Dharamshala, India (June 2022)

Day 1

Landing

Dharamsala is located in Himachal Pradesh, a state in Northern India that shares a border with China. It is part of the district of Kangra. A district is an administrative sub division of an Indian state, equivalent to a county in the United States. Each state is divided into multiple districts. I flew into the Kangra airport from Delhi. The airport is located in the village of Gaggal. Hence, it is sometimes also referred to as the Gaggal airport. I had a feeling of lightness the moment I stepped out of the plane. I believe it was because of the mountains, the cool breeze and the contrast with the chaos of Delhi. And all accessible by a 1-hour flight!

The Kangra airport is very small and there is none of the stress associated with a big airport. You simply pick up your baggage and step out. There is a prepaid taxi stand. You simply tell them where you are going, they tell you the rate and get you a cab.

Drive from airport to hotel

My holiday mainly involved four towns-below is a rough graph of how to think about them:

From Gaggal airport, the taxi drove up the mountains to Dharamshala and from there all the way up to Mcleodganj and finally to Dharamkot (where my hotel was located). The scenery on the drive was beautiful.

The mountain system in the northern part of India is called the Himalayas and it extends mostly over India, Bhutan and Nepal, with some spillover in Pakistan and China. The mountain range you see in the above picture are the Dhauladhar mountains, which are part of the Himalayan Mountain system. The word Dhaula means pure/clean/ white while dhar means range in Hindi. Hence, literally, Dhauladhar means white range.

The road from the airport to Mcleodganj has some very sharp turns. My driver seemed very skilled in negotiating these roads. In fact, at one point, the road turned so sharp, that every car had to stop and go one by one, with the help of a guy, who seemed to be acting in a traffic police capacity without the uniform. Unlike the US, India has a separate traffic police, whose sole aim is to regulate traffic. They wear white unforms while regular policemen wear khaki color. Anyone who has been on Indian roads would know that the traffic police are not very effective!

The above is called a hairpin bend, which means that the road turns so sharp that it is almost equivalent to a U turn. The drive from the airport to Mcleodganj took an hour, most of which was smooth sailing, except a nasty traffic jam when one reached Mcleodganj,

Hotel

I began my stay at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Dharamkot (a bit higher up from Mcleodganj). Mcleodganj is very crowded but Dharamkot is a quiet village.

My room had a balcony, which is a really nice bonus. I later discovered, that most hotels in the area had balconies.

From the balcony, I could see the clouds touching the Dhauladhar range.

After checking into my hotel, I stepped out for a small walk. My hotel is located on a steep hill. I went down the hill and checked what was in the vicinity. While walking back uphill, I realized that it was really challenging for me and I was not in the best of shape. Hence, I decided not to venture out of the hotel that day.

I was famished, so I got lunch at the hotel. For lunch, I had a delicious chicken dish cooked in dried pomegranate seeds.

The hotel has a home theater that seats 12 people. After Covid, they do not let families comingle in the theater. The theater is to be booked in 3-hour slots. The 8PM to 11PM slot is the coveted one. During the day, it is empty, because people are out and about. They had a curious selection of films. I booked the theater for the following day during the 5PM to 8PM slot. I was torn between Black Panther and Joker.

After lunch, I started exploring the hotel grounds and found a beautiful herb garden.

It was green all around and by a happy coincidence, I was dressed in green too.

Day 2

Saint John in the wilderness

After a night’s rest, I was ready to explore. I set out for St John’s Church. As per google maps, it should have taken me 20 minutes but I was obviously going the wrong way, as it took me an hour to get there. I ended up walking quite a lot and the uphill walks were the most challenging.

There are a lot of monkeys around. In fact, at the hotels in the area, guests are instructed to keep the balcony door closed when leaving the rooms, otherwise the monkeys could come in. I felt a bit afraid of the monkeys but I saw the local villagers feeding them. So, they are probably used to being around humans, who keep them well fed and probably in good humor.

On the way to the church, I reached what seemed to be the main thoroughfare of Mcleodganj. But I planned to explore Mcleodganj town on another day. I kept walking towards St. John’s Church. In fact, if I had taken the short cut, I need not have come down to Mcleodganj at all.

Finally, I reached the church. I was excited to see the child door. It reminded me of my grandfather’s house. I also, felt, a bit like Pip in Great Expectations, getting into Miss Havisham’s house.

