electricity, stoners, fireworks, and a new place to stay.

electricity is a mysterious modern convenience here in india, but especially mcleod. once or twice a day, during strong downpours, the power goes out, usually for an hour, but sometimes more. the wires are exposed everywhere in a giant tangled mess draped from one building to the next or even hanging in the trees.

today, in the street, i saw a man reach into a box full of wires hanging off a telephone poll. he pulled two wires from the tangled bunch and wrapped the wires with the wires of a telephone receiver, then immediately started talking into it. i was shocked he was not electrocuted, then was lost in the great mystery of if there was someone he was really talking to. we will never know.

we switched hotels to a room almost half the price. our new room has everything our old room did, minus a television (who cares about that anyways?) the only difference really is that it is smaller. gas must be expensive -- so far every appliance has been electric, including our antique-looking water heater. 

at our old hotel we had a similar hot water heater that could give you a 2-3 minute shower. the current heater does not seem to work at all. i tried a combination of the switches in the room, which has worked in the past, but the power light refuses to illuminate. taking a shower is a pain anyways, it's 45 degrees outside and the room is not heated. it's amazing how fast you're dressed when your shower ends.


this was literally across the street from our old hotel:

stoners. there are lots of stoners here. don't worry, there are lots of other kinds of people here. i can broadly classify the four groups of tourists i have seen so far, but it is a very loose system. first there are people who are here just for the day or two, and seem to come here because it's close by. then there are backpackers who look a bit mountain worn, vaguely hippy-like, seem somewhat spiritual. there is a good number of late-middle aged people here who vary a lot in how "into" india they really are. and then there are stoners.

i am slightly entertained by them, i don't really want to poke fun at them, but they are so classic. i so far can put them into two sub-groups. the first type is like 1960s u.s. military's depiction of hippies, with a bit of shaggy from the television show scooby-doo mixed in. the second is your dreaded grubby backpacking friend.

i don't mean to make fun of people and this is not seriously classifying people, it's just we have had such a continual run in with this crowd and it is obvious mcleod is designed to receive this type of tourist. the the majority of shops look like mexicali blues. there are only a few true tibetan shops that break this pattern. mcleod has so much to offer, it seems most people do not take true advantage of this place. the vibes below this subculture are of much greater depth, you can find it in the land, the locals, and the schools/temples.  

fireworks go off at random times. it's not like your pretty forth of july fireworks, the ones here just make a ton of noise. zoë and i actually laugh when they go off because they are so ridiculously loud. the windows panes shake and i usually jump when they go off. it's 10:30 p.m. right now and some of the loudest ones yet have gone off. 

what will the tibetan new year be like?

we have a new place to stay. for the same price as our cramped hotel we now have a room with a bathroom and kitchen attached. earlier we were torn between another place that was a 20-25 minute walk out of town but this one is only about 5 minute walk from the heart of town. it will be about $5 per day.

it's funny, the place we saw on our morning walk yesterday with the green green grass and the dog i nick named zipper is actually exactly where we now live. i suppose things really do work out. we are on the second floor of the building behind zoë.

we miss zipper but today i saw a pug! we also set up hindi classes for zoë.

i think zoë is going to post pictures of the inside of our new place! I am still sorting out buddhist philosophy classes, and we seem to have it pretty much sorted out of what we need to do to see the dali lama speak on the 14th/15th, which is registering 2 days in advance. I am really looking forward to the tibetan new year, the town is really beginning to shut down, it must be huge! I hope we can still find cappuccinos....