Sept. 23, 2012

The last day in Dharamsala! I set an early wake up call for myself at 6:30AM, to get out and explore the surrounding mountains without the hassle of others and the clouds rolling in. The morning turned out to be the best part of my day.

I had a pleasant, but relatively tough walk through the mountains to reach St. John’s Church in the Wilderness. This was a place in the wilderness. There was  the church, the road, the cemetery, and not much else. Buried here is Lord Elgin, one of the Governor Generals of India who died during his term. It was quiet and peaceful here, a welcome break from the noise and chaos of Delhi.

A church in the wilderness.

This cow knows what’s up.

I then proceeded up the mountain to Dal Lake, the same lake I could see while perched on a cliff cut into the mountain. It was a festival for the goddess Shimla, and festivities were had and security was tight. An interesting hour wandering about, talking to others, trying to piece together what this festival was about.

I took a short auto ride back home, and ended up hiking back up to Kharamdot again. We wanted to go up to a temple, secluded in the mountainside. I lost the group, as I was feeling a bit sick and hung back, when the rains began. Doubling back, we descended the mountain back to Mcleod Ganj in torrential rain. We were all soaked thoroughly.

We had a quick change and meal at the Tibetan Kitchen (momos are seriously good, okay?), took a taxi down to Lower Dharamsala to our bus pickup point. The gas station had lots of goodies, thankfully, and I do love me some orange juice. The bus arrived, we got on, and we were on our way home.

We took a short break at a rest stop where I watched England getting slaughtered by India in cricket. It was not pretty watching the Englishmen struggle at bat, but I cheered the Indians on. I think 173 was the target, and England was at 60 runs with 8 wickets lost, and this was a 20/20 match. I think that may be equivalent to a 10-0 lead in hockey; not quite impossible, but close enough.

Back on the bus, to sleep, and suddenly, home. Well, “home”. I’ll have to talk about the concept of home later on, when I’m back in Vancouver, but home for now.

Sept. 22, 2012

An early start to the day. 6AM. Worth it? We marched down to the temple to see the Dalai Lama in a prayer service. Confirmation that the man is alive and not a myth, unless someone built a remarkably well-tuned robot. Served with the prayer service were Tibetan bread and milk, given out freely to anyone who entered the temple. That was delicious, a healthy start to an early day. No electronics, and security was tight, so unfortunately no pictures from the glorious morning or glimpses of the Dalai Lama.

A nice breakfast #2 of more Tibetan toast and 2 eggs, sunny side up, washed down with Darjeeling tea, retrieval of cell phone and camera, and a gigantic mess over changing hostels to avoid the 11:30PM curfew the current hostel had, and we were off to trek.

Up to Dharamkot, again, then up an unknown mountain. We met a few Indian guys who wanted pictures with us, and three monks who were happy to agree to be in our pictures. More group pictures with people we don’t know! That’s how life should be though, an exchange of friendliness and openness, at the very least. We climbed further up the mountain, and when the group seemed tired and wanted to turn back, we met two Tibetan high school students, going up to their favourite spot to study. Pasi asked if they knew if they knew somewhere good. Nope. They knew where somewhere awesome was (insert Neil Patrick Harris line, maybe?).

Monks, Indian guys, and us.

Spot #1: They guided us up a quite treacherous path, onto a small overhang perched above Dal Lake below. In the dense clouds, rolling in and out like the tide, the lake would come and go as it pleased,  as would the civilization on the hills around it. I was literally in the clouds.

Seriously, in the clouds.

Spot #2: Cliff ridge between 3 mountains and a river running in between them. Some of the group split off and headed back to Mcleod Ganj. Too bad for them, as 2 more amazingly scenic spots were coming up. We scrambled along a small ledge to this beautiful spot looking up at 3 mountains. In the brilliant light of the coming sunset, we saw the beautiful end of the trees and the start of the wonderfully coloured rock faces of the mountains.

Oh and I forgot the cloud. Can't forget the clouds.

