India's Latest Tourist Attraction!

I packed my stuff ready for my next bus journey; I needed to pay for my room before I left but I couldn't find the people running the guesthouse so I planned to leave the money in the room. The only problem was that I didn't have change (only a 1000 rupee note, this is equivalent to £10) so I went in search of change and planned to buy something small but no one accepts these notes despite the cash machines giving them out all the time! One shop owner shouted at me really angrily saying "No! No change! Get out now!". It was an almost impossible task but I got there eventually and started my journey. It's too bumpy to read on these bus rides so I find myself watching the scenery unfold: women and men squatting down to work on the roads with small children asleep on the road next to them, babies sat on motorbikes with their parents, cows roaming the motorways, men having their morning wash in a bucket at the side of the road and miles and miles of mountains and trees. It started raining heavily (it is the tail end of monsoon season but so far I have been in the north which is unaffected) and the door to mini bus wouldn't close; the driver seemed perfectly okay with letting us all get soaked for miles until some of the other passengers made him pull over so they could try and fix it.

I arrived in the small hillside town of McLeodganj in the evening after a wet yet scenic mini bus drive.

The town is on a hill above Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives. 

McLeodganj is full of hippies and people who look like Jesus because of the spiritual influences and all the massage, yoga and meditation courses that are on offer. I was due to meet a woman from Chile called Paula that I had met a few towns ago and on my way to meet her I was surrounded by a family of about fifteen Indians (from another part of India on their holidays) demanding a photo with me. I had my huge backpack on me as well as my other backpack that I was wearing on my front (I probably looked a bit like a carrier mule) and it was pretty embarrassing because there were lots of people watching as they took a series of photos of me with different combinations of their family. "This husband and wife", "This cousins" they announced. After each one I said I was leaving but they held me in place for more so I eventually asked for one from my camera as well!

I felt like the latest tourist attraction!

I met Paula and she'd arranged a cheap room for us to split with its own bathroom and a TV (two commodities that I would usually take for granted but haven't had in the last month).

We had a tasty meal in a rooftop restaurant where we met a very weird man from Brighton who was holding a bottle of whisky like it was his baby. 

We went to visit the Dalai Lama's place of residence however he is unfortunately in Germany at the moment so I wasn't able to meet him! His 'house' looks like a big concrete school; it was full of hundreds of monks and we'd caught them at dinner time so there were buckets of food on the floor that they were sharing amongst themselves. The monks seem to live a very nice life and are well fed and looked after as most of them have sponsors. We visited the place where the Dalai Lama sits and carries out his teachings and lectures (we weren't allowed to take photos inside).

Little monks on the street.

We went into a crystal and stone shop to look at rings and Paula started to feel ill so the shop keeper tried to make her feel better by 'transferring good energy through her chakra third eye with crystals'. I personally didn't know if I believed in all that stuff...until I was looking at rings and picking a stone that I liked (apparently you don't pick the stone, it picks you) and when I looked it up in the reference book it spookily related to me a lot! A few minutes later I had the strongest déjà vu ever! It was a very weird experience!

Paula being 'healed'.

I just got back from a Tibetan cookery class led by a really lovely Tibetan refugee called Sangye. I met two English girls there who had taught English as a foreign language (what I will be doing in Thailand in April) so I was chatting away to them as we made momos (dumplings made of dough which are similar to stuffed fresh pasta) with spinach and cheese as well as chocolate-filled sweet momos.

All kinds of momos!