A Hero Bites The Dust.. or Two

One

Last week, the world of literary non-fiction was rocked hard when the book that I had glowingly reviewed was deemed to be full of lies.

Jon Krakauer, author of Into The Wild even wrote a 75-page ebook titled Three Cups of Deceit, which has supposedly revealed the fradulent facts in the said book.. which is none other than, if you haven't guessed already, Three Cups of Tea.

If I am allowed to be narcisstic here, some of you-my small group of readers might remember how obsessed i was with Into The Wild and the story of Chris McCandless, both the book and the movie, and hence I regard Jon Krakauer quite highly. This slander towards Greg Mortensen from a fellow mountaineer who has gained credibility through his journeys and books, certainly puts much emphasis on how these allegations should be taken seriously. He used to be a supporter of Mortenson's cause and donated large sums to the charity but has stopped since 2002.

Mortensen has created such a wonderful impression on me, with his noble and philantropic work (building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan to promote education for girls as a way to fight extremism), that I would be truly saddened if the scandal is proved to be true.

Some of the facts that are said to be non-truths:
-He didn't get lost during his descent from the failed attempt to climb K2
-He didn't discover Korphe village until a year after the failed expedition
-He wasn't captured by the Taliban in South Waziristan, infact he was in a district called Laddha (or Laddah) and treated very well

Some other allegations:
-He treated Central Asia Institute (CAI)'s fund like his private ATM machine
-Not all the schools that he claimed to build were actually built by CAI
-Some schools are empty/have no students/being used as storage space instead
-Some schools have not been receiving funds for a few years now

I am clearly disheartened and disillusioned with these alleged findings, but yet I find it hard to believe that all of it is true. There's two sides to a coin, and until a full investigation is being carried out, I will give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if the allegations turn out to be true, I would still think he did way more good than bad and his work should not be discredited totally.. what he's done, despite of the bad (if true), is much much more than any of us could ever dream of doing.

However, I definitely will be reading Stones in School (his 2nd book) with a slightly cynical mindset now. A friend once told me that I am too idealistic for my own good (this was like 7 years ago). I was first shocked to hear such a comment, because I didn't think I was. But as time passed, I realized what he said is quite true. I tend to believe that everything is always nice and rosy, what you see is what you get (in other words, aku ni lurus bendul selalu tak nampak menda tersirat/underlying deceits). But I think I've progressed in thinking critically and not just believing everything I read or hear. But these findings against Mortenson is such a huge blow to me, and everybody else in the world who's aware of CAI's work, I suppose.

Two

A few months ago I read about The Last Lecture given by a dying CMU professor a few years back that was so profound that it moved people to tears and affected many lives, in a good way. The lecture was so impactful that a book version of it was published. So when I saw a friend reading it a few weeks back, I just had to borrow it from her. I had high hopes for the book, and brought it to read during my trip to India. First chapters in, and already I resented the guy, Randy Pausch. He appeared to me as a very arrogant person. Granted, the things and lessons that he conveyed were good and insightful, all his advice is worth listening to, the principals of life that he has adhered should be followed. But the profoundness of the message was overshadowed by how arrogant I thought (and still think) he was. But then again, after reading reviews by others, I find myself to be all alone here, nobody else thinks Randy Pausch is arrogant. So I watched his lecture on youtube. All the things in the book was a direct copy of the lecture, maybe with more words and explanations. In the lecture, he didn't seem that arrogant, but still there's a little hint of it that I detected (my friend actually cried watching the lecture). But to be fair, at least he did not deceive anybody with false facts (unlike Mortenson, allegedly). So the lesson to be learnt here, just because I don't like someone's tune in his/her writing, doesn't mean I should discredit the message/story.

Wordless Wednesday

Music: Anak Siapa by Mia Palencia

Incredible India

Music: Alive by Raiko

My excursion to India was really something different and nothing like I've ever experienced before, yes, even when compared to South America. It was Incredible.

As AirAsiaX prepared for take off, Jpop songs were being played, and I couldn't help day dreaming about the day I'll be on the plane to Japan one day.. it has been on my list of countries to visit for a very long time now, since the college days when I was obsessed with animes and Jdramas.. and Arashi of course. But I have solemnly vowed to only go there when I have enough money for a 3-4 week trip, for a more wholesome and complete experience. I actually had a slight apprehension towards visiting India, mostly due to the number of horror stories from fellow families and friends and colleagues, particularly about the state of cleanliness and hygiene, the dangers of eating their food to end up with food poisoning, or more commonly known as the dreaded Delhi Belly, people who know people who have contracted meningitis and died from the disease after visiting India.. and the like. Not only that, there's the common joke about how as soon as you step on Indian soil, you'll be hit with the smell of curry, and even come back smelling like curry. The most extreme description I've ever heard was "Only go to India when you really have no where else to go", or something along those lines. But I decided to go anyway despite everything I've heard. Listening to stories is not the same as actually experiencing it first hand, they sure as hell were not valid or strong enough reasons for not going, at least for me. Being afraid is a sure-fire way to prevent us from going anywhere at all.

