A week in McLeod Ganj

The past week has been a whirlwind of spirituality, nature, and of course, hilarity.  McLeod Ganj is a small hill station in Northern India, at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains, home to the Dalai Lama and thousands of other Tibetan refugees.  The community here is hard to grasp.  Buddhist monks grace the streets with shaved heads and maroon robes.  Buddhist students can be found in meditation or lost in thought with their prayer beads all over town. Language teachers from the Western world rush around to get to their language classes and tutoring sessions.  Volunteers from anywhere and everywhere swarm guest houses to join young Tibetans in the plea for a "Free Tibet", boycotting Chinese goods and services, and encouraging young people to take action.  It is an extremely peculiar mix of people with one underlying theme: peace.  Missy and I did our best to dabble a bit in all that McLeod Ganj has to offer in such a short period of time.

The Spiritual Side:

Buddhism is an intriguing religion and way of life.  There are hundreds of people here who have literally denounced all material possessions and have moved their lives to McLeod Ganj to devote their lives to the teaching of Buddha.  (Don't worry mom...it ain't for me).  But, it is intriguing nonetheless.  One morning, Missy and I walked down the hill leading to Dharamshala, in order to attend a one hour lecture on Buddhist philosophy.  The class was led by a very old lama who whispered his wise words into a microphone in the beautiful Tibetan language.  Sitting on the floor next to him was an intelligent, female, British professor, well versed in the teachings, who was translating what the old lama was saying into English.  They were quite the dynamic duo, often playfully arguing over a discrepancy in translation, or cutting each other off for power of the microphone.  This ancient, almost mesmerizing lama, spent 60 minutes talking about (bare with me here as I am a Catholic and spent only a single hour trying to understand these two) distinguishing between what is reality and what is speculation.  I furiously took notes during the class, but as I read over them now, trying to pass on what I have learned to this forum, I am lost.  Really understanding the theories of karma, nirvana, and emptiness takes time and serious diligence...I have neither at the moment.  So, here you go:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism.

The Educational Side:

During our first breakfast in McLeod Ganj, Missy and I met Heather from Maine.  Praise Jesus, Buddha, Allah, Shiva, Brahma, or whomever you believe in that we crossed paths with her.  As it turns out, Heather is in town for six months teaching English to students of all ages and backgrounds.  She encouraged us to attend one of her volunteer conversation classes, where we would have the opportunity to interact with students who want to learn English.  My group consisted of myself, Ngawang, and Toepak.  Ngawang is a 35 year old Buddhist monk from Bhutan who now lives in Southern India.  When he was ten, he left his family of 13 to move to India to dedicate his life to becoming a monk.  Toepak is a 19 year old girl from Darjeeling who is in town to take language classes.  She texted on her cell phone for most of the class, which amused me because that is exactly how I was when I was 19 years old.  The three of us discussed the size of our families, our occupations, Christianity, and various other topics.  When I announced I was American, Ngawang excitedly responded: "Ahhh Obama and big fat people!"  Ummm...yes?  When our hour session ended, both of them bowed and shook hands with me, so greatful that I gave up so much of my time to speak with them.  It is me who should be thanking them for the experience.  To be honest, I was tired and hoarse by the end of the class and felt like I had just played a round of Jeopardy, since our conversation topics were so all over the place.  "I'll take Towns in India for $500, Alex!"

The Environmental Side:

We stopped buying plastic water bottles and filled our same ones all week from filtered water stations around the city.  That's all I got.  I realize we won't win a Peace Prize for such an action, but we tried...

Embracing Nature:

Missy and I received some almost devastating news on our first day in McLeod Ganj.  India has recently passed a new restriction for people with any sort of tourist visa (aka...umm...us).  As it so happens to be, if you leave India with such a visa, you cannot reenter the country for two months.  In other words, our plans to go to Nepal for two weeks and then head to Southern India are no longer feasible.  At least there is so much of India to see that we are no longer upset by this news.  Our original plans to visit seven different countries was quickly cut to two, and now to one.  But, it's not the destination, it's the journey.  Right?

So, now that we won't be trekking the Himalayans as extensively as we had planned, we vowed to trek the foothills of the great Himalayan Mountain Range as much as possible in Northern India.  And...we did.  As I write this blog entry, I am sitting at an internet cafe, an ace bandage on my sprained ankle, a barrel of ibuprofen in my purse.   We are battered...we are bruised...we are mountain warriors.

We started off small, taking a short hike to the neighboring village of Bhagsu, to sit at the base of a waterfall and play with baby goats.  Then, our next feat, with the help of Heather from Maine, was a hike 9km up the Dhauladhar mountain range, to a spot called Triund.  Missy and I decided to spend the night on the top of the mountain (because we are mountain warriors), and we had a ball!  We quickly made friends with the people sharing our bonfire, who happened to be four Tibetan locals, around our age, who were having a reunion.  We shared stories from being raised in different cultures, we shared some laughs, we shared some wine and rum (to keep warm was their excuse for having it), and we played them some famous American campfire tunes from our ipods.  We returned to the village the next morning feeling like we really conquered the mountain.  Well...we didn't.  After dining one evening with Heather from Maine, we quickly learned that if you want to see the "real Himalayan Mountains", then you have to hike about seven hours past where we had camped.  That's seven more hours UP.  A challenge had been issued...and we accepted it.  

Two days later, we found ourselves hiking back up the same route, but this time with more supplies and a lot more motivation.  Also, we had Heather from Maine with us for the entire trek who encouraged us to camp about two hours past Triund, at a point called Snowline.  It is here where we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets of my life.  Truly miraculous.  The following morning, we woke at 5am, scarfed down some porridge and chai, and went off in search of the "real mountains", with Heather from Maine leading the way.  Please keep in mind that Heather from Maine is well versed in mountaineering and that Missy and I would have never accomplished this trek on our own.  

To make a long story short, we hiked for five hours before the clouds started rolling in behind us.  Missy and I made an executive decision to "take one for the team" and let Heather from Maine continue on up to the top of the mountain, while Missy and I had to throw in the towel.  It was not an easy decision, but, I mean, we still had eight hours of hiking to do back down to McLeod Ganj and we were already whining.  So although we did not get to see "the real mountains", we did see some beautiful ranges and get rid of some cellulite.  It's a win win.  The way down was an emotional time.  Missy was suffering from altitude sickness, my arthritic knees were acting up, and we really wanted a pizza.  Literally with one hour left on the downward trek, I stupidly missed a step, resulting in a badly twisted ankle.  I spent a few minutes cursing my jesus sandals for failing me, but put a smile on my face and limped down the mountain.  

I know I am sarcastic in this post, but I am extremely proud of our status as mountain warriors.  Nepal will have to wait, but we will be ready for it.  One day.

Tomorrow we are off to Shimla to relax and get massages.  Don't judge us.

For amazing pictures, see Missy's blog: http://heremethere.wordpress.com.