… was shot at McLeod Ganj, home of Dalai Lama.
I first came here in the middle of 2009, about four weeks after I left Varanasi where I endured a month of heat. In fact, every day I was there, the high for the temperature was above 45°C. I kept staying because, “If 1.5 million Indians who stay here can handle this heat, so could I.”
I am from Malaysia where the temperature would never go over 38°C but I’m just a stubborn person who chooses what to give up and running away from Varanasi wasn’t one of them.
When I was in Varanasi, I saw and felt the Hindu faith. I wanted to feel faith again and that was what that brought me to McLeod Ganj, to see and feel the faith of Tibetan Buddhism.
I didn’t stay at McLeod Ganj but a village about 2.5 kilometres away called Bhagsu. Why? Higher altitude and a lot cheaper.
I thought I would stay there for about a month and move on to see other parts of India but I ended up staying 3.5 months there and used up my Indian visa.
I have been there 4 more times spending about 18 months there in total. But, on my last trip there in 2016, when I left, I told myself that I would never come back.
When I first started travelling in 2008, I met a seasoned traveler who told me he would never go again to a place I wanted to visit. When I asked why, his response was, “Because I wanted to remember the place the way it was.”
Same case for me with Bhagsu and quite a few other places in other countries.
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