Visualization

Soviet Union Olympic study: During the 1980s, what was then the Soviet Union's Olympic team tested various training procedures. Athletes from various sports were split into four groups.

The first group trained entirely with physical practice - 100 percent of the time. The second group used physical training 75 percent of the time, and mental imagery 25 percent of the time. The third group split its training 50-50. The fourth group spent 25 percent of the time training physically, and 75 percent of the time mentally.

The mental training required them to spend time every day practicing their sport in their mind using mental imagery. At the end of the study, the group who had made the biggest gains or improvement was the fourth group - the one that had spent only 25 percent of the time training physically and 75 percent of the time using mental imagery. Interestingly, the group that trained 100 percent of the time physically actually improved the least.

-- from "Speed Secrets 6" by Ross Bentley.

Read more...

Joy

Divine inspiration comes in many forms, their expressions, however diverse, are universally joyful.

It's wonderful to witness so many joyful spirits around, an especially noticeable phenomenon in my social circles, is that many people are becoming happy first time parents.

Congratulations to those who finds joy in their lives, in any manner or forms.

Read more...

A photo published

One of my photo showing the full moon illuminating the Himalaya mountains is now published in Worldnomads Book of Travels 2008. I'm now waiting to receive my copy :)

Click the above image will take you to the webpage about the book, the photo I submitted can be seen in my previous post titled "panoramas" .

Read more...

leaving, floating onwards

The cat curled up like a furry cushion, sleeping soundly on my laps.
Usually he prefers to sleep on K's laps, but for the past two days he's been coming to me instead.

"Somehow cats always know that you are leaving. Before we left NZ, the cat we had came and stayed around us all the time." K said.

There are still 3 days left before I leave, but I'm already feeling nostalgic.
I really like my stay in Dharamkot, where we can see the mountains and valleys every day; walk pass forests, monkeys, mongooses, cows, donkeys, and of course dogs and cats; watch crows, huge vultures and other unknown birds flying in the sky.

Of course the place is not a paradise, it's fulled of inconveniences and daily bugs, like the frequent power cuts, internet problems, network cable problems, the cold weather & the absence of indoor heating, and the locals who always try to get as much money out of us as possible (they are the minority but unfortunately they are the ones that you have to deal with the most).

On the day before I leave, I still have to deal with the guys who sold and promised to buy back our computers, as he suddenly had a change of heart and wouldn't own up to the flowery promises he had made.
I also have to settle the payments with our landlord, who had already given us a few surprises regarding to the bills.

Every time something bad like the above happened, I wish I was in the comfort of my home in NZ, but...I will still miss the good things here once I'm gone.

"There's a French saying, every time you leave a place, a part of you dies." Five years ago, in a mountain village of Northern Italy, my Dutch flatmate told me this, before I left after finishing a two-week marble sculpture course.

Yes it is sad to leave a place where you've created a lot of memories, but that's just a natural part of travelling. You feel sad, but it's a beautiful feeling.

"I guess I'll miss you too." I say to the cat as I stroke his chin. He continues to sleep like a baby.

Read more...

Ouch my fingers!

The cold weather on the mountain have taken its first victim, after some itchy red patches appeared on my hands for several days, now 2.5 of my fingers are swollen like sausages.

Of course, it was my own fault for not realising the hazard of cold temperatures and taking preventive measures, but there was a good reason (whether wise or not): I tried to test my limits and see how much my body can adjust to the cold weather with minimum amount of external help.

So as a result:
- I washed clothes by hand with cold water
- I only wore a pair of gloves that's not wind proof and is probably slightly too tight (bad for blood circulation)
- I walked in snow/hail storms where the cold breeze attacked my umbrella-holding hands mercilessly (this one is unavoidable though)
- I ignored the early symptoms - the itchy red patches

Anyway my hands are now wrapped in a new pair of warm gloves, and with 12 days to go until I leave here, they shall survive.

Read more...

Believe it or not

I find that when I disagree with people's beliefs, quite often they get upset.
On the other hand, it upsets me when they assume that since I disagree with them, I must believe in the opposite beliefs.

Needless to say, with all the upsetting going around, the heated exchanges of disagreements often occur naturally and unavoidably.

It's an interesting and delicate situation when you are standing in the middle, and don't want to take side in the constant fightings between dualistic beliefs and ideas.

