Ahh...so today I write you from cold and damp Dharamsala. From Shimla - the hiltop city, we took jeeps top the town of Mandi as a rest stop. That journey was quite a queasy one - I was not looking pretty thanks to a good bout to motion sickness, and really, I just didn't want to look at the windy uneven bumpy roads. A sports bra is recommeneded for the roads here. Mandi was a quick stop - its a Sikh town, and started to see some more varieties of Indians including those of Nepali and Tibetan decent. It was a great spot to go sari hunting, and I did end up buying a beautiful sari for about 25USD from this funny Sikh gentleman and his beautiful wife. I'm sure we (two Aussies and myself) were quite entertaining to them as we tried to haggle the price down. My strategy was to ask the prices for many saris, and then the discounted price he was offering, and then go back to the on I really wanted, to see if he forgot what he originally quoted me. Didn't really work. In one store, the guy told me it was fixed price - because all had price tags on them..well nothing is fixed price in India, so I asked to see the price tag, and he showed me. It was a serial number. He said, yes, its a serial number and price - take the first 3 digits off, and the last two digits, and you have the price. Right.
Mandi also had a nice Kali temple, that was surrounded by mean monkeys (one lady had her glasses ripped off her face from a monkey). The Kali temple was nice, and the inside was adorned with solid gold. It was at the top of hill, so we had good views of the Himalayas. Its kinda neat to have these extaordinary mountains as a backdrop amongst busy city life.
So the next day...what a day. We took public busses to Dharamsala. We arrived at the bus station, and it turned out that the bust to Dharamsala was not going today. Why not? Just because. So we caught another bus to another city, and then caught the bus to Dharamsala. Let me tell you...public bus in India is like no other. It was kinda neat climbing up to the top of the bus to strap our bags to the roof - there's a technique - interlinking all the backpacks together, and then to the railings on the bus. The bus itself, is jam packed. I mean jampacked. I got a little taste the true meaning of jam packed when I rode the Delhi metro (which, by the way, is AMAZING! So clean and efficient). But I thought we packed more people on the train then I had ever seen on a rush hour train in London, Toronto, Chicago or NYC. Anyways, back to the bus. It was five hours of utterly squashed bodies squeezing in more bodies. Luckily, it wasn't hot..I can't imagine what it would be like in the heat.
Anyways - the journey was long and a learning experience, but I really enjoyed it. The views outside the dirty bus windows was goregous...its a different India for me. By the way, most of the buses have vomit trails outside of it from so many people getting sick. But its an interesting journey for me. Typically whenever I go to India, I have an initial culture shock because I'm not a minority when I walk down the street. Yes, I still stick out, but on the surface, I look the same more or less. And so Kolkatta is really the only India I knew. The landscape also from what I remember of my parents towns are also the only India I know. Delhi didn't really shock me, but as I travel north, its a different venture for me. Lots of amazing green hills, mountains, plains of tea leaves growing in the distance. Men wearing pagris, nepali hats, muslim hats...it changes with the landscape. And so I get to see different faces of India in the people, and its a neat experience to see.
And so arriving in Dharamsala...it was like a massive culture shock to me. I feel like I'm in a different country. It really is a little Tibet here...we came into town greeted by a moonsoon wave of monks leaving one of the Dalai Lama's teachings. It was quite a site to see. Oh, and there are so many westerners here. Some are passing by. Some are teaching and living here - some even are monks. Some are the typical dread-wearing, ganja smoking, ï'm here to find myself", kinda folks, but its interesting to see. That's the other thing, I'm no longer the only tourist walking around, so its kinda nice to not get so many stares and solicitations.
Anyways..a couple of things about my group - its a good group - everyóne's is good about doing there own thing. There are two young british lads - we call them Stripey1 and Stripey2. They are fresh out of uni, and this is there first real trip outside of the UK and the wanted real culture shock..and they're getting it. There's Ishbel who's from Vancouver - is an English teacher and is really a fascinating woman to talk to...she's considering moving to India to teach, so this trip is her exploratory trip. Nari is an Aussie who used to be an Intrepid tour guide in China, and currently works for Intrepid in Marketing. There's a wonderful couple - Paul and Dorothy who are really sweet and joke about being to old to hang with us, but really, they're great. Actually, on the train, some guy stole her bag, and jumped off the train as we were leaving the station, and Paul heroicly jumped off the train and chaseed after him. It was quite dramatic and the train stopped, and everyone jumped out...the bag was recovered, but not her camera. Let's see, there's Emma, a wonderfuly quick witted Brit who says lovely things like..ugh, Latte's..they're the adulterous spawn of coffee. No really, tell us how you really feel. There's also Aidan, another Brit, who's been wandering around Asia for the past few months, and John, an interesting Aussie who's great for eating any food you don't want to finish. Finally, there's Karina, our tour guide, a 25year-old 6ft tall, blue-eyed Aussie, who's been living in India for the past 2 years. this is her last trip, and then she's off to Morroco. I'm so impressed by her - she speaks fluent Hindi, and really has embrassed India in such a way that its not chique or cute or about finding one's self. She knows her history, culture, and bollywood songs. And its great, bc when people are talking about one of us, she gives us the translations. On the bus, a couple of school girls were talking about me, trying to figure out if I was Indian or not. They concluded that I was pretty, so was Indian, but obviously not from here. :D
Anyways. Hopefully things will clear up here. Still waiting to see if we can get in to see the Dalai Lama - hopefully tomorrow. And if the rain lets up then the treks will begin from Dalhousie.
Will write more soon
