North India Tour Part Three-Dharamshala

Of all of our destinations throughout my whole month on tour, Dharamshala was my favorite by a long shot. It could have been that we did see snow in December, or it might have been the welcoming community that we encountered throughout our stay.

Right out of the shoots (or in this case train), our adventures began with an intense rainstorm, and Morie jumping off the train as it was leaving (she had everyone scared). Of course when we got out of the station our bus is nowhere in sight, and most of the students were not properly prepared for sour weather. Lucky for me my parents have attempted to teach me to be prepared for everything, and amazingly on that trip I followed their advice, and I had my raincoat, an extra coat, hat and gloves. After about an hour wait we see our bus for the first time, and at the same time a cringe for how small it is for 19 people. Upon further inspection we find that not only is the bus lacking the proper amount of seats, but over half of the seats are either broken or wet from the rain. Another hour later our group escort decides to rent us three cars to caravan us up.

The car ride up was a winding one, but was so beautiful it was hard to not follow every curve with your eyes. Shortly after crowding in, packing our luggage in and out (lucky for me mine fit in the car), and driving a ways we stopped to eat a hot breakfast. One thing I should mention about Dharamshala is that compared to the temperature of Gujarat, Dharamshala was very cold for us even if it was only about 40 F (the lowest temp I’ve see in Bharuch has been 76 F, and everyone is wearing hats and sweaters). After our long drive of catching glimpses of the snow covered Himalayas, rivers, waterfalls, lots of monkeys, fields, and a new type of forest I had never seen before we finally reached Dharamshala.

Dharamshala is really famous for the residence of Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, and a large Tibetan population, and in our less than 24 hour stay there we were able to see THE Buddhist temple, and a couple others as well. Along with our Buddhist temple viewing we walked up to a waterfall to really enjoy the rain, and the wonderful scenery, and then we saw a Hindu temple, and Catholic Church. Besides the major temples on the hike up to the waterfall you can look down and see small Hindu temples at the edges of cliffs looking down towards the valley. Kind of a dismal thought, but I told Mayara that if I died in India I wanted her to let my ashes go here. It was so fun to be there with everyone because you could see the joy in everyone’s eyes as they saw snow (some for the first time), and just enjoyed the cold. Everyone was just flushed with the excitement of being alive, together, and in India.

After our sightseeing adventures we went shopping, and met the community. The community in Dharamshala is different from any community I have encountered in India so far. Everyone, and I mean everyone greets you cheerfully on the street (even a cow mooed at me once), and the whole atmosphere is somewhat lighter. Also it is the cleanest town I have been to in India, and all the people I met there were really helpful too. In one shop I went into the family who owned the shop were eating their dinner there, just laughing and enjoying, and asking us if we needed any help if we looked undecided. Such a different atmosphere from the shouting and bargaining of where I live in India, and if you ask the price they give you a fairly direct and decent one, so much that you feel a little guilty if you bargain (I encountered several exceptions of course). After a late night of shopping, and a ton of fun enjoying everyone’s company we went to sleep with our heaters on high after a totally wonderful day.

The next morning several girls got up early to try and complete some last minute shopping before we had to go. Most of the shops didn’t open until 9:30 10:00 so we really missed the good shopping, but all good things must come to an end, and down the hill to the train station we left. On the way down the rain subsided, and actually became sunny, and a half an hour before our train came we arrived. For the 20 hour train ride I mainly slept, and the next day I said a sad farewell to everyone as we got off at Bharuch.