Dharamsala: Welcome all you Westerners, hippies, wannabees, and charras smoking israelis

My last night in Amritsar was really a blast. In the morning a new group of people arrived to accompany Reza (the Iranian who I found out was Kurdish) and I. There was a Swedish guy named Jus a British guy named Jeremy but he preferred to be called Jez. I got lost around town and frustrated with Indians (something I will address later on) but all and all it was a good day. We all decided to meet up at 3 to go to the Wagha border closing ceremony with Pakistan. What a blast that was. You enter the gates and are paraded around the gates and walked right past the gates that separate Pakistan and India. You can see the black dressed paki soldiers staring back at you while taking pictures through the gates. It was fun to stare back at an army that is maintaining the security of the worlds most wanted man. It was also great to see the difference between the order of the Pakistan side and the chaos and disorder of the Indian side. There were at least 5,000 plus Indians screaming and wearing patriotic colors while shouting Bharti YARRRRRRR!!!! ( Bharat is the real name in hindi for India). The huge Indian guards ushered us foreigners into the VIP section away from the Indian hooligans (this was a good thing because we got a better view of the action). Besides a whole lot of shouting and dancing to crazy Punjabi hits the Indians do this thing where they take turns running at the border fence with a flag. I told jez that I had to do this because it looked like so much fun. I ran down and grabbed a flag while the crowd cheered for this crazy orange turbaned white boy to run at the pakis waving there green, orange and white flag. IT was a riot. They even cheered louder as I ran back from the gates waving the flag furiously. It was so much fun to taunt those paki soldiers with the Indian flags even though they were clutching huge AKs. Watching the huge (At least 6’3 indian soliders) stomp and do all the hullabaloo that signifies the border is closed for the night was a great fun and the Indians would go wild every time they did some crazy stepping motion or twirled there guns. It was definitely the most ordered thing I have seen in India (to marching not the people). The pakis do the same thing and it gets even more exciting when the gates are swung open and both sides try and outdo eachother. While the paki soldiers have much cooler uniforms the sheer madness on the Indian side seemed like a lot more fun. After we got back we grabbed some chocolate chip ice cream from chocolate world (the best ice cream I have had in India) and headed for the communal eating halls of the golden temple to grab some coconut rice pudding, dal and chapati. We then stayed up trading stories about India and where I decided to go to dharmasala with jez the next morning.

(some people may really hate me after reading this but this is my reality)

Dharmasala is probably the most disappointing place I have been in India. I am not going to lie that the western comforts such as clean kitchens, mutton (goat) momos made by a Belgian owned café, cable TV, clean rooms, and American products weren’t nice after 2 months in India but dharmasala might as well be a western city with open sewers. I find it very odd that many hippies, lost souls, travelers, wannabes, backpackers and charas smoking Israelis come here to crash for months to find peace and serenity. There is no need to fly to India and come to dharmasala for this. The only thing I find redeeming about this place is that they have amazing bagsu cake (this graham cracker, caramel and chocolate slice of heaven) and the Dalai Lama lives here but he is in America. The views are not that great considering it is in the Himalayas, it feels like the west, there are so many white wannabe monks/nuns, old men and ladies trying to relive there hippy days that it just feels so fake to me. I am happy that these people may be able to find happiness here if that is the case but in my own feelings it feels like another Indian spiritual center devoid of anything spiritual. To make it worse most of the Tibetans here try to act so western in jeans, 50 cent posters, and fake logo shirts. If anything the mass of tourists are just helping to destroy the Tibetan culture they seek out. Unfortunatly I really feel that we are helping the Chinese destroy a unique culture by making it so exotic and unique. Jez was telling me this is exactly what has happened in Africa (he just did Cairo to Cape town in a truck) saying that many of the once unique cultures are just tourist havens that sell nothing but tourist oriented rubbish culture. This didn’t stop me from enjoying my cornflakes, momos, bagsu cake, movies, and relaxation but it did disturb me. I don’t know if I have just become jaded after traveling around India or if I just experienced dharmasla ( I keep saying dharmasala but everything really happens in mcleod ganj/ bagsu and the Israeli invaded city of dharmakot) in the wrong way but after 3 days I was definitely ready to get the hell out of there. I am glad that I did go because I say many of my friends that I had met in India included the first person I met when I was in Mumbai an Israeli girl named gabi who I spent a whole day with playing chess with her friend tomer and enjoying the rain. After my interesting experience I took a bumpy 8 hour night bus from dharamsala to Kasol a hippy Israeli enclave in the kulu valley not to far from manali. This place is famous for its views, really interesting towns within a days hike and charas which has created some major drug issues in the area resulting in suspicious disappearances. I feel like if you took out the amazing mountain views this place could be in tel aviv. There is more Hebrew than Hindi and the hummus is excellent and the pita even better. I will probably hang around here for a few days and then head to manali to do some trekking. I wanted to go to kinnar or spitit but they just got a load of snow and the passes will be closed and most people say they will stay like this for 10-15 days which is after I go home. As long as I can stay in the mountains and avoide the heat of the low lands it should make for a last 2 weeks in India.

So an addition after I was about to post. Someone said something really funny to me this morning. At about 4 am this israeli girl and i got booted off the bus and had to sit in this empty bus station save for 5 homeless guys, 3 cows, 2 dogs and 2 mules (what the hell). SO i start talking and she tells me you are going to love kasol its so amazing it feels like real india to me. And I ask her why is that??? She replies because the charas (weed) is good, the parties are great, the people are so nice and the food is amazing. I asked her it still feels like india even though the isrealis outnumber the indians, most of the food is israeli? She looked at me shocked and said yah so.... Besides being touristy its stilla great place i just thought that may sum up the israeli backpacker attitude to me. They claim to want the true india but I have met so many that refuse to take trains, fly to many places, only ride deluxe buses, haggle over everything so people dont make any money and true india to them is getting ripped of some manali hash and sitting in there room with other israelis. I mean i like the isrealis but I can't really understand that mentality. Damn American.

My trip is almost done,

Ben

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