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Published: December 22nd 2005
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Even though we both had had a good sleep, it was clear that Debash's room was just not up to scratch - both in terms of the draughty windows, as well as the non-heating water boiler. The manager was tasked with finding another room for him. Since the breakfast room was empty and had a strange smell to it, we decided to try to find a sunny roof terrace elsewhere on which to have breakfast.
As we neared the main square, an obvious location presented itself. The roof terrace of the Asian Plaza hotel appeared to be the highest point in town and was also bathed in sunlight. We tramped up to the top, found we were there only customers, and chose a table that overlooked the main square as well as being a sun trap. The service was abysmally slow but, with no particular agenda in mind, this wasn't even a minor annoyance.
As we were leaving, we noticed that the hotel seemed to be in very good nick - certainly a cut above the standard of the Him Queen - so we asked to have a look at a couple of rooms. They were also impressive, especially
the brightly-lit bathrooms with enormous water boilers. And with a discounted price only a couple of hundred rupees more than the Him Queen, we made the decision that we'd move here tomorrow. I returned to the Him Queen to inform the manager that we'd be checking out tomorrow. He didn't seem surprised, but didn't say anything - he later asked Debash why we were going, and Debash kindly spun some BS about how we had decided to move on from McLeod Ganj.
We spent most of the rest of the day looking in various Tibetan craft stores dotted around town. There are many interesting carpets, colourful thangkas (wall-hangings to aid Buddhist meditation), gloriously smooth pashmina shawls, and assorted tat for sale here, enough that I may need to parcel some stuff home before I go. And most of the time you are in a completely hassle-free environment. The owner of one store had come to McLeod Ganj at the same time as the Dalai Lama in 1959.
We dined at the Green Hotel, which not only serves tasty vegetarian food but also has the fastest Internet in town - broadband with no data limit for downloading/uploading. I was
able to catch up on my blog, which had been falling behind for want of a decent connection to upload photos.
Back at the hotel, I stayed up late planning the remainder of my trip in more detail than I'd considered up until now, simply as I get the feeling I will drift if I don't have more of a concrete plan. The first draft looks pretty good - I have 2 weeks of contingency days, plus every 2 or 3 weeks I'll stay somewhere for 4 or 5 days, so that I'm not constantly on the move. Looks like New Year will be spent in Lucknow, and my birthday in Bandhavgarh National Park.
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