http://woolgatherer.net Travel Blog of Nicholas Taylor Sun, 21 Dec 2008 11:36:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Until one month ago, I'd never visited Bangalore. Having been away from India for a year, I wondered how she's looking these days. I took a taxi from the airport and the city seemed peaceful, even serene. The airport itself was stunningly modern and would not be out of place in ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/12/21/notes-on-bangalore/ Hello, faithful readers (you'd have to be faithful still to be checking this ghost town of a blog). As I've hardly heard from most of you, owing to my rather abrupt disappearance from the blog world, I thought I'd post a quick update on what has happened since the previous posting, ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/11/19/an-update/ After the retreat, McLeod Ganj looked empty. The tourist high season had passed, and the mountain air was growing crispy and cold. I was the only customer in my guest house, and the restaurants were empty. Even JJI Café lacked the buzz it once had. It was time to move ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/06/01/to-charity-and-to-holy-bathing/ Lonely Planet describes McLeod Ganj as "a major centre for Buddhist scholarship", or something like that. There was certainly no shortage of monks, nor of Westerners following them around hoping to absorb some of their austerity and self-discipline. The buildings of McLeod Ganj were papered with advertisements for a vast ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/05/31/the-dharmakaya-barely-appears/ JJI Cafe became our usual hangout. Each new day started with a JJI Special (eggs, Tibetan bread, stir-fried vegetables, and hot chai) and ended with a Tibetan thentuk or momo soup at the very same table, overlooking the valley. At night we'd go downstairs to the owner's apartment to watch ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/05/06/fortunate-one/ The first matter in Dharamsala was to confront Indian beer. We chose McLlo's pub—hardly an ideal Indian venue, the decor of the place being clearly inspired by TGI Friday's, but authenticity matters little to the travel-weary and unshowered. Besides, only two places in McLeod Ganj serve alcohol. McLlo's is a ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/03/19/what-we-talk-about-when-we-drink-with-tibetans/ Our bus arrives at midday in the hill station of Dharamsala. I'm on my way to McLeod Ganj, the famous Tibetan settlement, and home of the His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Our bus wheezes its way up the steep Dhauladhar mountains, watched meaningfully by monkeys. The road grows steeper ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/01/20/chenrezig-may-you-stay-until-samsara-ends/ The bus driver is gone an awfully long time. Lonely Planet gives the population of Pathankot, this bus-transfer outpost, as 140,000. I step outside to buy a drink, which I bring back to the bus, dodging the shawl salesmen. One of the passengers, a young man with a thin moustache, ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/01/13/a-question-of-questions/ The immensity of India doesn't strike you right away. A visitor landing in Delhi or Bombay might comment sourly on the congestion, waste entire days in cross-town transit, or wince at the startling cacophony of car horns and Bollywood dance music, but he is unlikely to conclude that these places ... http://woolgatherer.net/2008/01/13/the-state-religion/ After grudgingly stuffing a small billfold of baksheesh into Bashir's shirt pocket, I climbed into the white jeep and closed the door. I was the last passenger to arrive, so I was given the passenger seat, a crumbling cushion sitting on a wobbly pedestal. Behind were several Kashmiri families piled ... http://woolgatherer.net/2007/12/25/jammu/