The road to Dharamsala

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Hello from McLeod Ganj (aka Upper Dharamsala), the bustling hillside village that is home to the Dalai Lama, Buddhist monks and the Tibetan refugees.

We are enjoying time here, nestled at the base of the Himalayas after training it to Jaipur and bussing it to Udaipur over the last week.

Jaipur is called the pink city because the buildings and walls of the old part of the city are all painted pink! This “Welcome!” colour was originally applied to greet the Prince of Wales on his visit to Jaipur in 1876, and has been maintained ever since.

Our first day co-incided with the Hindu festival of Gangaur- a celebration of the male God Shiva and his consort Parvati. We saw a procession involving marching bands, gaudily dressed up characters, dancing girls, camels and 32 majestic elephants. (thought of you Manda!) The elephants had painted faces, colourful earflaps and riders in palanquins.
On Friday, we checked out the palace of the Maharajas of the past and then crossed the road to visit an observatory built by the first Maharaja, Jai Singh (1693-1743). This guy was a talented astronomer, and built the many mammoth, bizarre structures in the observatory to measure the time of day and plot the annual progress of the zodiac through the night sky. Michael and I scratched our heads for a while, trying to nut out the workings of the 27m high sundial, but we got there in the end!

On Friday, we climbed up a spiral staircase to the top of “Iswari Minar Swarga Sal”, the heaven piercing minaret, which afforded us great views of the city and its surrounds. Then we visited a famous landmark in Jaipur, the “Hawa Mahal”. A five-storied , honeycombed pink structure which housed the ladies of the royal household. In these times women were” hidden” from daily life on the street and watched the action through screened windows in their digs, with Mr. Maharaja visiting frequently of course! Wandering around the spiral staircases, I wondered why the windows were so low down. Can you guess? The royal women, decked out in their saris, toe-rings, bangles and bindis, did not walk between levels. They were carried on chairs by their handmaids! How boring would that be!

On Saturday we endured a very “Indian” bus-ride to Udaipur.( Imagine the night bus from Harry Potter and cross it with Mary Poppins’ carpet bag and you’re pretty much there... crazy driving and an unending capacity to absorb passengers.) One day in Udaipur, on the beautiful lake transformed us into relaxed beings (AAAhhhh). We then flew to Dharamsala on Tuesday (the miracle of air travel) and are now settled and happy enjoying the yoga, massages(Anne), reading and coffee shops(Mike) and bathing in the serene presence of the monks in McLeod Ganj,

Om Mani Padme Om,
AnneXX

P.S. Liz, re Ashram Visit...It didn’t eventuate due to a teacher training course being held at my chosen venue. Instead we’ve been able to travel to more places and I am sampling yoga classes as we go. These guys are truly incredible!
Lots of Love AX

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