Nothing like falling into an open sewer in India

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.

CHECKING OUT THE MONKEYS

GOATS IN THE VILLAGE

OUR PLAYGROUND

A WALK IN THE HILLS

WALKNG THROUGH THE TOWN