First Half
I was confident from perusing my guidebook that a fair rate for an auto rickshaw to my first and second choice guest houses would be about 40 rupees ($1). Before I reached the rickshaws, I was picked out by a gaggle of taxi drivers. The first one quoted a rate of 550 [...]

 
My 4am wake-up call came a generous 15 minutes early.  Already packed, I laid in bed under the twirling fan trying not to fall asleep again.  At half past four, I stepped quietly past the hotel employee who had returned to his bed, the lobby bench, for a few more hours rest.  I picked up [...]

Like the appeal of riding a yak in Sikkim, witnessing the daily India-Pakistan ceremony in Attari captured my imagination the moment I learned about it. In the case of the ceremony, I first saw it on a television show. If I’m not mistaken, it was part of Michael Palin’s “Himalaya” which was based [...]

The reason I made the torturous move to wake up at 4am to catch the direct bus to Amritsar was so I could see Sikhism’s holiest temple AND the India-Pakistan border ceremony in one day. Really, it was the latter event which captivated my curiosity, though once I saw the Golden Temple, I realized [...]

I was tempted to leave McLeod Ganj a day or two before Steve’s 27th birthday, but it seemed silly to not stick around to help him celebrate it.  When my 32nd birthday rolls around in September, I hope to have a few travel buddies with whom to hang out.

We ordered dinner and a [...]

It felt great to meet up with Steve again after having first hung out together in Pokhara, Nepal back in April. Since then, I’d also kept in regular contact with Marie. As a reminder, we all took the same 3-day meditation course. Since I had control over my schedule, I decided [...]

Eating
Food…delicious food. McLeod Ganj is filled with great restaurants offering predominantly Tibetan, Indian, and Italian food. I became a regular at popular Carpe Diem after trying a few of their Indian dishes. The service was friendly and they had a great rooftop seating area with views of upper McLeod Ganj, and [...]

 
 
The morning after returning from my trek, I awoke with a giant, furry spider in my bathroom, aching right shoulder, stabbing pain in the area of my right ribs, and mild soreness in my legs. The soreness in my right shoulder felt as though I was carrying a heavy bag, even when I [...]

On our fourth and final morning of the trek, I awoke with surprisingly little soreness in my legs and body.  And my headache was gone, again.  Harold and I packed up our stuff, ate breakfast, and we were all on our way back to McLeod Ganj.  A dog we had fed leftovers to the prior [...]

When the photos were taken, the Tibetan freedom video shot, and the food consumed, we began our descent into the now cloud-shrouded valley. I was glad to have finished one of my two bottles of water so I could use both of my hands to steady myself on the way down.
The [...]