My Ivory Tower

I would often wake up in middle of the night purely out of excitement - excitement that had lost its cause in obscurity. The feeling was intense - my heart would throb heavily, my body would be taken over by a feeling of sprightly restlessness and I would feel this strong urge to involve myself in some activity. I almost always read a book or began to write something down on a piece of paper. I would calm down after about thirty minutes or occasionally one hour; my circadian rhythm would get back into action and make me sleepy again.

It was a prelude to my bipolarity spreading out to the extremes; and I am so glad it began on a high note. I knew something was slightly abnormal, but the feeling was good and I just let the chips fall where they may. I didn't have a strong social or philosophical bent of mind. My thought process was unilateral - I just did what I liked to do. 

Most of the time I felt as if a thrill of restive energy had shot through my body. It just wouldn't let up. Every single second I was awake, I was constantly in action. I was always learning something new. 

Languages:

I loved learning new languages. I learnt a bit of French from my dad's book 'French Made Easy'. I learnt how to read Russian (and basic Russian greetings). I polished up whatever Kannada I had learnt during my days in Bangalore and picked up a bunch of other Indian languages reading the multilingual leaflets that came with most of PnG or HUL products. I could only read the text in these languages without comprehending anything, but even doing this bit slaked my desire to a certain extent. 

[Ironically, I couldn't continue with either of these languages later on and learnt some totally different languages.]

Ambidexterity:

I was born left-handed, but could always use my right hand better than a right-handed person can use their left hand. After about three years of practice, I had become fairly ambidextrous. I could write, brush my teeth, bowl and do a few other unnoticeable activities using my right hand. This faculty of using hands also exposed me to certain observations I had never noticed before - i) the right shoulder of right handed people is wider. It is clearly evident in case of bowlers who have to use one hand a lot more; ii) right handed people can't turn their neck as far to the left  as they can to their right, and if you catch them sleeping on their stomach their neck will probably be turned to the right.

Fitness:

I loved running in the dark, but my hometown was too unsafe to run alone quite early in the morning or after sunset, so I would practice stair climbs followed by a fixed number of sit-ups in my home (but I totally sucked at running, and my stamina was comparable to that of a crow-bait). I loved football, so the evenings were reserved for honing my dribbling and juggling skills (I was and still am really good at this, but it didn't make me a good player at all FYI). My fitness was very very low, but I was VERY passionate about it. 

[I have made considerable progress on this front in the last couple of years.]

It was at this point that I cultivated a passion for writing, and my appetite to study the coursework whetted considerably. I felt most emotions in extremes. My hobbies were more like my obsessions. Despite living in a constant edgy state of excitement I was extremely disciplined, and my daily schedule was as predictable as clockwork.

Social flop:

My social life was a dismal bust. My involvement with society and friends plummeted rapidly as my indulgence in my own set of activities increased. I was already an unsocial guy and much to the disappointment of my parents it was getting worse day by day. There was days when I barely felt the need to talk to anyone. I was captivated in my own universe full of delusions and ambitions, fueled by tons of raw energy. I always ribbed social conventions, niceties and use of informal chit chat or formal exchange of greetings. It was perhaps this distaste for societal elements that I made my first conscious attempt to escape mediocrity. I (wrongly) thought I had been successful to a certain extent.

Today:

As I mentioned I was a social flop. I had never imagined this single shortcoming would later overshadow all my skills, all my passions and whatever I stood for. Maybe that's an overstatement. But it certainly has to some extent dwarfed the creative side of mine. If I confess, I never thought I would ever feel the urge to become social and outgoing again. I thought life would continue running on a high note, but that phase turned out to be just an extended crest of the sinusoidal ride I had embarked on. 

Nine years on, occasionally overwhelmed by an overdose of foresightedness, confusion, failures, foundering career, competition, proving yourself, lack of direction and most importantly lack of a social life that I now wish for, I very often pine for those days when all I had was an unusual amount of raw energy, leading a life  which was simplified by lack of social wisdom, my blinkered outlook and unhindered focus on what I wanted to do. With my expectations and reality wide asunder, I sometimes hope I could get back into that state of mind again; that I could go back to my ivory tower again.

