India: Driving to Dharamsala

Driving toward the mountains.

Our taxi drives down Dharamsala's narrow road.

We left Amritsar in the morning in a long-distance taxi we had hired for our trip to Dharamsala. More about the actual driving later, but we did all survive the five-hour trip. We stopped at a little roadside place where I drank a Thums-Up and our group had a discussion on sustainability, meat production (we had two vegetarians in our group) and more while attempting to solve all the world's problems. Later, we stopped for lunch and got some snacks. I tried my first bag of Kurkure (Indian spicy Cheetos) and Munch (an Indian Kit-Kat).

As we drove, we got our first glimpse of the Himalayas. The snow-capped peaks were a sharp contrast to the heat we were leaving. The roads around and in Dharmsala and Mcleod Ganj (the name for Upper Dharamsala, which is where we stayed) were very narrow and windy along the mountain edges, but we made it to our hotel, the Pema Thang Guest House. We had a great balcony and windows that looked out over the Tibetan Buddhist temple complex and the mountains and valleys. And the weather was a bit cooler — I even pulled out my sweatshirt at night.

Mountain view from a rooftop restaurant in Mcleod Ganj.