We arrived to Dharamsala the 20th of Oct.We started to search for a guest-house and thre were so many of them! The biggest difference we could find compairing to other places was that they were all clean. Many of the guest-houses were kept by the monks, they were the cheapest but they were often without showers ot toilets. Finally after visiting like 6 of them, we found a guest house for us. All the rooms were with a balcony and there was a beautiful view over the mountains and the Upper- Dharamsala. Dharamsala is divided in Lower- and Upper- Dharamsala. The Upper is more touristique but very nice.

I will tell you something about Dharamsal's history. The first group of Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama into exile in India, to Dharamsala to escape oppression under Chinese rule in 1959. Dharamsala means in hindi "a resting place for travellers", it's a reminder that no matter how long we stay here, our home is elsewhere.

So here we are still, our 7th day and tomorrow we are going to leave. We were planning leave yesterday but we weren't ready yet to leave this place!

Dharamsala is really a special place, it's not India. Peolple are very different, they don't try to force you to buy things, the rickshaws leaves you alone and the food is so good! There are all kind of restaurants; thai, tibetan, europeen, americain, italien, indian, chinese....And it's clean and fresh! So I think we hav gained weight like 10 kg in 1 week. We eat even though we are not hungry!For breakfest some banana pancakes or porridge with honey and banana, they make really good Tibetan porridge here, the Tsumpa. It's really good and really energetic (maistuu melkein samalta kuin mannapuuro). For dinner or lunch we eat momos, a Tibetan speciality, it's vegetables wrapped in a steamed or fried dough. They make also really good wok and noodle soupes.

Many occidental monks or buddhists come here to meditate for weeks. You can take meditation courses for one week. The people also enjoy their lives. They start working at 10 a.m and closes their shops before 6 p.m.

Everyday we walk in the 3 main streets they have here. They all look alike and I never know which way to go. It's my sense of orientation! There are many shops selling all kinds of jewellery and I saw a Tibetan ring that I really wanted to buy, but I wanted to see the other shops first. But in the end no other ring was like the one I saw so yesterday I bought it! It is silver and has a tourquois stone in the middle and on the other side there's a graving. The Tibetans uses it to help heart diseases and headaches. I paid 1200Rs for ti so I surpassed my budget big time! But it was worth it!

Some anecdotes about India:

When you're in a restaurant, the waitress gives you the menu but also a paper and a pen so you can write your own check.I think it's really practical!

Abut the water-bottles: they have many marks, but apparently only 5 marks are good and the rest are a risk that it's normal tap water. So you'll never really know what you are drinking. Even the import beers like Fosters's no good. They uses untreated water.. Nice!

When we are on the streets walking with David, it had happened many times that the Indians wants to take a picture with us. In Delhi it was the Sikh police who took a photo with us, in Srinagar some teenage boy group and in Dharamsala many girls liked a photo with us. I even had to say no once because it started to annoy me... Hah! I know, it's crazy, we are stars here!

So that's all about Dharamsala. Next stop is Chandigarh by bus.

Here's some wise words from Dalai Lama:

" Right from the moment of our birth we are under the care and kindness of our parents. Then, later on our life, when we are oppressed by sickness and become old, we are again dependent on the kindness of others.

Since it is the case that at the beginning and end of our lives we are so dependent on others kindness, how can it be that in the middle we neglect kindness towards others?"

His Holiness Dalai Lama