Home sweet home away from home

I currently find myself back in Delhi at my friends’ posh apartment. In the end, I decided that I really needed to stick to my original plan and continue on to Thailand. Goa would be cool, especially in the right company, but I’ve already deviated enough. I’m afraid that if I stay in India any longer, I will never leave. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I really feel like I need to see and do some things I’ve been dreaming of for months before I go and settle down anywhere. So perhaps another day I will get to Goa, but for now a nice quiet beach in the south of Thailand is on order. All I want to do is read, relax, and work on my tan for a little while. I arrived around 6:30 this morning after a 12-hour bus ride from Mcleod Ganj, one that was so rough that at times I expected to open my eyes to discover that I was actually in a military humvee headed for the front lines in Afghanistan. There was also no toilet on the bus, but fortunately we made a couple stops along the way. I swear, there is nothing dull about India. Everything is a challenge, sometimes fun, sometimes just crazy.

In any case, walking into my friends’ apartment early this morning was like walking into heaven. There was heat (!) and hot water on command. I’ve been taking bucket showers for a week or so now, with hot water, but there is nothing like a stand-up shower. Ahhhh… I didn’t have much for dinner last night, so this morning a breakfast of toast and hard-boiled eggs was most welcome. It’s so nice to have a kitchen at my disposal, one filled with products that I know and love. I will stay here one more day and then head out on Saturday, arriving in Bangkok early evening. I plan to spend a few days there, get myself a new iPod and fill it with illegal downloads (I’m not proud, but this is what people do here and I am in desperate need of travel tunes), then wind my way down to some less touristed island in the south.

Speaking of illegal, I wonder if the The North Face knows that there are millions of imposter jackets and other gear with their logo all over this country. I started to notice this in Rishikesh and it’s even more prevalent in Mcleod Ganj. They’re not bad quality, they’re just not North Face quality. I attempted to replace my hiking shoes here, but really good shoes are also hard to find. I settled on a pair of Converse All-Stars, that all-American classic which I have never owned before now. These too are also not real, I believe, but they will do. At least they keep my feet covered and me looking less like a flower child. Maybe I’m spoiled, but I find the quality of most goods to be much higher in the U.S. The ironic thing is, most of them are actually made here.

See you later

I've been in McLeod Ganj for about two weeks now. In a way it feels like I've been in a time warp. I had all these plans for things I wanted to do with my extra week here, but ended up doing myriad other things, which is OK. That's what vacation is for, in my opinion, just going with the flow. I could probably stay here forever, and who knows, one day I may return. But alas, I have a bus ticket for Delhi in a few hours and a plane ticket for Bangkok in a few days. Originally I thought I would take a day trip from Delhi to Agra to see the Taj Mahal before leaving. As amazing as I'm sure it is, and as lame as this may sound, I just feel like I cannot deal with the aggressive touts who swarm that place. I've been hanging out in what is probably one of the most peaceful places in India and I'm not up for dealing with the rest of it. So, maybe I'll see the Taj Mahal another day, maybe not. Either way, I'm OK with it.

I mailed a package of Christmas presents home today, which was an entertaining experience. After waiting a good 15 minutes, I was finally given the customs form, which apparently they were running low on, so I had to go down the street and make my own photocopies of it. After that it was pretty easy, but I've decided that it's not the language barrier that causes frustration here, it's just the not knowing how systems work. I've been lucky to meet some great people here and I can honestly say that traveling around and getting things done with people who know what's going is a much nicer experience. So it is with mixed emotions that I bid farewell to this place that in many ways I have fallen in love with. As my Muslim friends here say, inshallah I will return one day.


Buddhist prayer wheels at Norbulingka. I'm sure I'll be seeing plenty of these in Thailand as well.

Totally awesome

I am on Cloud 9 today. The vibe in this town is just amazing. I have another Tibetan "student" now, a waiter at a different cafe where I had breakfast this morning, who asked me if I would help him with a book he is reading. I went back this afternoon and we read a little bit of a terrible book, some novel that I believe takes place in the southern U.S., given the characters' names (Althea and Beulah). It was awful, and next to impossible to understand, especially as an English language learner. So I asked him if he had any other books and he disappeared for a moment, returning with First Blood. That's right, the Rambo story. Pretty awful as well, but actually much easier to understand. So for the remainder of my stay here I will be returning to this cafe most afternoons to read Rambo with a Tibetan refugee. Gotta love it.

The other cool thing is that because I've been here for a few days now I kind of know people. The greetings every morning - namaste with the Indians and tashi delek with the Tibetans - are friendlier and the conversations more meaningful.

And finally, the coolest thing of the day is that I did something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Some of my friends and family know that I was planning to shave my head when I got to Thailand. However, I decided to do it here. Given the fact that it's a common hairstyle in these parts due to the many monks, I thought it would be easy. It took me a few days to find a place where I liked the vibe, though, and today I found a great little shop up some steps with a hip young hairdresser who did it for me, after many times of asking me, "Are you sure? Are you sure?" Right after the first snip (he cut before he shaved) I had a brief moment of panic, but after a while I was feeling psyched. And I have to say, I absolutely love it!! It feels awesome and, in my opinion, looks awesome, once you get over the intial shock. :) I promise I will post a picture, but for now, enjoy the sunset...



