Into the mountains

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Another invigorating early rise (5AM) to catch a train, but fortunately this time the station was only 5 minutes' walk away. Unfortunately the train I was hoping to catch was delayed by 3 hours. After mulling over the best course of action, I decided to return to the hotel and reclaim my room key in order to get another couple of hours of sleep.

On returning later, the arrivals board kept adding another 10 minutes to the expected arrival time, so it seemed clear no-one really knew when it was going to arrive. It then turned up but on a neighbouring platform to the one that it should have arrived at.

The ticket seller in Delhi had told me that, even though I only had a wait-listed ticket, I would "easily" be able to get into the Sleeper section, as the train would empty out at Amritsar. After looking through several carriage windows, I wasn't so sure. There weren't many spare berths, plus there were an awful lot of passengers on the platform buying chai/food, so I figured I should probably find the conductor and find out for definite whether my wait-listed ticket was now a valid one. I was sent on a wild goose chase by several people to different parts of the train, and was beginning to despair of finding the right person when, as I was about to climb into a carriage to ask a vaguely official-looking chap where I could find the conductor, Debash (my friend from NY) suddenly appeared in front of me. He bundled me into his cabin in 2AC, and we had a long conversation about how neither of us had realised initially that we must be on the same train. When the conductor did turn up, I was able to purchase a Sleeper->2AC upgrade without any trouble, and the journey to Pathankot went by quickly. Having not seen Debash since I left NY nearly 4 months ago, there was plenty to catch up on.

We intended journeying up to Dharamsala/McLeod Ganj by taxi, so Debash engaged in some haggling with the taxi-wallahs and the outcome was Rs 1,100 for a ride in a small car that was perfect for our needs. The roads were decent stretches of tarmac interspersed by single-lane dust tracks. Our driver seemed to be in a great hurry, and used plenty of horn to announce his blind overtaking manoeuvres. It wasn't the most comfortable of rides, and we asked him if we could stop off for a quick lunch along the way, which he agreed to. We had a very cheap meal in a pleasant roadside cafe, before the main climb into the mountains began.

I had been gazing at the countryside, which was the greenest I'd seen since I arrived in India, when Debash suddenly told me to look up ahead. Taking shape in the distance, like clouds assuming a definite form, were some enormous mountains soaring into the sky, their tops sprinkled with snow. It was an inspiring sight, though in truth these are mere babies compared with the real giants of the Himalayas. At that point, it really came home to me that I was no longer in the desert. That became even more apparent as we were flung around in the back seat as the driver sped his way through various switchbacks.

We arrived at our hotel, the Him Queen, at about 5PM. From the outside, the hotel looked OK but a little shabby, and unfortunately that turned out to be the case inside too. It seems like a place that used to be luxurious but has now gone to seed a little. The rooms are well-equipped in terms of furniture, and the views down the valley are quite possibly the best in McLeod Ganj, but the windows aren't the best fitting in the world (think: Himalayan draughts), and the bathrooms are gloomy as well as only having small water boilers. Though my boiler provided just enough hot water for a shower and shave, Debash's gave up the ghost as he was still soaping up, which was the last thing he needed given he'd been travelling for 12 hours, plus he'd been ill for the last few weeks and had been looking forward to some much-needed pampering. The problems were reported to the management but, despite the fact that we appeared to be the only guests in residence, the response was neither sympathetic nor indicative that any action would be taken.

We took an evening promenade to acquaint ourselves with the layout of the town, and it was soon apparent that it's very compact. The bulk of the town can be found on 2 parallel streets, which can be walked along in less than 10 minutes. There are quite a few Westerners, as well as plenty of lamas, floating around. And I don't think I've seen as many shops stocking Dairy Milk bars in my life. The shopkeepers here, in the main, are not at all aggressive, which is maybe just the Tibetan way of doing business - most of the shops seem to be Tibetan-owned, which is not surprising seeing as there is a large Tibetan community here. This does make a pleasant change from, say, Delhi or Jaipur.

We dined at the Shangri-La restaurant, run by a monastery, and I stuffed myself with potato and cheese momos (Tibetan dumplings). Afterwards, as it had been a long day for both of us, we repaired to our respective rooms in the fading grandeur of the Him Queen, and prepared for bed.

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Comments

[Laura]

Tibetan
Tibentans are very friendly, hospitality while not agrressive at all. I have been to Tibet and absolutely loved people there.