Back in the Himalayas

  Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Our arrival into McLeod Ganj (a high suburb of Dharamsala) was not glamorous. We kind of fell off the bus at 6:30am looking like we felt. Like we had been sitting on an uncomfortable bus all night we very little sleep at all, having been thrown left, right, up and down for the whole trip through the night. It was raining as well so it was a relief to find the taxis waiting for us and that our hotel was only a short distance away. Our chatty driver Mohi, dropped us off and gave us his business card and off he went. Our room was ready for us (we had booked in advance as we knew how tired and grumpy we would be) and we settled down into our very quaint room. The view was amazing from the window, straight down the valley and we could actually see the great lake Sagar as it was so clearWe really wanted to settle down and get some sleep but we were then told, our beautiful room wasn't ours he had made a mistake. Well after checking out the other room we decided to cough up the extra and stay put. Then we got some very welcome sleep! McLeod Ganj has a very high population of Tibetans who are now in exile. Many have fled across the Himalayas on foot to flee the Chinese army and the terrible rule enforced upon them by the dominant Chinese government. However McLeod Ganj is probably more famous now for being the home of the also exiled Dalai Lama. Here the Tibetan people have set up their own Tibetan schools so their language is not lost, their own Government which looks after their community and many help groups and charities which do everything from assisting new refugees when they arrive, to fighting the Free Tibet cause. Many Tibetans set up market stalls and shops and sell the most amazing souvenirs from scarves and blankets to bags, brass ornaments and the most colourful jewellery as you will find anywhereIt so reminded us of Lhasa around the Jakhong Temple where it is similar but on a much bigger scale. It is always raining here. We know this is monsoon season but this is like the fine drizzly we rain of England throughout February. We don't think it is different at other times of the year either as one cafe even had as their wifi password "drizzelgrey". So what does that tell you? ha ha. We did take a walk down the hill to the Dalai lama's home temple. Having been to Tibet we thought we knew what to expect. What we did not expect was a concrete building with just a few flags and a few statues. It is such a shame that they have all felt forced to leave their culture behind and live here with just the few items they have been able to smuggle over the border from Tibet. Whilst we were walking through the town one day, we had  a flyer thrust into our hands telling us there was a video showing of a film called "What Remains of Us?" at a place called the Hope Centre. So late after much searching for this Hope Centre, we eventually arrived to watch the film. There is a link to it here which you can watch on You-Tube in case the video below doesn't workhttp://tinyurl.com/whatremainsofus  If you do nothing else at all this week, we really do urge you to watch this - please. It is a full length documentary however, running for just over an hour but it will be a really worthwhile hour spent understanding a really good cause. After the video showing, we learnt that we can help with some English conversation classes they hold every day. Just to encourage conversation and to help where we can with pronunciation and sentences. It seemed like something we could manage so we went along the next day. The room was full of people and we each took a cushion on the floor and settled down with a small group. It was so noisy in there with everyone chatting awayThere were many monks too and we both really enjoyed our 1 1/2 there. It also gave us the opportunity to ask questions an learn about what they had been through. Bryan had a Thai Lady Monk in his group who was here for just 3 months. Jody had a lady who had made the crossing over the Himalayas in 2010, leaving her family behind. She can never go back. She had only been taking classes for 3 months so was still very unsure about her English. And Jody also had a Tibetan Monk who was Indian born and had been studying English for some time so was very good. There were others who seemed to flit between groups and most of the time we had about 4 students each. It was extremely gratifying for us and I hope we didn't teach them any bad habbits! On our last day here we took a walk to the waterfalls. They were about 3km away and it was raining. Again. Hard. Oh well we are here now so off we went all wrapped up with Bryan's new umbrella glowing like a beacon. Not very intrepid but it served the purpose. We stopped for a hot drink near the falls before making our way up to the top. It was very pretty. Off back to the hotel for a hot shower and some dry clothes, we had our last meal in Jimmy's Italian before heading back to pack. Taxi all booked for tomorrow. We have really enjoyed it here and shall definitely take a little piece of it with us in our hearts [gallery columns="4" ids="8143,8149,8152,8155,8162,8168,8172,8182,8188,8196,8202,8206,8214,8219,8222,8226,8228,8232,8237,8242"]