I am sitting there at the airport in Delhi. Waiting for the flight. And somehow, I am not sure if I do the right thing. Everywhere are Europeans. And while I am sitting there I feel like all of them seem to have plans. I don't. Might this be too big for me? How would I get to the hotel? How would I move around? How will the streets be? How will the people be? Will I get scammed? How will I communicate?
Claudia and Sebastians advice gave me some peace. But right there. In that moment. I feel slightly overwhelmed. On top of it, my cold started to be really noticeable.
In my mind all the warnings and worries I heard from others play on repeat.
"What's your plan?" "Are you really travelling alone?" "Risk." "Danger." "You know you can always return home, right?"
I know I need local guidance. This is how I function whenever I move into a foreign culture. At first I feel disoriented. My first priority is to meet locals that know how life works where I'm going. Orientation is necessary for me. And most probably for others too. A useful insight for Light on German.
And there are exactly three Asian looking passengers with us in the waiting hall for the flight. Not sure where they were from. They speak differently. But they didn't really seem to care about anyone else so I don't feel like approaching them. Still, I feel drawn to them. The two young women are pretty. The guy seems cool. Also, I was really surprised to feel that way, it kinda shows me that I'm not completely stable at this moment. Open, needing stability, needing someone else. But anyways, they didn't seem open for conversation so I respect them. On top, I feel so tired, and look so done, it's improbable I would make a good first impression. I decide to simply write a little bit, recap what happened and eventually sleep for a couple of minutes.
But still... I'm not reaaally looking forward to arriving. As long as I'm in the airport or in the plane I have structure. When I reach however, I might be stranded. What I feel is really weird. Doesn't fit to me. Typically I feel that way when something big happens and I can't absolutely predict what it will be. This thought gives me some peace.
And I'm just a tiny bit friendlier, more outgoing, readier to connect with others, than usually.
Lolden
Commonly though, in such situations the universe sends me messages to confirm that I'm doing the right thing. And what shall I say? I made it happen again. After boarding the plane I notice I have a pretty poor seat for that flight. It's said this flight is one of the prettiest flights in the world. Flying into the Himalayas. I look around how full the flight is. And it is pretty full. But since I am the last one to board the plane I see that in the row behind me two out of three seats are free... and, because I needed a clear hint, one of the Asians is sitting there. Before the plane takes off I approach him, feeling a little uncomfortable though because I have to disturb him in his zone, and ask whether I can move one row back if nobody else is coming.
We took off. Nobody came. I move one row back.
At first I think is he ignoring me? Then I realize he was super nervous. His hands are shaking. So maybe it was no a matter of ignoring me, maybe it's a matter of nervousness that makes him freeze or act cool. Either way, we talk, we understand each other, and eventually he offers that I should sit on the window. That was unexpected and for me not necessary. So I declined. But he kept on offering and the classical "you go sit on the window, no you go sit there, no no no you go sit there" loop started happening. Partially, I don't want to take his seat because he returns after three years, studying in a different city. This is a special moment for him. He must have been looking forward to this moment so much. For me it's probably also not something really new. So I am totally okay with my place. He is not. And then he has a good idea, "let's swap every ten minutes." Cool idea. That's what we do. And actually, the view from the window is really really nice. Look for yourself.
How big can clouds become? Quite big, judging from that picture.
Beautiful isn't it?
What's even more important though: What started as a stuttering conversation became quite flowy. I get first insights into how locals live. How they talk. Which languages they use. I ask for the most important word and I learn my first word in Ladakhi:
Julley. That means Hi. That can mean thank you. I'm fine. I think it can mean everything.
Lolden is super polite and super kind. He was actually the first guardian angel that was guiding me on my way and in that moment I knew, everything will be fine.
There is one even cooler thing happening. The captain announces: Dear ladies and gentlemen, at the moment there is no landing strip free, that means we cannot land yet and need to hover. The expected delay is roughly thirty minutes. Please excuse the inconveniences." For me though that means we get thirty extra minutes looking at the mountains. That is really cool and we got some different angles.
Just after landing Lolden makes a call. He asked his Dad if he can drop me at the hotel that Seb and Claudia recommended me. That's super cool. Unfortunately due to the flight delay there was no time for his dad because he had to start working. Not a problem though, because it raised a valid point. How would I get to the hotel?
