When we left Shimla last friday morning we very soon got escorted by a beautiful mountain scenery for the next 9hrs. Snowcovered mountains of the Himalaya that were always becoming bigger the closer we got to Dharamsala. The trip itself however was kind of thrilling since our busdriver turned out to be a kind of a helldriver. Red-turbaned & full-bearded (obviously a Sikh) he tried to beat the track record Shimla-Dharamsala. Constantly using the horn but never using the brakes he felt like being the king of the winding roads up to Dharamsala. However for us being the passengers it felt like an all-day-long rollercoaster ride! Even two cows got struck by us. (Cows are not holy for Sikhs!) But finally we arrived safely in Dharamsala by 5pm. At that time Clara was about to leave Delhi with the night-bus to meet us next morning in Dharamsala. When she arrived next morning 7am we had together breakfast and visited the residence of the Dalai Lama as well as the attached temple. Also we got to see the the Tibetan Museum nearby. Here the history of Tibet was on display but the main focus was put on the occupation of Tibet by the Chinese and the follwoing escape of the tibetan people. An impressive exhibition leaving one dumbfounded for a while afterwards... So it was the right time for us to have a little walk to Upper-Dharamsala which is a more laid-back district of the city situated in a marvellous forest with a nice waterfall and a stunning view up to the mountains. Here we laid down for a while and enjoyed very much the beautiful scenery. As the day's end was coming closer we were heading for a common dinner since afterwards Clara had to catch her bus back to Delhi on the same night. And we found a nice cafe attached to a small monastery where monks use to live while they're here in Dharamsala. We had delicous momos (typicall tibetan food) and tea. ...and then it was time to say good-bye to Clara and to thank her for her great endless hospitality. In the evening that day as well as yesterday Karsten & me did not much but reading our books (I got my book "Holy Cow!" finshed now) & walking around. As for today we've just returned from our one-day-trek up to Triund a place close to heaven and the snowline. It was a 9kms tour up which took us more than 3hrs - but what we regained was just as breathtaking as our efforts that we've made to get up there. We enjoyed an amazing view over Dharamsala, snow-covered mountains that appeared to be within reach & a small lunch! Tomorrw we are leaving Dharamsala where we had much fun, adventures, great food & where we could see how such different people like tibetan in exile, pilgrims looking for enlightenment in buddhism, bagpackers looking for a thrill in the mountains, people from Kashmir selling handicraft & monks are living together in such a peaceful atmosphere ... and where pot is in the air everywhere :o). The next leg on our tour will be Amritsar. So stay tuned. PS: Yesterday I've been finally able to backup my pics on CD so I'm trying to upload some of them hereafter.
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