"Does god exist?"
"Does Jesus as a historical figure actually existed?"
"Is there a purpose to life, or are we all just nature's accidents?"
"Did we really evolve from monkeys? (evolution vs. creationism)"
"Did we (humankind) really landed on the moon?"
"Was Benezir Bhutto really killed by Al-Qaeda?"
("It's Musharraf, he's the one behind this!" Someone uttered this in a matter-of-fact-tone, immediately after the news of the assassination came out.)

Having spend a lot of time on questioning and thinking about everything I could, I concluded that: "If you know the truth, then you know it. Only when this knowing is absent do beliefs become necessary."

Of course we cannot know everything, so it is inevitable that we have to believe in a lot of things that we don't really know.
The point I want to make is that, since beliefs are merely pointers to the truth, there's no point to get too caught up with them mentally or emotionally, right? My beliefs often change with time anyway, like everything else, they are ever-changing and constantly evolving.

My attitude towards questions like "Do you believe....etc?" (eg. "Do you believe that we actually landed on the moon?") have always been something like: "Since I don't have access to the first-hand evidences, and I'm often not expert enough to interpret them, I prefer to stay neutral. I'll just observe, see what both side have to say, and leave it at that."

However this answer doesn't always pleases people.
"You are being political."
"You are just avoiding the responsibility to choose."
"You just won't open your eyes and see the truth, by saying that you will stay neutral, you are denying the evidences in front of you right here!"
"You can't stand in the middle of the street, the car is coming, choose which side you want to be on now, or the car will run you over!"

I frowned whenever I see people jump blindly into believing something, without carefully examining the validity of the story being told to them. Most of the time, people just want the evidences to support or reinforce their existing beliefs, they see what they want to see, and ignore whatever they don't like.

Those who are making an effort to search for the truth, who prefer to observe without rush to conclusions, have to stand the heat coming from people on both sides of the dualistic belief, or leave and go their own way.

How did a lone wolf become alone?

Read more...

Panoramas

A selection of panoramic photos from this year.

Panoramas

Read more...

First snow

Read more...

It's snowing

Snow, hail, rain and thunder. Yep, that's what you get for staying half way up the mountain in winter.
This kind of weather started 3 days ago, and it's giving us a hard time here in Dharamkot.
The first hazard is the coldness, but it's actually the easiest one to deal with.
Not long after the temperature dropped, we were then trapped inside the hotel by the rain and the freezing wind almost all day long.
Whenever the weather gets bad, the internet stops working.

The lightening and thunders...they are not just spectacles that I used to watch with great interest and enjoyment in New Zealand, here they are real hazards to electronic equipments. I keep hearing stories about how they burn out everything connected to the power outlet in the entire house.
Just before we moved into our current hotel, one of the power supply of their computer was burnt by the lightening.
Several times we have sparks coming out (not sure from where) near our computers after lightening, that we immediately shut down everything to make sure we don't lose our hardwares.

You may wonder, why don't they just install something (earthing or whatever) to prevent this from happening?
It's a good question, but there's no good answers. The conclusion would be: "This is India, what do you expect?"

Read more...

More internet bugs

This month had been a great training session for my patience.

On the technical front, there's been one bug after another, none stop. First there was the usual difficulties & frustrations to get an internet connection, then for an entire day & night the power supply of our building fluctuated like crazy. The lights went brighter & dimmer all the time like in some horror movies, and the voltage was so unstable that the computers would constantly crash if we switch them on.

An electrician fixed the power problem the next day, but soon after, our internet provider denied our access for 3 days with the message that the username/password was invalid.

After the problem was finally resolved, just one day later, the light on the ADSL modem wouldn't come on. I picked up the phone, and there were no sound. We thought that something messed up the phone line, so there's nothing we can do but wait for the phone company to repair the problem.

We soon heard the news that during the previous night, someone had stolen a significant chunk of the cable from the major phone line, so all the telephone connections from McLeod Ganj upward were down. McLeod Ganj, being the main center in the area, got the phone connection back 2 days later, and for us in Dharamkot, we waited for 3 days until the phone connection was finally back, but...the internet was still not working.

That was yesterday, and today we found out that our network cable was not functioning. As a last resort, I connected an older cable that was broken earlier, and miraculously it worked. That's why I have access the internet at this very moment. We ordered a new cable, and with luck hopefully it will arrive promptly tomorrow.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is life in India. Either you get use to it, or you gocrazy.

On the personal front....ah..well...it's a long story. The only thing I can say is that it has been everything, but never boring.

Read more...

Internet connection traumas

I have not had such painful experiences with internet connections since the dial-up days.

