NEPAL | Sunday, 5 Nov 2006 | Views [2521] | Comments [1]
Sacred Art
Buddhism has a large cosmology, with its six realms (inhabited by
humans, animals, demons, hungry ghosts, demi-gods, and gods), buddhas
(past, present, and future) and boddhisatvas, though whether they're
viewed as genuine entities, ... Read more >
Tags: General
NEPAL | Thursday, 26 Oct 2006 | Views [878]
I'm the last of our little group of passengers left in Kathmandu, Col and Jaap having both flown off to Thailand this morning, and I'm sitting in an Internet cafe just off Jochne, better known as "Freak Street". Freak Street, which runs ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Monday, 23 Oct 2006 | Views [2235]
20: End of Phase 2c (Beijing to Kathmandu via Tibet) The last dinner of our tour was held in a Tex/Mex-ish restaurant in Kathmandu,
and afterward our tour leader Brett was presented with a little scrapbook as a
thank-you and memento ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Thursday, 19 Oct 2006 | Views [1172] | Comments [1]
The Wheel of Dharma The Wheel of Dharma is one of the eight auspicious symbols in
Tibetan Buddhism. Present in many religious artworks, as well as
underlying some Tibetan Buddhist rituals, it signifies the cycle of death and
rebirth. ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Saturday, 14 Oct 2006 | Views [1602] | Comments [1]
In Romanised Tibetan, "a" is pronounced roughly the same as the start of "about" or the "u" in "hut" rather than the "a" in "hat"? That doesn't make "Yak" quite "Yuk"... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Thursday, 5 Oct 2006 | Views [2457] | Comments [3]
(In which Taro continues in his quest to provide Way Way Way Too Much Information) Steve: "He's a fountain of knowledge on squat toilets" Taro: "I'm a bidet of knowledge" There are lots of cultural differences to ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Tuesday, 26 Sep 2006 | Views [1020] | Comments [1]
Yesterday, in a park near Tianamen Square, we saw some traditional-looking buildings that had recently been built and another that was in the process of being finished: a couple of square metres of bare concrete was left uncovered and labourers perched ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Thursday, 14 Sep 2006 | Views [1280]
(5)
DdaDACDF
(3, 4)
If I'd
done as much travel as I've done, I would have taken the Gecko's tour
from Hanoi rather than from Saigon. I don't think that I would do
Hanoi-Beijing overland solo, though.
(1,4,3) ... Read more >
Tags: General
CHINA | Friday, 8 Sep 2006 | Views [967]
Hell Is Other People How do you politely tell someone that they're driving you and others insane?
On the last night in Hanoi, I left Long, Cam, Jock, and Margie at the Draught Beer place down the road while I had a shower.... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Friday, 1 Sep 2006 | Views [713] | Comments [2]
Sleep and Time I'm used to spending a week in a place if I don't feel like moving - inertia is my major driving force. Phase two of my travels consists of two months of package tours - the first a Gecko's from Saigon to Beijing; the second an ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Monday, 28 Aug 2006 | Views [743]
Kallisti "9", said Tom - an assessment of one of the girls on our trip. No holier-than-thou-ness, please: male or female you probably rate people too. "9.5", replied I, "until she spoke". I have a low irritation ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Thursday, 24 Aug 2006 | Views [576]
Those of you who enjoy the work of Jeremy Clarkson may be glad to know that I picked up The World According to Clarkson, a collection of his Sunday Times columns, a few days ago. Those of you who dislike Jeremy Clarkson will be glad to know that it ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Wednesday, 23 Aug 2006 | Views [785] | Comments [2]
You see and hear English words that are (practically?) unused in Australia - anyone know what a "suzerainty" is without looking it up, for instance? "Confluence" (a joining, specifically of rivers) crops up quite frequently - not ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Tuesday, 22 Aug 2006 | Views [686]
When Dalat, in Vietnam's Central Highlands, is viewed from a distance,
it gives a very Central European impression. Many of the larger
buildings are from French colonial days. The lake is a manufactured one; the
hills in the background natural ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Friday, 18 Aug 2006 | Views [1395]
In the minibus coming back from the River Kwae were A. and R., two
Brisbanites. "I thought you were foreign so I was speaking to you
really slowly", said A., on discovering I was also Australian - the peril of
being half-Japanese, ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Tuesday, 15 Aug 2006 | Views [711]
I think the last time I'd been to a zoo may have been Ange and Kieren's
wedding reception; the only visible animals small and tasty. Saigon's
Historical Museum was closed on Mondays, however, and since the zoo was
adjacent it seemed a waste of a ... Read more >
Tags: General
VIETNAM | Sunday, 13 Aug 2006 | Views [960]
History is fungible Every War Museum I've been to has presented its own version of events; I suppose that the history presented by the Australian War Memorial is similarly individual, but since it presents a history aligned with what we learned ... Read more >
Tags: General
CAMBODIA | Thursday, 3 Aug 2006 | Views [1505]
Banteay Samre, 15 km north of the main Angkorian clusters, consists of
a central temple on a stone island, surrounded by a (now grassy) moat,
in turn surrounded by a square high wall, surrounded by a walkway a
couple of metres wide, surrounded by ... Read more >
Tags: General
CAMBODIA | Wednesday, 2 Aug 2006 | Views [877]
West Gate I'd not intended to visit Angkor Thom the day I did - the Western Baray and its temples were sufficient, I thought, to keep me occupied, but those plans had been scrapped once I'd seen the track. Instead, I found myself bouncing over laterite ... Read more >
Tags: General
CAMBODIA | Friday, 28 Jul 2006 | Views [595]
Muddy Waters
There are two main families of bottled water in
Thailand/Laos/Cambodia. The (relatively) expensive type is normally
indistinguishable from standard Australian brands. The cheap type
comes in
900ml soft bottles with the label ... Read more >
Tags: General
CAMBODIA | Wednesday, 26 Jul 2006 | Views [1121]
A Minor Alignment of Patterns...
So
I check out of my hotel, dump my bag next door (where I'll be picked up
for the overnighter to Pakse ),
and walk up the street... and there's
Jim, who's in town for a day before heading over the bridge ... Read more >
Tags: General
LAOS | Monday, 24 Jul 2006 | Views [809]
Low Season
There are advantages to travelling in low season -
even-cheaper prices being one of them - but there are downsides too.
Repairs and maintenance are done during this period: the museum in
Kuala Selangor was closed, for instance, ... Read more >
Tags: General
LAOS | Thursday, 20 Jul 2006 | Views [4418] | Comments [4]
Farewell Thailand There
wasn't much to border town Chiang Khong: an internet cafe that closed
at 11pm, turning me out into the waiting thunderstorm; a main street
terminating at the Mekong - not long, but long enough for a wet
bike-ride home;... Read more >
Tags: General
THAILAND | Saturday, 15 Jul 2006 | Views [806]
Maths: E- Despite previously claiming to loathe long-distance travel of as much as seven hours' duration, I decided to break the eleven hour journey from Bangkok to Chiang Mai only at Ayutthaya, a one and a half hour train ride from Bangkok. ... Read more >
Tags: General
THAILAND | Sunday, 9 Jul 2006 | Views [3971] | Comments [4]
A Close Shave I'd stopped shaving every day. Cold showers, though fantastic in evenings if the heat of the day is yet to dissipate, are not quite so pleasant when the shower is actually cold... and of course cold-water shaves make cold showers ... Read more >
Tags: General
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