Our tour took us through the desert in a pickup truck. All we had to do was sit in the back and admire the views. At first it was a little bit disorienting because I literally have never sat in the back of a pickup truck before. I’d seen it many times in movies and what not, but that was it – especially from news clips where insurgents in Iraq or Afghanistan would do it, so it was pretty hard to not compare my experience with that.

Along the way, we stopped by some old carvings on the rocks (so called petroglypths) from the Thamud, an ancient civilization that existed around 8th century BCE.

We hiked around the desert a little bit.

Then we stayed in the desert for the sunset. I normally don’t pay attention to the sunset, but it was pretty amazing to see how fast the sun actually set.

Once the sun touched the horizon, 30 seconds later, it was gone.

For dinner, the staff at the camp prepared a feast for us – zarb, they called it. It’s similar to the chicken/lamb on rice meals we had in the previous days, but this one was cooked underground inside a barrel. This was the best meal in Jordan by far!

That night, we stayed in a camp in the desert. The best part about it was being able to see stars without all the light pollution in the city, and hanging out with the rest of the tour group around a campfire.

The worst part of it was the actual camping. There was some running water, but no hot water. To make it worse, we had to leave the next morning at 04:00 because we had a couple hours drive back through the Israeli border in time before it closed (what kind of border crossing closes during the day?).

The desert was our last destination in Jordan, before we went back into Israel/Palestine (not to take sides here…), to visit the Dead Sea and Tel Aviv.

More photos of Wadi Rum here

It’s reminiscent of other developing Asian nations. People are riding around in motorbikes, pedestrians cross the street by weaving through vehicles, and there’s so much traffic that it kicks up a ton of dust. Cars here often don’t have AC and more often than not have hand cranked windows. The official language is Nepali, but many people speak Hindi or at least know some words. It’s timezone is also quite interesting… Its offset is 5:45 from UTC meaning it’s got a timezone that shifts in 15 minutes instead of a whole hour. And I thought India’s 30 minute shift was annoying.

Durbar Square once held the palaces over the kings that ruled over the city. In the surrounding area, there are also some courtyards and temples. The architecture of the temples is reminiscent of temples in China, which makes sense since Buddhism is quite prevalent in both countries.

In the center of the square, masses of street vendors sell trinkets to visitors. The trinkets are mainly Buddhist prayer bowls, and other religious paraphernalia.

The most shocking thing to me in Nepal, is that as a part of their Hindu and Buddhist traditions, people worship “kumari“, young prepubescent girls that represent the manifestation of divine female energy.

The worship of the goddess in a young girl represents the worship of divine consciousness spread all over the creation. As the supreme goddess is thought to have manifested this entire cosmos out of her womb, she exists equally in animate as well as inanimate objects

Wikipedia

Within Durbar Square, in an almost non-descript brick building, the kumari appears from time to time within the windows that look into the courtyard of the building, but no photography is allowed. I had randomly stumbled upon this building only because there were so many people around it.

The Boudhanath is one of the largest Buddhist stupas Nepal, and it’s architecture is unlike anything in the city, so it’s quite prominent. The prayer flags have five colours, which represent different “elements”: earth, water, fire, air, and space. The elements are also represented as a part of the structure with the base as earth, the dome as water, the square platform as fire, the spire as air, and the umbrella as space.

The Pashupatinath Temple is situated on the banks of the Bagmati River, and is a Hindu religious place. Where the fires burning in the picture is the actual place where cremations happen. Within the area are a collection of different temples, but I wasn’t allowed to visit them because I’m not a Hindu. I never thought I’d ever be discriminated for my religion (or lack thereof)!

See more pictures of my trip to Kathmandu here

The flight was to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at around 13:00 and we would depart for Bali at 21:50. Arriving at 13:00, we should have been able to arrive in the city via Grab between 14:30 – 15:00, but it took at least an hour at the immigration line so we didn’t get to the city until after 16:00. This would leave us around 5 hours in Kuala Lumpur, which is not great, but not terrible.

We had only eaten breakfast, so by this time, we were starving. So we went to Lot 10. Everything looks super good, but in actually only tasted okay. I thought it’d be on par with my trip to Singapore.

