McLeod Ganj Scenes

I've been staying in McLeod Ganj, up the hill from the city of Dharamsala, for the past week or so.  McLeod Ganj is home to the Dalai Lama where he lives in a large temple complex.  The temple, a working monastery, is open to the public and gets many tourists.

Because McLeod Ganj draws so many tourists, it has all of the tourist traps:  many restaurants, street vendors and shop, after shop, after shop.  If you visit, be aware of your surroundings because the roads are very narrow with crowds of people, motorcycles, cars, dogs, and cows.  I even witnessed a motorcycle-pedestrian accident one morning on my way to the conference.  Seemed like there were no serious injuries. 

And monkeys too.  In fact, I have not needed an alarm clock because a group of monkeys visit outside my window between 5-6 am every morning.  They like to grab and shake a piece of loose metal that makes a very loud noise like the opening of a metal shutter or garage door.  The monkeys appear to avoid people too.  Perhaps the monkeys are not fed by people and therefore do not associate people with free handouts of food?