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Agra, famous for the Taj Mahal was our first destination after Rajasthan. We decided that due to the very oppressive heat we would just visit the main attraction and get outta town as quickly as possible! Our 6am visit to the Taj Mahal was great - the cool air and beautiful light so early in the morning made this spectacular creation look like pure fantasy. The photos can’t quite do it justice but it’s possibly the most beautiful man made place I have ever been. We walked close up, viewed from afar, sat in the gardens and watched other visitors take in the scene; we took a rickshaw over the river to see the view from the other side; we found a restaurant which looked across this magnificent palace - we spent most of our time in Agra gazing at the wonder of the Taj, then got outta town asap to escape the heat and the rich aroma of sulphur pouring from the drains seemingly directly into our very cheap room!
The Golden Temple of Amritsar in Punjab was a quick stop on our way to the hills of Himachal Pradesh. This Sikh temple was a magical and spiritual place
to spend a few hours. To enter through the white walls of the outer temple we had to leave our shoes in a cloakroom and wash our feet and hands in the pools located by each entrance. Once inside the complex we were free to wander (in a clockwise direction) around the water at the centre of this temple - the Sikhs bathe in this holy water but non Sikhs could just look on and admire the huge coy carp swimming in the vast expanse of water! In the centre of the pool sits the Golden temple itself where a group of Sikh priests spend each and every day from dawn til dusk reading from the Sikh holy book - their tabla drum playing and chanting is fed through speakers and fills the entire place with its beautiful rhythms and melodies. You can stay at the temple if you are lucky enough to get a room in the hostel, food is served in an enormous canteen to literally thousands of people every day and all are welcome - we took our place alongside the pilgrims on the floor of the massive dining hall, ate well on curry, dal, rice and
chapatti and headed out to spend some more time by the water sitting, watching and chatting to people as they passed - the typical questions regarding country, occupation, marital status and religion coming up as usual! Most people we have met across the country are interested to know the answers to this set of questions - it seemed a little intrusive at first but now we quite happily provide the answers and ask the same questions ourselves!
We really did escape the heat after Punjab. In McLeod Ganj there were rainstorms, hail storms, thunder and lightening and it was pretty windy! It was so good to be somewhere with sunshine and showers for a change! It was a fascinating place with various populations - travellers, Tibetan refugees, the Dalai Lama's government in exile, many English language students from across the world come to the study centres and it's a place of intense religous study for monks, nuns and budding Buddhists! The range of resturants is like no-where else we've been in India and includes Indian, Thai, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Korean. You can do classes and courses in all manner of things such as chakra healing, Tibetan astrology, silent meditation,
harnessing moon energy!! and lord knows what else! It felt like like a festival in the hills with monks and monkeys on the side!
I signed up for a 2 week course in Shiatsu and can now offer a complete relaxing treatment to friends and family (it takes 3 years to become professional!), I also went on a silver jewellery making course and came away with a new bracelet, earrings and a pendant made painstakingly by my own fair hands! We were lucky to find the Himalayan Yoga centre with two fantastic teachers - Lalit and Krishna so the month we were there flew by quickly as I had much to occupy my time! Bob left me to my studies and disappeared off into the hills for a spot of walking between rain showers!
McLeod was completely different to other parts of India becaus it felt so Tibetan! Seeing Tibetan faces again, rubbing shoulders with Tibetan monks and nuns, eating Tibetan food, hearing Tibetan music - in some ways it was more overtly Tibetan than parts of Tibet that we visited last year. It was a thought provoking time to visit McLeod - a mini Tibet in exile,
there was a lot of publicity about the current attrocities occuring in Tibet and a call for support of the Tibtetan freedom struggle at a time when the eyes of the world are looking to the coming olympics in Beijing. If you'd like to read more about these issues I have dedicated a blog especially in
A Time for Tibet Back to the heat of the lowlands next - Rishikesh and finally Delhi where we depart for Australia and probably some reverse culture shock!...
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