Finally, I reached of St. John’s Church. What appears first is the side view of the church.

Only when you walk in, you get to see the main door and the steeple.

The church is officially called St. John in the Wilderness, which I find to be such a charming name. It is a protestant church built in 1852 and is dedicated to St. John the Baptist.

At the church, I also saw the grave memorial of John Bruce. He was the Governor General of India. The title meant that he represented the British Crown in India. So, he was an important person. He came to India in 1858 and died in 1861. A bit of an Ozymandias moment for me.

I wondered what kind of people John Bruce and his wife Mary Louisa were. Below is the epitaph.

The scenery was beautiful on the way back. I did see a lot of litter at some places. It is really sad to see such pristine beauty being destroyed through callous disregard. I was heartened to find that all shops in the area exclusively use paper and cloth bags. No plastic bags are used in the shops.

Alt Life

When I came back to the hotel, I was really tired, especially from the uphill walking. But I still managed to use the treadmill at the hotel gym. After showering, I picked up my backpack and walked towards the commercial strip of Dharamkot village. The walk was mostly uphill, so it was really tiring on the onward journey. Finally, I reached my destination.

I was in search for a coworking space called Alt Life. The name stands for alternative life and means that people can choose to live in a different way. It took me a while to find the place as its hidden from the main street.

I entered the café and was impressed with how welcoming the man at the desk was. The Wi Fi was excellent. The place seemed to be brimming with Indian software professionals who were camping out there and remote working. I was glad to see that there were women too and not just men. Kudos to the families for letting their daughters pursue their careers and dreams.

The village of Dharamkot has become a remote working hub and on the way, I saw boards that indicated that the state government is building this place to be a digital nomad hub. Dharamkot is also very popular with Israeli youth, who camp here after they complete their mandatory military service.

Black Panther

Coming back to the hotel was much easier as I was mostly walking downhill now. The home theater was booked for me from 5 to 8 PM. Given the big screen and the fantastic audio system, it made sense to watch a superhero film. So, I ended up watching Black Panther.

After watching the movie, I had dinner at the hotel and called it a night.

Day 3

The Tushita Meditation Center

I woke up early morning to the sound of thunderstorms. The weather has been very good. The month of June is summer, as in the rest of India. But the temperature is mild, swinging between 15 and 30 degrees Celsius (between 60- and 82-degrees Fahrenheit).

My first stop was at the Tushita Meditation Center. They have a walk-in meditation between 9AM and 10AM, which is guided by a teacher. I later learnt that anyone can walk in and meditate by themselves during the day. As is the usual pattern by now, there was a steep hill to climb to get to the center.

Below is the main gate of the center.

At the entrance to the meditation hall is an ornate door.

The guided meditation was led by a very nice European lady. There were about 100 people, about half of whom were from overseas. Going into a hall of meditators always makes me feel very good. The people who come to any meditation center could have gone to watch a movie or play a sport. Instead, they have come to just sit and watch their breath. It is an honor to be among such people.

The below inscription outside the center’s walls summarizes the purpose of meditation very well.

Two things from the meditation session made an impression on me:

I was getting increasingly irritated with people coming in late to the session and was entertaining a lot of judgmental thoughts about their insensitivity. As if on cue, the teacher said that when we get distracted by people walking in, instead of feeling irritated, we should be glad that another well intentioned human being is coming to meditate and we should ask ourselves, whether there is anything we can do to help them settle in. The moment she said that, my irritation disappeared.

The first part of the session was what I am used to. We focused on our breath and every few seconds, as the mind got distracted, we realized we were lost and got back to the present moment. But the second part of the session, called analytical meditation, was new to me. Here we focus on a topic. Our topic was forgiveness. We were asked to think of a person against whom we hold a grudge. Then, we were told to think of a time when we behaved badly with someone. We were instructed to forgive ourself and then bring that same spirit of forgiveness to the person against whom we held a grudge.

At the end of the session, the teacher concluded with a prayer that wished the end of suffering for all sentient beings. The lines were from the 18th century Buddhist monk, Shantideva. I know his name because of Dan Harris’s book. In the book, he interviews the Dalai Lama, who recommends Shantideva ‘s book to him. As we were stepping out, the teacher instructed us to be careful not to step on the snails which were likely to be on the pathways that day. Apparently, snails come out in the rain and you could actually google the reasons why they do!

