Grateful Dead

... is giving a teaching in the high Himalaya on the Tibetan border near Bhutan. It is drawing tens of thousands of people in that region and beyond. The Chinese are having their usual conniption fit about HHDL. Long live the Dalai Lama! Free Tibet! Rangzen!

... Ken & Barbies while on tour in the day. Ya' know -- slumming it with the Grate unwashed?

Them old US Blues makin' you lose your cool? Travelogue to the roof of the world starts here Feb. 15th. Not that anybody would be interested but it's time to mellow out and appreciate that not everybody on this planet buys into our reality. (Unless their idyllic island nation is going under the waves). Time to leave the acerbic observations behind, lay it way back and observe the locals. The ones who aren't too busy trying to be like us...

Well, we packed up and headed for the airport to start our Himalayan holiday last Sunday. We decided to do one last day in the lap of luxury at the Harborside Hyatt at Logan Airport in Boston so we wouldn't have to get up at midnight to make a 9am flight. Sitting in the hotel restaurant watching the Boston skyline fading in to the night sky, my wife and I held hands and thought about the less than easy travails in the third-world countries that were to come. We made the flight and noticed that American Airlines had really slipped a couple of notches in their service. The air hostesses aren't as young and pretty as they used to be and they are quite a bit more surly these days, to the point of being almost insulting. This probably has something to do with the fact that their pay has been cut to about $8.50 an hour. Every other international carrier in the world still served free alcoholic drinks on their flight except American. $6 bucks for beer and $7 for spirits. Time to start filling up those three ounce clear plastic containers! Transiting Heathrow was less than thrill. It was hard to find any white anglos working at the airport but delightful to engage the different nationalities doing every conceivable kind of menial chore. If only I could be that happy driving a bus or pushing a broom or cleaning a bathroom! From London it was on to sunny Bahrain. This was a new destination for me. I have to admit that the Arabian peninsula has never been on my list of places to visit. An American naval fleet is stationed in Manama, Bahrain. It is a major base of naval operations for projecting power throughout the Middle East. In the seat next to me was a 30-something old white guy perusing jihadi literature. By the way he was lapping it up it seemed clear where he was heading on to the Arabian peninsula. Then again, he may have been part of naval intelligence boning up on the enemy psyche. The few western people in the airport exchanged furtive, conspiratorial glances at each other during our 3.5 hour layover. We retreated to the over air-conditioned nicety of the airport luxury restaurant where we washed up in the immaculate restrooms (as opposed to the slip'n'slide, toilet-paper-less ones in the main waiting hall) and generally tried to recover after two six hour flights. Bahrain is a major transit point for the Nepali diaspora (our final destination was Kathmandu) who have been forced to look outside their poor, undeveloped country for work to support their families. From Doha and Dubai and Riyadh and Jiddha as well as Abu Dhabi and many other petro-dollar rich countries they flock to be the nannies and maids and gardeners and laborers for countries where the locals do no work and survive on a $50,000 a year dole. As Bahrain's national carrier is the only one in the Middle East to service Kathmandu, they all funnel through here for the final flight home. The happy chatter on the plane, complete with picture taking, is testament to their exuberance at finally returning home to their friends and families after periods of 2-5 years of being away. All of this is of course fueled by unlimited amounts of whiskey and beer but with unwavering camraderie, Our 22 hour ordeal finally ended yesterday at 6pm after our flight slowly glided into the Kathmandu valley passing majestic snow peaks jutting above puffy white clouds. The lower lying hills that ring the valley and have caught many a pilot by their last surprise before crashing also passed less than 100 feet below us and finally we glided gently down to the lushly verdant green fields that mark the agriculture of Nepal. We'd finally made it, only to notice that as the last streaks of sun faded there was little light to be seen in the great city of 2.5 million people. Power load-shedding had blacked out the great city except for those lucky few with solar or generators. The crush began immediately upon leaving the airport. Many skinny brown arms and hands held out with their palms outstretched, begging my wife (who is Nepali) for a handout, explaining briefly how desperately hungry they were. An unsurprising welcome home for my wife, Next: making preparations for Tibet.