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Walking the crater rim: Gunung Batok

This is one of the more adrenaline pumping activities I have done. The rim is really narrow, and whatever horizontal base you initially have disappears at times. It's slightly risky at some points. You have to be surefooted and focused, and must have no fear of heights. For most of the walk, the fall into the crater is really steep with no obstacles in between. But once you reach the diagonally opposite side, it becomes much less steeper and pretty much safe to walk. 

Once you reach the opposite side, you also get to see stunning views of a valley that is otherwise hidden from public view, and a long chain of mountains. Here is a video to give you an idea of how steep the inner side is (you need not care about the outer side since if you fall you will end up on one of the sand dunes and not some crater), and how it looks like to a bystander. FYI that's not my video and it's not me in the video.

Here is a video I took while walking on the rim and it will give you a faint idea of how it feels walking on the rim. This is the valley I was talking about and the views you are rewarded with once you climb up the peak bang opposite the point of entry.

I backtracked the path since the other half was tougher and required more time to cover, and we were pressed for time. 

Some pics of the same follow -

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Books on (South East) Asia

Here's a little about some of the books on Asia that I have read -

[26th Jun 2015]:
Into Thin Air: An account of the 1996 Everest disaster. The last hundred pages or so will haunt you for a long time. It also gives a glimpse of how the commercialization of climbing Everest has led to a deterioration of what was once a pristine place and a compromise on safety protocols.

[Edit: 12th Apr 2015]
Krakatoa: The Day The World Exploded: An account of the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa that remains unparalleled in its wrath and magnitude. It has a slow and dull beginning but it turns a gripping read soon.

[Edit: 02nd Jan 2013]
Out of Mao's Shadow: Another brilliant work that brings to the forefront stories of people rising against the authoritative and often corrupt Chinese ruling machinery. Just like 'Nothing To Envy', it is a great work of investigative journalism.

[Edit: 17th Dec 2012]
Wild Swans: One of the BEST BOOKS I have ever read, and definitely one of the best on China. There are few books I have enjoyed reading as much as this.

[Edit: 30th Nov 12]
Norwegian Wood: A dull start but then it starts growing on you as the story develops. But I guess it's the case with every decent book. The book had some shocking and surprising moments, and I find it hard to explain. If you have seen Chungking Express, let me tell you this book is very similar to that movie, only darker and sadder. Luckily the ending was a bit optimistic.

Off the Rails in Phnom Penh: One helluva book. This books does a skillful job of profiling Cambodia. The chaos, lawlessness and pathos of people have been aptly represented in this book.

First They Killed My Father: A poignant first hand account of a Pol Pot regime's victim.

Only 13: This is apparently a bestseller in Thailand. I find it really hard to form an opinion about this book. There were some sections which were gripping, and a lot more sections which sounded foolish and totally unwanted. The writing is kind of poor, and I finished this book half heartedly in a long time.

The Cambridge History of South East Asia: I so wanted to read about ancient history of South East Asia, and after spending some amount of time and a good amount of cash bought this book. There's no question about the authenticity and validity of the content of this book, but it's just too scholarly and boring. It discusses topics like society, administrative architecture, economic condition et al in excruciatingly detailed manner.

Little Princes: This is an epic story of a guy who saved children in Nepal from the ring of trafficking. In the first fifty pages the author just twaddles about his experiences volunteering in Nepal  But later it becomes really engrossing and you realize how this book received five stars on amazon. 

Oracle Bones: An excellent piece of work by Peter Hessler describing contemporary China! No other country intrigues and interests me like China and my recent trip to China further fueled my love for this country.

River Town: A poignant, and often funny, account of a wàiguórén's two years teaching English in China. Peter Hessler again.

