Life in the mountains

Sunday 31^st May 2015

We got up and packed this morning ready for our bus to Dharamshala tonight. Check out was 12pm so we took the morning slowly had breakfast and cleared out. We left our bags at the guesthouse and went in search of cookies, but much to my devastation the cookie shop is closed on Sundays.

Having spent all our money paying the hotel bill we walked down to the cash point and got some cash before heading to a café so I could blog.

We spent most of the day chilling out there it was raining so it was a good excuse to sit and eat good food and generally chill out. We chatted with a French guy from our guesthouse called Marven but his English wasn’t great so the conversation was quite stilted which is a shame as he seemed like a really interesting guy. A bit later Liam arrived and we chatted with him as well.

Eventually we had to get moving so we went to the guesthouse and got our bags and walked down through town to the rickshaw stand where we got a rickshaw to the bus station. Traffic was horrendous but as we had seen how busy it was yesterday evening we had left with plenty of time. The rickshaw driver kept telling us it would be faster to walk (of course he still wanted full payment despite not taking us where we wanted to go) but I didn’t want to walk with my bag and since we had the time I didn’t mind being stuck in traffic.

Just near the bus station we saw a huge rock that had come sliding down the mountain the night before. We knew it was there as some people who arrived at the guesthouse this morning told us about it but we weren’t prepared for the size. The boulder was easily the size of a car with a whole load of smaller (although still big) rocks around it. You could see where it had come down from and where there was more rocks a dirt just waiting to come loose. It’s a miracle that no one was on the road when it fell.

We found our bus but there was no one about just yet as we were a bit early so we had a chai and sat huddling form the cold. The bus station is basically a dirt carpark next to the river with a few tarpaulin chai stands with plastic chairs. The men’s toilet is the river and there isn’t one for woman which was unlucky for me since I needed a wee and the bus wouldn’t stop for about three hours. (Normally I would just have a nature wee but there was literally nowhere to hide)

When the bus man arrived we put out bags in the boot and hopped on the seats reclined back pretty far but the driver went so fast it was hard not to just slide around. I put my music on and dozed until about 11pm when we stopped for dinner since it was already late I decided to skip dinner but gladly went in search of a toilet after which I was glad I wasn’t eating the food there.

We got back on the bus and I tried to sleep but it was rather hard as the guy behind me kicked my chair for the entire journey (he clearly had short man syndrome as he was shorter than me and my legs comfortable fit without the need to kick the chair in front) and added to that annoyance was the mystery liquid that was dripping all over my leg from above at one point my leg from the knee down and my entire foot was soaked but at least it wasn’t dripping on my head like the unfortunate guys in front of me!

Monday 1^st June 2015

We arrived into McLeod Ganj just before 5am this seemed a silly time to arrive since everything was closed. All the buses seemed to arrive then which was stupid as they all leave early if our bus had left at 9pm instead of 7pm we would have arrived at a much more reasonable 7am.

We walked into town to try and find somewhere to stay which was a challenge as everything was either shuttered up or everyone was asleep inside. We checked out a few places that were overpriced and a bit grim. One place was alright but we weren’t sold. We were about to give up and just go to one place when the guy came running after us saying he had another room for us.

The guesthouse was down a huge flight of stairs that we had already been down and back up once so I didn’t want it to be for nothing so we questioned the guy loads the room sounded ideal and was 600 rupees so off we went. We looked at the room (which had just been vacated by two girls who were off trekking) we agreed to take it and were sitting in the lobby waiting for them to clean it when the guy came up and said that he had made a mistake and the room wasn’t 600 rupees it was 1500 rupees but he could do us a deal for 1200. Of course we were annoyed and unhappy (especially about walking back up the stairs with our bags)

The guy then said he could give us the room below the expensive one but we would have to wait until 12pm when the guy checked out. In the mean time we could have another room to sleep in and shower and then move later. We agreed and went straight to bed. After walking around looking for a place for over an hour we were exhausted and fell into bed.

When we woke up we had a shower and packed up our things I went up to ask If the other room was ready and the guy said yes (after making me wait an age while he served a ton of people who came into reception after me) he took me up to a room but it wasn’t the one he had promised us (the guy in that one didn’t actually check out) and for this room he wanted us to pay 800 rupees.

