Day 565 - Touring the town

With Christmas drawing near, we're settling into a chilled out holiday frame of mood, and so we spent the greater part of the morning soaking up the sun on a rooftop cafe.

From here we enjoyed the views out over the lush green hills, grey and white mountains, and the colourful buzzing town of McLeod Ganj. McLeod Ganj is a predominantly Tibetan town, flourishing with Tibetan refugees who fled the Chinese invasion of their country and followed their leader, the Dalai Lama, to safety in India. Buddhist prayer flags float in the free air, and monks and lay people alike wander freely unafraid of being persecuted for their religion. At the nearby temple, prayer wheels are almost constantly creaking, creating their own kind of music accompanied by the quiet murmurs of prayers.

We spent hours aimlessly wandering around town, soaking in the atmosphere, and eventually found ourselves on a scenic road that led to Bhagsu village and a peaceful waterfall in the hills. Here we sat and sunned ourselves on the rocks while looking out over the green valleys where the river flows and locals joyfully go about washing.

In the evening we did what most others do in this chilled out town: relax over good food and drinks, before making the perilous descent down the steps to our hotel, avoiding the snaking water pipes that seem to attack in the darkness then finally snuggling into bed under a pile of blankets.

Adlibing a Tibetan town.