North Trip 2009--4

Thursday 5-3-2009 --- Friday 6-3-2009


Dharamsala and Mcleod Ganj (Western Himachal Pradesh)

The most comfortable place which you can meet Dalai Lama.

view from top
Dharamsala is added to our trip because CK recommended it and according to jien yeen, it’s a very nice and beautiful hill station for you to relax. Plus, it’s the home of Dalai lama. It sounds cool to meet him isn’t it?! SO, though we have to take bus, we are willing to. We had not have any proper meal since we left Mc Donald’s; what we can have its just Lays, other chips, unknown biscuits and BANANA! Haha.. CC hates banana so much: he didn’t want to try it, didn’t want to smell it, didn’t want to touch it, didn’t even want to help us to throw the plastic bags that have the banana’s waste! Mad one isn’t he?

Oh, so nice to kacau him from the moment onwards. Banana can make him sick and he doesn’t want to fall sick before he go to Manali for snowing. The nutritionists will fight against this logic if they happened to know that a doctor says banana is not beneficial to human well being!

The journey wasn’t good but at least is better than the last bus trip to Jodhpur. Its more comfortable because as we get closer to our destination, the air is more fresh, there are more trees, and weather become colder. I, was becoming more excited and expecting more from Dharamsala. We stopped at Dharamsala bus stand which is exactly at the small road side without any counters for tickets or even bench for people to have a seat. The most irritated part is that the taxi drivers. They were blocking the door of the bus and we have to keep quiet, stay together as the surrounding was quite dark and try to take our backpacks from the top of the bus! How come no one is helping us to take the bags down? No idea, perhaps we are not paying extra to the bus driver anymore or they are too kind to give some business to others. But, we knew that as long as we asked some one to take the bags for us, troubles come. Therefore, se went up to the top of the bus and take the luggage and then pass to cc who is on the bus’s stairs and then passes it to 3 of us. Of course, the most dangerous one is to take se’s bag--It is too heavy already!!

A new place which has not much light, the road is narrow and doesn’t have many branches; cold and fresh air though the bus is not far from us; taxi? Auto? Errr… where are they?! We can’t walk to the hotel, can we?? No! We are at the hill, the roads are steep and without light, and we can’t just blindly follow anyway as we don’t know where the roads end?! Then, we started to listen and figure out what the crowds that surrounded us once we stepped out from the bus. They are the taxi drivers, but as the roads are steep, they use the mini van to fetch people which can fit 4 people in one van. Along with us, there was 2 White, one normal lady and one guy that looked like coming from jungle(邋遢). Surprisingly, they are not stupid and fooled by the driver! In fact, they asked to have a car pool so that we can save one taxi. So, cc and I ,together with them were in one taxi and another 3 are in the second taxi, left the jumble junction road and headed to Mcleod Ganj.

Oh..To be a driver in India is as difficult as a Malaysian to take medicine course but maybe is much easy as compared to local Indian to take medicine course. You are not only have to handle the traffic in normal straight and bumpy roads but also the hill roads. How can the driver drive so fast on the small hill roads? The roads are curve, bumpy, small yet, have to share the road with the vehicles coming from opposite direction! After a dark and quiet journey, we saw lights suddenly followed by a delightful street. (专心看司机驾车，没人聊很久。突然在转过一个弯后，看到许多灯光与繁忙的街道！）The hotel we were looking for is hotel mount view. At first, the driver didn’t understand what we said and straight away brought us to the stop stand. Thanks to that, cc and I saw something interesting on the road before we reached hotel---we are somehow here and there in a place different from a typical Indian area!

hotel reception
5 of us shared a big room with 2 double beds. No one bathed first as we knew each other are very hungry already. According to LP, I don’t find interesting restaurant except a Japanese one. Im not interested in Pizza and Italian food either which are recommended by yee yong they all. At the same time, jiejie kept saying that she saw a Korean restaurant! (wow~)

long spoon and chopsticks..typical korean dining set!

Thinking of having kimchi steamboat, bbq in such coldness, we decided to go there. I never expect that walking to the restaurant from the hotel can be so suffering? The weather changes so much in the 20 minutes! I can feel that my nose is irritated by the cold air, and my legs are shivering though im wearing long pants! And I have to resist the air while looking here and there for the so-called Korean restaurant! After walking for 5minutes (what a short distance?!), we said Korean words. A man was standing there, providing help to take us to the restaurant. We didn’t bother about him as we thought he is just another Indian man who likes to take us anywhere for commission. We went to the wrong side of the building and as we turned up to him and entered the restaurant, we realized that we were behaving so rude for not trusting him as he is the waiter there!

OH my god! What a lovely home-style restaurant? There is a big fireplace at the corner; television for the tauke’s daughter to watch cartoon; bookshelf having different types of story books (but in Korean words>.<). The decoration is simple yet comfortable. Its just like a place for you to have a gathering with your friends, warm and relaxing! Looking at the menu, it just brightened us up especially wc, jiejie and I! We ordered quite a lot as cc said tonight has no budget again! :D
all in korean language...:p including xi you ji!