Nothing To Envy: It highlights stories of six people who defected from North Korea. Poignant, touching and often dark, it is a must read!

Other book(s) worth a mention: 

Memoirs of a Geisha: Read this book a long time ago when I was in college. Really good fiction that ends with a tinge of nostalgia.

South East Asia (and Asia in general) is an exotic (and cheap!) destination, and has got some really good literature and cinema. I will keep updating this section as I finish more books.

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Where are the mountains?

Place: Gambir Train Station, Jakarta. It was Hari Raya, and the city was hibernating.

Each moment had been dipped in tedium and stretched out to eternity. There was absolutely no sign of liveliness, and even the slightest clatter from any activity immediately got sucked into vacuity that reigned the place. I had to endure a wait of more than two hours to catch my train; but I was excited. I was going to Bandung - a sweet cozy city nestled in mountains buzzing with young college going crowd. More excited I was about the train journey which, as I had read online, offered rewarding views of mountains!

I love mountains and I love winters. Ironically I live in a place where the highest point has an altitude of barely 165 meters, and where people celebrate Christmas in shorts.

Coming back to Jakarta, the train finally arrives and I jump in immediately. It takes another fifty minutes before the engine finally starts chugging. The train at last trudges past the dead platform and I prepare myself for the sparkling majestic views of grand mountain peaks that are soon to arrive. The journey is three hours long.

Fifteen minutes into the journey

It's still Jakarta. I see buildings, roads and roofs of low-lying houses.

Twenty five minutes into the journey

Slums of Jakarta.

I am getting impatient now, thirty precious minutes have passed and there's still no sign of any mountain or even a hill. I doze off. When I wake up, the slums are gone. But still no mountains.

I see a few people, cattle, chicken and other mundane stuff. I am losing hope now.

I see more people, more cattle, more chicken.

Tree stumps, naked children, rubbers tubes ... goats ... dogs ..... pigs...

PIGS AHOY!

The sight of those porcine creatures reminds me of my friends. I start missing them.

More than an hour has passed now, and I am cursing the person who praised the majestic views you get to see traveling from Jakarta to Bandung in a train. Much to my envy, the lady sitting beside me is sleeping like a log. Four rows ahead of me is a bunch of guys from Chongqing in China. Each of them is sleeping like a log. Outside, sitting in the shade is a cow masticating lazily with its eyelids draping upper half of its eyes and its face wearing a stark look of apathy. I bet the cow is more excited than I am.

Two hours have passed now. I can't wait to get off the train and run like a randy horse in the streets of Bandung. Finally I see a faint outline of an elevated landmass far away. Woohoo ... mountains! They start getting bigger as the train approaches them. They aren't majestic as such but it's nice watching them assume a distinct shape against a dusky background. I take a few pics and then sit excitedly close to the  window getting ready to appreciate the view outside. The mountains are so close now. And then all of a sudden the entire world blacks out. Boom. Some kids start hooting as the train passes through the tunnel.

It must have been a long tunnel. I don't remember when I dozed off again, but when I wake up there is no tunnel and no mountains. Nevertheless the train is moving at a high altitude and the weather has become slightly cooler.

The train is only a few minutes away from Bandung. The quotidian details of outskirts of a city start appearing again. Looking thoughtlessly at the view outside, I zone out after a while as I start thinking where my career and my life are going.

PIGS AHOY!!

Reality hits me, and I miss my friends again as I look at those swines wallowing happily in dirt.

The train finally drags to a stop at Bandung. I jump off and scuttle towards the exit. Once I am out I realize I have absolutely no plan or information about where to go or what to do. I drink two bottles of water, find a spot to sit and read a little about Bandung on Kindle. After fifteen minutes, I have narrowed down to two places to visit. I approach a lady sitting behind a counter and ask her more details about each place. I decide to go Jalan Dago. I walk out of the place.

[PS: Bandung is indeed a lovely buzzing city and a good weekend getaway. I also went to a lesser known crater lake called Kawah Putih which was also totally worth it. But the overgrowing concern about my career and frustrations of a lonely life got the better of me due to which I couldn't enjoy this trip too much.]

