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Published: March 15th 2007
It's hot at last! But we had to work for it. Where were we? Ah yes...the night bus.
We hopped on a pretty rickety bus at 9.30pm for a journey across the foothills to the town of Dharamsala, and more specifically, Macloedganj, home to the Dalai Lama and thousands of Tibetan refugees and monks.
Unfortunately, we got there in good time...5.15am to be precise. And with nowhere booked, we sat about for a couple of hours with just a few mangy dogs for company, until a hotel took pity on us and fed us. It was around about this time that we realised that we were about the only people in town who had come with no specific purpose, and that everyone else in Macloedganj was there for the Dalai Lama's teachings. Beautiful as the location is, and obviously it is a very important place politically and religiously, we both struggled with our lack of direction. In short we just bumbled along. The teachings are of course a major lure, and the many meditation or trekking opportunities mean that most people arrive with a goal, fulfil it, then leave feeling pretty darn good about themselves.
To be fair,
Ant
looking like a toolwe were very lucky to arrive on March 9th, the day before the march for Tibet. It was a real shame that the weather was awful, but it didn't prevent thousands turning out (and presumable many hundreds of thousands more across the world) to show their support for the Tibetan people. It was very moving to be there, amongst a people who have been so appallingly treated. We later discovered an exhibition called 'What if...', which chronicled the history of the Chinese occupation of Tibet, which, if anyone gets the chance, was well worth a look. (I even wrote an email to the Horniman Museum telling them to get it over there!).
We did our bit, and as the photos prove, I wore my placard with pride! Now, I think the placard says 'Stop the Killing in Tibet'. My innermost paranoia tells me 'Look at this twat, who does he think he is?', but a more realistic and equally embarrassing possibility is that it says 'China stole my heritage'. Whilst not strictly true, I could back this up by recounting the time that Wing Yan Lee took the piss out of my accent at school.
We also
Time Machine
Jenny stumbled across this ingenious looking contraption which I believe may be an Indian time machine based on the Delorian in Back to the Future! managed to get ourselves along to one of the teachings, although this was a mournfully shameful episode too. Knowing that thousands make their way to Macloedganj specifically for the teachings, we lasted about an hour and a half before getting a coffee and seeking out a nice walk instead. No excuses (although our cheapy FM radios which are used for translation did cause us an un-Buddhist amount of frustration). It's just, well....it was a bit cold. And it was too nice a day not to stretch our legs. To be fair, I think it was a good call, as our walk coincided with the only spell of our 3 day stay where it wasn't raining pissy icicles out of the dark, cold sky! Also, Jenny found what I think might be an Indian time machine...see pic.
Alas, we didn't seek, and consequently failed to find anything magical or spiritual there...although there was a pretty unearthly onset of cold and rain which made us both reflect deeply on our inner selves...which we found to be about 1 degree above zero. So we plotted a course south, and (hopefully) to the heat.
And so, another overnight bus trip was plotted...
(bit of a theme here, sorry)
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Jolyon
non-member comment
Glad
to see you're both looking well (if a little blurry - get a new camera!) keep up the blogging x