Namaste,

Well Tabbi and I managed to escape from Manali thank goodness, it was starting to look like we were going to be stranded there becuase of the heavy rains. We heard some horror stories of people that tried to get to Leh, got stuck on the bus for 24 hours becuase of a road collapse, only to have to turn back to Manali, so we are very glad we decided not to go. The trip from Manali to McLoed Ganj was long and windy, with lots of road collapses on the way for us to get stuck in also, but luckily none were bad enough to stop us getting here. We saw some really beautiful views too which made it worth it. We arrived in McLoed Ganj, having to walk the last section as our bus got stuck in a really long traffic jam. It is a very busy and chaotic place, not at all like Old Manali. It is the official residence of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Governmnet in Exile, so there are a lot of Tibetans and monks here. It also rains pretty much premanently. On our first night we arrived on the eve of Indian Independance Day, and could not find a place to stay, constantly being told by each hotel we vistied that the whole of the town was fully booked, including the neighbouring villages. We managed to find a posh hotel, that only had the deluxe suite avaialable for one night, so we snapped it up, panic of sleeping on the streets over. The day after we moved to a much cheaper hotel, and wondered around the town looking in all the Tibetan shops, visited a temple, and then in the afternoon we went to a Yoga class, with a great teahcer. It was the hardest yoga class that either of us had done, it was very strenuous, and we are both really suffering today. It was great though, and we intedned to go each day we are here, I dont think we are going to manage it! We missed our 7am meditation session this morning too! Today we went to the main complex of the Tibetan government, and where the Dalai Lama lives with lots of monks. We saw where the monks debate to each other about the finer points of Bhuddism, gesticulting by clapping, stamping feet and shouting. It was really interesting to watch. I happened to get talking to the Abbot of the temple complex, a firend of the Dalai Lama, who is in charge of what the Dalai Lama is scheduled and what the monks do. He was really nice, and was very cool to meet someone so close to the Dalai Lama. The main man himself is in France at the moment, so was a bit too busy to see me.
Tomorrow we are going to a tibetan school and offer our services and see if there is anything we can do to help out.
I have changed my flight home so that it leaves India within an hour of Tabbis, meaning that we also arrive pretty much the same time. I am therefore now arriving home on the 23rd August, a week today. Looking forward to seeing you all.
Lots of love.

Rosie