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Halong Bay

I came out of the bar on upper deck of the ferry and sat on a bench outside. The ferry had been anchored in the middle of nowhere where limestone cliffs jutted out of water all around. It was dark, and the cliffs had assumed a nebulous appearance against the backdrop of pitch darkness. If you squinted hard at the dark backdrop, some distant cliffs would become faintly visible. The only other things visible around were the glimmering lights from far off ferries and twinkling stars spangled in the sky. The only sounds audible were susurrus of the wind and tinkling of the waves.

It was bitterly cold, and I felt like going back into the bar, just like I had gone fifteen minutes earlier. But the ambiance outside was magical. The wind was strong, and lying down on the terrace under the open sky in total darkness gave the best feeling in the world. But due to lack of a warm covering I sat huddled at a corner of the bench.

The bar was brightly lit which spoilt the whole atmosphere. One of our so-called-tour-guides from UK was dancing buck naked in the bar. Almost everyone was soused. They were playing some card game which involved gulping an alcohol shot following by some kind of silly activity as a result of which a couple of other guys were also teetering on verge of nudity. The music was blaring in the background. The playlist was an airheaded collection of cruddy, smutty songs. Majority of tourists inside were students from the west who were in Vietnam to escape the bone-chilling cold of their respective countries on a very small budget. Some of them were evidently not very comfortable with what was going on, but they had conceded to the so called social order and were participating half-heartedly in an activity that very brutally killed the serene atmosphere of the beautiful place.

A little while back, us guys had been divided in small groups and each group was having good fun in their own way until the so-called-tour-guides came, got our attention and one of them dropped his whatever-was-left-of-whatever-had-been-barely-covering-his-patootie. Whatever followed can not be termed fun in any manner that involves sobriety of even the slightest amount. I didn't want to rain on their parade and remained upstage for whatever time I was there in the bar. The girl sitting beside me was also quite nettled by the antics of so-called-tour-guide but was smart enough to blend in discreetly and chatting to her was the only joyful activity I could afford to find in there.

The morning thereafter we were joined by some more tourists who had taken a longer 2D2N tour and had spent their second night on one of the islands. Almost everyone was terribly drunk. Most of them were here  on the extended 'trippy' leg of their journey that began from Laos. It was exact opposite of what I had been looking forward to; I couldn't have witnessed a starker contrast between my expectations and what the trip turned out to be like. Well, the evening before had been quite good in fact - we had had a good lunch, we had jumped into the cold water and pedaled to small cave a little far in kayaks (having rotten perforated plastic) without a life jacket. And then it was a climatic flop of the trip as the sequence of events veered on a switchback and lost all touch with anything related to Halong Bay in particular and sobriety in general.

That morning I met a guy from UK who was as sorely disappointed as I was, and seeing me sitting aloof in one corner, came to me and asked me if I too was as pissed off as he was. It was nice to find someone sensible in the chaotic herd of drunk apes.

Late morning we jumped on to a small boat to get to the shore and after a five hour bus ride I was back in the backpackers I had stayed in the day I landed in Hanoi. I immediately got a bus ticket and was on my way to Hue an hour later. Thus began my adventure in Vietnam :)

[Vietnam was my first solo trip. The tiny country has got fantastic landscapes, natural wonders and other attractions at every step. It's map is marked with UNESCO Heritage Sites all over. It is a thin strip of land so the beach is never far away. The people are super friendly and I have numerous incidents where someone went out of their way to help me. It the second cheapest place I have seen after Cambodia. The communist propaganda occupies every other billboard. I traveled from Hanoi to Saigon taking one bus after another. It was a (not so) cheap but a bad decision - the buses were always late and very uncomfortable and tiring. Since the buses were always late and I had just six days to explore, all my plans went haywire. But the route offers views of some stunning landscapes and the sea. And I had my own set of small interesting incidents which mitigated the monotony of traveling constantly and occasional boredom. The only place I didn't like there was Saigon or HCMC. It's too hot and crowded compared to the calm and charming Hanoi. People have really weak English - in smaller places it's almost comparable to the situation in China. But the use of Roman script for writing saves a lot of effort.

