Hippies and Buddhism no way!!!

Not long after, a 60 year old Chilean women sat next to me and sparked a conversation. She immediately 'took me under her wing' and started to tell me about her 9 year residence in Dharamsala. She speaks, Spanish, French, Portuguese, English, Tibetan, and who knows what else. I guess someone that talks as much as her needs that many mediums. It was pretty funny because she kept saying that her study of Dharma (which literally means the Buddha's teachings) has helped her be much more quiet and subdued. Her passion for the study of Dharma was intense and after introducing me to a few friends, and sneaking me back to the kitchen for more soup, she brought me to this breath-taking hillside path that encircles the temple. The trees where strung with Tibetan prayer flags and the hillside was covered with carved rocks that had the mantras painted on them. After a stroll passing robed monks we reached a holy place. She showed me the many shrines and monuments that house the Dali Lama's deities and special Buddhist documents. She told me to meditate on me family and my wishes to help their suffering, as I circled these holy shrines exactly three times. The hillside path had many vantage points on which one could meditate or merely look out onto the Dharamsala valley.
I lost the Chilean women before I even caught her name, but this town has a uncanny way of making you run into people. In fact the reason I lost her was because I ran into the Australian man that I met in Delhi. On top of that, one of the Chilean woman's friends coincidentally knows Uncle Alan and stayed at his house in Almora for over a week.
The late afternoon was spent wandering the streets, drinking chai, half looking for uncle Alan, and eventually trying to meditate on one of the vantage points (I ended up falling asleep). I finally meet up with Uncle Alan at night fall. We went to Jimmy's Italian Restaurant. He ran into a friend named Phil Void who has a band named Dharma Bums (I am guessing after the Jack Kerouac book that I am coincidentally reading). He was performing that night so we spent the evening eating decent Italian food (in India go figure) and listening to stereotypical hippie music with Buddhist lyrics about Dharma and the end of Samsara. It made my toes tap and some of the songs where really good. The vibe at the restaurant was happy and communal.
Nights have been ending pretty early around here and when Uncle Alan retired I pulled out my guitar and hit the streets. And old Tibetan couple that owns a cafe listened for several songs on their way home, and a few people on balconies came out to listen. They clapped and cheered me on, and obviously I was very happy to have an appreciative audience. I sang dear prudence which was written a few 100 kilometers away in Rishikesh. I also did some other songs in my repertoire, which if you ever heard me play, is basically Beatles songs, blues songs, and a few half written crappy songs that I try to make up. I went through a few and slowly the crowd dispersed.
Not long after I made some new friends, although not the two-legged kind. Instead two stray dogs came over and nuzzled up next to me. One kept putting his paw on my hand like he was trying to help me play. With the stars out, my heart filed with the days teachings, and my trusty guitar in hand I felt invincible, and a kind of happiness I wish for everyone. Right then a possum or something ran across the street and my new pals where off. It reminded me that these streets are truly wild. Of course their bigger bellies made me realize their kindness is clearly an adaption for successful survival. Which means if I had any food I would have given it to them, haha! I went to sleep with a smile on my face.