From Brahma to Buddha, Spring 2011

And we're back! Welcome back to the Indian India. Welcome back to Delhi heat and smelly feet. Welcome back to rolling rickshaws and their drivers-- "Yes, please?" and happy honky horns. Mmmmusic to my ears. Welcome back to coconut uttapams at our favourite South Indian joint "Om Sarvana Bhavan." Aaaand welcome to mango season. Mangos are here to stay!!! We, on the other hand, are not. We're hopping on a night train this evening for the last leg of our adventure to Varanasi!

But it's strange, not waking up to that crazy feeling of being around mountains. They were so close. They just kind of appear out of wrinkled plains. They were so big and bright and beautiful and blinding. The clouds would hang over mountain peaks- where does the snow stop and where do the clouds start? It was a lot quieter and colder up there. I had to remind myself we were still in the same country, still in the same world, looking at the same sky. Holy skies. The nights were drawn by stars, the silhouettes of mountains, and us, the observers- tiny, empty gazers looking up at spirals and galaxies, the River Ganga (commonly known in the west as the Milky Way), the constellations... all so clear and nowhere near.

Up north we'd gone from the town of Leh, to Domkar, a village hiding in dust, growing out of the fields by the Indus River, and then into the wild for a week of tramping and trekking.... through valleys and up to a pass at 16,000 feet. In between there have been some Bollywood slumber parties, a steep and slick mini-hike to a peak by secmol, and for me, an evening getting re-hydrated on a bed in the IV room. Yesss.

And now for a little fun or "time-pass" as they seem to say around here... hows about some Peterisms, classic phrases from our favourite Tibetan Kushok-la.

-shouting "Tee, sa wa sap!" as we're wildly dancing around a bonfire, pulling out Ladakhi moves we didn't know we had
-"Actually, it's sort of chilly up here!" referring to the Himalayan nights
-"bzzzzzmmm" as a mantra mumble-bee in his Bee costume
-"Pyu is become pyu again!"...(the name I've adopted)
-"... or somesing like that"
-"hwhaaaaack!"
-"this can be really good for you guys"
-"this is sounds good?"

Okey, time to go out Ganges style. Whaaack. This is sounds good?.