(Note: Leah and I spent most of the month of July in India and Nepal. This is part 1 of probably 10 daily blog posts I will do on our trip. Enjoy!)
Sunday June 29
Delhi, India
We we woke this morning to the sound of chanting young voices, drums, and ceremonial horns.
One of our friends from the Tibetan Buddhist monastery back home in Seattle arranged our lodging for last night, our first in Delhi, and Leah and I slept in a small, spare room in a school for young monks. After 24 hours of travel (halfway around the world!) it was 4 AM by the time we arrived at the monks' school and fell into bed.
Nevertheless, I was up again at 6 when I heard the chanting, grabbing my cameras and going right to work. I didn't come this far to sleep through the opportunity to experience and photograph something I guessed might be wonderful.
What followed was a bit surreal, after we put so many months into the planning of this trip. I spent the morning and early afternoon photographing a day in the lives of the novice monks, while Leah observed the passing scene and made notes in her journal. Later, a young helper from the school took us -- via tuk tuk (a small, three-wheeled taxi,) and also the crowded, underground Delhi Metro -- to a travel office in an over-the-top crazy area of Delhi where we booked the flight we'll take early tomorrow to Leh, Ladakh, the place we'll spend the next two weeks.
Though the monks in this school did devote much of the day to religious rituals and study, we were told that Sunday afternoon and evening are typically a time for kid stuff and play. Most of the monks put robes aside (or tied their skirts up, around their waists) and dove into a spirited soccer match.
This trip has been something I've been dreaming about for many years -- probably since I first saw a photograph from Ladakh -- and Leah is so amazing to have made this out-of-our comfort zone leap of faith with me. That the journey is really happening is just hard to believe.
I will keep you posted as the days unfold...
