McLeod Ganj is unlike any place we've stayed in India. For one, it's a not really Indian. There are more Tibetan people here than Indian and that makes the vibe totally different. You can see snow capped mountains in the near distance, and pine trees everywhere. I was a huge fan of the area. The trees and the mountains almost reminded me of Northern California. We kept a pretty low profile in McLeod Ganj (also known as Upper Dharamshala). We were more interested in relaxing among family than doing intensive site seeing. Not to say that we didn't do any. We ventured to the Tibetan government in exile where we met with the father of one of Setse's friends at school. He was very humble about it, but we're pretty sure he has a really important role in the government. He showed us around a little bit and we got to the the Tibetan library and also a monastery where the oracle to the Dalai Lama lives.
We also went to see the big boy himself. Well not really but we went to the Dalai Lama's residence where he lives when he's not traveling around, bettering the world. When it comes to his residence, it's really location, location, location! The view is spectacular and you can see the towns in the valley and the mountains above. I certainly wouldn't mind living there.
We had one more notable outing to the Norbulingka institute, a place that teaches recently arrived refugees traditional Tibetan handicrafts. Here as well had a brilliant feng shui. Vaguely resembling a Japanese water garden, it could have been a high end resort in any moderate climate location. It was well maintained, and had a lovely atmosphere. We ate lunch at the outdoor cafe and then got a free tour of all of the workshops. My favorite was the wood carving because I love the smell of wood shavings, but the thangka paintings were cuisine also. Thangka is a traditional Tibetan art form that is paint or fabric appliqué on silk. They typically depict either mandalas, Buddhas or other deities. We got to see the apprentices at work which was cool. It was funny though because a lot of them were lounging at their work places on smart phones. Technology really has pervaded everywhere. Even in the streets we see monks using their smart phones. Anyway, our tour ended at... You guessed it, the gift shop. We got to see the finished products of the workshops which was nifty but also pricey.
Everything here really was Tibetan themed including the food. They do momos (also known as dumplings) and boy do the Tibetans know how to do them. My personal favorite were from the Momo cafe, a tiny hole in the wall that makes the dumplings fresh when you order. They were so good and I already crave them with no hope of gratification. The food in general here was really tasty and we even attempted Italian! Mom and Dan assured us it paled in comparison to real Italian but Alexis and I are so removed that it tasted fine to us. Other than that, we did some shopping, got some massages and just generally relaxed. Those of us who were sick worked on getting better and those who were well worked on not getting sick.
All too soon, the time came for us to head to Mussoorie to drop off Setse at Woodstock. The trip up consisted of a 12 hour car ride. For me and Alexis, this travel day was quite easy since we didn't need to do anything tricky, we just sat in a car. Mom however was extremely unamused and said it was a hideous travel day that she never wanted to repeat. We arrived in Mussoorie and after some confusion with directions we managed to make it to Rokeby. It was by far the nicest place that Alexis and I have stayed in our entire five months of traveling. The bed was plush and soft with an equally plush down duvet. It was warm, it was clean and decorated much like any high end Western bed and breakfast. The only tragic thing was that we were only there for one night because I easily could have stayed there for months. The weather was pretty dreary during our brief stay. We never got to see the great view that Setse raved about and it was miserable to walk around too much. Alexis and I moved into the guest house at Woodstock when Setse moved back into her dorm. It certainly wasn't as nice as our room in Rokeby but it was clean and quiet. Everyone knows everyone at Woodstock so we were questioned many times about who we were and what we were doing there. We ate cafeteria food, we attended Setse's Hindi class and we enjoyed our last few days with each other.
After what seemed like no time at all, our time with my parents was over and we are now back to the two of us. Mom and Dan were nice enough to drive us to Rishikesh so we had one last easy travel day. It was hard to say goodbye when we've been traveling for so long and I'm more than a little homesick but we have more adventures to have and so do they!
Cheers,
Liz
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