Dharmasala

We thought that we might write last night as we missed the film about prisoners/refugees from Tibet as we were waiting for a fabulous freshly cooked Indian dinner. Enjoyed the dinner and chatting with a couple of Israeli girls -lots of Israelis travelling here after they complete their army service. So as we were walking up the dark narrow street with l8-24 inch deep gutters of dirty water, garbage, etc. Clive misplaced a foot and fell down. Not harm done - had to clean up some though. ....it was literally like 'shit' got in the way of our destination.
Had a super time in Dharamsala - when we first arrived it seemed a bit overwhelming -but that changed fairly quickly. This place is full of Tibetans refugees. The Dalai Lama lives here and the Tibetan government in exile. As well there are orphanages and lots of monks and Buddhist teaching going onhere. It is quiteWestern here -lots of Westerners come to learn and volunteer in the Tibetan community. We even had coffee made with an Italian espresso maker and homemade fresh pasta and pizzas. The Tibetan food was kind of stodgy and the Indian food great. So much available here and a slow pace. From breakfast to coffee, walks in the countryside and then another tea up the mountain. Such a friendly place and no pressure here to buy or be hassled. I must tell you about one of oour pizzas out on a patio watching the setting sun and chatting with a German married to a Tibetan who translates Tibetan books and studies the culture (as well as theauthor of the German guide book on Tibet)...oh yes the pizza - we had the Fiorentino which had walnuts placed around it, spinach, basil, wedges of hard-boiled eggs decorating each slice. We try them all and enjoy the food sooo much.
When we walk, we do a lot of straight up and down and we see fields, homes, people cultivating the land, rock paths. In fact, we watched a team of four men work together and break great huge rocks with a sledge hammer and big piton like nails. Unbelieveable how much hand labour there is. They were building a retaining wall and then they will build a room orhouse of some description. ....we have seen so much manual labour on the roads as well. From making asphalt with a fire and tar and rocks, to breaking rocks with hammers, carrying dirt in baskets on their heads and so on. So slow but they do get there.

Today it was the public bus for us - another experience -the only bus to Amritsar each day leaving at the wonderful hour of 5am. Arrived early this afternoon leaving the cool of the mountains and interesting terrain behind. Now we are apparently in the breadbasket of India-lots of farms and a reasonably rich state -lots of the school kids that I taught in Calgary came from this area. It is pretty warm here.
We had a wonderful lunch and met some Sikhs (we are near the Golden Temple which it their equivalent of Mecca or the Vatican). It was a wonderful experience to see the temple -going in with covered heads and bare washed feet - a large peaceful awesome sight with a lot of colorful people about -turbans of everycolorin the rainbow and saris of every hue.

Anyways, till the next update ta da and love to all