Ni Dieu Ni Maitre

There are several things to do here, and through a week of basically resting and catching up on this blog, I managed most of them. One was, of course walking and hiking, which I pursued daily. Then the trip downhill to the Tibetan monastery.

Here the well fed and healthy shaven-headed monks offered tea, but my conversation was with the monk’s painter and handyman who had walked over the mountains from Tibet to Nepal and freedom from the Chinese. Very interesting guy, and painter and handyman are a few of the skills in my resume as well.

His handy work was evident.

Next up was a trip into the city itself. Chanrei ordered a cab for me one fine day and on the winding, steep and twisty way down, it began to rain. No problem, as I pulled out my rain jacket and went onto a large pedestrian mall in the center of the city.

Had to run a few errands, including a trip to the pharmacy for some cholesterol pills… met and had a nice chat with the pharmacist, who was not busy.

Next up was a trip to the Don Bosco Museum of Indigenous Culture, supposedly having the best collection of artifacts and information on the tribes of the NE India states… Unfortunately, I picked a cab driver to whom the location of this, one of the most visited sites in Shillong, was a complete mystery.

Really just a light rain.

So, we rode around and got stuck in a massive traffic jam, caused by a slew of private schools getting out at the same time and the students all demanding cabs to get home. An hour passed before we arrived at the Don Bosco High School… no museum within miles. A short heated argument later, I found another cab back to town, who also had no idea where the museum was located. Just as well, as it was getting near its closing time… and just in time to get to a bar and enjoy the only beer I managed in all my time in Shillong.

Ate at a fancy and very popular Pure Veg restaurant, and shared my table with first one, and later, another regular Indian tourist couple. Nice folks all.