Travelling

Day 8 – Norbulingka

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Our next stop is the Norbulingka art school and gallery.

Karmapa, the saint who is 2nd in line to Dalai Lana lives in monastry near here.

Here they specialise in Tanqka.

Tanqka is a tibetean art in which they paint or weaves or painted. Religious practice, eyes painted last 15th of each month. They do not sign paintings, ego, minimise
Body, speech, mind of buddah, compassion buddah.

Each Tanqka represents different things. 
buddah deities
Peaceful,humble white
Enlightment green
Fearful black meditation

Meditation in art

DAY 1- YTT

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Day 1 was pretty relaxed I arrived just in time for breakfast, didn’t really speak to anyone .

I got some Indian cous cous and daal. After breakfast went to my room, glad I had set low expectactions of it in my mind. As it was very simple and not the cleanest place ever!

My roomate is nice, girl from Norway…

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My first encounter with the Himalayas….

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Finally got off the bus at Kangra and a driver has come to collect me to take me to my home for the next month, Pops Resort in Palumpur. Its an approximately 35km and should take 45mins.

The yoga course has already started, I was expecting to reach Kangra at 6.45am and be at Pops by 7.30am so I wouldn’t have missed too much. Unfortunately the bus I was on was delayed by 2 hours, didn’t reach Kangra till 9am, so I missed more than I thought I would have.

Sitting in the car driving along a relatively flat road in a small car the yoga centre have arranged for me.

I was just admiring the flat farmland along the road, then all of a sudden I blurt out to the driver..

omg are those mountains?

And he replies yes…

It’s incredible, my first view of the Himalaya range, the worlds greatest mountain range. As we drive along, the views become more stunning. I am very excited to be here!

As we drive along the small road full of pot holes I realise I really am going somewhere secluded amongst those ginormous mountains…

Tired, but excited just want to shower and get involved with the course!,

I made it here….finally….

The rockiest ride in the world…

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Even my iPad won’t stay straight i attempt to write this post…

After the service station stop the road started getting a little bumpy bumpy…this is where the actual journey began. For the rest of the journey the road was rocky, at times i was thinking how are the tyres surviving?! Also had an incident of the bus swerving and stopping abruptly to avoid something on the road.

People were singing Hindi songs during the journey which made the experience more surreal. I do feel as though I’ve been bitten by Mosquitos all over my body, don’t know if that’s me being paranoid!

I managed to sleep for most of the journey, waking up at 5.50am thinking I might miss my stop, I will be getting off at Kangra, just an hour before Dharamsala. Worrying because I’m not sure of where the bus was, wish my phones Internet was working so I could track it. Also can’t seethe bus driver going out of his way to let me know my stop is there!

I wake up to see the beautiful sunrise amongst the mountains, the view is def worth the rocky ride.

Went and asked of our current location and apparently we are 1 hour away from Kangra and they decide to have a morning tea stop. I’ve had 4 missed calls from the driver who is waiting for me.

Poor guy, had to wait 3 hours!

Delhi – Dharamsala by coach

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My flight from Delhi-Dharamsala was cancelled, after evaluating a few options my sis arranged for me to get a 12 hour overnight coach from Delhi to. dharmsala.

My thoughts on the new cleaner India turned as I was dropped to majuna, which was the small coach hub. This town was part of old Delhi.

The Punjabi Service Station

The coach departed around 7pm it was supposed to leave at 6.45pm. 3 hours later we had a dinner stop at I guess what you could call a punjabi service station. Id fallen asleep on the bus, so staggered out the bus to find an outdoor Punjabi restaurant. I wasn’t really thinking about the portion sizes when I ordered, so I spent 220 rupees on what would be a meal enough for 2/3 people! The food was yum, as I was eating I looked at all the coaches thinking shit, can’t remember which was mine! One of the coaches was hooting, indicating that it was ready to leave , so I rushed to get the bill thinking it was my coach, but in fact it was another…phew…so I had a 10 mins extra to check out the small shops, where I bought an Indian sim card from the Idea network, think I got ripped off, as it cost 510 rupees, 98rup for 2gb internet, and 110 rupees worth of credit.

An Aussie Indian wedding, rainy Sydney and a logo later…

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I am sitting on the plane, ready to depart Sydney…and what a surprise the sun has come out to play!
Whilst they’ve been having a heat wave in London, It has been chilly, often raining over the past 9 days here in Sydney. We think the londoners brought the weather with us.

I must confess I feel absolutely exhausted right now. After my Vietnam adventure I flew to Australia for my sister in laws sisters wedding.

The Aussie-Punjabi wedding

The wedding spanned over 4 days, beginning with the mehndi night, the sikh wedding was in a gurudwara followed by a beach front lunch. The grand finale of the wedding was a lovely reception with a view of the harbour bridge. The couple treated their guests to a Bolly-waltz, which highlighted how fusion their new union is! It was up there in the best first dances I’ve seen, well i think it was(up there with my sis in law and bro!)! We were all going crazy!

The wedding was beautiful and I got to spend some good time with my bro and sis in law out there.

We had a nice Thai lunch before heading off to the airport, I must say the service from restaurant staff I’ve experienced in Sydney has been appalling! Food was really good. I’m still scarred about how expensive Sydney is, breakfast with 3 drinks and toast, yogurt and a bagel $30.

Bangkok

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I had 8 hours to kill, so I decided to have a full body massage in Bangkok airport- this was the best £25 I have spent! it was just what I needed after roaming around the airport terminal for 3 hours.

Then off I went on my Qantas flight to Sydney…

Beautiful Hoi An

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City

The next stop on our route is Hoi An a UNESCO listed heritage city.

Hotel

We flew into Danang Airport and hoi an early evening, there and it looked as though we’re in the middle of nowhere, the taxi driver drops us outside an ominous looking door, we peer through and all that can be heard is what sounds like to me a bunch of jungle insects, crickets and god knows what else!

Things to do

I’ve been chilling a bit this morning, nice enjoying the little sun we’ve had so far! It’s been raining non stop otherwise.

We’re at our second stop a city called Hoi An, it’s very pretty. Weather is nice today and we’re staying in a nice little resort with only 5 rooms!!

Our next stop will be con dao island then I’ll fly to Sydney on 24th – probably without a tan at this rate!

City rating
Hotel rating
Weather in September – rained most days

Crazy Hanoi

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Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi late night to witness a fatal road accident on our way to the hotel. The traffic is crazy in Hanoi, you dont know which way to look, left-right or behind you. Already the city reminds me of other Asian cities such as Bangkok and Mumbai.

Hotel

We stayed at a hotel called Hanoi Moment, it’s in a central location probably 5 min walk to the lake. It’s a relatively new hotel, the rooms are clean,reasonable size and free wireless, in room laptop, communal ipad in the reception area, fresh fruit in your bedroom everyday.

To do

The main purpose for our trip to Hanoi was to visit Halong Bay. Unfortunately the weather ruined what would have been some of the most spectacular views in south east asia.