I want to fly low-cost airlines without paying extra for checked luggage, so I've been shaving off a little bit every time I move, until I'm down to one backpack that weighs less than 10 kilograms, and the part of me that wants to throw it away and the part that wants to keep it is still fighting. If I'm playing a game where I can only survive by throwing things away one by one, how far can I go? What will be the last thing that will remain in my hands? Who will be the last person to stay by my side? Am I willing to take off all my clothes and be naked? Am I willing to cut off all the relationships I have and be alone?
Do you like being alone?
When I saw people doing things that we used to do together, such as eating alone, drinking alone, and traveling alone, I thought, "Ah, we're all tired of it." Nowadays, concepts such as 'voluntary isolation' seem to be considered a life skill. Some people say that our society is sick because we see so many "alone" people, and some people see it as a life skill and embrace it, and they're both right. Being together is certainly exhausting, and there are many times when it's easier to be alone, but it's not all about comfort. Those who know the taste of solitude also know the thrill of togetherness. People who are good alone are also good in groups.
I like being alone, I need it, just like I need air to breathe and water to drink. Sometimes I think about perfecting solitude: how far can I let go, what or who will be the last thing or person I leave behind. I think about the things I want to accomplish alone and the things I can only accomplish alone.
Isn't it awful to be constantly doing things that require you to be with people, enjoying them more than anything else, and yet always have "completing things alone" on the back of your mind? This contradiction is what drives me forward, but it's also what causes me suffering. Suffering is the default in our lives, so what can I do but accept this cruel inconsistency?
When I'm alone, I stay at the Dolphin Hotel (*The Dolphin Hotel (Iruka Hotel) is a place that appears in Haruki Murakami's novels <A Wild Sheep Chase> and <Dance Dance Dance>). When I am alone, instead of losing words, I gain a world that is neither seen nor heard, and in that ecstatic world, all I have to do is center myself and walk. I walk and fly at the same time and swim at the same time. I grope through the darkness of weightlessness, and everything that touches my fingertips becomes mine, and just like that, the universe fills with me. I feel like the last piece of a puzzle that can never be completed, and then I suddenly realize that I am not a lonely puzzle piece. That I wasn't a piece, I was the whole, the finished picture.
It doesn't matter if your "being alone" is an escape, a practice, or a life cheat key. If you want to build your own ark out of the unquestionable materials of your own life and your own story, check into the Dolphin Hotel once in a while. It's about being alone, becoming alone, doing alone, and in doing so, reconnecting with the world - the world where there is life, that bright, warm, moist world.
Dolphin Hotel, Ulley, Ladakh, the land of the snow leopard, appears and disappears. The Choonza Road opens up to the Dolphin Hotel in Ulley.
Location : Ladakh, India
Dates : April 29, 2024 - May 28, 2024 (29 days and 30 nights)
Application Deadline : April 20, 2024