Just an Average SKIRT

Travel has come to an end for now, I woke up this morning in the Vase of Treasure room at 8 Auspicious Him View.  After a thorough tour of the town last night I was eager to  venture out.  Today’s plan was to meet up in the hotel for breakfast then we’d head out for a hike to a waterfall or a hike up to Dharamkot, a neighboring town.

This morning was porridge with banana and honey (aka oatmeal), 2 espressos, 1 ginger lemon honey tea and an order of Tibetan toast with homemade jam.  I can already tell, I’ll be missing that jam when I return to the states.  Back down to the room to change and head out for the hike.   Our hotel sits on a bit of road which is at about a 15% grade, this continues for about a quarter mile then levels out a bit just enough so that you can catch your breath.   Good stuff, I am not worried about getting my exercise in, there are plenty of hills (speed work in disguise right?).

First hike found us on the way to Dharamkot, very small town…a tea shop, a meditation retreat and tons of very large crazed monkeys.  On our way back down the mountain we stumbled upon the Common Ground Cafe - I think this will become one of our favorite spots.  Lunch was delicious - Becky, Carol and I split spice sauteed cabbage, sweet and sour veggies and rice.  I had a cup of garden tea which touted medicinal herbs from the earth.  It tasted very much like the description.  I’m actually starting to wonder how people get sick here, the food is steaming hot and the teas are packed with healing properties.

After lunch at Common Ground we decided to loop back through town and head out to Bhagsu to hike the waterfall.  Bhagsu is supposedly a ‘hip Israeli town’…ahh, it was cool but it didn’t feel like Dharamsala.  I heard before I came here that the air would feel spiritual here, that seems to be an understatement.   The waterfall was beautiful however I could see the devastating effects of climate change as the valley wore clear marks of how much larger the rush of water was in the past, today was a small fraction of that.  I heard from a few people already about the winters being more mild and the melt off from the higher peaks has dwindled.  It seems as though tourism is down and its been a very tough year so far for many.

After a good 8-hour excursion today, I’m back at my room, sitting on the balcony watching the sunset over the mountain peaks. We are heading out for dinner in a little while, I’m very hungry, very tired….tomorrow starts our teaching experience.  Every second here,  I further comprehend my purpose in this town.   It’s a huge idea to digest…I am in India right now, I am here to teach massage to Tibetan refugees, I am on the verge of learning about things I never thought I would, I’m going to be immersed in a new community almost 9,000 miles away from my home.   For me, there is nothing better than this.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 7:59 am and is filed under Triathlon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.