Mcleod Ganj and Dharamsala - Home to the Tibetan government in exile

As mentioned before, McLeod Ganj near Dharamsala is where His Holiness the Dalai Lama lives. Unfortunately, he was not there when we were around as he was in the States getting his Congressional Gold Medal of Honour. We booked an overnight bus from Manali - this time we were going to get something more like a local bus as opposed to a semi sleeper. It was a shorter journey which may sound ok, but it meant that we would get to McLeod Ganj at around five in the morning which poses its own issues. This was the only bus to make the journey so we had no choice.
After what can only be described as a horrid overnight trip the bus broke down a few K’s away from our intended hotel. We managed to pay through the nose for a taxi the rest of the way, wake up a guy asleep in the hotel foyer and got booked in along with a couple of girls we had met on the bus. We made it into bed and crashed out.
As we were on a time limit, we could only stay for a couple of nights. It was a pleasant place on the side of a mountain with more shops and a heavy Tibetan influence. We decided to walk everywhere (all in preparation for our trek in Nepal of course) and went up and down the hills several times. We managed a visit to the very moving Tibetan Museum.

It was a real eye opener for me and even though Dipi had been to Tibet previously she felt that she learnt a lot more from this visit than she did while she was in Tibet itself. The museum told the story of how the Chinese invaded Tibet during the “Cultural Revolution” and the repercussions on the Tibetan people. It was sad to see and heartbreaking to know it is still going on today. We signed our petition postcards to FREE TIBET and sent them off.

As we were around in the Dharamsala area on the day His Holiness the Dalai Lama received the Medal (apparently the highest humanitarian award that can be given) in the US of A, we tried to join in the celebrations. Due to lack of correct information we managed to miss the morning ceremony and most of the evening celebrations but did catch his live transmission and the fireworks.