The thing I didn’t like about the cheap room in this place was that it was dark and cold as it was in the basement it did have a window that went out onto the street but you couldn’t open the curtains as everyone in the road could see in. the room that he proposed we paid 800 for was higher up in the building but had a window facing a brick wall that was about 10cm away.

The whole place seemed to be run by clowns so we decided to stay in the dark cold basement room one night and then find somewhere else. Even this seemed to be a problem for them as for some reason they wanted us to move up something about that room being booked. I told them we would move to the other room for 600 rupees and suddenly it was ok that we stay in the cheaper room so clearly they were just money grubbing.

We went out and got some food I was starving having not eaten since lunch the day before at least food in town was cheap. We filled up on food and then headed back for more sleep. In the late afternoon we walked up to Dharamkot which is about 2km uphill to meet up with Sandeep and check out guesthouses there. The walk was pretty easy but we were both knackered so it took longer than it should.

We got to the top and headed to a tea house for a sit down and a drink before going to look at Sandeep’s guesthouse we decided stay there from tomorrow we could have got an even cheaper room but we were so over looking that we just took the first room we looked at.

We walked through Dharamkot and down into Bagsu where we saw some friends of mine from Sri Lanka we hung out with them for a while catching up and then went and had dinner in Bagsu. By the time we had finished eating we were both falling asleep in our plates so we walked back down to McLeod Ganj and had a shower and went to bed.

Tuesday 2^nd June 2015

After the annoyance and drama of yesterday morning’s guesthouse finding missing the staff were extremely polite and overly nice when we came upstairs to head out for breakfast they asked us if we were leaving or staying another night. I almost wanted to stay just to fuck them off since we already heard them outside our room this morning promising it to someone when we checked out.

We went and had breakfast at a café close by the morning had started off so nice but the longer we sat there the darker the sky became until inevitably the rain started and it came down in force along with a lot of thunder and brilliant flashes of lightning.

We couldn’t really wait it out as we still had to pack up our things and vacate our room so we braved the rain and got thoroughly wet by the time we got back. We took as long as we could and by the time we were ready to leave and had paid the rain had stopped for a time. 

Thankfully it held off as we walked to the square to find a taxi to take us the 2km uphill to Dharamkot. The square was rammed with people and the police were directing the traffic we though the carnage was to do with the weather but it actually turned out that the people were all hanging about to see the Dali Lama who was to make an appearance driving through town to visit a school (at least that’s where the taxi driver said he was going but the taxi driver was surly and seemed to find my questions and generally anything I said offensive so I’m not sure)

We found a taxi and got in the driver had to do a U-turn and join the back of a huge queue of non-moving traffic but it all turned out for the best because as we sat there we heard sirens in the distance and then some police jeeps came down the road followed by a car with the Dali Lama in it sitting in the front seat smiling and waving to the crowds that were lined up along the road.

We got a pretty decent view as he went past and it was defiantly a silver lining to the rain and the traffic! Once the motorcade had all gone past we started moving pretty quickly. By this stage the rain was coming down in force and all the windows steamed up how the driver could see where he was going was beyond me but we managed to get up the hill without and incidents.

He wouldn’t take us all the way to the guesthouse which wasn’t much further than the taxi stand (but we didn’t want to walk in the rain) he rushed us out and we marched quick smart up the incline to the guesthouse where we found our room dumped our bags and proceeded to get dry.

The rain continued almost nonstop all afternoon and so we acted like hermits and sat in watching TV and doing page after page of colouring in.

In the evening we met up with Sandeep and went for dinner we went to a little place that served all sorts and I had some curry which was just what was needed on a cold evening if not a tad too salty. We stayed there for quite a while before heading home to bed and warmth.

Wednesday 3^rd June 2015

Rain rain rain. Last night there was a huge storm with thunder and lightening and howling winds when we woke up this morning it was too dark grey skies. We got up and headed out to breakfast we sat and ate and read the news then headed back to the guesthouse. Along the way we saw Sandeep on his way to get some Chai so we doubled back and had cake.

We decided to go down to McLeod Ganj for the day but before we went got some laundry done. We walked down to town down a backroad which was much more pleasant as it was through the trees and there were no cars, just a few cows and dogs.