It seems that cc missed pork a lot as he kept choosing pork from chicken and luckily the pork is fresh and don’t have the strong pork smell! The moment I drink the seaweed soup is just like the feeling I first had the tomato soup in manipal. It is not only warming the body but it soothed and make you have the sense of satisfactory! None of us want to leave anything left; the food is soooooooo delicious and its just like you are in the heaven! (天上人间）Thought we have to pay a lot for the food? NO! its superb cheap! Not even Rs1000 for 5 of us!! Before leaving the restaurant, we bought 5 pieces of pumpkin cake from the restaurant itself and apologize to the waiter. The name card stated that there is another one in Delhi, shall we go again when we are in Delhi later? Perhaps…

shi tou guo---stone what?!

rice.....my dear...better than other places...real rice!

how can anyone has korean food without kimchi!?

tang hun...what's the name in eng??......i dunno....yummy....its not only as a korean food, but chinese or nyonya food to me as well!!

tea...

one more pork...

Walking back is again a suffer for us!! As the night get later, the weather get cooler and walking back is even worse as we are walking in the opposite direction of the wind blows and also, we are walking up hill! I had the feeling of my nose is going to fall down from my face and my neck and legs are going to break! We didn’t really bother to each other but keep on walking , faster and faster and at the moment we entered the hotel, we relieved! Is our room having heater?! If not, how to stay and bath?! Cc was the first to take his shower--extremely fast and as soon as he comes out, he shouted and ran into the blanket, meaning there is no hot water~ After sometimes, some hot water came and it doesn’t last, so wc and I were actually using the cold water to bath. Se and jiejie were the laziest one: jiejie straight away sleep; but I don’t understand why se mind to be the last to bath?

After showering, we found a Chinese channel in the tv-- 中国兄弟连 was on show! We were kind of excited about the Chinese words and the drama, at least, cc and I enjoyed It！ I actually wanted to continue to watch the next show which Is 生死英雄， but, is quite boring to watch myself plus I shouldn’t be so selfish to make so much noise while people are resting right? So, time for bed J

I woke up in the next morning because by them!! Yer! SO nice to sleep in the cold weather~hehe..but somehow I was the last to wake up. Se claimed that he had very hot water this morning when he woke up at about 4 or 5 am! (so early) Without any hot drinks, we had our breakfast--pumpkin cake! Oh my god, even the cake is soooo up to standard and it just worth 25rupee or even more! Dharamsala is the first place that se wanted to go so much. Basically, we are traveling from Islamic area to Hinduism then to Sikhism then to Buddhism! Now, we are going to start the Buddhism journey! Se kept calling his mother to contact his master so that he can make him to meet another master in Dharamsala who can bring us to see Dalai Lama. Who knows, he was out for sometime and that affects our plan. Anyway, we left by around 9am.

Se is still not feeling well and due to the coldness we experienced last night, se and cc started to wear the winter clothing bought from Ahmadabad. I don’t want to wear the thick jacket which is prepared for Manali one, so I just wear a superb short sweater with a T-shirt. But, at last, I borrowed se’s jacket because it was a bit cold when we came out from the room and go to reception.~ The first place we wanted to go is of course the Tsulagkhang that comprises the photang-- official residence of Dalai Lama.

turn and pray~

As we have more than enough time before the master of se comes back, we actually didn’t bother which way we followed. IN fact, we just walked along the street and have a look around. There were many shops, Tibetan shops that sell all sorts of stones, handicrafts and thangkas (Buddhist cloth painting). This is se’s favourite shopping part as he is Tibetan Buddhist.
While waiting for their shopping, wc and I found a coffee shop which is very stylish and the bakery smell nice! So, we decided to have a proper breakfast again as the pumpkin cake is not at all enough as a breakfast especially in such a cold place! Oh…the cakes, the hot chocolate, are just too delicious!!

opps...backlight...

The music played in the coffee house plus the quiet environment makes the coffee house a perfect place to relax and enjoy a cup of hot drink! second best hot chocolate!

Next, on the way to the complex, we saw a small stall besides the road selling ‘liong fan’ 凉粉and ‘keow teow’. The food looked nice and I think is quite clean so it eventually become our target to have lunch! Let’s talk about the road. The road is narrow for a car, but its definitely wide for pedestrians; clean and wide, not bumpy, and the number of monk walking on the road is probably more than the normal people. That’s why it is very free to walk on the road and easy to find someone to lead you to the tsuglagkhang complex.

The temple is quite big and built at one end point of the hill. There, you can see different races, ages monks--they could be American, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, france, Chinese; from 7 years old to unlimited age! The different of the monks with other is that they can get married, they can eat meat. I don’t know how they can stand the coldness with just one piece of cloth but certainly, you cannot simply touch it! After praying and have a look on the temple, we went to the office and ask for a meet with Dalai Lama. Who knows, he is in Delhi! And due to the army guarding outside his residency, I got to know that he is well protected by Indian government with army so that noone can threaten him as he is the soul leader of the Tibetan. Whatever he says, is the most valuable words in the world, according to Tibetan.