One notices the gridlocked traffic on the way out from Tribhuvan Airport in Kathmandu. Our taxi makes it's way slowly, crawling through the 6pm end-of-day traffic. I am struck by the thick knot of vehicles of every kind and description that surround us, especially the ubiquitous motorcycles that fill every available inch of space on the roadway between trucks and cars and pedestrians seeking to cling to a safe edge to the road. It always amazes me that there are extremely few accidents given that all are passing within centimeters of each other in an imperfectly orchestrated dance of chaotic movement. I thank god I am not behind the wheel having to negotiate this craziness. Somehow we make the journey safely to the home of the brother of my wife in a neighborhood called Battisputali, which means "32 Butterflies". I have yet to decipher the meaning of the name for this middle-class area which is part of Metropolitan Kathmandu, the 32 butterflies have long since fled. 100 years ago it must have been a very beautiful place. I have helped my wife's brother complete their home and as it is now almost finished we are given a very gracious and warm welcome. My brother-in-law has three kids and cares for both his very elderly parents in what used to be a very small 4 room house. Now it has three floors and he has moved his own bed to the top floor bedroom for us to use during our visit. I am very moved at this spirit of hospitality and wonder if I would have done the same had the roles been reversed. I would like to think so... Nepal is a country of 32 million people, yet it seems like everybody knows everybody else. It is common for strangers on the street to address each other as dai (brother) if a man and didi (elder sister) if a woman older than oneself and bohini (younger sister) if a woman younger than oneself. The common courtesy and respect shown to each other in this, the 13th poorest country in the world, is truly moving. I will never forget the time I dropped a one rupee note in a 10 person capacity common taxi (known as a "tuk-tuk") and a young man ran after me to return it. I looked at him and asked why he had bothered for such a small amount? He looked to me with innocent eyes and said "It doesn't matter the amount, it belongs to you! The Kathmandu Valley has been designate by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site because of the many examples of ancient architecture and art scattered throughout the valley. Millions upon millions of dollars have been poured in to the country through government and NGO and UN grants. Unfortunately, Nepal is also one of the most corrupt countries in the world and perhaps 90% of the money has been raked off by government officials on the the take. As a result there has been little done to preserve the common heritage of Nepal's incredible artisans, not to mention building an infrastructure that would ease the burden of the ever-increasing population and showcase these treasures. The UN has now classified Kathmandu as the prime example of what not to do in a 25 year plan for sustainable development. The valley itself is quite small and studies have shown that the maximum sustainable amount of motorized vehicles is 25,000. At last count there was more than 60,000 plying the pitched and potholed roads throughout the valley. As a result of petrol shortages, greedy gasoline dealers have mixed kerosene with the petrol to stretch it for more profit. Unfortunately this has the effect of creating a deadly pollution in the atmosphere and fouling the catalytic converters of cars. Now, one in three denizens of the valley has a respiratory disease and this percentage can only increase. One would be foolish is they didn't wear some kind of mask having to daily breathe in the polluted air. It is unfortunate that only about 1 in 10 choose to don some kind of protection. My own wife's scarred (from tuberculosis) lungs would already have given out had I not moved her from her native land. I am now in the process of checking many different tour operators for getting the best price on a trip to Tibet. Anybody trying to plan such a trip would be well advised to buy their ticket to Kathmandu and then shop around for the best price. Buying a trip from a travel agent in the states or Europe is hideously expensive. It is no problem to spend 10-15k for a group tour of three weeks to Tibet (inclusive of airfare from the West). Right now I am pricing out a trip of 6 nights somewhere in the range of $1500. This will include the airfare from Kathmandu to Lhasa, airport transfer, the tour guide, 3 star hotel, breakfasts, entrance fees, admissions, and transport to several outlying areas by car. It can be difficult to know who to trust but if you do your homework and check references independently you can save a significant sum. Next time I will describe some of the main attractions to see in the Kathmandu Valley as my trip to Tibet will not start till March 2nd.

