Asia - The Top Ten Countdown

The best-of-the –best, the Top 10, the countdown of a year and a half of Asia,….

10. The Great Wall of China – It’s a wonder of the world for a reason, and being there without a horde of tourists and vendors (let alone anyone else) gave it that something special. But to really top it off, walking out of bounds past the “do not enter signs” revealed what the Wall looks like without the restoration and puts its age into perspective.



9. Indian Food – After a year in Korea, anything guaranteed vegetarian is a highlight. But India, a country filled with vegetarians who know what it means and consider it religious, well, now we’re talking. But add to it the spices and pure variety, and I think it has replaces Mexican to become my most favorite food (but don’t hold me to that once I return to the Americas).



8. Obamaland – Election day was a party described by many American ex-pats by noting that in one day they were once again proud to be American. The party has continued to unite in the most uncommon places. On the beach in Vigan, Philippines a horde of kids all joined me in with a round of “Obama!” cheers. Taxi drivers say he’s a great man. And one man, in a back courtyard of Tibet looks at me once I said I was American and gives me the thumbs up, “Obama, good!” It’s a great change to what was.



7. Lalunga Pass, Tibet – At 5,050 meters, the Lalunga Pass is part of the highest plateau in the world. Your head feels like it is in a vice grip, opening a car door leaves you short of breath and the wind that is whipping the prayer flags into a fury freezes your fingers in a minute or two. But up there, you are looking at two 8,000 meter (plus) peaks on top of a range of snow-covered wonders and the sky, well, there is no way to describe that blue.



6. Varanasi and Kathmandu’s Burning Ghats – As noisy as Tibet’s Lalugna Pass is, the Burning Ghats are quiet. There’s the sound of piling wood, and it crackling, then there’s the ash that flies up into the sky, over the river and into the night. In two crowded cities, the silence is appreciated. The fact that you’re watching a funeral and cremation, and the ash is human, may turn the average person off, but after a while it adds to the peace and reinforces the Buddhist idea of impermanence. Besides, it sure beats the traditional Tibetan burial where they cut up the body for the vultures…



5. Kaesong, North Korea - It was only one day, but I think of it often. There was the lady in the plaid, pleated skirt with the sequence top. The girl who stuck her tongue out at me with such emotion, and the crowds who walked their bikes in circles around the city, waiting at the corner for the invisible light to turn red for the invisible traffic so they may remain in order. It was a time warp and a reality check and a reminder for how far out if touch a government is able to make their people through a little brainwashing.



4. Angkor Wat on bike – It’s hard to top these ancient temples, but add to it the silence and freedom to take back dirt roads where only monkeys and birds reside, and you are able to take in some amazing sights completely alone. And freedom from being harassed to buy T-shirts, postcards, books or anything else, is always welcome.



3. Flamingos and Tigers in India – I was giddy when I first saw a wild flamingo. In hindsight it may not seem like such a feat, but it brought home the idea that those things guarding the entrance pond at the San Diego Zoo really do fly. It also meant I was out of the city. Tigers, on the other hand, now there’s a creature that legends are built of, and when I first saw them in the wild, and took photos, I couldn’t wipe the perma-grin off my face. I held onto my camera so tight afraid that something bad would happen to it before it could reveal its secrets to the world. The fact that it’s only a point and shoot gives you an idea, we were pretty close!



2. Mongolia Gurs – specifically at night when the entire sky opens up to tell its stories from the opening at the stove pipe, these gurs are some of the best buildings I have ever slept in. The paint is charming, the beds lumpy, and the fire in the middle completely dependent on the fuel source – wood and it’s a spectacular night full of heat and comfort, sheep shit, and you are filling it every 14 minutes so think cold, but priceless.




1. The Elephant Nature Park – For a week, Kamoon, my favorite elephant, slept outside of my hut and snored during the night. At daybreak I would wake to the fog shifting through the trees on the hillside, dew on the acres of grassland, and Kamoon thumping hay across his foot before chomping. Later I would feed him and others, even the babies, bananas, and at lunch one would try to steel food off my plate. Elephants don’t like green peppers either.



So that’s my ten best. They all go down best with a good cup of coffee, but you might be best off bringing that with you unless you secretly desired store-bought instant. Asia is a crazy place – so big, so diverse and so full of both people and opportunities. In 18 months I didn’t even tackle half of it. When I started, I always equated Asia with China and Japan, and though I visited both, they can’t even start to define the continent, and I can’t define it either.

Dolma's Tibet

I went back to Bouda in Kathmandu to see my old students and show them pictures of Tibet - their old home.

