Lessons from Tibet

"Communists have done some good. At least we now have roads. Some years ago, there is no road in these mountains."

"But it once was good for cultivation. No?"

"We often blame our poverty on these mountains and rivers. But we know that city dwellers are stressful so they like it here. But we wanted to go to the cities."

"Are you happy?"

"Here in Tibet, if you are poor, nobody says you are poor. When you are rich, nobody says you are rich. We are just like ourselves."

"There's no stress here."

"Yes."

Glaciers, Yak, Misty mountains, and 2 KG of fats

I returned from Yun Nan. More specifically Kun Ming, Lijiang, and ShangriLa (Xiang Ge Li La). It was more of an ethnic, cultural experience than a sight seeing one. Even lesser element of shopping and eating (food is yucks).

Kun Ming is almost ran by the common Chinese. Those driving the economic engine with rigorous energy for wealth and a kinship built with concrete. Construction is everywhere and drivers and hawkers is sharp with the appearance of tourists. Most of the tourists are internal, from the richer cities like Shanghai. But people of inland areas should take most opportunity while they are here. To get a pie of the richness generated at the coastal.

Lijiang is a fushion. There are more minorities. But I am surprised that the town is ran by tourists like myself. Its a tourist town, a shopping mall, built on the foundation of well thought of city planning when it was built 700 years ago. One main river of Yangtse split into 3, then 9, then 27, then numerous smaller streams supply the whole town. The streams, however, is now somewhat polluted with tourists junks. Locals quickly pick them up as soon as they see them. But you can see that they have to do it quite frequently to keep the town clean.

At ShangriLa, we heard from the tour guide that they are not so fortunate to receive millions of dollars of grant from the government to build a tourist attraction, as such much of what they used to have remains. Nonetheless, I have the most of the good time there. We went on a local tour which lasted four days for 500 rmb, about 100 sgd. Pretty good. Most of the trails are mountainous, so its was quite a tedious journey. Nonetheless, the sceneries are fantastic, and mountains look endless. Almost about 50-100m is a turn as the mini bus drove through the winding road.

I do not appreciate the old towns. These are money generating machines sucking tourist dollars. Away in the Tibetan temples are quieter and more like ShangriLa. We also went to stay at Fei Lai Si ('Fly to Come' Temple). It has the most direct view of the Mei Li Snow Mountain. Its has 13 peaks above 6000m. Clouds covered most of the peaks for the day. Yet, as night falls, clouds, mountains, with a back drop of blue sky makes the window view look almost like art.

We went to climb Mei Li Snow Mountain on the next day, from 2500m to 3500m. The trail is 8km long rising almost 1km. It was tough. I rarely pant like that. Nonetheless, after 2..5 hours, we made it to the glacier. It was the lowest glacier in the mountain, and it was the height of the trip. And it costs me two kg of body fat.

The glacier is huge, wider than any river I have yet seen. Ice get locked like rocks for a long time. It was summer, but the ice do not seem like giving way. Its tightly stubborn to show its magnificent. The glacier display right below our viewing platform to the top of the mountain, right above the clouds.

To live and die and over again

We live a life time, and die, and live again. At least, that's what who believes in reincarnation, says. Life time is seemingly a long time, or is it?

I found a job in Jan 2005, the company went relocated to cheaper countries, and was out of job in Aug 2005. That's the life time of my first job. And its only eight months! Life time is simply the length of an object arising, changing, and dying. We live many life times in while we breath. Enough for us to taste joy, sadness, happiness, regret, success, and failure, over and over again.

As such, reincarnation is never too far away. We experience it all the time, but whether we knew it, is another matter. And so, I had many reincarnations, one of which is the arising of one work related project and its death, arising of another and its death. So much that its enough to be numb to what its all about.

I guess when we work, we all started with a blind enthusiasm, that everything seem perfect, that we got a good job, and all seem working towards success. Then comes the politics, obstacles, people factors, and down goes the effort. Then it happens and again. And we think its a bad company. We quit and found a new job. And the new job doesn't seem better.

In life, many things is so. I guess that's why Buddhism says life is suffering. But through suffering we grow. But we must be willing to grow to take advantage and make suffering worth.

So I guess reincarnation is not a bad thing. Its the arising and decaying of concepts, objects, and our life. Through it we see interdependence, and we become wiser. We should be thankful that life changes and we can learn from it.

Sick of WoW

Sometimes I thought I can play WoW forever. However, you do get sick of the repetitive patterns in games. Grinding, leveling, twinking, and look for group. Especially the last one, which is ultra hard on my server. Until the whole 'second' life in WoW seemed like a script. I guess its the end for my WoW stint for a while.

If you can get sick of your life, how about a structured environment like games?

Why leaving Singapore?

In two months or so, I will be in some part of California, settling down and wait for my PhD to start in late Sept. Why do I want to leave Singapore now? That my career is kicking off, bought a house, and everything seem to be settling down? Its tough to fly to another country and settle there for a while. There are new people, new environment, and way of life to adapt to. USA is great, or so say many people who went over for holiday. Miss home its, for those who went for work. Great working environment it is, as far as I can tell from my one year stint in Minneapolis. Living environment is marked by serious wealth and poverty gap.

I like to see things from a long term perspectives. Decisions made by such is more sustainable. Giving the work environment within the research industry, its almost crippling for a serious researcher not to have a PhD. Say you just bought a house and is looking for a renovation contractor. You have not done it before and is not even sure what to look out for. Would you approach Uncle Lim who worked in this line for past 10 years, but doesn't speak English, have no shop front, couldn't produce a breakdown and quotation, and doesn't even know how much its going to cost. Or Sanders Design, who's boss is a well dressed yuppie, speaks excellent English, breaks down the cost nicely, although a bit pricey, and seem to have done a lot of work, and has a nice office with show room?

Customers who look to answer a research question, especially those not in the same field, look for PhDs and professors for advice. Consultants doesn't seem very popular in Singapore. I guess the number of freshouts working in prominent consulting companies have some impact. While I always say that when hiring a consultant, look at their resume, not the company they work for, it takes a trained eye to spot the difference.

What to do? As a Chinese saying goes, 'Ten years of window chill.' Now the hardwork to get some name, fame, and a little deeper in thoughts.