My 2019 McLeod: what’s good for you?

Have a great day out at Peepal Farm: stray animal
rescue and vegan organic farm

In case you visit magical McLeod Ganj without first attending the planned 60-hour slide night at my place – here are my recommendations and tips for visiting McLeod culled from my time here in 2019.

Some old favourites have retained their rankings this year:

• RK Barbers’ Amid is still the best hair cutter in town in my opinion, with the added value of providing one the best chair massages ever. How did he know I had a sore back and strained lower arms that day?
• Mukti, still an eyebrow artist with his careful re-dying to threading. But he carries a grudge that I get my haircut somewhere else.
• Surinder and the team at Kailwood Guest House dispense the best fruit porridge and support for their guests with taxi bookings, travel advice (thanks for warning me off trying to get to Dalhousie in the snow) and IT repairs. Plus the valley view from the deck is still the best view in town.

Great day out

Visit Peepal Farm on one of their cow cuddling open days, or just drop in to visit this combined animal rescue shelter and organic farm. The owners and volunteers have developed a beautiful spot on used-to-be derelict land where they are nurse and either re-home or adopt dogs, cats and farm animals. Eat vegan snacks and buy some of their great produce. Watch out for posters around town or find them on Facebook. The farm is 13 km from Dharamsala, in Dhanotu Village.

1 wedding, 2 magpies and 3 cups of chai tea = a great day out

Mcleod Ganj suddenly turned on its best sparkling champagne winter on 1 December, the day after I bought a pair of post-mortem rubber gloves for a nun in long-term retreat.  A great time to go for a hike. 

Local Ghadi women in party clothes, Dharamkot

So Julia put aside her studies and translations and I shelve my editing and writing projects and we agreed to meet at the Himalayan Tea House at Dharamkot to walk up to Gallu Falls – likely to be full of water after the torrential rains of the past week.

Long-term blog readers will already know that the HTH serves one of the best aloo paranthas in Himachal Pradesh but I have already started the day with a bowl of Surinder’s banana porridge so I just sip excellent masala chai (#1) while I wait for Julia.

Kareri Lake: Where vultures meditate

Happy hikers but no glacier: R-L Sue, Fiona and I

There’s breakfast making noises around 5 am – always a comfort. But where am I? This isn’t my room in McLeod Ganj. 

That’s because I arrived at the rather splendid Royal Mountain Guest House in the village of Kareri after dark last night with Fiona and Sue; today we are going to hike up and back to fabled glacier-fed Kareri Lake.

We are ready to be up and gone so after eating banana porridge and chai while seated primly on the brocade three-piece suite in my ballroom size room, we do ridiculous stretches in the dawn courtyard then jump into a tiny battered Maruti to bounce up the hill for 15 minutes. Judder past the local school that Fiona and Sue and the Pencil Tree mob support, past a wedding Maruti studded with marigold blossoms and stop at the empty momo carts at the bridge over the rushing mountain river. 

A holiday with His Holiness – part 2

We can't wait to get through the TIPA gate

“My students tell me they aren’t coming to class tomorrow because His Holiness is opening the new TIPA building,” Cathy discloses over mushroom pizza at the Om Hotel café.

It’s a scoop. We can’t miss this. The Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) is just up the road from Kailwood Guest House, where Cathy – who is teaching pre-intermediate English to a disparate group of Tibetans, Bhutanese and a Lao monk with an inappropriate nickname – and Leonie and I are staying in McLeod Ganj.

The next morning I race back up the hill from depositing a bag of malas to be blessed at the main temple [see part 1], and Leonie and I step off the bottom of the Kailwood stairs into a swift river of people heading up the road to TIPA.

“Do you think they know too?” jokes Leonie as we are swept up by the well-dressed crowd, striding with purpose up the hill. 

My McLeod #3: people and animals and places

Eating and meditating (and working) were my primary occupations in McLeod Ganj over the last 3 months, but for me the real richness of this crazy friendly big village were the people and animals and the special moments of beauty.

Favourite beggar

Meet Shara - always neatly turned out, politely chatty, and ready with a cheery greeting. Like all the beggars in McLeod, she is southern Hindi, not Tibetan; unlike many of the other beggars, she isn't disabled or old or disadvantaged. Her professional “I’m a beggar, it’s my job,” positive attitude ensured a daily donation of 10 Rs from me (and many others) and has enabled her to bring up two adult children to the point where her daughter starts nursing college this year. 

My McLeod #2: mind and body solutions

Thosamling Nunnery

McLeod Ganj and the Dharamsala area is a magnet for world travellers who want to find themselves, find a way out of samsara, find a place to be more than just a tourist, find a decent haircut after months on the road. I should know because that was my reason for spending three months here (and the haircut became a necessity after that amount of time).

These are my favourite places to find what your mind and body need. I would have included somewhere to get a pedicure but it got so cold up here that I couldn't countenance taking my socks off for more than 30 seconds unless I was a) in a hot shower b) in a warm bed with a hot water bottle tucked under my feet.

My McLeod #1: staying and eating

Porridge and fresh fruit and chai (Vegemite and iPad
Supplied by the author)

After nearly three months living and working in this magical town, I would like to share my favourite places, things and people. If you are lucky enough to come and spend time here too, you might find this information handy. (No personal liability is accepted for these recommendations - we bloggers love power without responsibility.)

Favourite guesthouse team

It has got to be Surinder, Sanjay, Akshay, and The Boy who run Kailwood up between Tushita and Tipa roads. Cheerily turning out omelettes and noodle soup, advising on the best way to humanely get rid of monkeys, playing backyard cricket or washing floors - these guys are the tops. They also get my award for favourite breakfast for their bowl of porridge/fresh fruit and favourite chai for Surinder’s morning mug of magic with fresh spices, and also guesthouse view for the horizon views from the south-facing terrace above the whistling kites.

Getting to enlightenment - how to do the Dalai Lama’s teachings

Grabbing a good spot at Tsuglagkhang

People come from all over the world to listen to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama teach in the Tsuglagkhang Temple in McLeod Ganj. This is the exiles’ concrete equivalent of Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, and it is the hub of the world for Tibetan Buddhists for a few days every October when HHDL comes home from travelling and teaches to his home crowd and many fervent students like me.

You won’t find out from this post how to achieve liberation from samsara, but there are things it helps to know to make your teachings experience easy and more enjoyable.

What you take

A cushion, a mug, an FM radio and headphones, an exercise book and pen. And to get your spot in the temple, you need a texta pen, a flattened cardboard box, a roll of packing tape. 

Don’t take your phone or a camera - you can’t take them in with you and you will have to leave them at a deposit office.