Day 31 to 37 (March 1-7) - Dharamsala & McLeod Ganj

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Blog by Bronia

After leaving Darjeeling we made a 27 hour train journey back to Delhi. Having never spent so many consecutive hours on any mode of transport anywhere in the world before we didn't know what to expect other than it was going to be looong.

I can confirm it was both long and tedious getting feelings of cabin fever towards the 20th hour! Despite the decent class ticket we booked, sitting in a carriage on bunk beds for 27 hrs whiling away the time and hearing endless calls of "Chai chai garam chai" ('tea tea hot tea') as well as the countless offers for bottles of water, newspapers, flashlights, inflatable pillows, casio watches, calculators, travel blankets, electronic keyboards (we couldn't figure that one out - what use do you have for a keyboard on a train?) and booksellers down the carriage was a little wearing. It didn't seem to matter what the hour and they seemed to feel there would be an equal demand to buy a keyboard at 6pm as there would be at 6am. And ‘no’ doesn’t seem to register until they have offered you about 6 different items poking each one through your private curtain into your bunk to examine at closer quarters.

This is the way of the Indian trains. They are remarkable beasts of technology and the network that the British built across the country during the time that it was part of the Empire and it still employs over 2 million Indians per year to run it. It is an admirable feat of engineering and maintenance, not to mention an efficient way to travel, but I would not attribute the adjectives clean, enjoyable, peaceful, comfortable or quick to it at all !

We spent one night in Delhi at a funky hotel with arty rooftop café overlooking the travellers quarters of the city (Paharganj area) which the Lonely Planet states is the ‘seedy’ part of town but we found it was by far the best area in Delhi we’d been in with a real hippy 'vibe' to the place. From here we decided to trial our first experience on a bus to take us north of Delhi to Dharamsala & McLeod Ganj - home of the Dalai Lama.

According to the Lonely Planet - in May 1949 the newly established Communist government of China decided to 'liberate' what they felt were the downtrodden masses of Tibet by taking over their country. Fearing for his life, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, went into exile in 1959. Accompanied by a small entourage the Dalai Lama crossed the Himalayas by foot for a week before arriving in India. He made his new home & base in Dharamsala and ever since then over 250,000 Tibetans have followed in his footsteps settling in Dharamsala, Darjeeling & other mountain communities in India.

We had found Darjeeling had mostly a Nepalese influence with a few Tibetans whereas Dharamsala and it's sister town McLeod Ganj (now practically merged into one) is predominently Tibetan. To visit Dharamsala is to feel as though you have crossed to a different country.

The bus journey overnight was a 12hr bumpy ride round bends in the road and climbing up and up to the Himalayas again. As dawn broke at about 5am our bus approached Dharamsala and spectacular views of steep mountains and valleys could be seen.

We found a lovely hotel that afforded views across the town and valley in which it was nestled up to the foothills and Himalayan peaks behind and booked in for a few days making this a base to explore the area before heading south again for Dave's much anticipated cricket Test Match (more in next blog).

On our second day, sitting in "Nick's café" which became our favourite daily haunt, we met a fabulous couple, Sid & Kerry from Worcester England and their German friend Alex whom they had met and been travelling with for 3 weeks in northern India.

The five of us struck up such a good relationship chatting about travel experiences, as you have probably gathered one does with extreme regularity when travelling, and sharing stories of home (UK) and Germany, that for the remainder of our stay we were all pretty much inseparable. It was great and again, one of the fabulous experiences and memories that we are getting whilst travelling. It is not simply the experience seeing the country and it's people which is so captivating about travel, but also the meeting of other like-minded travellers who have the same desires as we do to see the world and who have left their lives for a few months or a year to simply live, travel and absorb. But I digress...

We went for a small hike to a waterfall, though not very big, where huge rounded boulders were scattered down a narrow valley with a small rushing stream gurgling its way between boulders and the valleys edge. This is where the town comes to do its daily laundry. Wandering along the valley path you could look down at the women and men scrubbing their sheets and clothing against the rocks and then laying them out on the larger slabs of rock to dry in the sunshine. Further down women were bent over double washing their hair in the river with their trousers and skirts hitched up to their knees. We all sat and had a coffee soaking in the atmosphere and commenting on the serene calmness that the town had that was so distinct from the more frenetic and aggressive side of India we had hitherto experienced.

Oh - don't get me wrong - the beggars, lepers and eager salesmen were still there and calling to us to give them rupees and buy their wares, but it seemed tempered with the Buddhist atmosphere that was ever present here as we walked past monks in their saffron and red robes and women twirling Buddhist prayer wheels in their hands. Shops were filled with Tibetan artifacts, prayer beads, thankas (meditational paintings), books on Buddism and Tibetan art work and the place exuded peace and serenity.

