Nuevo Bing Lee

The story of Edventure Nepal

2011-07-02T22:13:00.013+08:00

In order to let more interested people to know about the orphanage easily, I had interviewed the members of Edventure Nepal. So when some volunteers would make a website for them, the articles can be put on there. During the interviews, I was deeply touched by the innocence of the children and also by their determinations to contribute to the society. Although they are living in one of the poorest countries in the world and they all have their heart-breaking stories to tell, their determinations of humanitarian work are indeed much stronger than many people who are living in any developed countries. 　

Amrit, Chairman of Edventure, 27years old A simple man with high thinking

The seed of starting an orphanage in Nepal has long been planted in Amrit’s life.

When he was 18 years old, his father suddenly got cancer. With limited income, he had to drop out from school and worked as a teacher in a remote area in Kaski District(near Pokhara), so as to support the enormous expenses of his father’s medication. For 2 years, he and his sister were taking care of his father in the hospital. Nonetheless, his father still passed away painfully at the end.

During the time he was working in the village, daily stricken by seeing the suffering of his father and the condition of the poor children, he started to think about what he could do to help all those children.

After his father had passed away, he started working full time as a teacher in Pokhara, so as to pay off the tuition fees of his bachelor degree. In this school, he met Tulasi (the vice-chairman of EdventureNepal) who was a cleaner at the school. The fact that Tulasi was tortured by her ex-husband a lot struck him a lot. He was always trying to help Tulasi in the school kitchen and walking her back home in the late evening.

With all the compassion towards the misfortunate situations of Tulasi and the underprivileged children in the village, he realized that if he only worked as a teacher, receiving a very low pay each month, was not enough to help others than himself. So he left for Kathmandu to work in a travel agency which also had supports to an orphanage. From there, he learnt a lot about how to run a non-profit organization.

In the meantime, his sister was diagnosed with kidney failure. In the fear that he would lose another family member, he quit his job, together with his brother-in-law, they took care of her for months and they even went to India to search for better medication. To their greatest relief, his sister’s situation started to turn stable. He was relieved and went back to Kathmandu.

With no job, but bills to pay, he was thinking about his next move. The dream of starting an organization which helped poor children and Tulasi in his home town, Pokhara appeared to him again. With the advices of his brother-in-law, who worked in the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu, he managed to register Edventure Nepal successfully in April, 2011.

He and Tulasi then rescued the 3 sisters Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga, together with Tulasi’s daughter, Laxmi, 6 of them are now living in the orphanage in Pokhara.

With compassion, inner strength and implementing what he learnt, he would like to grow Edventure Nepal step by step and leads it to be one of the leading non-profit organizations in Nepal. Hopefully in the future, he could travel to other countries, except seeing the world to broaden his horizon, he would visit other non-profit organizations and be inspired by them, so he could implement the new ideas in this orphanage. In this way, they could uplift more and more underprivileged children and let them be the change of the future world.

Tulasi, Vice-Chairman of Edventure Nepal, 35 years old A tough woman with a tender heart

In Nepal, a country which is dominated by male, women always lack of care and supports. One may wonder, why Tulasi, an illiterate mother of 3 children is so devoted to work in this charitable organization, even though she needed to do hard labour to support the orphans’ living at the beginning.

It is all because of her similar childhood background and her unfortunate marriage. When she was a girl, her father married another woman. Since then, she had no more love and affection from her father and she was deprived of education opportunities.

When she grew up, she was first living with her sister and her brother-in-law as her parents couldn’t support her living. She wanted her marriage to be arranged by her father, but he didn’t even care about Tulasi at all. Finally, her brother-in-law arranged a marriage for her. Only when she got married, she found out her ex-husband happened to be neurotics and violent. All the three children were not conceived under her free will, they all happened when she fell unconscious after severe beating from his ex-husband. His ex-husband was always hitting Tulasi with his hand or kicking her with his leg without any reasons. He even tried to strangle his own baby when he was drunken. Shocked by this incident, she finally made the decision to leave her ex-husband with her children, and started to work days and nights as a low-skilled labour. Because of that, she got a permanent damage on her spinal cord and often suffers from great pain.

With the help of Amrit, her two sons were sent to a well-established orphanage in Kathmandu. Relieved to see that her sons are under good care and protection, she realized that a good orphanage can really change the lives of underprivileged children, so she would like to help other similar children with her love and cares.

Tulasi is devoting her time days and nights in the orphanage, she would love to see Edventure Nepal blooming, helping more underprivileged children with a bigger and bigger international network. Personally, she dreams to see and travel around the world, especially doing a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India.

Laxmi, 15 years old A humble and loving young lady

She is the daughter of the Vice-Chairman at Edventure Nepal, Tulasi. Growing up in a single-parent family and seeing all the violence imposed by her father on Tulasi, she is far more mature than her age. Sometimes she shows a flash of confusion amid all her charming smiles. Because of Amrit and her mother’s devotion to help the unfortunate ones, she is also inspired and would like to be a social worker in the future. She wishes that when she could acquire more knowledge and skills, she could assist Amrit in running Edventure Nepal.

Girls in Nepal are usually married in a very early age. However, she doesn’t have this dream. She just wants to be a better person, so as to take care and support her mother and let her mother be proud of her.

Despite all that, she is still a teenage girl. During her free time, she likes to sing Nepali and English pop songs, dancing, drawing and learning computer skills. Her favourite foods are vegetable MoMo (Tibetan dumplings), pizza and chocolate cake.

The 3 sisters, Tulasi, Yemuna and Ganga

They are the poor children of Tika Ram and Guma Bastola. They are originally from the remote village of Paiyun (puranchaur VDC, Kaski). Their father suffered a lot from various diseases. Without any proper medical treatments, he was Paralysis. After he had passed away, the mother also went crazy and lost her memory. Since then, the children had been deprived of all sorts of basic necessities. When they were found, they were rescued to the orphanage.

Tulasi, 11years old The little adult

When she lost her parents, she was taken by her relatives to work in a hotel, washing dishes all day long. After Edventure Nepal has rescued her, she and her two sisters are provided with nutritious food, clothing and education opportunities. Though she is only 11, she is very mature and pro-actively helping to take care of her younger sisters in the orphanage. What is really impressive is that she even shows great care to the people around her and acts like a responsible adult. Her dream is to be a social worker or an English teacher, so she could helps other underprivileged children like what she was once to be. She would also like to do a pilgrimage to the ashrams of Amma and Sai BaBa in South India and to study in USA one day. In her spare time, she likes playing games and dancing. Her favourite colour is black, favourite subjects are Nepali and English and her favourite food are meat and orange.

Yemuna, 9 years old The source of joy

When She was first brought to Edventure Nepal orphanage, she was somehow disoriented and showed no interest in everything. After about two weeks, she started to regain her charm. Whenever she gets the chance to play, she will give out lots of laughter and always be energetic. Her dream is to become a pilot, so she could travel around the world and see all the wonderful places. She likes drawing and dancing. Her favourite colour is green, favourite subject is Social Studies (includes Geography and History etc.) and her favourite food are curry pumpkin and pomegranates.

Ganga, 6 years old The enthusiastic learner

Ganga is the youngest among the three sisters, but she loves to learn and she learns really fast. Sometimes you will see her reading her own books and studying by herself. If any volunteers are in the orphanage, she will definitely come to them and ask to teach her English! Her dream is to travel in a bus so as to see the world, she even imagines that she could become a bus driver so she could travel in the bus all day long.

She likes playing the traditional Nepalese game, carom board. Her favourite colour is Yellow, favourite subject is Mathematics and her favourite foods are dhal (lentils) soup and grape.

I am doing a fund-raising for them, so to equip them with essential furniture, cooking utensils, electrical appliances and a motorbike (as they live on the hill). If you would like to give a helping hand, please let me know by emailing me at pinkgata@gmail.com. Your help will be greatly appreciated!

Heart-opening journey

2011-07-02T22:07:00.004+08:00

I still remember when I left India last year, my heart was full of love and compassion. So when I first came back to HK, I continued to practice what I learnt in India and spread selfless love around. However, facing such an extreme capitalist system and society like HK, it was a great challenge to keep my heart pure. After 7months in HK, I had already felt that it was getting more and more difficult to keep my mind and heart in balance.

Here in the orphanage, everyday playing with the children, receiving their innocent love and being like brother and sister with Amrit, I didn’t realized that I had actually become part of their family.

One day, Amrit invited me and Theo to his home which is 14KM far from the Lake Side. There live his mother, his brother and the three super cute buffaloes. His home is only a very simple two-storey stone house and I could see the old age was reflected on the wall. Beside the house, there is a piece of corn field, in which they only use buffaloes manure.

Amrit's buffaloes.

As in all Hindu families, women are always busy with the cooking and men are waiting to eat. Seeing the situation, I found that I was the only woman who was not in the kitchen! Seeing Amrit’s mother, his aunt and Tulasi were cooking the big meal in the kitchen, I was wondering should I help. On the opposite of what I was thinking, they offered me chai (mike tea, though I rejected as I normally don’t drink tea with caffeine) and asked me to sit and do not worry about the cooking. Though I could not really communicate with them verbally, I could feel their love and joy.

Finally, we were all sitting together with cross legs in a small room and eating the traditional Nepalese food Dhal Bhat (lentils, rice and vegetables). During the meals, they were talking and joking in Nepali, sometimes Amrit did the translation for us. Actually even if Amrit hadn’t translated for us, I could still feel that joy and peace in the house. I strongly felt that Amrit was really treating me like his sister and his mother was treating me like her daughter also.

We are such a big family!

At night, when I was back in the guesthouse and writing my journal, I suddenly realized that I was completely filled with the endless love by the orphanage and Amrit’s family. At that moment, I felt my heart was beating with all the love and compassion toward them! My heart was exploded with so much love that I felt so blissful, peaceful and happy. I had been away from this feeling for 9months already! Streams of tears slowly came down on my face, I was feeling so grateful because life had given me such a lovely family. I was not the person who was helping, they were in fact all God-sent angels, giving me love!

Angels of love

2011-07-02T21:45:00.008+08:00

Amrit and the kids.

I and Theo or sometimes only myself are used to come to the orphanage every day. Setting off from the Lake Side at 6am, take a 20minutes bus ride and walk up the hill for 15mins. When we are in the orphanage, we usually teach them English or play with them in the open ground area which has a fantastic view of the snow mountain range.

Playing at the top with the kids.

Besides, I am also discussing with Amrit about how the orphanage can get more supports from some international organizations. For example, I helped them to sign in as the member of Couchsurfing and Workaway; I also put their information on the travel forums in HK and Taiwan to recruit travelers as volunteers.

Until now, I got many positive responses, many friends from HK and Taiwan are planning to come to the orphanage when they will visit Nepal. Recently, 2 HK friends, Florence and Patricia and 2 Taiwan friends Athena and Darren had just visited here and all brought along with them nearly 20kg supplies in total. I am so touched by their sincerity and hard work of bringing all those things.

Volunteers from HK and Taiwan.

Besides that I should say thanks to many passing-by travelers who stopped and gave a helping hand. One of them is Teri, a dear friend of mine whom I met in HK when I was hosting travelers on Couchsurfing. She is such a warm person that who is always smiling to all situations in life like an angel, sending out love and warmth wherever she is. She deliberately made a turn from India to Nepal to see me and she also volunteers in the orphanage, giving many creative and practical ideas. When I think about the happy moments that I and other volunteers were playing our childhood games on the grass, remembering their genuine smiles, I feel super grateful that the river of life brings me all these angels.

Teri, me and the kids.

Actually at first I was worrying how they could afford the daily expenditures in the orphanage. At the early period, Amrit was working in a temporary census job, which only paid him 8000Rs (around 114USD). For Tulasi, though she had severe spinal cord and uterus pain, she still worked in a food-packaging factory for 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. And she only got a monthly salary of 4000Rs (around 57USD). With this amount of income, they had to feed all the 4 children! This is really incredible in the eyes of those who come from a developed country. How can they possibly manage it?

I thought, I could help them at that time, but it was not a sustainable way as I was only a traveler without a stable job. At last, I decided to ask for help from my dear HK friends. The amazing experience happened next told me that I and Amrit were really living out our life purposes.

