From Lama to Lame-a!

Home to the exiled Dalai Lama, McLeod Ganj is a tiny town that joins with it's more known sister town, Dharmsala and after the long and terrible bus to get there, we found a hillside guesthouse with a view for a great price and started to enjoy the cooler mountain weather. Much like Darjeeling, McLeod Ganj has a mix of Tibetan, Nepali, Indian, and Sikh communities that all seem to revolved around the struggle for a Free Tibet. Besides visiting the Tibetan museum and strolling around the Dali Lama's residence there isn't a whole list of "to dos" or "to sees". Soaking all the Tibetan culture and dipping in a variety of classes (cooking, reiki, yoga, meditation, dance, etc) seems to be the thing to do and travellers tend to stay for long periods of time as time passes easily. We however didn't have a lot of time to spare but three days gave us a good taste.

We chilled out, walked around, did a little shopping, and educated ourselves on the Chinese control over a very peaceful Tibet. This situation is dire although the Dalai Lama and his many followers hold only positive hopes. And, as more and more people come to volunteer and learn about what they can do to help in their home countries the pressure on China to give back Tibet grows. Power in numbers seems the only way Tibet will become independent again and the Tibetan community only hopes that the many travellers that come to McLeod Ganj will pass on their messages of peace to gain support for fighting China.

Our original plan was to continue north to Kashmir province to Srinegar where house boats lull on the lake, the military keeps a close eye on Pakistan, and Kashmir sweaters are cheap and plentiful; however, the bus we thought that went there no longer does/or never did and to get there would require two full days of travel and a private taxi costing us about $400 altogether! Insanity! If there were more places to see in and around the area we would have considered it but many of the mountain passes are still closed so transportation is limited unless you want to fly. So plans changed and we decided to check out Shimla instead.

Arriving early morning after yes, another sleepless overnight bus, I quickly judged Shimla to be, well, a shithole. Not only did we have to wade through garbage (which you get very used to in India, but even this was extreme) but we also had to fend off touts as aggressive as those on the streets of Bombay. Shimla was a British colonial hill station (once) and I'm sure many years ago fit the scene of any colonial town with promenades and beautiful buildings but today, to me, besides the one pedestrian "mall" that runs along the main ridge of the mountain, Shimla has gone to the dogs - or in this case:monkeys. It now houses an out of control monkey population and a monkey temple that yes, has lots of mean monkeys, and lots of buildings that look as if they're about to fall off the mountain and send the whole town cascading to hell. The steepness and winding lanes doesn't make it easy to navigate with tired legs and a heavy backpack and as Aaron and I left the bus station we were followed by not one, not two, but three mischievous and aggressive touts. Our first stop was way up at the top of the mountain to the YMCA because the were one of the only hotels that didn't pay commission. I was sourly surprised that they were trying to rip people off of 400rps for a less than spectacular room with no attached bathroom. Ya right. We backtracked and the touts jumped on us. Their scam is to follow, see where you're going, and come inside with you telling the hotel that they brought you there which then raises the price of the room by 100-200 rps a day because you end up paying them off as well. Such a rip. Now Aaron is a nice person, nicer than I am, and after no sleep on a dirty bus I have the tendency to be even less nice so when the sneaky touts tried to hide behind walls and in lanes or linger on the steps below I went off as usual, I'm sure waking up half the people of Shimla at 6:30 in the morning.

We hiked and climbed and after a few tries the cat and mouse game ended with Aaron dropping his bags to outrun an old man - SO funny! It was a Forest Gump scene "Ruuun Aaaaaron ruuuun!". He ran the steps (the long way, I might add) and arrived at reception only to have the old tout huffing at the doorstep 20 seconds later. Aaron got the room and I followed behind yelling at the tout all the while as he was still trying to convince the hotel he had brought us there. Finally! We slept and plotted on how we were going to get out of Shimla.

A day and a half later, after seeing all there was to see in Shitla, we spent another 12 hours on local busses to get to Rishikesh. It was bad and honestly the past five days, India hasn't been dealing us any good cards at all. It goes with the territory and with the love hate so we'll chill in this uber hippie town deemed the "yoga capital of the universe" for a few more days trying to find some peace and zen in this trying country.