Into the Mountains

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We are now in Dalhousie and I am on one of the slowest computers of all time, so I think there will be no photos this time, which is a shame! (Perhaps I'll try and add them later.)

I really liked Dharamsala. It was far too touristy, but it was interesting seeing the Tibetan community in exile. We made it to the Tibetan Museum on Sunday as it was closed on Sat, what with it being the fourth Saturday and all... It was incredibly informative and moving (of course I cried!), reading the history of the Chinese invasion and the treatment of Tibetans now (seeing the torture weapons used), and how the Chinese are trying to obliterate their very culture. It reminded me of why I always said I wouldn't go to China. It's a shame that there isn't more of a boycott of China - I guess it's so powerful. They are hosting next year's Olympic Games and not one country has protested about it. Boycotting South Africa during Apartheid brought down that regime, so it would be good if there could be something similar with China, before it's too late with regards to Tibet. Sadly, China is so economically strong, it's unlikely. As the Dalai Lama said, if there was oil, perhaps it would be a different matter...

On this serious matter, we also went to see a political prisoner speaking last night. I asked what he thought of tourists going to Tibet. He said that while you'll get escorted round by the Chinese (and only shown what they allow), it is still good as Tibetans can be reminded that people are interested in them and their culture and country (contrary to what the Chinese tell them), and the visitors can report back to the outside world about what is going on.

Did quite a bit of shopping and finally bought my Tibetan Singing Bowl, which probably adds about 50 kilos to my bag. In the afternoon yesterday I had a full body Tibetan massage for a costly 300Rps (about 3.50 pounds) to remove the stress caused by the worst hotel I have ever stayed in. Very pleasant, and followed by Tibetan noodles and mango lassi overlooking Dharamsala. Then we walked up to the waterfall where we bumped into our Tibetan monks (the lads in the photo from the previous entry) once again (kept doing so) and exchanged emails (the monks are much more technologically advanced than I naively thought, with the young ones having mp3 players, digital cameras, etc) and took lots of photos with each other.

Speaking of photos, we had a lot of tourists (mainly from the Punjab) asking to take photos of us (one wanted to show them to his wife, apparently...). Interesting to have the lens turned on us for a change!

So all in all, Dharamsala was an educational, if somewhat sobering, experience.

Today we got the early public bus to here, which was about six hours and very crowded at times, but I think I'm use to Indian buses now! I even had another woman vomitting out the window in front of me, but I just closed it so it wouldn't spray into me, put my music in and all was well. Various amusing sights on the trip, ranging from our bus getting trapped in crowds of goats to a man squatting precariously on a narrow road barrier right on the edge of a huge cliff...only in India...

The weather here in Dalhousie is a bit more British-like. A lot cooler, but as long as it doesn't rain, it will be good, especially as we are trekking for the next two days, to Kadjir and then to Chamba, where we spend three days (in the place with no hot water...not much different from rubbish Dharamsala hotel - I had a nice freezing hairwash this morning), then we get the train to Amritsar.

Right, enough now! I had written this bloody entry and then it vanished into the great ether that is cyberspace.

Bye! xx

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Comments

[Sara]

It all sounds fab, except for the unfortunate vomiting incidents. Hope you get more photos added soon, the last lot were great.