More about the retreat

Here's how it went:
530 wake up
600 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then stretching/yoga
830 breakfast
930 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then walking meditation
1200 lunch and nap/whatever
200 sitting meditation and dharma talk, then walking meditation
430 tea break
530 yoga
630 dinner
730 sitting meditation and dharma talk
1000 sleep

Basic rules include the five precepts (don't kill, steal, lie, sex, or drink), plus "noble silence"- don't talk.

I guess this is all pretty standard. The hardest part was the "talk" part of the "meditation and talk", because I didn't see the point of it. The monk, Ven. Sanghasena, would just talk meanderingly about whatever for an hour or so. Often it seemed very basic or obvious. But then, he's the enlightened one, and I'm just some guy.

I'm not sure if I want to run away and play video games, or sign up for a longer more direct retreat somewhere like Dharamsala. Probably the latter. Now seems as good a time as any to make some spiritual progress. Plus, India, y'know?

I have some posts queued up

but I can't get my computer to any internet. Argh! I am in a guesthouse in Srinagar now that is far from things, the only internet is on this guy's USB satellite thing, and that is a bummer. The whole place is a slightly sticky situation (not dangerous, just annoying) which I will explain further in a couple of days. In the meantime, I'm going on some trekking: a 2-day 1-night trip in Pahelgam, and then a 1-day trip in Gulmarg. I am mostly excited about this. It's only double my India daily budget (so, about $60/day), and I hear Kashmir is wonderful, and I guess I'm interested to try this guided trekking anyway. Okay, it's actually leaving in about a half hour, so time to go. More real content and pictures in a couple days, honest!

Back, and 10% more enlightened

Well it was a good retreat and all. Not perfect: a little talky, a little Buddhism 101, and well let's just say Buddhist rock made an appearance. (it is entirely as bad as Christian rock.) Buddhism's tricky: I guess I follow some sort of non-denominational Buddhism, but as with Christianity, "non-denominational" can be a blessing or an annoyance. But it was overall nice. I think I adapted to it smoother than my last retreat.

I keep trying to figure out how I'm getting to Srinagar. It is another 18-hour trip, and I'd like it to be not awful. Everyone says "book a shared taxi, not a bus, it is much better." Okay. And the rates are only a little higher (... in US dollars). Most of the trips leave at 4pm and go for 18 hours straight. I'd like to stop and sleep on a bed overnight, if possible. We'll see. I have to go check on that... right now.

More later, but for now: I'm alive, spirits are pretty good, health is pretty good.

There are two very tall things in Leh

First, the Shanti Stupa:

(from far away)

(up close. how is it so shiny? first, constant maintenance; second, it is only 20 years old.)

(view from there)

And then there is the former Leh Palace, with Namgyal Tsemo Gompa above it.

view of the gompa from the palace

View of the city from up there

to one of my fellow travelers: "hey, could you get a shot with me in it, because I never take them and my family will want me to."

(the view from there)

Other things in Leh because it is the Ladakh Festival right now include polo, and monks wearing masks and dancing:

Other things that are in Leh all the time include shopping! If you want some things, I recommend asking Useless Wali. And if he doesn't have the junk you need, I know where to find more junk.

That is what is in Leh! This afternoon I am going to a meditation course at the Mahabodhi Center. Let us hope that my constant sniffles (India allergy again?) don't disrupt anyone else. I will be there for 3 days, so I'll see you after that.

Bros of Ladakh

As you're going down your Ladakh road

you'll get a lot of encouragement from your friendly local bros. As in "Bro! Time is money, but life is precious!"

But these are no popped-collar, cowrie-shell, Dave Matthews bros. Here we are talking about the Border Roads Organization, who has kindly taken it upon themselves to post cute rhyming driving tips:

as well as shameless self-promotion:

and, well, the occasional head-scratcher:

We are in the Land of Gompas

So after a remarkable feat of sleeping on day 1 in Leh, I wanted to go see a thing or two on day 2. But as it's still unwise to exert oneself when one is acclimating to high altitude, I rented a motorbike. (questionable? perhaps.)

A few monasteries (or "gompas") of Ladakh presented a nice day's schedule. Shey on the way out at 10km, Hemis at 40km, and then Thiksey about halfway back.

The biking was good: I at least sorta remembered what all the controls do, I turned corners well enough, and only once did I stall out in the middle of a busy intersection. So much more fun than cars! Arguably safer, or at least easier, too: the main road here is about wide enough for a bike and a car, but not two cars.

