Was it worth it?

My journey north from Sarnath (the place where Buddha gave his first speech), was adventurous to say the least. I had my once-a-month spoiler in Sarnath – i stayed at the monastery guest house for twice the amount that i usually pay for accommodation, but with a good shower and clean. I left early in the morning by taxi and arrived at the train station with 2 hours to spare – my train was due in at 11am... when 12 o’clock arrived and they still hadn’t announced my train, i decided to go and investigate. That is when i discovered that it was running 3 hours late. 3 hours was not so bad when i compare it to the announcements they were making about other delays. So time passed and to cut a very long story short – my train was delayed by 14 hours and only arrived at 1.30am the following morning – so yes, that means that i was sleeping at the station until it arrived, in the heat... with mice running over me every now and then. The train ticket i had booked to Delhi was in 3AC, which means there were 3 bunk beds atop one another and the compartment had aircon – which is a really good thing considering it took 22hours to get there instead of the usual 16... so yes, that means i arrived in Delhi at 11.30pm – and no, i did not venture out at that time, instead i slept in the waiting room once again. This was a waiting room with a shower, so at 5.30am, after a few moments of sleep, i had a shower before heading to the bus station. I was expecting a bus in the eve, but there was one leaving in half an hour of me getting there, so i boarded and departed for Manali. The bus to Manali is meant to take about 12-14 hours but it took 18 due to an overturned truck, so i arrived at midnight. I was expecting everything to be closed, but was pleased to find things still open – so i managed to find an over-priced room with a resident rat. I was about to leave, but decided to show the rat the door – and it worked!!! The rat walked out of the room and left me in peace. I slept fitfully and woke up early the next morning to find out about busses to Leh. I was told i would have to catch a bus to Kelong (6 hours) and from there catch another bus to Leh (12hours) – it sounded easy enough. I waited for about 5 hours for the bus to Kelong, even though they kept saying it would arrive any moment... They were right in a way... LOL! This bus took 12hours to get to Kelong due to Landslides.... so i arrived at about 00.30am – the bus to Leh left at 4am, so after having something to eat, i decided it was pointless to get a room for such a short space of time, so the waiter kindly offered me the floor of the restaurant – which i accepted for the 3 hours of sleep which i had. I got up to see if there was space on the bus but there wasn’t, so there were a group of us that were all wanting to get there and not wait the 24hours till the next bus, so we hired a jeep – OUCH!! There were all men in the car, most of them smoked, and the journey took 24hours – did i mention there were 13 of us in the jeep?

one of the landslides...

We did not get far before we encountered our first landslide... all the people that were stuck, managed to fix the road by hand – enough so that we could get across the river/waterfall/landslide. We drove about 2 minutes until we encountered the next one. This one was a lot bigger and took a lot longer to fix – it required a digger – which the army fortunately had at hand, and they had the rebuild the road. Once a few cars were able to cross, the road disintegrated and they had to spend ages rebuilding it again... Once we were over the worst of the landslides, we had a flat tyre and had to get that sorted at the nearest village before moving on. By 8pm at night we were nowhere near our destination and our driver was having cold feet about continuing, but he did. We were now driving in convoy with another jeep as our driver appeared not to know the way, and the jeep we were in convoy with had 2 flat tyres while we were driving together and one prior to that – so 3 in one journey!! That of course meant that we stayed and helped change the tyre each time, and lent them a tyre on the third time. So our arrival time at our destination was 5.30am – a whole 24hours after departure!!

the views along the way...

By now I was exhausted and wanted to just carry on into the Nubra valley, but i first needed to arrange a permit as it is a restricted area. I decided to wait at the bus station and see what information i could gleen from other travellers. Luck was not on my side as one of the first people i met was a German guy, who at first didn’t understand my question and as a result was very defensive, and then when I was asking for directions and he realised i did not have a Lonely Planet guide for India – he proceeded to inform me in a condescending and frustrated manner that it is really important to have a clear mind and walked off in a huff. My reply was that a lack of a Lonely Planet guide did not imply an unclear mind. As i had been travelling for so many days without a good nights sleep, i was really tired and was on the verge of tears, but i sat there and breathed and waited for another tourist to arrive and asked her directions to the main area in Leh. What would have been more helpful is if i had just gone straight to a guest house and gone to sleep and woken up at 10am, but I was being driven by an energy that wanted me to do otherwise, so i walked up the hill, exhausted, hot and at high altitude, with all my lugguage looking for a place where i could get the permit. Strangely, taking the wrong road, led me right where i needed to be for the permit – but of course it was closed. So i walked back down the hill again, and managed to find a local guest house (not for tourists) and begged them to let me sleep for a few hours. I think i managed to lie down for one hour, and then the lady of the house was getting antsy at my being there so i left and went back up to the police station. I was then pointed to the right office around the corner and managed to arrange a permit for the following day – which meant that i had to spend the night in Leh. So once again i walked down the hill with all my lugguage and booked into the only guest house i could find. I was thinking i might get some sleep in the afternoon, but i had too much to do and my mind was in no state to rest – although it certainly needed it!!
During the day i bumped into Mary from the Netherlands (we had met on the 24hour landslide day) and we booked on the same bus to Nubra, at which point she said that i would stay with her during the teachings, as accommodation had been arranged for her. This was a godsend, as i had no clue where i was going to stay as i had not booked anything in advance.
The bus to Nubra valley started at 6am, and after dreaming of us being stuck in traffic, i am afraid to say that my dream came true! At the first army checkpost they were not letting any traffic through – they said due to a vehicle having gone down the cliff... After a long wait we finally were on our way, and what i thought was meant to be a 3 hour journey turned into a 10hour journey, as the bus we were on took us to the wrong village, despite us checking before buying the tickets – so when we arrived, we had to catch another bus to the correct village.

