Himachel Pradesh

Is anyone still there? It's been a while. We have been busy dodging everything India has thrown at us in the past two weeks. So far, we are coming out trumps. Well...were still alive and smiling.
Tummy bugs, bus rides from hell, train rides and odd concerts. Not to mention our daily fears of being hit by passing cars and rickshaws on the street.

Our first big stop in India was Manali but as we arrived on the end of peak season lots of places were closing down and it was all very quiet. Infact there wasn't much for us to do really except sit in Dylans cafe and eat the best chocolate chip cookies ever. In order to get them fresh out of the oven and gooey, we would visit 2-3 times per day. Ah home comforts!!

We also got to visit Solang Valley in the area and whilst there was no snow as this time, we could indulge in watching Indian holiday makers enjoying the summer activities - Paragliding, Zorbing, Horseriding, Extreme tramping and general wahoo'ing.

Leaving Manali was interesting as it involved a night bus - The bible AKA lonely planet had told us only to take the night bus as a LAST resort but it turned out to be just that so off we went - on our last resort. The driver was the nastiest little man who's anger showed in the way he drove. He abused Hannah for a good few minutes before then trying to kill us the rest of the night with his erratic driving. We watched him have the same argument with an Israeli couple (later, whom, became our new friends..). After downing the maximum dose of anti-nauseas I could safely close the window without fear of throwing up out of it but there was, of course, no chance of sleeping.

We arrived at a dark bus shelter at 4am, an hour before our ETA and when nobody got off the bus initially we again got abused and shouted out to get off the bus. Our bags were dumped and the bus took off.

No more night buses - Pact.

Mcleod Ganj. Lovely, relaxing Mcleod Ganj.

We have been here seven days now and are really feeling at one with the place. We recognize the local expats, other tourists, the usual beggars and even the odd monk.

Mcleod Ganj is home to the Dalai Lama in exile and a large number of Tibetan refugees. Its a hillside town brimming with culture, losses and hope. There are so many community projects here to help Tibet and Han and I really feel we have made a difference with the large amounts of money we have spent at the local shops and markets. The pack is ever filling.

On our first night, our Israeli counterparts took us to a local concert at the school showing traditional Tibetan dancing and much more. MUCH MORE is what we got and some would argue all we got. It was not the local school kids concert we were expecting but instead a one man concert which started with technical difficulties and ended in a song where with no explanation, the Tibetan performer went around the audience and completely invaded everyones personal space in a staring competition for about a minute. The background music to this was trance. Very traditional?

Today, we went to the fifth annual Tibet Film Festival at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA). After one of the movies about Tibet and what it was like to go back there, the director came out to see the crowd and answer questions. One young Buddhist monk stood up and asked a question in Tibeta. During his question, he began to cry but continued on with such deep sadness. It was so real and touching, despite not knowing what was being said and I think everybody in the room felt his grief.

The Chinese invasion has destroyed so many lives and so much culture and the people here are wearing that loss and burden every day. The last movie and finale of the film fest was The silence of the holy stones which was a nice but kind of odd Tibetan film about a young monk living in a monastery. Luckily for us, there was another monk seated behind us who sang along to all the songs and laughed enthusiastically to all the jokes that we managed to miss. Every joke.

India is forever pulling me in. 

I don't know that I will ever quit coming back here.