Finally, the Mountains

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We woke up at 4:30am, dressed, grabbed our bags, and headed into the streets of Amritsar one last time to find a taxi. One taxi, one train (our first foray into steerage class), two busses, and nine and a half hours later we arrived in McLeod Ganj, a Tibetan enclave in the foothills (still an impressive 7000 feet up) of the Himalayas. I have to say that my fear of flying can now safely take second place to my fear of Indian bus drivers. Driving on the wrong side of the road, at speed, overtaking on hairpin bends on mountain roads, with a steep ditch on one side and sheer cliff on the other, more than once I wanted to get off, and poor Jason (who never shows any fear) was seen clutching the seats in front of him for most of the journey. Finally we arrived in Dharamsala, and were ushered off the bus and onto another. A fellow traveller with a bag bigger than ours was told to sit on the roof. Determined that it should not also be our fate, Jason and I muscled our way in, and just in time, as the bus took off. The next 20 minutes were hair-raising *inside* the bus; I can only imagine how terrifying it must have been on the roof. Standing in the aisle, Jason and I were forced to hang on to rails on both sides to stop from falling over. When I finally found a seat, I almost fell off as we went around the corners and the bus seemed to tip onto two wheels. Arriving, shaken and exhausted, I headed off to find a hotel leaving Jason, who was car-sick, had a cold, and was exhausted, to sit and talk to a local. Thankfully we managed to get the very last hotel room in a hotel my friend in London had suggested we get, and not only that - it turned out to be one of the best rooms, opening right onto a terrace with sweeping views of the valley below. Truly stunning. We're planning to stay here a while; Jason wants to take a meditation class, I want to take a cooking class, and we want to look into volunteer opportunities if we were to come back in a couple of weeks when we get tired of traveling. There's a ton to do, and inspired by a girl we met in Rishikesh who had managed to meet the Dalai Lama, we have a long list of things we want to do and people we want to meet.

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Photos

Our Hotel
The restaurant outside our room