20th - 26th September, McLeod Ganj

After a somewhat uncomfortable overnight bus-ride I arrived in Dharmasala.

Arriving was like a breath of fresh air! After the dirty sprawl of Delhi, seeing the rolling hills on one side and the snow dusted (near Himilayan) mountains on the other made me happy. I was thanking Buddha that India wasn't all that bad.

The monestary was a fifteen minute walk down a path, but for the beauty and peacefulness of the spot it was worth it.

The town (Mcleod Ganj) is nice, it's where the Dalai Lama lives, and is predominantly Tibetan. The town was set up as a refuge for all Tibetans forced out by the Chinese.

I made friends with some German girls that were architecture students and had just come back from the north where they were helping construct a hospital they'd designed for a village.

There were good shops and surprisingly good coffee... latte to rival Auckland's finest. We spent too much time at Carpe Diem which is a really chilled cafe run by some cool guys from Nepal. We watched the 20Twenty world-cup final there, I had to explain the rules to a bunch of Swiss and the locals went mental when India won. There was also a jam session which was cool (except for the free styling Canadian) and breakfast each morning usually lasted until the afternoon.

One day a monk led us to a waterfall. During the walk I was gazing at what could have made a nice photo when the ground fell from under me. I'd fallen off the edge and luckily slapped my forearms against the side to keep me from falling further. I was glad, I don't fancy getting air-lifted to an Indian hospital. The waterfall was nice, straight from the glaciers, so our unplanned swim was short lived.

We went to a teaching by the Dalai's 2IC which was enlightening.

I got sick with a cold and a cough.... who comes to India and gets a cold? No shits, a cold. I was even constipated. In India. I think September was backwards month.