After a few days in Delhi it was time to hurry up to the north and Daramsala. Dixie was late for her yoga teacher training and I just couldn't wait to see the amazing Himalayas again. We took the night sleeper buss which was comfortable, but not too wide of a bunk for two people. The buss kept breaking down as well during the trip. When we were due to arrive, we were still 3 hours away and the buss had broken down for the 4th time! This time it was serious, we were not sure that we could be able to continue. At last, the guy's fixed the problem by using 3 packs of condoms and by wirer them all around the leaking pipe! So there is another reason to always carry a couple right there! The drive up was beautiful, specially when we came closer to Daramsala and you could see the town, the green fields and the big snowy mountain range rising up like a wall.
Daramsala is the 'larger' famous town, but almost no travelers stay there, most go a bit further up to the smaller villages like McLeod Ganj (were the Dalai Lama lives), Baghsu and Dharamcot. Me and Dixie decided to stay in the bit busier of the three, McLeod. This place is a village with two busy main roads and a small square as a center. This is were most Tibetans live and Dalai Lamas temple and residence is situated here. Also here, cows and big bulls cruses the streets, acting like the natural garbage disposers. I still can't get used seeing a cow's head in a trash dump, munching up yesterdays news paper! If you want to mend your body and spirit, then this is the place for you! There must be over 101 different courses and treatments, like various forms of massage, meditations, Reiki, crystals, yoga, moon energizing to even hip hop dance and learning magic tricks! The town is of course also filled with pictures and information about the Chinese oppression in Tibet and various anti-Olympics posters. Every evening at 6 o'clock there is a candlelight walk ending with Tibetan prayer songs at the temple, as a quiet peace protest. McLeod is by Indian standards a quieter place and it does have a quite nice atmosphere. But the surrounding are really beautiful and you can do smaller nice treks and excursions during the day. We got a really nice room with big windows and a nice mountain view straight from bed! The hotel has a 2 terraces with gorgeous open air mountain views, not a bad place to lay our hats for the next several weeks.
I had a Vipassana course booked in about two weeks time, so I had plenty of time to do other stuff in the mean time. So while Dixie was spending her days twisting her body at yoga, I was learning Tibetan massage, practicing a bit of yoga, reading and lurking about taking pictures. Specially interesting time was when the Olympic torch came to India, there was a big anti-Olympics demonstration that started from the temple and a walk down to Daramsala. It was very emotional to watch the desire of a people, hoping for a return to a free Tibet. Controversially amongst many Tibetans, the Dalai Lama is for the Olympic games in Beijing and is not condescending any protests against it. The Chinese government has, probably due to the international attention, agreed to hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama. Maybe they are trying to find a solution, maybe they are just calming the situation down until the games are over. Dalai Lama is not even pushing for a independent Tibet, just for human rights, free press and for a high degree of self-rule within the people's Republic of China. Anyhow, this will be an uphill struggle, but as an Indian bystander told me 'One has to keep on fighting'. Maybe the will for peaceful resistance is soon over I think to my self, as the young monks on the computers next to me throws grenades and unloads machine gun fire on anti-terrorist police, on the computer game Counter Strike.
Something that is VERY annoying in India, is the mobile services. You have to pay for the pre-paid card, then extra for the validaty period you want, then you have to pay 28% tax on every refill and if that's not enough, you keep getting commercial sms:s and phone calls!! Imagine you are in the shower, the phone rings, you hurry out, slipping on the floor. When you pick up, there is music and voice in Hindi starts babbling a recorded message! Another thing that could be quite disturbing was the endless dog fights at night. These battles kept going constantly back and forth, whining and barking, they made poor Dixie having to sleep with earplugs. Other animals that make you life interesting here, are the many monkeys, great fun to watch, less fun being attacked by! Some Indians say use a stick, others say they will only take it from you and chase you with it! Anyhow, I haven't been attacked yet..
