From Brahma to Buddha, Fall 2008

View from Leh, across the Indus River valley

Hey y’all,
The first blog post of hopefully many. I’m not quite sure what to write about, so ima wing this. Bear with me. We are now in Leh, the capitol of Ladakh. It’s the only major city in the entirety of the state, if you can even refer to this as a city. It is breathtaking. Surrounded by the Himalayas no matter which way you look out. Snowy high peaks, rougher and more epic than any mountain I have ever seen. Unfortunately, we do not get the opportunity to summit any of these mountains (apparently it takes a lot of skill), but one of our coordinators here, Namgyal, owns a company that sends people out on treks through the Himalayas to summit mountains. That might be something I’ll have to come back and do with a buddy or two. These mountains are way too incredible for me not to climb atleast one in my lifetime, and now I know someone that would arrange such an adventure for me. Plus, I am absolutely in love with Leh. I have never been any place so quiet and peaceful and beautiful and calm in my entire life. It is such a drastic difference compared to Delhi, the city we just left. Congested, loud, crowded, crazy traffic, but incredible as well. Although all of those adjectives describe Delhi, I have never been in a city where everybody was so happy. Children were always running through the streets, laughing and smiling and playing. They were all so intrigued by us, watching what we do but not in a rude way at all. They were all so curious and it was beautiful, atleast to me.
But now we are in Leh. And we are about to eat breakfast. And I don’t really have much to say, I am just really happy and so grateful to be here. I prefer the slow, quiet way of life up here in the mountains to the loud craziness of Delhi. The lack of oxygen is definitely getting to all of our heads, and laughing fits have become a regular thing.
I am having so much fun. And I am so in love with all of my new friends. I’m excited to see where the rest of this journey takes us; it hasn’t even been a week yet and I already love every place I’ve been, and am so close to each and every member of this Global Lab community.
To everyone back at home, I love you and have been thinking of you often. I hope all is well and I will be making phone calls as soon as I can. I’m not quite sure when that’ll be, but hopefully soon.
Julley (Ladakhi for hello, goodbye, thank you, etcetcetc. Basically the universal word),

Mirise