Next, we visited a nearby street market. The market reminded me a lot of Singapore – similar food options (bak kut teh, chili crab, stingray, etc.), which makes sense since Singapore used to be a part of Malaysia.

Our next destination was the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, but all of a sudden out of nowhere, it started pouring with thunder and lightning. At first the thunder was a few kilometers away judging but how long it took to hear the sound, but not long after it was right on top of us.

We got on a Grab to head over there, but the sudden rainstorm brought traffic to a complete stop and it was barely moving. After being in the car for 30 mins and having gone less than a kilometer, the driver advised that we head to the airport directly as there wouldn’t be enough time to hit up the twin towers and make our flight. We reluctantly agreed.

During the car ride, I chatted with the driver about living in Kuala Lumpur. The driver was Cantonese in enthnicity but was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, which I didn’t expect at all. I had forgotten about how stuck we were in traffic while chatting with the driver (at one point the driver took a bathroom break and left the keys in the ignition).

Eventually, I looked on Google Maps, and saw there was no way we’d make it to the airport by car. We decided to get dropped off at the metro station in the pouring rain and we’d take public transit the rest of the way. Check it out in Mike’s video (the raining part starts at ~5:10).

That was pretty much our trip to Kuala Lumpur. After a big delay at the airport and the freak rainstorm, we really only had 3 hours in the city to do stuff, which was too bad. See the rest of the photos here.

Last time I visited, the hot and humid summer made it quite unbearable to do anything outside and I spent most of my time in air conditioned malls. But this time I went in November, where one could just go outside comfortably in summer clothes. Good visibility this time around allowed me to take photos like this:

Touristy places

For touristy things, people visit the Big Buddha – pretty much Asia’s equivalent of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.

Visiting the Big Buddha requires taking a 30-minute gondola ride up a mountain. The entire area also contains a collection of temples and animals wandering about.

Visitors can even see Buddhist scriptures inscribed onto large wooden posts.

In the nearby fishing village of Tai O, people sell all sorts of parts from dried seafood like swim bladders, stomachs, starfish, and the like for people to make soup with. Notice the giant dried shark center left.

Tourists often visit The Peak as well. On a clear day, visitors can see all the way across the harbour into Kowloon (the northern part of Hong Kong). I took the light bus directly up to the top thinking I boarded the bus that would take passengers to the tram station that would go up the mountain. Without realizing I already arrived at The Peak, I walked further up the mountain just to walk back down. The views from up there didn’t compare to the actual touristy part of The Peak.

Old school culture

Since my grandparents lived in Hong Kong before they passed away, I will always visit them at the cemetery. In Chinese culture, people often burn fake money or other things as offerings for the deceased family member in the afterlife. Depending on who is selling the offerings, they will often ask questions about one’s family history so that they can write the information on the offerings for burning such that it will go to the right people in the afterlife.

Such cultural things may seem old fashioned for such a modern city like Hong Kong, but Hong Kong still to this day retains a mixture of the old and the new.

People still continue to place immense importance on worshipping mythological dieties and figures. Because Buddishm, Taoism, and Confucianism all have had great influence in Asia for thousands of years, many temples contain elements from all of these religions.

Europe has lots of churches, but Asia has temples.

From big city life to quiet gardens.

Day to day life

The MTR serves as the mass transit system in Hong Kong. In Vancouver, attendants will tell you not to board a packed train, but in Hong Kong, it’s normal to try to get yourself in the full train.

Shopping malls in Hong Kong don’t just consist of shops, but rather show extravagance.

From shopping malls to street markets

Live chickens anyone? In North America, some people raise chickens for their eggs, but in Hong Kong people, many buy live chickens to eat – but over time more and more people now prefer buying their chickens at the supermarket.

Visitors can feel the on-the-go culture in Hong Kong. People speedwalk everywhere, and they fill the streets. Some visitors, especially those from places with less people, like to take a moment to people watch.

Splurging

The tallest bar in the world, situated on the 118th floor of the International Commerce Centre, the Ozone Bar provides a view of Tsim Sha Tsui and Hong Kong Island. A drink up there costs at least $30 USD – pretty much paying for the view.

