Advertisement
Published: April 6th 2006
my first sighting ...
... of the mighty Himalayas.I am writing this from the Dogga Internet Cafe, a non-profit centre to benefit the Tibetan society here. It is down a steep, dark set of stone stairs. Everything here is either up or down. I have been here three days and I am just starting to get to know my way around, though McLeod Ganj is not large. It is perched precariously on the side of a hill, several hundred metres above Dharmasala, and you can continue to go up this mountain to other smaller centres. It is all very windy, chaotic and in generally bad repair. There are Indians, Tibetans, tourists, hippies, cows, dogs, goats, HUGE spiders, small shops selling Tibetan handicrafts, hippie hang outs, Tibetan refugee agencies ... and, of course, at the centre of it all is the hill top Tibetan Buddhist temple and the home of the Dali Lama.
I arrived here on Tuesday afternoon, after an overnight train trip my Delhi and a three hour car drive through the Himalayan foothills. I was very lucky to have a first class train compartment to my self. It was a bit grubby, but cozy and I slept well. I was also lucky in my choice
the main temple and the ...
Dalai Lama's residence, as seen from my balcony. of guest houses. I have a wonderful room, with a huge balcony overlooking the Knagra Valley and the main temple and Dalai Lam's residence. I can see for about 100 kilometres, Ram -- the guest house woner -- tells me. And it faces southwest, so I get glorious sunsets. It is also on a quiet street. The other few streets are are very busy and noisy. My street is the only one I like.
However, I was quite tired my first night, and still unwell, and extremely alarmed to see an enormous black spider in my bathroom. I ran screaming down to get Ram, and he got rid of it and even fumigated the next day. But I was shocked. Ram sat with me to calm me down. He is a lovely man.
I had dinner with Shira, the other volunteer at Art Refuge. She is a therapist from London, England, and very nice. I told her I was unwell, but I would stop by ARt Refuge the next day. Which I did. I met Ama Adhe, the amaing woman who runs it. I was in awe. I have read her book, The Voice That Remembers,
my guest house, seen from the Temple
It is the small pink building, to the right of the big white hotels. all about her 27 years in a Chinese prison. I also saw the children, but I haven't started volunteering yet. I told them, and they agreed, that I should get feeling better first.
I think the air here is quite thin, so that is adding to my general tiredness. But I have spent the last two days exploring, seeing the main temple and today walking up to a small village and a waterfall. I have met some nice people. es[pecially Neema and Kunga, Tibetan monks who want to learn English. And I am feeling better, so I will probably start voluntering tomorrow.
But I'm not sure I like it here. The energy is a bit weird. This place attracts ALL KINDS of people, such as lepers, who travel ehre fropm their homes to earn money during the tourist season. The streets are full of them. It is very hard to see. I remember telling someone I didn't like the sacred city of HAirdwar and he said "wherever there is great light, there is great darkness." It's a bit like that here.
On the other hand, the setting is beautiful and I have already experienced
some wonderful things, like the waterfall I saw today. It was a hot walk and when I got there it was so cool.
So now I am looking forward to volunteering. It will be such a new experience for me ... and really the reason I came here; and the reason I am staying. I would probably leave in a day or so if it wasn't for that. But who knows? Maybe I will end up loving it here ...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.087s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0556s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
Pema Chonyid (Shawn)
non-member comment
Trashi Delek
Greetings and best wishes on your experience in Dharamsala.