When the broadband internet we have is working, it is perfect and we have really good speeds, but...it has become a daily struggle for us to get connections & stay connected.

For Rs. 3000 per month (100NZD), it is not so cheap and the reliability is disappointing.

Read more...

Nobody's perfect

No matter how amazing a person is, there's always something about them that can really annoy you.

In order to have a great friendship/relationship, you always need a bit of space & distance from each other. Maybe there are some exceptions, but the above holds true in most cases.

Ah well, nobody's perfect, I'm no exception.

Read more...

Photos from Dharamsala area

Life in Dharamsala

Monkeys in Dharamsala

Read more...

Drifting

Sometimes I feel I was born too late into this world.
The age of exploration is long gone, there are no more mysterious places in the world, no more uncharted territories unexplored by man.

The era of revolutions & great ideologies is now just a bygone memory. People used to fight with great passion, to bring freedom & equality to our society.
But nowadays, the society we lived in (in the developed world) is dominated by consumerism & endless pursuit of materialistic wealth, while most people in the world still live with inequality & injustice.

The western world thought the only way to help the rest of the world, is to bring modernization to them.
The so-called progress, bring roads & consumerable goods like coca-cola & mobile phones to every corner of the planet, but at the same time, it creates pollution & plastic wastes in quantities far beyond our capacity for them.

Living in New Zealand was like living in a paradise to me, because it's a beautiful country, and it's far away from all the troubles & conflicts in the world.

But I felt lost.

What's my purpose in life?

Is it just like what everyone said, you should get a career, get wealthy, find someone, settle down, get married (or not), have kids (or not), take up some hobbies, have a normal life and be a good citizen, and there, that's your fulfillment in life!?

Unfortunately following the status quo is never my thing.

I guess that's why after graduating from university, I went on a pilgrimage, and now four years later, I left home again and ended up in India.

Read more...

Dalai Lama in Leh - photos (11 August 2007)

People waiting for the arrival of the Dalai Lama, Main Bazaar road, Leh.


Dalai Lama's arrival.


Crowd reactions.

Read more...

Same conversation, over and over again

"No I'm not Japanese."

"No I'm not Korean."

"I'm from New Zealand."

"Yes I look Asian because I was born in Taiwan, but if you go to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand right now, you'll see people from everywhere around the world."


If I get a dollar every time I have this conversation, let's say the money I got will probably be enough to cover all my meal costs for this whole trip. I was quite patient in the beginning, thinking that it's part of my responsibility to "educate" people, but man~ how many times is too many to have the same conversation? How about 8 times a day? That's my highest daily record so far.

Somehow I find that Indians have more problem accepting my answer when I said I'm from New Zealand, whereas most Europeans are ok with it. I think the reason is simple, many big cities in Europe are quite multi-cultural as I have observed when I was there, and people there are used to the idea of having people from different culture & background living in the same country. Which is not quite the case in most Indian cities. Sure you see lot's of westerners in touristy places, but they're just tourists.

Here's an interesting observation, guess people from which country make up the number 1 tourist population in India? Answer: Israelis.

The second place probably goes to the French.

As for New Zealanders, so far I've met 4.
Taiwaneses: 7.
Australians: 3.
Chinese: 0.

Read more...

Rains

Right now I'm trapped inside the internet cafe, because it's pouring like cats & dogs outside. Dharamsala certainly lives up to its reputation as the second rainiest place in India.

I have a umbrella with me, but judging by how heavy the rain is, I'll still be half soaked if I attempt to walk back from McLeod Ganj to Bhagsu (15 min).

The noise of the rain is so loud, that you'll be forgiven to think that there's a waterfall right outside the front door of the building.

It doesn't rain all day here, but since I arrived on last sunday, there was a heavy rain like this almost everyday for 1~2 hours. Ah well, what can you expect from the second rainiest place in India during monsoon?

Read more...

The effect of altitude change

Did I just walk 7km uphill in 45 minutes? That can't be right. According to the road sign, that's the distance between Dharamsala & McLeod Ganj. However I'm suspicious about this figure. According to Lonely Planet, the distance by walking is 4km, and that feels more like the correct distanace to me.

Having lived in places with altitude higher than 3000~4000m for about a month, back in places under 2000m, I feel like superman. Ok...not quite, but people who know me well would know that my walking speed uphill had always been dramatically slower than my average walking speed, but now in Dharamsala, I can keep up the same pace all the way uphill, without getting out of breath. I didn't even have to drink any water, even though I sweat a lot during the walk.

It's good to feel fit and well.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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".

Read more...