Museums on the road less travelled

For those interested in Hong Kong’s history in the context of finance, The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has a small museum for this, near the top of the International Finance Centre.

Those interested in trains can visit the Hong Kong Railway Museum in Tai Po. It talks about the history of rail travel within Hong Kong and lets visitors see the inside of old trains that used to run in the city.

Photo album here

The war history exhibits revolved around conflicts that revolved around the Korean Peninsula such as the Russo-Japanese War and the Sino-Japanese War

To remember the soldiers, the names of fallen soldiers are inscribed on the walls

In the outdoor exhibit, I was surprised to see an American B-52 bomber here – I wish we got to go inside it though.

No surprise, there were lots of tanks.

And rockets.

This museum definitely contains many interesting items and relics and is worth a visit for those interested in military history or looking at cool military vehicles. For many Koreans, I’m sure a lot of the museum content is still relevant to them as the Korean War is still technically on-going and it is clear that it is a huge part of their history.

Link to more pictures: here

The one purpose to come here would be to simply admire the old-style architecture. The area is quite big and we ended up spending about 2 and a half hours here. Apparently, only part of the palace grounds have been reconstructed since the Japanese occupation, so in the future, there are definitely going to be more to see here.

Upon entering the palace grounds, people are greeted by one of the main gates to the palace. The banner uses Chinese characters rather than Korean since in the past there was wide use of Chinese characters in the Korean language.

The pond with the pavilion was definitely the most beautiful location on the entire palace grounds.

The pagoda is also another impressive piece of traditional architecture. The construction has a Chinese feel to me, but I am definitely not an expert in Asian architecture. The National Folk Museum of Korea is also located here, and visitors are able to learn about the history of how the Korean people lived back then.

Those who enjoy nice walks around beautiful architecture and scenery should definitely come visit this place when travelling in Seoul.

Link to more photos: here

Although this has been one of the most serious military clashes in the past year, this isn’t much different than what happened March, which was when a North Korean submarine allegedly sank a South Korean navy ship (more information here).  South Korea is attacked, but the country did nothing other than use strongly worded letters and speeches to declare how dangerous North Korea is and how they should be punished for their actions.  After the event today, it seems a similar response from South Korea is likely.

South Korea isn’t willing to fight a war with North Korea.  As much as South Korea wants them dealt with, it simply isn’t worth it.  The events of today are evident to show that if South Korea decides to make any move against the North, artillery strikes can easily strike targets in the South causing huge casualties and costly infrastructure damage.  South Korea doesn’t want that to happen.

The prevalent point of view of wars today is that casualties are unacceptable.  The War on Terror and the Iraq War support this.  Every now and then, the newspaper posts a story about how a brave soldier gave his or her life for their country.  People don’t like fighting wars that involve soldiers on their own side getting killed.  According to a poll done by Gallup, most people in the United States believed that sending troops to Iraq was not a mistake at the start of the Iraq War in 2003.  As time went on, casualties mounted.  War didn’t seem like such a good idea anymore.  Support for the war dropped from 75% in 2003, to 41% in 2010 (source).  South Korea does not want to fight this war.  It isn’t about whether the South will win or lose.  It’s about casualties.  They know that if they fight this war, many South Koreans will die, and that is unacceptable.

Ever since the world wars, people learned not to no longer fight a war on such a large scale anymore.  Even in the Cold War, conflict on the scale of World War II was not seen.  People learned.  It still is the case now.  As stated before, many South Koreans will be killed.  On top of that, any country who is obligated to support either country would be putting their soldiers’ lives on the line as well.  North Korea controls an active army of 1.1 million, while South Korea controls an active army of 687 000 (source).  On the other hand, North Korea won’t declare war on the South either.   They too know that a war with the South would be very destructive for them.  An all out war would not be pretty.

Just by knowing the South isn’t going to declare war on the North, the only other response is diplomacy.  It’s what they’ve been doing since the signing of the armistice of the Korean War.  The end result: more strongly worded speeches and letters.  North Korea’s response to it: “We don’t care.”