Advertisement
On our way to Dharamshala we had a stopover at the boarder town, Jammu. It was the oddest experience of our trip to date! We arrived at the bus station, travel worn and in good spirits with an English couple we met on the boat. Everything was at first typical, we were obviously attracting attention but we thought no more than usual. Until we sat down and were instantly surrounded by a throng of on lookers, encircling us at arms reach. An unnerving experience made more unnerving by our police guard!
The other couple was slightly more perturbed and we weren’t too sure whether it was the mass of people or the lack of beer!! Anyway, they were so uncomfortable we rushed to a hotel and ended up staying in a room with a cockroach the size of a small pony, a spider convention in the bathroom and bed bugs, fleas and ants having an orgy in the bed! Ahhhhhhhh… Got up early the next day and headed to Dharamshala, just a short 6 hour bus ride! HOORAY!
Dharamshala was a breath of fresh hippie air. We stayed for 2 weeks in McCloud Ganj the home of the Dali Lama.
The atmosphere was so different to Kashmir we instantly felt relaxed and more settled. On the first night we celebrated being together for a year and managing to get away on out trip with some rum punch and a night explore… We had asked the universe to provide us with an affirming experience and lo and behold on our exploration we bumped into a Tibetan couple, who helped us find a lovely, cheap place to stay and became firm friends…
Tsewang and Sonam had been in McCloud for nine months and took us in and made us feel welcomed. It became obvious to us that the Tibetan influence lent the place a more relaxed vibe. That and the endless courses offered in meditation, yoga, and all things ‘spiritual’. The result was a mix of charis smoking hippies/travellers (an equal source of amusement and annoyance to us!), those seeking a different path, Indian tourist and those in between…
We did so much in Dharamshala it’s hard to write it all down in any coherent order, so here are the salient points… Bumping into Chris mate, Julia, and having dinner, introducing her to Tsewang and Sonam and catching up with her
experience and some of those going on back home… Getting caught in an amazing hail storm, in which Katie got totally drenched, managed to traverse the steep mud slide of a path in flip flops only to fall arse over tit on the steps outside our room, to the amusement of our landlord and his family!!! Meeting our neighbors, Kevin (an aging traveler opposed to the idea of dualism) and Kerry (a Canadian girl on the threshold of taking her Buddhist vows) and having some genuine, thought provoking conversations… Visiting Buddhist temples with Tsewang and Sonam and getting a blessing from the Karmapa…Indulging our consumer tendencies.... Meeting Yannick, the owner of the nicest café in town and a genuine, lovely bloke with an amazing love story… Meeting an English (not a hippie but looked like one!!) dude, Alex, who helped prompt us to make one of the biggest and best decisions we’ve made in India (more of that later) and the sharing of completely disgusting slack humor, (dolphin chakra, hippy killing…)… Learning to tie Tibetan jewellery knots with Sonam…Meeting Kate and Amit, providing us the opportunity to realize the obvious next step for us… Tibetan tea/Warm Yak Cum… AND ‘Poulet’
…….
So, we met Alex as we were contemplating buying a bike and he roared into town on his Bullet 350. He and the Bike looked dusty, shagged and happy. That was all we needed and our mind was made up to buy a bike… It took us three days of chasing motorbike tales up and down dusty roads, to out of the way cafes and Indian mechanics until we met Kate and Amit… Who after much consideration (on our part) sold us a beat up, 1984, mish-mash, bright blue, beautiful Enfield 350… After a prophetic dream in which she sounded like a chicken we christened her ‘Poulet’ (Alex christened her ‘Hippy-Killer’!)…
Having Poulet for a couple of days set our feet to itching, we loaded her up, had a happy goodbye dinner (complete with Chris’ inappropriate arse gas!) and a sad goodbye breakfast with Tsewang and Sonam and hit the road… A new sense of freedom and experience of India opened with each turn in the road….
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0502s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
laura
non-member comment
raa
hey big sis, hope things are gin well, and that ur enjoyinurself! Thank-u for th e hand-made card and lil presents i really like them! its good to see you lookin well in the pictures and trust you to be making friends!!will write again soon becarefl, love you lots big hugs xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx