bomb blasts

There's another bomb blast in Hyderabad, it happened 3 days ago, while I was hundreds of kilometers away in Srinagar. This time two bombs exploded, in a restaurant and a park, and it was more serious than the first time this year, more than 40 people were killed. I called my friends, and found out that like the last time, they were hardly affected. The city is big, so that what happened in one area hardly affects the other.

Last time it happened on May 19th, I remember it clearly because I was on sick leave that day. In the early afternoon I received a phone call from Marcus, telling me that a mosque (Mecca Masjid) was bombed and there's a curfew on the street, so everyone in the studio had to go home early. We ended up spending the afternoon watching movies at Marcus & Kiki's flat.

Some people may be wondering whether it is safe to travel in India, honestly I really feel safe here. I mean when I walk around the streets here at night, I feel safer than walking in big cities of Europe, or even safer than walking pass the drunken guys yelling loudly on Queen street. It's just a unfortunate fact that terrorism is affecting this country, and I don't know why Hyderabad had become a major target this year.

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Kashmir

I'm now in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir

this is an interesting place...in a bit of a sad way
you can clearly see that in the past the city must be a pretty upscale resort for tourists, the setting & architecture have strong European influences, the lakes have hundreds of houseboats as relaxing accommodations. The streets are cleaner and greener (in the touristy centers) than other Indian cities.

But since the partition of India, the hostility between India & Pakistan and the political unrest in the decades that followed have pretty much screwed the tourism industry here

Nowadays, while staying on the houseboats remained a tranquil & relaxing experience, in downtown Srinagar, you'll see fully armed Indian soldiers standing guard on every corner of the street. The political situation between India and Pakistan is a lot better these days, but there still aren't that many foreign tourists, and I noticed that there're probably more Indian tourists.

Kashmir used to be dubbed as "paradise on earth" because of it's natural beauty, it's interesting in a sad way to see how human conflicts affect the so-called "paradise".

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Vegetarian

I've always told people who are vegetarian that I'm both vegetarian & non-vegetarian at the same time. But as of now, I've stayed with a vegetarian diet for over a month.

Actually I've reduced my meat consumption since I came to India, because there're so many vegetarians here, all the restaurant have both veg. & non-veg dishes, so it was very easy to choose veg. dishes.

Since last month, I intentionally stopped ordering non-veg food from restaurants, and before long, 3 weeks have passed! However last week was getting a bit difficult for me, because I visited Nubra Valley, and for whatever reason veg. diet is not the norm in the valley, and I had to refuse mutton dishes and ask for veg. food.

I'm not sure how long will I continue this habit, because there're still some really delicious meat dishes (especially from Hyderabad) that I craved from time to time, and the veg. food here in Leh is getting a bit repetitive for me. But I intend to stay with it for as long as possible.

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Dalai Lama in Leh

The Dalai Lama is in Leh now, he arrived at around 10:30am this morning.
This time he's visiting Soma Gompa (monastry), which is just outside the internet place, so I witnessed the event.

As usual the street is fulled of people, about 1/4 to 1/3 are tourists (mind you Leh is fulled of tourists), and there're lots of Indian soldiers & polices on the street, fully armed.
Many Ladakhis are wearing their traditional custumes, holding scarfs, flowers...etc in their hands, and there are banners on the street buildings, saying "welcome".

After waiting for about half an hour, several vehicles passed through the street in front of the gompa, fulled of soldiers/polices, some soldiers jumped out with rifles in their hands, and soon after, the Dalai Lama's vehicle arrived.

He walked out of the car, palms together in front of his chest, making a Buddhist gesture to the crowds, and was quickly lead into the gompa by his entourage.

I took several photos and managed to capture his face in one of them.
But I won't be able to upload any more photos until I left Leh and go back to some place with cheaper internet.

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De javu - take two

Yesterday, just before I was leaving a Tibetan market here in Leh, a strong feeling of de javu hit me, I suddenly remembered that the market and the streets outside appeared in one of my dreams a few years ago!

This is the second time something like this happened to me. The first time was back in 2003, while I was on the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostella, in a small town called Viana.

