Tibetan Refugees, Golden Tempels, Desert, Camels and the Taj Mahal!

Sorry, I know it's been a while, but we were just too busy the last couple of weeks! Now Ede has gone back to Germany and I'm back in Delhi, with loads of time to fill you in on the latest events!
So after Manali we spent 3 lovely days in Dharamshala, or more precisely in McLeod Ganj, where the Dalai Lama has his official residence. On the first day it was raining pretty hard and we spent it almost completely at the Tibetan Childrens Village (TCV), where the -mostly orphaned- children of tibetan refugees can live and learn. A wonderful place- so good, that I immediately tried to apply as a teacher there, which unfortunately is most likely to not work out, since I am not a real educated teacher... The next day we looked at the Tibetan Museum and visited the home of the Dalai Lama- rather walked around it, of course! And in the evening I was in for a special treat, since we were actually able to find a "cinema" showing the newest Harry Potter movie in this small little mountain town! On the third day it was already time to move on again, since we had lost too much time before in Manali, and we headed for Amritsar near the Pakistani boarder. There we got up early in the morning the following day, in order to look at the Golden Tempel, the holiest monument of the Sikh. For this we had to dress "appropriately", in other words cover up completely, but hey, funny picture!
We had planned to take a bus to Bikaner from there, but there was none available the next day. Since we didn't want to spend more time there, we decided to head back to Delhi, from where -or so we thought- it would be easier to get a train connection to Jaisalmer, which was our next destination. Back in Delhi we saw, that there were no possible train connections for a couple of days, and since Ede didn't have that much time left before having to return to Germany, we decided to hire a car and driver for the last part of our trip (very posh, I know!).
With this driver we then left Delhi the next day and finally arrived in Bikaner in the middle of the night. The next morning we looked at the fort and the RAT Temple there (I could feel my grandmother turning in her grave!), before continuing on to Jaisalmer. There, almost in the desert, it was probably even hotter than in Delhi, but less humid and thus a little more comfortable. Also, our nice hotel had a pool, and so we spent the rest of the day "beating the heat"!
The following day then took us all the way into the Thar Desert, after having explored the city of Jaisalmer for a while, which basically looks like a giant sand castle! We watched the sunset over the desert and had loads of fun, playing around in the sand like little children (I think the other tourists were a little astonished...). After dinner, we went back into the desert via camel-cart, taking actual beds with us, and spent what was left of the night after the whiskey was finished under the stars. Early the next morning we were awakened by heat and sunlight, and after breakfast, the actual camel safari started. We rode our camels through the desert for about two hours, before stopping for lunch in the shade of some small trees. After lunch, until about 5 o' clock it was not possible to do anything but lie around in the shade, because it was SO hot!!! After this extended lunch break we rode on for about another one and a half hours, before we set up our beds for the night. We spent another beautiful night in the desert and saw some of the most amazing shooting stars ever...
The next morning we returned to "base camp" and afterwards to Jaisalmer, where we had a great dinner with MEAT (only vegeterians there!), cooked by our very own driver!
Our next stop then was Jodhpur which I was unfortunately unable to completely enjoy, as I was sick again. Inspite of this, we were able to see the impressive Meherangarh Fort, where we took part in one of the most interesting tours I have experienced so far.
From the "blue city" of Jodhpur (in former times, the blue paint was a sign for Brahmans living there, today it is still used as bug repellent!) we continued on to Udaipur, passing the Ranakpur Temple on the way. After all the desert landscape, the green hills and lakes of Udaipur were a welcoming change, and we really enjoyed exploring the town and the area around it. By then I had started taking antibiotics and was feeling a little better, unfortunately I was also getting paranoid, though (fuck bacteria and fuck sideeffects!)... this became so bad, that when I was talking to Ahmad on the phone from Pushkar, he decided to come and see me there- its a 450km, 10 hour journey from Delhi to Pushkar... Despite of all the madness we were still able to look at the holy lake in the middle of the town, where we were blessed or something like that and unwillingly henna-painted, before we were asked to "donate" a larger sum of money to charity... That's India, baby ;-)
Then we headed for Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, now with two drivers, two cars, two boys and me in the middle... things there got kind of crazy, too, so I'll just mention the highlights: first bathtub in 6 months and probably the best fish I have ever eaten in a billion-star hotel, thanks to my boyfriend!! We also did some shopping, blankets, wall hangings and stuff like that, which resultet in more madness and confusing discussions about honesty and taking commission... but hey, we got some really nice things!!
The last stop of our pathetic parade was finally Agra and the Taj Mahal. It was a bit weird looking at the ultimate monument of love with two guys at my side but the beauty of the place succeeded in pushing all conflict aside for a while and we witnessed the Taj being bathed in the light of the first morning sun- stunning.

