Whew!! Ahhhhhhhh! Dharamsala ....
A day late, I finally arrived, actually in MacLeod Ganj, the Tibetan town just above Dharamsala - but not without incident.
The "super-deluxe" "Volvo" A/c bus turned out to have quite a few tough miles on it.
But off we went at 8:30 ... only half an hour late. The latest Bollywood Blockbuster Movie blared out of the speakers, the air conditioner blasted away. The bus was only a third full - but half of the passengers wanted it that way, the other half wanted it off and there only seemed to be two settings. So off and on it went ... all night.
About 2:00 am we started backing out of a toll booth on the "Motorway" why ... I don't know. By the time I saw us go around the same roundabout three times I realized we were lost ... we went all over ... backing out of dead ends twice, until we found ourselves back on the main route. I finally fell asleep (the seats wern't too bad actually) only to be woken at 3:45 by a loud bang under my seat. A tire had blown. The inner of the drivers side dual wheel at the back.
He and the conductor went out and started trying to jack the vehicle up ... with a tiny hydraulic jack - except they didn't have a flashlight. I did, and held the flashlight for the hour or so it took to change the tire - an amazing operation really - it had obviously happened before.
As dawn came up, we arrived int the foothills of the Himalaya ... stunning. At times we had to back up for other vehicles to pass, the sheer drops a bit unerving .. and finally made it to Dharmasala. The taxi driver had never heard of the "Tara Guesthouse" I was looking for ... I was told by a nice Tibetan guy at the Tara cafe I was taken to that it has been converted to a nunnery ... but he helped my find another - "The Mountain View" - just perfect - fairly central, friendly and a perfect base until I can find my way around and rnet a room long term.
The setting of MacLeod Ganj is just spectacular. It's a bit touristed with backpackers, but has everything one might need. Here's a couple of pics from the net until I figure how to get my own ones up.
The "super-deluxe" "Volvo" A/c bus turned out to have quite a few tough miles on it.
But off we went at 8:30 ... only half an hour late. The latest Bollywood Blockbuster Movie blared out of the speakers, the air conditioner blasted away. The bus was only a third full - but half of the passengers wanted it that way, the other half wanted it off and there only seemed to be two settings. So off and on it went ... all night.
About 2:00 am we started backing out of a toll booth on the "Motorway" why ... I don't know. By the time I saw us go around the same roundabout three times I realized we were lost ... we went all over ... backing out of dead ends twice, until we found ourselves back on the main route. I finally fell asleep (the seats wern't too bad actually) only to be woken at 3:45 by a loud bang under my seat. A tire had blown. The inner of the drivers side dual wheel at the back.
He and the conductor went out and started trying to jack the vehicle up ... with a tiny hydraulic jack - except they didn't have a flashlight. I did, and held the flashlight for the hour or so it took to change the tire - an amazing operation really - it had obviously happened before.
As dawn came up, we arrived int the foothills of the Himalaya ... stunning. At times we had to back up for other vehicles to pass, the sheer drops a bit unerving .. and finally made it to Dharmasala. The taxi driver had never heard of the "Tara Guesthouse" I was looking for ... I was told by a nice Tibetan guy at the Tara cafe I was taken to that it has been converted to a nunnery ... but he helped my find another - "The Mountain View" - just perfect - fairly central, friendly and a perfect base until I can find my way around and rnet a room long term.
The setting of MacLeod Ganj is just spectacular. It's a bit touristed with backpackers, but has everything one might need. Here's a couple of pics from the net until I figure how to get my own ones up.
posted by Andrew Smith at 4:04 AM
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