Sunrise in the Himalayas

Dear All,

We made it to the Himalaya! We are currently in Mcleodganj, the residence of the Dalai Lama and many Tibetan refugees. But before we tell you about this place Amritsar deserves a little page space. I can't lie, most of our time was spent lounging around eating food, drinking beer and sleeping. The Grand Hotel wasn't really that grand but it did have a beautiful garden out the back that was tropical and quiet, a must in a city, and Kingfisher on tap. We met two fellow travellers there Pete and Caf, who have a brilliantly named website: www.curryhunt.com. They've been travelling on motorbikes and made it to the Karakorum Highway in Pakistan. Unfortunatley Caf was hit by an arrogant car driver and has an arm fracture to show for it. Anyhow, we all had a good laugh together and hope to see them in Goa.

The main tourist attraction is the Golden Temple - the holy HQ of the Sikh religion. The guide recommends you see it at different times of the day, which we duly did. After removing our shoes and washing our feet we first entered the temple during the day. We managed to go during a large festival that meant the place was packed. Travellers can stay for free for three days at the temple and the communal kitchen dishes out free food all day.

When we returned at night time two days later it was no where near as busy and looked serene sat in the water with the gold shining and the blue lights lighting the base of the temple. We decided to go in to the temple and realised that we had entered during a service, but the Sikhs were welcoming as always and we went in, experiencing a beautiful service and looking over the three floors of the beautiful temple.

We saw a fair amount of Amritsar, the most significant after the temple being Jalinwalia Bagh - Bagh means garden. This is the place where the British opened fire on protesters in 1919 without warning. I can't remember the numbers they killed, but seeing the number of bullet holes in the wall, you realised how many rounds had been indiscriminately fired into the unsuspecting crowd. Some say that this was the beginning of the end of the Raj.

The other purpose in Amritsar was to clean up the van and get the washing done. We managed to do many of these menial tasks as well and were ready to head for the mountains.

Mcleodganj, as you can imagine being the home of the Dalai Lama, attracts many tourists/hippies.. However it doesn't feel overrun and we were attracted by its location and the many courses on offer here. We have both been to our first course this morning in Tibetan food - we made momos - Tibetan dumplings. They were pretty delicious! Tomorrow morning we are returning for our lesson in Tibetan soup.

We are staying in the van here and pay 300rupees a day to park at the highest forest point in the town. The funny thing is we have monkeys for neighbours. They are grey and silver and are great to watch. You can't really make any contact or feed them as they are unpredictable. We are enjoying all the new animals and wildlife around us. This morning I woke up early and went out to see the sunrise over the mountains. It was beautiful. To top it off you see hawks and other birds of prey circling around in front of you. We've seen bright green parrots flying around too.

We've gradually got used to seeing cows just mooching about. This morning as Mark was sat out haiving a coffee he heard a gentle snoring. Realising that i was already up (!) he looked about for whom it was. There was a little calf just snuggled up in the grass near by - still sleeping and snoring away!

We're going to spend another couples of days here - Mark has a cold and a Tibetan Monk has decided that he will treat Mark with a selection of herbs, so we'll stay until he is well. We're going to head from here to Manali. From there, weather permitting, we can go up further into the Himalaya and drive the scenic route to Shimla, an old British Hill Station. We may indulge in a little paragliding and trekking along the way!

Anyway, a cup of hot sweet chai beckons, so I'm away back to my hectic life!!

Lots of love, Jo and Mark xx

PS. We have a new Indian mobile that should be cheap to text and if you're feeling really extravagant, call! We're now five and a half hours ahead if you're in the UK.

Number 0091 (0) 9780647569