Searching for the Dalai.. (Nov 29)

I guess tours arrive at unspeakable hours in Bodh Gaya as well. We were awakened at 4:30 am by a very boisterous group somewhere in the hotel. We're not sure whether they were coming or going but they were not very quiet. We spent the morning trying to get some writing caught us and trying to search for info on the Dalai Lama. We found out while we were at Root that he will be in Dharamsala in December holding a teaching. What a great opportunity!!

Walking near the temple, we encountered a boy (around 12 years old) trying to sell us postcards. He reminded Brad of an Oliver Twist type character. He was explaining that he was a student and wanted us to buy him a book, he was quite persistent. We said no (alot). We told him we were going for a tea (we wanted to discuss our plans of what to do/where to go next) . We invited him to come with us. His name was Pappu. He claimed his village was 3 km away but he had no bicycle so he had to walk. We asked why he wasn't in school (which he said was 1/2 km away) and he brought up the no book thing again. The problem with buying the kids books is that they just sell them back to the shops to get the money - they don't actually go to school. When we sat in the restaurant he told us he wanted some food. Food is cheap, he can't resell it and we wanted a snack anyway so we ordered some pakoras. After saying goodbye to Pappu (still trying to convince us to buy him something) we strolled to the train station. We have decided to move on to Haridwar. The train ticket office keeps some serious banker's hours! They are only open from 8:00 to 2:00 and they have recess from 1:00 to 1:30 (why? I don't know). We got there too late so we walked back, tried to do more internetting (it's pretty awful in the evening to get a connection here), had dinner and just chilled out.