Bumping into the Dalai Lama
This was one of those great unplanned moments of our year travelling: we managed to turn up in McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama, in exactly the week when he was giving a series of talks, which meant that we were able to go along and see him speak.
The bus trip to McLeod Ganj was along some fantastic winding roads from Dalhousie. The bus actually went to Dharamsala, at the bottom of the hill, and we got a taxi up the steep streets to McLeod Ganj at the top - quite a fun ride all in all.
We spent our time in McLeod Ganj doing very little; chatting to other travellers and eating and drinking, plus wandering the town looking in all the traveller shops. It's a very laid back place, but very much a traveller hang-out, so has lots of little cafes and restaurants etc, so it's very relaxing.
The highlight of our time there was attending one of the Dalai Lama's talks. For this we needed a small radio, so that we could tune into the English translation of his words, which was broadcast from the temple. We managed to aquire one very cheaply. The other thing we needed was some sort of registration document, which we kept trying to get from the office to which we'd been directed, but it was always closed, or staffed by the rudest man ever. In the end I think we must have managed to get in without one, although I can't remember. It took us about three days to actually get into the temple, so it's lucky that the talks were going on for a week.
We sat outside the temple, as the places inside were allocated by ticket, which we didn't have. We got the see the Dalai Lama arrive and leave, but could see him during the speech. The subject of the talk was alternative interpretations of a Buddhist text, which was mostly way over my head, but it was still and enjoyable experience.
We found that it was a great place to hang out, and meet other travellers. It was one of the reasons that we stayed longer in McLeod Ganj than we had originally intended. The restaurant has a lovely feel to it, as it is small and there are candles on the tables.
They have a good range of dishes on the menu. We particularly liked the chana masala, which we had to order every time we went!
