wandering Ka

My Photo scholarship 2010 entry

ka — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 23:01:29 GMT

I took these pictures during my trip between China and Nepal. It was interesting to notice the different ways in which the corn is dried, stored and sorted. At the moment I am in India, and will still be here in December. I am trying to understand this part of the World so different from my home country. And I am loving it.

Photos: hong kong to chennay

ka — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 04:06:00 GMT

hong kong

In Kathmandu, remembering Tibet

ka — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 16:30:00 GMT

I didn't have the chance to write in Tibet because of the bad internet connection and the difficulty of writing about Tibet in chinese's land.

It was quite impressive. I was on a tour group (travelling in Tibet is not free, you have to be part of a group and get a "Travel Permit" that makes this destination a bit expensive) of 4 people, plus other 4 on a different group. We all met in Chengdu. My group was formed of a Dutch couple, Lee, from England, and me. In the other group were a Swiss couple, Emma, from NZ, and Hilde, dutch, that is with me in Kathmandu now.

The train trip from Chengdu to Lhasa was amazing. 44 hours on a train and I wished it was longer. The landscape in Tibet is spectacular and I met a couple of tibet guys on the train that made the trip more interesting (a bit of a shame that their English wasn't very good, but we managed to exchange a few words).

I could describe Tibet as amazing landscape, with lovely people and bright colours.

Lhasa is a wonderful town, with a Tibet old centre full of pilgrims that prostrate and do their Kora (a pilgrimage) around the Jokhang, the main temple. Their devotion is touching. There are also a lot of chinese tourists, that you can avoid if you go to the smaller temples (like the Drepung Monastery).

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After 4 days in Lhasa we left for the Himalayas. We visited the Samye Monastery, about 3 hours from the capit. It is Tibet's first monastery but at that point I had enough of monasteries so I went hiking on one of the surrounding picks instead. With Lee. Amazing view. The dirty road to reach the monastery goes through rivers and amazing mountains and from the top of the pick you could enjoy the same scenery. With the usual colourful flags to prey for protection against earthquakes and floodings (at least this is what our wonderful guide told me).

On the way to Gyantse, we stopped at the Yamdrok tse (one of the 4 holy lakes in Tibet). Its water is of an amazing turquois colour, and when I first saw it I understood why they consider it holy. It has something of magic in it. It's just a shame you can't bath in its waters...

Gyantse is a nice small city with an interesting old town, with unpaved streets and cows and sheep wandering around. It also has one of the most famous monasteries, not visited.

On the evening of the 6th day we arrived in Shigatse. There is the only monastery that hasn't been destroyed by the cultural revolution. Nice view of the old town from the hill behind the monastery. When I walked in its narrow lanes all I could see were high white walls and wild dogs. All the houses are surrounded by these walls, which makes it impossible to see them from the street.

The following day we left for the Everest Base Camp. I good 8 hours drive. But again amazing landscape, that make the journey incredibly pleasant. Once we got at our tent (called Tibet Hotel, while our friends' tent was "Himalaya Grand Hotel" .. I found it quite funny) we walked about 1 hour to get to the Everest Base Camp. It's not easy to walk at an altitude of 5150 m. We were lucky because on our way there the Everest got cleared from the clouds and we could take a couple of pictures, while from the EBC we couldn't see anything. But still, nice walk. A bit chilly actually. The tent where we stayed reminded me of the bedouins' tent where I stayed in Wadi Rum, but inside was amazingly warm and with nice beds and tables where we ate and chatted before going to bed.

No sunrise view of the Mt. Everest. It was actually raining in the morning. So we drove to the border with Nepal. The first 3 hours were in a dirty road and we had a few adventures. The first time we stopped to help another 4x4 to get out of a hole in the road. It was so nice to see all the passengers of 3 jeeps to help to get rocks to fill in the hole so that other 4x4 wouldn't get stuck. The second time it was us who stopped. The driver of the 4x4 following us advised of a problem with I don't know what. And again everyone was helping out. The usual amazing landscape, that you can't get bored of, and tents of nomads and people walking in the middle of what to me seemed nowhere.

In the evening we reached Zhangmu, also called Dram in Tibetan and Khasa in Nepalese. One single small road that goes down the valley, with buildings on each side of it, cars parked everywhere and so many trucks as I have never seen in my life, that cause a terrible traffic. During the last hour to get there the landscape had changed drastically, it already seemed a different country. From the deserted mountains of the tibetan plateau we drove through rainforest and waterfalls. Many chinese and nepaleses live there. Really, not the classic tibetan town.

