Shaking hands with the Dalai Lama!
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2002
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53
158
Trip End
Aug 08, 2005
Dharamsala,
India
Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Well despite how much we liked Udaipur, it soon became time to move on again, this time by sleeper coach where the luggage rack of a normal 'luxury' coach is replaced by a small but relatively comfortable 'cell' that allowed us to lie down for the 9 hours to Jaipur. We arrived in the early hours of the morning to the endless hassle of rickshaw wallahs and hotel touts who were quickly dispatched with before our next hotel hunt started. Jaipur is a dismal city with expensive (relatively speaking) and dirty hotels but we eventually found an acceptable one (which means it had cleanish sheets) and later we headed on out by cycle rickshaw to the main bazaars of the Pink City, so called because it was painted pink for King Edward V111's visit and it has stayed that way ever since
01 Jaipur Red Fort
. Unfortunately the city has little to offer but endless hassle and lots of chaos. The streets are even more packed than normal with all vehicles from buses and trucks to cycles and hand carts, all blasting their horns incessantly or tinkling their bells like anyone can hear them over the general din. The stalls spill out onto the pavements and then onto the road itself, along with vendors frying snacks next to the obligatory cows wandering aimlessly in the middle of the traffic. It was complete madness and nobody left us alone for a second. The next day we decided to tour the sights by hired rickshaw just to escape some of the chaos. We saw another city palace with an amazing collection of old and beautifully crafted weapons but it was otherwise generally unremarkable. There was also a fascinating ancient observatory where a guide explained the workings of many old (and massive) but surprisingly accurate instruments. We then saw a cenotaph and the city's Amber Fort, a crumbling relic of a grand palace sitting high on a mountain ridge where sad, painted elephants carried toursists up the hill for one dollar. As part of the deal for the tour our rickshaw driver then drove round a couple of shops for which he received commission for taking us too. Unfortunately for him, we didn't buy anything but we did see a small village factory where they printed cloth by hand with intricate designs using wooden hand carved printing blocks. Finally we visited a small clothes shop where a young Indian man enthusiastically tried to convice us to carry gems (Jaipur is gem capital of India) for him back to the U.K
02 Jaipur Red Fort
. for which we would be paid $10000 so he could avoid paying tax. The whole thing was a very shady scam that would have involved getting money out of us somehow if we'd stayed around long enough despite the fact that he tried to convivce us it was all 'perfectly legal and people do it all the time!!' We escaped Jaipur early the next day on a 6 hour bus for Delhi, found a nice enough hotel in a busy, noisy but atmospheric main bazaar and crashed out. The next day was really productive. As our passports are now just about full we applied for new ones at the extremely efficient consulate and then toured past New Delhi's grand monuments and parliament buildings before walking right into another scam as we went to buy train tickets. As we entered the railway station a man insisted he help us and led us and other tourists to a travel bureau (which he told us was the foreign tourist counter we had been looking for) where they told us all separately that the trains we wanted were full and we would have to buy expensive bus tickets from them instead. Being very sceptical we walked out but not before telling the other tourists of our doubts, which upset the tour touts greatly. We eventually found the correct office and booked our tickets to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama and other exiled Tibetans. Delhi is meant to be notorious for scams but it had a nice atmosphere to it and parts of the city are quite pleasant. There is the usual chaos of rickshaws, carts and cows and too many begars, touts and terrible victims of leprosy, but it is without the constant hassle.