Lolden explained there are taxis. That's simple. I asked, what about buses? Yes Yes, there are buses too, they are way cheaper. They're just in front of the airport gates. And with that, I knew everything I needed to know to be chill.
Melroy
The captain announces one more thing in the middle of the final farewell message: "Pictures at the airport are strictly prohibited". Thirty seconds later, I took a picture. Then only I realized, "oh wait, shouldn't have done that." No problem though, I mean I couldn't share it anyways yet. Now, why you might ask? The airport is also a military base. Even the buses are modified so we cannot look outside too much.
I'm kinda glad I took this image. Because first it shows the black window, with scratches. But only later I realized it shows something, excuse me, someone else. My second guardian angel:
After entering the bus I needed to look for a place. I looked around, some people were looking away. One person though was looking right at me, pointing to the open spot next to him. I sat down. Said hi. He said hi too.
Still flushed with adrenaline, a really fun conversation happened. We aligned almost completely. It could have been a movie dialogue:
Do you know where you stay? No idea. Same.
Where do you get down? No idea. Same.
Do you know how long you stay? No idea. Same.
Oh nice. I had to laugh loudly. Because that's when I realized two clueless people were about to explore a new region. And that those two clueless people were quite similar. I immediately introduced myself, knowing that we will explore Ladakh together.
I'm Felix. Melroy.
It continued.
First time? Yeah. You? Same.
How old are you? 30. You? 24. Not same.
And we laughed.
After thirty seconds we were flying.
The bus was going somewhere, but we were not sure where to exactly. I tried talking to the bus driver and realized. "Oh damn. There is a language barrier." Good to have friends. Melroy started to take over since he spoke a couple of languages and one of them is Hindi, the language which everyone speaks in the North of India.
And it took five more minutes to do something which goes against the first and core rule that any visitor should respect: "Rest for two days."
After we've been getting down from the bus, Melroy asked a question. That question was exactly what Hari tried me to avoid doing: "Just don't do anything stupid okay?"
It took less than five minutes. And I saw it coming, that's why I didn't promise anything to Hari. Melroy asked: "Shall we rent a bike?"
That's how one of the bike rental stores looks like. We went to multiple shops to get the rates. To have an idea whether they are scamming or not. I was still not sure. I pushed back saying, "come on, let's first find a hotel, then relax and once we're ready we can go. But Melroy was unstoppable. At the end of the day I'd realize why. And even more so after tomorrow, but not even him could have seen that coming.
I was rational. I thought anyways we need to go the hotel, so in the end I agreed, and we rented it. And that's how quick you can do something someone else might consider as stupid. But it really wasn't. It followed all a bigger plan.
We re-fueled the bike. We went to the homestay Seb and Claudia recommended me. The homestay which was like an anchor because it made me feel safe the entire time leading up to Ladakh, not having to worry about where to sleep. The homestay, which, upon arrival, was a construction site. Not hosting guests.
Funny. The idea which made me feel good was just that. An idea. So we looked for something else. Went there. Dropped our bags. Went for lunch at its cafe. We waited for more than 40 minutes for two sandwichs. First of all. Mine were okay. Second one were disgusting. We were super hungry and even though we tried we couldn't swallow it. And third, it was horrendously overpriced. Our stomachs were crying. And we left as fast as possible. But it wasn't that easy.
Because? Of the altitude.
Walking up two floors made me almost faint away. I needed solid ten minutes to not feel sick again. It was like after a sedation and surgery. When standing up to early the whole metabolism is too stressed and reacts.
We'd come back later today. But for now, we needed some proper lunch.
So we hopped on the bike and went to another place.
We weren't super hungry, packed half of what we ordered. And then our ears started crying. Directly above us, above the airport, a fighter jet would fly through the valley at low elevation. Our whole bodies trembled. The room trembled. The soup trembled. The sound was majestic. We both agreed, man that was cool. Although it maybe isn't so cool.
After food, we then stepped on the bike and started to go to... a random place I located on the map. The idea was, we have food, we have drinks, we have a bike, let's go to a cool place, not too far away, but high enough up, where we can enjoy it. And then we started.
Melroy felt free. I felt it. His dream was coming true. Driving through Ladakh. With a bike. Serene streets. Mountain roads. Everything he dreamt about was coming true.
