Onto Amritsar & The Golden Temple

After finally getting a glimpse of the Dalai Lama at the 40th Anniversary celebrations of the Tibetan Children’s Village, and sending a heap of stuff we don’t need back home, we have finally left the mountains and head to Amritsar.

Deciding that a five hour bus journey on these mountain roads was more than our backs could handle, we opted for a taxi to Pathankot and a train from there to Amritsar. We arrived a little early and spent an hour or so sitting on the platform eating fresh pakora, channa filled roti and drinking chai, whilst everyone stared at us rather intently. Tevo read his book aloud and before long we had a crowd of Sikh men shaking his hand and declaring his brilliance to all. I think he rather enjoyed himself.

When we finally found our carriage on a very long train, we found our seats were taken by a young girl and her father. Reluctant as they were to move, we finally managed to assert ourselves. We waited several days to be able to book these seats and I was not about to give them up lightly. However, it seems they either oversell the tickets for this train, or many simply do not have a seat. This means that the spaces between us and the children are seen as fair game for shoving up. Once again, we had to assert ourselves for the kids not to lose their seats. All in good humour though, and by evening we arrived in dusty dark Amritsar, the holiest Sikh city in India.

Bas, our dutch travel writing friend in Naggar recommended we try Mrs Bhandari’s Guesthouse in the old Cantonment area. And what a recommendation!

A beautiful oasis and well-maintained (well there’s a first) Art Deco guesthouse with an easy atmosphere (including an ‘honesty’ bar), swimming pool, well kept gardens, children’s playground and the most amazing accommodation. We are in ‘The Den’, formerly the children’s nursery – apparently the best room in the place. A large open plan room with two smaller rooms leading off, a bathroom with a huge cast iron bath, and tastefully furnished with period furniture and features. It’s like the British are still here! Mrs Bhandari is Parsi and married an Indian army officer back when such a marriage would have been highly frowned upon. She is 99 this year and remembers the 1919 carnage at Jallianwala Bagh, when, under governor O’Dwyer’s orders, the British opened fire on a peaceful demonstration killing 379 people and injuring 1500. We are visiting the remembrance gardens later today.

Yesterday we visited the Golden Temple, the holiest of sites for Sikhs, many of whom make pilgrimages here from all over the world. We wandered through the most gruesome galleries depicting Sikhs at battle and facing torture and martyrdom. Tevo and Roisin just loved it! We joined the community kitchen for lunch where everyone, regardless of age, creed, caste, class, whatever; eats together. They feed tens of thousands here daily, for free, with huge vats of dahl and piles of chapatti, it’s almost biblical. We then joined in the washing up, and everyone made us really welcome and seemed genuinely pleased to have us there. As do most people seem in Amritsar. Smiling Sikhs everywhere, although Tevo says his cheeks hurt from having them pinched so much.

We returned this morning at 5.30am for dawn at the temple and were rewarded with a beautifully lit temple glistening at the centre of the huge tank of a pool. We met a really friendly man who showed us around the central temple and invited us to join in the ceremony of morning prayers. We saw ‘the book’ – a very sacred text that is read from constantly, each man reading for one hour, and it takes 47 hours to read it in its entirety. People read from the book to pray for things they want and be thankful for what they may have achieved. The waiting list is rather long. To read the printed copy, you will be able to get a place in 2009, but for the original, the wait is until 2117!

We seem to have acquired our very own cycle rickshaw drivers who wait outside the compound for us and then take us to wherever we choose. They waited for four hours yesterday. No-one walks here, so we while clinging on for dear life, we whizz our way around town dodging traffic and waving at school children.

This afternoon we are off to the border with Pakistan to witness the closing ceremony.

Tomorrow we leave for Delhi and then onto Agra.

A REQUEST: Children's books please!

Please can you help?
The Norbulingka Institute runs an amazing creche and nursery. This is essential for the Tibetan families who arrive here so the parents can go to work in the Institute and learn the essential skills they'll need. They desperately need english books for children. Anything for children aged from 6mths up to 6 years would be greatly appreciated. Books are incredibly expensive here (more than the UK for english speaking ones) and they have little available for children.

Just nip into Oxfam or a secondhand book store and pick up a handful of books, or you may have some that you no longer need or want. Please send them to:

Sangyal (Incharge Creche)
Norling Creche and Preschool
Norbulingka Institute
PO Sidhpur
Distt. Kangra
Dharamsala
(Himachel Pradesh) India 176057

Thanks
Jackie

Are we enlightened yet.....

