Dharamsala

It's Thursday afternoon and we arrived in Dharamsala yesterday afternoon. It was a real wrench to leave the Judge's Court but Jeremy insisted. A fairly leisurely drive with a stop for a picnic lunch at a temple hewn out of solid rock. Now where have I seen that before?

Towards the end of the die we passed through a village where a fair was in full swing. There was the usual fairground rides for the kids, loads of stalls selling sticky treats and the highlight -- wrestling. Yes, men in pants, brawling in the middle of a dirt arena. At first we hung about at the back of the crowd but the chief referee spotted us and insisted that we were his guests and we must come and sit in the grandstand. The women in our group were quickly reclassified as "honorary men" for the next half hour. The wrestling action got progressively more serious as they worked through the qualifying rounds and approached the final. Some serious money was changing hands by this stage and the little four man marching band increased the tempo. It was hard fought with some bone jarring throws and a final body slam which the crowd didn't approve of but the ref decided to allow. So the not so popular winner did a quick lap of honour while we headed back to the bus.

Our hotel accommodation has now returned to the usual Exodus standard. Or possibly that's the Indian standard - doors that don't quite shut, bathroom that floods after a shower, tv remote held together with sticky tape, need I go on!

We're actually staying in McLeod Ganj which is further up the hillside and quite busy and touristy. The streets are narrow and there is lots of traffic buzzing round way too fast.
The region is the centre for Tibetans in exile: there's a library, schools, parliament in exile, museums, monasteries and nunneries, and of course, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has been teaching at the nearby Tibetan cultural centre but will be returning to his residence after breakfast on Friday. That's our breakfast, not his - I can't claim any inside knowledge on his breakfast routine. We do plan to try and wait by the roadside as he leaves the temple, watch this space..........