HPTDC The Chail Palace

... building along with the accompanying budha temple . Gifts of chocolate, biscuits, tea, and of course money have been left as an offering to these beautifully decorated statues in the temple. It's interesting to observe their prayer as it seems much more adoring than our geneflect and sign of the cross. Unfortunately didn't get to see His holiness, maybe next time!

We then take a 2km walk up to a waterfall on the other side of our hotel. the surrounding ...

... family told him not to go, but his desire to study with HH was too strong. Even though his brother did not want him to go, he gave him the 1,000 USD to safely reach India (an astronomical amount of money as I will explain). This option consisted of meeting a guide and porter at the Nepal border and hiking for three days through lowe level mountains into Nepal where he obtained a refugee card in Kathmandu. The other option, which ...

... in Daytona definatley topped these guys. However, the show itself was much more fun than any show we've been to in Daytona (except Radon Moon of course) and they seriously blew us away with their covers of "Zombie" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". They also featured this four string Himalayan guitar that blended really well with their distortion heavy electric's. We made some pretty good videos, but I can't even imagine how long those would take to post-- though they're ...

... do you do all day?" After teaching me a few words - "thank you", "hello" and "goodbye" (all of which I have since forgotten) - he asked me if I knew any Tibetans, if no Tibetan. I told him I had met a few at conversation class. He told me to go back to "my new friends" and have them teach me more. By three, neither Kate nor I were in the mood for the class at four. The library is a deceptively long walk - twenty minutes or so on the way ...

... now, because it is "like playing, not working," and ruffles his long hair which sticks out every which way, flattened in back from his pillow. He carried a book called "The Complete Guide to Astral Travel." "Anyway," he continues, "today, I have to call my bank, because I have this card - it's Maestro, not mastercard or visa - and I haven't been able to use it for three months! And I call, and the call, it is 300 rupees, which ...

... it. We arrived towards the end of the tourist season, so many restaurants were closed, and the stores that were open tended to shut down around dusk. Kind of depressing, really. The Spiti Valley, where Kaza is located, is beautiful though, and similar to Ladakh, with lots of brown mountains, and a few trees here and there. I took a day trip to the Ki ...

Hi from Delhi I thought I had all my photo problems sorted out, but I guess you'll get this blog 'sans' photos. This is about my jeep safari from Shimla to Pin Valley, Jun 22-26. This is my 3rd summer of doing volunteer teaching for the Jamyang Foundation (www.jamyang.org) in the Spiti/Pin Valleys in Himachal State, northern India. Usually I go and return by the town of Manali, and over 2 high mountain passes. For a long time I had been wanting to go by the alternate route, but usually ...

... and glaciers, punctuated by steep scrambles up scree slopes. We managed to drag ourselves up and over the pass, somehow, and were rewarded with steep snowfields on the other side. Lloyd got some impossible air and Nate and I enjoyed the skiing. Once we managed to locate our crew, who were far ahead, we settled down to a hot meal and an argument with the hotel guy, who was demanding a rest day for everybody ...

Greetings from Shimla in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, We have now escaped the heat of Rajasthan and are roaming around the mountains of Northern India. Shimla (or Simla as it seems to be pronounced) is an interesting city. It is almost completely European looking...a bit Dutch or Belgian so says Dave. It was really created (or enlarged) by the Brits starting in 1819...it first became a summer getaway destination but eventually because the Raj summer ...

... to a village called Chitkul. This is the last village in the valley before you hit China and sits at 3500 metres. The people here were very friendly with weather beaten features, and I even had a go at ploughing a field with 2 Yaks. This gave the locals endless entertainment at my hap-hazard handling of the beasts! We also crossed the river while trekking in a metal cage on a pulley system before reaching the snow level. Here we stayed in Kinnaur camp at ...