Gunga Galunga

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Well, the date has finally been nailed down. On October 28, 2011 the world as we know it comes to an end. I guess I should not say 'finally', as the Mayan people calculated this date as 'the end' thousands of years ago. All this is according to a long haired, slightly bearded Slovenian guy staying at my friends guesthouse. Ulosh was a bit of an extreme hobbyist, and the other day he gave a casual two hour presentation on the 'potential end of the world topic' to me and a handful of other travelers, as he smoked hand-rolled cigarettes. A little out there, maybe, but nonetheless I found it pretty interesting.

Dharamsala is actually pretty full of interesting people. Two weeks ago I came up here from Amritsar, only intending to spend a few days in the area. However I found it is a cool place with a rich local culture and an equally interesting community of travelers, so I got drawn in for a bit longer. To call this place India, though, is a stretch. Dharamsala is the home of the Tibetan government in exile, and as such the town seems to mostly be run by tibetan refugees. The buddhist and Tibetan vibe dominates here, making it completely different than the rest of India. Relatively small crowds, few beggars, and a gigantic ratio of foreigners are just a few of the most obvious differences.

I spent my time here exploring the area (set beneath the Himalayas), learning about Tibet and the dire situation with the Chinese government, and learning a ton about travelers from other countries. It was a good time! I will try to vomit up all the input that I took in as understandably as possible, but here is a quick list of some random things I did in the past couple of weeks:

- I hung out with a few Canadians, and found out they really are too polite
- I heard a Tibetan refugee tell his story
- I leaned a lot about Tibetan culture
- I ate a lot of momos (a kind of dumpling, street vendors sell four of these for about $.25)
- I got sick for a few days
- most people I know got sick
- I walked in the woods a good bit most days
- I meditated once
- I hiked up to some awesome waterfalls with a German backpacker
- The German challenged me to a cold-water off in the river. I lost, but she got a cold right afterward.
- I randomly reunited with Tom and Hilah, a couple of Israelis that became good friends in Amritsar and decided to come to Dharamsala early.
- I read Shantaram, an interesting book that you should look into if you have the chance.
- I learned that everyone likes to rip on how cocky and ignorant Americans are, but secretly they really just want to be us, and like, live in the states.
- I declined unsolicited hash sales ~50 times
- I watched a pirated copy of Watchmen, and thought it sucked. At one point the DVD switched to German for five minutes. And I know the guy is shining blue and all powerful, so, why can't he throw some shorts on?
- I met another Humboldt State grad
- I stargazed a lot from the roof of my guesthouse, the skys are very clear out here
- I saw the Dalai Lama in person! The robes, bald...striking.

Well, I think that covers some broad strokes. I had a lot of fun here, and I also feel like I learned a lot. The international influence here makes for good conversation. Everybody is curious about how small things work in each other's country. Usually people are curious about day to day stuff, like what people do for a living, if stereotypes are true, and so on. Travelers are always wondering if college is really the way it is portrayed in American movies. Its funny, American Pie also apparently had a big influence on our image abroad! I'm curious too, and I've picked up a lot of details about other countries. Like in Israel, everyone is required to join the army for two to three years right after highschool, and then they ALL travel abroad. This leads to a small country constantly having hordes of travelers abroad, leading Indians to believe that Israel must be a gigantic place. In Europe most kids go to highschool (which they call college), and then travel for about a year. After that they go to college, which they call university. Anyway, learning about, and then making fun of each others countries never seems to get old.


I also spent a lot of time visiting the buddhist temples, and attending educational events. I was shocked when I listened to the Tibetan refugee speak. I didn't know much about the situation in Tibet, and this was kind of the first eye opener. Basically, China has been committing a cultural genocide and violent oppression of the Tibetan people for over 50 years now. The speaker this night, who was born and raised in Tibet, was thrown in jail for five years after publicly protesting the Chinese government for about 5 minutes in a town square. The crazy thing is, he knew this would happen. He knew he would be arrested right away, but he couldn't just watch his culture be destroyed any more. His cohort was jailed for 6 years, getting an extra year just for carrying a Tibetan flag, in Tibet. They were both practically starved, beaten, and tortured during there time in prison. When you see something like this, where over 1 million people have been killed (out of a Tibetan population of only 6 million) you wonder how the hell the rest of the world doesn't put a stop to it, how it is just accepted. Like now, my guidebook resignedly states that the chances of a liberated Tibet are getting slimmer and slimmer as China becomes a more important player on the world stage.

The important and amazingly depressing Tibetan situation aside, I have to say I really enjoyed Dharamsala. It is an easy place to relax in good company, eat good food, and generally enjoy a lot of western comforts like good pizza on the cheap. My hotel room, which I split with a Canadian, was only costing me $1 a night, crazy cheap even for India. Actually, to tell the truth, I think I was having a little bit of 'travelers guilt' for taking it too easy. I hadn't been on a ridiculously overcrowded bus in two weeks! I fixed this yesterday, and of course immediately regretted it. I decided to come up to Kashmir, often touted as the most beautiful place in India (also often described as the most dangerous). After a relatively painless 6 hour trip to the inbetween town of Jammu, me and a couple of Koreans went about trying to find a way up to Srinigar, the most famous city in Kashmir. We settled on a sleeper bus, that was supposed to take ten hours to go about 180 miles. The inside of the bus was so hot it had everybody dripping with sweat, it was literally like a sauna. Additionally, the bus driver stopped so frequently that the trip took 15 hours! In the states it would of taken three hours to go the same distance, how does a country operate this inefficiently!? I think they have a rule here that says the closer a bus gets to an intended destination, the more often the driver must pull over and stop the vehicle for no apparent reason.

Anyway, I am in Srinagar right now and am about to go look for a houseboat on the famous Dal Lake, should be good times. The internet connection is very bad, so I am unable to load pictures up right now but I will do so soon. Hope this was coherent!

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Comments

[Beth]

I'm impressed!
Hey Beau great entry on dharamsala and travels to srinagar. Very interesting stuff and observations from dharamsala. also impressed you got to see dalai lama--he was ill while we were there, so we turned to the great pizza. You are such an adventurer! keep it up, and I look forward to following your blog and travels--enviously, hah! a Beth