Kathmandu is a city like no other in Asia. It is very hard to describe without it's own unique flavor, it's own eau de humanity. It is essentially as mix of Mongolian hordes that swept West and left a lot of genetic stock scattered around in different pools gene pools populates by Genghis Khan The Mongolians are overwhelmingly Buddhst, usually of the Nyingmapa, Kagyupa and Gelugpa sects. The other predominant religion is, of course, the Hindus, who are rather a sad and pathetic rag-tag lot, struggling to keep up thier main temples. There is also an old, animistic/shamanistic tradition called the Bon-{os which can be said to account for up to no more than 10 percent of the population composingb this aministic religion. The rest is split 60% Buddhist and 30% Hindu. Yesterday, Monday, there was a general strike because the Hindus wanted to go back to having an exclusively Hindu holiday calender, non of which make any sense but they were still ab able to pull off a mass general strike and shut down the city for a day, all for the cause of being an excvlusiveley Hindu state. That, along wuth the rolling blackouts, makes life much slower and sedate. It is this relaxed state of bering depressurized from the West that I find most interesting.

...it may be a while before anything intelligible is uttered from these lips. The Chinese may have a problem with my Tibetan visa because I used to be a monk in the Dalai Lama's Gelugpa order for 12 years.

...While the Chinese don't make it hard, they do make it very expensive -- $200 for the privilege of entering a country thaty has been rapped. While I'm happy that after many years I am finally go to be able to visit the famed "Land of Snows" in a few days, it is still with a heavy heart that I'll be taking a most critical look at what changes the Chinese have wrought on the Tibetan plateau. In many ways the Tibetans exemplified what a country could do if the population followed a unified course aimed at the further evolution of the human mind, as opposed to the further development of all disciplines aimed toward the goal of material wealth and comfort. In many ways it will be sad but I'm taking it as a challenge to see how the Tibetans maintain their thousands of years old culture while still having to live up to the rigors of the mind-numbing drubbing of the human psyche through political indoctrination. The ultimate irony is that the Chinese feel they are giving a helping hand up to a backward cousin trapped into a feudal condition. Unfortunately the Chinese are the like rich uncle who has everything but peace of mind.

Which is one of the most bizarre I have ever seen anywhere in the world. Children to 20somethings fill water balloons and chuck them at unsuspecting people from rooftops. Smart people who like to stay dry stay inside and the more frolicsome roam the streets taking their chances with super-soakers (the Chinese rip-off model, of course). Still, it is part of the crazy custom and color of foreign countries that we have this vast variety of experience -- it must be a blast if you have little kids and don't happen to be wearing a threee piece suit to work! So tomorrow is the big day for me, off to Tibet. Not a grand adventure by any means but a week where the skies are a bluer blue than imaginable and the sun beats down like a hammer from the god's right hand. I haven't spoken much about the religion of Tibet but it is a highly esoteric form of hybrid Buddhist tantra with certain flavors of Bon and the remnants of an ancient kingdom of Zhangzhung (to the North & West of the country's old boundry). This is the place where powerful, learned men command the gods and not the other way around. Sadly, karma is karma. If the Tibetans made it go around, the Chinese sure do come around! And there is no god that can get in the was of fated karma!

Which is one of the most bizarre I have ever seen anywhere in the world. Children to 20somethings fill water balloons and chuck them at unsuspecting people from rooftops. Smart people who like to stay dry stay inside and the more frolicsome roam the streets taking their chances with super-soakers (the Chinese rip-off model, of course). Still, it is part of the crazy custom and color of foreign countries that we have this vast variety of experience -- it must be a blast if you have little kids and don't happen to be wearing a threee piece suit to work! So tomorrow is the big day for me, off to Tibet. Not a grand adventure by any means but a week where the skies are a bluer blue than imaginable and the sun beats down like a hammer from the god's right hand. I haven't spoken much about the religion of Tibet but it is a highly esoteric form of hybrid Buddhist tantra with certain flavors of Bon and the remnants of an ancient kingdom of Zhangzhung (to the North & West of the country's old boundry). This is the place where powerful, learned men command the gods and not the other way around. Sadly, karma is karma. If the Tibetans made it go around, the Chinese sure do come around! And there is no god that can get in the was of fated karma!

...here in Kathmandu. After being in the country since 2/16 just gradually devolving my western accelerated lifestyle, I feel like I've adjusted to the slower and more family oriented way of life.Tonight will be a feast of Napali food with a beautiful banquet of cake, ice cream and fresh flowers and fruits, along with the conversation of close and beloved family.