We drove for two hours and we were already above 4500 meters. The streets were just as good as an Autobahn. The views were breathtaking. The curves were fun. Almost no traffic was there so we could just let the machine do its work. One thing though we didn't consider:
It was getting cold. Luckily I had an extra sweater in my bag. Melroy really needed it. I was sitting in the Windschatten so for me it was somewhat okay. And, fortunately there were army posts. At one of them we stopped to ask where there will be a cozy place for Chai, but there were none. We had such a good time though, that eventually they just offered it from their resources. It wasn't the best chai, we weren't even sure if it was chai, but it was warm, it was around nice people, and it was at a really cool place.
After some time, we continued and started climbing more and more and more and more. The streets didn't seem to end at all.
And suddenly, we were on the third highest motorable mountain pass of the world at above 5000 meters. It didn't get warmer though. So we didn't stay long up there. Had chai. And descended again.
To my surprise though, driving up there was less stressful for our bodies, than walking two floors up. On the way down the sun was already setting, and we would experience the first sunset in Ladakh. Where mountains during the day look grey brown and almost boring, during sunset it transitions into a really nice ambience. The lighting was perfect for taking pictures so we halted to click some unforgettable memories.
Melroy was driving like a pro. And we took a stop at a famous monastery.
We talked about my plan to visit monasteries and to my surprise. He said: "My friends and I also thought about staying at a monastery for a month or so. I'd be down for it." Whereas most tourists come for seeing the natural wonders Ladakh has to offer, there were actually two clueless people who didn't only come for the external sightseeing but for internal self-encounter.
But for today it was already too late to stay longer at the monastery, we had to return the bike as well. But something already told me, that those monastery visits are something I have to do on my own. In my own speed. I was not sure whether Melroy would be there with me. I was also not sure if it truly was the right thing for him.
When reaching home it was quite late already, but still we didn't have food. Melroy was also not too hungry yet. And also not too keen to eat the leftovers from lunch. I wanted to not throw it away though. So we made a plan to eat it at the hostel.
There is just one problem though.
There are gigantic boards telling "No external food or fine." So we went to the boss and politely said, we'd really love the food you offer here, but lunch was so poor, we waited forever and still couldn't eat it. So we had to go somewhere else and the leftovers from that lunch we'd like to have now. Can we eat that here and do you have a microwave? He declined. I defended our position. "See, I mean it's not our fault your food was that bad, you made us pay double so I feel it would be just fair to allow us to eat it here to make up for it." I was convincing it seems like. He said he is gonna make a call.
Up at the terrace, asking the local personell was something we didn't dare for a quite some time. Until we had to because we were hungry. So we asked, politely but uncertain, whether they could heat it up. They were already informed. And just asked us: "Do not tell anyone, okay?" We didn't.
We brought the bags into the kitchen. Secretly. Went to our place. What then happened blew our minds. Ten minutes later, they brought us a fully fledged dish, everything arranged nicely. We were sitting in the middle of ten people or so and the kitchen crew really wanted to make it seem like we ordered some food from them.
That was hilarious. And to make it even funnier we were making sounds like we really enjoyed the food and that their kitchen is so great. In the end not only we laughed but the personell did too. And that would remain a running joke through the rest of our stay there.
But the day was not yet over. Melroy disappeared for some time. I needed to refill my bottle at the ground floor and there we met again. He was in a call with a friend and the friend then dropped a small info Melroy tried to hide the entire day:
It was his birthday.
I immediately knew what was going on. That's why he was unstoppable to rent a bike. But in that case we couldn't let the day end like that, so I said lets go out and have some cake or something. He declined. But at the hostel they had a local game called Carrom. We played that for at least another hour. We were really bad. Especially me. I tried and every single time something unexpected happened. At some point we tried for minutes to score but couldn't and then things got a little tricky... because we got spectators.
And somehow, out of the blue, we were transformed. Where we didn't hit anything earlier, we started scoring and scoring and scoring. We were quite impressive, looked at each other, and there was one more similarity: We both had no clue what was going on.
Yeah, anyways, that was an awesome day. And it was meant to be like that as well.
Why?
You will see.
I might have felt it coming as well: I told Melroy that tomorrow I think I gotta take it slower than today. Because I felt today I was pushing beyond my limits.
First because of the altitude, second because of the cold. Which turned me into a real blessing for the entire dorm room. Especially at night. Snoring. Sneezing. Clearing the nose. Et cetera.
Luckily, Indians are masters in deep sleep and nobody noticed anything anyways.
Fun. See you tomorrow!
See you in the next one.
