Country Cottage Himachal Pradesh

... and I turned up a little after 9am to find that we were the only westerners there and although some of the monks were chanting and there was a fire puja being created most of the younger monks were out of their robes and were cleaning up the entrance to the temple. I wasn't really sure what to expect, for all I knew this could have been it but mum seemed to think that something else was supposed to happen. When people go into ...

... of green vegetable), potatoes and yoghurt and taking a vitamine E tablet every day. She then recommended that I get a treatment at the centre while I’m here.

At this point I was unimpressed by the whole thing but mum had suggested that getting a treatment might be good so I asked the doctor to recommend a treatment and was lead out of the room. The building was large and modern with marble floors and staircases, the man lead me up a large staircase to a door ...

... and teaching me some tricks of the trade. He lives in a lovely mud house with his Indian wife Sonia. They are both beautiful people and were very welcoming, I spent my days working with Brian and his assistant Shiv in Brian’s home office. Brian is a great teacher and I felt as though those few days of training were like months of studying at Tafe. Brian and Sonia have a pretty good set up with a chef, housekeeper, gardener, handyman and office assistant working full time ...

... in fact he is pretty similar to most other western guys I have met. The nice thing about hanging out with Karma is that even though he is a monk I don't feel as though I need to be on my best behaviour with him, he is happy to joke around and rarely acts the way I would expect a monk to act.

I will post some pictures of my adventures in Bir and the surrounding area, the place is stunning and the wildlife... especially the monkeys, are a lot of fun :D

... while we were admiring it, we came upon Kate, a very friendly new ager who apparently lived here (from talking to her we decided that she was our good friend Bonnie's kindred India spirit). She told us that it was actually possible to go up that mountain in a day and we could organize a guide for this trek right here in Dharamkot. We made straight away to do this. The village itself was beautiful-- it was a literal village and the path wound through little farms and it was quiet ...

... porch and spent many hours taking in the amazing view as well as the bright stars at night. We have been busy everyday, some days doing our own activities like practicing, writing, reading, whittling, and knitting, and other days travelling into town to look at the many shops of Tibetan and Indian souvenirs. We all love the clothing and jewelery, the patterns and materials, the trinkets and idols, the meditation bowls and bells, and have acquired more things here than any ...

... will pay for it in creature comforts, and as a biker, the riding is just about as brutal as the scenery is beautiful. Speaking of riding, it can be a frustrating game of fits-and-starts. The gradient increases; we hop off and push. The road surface goes to hell (again); we hop off and push. The road is always about 1.1 lanes wide, and the petrol tanker trucks drive like maniacs, trying to stock up Leh with 8 months of petrol before the road closes again, so here comes ...

... We never did get that second replacement, but things worked more-or-less smoothly for the rest of the trip. Khirganga, a half day's walk from the end of the road, is very popular with Israeli and at this particular time, Japanese stoners. The valley is well known for its marijuana production and the 20-something Israelis turn up after military service to relax or forget or something like that. In fact all ...

We arrived at our hotel around 11:00 a.m. to discover that our room was not what we were expecting. We had reserved ahead through a travel agent because we thought Shimla would be booked up due to it being the high season and this being a popular resort area, butas it turned out, we didn't need to worry as low season started early this year due to early monsoon rains. We had prepaid for three nights in a standard room. The hotel had been reommended ...