Unfortunately, after fourteen months of travelling relatively heathily, Sian fell ill in Delhi and we ended up cancelling those train tickets which were so hard to get in the first place
03 Jaipur Elephant
! We resorted to another overnight bus journey a few days later so that we could arrive in Dharamsala for Kev's 30th birthday. So it was that on the 13th Nov we left Delhi on a small bus full of a mixture of tourists and Buddhist monks and nuns dressed in their customary red robes. The journey wasn't quite as horrendous as some have endured but we accepted that we would get no sleep. The bus climbed into the hills where Dharamsala and the higher town of McLeod Gang sit in sight of the Dhauladar mountain range, part of the Indian Himalayas. Arriving at the small bus stand we were instantly hit by the extreme cold, the town however has a nice feel to it. Two narrow main streets of crumbling buildings and shacks full of small restaurants, cafes, bookshops, tourist shops, stalls and colourful markets line the roads where as you walk you catch glimpses of the snow capped mountains between the houses. Our first choice of hotel down a steep, winding street was exceptionally clean but bitterly cold and so noisy during the early hours of the morning that we decided to move back up the hill with our heavy bags to a hotel with a much warmer room and great views over the valley where the sun sets and casts red light onto the snowy mountains. (Kev thinks he's gone soft since he left Aberdeen because he's feeling the cold!) The first few days of bitter cold and even rain gave us our taste for winter which we had begun to miss and the highest mountaintops had a light covering of snow. Thankfully the sun has now returned and warmed things up considerably during the day. We have also found a good cafe which serves yummy Tibetan food, on the premises of a monestary run by monks, most of whom are exiled ex political prisoners. In the afternoons we have been teaching English to Tibetan exiles who are also mostly ex political prisoners and have horrific stories to tell of their time in Tibet under the constant persecution of the Chinese government
04 Jaipur Mausoleum
. One timid nun we teach every day was locked up for 5 years for declaring that Tibet was not part of China, for which she was beaten and tortured in ways that she cannot describe in English, and even after her release, both she and her family were persecuted to such an extent that her only option was to escape to India through the Himalayas. That is a four week journey in the middle of winter ( as the weather is too bad for the Chinese to police the area effectively). They slept in the open or in rough shelters, carried their only food (barley oats) and paid about 50 dollars to be guided through the mountains to Nepal. Many die on the way or suffer terrible frostbite and this is a journey which is still undertaken on a relatively frequent basis as people continue to escape the oppressive Chinese rule. As political refugees, many gain asylum here in Dharamsala but some go home again and end up with further prison terms. For the nun we teach she may never see her family again as long as the Chinese occupy Tibet (they invaded in 1959 and there are no signs of them leaving any time soon). The Chinese government's policies of destroying Tibet's cultural heritage including their monasteries and ancient treasures and their oppressive regime is only really brought to the world's attention by their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Despite the Dalai Lama having a very tight schedule (he was with George Bush last week and meets the Pope next week) we somehow managed to meet him personally outside his modest quarters at the local monastery and Buddhist temple
05 Delhi
. We were very lucky and a few peple had gathered to see him, after rigorous security checks, we filed past, said hello, shook hands and received a Kalachakra ribbon. It was all a bit surreal really, especially as our students had only ever met him once upon their arrival in Dharamsala and had been too overwhelmed to barely look at him. Anyway we count ourselves extremely fortunate a we know this doesn't happen every day!We have also been keeping busy wandering through Dharamsala and exploring the sights. We attended a Buddhist philosophy class where a wise old Lmaa recounted verses from ancient texts to help people on their path to enlightenment. The class was very interesting, thought provoking and not at all religious (which technically Buddhism isn't anyway). Once again it was one of those things which will not happen to us everyday! We have also visited the local Buddhist temple, spinning prayer wheels clockswise on the way and we trekked to a waterfall where we had the sparkling clear pool at the bottom to ourselves as most people don't climb that far. We managed to find a place which showed the rugby matches in a local hotel and there is even a local 'cinema' where we watched a movie. Yes, we've settled into this place rather well overall!
Unfortunately we can't stay too long and it seems Nepal might be back on the agenda as we have friends there at the moment who say that all is fine there. We're really looking forward to seeing more of the Himalayas after our little taster here.
Well, that must just about bring you up to date with a very thorough account of what we've been up to!
Take Care everyone and drop us a line to tell us what you've been up to.
K & S.
