India is now the home to the Tibetan people who have been exiled from china I will not go into the politics of it all but it’s an unfair situation, which has not really received enough attention. This part of India was my first stop and one I have to admit to you all I have been dying to see for a long time the combination of the Tibetan culture and the Himalayan mts just always left me with a yearning to see this first hand. Originally I had planned to do a 3 month tour of India which now in retrospect soo happy didt more on that later anyways what changed this big plan of action was that on march 8th the 14th Dali lama was giving a teaching and it became a how could I pass this up sort of a deal. Anyways me and Hannah a volunteer that lives about an hour away who I do a lot of gender based projects with are like we have to go and so started the trip planning on India. After getting off the plane we have to find the bus we need to take to take the 14 hour trip up north however before we do this we run into some tourist from new york and Bulgaria they are just giving us some heads up about prices etc much needed I did research online but India is not a place u can research you just have to experience first hand. However I can say Cambodia helped me deal with most things really well never the less we take a subway and then a tuk tuk or a rigs haw as they like to call it in India to the red fort area shocked that we did not get lost we had time to spare so we walked around just to get a feel for it all had some food it was pretty cool ill admit I did have some mcd frys to get some American western whatever into the mix as well. After we exchange money we head to the bus station to have our first sort of rip off situation so the bus does not pick us up there they make us take a guy who rides you around on a bike to this high way were I felt really bad bc I hate them in Cambodia to it feels weird to use a person like an animal he was struggling to get up that hill man anyways we make it to the bus and they try to charge us 100 rupe charge for our bags but we have been in Cambodia to long so we were like o we asked and they told us it was included in the price which we didt but we knew with out written proof they were going to have to drop it and they did won that battle on not paying. This bus was actually the best form of transportation we had the whole trip or at least for sleeping it was we had this nice bed with a closed door sort of thing I guess if u don’t like the idea of being in a coffin u might not like it but to be it reminded me more of a fort you would make as a kid so it just made it exciting. We began to climb up north and could feel the cold I knew it was cold but I don’t think I realized how cold it would feel to my now accumulated Cambodia ass of 90 degrees. We had to take a few more bus to get to our destination some bus that could have been out of some 1960s horror movies but never mind we were well rested and felt we could take on this adventure plus we had the drive that we had to make sure to get tickets to see the Dali Lama which you ended up not needing. On the web site they tell u about a passport showing up 3 days a head of time blah blah none of it mattered. We did not couch surf this part of India because my mom was awesome and for my bday got us a hotel which was sweet except said place did not have a heater or hot water for more then a min so washing ones hair was a master of tricks =) none of this matters to me any more bc once u live life with limited everything you are just like whatever im surprised at the level of whatever I have reached. So the name of the town we were in was Mcleod ganj it was a very quite town with small streets that are just ment for you to walk around talk to people supper relaxing with the Himalayan mts in the backdrop every which way you turned. We soon took on the chi tea habit to warm up every hour but it made it real nice Tibet people are really easy to talk to and the whole culture just gives you this energy of serein peace. Every place in the world has ideals etc but you never see it actually transcend into a culture for me this was the first the Tibetans walk around with pray beads and this circular looking thing they spin while praying this goes on all day long while they are doing simple task and it changes them or to the outsider such as myself it seems to really change them. What the bleep down the rabit whole is this movie about metaphysic anyways part of the movies talks about an experience done with frozen water by this Japanese scientist where he put words positive and negative and for whatever reason this energy changed the way water crystals formed then they turn it into the fact our body is more then 70 percent water is it possible the same thing could effect humans. I personally can’t say for sure but its left me pondering however seeing the Tibetan people makes me think maybe its more true then I ever thought possible. We spent more of our days just walking around talking to the people learning some things about the people and also the foreigners you meet this far up north are going to have some food for thought when you talk to them as well which helps keeps you thinking about the meaning of life etc etc. one night we were around they had a free Tibet rally which I went to I have video try to post it but it really made me think why cant the UN help them why does china get away with this the next chosen Dali lama has been kidnapped at like 6 and has been considered the youngest political prison and the rest of the Tibetans who never escaped deal with persecution and have lost so much of their culture to China. I also sprung for my astrology reading sorry everyone you have to wait until im 40 for me to have any real money however apparently I am going to travel a lot not get married until im 30 plus and I have to make up for my past karmic life which was bad it was determined I don’t have bad luck just obstacles that always come up. Hum whatever else I have a drive and am career focused and should work with people. We took a taxi out for the day and saw some of the sites around the area like the hot springs caves and tea fields which was really cool I can honestly say every step of the way we kept running into so interesting people and it was nice that they could communicate it what I now consider to be pretty good eng. The food it Tibet was pretty good as well I had something called momos with potato’s a lot sometime with chicken it was good eating street food cheap once again it nice to know that Cambodia affords me to eat street food with no side effects =) some places around the town were also a sigh to be hold the first day we actually made the walk to this church that was built in the 18th century by the French it was like being in what I imagine the twilight book would use for a church really lol. Some the of the best moments of the start of this trip were out in the cold with some chi in our hand sitting on a log looking out into the mts talking about whatever came up. Next blog will be about the reading it has come to my attention that I try to pack to much into one blog so ill do more separating but that means you might read about India for 5 blogs or more sorry if that bothers you trying to see how things work out this way.
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| The city in limited color |
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st johns church
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| tea fields |
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| hot springs |
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| highest point to see the mts |
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| FREE TIBET RALLY |
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