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Published: November 15th 2006
Firstly we have to apologise for the lack of photos- we put on one for the journey to Shimla then charge ran out and we have yet to find an adaptor for the charger. We are trying to get hold of one, but there are loads of American and Europeans but no Brits, and obviously we need to borrow one suitable for UK plugs.
Chloe got ‘acute mountain sickness’ in Shimla (I don’t know why it’s called ‘acute’ there was nothing acute about it!) and had trouble walking/moving at all/not throwing up. According to Lonely Planet it affects 40-60% of people above 3000m, Shimla was only 2205m, so clearly Chloe’s body has a poor tolerance to altitude as apparently only a 'small number of people are affected below 3000m'!
We decided to get the hell out of Shimla, despite the very cute monkeys, and baby monkeys willing us to stay. We (i.e Chloe) did not fancy a 10 hour bumpy bus ride through the mountains to our next destination- McLeod Ganj, so we split it up and did five hours, then stopped in a little bustling town called Mandi to recover. Mandi turned out to be very noisy and
polluted, but we stayed 2nights so Chloe could fully recover… though she refused to eat anything besides plain rice for fear of throwing up, which greatly worried Jesse.
We then got a taxi to Palumpur, a little village surrounded by tea and rice fields- didn’t fancy another sickening bus ride. Took about 3hours, very scenic through the mountains and valleys- Himachal Pradesh is a very beautiful area. We only stayed in Palumpur one night though as we were determined to get to McLeod Ganj. Took another 2 and a half hours by van, but it was certainly worth all the traveling. It’s a town run basically by Tibetan Refugees, the Tibetan government in exile is here, so it really feels as though we’ve left India and entered Tibet! The town twists up and around the mountains, it’s full of little vegetarian cafes and shops selling Tibetan clothes, and prayer flags fill the sky. There are lots of Buddhist monks wondering about and we’re back on the travelers trail again, there are backpackers here from all around the world. It’s also the home of the Dalai Lama, though apparently he’s not around at the moment, unfortunately we just missed his
birthday celebrations! There’s obviously a big movement going on here to Free Tibet- Tibetan people here are very passionate about it- banners fill the shop windows.
We plan to stay here quite a while as it’s so lovely and 400m lower than Shimla so Chloe is showing no signs of altitude sickness. We’re staying at a place called ‘The Green Hotel’ the view from our room looks right out over the mountains! We can actually see snow-topped mountains from here- so it’s especially frustrating we can’t take photos at the moment.
Tibetan cuisine is fantastic so we’re going to have a few Tibetan cooking lessons, to learn how to make Momos!
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Frances Place
non-member comment
no more mountains
Sounds wonderful. I hope you dont have to continue your journey or retrace your steps over heights - I wouldnt want Chloe to have to go through that again. I hope you're both not getting too thin! Cookery classes sound an excellent idea and I look forward to some tibetan food. Didnt Chloe pack an adapter? I was sure she had? Frances