We engaged a taxi for the whole day. The driver’s name is Manoj, must be in his teens. Very enthusiastic about his job and very very respectful. I think it comes with the culture. We headed to Dharamsala and Mcleodgunj –the headquarters of His Holiness
Dalia Lama ji. The travel was awesome- narrow roads from one hill to another, from one town to another. On the way we saw many Bhuddist monks. The scene was just as it was shown in “Discovery Channel” – Beautiful colors, warm weather, Blue Mountains a sense of peace within and out. Maybe I am just romanticizing a bit, but we could feel it. We stopped at the famous Dal Lake only to be disappointed to find a pond. We visited the Buddhist temple. Unlike other temples, this
temple was different. There were no people rushing you from behind to move on, choclates; biscuits; tea; bread being offered as prasad to the deity and disciples arguing with their teachers (part of Buddhism). We ate delicious lunch in the temple premises restaurant. Saw Richard Gear's photo with the owner of the restaurant. Spinned all the prayer wheels. On our way back we did more shopping. I stopped at a flute place to buy a flute for DH. The owner played the flutes to
show me the various sizes and bases. I bought a wide base sound flute made out of bamboo from Nepal to DH. The flute shop owner is from Nepal (one of my ToVisit place), mentioned that he would return back to Nepal during winter and comeback in the summer with more goods. His family would make the flutes and his friend who visited India for the first time is the artist who etched Sri Krishna on the flute. Both gentlemen are pretty accomplished artists with humble nature. I could not withstand or come to terms with the simplicity. I could not hide my pretense. It silently bothered me of all the money,
materials and food we waste and not worthy of. On our way back we stopped at an old church. Since we covered pretty much everything, we decided to move on to Dalhousie that evening. Manoj arranged for another Taxi that can drive us to Dalhousie. Before we left to Dalhousie we toured the norling Institute and their students working on varous arts. Shyam was our chauffer for the evening. It was very dangerous route, 8 –feet ghat road with road slides along the way. Reached Dalhousie at 10:00PM and Shyam had to head back to Dharamsala. We prayed for his safety. Finished our dinner and slept like a log.
We engaged a taxi for the whole day. The driver’s name is Manoj, must be in his teens. Very enthusiastic about his job and very very respectful. I think it comes with the culture. We headed to Dharamsala and Mcleodgunj –the headquarters of His Holiness
Dalia Lama ji. The travel was awesome- narrow roads from one hill to another, from one town to another. On the way we saw many Bhuddist monks. The scene was just as it was shown in “Discovery Channel” – Beautiful colors, warm weather, Blue Mountains a sense of peace within and out. Maybe I am just romanticizing a bit, but we could feel it. We stopped at the famous Dal Lake only to be disappointed to find a pond. We visited the Buddhist temple. Unlike other temples, this 
temple was different. There were no people rushing you from behind to move on, choclates; biscuits; tea; bread being offered as prasad to the deity and disciples arguing with their teachers (part of Buddhism). We ate delicious lunch in the temple premises restaurant. Saw Richard Gear's photo with the owner of the restaurant. Spinned all the prayer wheels. On our way back we did more shopping. I stopped at a flute place to buy a flute for DH. The owner played the flutes to 
show me the various sizes and bases. I bought a wide base sound flute made out of bamboo from Nepal to DH. The flute shop owner is from Nepal (one of my ToVisit place), mentioned that he would return back to Nepal during winter and comeback in the summer with more goods. His family would make the flutes and his friend who visited India for the first time is the artist who etched Sri Krishna on the flute. Both gentlemen are pretty accomplished artists with humble nature. I could not withstand or come to terms with the simplicity. I could not hide my pretense. It silently bothered me of all the money, 
materials and food we waste and not worthy of. On our way back we stopped at an old church. Since we covered pretty much everything, we decided to move on to Dalhousie that evening. Manoj arranged for another Taxi that can drive us to Dalhousie. Before we left to Dalhousie we toured the norling Institute and their students working on varous arts. Shyam was our chauffer for the evening. It was very dangerous route, 8 –feet ghat road with road slides along the way. Reached Dalhousie at 10:00PM and Shyam had to head back to Dharamsala. We prayed for his safety. Finished our dinner and slept like a log.
