Norbulingka & McCload Gange..

Next door to Ispiice is a Tebatan institute called Norbulingka, its a centre which is preserving Tibetan culture. I visited it for the first time the other day & found it so peaceful & relaxing. It has a beautiful temple set in Japenese style gardens. There is a huge golden budha, a traditional Tibetan wood work centre, sewing workshop & Tibetan doll museum. To my delight the cafe is so peaceful with the sound of water features & trees all around. Also they serve my favorite ginger & lemon tea & cake! I can see myself becoming a regular there!

I have spent the w.end in McCload which is a tourist hotspot hill station town. It is where the DL temple is & there is a mix of Tibetans, Indian, Japenese & western people. Despite it been an obvious tourist trap with stalls & stalls lining the streets selling everything from Tibetan Yak wool blankets (necessity round here at night!), Buddhas, Mo mo's(delicious parcels of food, a bit like Gautzers), I really like it. Everyone who has travelled around India however says its a break from India! I am staying at a hotel that costs 200 rupees or 2.60pounds & although basic is fine & i awoke on Sun morn to the sounds of chanting coming from the temple. I love chanting & it sounded so beautiful. I ventured to a yoga class on Sun morn, i have to say it was the most comedy value class I have ever been too! The teacher was an indian & had the most hilarious voice, he seemed like he should be a gay bolliwood star! His exhales consisted of snorting really loudly! At first i thought it was just for the breathing exercises but it continued throughout the class! He continually saying things like "no money tension, no work tension, no food tension & noooooooooo friend tension, only positive thoughts,negative thoughts outside, all problems will be gone!". I expect reading this you cant imagine how this sounds funny so I have asked a guy i met at the class (Paul) to film him so I can post it. He is just a classic! His yoga practice was quite different to the way i would teach,no alignment & insisting people should do things which they cannot do because of their body types! If nothing else the class made me laugh internally throughout it & thats a good thing!

In the evening myself & Paul went to a local Tibetan & then modern music gigs! The first the guy who organises the events was so humble, apologising to the audience for not having chairs to sit on but they rely on donations to keep the charity going. Everywhere in Mccload there are many charities raising awareness & funds to make people aware of what is happening in Tibet with the Chinese government. Its quite moving to see people who spend their lives fighting to free their country. There are many centres that put on evening talks, I went to one where a Tibetan Monk described his escape from Tibet after he had been held in detention by the chinese & beaten for protesting against the government. It really is shocking!