We were dropped off at the upper Dharmasala at Mclout Ganj by HHDalai Lama's residence. It was 5am, dark, cold, and everything was closed. Linda, Alan, and myself found a breakfast place that was just opening up for the day. We parked ourselves there for two hours and waited for all the shops to open. We were all very tired and barely functional. It was nice to sit, park our bags and drink hot tea. During which Alan volunteered to scout out for places to stay. We settled on OM Hotel for 275R a night for a double bedroom with my own shower, hot water at anytime. The window had a nice view of the mountain and sky. I think it was a good find for that price. Plus I didn't have to do any work to negotiate or to check things out etc...
The first thing that happened when we entered the room was Linda rearranging all the furniture so that it was in proper feng-shui., signs and acts of a true Libra. Usually I am the one who does it where ever I go. I was happy with the rearrangment. Both Linda and I went to bed. Linida fell asleep right away. I just restd because I was too cold and too tired to do anything about the cold.
When we both rolled off the bed, we headed out the door around 11am. She went for her laundry and I went on the internet. Guri is connecting me with Jayesh Pi and Yoomi in India.
It was New Year's day and people were cheerful in greeting everyone. That was very nice to see. People in general are nice here. The air is gentle too. People walk around reciting attentively. The monks here look happy. It feels different from other Tibetan communities that I have come across. Here I feel the spirit of Tibet even if everything else looks like India.
On the way to HHDalai Lama's residence, I bought a bag of KurKure just to see what the big deal was. Well, it just tasted like cheetos without the cheeze and with marsala spice instead. A man without hands reached out and asked for it. I handed him my bag of Kurkure and passed it on.
We missed the gate to HHDL's residence. We over shot it somehow. But all we well, because we ended up doing it the right way which was to take the scenic route and do the walking meditation pilgrimage thing. It was a beautiful trail with view of mountains, trees, sky, etc.. Everyone takes this path, the dogs, the cows, the humans all circumambuate this way.
The museum was closed and we planned to try a different day. On the way out I had cold spicy noodles off the street stand. It was too salty and spicy. This shocked Linda to eat off the street stand. It was risky to do so, I do hope I won't get sick from it.
We did our scouting for going to other parts of India. It will take 6 hours on public bus at 5am to get to the Golden Temple in Punjab. The public bus is risky. It shall be an adventure and the path we found is so far the only way to get there.
This day seemed to be a day of shops being closed. The office for any tourist request a ticket to publicly view the HHDL is closed also. So we spent the time reading postings of missing people on the office wall. It's amazing how many tourists dissappear in India. I have been blessed and I prayed this protection keeps going.
We stopped by a little Indian place for food and sat by the window with the view of the sun and mountains. We both ordered Thali. It usually comes on a round silver tray with many conpartments for sauce, curry, etc.... Linda told me what a bundle of energy I was and that it tired her just looking at me. Linda told me how she saw the energy in my aura moved smoothly and hers was not. So we exchanged past experience of all sorts of new age things on the market. Afterwards we headed back to our place and sat out on the deck to watch the blood red orange sun set in the horizon until we were cold.
