With Tibet in the news, I can’t help recalling of the time I spent in Tibet in August 2005. It was quite a revelation. Hostilities were already boiling underneath the veneer of peace and prosperity that the Chinese invader government took pains to project. It started at the border between Nepal and Tibet. When the Chinese immigration official found out that I am of Chinese ethnicity, she warned me to be careful and not to trust the Tibetans. “Be careful or they might steal your things.”I was rather taken aback. I have nothing against the Tibetans and my mind was open about them. And here a little seed of doubt and suspicion was planted in my mind.
But have the Chinese proven to be such good masters???
Sure, the Tibetans are not very refined people … they
live in harsh environment, and violence is the only
way they could express half-a-century of pent-up frustrations against Chinese invasion and their subsequent atrocities. Continue reading »
The tour leaflets say if you have time for only one temple, don’t miss Angkor Wat and Wat Bayon, but I will honestly say, don’t miss Ta Prohm. This is what I call ruins - real ones. I felt like Indiana Jones, the Asian version. Angelina Jolie’s Tomb Raider was shot here too.
Lonely Planet Guide says it’s sacrilege to spend only one day in Angkor. Well, I spent half-day there and that was more than enough for me. The number of times I clambered up and down flights of stone stairs, many of them steep, was quite enough exercise for me. Negotiated with the tuk tuk driver whom I hired from Siem Riep (15 mins drive one way on the slow tuk tuk) for USD9 per half-day. Frankly in my opinion, Angkor Wat is over-hyped and grossly overpriced, unless you are a real ruins nutcase, for whom each bas relief and/or apsara (estimated more than 3,000) can induce fits of orgasmic ecstasy. Seriously, after awhile, they all look same-same. Yeah, same-same but different but same-same nonetheless. Continue reading »
The dance is a rehearsal of the Horse-Racing festival held during summer annually. As can be seen, Chinese influence has seeped in with a lot of the movements similar to many traditional Chinese dances.
I am the kind of tourist the Chinese Government would love to ban, or even imprison as a lesson to others. I had not only committed a crime in their soil, I am also guilty of attempted bribery of a Chinese official.
The year was 2005 and it was my last day in Tibet before I take what is reputed to be the most expensive flight in the world back to Kathmandu,Nepal. The day before, I had earnestly tried to engage the services of a Tibetan runner based in a Tibetan hotel to get the entrance tickets for me and a Korean friend to visit the Potala Palace. No visit to Tibet is complete without at least setting foot in this most famous and historic landmark in Western China. Potala Palace, perched on the rooftop of the world, has recently been inducted as one of the 7 modern wonders of the world. Continue reading »
People Strangely enough, it’s the people that either endear
or repulse you. Here, as in the physical landscape contrasts,
you have contrasting personalities. The poor are
hardcore poor, ranging from the homeless (they sleep in the park like
it’s a huge camping trip but without the tents somewhere near the expressway in Manila itself or sometimes just on
pavements. Not even makeshift cardboards like the ones in North America. They just plonk themselves on the pavement -mother, father and kids. I have seen mothers and babies sleeping on
pavements which stink of stale urine and this is in the afternoon
abt 3pm in Ermate which is the commercial area
just next to Malate. Continue reading »