After I had sent out emails for one week, I gradually got many replies from my dear friends, giving me creative ideas and also the generous financial support! Because of their selfless help, this orphanage doesn’t need to worry about food in the meantime. I feel so deeply that this is all just grace and I am the instrument of God, which helps the loving and kind-hearted Amrit and Tulasi to fulfill their life mission step by step.

Recently, all volunteers brought the kids to the Lake Side. It was their first time to eat Pizza and row a boat on the Phewa Lake. It was such a happy day!

The first visit to the orphanage

2011-07-02T20:04:00.025+08:00

‘If you let the river of life carries you along, you will always arrive the best place for you.’ This is my living philosophy and it is always true.

One of my missions of living HK this time is to volunteer. When I first arrived the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, I didn’t have any good impressions on it, so I went straight to Pokhara. I was so happy that I could enjoy the beautiful Himalayas and the calm and beautiful Phewa Lake. Once I settled down in a nice and clean guesthouse, I started to look for healthy food. As I was always cooking fresh and organic food in HK and I seldom added salt, oil and chili, so when I first went out to the restaurant in Nepal, I could hardly order anything which were up to my standard.

So I used a whole day to search for another guesthouse, hoping to find a place where I can use the kitchen to cook, but it was in vain. Desperately I went back to my guesthouse and when I started to talk with the manager, he offered me to use the kitchen in the guesthouse! I immediately cooked my first home-made food in Nepal. Though it was just the simplest boiled vegetables and brown rice, it was the most delicious food in the world.

Every day I enjoyed the golden sunrise, sunset and the beautiful lake scenery at the roof top, it seemed that I had totally forgotten what was I supposed to do here. And it had already been two weeks since I left HK.

The beautiful Himalayas. One day, I got an email from my friend, he asked me how was my progress with the volunteer work. His email was like a bell in my head, it rang me up and reminded me that it was time for me to look for volunteer opportunities! Since I started to have this idea in my head, life also started to respond to me. Then when I was walking along the Lake Side, I saw a flyer on a telephone pole recruiting volunteers for an orphanage. I contacted the Chairman of this orphanage, Edventure Nepal, and I immediately visited the place next day. It is situated in a beautiful area in the middle of the hill and it is just 4km away from the Lake Side.

The orphanage is situated in a very beautiful area.

I found that this orphanage had just started for less than 2 weeks, Amrit and his sister-like friend, Tulasi had just rescued 3 sisters. So including the daughter of Laxmi, 6 of them are now living under the same roof and sharing whatever they have.

The lovely kids.

To be frank, after the first meeting with Amrit in the Lake Side, my mind kept warning me to be careful that they were cheating by the name of an orphanage, because they were looking for financial supports on top of volunteers. However, after the meeting, I suddenly got lots of ideas on how to help them like fund-raising and how to connect them with international charitable organizations. I found that I had learnt a lot because I have volunteered in different countries in the world.

Contrasting to my mind, I actually got a lots of God’s signs that told me they were the right people to help. For the first time, I saw the name, ‘Amrit’ on the flyer, I already got a familiar feeling, as my guru’s name is 'Amrita'. And so do all the names of them. For example, 2 of them are named ‘Tulasi’, which mean a sacred plant in India, and it is also seen as theIndian deity Krishan; 2 of them are named ‘Ganga’ and ‘Yemuna’, which both means the sacred rivers in India. And the last one is called ‘Laxmi’, this is exactly the name of the goddess of wealth in India. Maybe someone may think these are just common names in Nepal, but actually names like Ram, Hari, Sita, Deepak etc are far more common.

Teaching the kids English.

The most obvious God’s sign is that the orphanage is so close to the holy temple Bindavasini. And inside Bindavasini, the main goddesses are Devi and Kali. And you know what, my guru, Amma is worshipped as Devi and Kali!! After visiting the orphanage, I went to put incenses in the temple and meditated there for 10minutes. My heart told me, this was the place I should come and I should trust Amrit. Of course, before that, I had already asked everything about how the orphanage was set up and confirmed that there was nothing in doubt.

The peaceful Bindavasini Temple.

After wedding - Cats and Mountain hut

2010-05-28T18:56:00.007+08:00

After the big day, all the people went abroad. Ursina and Fabrizio went to Morocco for honey moon; Andrea (Ursina's sister) and Marius went to southern France. Matthais(Ursina's brother), Barbara and Julieta went to Buenos Aires to visit Barbara's family. Susanna and Hans Peter(Ursina's parents) were going to Germany soon. Before that, Susanna invited me to their house in Chur where I spent a very nice time with them.

It was a very sunny day. As Chur is in the valley, the weather is usually much warmer than Basel. Luckily, I could escape from the coldness in Basel!

View from the train.

It was not my first time to take the train in Switzerland. And I also experienced so many train journeys in India. But once I was in this developed and organized country, I was totally disarmed and I made a mistake that I never made.

When I was sitting in the train, I thought,'Um, the train in Switzerland is such a extreme against India. Here is clean and quiet and almost no passenger!' I sat comfortably for one hour. When the train approached Zurich, the ticket officer came to check my ticket, I handed it to him indifferently.

Then he looked at me over his glasses and asked,'Have you ever heard of the difference between 1st and 2nd class?'

I immediately sensed the mistake while I was opening my mouth widely and said, 'No!' I didn't mean I had never heard about it. Acutally, I meant, 'Oh no, stupid me!'

He still looked at me without any emotion and said, 'In fact, you need to buy a 1st class ticket if you want to sit here, but unfortunately your ticket is a 2nd class one.' Then he gave me back my ticket and asked me to go to the other coach.

What a shame! I thought. But when I went to the 2nd class, I didn't notice the difference between them. It was still quiet and clean and comfortable and also with AC. Thinking about the chaotic sence of the 2nd class train in India. I thought, it was difficult to blame me for this mistake:p

Susanna and H.Peter had constructed a new terrace last year. When I came last time, it was not yet finished. This year they accomodated me in the new guest room on the terrace.

It was like the 'executive suite' of a 5-stars hotel which had a wonderful view over the mountanin and the whole valley.

Because of the glass, the terrace was exceptionally warm in this cool weather. I felt like in the early summer.

I love the different shades of the green in Switzerland.

I love cats. And there are five cats in this house! The cutiest one is Tommy! He doesn't look like 17years old, right?

Oh, my sweetie, why are you so happy?

Actually, his eyes were fixed upon this Swiss speciality. And he licked all the cream from my fingers!

Tommy, what are you thinking?

He was arousing attention when Susanna was sending text message to Ursina.

On the other hand, Tommy's sister, Jeanie had secretly hidden under the chair in the sitting room.

The cats had really brightens my days up.

When we were heading to the mountain hut in Emserberg moutnain, Tommy came to farewell us.

It was quite incredible that I came to this magical little hut again, after almost exactly one year!

And I did the same thing as last year - BBQ!

However, there were still a little bit differences. Last year, I came with Ursina and Fabrizio, this time with Ursina's parents; last year, we did the BBQ outdoor, indoor this time. Last year, I could see the snow mountains surrounding the house, this year I could only see a heavy layer of fog.

Before...

After...

When the fog was gone, we went for a little walk. It was incredibly cold here, such a big contrast to the warm terrace! Actually, during this period, Europe was abnormally cold. It was the same even in Italy, eg, the time being should be early spring season, but the temperature was still like in winter.

Luckily, we found some blossoming around. They told us it was indeed spring time.

There was another kind of beauty in the fog.

Thanks very much for Susanna and H.Peter, they are very sweet and funny. I felt they were more like my friends than parents. Susanna always cooked delicious food for me, thanks for the asparagus and the home-made sauce, they were excellent! H.Peter was also putting a lot of effort in speaking English with me, thanks so much and thanks for the small flowers:)

Susanna also brought me to a local concert, where a Swiss girl, Elisabeth Sulser performed different kinds of flutes, including the horn of a cow (unluckily, I don't know the proper name of this musical instrument). I had never imagined that flutes could produce such a big varieties of sound. Morover, when the flutes were mixing with the harmonium (with a funny player), the music was amazingly pleasant. I liked this concert a lot and it really boarden my 'narrow music horizon'!

Thanks for all the things!

Before the wedding 2 - Ladies' night

2010-05-28T17:15:00.002+08:00

Contrasting to people who are thinking they should have a crazy night before marriage, Ursina just wanted a quiet and a cozy one.

Fully packed with clothes, food, luggages and other preparation materials for the wedding, Carla (Fabrizio's sister) drove Ursina, Saskia and me to the town Neuchatel the day before the wedding. We would check in a 'hostel' there and spend Ursina's last night to be single.

I had been to the lake Neuchatel last year on which we were sailing. But I never knew the town Neuchatel. It is small, but still lively and modern, kind of mixing the feeling of quaint village and a busy town.

The downtown area.

One can easily turn into the alley and escape from the busy area.

There are plenty of old houses.

Ursina and I walked to the high point of the town, from where we could have a overview of this beautiful place with the lake behind. At the same time, we were so happy that the sun finally came out from the clouds.

After meeting Ursina's sister, Andrea and Regula, we went for a creperia to have dinner. A restaurant where only sells crepe!

We greedily thought we could eat three crepes, but after the second one, I was completely K.O. Look at my crepe! It was full of delicious cream!

We carried our big stomachs to the hostel nearby. An old building also.

Inside is quite modern.

There is a swimming pool also! Unluckily, it was too cold to jump to it.

Our beautiful and cozy room.

Once we arrived, we immediately hanged out our clothes. Which is mine?

Not many people know this German game, Settler of Cantan. But I was lucky enough to learnt it in Colombia and I was totally addicted to it. And it is one of Ursina's favourite game also! So we had a six people battle this night.

Buying brick, selling sheep, building settlements, exploring the new island, the winner finally came after about two hours of struggling. You can see who was this from her contrasting smiling face...

Then we played another game, which is called 'Activity' in German. But in HK, it was quite popular in the TV show game, which is called, 'The Big TV'. Though I had some difficulties in adjusting to it because the game is based in German, we still had many funny moments.

That was Ursina's last night before marriage. I like it very much as I also don't prefer to see something like a half-naked man jumping out from the big box, dancing around all the ladies...

Actually, a beautiful day was waiting for us to get up early and experience it!

A super beautiful morning on the wedding day.

View from the hostel.

The promise, the Swiss wedding

2010-05-27T19:28:00.020+08:00

After visiting Europe last year in July, I flew to India. One day, I got an email from my best friend, Ursina. She announced that she was going to get married with Fabrizio in May 2010. I was really happy and also surprised, because I was always asking them in May last year that when would they get married, and the answer seemed not so soon.

In 2005, when I first went to Switzerland, I promised that I would save enough money and come back for their wedding. Even her mother reminded me when I went to visit them last year. As the voice was still echoing in my head, how could I fail my promise?

This was the main reason I flew all the way back to Europe from India this year. Except to witness the important moment of my best friend and her boyfriend, I made another promise - to be their photographer. This was my first time to be a wedding photographer, though there was pressure, I was very happy and enjoying all the moment.

I believe they will continue to live their fairy tale lives together...and with their babies soon!!!Hehe.

I think Ursina and Fabrizio's wedding is a wedding that many people can only dream of. As they both like sailing, the theme of their wedding is always related to the lake. The ceremony was held in an old castle overlooking Lac de Neuchâtel, where they have a boat and where Ursina would come every summer since she was a child.

In front of Chateau de Vaumarcus where the ceremony would be held.

Ursina and Fabrizio were coming into the hall where all the guests were already ernestly waiting.

They planned the whole day very dedicatedly. The ceremony was solemn but touching, with a Russian musician playing wonderful music and the boyfriend of Fabrizio's sister (who is a opera singer) singing.

Moreover, the uncle of Ursina, whom they always do sailing with, made a speech about their childhood which was full of sense of humour.

The beautiful and simple ring exchange. Congratulations Mr and Mrs Branca!

A path of roses, welcomed the newly-married couple.

Even the sun came out to congratulate the couple! Cheers!

After taking group pictures with different people and the aperitif, we gradually moved to the port and we were going to take the ship across Lac de Neuchâtel, through the channel and arrive the restaurant on the shore of Lac de Bienne.

A very beautiful day which permitted the guests to stay on the deck.

Everybody was concentrating on playing the quiz about the couple.

Music and 'dancing' on board.

Funny situation when the couple was doing guest presentations. I was surprised that I was included in the presentations!

The beautiful two hours' journey on the lakes.

Wasn't it a fairy tale wedding?

