Same Same but Different: September 2012

The buzz around town is that :

A) The Dalai Lama is teaching next week!! We registered and will attend.
B) A street fair has arrived in the town square. We went!

We decided to go to the fair with our friend, Joelle. Joelle is from Holland and lives across the hall. She is a big hit with the girls. Joelle is here studying yoga and was happy to spend the day together on her break from her course.

Joelle and the Girls

The fair was a hit! It snaked along a road behind the square and featured food stalls, rides and games for kids, clothing, toy and houseware stalls. Since we were there mid morning, it was pretty quiet. We began at the first food stall in the fair. Now we are well aware that food stalls are mostly a no no here but we figured that since so many people were gathered around, it would be ok. We ordered samosas and tikkis that came slathered in gravy, veggies, chutneys and a bit of yogurt. It was some of the best food I have had. We went back for seconds. Avigail loved the tikki - round, fried potato patties. Happy to say it all went down really well! (So far, that is)

Divine Food Stall

Our Delectable Dish

We then moved on to the rides. Joelle was a bit concerned about the rides- they looked ancient, badly maintained and rusty. But, the girls had no interest in the huge swinging boat that was nearly throwing its passengers out. We stuck to rides that were mostly man operated (no engine). We all had a great time. While the girls were on the big bouncy castle (biggest one I have seen), people gathered round to watch them squealing and screaming. Avigail got stuck at the top and a crowd gathered to convince her to come down. It was really sweet.

On the Bouncy Castle

The carousel was very sweet and unique. It was operated by an older man who pushed it around manually.

Carousel

More Carousel

We bought the girls some toys that broke later in the afternoon. We finished our day walking back up to our hilly home, having dessert on the way and visiting the local playground. We have made many friends and acquaintances here, from shopkeepers, cafe workers and owners, expats, travelers and other families on the road. It was lovely to come back “home” and see so many familiar faces.

Walking back up the hill, Amit said to me “India is cool. It is really special mommy.” Yes it is.

At The Toy Stand

Here are some snaps from our trip to the waterfall

The Waterfall Ravine

We Made It To The Top

Frigid and Fresh Water

Surprised by the Goat at the Top

Goats at Rest in the Ravine

Before I tell the story of Amit falling into an open sewer, I will give a quick update of where we are at right now.

After a few days in Delhi where the temperature neared 105 degrees, we booked it by night train up to the mountains. We arrived at the foothills of the Himalayas in a small town called McLeod Ganj- otherwise known as Little Lhasa. McLeod is home to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans in exile (it is the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile). It is a colorful small town that is chock full of monks, yogis, students of Buddhism, many Tibetans of course, and loads of tourists. Some tourists have been here for ages and others are here to experience the Tibetan culture, visit his Holinesses' temple, study yoga, Buddhism, mediation, and trek in the mountains. The Dalai Lama fled here in 1959 and since then, this beautiful hilltop town has steadily grown in population with Tibetans and tourists. It is a mecca for spirit seekers here in India.

OUR VIEW

We stayed in the town itself for a few days but that felt a bit too crowded on small streets packed with people, animals, shops, motos, tuk tuks (motor operated rickshaws), so we fled higher up into the mountains - 15 minutes by taxi or tuk tuk from McLoed. Our place is a bit remote and that is how we like it. We have a huge balcony overlooking the mountains and the views are spectacular.

We have developed a routine that we are so far happy with that includes family yoga, walks in the hills, visits to our favorite coffee shops, drawing, writing and reading. It is a bit damp and rainy at times but we are totally happy to be in cooler weather after the furnace of Delhi.

ENJOYING THE VIEW

The girls made a friend in town named Dolma. She is about 25 years old. Dolma fled Tibet on foot 4 years ago - it took one month of walking in the mountains and she has since been in McLeod. She works in a coffee shop and the girls adore her. We visit her often and plan to spend some time with her on her days off. We hope she will take us to visit the Tibetan Children's Village. We might even volunteer there. The web site is http://www.tcv.org.in/. All the Tibetan kids go there.

AVIGAIL LOVES CHAI

From our guest house it is about a 15 minute walk up and down the hills to either of the two towns nearby. There we can find great cafes that serve both fantastic Indian and Tibetan food, but also serve Israeli food (there are loads of Israelis here), pancakes, pizza, pasta, grilled cheese, eggs, and basically anything you would find at home.

OUR MORNING WALK

Now to the sewer debacle: On our walk to the town of Bhagsu, we had gone up and down many hills and were paused on the side of the road waiting for a mini van to pass. The roads are narrow so when a car comes by, we need to step off to the side. We had basically reached the town already and the street we were on had open sewers on both sides of the road. Gross. Poor, sweet Amit- not realizing that there was a sewer behind her, started stepping backwards and PLOP fell right into the sewer. It was horrible. She was literally covered in shit, muck, unidentifiable brown-green goo, and other unsavory yukiness. Itay quickly scooped her out but she was absolutely horrified, terrified and screaming at the top of her lungs. A nice Israeli girl asked if she could help. Itay ran quickly to buy new clothes, the girl babysat Naia and Avigail, and I ran into a hotel right in front of the sewer to clean her off. She was screaming her head off and in typical fashion I had no extra clothes and no first aid kit to clean her cuts. I wondered if Purell would be good to clean the cut but ended up passing on it.

We moved on to the German Bakery and had a great meal of pizza, dal, cucumbers and fries. It was all quickly forgotten.