Last night in Tibet. A bit sad to leave. At the border our guide had wet eyes and me with her. She is an amazing person and I will miss her. Always smiling and helpful. I will miss tibetan people. So no-chinese! Curious and smiling and eager to talk to you with their poor english.

Now I'm in a different country, looking forward to discover it!

Planning a visit to Tibet.

ka — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:48:00 GMT

The problem with going to Tibet is that you need a Travel Permit that only the Tibet Tourism Bureau can issue. To get this permit you need to be part of a tour (made only of yourself if needed) through an agency. You can't get the permit by yourself nor go to Tibet without a guide. It's not very cheap, considering the average travelling cost of China, it's about 400 euro for a 10 days trip when 3 people are travelling. The problem for me is to find travel companions that want to do roughly the same itinerary. There is a couple that wants to do a 11 days trip via the Everest Base Camp and transfer to the border with Nepal, but we would like to find a 4th person to lower the cost. The problem with this is that the agency that can arrange this is based in Xining and I would need to email them my passport and chinese visa copy. While if I found someone here in Chengdu Sim's lovely staff Joy can arrange everything for us. But it would also be useful to leave from Xining instead of Chengdu, and spend a few days in Xining, that is at about 2000 m above sea level, just to start to acclimatise. Altitude Sickness is an issue for travels to Tibet and I would prefer to avoid it. That is why I am not sure I want to join this second couple that is doing more or less the same trip, from Chengdu, but they also want to visit the Namtso lake, that is apparently very beautiful, but even higher, with risk of altitude sickness if you didn't spend enough time in Lhasa to acclimatise (which we won't).

So ... as usual, the eternal undecided ... I am not sure what I want to do.

In the meantime I will go around Chengdu. To some nice park to watch people chill out on a Sunday afternoon.

Day 7 - chengdu

ka — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 01:13:00 GMT

So I did it. I quit my job and I left for my longest trip ever. 4 months between Hong Kong and Chennay, South India, passing through Tibet and Nepal. I know it's not that long at all, but it is for me (and for my family, that tried to convince me until the last minute to cancel everything). The days before my departure I wasn't sure I wanted to do it. I was chilling out at home, sleeping in my nice bed, having nice food cooked by my mum... what could I want more? But now the excitement that comes with travelling has taken me and I am looking forward to what is coming.

I can't believe this is already the 7th day of my trip. I thought about it this morning, on the train from Guangzhou. My 4 months trip is made of 17 weeks. One week is gone already. This means that I have only 16 weeks left!! Doesn't sound as long as 4 months, does it?

Well, I've got to hurry up. I thought I could chill out during this trip, unlike my last ones where I had to travel from one location to the other no-stop. But this time as well, it's not like I have plenty of time at all! If I consider that I would like to spend at least 2 months in India.. But what is 2 months? 9 weeks. Really nothing!

I spent 3 nights in Hong Kong. I was expecting a really small city, as at the travel agency where I used to work we were arranging "half day trips" of Hong Kong. Well, I was wrong. It is so big that in 2 days I only managed to see a small part of it. Just a bit of the Hong Kong Island (the Victoria Peak and the area around Central) and Kowloon (northern part and around Nathan Road). I haven't seen at all the New Territories (a part of Hong Kong that was leased to Britain 50 years after the rest of it), the beaches in Hong Kong Island and many other islands.

I stayied at the Chungking Mansions, not a nice place at all, but one of the cheapest options in town. And I actually didn't have any safety issue.

Guangzhou, one of the first cities when you enter China from Hong Kong, doesn't have much on the cultural site at all. It's famous for its love for business and food. So I spent most of my afternoon at the hostel, so chilled and relaxed. I didn't even have a map or any information about the town. So when I finally went out to go to the station to buy my ticket to Chengdu I decided to stop at what looked like the centre of the town (I can't even remember the name of the station now). And luckily enough there was the Ranmin Park and a pedestrian street. The Ranmin park or square are usually places where chinese like to meet, during the day to chat or play mahjong, in the evening to dance or practice some sport. That was the best part. I love this group dancing that they do. They remind me of the popular dancing that we have in Italy during our summery town festivals. At one point they even danced a song by Michael Jackson. They are so good! For each song they have different paces. They must learn it since children. I remember the first time I saw something like that was in a small town near Wuyuan, and in that square there weren't many people, probably because the village was small. But in Guangzhou, there were 3 different groups, all with their radio playing different songs. I loved it.

And after a 26 hours train trip I am in Chengdu. Trying to get a travel permit a travel companions to Tibet.

I will keep you updated.

