Qype: The Library of Tibetan Works And Archives Dharamsala in New Delhi

New Delhi

The Library of Tibetan Works And Archives (LTWA) in Dharamsala is apparantly one of the most significant respositories of Tibetan manuscripts and artifacts anywhere in the world. Built under the direction of the current Dalai Lama in 1971, it houses “more than 80,000 manuscripts, books and documents, hundreds of thangkas, statues and other artefacts, 6,000 photographs, and other materials.”
It is also a center for learning and study of Tibetan culture and Religion.
To get here you head down the road from the more touristy area of Mcloed Ganj, where you will most likey be staying. Just follow any one of the many monks who will be ambling down the hill.
The Library is set amongst a whole villiage of monastaries, and seems to be a real focul point for the community.
Twice or three times a day there are letures given here by different Lama in the teachings of the Buddah. Everyone is welcome and its free and you don’t have to book. I attended twice a day for about a month. The lessons start and finish with chanting – their is an English version “song book” and the lessons were translated from Tibetan by a middle aged English woman.
Probably a third of those attending were westerners, while the rest were Tibetans, or other monks.
Donations can be made to the centre, and their is a suggested amount (which isnt very much) for attending the courses long term. Another good way to support the community is by volunteering to teach English. I taught three classes a day, one individually to a monk, one to a packed class of refugees and another to a group of more advanced monks.
Both attending these classes and teaching the locals English was a brilliant way to make friends and become a part of the local community.

Check out my review of The Library of Tibetan Works And Archives Dharamsala - I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Putuoshan in Shanghai

Shanghai

Putuoshan is an island off the coast of Shanghai. You can reach it by an overnight ferry or you can catch the train down south a bit and then a speed boat, which only takes about 5 hrs all up.
The island is like one big and beautiful manicured garden filled with ponds, temples and statues. This is a living Buddhist community and tourists would be evenly matched by the number of Buddhist monks and other Buddhists paying respect in the temples.
The temples themselves along with the giant Buddhist statues are really inspiring. This is a little picture of what I imagine China was like centuries ago. It’s a mountainous place with lots of little trails and steps, very like the scenes in every Kung Fu movie where the pupil is learning their trade from the master.
I didn’t book a hotel before hand and had no trouble finding a place. Like everwhere else I like to avoid tours and I wouldn’t worry about organising anything before arriving. (Of course I don’t know what its like at different times of year and I have throughout my carrer as a tourist slept on the odd beach)
The natural beauty of Putuoshan is such a relief after Shanghai, paricularly the yellow sandy beaches. And the food, oh my god that incredible seafood; well yeh it’s really good! Such a cliche that, for instance, the Indian food we get here is nothing like the food in India etc. But the Chinese we get here is closer to McDonalds than the stuff they serve up in China. Imagine a little pet shop out the front of every restaurant you go to. You can’t speak to the people, because NO ONE in China speaks English, so you just point at the animal you want and half an hour later it turns up on your table cooked the chefs favourite way.
In Putuoshan the restaurants are filled with aquariams. A lot of the fish or water bugs in there I could only recognise again by their taste. I love this kind of eating except that it is really hard to ever have the same dish twice.
The difference between Putuoshan and the rest of China is brought into stark juxtoposition when you round the final bend at the north of the island and are brought face to face with one of China’s lagest navel bases. Super techno machines like destroyers and submarines and aircraft carriers sit only a mile away from Buddhist statues. Signs all over the place warn you that your camera will be taken and possibly even worse things will happen if you photograph it.
Really gets you thinking. The Buddah and the missile. Like the art of kung fu vs the Chinese army. I’d back Bruce Lee..

Check out my review of Putuoshan - I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: The Shanghai Museum in Shanghai

Shanghai

This museum is the antidote to futuristic Shanghai. I was what I craved after days of shoping and partying and gauking, like a hopeless character in a computer game with only chinese instructions.

The building is moderninst and well designed. It wouldn’t be out of place in a European city, yet it’s curves speak subltly of Asian history as it provides a strong central structure to the tranquil Peoples Park. Wikipedia has just informed me that “the new museum building is designed in the shape of an ancient, bronze, tripod cooking vessel called a ding.”

The inside of the structure is as interesting as the outside. Criss crossing esclators run on either side of a central high ceilinged space that allows for ample natural light.

There are five floors and I never felt that I was crowded as I wandered between them. I think that was largly due to the well thought out design – with multiple pathways up and down levels and in and out of rooms.

There are so many great displays that it’s hard to describe them. My favourite would be the Ming furniture displays. There are recreations of entire rooms from the Ming period. Bedrooms complete with beds and chairs and chests of draws and cabinets. All simple yet beautiful and very functional carved wooden pieces with facinating joinery.

I also really like the Chinese Minorites display. Obviously the issue of Chinese minorities is quite political, but at least here there is some record of them. Unfortunately you do get a sense that these are historic or dead cultures, not so much living contributors to a modern China. An amazing thing is how many minority cultures there are. It’s this depth, rich history and cultural complexity that make China one of my favourite countries to visit.

