Hotel Pema Thang Dharamsala

... est à chaque fois un « rush ». Du coup, les gens s’excitent, le chauffeur veut partir et de toute façon, vous êtes en retard. Des voix excitées dans l’air, des gens qui fourmillent autour du bus. L’ambiance dans les gares routières et dans certaines rues est animée, très animée, les gens vous tournent autour, vous demandent « Srinagar, Srinagar, Srinagar ? » avec une voix pressée, des mendiants vous tournent ...

... is hardly affordable for monks). But once crossing out of Tibet, the Dali Lama guarantees a meeting with all Tibetan refugees, many of whom consider the experience to be one of the most important of their lives. With all these refugees comes quite a bit of Tibetan culture. The streets are lined with Tibetan crafts (or reproductions) and certainly best of all... MOMOS! <br><br>Momos are small dumplings that can be likened ...

... looking the temple and valley. Prayer flags flapped and waved in the sudden gusts of wind outside our balcony. Tibetans believe that the wind caries the blessings imprinted on each flag to all people thus spreading peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. The five colors represent the elements and look like beautiful bunting strung across Dharmshala. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Dalai Lama's ...

... where the guy makes black light posters of Hindu and Buddhist gods... SOO cool. We asked him to turn on the black light it was pretty groovy in there, just surrounded my glowing art. I wanted to buy a poster, but Im holding back on spending a lot in the first few weeks Im here because I will have ample time to get stuff later. When we got the the waterfall, it was so beautiful. The weather that day was misty and cold and the water just looked so ...

... jarring (except for obnixious car horns at all hours). great cheap food, dahl, side sauces, and 2 roti (a nice filling lunch, it's the ubiquitous meal known as Thali) for under $.50. Just as good and even cheaper than Thai street food. <br><br>-break- <br><br>On the 14th I had one of the best massages of my life. Recommended by Ness I went back to Dharamakot where she is staying to see Madu. Surely older than her zesty good ...

... conversation classes between the refugees and English speaking forigeners, so the Tibetians can practice speaking English. It was amazing to hear about their stories. Many of the Tibetians had spent years in Chinese prisons and treked through high mountains passes to escape to India. At the Tibetian musuem we learned more about these stories, the Chinese occupation of Tibet, and the kidnapping of the Panchin Lama.

... in brutal torture. It's unbelievable the methods of torture and the torture inflicted on the Tibetans by the Chinese. Things we've heard sound like the petty methods used in World War 2 by Hitler, its sickening that this goes on and western governments don't do anything to help in case it destroys ties/links with the Chinese! I'm actually quite ashamed to be going to China in two weeks time, had we known in detail about the Tibetans cause we wouldn't ...

... buddhist lessons at his temple. Nothing else exciting occurred this time around. Just loafed around with Tsering most of the time in our hotel room watching television or playing games on the computer, (He discovered Spider Solitaire and got addicted!!) I'm not looking forward to leaving him again at the end of the month. The days are just flying by!!!

... the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (although the timing was coincidental), who gave a speach and met the Dalai Lama. In fact we were there when her entourage (all 20 cars!) passed the thousands of people lining the streets. We would have gone to watch her speech but the security was really strict and we didn't want to leave our camera and mobile phone with the security guards. So, what have we been doing here? There is a really nice little tea shop near our ...