The Dalai Lama won' t give us an interview. What a shaft!

It's 6:40 pm in Dharamsala. We are having a great day.

Awoke at 7:00am, showered (!), and eventually headed out. Despite having enough hot water, I still felt the need to take a bucket bath instead of shower.

We decided to head to the Dalai Lama's temple complex, but got delayed due to many interesting Tibetan shops on the way. When we finally arrived, we were clueless as to what to see because neither Anjum or I had a book explaining the site. So I stopped some Monks until I found an English-speaking one and asked him if there were any guides available. He hesitated, and then started explaining the whole complex to us. He was very sweet. His name is Gelek, he is 20 yrs old, and has been living in the monastery here for 10 years. He is originally from Bhutan. So he pointed us in the right direction, and recommended we walk on a footpath around the complex. He would have liked to take us, but he was wearing a western-style shirt under his robe, and said he would get in trouble (turns out he had just been visiting a cousin- hence the western dress). He asked us to stop by the administrative office later to say hello (we did go by later in the day but the office was closed).

We visited the temple, the bookstore, and the Tibet museum (and souvenir shop, of course). The museum was especially interesting (and disturbing) as it recounted the Chinese invasion of Tibet, and subsequent persecution of its people. The temple complex was full of monks, tourists, and locals meditating, praying, and soaking in the spiritual atmosphere. We had a sense of well-being.

We tried to say hello to the Dalai Lama, but alas he is on a meditation retreat and is in seclusion for 10 days. Anjum tried sweet-talking the Indian guard by telling him she was from Uttar Pradesh (Indian state), but he didn't cave.

So we consoled ourselves by having lunch at an awesome Tibet restaurant (Snow Lion) accompanied by the best tea we have had yet (not butter tea-gross!)

The rest of the afternoon was spent strolling around Mcloud Ganj and doing some more shopping.

Ok, gotta go, we are late for dinner.
Oh, I spoke to Jaime this morning- we meet up on the 24th in Delhi!

Namaste!
Karin