The Road to Dharamshala

I laid my head down on my backpack and tried to rest without falling asleep. I’ve missed a flight before because I fell asleep while waiting to board and I was NOT going to let that happen today.

My attempts to not fall asleep on my bags while still getting a small amount of rest were moderately successful.

Exhausted from the five-hour flight from Guangzhou to Dehli, I struggled to read the flashing flight boards at the terminal. Sleep deprivation was exasperated by the whopping 12.5 hour time difference. "It will be fine soon" I kept telling myself. I was soon on my way to Dharamshala, a mountain town on my first stop through India. I’d be able to lay down on a real bed, get a SIM card, and finally eat food that I hadn’t been carrying with me since I left the United States. The plane to Dharamshala was small and the flight was even smaller; maybe 25 of us were crowded into the waiting area at gate 28C waiting to board. The flight was delayed an hour because of bad weather, but I was optimistic. We all had to leave the gate eventually. Then an attendant announced through a bullhorn, “Flight to Dharamshala is canceled. Board bus to pick up luggage.” So that was that.

Thus began an ordeal of taking an overcrowded bus back to the arrivals terminal, waiting in line for over an hour for the only staff person on duty to process our refunds, and then heading back upstairs to get my baggage refund processed as well. I usually love airports: I love watching family’s faces light up when they’re reunited in the arrivals terminal, I love reading books and relaxing on the flight and allowing myself to not feel guilty about not being productive. But on this day, I was really not having it.

Prerna and I took a selfie at the airport, before we learned that my flight was canceled and we’d end up spending the next 24 hours together.

Fortunately, Prerna Dangi was there to rescue me. Prerna is a pro rock climber and overall badass from Delhi who I met on instagram a few weeks before. I’d been planning to stay at her house during my long layover the night before until my flight into Delhi got delayed by five hours which made the plan impractical. I’d brought over some products she’d wanted from the US in my suitcase, and so she had picked me up from my airport hotel that morning to chat and grab the Lululemon sports bra and related goodies.

Prerna invited me to hang out with her that day since my flight was delayed, which naturally meant going to the local climbing gym. Boulder Box, the new bouldering gym co-founded by Prerna’s climbing partner Vrinda Bhageria, is a gorgeous facility with every amenity you could want at a gym— moon boards, climbing walls spread over two floors, a cafe, library, showers, exercise studio. And it’s all gorgeous. Vrinda was a graphic designer before she went all-in for rock climbing, and you can tell. The space is truly stunning and I felt right at home. I could breathe for the first time since my flight delay in China.

Vrinda spots Prerna while she climbs at Boulder Box.

The view from Prerna’s family’s apartment was all greenery.

I did my absolute best to stay awake until a normal bed time on the first night, because I wanted to adjust to the time zone as quickly as possible. This mission was aided by Prerna’s family, who were wonderful hosts at her second story apartment in a forested neighborhood close to the climbing gym. Her mother served us delicious dal and rice and chutneys and pickled mango and several other dishes that I couldn’t name. We ate and discussed Prerna’s experience as a pro climber in India— it’s not been easy. She told me that she didn’t really have a climbing role model growing up. But she was determined and driven, and she pushed herself. She summited Denali right after college and has been part of several major expeditions around India. She’s now serving as a role model for girls around India, and she regularly gives back by speaking at schools, NGO events, and talking to young women in rural villages about period care and education while she’s trekking in the mountains. She’s low-key my hero at this point. Prerna wants to become a guide but that isn’t easy in India either. She needs to get IFMGA certified, but that requires leading a certain number of climbing routes. And there aren’t enough established in India for that to be a simple task. She’ll also need to get the training and take the exams in the United States, and start guiding there, because she’ll essentially be building the Indian mountain guiding market from scratch. Trekking flourishes but there are not very many technical guiding companies in the country.

I wanted to hear more about Prerna’s experiences but my eyelids had other ideas, and I quickly headed to bed. We hung out in their apartment the next morning, I napped, and then she called me a cab to the bus station. I’d decided to take a 12 hour night bus instead of messing with another flight. $140 cheaper, reliable in any weather, and potentially a bit of an adventure?

Waiting for the bus… I finally found it!

It was definitely an adventure. My taxi driver didn’t speak English and wasn’t sure exactly where he was going. I called the bus company, and the driver didn’t speak English either. But they were able to talk together and figure out what I was supposed to do. That meant I got dropped off in the right spot, but with no idea what to do next. I just… waited. There were lots of buses around, but none that matched the description of what mine was supposed to look like. Did I miss it? Was I in the right place? Did they switch buses? Finally, a guy with a piece of paper (about as official as things got) told me I was in the right place and my bus would arrive soon. Finally I saw the yellow Holiday bus roll around the corner!

By this point, I already had to pee. But there were no bathrooms and I was in a city center, so I decided to wait until we stopped for a bathroom break. We boarded the bus and I was pleasantly surprised by how comfortable the seats were. We drove out of Delhi and I kept waiting for a bathroom stop. And waiting. We never stopped. Not once. My twelve hour night bus turned into twelve hours of holding it, trying to stay hydrated while also not peeing my pants. And because of this, I didn’t sleep a wink on the very long, very windy ride in the dark through the mountains to Dharamshala.

The chairs were actually pretty comfortable. If only I didn’t need to pee…

I did eventually arrive though, and my host in Dharamshala picked me up from the bus stop. I collapsed into bed and didn’t leave the room again until the evening. So much for adapting to the time zone! But I’d finally made it to Dharamshala.