The beautiful restaurant where we would have the wedding dinner.

The couple kicked start the dinner.

In between the dinner, there were many speeches and performances of guests, including the drama by Fabrizio's family, singing of his sister and her boyfriend, piano playing and singing of Saskia (Ursina's friend)'s boyfriend etc.

Moreover, there was a movie about the couple's love story made by Ursina's brother.

The most surprised part was organized by Regula(Ursina's friend) when she presented the wedding book.

They were super excited to open the book.

Actually, the book collects all the surprises from all guests. Regula asked us to send her a page beforehand which represented our best greetings to them. All people used their imagination and creativity to make this book together. It is the best wedding gift I have ever seen in the world!

All the guests were so curious to see the work of other people.

This is my page made with macrame.

Last but not least, we still had the dancing section.

Waltz.

Cha cha cha.

And then all the guests were dancing together!

Oh yes, I have to show you one of the dishes that night - my vegetarian spring roll! Have you seen such a big spring roll before? It was delicious!

It was such an unforgettable and happy memory for me. Moreover, it was indeed an honour to be included and I could share the joy with them. Thanks very much, Ursina and Fabrizio!

Maybe you will ask, what are the differences between a Swiss and a HK wedding?

Swiss people usually don't have pre-wedding photo shootings, while HK people like to go to Taiwan or studio and change million sets of clothes.

They don't invite too many people, they just invited less than 60. While in HK, a dinner hall filled with 200 people is very common.

On the wedding day, they don't change several sets of clothes. While in HK, the bride has a set of Chinese costume in the morning, Western costume in the ceremony and several sets of evening gowns in the dinner.

They don't play the groom in the morning. The groom doesn't have to perfom the 'talent show' (like playing piano) during the dinner.

Although Swiss wedding is simplier, I still prefer no 'ritual' at all IF I will ever get married:)

Cheers! A funny picture taken by the mother of Ursina.

Before the wedding 1 - BBQ and the Zoo

2010-05-27T19:28:00.014+08:00

When I arrived at Basel, Switzerland. I was so surprised by the warm weather, it was such a big contrast against the cold weather in Rome. Everywhere was so green and colourful, which made my eyes almost cannot open.

As Ursina and Fabrizio were both working, so I followed the instruction written by Ursina to find the bus, the tram, the house and the key. The whole process was like the treasure hunt game which I used to play in primary school. And the treasure which was waiting for this sweating and tired traveller was the delicious Swiss food!

The sweet words left by Ursina. I was laughing a lot when I saw it behind the door.

Actually, it was an abnormal sunny day for them also. It was as warm as over 26 degree, like in the middle of summer. But it was still rainy and cold the day before. In order not to waste this beautiful day, we had a barbecue in their beautiful garden.

As beautiful as ever.

I agree with Fabrizio very much that, if I was living here, I didn't need to travel to another part of the world anymore, because the heaven was always here.

Do you recognize this situation? Last year, almost exactly the same time, we were having barbecue also!

But this year, we had a special guest! Julieta! The niece and also god daughter of my friends.

And the brother and his wife who is from Buenos Aires. I was so happy to speak in Spanish and talked about all the delicious food and beautiful places there with her.

Yum Yum! She is my new favourite baby.

And her little cat.

The next day, we were baby-sitting Julieta so as to let her parents had a very rare break from the baby. Unluckily, the weather turned 180 degree from the day before. It changed to its typical rainy weather again.

Actually, they fit the job of parents very capably, hehe.

I seldom went to the zoo, so it was very new for me also. It seemed I was more excited than the baby.

First time to see a giraffe. They are so tall!

We were so close to the lion! He looked proud but sad. At the same time, there was a group of stupid teenagers(who were speaking in Italian) provoking the lions.

A beautiful cheetah hiding behind the bushes.

King penguins, some of them were changing the fur.

My first time to see a rhinoceros.

I always thought the American buffalos were all killed by the cowboys! Luckily, they are preserved.

Julieta was really not so interested in the animals. As she is such an energetic baby, she just ran from one cage to another, from one window to another. This was the reason why we went to such a big zoo...

It seemed Fabrizio wanted to promote 'a real communication' between a baby and a goat. So he pushed the baby trolly forward.

I don't know whether the goat failed in asking a date out from Julieta, then theathened her or she smelt the　bad breath from the goat. Anyway, she started to cry.

But she was soon relieved by a banana!

Tips for studing a language, Espanol, Italian and Tibetan

2009-10-13T18:36:00.027+08:00

As I didn't have much time to write my blog, and I didn't realized that I can activate the email notification service, so I found I missed a lot of messages on my blog. I am really sorry that I didn't reply in time for all the questions. So I decide to write some useful tips for the people like me, who wants to go abroad to study.

I am fond of learning languages. So I spent 7weeks learning Spanish in Quito in Ecuador, 3weeks learning Italian in Rome, Italy and 1month learning Tibetan in Mcleod Ganj in India.

Concluding my experience, I can tell that if you want to learn a language WELL, you MUST go to a place where the people speak that language.

For Spanish, I recommend a few places, Quito in Ecuador, Antigua in Guatamala, Buenos Aires in Argentina, Cusco in Peru, Guanajuato in Mexico. But they all have their advantages and drawbacks, so those who are interested need to find the place best suit their criteria.

Quito in Ecuador: I put it to the top doesn't mean that it is the best among all, but because I studied thtere, so I have better information about the place.

Qutio Historical center.

Advantages:
1.For HK people, we don't need a visa and we can stay up to 90days.
2.Reasonably cheap tuition fee(I only paid around 4.5USD per hour for a one to one class) and affordable living standard(Esp home-stay, I paid around 13 to 15USD per day for 2 or 3meals). If you eat out, a set lunch(with a soup, main course with meat, a glass of fruit juice and a sweet )costs you only 1.5USD.
3.Abundant of schools: Quito is very developed in term of learning Spanish schools for foreign students. There are over 80 schools and so you can have a great variety of choices. If you feel unsafe that you only pay a few bucks for a class, you can choose to pay 15USD per hour, from which you can obtain more security and services.
4.Proper accent: The accent of Ecuadorians are easy to listen, and they speak correctly and slow(though at first I didn't think they spoke slow, but after comparing with people from Chile and Colombia, they were SUPER slow actually!). So it will be good to learn the accent there.
5.Big enough to travel in: Quito is the capital of Ecuador, there are plenty of things to do in Quito or outside of the city during the weekends, including cultural activities and adventure sports(please refer to my travel entries).

Drawbacks:
1.Some people consider Quito is not a safe place. Yes, I admit that it is a big city like all the big cities in the world, so it is full of crimes. BUT very importantly, it is the matter of YOU, but not the city. In my experience, if you are not alert, be prepared and be sensible, the same thing will happen on you everywhere, no matter in London, New York or Tokyo.
2.Maybe it is very far away from HK. But if you go to Ecuador, of course you won't just go there, study and go back HK! You will travel around South America! Then it turns to be an advantage, because you can take this chance to travel around.

I haven't studied in the places I will mention below, but I gathered the information from other travellers and have the recommendations as follow.

Antigua in Guatamala

I didn't have any pic of Guatamala(I wish I have!). But I was in San Cristobal de las Casas, which is one of my favourite city in Mexico and very close to the border of Guatamala. The indigenous people there are just the same as in Guatamala. Their traditional and amazing clothing dazzled me a lot.

Advantages:
1.Much cheaper price. It costs half price of that of Ecuador, around 2 to 4USD per hour for a one to one class, accomodation also costs half, around 6 to 8USD. To live there, it is also cheaper than in Ecuador.
2.Very popular for foreign students to study Spanish there, so there are lots of schools to choose from.
3.Beautiful places to travel around. To visit its manificent Mayan ruin, Tikal in Guatamala is still my unaccomplished dream in Latin America.
4.Proper accent. They speak clear and good Spanish.

Drawbacks:
1.If it is so good, why I didn't go there? Yes, it was a pity that I couldn't go there. The biggest drawback for HK people is that we need a visa to travel there. Worst of all, it is not easy to get a visa. I planned to go there, but after finding out all the troubles, I changed my plan to Ecuador. As there is no embassy of Guatamala in HK, we HAVE to fly to Taiwan(or if you go from Mexico, you can apply it there) to apply for the visa. And it is required that we need to submit the information of a guarantee Guatamala local citizen!(What the hell is that? I never heard about such thing before!)
The good news is, if you have the BNO passport or you are not from HK, Guatamala is the best place for you to study Spanish!
2.Same issue - Crime. As mentioned above.

Buenos Aires in Argentina

Tengo, the passion of Buenos Aires.

Advantages:
1.I haven't written anything about Argentina in my blog yet, but I have to say I love this country, esp Buenos Aires, it is my favourite city in Latin America. It is a vibrant and incredible city. I spent 4 weeks there, exploring the beauitful places and learning the cultures. I would still like to go back.
2.There are lots of schools to choose and lots of travellers go there to study Spanish, so you won't be lonely during your studying.
3. For HK people, we can get 90days of visa free stay.

Drawbacks:(Though I love the city, if you really like to learn GOOD Spanish, it is not a good place to learn.)
1.Most importanly, they don't speak Spanish properly. Many people think that the language they are speaking is not Spanish, but Argentinan. The pronunciation of 'll' and 'y' change totally. Eg, instead of speaking 'lla' as 'ya', they pronoun as 'Sha', the same as 'y' as 'playa' becomes 'plasha'.
And they have a whole set of different vocabularies. For example, strawberry, normally is Fresa, but they say Frutilla. If you learn that, you will find it 90% of other Latin americanos have difficulties to understand what are you talking!
Actually, I just fall in love with the accent of Argentians, I love to speak their accent when I was there. But it is just fun to speak sometimes, better to learn the proper accent instead.
2.Expensive. The tuition fee per hour is around 10USD and it is NOT one to one. At least 4 persons in a class! Some people may like to learn with fellows. But in my experience, learning a language is better to be alone with the teacher. For example, my English friend was complaining to me in B.A. that there was a woman in the class that she already spoke French and know some Spanish, that made the whole class unbalanced. Because sometimes the teacher taught something to difficult for him, but too easy for that woman.
Moreover, in a one to one class, my teacher always corrected my pronunciation which was my wrost part, and I found it was very useful for my improvement. Needless to say the living standard is how expensive. There is no home-stay choice(you miss the choice of knowing local people and cultures). You can only live in a hostel or rent an apartment.
For hostel, even in low season, it costs around 10USD per day, and it is only a dorm bed. To eat out, sorry, I didn't do much, most of the time I cooked with my friends. But I know the famous steak dinner costs at least 30bucks. Yeah, it seems not so expensive compared with HK or Europe provided that they have the best beef in the world. But as a long term traveller that budget is my no.1 concern, why I bother to go to the restaurant, if it just costs me 2 bucks to buy the same quality steak and cook by myself?
3.Crime.(Refer to Ecuador)

Cusco in Peru

Cusco, the capital of the ancient Inca Empire.

Advantages:
1.A beautiful city situated near Machu Picchu, you will have bunch of opportunities to explore this ancient city and its ancient Inca history.
2.Cheap living standard. It is cheaper than B.A., but not as cheap as Ecuador and Guatamala. As Cusco is an international tourist destination, I saw the only McDonald beside the one in Lima in the whole Peru. So you can't expect the price is too cheap.
3.Proper accent. They speak as proper and clear as in Ecuador and Guatamala. And slow!
4.For HK people, for the first time entry, you will be granted for 183days of visa free stay.

Drawbacks:
1.The tuition fee is not so cheap. I once considered to study there, but when I know the price is near 10USD(one to one though), I gave up the thought.
2.Cold in Winter. I still remember my Argentina friend, Juan advised me before I left, don't study in Cusco, it will be too cold for me. Yeah, it is freezing in the winter.
3.Too much tourists. I admit that I didn't have much time to explore this city and the surroundings. But for my few days there, the touristic feeling was so overwhelmed that I didn't like it so much. I hope I will have more time to find out its true beauty next time.
4.Crime.(Refer to Ecuador)

Guanajuato in Mexico

The beautiful city, Juanajuato.

The terrace of my hostel has a splendid view.

