McLeodganj

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On Tuesday in Delhi, we took a cab to visit the Red Fort. When we got there, the gate was closed. The taxi driver told us that it was closed due to the Diwali festival celebration. We were confused where to go. I told him we wanted to go to the Jami Masjad, the largest mosque in India. This mosque was close by the fort. Instead the driver insisted we go to the National Museum…which he claimed was nearby the mosque. We reluctantly agreed and he started driving. Then after a few minutes, I discovered this museum was on the other side of the city. So we made him return to the Red Fort. He left us off where we were approach by the bicycle rickshaw drivers. They told us we had come to the wrong gate…a victim of a taxi scam! Any way, we took a bicycle rickshaw and saw the fort. Then, we walked through the unbelievable crowd to the mosque and climbed it to realize it was closed for prayers. We made our way back down to the street and attempted to take an auto rickshaw to restaurant recommended in the tourbook. The driver insisted he knew where it was and it was open. But after about 20 minutes, he asked someone a question and told us it was closed due to Dewali. He left us off at another restaurant, which we discovered was lousy. From there, we took another auto rickshaw back to the hotel to prepare for the 12-hour overnight bus trip to McLeodganj (near Dharmshala).

We got on the bus about 6:30 PM and it left Delhi. On the way, it stopped twice at rest stops. The second one was rather primitive. Actually, the bus ride wasn’t too bad as we both had a set of seats to ourselves. On the way, we made friends with Trine, a woman from Norway who was coming to study for her Ph.D. in Tibetology.. She had been here several times over the years and knew her way around. On arrival in McLeodganj, she led us to the Tibet Hotel where we booked in about 6:15 AM (Wednesday). Wendy and I had a nap and then met for breakfast about 8:30 AM. After that, we looked around town. MaLeodganji is built near the top of one of the many little mountains in this part of the country. It is a very scenic area where the Tibet Government in exile has taken it as home hoping for a return to Tibet.

After walking about town, we walked to a nearby town Bagsu where we took an auto rickshaw to Dharamkot, which is even higher than McLeodganj. We walked back down the steep road to McLeodganj. After all of that, we had a great lunch at an Indian restaurant. The rest of the day was spent looking further around this interesting town.

On this morning (Thursday) after breakfast, we walked down to Namgyal Monastery and looked around through it. Then we walked past the Dalai Lama residence down to Dharamshala. After a little shopping here, we took the bus attempting to go to the Norbulingka Institute. This institute was set up to ensure survival of the Tibetan Buddhism’s cultural heritage. Its students are engaged in a variety of crafts in wood, metal, silk and painting. It’s temple has a 4.5 m high gilded Buddha and over 1,000 painted images. However, the bus conductor was not very helpful and we got off a wrong stop. It took a friendly monk to get us to the institute. This monk asked us how long were we going to stay in "Tibet." He also told us that we is 26 years old and escape three years ago from the Chinese (Tibet). He went with us the whole way - about 30 minutes out of his way. He got Wendy's email address as he wants to write in English.

After visiting the institute, we took a taxi back to Dharmashala and then a bus to McLeodganj. We had dinner in time for a power outage. The power has been out for an hour now. Fortunately, this Internet site has a generator backup.

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