The first difference I noticed as I arrived at the Stupa is the energy and joy in the air. Women were talking to one another, stopping to light candles or lean their head against a certain statue in prayer. There were monks everywhere, music in the air, bells chiming with the spin of prayer wheels and a general happiness that were all lacking in Tibet.

I went to the school and as I went through some of my photos, Dolma, the youngest almost started to cry. “I Know her!” she said of the women in a small village who sold butter, dried meat, horse equipment and what not. And the next picture, which I thought was of Everest, was her grandmothers village. She can’t go there. I printed copies for her instead.

Dolma is in the pink striped shirt.
and below is the woman she identified. Above is her village, that small row under the mountains...

Morning in Lhasa

6:30’s sunrise brought the call to prayer, but not the horns and drums from Boudha, but a man singing out from the mosque next door. A mosque in Lhasa. In China. But no Tibetan horns and drums and chants?

7am brought the first crow of the rooster. Far in the distance you can just make out a few cars, but the loudest sound is a neighbor spitting off the balcony. There is no electricity. Still no drums.

Tibet is here though, as the pilgrims circle the Jokhang like they did the Boudha Stupa, prayer wheels spinning as they chant. Around them are the souvenir touts grabbing you to look, “cheep, cheep, just looking, sorry”. I think they’re Chinese. But away from the bizarre is the food market and stores selling the traditional Tibetan dresses, thermoses, cookware and momos. Here the men still wrap their hair up in red ribbons or silver and coral pins. Everyone holds prayer beads and wears jewelry. Men and women alike with large stones of turquoise and red coral on earrings and necklaces walk the streets and stare at us like we stare at them. I have the universal - I’m American. “Obama!” thumbs-up and now we are friends discussion. As I showed a large group the pictures on my camera, the constant hum of the “Om” was chanted in my ear. I’m going to Dharamsala next, I say and that is one word they know. Dharamsala, where their Lama lives – not the Panchen Lama mandated on all of the pictures now, with their bad print quality and cheap gold frames. Their lama, the Dalai Lama.

7:30 second crow. This is the traditional way the Tibetans told time before occupation according to Heinrich Hemmer, from Seven Years in Tibet fame who revisited Tibet in 1982 and wrote about it in Return to Tibet. I smuggled the book into the country. It’s banned here.

Driving into the city yesterday wasn’t far from what I expected – three story malls, Volkswagen and Ford dealerships, and rows of small restaurants with bright signs in Chinese advertising what’s inside. It’s a lot like China. Now the horns of Lhasa start, but they are the car horns of Thursday’s traffic and it’s sad.

There are extreme double standards here. The Chinese can get passports, talk freely. Some hold jobs dressed like traditional Tibetans or monks and if you are caught talking politics to a spy, you are escorted to the border. At six, when the monasteries close, you can spot “them” changing into their street clothes to return home for the night. These “monks” don’t go to evening prayers, obviously. They collect a paycheck. One tried to hide from me after I spotted him, too late to save the mirage.

After last year’s riots, the number of monks allowed in the monasteries decreased even more. In the Jokhang Temple, which once allowed monks to chant in the assembly hall and tourists watched three deep, now has “monks” lounging on the cushions talking on their cell phones. Once housing up to 10,000 monks, the Deprung Monastery had a population of 500 until the riots. Now there are only 50. The guide was not allowed to tell us this. His brother joined us and was not allowed to talk to the foreigners, as he didn’t have a guide pass. The Chinese would assume he was talking politics and he would be removed. So, there is no way for the Tibetans to learn English, so there is no worry of their passing word to us. Unlike North Korea we are not physically segregated, but they do hold their rules. The Chinese army watches from every rooftop and marches through the streets in formation. After dark, when only the pilgrims are left circling the Jokhang Temple, measuring their distance by throwing their bodies to the ground, armored cars full of armed patrols circle, driving counter-clockwise, just to show their power and disregard to karma. No one else would go counter-clockwise. No one but the ignorant and rude.

There is a bright side, I suppose. One, Tibet isn’t alone. One member of our group was told to remove all pages referring to Taiwan from his China Lonely Planet. LP doesn’t acknowledge that Taiwan is part of China, so it is banned, along with all mention of the Dalai Lama. Two, because of China, the teachings and traditions of Tibet have gained a following. Once closed to the world, students can now come to Kathmandu and India and study and practice Tibetan Buddhism with the monks in rebuilt monasteries. Westerners are learning of the ways that wouldn’t be possible fifty years ago. But really, is this a bright side? Now there are Tibetanologists, like there are Egyptologists, grabbing onto the end of a culture, only held alive in the hearts of those that are repressed or are refugees.

Like the T-shirts,… Free Tibet.