Almost Tibet...in McLeod Ganj

We love it love it love it here.  This is one of those places where you could quite easily spend a month when you came for a week!  McLeod Ganj is definitely NOT the India we'd anticipated...snow capped mountains, freezing nights, dogs that look like bears and a huge Tibetan community - this is the base of the Tibetan Government in exile and home to the Dalai Lama.  I haven't seen any lamas yet but I'll be sure to keep you posted if and when we do come across any.  Jodie's giving me a roll-eyes-that-was-a-crap-joke-look, but I'm hoping someone out there guffawed.

So yeah, our bus from Amritsar was an ultra cheap 130 rs each, and passed pretty quickly considering it wasn't particularly luxurious!  If anything, we enjoyed the ride as we got to hang our heads outside the windows, and we even got a lunch break (even if it was only due to a tyre having to be changed).  Is that how you spell tyre?  Susie Dent would know, but she's a wench and we're not asking her.  Pretty soon the air was cool and we could see mountains ridges way off in the distance...and pretty soon after that we were driving up some incredibly steep and narrow roads...and pretty soon after that Jodie was climbing on the roof of the bus for our bags...and pretty soon after that we were on another bus which was really too big for the roads it was navigating.  And then we arrived here!  Staying in Hotel Ekata or something like that, for a CHEAPO 300 rs per night (Cathy's paying 200rs for her spacious room).

FREE TIBET

Been here a couple of days now and we've already had English conversation classes with some Tibetan Ex-political prisoners, learned a huge amount re: the plight of Tibet (FREE TIBET!!!), learned how to cook Tibetan soup (momo...yum), eaten so much Japanese food we're about to burst, drank stinking local wine (more like rocket fuel/brandy) and purchased some potentially misguided items like wooly blankets.  But it's TIBETAN YAK WOOL...how could we resist?  At 150 rs a pop, we could not resist and are now going to be spending the next 5 weeks carting them about, but it's worth it.

Most interesting of all has to be the insight into the Tibetan people's plight.  Free Tibet is one of those slogans most people are familiar with, but it's probably only really a slogan to them.  That was definitely the case with me, I must confess.  Jodie and Cathy knew a bit about it already.  Most of the Tibetan people in McLeod Ganj arrived here after escaping Tibet under cover of nightfall, trekking over the Himalayas and hiding from the gun toting Chinese army.  One monk told us he'd had to wade through an icy river for 1 kilometre in the middle of the night, which is just crazy, sneaking past the Chinese army while they slept in their tents and sleeping under rocks during the day.  It's so incredibly cold here even at this time of the year, it's really terrible to think of what they've had to endure first of all from the Chinese army, and then to make their successful escape.  We've been told of men being hung up by their thumbs and tortured, we've heard of children as young as 5 being arrested and held as political prisoners, we've met people who have left their families behind and come here on their own.  Any contact within Tibet is intercepted by the Chinese, so communication is difficult.  The people in Tibet are being forced to learn Mandarin, and the Chinese government is basically trying to erase all things Tibetan such as religion, language and customs.  It's really terrible to know this is happening, and very little appears to be being done about it, and we're very lucky to be able to hear first hand accounts of what's gone on rather than reading what feels like a story in newspapers back home.  It's really crazy stuff.

Serious stuff over...we've passed time here enjoying treks around the village.  When we say treks, we mean walks to an from our favourite cafes!   Do not underestimate the pulling power of a hot cup o' liquids and a slab o' tasty cake!  Obviously, this cafe trekking is all in the name of research...maybe one day a cafe will come out of this!  And luckily Lung Ta - the Japanese restaurant - is a not for profit effort (for the tibet exiles) which mean we're doing some good while we stuff our faces with okonomiyaki and rice balls.

Tomorrow we'll be learning to bake Tibetan bread, then we're off to a cafe to help out with some fete preparation (making monsters), then we'll be back to meet up with our English learning Tibetan friends for some conversation classes.  Tibetan's a beautiful language by the way, and the written script is gorgeeeeeeeous.  And the yak wool is friggin' amazing!

We love you all long time!XXX

Wee update to confirm we did indeed learn how to make Tibetan bread and momo (including chocolate) which is so tasty it could make me cry if i think about it too much.  We enjoyed eating far too much cheap Japanese food at Lung Ta, we continued going to conversation classes with Gu Chu Sum Ex-Political Prisoners organisation, we went to the Hope Centre's Momo and Music party where we met up with lovely Emily (refer to our Oaxaca, Mexico blog where we first encountered lovely Emily - was great to see her and she seems to be enjoying herself muchosly), we bought wool and crochet hooks to fit in with all the other women enjoying knitting (don't worry menfolk, Jodie isn't interested in knitting, he just stands over us with sticks stroking his mighty facial foliage and beating us whenever we don't knit fast enough).  Also took a walk up to Bhagsu where we checked out el waterfall which we expected to be peaceful but it was, however, brimming full o' drunken Indian adolescents taking too many photos.  And I managed to put my hand right into someone's discarded pile of phlegm.  Dirty b's.

We would've loved to have spent a good 6 months up here enjoying the climate and food and people...maybe we'll be back one day!