All in all, Vietnam is one of the more interesting and unique places to visit in South East Asia with some of the friendliest people.]

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Dopamine boots

Running zippily along the beach with gusts of wind coming from the sea hitting the left half of your body as you pass up hordes of pedestrians, runners, skaters, kids, couples, dogs and occasional live barbecue pits that smack of charred meat and burnt coal. In your front is a bunch of buildings huddled into a pack, the most prominent being Marina Bay Sands. Your feet touch the ground for a split second to haul your body forward. You feel light, you skim over the paved track, and you know no one around is running faster than you. With each stride you feel the kick - it's so obvious.

You stand facing the sea, the wind is now hitting your face. The last thirty seconds were very painful and you stopped with practically no air left in your lungs. Stopping gives you an instant relief. You are panting heavily, taking in as much air as you can. Every inhalation relaxes you, the vibes are utterly calm. Your senses are more awakened now. Serotonin levels are high. You can clearly hear voices of people laughing somewhere far away. The white noise starts to break up into snippets of meaningful chatter. The puffs of wind amplify the tingling sensation of that sweat drop trickling down your temple. Your mind is blank. You feel the calm. You feel peace. You feel powerful. You look at a couple sitting on a bench to your side. You feel lonely. But the domineering feeling of relief and a heightened sense of awakening overcomes your hormonal urges. You feel independent. You feel powerful. You feel peace. Freedom. Calm. Strength.

Your hands are moving swiftly. The veins on your shoulders have popped out as they are pumping more and more blood. The song playing in the background was supposed to spur you up but you are no longer listening to it. You are focused. You feel very very alive. You are counting. As you cross the mark of fifty, you arch your back to rest your shoulders. Then straighten out again and do twenty to thirty more. Often I feel push-ups give me a greater kick than running. 

You have crossed the mark of twenty effortlessly; by thirty you can feel the lactic acid burning your muscles. After thirty four you arch your back to relax them, and then do six more. It is dark in the room, and voices from the oracular Pelince Pee have created a haunting tone which has subdued all your lingering thoughts. Your hands have gone numb by now, and all you can feel now is the grinding effort to lift yourself up. Each lift gives you a feeling of intense satisfaction and relaxation. You stop after the mark of fifty, get up, look into the mirror. In the eerie darkness, you can see your pumped up veins glowing on arms covered with sweat that gives them a glossy look. You felt a sense of achievement. You have done fifty diamond push-ups.

You squat, rest your palms on the floor at shoulder width. You tuck in your body and lift your legs off the floor. Your body is entirely on your arms now with your elbow bent at a ninety degree angle. You maintain that pose for about five seconds and stand up again. You realize what you have done is not a very easy feat. You feel happy. Really happy. 

The day ends.

You go to bed, you wake up, wash up and catch a bus. Standing in a crowd, you realize you are no one. You are inferior to almost everyone. Your ineptitude for social skills is unbeatable, your awkward mannerisms are filthy. Your presence is incongruous with the sophisticated structure of society. Your diffidence on social front is as unwarranted as your chain of negative thoughts and utter lack of self respect. You have absolutely no skills of any type that make you unique. You work in a dingy office on a grimy desk with plebeian skills on something opaque whose purpose is lost in the uproar of words coming from corporate big-guns underscoring the importance of each trivial task. And then you realize you suck at that plebeian work too. And you suck in socializing. No one considers you worth having as a friend or a partner. You feel powerless. You feel lost. You plug in those headphones to listen to your favorite songs to survive the trip to home or read some book that engages you. You reach home, change your clothes, put on your shoes and go running. Dopamine and endorphin kick in again. 

