Best Supporting Actor... the trekking pole (Nov 21)

We woke (really freaking early... 4 am) to get the bus to Amritsar. The bus stand in McLeod Ganj is 500 feet from our hotel so it will be a quick walk. We loaded on the packs (Brad could barely walk - he was using my trekking pole as a cane). We woke up the night watchman in the lobby to let us out and headed to the bus stand at 4:45. There was no bus. The taxi drivers informed us that the bus didn't come up into McLeod Ganj at night, we had to catch it in Dharmasala - down the hill.

Jump (hobble) into the taxi and zoom down the hill. Well, zoom as much as you can with speed bumps (one of which just about finished Brad off) and the taxi's engine kept stalling. We made it to the bus stand while the bus was idling, getting ready to leave. Whew!

It was one of the regular interstate buses with 3x2 bench seats. I grabbed a 3 bench and tossed in my bag against the window, grabbed Brad's bags and stowed them on top. Brad could still barely walk and the rush to the bus with the full pack on really didn't do him any favours. The bumpy bus ride wasn't any better.

The ride was about the same as the more expensive 2x2 pushback - hardly makes the extra price worth it. We pulled into Amritsar around noon and were immediately swarmed by touts all wanting to take us to the Golden Temple. They were so bad (and the signs to direct us out of the station and the Lonely Planet map were no help) that we dove into a restaurant to escape them.

Sitting quietly, having a snack while the touts staked out the exit, we discussed our plan of attack. Brad went out and called the hotel. He told us that we should take an auto rickshaw and about how much it should cost. We loaded up again and headed back out into the fray. In all the swarming, there was one guy (Jai) who had been trying to get them to give us enough space to talk to each other. I decided we should go with him. He took us straight to the hotel and was apologizing profusely for bothering us. We got to the hotel and Brad checked the room while I waited with the luggage and chatted with Jai. We decided we would use him the next day to take us to the Golden Temple as well so we got his cell number to call for pickup.

The rooms were quite nice, European style with the entrances to the rooms running off a central courtyard that had some tables and chairs. The room keys had small silver bells as the tags - cute in theory but annoying at 1 am when someone in the courtyard is trying to get into their room. The room was done in white marble and had a bench swing suspended from the ceiling. (Not sure what style or era that's from but it was unique). Brad couldn't stand or sit so we stayed in the hotel for dinner.

As I was unlocking the room after dinner, Brad was leaning against the railing and his back cracked so loud that I heard it... that accompanied by a large groan of relief as his back shifted partly back into place. More pain killers and I tucked Brad into bed.

Totally unrelated... the light bulbs here all seem to be clear (not frosted) and lamp shades are pretty much non existent - this tends to create really harsh light and shadows at night. Also, there is extensive use of fluorescents - which is really hard on the eyes (see Joe vs the Volcano... it sucks the life out through your eyes man!!)