On the road to Simla, and other exciting fun

Ok, so I'm now sitting in an internet cafe in McLeod Ganj, whilst Mike gets his hair cut down the road. We are getting a bus to Simla (9 hours!) at half nine this evening (time now = 5.20pm). This is really our first bit of independent travelling, so it's all very exciting. However, as always, I should really pick up from the end of my last post.

So, on Thursday we decided on Simla for our holiday, and we booked a room at the YMCA (stupidly cheap, Rs1200 for a double for three nights) and organised everything as necessary. We were told by the nurse at Tashi Jong (a very friendly Tibetan lady called, I think, Ani Dawa) that there's a Summer Picnic (yes, Summer) on Sept 12th, however we learnt today that it has been cancelled cue to the death of a high lama last month. Alas. Lekshey in the office at Tashi Jong said we could take off and be back at TJ for classes either on Wed or Thurs, which gives us plenty of time to enjoy Simla. In the morning on Thursday, we didn't do much: Mike went to Paprola and I had lunch with the monks (momo and a stew-like stuff). I chatted with one of the monks we know (called Dechen), who told me the puja was four days long. Eventually we sorted out the actual length of our holiday from the three times we were told (3 days, 4 days and 7 days).

Later on in the day, I played Mike at snooker (and got beaten - three times!). We then had a visit from two of the monks from the Institute who had good English and were really friendly (like everyone in TJ it seems!). They told us that they had had to fake an illness to be allowed to come and see us (our room being in the dispensary)! Apparently if their teachers were to find out, they could get fined up to about Rs15. The monks in the Institute (who are all over 25 or so) are also banned from playing football, snooker and cricket. To get round this, they go to a football pitch a few kilometres away to play in secret! Mike dragged me off to the tourist restaurant again that night, which I didn't mind too much, and I had a decent enough meal (lots of bones in the chicken mind). The taxi back to TJ (driven by the brother of the guy who owns the restaurant) was a rip-off, but we didn't feel up to walking back that night.

Friday, today, I think was when we did most of the booking for our holiday (not yesterday). This morning I went to tea at 9am, and was given a bit of chapatti (bread) by a monk to go with my sweet tea. I chatted for a bit with some of the more middle-aged monks, who are - you guessed it - really nice! The monk in charge of buying all the food for our meals asked if we would teach him English - I think it's only fair that I agreed!

Later on, two bus loads of what I thought were Japanese tourists (turned out to be from Singapor) turned up at the monastery. It's odd, but good, feeling no to be a tourist (not really anyway) when I'm at Tashi Jong (unlike now in McLeod Ganj). I also watched the monks doing their prayers which was very interesting - they sit in a large circle on low seats and chant various Buddhist prayers, to the bakcground music of trumpet-like instruments and drums.

Mike bought a bag for our trip to Paprola (I got all my stuff in my little 15litre bag), which broke about an hour or two ago. We arrived in McLeod Ganj after a fairly quick (less than two hours) taxi ride, and bought our bus tickets. We ate (after finding our first choice was shut) at Jimmy's Italian Restaurant. It was nice enough, though the pizza did remind me somewhat of a Tesco pizza. It was fine, and fairly cheap. It was a change to have something Western again (pizza and coke).

In other news, Pavarotti is dead! It's the end of an era, alas. I suspect his death wasn't totally unrelated to the fact he was so fat. I also hear that Kate McCann is officially a suspect in the Madeleine McCann case - and about time too, if not for abduction, she should at least be done for child neglect and abuse.

Mike has just turned up with his hair cut. It looks different.

Anyway, that's about it for now, but I will have more to say about Simla in a few days time. Bye for now!