Just back to Kathmandu after 5 days in Tibet. Sorry I haven't posted regularly, but there was no lack of censorship on the part of the Chiese communists (reference the latest company to see the light in China re: censorship on the net' -- Google Anyway, flew in to Lhasa from Kathmnadu and had quite a 5 day trip like no other experience in my life. The sky so close, the wind so persistent and irregular, the wildlife so plentful and adapted to the climate. The etched browns, greys and in between shades of mountains rsing off the 12k foot plateau. The old temples and archiectecture of pre-1959 , And, of course, the Tibetans themselves. Will write more soon. ~Black throated wind Keeps on pourin' in~

My trip to Tibet in the first week of March coincided with the start of the month, March, when Tibet had it's major historical uprising (3/10/59). On that day after 8 years of harsh occupation by the Red Army, 30,000 Tibetan people surrounded the Potala Palace of the Dalai Lama in a spontaneous attempt to thwart a plan by Mao to get the Dalai Lama out of his seat of power. Through various methods such as the state oracle and the CIA, the Dalai Lama dressed in simple monks robes slipped past the Chinese cordon of troops who had begun shelling the Potala Palace with artillery.. He eventually made it to the Indian border and was given refuge by the Indian Prime Minister Nehru. In 2008 the Tibetans erupted in protest against Chinese rule in a pent up show of emotion. Their spirits have still not been broken by the military and ideological machine and a massive crackdown ensued that tortured and jailed many innocent Tibetans. When I was in the Barkor a few days ago there was a massive presence of several types of paramilitary, machine guns at the ready. The Tibetans are on notice to not agitate for their independence on no uncertain terms. To see and feel all of this was stirring and thought provoking. The Tibetan's beliefs in the Dalai Lama and in Buddhism will never be broken and this may lead to their own genocide by an uncaring Chinese godless bureaucracy.

Most people visit Tibet to observe aspects of the spiritual lives of the Tibetan people which are still very much alive today. The Chinese actually pay the monks and bankroll restoration of destroyed temples. They know the payoff will be a lot of tourist dollars . Of the Chinese leadership-- the attitude seems to have evolved to: "If you don't go down the Communist Road with us then we'll bury you as a distinct race of people within a very few generations." Enemies of this proportion and ruthless efficiency are hard to find, Uncle Joe Stalin and Pol Pot along with Hitler may not have had the commercial aspects of exploiting your opponent's religion, but they were all on the genocide track.... It is indeed a sad thing to experience first hand.

It seems redundant to say that Tibet is a spiritual place. It is not just that Buddhism took firm root here and preserved itself for 1200 years, indeed flourishing. It has more to do with the vast, wide-open spaces, the expanse of space rollloing out infinitely from the side of a mountain and the extremely low density of people and people-made machinery. Throwing oneself back in time and living among nomads herding yaks or traders in a caravan or beautiful secret paradises lieing plainly open but blithely unobserved -- all of these are an integral part of Tibet. I was only there five days so really didn't get a chance to fully taste but the glimpse was revealing and has reenergized my spirits. I didn't know whether to go or not but now I'm absolutely certain I made the right decision (for me). Enough of my blah-blah about Tibet. Tomorrow we be departing back to the West. The culture shock is going to be a real bitch this time... My last post to wrap it up tomorrow. Sorry there were no photgraphs (wouldn't do it justice anyway!) ~ Long, long, long way to go home. ~

From the first -class lounge at AA at Heathrow. "Delhi Belly" has caught up with me and even though we can't afford it, we splurgesd for the 1st-class lounge on the last leg of the trip home. It was a beautiful vacation to some magical places and the only sound track was the natural one of the natives, which is often the best one of all. We had a beautiful time with family, soared to mountains in Tibet and tastes the best these cultures had to offer. What is overwhelmingly apparent is that the developed world has missed it, somehow. There is a closenes in sharing when people are poor or of smaller ethnic group that is more than endearing. You have to see what I mean and everybody should take a trip outside their own culture for comparative purposes. Anyway, this report from a "Deadhead in Asia" is officially over. And it'll take a couple weeks to recover!! ~ Nailed a retread to my feet and prayed for better weather! ~