Mountains, Monks & Monkeys

20-03-2010
Hellooooooooo twisty road, back in the land of cool weather, calm traffic and clean air
Originally we were going to Manali, a bit of a travellers' mecca, but after completely cocking up our exit route out of Chandigarh and going round and round in circles in the "you can't get lost, it's a grid layout" perfectly planned new city and getting on the narrowest, broken, undulating and twisty road yet on our way, we decided to divert to McLeod Ganj which cut our round about trip to Amritsar by 300km. On arriving, after getting lost round the cantonment, (military base) we were delighted to find ourselves at 5200ft altitude in a tiny village swamped with monks.
Both of us had contracted a stinking cold whilst in Delhi, probably something to do with the visa stress, so this was a great place to kick back and recover, plus we'd heard they brewed local cider. To keep us out of the bar, we took a trip to the temple and on entering were greeted with horrific images of the monstrosities the tibetan people had suffered through the People's Liberation Army of China when they marched in under the banner of the Cultural Revolution. Since then hundreds of thousands of refugees have been exiled to India including the Dalai Lama, who's official residence is situated just below the temple. How one overpowering dictatorship could do the outrageous act of stripping this incredible, peaceful race of their religion, culture and homeland I cannot fathom and it's about time the wrongs were righted and they are given their lives back.