One day me and my Danish friend Lise went down to see and hear the teachings from H.H. the 17th Karmapa, wich is the oldest reincarnating lama, older then H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama. Karmapa is the spiritual head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After listing to him about compassion and other traditional Buddhist values, me and Lise got a blessed string to wear AND just by having seen him in real life, we are now protected for 7 reincarnations from being reborn as anything other then human! That feels good!!!
Daramsala is the 'larger' famous town, but almost no travelers stay there, most go a bit further up to the smaller villages like McLeod Ganj (were the Dalai Lama lives), Baghsu and Dharamcot. Me and Dixie decided to stay in the bit busier of the three, McLeod. This place is a village with two busy main roads and a small square as a center. This is were most Tibetans live and Dalai Lamas temple and residence is situated here. Also here, cows and big bulls cruses the streets, acting like the natural garbage disposers. I still can't get used seeing a cow's head in a trash dump, munching up yesterdays news paper! If you want to mend your body and spirit, then this is the place for you! There must be over 101 different courses and treatments, like various forms of massage, meditations, Reiki, crystals, yoga, moon energizing to even hip hop dance and learning magic tricks! The town is of course also filled with pictures and information about the Chinese oppression in Tibet and various anti-Olympics posters. Every evening at 6 o'clock there is a candlelight walk ending with Tibetan prayer songs at the temple, as a quiet peace protest. McLeod is by Indian standards a quieter place and it does have a quite nice atmosphere. But the surrounding are really beautiful and you can do smaller nice treks and excursions during the day. We got a really nice room with big windows and a nice mountain view straight from bed! The hotel has a 2 terraces with gorgeous open air mountain views, not a bad place to lay our hats for the next several weeks.
I had a Vipassana course booked in about two weeks time, so I had plenty of time to do other stuff in the mean time. So while Dixie was spending her days twisting her body at yoga, I was learning Tibetan massage, practicing a bit of yoga, reading and lurking about taking pictures. Specially interesting time was when the Olympic torch came to India, there was a big anti-Olympics demonstration that started from the temple and a walk down to Daramsala. It was very emotional to watch the desire of a people, hoping for a return to a free Tibet. Controversially amongst many Tibetans, the Dalai Lama is for the Olympic games in Beijing and is not condescending any protests against it. The Chinese government has, probably due to the international attention, agreed to hold talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama. Maybe they are trying to find a solution, maybe they are just calming the situation down until the games are over. Dalai Lama is not even pushing for a independent Tibet, just for human rights, free press and for a high degree of self-rule within the people's Republic of China. Anyhow, this will be an uphill struggle, but as an Indian bystander told me 'One has to keep on fighting'. Maybe the will for peaceful resistance is soon over I think to my self, as the young monks on the computers next to me throws grenades and unloads machine gun fire on anti-terrorist police, on the computer game Counter Strike.
Something that is VERY annoying in India, is the mobile services. You have to pay for the pre-paid card, then extra for the validaty period you want, then you have to pay 28% tax on every refill and if that's not enough, you keep getting commercial sms:s and phone calls!! Imagine you are in the shower, the phone rings, you hurry out, slipping on the floor. When you pick up, there is music and voice in Hindi starts babbling a recorded message! Another thing that could be quite disturbing was the endless dog fights at night. These battles kept going constantly back and forth, whining and barking, they made poor Dixie having to sleep with earplugs. Other animals that make you life interesting here, are the many monkeys, great fun to watch, less fun being attacked by! Some Indians say use a stick, others say they will only take it from you and chase you with it! Anyhow, I haven't been attacked yet..
One day me and my Danish friend Lise went down to see and hear the teachings from H.H. the 17th Karmapa, wich is the oldest reincarnating lama, older then H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama. Karmapa is the spiritual head of the Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After listing to him about compassion and other traditional Buddhist values, me and Lise got a blessed string to wear AND just by having seen him in real life, we are now protected for 7 reincarnations from being reborn as anything other then human! That feels good!!!
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