We have now been in McLeod Ganj for the last few days. Dharamsala is actually a dusty empty little town down the hill, whereas MLG is a travellers enclave of cafes, shops, guesthouses and Tibetan monks. We took the pilgrim circuit around the Dalai lama's residence & the Tsaglangka complex (please excuse the spelling misakes as I don't have my lonely planet with me). Tevo walked hand in hand with a young monk and I took my first deep breath in a while (there's no poop and garbage round the back of DLs place). Beautiful Tibetan artefacts in the museum and temples - the children are becoming quite well educated about Tibetan Buddhism. We watched the monks debating, which involved much hand slapping and foot stamping.

We took the bus to the Norbulingka Institute where we saw newly arrived refugees learning traditional and new skills, from Thangka painting and metal work (so that's what's inside those Buddhist statues) to learning english and computer skills. This is part of their peaceful resistance I think. The Chinese have tried to eradicate Tibetans and their culture, yet here in this peaceful little enclave, they fight back by continuing to thrive, maintaining their old traditions and skills, and learning new skills to adapt to a new world. Buddhism is thriving here as it was in Ladakh. There is much the world could learn from Tibetans.

We are staying at the Yellow Guesthouse, which is as basic as they come but clean enough. The view and our kindly hosts make up for any lack of mod cons. Dukka arrived from Tibet five years ago (he walked for 30 days in the winter from Lhasa) and he learned his guesthouse skills at Norbulingka. We've taken two rooms this time, for 2 quid per room, we all decided it would be nice to have our own beds and this means we get a bit of space from each other and have the luxury of a sit down toilet in one of the rooms (although it continually leaks on the floor).

Getting used to things not working or being slightly broken is the norm here. Indians don't really have any sense of maintenance and things fall into decay quickly. The Lonely Planet is useless with regard to accommodation as things change too quickly for it to be up-to-date. It's good for getting around using public transport though, and its much more fun to wander around for a bit trying to find somewhere to stay that isn't too squalid and with the friendliest smiles. This approach has worked well for us so far.

DL is due to visit the Tibetan Children's Village on saturday so we plan to stay until then at least to get a glimpse of him. There are no audiences just now as he is busy teaching newly arrived monks from Tibet. Then on Monday we leave for Amritsar by train. We have been told about a guesthouse with a swimming pool so the children are very excited.

Although perhaps I will have to buy some appropriate clothes for swimming in. It is hard adjusting to the view of women here. Women are not allowed to expose their bodies much. This means I have missed out on the cold spring baths at Bhagsu (although given my current fragile health I thought it may be for the best as it wasn't that clean). I even had to miss out on jumping in the plunge pool at the waterfall (it was soooo lovely and CLEAN and blue and cool, I nearly cried). We paddled and I even bared my knees for a moment. Meanwhile, the boys (including monks) get to strip off to their grungy baggy underpants and enjoy the cool water.
Ho hum - women get seats on buses to make up for this!

Festival time in Kullu!

Naggar is a lovely village and we stayed in a rather cosy guesthouse with a glorious rooftop restaurant, great food, great company of four irish tourists, a dutch travel writer, a german biker and our host, Manuj. Ate our dinner by firelight on the roof watching shooting stars.

Visited Roerich's museum and gallery - and bought some terrible postcard copies of his work - which we;ve sent to some of you :-) The old house was beautifully preserved and the museum had lots of Himachel, Ladakhi, Russian and Tibetan artefacts.

We've also been to the first day of the festival of Dessehra with hundreds and hundreds of gods descending from the mountain villages with their trumpeting drum playing support cast. They descend into Kullu, which was like Glastonbury had come to India. Tents and foodstalls and crowds everywhere. The children had a ball although I did think we might all die when they talked us into going on the shadiest looking ferris wheel I've ever seen. Our carriage was only half attached (we realised as we reached the top). I prayed that Shiva would not destroy us on a lovely day like this!

In the evening, Manuj took us to his family's house in Kullu. We watched fireworks in the valley and they made us a simple but lovely thali dinner, while the children played basketball and Pokemon (the great unifier of young boys from across continents it seems).

Time to move on....

