Mcleod Ganj

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The public bus from Mandi to Dharmsala stopped everywhere so it ended up taking about 8 hours and then the extra 1/2 hour up to McCleod Ganj - so I was quite tired on arrival. I still checked out about 4 guest houses in the rain before picking a room with a deck overlooking a valley. My neighbors were two Austrian girls who spent a lot of time with a couple of Australians.
McCleod Ganj was a great place - many people were there to study Vipassana, Reiki, Buddhism or Tibetan. The Dalai Lama was there and shook the hand of one of the Austrian girls before getting wind of my arrival and going in to hiding (meditation). I spent quite a bit of time with Lilach - from Tel Aviv, and also met a stunner called Astar - who I kept bumping into. About the 4th time we bumped we went to the temple and got some blessed thread, blessed by the Dalai Lama who was still meditating. One of the monks in the temple office gave Astar some pills for headache - although I'm not sure how he knew she had one and he didn't seem to speak English. That sort of thing seems to happen alot here - I think they call it 'auspicious'.The Austrian girls had been in McCleod for 5 weeks, I think mainly because of the Australian guy Nick - who had finished a year travelling and was volunteering doing some web project for the Tibetan Government. Sounded like fun, but it was all microsoft stuff...so not my bag, or my old bag.. The Austrian girls - Natasha and Maria- decided to stay in McCleod until the 28th when Richard Gere would also be there, but I decided it was time to hit the road after 6 nights. Incedently the Autrians were both also taking Tibetan medicine - one because she couldn't sleep and the other for sneezing...I don't think they got this without asking though (unlike Astar) Anyhow I decided to get a bus to Kangra and take the toy train to Pathenkot on the way to Amritzar. Coincidently the Austrian girls left on the tourist bus for Amritzar much earlier the same day.

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