Sure it's not uncommon that I have feelings of de javu about certain things or places, but occurrences like this one is rare.

It's fun.

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Edwin@Leh

I arrived in Leh on Sunday after a very bumpy 2-day jeep journey through the 2nd highest motorable road in the world (I got photos but won't have time to upload them until a few weeks from now).

Yesterday the Dalai Lama passed through Leh in the morning at around 9am. I was still in my hotel room at that time so I did not witness the procession of his convoy. But people told me that he was on his way to Nubra Valley to give a 3 days teaching to the public, and he'll do the same thing in Leh around the 16th of this month.

In Norther India, where it's more Buddhist than Hindu, Dalai Lama realy is just like the Pope in Italy. Wherever I go, people talked about where he is right now and where he's going to be soon, many shops and restaurants have his photo hanging on the wall, and wherever he goes, people line the streets to welcome him.

I picked up his autobiography "Freedom in exile" in Manali and I it to be a perfect time and place for me to read this book, because I'm so close to where the events happened in the book, and the places around me are fulled of his presence.

I haven't decided whether to attend his teachings in Leh or not, because as usual, "the plan is that there's no plan."

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wow, Spiti, wow!!

Spiti

The bus from Manali to Spiti valley is hands down the most impressive bus ride I've ever had in my life so far.

The look of the Himalayas changed from the steep rocky cliffs with lots of green vegetation, to dry barren desert valleys with impressive mountain formations, I was in awe and could not think of anything other than "wow, wow, what a scenery." I have seen lots of great sceneries in my life, but I have never seen anything like this.

I have the same emotional feeling I've had when I visited places like:
* first time in NZ, the coast of Otago, the Glaciers in South Island(1993)
* the road to Milford sound (~2000)
* Tongariro crossing (2003)
* Swiss Alps (2003)

Except that in Spiti, the scale of the scenery is about 10 times larger than the places above.

However, about the road condition to get there...well, let's say if the minister of transportation will get a heart attack if he ever sees this kind of "highway" in New Zealand, especially when it's on steep mountain valleys.
Ok, the road surface is not all bad, but in many places, it's best described as "rock, pebbles and dust" or "rock, mud and water". Most part of the highway is not wide enough for two vehicles to pass (bus, truck & jeeps), so quite often one of them have to back up to a wider area and let the other pass.

Highlights about my journey in Spiti:

Kibber: a small village with an altitude of 4205m. About an hour walk uphill from the village you will reach a high mountain plateau where you can have 360 degree of mountain view and no one else is around. A really wonderful place to be.

Jazz under the moonlight: what a coincident that 4 musicians (2 French & 2 Indians from Delhi) stayed on the same floor of my hotel in Kibber. So one night I had the front seat to a free concert. We sat around the table on the balcony, and the guys performed Jazz music with guitars and saxophone. The Saxophone was especially amazing, and the surrounding mountain acted as a natural sound theatrical system: creating echoes for the music. With moonlight & a sky fulled of stars, what a magical night~

Upper-class bus travel: The buses in India are always fulled, so on the journey from Kaza to Kibber, I ended up sitting on the roof of the bus, along with all the luggages & 12 other passengers. It was a fun experience and the view was wonderful, the only danger is that whenever the bus passed through some overhanging objects, such as electrical wires or monumental gates (eg. near the towns & gompas), we have to bend our heads down to avoid being hit by them!

Tabo Gompa: with thousand-year-old Buddhist wall paintings & sculptures, it's a truly amazing place to be, especially if you can get in when no other tourists are around, sitting in the dim lighting of the gompa, looking at the ancient Tibetan Buddhist decorations gave me a feeling of peace and tranquility.

I have uploaded a small selection of photos to picasa (click the photo for the link), I have not time to stitch the panoramic photos so for now the photos will just be in compositions straight from my camera. But actually I feel that no matter how I take the photos they simply could not fully describe the sceneries & feelings I experienced in Spiti.

I'm now once again in Manali. Spiti was an amazing place but there's no cellphone reception & internet was slow and expensive, so I'll relax for a few days in Manali & then travel to Leh.

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