Well, I’m back in McLeod Ganj (Dharamshala) for a third time teaching at Tibet Charity. This time I decided to splash out and take a taxi from Delhi, because the bus travels overnight and I was interested to see the scenery. It’s also a shorter trip; 10 hours in a car instead of 12 in a bus. I was fortunate in that although I had ordered a small taxi a much larger air conditioned car arrived, so I travelled in great style and comfort.
It was well worth travelling in daylight. Driving through India is never boring. The landscape on the plains is not particularly interesting, being dead flat, but fascinating signs of human life are all around. As we passed through the villages there were often cricket games in progress; mostly it was a group of men and boys on a piece of waste land; once a proper game with the players in whites. There were stores of bamboo scaffolding and rather beautiful bamboo ladders propped up beside the road. Amongst the tuk tuks, motorbikes, buses and cars were carts pulled by buffaloes, horses and even a camel.
In a small town called Ghaurunda we passed what looked like a small ruined red castle or fort. Around the area of Chandigarh were signs for various luxury housing developments such as Spanish Meadows – expandable luxury villas, or Mohali Hills (not a hill in sight) or Nirwana Dreams. Most of them have not developed much, although there were some big blocks of apartments under construction here and there, and there was inevitably an elaborate gateway leading into the new development.
People watching is fun in India too, as the country is full of colour and life. At one crossroads I spotted an impressive grey-bearded elderly man in a big blue turban, fawn tunic and pants, with a large rusty looking sword at his side – a character straight out of Kipling’s Kim.
A lot of commerce goes on along the roadside. At one point we passed people selling umbrellas, displayed in colourful rows. In another place there were lots of inflatable toys on display. Hung from trees were dolls and balls, teddies, tigers and children’s seats in the shape of pandas and clowns.
In the hills we passed several villages where they evidently specialise in rather dramatic woodwork, such as carved eagles in flight, and large scale macramé including hanging baby cribs. We also began to see monkeys by the side of the road as we drove higher. They sat on the concrete blocks beside the road, watching the traffic with an abstracted air as they relaxed or groomed each other.
Favourite sign spotted in a village: 'Harsh hairdresser'.
Despite being the monsoon season it was fine when we set off from Delhi, and stayed that way until we got into the hills. Then we had a selection of misty, drizzly and bucketing down rain. The heavy rain didn’t seem to last too long – or maybe we just drove out of it. The worst bit was when we went through an unlined tunnel not far from Kangra. As we made our way through, it felt as if someone was dumping buckets of water on the top of the car.
When we crawled our way up the final steep hill and arrived in McLeod Ganj it was drizzling, and both the driver and I were thoroughly glad to have come to the end of a long but interesting drive.
Talking of the monsoon, it is proving to be quite different from what I imagined. For example this morning - my third in McLo, I woke at around 5.30am and when I looked outside the sky was clear – I could even see the moon, the mountains were standing out against the sky and there was a delicate sunrise over Dharamshala. However the monsoon means changeable weather, and it could be completely misted over by mid-morning. So far there has not been heavy rain at all, although it’s very humid.
Yesterday morning it rained early in the morning, but had cleared by 9am, so I decided to walk down Dharamshala to buy a few things like sheets which you can’t get in McLo. It was quite hot and I used my umbrella as a sunshade. After making my purchases I wandered up to the Dhauladhar Hotel for a drink. When I got there it was still fine and clear, and I was admiring the view from the terrace as I waited for my lassi, but I could see a cloud advancing up the valley, and by the time I was half way through my drink we were engulfed in mist.
When I left the hotel Dharamshala was entirely misted up – you could barely see across the street. I waited at the bus stop with a couple of young Tibetan women, and after a short wait a jeep taxi emerged out of the gloom. We squeezed ourselves in – I was jammed up against the back door beside a rather dapper looking Indian man who clearly didn’t think much of my sweaty form pressed against him. We were thirteen in all in the jeep, not counting the driver, and you could not have squeezed another soul in.
At McLo I paid my 10 rupees (about 20 cents NZ) – good value for a 9 kilometre ride - and walked through town clutching my parcels. I had glimpsed the mountains as we drove up the hill, but the mist was evidently following us, because by the time we arrived in McLo it was very foggy and quite chilly.
When I arrived at Snow Height I found that the narrow passage to my room was blocked by a large monkey rootling around in a rubbish sack that the staff had left there. It was snacking away happily on scraps and clearly didn’t want to be disturbed. It bared its teeth and made a rather menacing move toward me when I started down the passageway, so I retreated and called Amit the manager for help. He sent one of his staff up but the monkey charged him too, when he rather half-heartedly hurled a stone at it. Luckily a construction worker armed with a hammer was passing by. He shouted and waved the hammer at the monkey, who carried on eating. He then shied a couple of well-aimed stones, and the monkey decided it had had enough and took off over the roof and up the hill. It was the first time I’ve been seriously threatened by a monkey, and I can see why people are wary of them. I love seeing them in the forest or leaping about in the trees, but that’s usually in a situation where they don’t feel cornered or threatened by humans. This encounter was a bit too close…
PS: MONSOON UPDATE!!! Last night I woke around midnight to find a strange blue light show playing around on the wall of my room. The rain was absolutely belting down, and there was a faint background rumble. The lightning was continuous for an hour, exactly as if someone was flashing a strobe light in the sky. I ventured to the window (with a torch, as the power was off) but I couldn't really see anything through the sheets of rain. It was astonishing - I've never experienced lightning like that before.
