TIBET - 11-21 May 2014 - LHASA, CITY OF CONTRADICTIONS

Lhasa is a city of contradictions.  The old town has the charm and quaintness that has always been projected in all the photos and documentaries on Tibet, yet hardly 10 mins walk down the main street, there are modern buildings and shops that carry brands that you find in the usual big cities.   It is a city that the old and new blended well, where the new has yet to overtake the old.

The amount of activity in the lives of a typical Tibetan that revolves around religion is just amazing.   The  rituals they are willing to go through to pay homage to their revered leader, the Dalai Lama, and to the deities are unbelievable.  The way they prostate themselves in prayers, walk for miles, etc.  Although it is obvious that they are poor, you could still see them clutching bunch of cash which they willingly donate to the temples, stuffing them into the donation boxes in front of the particular deity that they worshipped.  Money were strewn on the floor inside glass showcases and overflowing the donation boxes.  We even saw monks using a broom to sweep the paper currencies on the floor into a pile on the  before collecting them!

Barkhor Street located in the old town of Lhasa.  A very ancient street showcasing the original look of Lhasa

Well-known brands in the newer part of the city.

Seamless blend of the traditional and new.

TIBET - 11-21 May 2014 - LHASA - SENIOR CITIZENS

BAWANG ASSAN EDUCATON CAMP, 1-3 DECEMBER 2015

After much talk among friends on volunteering, I am glad that I finally managed to find a cause that gave me enough push to register myself.  Having read about the Impian Sarawak projects before and its positive impact, I decided to volunteer for its education camp in Bawang Assan from 1-3 December 2015.

Bawang Assan is about half an hour’s drive from Sibu town.  With a homestay project ongoing at the village, the Bawang Assan longhouse community is used to seeing foreigners as the homestays have regular, yearly overseas tourists.  Though not really isolated, and with electricity and limited internet connections, the community and the children’s mindset towards education is nonetheless still very backward and the literacy level pretty low.  

The most modern and well-maintained longhouse in the village which is part of the homestay project.

For all its education camps, Impian has rightly chosen English, Maths and Science to be the triggers of interest for learning among the children and in advocating that learning can be fun.

From experiments like the volcano eruption (to demonstrate neutralization) to the blowing up the balloons with the same concept and the chicken egg challenge, all were planned to provoke the students to think and analyse, and to trigger their curiousity to ask and learn.

The happy children’s faces and level of engagement from them showed their delight for this rare opportunity to have outsiders come and teach them.  The fact that there are strangers who cared enough to pay their own way to ‘teach’ them, as highlighted by the tuai rumah during his closing speech with them, would hopefully make them appreciate what was taught in the 3-day camp and take something of value back home with them.

 

While a number of the younger ones are there basically for the fun, majority, and especially many of the older ones, were in serious concentration when classes were being conducted.

The most heartening of all is when a student who could barely write a proper sentence in English at the start of the camp making great effort to write a paragraph to describe what he found most useful for him in the learning process during the 3 days and try to express his appreciation.

The dedication of the organisers and the commitment of the volunteer teachers were indeed exemplary.  Despite the improvised conditions (basic sleeping arrangements and hot humid weather), the volunteers were not deterred from their primary aim, i.e. to inculcate the interest of learning into these kids.

The unit that we stayed in was the one with blue zinc top.

Me and my students - not much taller and looked more like the 'tukang masak' ;p

The organisers, Ms Cheng and Ms Nyiok were great with the group and executed good control despite the boisterous nature of the kids.  The minute the two teachers got behind the microphones and engaged with the students, the chemistry between them were undeniable – the students just loved them!

The cultural night and performance, which capped these 3-day camp, managed to showcase how talented these Iban kids were in their singing and dancing, and if the same passion in learning to sing and dance in them could be transferred to their learning, then it would be great indeed!

The education camp was over much too soon, and it was time to leave.   I left the place with a happy feeling that I have done a small part in bringing some cheer and focus in these kids’ lives while making friends of the fellow volunteers along the way.

In our traditional outfits for Cultural Night. :D

With my fellow volunteers and organisers

VISIT TO SARAWAK, THE LAND OF HORNBILLS - 24-30 DECEMBER 2014 : BAKO NATIONAL PARK

Ever since my daughter managed to convince me to set up an Instagram account where you only post photographs, I’ve challenged myself to come up with a one-word description for every photo that I posted which would project my feelings when capturing the image without repeating the same word for another photo.  :D

And if I were to use one word to describe my holiday in Sarawak recently, I would say ‘satisfying’.

