Our guesthouse, the Kunga Guesthouse was not open yet, but the milkman, who arrived at 6:10, assured us that the attached restaurant opened at 6:30. So we waited and soon enough the owner of the guesthouse came upstairs from his private residence and was very accommodating. He gave us tea on the terrace and the “best room in the house” which he said Cindy Crawford stayed in nine years ago when she came to Dharamsala. The room was on the fourth floor with a balcony looking out into the valley below all for only $10 a night! Jimmy and I watched the sunrise and then we crashed until noon, since I did not sleep at all the night before.
When we woke up we showered and walked around the down – it was amazing how Tibetan the people look. 80,000 Tibetan people marched over the Himalayan Mountains to Dharamsala when the Dali Lama was forced into exile here. Its so beautiful here and full of life – a stark contrast to the poor military controlled Lhasa in Tibet. We found a great coffee shop with free wifi – a first here in India and on top of that they serve large good lattes! And waffles. The Moonpeak Espresso is a must if you come to Dharamsala. We had dinner at our hotel, at Nick’s Italian Restaurant, where I had a large salad, which was great. Nick’s is recommended in the guidebook as the best restaurant in Dharamsala.
The next morning we got up early and went for a nice walk. Then back to the Moonpeak and now we are off to see the Dali Lama – well actually just his modest residence, a far cry from the Potala Palace in Tibet – but Jimmy is planning on seeing him. We leave tomorrow; unfortunately, we could stay here for a month as well.
When we arrived in Delhi it was so busy, dirty, and down right overwhelming that we didn’t really like India at first and could not understand why people would ever travel here. But after spending time in rural India we have a whole new appreciation for the country. I’m glad we had the opportunity to experience both aspects – we have learned something for everywhere we’ve been and are so grateful to have each and every experience – the bad with the good!
2 comments:
what sorts of guidebook are you using?
what does Jimmy think of In Fed We Trust?
How did you organize all of the places that you've stayed in?
Mary has a great imagination.
Well its always great to get comments on the blog!
We really like the "Rough Guides" series of guidebooks. And we have been really lucky about just trading them with people as we go and have only had to buy one.
I really enjoyed, "In the Fed We Trust." It is a really good chronology of the current financial crisis and addresses a lot of the background happenings that are hard to find in the media. I am a big fan of Bernanke in general, and after reading the book I understand why he decided to bailout some financial institutions and what not. Its definitely worth reading.
We have been using hostelworld.com for a lot of our hostel bookings. The guidebooks have come in when in really small towns that are not on that website. And a few times we have just gotten off a train or bus somewhere and just found the nearest hotel that looks okay. We have been really lucky and always found something pretty nice for a decent price.
Ya Mary is great, and has really done most of the blogging and really enjoys it. She really likes to have a project.
Thanks for the comments!
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