McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala visit after 35 years!

Well this is the first post in a long time and in somewhat reverse order.

Below is the link to our pictures from McLeod Ganj (Dharamsala is the Indian town just south )

It will show some of the photos from our visit to this Tibetan camp in northern India. It was the 3rd week of the 3 weeks we spent in India. The first 2 weeks were with a Thai Buddhist Tour/Pilgrimage with 4 buses and 130 people! I will be working on those pictures and videos in the next weeks but the following was more manageable!

McLeod Ganj is still India, but with a Tibetan slant. There are lots of foreigners from all over the world. I lived and worked there with the Tibetans 35 years ago when there were 3 restaurants and a few other stores. Now there are 100s of stores and restaurants and of course lots more people living and visiting there.

The town is on steep hills in the foothills of the Himalayas with 14,000 foot peaks in the background. Everywhere you go it is either up or down a steep hill/very narrow street. I was able to meet one old friend from 35 years ago and we met our friend Carolyn who was there for her sabbatical teaching English. We also were able to meet the family of the girl Bev has been sponsoring for the last several years.

We spent a week in McLeod Ganj and it was a welcome break after our 2 weeks on the tour. The air was quite cool in the early mornings and evenings and it was getting noticeably cooler day by day, so that for the last 2 evenings we rented a heater for our room. Early in the mornings we would get up, buy our bread from our Tibetan "baker", return to the room, make some coffee and sit on the balcony watching the langurs play in the trees. What a life!

For our return to Thailand we rented a car to drive us directly to the New Delhi airport, a trip which took 13 hours for about 400 miles, and that was only with one lunch stop and another "tea and pee" stop! As we neared Delhi the traffic was horrendous - we were in one traffic jam for almost 2 hours.

click the picture below to see the photos

McLeod Gunj 2007