welcome to the himalayas

getting the train from delhi this time was actually uneventful - i just went to the station, found my train on the board, went to the appropriate platform, found my berth, and scrambled on to it. i slept, and 9 hours later i was the small town of pothankot, where it was pitch black at 5:00am. i navigated through some overly aggressive taxi drivers who wanted to take me all the way to mcleod ganj for like 1500 rupees and found one to take me to the bus station for just 50. that is probably still too much but i just wanted to get out of there. happily, at the bus station, i could buy a ticket that took me all the way to mcleod ganj (i had heard it was harder to get one going further than dharamshala). i only had to wait about 15 minutes for it to leave, so it was perfect timing and actually good that my train had arrived about an hour late. a funny thing happened at the bus station - i was trying these little cigar/cigarette things called "beedies" (i think it's a small amount of tobacco wrapped in a dried eucalyptis leaf). this guy comes up and says "excuse me sir, no smoking." so i just dropped it and nodded. then he gets out an official-looking pad of papers and says "you have to pay fine, 20 rupees." i looked him up and down, he didn't seem to be wearing an official uniform or anything, so i said "ok, let's go check." he followed me to the booth where i had bought the ticket. i stuck my head in the window: "excuse me..." - i pointed to the guy next to me - "does he work here?" the guy behind the window looked at me quizically. "he said i have to pay if i smoke." the guy laughed a little and shook his head. i looked at the guy trying to impose the fine, and he looked back at me sheepishly. i patted him good-naturedly on the shoulder and laughed, and he laughed too. "you're good," i said. then he said "ok, you want taxi? 500 rupees." i love the flexibility of indians to engage in any number of different business disciplines at the same time. smoking police and long-distance taxi operator.

it only cost me 90 rupees for the 4 hour bus ride to mcleod ganj, which was probably the most spectacular bus ride i've ever had in my life. it was really cool - i got to see rural india. we passed all these tiny little villages, driving through streets lined densely with huge trees, watching people begin their day. i love the transparency of village life. you can see "ok, that is where people buy their groceries...that's where they go to pray...that's where they go to school...that's the restaurant." there's just one of everything. people were bathing themselves outside, just wearing pair of shorts and dumping what must be ice cold buckets of water over themselves. i saw wild-haired, wild-eyed saddhus, the holy men, smoking their chillums and gazing spacily right through us. i saw vast open fields where people were working, though i'm not sure what was being grown there. occasionally we would pass a trail of dirt and stone steps, leading up to a barely visible temple in the forest. every now and then uniformed children would file on to the bus and quickly get off again. the bus drivers are totally insane. this wouldn't fly in most of the world but here it's the norm. we would fly down extremely narrow, winding himalayan village streets, blaring the horn around blind turns, occasionaly rounding them to discover that another bus, of equal or greater size, had the exact same idea, and we either slam on the breaks or turn sharply at the last moment. sometimes we would skirt precariously the unguarded rim of a alarmingly tall and preciptious dropoff, at the bottom of which i half-expected to find the rusting carass of a bus piloted by a driver with an extravagant surplus of confidence. it must happen from time to time. other times, we would pause to allow bands of ambling monkeys to migrate across the street, where they would perch themselves on the guardrail and look at us inquistively. we spent a lot of time in the opposing lane or traffic for some reason, or at least straddling both lanes, and often we would just barely avoid certain death as our driver was roused from staring dreamily out the side window by the blaring horn of an oncoming vehicle. sometimes when skirting these and returning to our former place in the road, the backsides of our bus and the other would barely knick each other with a sharp click. never has avoiding fiery collision with, say, a careening tanker of propane, been so casual.

at one point, we had to reverse quite a bit because, on a street only allowing one vehicle, there was an oncoming military convoy.

the last part of the trip involves crawling up winding roads to get us to the relatively high mcleod ganj, at almost 7000 feet. on the entire ride, you've been getting glimpses of the himalayas - these white-capped horns rising out of the horizon. apparently we have a view of the world's third highest mountain, the name of which i forget, from this place.

i thought that perhaps i would be one of only a few tourists here in mcleod ganj, but it turns out it is a huge tourist mecca. i wonder if there are more people now than usual, or less. it seems to be about perfect temperature, much cooler than delhi, so this might be peak season. i think i'm treating the tourists here unfairly in my head because i haven't met any of them yet, but they don't seem to have the open and friendly attitude of the travelers i met in delhi. these are more like the people i met in a hostel in montreal...everyone seems to think they are cooler than everyone else and are afraid of being discovered as otherwise.

i haven't really explored this place much since i've been here, but i can tell you that it may as well be in another country when comparing it to delhi. this seems to be a very small, quaint, himalayan hamlet. the pictures below, for the first time, aren't mine, i got them online, but i may as well have taken hem. my camera is in my room and i'm too lazy to go get it.

the reason why i haven't explored much is that i was totally exhausted upon arriving here. i got a room, went to a restaurant, and fell asleep waiting for the food. when it came, the waiter woke me up, i ate, then i passed out in my room, and when i woke up, it was dark. tomorrowing i'll explore the place, go to the monasteries, visit the home of the dalai lama, and more importantly find out if he is here so i can register to be part of a group meeting with him. there's also a village called bhagsu only a mile's walk away, which i'll probably check out. i paid 200 rupees for my room here, but i think i'll try staying in either a monastery or this place that has dorms for only 25 rupees (about $0.50) per night.

i've been thinking about where i want to spend diwali, the largest indian festival, and trying to decide between here and delhi. still not sure but i could see spending at least a week here, in which case i will be here for diwali, which starts on october 28th.

i think i've decided to not go to nepal and china on this trip, but just concentrate on india. actually, going to china, if you plan on going to tibet, is a lot more complicated than i originally imagined. and really, i'm not super interested in china right now. i'd rather just save the money and explore more of this country, then go right to korea.

i just realized i haven't really described the town of mcleod ganj itself, exactly what it is. basically, this is a town where the population of tibetans outnumber that of indians. the tibetans are refugees, or children of refugees, who came here after china invaded their country, just north of here. this is also the home of the dalai lama. i could say "the spiritual leader of tibet," or whatever, but i guess he doesn't really need any introduction. sometimes i wonder if this isn't a more authentic tibetan experience than going to tibet itself. for example, you won't hear the tibetan language spoken in tibet - it's against the law. here people speak it freely. in tibet you will find no images of the revered dalai lama, but here his likeness is everywhere. groups of monks, clad in maroon and saffron robes, are a familiar sight. a sarcastic poster hanging in this restaurant says "Celebrate Human Rights Violations: Beijing Olympic Games 2008"

one strange thing about this place is that resturants. i've been to two already, and they both serve mostly, of all things, italian food. pizza and lasagna are easily to come by here, but i haven't found any indian food yet. i did try tibetan food in delhi. it's pretty bland, maybe they are offering western fare to suit tourist's tastes. i don't know.