In town Mark and I headed for the Dalai Lamas Temple complex while Sandeep went off for a beard trim. We walked in and ark as usual had to relinquish his Leatherman in the security check. We walked around the temple which was really empty. The last time I was here (two years ago) the place was rammed with people praying everywhere but today it was just us and a few other Indian tourists.

Candles burning inside the temple

Buddha

some street art outside the temple

We walked around the complex and then left the way we came in to pick up Marks knife and to go to the Tibetan museum it’s been completely redone since the last time I was here and was super interesting as well as being very sad.

From there we met back up with Sandeep and went for lunch at a vegetarian Japanese restaurant which was delicious we finished off the meal with little lemon curd cakes which were fabulous.

Next stop the boys wanted coffee so we went to a café that is also a Tibetan community project selling all sorts of things made by Tibetan refugees I spent my time looking at all the things on sale while the boys had their coffee and then I had a flapjack which looked too good to resist.

We walked through town looking in a few shops along the way and then started back to the guesthouse through Bagsu. Unfortunate along the way it started to rain and we did need to take a stop for shelter until it eased off a bit.

Back at the guesthouse we chilled out for an hour or so until it had been long enough since we last ate to get more food. We went and got pizzas at a cosy little restaurant that had four puppies chilling out outside.

Back at the guesthouse it was bedtime.

Thursday 4^th June 2015

After another cold rainy night we got up looked out of the window and were faced with yet more rain. We got ourselves together got bundled up in coats and went to go and get some food. On the way out we saw Sandeep and he joined us for a leisurely breakfast.

We decided to head down into town to watch a documentary that was screening but it wasn’t until 3pm so we agreed to meet up later for lunch and then go. In the meantime I wrote my postcards while Mark sewed my trousers.

We got into town and went to a restaurant run by Tibetan monks the food was wonderful but we were eating in a rush as we thought the film started at 3.30pm. We went to the school where the movie was playing but it was closed we enquired and found out the movie was actually 5.30pm so we were a tad early.

Sandeep went off to read in the temple while Mark and I had a coffee/juice and abused the Wi-Fi in a café for a while. At about 5pm we met up with Sandeep and had a slice of cake before the film. The movie we went to see was a documentary called Tank Man and was about the Tiananmen Square massacre in China in June 1989.

The film was shown in a school hall with everyone sitting on rows of long cushions on the floor in front of a projector. The documentary focused on a man known only as the “Tank Man” a protestor who on the morning of June 5^th 1989 stood in front of a line of tanks as they left the square. The protests had been for democracy and freedom of speech and were met with full scale violence and murder. This lone man stood up to the Chinese military and the government but it has never been clear who this man was or what happened to him next. Different people speculated different arguments, but most agreed he was most likely silenced for his actions.

After the film played there was a discussion about the film with some people believing the only way to stop the Chinese government was to boycott all “made in china” items but others feeling this would only directly harm the poor working class of the country. It was all rather interesting but a rather sombre and depressing event.

We started back to Dharamkot hoping to get a rickshaw but not finding one so we walked. By the time we got to the top we were all hungry so went and got some dinner and then headed back to the guesthouse.

Friday 5^th June 2015

Today was a really gloomy rainy day and I was feeling really flat so we didn’t end up doing much. We had breakfast and then headed back to the guesthouse where we watched a movie with Sandeep we had planned on making it a movie day and heading to the meditation centre where they were showing a documentary but by the time we finished watching in the guesthouse we were hungry and so went and had lunch instead.

Lunch took ages as they kept forgetting our food and the service was generally terrible (although the food was amazing) in the afternoon we chilled out a little bit and then walked into town where the boys had coffee and I had cake and then we walked for ever down the hill to a dance school. Today a two week Butoh Dance festival started which has free performances and workshops so we went to see the two evening performances.

Butoh is a Japanese form of dance theatre and is traditionally quite dark often exploring distressing or taboo themes. The first performance was in an empty swimming pool as the stage the dancers started out standing very still for a while before beginning to move around the pool sometimes in slow motion other times irrationally jerking about quickly at one point a man smacked his head against the side of the pool which I’m not sure was intentional.

The dancers had no music instead they made weird tonal screeching noises which began to disrupt the monkeys sitting close by at one point a monkey came and sat on the edge of the pool staring at the dancers and then the audience and looking rather confused and disturbed.