Advantages:
1.I love Mexico. Its delicious food. Its charming and friendly people. Its dynamic cultures and wonderful history. It is a beautiful place to explore while learning the language. And Guanajuato is regarded as the city of students. You will like the energy bringing from the young university people and the vibrant night lives.
2.Proper accent. I remember I was so grateful to arrive Mexico when I had a hard time speaking with Chileans and Colombian, as they both speak super fast and with lots of slangs. I found that I could speak Spanish again! As very often I had difficulities in understanding and being understood in Chile and Colombia! On the contrary, in Mexico, I understood the people perfectly and they had no problem in understanding me also. Though in Mexico, they have their slangs also, I was able to catch it and learn it as they spoke very clearly(they don't eat their words like Chileans and Colombians do) and slow enough.
3.A wonderful country to travel in. Even though only in Mexico, it is enough for you to spend more than one year! And flying from Cancun to Cuba is very cheap. I still like to go back to Mexico. 4.For HK people, we can get 180days of visa free stay.

Drawbacks:
1.Expensive. It is always my concern. Think about, if you need to study for one month, 5days per weeks and 4hours per day, 1USD per hour different can make a BIG difference in total. You also need to calculate the additional accomodation fee and the living expenses. Mexico is a developed country compared with other Latin American countries, of course, it is the neighbour of USA! So you couldn't expect it is too cheap. The tuition fee is at least 10USD per hour and it is not a one to one class. For hostel, I pay at least 10USD per night. So you know its living standard is similar to Argentina and Chile. Acutally, if money is not a consideration, Mexico is my priority. But it is never possible that money is NOT a consideration! But lucky enough, I was still able to travel in this fantastic country!
2.Crime.(Refer to Ecuador)

Where to find information about schools? Before to click on the internet, I recommend you to go to the library, borrow all the guidebook of that country and look for the school information. Then go to the internet website of those schools.

Actually, I found it is the most useful method, and it was the way I found my two schools in Quito. Because when you go to the internet to type in the keywords, there will be excessive amount of websites appearing, including those bad schools. Once you click on a few school, comparing a few items, you will be exhausted already.

Most of the guidebooks give many good information about learning language, no matter Lonely Planet, Footprint(my choice) or Roughguide. If it is a popular destination for learning a language, the guidebook usualy list all the recommended (by readers) schools in the information of that city, then you can go straight to the school(this is what I did), or you can go online to do research.

My beloved friend, Footprint guidebook for South America.

Register before? Or drop in? If you are not in a hurry, I mean if you not only have 1 month(or less), so you can start right after you arrive. I suggest you to drop in. And it won't delay you too much. For example, I arrived at Quito on day one at night, I set off to seach for the school on day 2 and I could already start my class on day 3.

Because it is very possible that you may not like the school, the teacher, the environment, the home-stay...just don't register before and most important, don't register for a month! If you can, do the minimal, for example, 1week, so as to give yourself a try. If the school insists you to register for a long time and pay before hand, just choose another school!

In my case, I stopped and traveled for a week after 2weeks of study, as it was too overwhelmed. I even changed my schools as I started to feel bored of Quito. And, I stopped to live in the home-stay as I didn't like the home-stay Grandpa.

Therefore, give yourself the most flexibility.

My Spanish teacher, Patty, in Quito.

For Italian and Tibetan, the case is different. If you want to join the group class, you better do the research before, as I had the problem of joining in the class because the schools only have fixed schedules for group classes.

The best place to learn Italian, of course, is in Italy. Different from the case of Spanish, that there are so many once-colonized countries to choose from. As a developed country that Italy is, the tuition fee is incredible(in my eyes) but still reasonable(in European standard). And the only choice for poor students like me is a group class, as a one to one class costs at least 60EUROs per hour(incredible, huh?), and group class with up to 13 people still costs me near 10EUROs per hour.

So for group class, they have set a schedule for the whole year, if you are late, either they won't let you join the class(you have to wait for another month), or you need to drop in. I was lucky and also unlucky that I was able to drop in, but I had a hard time to cope with the first few lessons.

For Tibetan, it is the same, I joined the group class in the government Library in Mcleod Ganj, and this time my situation was much worser. Because the class had started for one and a half month already, and I dropped in in the middle of the term. Unlike Italian, it is similar to Spanish, Tibetan is similar to nothing(you can say Japanese and Korean as they have similar grammer structures). So I had a very very hard time of learning Tibetan.

My Tibetan teacher is a very powerful, though most of the time very cute nun.

Paragliding in San Gil

2009-10-09T21:24:00.013+08:00

Finally, I have time to write something about my beloved Colombia, especially starting from my favourite town San Gil.

San Gil is only a little town with around 30,000people, my guidebook Footprint even only has 8 lines about it. So usually, backpackers don't stop by here. And there is only one backpacker hostel in the whole place, others are all small hotels. However, there are lots of adventure sports to offer. Including rafting(up to grade 5), kayaking, paragliding, caving, rappelling, hydrospeed, bungee jumping and horseriding etc.

During my stay of 5weeks, the first and the only adventure sport I did was paragliding.

We set off with a group of 8 people plus 3 paragliding guides, including a lovely French girl, Julie, who wanted to take this chance to overcome her acrophobia.

Because Colombia is always infamous for its 'dangerous', so its tourism industry is not as developed as other South American countries. Thus, it is able to preserve lots of nature. That is also one of the reasons why I love this country so much.

Especially in San Gil, a town over 1000metres, and near the mountain range, the scenery is spectacular. The more expensive choice of paragliding is to fly over the biggest canyon in Bucaramanga. Even though I chose the cheaper one, I could still see this impressive canyon when we flew up about 400metres.

We waited for a long time to start, as the wind was too strong. Later on, we still started even though the wind was just a little bit weaker. To balance for the strong wind, they put 20kg weight of water on my back and on my lap! Still, my first 'flight' failed due to the unstable wind, I and my guide fell down helplessly and my forearm was scratched.

It took three men(one had fallen down on the ground already) to lift our parachute up for the first time. From my point of view on the parachute, I remembered it was just like a movie that we were set off for an important moon-exploring mission! But I forgot why Sarah(the red one) was running with them also.

Then we tried to slide down a slope and rose back again, it was successful this time! Soon we were rising up to the blue sky, overlooking all the forests and canyon.

The second time. We were sliding down the slope. I was really worried that it would just go down down down...

Yo! We rose back!

Gradually flying toward the canyon.

The Bucaramanga canyon could be seen from the sky.

The shadow of my parachute.

I love the greenery.

Actually, paragliding is not scary at all. It was just like sitting on the chair in the plane and looking out of the window. However, unluckily, despite the fact that I never had motion sickness, this time I felt terribly bad. I believe that was because I didn't have enough rest the day before, so I was pretty tired. Moreover, the 'swaying' when we set off from the sloping made it worse.

Despite all that, I enjoyed the 'flight' and it was an forgettable memory.

A panoramic view of the landscape. (Pay attention to the beautiful canyon)

Besides, the acrophobia of the French girl was also a drama. Till we set off in the van, she was already very nervous and her face was terribly white, though she insisted to smile. Before the departure of the parachute, she was confused and seemed to be suffered a lot. But she was very brave that she didn't wait until the last one to fly. Actually, she was the second one. After the flight, I saw she was totally relieved as she said it was not scary. She even did bumjee jump the next day! Wasn't she crazy? Even I don't have acrophobia, I don't want to do bumjee jump, but she was incredibly brave!

Julie was very nervous before the departure.

Her sister, Sarah was encouraging her.

Facing my camera, Julie started to say, 'Enough, Pink!'

Ok, get ready? ONE!

TWO!

THREE!

Yeah! I am flying!

How wonderful!

Beautiful scene with all the parachutes on the blue sky.

I heard Julie's screaming when the guide was playing the turn.

After about 20mins, Julie came back with an excited smile.

A happy ending. 'How grateful that I am still alive, my dear sister!'(Designed dialogue, haha)

Mcleod Ganj - Triund trekking

2009-09-16T21:16:00.018+08:00

As Mcleod Ganj(MG) is situated at the foothill of Himalaya, there are many wonderful trekking opportunities.

One day, we decided to trek to Triund(2900m).

But I made a 'fatal' mistake from the start. Because MG was always raining, so I thought it would be a nice idea to wear my functional sandle instead of trekking shoe. I thought so was because my sandle worked really well also in the hilly landscape of MG.

However I under-estimated the difficulty of the trek. Though I encountered lots of 'hardships' during the trek, I was able to survive after the 9hour-trekking.

We started our trip happily.

We still needed more luck for the weather.

Very soon, we encountered a big 'problem'.

In India, there are many stray cows on the street, needless to say that they are also present in the mountains. They live a happy life here as basically speaking, they won't be eaten by Indians. Their only enermies are dogs because the two sides are always fighting for rubbish on the street!

We are not dogs, of course there won't be any troubles for us. However, the 'mountain-loving' dogs likes to follow trekkers to the top of the mountains. When the cows started to use their horns to attack the 5dogs which were following us, we found we were in trouble as the dogs were so smart that they hid behind us.

Our path was blocked by cows.

They were all along the path.

Originally, we tried to give up to trek. Finally thankful for a Korean guy who used his trekking sticks to defend us from the cows, so we continued our trek.

Our companions? Or trouble-makers?

We met nice local people on the way.

The foggy weather had another kind of beauty.

After ascending about 1000m, we finally arrived the top of Triund.

Although it was totally covered by fog, we still thought we were lucky as we had reached the top before the heavy rainstorm came. After we chatted with our newly met friends under the roof of a small kiosk for 2hours, the sky was finally clear and the landscape was amazing.

The wonderful Himalayan range.

The small kiosk where we stayed for two hours.

The sky was only clear for half an hour, soon it was covered by fog again. So we decided to descend before it would be dark.

When we left, the dogs also followed us back to town.

We could see small huts on the path. Such a tiring trek to walk back home!

The path was really not easy for my sandle, all the big and small boulders underneath were like Reflexology for me. I am sure the dog claws performed better than mine. I was tired to die after that day. Thankful to my sandle!

First impression of India - the Chaotic Delhi

2009-08-02T23:26:00.017+08:00

Once I arrived from London to Delhi, except at first feeling the great increase of temperature, my other feeling about Delhi is Chaotic. The crazy traffic, the crazy rickshaws, the crazy pedestrians, in addition to the hot and humid weather, one can only feel headache and irritated.

The common traffic jam in Delhi.

The chaotic street.

The busy main road in front of the Red Fortress.

Luckily, thanks for my dear friend Florian, I was introduced to an Indian family in Delhi. They took very good care of me, they fed me with excellent Indian food and they told me a lot of useful information. I felt it was too good to be true that I didn't feel like I was in India!

We were having a big dinner. Indian family members usually live together, so the building is consisted of 4 different families. As a result, there were always kids running and screaming around.

It was unbearably hot in Delhi, but I was so lucky to meet the first drop of the monsoon (it was delayed by almost 2weeks), so I went for sight-seeing after the rain had cooled down the air. The grand Red Fortress.

Inside the Red Fortress.

There were not so many foreign tourists during this monsoon season, but local tourists.

The elegant marble hall.

To be honest, I didn't see and experience much of Delhi, as I was always pampered by my friends in their house. But I was lucky to learn more about how Indian families are, how they think and how the real Indian food is. I am really grateful for this interesting experience. And I am certainly going back to see these lovely families again when I return to Delhi.

Learning Tibetan in Mcleod Ganj

2009-08-02T22:32:00.017+08:00

Another goal for me in India is to learn Tibetan. I think I don't need to explain why I am learning Tibetan if you know me well or if you read my previous entry about learning Italian.

So I am going to stay in this little town, Mcleod Ganj, where the exile government of Tibet is situated, for another two months, so as to learn more Tibetan.

Mcleod Ganj is not similar to any other towns in India. There are lots of Tibetans living here, you can find Tibetan temples, Tibetan food, Tibetan clothes and Tibetan accessories etc. And the Tibetans are so nice that it is very easy to talk with.

It is the rainy season in this region, and I was not surprised to learn that it has the 2nd highest rainfall in Asia as it really rains EVERYDAY.

The main Tibetan temple in the busy street.

A monk is turning the prayer-wheel.

Mcleod Ganj is situated at the foothill of Himalaya, so all the streets are leading upwards. I am walking up this steep staircase everyday from my hostel.

The quiet and adorable dog in my hostel.

You can see the whole town is on the hill slope.

The huge Himalayan range is just at the back.

It was such a rare moment that we could have such blue and clear sky. Most of the time, it was just misty and rainy.