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Backpacking in China

I recently made a seventeen days long trip to China. Needless to say it was an adventure of a lifetime. I am writing this blog because before the trip I was daunted by the responses of most of my friends about the discomposing nature of the country. Barring Beijing and Shanghai, hardly anyone can understand English anywhere. China, in more ways than one, truly is an insulated shell which has come up with its own version of almost everything that's a part of globalization, with its own set of regulations and monitoring. Mandarin is relatively harder than other languages and the Chinese characters are very difficult to even copy. And my being a vegetarian made it even harder for me to travel without starving.

It is true that managing on your own in such an alien place will kick your butt out of your comfort zone real hard. But in terms of difficulty the trip was not at all as it was cracked up to be. Once you equip yourself with some basic tools and a certain way of doing things it becomes really easy getting anywhere and doing anything in China. The people are very friendly and talkative. And just like Indians, they are loud and can often get rowdy too, especially while not standing in queues and while driving like Schumacher. Just like us Indians are really curious about China, Chinese are very curious about India too. And China has stunning, gorgeous landscapes and some of the most exotic and beautiful places on earth.

Safety: While some of my friends told me China is not at all a safe place, especially at night, I felt that it pretty much harmless for foreigners. You might be duped by some beverage scam, taken to an overpriced art shop by over-friendly chicks or get your pocket picked, but there is no grave danger for tourists in most places. Probably the touristic places are safer, or, as told by one of my friends, the bad elements find it a bit risky dealing with foreigners. Westerners will find traffic and the crowd quite overwhelming and driving very risky and careless, but I found this chaos very familiar and known. Yet another similarity to India.

Insularity: Information is limited. You can't use Facebook or twitter or Google or Skype. Well, people can open Facebook using VPN, and you can access Google HK but everything is monitored and filtered. But it doesn't end here with Chinese missing out on the most prevalent form of internet usage. What's surprising and commendable is that China has its own version of almost everything. They have got Weibo for Twitter, Baidu for Google and qq for skype. Most people have their email accounts on qq (which is in all_digits@qq.com format) or 126.com. And all these tools are as competitive. I heard that qq has got some really cool features. Baidu is actually a good tool for getting a Chinese character for any English word. All bad news are stamped down whereas good news are over-hyped and sensationalized. Facts are either suppressed or garbled before they are broadcast. I met a girl in Huangshan who told us that some tourists have died while trying to trek some really inaccessible places. The vertical cliffs there with sharp drops leave little scope for leveraging your hungry-for-adventure urges. But nothing goes out. Movies are often banned (The Blue Kite is a good example, not to mention a brilliant movie) and media is often suppressed. In spite of all this, lots of movies, books and first hand accounts of people have made it to international recognition hence people know how it's like in China. Peter Hessler's books on China are a good gauge of daily life in China. Some good movies that I like are To Live (Huozhe), Farewell My Concubine, Raise the Red Laltern, The Blue Kite and The Road Home.

India vs China

This is perhaps the most common question I encountered both in India as well as China. China has gone way ahead of India in terms of infrastructure and growth. The cities are huge, roads are well built, and big cities are mottled with malls, showrooms and essentially tall buildings. I have heard that most of these apartments are empty and unoccupied due to inability of people to buy them. This might probably be true, but it doesn't mean most people there eke out a living sticking to minimal means. People are well off, and signs of prosperity are apparent. Young people are groovy and girls have a good dressing sense. And the best part is in spite of this there is an underlying element of simplicity in people. They don't flaunt wealth as brazenly as other countries that I have visited. Of course Shanghai is a big exception. You take a walk to a place behind the facades of a city and it's the same old story. People in general are talkative, friendly and curious. Streets are dirty but not as much as India. Accommodation is cheap, and food is very cheap. Public toilets are almost always unusable. Public transport is just buses (and metros in big cities). They have an obsession with announcement systems. All buses are fitted with loudspeakers into which some lady will shout out something mercilessly before every stop. There is no counterpart of tempos that we have in India. Signs of seedy places can occasionally be seen. People are really fond of singing, karaoke and smoking. You can spot a group of old ladies dancing to hip hop music in parks in morning or evening. People's park in Chengdu is full of such activities. Certain sights are uncommon and amusing. Like in Chengdu I saw all employees of a restaurant dancing together in uniform just outside the place where they worked. People are not very happy with their government but don't express it very openly. What stinks is people peeing on the roadside and incessant spitting. While both these things happen in India too, the spitting thing gets really cruddy in China. And people are really curious about India too. China has gone way ahead of India in many terms but India is still seen as a rival by most Chinese people. The ubiquitous 'IT' brand of India is known to Chinese too, but they don't use it in disparaging manner as most people do. Another thing good about this country is the state of women. They are safe. They work in all professions, dress freely and are not raped for doing so. Raping for a cause is a birthright of Indian guys only.

