The Middle Way to Leh

According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha Gautama spent the first twenty-nine years living a life of luxury. When he decided to leave the palace in which he had his entire life, he began to realize the suffering that all people endured in the world, and he entered into a life of asceticism. For the next few years, Siddhartha and his companions practiced extreme asceticism in order to achieve enlightenment. After nearly dying, Siddhartha realized that his asceticism had failed to lead to enlightenment. Instead, he began to practice what Buddhists now refer to as the Middle Way - a path of moderation that balances the extremes of self-deprivation and self-indulgence. This Middle Way led Siddhartha to becoming enlightened, and ultimately being known as the Buddha, or the “Awakened One.”
In many ways, it seems that how one travels reflects one’s spirituality (or lack of it). I’ve met many travelers who will deny themselves anything more than the cheapest room, no matter how dirty, and eat from the cheapest street vendor, no matter how unsafe the food looks. At the same time, I have met travelers who only travel in the most luxurious conditions. They fly everywhere in first class, regardless of cost or the ecological footprint. They eat only at the nicest restaurants and stay in the fanciest of hotels, regardless of how poorly treated the workers are or how many resources are wasted. It seems to me that there should be some sort of Middle Way travel philosophy. Traveling isn’t about how luxuriously or simply you travel; it’s about the way in which one travels.
In deciding to visit Leh, Ladakh in northern India, I knew that I was choosing to visit a place that wasn’t easily accessible. It’s in the northern most part of India in a valley in the Himalayas. At the same time, I was hoping that Leh could be a sort of place where I could spend time relaxing and focusing on my own thoughts and how I live. The tricky part was how to get to Leh. Given its remoteness, it’s not that simple to visit. It’s possible to pay a couple hundred dollars and grab a quick hour long flight from Delhi and show up in Leh, but for me that seemed to luxurious and easy. At the same time, I read horror stories about public bus rides from Manali to Leh that take two days, in which drivers spend most of their time drinking cheap whiskey and the seats are filled with passengers vomiting from motion sickness. (Andrew Harvey does a wonderful job of describing this sort of experience in his A Journey in Ladakh.) That option sounded more like an exercise in self-deprivation.
While in Manali, I discovered that you could share a taxi (a large SUV type jeep thing) to get to Leh. The shared taxi cost more than the bus, but it also took nearly half the time. It wasn’t as quick as a plane ride, but it was probably a little better for the environment. The shared taxi had three rows of seats. I shared the middle row with Vanessa, so we had a little extra space to spread out, but it was hardly riding in a fancy Winnebago. The taxi left Manali at 1:00 AM and arrived in Leh at 8:00 PM the same day - a voyage of nineteen hours.
The trip was not without its discomforts, but none were excessively painful. I never feared that my driver was too drunk to drive that I wouldn’t make it to Leh. In fact, the driver Suraj was friendly and amazing at navigating the narrow roads. At the same time, the ride was a test in endurance. There were rough roads (sometimes the road didn’t even exist). There were lots of Indian Oil trucks that took up almost the entire road that needed to be passed. There were significant changes in temperature, and I never imagined India being so cold in August.
The voyage also had its amazing moments. Watching the Himalayas for hours was incredible. It’s hard to describe just how beautiful they can be. Talking to people who live in the little “towns” in the Himalayas was also rewarding and reminded me how wonderful humanity can be. I enjoyed watching Suraj refill the gas tank using the cut-off top of a water bottle as a funnel - a nice reminder of the ecologically friendly ways in which so many Indians reuse things. And getting to eat momos (Tibetan dumplings) while sitting at the foot of the Himalayas was a moment I’ll always remember.
Although I would never think of myself as a Buddha, I do like to think that I found the Middle Way to Leh.