The dancers in the swimming pool that served as the stage

Soon after three big dogs came along and started barking at the monkeys and one went to the stairs of the pool and we all thought he was going to go in and sniff the dancers who by this stage were laying in a heap groaning but he sat on the steps and watched.

After the first performance the boys wanted more coffee so we walked back up to the street and had a hot drink and whiled away the 45 minutes between the shows.

The second performance was inside the dance schools circular hall, the audience sat in a circle around the dancers. The show was somewhat similar but this time the dancers were dressed in even less clothes and there was music. Pretty early on a girls tits fell out of her top but she kept at it for the whole show dangling free and loose.

The dancers piling into a big orgy at the end of the performance.

It’s pretty hard to put the shows into words so I’m just going to leave it with what I have already said. Afterwards we didn’t stick around it was a long walk back up the hill to Dharamkot and by the time we got there we were ready for dinner so we ate and then headed home to bed.

Saturday 6^th June 2015

We were up and at it this morning as we were off on a hike up to Triund. We got up and got dressed and went to breakfast and were ready to hit the trail by 8am we had planned to meet a couple of the guys at 8am but by 8.10am they still hadn’t shown and we wanted to get going so we hoofed it. We got lost several times leaving Dharamkot, I got stung in the knee by a bee and we got attacked by an angry goat who held me hostage on a rock waving a stick until a man came and rescued me. But after all that we were on the way.

The path up through Dharamkot to Gallu Temple is the harder of the two possible routes and by the time we got to the temple I was already ready to call it quits. But the path from the temple flattened out a bit and for a while it was only a gradual incline with the occasional hard scramble.

Towards the end it got tough and we had to struggle on upwards but we still made it in good time most people take around four hours to walk up and it took us two hours and fifty four minutes.

Triund sits at 2975m (Dharamkot is around 1800 I think) depending on who we spoke to the hike from town was between 5 and 7km from Triund. It’s possible to continue up to the snowline but it was another 5km and I wasn’t feeling it so we didn’t attempt it.

Along the way we only stopped once for a nature wee and a sugar snack before pushing on. We reached the top to fabulous views on the valley and the snow-capped mountains but pretty soon the clouds were rolling in and by the time we left 45minutes later everything was wrapped in mist.

At the top we lay down in the goat poo covered grass and watched the clouds float past and the mist coming in towards the mountains. As we lay there a huge eagle flew right above our heads making a loud whooshing noise it was close enough to us that we felt the gust of wind as it flew past, which was incredible.

The goat that attacked us 

Mark and a little bubby cow. she kept sitting down while her owner was trying to get her to walk up the hill. at one point him and another man had to pick her up and carry her for a bit up the path as she refused to walk. well done cow! you show your independent spirit!

this goat was so majestic I had to take a photo!

All the goats and the sheep seemed to be cooling themselves off by sticking their heads in the shade.

The path winding its way up the hill

Me and the snowy mountains (you can see the clouds were already rolling in!)

The walk down took about two and a half hours and felt much steeper a lot of the path is loose stones so it was hard to get any rhythm going.at one point my foot got stuck between two rocks and I almost took a nose dive down the side of the mountain but managed to regain my balance (and not smash my camera which was dangling around my neck)  I was so glad we left when we did as on the way down the thunder started up above and the sky went from clear blue to overcast. By the time we reached town not a shred of the beautiful sunny morning remained however it was still warm.

By this time we were really hungry and so we went for huge curries followed by cake and then waddled back to the guesthouse for a rest.

In the evening we went out for dinner with Sandeep and Tinka we weren’t really hungry and ended up eating too much followed by more cake and then slowly dying of food exhaustion in bed.

Sunday 7^th June 2015

This morning I woke up early and spent some time reading before I needed to get ready to head off for my massage. I got to the place and met with Annand who is the therapist he explained he technique and then we got started. Chi Nei Tsang is a Chinese/Thai technique until recently used mostly just by monks in monasteries but in recent years a monk in Chang Mai (Thailand) has been teaching it and it is becoming more popular throughout the world.

The massage lasts for about 2 hours focusing mostly on the abdomen but also including some key points on the thighs upper arms and head. It is a deep massage aimed at detoxification in the internal organs leading to a clear out both physically and mentally as humans (as all mammals) carry their emotions in the belly.

