Never trust a Tibettan shortcut!

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Namastay! Still here in Mcleodganj. After the last entry I went to the Tibettan museum and found out the full story behind the chinese invasion and exploitation of Tibet. I have to say, (and I know I have probably only seen one side of the story, but somehow I doubt the chinese have much defence on the subject) I can't believe how these people have been treated. No wonder Northern India is full of Tibettans. Basically the chinese declared a 'liberation' of Tibet in 1949 and then in 1950 about 40000 chinese troops moved in. Anyone who resisted was beaten, tortured and / or executed. The chinese are trying to wipe out all traces of Tibettan culture and history. The Dalai Lama has been forced into excile along with 1000s of Tibettans. There is an ongoing campaign to 'Free Tibet' which having seen the background now, I definitely support. They had video footage in the museum of when the chinese invaded showing the way they treated the Tibettans and it brought tears to my eyes. The Karamapa was also exciled to India because the Chinese wouldn't let his teachers back into Tibet to teach him what he needed to know. Instead they wanted to elect their own 'teachers' so they could control exactly what he learnt. The 10th Panchen Lama who fought for religious freedom and as far as I'm aware was pretty much the reason why Tibetan is still the official language, died 'suddenly' at the age of 50 (no inquest into his death funnily enough) and as soon as the 11th Panchen Lama was identified by the Dalai Lama, he went missing, along with all his family. He has never been seen since. at the age of 5, he was the youngest ever political prisoner. Again, the chinese wanted to elect their own so they could be 'in control' of Tibet. Unbelievable how this can all go on really. Anyhow, I won't go on for fear of boring you!
After the museum, I went down to the temple which is in the same complex and there was a show of Tibettan dancing and music going on. Some of it was pretty good actually, and the costumes were pretty funky too! I met a buddist monk there, Tempa, who had been exciled from Tibet when he was 14. There were 70 other monks in the group he travelled with. It took them one month to walk through the himalayas to India where he now lives. He hasn't seen his family since - 2 brothers,1 sister and his parents still live in Tibet. Meeting someone who was so directly affected by what I'd just seen in the museum made the whole thing even more poignant for me. If any of you get the opportunity to support the 'free tibet' campaign, please do. It's such a worthwhile cause. I've taken photo of some of the exhibits in the museum which are on facebook if you wanted to find out more.
Since meeting Tempa at the monastry I've met up with him a couple of times for an hour or so for 'english conversation'. There's an english language school over here which asks for volunteers to go and speak with the students so they can practice their english. Its actually really cool because you get to find out about them and their lives, with Tempa I've found out about what a Monk's day to day life is like (did u know they get up at 4 in the morning every day?!), so it's a 2 way thing. He's really funny as well. His english isn't fantastic so sometimes its really hard to understand what he's trying to say and he cracks up laughing. He's a sweet guy.
I think I mentioned in my last entry that Siobhan and I wanted to go horse trekking. Well. Not sure if I was completely naive.....in hindsight I think probably yes!... but I imagined riding through the mountains, trotting, cantering with a guide also on horseback, on horses that were pretty fit and healthy. Not so. We turned up at 8 in the morning and there was one tiny horse, not even 10 hands, and one about 13 hands. The small one was lame. It's back legs were kind of knock kneed. Siobhan's as tall as I am and probably about the same weight and the guy was still saying it would be ok. There was no way either of us were going to ride that one, so I said I'd try the bigger one and see how it went. The guide wasnt even on a horse and basically dragged the horse up the hill while I sat on it. 5 minutes up the mountain I decided there was no way I could do it and got off. The guy looked really pissed off...he looked pissed off when Siobhan had said she wasn't coming. I know it's his income and everything but it was a pretty bad case of animal cruelty as far as I could see. We'd paid 500 ruppees deposit the previous night before we saw the horses, and that was more than half the cost so he didn't go home empty handed.
Anyhow, after that I decided to go for a couple of hour's walk up towards Triund which was where we were apparently going to go on the horses. Triund is a big open space in between the forests on the top of the mountain. Siobhan was going to her yoga class so i said I'd catch up with her later and we'd go for dinner. On the way up the mountain there were a few choices of path. One of them led to the meditation retreat place that I'd heard about. I'd heard on the bus over to dharmsala that it's actually a silent retreat....yep silence for ten whole days!! That kind of ruled that one out really! Don't know about meditating, but I'd definitely be rocking (going a bit bonkers!) by the end of it!
