Dharamsala, India

After the 38C+ temperatures we were experiencing, we just had to head north and get some respite in the Indian Himalayas. We are in the McLeod Ganj area of Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader in exile. We have had about 6 days here all together and have been relaxing a bit, doing some reading and Justin has completed a course in Reiki. Justin's Reiki teacher, Amit, offered to let us join him on his day off to a hike into the mountains where he would give Justin his initiation and first Reiki class. We hiked 4-5 hours up into the mountains to a place called Triund, where there are beautiful views over the lowland valleys and the higher alpine areas of rock, snow and ice. During the initiation there was a thunderstorm happening over the big mountains across the valley which added to the intensity of the experience. After the taking the first steps into the practice of Reiki we spent some time up on the mountain chatting and eating some lunch that we took up with us. By the time we began our decent back to McLeod it was already 6pm, so the last hour and a half of walking down through the forest was lit only by our flashlights, which we fortunately had thought to bring with us. Hiking with the flashlights was fun but we were on guard for the dozen or so monkeys we passed on the walk up, no sign of them on the way down though so I guess they were sleeping, good news for Steff who was carrying 4 or 5 bananas with her.

During our time here in Dharamsala, we were very lucky to have the Dalai Lama in town. He is often away touring the world giving spiritual talks or meeting with world leaders. We wern't able to get an official pass to see him, but we did manage to talk our way into one of his teaching sessions and Justin did catch a glimpse of him. There were thousands of Tibetan monks and a few Westerns all listening to his every word. We on the other hand do not understand Tibetan so we left no spritually wiser, but it was certainly lovely to have been in the Dalai Lamas presence in his home with so many devotees.

So, not much else to report on our time here, it is a beautiful part of India, but feels a lot less Indian than other places we've been, probably because the majority of the population here is actually Tibetan, Steff keeps feeling like we are back in Nepal with all the Tibetans and mountains around. It has been nice to relax a bit in the cooler temperatures too. We have had a great hotel room and balcony overlooking the mountains, its been a good spot for spending time reading and watching a few films on the laptop. I suppose it is not so surprising that we have been taking it a bit easy though as we've both been feeling a bit ill over the last few days, we have narrowed the problem down to... India. Yes, we are definitely back in India, our minds love it and our stomachs hate it, oh well what can you do??? Go to another country I suppose... Which is exactly what we will be doing in five days time. Lots of love to all our family and friends.