India

I'm in Kathmandu now getting settled, but I thought I'd post some pictures from India. I landed in Delhi and went to Majnu ka Tila, the Tibetan refugee area. Unfortunately, I arrived at just before midnight and all the hotels and guest houses were completely full. Lucky for me I met a Tibetan guy who let me stay in his room. It was a small, unheated place no bigger than 8' by 8' but 4 Tibetans were living there - but it beat staying out on the street!

I took the train to Varanasi from Delhi and the train arrived about 10 hours late and by the time we got to Varanasi it was a bit over 26 hours late. I was later told that the trains are late because the track switching is done manually and in the thick fog of winter, they cannot see the signals. When they can't see they have to stop the train to go check the signals.

I arrived just in time to crash the Tengyur Translation Conference in Sarnath and talk to some people about my research.  The conference was interesting and I got to meet a lot of people. I also managed to visit the site of the Buddha's first teaching and catch a glimpse of HHDL before I left!  Anyway, here are the photos:

Trying to sleep on the train. I didn't bring a blanket so I had to use my towel!

The hotel in Sarnath. Looked like a level from some zombie first-person shooter

On the train

Me and a guy from the train

Riding in a tuk-tuk

At a Hanuman shrine