Anyhow, carried on down the path and asked a few people the way to go. You had to walk through Dharamkot on the way which is a little tiny village. When you walked through it you felt like you were walking through peoples front yards, but the path just led really closely passed their houses. Out the other side of the village and started up the hill. I'd ended up on the steeper path which was pretty hard going but the view was getting better and better by the minute. I got to a little trackside cafe / stall about 11 where I stopped for a drink. That's where I met Stefano and Phuntso. Phuntso was a buddist monk and Stefano was an Italian guy who'd lived in London for 5 years. Stefano had forgotten his camera. They were heading up to Triund too so I said I'd walk with them and email them the photos. When I set out, I didn't plan to go right to the top. I was only planning to go for a couple of hours, but the guy in the shop said it was only about an hour and a half further to the top from there and I was loving it,so I thought why not. Phuntso said he knew of a shortcut and reckoned we'd be back in Bhagsu by 3 or 4 that afternoon, so off we went. At the beginning of the shortcut it wasn't too bad, just a steep grassy slope, but it got harder and harder. In places it was a bit like rock climbing. You'd grab hold of trees which turned out to be dead and would break in your hand and the earth under foot was pretty loose. A bit scary really. Every lip you got too, you thought that was the top, but it went on and on! I kept asking Phuntso if he was sure this was the way, and he seemed pretty convinced. He reckoned if we got to the top of this mountain, we could then walk along the top ridge and then back down to Triund. By the time we got to the top we were absolutely knackered and covered in grass seeds (long spikey ones which got stuck in your clothes) from the long grass we'd gone through. There were loads of Buddist Prayer mantras, like flags, strung up at the top, which meant at least someone had been here before! I was starting to wonder! We then started walking along the ridge. We thought we'd done the climbing part, but I think we basically walked up and down over another 2 or 3 peaks. By 4 oclock the clouds had come down over us and we couldn't see a thing. It turned out that Phuntso hadn't actually done this walk before, he'd just been told the way by a group of his friends that had done it! It was pretty worrying actually because I knew we only had a couple of hours daylight and where you couldn't walk straight (you had to go round boulders and stuff and basically find a way through bits as there was no path, just animal tracks) you lost your sense of direction a bit. I was starting to think we were going to be spending the night on the mountain. Not good as I'd set out dressed for a couple hours walk in the sunshine! By 5ish survival instinct really kicked in and I decided I was going to walk downhill. We'd gone up and up and I knew by this point we were much higher than Triund where we were trying to get too. I think Phuntso had a thing for climbing! He was like a billy goat as well, I've never seen someone get up an almost vertical slope so quick! Anyway when I said I was heading downhill they followed too. It was pretty steep though and at one point Stefano lost his footing and nearly took me and him down the mountain! We were ok though, he just lost his shoe which we recovered a few metres down. After 10 minutes or so we found a real path! That was an exciting moment! From there, through the trees I could see what looked like blue tents. We followed the path downhill and about 10 minutes later we walked into Triund. The relief of seeing it was fantastic. There was a 'guest house' and food tents and the guys up there lent us a couple of blankets. The guest house was basically a brick shell with a mattress in it. There was only one room so the three of us ended up sharing it, but to be honest I didn't care. It was so much better than sleeping on the side of the mountain which had seemed like a pretty realistic prospect only half hour before! The first cup of chai (tea) we had was amazing and we managed to get through 3 packs of biscuits in about 5 minutes between us! We met a couple up there who'd been travelling for years and years, and were well into the hippy, travelling thing - very spritual type people. She was really sweet actually. When we first got there and were still thinking of trying to get down the mountain that day, she gave us her torch and the next morning when we were heading off she came running after us with a bag of raisins to 'keep us going on the way down'! There were quite a few trekkers up at Triund - it's a well known spot for treks to stop the night, so there were tents and loads of ponies and donkies which the bigger organised treks used to carry all their equipment. It was really beautiful up there - Even in the half light. The sunset was absolutely amazing & I got a bit carried away with the camera again! We then made our way over to one of the food tents huddled up in the blankets we'd been lent. I had the most amazing plate of curry and rice (not sure if it was really that amazing or if it was just the fact that I didnt think I'd be eating that night!). I couldn't actually see what it looked like because it was pitch black by that point but it tasted delicious. Phuntso decided to head back down the mountain in the dark because he'd only got one day's leave from the monastry and needed to get back. We thought he was mad, but he set off with the torch the lady had given us earlier. Half hour later he was back. He'd fallen over 3 times and decided it wasn't such a good idea!
