• There and back again

    There and back again

    Well I'm well and truly back home.  In fact, I've been back for over 2 years.  I recently updated the underlying technology of this blog and gave it a sweet redesign so I thought I'd write this post so sum up the last bit of my trip.

    So, it was a fairly straight forward train journey up to Amritsar.  Got nice digs, stayed for a day or 2 (can't quite remember) managing to take in the beautiful Golden Temple then hot footed it to the bus station all set to catch a ride to Dharamsala.  The bus journey was arduous due to bad traffic about half an hour away from our final destination but we got there in the end. On arrival I quickly found someone to share a taxi up to Mcleod Gange with and got a room.  I then proceeded to be ill for the next 3 days.  I seem to remember that by this point I'd really got quite used to being ill a lot and it didn't cripple me as much as it might have done 4 or 5 months earlier. 

    After spending a few days right in the centre of Mcleod Gange I made the enlightened move to Bagsu. Here I spent what might be the best 2 weeks of my entire trip. Each day I spent 3 hours doing Yoga with Ohmka on the roof top of the guest house I was staying in. I found fantastic places to eat and enjoyed strolling round hills. I was very settled here, I seemed to need less of everything.  I guess it was the yoga.

    I befriended a couple of Tibetan refugees; Gendan and Lobsang. They showed me some sights including Norbulingka where I got to see and touch, amongst many other things, the Dalai Lama's toilet, lovely. One afternoon, with Gendan and Lobsang, I went to a local makeshift cinema to see the awe inspiring Baraka. Amazing to see such a beautiful film in such a wonderful place. When we emerged from the cinema we found very broody skies and it looked like it was going to throw it down so I started to hot foot it back to Bagsu. As I sped up the road the heavens opened and the thunder and lightening commenced. My first Himalayan thunder storm is something I'll never forget. Sat on my balcony watching the forks strike the ground in the vast landscape of the foothills was really quite breathtaking.

    While in Dharamsala I also, for the first time in years, spent easter sunday morning in a church. It was the Church of John the Baptist just below the village of Mcleod Gange. It was quite an interesting service.  The priest took the opportunity to spread the story and the cause of his church rather than preach the gospels. It seems he had found the church in a somewhat abandoned state and had spent lots of time and effort reclaiming the building from the undergrowth.

    After that it was time to leave. I caught a bus all the way back to Delhi where I had a couple of days to shop and prepare myself for re-entry into north of England life.

    What a trip it was and I hope it has broadened my world in all the ways travel can do. Back to India one day? We'll see ;)