The gompas were also good. So I thought I might be sort of religiously interested in these, 'cause they're Buddhist and all, but it turns out that the kind of Buddhism that builds statues like this:

estranges me about as much as any other religion. Still, the fact that they did have statues like this:

is cool on a "big statues are neat" level. Also:

(there is a body to that statue too. It is some 22 feet tall.)

At one point I wandered into a room where these monks were sitting around reading a thing, with occasional breaks to play discordant drums, cymbals, and these sorta oboe-sounding horns.

Finally, they look amazing on the outside. Hemis:

and Thiksey:

The Manali-Leh Highway, or: Wow, that was far and away the most difficult trip I've ever taken

"Highway" is a bit of an overstatement. Shoot, "road" is a bit of an overstatement. There were roady bits, and then there were bits where we monster-trucked it over dirt and rocks. So, okay, so riding on the Manali-Leh highway is a little bit like riding the Blue Streak for 19 hours. Fine.

Did I mention it took 19 hours? Yow.

But the best part is the elevation: it starts in Manali (6000 feet), quickly climbs to about 12000-13000, and then... keeps going up. We hung out at about 15000 for a while, and the highest pass is 17470. Eventually it goes down to 11500, in Leh. But what this all means for you, dear reader, is that your whole journey is a big spin of the Wheel of Altitude Sickness.

(Altitude sickness apparently strikes pretty randomly. I think the only thing that can prevent it is already being acclimated to a high altitude. Being, say, a fit and clever lad of 25 doesn't seem to matter. Having previous experience skiing at 9000-12000 feet with no problems also doesn't seem to matter.)

At 2AM I was chipper. At 6AM the sun rose and I could see how beautiful all these mountains are, and by 8AM I was a lightheaded, weak, uncontrollably-shivering wreck. I put on all my clothes. It helped. But I still spent the next 8 hours pretty much suffering. It was at this point that the title for this post came together in my head.

At lunch, around 4, a couple of Europeans noticed I was having trouble. Maybe because I was slumped over on the couch/bed with my wallet in my hand, having fallen asleep before actually paying for my food. And, bless them, bless them again, they knew exactly what was up, confirmed my suspicions of altitude sickness, and gave me some aspirin and Diamox. I survived the rest of the trip more or less okay. And by that I mean, I still want to sleep for 96 hours right now, but, y'know, I'm all in one piece.

Oh! But about the actual scenery of the Manali-Leh highway, which was the reason I took this route, and indeed, one of the guiding forces for the early days of this trip: it is sublime. Dang. The mountains are so big! How can mountains be that big! It is like a set from Star Wars- sort of like Tatooine but not actually that because it's much bigger than Tatooine. Whah! Words or pictures* cannot describe the enormity of those mountains. My pictures sure can't, as I usually didn't feel well enough to reach in my pocket and get my camera. Here are some other people's pictures that might look better: A cyclist (whoa) in 1996, More Plains, a particularly great stretch, on wikipedia, another guy's photos.

So, do I recommend the Manali-Leh highway? I'm actually not sure. I'm not planning to do it again. But I'm glad I got a glimpse into this remarkable moonscape. I'm glad I hung out in some parachute-dhabas  and chatted with other travelers about how sick we were or weren't. And if I'd had some Diamox from the beginning, it would have helped. Perhaps my friend Justin is right, in both ways: "Manali-Leh is kind of a once-in-a-lifetime thing."

This happened maybe 5 times.

* skippable side note: I was just reading "Consciousness Explained" by Daniel Dennett, and he talks about this device for blind people. It has a video camera, and whatever images it sees, it projects onto this array of little vibratey things on a panel taped to the user's stomach. So if the camera sees a circle, a circle of these little devices buzz. So it's low-resolution, but the users get used to it pretty quickly, and they can recognize what things are, walk down the street, etc. The neat bit, though, is that the images don't trigger the emotional response that they usually would! Dennett suggests that the reason is not because of the stomach thing, but just because it's low-res. Think about it: if you saw a fuzzed-out picture of a beautiful flower, you probably wouldn't think about how that's so beautiful, like you would if you saw the sharp image. Anyway, this is all to say, my photos actually can't trigger the right emotional responses that I'd want them to, and without that, they just look like a bunch of hills. Maybe (maybe) I'm starting to come around to the idea that getting good at photography is worth it.