China

ka — Mon, 31 May 2010 04:24:00 GMT

When I came back from China and anyone asked me how the holiday had been, I didn't know what to reply!
I keep thinking that it was a nice holiday but not the best I've had so far. Why is that? I guess the main thing was that there weren't many people I could talk to. Not many people could speak english and when I go to a foreign country I like to talk to locals and listen to their stories.
It was also tough to go around because hardly anyone could speak English even at bus and train stations. My plan was to spend as much time as possible in the remote villages, but after the first two days I had enough. Gosh, if I remember... A friend told me that the phrasebook would have been useful and he was damn right! But still it's not easy to find in it what you want to say and sometimes people didn't even bother to read what I was showing them, they just run away..
Anyway. In these villages it was terribly cold during the night. There was no heating in the house and two duvets weren't enough to keep me warm. That was April. I have no idea how they manage during the winter. And you can ask everyone who knows me, I am usually fine with cold. But that was too much. I couldn't sleep well. At the third day, in this wonderful village called Little Likeng, a terrible migraine hit me and I had to go to my room at 3 in the afternoon. I slept until 6 of the next morning (with my nose frozen). So I missed the dusk light and the red lanterns turning on... And most of all I missed the peace of the late afternoon when the tour buses leave!
You have to know that there is one billion chinese. And you can tell that when you go to China. Every turistic spot has millions of visitors every day. Not many foreigners. Millions of chinese tourists. Hundreds of tourist buses fill the parking lots and crowds of chinese in the streets push and pull you around ... It's like Venice for the carnival. Just every day and everywhere like this.
Let's take Little Likeng for example. A beautiful old village. But rebuilt for the sake of the tourists. Everything is fake. Every house is turned into a shop or restaurant. I couldn't see anyone doing some normal housekeeping. The same in Lijiang, a beautiful old village in the sunny region of Yunnan. In one of the villages in the rice fields north of Guilin (the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces) it was even worse! Stalked by women wearing "traditional dresses" that wanted to sell you clothes, bracelets and even postcards (! the only place where I saw postcards in China) with pictures of the famous women with long hair. A true disappointment. I was hoping to see these ladies with long hair doing their jobs or looking after their children... No.
They call it "culture shock". Certainly when you go to a country so different from your own it is quite a shock. The first shock was getting on the train in the underground. I am used to England where people respectfully first wait for those inside the train to get off before they try to step in. In China it's all a pushing. The one that pushes harder wins. I found it soooo annoying! And no respect for queues. There is always someone that arrives late and puts himself well beyond you.
On my fourth day in China I saw a little boy with his ass and little penis in the air. I thought he had ripped his trousers after they had left home and I felt sorry and embarassed for the mum. I thought that I wouldn't have stayed out, I would have gone home immediately. Well, turns out this is not a child with ripped trousers and it wasn't the first or the last time that his penis was touching the plastic seat of a bus. I saw many other children with their bottom out. That makes it easier for them to pee or poo whenever they need it and ... wherever. If you see a shit on a pavement in China it's more likely to be a child's than a dog's.
I can't believe I haven't mentioned yet the thing that struck me most: the spitting! It's a particularly noisy habit, and of course a bit disgusting. Well, it never happened to me, but you should always be careful not to be hit while walking in a crowd.. Anyway, I guess the funny part of it is that they probably found it disgusting that I blew my nose in a tissue (and then put it into my pocket!!) as they throw out everything when they sneeze, they never use tissues. I guess this is actually useful. How many times do we find ourselves without tissues when we need them?
I still don't know why on the bus the seat next to me was always the last one to be taken. Is it because I have a strange smell? Or out of respect? Or fear? And then in other circumstances while you are drinking a coffee (oh coffee... how I missed it!) in a café, people stop to take a picture with you, the "white monkey", or they steal one, pretending they are photographing the tree behind you.... I didn't mind. Well, I was actually flattered, I felt like a star! But why then all these different approaches?
The coffee... Chinese people drink litres of tea during the day. Everyone has their flask, more or less fashionable, and you can find boiling water dispensers almost everywhere. I am not a tea person, and I am not really awake until I have my coffee in the morning. But to find one, what an adventure! In the big cities there are plenty of Starbucks or McDonalds or their "Dico's" (my favourite, because you could find a Nescafè at £0.80, I refused to pay £2.50 for a cappuccino when I could have noodles for £0.50). In the villages it was impossible. So I had to wander around all day in a semi-inconscious state...
Nevertheless, I miss it.
I want to go back, go to Tibet and Nepal and India.
I don't know what it did to me. Sure it wasn't easy to travel and it didn't go as it was meant to, but maybe this is what made it a bit special? That's the best part of a trip, the unplanned events, isn't it?

Photos: china

ka — Sun, 30 May 2010 18:31:00 GMT