I came back to the hotel, ran the treadmill, showered and was ready for my next adventure.

The Void at Bhagsu

I had heard a lot about a coworking space called the Void. It is in a town called Bhagsu. Initially I had planned to walk it. But I changed my mind. When you check google maps, it all seems walkable. But walking 30 minutes uphill is not the same thing as walking flat and I don’t think the walking time estimates of google maps considers the topography.

Going back to my original sketch, there is a nasty little crossroads, right in the middle of the four towns.

It takes anywhere between 15 and 30 minutes to traverse it in the summers. In India, the schools are closed for the summer in June. So, this crossroad, is particularly bad at this time of the year.

The town of Bhagsu is very busy because it has three tourist attractions:

The Bhagsu waterfalls
The Gallu Devi temple
It is the foothill of a popular beginner’s mountain trek called the Triund trek, this trek can also be started from Dharamkot

When I reached Bhagsu, I found the traffic and crowds overwhelming. There is a corner of the town, which like Dharamkot, has become very popular with remote workers. Apart from Indian professionals, there was also a hippie kind of western crowd frequenting the tiny cafes around the place. Mercifully, this corner does not have the crowded touristy vibe of the waterfall area.

Finally, after some difficulty, I could locate the Void. In India, I realized, it is far easier to just ask the locals instead of getting lost in google maps. From the sign of the Void, you can see that they do same day laundry. Who doesn’t like same day laundry!

On the ground floor (in India, unlike in the US, there is a ground floor, so the first floor in India will be the second floor in the US), there is a café. I ordered penne pasta for lunch and it was delicious.

In the basement is the coworking space. The space is tiny but one thing I noticed throughout my trip was that the Wi Fi was excellent everywhere.

The walkie talkie system

I worked from this space for an hour and then took a cab back to my hotel in Dharamkot. On the way up to Dharamkot, as we were about to start the uphill drive, a roadside vendor gave a lunchbox to the driver, who delivered it to someone at a checkpoint on top of the hill. I learnt that there is a walkie talkie system by which people communicate messages along the uphill route. You may be working at a hotel on the top of the hill and your wife or mother drops a lunchbox for you at a shop on the foothill. The shopkeeper, in turn, hands over the lunchbox to a random taxi driver going uphill and then just confirms with the receiving checkpoint uphill that the lunchbox was delivered. You just pick up your lunchbox from the checkpoint. It was really quite a cool system.

Mcleodganj

So far, I was staying at Dharamkot. Now as per plan, I checked out of the Hyatt hotel, took a cab downhill and came to Mcleodganj. I checked into a boutique hotel called D’s Casa. There are only 19 rooms in this hotel.

The Dalai Lama Temple

In March 1959, the Dalai Lama fled China and sought asylum in India. The Chinese army had brutally repressed the Lhasa uprising, after which the Dalai Lama had to flee China. The Indian prime minister at the time, Nehru, granted asylum to his Holiness and allowed the formation of a Tibetan government in exile at Dharamsala. India’s relations with China were very tense then (just as it is now) and granting asylum to the Dalai Lama would have been a difficult decision. Following the Dalai Lama’s exit, many Tibetans also took refuge in India. Because of this, the entire area has a thriving Tibetan community and Buddhist monks are everywhere.

Today, the Dalai Lama lives in Mcleodganj, while the Tibetan government in exile, is based out of Dharamsala. I set out to see Dalai Lama temple, inside which, is his residence. The temple was very close to the hotel. Below is the approach road to the temple. A lot of beautiful Tibetan handicrafts were on sale.

The presence of a subway store on this approach road to the temple was a bit jarring, though nothing wrong with it.

On the way, I finally saw Bloomingdales spelt right!

At last, after a long walk on Temple Road, I reached the temple gate. The official name of the temple complex is Tsuglagkhang Complex. Mercifully, being able to spell or pronounce it is not a prerequisite for entry. I will just refer to this by the more colloquial name, the Dalai Lama Temple complex. The complex houses a monastery called the Namgyal Monastery.

While the temple itself is open to the public, the Dalai Lama’s residence is cordoned off by security. You can see the red rope that signifies the do not enter zone.