Well, now I'm back in Delhi, a bit "travel-weary" and just relaxing and enjoying time with Ahmad... It's still hot, but starting to rain and to get better, and hey, we have airconditioning and a DVD-player, so who needs the indian street-chaos, anyway...?!

Leh, Manali and spectacular roads in between

Hey, we're back- still in Manali right now but moving on to Dharmshala tomorrow. Unfortunately, I spent the last 4 days in bed here sick, one day Ede even got sick, too, but today we had a lovely day walking around town, sitting in cafes and playing chess on a river bank! Due to the illness, that's just about all we did in Manali, but it is a very beautiful place in a valley with a river running through it, surrounded by mountains and forest and with cute little streets with loads of shops and cafes.
The trip here from Leh took us 19 hours- we crossed the second highest motorable pass in the world (about 5500 m) and were able to witness an astonishing landscape ranging from forests over glaciers to almost desert-like wilderness. But I can tell you, even the most beautiful scenery loses some of it's charm after about 12 hours of bumpy "road" and no sleep!
But let me tell you about Leh, wich was quite an experience- very close to what I would imagine Tibet to be like.
On our first day there we climbed up to the old Leh Palace overlooking the town, which is not in use anymore, thus empty, but still posesses an incredible amount of spiritual energy! We felt so peaceful, no, at peace when we were sitting up there, surrounded by buddhist prayer flags...
The next day we just stayed in the town which is lovely by itself, doing some shopping (cheap and colourful clothes- paradise for me!!) and eating a lot of tibetan food which they also have there. On day three we decided, we needed to get out of the city as not to go crazy (happens to both of us after approximately three days at most), so we took a bus to Thiksey, about 20km away. There we looked at the Gompa, which actually turned out to be a whole city of houses, temples and balconies- very impressive and very beautiful! From there we walked about 4 km to Shey, passing a whole field of Stupas, in the middle of which we had a small picknick. Then we decided to not return to the road, but to climb up to Shey Palace from the back. We underestimated the altitude, the sun and also the immense amount of strength you need to wald uphill in the sand, but we finally managed to reach the old ruins of the palace (and were very proud of ourselves, too!). After a short rest we climbed down to the still intact part of the palace, and there we had our most amazing experience yet. We were able to witness a buddhist religious ceremony! At the back of the room was the Lama, who was reading from a book, and in front of him, women were sitting on the ground, chanting and repeating the words he was reading. This had such an overwhelming effect on us, that we were actually both close to tears and sat down on the ground next to them, listening in silence and feeling the energy. When the chanting was over, some monks sitting on the side began playing drums and trumpets and also reading lines from a book, all at once and all different, which resulted in a weird, hypnotizing mixture of sounds. At the same time, tea was being passed around to the women, and when a little girl came over to us and offered us a cup, too, we felt more happy than words could describe. The ceremony ended with the women receiving cookies and bread, and there too, we were included. We left the Palace in a sort of trance, with big smiles on our faces and everyone smiling back at us!
We tried to catch a bus back to Leh, but none came, so we tried stopping a private bus and succeeded- next thing we knew, we were in a bus full of veterinary medicine students, singing Greenday songs and taking pictures with them! Talk about a crazy but perfect day!!!
After this experience we decided, that we didn't need a lot more action for our last day in Leh and just looked at the nearby Shanti Stupa and played chess in a nice little cafe. At eleven in the evening we packed our things in the dark because of another power-out and left for Manali at around one in the morning. The rest of the story you know.
I'm now glad I packed all the meds that I've been carrying around uselessly for the last four and a half months and appreciating being healthy again! Sometimes you just need to feel miserable for a couple of days to be able to appreciate, how good you actually have it!! Looking forward to Dharmshala and McLeod Ganj which will be our final destination there and who knows- maybe we'll even get to see the Dalai Lama...?!

Love you all, peace!