From the Golden temple in Amritsar, we took a city bus up to Dharamsala. Dharamsala sits up in the Dhauladhar Range at an elevation of over 6000 feet. It is divided into lower and upper dharamsala. We were in Upper Dharamsala which is called McleodGanj. From lower Dharamsala, you have to take a 25 meter climb up the incredibly steep mountain by taxi. The city of McleodGanj sits right at the base of a few huge, snowcaped peaks reaching up to 18000 feet. McleaodGanj is the home of most of the Tibetan refugees in India, it is often called little Tibet, and is the home of the Dalai lama. We fell in love with this town and if we ever come back to India, we will definitely be going back to McleodGanj. So many times we forgot we were in India because so much of the population and cultural influence in Tibetan. We bought Yak wool blankets, and ate the best Tibetan food. Tibetan Monks roam the streets, some with their japa beads chanting to themselves, and others on their cell phones. We went to the temple of the Dalai Lama and meditated in it's halls. The Dalai Lama was in Europe at the time, so we did not get to see or hear him speak, but his peaceful and wise influence was all over the town. We will always have a sweet spot in our hearts for this little mountain village.
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| We are here! |
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| Our favorite place in McLeodGanj to eat and drink Ginger tea. |
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| In America, this dog would be comfortably situated on some rich woman's lap, but in India, he is a hardcore street gang dog who doesn't take crap from anyone! |
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| The bathrooms..... |
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| Veg sandwich with cucumber mustard |
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| We met this guy who was corky and sweet Tibetan refugee. He invited us to see his interpretive dance show, but we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. It was AWESOME! Very modern, avant gard performance art. Daniel and I loved it! |
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| Tibetan version of a vegi burger. |
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| One of many visitors we had in our room. this one was the size of my hand! |
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| Our room in Mcleod Ganj. Bright, loud, hard bed, countless bugs, and we loved every bit of it! |
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| Tofu Chips |
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| The dogs in McLeodGanj were hillarious. There were several dog gangs that would meets at corners and yell at each other. It was like West side story. |
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| Live Sufi music. It was fantastic! This is where I heard 'Across the Universe', Priceless! |
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| Tibetan Prayer flags |
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| Streets of McleodGanj |
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| The people in this town loved board games. |
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| more board games |
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| McleodGanj at dusk |
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| Chai, of course. |
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| Mountain city. This is one half, I am taking the picture from the other half of the city. |
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| We fell in love with this fresh Ginger and honey tea. For some reason it was so amazing there and we drank a cup at least once a day. |
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| drinking tea and soaking it in. |
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| All their eggs were pure white, we never did figure out why. |
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| and yes, more tea. |
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