20.08.2008 to 05.09.2008
We spent the first few days in Mc Leod Ganj resting, watching TV and eating good western food! We still needed to recover from all the travelling we had done... six days on the road in a span of 20 days was a bit too much. Eventually we decided to attend some courses. Janet finally did her Reiki, first and second degree, which she had been planning on doing since Nepal, and Yakof did a beginners Hindi course. Both of us enjoyed what we did thoroughly. Janet's teacher, Shivadas, has been practicing Reiki for a lot of years and started yoga from the age of four. Yakof's teacher, Sunil, was a yogi too, but thought Hindi as well. On one evening Shivadas invited us to join him for watching a movie. We ended up watching a short amateur film on Goa and one on Kailash mountain. We liked the one of Goa most.
Mc Leod Ganj is also referred to as "Little Tibet" because there is a high concnetration of Tibetan refugees living here. The most important Buddhist site in the town is Tsuglagkhang or Tsuglag Khang, the Dalai Lama's temple. It has three magnificent statues, of Shakyamuni, Avalokiteśvara, and a statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche). That is the only sightseeing we did during our stay here.
We ended up staying sixteen days here as we really enjoyed everything about the place... our room, the food, the serenity and the people. The only thing which was too much, in our opinion, were the constant strikes and protests done by the tibetans... some of them did not serve any particular purpose.
Once we had both finished our respective course we decided to book an Indian cooking course at a restaurant call The Taste of India. Though we expected to do some practice during the class, which was not the case, we enjoyed these classes and learnt how to prepare quite a number of dishes. Our teacher, Nisha, is a really lovely lady.
On our last day we went for a short walk towards Bhagsu. Though the place is really nice and peacful we still preferred Mc Leod Ganj as it is more central. Our stay in Mc Leod Ganj came to an end. To be honest we were not very enthusiastic about getting on the road again but we had to make a move.
Our next destination... Amritsar. 
We set off from Manali at 7 oclock in the evening... the bus ride was quite uneventful and we arrived at our destination at 05:30 in the morning. We were both half asleep, Yakof still sick, and had no idea where to go given the early hour. We ended up following an indian guy who told us he had rooms for only Rs200. Usually we do not give in to these promises as most of the times they lead to rooms which are far from worth it, but we were too tired to do otherwise. It took us long to reach the guesthouse but the room was very good... nice size, bathroom inside and TV!!... and the bed was comfortable not the usual wooden beds we had to get used to here in India!!! We collapsed in bed and slept for a straight five hours before we woke up and decided to head to the centre for some food. Suddenly Janet realised that she had left her camera on the bus and it was panick... we made our way up the hill in no time, nearly fainting with the exersion!!! We asked the police, the travel agents, the people on the street until at last we found the bus and shot in it. We did not find the camera where we had left it and when we asked the conductors their first answer was negative. After mentioning the camera appeared from underneath a bench and was to us. One of the boys asked us for Rs100 in exchange for the camera... you can imagine Yakof's reaction to that! He grabbed the camera and stormed out.
We spent the first few days in Mc Leod Ganj resting, watching TV and eating good western food! We still needed to recover from all the travelling we had done... six days on the road in a span of 20 days was a bit too much. Eventually we decided to attend some courses. Janet finally did her Reiki, first and second degree, which she had been planning on doing since Nepal, and Yakof did a beginners Hindi course. Both of us enjoyed what we did thoroughly. Janet's teacher, Shivadas, has been practicing Reiki for a lot of years and started yoga from the age of four. Yakof's teacher, Sunil, was a yogi too, but thought Hindi as well. On one evening Shivadas invited us to join him for watching a movie. We ended up watching a short amateur film on Goa and one on Kailash mountain. We liked the one of Goa most.
Mc Leod Ganj is also referred to as "Little Tibet" because there is a high concnetration of Tibetan refugees living here. The most important Buddhist site in the town is Tsuglagkhang or Tsuglag Khang, the Dalai Lama's temple. It has three magnificent statues, of Shakyamuni, Avalokiteśvara, and a statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche). That is the only sightseeing we did during our stay here.
We ended up staying sixteen days here as we really enjoyed everything about the place... our room, the food, the serenity and the people. The only thing which was too much, in our opinion, were the constant strikes and protests done by the tibetans... some of them did not serve any particular purpose.
Once we had both finished our respective course we decided to book an Indian cooking course at a restaurant call The Taste of India. Though we expected to do some practice during the class, which was not the case, we enjoyed these classes and learnt how to prepare quite a number of dishes. Our teacher, Nisha, is a really lovely lady.
On our last day we went for a short walk towards Bhagsu. Though the place is really nice and peacful we still preferred Mc Leod Ganj as it is more central. Our stay in Mc Leod Ganj came to an end. To be honest we were not very enthusiastic about getting on the road again but we had to make a move.
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