Tibet away from Tibet - Dharamsala (McLeod)

My college buddy from Carleton, Hudson, is doing some legal/humanitarian work with Tiebetan refugees in Upper Dharamsala (aka McLeod Ganj of MLG), so I decided this week was as good a time as any to see this beautiful Tibetan refuge and home to the Dalai Lama. I was definitely looking forward to escapting the heat and pollution of Delhi, and I was definitely treated to quite a bit.

After arriving on Friday afternoon while Hudson was still at work, I took a little hike by myself to the Bhagsu waterfall, which was really nice. Later that night we had the standard Tibetan fare with a side of momos. McLeod Ganj is largely comprised of Tibetans with monks and nuns everywhere, it feels very un-India.

We took to the trail the next day and hikes for a solid 5 hours up to Triund, where Hudson said there were some caves we could sleep. To our dismay, we found a father, his two sons, and their entire heard of goat were inhabiting the cave for the summer and after some broken Hindi conversation, were led to two other caves which were wet, filled with animal waste, and old bottles of liquor. We opted to stay in a guest house - no electricity of enclosed rooms, just a tin roof over our heads and some blankets. Before nightfall, however, we hiked to the Triund glacier which was awesome.

The next morning, we woke up at dawn and made our way back down to Dharamsala to relax, have some lunch, and walk around the Dalai Lama's temple and residence. McLeod is an amazingly green and laid-back place and a great weekend getaway from Delhi...

That is until the only daily flight back to Delhi gets cancelled because of bad weather. I immediately took the bus station to grab the luxury bus back to Delhi, an overnight leaving around 9pm. I made myself comfortable in the small town of Kangra, passing about 5 hour before my bus departed. One flat tire, waiting to fix the spare, and the three hour detour later, we were on the road and arrived into Delhi a couple hours late. Had a chance to stop back at the guest house and shower before work, but had no idea what kind of adventure I was getting myself into.

Blog Photos - Here's a link to my photos of Dharamsala in Google Photos (also links from below).