So my new flip flop is very functional in this rainy, muddy and hilly town.

The shortcut to the Tibetan library where I study. Even though there is a short cut, I still need to walk at least 20mins every day from my hostel to the library.

The cloud started to accumulated over the whole complex of Tibetan government in exile.

The library of the Tibetan government in exile. The Tibetan people also walk around this building in clockwise direction.

Usually the area is cloudy and misty like this! We were going to the waterfall near Bhagsu(15mins walk from Mcleod Ganj), but at first we only saw this!

At last we saw something.

A swimming pool in Bhagsu, where we only found men swimming.

A cute Indian child in Bhagsu.

Just 25mins by car downhill, you can find the town Dharamsala. The weather here is much hotter than Mcleod Ganj.

We could even find durians here!

Another fruit store in Dharamsala.

A typical scene in India. As we could not compete with the local people to sit at the top, so at last we squeezed ourselves into a smaller jeep to go back to Mcleod Ganj.

Vipassana meditation in Mcleod Ganj

2009-08-02T21:28:00.009+08:00

After one year of travelling, travelling itself is not my aim of going to India. Instead, there are so many things I want to do here. One of my goals is to learn meditation.

So once I left Delhi, I went straight to Mcleod Ganj, which is 12hours north of Delhi, and started the meditation course at the same day of my arrival. I was so grateful that I could join the course as I was in the waiting list originally. And I benefited a lot after the course. I can feel myself become more peaceful and calmer. It was also one of my objectives to eradicate my quick temper.

I was always thinking if my friends in HK or anywhere in the world could participate in this course, they would benefit a lot. Especially in HK, as we all grew up in the environment where taught us Buddhist values. We all know about that - giving is better than receiving, 'colour is empty, empty is colour', 'The 4 Bigs are empty' etc. But we just lack of practice. And Vipassana meditation is the way to put oneself to experience all these knowledges, but not just talking about it in intellectual level.

It was a 10days intensive meditation course, during the course, we could not talk (even with gestures or a glance) and we had to meditate over 10hours per day. At first, it was tough, either physically or mentally, but once I overcame all the obstacles, it was a joyful (at first), then a peaceful experience.

And the environment of the retreat is really nice, we were surrounded by nature and tranquility. The vegetarian food was fantastic and I could clean my stomach after the heavy Indian food in Delhi.

Though the course is so well-known and attracts so many people to join, it is still running by donation. So one can donate according to their financial ability after the course.

And I found out there are so many retreats all over the world, even in HK, I never know that, so if you are interested, please go to this website: Vipassana meditation.

My simple and basic room.

A view of the little garden from my window.

After the 'Noble silence' was cancelled on the last day, it became 'Noble Chatting', all the girls chatted without stoping at any single moment!

The retreat was not so big, we only had a path which was about 400metres that we could stretch our legs during the free time.

It was the lovely little spot where I liked to come and experienced the nature during my free time.

My favourite angle of appreciating the nature in the surrounding.

These big and lovely(at first I thought they were disgusting) snails were everywhere!

It rained almost everyday and every second, it was so humid that wild mushrooms were everywhere.

I was seaching for the 4-leaf clover.

I enjoyed looking at the beautiful flowers very much. You know, we could not talk, we became more aware of everything surrounded.

Learning Italian

2009-07-03T17:16:00.005+08:00

While I was waiting for my visa in Rome, I decided to learn Italian.

Why I paid almost 10euros per hours to learn another not useful language(I think probably Italy is the only country where I can speak Italian)? Am I crazy?

Yes, I am really crazy in learning about language. There is no reason to explain the feeling when I can speak another languages and when I am learning it. It just gives me the feeling like falling in love.

Moreover, I always feel frustrated if I cannot speak the local language with the people there. I want to use their language to communicate with them and to learn more about their cultures. And to your surprise, Italian people don't have a high standard of English education, so speaking Italian can be useful.

Furthermore, Italian is such a beautiful language, just listening to it and speaking it is already a pleasure for me. Because I have the foundation of Spanish, learning Italian just becomes so easy for me. They have the similar grammer structure, similar spelling of vocabulary, similar pronuncation. Though it also confuses me sometimes, I mix the two languages while I am speaking.

However, comparing with the learning experience in Ecuador, I needed to pay more money for the class, I need to share one teacher with more student in the classroom, I also got less chance to practise. But, here is Italy! I cannot expect I can pay the same small amount of money and get the same result as in Ecuador.

But I also enjoyed it, I like the interaction with other classmates. And I met interesting people in the class. I found that most often, the people who learn Italian are out of religious reasons.

In my class, there were 2 Colombians, one is a prist, the other is a professor in Teology. Then there was a nun from Poland, who could only speak her language and Italian. I cannot imagine how hard it took her to learn Italian! There was also a woman from Kenya, who is studying Teology in Rome. And there were also 2 Brazilian, one Japanese girl. Such an interesting combination. But I found out that religious people like prist and nun are not necessary serious and stubbon. They are so funny and intersting like normal people.

I studied for 3weeks in Rome, 4hours a day, 5days a week. But the result is far less sufficient than what I can learn if I can take a private lesson. If it was not because the cost was too high(I also need to consider the accomodation cost), I will continue my study. It was such a happy experience.

Our school. The nun, Sr Corole is really cute.

Our class. The girl with red hair is our teacher, Maricla. She is really good and has a sense of humour.

Website of my school: Dante Alighieri

Anniversary/Aniversario/Anniversario

2009-07-03T17:13:00.010+08:00

Time flies. On 28th June 2008, I flew to Ecuador from Hong Kong. One year later, I was in Abruzzo, near Rome, Italy.

During the past year, I was in Ecuador, learning my Spanish. Then I went to Peru, unexpectedly travelled to Bolivia, and fell in love with the region of Salar del Uyuni.

I went to Brazil, Argentina, Uruguary, Chile. I experienced the nature in Patagonia, I went to the southern tip of land, had a white birthday and was impressed by the wildness of Torres del Paine in Chile.

I suffered the hotness and the ant attack in Easter Island. But I love the yearly festival, Tapati there. Then I flew to the notorious Colombia and I found it is my favourite country ever. I love the people, the landscape and the culture there.

Sadly, I had to leave Colombia for Mexico. But it turned out to be my second favourite country, there is wonderful and nice people, delicious and diversified food, more than thousands years of history and culture.

Amid the panic of Swine Flu, I arrived Cuba, deeply understand the difficulties of Cuban people. I loved Cuba, but I also fled to Mexico 2days earlier as I planned.

After 10months in Latin America, I was totolly not used to the highly civilization in Switzerland. Luckily, I was pampered by my dear friends in Switzerland. I also met lots of friends whom I met on the road in London. I visited lots of museums and galleries, I enjoyed such a good time there.

Before I can head to my next dream country, India, it already made me suffer a lot. I flew to Italy to apply for the visa, I waited for weeks, I paid a lot for the visa, but it still turned out to be not what I want...

Anyway, I am definitely going to experience India in July, espeically the hot and the monsoon...

To celebrate the 1st anniversary, I went for a little trek with my Italian friends in Abruzzo. It is around 3hours away from Rome, where situates the rocky and strange shaped mountain, Gran Sasso(more than 3000metres), means the big stone. Its sharp surface and granite texture reminds me of Patagonia. Unluckily, the unstable summer weather prevented me to appreciate it to its most.

When talking about trekking, based on my experiences in South America, I always think it takes a few hours of tough walking. To my surprise, it was only a small trek that it only took us one hour to reach the destination.

Gran Sasso was totally covered by clouds. I could only see a little bit of its face amid the clouds.

Wonderful landscape. I never imagine a place where is so close to Rome can have such a nature.

The wildlife is so lively here.

A beautiful farm house on the path.

Scenery along the path.

There are lots of Visciola (similar to cherry) trees along the path.

At the end, it became a visciola picking trip, we almost picked all the visciola the trees! They are so delicious and fresh!

Rome - Gay Pride

2009-07-03T17:10:00.018+08:00

Because of the unexpected difficulty of getting the India visa in London, I flew to Rome, Italy. I found that flying out form London to anywhere in Europe was incredibly cheap with Ryanair. As it only costed me 60pounds to Rome(one way ticket), so why not gave it a try and see this ancient city?

Before I introduce any typical ruins in Rome which you can find in any magazines or books, I think it will be interesting to see the other side of Rome by watching its gay parade in the city centre.

For me, it was also a wonderful opportunity to take pictures. As it was like a party on the street, everybody was dressing fantastically and liked being shot a lot, though the temperatue was over 30degree, I enjoyed that day very much.

So let's feel how crazy are the Romans!

First of all, let me present 'Jesus'!

He was so serious of 'blessing' the gay world.

Here came 'Maria'. 'Her' look is so holy that there seems light coming from the tip of her finger.

Everybody was struggling for a good location to see 'Maria'!

'The love is all healthy, but not to the Vatican.' Of course, they won't give up the chance of using rhyme to scold the Vatican.

A group of 'Funky pink' was the focus point of all the cameras in the gay pride.

Look how slim 'she' is.

They were just like movie stars.

'She' is really beautiful.

The confident ones are always pretty.

If they are really gay, I will be the first to say, 'What a pity!'

'She' reminded me of Thailand...

'She' is still too masculine, I think...

Do you agree with the tattoo on 'her' shoulder? But I think 'her' confindence has already won over any discrimination.

So SM...isn't it?

'Little Sweet'.

The group of 'Funky Pink' and the 'Little Sweet'.

It was so hot that I wanted to jump into this fountain in Piazza Della Rupubblica.

A real mermaid coming from the fountain.

Hot, isn't it?

One of them is the owner.

We should also free ourselves from clotes.

A brilliant example of the above slogan.

Love should not discriminate.

'She' was the funniest character in the whole gay pride! Just like the funny version of all those goddness of men's dream.

See how 'she' was enjoying herself.

Such a pair of sexy calves.

'She' is the owner of the sexy calves. I guess, she is at the stage of trasforming.

Um...their female features are too exaggerated! Though I envy them, I don't want to be like them...

Panty superman?

Finally, the parade started amid the surrounding of all those excited participants.

Look at 'her' leg, so sexy!

Even the statue of liberty joined the parade.

All the people joined the parade actively.

'We are all sons of the Father'.

You will not think 'she' is not a woman.

Another beautiful 'lady' actively seeked for the attention of my camera.

'Free all'. There were many homosexual organizations holding banner during the parade.

Behind the cheering gay parade, it came the serious looking military police. They totally tensed the atomsphere.

Carabinieri, means the military police in Italy. It is not the same as Police.

Fantastic food in Switzerland

2009-07-03T00:52:00.019+08:00

Only thinking about the food in Switzerland, already moves my thumb. Especially when you have a Swiss friend who fed you with all the best food in Switzerland, plus the wonderful scenery I saw, everyday of my life in Switzerland was just like in heaven.

Everyday, Ursina was busy preparing food for the hungary me...Thanks my dear Ursina!

Warning: If you have an empty stomach now, please quit this page immediately.

Raclette. Another kind of cheese fordue.

As some of you may well remember, I mentioned the Raclette of my last trip to Switzerland also. I love it so much! Finally after 4 years of waiting, I could taste it again!

You have to prepare some big pieces of cheese, potatoes, some vegetables and meat etc.

Then you can melt the cheese in this special hot pot and eat the food with the melted cheese. Yum!!

Cheese Fondue.

The real cheese fondue only eat with pieces of bread, not like those in HK, with all kinds of meat.

Wow, so cheesy!

Cheese.

Cheese is a very important diet in Swiss meal. There are thousands kinds of cheese there. I don't know how to distinguish them at all even after 2 weeks of Swiss meal. I can only tell you I don't like the typical cheese that has holes on it(like those cheese image in cartoon).

But I do love the cheese in the above cheese Raclette and cheese fondue. And also the cheese which we ate on the sailing boat.

So many different kinds of cheese! They make me dazzled.

Chocolate.

I think I don't need to say anything about how good is Swiss chocolate. I just went crazy with the chocolate while I was in Switzerland. Chocolate was almost a must on my daily diet. So if you find I put on weight in the fotos, that must be the effect of the powerful Swiss chocolate.

Though I bought a dozen bar of chcolate to London as gifts to my dear friends there, I still regreted that I didn't buy enough! As everyone just fell in love with my chocolate! And my favourite kind of chocolate can only be found in Switzerland! okay, I will wait for another 4years...

