MacLeod Ganj (Dharamsala)

To get here, 10.5 hours spent on 4 different buses and with 2 flat tires. Saw the Dalai Lama my first morning in town.

An old hill station, McLeod Ganj is now home to the Tibetan government in exile, as well as thousands of Tibetan refugees who trekked across the Himalaya on foot to escape from China's brutal occupation.

They don't necessarily look like "refugees" though. The community here, for the most part, is extremely modern. Young Tibetan women stroll down the streets in tank tops and miniskirts and high heels, or jeans and abercrombie and fitch and hollister tshirts. It's not like anything else in India. Tibetans are the clear majority here (I did a pedestrian traffic count to ascertain this). There are some Indians but they are all either tourists or in the tourism service sector. There are also large numbers of foreign tourists, from all over the world. Many more Americans here than anywhere else in India. Many of them stay here a long time, and engage in any of the many courses offered. You can study the sitar or tablas, or yoga, or meditation, or Tibetan cooking, or volunteer. There are lots of monks too, but they are thoroughly modern as well, toting cell phones, sporty sunglasses, and hanging out in the cafes and internet cafes. The food here is excellent. There is Mexican, Italian, Japanese, lots of organic, vegetarian. Even though we're up in the mountains, it has gotten quite hot here, with highs in the 90s expected in the next couple days. India is under a heat wave right now, and it's 118 degrees down in Delhi. Dozens of people have already died from the heat and dozens (or hundreds) more in the violence and rioting that's been spreading across North India. One of the ethnic groups is demanding that they be added to the backward classes designation, because then they would be eligible for affirmative action programs like the other lower castes are. They have forced the closure of major roads, railways across Rajasthan with the violence spilling into Delhi in the last couple days. Tourism in Rajasthan has come to a standstill, and an article I saw today blames the violence for the noticeable decline in tourism across India and in Himachal Pradesh this summer. If this heat wave persists, then I shouldn't have to worry about the mountain passes opening up in time.

If all goes well, I'll be able to cross over into the rain shadow deserts of the trans-Himalayan plateau just as the monsoon rolls up here. As I said before, the mix of people here makes for fascinating people watching. The place is on Free-Tibet overload. Everywhere you go is information about Tibet and the human rights catastrophe there. I am as sympathetic to the Free Tibet cause as anybody, but I've found the attitudes of some of the foreigners here a bit close minded. Many of them refuse to even travel to China and sound surprised when I tell them I was there. I suppose that's there right. But I try to explain that while the Chinese government may be evil, that doesn't mean the Chinese people are. But in short, China is not high on most peoples' list of favorite countries here. My laptop had an accident and now it won't start up, so I'm without laptop for the rest of my trip. As a result, I probably won't be uploading any more photos until I get home. And I probably won't update this blog as frequently, either.