Sajan Hotel Dharamsala

... to the teachings if you didnt have a ticket. Rather disppointing as I was looking forward to seeing those so thought oke I'll just have to go and have some lunch in the fab cafe. This was also a bit different - they weren't doing their normal menu during the day (no yummy pizzas:-() as there were just too many people. So had to settle for something else. Walked back to the courtyard to join the people sans ticket and see if I could get a glimpse of his holiness. Security was tight ...

... br>there, you follow a water pipe! Not even a real path there. It is<br>owned by a lovely family, Bimla and her husband (don't know his name),<br>and their three children who were between 16 and 22 years old. There<br>was a lovely rose garden in front, with a nice lawn where I could<br>practice yoga with my yoga friends who were also staying there. After I was there a few weeks, the guest house owners got a puppy! He was adorable, and probably the only puppy I have ever ...

Happy Losar! As the Tibetans operate on a lunar calender they are currently celebrating the beginning of a new year. Usually, Losar is a huge celebration however this year in remembrance of the deaths during last year's Olympic protests Tibetan's are having a "no-losar". This means that there are no parties, however they decided spending a lot of time at temple, building beautiful shrines to the Buddha, and eating crazy amounts of food are still acceptable. The ...

... time) in a small home-made movie theatre. We made friends with a lttle boy who tried to scam us into buying him a big bag of evaporated milk...so he could sell it back to the shop-keeper for money...but he couldn't fool us, so we invited him out for a brownie sunday. He ate it and then later asked for more money...but we told him to take his full belly home and be happy! Yesterday, we took a bus to some tea plantations 2 hours outside of ...

... is that they always strive to help volunteers understand the area in which we are living and the history of the culture. The rest of Tuesday was send eating amazing food for dinner and getting situated. Wednesday was really great. We had Hindi lessons after placement and then the staff threw us a dinner party on the roof of the main house with fire works and music. It was so much fun. We all danced and had a great time. I think you are now up to date on everything in my world ...

... During all of this dancing there was also a lot of shouting done by all of us. "India Zindabad!" was yelled a lot. Pakistan was doing the same and I felt a little like I was at a sports event. The actual ceremony consists of the best display of South Asian machismo I have ever witnessed. There was a yelling contest between the head of India's military and the head of Pakistan's military. Then one by one the different soldiers charged the gate ...

... it was extrememely hot, which limited the amount of walking to do (my normal activity in new towns and cities). I also find that it is hard to be a traveler in India some times, that the minute you are pegged as a "tourist," you are treated in a certain way which is sometimes hard to deal with. That is the way that I felt in Bodhgaya. Hot, a little claustrophobic and a little hassled, bored and ansy. So I made my way to Delhi, feeling ...

Went for a morning run along Dharamkot Road, which is so steep that I found I could move faster by walking with long strides than jogging. It passes through a forest. A surprising number of other traveler's already up and on the road at that hour. Got to Dharamkot well before I expected to be there; asked a guy where is Dharamkot and he said, "Here. Here is Dharamkot." Jogged down through town trying to find the waterfall. The village is ...

... was no privacy, we sat down for breakfast on our first morning and the 2 employees who kept loitering about the place kept walking past our window, waving at us, smiling.... which seems all nice and innocent but we kinda had a little bit of privacy in mind. So all this considered we decided to look for another place that very day, and we kinda hit gold! We found a nice little place owned by an indian family who's house was slightly down the hill from us, there were 4 ...

... had left Tibet two months previously. It turned out that he was also going to the TCV and he offered to show me around and help me to find Yoshi.<br><br>The rickshaw skidded to a dusty halt beside a peaceful lake at the top of the hill. Apart from a couple of dhabas serving drinks and snacks there was little else there. A few monks were stood by the water with loaves of bread which they were breaking up and tossing to some giant goldfish visible just below the surface. Kirzun indicated ...