Goodbye Time

I can't pretend it wasn't sad to say goodbye to everyone. First goodbye was a couple of monks who had to leave the day before I was going. That's when I realised, I didn't really want to leave. It wasn't really something I wanted to do.
The last day I asked to take a photo of all the monks together, and was caught unaware with a surprise leaving ceremony. They all produced white scarves, lined up and presented them to me, one by one. So I'm now carrying more scarves than I now what to do with. One from each monk. That's 50+ scarves. And some of them gave me gifts, it was all very gratifying.
I left at 6.00 when it was still dark. Some of them hurried goodbyes before rushing off to prayers. And that's how I left them. Pinned up a goodbye note and took off.
Next I had to say goodbye to some of my friends, who I'm sure I won't see for a long time. That was really sad.
So that's the biggest lot of real goodbyes I've ever had to make.

So it's back on the road. I love it. We're in Shimla right now. Michael Palin's hang out. Not doing particularly much, just being here. It's eerily quiet and clean. Hmm.

Leaving Puruwala feels better now. It feels like I left with an amazing impression and perhaps left some sort of impression myself, so the experience is complete now, and no one can change it anymore.