Amritsar was the following destination, luckily we were all feeling better, so we could take advantage of the free food given out in the temple! It was an amazing thing to watch- a efficient human production line, some people handed you plates, then you went an sat in the huge hall on the floor in lines, then people came down the rows with huge pots of dall, chapattis, water and sweet and distributed them, when you'd finished, you handed your plate to the huge team doing the washing up. The preparation of the food was very similar, with different groups doing different jobs, e.g. one group chopped onions, one group peeled garlic, etc. The whole thing was run by volunteers and it was really good food! As well as the delicious food, the temple was pretty good too! It has a big pool of water in the middle and the special golden shrine in the middle, which is where the Guru Granth Sahib is kept. The whole place had a really nice peaceful atmosphere and it was so beautiful, especially at sunset when the gold shrine is reflected in the water. We stayed in the special temple accommodation for free, we really enjoyed it, as all of the sikhs were so kind to us. Whilst in Amritsar, we went to see the closing ceremony for the border between India and Pakistan, which was really fun. There was lots of dancing, people running with the Indian flag, lots of marching and shouting from soldiers in amazing hats. There were a lot more people in the India side than the Pakistan side, and they had their men and women separated, which our side didn't.
We then went on some of the scariest but most picturesque bus rides I've ever been on, as we headed into the Himalayas. The roads were very narrow and were right on the edge of huge drops and there weren't any barriers! However, the views of snow-capped mountains were amazing and looked just like the pictures. We finally arrived in Dharamsala and got another bus up to McLeod Ganj, where we were staying for 5 days. It was a really lovely town and it was full of little cafes and Tibetans
selling wooly hats, gloves, jumpers and socks. It was very cold compared to what we're used to now, so we all bought ourselves jumpers. It's also where the Dalai Lama lives, and we were lucky enough to be there when he was doing a few days of public teachings, so we got to go to one! We travelled up to his monastery, which is in the best location- there are massive snow-covered mountains rising up from behind it. The Dalai Lama was speaking inside a big hall full of hundreds of Tibetan monks in their orange robes, but there was a special place just in the doorway where foreigners could sit and have a really good view. We managed to sit there for about 20 minutes before someone else came, but it was so cool, we were literally less than 100 metres away from him! He was speaking in Tibetan, but he was really funny to listen to because he kept doing this little chuckle! Later we found the translation on the radio and listened to it while the monks brought us cups of chai. Whilst we were in McLeod Ganj, we went to a centre for helping Tibetan refugees and helped out with an English conversation class for an hour, it was really interesting.
We had one more long (10 hour) bus journey to Manali, our next stop in the Himalayas. Manali is known for having lots of places to do adventure sports, so we spent one day doing white water rafting, which was really fun! The rest of our stay in Manali didn't go to plan, as something awful happened, but this would've been a lot harder if we hadn't had all the support we received from Project Trust and home, so thank you for that.
We didn't manage to follow our remaining itinerary, but we get to the Taj Mahal in Agra, which we were all glad about. We went very early in the morning, while it was still pretty cool and there weren't very many people around. It is just as stunning as in all the pictures and the way it is so perfectly symmetrical is astounding. We also managed to meet up with some other Project Trust volunteers while we were there, which was really nice.
We had a short stay in Mumbai, where we saw the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
From Mumbai we got a sleeper bus to Goa, for a bit of rest and relaxation. We stayed a few days in Arambol, where we spent a lot of time on the beach and one day we hired bikes and drove around the surrounding area. We then moved on to Palolem; we stayed right on the beach and spent ages swimming in the really warm sea, it was a really nice way to end the holiday.
We then went on some of the scariest but most picturesque bus rides I've ever been on, as we headed into the Himalayas. The roads were very narrow and were right on the edge of huge drops and there weren't any barriers! However, the views of snow-capped mountains were amazing and looked just like the pictures. We finally arrived in Dharamsala and got another bus up to McLeod Ganj, where we were staying for 5 days. It was a really lovely town and it was full of little cafes and Tibetans
selling wooly hats, gloves, jumpers and socks. It was very cold compared to what we're used to now, so we all bought ourselves jumpers. It's also where the Dalai Lama lives, and we were lucky enough to be there when he was doing a few days of public teachings, so we got to go to one! We travelled up to his monastery, which is in the best location- there are massive snow-covered mountains rising up from behind it. The Dalai Lama was speaking inside a big hall full of hundreds of Tibetan monks in their orange robes, but there was a special place just in the doorway where foreigners could sit and have a really good view. We managed to sit there for about 20 minutes before someone else came, but it was so cool, we were literally less than 100 metres away from him! He was speaking in Tibetan, but he was really funny to listen to because he kept doing this little chuckle! Later we found the translation on the radio and listened to it while the monks brought us cups of chai. Whilst we were in McLeod Ganj, we went to a centre for helping Tibetan refugees and helped out with an English conversation class for an hour, it was really interesting.
We had one more long (10 hour) bus journey to Manali, our next stop in the Himalayas. Manali is known for having lots of places to do adventure sports, so we spent one day doing white water rafting, which was really fun! The rest of our stay in Manali didn't go to plan, as something awful happened, but this would've been a lot harder if we hadn't had all the support we received from Project Trust and home, so thank you for that.
We didn't manage to follow our remaining itinerary, but we get to the Taj Mahal in Agra, which we were all glad about. We went very early in the morning, while it was still pretty cool and there weren't very many people around. It is just as stunning as in all the pictures and the way it is so perfectly symmetrical is astounding. We also managed to meet up with some other Project Trust volunteers while we were there, which was really nice.
We had a short stay in Mumbai, where we saw the Gateway of India and the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.
From Mumbai we got a sleeper bus to Goa, for a bit of rest and relaxation. We stayed a few days in Arambol, where we spent a lot of time on the beach and one day we hired bikes and drove around the surrounding area. We then moved on to Palolem; we stayed right on the beach and spent ages swimming in the really warm sea, it was a really nice way to end the holiday.
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