2nd View
Relaxing start, coffee and chat. We were so slow to move that soon after, Grandma delivered sweets and chai for us all.
We left with our French hitch hiker at 11am. We said goodbye at the end of the road and walked 10 metres to the bus stop. By the time we got there our friend had already secured a lift on a motorbike!
The bus arrived, we clambered on and up the hill to Dharamshala we went. On this journey the bus did a sudden, violent swerve to avoid a car. Yikes, we all clung on with white knuckles.
The bus dropped us off at the station and straight up the steep steps we climbed. We called into a little modern looking cafe for a tikka chana before continuing uphill for a further 10 minutes to the Tibetan Museum. We arrived at exactly 1pm. It closed at exactly 1pm!
We took advantage of their lunch break by eating in the small Tibetan canteen opposite. Darryl had the Tibetan thali and Christine had thukpa, a traditional Tibetan noodle soup. Both were delicious.
At 2pm we headed into the museum, just as it started to rain! We spent nearly 3 hours reading, listening and watching about the Tibetan culture, the country, the people and the awful way they have been treated over many years.
Whilst we were in there a very well dressed, softy spoken man in traditional Tibetan clothes came over to say hello and ask how we were. He told us it was a very special day for him as he had met His Holiness. You could see from the smile on his face how much this meant to him and it was lovely to share the moment with him.
The museum is so well set out and informative you could probably spend all day there, if you watched every video, listened to every soundclip and read every information board. However, the museum closes at 5pm and we also wanted to get back down the mountain before it got too dark and cold.
We walked back to the bus stop and a bus was leaving immediately.
Back at our accommodation we sat and chatted and had something to eat before having an "earlish" night as we have an 5am start tomorrow.
