Day 77: November 20. Clean Air. But really this time.

We woke up to find ourselves in the foothills of the Himalayas. At night the hills were sparkling with lights but this morning they were caked in mist and fog. Apparently this was the first really cold day of the season. At hearing this Alicia got excited and Karla sighed longingly for summer again.

After a superb breakfast, we (mostly Karla) fiddled around the room as it started to sleet outside and heard it patter onto the tin roofs and tall pine trees. It just couldn't be more different here than from Rajasthan. Although we are just at the very base of the mountain range (at about 1700m), you can just feel the force of the great mountains beyond the highest visible ridges.

We began the day by, surprise, taking a short walk up into the "hills" in search of a good view and some peace and quiet. The hike up to Dharmakot was pretty great. First, it had stopped sleeting. Second, we got to see winterized baboons closer up than ever before (they have alien eyes as it turns out) and even were followed by two very adorable and healthy doggies. At the point where we had a stunning view of the valley and town below, we decided it was time for an official full body stretch. It was well overdue and felt amazing in the crisp fall like weather after a warming walk up.

On our way down we wandered down a few more roads. Reaching a cottage rent-by-month complex, we met a German couple having just arrived a few days before. They were going to be there for five months! And starting in the fall no less. This started a discussion between the two of us on the walk down about the mental and physical trials of backpacking and how different it would be to do as the German couple was doing. Although Alicia is enchanted with the idea of traveling, the thought of backpacking is slightly unnerving at times. On the otherhand, for Karla, the idea of backpacking and the mobility it allows is much less daunting than settling down permanently/semi permanently. And here we are, on a whirlwind of a trip. Its amazing how people adapt and get better at doing so.

As promised in the guidebook, there were wall to wall shops lining the streets in the hippie-Tibetan-Indian and Chinese (just food wise though) town of McLeod Ganj. We browsed, but we were in need of a snack break before long. After eating wonderful Tibetan soup (makes sense in the cold climate) and chatting with an Israeli girl our age who sat at our table, we headed down the hill to learn more about Tibet and its culture/religion. On the way to the Tibetan Tsuglagkhang Complex we had to force ourselves to stop peering into shops and comparing colors and prices. We were just so good at it but here it seemed no one hassles you!!!! I hope we don't get out of practice...

The Dalai Lama had apparently arrived in the morning from being in Japan for surgery. He also had recently released a statement that he does not forsee any sort of peaceful independence from China in his lifetime. It's an interesting and trying time that we have stumbled into. Going to the museum in the complex really educated us a lot on the history of the Tibetan struggle for peace and independence. It was very saddening and intense to see pictures and read about people's stories, but it such a great experience! We even had time for an hour long documentary upstairs in the museum. Called 'Red Flag Over Tibet', it was made in 1994 by an American reporter and aired on Frontline news.

Within the complex is also his Holiness' official residence. While in the past he has granted audience to foreigners, lately he's been pretty busy with dealing with spiritual and governmental matters and one can only see him maybe driving by in his car or at a public meeting or press conference. When we saw Scott later in the day, he told us that we saw him arrive. How cool!

The Tsuglagkhang Temple in the complex was our first up close and personal Buddhist experience. It was built in the spiritual likeness to the Jokhang Temple in Tibet, which was destroyed in the 80s during the "Chinese revolution." It was especially beautiful when we arrived as there were monks inside reciting their prayers. We wandered around a bit and even tried out spinning the mandalas in a clockwise direction.

After breezing through some more shops for warm shawls on the walk back to town above, we staked out some Indian food (harder than you think to find) in a cozy narrow restaurant with fun colored lamps and chill music (including 'Sweet Melissa'). On the walk home we finally noticed that there weren't many cows wandering the streets, which we think may be due to the fact that there is so much green (!) to be eaten here off of the roads. The one cow that we did see had vegetable greens on its back that someone had (cruely) put there. After we figured it wasn't so cruel because another cow would eat them off of it. Cows are hilarious.

After this, it was still early but definitely time for bed. Night!
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