Mcleod Ganj

With a flight to London in 10 days time we decided to head to the hills – well the Himalaya’s... Hidden away in the north of India is a quaint little town called Mcleod Ganj (MG). Now as you may recall all towns in India have a claim to fame and MG is of course no different however its claim is truly impressive - it is home to his holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Government in exile. The people of Tibet have made the town their headquarters as they fight for independence from big bad China. Photo below is of MG on a good day.



The demographics of MG are about 50% Indian and 50% Tibetan but there is a big difference, the Tibetans are so much friendlier and generally nicer than most of the Indians we have encountered! With no country you couldn’t really blame them if they were surly and cussed at you but instead they smile and give you a fair price on their wares.

The town’s at altitude and as a result is the coldest place we’ve visited. Not only did we have to wear shoes but we also had to invest in some rather snazzy looking blankets that we used as shawls. Headbands proclaiming ‘Free Tibet’ were of course mandatory for all fashion conscious travellers such as us.


MG has an abundance of training courses on offer. During your stay you can learn yoga, meditation, massage, jewellery making, wood carving and cooking. We decided to do a massage and acupressure course under the tutelage of our master Dr. Dolma. Photo below is of the young grasshopper Daniel San and Mr Miyagi - sorry, Dr. Dolma.

There are lots of walks and treks available and the scenery is really very beautiful. As we were out of season and ill equipped for anything too adventurous we stuck to self guided treks. We visited a popular waterfall as well as the sacred Dal Lake.


With our departure date quickly creeping up on us it was time to make our way back to every tourist’s favourite destination – Delhi. An over-priced overnight bus is practically the only option available for tourists so we booked seats and settled in for what would be a sleepless night. With zigzagging roads in need of repair and a driver auditioning for a spot as a race driver we did well to make it to Delhi in one piece where we set about making our final departure arrangements.

Before heading for the airport we decided to take the locals up on one of the shaves that we’d grown fond of. As if India could sense we were about to leave her she had one last attempt at extorting money from us. What was supposed to be a $0.80 NZD shave turned into a ridiculously expensive shave, facial and head massage combo. Near the end of our tethers terse words were spoken and later shouted as we settled the dispute and escaped to the international departure lounge.

Random Fact: The Dalai Lama has a big following. Richard Gere, Steven Segal and Sharon Stone are just some of the celebrities who are crazy about the Dalai Lama.

Highlights:
- Being in a cool climate
- Tibetan people and Tibetan cuisine – a welcome change
- Thunder and sheet lightning storms and power outages sending you back to the stone age
- Getting our strength back. Regular amounts of trekking and mutton started us on the road to recovery and gave us a lot more energy than we’d previously been having

Lessons Learned:
- Giving things away is ridiculously easy in India, we’d successfully done so before we’d left our hotel room!
- It’s going to take a truck load of ‘Free Tibet’ head bands to actually free Tibet...
- The Tibetans are more onto it than the Indians and won’t lower their prices (we suspect price fixing) and undercut each other - much to our chagrin
- A bit of baksheesh in the hand of the right walla gets results