A relatively long lunch break that saw us go to 3 “restaurants” before doubling back and accepting the slightly higher prices of the first one we went to, and we hit spot 3.

Spot #3: The river. We climbed for 45 minutes to reach the gentle descent of a river from the mountains, the water as clear as that of home, beautifully pristine, untouched by the garbage and pollution of Delhi, a jewel to behold. The sun was setting at this point, and we scrambled back along the path in the darkness. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Once we got back into a residential area, the rains hit, and we sprinted towards an auto. INR 100 later, we were back in Mcleod Ganj. A quick change and a short walk took us to Fanny’s birthday dinner. I still love momos. The beer was pretty cheap here too, but the dinner was to celebrate her birthday. I think we did that in style. Bonne fete a toi in my language, joyeuse anniversaire in yours, Fanny!

And the last noteworthy thing of the night, amid the dimmed lights of Mcleod Ganj, were the stars. So numerous, so bright, such a reminder that we are truly only specks in the grand scheme of things. It had been a good day.

Sept. 21, 2012

Mcleod Ganj, Himachal Pradesh, India

The bus was late picking us up in Delhi. We (Alex, Obi, Praveen and I) got on the wrong bus before that, and when we finally got on our bus, we had the pleasant surprise of the French girls waiting for us on the bus they had boarded an hour ago. That’s what traffic in Delhi and the symptoms of what we call “Indian time” do to you.The bus ride itself was great. An overnight, semi-sleeper, air-conditioned Volvo took us up to the foothills in Mcleod Ganj proper in just over 11 hours. In that time, I had a nice chat with Praveen, who I’d just met the day before, about India, its states, the state of its democracy, and the Pakistan/Bangladesh/India split of the British colony of India. There’s still an incredible gap in my knowledge about the Indian region of Asia.

We were woken up by the operator of the bus, announcing the last stop at 6AM as Mcleod Ganj. Stepping off the bus, I was greeted by a stunning view of a mountain valley below and the crisp, clean mountain air. It was damn good to be alive.

RISE and SHINE(RAMA). Two plays on words. I wonder if any of you will get both?

The four of us found a hotel, put our bags down, freshened up, and headed to breakfast. We met a man who was involved in Tibet-issue protests in Chengdu, China, and heard his tale of escape from the clutches of the Chinese authorities, fleeing from Chengdu, through Nepal, into India, and finally setting up a restaurant in Dharamsala. This has been one of the major themes of being abroad, both in Germany and in India, that world events (Berlin Wall, Tibet, to name a few) have meaningful personal impacts that are less seen and even less thought about back home. We can know about the issues, but that’s all we know.

The man from Chengu in the middle with the weird two-tone shirt.

The next thing up was the Dalai Lama’s temple. We went the wrong way, ending up in Kharamdot. Here, we stumbled upon a group of high school kids, on a volunteering mission to clean up the town. They were taking their group shot, and a quick “Hey we’re from IIT Delhi, can we get a picture with you guys?” got us the strangest picture of the trip. Praveen and I, front and center, Alex and Obi, way in the back, surrounded by Indian students volunteering to clean up the town. Farther on up the road, we stumbled upon a beautiful waterfall, with two snack shops on either side, blocking our advance up the mountain.

Hey there, beautiful.

The clouds started to roll in at this point. At 1725m, this meant we were in the clouds. As we made our way back down to the temple, the visibility decreased to maybe a city block. We bumped into two groups of IITD exchange students along the way, asking about the temple. It wasn’t incredibly impressive, but a safe refuge for Tibetans who have braved a lot to get here. It really did feel like home with the milk being served constantly by volunteers. This was a tight-knit community, representatives of a nation.

Lunch, quite late in the afternoon ,was had at the Khana Nirvana. An excellent Chinese meal in a quiet place up a steep stairwell, staring off into the valley filled with clouds. We had a good chat about renewable energy, fusion, and the future of how we’ll get our energy.