Check out my review of The Shanghai Museum – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Poseidon Diving in cairo

cairo

I’ve always thought of diving as a bit of a lazy sport. I prefer more active things rather than just floating around looking at fish. Others rave about it though and as we had decided to lay up in Dahab for a few weeks, it presented as a more interesting option than lying on the beach and drinking beer. (still plenty of time for that though.)

We checked out heaps of the local dive centers. Imagine your most enthusiastic Egyptian tout crossed with your over sexed ski instructor and you can understand the kind of poeple that work there.

Poseidon presented as a more relaxed and proffesional alternative. The management were clearly very experienced, and the buisness was well established, but our instructor was taking on a group for the first time. I work as an outdoor instructor myself sometimes and I really didn’t mind at all this guys inexperience. His training was very recent and up to date and his enthusiasm for us to do well and enjoy ourselves would be hard to compete with.

So for four days we had this guy teaching just the two of us. All the diving was shore based to keep costs to an absoloute minimum. It was very cheap – I won’t say how much becuase they wouldn’t like it – but like anything in Egypt – You’ve got to haggle!!

The Red Sea is amazing. I’ve dived or snorkelled all over but I think the fish life here is the best I’ve seen – better than The Great Barrier Reef. (The coral there is much better but..)

The course too was just so much fun. Our isntructor had a great sense of humour – a highlight was playiing Matrix fights under water. You take your flippers off and do Kung fu moves in really slow motion, I promise it’s more fun than it might sound and I’m chuckling about it as I write this.

He was really safe though. At one point my then girlfriend freaked out and he calmly took her back to the surface and kept communicating with me as he took her up.

If you are cotemplating a dive trip to Egypt then I would definately go for Dahab and Poseidon over going to Sharm al Shek and staying in a resort up there. Dahab’s way more fun and much, much cheaper.

Check out my review of Poseidon Diving – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Rise Festival in london

london

If I new anything about web design and hacking I would attempt to add another couple of stars to this review. Other things I’ve given five stars are no where near as good as the Rise Festival was.
The parks in London make it a city worth living in. They are free and very well kept and I just love them. A place where the alcoholic and the athlete, the child, the gangster and the elderly can all find a bit of room and do their thing.
Summer is welcomed into London with a series of free festivals accross its parks, with perhaps the biggest being the Rise festival. The web site states that well over 100,000 people attended and I can well believe it.
Having said that it felt much more spacious than Clissold parks’ Stokefest a month of so earlier. You could move around at the Rise festival, making it much easier to sample more than one music show – or to go and get beer or food. My favourite barometer for the quality of a festivals organisation is the length of time you have to queue for the toilet. I wasn’t so pedantic as to time it, but I would have to say that the wait was always less than ten minutes. Admirable!! Especially compared to the likes of The Notting Hill Carnival (an important part of the London music scene seems to be the ability to keep drinking and dancing whilst your bladder explodes.)
Now a free concert like this is never going to attract the likes of Radiohead or Fatboy slim so direct comparisons with music between The Rise Festival and say Hyde Park the week earlier are probably unfair. None of these acts, which I list below, had appeared on my Ipod.

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Jimmy Cliff
Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings
Dub Pistols featuring Terry Hall and Rodney P
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis
Trojan Sound System
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Bassekou Kouyate
Yaaba Funk
The Aliens

But the music I heard, particularly The Aliens and some African dance music on a smaller stage, was excellent stuff.
Add to this quality music the fact that you can carry in your own drinks and food, that I was able to walk to the venue, that there were rides and food and interesting cultural things going on – AND IT WAS FREE! – this was just a spectacular day out.

Another great thing about this festival was the atmosphere and the general crowd behaviour. People were just friendly and happy. I didn’t witness any crowd misbehaviour and I felt that the police were really restrained and respectful in their presence. Unfortunately, I have to delcare that if this event happened in Australia – there would be a lot more drunken idiots. Especially teenagers.

The Rise Festival made the headlines because Boris, our Mayor, removed the specific focus of Anti – Racism, with a little last minute meddling. It was apparantly the biggest Anti Racism festival in europe. He changed it to the Celebrate Diversity festival. Now I don’t disagree with it neccessarily but I don’t see any reason why he would have done that except as a little statement that he can do whatever he wants.
First he gets rid of drinking on public transport, then he starts mucking about with festivals. I bet next he will extend areas on the streets where you can’t drink and then he will ban drinking in parks, and the free festivals and their special nature will go out with.

Londons park festivals, especially The Rise, are wonderful events that bring the community together and reinforce everything that is good about living in the capital.

