In India... (2) - Getting to McLeod Ganj!

Namaste!

(Day 6, writing in a computer with a dodgy indian Microsoft copy... Sorry for mistakes!!)

As expected the experience has been exciting, yet very tiring... Getting out from Delhi, we got yet again "escorted" to the train station to get into a 10h overnight train ride to Una. Decent conditions, decent sleep, (andom phone call in the middle from Couto, asking for contacts in whatever place he was!!) and arrived with a small delay to Una.

Getting out of the train in Una, the unavoidable bargaining experience with taxi drivers (jeeps yet again) this time with the exciting factor that none of them spoke english (tourists not very common there...) so we did it through the universal language of mathematics, knowing that we were facing a situation of concerted supply... Free market was a foreign concept there but eventually we paid a decent price!

Mcleod Ganj... Imagine a town smack in a hillside, dominated by the Buddhist Temple and facilities and populated by monks (the very friendly maroon toga dudes!), hippies, tourists, beggars and obviously indians doing business. One of the most unique environments I have ever been, where the normal indian town environment of traders, car/rickshaw honks, beggars gets strangely wrapped by an aura of peace and friendliness. During the 2 days...

... Checked the Tibetan government in exile, and a very real exhibition about the Tibetan people drama,
... Attended part of a buddhist ceremony, where peace and forgiveness were the key messages,
... Met a tibetan "modern art" painter for a quick chat... "a true random striker!"
... Continued gastronomic explorations through tibetan, chinese/indian, japanese, always watered down with stomach friendly Lasse, and in the evenings with less friendly Kingfisher (THE indian beer!),
... 6 Km hike uphill to reach around 1800m from 1000m, to get ready for the big one tomorrow!
... and to close this with a relaxing moment... A session of Tibetan Massaaaaaaaaage...

This morning we were off from Mcleod to Manali, an indian "hill station", at around 2000m altitude, with tremendous natural surroundings... The taxi trip here was, to say the least, interesting... 7 hours through roads sometimes bordering cliffs of over 500m, roads where there is always a hole to squeeze a Jeep through!!!

But about Manali, more tomorrow, after the 14Km hike ;)

CARPE DIEM!
NunoC