McLeod Ganj, HP

Above, a view of McLeod Ganj.
The Tsuglakhang, the main temple of HH the Dalai Lama

It is quiet now in McLeod Ganj, after the celebration of the birthdays of both HH Dalai Lama and HH Karmapa within a week of each other. I have moved out of the main town, and into a small mountain village called Bhagsunag. It is only a short walk into McLeod, but where I stay I

am above the roads, the cars, the people. It is a twenty minute climb with your pack up the

pebble-strewn footpath, north from the small road that runs into Lower Bhagsu. Quiet and rainy.

The monsoon has started in Himachal Pradesh. The rain descends in torrents, and often quite unexpectedly. There is a lull, and a cloud settles in the town. If the windows and doors are open in the cafes, the clouds will pour through them, like smoke, damp and fresh. Sometimes it will clear for an hour, or three, and I try to dash up the mountainside to catch a proper view of the Kangra Valley, of snowy Triund, of the waterfalls and shale cliffs that surround the valley. It is a strange thing, in Dharamsala just as Darjeeling, to be in the midst of such raw natural beauty, and to be unable to access it because of the mist and rain. Such is the nature of traveling in hill stations, I suppose.

It is a wonderful thing, to be back in a Tibetan-speaking area. Here, one needs to go out to the outlying villages to find India once again. I have been invited by an Indian masseuse to visit her home this weekend, about 15km outside of McLeod. Back to India.