Food

I will talk only about vegetarian food. I will comment about food in each place I went to. In Chengdu the youth hostel I stayed in had a vegetarian menu with wide range of items. There at the reception I requested one guy to write in Chinese for me ' I am a vegetarian, I don't eat meat'. That must have been the most important piece of paper I held in my hand throughout my trip in China! I would show it in any food shop I stepped in and someone would then point out to me the veg items they had. At one place in Jiuzhaigou, a lady sent her little daughter to get some toufu for me as she had nothing veg - but she didn't say no to me and drive me out. I had tons of toufu with rice that night. There is also a place just outside the gate of national park which sells potato puffs. Grilled potatoes are a common sight in Sichuan but I didn't find them very tasty. In Sichuan one should also try the local spicy noodles. Veg options are available. In Beijing, the problem is cheap places don't have menus in English so it's difficult to try them out. But being a capital it has all global food chains like Thai Express, Starbucks, Subway and so on. In Shanghai I found a buddhist vegetarian restaurant and an Indian place too so getting veg food was not an issue there. In Tunxi, there was a brilliant place bang opposite my hostel that had some really tasty veg options. At another place the guy agreed to replace meat with vegetables while preparing some sort of pancake for me. Hangzhou had two Indian restaurants within walking distance so I didn't even try Chinese food there. What's important is to know how to use chopsticks! And Chinese food in general is very oily.

Seeking help: If you want to ask someone for help, look for someone young. Old people are not so open and comfortable talking to foreigners. Plus I rarely found them speaking or understanding English. As I have stated this before too, almost everyone is really helpful and some people will even go out of their way to help you. At Beijing domestic airport a lady asked me to come with her to the subway. The person sitting beside her had agreed to give her a free ride to nearest subway from the airport and then I jumped in too. She figured out everything for me, bought me tickets and refused to accept money as it was just a small amount.

Language: You can just about manage visiting well known places and getting to youth hostels without knowing any Chinese. But in the event of any miscalculation or unexpected occurrence, let me tell you, you will be in deep deep trouble if you can't speak Chinese. If you learn to speak a few sentences life will become a lot easier for you. Learning greetings and introductions won't help much. I met a couple from America/Canada who had been living in China for over a year. They could speak only basic phrases, and the guy taught me some phrases most important and most frequently used in daily life. Here's a summary of what I deemed most important from my own as well as others' experiences - you should be able to introduce yourself, ask name of the other person, ask where the toilet is, how much does something cost, able to count in Chinese, ask for directions, give directions (if you are sitting in a cab, don't know the name of the place but know how to get there - trust me such a situation will come across), compliment, say 'it's expensive' in Chinese, name a few dishes, ask for a bottle of water, say no/don't want etc, ask 'Can you speak English/Chinese/any other language', ask whether a place is near or far and most importantly remember the name and street of the place you are staying at so in case everything fails you can take a cab back home. If you can count in Chinese, you can tell time, no of days, days of week and name of months too. Also Chinese have hand gestures for one to ten, that's also very useful. I could very easily go anywhere with the above skill-set AND Chinese address of the place I was going to (esp when that place wasn't very famous).