The process is quite painful as the therapist needs to work deeply in order to properly massage the internal organs. At the end of it was a steam bath. I always feel a bit trapped inside them with just my head sticking out. I sat in the steam bath for about 20mins after which I was done and wanted out.

Once I was properly dressed again I went out the back onto the terrace and had some green tea and that was the end of it. For the rest of the day I had to avoid anything cold, drink lots of hot herbal drinks and avoid spicy, greasy or heavy foods. I left not feeling hungry at all but by the time I got back to the guesthouse and realised I hadn’t had breakfast I felt famished.

Mark as sewing the second patch on my bag so I read for a bit and then we went and lunch with Sandeep and Tinka (his roommate). Our timing was perfect as we got to the café just before the rains came down and down and down. I saw they had baked beans on the shelf and so had baked beans and eggs on toast which was the perfect meal.

We sat in the café until the rain died down and then walked back to the guesthouse and put on some shoes and went walking in the forest behind the guesthouse we started out just walking through the woods but soon found a path that led up to the road we followed it for a while and it led to Gallu Temple which is where the path up to Triund goes from. We took some pictures of the view and then walked back down the way we came.

The path in the woods behind our guesthouse that leads up to Triund

Prayer flags in the woods

We followed the path we found all the way down to the Tea house where we filled up our water and had a hot drink there was loads of traffic around with all the weekend Indian tourists heading home.

Back in the guesthouse we had showers and got ourselves ready for dinner (which really just involved having a shower and getting dressed) there was a music night on at one of the cafes on the way between Dharamkot and Bagsu which we wanted to check out we were going to get food there but it was really crowded so we went down to Bagsu and had a meal at a Thai place and then came back up.

The Thai was really amazing but my stomach wasn’t feeling great and I was keen to get home to bed. We stopped off at the cafe with the music which had finished but we stayed and had a hot Ginger Lemon and had an extremely weird conversation with an older Indian man who kept calling mark and I Pati and Patni (husband and wife) despite asking if we were married and we said no. he had some great views on relationships my favourite was that Mark should buy me a surprise every day because I f I wasn’t happy then he wouldn’t be (ha-ha great advice this man knows me so well ha-ha!)

Eventually we got out of the somewhat tedious (although hilarious) conversation and headed off on our merry way stopping one more time at our usual dinner spot where some of the guys were having a wee get together with a bottle of rum. We stayed for one drink (which I of course didn’t drink) and then headed off leaving the guys to it.

We got back and attempted to watch something but I fell asleep almost immediately waking up with about 5minutes till the end.

Monday 8^th June 2015

This morning I couldn’t sleep I was awake from about 6am as there was a bug buzzing around my ears and constantly landing on me. Eventually I fell back into a bit of a doze but got up feeling groggy and grumpy.

I tidied up my stuff which was in a huge pile after emptying my bag so Mark could sew some patches on it. Then had a shower and we went and got some breakfast. We were sitting in the Himalayan Tea House which is our local breakfast/chai spot when Christina a girl I met in Sri Lanka came in. we all had breakfast together and then agreed to meet up again later.

We came back to the guest house where Mark got his washing done and I caught up with some writing.

At around 12.30pm we headed down the hill to McLeod Ganj to meet Christina and her boyfriend, when we left the sky was clear and blue and it was sunny and hot but by the time we reached town the sky had clouded over to a dark grey that threatened heavy rain.

We planned to go to Norburlingka which is a centre with a whole lot of workshops dedicated to Tibetan culture and heritage. As there were four of us we could get a shuttle for just 50 rupees there. 

We had to go to a guesthouse and ask about the shuttle but weren’t sure exactly where it was, the first place we went in there was a weird mouse thing in the middle of the floor it had a long nose and tiny tiny eyes but in every other way looked like a mouse, it wasn’t scared of use and seemed to be either eating or suckling the plastic mat on the floor. Unfortunately when we found a guy to ask about the shuttle (we were in the wrong place) he then aggressively swept the creature out of the door and I thin k he killed it in the process despite my very vocal protests.

We went next door and asked again but were still in the wrong place but a friendly monk took Christina by the hand and led us where we wanted to be. We had to wait a while for the shuttle but the guesthouse was nice and had comfy chairs to sit on.