Oh My God, a whole box of Lindt chocolate! How lucky is the sister-in-law of Ursina! As he is the shareholder of Lindt, so he receives a big box of Lindt chocolate every year! I also want to buy the stock of Lindt...

A chocolate shop in Bern.

Chocolate Fondue.

Except cheese fondue, chocolate fondue is also the specialty of Switzerland. With a special kind of cooking chocolate, Ursina's prepared us the most delicious chocolate fondue. Yummy!!

The amount of chocolate I ate that day was enough for my chocolate appetite for two days.

It usually comes with fruits.

Asparagus.

It was my first time to eat the whole piece of asparagus and ate it as the main meal. I think I usually tasted the tiny pieces of them in soup in HK. I found that they are such kind of delicious food in the world, I just fell in love with them.

Ursina's mum was preparing for the special white asparagus.

The sauce made by her mum was so special and incredibly rich. She even just cut the leaves with garlic taste(the first time I had even tasted it) from her garden, so fresh!

Swiss barbecue.

In HK, we usually barbecue with the sticks and roll the food over and over on the pit. Here in Switzerland, it is more common to grill the food on the iron net, and we just eat it like fast food.

Ursina was the chef of the barbecue night in her garden in Basel.

Fabrizio was preparing the barbecue in the mountain hut.

Pizza.

While we were in the Italian part of Switzerland, of course, we should eat pizza!

Home-made pizza.

Gelato.

In addition to pizza, Italy is also famous for its ice-cream, Gelato in Italian. So it is not surprised to find a lot of Gelato shop on street in Lucarno and Lugano.

We were queueing outside this Gelato shop. Maybe it is a famous one?

The above were only the highlights of all the fantastic food I ate in Switzerland, besides them, I also love the bread, the chocolate drink and the original ovalmaltine drink.(not ovaltine, wikipedia said it was a misspelling a hundred years ago) Moreover, I love the berry and apple pies made by Ursina. I also love the crepe night, that we could make our own salty or sweet crepe.

I have to say thanks to Ursina's sister, Andrea and her husband, they treated me a very delicious home-made dinner. I like the caesar salad and the innovated nut spaghetti very much.

Thanks a million times, Ursina. If you, Fabrizio and your family come to my place, please prepare to bring an empty stomach, so that I can feed you with the most wonderful food. And of course I will remember what you don't like to eat:)

Bern, the loveliest city in Switzerland

2009-07-02T23:38:00.003+08:00

I love Bern. Though it is the capital of Switzerland, it is not commerical like all the big city. It is such an elegant city full of characters which gain its UNESCO fame. Thanks for Ursina, I got the chance to visit this wonderful city again.

The Old City centre.

Bern, as the 4th largest city in Switzerland, has the quaint town feeling.

An overview of the city.

A bridge across the winding river, Aare.

The Government house.

A fresh food market.

The cathedral.

Basel and Chur

2009-06-26T01:47:00.068+08:00

Basel, the 3rd largest city in Switzerland, is famous for its annual international watch and clock exhibiton to HK people. It is also where Ursina and Fabrizio are living and studied.

Last time when I was here, everywhere was covered with white. This time I could have a better look of the city.

A little walk from Binningen to Basel.

Downtown Basel.

It has its modern and old sides.

The colour of the government is very strong.

The old city gate.

A botanic garden downtown.

Along the river Rhine.

It was built in 1438. This old house is already much older than all the colonial houses in Latin America.

The cathedral in Basel.

Another church.

A quiet and beautiful place to paint.

If you are not living in Europe, or more specifically in Switzerland, Germany or Austria, you won't know the name Chur.

Lying in the far east of Switzerland, near the border with Austria. Chur acutally is a beautiful city situated among the Alps. The altitude of the city varies from 600metres to 1800metres. Chur is the city where Ursina grew up and in where her parents are still living. I like the peacefulness of Chur. If it is not because of Ursina, I think I wouldn't have the chance to appreciate Chur.

The city is situated in the valley.

Downtown Chur.

The landmark clock tower in Chur.

The arch of the city gate.

The main tone of the building here is grey. But the colour makes the city lack of energy.

Life in Chur.

The Cathedral in Chur.

The oldest wooden house which survived all the historical big fires in Chur.

I like the bright colour more than the grey tone.

They painted their house with humour.

A nice restaurant situated in the old city centre.

A beautiful and relaxing garden in the city centre. A good place to take a lunch break.

A pleasant jogging under the shade.

Other small but interesting towns

2009-06-26T01:47:00.024+08:00

Near Lac de Neuchatel, there are two little towns, the nearby one is Avenches. It is very important in history as it was the Roman Capital in Switzerland in 58BC.

So you can find this small version of Colosseum in the town. This restored Amphitheatre is said that it could hold 12,000people for the fighting performance. Now it is a place for concerts or artitstic performance.

A small castle at the top of the hill.

An ancient column is intergrated with the building.

Then we drove to the next small town, Murten, the foundation is dating back to 1476. It is a very quaint town with beautiful city wall. It is one of my top 3 favourite towns in Switzerland.

It is a little bit look like Bern.

Every town has a beautiful fountain.

Slowing riding through all the small alleys.

A nice window and bench.

We climbed on the wooden bridge on the city wall.

Here we could have an overview of the whole town. I love the colour of the brick roof tops.

Harmony alignment.

The Scholss castle at the back.

We could have a glimpse of the Lac de Murten at the back.

A church.

Italian part of Switzerland - Lugano, Bellinzon

2009-06-26T01:46:00.079+08:00

To see the city and the lake better, we took the cable car to Mt. San Salvatore(912m). From there, I could have the panoramic view of the region.

Image of Lugano.

Inside the cable car, on the way up to the hill.

Here we were, at the top of the hill, overviewing the lake. Though it was a very sunny day, the humidity was so high that the landscape was not so clear.

Even in Switzerland, there is a church at the top of the hill overviewing the lake and the city Lugano. Without any exception.

It was the trekking route we were going to walk on.

The trail was not difficult and it was a very nice exercise after eating so many Swiss chocolate and cheese. After walking for about an hour, we reached a small town called Carona.

A quaint town, Carona.

In the right season, the balcony will be full of drying maize.

After Carona, we reached Melide after another 50mins trek. Then we finished our little trek and was able to see Lago Di Lugano at the sea level.

Look back the the Mt. San Salvatore, from where we started our trekking.

The downtown of Lugano.

Rainbow in the fountain.

From Lucarno, Ursina drove me to the next city, Lugano. There is another dominating lake which has the same name as the city, Lago Di Lugano.

Walking along the lakeshore of Lago Di Lugano.

From Lugano, we drove to Bellinzon. There are several medieval castles dating back from the 6th century which gained them the title of UNESCO.

Bellinzon under the golden sunlight.

The whole town is under the shadow of the castles and wall.

The snow mountains as the backdrop of the magnificent castle.

The two castles. The upper one is Castello di Sasso Corbaro, the lower one is Castello di Montebello.

Walking on the old staircast of Castlegrande.

Castlegrande.

A small lake inside the castle.

Some people were practising chinese chi kung inside the garden of the castle.

A view from castlegrande towards the other 2 castles.

Downtown Bellinzon.

Although it is the state capital, it is so peaceful and quiet here.

A very nice building.

The last glimpse of the nice city Bellinzon.

Italian part of Switzerland - Lucarno, Corrippo and Ascona

2009-06-26T01:46:00.045+08:00

Switzerland's landscape and cultures are very diversed. It mainly divided into four parts, the German part in the north, French part in Southwest, Italian part in South and the Roman part in the east. The Italian part is the only part I hadn't visited last time. Thanks for Ursina and Fabrizio, they drove me to the southern part of Switzerland, I could even stay in the traditional Italian style house of Fabrizio in Locarno.

The road leads to the south has wonderful scenery.

Beautiful houses on the road to Locarno.

Wow...it was the only thing I could exclaim when facing all the jaw-dropping scenery.

A very steep cliff with a small bridge. Imagine the people in the past had to walk along this dangerous cliff all the way from Italy to Switzerland...

Live music in the main plaza in Locarno.

Flea market.

Street scene.

We went to Valle Maggia, to visit the famous dam when James Bond had done the bumgee jump here.

Everyone can also pay and jump this few hundred meters. Do you want to do it?

We had a nice walk around the nearby village.

Water coming from snow mountains.

Swiss style??

Then we arrived a very beautiful and old bridge in Lavertezzo.

The water is so clear that it always attracts a lot of divers.

Look at this hidden beautiful village, Corrippo. We were going to trek to there.

The stone houses are so unique.

So cute!

It would be such a pleasure to live here and relaxed.

At night(the day here is very long), we walked around Lago Maggiore and we walked to Ascona where is more popular for tourists.

The greenery around Lago Maggiore.

As Switzerland and Italy share Lago Maggiore, I could see Italy from Switzerland(the snow moutnain on the opposite side).

Ascona. Full of touristic restaurants which face the lake.

Street scene.

View of Lago Maggiore from Ascona. I still remember how bare is this kind of trees in the winter.

Sailing on the Lac de Neuchatel

2009-06-25T21:30:00.021+08:00

Lying in the west of Switzerland, with the surface area of around 220km square, Lac de Neuchatel is the largest lake in Switzerland.

I remember this lake very well. As 4 years ago, when I came to Switzerland for the first time, Ursina had told me their family used to spend the summer in the lake area, sailing and swimming.

As a 'tourist' in Switzerland, I was super lucky to spend two days with Ursina and Fabrizio on their 'new' sailing boat on Lac de Neuchatel. It was my first experience of sailing, though the wind was so weak that we needed to used the engine sometimes, with the different colour of the lake, the sunset, the tranquility, it was such a beautiful memory.

The parking area was totally packed.

Ready? I was so excited for my first time sailing.

Yo, we were sailing!

Another sailboat.

A relaxing moment on the boat.

The swams here are just like dogs, but on the lake, because they are always looking for food from us.

Lac de Neuchatel is just like a woman in her prime age. It demonstrates her beauty during diffenent time of the day, it is just so fanscating.

In the morning, the lake is light blue.

It can also have different layers of colours.

In the middle of the day, Neuchatel is so green.

While in the late afternoon, it is deep blue.

Sunset time, totally golden.

It changes to icy blue when the sun has gone.

Mountain Hut

2009-06-22T21:17:00.045+08:00

High in the mountain of Emserberg, there is a very small village where located a few houses surrounded by snow mountain in winter or greenery in summer. Once of them belongs to the parents of Ursina. I was so lucky that I had a chance to go there and enjoy the tranquility with Ursina and Fabrizio. The whole experience was just like a sweet dream.

To reach the house, we first took the cable car from Rhazus village. The route is very popular for local in winter to go skiing.

The view of the valley from the cable car.

When we arrived the quiant village Feldis, we had to trek for about an hour to reach the remote mountain hut.

First, we arrived Feldis Village in the begin.

An interesting language.

Old but beautiful house.

Peacefulness.

Sheeps have good lives in Switzerland.

A very curious goat. He almost came to eat my camera.

We were so surprised to find Illamas in Switzerland!

Even it was already the middle of May, the white were still covering the green.

Spring had just come high in the mountain.

A glimpse of the surrounding snow mountains. ù

The smell of spring.

The melting of snow uncovered the tunnels of hamster.

The houses in this village are scattered in distance.

Here it is! The most beautiful house in this mountain.

Another angle of the house.

A very lovely window.

Though Ursina said the house maybe around 100years old, it is so well-preserved that it looks so new.

A supreme veiw from inside of the house.

These beautiful plates may also be around 100years old!

A very old style stove.

The nature around the house is so fantastic.

Enjoying my relaxing moment in the garden.

I felt so grateful that Ursina invited me to their mountain hut, where gives them lots of family memories. For me, I felt like I joined in part of their lives and I could feel what they felt. I really enjoyed that day so much, I wish that I can come again in the middle of summer, so we can dance under the sun!

Flimserwald, Canyon of Rhein and Heidi House.

2009-06-21T01:56:00.086+08:00

It was a beautiful day, Ursina bought me to trek a little bit in Flimserwald. The landscape is so wonderful, deep green pine tree forest reflecting on the jewellery like lake, just like a typical setting of a beautiful fairy tale.

Flimserwald, the forest.

There was still snow in the mountain.

Note the water of the lake, as Ursina said, the water is disappearing.