Traveling: Now matter how you travel, you can get any ticket at the reception of your youth hostel (with a very small service fee). There are offices dedicated to selling tickets but the personnel there can only speak Chinese so you can't ask them a lot of questions. There's only one instance when I bought a ticket from outside the hostel. Talking about the quality of transport the public buses are slightly dirty and not so comfortable but from what I heard from fellow travelers, the trains are decent. I tried the super-fast train from Beijing to Shanghai and that was four hours of pure awesomeness. It's top speed is 303 kmph, seats are comfortable, announcement is in English and Chinese, and it's very well kept. In big cities like Chengdu, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou you don't have to haggle for the price with the cab driver. If you get the right cab, it will come with a meter. But I found it really really difficult to get a cab in Chengdu. It's easy in other places. It's better to buy train tickets a few days beforehand as they get sold very soon. Just because I couldn't get a train ticket to Xian I had to skip the place and fly directly to Beijing.

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Huangshan: People visiting this place have two choices to stay at - Tunxi (the touristy hotspot) which is about 100 kms from Huangshan mountain base, and Tangkou which is situated very near to the mountains. Most people spend at least one night in the mountains. We didn't do that as the weather was bad, and when we reached Tangkou at about 7pm, it was totally dead. There was no vehicle running to take us to Tunxi. In the end the bus driver called us a cab who took us to Tunxi. So if you stay at Tunxi, plan to descend as early as possible. Laojie (Old Street) in Tunxi is very beautiful and looks very ancient. Another thing - Huangshan has two entrances - East and West. West entrance is longer, harder but more beautiful. East entrance is shorter but crappy. Most people take East entrance due to ease of climbing. So it's heavily crowded with tons of people plodding through a not-so-beautiful landscape. I did the same thing and I regretted it. West part is stunning! Even if it takes longer from there, you don't have to fight the crowd and the views are breath-taking. It is totally worth it.

Chengdu: It's a good city and a good hopping point to other places, but there's nothing spectacular to see here except for pandas. And I found it very very hard to get cabs in the city. So try to rely on public transport as much as you can. The upcoming subway there should make things easier. Food is quite spicy and tasty!

Hangzhou: The well known West Lake (Xi Hu) is beautiful indeed, but over-hyped. It is a nice lake with good views, paved walkways decorated with willows lined along, small ponds and green lawns. But it certainly is not heaven on earth as the sites and books claim. The city in itself is quite nice. It boasts of being the happiest city in China, is well developed particularly near the West Lake and is well connected to Shanghai (via superfast train) and Tunxi. Xi Hu is the biggest attraction of this city with other venues (like silk market) nothing more than incidental contrivances to attract the incoming tourists. 

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वो ...

वो माया से विरक्त था, वो रुका हुआ वक़्त था
वो पल जो कोई पल न था, जहाँ का कोई कल न था
वहां कोई दिशा न थी, उषा न थी निशा न थी
न मुझे कोई प्यास थी, न किसी की तलाश थी
वो भूत था भविष्य था, वो एकता का शिष्य था
..
..

वो निर्जीव न था, उसके हर अंश में प्रान था
वो यथार्थ न था, वो एक स्वप्न का वितान था

वहां गुरुत्व न था, किसी कोटि का अनुमान न था
कोई अभाव न था, किसी अभिलाषा का प्रमान न था

वो समय न था, वो हर बिंदु पर समान था
न भूत न भविष्य, बस दीर्घ वर्तमान था

वो मौलिक थे, मेरी कल्पना के पात्र नहीं थे
हम उसके अवियोज्य अंश थे, अतिथि मात्र नहीं थे

न कोई ध्येय था न कोई राह थी
मैं था तुम थे फिर क्या परवाह थी

मैं मैं न था तुम तुम न थे 
वो हम न थे वो कोई और थे

हम हम न थे हम कोई और थे
वो हम न थे वो कोई और थे

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