Tibetan food

Hello. I was going to write loads about Mccleod Ganj but I've ended up reading about Buddhism for nearly an hour. So I'll just write a little about the Tibetan food that you can get here.

The most popular dish is momos, which are like Chinese dumplings. They are usually steamed, sometimes fried, and can be found with both veg and non-veg fillings. The veg is usually potato, tofu, mushroom or cheese. I had a soup before which was ok, but I think they are best eaten fresh. Many Tibetan ladies sell them one the street here, four for 10 rupees with a little chilli sauce on the side (71 rupees = 1 pound).

The other dishes are largely noodle soups or stir-fried noodles (chow mein). There's chitse (flat noodles), gyathuk (the usual thin noodles), and thenthuk (my favourite, fat square noodles). The broth is usually very tasty, with some veg like spinach and carrot and some times with optional egg or tofu. Its great being able to try all this food, as its predominantly vegetarian, unlike in Vietnam and other Asian countries where I usually spent hours walking around trying to find somewhere that did veggie stuff other than fried rice.

One thing I haven't had yet is tsampa, which I thought was a very popular Tibetan food (roasted barley used to make porridge or eaten in various other ways), maybe they don't think the Westerners would like it!

Rob

Vipassana

Today I'm in McCleod Ganj, in the north of India. I've just finished a rather intense meditation course, 10 days of no talking, no eye contact and 10 hours of meditation and instruction in the Vipassana style. It has had a very strong effect on me and now I'm back in the "real" world I'm trying to keep up the daily meditations and general attitude of being aware and equanimous.

I've been here nearly a month and I still don't want to go, definitely the best place I've visited so far in India.

Any other pertinent information? I haven't drank alcohol now for over a month which is the longest period of abstentation since I finished uni (ten years ago now). I haven't missed it at all, India is a great place to be teetotal (well, apart from Goa). I also quit the smokes when I arrived in this town, again, I haven't missed them, in fact its great to be without that constant feeling of self-disgust. I've been travelling now for nearly a year but it seems like just in the last few weeks I'm being transformed, hopefully into a better person.

Don't worry though, I'm not going to come back wearing all-white robes and calling myself the Enlightened One.

Remember, there is no spoon.