Stutzfamily.com>Travel Pictures

India

Dharamsala

welcome

For our fall Diawli break, we traveled to the foothills of the Himalayas in northern India. We stayed in McLeod Ganj, a former summer 'hill station' created by the British during the Raj era. Located in the Dhauladhar Range of the Himalayas, it was where they sent the wives to get away from the heat of Delhi. 
  
There are no Brits there now, but McLeod Ganj is the home of the Tibetan "government in exile" under the leadership of, as all the locals call him in one slurred-together title, HisHolinessTheDalaiLama. While we never got a chance to meet him, we explored the environs and came away a little more informed about what makes the area special.
 
A bustling town that mixes Hindu India and Buddhist Tibet (with more than a dash of Western tourist), we found the color and life to be two of the highlights of our trip.

Both the monkeys and the monks were pretty cool, too!
As we were traveling during our school's Diwali break - a celebration of light and sound that we enjoyed in Goa first and then Udaipur last year, we were excited to see the town lit up and setting off fireworks. Both pictures above and the fireworks below were taken from the window seat of a restaurant overlooking the main town square.
The place that got most of our business, however, was the one that attracted our attention in the first place due to its 'interesting' grammar.

But no matter where we ended up eating on a particular evening, we were always well entertained!

And we also relaxed and rested during the trip!!

Dharamsala - welcome - shopping - arts and crafts - buddhism - hiking - wrap up

To the main India page
To the Stutz's Welcome Page