Moving Day

Two AM start. I booked a taxi for 02:30 allowing for plenty of time for things to go awry and still be able to get the dawn flight north. When the taxi driver started pounding on the door as I was jumping in the shower at 02:07 I was properly awake. The airport trip and the short flight were not so noteworthy. After we got off the plane someone in the taxi queue said Rohit Sharma (Captain of the Indian mens cricket team) was on the flight and I thought what a load of hooey. I can see him in some photos I took of the plane on the tarmac. As it goes the spectacular descent and landing in to Dharamshala with the Himalayan backdrop was enough to distract me from one of the most famous people in the world being about 50 meters away.

I was chatting to a couple in the taxi queue and agreed to share a taxi to the cricket stadium to collect our tickets. The journey was memorable. It is such a beautiful place and one which contrasts very strongly with Delhi. The towns of Mcleod Ganj and Dharamsala gently sprawl across the hillsides, the urbanisation is over a wide area but it is not dense. When we got to the stadium I immediately walked through a hawkers washing line where he was displaying cricket shirts for sale and one fell in the sand. A diplomatic incident was averted for 300 rupees and I am the proud owner of 1 lightly soiled Rohit Sharma test top (with the good collar).

I checked on Google Maps how far it was to the Airbnb and decided to walk. It was tough going up hill with my pack on. The place was being cleaned so I dropped my bag off and found a cafe round the corner where I was served a cup of Tetley's tea and struggled to stay awake for 2 hours. At 1pm sharp I made my way back and basically slept for about 18 hours.