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4 nights in Mcleod Ganj

After leaving Amritsar we headed north into a more hilly area. Soon we could see mountains with snow - a sight we haven't seen since Turkey! We climbed and climbed into the foothills until we reached the town of Dharamsala, where the truck stayed for the next few days. When we all got in taxis to make the final climb to Mcleod Ganj, we could see why the truck would never make it up the narrow, steep road.

Mcleod Ganj was an old British hill station but is now a town where the Tibetan government lives in exile. The Dalai Lama is based here, and there is quite a large population of Tibetan refugees and their decendents. This means it feels like we suddenly left India and are in China... but there are still plenty of Indian people around, as well as plenty of travellers from other countries - the first we've seen since Cappadocia really. The town is a maze of small streets perched on a steep mountainside, and it's a fascinating place, with great shopping combined with Buddhist temples and monks. Also there are monkeys here, which were really cute until Shane got too close to a baby on and its dad had a go at him. We don't have rabies shots so we're staying away from monkeys now.

We stayed at the Green Hotel - decent sized rooms and comfy enough. No aircon but it's cooler up here so that's fine. Shane and I have both been feeling pretty bad with delhi-belly so we spent a lot of time chilling out, but I still managed to drag him around shopping and we visited the Buddhist temples (although the Tibetan museum was closed which was a shame). There was also a Tibetan film festival on this weekend showing documentaries and short films about the Tibetan people and their struggles with China - interesting stuff and we're lucky to have come here and learned about it before going to Tibet, because we're sure not going to hear anything about it when we get there.

Mcleod Ganj was a nice place to spend a few days, and no-one is really looking forward to heading back into the heat and craziness that we hear about Delhi.