I think it's known as speaking too soon. All that talk of health and lovely food and then bam...I've just spent most of the week in bed after what started with bad food posioning turned into dysentry, and well I guess you best go look that up if you don't know what it is, so I don't need to go into the rather charming symptoms that this entails.
I am now on antibitotics and feeling better, if weak and considerably lighter (again). Tevo and Roisin are fine and appear to have the constitutions of an ox. Lee's been a little under the weather and may have ameobic dysentry but we can't get laboratory tests done here, as it takes a week, so he too has started taking antibiotics.

This has meant we have been holed up at the hotel, although the upside is that Tevo and Roisin have caught up with lots of work and their journals are looking fab. They've been out with Lee to a few local sights (which I'm sure he'll write about). But it really is time to move on as Manali has lost its shine a little (and its getting rather cold now).

In a day or two we are leaving for Naga and then Kullu, for the first two days of the festival and then onto Dharamsala. From there, our first train journey (to where we don't know yet) but we're all are very excited it.

Jackie

Chillin' in Manali

Manali is colourful and laid back and incredibly green after all that desert. With the good weather that seems to be following us, we are thinking about whether we should stay around for the Kullu festival in two weeks time – a pretty spectacular one by all accounts.

The food is so good here, we could just eat all day long, which makes up for the appetite loss and accordant weight loss experienced in Ladakh. We may go to Dharamsala next – about a 7 hr bus ride. Piece of cake after Leh to Manali slog. We’re all pretty healthy at the moment and the children are starting to appreciate the highs and lows of traveling, a kind of no pain, no gain attitude, especially when it comes to very big mountains (and even hotel rooms on the top floor!).

I do think we have bagged the best family room in Manali too. Halfway up to Old Manali overlooking John Banan’s Orchard, we’ve got a great view, peace and quiet (when some Israeli’s aren’t partying in a nearby hotel!) and a cracking room. Two big double rooms, lounging area, big big balcony and two bathrooms (tho one the toilet works but the rest doesn’t and vice versa). It’s kind of amusing that the shower comes on when you turn the basin tap, and that despite a decent bath suite, none of it works but we have piping hot ‘mandi’ water and it is incredibly efficient on saving water. It’s costing us under 9 pounds a night, which is actually expensive as there are decent rooms in Old Manali for less than 2 quid. The absence of any balcony railings on upper floors is a slight drawback for those with children, and perhaps those who may have been sampling too many of the local wares.

We’ve been starting the day with fruit breakfasts; which Tevo and Roisin choose the night before from the markets. This morning we had pomegranates, apples, bananas, pineapple, coconut and a strange mini melon type fruit that only Lee liked. It cost about a quid for the lot. We usually go for thali early afternoon. We now know to ask for the separate thali and dosa menu at these places, not the tourist pizza strangeness that’s on offer. Even T&R have decided they don’t like pizza anymore and that it’s best to stick with local food, unless of course, it’s one of the fabulous german bakeries – they definitely get that right. An added bonus being that you can actually eat really well for less than 2 quid a day (Caroline, it's about 40 rupee for the best dahls, currys, breads and pickle you've ever tasted).

Unfortunately I have yet been unable to find an equivalent to Dsomza, the co-operative water bottle refill place; amongst other worthy activities like collected old batteries and plastic, eco-laundry {that’s at least 200m away from mountain water sources}, very strange Leh berry juice {which fizzes explosively if you leave it in your water bottle going over high passes}, dried fruit and nuts {staple diet of any good trekker} and also distributing unwanted clothes and shoes to people in need. I can picture a village child skipping to school (and believe me they do skip over the most unbelievably steep and high passes) in a brand new pair of gortex Berghaus boots that Roisin managed to outgrow before we even arrived.
Comparing equipment for a moment, I have to say that although you can buy very cheap goods here, there is a marked difference. Tevo’s boots (inherited from Roisin) kept his feet dry and ankles safe whilst falling off rocks crossing gushing streams, whereas Roisin’s, well they’re just a bit pants really.

We went for a forest walk yesterday and then up Old Manali. Imagine shabby but very charming and a lot quieter than down in main street. I spotted a Tibetan café so plan to return later for some scrumptious momos and noodle soup. This afternoon we plan to take it easy. The children have done some excellent school work this last week (they even practiced their times tables in the jeep from Leh).

Hope the new photos have loaded okay. I'm off for some thali :-) Shanti shanti xxxx