Below is a closeup of his residence.

The temple also had these Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels, the rotating of which is equivalent to chanting a mantra.

From the temple, I also saw a ropeway called the Dharamsala Skyway, which promises to transport you from Mcleodganj to Dharamsala in ten minutes. The distance by road between Mcleodganj and Dharamsala is about 9 kilometers. The ropeway is about 2 kilometers long. Even in the best of times, I am afraid of heights. On top of it, the Indian newspapers were filled with stories of an incident in another part of the state, where tourists were stranded for 3 hours in a cable car. I admired the courage of these people to use the skyway, despite all this negative news.

Labooze

On my way back to the hotel, I was attracted by the sign on the Labooze Bar that claimed their soup of the day was whiskey.

After going in, I discovered they also have a very nice motto. You can read it on the blackboard.

In India, I have also discovered, that one need not be constrained by the menu. Hence, I asked for a Bailey’s Irish Cream, even though it wasn’t in the cocktail menu. I ended up having three of them, as they were so delicious.

Finally, I went back to my hotel and had a dinner of chicken curry, lentils and rice. In India, it is common to serve raw onions as a side. There is a lot of controversy on the internet about whether onions are vegetables. The strike against onions is that they are mainly used as a wet spice in Indian cooking. But in India, it is common to eat raw onions by themselves in accompaniment with a meal (see below). In fact, it is quite delicious, especially if dipped in different types of spicy sauce before eating. So those who say that onions are a vegetable, point to the fact that it is also eaten by itself.

Finally, I turned in for the night.

Day 4

The single sound clap

Next morning, I walked back to the temple and I was treated to a wonderful sight. See the picture below of young Tibetan trainee monks. Some of them seemed barely 10 years old.

If you look at the close up below, the person standing has raised his right hand. What he would do is to push his hand down and hit his left wrist, as though he was swatting a fly on his left wrist. By researching online, I learnt that the boys who are standing in the above picture are the challengers and the boys who are sitting are the defenders. In an examination, the challenger asks a question and then makes this exaggerated single sound clap. After that, the challenger raises his left arm welcoming an answer from the defender. Apparently, the use of clapping within Tibetan Buddhism is a vast topic in itself!

There were also preparations going on for a ceremony where people would pray for the long life of the Dalai Lama. I believe the flowers in the picture below were in preparation of the floral arrangements.

On my way back, I stopped by a tiny bookstore to buy a volume of Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and an English translation of the Life of Milarepa.

Back at the hotel, I was excited to drink from a glass bottle of coke. The taste of Coke in a glass bottle is so much better than the canned version, though I am sure I would fail a blind test.

I spent a couple of hours in the balcony basking in the good weather.

Trip to Bhagsu

It was now time to make a second trip to Bhagsu. Previously, I had been to the Void coworking space and found the town very crowded. Worse, the traffic on the way was terrible. I was told that the traffic falls precipitously after July 7th, as the peak season ends. To avoid the traffic, I decided to walk the 2 miles. It was a good decision. The weather was pleasant and the uphill climbs were not steep. That’s because Mcleodganj and Bhagsu are at about the same height. But to get to the Bhagsu waterfalls, you had to walk up the mountain (you can see the trail below).

Many years back, I had shamefully made a retreat while walking up to see the Greenwich Clock in London, from where the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is set. This time, I was determined to do better. But I am afraid of heights. I remember being extremely scared while driving up from Denver to Vale up the Rocky Mountains. At a certain point, I decided I had climbed enough, took a picture and walked back.

On the way back, I stopped by at the famous German Bakery at Bhagsu. I am not a food connoisseur. Hence, unless something tastes bad, I can never tell whether a place deserves its fame.

Somebody had posted online that the Irish coffee there is to die for. I don’t know enough to say whether it was worth martyrdom but I liked it and it was different from the Irish coffees I have had earlier. In general, though, I find hyperbole about food annoying.

However, I left the German Bakery in a happy state.

The rest of the evening I sat at the hotel balcony doing some mindless surfing. I dined at the hotel and turned in for the night.

Day 5

A leisurely day

By now I had a good sense of both Dharamkot (peace and serenity) where I spent Day 1 and 2 and Mcleodganj/ Bhagsu (touristy), where I spent Day 3 and Day 4. Having gotten a lay of the land and checked the touristy boxes, I intended to just chill out the rest of my trip.

