March 8, 2004

Today was a real scorcher - clear skies and little wind.  I definitely over packed on the warm clothes so far.  Today rather than give a recounting of what happened I thought I'd give some impressions of what's going on around me.

Cows

There are cows all over the place.  In the alleyways that serve for streets, on the hillsides, everywhere.  These are large, black haired cows with horns and lazy brown eyes.  They wander the streets eating the garbage - people drive them away from their shops and stands with sticks or by throwing buckets of water on them. The water seems a blessing as most of them are covered in cow poop, which, by the way, you need to watch out for as you walk through the streets.  I'm wearing only sandals so this is some matter of concern for me as I wend my way through the alleys in the dark in the morning.  The amazing thing is how everyone takes them for granted - there's absolutely nothing unusual or wrong with a cow wandering about in the street blocking traffic.

Traffic

Strangely there are traffic jams here – I wouldn't even attempt driving in this place and there are trucks (with puffs of diesel smoke clogging your lungs) and buses and cars and range rovers and auto rickshaws (little 4 wheelers that putt about with horns like geese) and motor cycles and Vespas - all in a space you can barely walk through much less think about driving.  The drivers plow through the crowds of people, madly honking their horns to let you know that they're coming.  People nonchalantly step aside and cover their mouths and noses as the fumes of diesel and dust spews about them.  In the bus turnaround people climb down from the top of the bus where they’ve ridden, at least for the 10 kms up the twisting road from the valley below.

Air

There is very little of it in the town.  In the morning the street sweepers appear from out of the woodwork (literally, I saw one of them unroll a tarp that they'd wrapped themselves in by the side of the road and start sweeping). Dust billows out and fills the alleys -you'd really rather not breathe the dust, knowing it contains cow dung and every other form of trash known to man.  Later in the morning I see them cart the piles of trash to a burn site where the plastic bottles and wrappers of many different things are incinerated - black plumes of smoke trailing into the still air.  A constant haze hangs over the town, and the Kangra river valley - 3-4000 feet below us - disappears into haze almost immediately.  This must have been a breathtaking place 100 years ago, now it's barely habitable from a breathing standpoint.

There are public kerosene tanks on the sides of some of the roads and one of them leaks out onto TIPA way just down the hill from my guesthouse - it makes me nauseous when I walk by so I don't - there's a long cut that avoids it that I climb up - a small set of stairs then up the exposed concrete piping (complete with holes in them - watch out in the dark) to another set of stairs.

Gwas and Kas

Really – supposedly these are the names of the giant eagles (gwas) and the smaller hawks (kas)  that soar everywhere. The eagles are amazingly brave - they swoop down into the town’s streets to snatch things from the ground and fly off, barely missing the maze of power lines haphazardly strung over head.  I saw one make three attempts at the same thing (outside a roadside slaughter house where they dis-assemble goats) only to be chased away by a vendor.

The Gwas are golden colored on their undersides and dark brown or black on their tops.  The Kas are dark brown all over, and they seem to fly along with the Gwas. It's beautiful in the morning to see them soaring over the mountains.

Food

I've been eating mostly Tibetan fare since I got to McLeod Ganj (except tonight we had a really good Indian dinner).

In the mornings we go to the Sunrise cafe (opens at 7:45) for "the best Chai in Asia" - little glass cups of steaming hot milk tea with ginger, cardamom and other spices.  Actually it's become somewhat of a ritual to go there several times a day - "Let's get some of the best Chai in Asia" someone will say, and off we go.  This is also one of the gathering points for the regulars (people who return year after year), so it’s a place to learn what’s up in town and get guidance.

The Tibetan food is awesome - I've had mostly soups for dinner since getting here - noodles or chopped pasta in vegetable broth with vegetables and eggs.  For breakfast it’s a large bowl of curds and honey, or tsampa (mashed fried barley paste - sort of like pureed oatmeal) with honey and bananas.  Sometimes its Tibetan bread with butter and honey, but always it’s accompanied by several glasses of hot chai.

Lunch is some fresh tangerines and bananas purchased from a street stall, and if I'm really lucky Tibetan momos (sort of like steamed pot stickers stuffed with vegetables).

The prices are ridiculously inexpensive- the breakfast I described, plus a couple of chais will run about RS (Rupees) 70-or about $1.70  Dinner with tea and a lhasi will be around RS80 ($1.90)- Tangerines are RS25 (60cents) a kilo.

So - I tire - it's been a big day today - we hiked up to a meditation center (Toshita Meditation center, one of a couple of meditations centers on the ridgeline above the town) in the morning for some additional teachings - I was completely winded by the time we got there.  Then rush back for the teachings (yea! the radios work today – apparently yesterday they had set the antenna up wrapped about a metal support column and the signal grounded before even making its way into the ether – really, as if they hadn’t even taken Radio Propagation Theory 101) and then back for dinner.  It was a very full day yet somehow everything happened at a very leisurely pace.