Online Discovery - Pangong Lake in Ladakh India

location: Jammu and Kashmir province, India, between Karakoram & Himalayan Mountain Range.
website: http://www.leh-ladakh.com/ladakh-tourism.html

map: http://www.mapsofindia.com/maps/jammuandkashmir/leh-ladakh-map.html or http://www.leh-ladakh.com/leh-ladakh-map.html

Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux

Towards the last few pages of reading this book, I have purposely slowed down my pace of reading, savouring every bit of his travel recollection as I did not want to come to the end of it. After you read this book, you will either lose all envy to go to China or even become more curious about it. This is because he is very blatant in his travel description, he would highlight all the miserable, dirty parts of China with no euphemism.

Not only he would describe all the unique & little photographic/sensegraphic things during his passage (all China hotels seem to have plastic flowers in a vase; China toilets stink from miles away), but we also learn about the cultural & historic part of China (Mao Cultural Revolution; Tibetan acquisition) thru his recollections of meeting various local people.

If you are thinking to do a China back-pack travel, i think this is an essential book to read. Even though it's written like more than a decade ago (I hope now the train is better), you will get a feel of the vast China, from a point of view that is definitely different from touris websites.

Even though you are not planning to go to China, it is still a good book to read because towards the end of it you will discover so much about the monolithic country, without the need to go there!

Mr Policeman

This must be my lucky morning. I was driving towards the pizza man, wanting to go to the Senayan. I was quite in a rush & I wanted to take the shortest route. I wasnt quite sure whether I could turn to the left - that would enable me for the shortest route, cause I've passed thru this place so many times but seen no car doing this manuver before. So, I looked carefully for any no turn sign, couldnt find any, and then there is a big green sign hanging above a pole, picturing 'turn left for blok M'... so... I took my left, telling myself it would be OK, even though there was already a police man standing there.

And then, guess what, when I was already turning left, the police man hailed my car... and I could already picture myself having to pay IDR 50 thousands, within the next 5 minutes, especially that this is almost lebaran time & every one wants to earn a little more purple or red notes to satisfy their stomach.

So... he asked for my stnk, sim, asking me didnt i see the no turn sign (of course i said no, i already looked for it & couldnt find it), & where i wanted to go to (after having been stopped by the police 3 times already, i have the routine memorized in my mind already).

In the end, I dont know whether it was my shabby tshirt & short outfit, or that i told him i was just going to do some exercise in senayan, or that my SIM is issued from Jogja (he started speaking to me in Javanese, which I had to ask him to repeat twice before I could understand), he let me go without any obligation!

Waw, lesson learned, a pool of stereoptype is not 100% stereo, there is at least 1 person who makes the differences. I just kept smiling & laughing to myself along the way after that.

Thank you Mr Policeman, i wish there would be more & more people like you in the police force!

(Note: Although I'm pretty sure that the no turn sign was not there & i did tell him that they should remove the left turn signboard)

Want to go to

Bunga Kertas

Sebuah keluarga besar di Negeri ini baru2 ini melakukan perhelatan perkawinan luar bisa, suvenirnya adalah uang kertas yg dijadikan bunga (5 sepuluh ribuan jadi kelopak dan 2 20-ribuan jadi daun) .

Yang membuat saya bingung campur tidak percaya:

1. Apa mereka sudah tidak bergaul dengan dunia nyata? Bukankah mereka keluarga eks-pemimpin yang harusnya peduli dengan nasib rakyat, atau setidaknya sensitif dengan kehidupan mereka? Apa maksudnya melipat2 uang dan diberi2 ke tamu2nya yg notabene pasti kebanyakan juga orang berkecukupan.

2. Apa mereka tidak membaca koran atau menonton TV? baru-baru ini, BI mengeluarkan iklan pendidikan ke masyarakat "5J": Uang Jangan Dilipat; Jangan Diremas; Jangan Basah; Jangan distrapless; Jangan Dicoret-coret".

Saya pikir lebih indah bunga-bunga kertas origami

I'm Loving it - Bang Yos

This man is worth to be a role model.

He's got the vision, the strong determination, the fighting spirit to take it forward.
Jakarta should be thankful to have him, despite all the critics.