23rd-24th August
So from Amritsar, with everyone together and safe and well in the truck, we headed north into the foothills of the Himalayas. Except, we didn't quite make it to our planned destination.
Late afternoon, after driving through narrow mountain passes, we made it to a bridge that had a sign saying that nothing over 9 metric tons could cross as there had been damage and it might fall into the raging monsoon filled river below. As we are well over this limit, we had to turn back and return to the previous town (an hour or so back down the road) and try a different route.
But darkness fell so we had to find somewhere else for the night. As there was only a sheer rock face, camping was out of the question so we found a hotel called 'The Grand View Hotel'! So we went up to the room, and soon came back downstairs. The room wasn't clean at all and there were bedbugs and creepy crawlies everywhere. And the room had no cooler so we would have roasted overnight.
So most people elected to sleep downstairs in sleeping bags in the foyer in the relative clean (though accompanied by mice), fan cooled room. Alex, who had a cold, slept soundly through the night, but for the rest of us it wasn't the best night's sleep! Sleep was not aided by the smell of the toilets and the weird man who tried to seduce one of the group and then come and sleep in the middle of everyone, however he was promptly turfed out!
In hindsight, we think that this place was in fact a brothel and we were the only proper visitors it has had in a long time! So we left very quickly the next morning.
So eventually we arrived at our destination, Dharamsala. This town is 5kms away from our ideal destination, McLeod Ganj, but the truck couldn't make it up there! McLeod Ganj is the exiled home of the Dalai Lama. So we thought we would pop round for a cup of tea and see if he was in.
He was, but unfortunately due to his hectic schedule, he was unable to entertain us. So we had a look round his house anyway. Anything electrical was banned so we have no photos from inside but there is one of the outside.
This little village was a haven full of Tibetans and didn't really feel like India at all! There were Buddhist monks wandering the streets and prayer flags hanging everywhere.
We stumbled upon a walk that there were no other westerner's on. It had prayer flags and wheels lining the path and temples and hawks everywhere. All very interesting! But after we ate copious amounts of banana bread and drank milkshakes - which were delicious!
That evening, we were invited by some of the others in the group to a night of traditional Tibetan singing and dancing. What a lovely way to round off our time in mini-Tibet.
It turned out just to be a one man band doing everything. So, while sitting on a classroom floor, this man who was a bit like a really weird Will-I-Am (hard to imagine I know!) started with a song. This was lovely and everything but not great.
Then the dancing started. There were a number of 'dances', with one of them involving about 300 spins whilst doing different hand actions and facial expressions.
Then came the weird stuff. He started literally picking people up from the audience and trying to carry as many as he could at one time. One lady nearly fell off onto her head so wasn't best pleased. The next 'dance' involved him crawling up to everyone individually and staring into their eyes from as close as possible. This might have been OK apart from the fact he was sweating profusely and he long hair was dripping on you and his saturated forehead pressed up against each member of the audience. Then he stood up, ran to the front and started running into each of the walls and stripping in a frenzied manner. The best bit of the whole performance was when, whilst spinning like a whirling dervish, he through his shirt off and it went straight out of the only window on that wall that couldn't have been any bigger than an A5 bit of paper. Clean through. Without even looking. Best bit.
This guy was either high on drugs, possessed, or didn't belong outside of a padded cell.
One of our more arty colleagues said it was an amazing personal expression of feeling oppressed in Tibet and the freedom he now feels. We still think it was weird as.
Apart from that, our first impression of Tibet was good. But first, more of India and off to Delhi!
So from Amritsar, with everyone together and safe and well in the truck, we headed north into the foothills of the Himalayas. Except, we didn't quite make it to our planned destination.
Late afternoon, after driving through narrow mountain passes, we made it to a bridge that had a sign saying that nothing over 9 metric tons could cross as there had been damage and it might fall into the raging monsoon filled river below. As we are well over this limit, we had to turn back and return to the previous town (an hour or so back down the road) and try a different route.
But darkness fell so we had to find somewhere else for the night. As there was only a sheer rock face, camping was out of the question so we found a hotel called 'The Grand View Hotel'! So we went up to the room, and soon came back downstairs. The room wasn't clean at all and there were bedbugs and creepy crawlies everywhere. And the room had no cooler so we would have roasted overnight.
So most people elected to sleep downstairs in sleeping bags in the foyer in the relative clean (though accompanied by mice), fan cooled room. Alex, who had a cold, slept soundly through the night, but for the rest of us it wasn't the best night's sleep! Sleep was not aided by the smell of the toilets and the weird man who tried to seduce one of the group and then come and sleep in the middle of everyone, however he was promptly turfed out!
In hindsight, we think that this place was in fact a brothel and we were the only proper visitors it has had in a long time! So we left very quickly the next morning.
So eventually we arrived at our destination, Dharamsala. This town is 5kms away from our ideal destination, McLeod Ganj, but the truck couldn't make it up there! McLeod Ganj is the exiled home of the Dalai Lama. So we thought we would pop round for a cup of tea and see if he was in.
He was, but unfortunately due to his hectic schedule, he was unable to entertain us. So we had a look round his house anyway. Anything electrical was banned so we have no photos from inside but there is one of the outside.
This little village was a haven full of Tibetans and didn't really feel like India at all! There were Buddhist monks wandering the streets and prayer flags hanging everywhere.
We stumbled upon a walk that there were no other westerner's on. It had prayer flags and wheels lining the path and temples and hawks everywhere. All very interesting! But after we ate copious amounts of banana bread and drank milkshakes - which were delicious!
That evening, we were invited by some of the others in the group to a night of traditional Tibetan singing and dancing. What a lovely way to round off our time in mini-Tibet.
It turned out just to be a one man band doing everything. So, while sitting on a classroom floor, this man who was a bit like a really weird Will-I-Am (hard to imagine I know!) started with a song. This was lovely and everything but not great.
Then the dancing started. There were a number of 'dances', with one of them involving about 300 spins whilst doing different hand actions and facial expressions.
Then came the weird stuff. He started literally picking people up from the audience and trying to carry as many as he could at one time. One lady nearly fell off onto her head so wasn't best pleased. The next 'dance' involved him crawling up to everyone individually and staring into their eyes from as close as possible. This might have been OK apart from the fact he was sweating profusely and he long hair was dripping on you and his saturated forehead pressed up against each member of the audience. Then he stood up, ran to the front and started running into each of the walls and stripping in a frenzied manner. The best bit of the whole performance was when, whilst spinning like a whirling dervish, he through his shirt off and it went straight out of the only window on that wall that couldn't have been any bigger than an A5 bit of paper. Clean through. Without even looking. Best bit.
This guy was either high on drugs, possessed, or didn't belong outside of a padded cell.
One of our more arty colleagues said it was an amazing personal expression of feeling oppressed in Tibet and the freedom he now feels. We still think it was weird as.
Apart from that, our first impression of Tibet was good. But first, more of India and off to Delhi!
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