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.