And this town is backpackerville.

Anyone who has ever been on the backpacker trail will know exactly what I mean.

The stereotype abounds.

Today I visited a wonderfully peaceful Buddhist temple just a few hundred metres from the "hustle and bustle" of the main drag.

I went into the office to have a quick chat with some monks before checking out the temple.

After a brief explanation of the temple's history, he asked where I was from.

In India when I get asked this, no sooner have I said, "Australia," than I get the reply, "Ricky Ponting".

But when this Buddhist priest turned the topic to cricket it started to feel a bit surreal.

The power of enlightenment perhaps?

Anyway, he said Ponting wasn't happy about losing, but then he reassured me Brian Lara still felt the Aussies could win the series so not to worry.

Does this mean Buddha is on our side?

I sure hope so, because the way we played in Mohali, we need all the help we can get.

The reason there are so many Tibetans here is because on October 7, 1950, the Chinese Army moved into Tibet claiming sovereignty.

The Tibetan side of the story is that genocide, similar to the Holocaust in World War II, then occurred.

Chinese people where then relocated to the area, making Tibetans a minority in their own land (a bit like Israel is doing in Palestine), the natural resources were plundered and the area is now a nuclear dumping ground.

Tibetans are not allowed to speak their own language or practice their own religion.

At breakfast a German guy told me there are lots of Israeli backpackers here.

I wonder if they see the irony in that...

The Chinese Government was not available for comment.