The drive took almost an hour and no sooner had we walked out to the car then the heavens opened up drowning us in hail and rain. The car was brand new and still had the plastic sheets on the seats, the driver clearly didn’t know how to use all the functions as despite it being a sweatingly hot day he had the heater going and when the windscreen fogged up he appeared to have no idea how to clear it.

We arrived and paid our entry fee ad got a half arsed tour of the place by a young girl by the time we arrived the rain had stopped and it was rather warm. We walked around the workshops and spoke to a few of the artisans. We then took a look around the doll museum which has elaborately crafted dolls in traditional dress.

Next we saw the temple apparently the view from the top is stunning but it was closed so we couldn’t go up there. We did get to see the art gallery and the library though which both contained some beautiful works.

Lastly we checked out the shop where the pricing was weird you could buy mala beads for a few hundred rupees but small cushion covers were almost 4000 rupees each. The girls working in the centre had beautiful traditional dresses on but the clothes sold in the shop were substandard in comparison. None of us bought anything.

Small shrine in Nurbolingka

Prayer wheels inside Nurbolingka

Map of Tibeet

Beautiful/creepy scenes in the Doll museum

artwork in the temple

Buddha in the temple

We had a quick drink in the café before we got the car to take us back to town. Along the way we hit a huge traffic jam and the driver took us on a very bumpy off road adventure short cut through the forest. We arrived back in town in time to say goodbye to Tinka who was heading home to Croatia.

We ate a small meal as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and then headed way down the hill to watch the 7pm Butoh performance. This one was very complex with loads of dancers. The final scene finished with all of the dancers holding a burning candle up to a lightbulb and I think the entire audience was expecting it to smash but it didn’t it just went completely black from the smoke.

After the show we hurried up the hill to the Japanese restaurant trying to get there in time for the final order at 8.30pm. the boys raced ahead on their long legs but mark held back and waited for me a bit but was still far in the distance when I arrived at the restaurant he had massive over shot and I had to run after him and then we had to run back making it with just three minutes before last orders were called.

We ate with a bunch of people and then got a rickshaw up the hill we got caught in a traffic jam when an idiot in a huge car who couldn’t drive refused to go closer to the edge in order for both cars to fit despite the fact that the gap was large enough for people to walk along.

We got back up the hill and headed to bad after a long hot shower.

Tuesday 9^th June 2015

We saw a little scorpion on the way to breakfast this morning.

This morning we were up and ready early as we wanted to take part in a soap making workshop. The meeting space was the Tea house where we eat breakfast so it worked out well for us. We had breakfast and then waited. When the lady showed up she said she was full but luckily for us she had a cancellation and we were able to attend.

The workshop went for almost three hours and covered an abundance of information we made a batch of soap (that will be ready to collect tomorrow evening but will still need to cure for four weeks) we learnt a few different recipes and learnt the chemistry behind it all as well as talking about ingredients, where to source them and the importance of using ethical and environmental ingredients.

The course was great as it covered making soap in small quantities for home use as well as ideas for making them on a bigger scale and selling them. The lady teaching the workshop is English but has lived in India for most of the last 15 years and has been making soaps and other natural beauty products for years so she was a wealth of knowledge.

We finished the course and were starving so we walked down to McLeod Ganj to the Japanese restaurant as it was sushi day and the food there is excellent. We had a huge meal but it was all light and mostly vegetables so we didn’t feel uncomfortably full.

Once we finished eating we walked back up the hill a way to a coffee shop so I could upload some blog and Mark and Sandeep could drink all the coffee (while I stared longingly at all the cakes I gave up sugar and it’s been three of the longest sugar free days ever!)

We ended up siting in the coffee shop for hours and in the end it was pointless as my battery died before I could finish what I was doing. We took a bit of a walk around own up to the temple and then back to the LIT centre (I cant remember exactly what LIT stands for but it’s a Tibetan  learning centre) they were screening a film and serving a traditional meal.

When we arrived we were he only people there but others soon filtered in. the film was a documentary about the 2008 uprising in Tibet. It was all pretty brutal with the official death toll much lower (by about 4000) than the official Chinese record we are learning a lot about the repressive regime in China.

After the film and the food we walked back up to Dharamkot stopping along the way for a chai with friends before keeping on up the hill to bed.