As I was having my morning coffee on the balcony, it dawned on me that I could see the roof of the Dalai Lama Temple from there. You can see the distant building with the green roof in the picture below. That is the temple.

The highlight for me was being able to listen to Buddhist prayers at the temple, right from my balcony. It was beautiful, though I do not understand what the words meant.

I hung around the hotel till noon.

Before coming to this trip, I had learnt of a local gym. I went looking for it and worked with a personal trainer for an hour. While it is a hole in the wall gym, I was really grateful to have a place for a proper workout. The people there were wonderful, as everywhere else in this area.

After gym, it was time for lunch. I went to the Mcleodganj main market, which is incredibly congested. Despite the crowds, the place is still very charming.

I settled on a café called The Hollywood Café. The food was delicious. I had a Tandoori Chicken, which was very well done.

For the rest of the day, I was back at my hotel. I spent the day reading, writing and going for short walks around the hotel.

Day 6

Back to Dharamkot

I checked out of my hotel in Mcleodganj and headed to a small hotel called the Gagan Resort, back in Dharamkot.

I had arrived early and the room was not ready. Hence, I dropped my luggage and walked over the Tushita Mediation Center nearby, where I mediated for about an hour.

I came back to the hotel and checked in. I spent the day sitting at the balcony and reading War and Peace. The views in Dharamkot are breathtaking.

Day 7

Finally to Dharamsala

Even though everyone says they are going to Dharamsala as an anchoring point, most tourists go to Mcleodganj. I was finally ready to go down to Dharamsala.

I was trying to achieve two objectives. First, I wanted to see the town. Second, I was flying back to Delhi next day. It would be far faster to reach the Gaggal airport from Dharamsala, than from uphill.

After checking in to this wonderful hotel called the Quartz Himalayan Brothers, I walked over to the Norbulingka Monastery next door. I was not expecting much but boy was I surprised! This was one of the highlights of my visit. The monastery is part of the Norbulingka Institute which was set up in 1995. The original Norbulingka, literally means a jeweled park, and is located in Lhasa, Tibet. It served as the summer residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa from 1780s all the way up to the 14th Dalai Lama’s exile in 1959.

Once you walk into the gates, it is even prettier than you imagined.

Inside the complex is a guest house called the Norling House, which is very well rated on TripAdvisor. The building behind me in the picture is the Norling House.

The complex also houses a doll museum. Dolls that turn killers are a favorite trope of horror films. But I think one is safe at the Losel Doll Museum.

The dolls in the below exhibit are pictures of three Tibetan kings who lived in the 8th and 9th centuries.

The below exhibit is of characters from a Tibetan opera, a tradition that originates in the 11th century. I am sure life in 11th century Tibet was tough. But it never ceases to amaze me that no matter how harsh living conditions are, human beings across all cultures create art.

There was also an exhibit about Milarepa (see below). He lived in the 11th century and was a murderer before he turned to Buddhism and became a yogi. I was excited to see this because I had earlier bought the book Life of Milarepa in Mcleodganj.

Though I am excited to read about Milarepa, I am skeptical of these stories. In India, there is the story of King Ashoka, who was so moved by the suffering he had caused from the war at Kalinga, that he converted to Buddhism. I just have a hard time imagining Hitler or Vladmir Putin doing that. Finally, I walked up to the main monastery building.

Since no trip is complete without them, I took a selfie.

Finally, I stepped into the inner hall.

After stepping out, I sat at a quiet corner and meditated for 15 minutes to the sound of water from a stream.

Tokio Futsal

On my way back to the hotel, I was intrigued by the Tokio Futsal. It is similar to a Dave and Busters in the US but the vibe is very different. Futsal is an indoor version of soccer that is recognized by FIFA, the world governing body of soccer.

I ended up ordering an egg fried rice at the café, which was delicious.

They had an eclectic collection of books.

Below is a picture of the futsal court.

I liked the food so much that I came back for dinner. It was right next door to my hotel. The lady who runs the place also does some of the cooking. She was closing down but she didn’t want to turn me away hungry, so she made me a wonderful vegetable fried rice.

My trip came to an end. In the night I was talking to a friend from the US, who recommended watching Seven Years in Tibet. I plan to see it soon.