(By the way, if you're familiar with electric shavers, I did it on a 3 setting, not 0, so I'm not totally bald!!!)

Twists and turns

One of the really cool things about this place is that it seems to be an almost endless maze of little streets. I keep finding new things, new shops, new bakeries (!), new restaurants. I changed my flight plans today so I will be here for at least another week. In some ways I feel like I could stay here forever. One obvious way to do so, here or anywhere really, would be to get a job teaching English. However, there is no shortage of organizations where people volunteer to teach English to Tibetan refugees, so I think that would be next to impossible. Plus, my heart just isn't in teaching at the moment. Interestingly, I've had two people in shops here tell me I could work for them, which is somewhat appealing. I am definitely feeling drawn in by this place, but at the same time want to see some other nearby places. Hmm... decisions, decisions.


This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip so far. A Tibetan man, prayer beads in hand, makes his way up to the temple.

Just say yes

Have you ever seen the Jim Carey movie Yes Man? I'm feeling a little bit like that these days, but to a slightly lesser degree. It's just amazing the things that can happen when you are open to new experiences. Just a week ago I was so, so, so ready to get out of this country, but now I don't want to leave! Rishikesh provided a decent buffer from the hell that was Varanasi (I'm happy to report that other people are aghast when I tell them I spent a month there, so I'm not the only person to be turned off by that place!). McLeod Ganj... I just can't say enough nice things about this place. It really is like Little Tibet here. The people are so kind, and genuinely so, not always trying to sell you something or harass you. Just yesterday as I was enjoying some tea in a coffee shop with wifi, a young Tibetan man asked me if I could help him with the meaning of the word "meaningful". I find that I really struggle with trying to explain things sometimes and can only come up with "meaningful" explanations after the fact, which in some ways is a signal to me that I shouldn't be teaching. Nevertheless, this man then asked me if I would help him learn English, which basically just translates into meeting for conversation. So we met today and went for a nice walk to the Buddhist temple, and lo and behold next thing you know I was invited to a Tibetan wedding! Have I mentioned that folks here are incredibly warm and generous?


Too many thoughts are racing through my mind at the moment, but I'm feeling more or less ecstatic. This place is really good for the soul. I love that it's incredibly cold here and yet most restaurants still have outdoor dining, no space heaters. I love that you can go into an internet shop and sit down next to a Buddhist monk who has just come in talking on his cell phone and is now talking to his friends on Skype. The Dalai Lama is returning in a few days and I am strongly considering pushing back my plans to be here for that, as well as take advantage of the endless amazing opportunities in this town - Tibetan cooking classes, meditation classes, yoga, you name it!


I've never seen so many Tibetan prayer flags in one place. This is next to the temple. The idea behind these is that there are prayers written on them and the wind takes them up to the heavens. Sure would be nice if all these prayers could translate into a Free Tibet.


A monk spinning the prayer wheels.

Altitude adjustment

Wow, just when you think things couldn't get worse... they get better! I am happy to report that I think I have found a place in India that I could totally fall in love with. It is the McLeod Ganj/Bhagsu/Dharamsala area, way way way up north in the Himalayas. It's nowhere near Mt. Everest or the top of the world, but in some ways it feels like it. I rolled into the train station at Chakki Bank around 3 a.m. and wasn't exactly sure what would transpire after that, as in how or when I would reach my destination, or what that destination was to be exact, but somehow everything just seemed to fall into place. I soon met up with a young German couple who are traveling with their 3-year old daughter (brave!) and we split the cost of a taxi up to Bhagsu, just north of McLeod Ganj. The taxi driver happened to have a friend who has a guest house and so we ended up getting rooms there. My room is huge, there are actually two double beds in it, and the best part of it is that there is a hot shower. This is key because there is no heat in the room and it is really really cold here. I am thankful for the down jacket that I just got in the mail before leaving Varanasi (thanks Mom!). I may also be investing in a hat and some mittens and more wool socks while I'm here. I'm tempted to buy myself a lovely pashmina scarf... hmm... these are not cheap, especially by Indian standards, but they are soooo fantastic.

I think I slept for 4 or 5 hours on the train, so when I got into my room around 6 a.m. I slept for another hour or so. Upon waking I reveled in the hot water until it ran out and dried off as quickly as possible before layering up and heading out to check out my surroundings. Breathtaking would be a good way to describe it. Here is the view from the guest house:


The mist is almost magical here.

I hiked up into the village for a bit, admiring the scenery, when I was joined by this little fella and other members of his family:


Talk about a welcome committee! They followed me around the whole time and even accompanied me back into town. One of the reasons I love this place is because even though there are street dogs here, they are not abused and actually seem to be very well taken care of. This is likely due to the influence of the Tibetan Buddhist community here (yay for Buddhism!).

So I've spent the day wandering around, eating, drinking chai... you know, all the things you're supposed to do on vacation. I love having only a vague sense of what time it is, being able to read for hours on end, and just seeing where the wind takes me.


Heading into McLeod Ganj, a 2 km walk from Bhagsu.