After that was a visit to the Tibet Museum, highlighting the independence movement of the Tibetan people. I now realize I need to see the other side of the issue; how objective can one be when one is fighting for home and nation? Tibet would be an interesting place to visit. We did have a good chat with the front desk man about the Tibetan government-in-exile, the diaspora, and the objectives of the Tibetan movement. I learned a lot about Tibet today, but the other side of the issue remains to be seen.

A bit of souvenir shopping, then back to the hotel for a little nap. That turned into 45 minutes of talking to Praveen about the financial struggles of families in India, the cost of education, social pressures, women, and the Civil Service exam. Civil Services is where you can obtain power in India, according to Praveen. The elected government has bureaucrats behind it, who “actually write the policies and control the power”, whereas the democratically elected representatives range from the educated elite to the illiterate. A lot of IIT Delhi students are studying for this exam to get into the government and into power, hoping to change the system and remove the corruption that is slowing India’s growth. It’s a hell of a fight.

Dinner was at the Tibet Kitchen, where I enjoyed lamb slices in gravy with vegetable fried rice. Not too special. Writing in 4 languages about the food in the comment book was fun, and I started to wonder how far my Chinese has deteriorated. It’s not as good as it used to be.

The bar next door on the rooftop had a great view overlooking Mcleod Ganj. We met Joe and Brianni there, two people (not a couple) who were teaching English and life skills to elementary school kids somewhere close to Dharamsala. We chatted over a Free Tibet (gin, orange juice, lemon juice). I think it’ll be the only time I ever do manage to truly free Tibet, and it wasn’t very good.

IT'S JOE. HE'S FREEING TIBET.

And finally, back to the hotel, the first time there’s truly been peace and quiet since escaping from Delhi. Onto the next day!

Round 1 of minors (midterms here) was done a week ago. I’m happy that the minors take all of 4 days to complete, so there isn’t an entire season of them like at home. With that said, these little 1 hour exams are the devil, and little did I know being sick with the chicken pox, combined with stomach problems and finding my feet in Delhi, would lead to disastrous consequences. Let’s just say IIT Delhi wins this round, but I’ll see this thing through.

You might ask why it’s taken so long to write a blog post about the minors being over (they finished last Tuesday). I’ve been down with something, yet again, a mild but persistent headache combined with more gastrointestinal adjustments. It’s been a trying but telling time in India, and all of this downtime has given me a lot of time to reflect. I finally have had the time to think without moving, for the first time in a very long time. A welcome relief.

To more concrete matters!

Post-minors, I was feeling well enough to have a drink with the guys. I’d been feeling under the weather pre-minors, but during minors, I recovered. Post-minor celebrations seemed like a no brainer. The next day I woke up with a hangover; the day after that, a fever. I was good enough to go out and grab meals with my friends here a few times; here’s some of the stories:

Capri Villagio, Friday the 7th: An Italian restaurant in Haus Khaz village. I got a nice chicken penne with creamy mushroom sauce; the rest of the guys received their food except for the Australian, Jono. He got his pizza right as I finished the last of my pasta. 10:30PM. That, I’m sad to say, is hardly a surprising occurrence in Indian fine dining.

Ambience Mall, Saturday the 8th: Jono, me, and two Frenchmen (Adrien and Nicolas) took an autorickshaw out to Ambience Mall in Vasant Kunj. We bought baguettes and croissants in the nearby DLF Promenade, and ham and cheese in the Big Bazaar. We sat in the middle of the Ambience Mall, a Western mall parachuted into south Delhi, tearing our baguettes and creating our culinary masterpieces. Baguettes with ham and cheese.

We take an incredibly long time to split the bills here, too. Taxes are close to 35% on some of the items, and when one of us misjudges what we have to pay, we all suffer. Just a thought.

I’ve skipped a trip to Rishikesh this weekend with my friend Alex (whom I went to Jaipur and Agra with) to recover from this damned fever and headache. I really have not had a chance to experience India, to see what it is beyond the confines of IIT Delhi. It reminds me of being in the bubble back at UBC, so focused on Fizz that the only trip off campus in a week would be the necessary groceries run.

Hell, that just means I’ve got more of IIT Delhi to show. Another blog post!