the peace of dharamsala

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I first planned to stay in Mcleod Ganj for 3 days but i had been travelling and moving non-stop for 3 months already and just something about the aura of the place made me fell like it was a good place to have a rest for a week. There wasnt really much i wanted to do there i was just happy wandering around the town and getting some photo editing done in the hotel.

Then after i went up to triund i became good friends with Norbu, the young guy who took me up there. He is a really great guy, of tibetan descent and spoke good english. His family had a little shop there, the green shop in Mcleod so on my wanderings i often ran into him. We'd go looking for girls and playing billiards and just hanging out most of the time.

One day we heard about all these birds that congregate at a lake a few hours drive from mcleod and thought we might get on the bikes take a tent and go check it out. So Norbu, myself and norbu's american female friend Liz hopped on his and his dads motorbikes and headed down the hill to find the lake. It was a nice ride through tea plantations and forest and after about 4 hours we eventually found it. It wasnt what we'd expected, more of a muddy flat that we rode along till we found the waters edge. we pitched the tent on a semi-dry patch, got a fire started and brought out the bottle of whisky. We finished 2 bottles that night but didnt see many birds. It was also freezing cold down there from the wind blowing over the lake.

In the morning we woke and it was lovelly, there were birds, thousands of them. all different types, some in the water, others flying and others in the mud. we weren't dissapointed and got a local fisherman to take us on the water to get a closer view, it was just lovely.

The next day we headed back to Mcleod on the bikes happy with the experience even though we were initally disappointed. the rest of my time in mcleod was mainly hanging out, eating great tibetan food at Norbu's place and riding around on the enfield i hired.

I loved it up there, didnt get to see his holiness but you could feel the presence, You have to stay a while to really appreciate it.

For more travel adventures check out Happy Holiday

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