Luckily we\u2019re staying at a fairly good hotel\/hostel, the YMCA (who\u2019d a\u2019guessed?), which has A\/C and reasonably well maintained grounds, meaning that there aren\u2019t a lot of\u00a0mosquitoes\u00a0around. Plus we\u2019ve all been\u00a0briefed\u00a0on the many layers of precaution to take, including long clothes and insect\u00a0replant. \u00a0Only one student has become ill, and she\u2019s still walking and eating, so it\u2019s not\u00a0incredibly\u00a0serious. Hopefully we all get to Bodh Gaya before anything too painful hits one of us.<\/p>\n
New Delhi as a whole is a great city. It\u2019s under a ton of construction now due to the Commonwealth Games<\/a>, to begin in 26 days \u2013 headquartered right next door to the YMCA. The restaurant of choice \u2013 for many years it seems \u2013 for our program director, is the Saravanaa Bhavan<\/a>, a South Indian vegetarian restaurant, just a few blocks from the Y (there\u2019s also a McDonald\u2019s on the same corner, in case you\u2019re really home-sick). There is plenty of shopping, and, taking the usual precautions, the city is pretty safe and orderly.<\/p>\n Someone asked me to compare it to my experience in China last year, and I would say that the city here is in much the same state that the countryside is there. The countryside in China is still in a place of struggle between past and present, tradition and modernization. It\u2019s a lot like that right here in the heart of the Indian capital. \u00a0Meanwhile the cities of China are thoroughly modern (smelly back-alleys and side-streets aside). It\u2019s perhaps impossible to find a clean stretch of roadway here in Delhi, where there is no garbage or abandoned construction materials or broken down vehicles or dead animals, even just 100 yards or so.<\/p>\n The people we\u2019ve met have been a mix. Some have been scammers of one sort or another (taxi<\/a>, hotel, etc), to be avoided or interacted with at your peril. There are homeless people at many intersections and along shopping storefronts, but they tend to be harmless, just asking for a bit of help. There are children, just like the ones you see in Slumdog Millionaire<\/a>, plaintively asking for money whenever we open a bus door at a popular tourist destination. Then there are many helpful people, offering directions, some even accompanying students to their destinations without asking for money or anything else in return.<\/p>\n Overall, the culture shock has been minimal thus far. A\/C, clean comfortable beds, and an easy schedule have helped, along with the \u2018safe food\u2019 locations and access to the internet. All of that changes tonight \u2013 or whenever we leave. Things will be safe and reasonably comfortable inside the Vihar where we are staying, but no A\/C, no internet (there are some cafe\u2019s in town with it, so students can check email each week if needed), and generally more spartan conditions. We\u2019ll also be starting classes and getting up at 5am each day for meditation practice. Then, when we do venture out, it\u2019ll be up to our judgment what to eat and drink and where to stay. I\u2019m sure we\u2019ll survive (the program has existed over 30 years now and only had a couple serious incidents).<\/p>\n I, for one, look forward to being \u2018settled\u2019 again in Bodh Gaya. Perhaps once I\u2019m there I\u2019ll find some way to transfer photos to one of the net cafe computers (they don\u2019t offer wi-fi and my USB device won\u2019t work, but I\u2019ll keep trying). \u2018Till then, safe journeys to you, wherever you happen to be going \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Our time is up in New Delhi, next stop: Bodh Gaya. With some caveats. First our train was to leave at 4pm this afternoon, but was delayed to 7pm, and then four more hours to 11pm. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it\u2019s delayed again and we have to stay the night. It has been a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-3358957385749438353?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\")