Laughing Monks and the Golden Temple

Hello, all, sorry about the late post, I returned safely from my trip to the north and then had computer/internet trouble for a few days, so alas, the post is late.

For the first leg of our journey, we headed to Delhi for two days of siteseeing and sleeping. I skipped out on a lot of the siteseeing, but I did visit the Taj Hotel (a very fancy hotel chain in India) where I ordered a salad (that cost more than I usually spend in a week in Lucknow) and was given 1 leaf of lettuce and a sliced tomato. Very dissappointing, but it was soon forgotten when I ate the food near our (much cheaper) hotel. We stayed a little outside of the main city in an area called the Tibetan Refugee colony and I had a really wonderful time staying in a little bit quieter part of the city. I put a picture of my and woman that I met there. As you can see, the area has a lot of small roads/foot trails that meet in squares with canopies to protect from the heat. And there are a lot of Tibetan monks (they are the men wearing the red outfits).

After our short visit in Delhi, we took a 12 hour bus ride to McCleod Ganj. This small hill station was absolutely fantastic. Being in the mountains the weather was quite cool and I was even able to take a few hikes around the village area. The mountains were spectacular, and supposedly one is able to see snow-capped peaks from where we stayed, but it rained often and the mountains obscured the view. McCleod Ganj is also home to the Tibetan Government in exile and has a wonderful monastary/temple complex. I really enjoyed visiting the temple complex. There monks filled the courtyard laughing and debating issues and inside the temple, they played music and chanted. The place truely seemed full of joy and the welcoming nature of the area was increased by the fact that no spaces of the temple were off-limits to visitors. In McCleod Ganj I was able to eat even more yummy Tibetan food and I think that I have developed an addiction to momos (steamed dumplings filled with veggies). I also really enjoyed meeting and talking with the refugees from Tibet living in the area. These conversation (like many things in India) put the world into a new perspective and I was fascinated to hear about thier 1-2 month journey over the Himalayas and that many of them are seperated from their friends and family.

After 5 peaceful days in the mountains, we headed to the plains of the Punjab and visited Amritsar. Amritsar was an exciting place to visit because there we were able to eat excellent punjabi food. We also were able to stay inside the visitor complex of the Golden Temple, which is a the most famous pilgramage site for Sikhs in India. The temple is in a beautiful courtyard made of marble and inside the courtyard is a pool of water. In the middle of the pool of water is the temple. The base of the temple is made of marble and inlaid with precious stones and the upper part is gold. The site is truly amazing and especially so at night when it is lit up and reflects in the pool of water. The most unfortanate aspects of Amritsar were the heat and the fact that most people spoke Punjabi and I had a hard time communicating....

After these wonderful adventures, we headed back to Lucknow. It is wonderful to be home and I am enjoying school immensly.