilers, sub-machine guns and rifles with bayonets. Yay!

Exiting the airport was pretty intimidating. There is only one exit for international flights and its this long pathway with gates on both sides. Taxi drivers with signs lined up both sides, yelling, trying to find their passengers. I found my uncle, Kalsang Phuntsok la at the very back, sitting on a bench. Cho Kalsang la, or Cho Khapi la, is the former president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest Tibetan NGO in India. After a warm greeting we headed out into the blistering Delhi heat of 110 degrees and jumped in a taxi. Ironically, the driver was blaring the Jai Ho song aka the slumdog millionaire theme song. Ridiculous.

After an hour long taxi ride we made it to Majnu-Ka-Tilla, the Tibetan Colony in Delhi. Majnu-Ka-Tilla is the main district of Tibetans in Delhi and was my first experience with a tibetan community in India. The district itself is very self-contained and the majority of hotels, restaurants and shops were Tibetan owned and operated. We hunkered down for the night at Hotel Tibet. The next morning my cousin, Tenzin Chokyab came down from Dehra Dun, where is attending University to meet up with us. We traveled around Delhi during the day, seeing the old castle that the Mughal king ruled from in Delhi.
It was pretty amazing to see the architecture and also to learn that a Muslim used to rule India. On the way to the castle I got a firsthand look of the streets of Delhi. Looking out through the side of the auto rickshaw I saw the craziness that is Indian traffic. There are rules on the road, but they are more like suggestions, as everyone tries to race ahead of one another on the streets. Horns, are used very liberally here and are in as common use as using a turn signal back in the States.

After a short day in Delhi we boarded the bus to Dharamsala. The bus up to Himachal Pradesh was CRAMMED. There were western tourists, monks, Tibetans and Indians all crammed into a small space for the 12-hour overnight journey. The bus ride itself starting in the evening, we would arrive at our destination at 6 AM. I didn't sleep the whole night, instead I hunkered down in my seat and looked out the window to see as much of the Indian countryside as I could.