to Dharamsala!

Hello all!

another quickie note to say that we reached Amritsar safely on a(scary) night sleeper train. We are becoming tough ladies. At any given time, you can look around and see 100 pairs of eyes on you, 98% of them men. We were supposed to have 6 people in our car, but since there is no door, the men started piling in to stare at us, maybe 15 people?? A bit freaky, but at some point everyone just went to their car and went to bed.

It's nice that there are four of us, and also nice that Kim and Stacie have been toughened up in Kenya for the last 2 years!! They are used to all of the staring and hasseling. It will be nice if our future trains have a ladies-only car, which some of them do.

Aside from the scary train ride, we had a good day and visited the most gorgeous place I have ever seen--The Golden Temple, a very important Sikh holy place. Walking in the marble entryway in our bare feet and laying eyes on the golden temple made all of the hassel worth it!

And tonight we took a trip to the Indian-Pakistani border to watch the cermonial closing of the gate. It's like a football game -- crowds pile into the stands on each side, and India's side shouts and cheers for its soldiers, as they perform the cermonial "dances." The whole thing is set up to symbolize friendship between the two countries, and has been going on since 1947??

And as we are celebrities wherever we go, some women came up and asked to take their pictures with us, and it turns out that the older women is the leader of the Congress Party, one of the major political parties I guess? She kept giving us kisses and taking pictures. Funny! Well, I'm out of time (we each get 15 minutes), but tomorrow we head by bus and train up to Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives... Can't wait! No sleeper car this time.

Love you all - mom, hope your surgery went well, and I love you!
Mand.