We arrived in Pathankot early in the morning and set off on the two-hour taxi ride to our final destination in India. When arriving in McLeod Ganj our first impressions were of a quiet and very scenic hillside village with plenty of cafes and restaurants overlooking the valley. As this was where the Tibetan government and Dalai Lama had made their home, there was definitely a different feel to the town. The streets were distinctly more Asian, with their tightly packed shops, Tibetan prayer wheels and the many orange robed monks wandering the streets.

Our first task after dropping our bags in our room and quickly freshening up was to get in contact with the Hotel in Jaipur to see if we could arrange to get Glenn’s charger couriered to us as quickly as possible.  Not having his laptop would make our lives a little difficult not to mention he was getting a little moody and to be honest I was getting a little sick of him stealing mine. While we still had a lot of spare time to explore, we made the short trip to Bhagsu waterfall, located a few kilometres away. This took us through the aptly nicknamed “little Israel” or the village of Bhagsu before arriving at the waterfalls clear waters, one of the growing indicators that the area was cleaner (by Indian standards) than most of the other places we had visited.

The first couple of days were spent exploring the village, enquiring about yoga courses and meeting up with the NGO, Tibet World, who we would be volunteering for. We settled on a yoga Centre offering the Iyengar style that seemed to provide a more scientific approach to the practice. Early the next morning we headed up one of the areas typically steep hills toward Dharamkot so we could check out the Iyengar Centre before registering for the course that would start in the next few days. It soon became clear to us that we wouldn’t only be getting 3 hours of yoga in every day for the next 5 days but we would also have a 30 min hike up a hill every morning to add to our preparation for Nepal.

That afternoon we had our first meeting with Yeshi, the director for Tibet World. This was mainly a meet and greet, giving us an opportunity to find out about the NGO and for Yeshi to explain how we could help him. After much discussion it was clear the best place for us to start helping was to lend a hand updating and streamlining the website.  This suited our situation as it meant that we could do our yoga classes in the morning and spend the afternoons working on the site.

We did the few things with the website that we could with the restriction caused by my Chrome book but we both knew that the real work would start when Glenn’s laptop charger arrived and we could really start our task. So we spent the following few days going to our yoga classes in the morning and taking turns doing things on the website in the afternoon. Finally the charger arrived after 5 days and 50 emails between the hotel and us. So now the work began.

Shortly after starting with Tibet World, Yeshi had invited us to one of their cultural nights. This turned out to be a fantastic night where we were first entertained by various Tibetans with song and dance, before being invited to join in with the locals, as we attempted to follow their dancing lead but with two left feet. Leaving the Centre we walked back to the hotel along the typically misty streets of McLeod Ganj.

After completing the beginner Iyengar yoga course we decided to continue on with another week, which would mean that we would now need to be up at the yoga Centre every morning at 6:30 in the morning for the intermediate classes. We had two days off between the two courses which we thought would be the perfect time for us to take a trek up the local mountain which involving a 18 km trek up and back giving us some good training for our coming base camp adventure. On our first day off we got up and headed off early but unfortunately after a few wrong turns and no map to follow we ended up at the Sacred Dal Lake. It was still an enjoyable journey, taking us past many rural Indian villages before deciding to head back just as the weather was starting to turn bad. We arrived back at the hotel tired and very wet ready for an early dinner followed by an early night.

Our next week was spent much as the first, with yoga classes in the morning and website work in the afternoon. At the conclusion of the second set of yoga classes we decided again to attempt a walk up Triund hill, this time with a lot more success. After 4 hours of trekking up steep hills, uneven stairs and crossing over the bottom of waterfalls we reached the top at 2850 metres. It was definitely worth the work out (Glenn says it was even worth listening to me complain most of the way and stopping every 5 minutes). At the top you walk onto an open field covered with a few little shacks and a heap of horses and cows. It was amazing seeing cows on top of these really tall mountains and wondering how they get them up there.

With us leaving McLeod Ganj in a few days we had our final meeting with Yeshi to tie up some loose ends with the website. We were then invited to his house for dinner the following night. This was an amazing experience allowing us to see a typical Tibetan home, as well as being taught (well they tried but we didn't pick it up very well) how to make MoMos, a traditional Tibetan dish. After a great meal and even better company, we said our goodbyes.

With only a couple of days remaining, we visited the Tsuglagkhang (the Dalai Lama’s Temple). Surrounded by chanting Tibetan monks we followed suit spinning the prayer wheels and seeing the inner workings of the temple. The visit was short but we left with unavoidably big smiles due to the vibrant atmosphere of the place. On the way out we visited the Tibetan museum, which informed us further of the ongoing plight of the Tibetan people.

With very little time left, we finished our work in McLeod Ganj, ate our last MoMo and caught a taxi back to Pathankot. The train back to New Delhi was shared with a French tour group, as we all jostled for baggage space before bunking down for the night. Arriving in the morning we jumped straight into another taxi, heading for the airport, where we excitedly waited for our flight to Nepal.