The emerald green Lake of Cauma.

So romantic to row on this beautiful lake.

I love the spring time in Switzerland.

Then we continued to trek to the mirador, Canyon of Rhein, to look at the deepest canyon in Switzerland.

The walk was very pleasant as we were surrounded by such a wonderful scenery.

Natural mountain water is everywhere.

Typical beautiful Swiss landscape, snow mountain, grassland and the flowers.

Incredibly beautiful.

A glimpse of the Canyon before the mirador.

The well-built and without charge mirador.

Here it is, Canyon of Rhein.

The little condor thought maybe he was flying in the Colca canyan in Peru.

We continued the nice walk to catch the bus.

I will not miss you! A cow in a typical Switzerland picture!

Scenery on the road. Everywhere is like a picture.

A Swiss farmer.

On the way to Chur, to the house of Ursina's parent. We went to the Heidi house again. We still remember 4 years ago, we came here in the winter and the Heidi house, the souvenir shop and restaurant were all closed. We took some funny pictures in the middle of the snowing. This time we came back in spring, we took pictures in the same location. The landscape was so different that I could not recognize that I had come here before.

Sourvenir shop near Heidi house in Maienfeld.

The Heidi house museum.

Heidi is so lucky that she lives in such a beautiful country.

Heidi's 'friend'.

Before the Heidi house was built, the main tourist attraction was this fountain.

Ballenberg Museum

2009-06-21T01:56:00.084+08:00

The idea of Ballenberg Museum is very special. It is an open air museum demonstrating all the different styles of Swiss farm houses from different parts of Switzerland. The most interesting part is that all these over hundred year-old farm houses were transported from their original location and relocated here in the 'museum'.

Additionally, the interior decoration or setting are kept intact, so the lives of the people in the past can be demonstrated more vivid. Contrast by those indoor museum, Ballenberg Museum is linked by small paths, surrounded by snow mountains, grassland and trees. The visit to this museum is indeed a pleasure. I like this unique museum very much. Thanks for the smart choice of Ursina.

The rain accompanied with the beautiful house welcomed us to this museum.

Typical house from Bern.

All the furniture are also transported and kept inside the house.

A demonstration of traditional weaving.

How can a farm house be so beautiful?

The environment of the museum is just so natural and pleasant.

Luckily, later on the rain stopped. And the nature was then so refreshing.

Farm animals here are for display only, but not for eaten.

Oh my god, I always want to be the 'animal' in Switzerland. They have such a good life!

Houses from central midlands of Switzerland.

House from the North East.

Clock and watch making inside the house.

House from Westlands.

The cow bells. Very Swiss feeling.

It reminded me of Yunnan in China.

Houses of South Switzerland, Italian style.

Bernese Midlands style.

A cafe in front of this beautiful house.

Just looking at the house, it is a normal farm house. Actually it is a speical project of renovating old farm house to new modern house.

The interior is so hip.

I would love to live here.

A smoked-wall in the kitchen just becomes an artistic painting.

A demonstration of wood-carving.

What are you looking at?

A jewel-blue lake.

The favourite house style of Ursina. A style from the Zurich area.

Why Switzerland?

2009-06-21T00:12:00.022+08:00

From Cuba, I flew to Switzerland. From the less developed Latin American, to the most developed Switzerland, isn't it a strange route? Yes, it is. Many people asked me on the road, 'Why Switzerland?' Especially, Switzerland is the only European country in my plan.(but later on, there were so many unexpected things happened, so I also stayed in London and Italy)

The only answer is because I have a very good friend, Ursina in Switzerland.

We knew each other maybe more than 10 years ago. When it was popular to write to a pen-pal from other country. So we wrote to each other since we were in secondary school(a very romantic experence actually, hehe). And I had even received the birthday chocolate and DIY calender from Ursina.

Unluckily, we lost contact for a few years. Most probably was that I was occupied by the HKCEE exam, then the A-Level exam and I was so lazy to write. But after I graduated, I got a chance of a business trip to Switzerland. Luckily, I found Ursina again by both mail and email, I visited her and her family first time in person and I stayed with her for a few days which gave me a wonderful experience.

When I planned my trip 1 year ago, I really wanted to visit her and her family again. So I asked Ursina, would she be free by May in 2009. And she said yes, she even got the annual leave for me, so we could travel in Switzerland for a while. That's why I stayed in the beautiful Switzerland for two weeks, with Ursina and her boyfriend, Fabrizio. I also visited her lovely parents, her 5 cute cats, her sister and sister-in-law. Unluckily, I didn't have the chance to meet her brother, his wife and the beautiful daughter this time.

A very valuable picture! As it is very difficult to get all the 5 cats together!

The family was having fun with the fish.

Ursina and Fabrizio's house in Basel is full of style. And decorated with many beautiful pictures of their adventures. I love it very much.

They even have a very nice garden with cherry trees.

It will be very nice to read a book here. As Ursina always does.

Fabrizio even took a nap on the grass, surrounded by the beautiful flowers.

The house of Ursina's parents in Chur. I love the garden a lot.

The last chapter in Cuba - Airport cast away

2009-05-18T20:45:00.006+08:00

When there was a widespread outbreak of the Swine Flu, I was already in Cuba. As Cuba is really a closed-country, there is not much news from the outside world. Besides, the internet service in Cuba is really expensive, that is 5 to 6 CUC per hour (compared with Mexico, it is only less than 1CUC per hour), so I decided to be 'out of civilization' for at least two weeks, without knowing that all of my dear friends were worrying about my situation in Mexico.

I heard about there was a suspenion of all the flights from Mexico to Cuba at the start of my trip, but I was not worried because I was already in Cuba. Then I went for the car trip with my spanish friends for 1 week. I really enjoyed the time and I was not worried about anything at that moment.

When I came back to La Havana, I started to realized that I might not have a return flight back to Mexico. So I called my airline, Cubana, and found out I really needed to change my flight to another airline, Mexicana, as all the flights of Cubana via Mexico had been cancelled.

The process was quite smooth and I successfully changed my ticket to Mexicana, I even met my Australian friend whom I met on the flight when I came to Cuba. But he had bad luck, as he only knew that we could change the ticket to Mexicana after I had told him. And he had been working on the ticket for a week!

So I also changed the date of my flight two days earlier as I was running out of my money in Cuba, and I really missed the good food in Mexico.

On the date of my flight, I went to the airport at 14:15 to catch my flight at 16:30, but I found out the flight had been cancelled! How could they do that without informing the people?

Then it was a chaos. All the passengers were queueing in front of the office of Mexicana. And they said two flights to Mexico were cancelled, the only one remained was the one at 23:40. So all the passengers had to transfer to this flight, but it would only to be first-come, first-serve.

So this arose another chaos, as every body rushed to the line to queue and pushed the line. I was lucky to meet a group of nice US tourists, they let me to queue with their group.

Then I found out they didn't let me to check in as other passenger. Because my ticket was originally from Cubana, so they needed to give priority to the passengers from Mexicana. The only thing I could do at that time was to wait until 22:30, by that time all the passengers of Mexicana should have been checked in, then they would know if there were any vacancies for me.

It was really a shock. But I was not too worried as my connecting flight would be 2 days later(luckily I change my flight to Mexico 2 days earlier, so I was not in a hurry to get on the flight on that day), and I was ready to sleep in the airport that night.

I met my Australian friend again, then I met two other American travellers who are journalists also. And later their journalist friend from UK. So we worked together to sort out what could we do to get on the plane, as they had connecting flights on the next morning, so they were really worried.

The two American journalists even thought about to buy the tickets from another airline company to get out of Cuba as soon as possible, because there was no guarantee that if we couldn't get on the flight that night, if we could get on the flight the next day.

But the problem was that they are Americans. So they had no access of money and their mobile phone networks are not working also. All ATM or credit cards from US are not working in Cuba. There is no interent service. And the international call costs 10CUC per minute, and there is no way that we can buy a phone card even though we are willing to pay for that. As there were no cash left in their pocket, so they were totally cast away in the airport. And there was nothing that they could do at that moment.

Cast away at a corner in the airport.

We waited and waited, and we were ready to hold a overnight party at the airport. But by the time of 22:15, we found out after all the passengers had checked in, there were still seats for us! It was such a great news and we were totally grateful for that.

Finally, we were getting on the plance at midnight.

So my last experience in Cuba was really not pleasant at all, that made me don't want to go back to Cuba even though I would have a chance.

And one more recommendation, if you will ever go to Cuba, don't buy the ticket from Cubana Airline, their service are really bad! And bring enough cash with you, remember no USD, but Canadaian dollar and Euro are the best.

Cuban people and their lives

2009-05-18T20:37:00.002+08:00

Cuba is a very complicated country. If you haven't been there, you cannot truly comment about the country. Even though I had been there, I found it is far too more difficult to judge.

I love cuba, but I was also pissed off by the system that works on tourists.

I can briefly say that the weird things which are happening in Cuba nowadays is mainly because of the imperialism of the US since the start of the 20th century. As US failed to annexed Cuba to its terriory, and also afraid of the new communist government initiated by Fidel Castro, the trade embargo that began in the 1960s create the society of Cuba which I experienced in the past 12 days.

First, I have to talk about the accomodation system for tourists. For backpackers, Cuba is a very difficult country to backpack, because there are only expensive hotels and Casa particulars(like a home stay, it is a family house which rents out rooms for tourists). Unlike other countries, there are no cheap hostels, not to say dormitories.

The garden of my Casa particular in Vinales.

The super nice lady of my Casa particular in Remedios.

For a backpacker travel alone, he or she has to pay the complete fee for the whole room, even though the room is for 2 people. So the fee of the room has already occupied almost half of my daily budget. As each house normally only has one or two rooms, so it is difficult for me to meet other backpackers also.

Second, it is the currency system. A few years ago, Cuba imposed a heavy commission for people who exchange USD with Cuban currency. So every 100USD exchanged, 10USD will be charged as commission. And they also createred the 'Convertibles' or 'CUC' currency for the tourists to use. 1 CUC is around 1.18Euro or 0.9USD. While the local people are using the 'National' currency, which is 1CUC to 25 Nationals.

The 5 pesos at top and the 20 pesos are CUC, the others are for example, the one with the face of 'Che' are nationals.

Thanks for the embargo, this box of chips costs 3.55CUC, isn't it crazy?

But this beautiful hand-made basket with about 20mangos which I bought from a child on the road only cost 1CUC. Unluckily, the mangos made me allergy again. No more mango ever after!

They don't have Coca Cola, but they have the Cuban brand, Tu Kola.

Under this weird monetary system, tourists have to pay a lot for all the services. For example, one night of Casa particular in La Havana costs 25CUC. One day of car rental costs 60CUC, one litre of gasoline costs 1CUC. So you have a rough idea that Cuba can be as expensive as Europe.

But if you can 'find' the National currency and spend it in local restaurants, the food is incredibly cheap. For example, one cone of ice-cream is 2 nationals. A dinner with rice, bean, meat, a soft drink, a salad is around 20 nationals. But on the contrary, if you are willing to pay a price of 8 to 10CUC in Casa particular, you can eat very good food also.

This meal of lobster with soup, salad, french fries, rice and dessert costs 10CUC.

This time we ate a lobster as big as a man's palm, with soup, salad, french fries, juice, curry, rice and dessert also costed around 10CUC.

Because of the accomodation, the car rental and the gasoline had already totally occupied my tight budget, so I didn't indulge myself very often. On the contrary, I was in the stage of hunger most of the time. And I reduced my meals from three to two, so as to save some money. The expenses in Cuba can really make a poor backpacker feels more misery.

And the people here earn incredibly little amount of money per month, and also because they have free ration food, free house, free education and free medical system. For the old generation, as the hope of changing is fading, they always lead a very relaxing lifestyle.

Every month, Cuban people can get certain amount of free food from the market for free.

A very talkactive 68 years old man.

Sitting in the armchair. It is the favourite pastime of the people here.

Besides armchairs, balcony is also a place where they spend their spare time.

Younger people perfer to chit chat in the doorway during the heat of the day.

To smoke a cigar is really one of the favourite activities too.

In additional to football and volleyball, Cuban people also love baseball.

What makes Cuba famous? Music and dance are certainly two of the most important elements. Cuban people are very charming, they can say anytime and dance everywhere.

