McLeod Ganj

The highlight of the daytrip, for me, was a visit to McLeod Ganj. This is high up in the mountains, much higher than Dharmasala, and its one of the Tibetan settlements. Quoting from Lonely Planet: " While Dharamsala is synonymous with the Tibetan Government in Exile, the actual headquarters is about 4 km above Dharamsala at Gangchen Kyishong, and most travellers hang out at McLeod Ganj, strung along a high ridge 10 km above Dharamsala. McLG is a picturesque place with lots of westerners and nice bookshops. It has a western (ie. european or american) feel to it, not like India. We visited a Buddhist 'Kalachakra' temple (at the Institute of Buddhist Dialetic Studies or something like that). It was quite beautiful but one couldn't get into the details and get a real sense of the significance of the place and the various statues and relics, so I just took away some superficial impressions.

When I set up this trip up north, I was really hoping to spend some time by myself wandering around Dharmasala/McLeod Ganj and taking in some of the Tibetan feel of the place. As it turned out, this didn't happen. I reached later than I hoped, and had one day free, but once I landed at the Ashram, I felt that it was more appropriate to stay in tune with the rest of the people and do what they were doing rather than go off on my own. I also didn't prepare much for the trip. Reading through Lonely Planet now, it seems like the Dalai Lama actually lives in another portion of the temple complex we visited and that there is a walk around the boundary of the structure, that takes you past his house and stuff. I'm disappointed to have missed that.

Blogger is currently having problems with image upload so a few images I wanted to put on this post are not happening.

Also: I'm planning to go off to Timbaktu tomorrow so a break in blogging. I still have to write some more about the trip, about going to Vaishnodevi and Amritsar. Vibhat says he is doing a surprise visit to Bangalore this weekend, and is hoping to come to Timbaktu too. And finally today I went to work and met a lot of people and had a lot of loaded conversations that I am trying to digest. I will be formally leaving at the end of this month or a little later, when my leave of absence ends. The most immediate and urgent consequence of this is that I need to buy a laptop as I will lose this one, which belongs to the company. So lots happening here.