Dharamsala, Day Two

Had a good sleep last night, I was in bed before 10:00 and didn't get up until 7:00. I must have needed the sleep. We ate an early dinner in the Tibet Hotel. The place looks like a typical dive but the food is very good. And as one Tibetan friend says "the chances are very good that you won't be sick from eating here." It is very cool at night. You definitely have to be dressed well. You can't sit outside in the open air cafes too long. The hotel has hot water and it is nice to bathe normally as opposed to pouring cold water over your head or luke warm at best. At Deer Park we didn't always have luke warm water. From Bir to Dharamsala it is only about 50 kilometers but because the roads are so narrow and windy, often single lane with single lane bridges, it takes over two hours to travel the distance. Strange westerners and wanna-be hippies fill the hill station of Dharamsala. Many of them dress like Indians or quasi-sadhus and yogis. I have meeting this morning and then another in the afternoon, otherwise my day is pretty well open. I will go and see the main temple of Dharamsala and a smaller temple for Kalachakra next door.

The mountains behind the hill station rise up sharply and are covered with snow from the big storm that came through last wednesday. The views of the valley a thousand feet below are very nice but I don't think I could find enough to do here in Dharamsala to spend more than a couple of days. The streets are incredibly narrow and aside from clothing and some books, most if not all the shops only sell junk - junk art, junk paintings, Tibetan singing bowls, and more junk. Many of the so-called Tibetan paintings are imported from Kathmandu and painted by Nepalese tourist artists. The open fields of Bir and the Dun Valley, pine forests and meadows, are more to my liking.