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Published: August 24th 2005
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Temple
Spinning the prayer wheels sends out prayers in all directions Hello everyone! Thank you for all your wonderful e-mails and comments. I know how much support and love you're all sending my way, and I really appreciate it! I am still feeling pretty gnarly, but I just had a couple of bowls of vegetable soup at a Tibetan restaurant, along with some ginger/lemon/honey tea, and I'm feeling stronger than I was an hour ago.
It's SOOOOOO difficult for me to take it easy when I'm in such a cool city!!! Last night I took a train from Jammu to Pathenkot, and then a most horrible bus from Pathenkot to Dharamsala, followed by a taxi ride up the mountain to McLeod Gang, home of the Dalai Lama. First, I waited for an hour for the bus to leave, sitting on the no-airflow bus (very hot and sticky), realizing I was the only female and the only non-Indian on the bus. The bus ride was from 9:30 pm until 1:30 am, and followed a bumpy, winding road up the mountain. When I reached Dharamsala, I was the only one to get off the bus, and I could not find a taxi. At this point I got a little nervous because I couldn't
find anyone and it was pitch black. I turned around and went back to the bus station and then found someone who walked me over to the "taxi station" which I had completely missed because it consisted of a few parked vans with sleeping drivers. I got to my cockroach-infested hotel at about 2 am, marveling at how when I turned on the water in the bathroom sink, it came straight out the bottom and sort of into the drain below, making me wonder why they bothered with the formality of the porcelain fixture. Then I listened to dogs barking and fighting outside for the majority of the night, trying to get comfy on my rock of a bed and the worst pillow ever (my neck is really sore so I'm even pickier than usual). At one point the barks echoed in the hallway so that it sounded like one was outside my door. Sigh...it would be more entertaining if I didn't feel so poopy! Although I have to admit, thinking about it makes me giggle a bit.
The part that's funny is that everything I said is not anything special. Like right now, I'm sitting in an internet
cafe and I just watched five or six cows in a line walk right by the window. No one guiding them, just cows walking down the road together. On my way back from eating soup I watched men try in vain to coax a cow out of their freshly-poured cement. It's not like they can hit or push them, so they just tried to convince it leave. hahaha...that was seriously funny.
So McLeod Gang is a huge Tibetan community complete with a couple of beautiful temples I saw today. One temple in the center of town is covered in prayer wheels, and you walk around the temple clockwise spinning the wheels to send prayers out in all four directons. Inside the temple was one HUGE prayer wheel that constantly has someone spinnng it. I was looking at it and an old Tibetan man aggressively urged me spin it. He was really cute. There are more Tibetans here than Indians, and I think there are more Israeli tourists than the two combined! A LOT of people have mistaken me for being Israeli, especially when I was walking around Delhi with a Colombian guy who looked seriously Israeli (whom by the way knows my friend in Colombia!!! but I'll save the Delhi stories for another entry). One Israeli guy standing with a shopkeeper here who had said "Shalom" to me, commented that he knew I wasn't Israeli, although I would be welcome there anytime. I commented that I was half-Arabic, and he said something beautiful about how it's the politicians that are causing the trouble and that many Israelis don't have a problem with Arabs. I think that to be true, but it's always nice to hear it from someone who actually lives there.
Oh, I almost forgot, I took a Tibetan vegetarian cooking class this morning. I was supposed to go to another one tonight, but I wasn't feeling well enough, and my mom *really* wants me to relax (she knows me and she still thinks it's possible;-)). I learned how to make momos, which are Tibetan dumplings, complete with making the dough, three fillings (vegetable, potato-ginger, and sweet) , and how to shape the dough into three cute traditional shapes. I'm going to have to throw a momo party when I get home!:-D
So that's it for today. McLeod Gang is absolutely breathtaking, and I look forward to *trying* to take it easy here and recovering for a bit.
Lots of Love,
Jessica
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JUAN
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Tikanis JESS
VIVA LA VIDA JESS! Great job, bella. JUAN