There was a fire outside the tent which we sat round with a group of hindi guys who played the guitar and sung. They had amazing voices and even though I never thought I'd be into hindi music, it was actually really good. I've never seen anyone smoke so much either. They were rolling one after the other! It turned out to be a really good evening. :O)
The only thing that ruined it was the fact that I couldnt let Siobhan know I was ok - there was no signal up there at all and I knew she'd be worried.
Both Phuntso and Stefano were fantastic people. I know Phuntso had taken us the long way round but ironically he was actually right in saying that we'd walk up the mountain and along the top. In the morning, when there were no clouds, we could see exactly where we'd walked along. The only thing he'd been wrong about was the fact it was a shortcut .... it def wasn't :O) It was one hell of an adventure though and looking back, knowing we were actually ok, it was an amazing experience. I loved it too, or most of it. All apart from an hour or so about 4ish when I knew we were running out of light and it wasn't looking too good!
Anyhow, after making merry round the camp fire we all went to bed, cuddled up for as much warmth as possible! It had been ok by the fire, but it was freezing as soon as you walked away from it. If you put your head under the blanket and breathed a lot it warmed up, but as soon as you stuck your head out again it was freezing! The mattress was paper thin and rock hard as well. I have to say it was the worst night's sleep I've had in a long time...but so much better than it could have been, for which I was SO grateful! In the middle of the night I was desperate for a wee and eventually gave in and ventured outside. It was pitch black and I stepped in something wet and slipped over :O/ I thought I was going to be going back to bed smelling of something nasty, but it turned out to be water from the kitchen where they made chai! Phew! I managed to get an hour or two sleep then before the sun came up. I actually missed sunrise which was a shame, because it's supposed to be amazing seeing it come up over the mountain. We were up by around 7ish and decided to have a cup of chai before we headed down the mountain. We were all keen to get back so Siobhan and Stefano's friend knew we were ok.
The journey down was much quicker than the one up and by 11 I was back in Mcleod. I text Siobhan as soon as there was a signal again to let her know I was ok. I felt really bad for making her worry but there wasn't really anything I could do apart from try and get down the mountain in the dark, which there was no way I was going to do. I bumped into her walking back into Mcleod and made my huge apologies. I think she was just pleased I was ok. I got back and had a long hot shower and something to eat and chilled out until 4 when I was meeting Tempa for 'english conversation'! The photos of our adventure are on facebook. Some of them are pretty good actually and really tell the story. All in all, as I said, it was a fantastic experience. Even the worrying I think in a funny way made it even better, knowing that it all turned out ok! I bumped into Stefano later that evening and he was still on a high about it all! His friend was ok about it too. Like Siobhan, he'd said he was going to give it til 3ish the next day before panicking as he'd been told a lot of walkers stayed the night up there. I slept really well last night!
This morning, I met up with Tina (who I'd met in Manali) for brekky and then went to the cinema to see Himalaya. Cool film and pretty appropriate for here! After that I met Siobhan and we went to an Indian cooking class. I learnt how to make Paneer Butter Masala, Dum Allo and Yellow Dal. I have to say it tasted fantastic. You got to eat it all afterwards. Siobhan is doing this Ayurveydic (not sure how that's spelt!) detox thing so she could only eat the dal which was a shame. I did a pretty good job on the other two dishes though! Shame to waste it :O) If I'm here long enough i want to do a few more classes, then maybe I can cook it for you guys when I get back. It's been quiet since then. Just met up with Tempa again for an hour or so and then here to update the blog.

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