Disappointedly (a bit), we left the complex. None of us realized that its 12noon already till we started to feel hot. Its crazy to wear such a think sweater at 12 okay?! But none of us removed it as we afraid of sudden weather changes. We walked along the street again, for shopping, which is not done in the morning. We stopped at almost every store to look for any stones, bracelet ,anything that we are interested in. Here, we have to change the conversation language among ourselves as most of them might be from China and understand mandarin. So, cc usually will start arguing for lower price using mandarin, if the tauke knows mandarin, he may mistaken us as locals, maybe; if not, then its proven that he is Nepali and is very hard for him to cut down the price for you already! The tragedy we found on the way is that the small stall at the roadside that we wanted to go has all its food sold! I was soooooo regret for not taking it in the morning itself! So, from the moment onwards, I swear that I will not hesitate anymore whenever I see something I like! That’s why, I started to do shopping too~!^^

As we walked back to the first street, we saw more hawker stalls selling snacks--momo. Wc and I think that the food looked quite clean and I really cannot resist the smell of it anymore, hence, we started having roadside food which is usually prohibited during your travel in India! Wow..momo is so nice! Its like a vegetable Xiao long bao; crispy when its fried too. Then, we had some liong fan stuff and yellow think noodles.

didn't it look like liong fan?

However, these are not enough for cc and se as lunch. So, I have to look for a proper restaurant? Nope! I wanted to go to those shops which locals usually go seeing that we can see the locals buying and having food around--meaning that area is not only for tourist, like any other places else. I saw a green house. Many people are having some sorts of economic rice in it. I’m not sure what food is serving inside but certainly, if I have a chance to go inside, I will! And I ended up having lunch in the green house because of a lady having hot noodles at the roadside showing me where to get such nice noodles! The noodles is called ‘Thupha’!

Maybe we expected less or the noodles suits our taste, none of us disappointed on it. At least, cc and se are seemed quite satisfied with my decision to have lunch there. While waiting for the second round of orders, I went to buy vegetables. WHY? Those are LEAFY vegetables! They are ‘Xiao bai cai’! Anyone loves vegetables like me will suffer in India (as we hardly find leafy vegetables) and do the same thing as what I did--buy the vegetables and ask the chief to cook! Well, he misunderstood me and hence he cooked in a weird combination --Xiao bai cai with egg, but its not bad, as long as its proper leafy vegetables! Also, I bought fried black sausage from an uncle at the junction of the road. Those are not the common sausage we bought in supermarket. According to wc or cc, those are the original how a sausage is made--using the intestine of the animal. So, since I bought lamb sausage, it is made by goat’s intestine and perhaps they stuck the meat inside the space of the intestine. Oh, we were able to distinguish which one may be colon, small or large intestine!
After lunch, we continue shopping again. SE wanted to buy too many things already. In fact, as we walked, we have more desire except jiejie. So, we have to wait for the others and due to the desire was so strong, we actually walked up and down the 2 roads several times to get the things we want.:p Finally, we decided not to go to the church or other places for sight seeing already. Instead, we just walked even it was raining. We heard that there is a waterfall nearby. As I insisted to go there, we actually walked up another hill for it. I removed all the clothes but the manipal T shirt only. CC was calling me siao eh after he saw that. Haha! CC and SE were very tired to walk up hills. Did they really go for camping and all outdoor activities before? Doubting.. Disappointedly, the waterfall has no water falls--a dry area. Ishh…get coned!!

The next place we are going is Manali. We booked the taxi and asked him to wait for us at 9pm at the hotel there. We will be reaching in the early 4am at manali. Therefore, we must eat dinner. Maybe is due to the cold weather, we feel hungry fast. For the first time, cc and se suggested a restaurant for dinner--the same Korean restaurant.

beh cham geh.....oh my god..the chicken....it came late to us..yet we finished it!

porridge!!!!!!!WOW^^:D

From what we paid last night, we knew that the food is not expensive and we may not have a chance to have Korean food again until we go back to Malaysia later. As a result of that, we ordered a lot, that we don’t even remember what are not served yet. Also, 10 pieces of pumpkin cakes. Thanks to us, the lady tauke has to bake the cake on spot for us! On the second night, we feel cooler when we walked out from the restaurant as it was raining a bit.

see see see...the whistish snow at the mountain...the place im going next!!! snow...here i come....

Another shocking news besides the driver has to drive at hill roads at night under rain is that the car has very bad organization-- the back seat is not facing forward but side! CC was sitting at the back himself as he afraid that sitting in the middle row with us will make us very uncomfortable and packed. After sometimes, he asked for sitting with us but it was a bit too late to control his nausea and dizziness and so he vomited for the very first time in trip!

to be continued.....