After the second visit to the Golden Temple and the time in Jallianwala Bagh, I decided it was time to move on from Amritsar so went back to my guest house to check out. On the way back I bought a couple of post cards and stopped at the post office to buy some stamps. It was a very dodgy looking place despite being official. When I got the stamps and tried to lick them to put them on the postcards I noticed they had no glue. When I asked about this the man pointed to a very crappy looking tin pot, looked like a paint can on a wobbly desk in the corner. It was the glue pot - with a stick I managed to get out enough glue to put on the stamps, covering the rest of the postcards and my fingers with glue as well.
Since the experience in Delhi with the Bicycle Rickshaw I had been feeling differently about them, rather than being annoyed by their approaches I was sympathetic to them just trying to get some work. I remembered something from 'The City of God' about a man trying to feed his family with a rickshaw - running barefoot through the streets in Agony as a way to get ahead. So when they offered me rides I started giving them a small rupee donation - because the truth is most times I would rather walk. Of course you can't give them all a donation or I'd be broke so I prefered the quiet humble ones to the aggressive annoying ones whom I still said no to.
There were two rickshaw drivers outside my guest house. The first looked old and tired. I gave him 10 rupees, wished him well then continued on walking. This seems to have annoyed the second driver who seemed to think it was his turn for the next passenger and that I had jumped the queue so he started following me down the street. " I take you for 10 r sir" , "No I prefer to walk" - and (I thought) "I don't like pushy salesmen".
I wasn't far on my map to the bus stop so I tried to just ignore him but he followed me until I think we were close enough where he started to say "5r sir, sit down, 5r" - I gave in and gave him 5r and said now go away I want to walk. But he kept following me, "sit down sir, no money, is far, you must cross, sit down"... on and on. I walked for quite some time walking and concerntrating on ignoring him, until I realised that I had no idea now where the bus station was - so I relented. He was overjoyed, and thanked me profusely and we rode a little way before he made a U turn and started heading back to the bus station that I had passed quite some time before.
He was smiling now - and waving and greeting some of his friends on the way back and it occurred to me that this might be a question of pride for him - to earn his keep and not be a beggar. Some sort of hierarchy or pecking order where he thought he was earning an honest living - he didn't want my charity. One of the Sikhs rules is that they must work hard, it is a religious decree and I speculated that perhaps I was turning honest working folk into beggars by my small gifts. I gave him another 5 rupees when I got off.
For the rest of the day I was jumping on and off squashy little local busses. There was no room for my pack which took up the place of another person so I had to nurse it most of the way. The busses were bumpy and uncomfortable, but I was having a great time watching the people go about their lives. The first bus took hours to a transport hub called Pathenkot, where I jumped of one bus and virtually straight on to another. I say virtually because there is a horrible toilet story there in the middle that I don't feel like telling. The next bus was to take me to a place called Gaggal. I got to sit in the front seat which gave me a good view but also let me see the drivers overtaking habits which sometimes you don't want to see.
The third swap was towards Darhamsala - this bus was already full, but as they do, a man just slid over a bit in his seat and let me sit on the edge. It was only a half hour trip. The man was keen to chat, he explained that he was a private detective and that most of his work was investigating visa overstays, faked marriages for citizenship, and other scams that foreigners had made complaints about.
After Darhamsala there was a 30 minute wait for the last bus which took me to McLeods Ganj which was my final destination. I arrived to the normal crowd of touts trying to get me look at their hotels. I tried a couple from the lonely planet and ended up in the "Tibetan Ashoka Guest House". It was nice enough.
As I was walking back to the reception to check in with the owner we noticed a pooh lying on the ground - they had a small dog but this didn't look like it had come from him! The owner called the cleaners to get rid of it - but couldn't work out where it had come from. A little later he told me that they had a Japanese Sumo wrestler staying with them and that he had turned out to be the culprit.
McLeods Ganj is the home of the tibetans in exile - with a residence for the Dalai Lama. It is very popular with tourists and it was clear this is a well trodden tourist route. Many restaurants, bars, shops - well equipped and easy to hang out in. Sometimes that suits , sometimes not. Today as I arrived late and tired it was good, I could relax.