On one afternoon we walked to the Dalai Lama's official residential complex. His actual modest bungalow cannot be seen from the complex as it is hidden behind security gates with armed guards patrolling but we were able to wander round the complex where he makes public appearances and conducts his teachings. Even that building, despite a grand throne like chair where he sits at the centre facing an open courtyard, was fairly modest with corrugated iron roofing and concrete pillars. Simple and functional - very Buddhist and a stark contrast to some of the glitzy Hindu temples we have seen. It was fascinating watching monks in the grounds 'prostrating' (a combination of standing and then moving to the position of a press-up with the stomach on the floor which is repeated over and over whilst reciting prayers) and people milling in a clockwise (always clockwise) direction round the gompa/temple and turning the prayer wheels as they passed.

We were told that the Dalai Lama was about to conduct his annual 2 weeks of teachings starting March 15 and tourists can get a special security pass to sit in on one of his teachings. Unfortunately for us all, we would be leaving before then due to our travel plans but in the few days we were there leading up to that date we saw the town swell daily with busload after busload of monks who have come to hear the Dalai Lama's words. It was a beautiful sight.

Each day we would rise and meet at Nick's café on their sun terrace and have breakfast and/or lunch whilst looking at the mountain peaks looming high around us with clouds scuttling past.

On our last day at Nick's café we met a monk, Ven Bagdro, who we had seen a few days previously passing out a petition to sign in support of allowing the Dalai Lama speak at global conventions and forums such as the UN on topics such as world peace (we had not even realised that the Dalai Lama was prevented from this to this day). Dave and I had already signed the petition but Kerry, Sid & Alex had not so Ven Bagdro approached our table to get their signatures.

We started speaking to him and he told us of a book he'd written about his life in Tibet, how he was tortured and imprisoned for years by the Chinese and of the grueling experiences he went through. He told us that when he was finally released in the late 1990’s he had to spend a year in a French hospital having multiple surgeries to recuperate. He was an amazing man and he offered to sell a copy of his book for 100 Rupees (1.20Sterling). We bought 2, with it in mind that we would give Bronia’s mother a copy due to her interest in Buddhism. Bronia asked him to sign the book for my mum with an inscription as it was the day of her surgery for cancer. He did (bless him) and then left the café.

Later that day, Kerry & Sid ran into Ven Bagdro again and he approached them asking where Bronia was and gave them a red string of about 30cm in length to pass on. The red string, he told them, is a string that the Dalai Lama blessed over a period of a week and gave some time ago to Ven Bagdro due to the ordeal he had been through. He asked that Bronia give the string to my mum as it is a ‘healing string’ and a rare thing for the Dalai Lama to hand out.

We met Ven Bagdro one last time, the day we were leaving, in Nick’s café and told him how appreciative we were of his gift and was he sure he wanted to part with a gift so precious? He clasped Bronia’s hands and smiled the most warm and beautiful smile saying in broken English, “I do not need this, I am strong and well - give to your mother, she needs.”

Our last night in Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj we celebrated Kerry’s 30th birthday, complete with a fabulous chocolate truffle cake that Sid had organized. The whole restaurant sang Happy Birthday and it was a great evening of laughter.

In the restaurant, which apparently has been frequented by Pierce Brosnan, as is evident by each menu having a picture of him sitting at one of their tables looking none too pleased at having his picture taken in the middle of dinner, we met John (or rather Dave met John in the Gents - as you do !!!) & his partner Lisa, John and Jamie - 4 Brits who had themselves just met the previous day up a mountain - and discovered much to Dave’s glee that they too were going Chandigarh the following day to watch the Cricket Test Match (England vs. India).

So - with 6 of us heading the same direction we decided to share the cost of a jeep for the 6-7hr journey the next day and that is where we will now leave you until our next blog from Chandigarh…..

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Photos

A saddhu - an Indian holy man/priest
These are men who give up the constraints of life to become religious holy men often associated with a particular temple. Unfortunately, far too often they become beggars encouraging tourists to take their picture for money and many are not true priests but men playing dress-up to earn a living.

Views from "Nick's café" terrace
Our daily haunt for breakfast and lunch. Views in the background of the Himalayas falling away to the valley to our right - simply stunning.

Tibetan Gompa 'monastery'
You can see the prayer wheels on the first level - people simply walk off the street and turn them chanting "Om mani padme" which is "Hail to the jewel in the lotus" - the Buddist chant.

Bronia with Tibetan monk at "Nick's café"
Here the monk is writing an inscription to my mum in his autobiographical book about the torture he endured in Tibet, the hospitalisation he had in France & his life with the Dalai Lama now in Dharamsala

Sitting on a terrace having drinks as the sun sets
L to R: Dave, Kerry, Sid, Bronia - photo courtesy of Alex

Washing laundry on the rocks by waterfall
photo courtesy of Alex