McLeod Ganj, day 7; McLeod Ganj is good for your Karma! (^_^) ༀམཎིཔདྨེཧཱུྃ།

 ༀམཎིཔདྨེཧཱུྃ།

January 4th, 2008

My last day in McCleod Ganj, but I was too stiff from all the walking I'd already done to do much more.

I did a few necessities, like laundry and, reluctantly, booked my bus ticket out. I picked the wrong time of year to visit; 1- the Dalai Lama was gone, and 2- the Japanese restaurant was closed for the winter, but it was still the most precious few days.

In Korea, I'm usually craving anything but Korean food (It doesn't mean I don't love Korean food, you just want something else after a while!), so in the land of curry, I didn't expect to be eating Korean. I ended up  eating more meals at the Korean restaurant next door than anywhere else, even though their prices were about the same as a meal in Korea. There was something in the Korean meal that my body wanted, and my taste buds didn't mind stepping aside. The owners were an Indian man and a Korean woman, who had an adorable daughter who hung out in the restaurant, but didn't seem to care much for the people passing through, even when they tried speaking Korean to her... After a few days, she warmed up to me a little, but not much!

There was a power outage when I tried to withdraw some cash for the next few days, so I waited around a couple of hours for it to return. Heading back through town, I saw one of those strange things that manages to stick with you even though other things would be much more worthwhile hanging on to. An old Tibetan man was shining a light from the cap of his pen into his tea laughing, while showing it to two monks he was sitting with. As I passed, I poked my nosey face in to see what was so funny, and saw the projected image of a naked woman that could have been lifted from Hustler magazine. I wasn't sure what I was more puzzled by, why he was showing it to two minks or where he bought that pen?

Despite that last little anecdote, being immersed in the presence of the Tibetan Buddhist sangha has invigorated me to practice more diligently. I'd never understood the importance of sangha because I'd never really been around one, other than ay trips to temples. I feel a deep shift within that I hope to carry with me.