HEY DALI LAMA
Our trip through the mountains of Himachal Pradesh ended spectacularly, as we hiked up in the snow above Manali, taking in some of the highest glacial peaks. Our hotel, Johnson’s Lodge was pleasant and rustic and we got the upside of of the off-season with the best room for 50% off. Of course there is often a reason that a time is the off-season and in this case it was clearly the cold and accompanying lack of heat in any building in the mountains, except for a few wood stoves and space heaters. However, we choose this place because we had been freezing the past two nights and it had a small rustic wood stove in our room. So the room included a little wood fire heat in our room rate that they stocked and lit during dinner for us. Sounds lovely.
Of course this being India, you always need to make choices about your comfort, and in this case, it was a simple choice of oxygen or heat for the first three hours of the wood fire, since the discharge pipe was clearly too small or choked with soot to accommodate the smoke. We returned the first night to our room to find it uninhabitable with thick smoke and literally had to crawl on the floor to open some windows and clear the place out in the next hour, which of course negated any effect that the heat from the fire was having on the room temperature. It was pretty funny as I can just never believe how there really is “always something” with everything in India. But we laughed it off (as you must do to stay sane here) and the second night were better prepared for waiting out the smoke clearing, as after a few hours the hotter coals actually produced a bit of nice heat and the smoke was below coughing level. And for those of you asking about smoke detectors, then you have obviously not been to India as they do not exist, anywhere. Fire is a small danger here compared to the many others.
Johnson’s Lodge also had a laid-back and excellent restaurant reminiscent of North Coast California (which we miss) that we ended up eating every single meal at, despite being a stone’s throw from town. We have found that when you travel for months at a time (we are now 5 months into our vagabond state) that you need to take every advantage to replenish your body and soul with things that make you happy and in this case, with amazing hearty oatmeal, spinach lasagnes, and pizzas that tasted so good after weeks of various Indian cuisines. We are also finding that since we both for a bit sick from some Indian food that our bodies seem to have lost a taste for it and guess that this feeling may be nature’s way of protecting ourselves. (Kinda like my first and last BAD experience with Jack Daniels in high school!!) Of course, we have still had more tasty street front Indian chow, as it’s the only way to eat most places.
We then headed to McLeod Ganj which was a 7-hour drive from Manali on roads that had about 10 meters of straightaway in about 200 km of gorges and small villages. Needless to say we were happy to get out of the car and send our nice driver, Rana, on his way back to Shimla, passing on the next morning of “sightseeing” planned (we paid him the same) as we would have gladly paid him more not to drive us another day. Having a driver was wonderful for certain stretches, but we were ready to walk, walk, walk, and get back to the calmer train travel as possible.
McLeod Ganj is a kinda backpacker, Tibetan refuge, mixed with the usual dose of touts, beggars, limping dogs, and marauding monkeys. It is home to the exiled Dali Lama and a substantial community of Tibetan refuges that fled the Chinese slaughter ( 1.2 million Tibetans) and cultural elimination over the past 40+ years. The setting is nice at 1700m (about 6000 feet) with thick forests of evergreen trees and trails extending up to smaller villages and the bigger peaks of the Himalayas. We finally found some really nice and peaceful hiking, including spotting 5 red pandas climbing trees and apparently fighting (or maybe it was mating?) on a very secluded trail that we wandered onto. The second day we hiked further to a ridge at 2800 m (over 3000 feet above McLeod!) which had stunning views of the snow capped mountains just a few mile away. The day trek also had two nice huts along the way where you can emjoy snacks, water, and of course, a nice Chai tea while crossing paths with other locals , drop-out gringos, and even monks.
We also passed older traditional Tibetan women carrying impressive loads of firewood on their backs at a speed greater than ours. What the men are doing is often a mystery here in the mountains of India. Important business, I’m sure. These two days hiking really put us back in a nice physically and mentally happy place as heavy exercise has been lacking in the past three weeks.
The fourth day in McLeod we walked the Kora prayer circuit which most practicing Buddhists do daily around a small ridge which passes by a temple and the Dali Lamas residence. It was thick with prayer flags, carved rocks and prayer wheels which you spin clockwise as you walk in lieu of reciting the extensive prayers contained on them. It was pretty cool as we were in the middle of natives and got a good sense of the scene. I like a religion that incorporated walking into the daily ritual and clearly it keeps people fit as we saw very old women making this very hilly Kora circuit.
Back to dangerrous activities…. here in India is to be on the roads after dark in any form of transportation is risky as the death rates are close to 10 times (per mile) of most industrialized nations. There are no street lights in most places, overburdened two-lane roads, and a traffic mix that is unbelievable. We say this since we survived a 3 hour shared taxi ride to the Pathankot train station from McLeod Ganj that took us into the evening. Everytime we passed a unlit cart into oncoming traffic we thought it was the end. We all closed our eyes after awhile as it was just to much to take….so we will be avoiding any more night travel. Period.
We had a great overnight here in Delhi and are on our way to Rajasthan (Udaipur) via night train to spend 4 days, while finally heading on to Ahmadabad and Mumbai. Yesterday was especially pleasant as we finally got to the wonderful National Museum of India and their deep and beautiful collection of artifacts from 4000 years of societies on the Sub-continent. We also met a very nice British guy named Pete, who we rode the train with, and hung out in Delhi with for the day. He is on his way to Sydney and the US to work for the NIH in Washington DC. It was great to share our stories of India and the world.
Well, better push the post and get to our train as the honking in Dehli is growing…must really be rush hour now. Photos soon…..promise
Tags: India, New Zealand, Travel, Tag Index
rich.coffin