This is last post in this series of posts describing my visit Mcleodganj. Other posts are on this link.

Day 5 was supposed to be the last day of my stay in Mcleodganj, but I had to stay one day extra as all the bus tickets had been sold out.  Although I wasn’t exactly annoyed,  I had no idea about what to do with all the spare time either. I had seen and done almost everything that I wanted. Only thing left was a complete trek to snow line via Triund, but it needed much more time than I had. So I decided to just wander around.

 For breakfast I entered one small eatery run by a lone Tibetan woman and ordered Tibetan butter tea and an exotic sounding dish called Then Thuk . It was a kind of noodle soup, with noodles being of thick flat type. The shop was small and had place for seating only 5-7 people, but as with most Tibetan run places in Mcleodganj, it was very clean and the owner friendly and helpful. After breakfast I got bus tickets booked ad wandered around in the market looking for some stuff to buy for friends back in Delhi. But the shops were still opening up and I didn’t want to but the stuff in morning and carry it around for whole day. So I left the market and started walking towards  Church in Wilderness. It was Sunday and a prayer service was going on. I stayed there for a while but got bored soon and left the place. It was too noisy and crowded. After wandering around in graveyard for some time, I started walking towards Forsythganj. It’s just a small but dirty group of a few dozen houses which lacks any charm and beauty of Mcleodganj. Not many Tibetans live there.

After a short distance, the road divides in to two, with one going  to Dharmshala  and consequently back to Delhi while the other goes up towards Dal lake. I took the latter and reached Dal Lake after some time. I walked around in the surrounding mountains for a while before turning towards Naddi. Compared to my last visit, the place was overflowing with people. I walked to that Sahaj Yog centre and  rested there. The place was full of foreigners going in and out. I stayed there for a while watching clouds playing in mountains in front and walked back to Dal Lake. Had a plate of rather ordinary momos in a small restaurant. Walking back to Mcleodganj, I left the main road and took a long winding trail which led to a a mountaineering school located on the road to Dharmkot.

 

Reaching back to Mcleodganj, I walked in the market and bought some souvenirs. One thing that particularly interested me was a hornlike musical instrument  made out of bones of dead Tibetan monks. They were decorated with metal alloys and turquoise. I considered buying it, but then I hardly know how to play anything and it was priced around Rs 2500-3000. So, I stuck to more conventional stuff and only ‘exotic’ things amongst my purchases were lockets and keychains made of Yak bones. Had some Chinese fried rice dish for dinner and walked back to my hotel to sleep soon after. Next morning, I woke up and found out hat the skin was peeling off my face and arms due to sunburn. ughh!! That finally taught me to carry sun screen everywhere.

After a shower  I visited Namgyal monastery again to buy some books. Unfortunately, the book store was closed but the place was full of Buddhist monks from all over the world. There was one from Caribbeans too, atleast he looked like one and had that  typical cap on his head. I was lucky to witness that typical way of discussion in which they argue and stress their points by clapping loudly and gesturing. I couldn’t understand much of what they were saying but it was a nice sight.

An had came to see me off and we had lunch with in a restaurant in town square. We walked in th city and road to the Church till it was time for my bus to leave.  I dozed through most of the journey ill I woke up in hot, dusty and very noisy Delhi. After the cool weather and serene calm of Mcleodganj, Delhi felt like hell. :-<