After enjoying ourselves, as well has having our hearts ripped out in the Tibetan Museum, in MG we decided that we may need a little pre-Nepal trekking conditioning after the previous day's little stroll to the Dal Lake just above MG. Ok, make that a little more than just a bit of conditioning!

But to get there, we needed to get on another India state bus; and to get to the bus station we needed to take a taxi to get there. Since the bus was leaving at 0600, we needed to leave ours at 0500. What we didn't know was that the taxi driver, who we had organised the night before, had spent the night in the car outside ours! Once he had changed the interior from his bedroom into the semblance of a vehicle, we set off for Dharamsala; but not the way we came up. There is a very shortcut between the higher MG and the lower Dharamsala and it tends to head straight down the mountain on a road that has definitely seen better days and the cliffs on the one side are happily devouring! I don't think that the porcupine we almost collided with quite anticipated that a taxi would be heading down that "road" and that time! I am sure we sure the whites of his eyes as we blazed passed!

With the bags tied to the bus's rooftop we set off for further down the mountain- away from Dharamsala and definitely away from Mandi where we needed to catch the next bus to Rewalsar Lake. If the taxi driver went fast, then the bus driver wanted to outdo him! Jeez, I didn't think that it was possible to get a bus to go that speed and still have it under some control. The reason why there are no amusement parks and roller coasters in India is because the bus service fulfils the same purpose as they hurtle around the mountain passes! A sudden brake, a near tail slide and the bus driver vacates the seat for the real bus driver. The bloke who got down the mountain was really the conductor! But he drove just as quickly! Must have gone to the same school then...

The less said about Mandi the better except it is a transport junction town where one catches whatever onward connection you have, as soon as possible. Ok, bags off one bus, and tied to the top of another! The good thing about going uphill in an Indian bus is that the drivers actually can't go that fast! But since this road was even narrower than anything else we had been on before, then the driver's sense of self preservation might have played a key role in actually getting us in one piece there.

The most striking features about Rewalsar Lake, as you come round the mountain, is the size of the Buddha statue that dominates the town and the amount of prayer flags that flutter high on the hilltop behind the town. It makes sense though as this the place where one of the Buddha's disciplines stayed for months before he took Buddhism into today's Tibet and beyond and is a sacred Buddhism site. It is also holy for the Hindus and Sikhs. Sikhs had sages and gurus who stayed here and the Hindus had a god who collected some medicine for another god here (excuse me, but why do gods need medicine? Surely they are immortal and indestructible?).

Since the dust had disappeared in a cloud of dust up the road and the cow had resumed strolling down the main (although this is a slightly loose term for the road that just went through the centre of this one Buddha statue town) road, we had no idea which way to turn and find a place to stay. The guidebook was extremely thin on information about this place. It was almost as if the author had taken somebody's verbal info and turned them what appeared in the pages we were reading. Not helpful at all! But we had two choices. Left or right.

After a few minutes of left, we were out of town and further away from the bus stop. Ok. Right took us past the bus stop and into the area that hid the lake. Behind the trees and bushes where a Buddhist monastery with its marooned monks, ever smiling with one or two pilgrims walking around the circumference, clicking their rosemary beads as they went. Not a breeze ruffled the water at all and the shrines and temples and statues were all reflected against the pale blue sky.

Around the corner was home for the next two nights and Hotel Lotus Lake was run by the ever friendly Tibetans. Comfort was found in the local community café serving local, and good, Indian coffee. The best part was that a 200km journey only took 9hrs and we had practically a whole afternoon to explore! Wow, weren't we lucky!

Because of the holy nature of the lake for Buddhists, they have conducted mini-pilgrimages up the hill to the top of the mountain to fly their prayer flags and enjoy the view. The only clincher was that the stone path tends to travel straight up the mountain and only adds a twist and a turn when scaling a cliff is not really a feasible option. Accompanied by a local mountain dog, we meandered through tradition villages and met those coming down from their early morning prayers.

Getting to the top was the ubiquitous Indian tea shop selling what every pilgrim may need to venerate at his shrine. For the Hindus (they almost have a temple here) there is all sorts of marigolds, tikka and other offerings and for the Buddhists, there are prayer flags galore! But best of all, was the cold cokes (the tea this time was dreadful!).

Going down was pretty much the same, except we saw the day coming to an end. School children coming home clamouring to have their photos taken and the cows, donkeys and horses all making their way back along the village paths to their stables of residence. But like all pilgrims we needed to take a turn around the lake and watch the animals too.

It is necessary it seems to offer food to the lake (or what it represents) if you are a Hindu. But since this practice has been going on for ages, the fish have become very accustomed to being fed vast quanities. Where there is a market, there is a product being punted to fill that demand. No difference here. Except that where there is free food to be had, and humans are dishing it out, the rhesus macaques are not far behind. As in any Indian town, there are plenty of stray dogs and these ones stay well away from the monkeys that dominate the lake edge. So it is a real menagerie. Pilgrims throwing food into the lake, fish writhing in the shallow waters over each other and the monkeys getting whatever they can from wherever they can; and everybody is watching in slight bemusement at all these goings on!

Perhaps not the most dynamic of harmonies, but a harmony nevertheless! All three religions in one place and a menagerie of animals all enjoying the outcome of those interactions. Bizarre, but that's India.