We met 2 musicians in a convenient store on the road. When they saw me, they started to sing,'Chinita, te quiero...' and came to perform in fornt of us, just for fun, but not for tips. Cuban people are so happy all the time!

The funny guy even gave us a kiss.

Playing music whenever and wherever they want.

There are also many street musicians, aiming at selling their CDs or get some tips.

Even though there were no people watching, they just kept playing, enjoying themselves a lot.

Steet musicians in Trindad.

And from people as old as 65 to people as young as 10, they can all dance excellent salsa. The people dancing in the disco in La Havana impressed me the most, my jaw were always dropping when I saw how the women could shake their hips. Unluckily, I didn't bring my camera with me.

The people dancing salsa on the street in Trindad are equally impressive.

Salsa dancing in a bar in Trindad. Except a few Cuban men, they are all tourists.

The cocktail, 'Mojito' mixed with Rum and leaves of mint is a must-drink in Cuba.

On the 1st of May, the Labour Day, there were big parades in almost every city in Cuba. People could even get free beer on the day.

Cuban people decorated their house with flag and also patriotic slogans.

The people mainly dress themselves in red, with the face of 'Che' or Castro on the 1st of May to show they are patriotic.

As it is a very important festival for them, all the people dress well.

They also eat well on that day.

Without knowing the outside world, the children can still live happily in this lost country...

Beaches in Cuba 3 - Playa Ancon and Varadero

2009-05-16T06:44:00.011+08:00

South of Trindad, there is the beach called Playa Ancon. The sea near the coast is not too deep and very transparent, so we did a little bit of snorkeling here(even though I cannot swim), and I could see many fish and coral reef.

There is also a natural swimming pool where the waves are blocked by the rock, so I learnt swimming from my spanish friend. But I was still too nervous and tired to learn for a long time, so I didn't succeed, but I did make a progress.

The quiet part of the Playa Ancon.

All the beaches in Cuba are equally beautiful.

Sitting under the shade of a palm tree.

There are many coral bones on the beach.

About 3 hours east of La Havana, there is the other resort beach, Varadero. Actually, I don't know why is it so famous among Europeans. My spanish friends said it is very popular for Spaniards to come for holiday, so they really wanted to see it. But after visiting this touristic place where there weren't any local people, we all agreed that it was not worth to come here. Because comparing with other beautiful, wild and not touristic beaches in Cuba, the only special thing Varadera has, are the many ugly hotels located along the beach.

Beach in Varadera.

It totally didn't arouse me any interest of taking pictures.

There are only European tourists.

Beaches in Cuba 2 - Santa Maria

2009-05-15T08:22:00.027+08:00

The reason why we went to Remedios is mainly because of the famous 50km road which built directly on the sea and leading to the originally unreachable Santa Maria area.

In the North Coast of Cuba, there is the untamed coastline of wild nature. There are many birdlives, flora and different species of fish. In order to tap the tourism resources, the Cuban government built the 50km road to reach the beaches. With the access of road, it arrived the big resort hotels and wealthy tourists, who usually only stay inside the hotels for two weeks, without knowing any about the cities nearby or the Cuban people, then they will fly home.

It is said that the road is a disaster for the nature, but the 50km unbroken coastline along two side of the road is really impresive. And the beaches are really nice, though I still like the tranquility of Cayo Juitas much more.

The scenery of the 50km road is fantastic.

Plenty of wildlife.

A cuban man was fishing, but he said he didn't has much luck.

How amazing is the mixture of colours.

We first arrived the free entrance beach, Playa Blanca. It was so quiet that, there was only one fishing guy and we on the beach.

Leave only our footprints.

The water is super transparent.

Incredibly green and white.

The wildlife is so rich.

Then we went to see the big resort hotel Melia, it is just like a small community which has all the facilities. That's why the tourists don't need to leave the hotel.

Path with palm trees leading to the swimming pool.

Charming greenery and flowers.

All are European tourists.

A bar beside the beach.

The private beach belongs to the hotel. If you want to stay on the beach, you need to pay around 60Euro for a day.

Boats on the sea.

Though I don't like the idea of private beach, the hotel is really beautiful, comfortable and charming. But with such a high entrance fee, it is not a beach for me.

Then we went to see another hotel, though it is much cheap, you still need to spend at least around 16Euro, plus 4 Euro entrance fee.

There were much less tourists here. So I like this beach more.

Fabulous view.

As we all had got sunburn quite a lot from many days of sun and beaches already, so we didn't spend our days in any of these beaches. But it was really a pleasant day to see all the heaven-like scenery.

Beaches in Cuba 1 - Cayo Jutias

2009-05-14T05:53:00.069+08:00

As Cuba is totally surrounded by the sea, both its Caribbean and Atlantic sides are full of wonderful beaches.

Usually I am not a big fan of Sun and Beach, as my Spanish friends really want to enjoy that, so we visited 4 beaches during the one week of travelling. For the past few years, I even didn't visit the beach in Hong Kong for maybe twice! But after Cuba, I have learnt how to enjoy the Sun and Beach and would really love to go back to my favourite one...

My favourite beach in Cuba is Cayo Jutias, which is about one hour drive from Viñales. Just let the pictures to tell you why I love it so much.

I love these artistic tree trunks so much.

Forget all troubles in the world.

Super white sand.

Can I collect all the music from the nature and replay it with the shell?

The layers of the colours are just like drawings.

Poor crab.

The road leading to the beach offers a 360 degree of sea view. Notice that the sea on the left is blue and on the right is green.

Trindad

2009-05-10T05:40:00.057+08:00

Trindad, south east of La Havana, is the UNESCO World Heritage Site and it is claimed to be one of the most beautiful cities in Cuba, so I think it is the 2nd touristic city after La Havana.

We met so many hasslers here, maybe during the 45mins after we had arrived, we met at least 10. They were asking if we wanted to stay in their houses, eat in their houses, if we had any clothes that we could give them and so on.

But I did meet some nice people there and a stroll around the historical centre was very pleasant.

A horse ride through the old city centre. Behind is the bell tower of the Iglesia y Convento de San Francisco.

The main church.

Plaza de Mayor.

The cobbled stone street in the historical centre.

Stroding through alleys.

Look at the wire!

A peep from the inside world.

A pair of curious eyes.

Art gallerys are everywhere.

Casa de la Musica.

A cafe over the Plaza, very popular for tourists.

Vintage Motorbike.

Vintage cars at dusk.

A nice ice-cream shop.

Relaxed lifestyle.

A very good-perserved old house.

Do you want a horse ride?

Bicycle taxi is very poplular in Cuba.

A handicraft market.

Typical images of Cuban people.

With music instructments.

Remedios

2009-05-10T05:40:00.039+08:00

Remedios, a sleepy town about 4hours east of La Havana, is my favourite city in Cuba. Its tranquility and the simpleness of the lives here touched me so much that it bought back the sweet parts of my childhood memories.

Thanks for the well-built resort area nearby, all the European tourists mainly go to the resort, but seldom go into the town. So I could enjoy the privilege of being the only foreign tourist stroding around the town, enabling me to have more local contact with the people.

A stroll through the town.

A lost-in-time window and bench.

The cathedral in the main plaza.

The tower of the church.

A beautiful place to take a rest.

There are many trees around the plaza.

'Taxi' waiting for passengers.

The cuban version of 'Statue of Liberty.

Beautiful corridor.

Harmony.

I have forgotten the place and time.

A very typical spanish style door handle.

The time is returning to the past.

A steam locomotive near the town.

Santa Clara - worship of Che Guevara

2009-05-10T04:55:00.011+08:00

Santa Clara is not a special town, but it is almost a must to visit for all tourists. It is all because the colourful Hero 'Che' led a decisive battle here, causing the downfall of the previous dictator Batista. Most importantly, after he was murdered in Bolivia by the cooperation of Bolivian governemnt and the U.S. CIA for 30years, his body and other revolutionary figures were discovered in a mass grave in Bolivia, and their bodies were move to Santa Clara, from then on, there stands the status of Che.

´Che'.

The Monumento Ernesto Che Guevara. 'Che' is standing high, looking over the land who had helped to fought for liberate the people.

There are a museum about the lives of 'Che' with many of his pictures, his used guns, pen or even graduated certificate. Also the tomb of him. I love the museum very much, but as the museum fobide to take any picture, those who are interested really need to go there to feel the influence of this legendary Hero.

The signature of 'Che'.

The decisive move of the decisive battle. After stopping the train from the governemnt and seized all the weapons, the war could said to be almost over.

There won't be lack of sourvenir shop of 'Che'.

'Che', whom HK people know about mainly through the politian 'Long Hair', who always wears the T-shirt with the handsome face of 'Che'.

'Che' was born in Rosario, Argentina, after travelling around South America on motorbike, he realized that the people need to be freed from imperalism from the U.S.. So he didn't become a doctor as what he studied, but went on the road of revolutionary, aiming to free all Latin American coutnries, just like the great liberator Simon Bolivar who freed Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia from the Spanish crown.

He and Fidel Castro(the now president from then on) were succeeded in helping Cuba to overthrow the dictator Batista in 1959, he was only 31 years old at that time. Then he even held many important positions in the government of Cuba, like the president of the National Bank of Cuba (so there were his signature on the money at that time).

Aiming to liberate more countries, after 6 years of the liberation of Cuba, he went to Africa, helping Congo to rebel. One year later, he went to Bolivia. Afraid of the influence of Che's revolutions will affect the interests of U.S., CIA helped Bolivia to capture 'Che' and he was then shot in front of the US advisors in 1967, ending the legendary life of this 39 years old Hero.

Outside La Habana - The real Cuba - Viñales

2009-05-09T03:23:00.046+08:00

Wait a minute, if you are too idealist about Cuba, you will absolutely feel disappointed once you arrive the city. You will find that La Habana is flooded with tourists, it is said that there were 3 millions tourists in Cuba last year. Because of the booming of tourism, there are a lot of hasslers all over La Havana. From asking you to eat in their restaurants to requesting for money, pens or T-shirt.

The owner of the Casa particular where I lived told me, never talk and listen to anyone on the street, they are all liers. At first, I didn't believe, but I still took cautious. But later, I found that it was 90% true, the remaining 10% was that there were people who just wanted to talk with tourists, but not asking for anything.

I was lucky to meet a spanish couple in my Casa particular, and joined them to travel around Cuba in car. It didnt only give me the chance to see the real Cuba easier and our combination as a Chinese with two Spaniards had attracted more attention, thus letting us had more chance to conversate with Cuban people.

First, we went to Viñales, in the southwest of La Havana, where in car is about 3 hours journey. Viñales is famous for its limestone landscape and its strange shape hills just stand out abruptly from the plain. But to me, it is very similar to the landscape in Guilin in China, though I haven't been to Guilin, so it did not surprise me too much.

But I did enjoy the beautiful combination of the limestone hills, the red soil, the farmlands and all the greenery.

The overview of the landscape. Isn't it similar to Guilin? The only different is Viñales lack of the presence of a river.

Like a big bun was suddenly thrown from the sky, making the interesting landscape here.

The greenery cheered me up a lot.

A nice stroll throughout the farm. I love the tranquility.

The farm house is totally built with grass, without any bricks or rocks.

Near Viñales, there are many tobacco farm. This is the typical image drawn in a picture of a farmer working in a tobacco farm.

The town Viñales is so small that it only has one principle street, so even for me, the direction stupid can handle to strode around without getting lost.

The main church and plaza in Viñales.

Colonial houses.

Street scenes.

Horses are very important transportation here.

Simple daily lives.

Quiet lives.

We drove outside to the city and encountered the beautiful sunset.

The beauty of the nature is too rich to be real.

A village beside a port, Esperanza, near Viñales. Originally, there was a bridge, but it was destroyed by the hurricane and the beach has then become smaller.

An air full of solitude.

Illusion.

Two hours in car before Viñales, we went to Soroa where situated a National Park, with bunch of natural flora and fauna.

The whole region is covered with forest. So it was once the base of the troops of 'Che' during the war against the government.

Bees are kept also.

There was once a coffee plantation. Now the houses and the old equipments are used for tourism.

The beautiful French style old house.

The guard of the house is explaning the making of coffee.

Each of these small 'rooms' could incredibly accomodated 10workers. Such a life!

Seems that someone has just painted on the tree.

Bano San Juan, a natural waterfall and pool, where popular with locals for holiday.

You can rent a lodge here to get close to the nature.