Whilst Sarawak is known as the Land of Hornbills, our main intention to go visit Kuching wasn’t so much for the hornbills but for the Orang Utan, and we got more than we bargained for.

Armed with my new DSLR Canon camera together with appropriate lenses, I was looking forward to capturing some nice nature photographs and Sarawak did not fail me.

From Bako National Park to the Semenggoh Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre until the border of Kalimantan, stopping by 2 caves along the way and a quaint, heritage town, the whole trip was enjoyable, carefree and totally fulfilling. 

Kuching 

The time spent on arrival in Kuching town, and before departure, was as we expected – pleasant.  The walk on the waterfront was very nice, and the brief boat-ride to the 'island' across town got us excited for a short bit but it was over too soon.   However, the ‘famous’ kueh-lapis wasn’t to my taste as I found them too oily, and too much colouring for my liking. 

The boat ride to the other side and random pictures of the Kuching Waterfront

Kueh Lapis - too colourful for my liking

Fort Margareta

Night scene along the waterfront

Bako National Park 

Bako is definitely a place I would recommend any nature loving person to go.

The first sign that greeted us at the jetty for the speed boat ride to Bako.

Arriving in Bako...

Numerous pleasant surprises greeted us when we were there which made me felt on the first day itself that my trip to Sarawak was already worth it.

The first that caught our surprise was a bearded wild boar that came right to our doorsteps (literally speaking) to look for food.  I’ve never seen a bearded wild boar at such close range before and the ranger was quick to warn us not to go too near in case it got frightened and attack.

The second surprise that greeted us was seeing a silver-leaf monkey with its golden baby clasped closely to its chest up in a tree where we were lunching at the canteen.   Didn’t manage to take a picture of this as I didn’t have the zoom lens with me.

But the one that takes the cake was being able to catch sight of the Proboscis monkeys.  I never knew (maybe my friends did, but definitely not me) that proboscis were found in Sarawak as I have only heard of people joining trips to Sabah just to try to catch a glimpse of these shy primates.

Beautiful sceneries of Bako and interesting finds

 
Starting off the trek while the others decided to take the boat back.









The tougher members who decided to trek back to headquarters instead of taking the boat. ;p

 

 

TIBET AND MT. EVEREST BASE CAMP - 11-21 May 2014 - PART 1

"Tibet?  What, you went to Tibet?  Wah, so nice, it is one of those places that I would love to visit..."

The above seems to be the general response I got from friends and acquaintances when they heard that I just got back from Tibet.

Tibet here we come!

However, many are wary of visiting because of the 'warnings' they heard - the high incidence of acute mountain sickness (AMS), the unhygienic conditions of the toilets and concern over food hygiene.  Most of them are true except that food poisoning isn't really that rampant as, maybe, compared to Nepal or India.  But of course one has to be careful to order food freshly cooked and steaming hot when they are served.

The whole time we were there, we had food prepared by the locals and there were no incident of diarrhoea among our group, and neither did we hear about it from any other groups. 

However, one can never be too sure about AMS, though, as it seems to hit quite a number of people, including those in my group, although the symptoms may be just mild headache to severe pain and vomiting.  Nevertheless, even for those who did not experience AMS like myself, the thin air effect is still felt, and this was more acute as we headed towards Mt Everest Base Camp (EBC), i.e. needing to draw deep breaths now and then.  I was reminded time and again by the guide to walk slowly on the first 2 days until our body acclimatised.

The mountain range flanking the Lhasa airport tarmac gave us a glimpse of what to expect.

My advice?  Seeing how my travel mates suffered, I would advise others to be safe rather than sorry.  Take the high altitude medication (diamox) as a percaution before AMS hits you!  The side effects may be a bit discomforting but it beats the suffering should you get AMS.  (I understand from my travel mates that they felt some numbness in their finger tips or tongue felt funny but these effects were not too distracting.)

On our train ride from Lhasa to Xining on our way back toChengdu, we shared a car with a group of senior citizens from Taiwan.   Of the 16 of them, 12 were stricken by AMS and had to take injections in Lhasa, costing them RMB880, which is close to RM450 for that one jab!

Arrived! Adorned with the khata* presented to us by our guide, Jamba

*Khata is a traditional ceremonial scarf used in Tibet and Mongolia.  It symbolizes purity, goodwill, auspiciousness and compassion. It is usually made of silk. Tibetan khatas are usually white, symbolising the pure heart of the giver, though it is quite common to find yellow gold khatas as well.  It is a Tibetan custom to offer a Khata greeting scarf to another as a way of indicating your honourable intentions, and wishes of happiness.

Travelling along the Friendship Highway from airport to Lhasa city.

May 2014