This was day one of HH Dalai Lama’s teachings in Sumur, so by the time we finally arrived there, the teachings were over. I was happy to have a bed to sleep in and a warm bucket of water with which to wash! The next morning I hitched a ride to the monastery and managed to get a seat right in front of the tourist section, which was less than 10m from where HH Dalai Lama was sitting giving teachings. After lunch, we were standing in the road and i realised that the people around us were getting ready for HH to arrive again, so we stayed to join them. And yes, i got to stand about 1m away from him. He did not see me on this occasion, but i was so happy with my photo that i didn’t mind. The afternoon teachings were debating and he was sitting in a different place, so i didn’t see him, but as he left he turned to my direction and bowed – and as i was only 1 of 2 people in that area – i think it is safe to say that he saw me.

Mary and I then went back to our guest house to pack and move to the next village for the next lot of teachings. Mary was invited to the school where she sponsors some children to attend the school, as well as raises money to help them improve the quality of the school – like getting wooden flooring for the hall and bedrooms so that it is not so cold in winter. The school had arranged a welcome party for her, and she invited me to join her. As i had nothing else to do (as it was a no-teachings day) i decided to join her and became her official photographer at the event.
It was really interesting to see the basic facilities that they have there – 8 children share a tiny room, which is kept very neat. The toilet is around the back of the dormitories and is of the long drop nature – only the hole at the top is really big, and the depth of the long drop is just not long enough... I was worried that i might fall through the hole, so i imagine that that might be a concern for the children as well. The children performed a welcome ceremony for Mary, and we were served tea and sweets. We found out that the Dalai Lama was invited to inaugurate the new school building which had been sponsored by a group of French people, and Mary was invited – and she invited me. The date was unknown and the school was nowhere near ready, so we went to help them clean up – i spent the afternoon cleaning the outside windows of the school.
The next day was also a day off, so after welcoming the Dalai Lama into town in the morning, i set off to do some walking. I got myself horribly lost, and was following only a cow path, but enjoyed myself nonetheless. I did not make it to the big river, as my path was obstructed by some sinking sand, but managed to find a spot next to a small river, and spent some time sitting there, enjoying the stillness.

The next day was the inauguration of the Maitreya statue which the inhabitants of the valley had built, but only VIP’s were allowed to attend the ceremony, and so the masses were allocated a space in the sun where HH was due to arrive at 12ish from the statue. So we waited in the sun for many hours for his arrival from the statue. When he did arrive and gave a talk it was in Tibetan and there was no English translation, so we didn’t get to understand what he was saying.
The next morning i set my alarm for 5am so that i could do my practice, but Mary was awake and said that a car was collecting us at 5.30 to take us to the statue as His Holiness had to conclude his inauguration and said that everyone should be allowed up. I thought she was sleep talking initially, but then realised that she was awake. The car was too full, so i offered to walk up. Along the way i bumped into a couple from Cape Town in South Africa – what are the chances! – and i told them about the ceremony, so they decided to go up as well. There were only a hand full of westerners there, and at first they wouldn’t let us in – so it looked like we were going to get to meet him when he arrived – but when they realised this, they let us in...
After the puja, the two from SA and I hitched a ride on the back of a truck that was carrying the drums and drummers that announce the arrival of the Dalai Lama, so we knew we were heading in the right direction. The tourist section was very full but i managed to squeeze myself in near the back. By lunchtime though more than half the people had left as it was really hot and there was no shade, so i managed a seat in front again. This time the tourist section was further away, so i was probably about 10m from HHDL. At the end of the day he announced that he would like to meet with all the westerners after the teachings the following day – great excitement!!
I arrived early the following morning to get a good seat, though the cameramen were obstructing my view, but at least i could hear the translation! We were told to get ourselves organised by continent as this was how we would meet the Dalai Lama, and so my two SA friends and I were very excited as we were the only people from the whole of Africa!!! Can you imagine that! When it came to meet him though, we all had to sit/stand/kneel around and area and he came out and started talking to us. He spoke of many things, like materialism, equality, religion, and the Tibet issue. When it came to having the photo, chaos ensued. No one was taking charge and so it was like a bit of a free for all. I was a bit concerned that the poor guy was being mobbed, but he managed to escape afterwards.

can you spot me in this pic?

He got straight in his car and headed straight for Lamdon School to do the Inauguration. But Mary had not arranged transport and finding a taxi proved to be very difficult. Finally we found a helpful guy who dropped us off, but we had already missed half of the event. Mary just managed to shake his hand as he was leaving, and as i was not a sponsor, i did not feel it was my place to move forward to meet him, so i stayed back instead.
The whole week felt like a bit of a whirlwind, feeling very chaotic at times and yet spacious as well.

The essence of the teachings were about the importance of understanding emptiness and cultivating compassion, as well as other things which i won’t go into here...

The Nubra valley is absolutely beautiful, and would encourage anyone who has the opportunity to make it here to do it! Winter might not be so pleasant, as it gets quite snowy here – and also the roads are closed most of winter – so try for summer, but be prepared for a long journey getting there!

Conclusion : Hell yeah!!!!!