Leh has been, and most likely will be my favorite chapter of this dialogue. I don't blame others for disagreeing, Leh was not easy, it was far from vacation. Leh was a place, Leh was a people, Leh was friends and Leh was a nightmare. In my eyes there have always been two types of places in my life; There are places that are truly just a joy to go to and relax, places where I look back fondly, and then there are places where I lived. Places that were far from all sunshine and roses. These are the areas of my life that are true landmarks. One does not look back at their family vacation to Hawaii and usually think of how important it was to their life, not in a bad way, but it was more of a time to enjoy stagnation. There is no shame in pausing growth for a period to relax and come back with more energy, like a timeout in sports. But I don't think many athletes look back on the timeouts after finishing the game. I don't mean any of this to say that other parts of this dialogue were simple or easy and they were absolutely worthwhile. This comparison does not pertain to those aspects. It's more that Leh felt like somewhere I was living, not visiting. I was very sad to leave Leh and the Nirvana Retreat because it was like a watered down version of leaving home for college. I had truly lived there for a week, and did not necessarily want to leave.
Like every single week on this dialogue, I could write for hours filling pages upon pages of every detail describing every experience. But neither of us want that now do we. And this is my blog. I will however start with my first impressions of Leh (I swear it truly won't be every detail of the week).
My first impression was that it was my house and living style growing up, but in a super dry mountain valley. There was a very dodgy internet, the power was constantly going out, the buildings leaked and it was hard to regulate your temperature at any given hour. And that was exactly the first 18-ish years of my life. I think that's what initially sucked me into the feeling of living in Leh, and not visiting it. Maybe a bit unfair to the other areas we have visited on this trip, but that's how it happens.
I was a bit worried about the altitude. Admittedly, I'm a coastal lad who grew up on the sea or at its level. 11,000 feet above the great blue was uncharted territory. But honestly it wasn't that bad. A bit out of breath on a hill but who isn't.
The main thing from our week in Leh that I wanted to highlight was the friends I made along the way. And I don't mean that in a cliche way like I actually think my new Leh friends were what made my week so special. As I said earlier, the rooms leaked where we were staying. I want to make sure it's known that this is not due to poor build quality. The region is experiencing I believe a 10,000% increase in precipitation, which they and their buildings are obviously not used to. It was during my third room change that I made my friends in Leh. It was late at night and I was sitting on the porch after dinner watching the rain and chatting about how bad it was with a very nice gentleman who I later found out was the owner of the place. Him and the other employees sat outside with me watching the rain and we all made about the same three faces; either sad with the rain, concerned when it rained more lightly, or the most fun, pure fear when the thunder and lightning scared us. By this point most had gone to bed besides the employees, who were now my friends, and I. Then they offered me a drink, allegedly of course. Allegedly I am not the biggest whiskey fan, however if there was ever a night to allegedly have a drink, it was during a thunderstorm laughing about the situation with new found friends. We stayed up quite late, not doing much of anything, even drinking. Mainly just watching new videos of flooding in the town, and sitting there quietly. Occasionally we would chat and laugh, or chat and frown. But it was exactly what you do in this situation, absolutely nothing. It didn't feel quite right to sleep yet even though it was long past midnight. The night was angry and we simply sat and took it. After this point, it almost felt like I was less of a foreign guest and more of a friend that they were letting crash. I know this isn't true, but it was a nice feeling.
I made one other important friend in Leh. Between grinding assignments and war games research, I occasionally had time to run down to the Leh main market and wander the alleys in search of fun spots. I always try to walk far enough down the alleys to the point where I see no other white people, and at that point I know I'm getting close to finding cool shops. My favorite was an unnamed, unaddressed clothing shop slightly similar to a thrift shop. It was just tables of used clothes and one guy running it. He spoke very little the first two times I went to the shop, but was nice. I love clothes and found fun items at his store so I enjoyed it very much. The third time I visited however, I think he recognised me. It was later so less people visited as I dug through the clothes so we talked for a little bit. Most interactions are difficult with a bit of a language barrier, but I never let that stop me. We chatted, but more than anything it felt like the air had shifted and we were friends. Then he did something a bit unexpected, and said “Tea?”. I was confused but he explained that he was getting tea, and seeing if I wanted some, I was like yeah sure man thanks. After a bit of tea it came and I was checking out. He very sadly explained that there was no milk left for tea, but to wait just a bit longer. Then, out of nowhere, someone dropped off a big liter of lemon lime soda that he proceeded to give to me. Nothing for himself, and no charge. We talked more and he simply said that it was a pleasure that we crossed paths, even if it would never happen again. We shared a brief moment, but I will remember this for a long time, if not forever.
I know it can be different for different people when it comes to making friends. As I said in another blog, I have been pushing my extraversion more and more because I love meeting people and finding new friends everywhere. However, here was when a big shift happened. It is always one thing to make friends in your home country or even in a more set up scenario like at the University in Nepal. In Leh, I made friends with limited communication, and no set up to do so. I simply just made friends. It sounds so simple and maybe a bit stupid, but it makes me so happy that I did. It's something I wasn't sure if I could do, and something I will now know I can do for the rest of time. It is something I will never stop doing. Thank you Leh.