Kurt Archer

The journey began in Amritsar with Shahid insisting on meeting up with these girls we met at the temple, who did not speak a word of English. Lovely ladies though. This primal distraction lasted till about 4 p.m. after which we went our separate ways and returned to Guru Ram Das, where we were staying during our visit there. We got caught up in a conversation with an Australian lady who was bicycling with her boyfriend across India and shared some amazing stories with her. We left the hostel just after 5 and reached the station in time to take the 5:30 bus and reached PathanKot at 8:30 – after spending 3 hours cramped in a tiny noisy bus. Upon arrival we settle to eat some chana (chick peas) and the vendor tried to cleverly overcharge us! Our bus to Dharmsala left at 9:30, but because of the ordeal with the food vendor, we were held back and the bus was pulling away with us running behind it frantically. Luckily we caught up to it, as it was the last bus that evening – but it was completely packed! So for the next 4 hours I sat on my bag in the aisle with drowsy people falling onto me throughout the whole journey.

We then met Weng Lee, or Sitting on a Mountain, Watching the Sea, as is his real Korean name means. He looks like the teacher in the Karate Kid! I’m not joking, short old man long white hair pulled into a pony tail and a slim long white Asian beard only on his chin. He is a master of Tae Kwon Do, Yoga and a teacher of Psychology at Yale campus in Seoul.

So you can imagine our entourage, a burly actor, a skinny young Canadian and an old Korean master rolling into McLeod Ganj at 1:30am. We woke up an incredibly disoriented driver who took us up the hill to a virtually dead city. Everything was closed even the hotels. So for 30 minutes our trio combed the quiet streets of McLeod Ganj. We finally ran into an Irish lady huffing down the street with a very drunk British boyfriend in tow. They invite us to their hotel, which turns out to be locked and 30 minutes or so later trying to wake someone up to get in finally succeeds, but is short availed as the manager apologizes for not being able to give us a room. So the trio gets invited to stay with the couple… cramped on the floor of their tiny apartment room. Weng and Shahid were on the floor and I was on the bed beside the drunken boyfriend. By 6 a.m., the sun comes up and Weng is  already awake, using his magnifying glass to read some book before he takes off into the day. That was about the same time that boyfriend tries to cuddle with ME! So pushing off a drunken man when trying to get some rest proved impossible, so I moved in place of Weng and awoke a few hours later, well rested.

Even with the entire struggle, it was well worth it, McLeod Ganj is a paradise! Wait up for my next post for more details.

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