Check out my review of Rise Festival - I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Amman International Airport in Amman

Amman

To be honest, I normally write reviews with the intent of entertaining or inspiring rather than providing actual useful information.
If you have a stop over of any length flying Air Jordan through this aiport though, a little information will be really useful.
The airport itself is neither good nor bad – just another mid size international venue with epensive food but the ability to order it in English.
What is useful to know is that if you have a stop over – then Air Jordan have a FREE hotel to stay in which provides FREE meals and FREE links to the airport.
However NO ONE tells you about it in English. I’m not sure how long your stop has to be but if you call the airline I guess they will tell you. I had a scheduled 6 hr stop on the way back from Thailand to London and I was eligable.
What you need to do is get a transit pass when you exit customs. Then you walk directly out the front of the airport.
The shuttle bus arrives to your right hand side facing away from the entrance. This seems to come when it wants and you will be approached by quite a few taxi drivers wanting to tax you there. The key word is TRANSIT. Just say that to everyone.
The hotel is only about 10 minutes by bus. Once there they give you a hotel room, mine was quite nice, with TV, aircon and private bathroom.
There is also a buffet room which has a huge spread of food, coffe and other drinks. No one will point this out to you at the hotel – so just go in there and start eating with the rest of them!
Be careful – they may or may not give you a wakeup call so get yourself ready to get the bus back. I received a call but my friend didn’t.
I have not doubt that they deliberatly leave westerners here so they will have to pay a huge fee to the taxi drivers to return them for their flights.
An inititaive like this should really get five stars. I don’t know anywhere else in the world where they do it. But it is handled so badly, and so rudely, that I can’t give it more than two.

Check out my review of Amman International Airport – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Equadorian resaurant in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

A very short taxi ride from the centre – or about 500 meters west of the San Telmo market is this hidden Equadorian restaurant. Just get close and ask people on the street.
It’s a community resource centre during the week that includes accomodation for quite a few Equadorians. It is also a serious dance studio and on the Sundays it is an open house restaurant that serves meals to the public, after which the tables get pulled back for some expert salsa dancing.
They love visiters here. They love it even more when you dance with them – no matter how bad you are – and I’m truely awful! With the beer flowing at about 50p a litre though, it’s not difficult to get in the mood.
Buenos Aires is my favourite city and this is one of the reasons why.

Check out my review of Equadorian resaurant – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Karnak Tempel in Luxor

Luxor – Arts & Entertainment – Landmarks – Arts & Entertainment

This really is one place that lives up to the hype. There is something about the scale and completeness about the Temple of Karnak that just fulfills every childhood fantasy that you had about Egypt.
I can’t quite remember the stat, but there is a sign as you enter that compares the size of this place very favourably with St Peters Cathedral in Rome – I think it said something like this was the largest religous structure ever built. (I just googled it and aparrantly it is spread over 247 acres)
It’s a maze of pillars and sandstone ampitheatres, in various degrees of decay and with really awe inspiring hyrogliphs.
It’s so big that you can get away from the crowds and the touts.
Probably my favourite place ever to play hide and seek.

Check out my review of Karnak Tempel – I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Roger Waters in London

London

I’m sitting here with Money blasting out of my little speakers and I still can’t believe I heard it live.
I bought two tickets under cost on ebay and this formed the culmination of my engagement weekend.
Caught the boat from the eye and landed a little behind schedule at the dome.
London cops are so mature. Pot was being smoked everywhere and as long as everyone was orderly, mister and misses and miss and mss and master plodd did not mind at all.
The dome is a weird place – trying to be a city within a city – literally with roads and stuff built to look like they’re outside. Anyway we rushed in – slowly like, behind the crowds. Just got to the entrance of our doorway when – BAM!! On stage fireworks, huge stuff on screen and Roger and band launch into “In the flesh” First song off The Wall.
We shuffle down to our little seats and I didn’t move till it finished. Except for a little dancing.
He was good. It was an amazing show – except for anything new that he played. He had a couple of anti Bush things that were sooo sentimental and popularist..

Pink Floyd he aint, anymore at least, but he played the entire of Dark Side of the Moon, from start to finish. The female vocals and the visuals were the highlights on top of perfect renditions by the Rog and friends.

One of the great nights of my life.

Check out my review of Roger Waters - I am gotiges7 – on Qype

Qype: Torres del Paine in Santiago

Santiago

One of the great treks of the world. I think. Crazy peaks with untold climbing potential. Everything is beautiful and unique.
There are two trails. One is a 7 day circuit that circumnavigates the mountains – the other is a four of five day walk that wanders around the lakes and takes in walks up to the three main saddles.
Everything here is geared towards the walker having a safe and comfortable time whilst being out in the extremes. You can sleep inside accomodation every night. You can eat in restaurants. There are little shops that sell cold beer and wine and the trails are patrolled regularly by rangers.
Getting in and out of the park can be organised by any hotel in Puerto Arenas, a place that is well worth a visit itself.
(If you are following my recent posts then, yes, I have just discovered the youtube adaption and am going through my back catalogue of holiday vids)

Check out my review of Torres del Paine – I am gotiges7 – on Qype