Indira Gandhi International Airport is very much like KLIA, it is modern, nice, clean, pleasant and not too busy at night. The customs were smooth and efficient, we had no problems at all. Amarjeet, the boss of Sejwal Tours, a small company that provides car-hiring services with drivers, was waiting for us outside Gate 4 with my name printed on a piece of paper, as promised. He knew I was me (immediately waved), as soon as he saw me, does that makes sense? I only knew he was actually holding that piece of paper much later when he wrote the name of the driver that was going to pick us up the next day on it and gave it to me.

So as we waited by the road side with Amar for a car to bring us to our backpackers, all I could think of was, what curry smell??!! The joke's on you, you stereoptypes! India definitely has the last laugh on that one. Haha.

In keeping within our budget (very low), we booked a backpackers place in a place called Pahar Ganj, which turned out to be a total slum! I can't stress enough how bad that place is. Amar said the place was full of drug addicts and all things similar. It was super dodgy, Hotel New King was nowhere to be found, at least not on the main road. However, it was comforting to see a lot of mat sallehs walking around, eating at the stalls, some even holding their cameras out in the open, looking very comfortable and relaxed. Its always a good sign, because its an indication that a place is not a bad or dangerous as it appear to be. Never judge a book by its cover. We finally found our cheap hotel, after walking around in the backalleys, full of people and dogs sleeping on the streets, rubbish and its accompanying odors everywhere (not to mention piss and shit smells too, human's or animal's, its up to your imagination), tuktuks and motorcycles (or mosquitoes) not caring about pedestrians (and vice versa).. I took comfort in the fact that the whole place was actually quite well lit, and somehow or rather I did not feel unsafe at all. Maybe because Amar was with us the whole time. Sonny of New King told us stories about tourists being scammed all the time. At first I was unsure who to believe, because Amar seemed trustworthy and I did not get any bad feelings or bad vibes. Sometimes I feel that I trust people too easily, which can be both a good and bad thing. The next day, all that Amar promised us was there, and there was really nothing to worry about.

India is a huge country, landing in Delhi with only 11 days of travel, our itinerary was only limited to the Golden Triangle -Delhi Agra Jaipur, and other smaller cities in the state of Rajashtan that we could fit in, namely Fatehpuh Sikri, Udaipur, Jodhpur, Pushkar and Ajmer. If only we had 1 more extra day, we could've gone to Jaisalmer. What we saw at these places you can read about it yourself on the internet if you're interested. But in general, it was endless visits to forts and more forts, by the end of the trip, we started creating our own version of the stories of the maharajas and their palaces. We only had guides for the Golden Triangle part of the trip, at other places, oh well, we were cheapskates! Go figure. But our version were definitely more interesting! Haha. And yes, we visited Taj Mahal, of course.

Lets name my two travel buddies as The Historian (TH) and Cloud Nine (CN). First day in, the scorching hotness of April weather was instantly felt. Panas berdengung, as TH puts it. It would be more extreme in June and July. The first thing you'd notice in India is the craziness of its traffic. Fans of Amazing Race would understand this. To see it on tv is one thing, but to experience it is another! Honking happens every milisecond, by everyone and everything, busses lorries trucks cars 'mosquitoes' tuktuks bicycles.. you name it. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, yet they act like they do. Left and right signals is almost never used, cutting lanes is expected, fast and slow lanes are non-existent, even one way streets are not observed! Busses park in the middle of roundabouts, cars kiss each other all the time. And the most wonderful thing of it all, animals roam the streets like they themselves are vehicles.. cows are kings of the roads, they can't be touched or disturbed.. camels, elephants, babi, goats, monkeys.. its like a zoo everywhere you look. Tuktuks meant for four have 10 people riding in it, 4 adults can sit on a mosquito, a bus is only full when the roof top is filled to the brim. like literally, on top of the bus roof. I once crossed the roundabout with our super nice driver Birender walking by my side, he did not even look left and right, so when in Rome... hahaha you guessed it. Poor TH and CN were behind us and they were desperately trying to dodge all the vehicles and animals, and I was walking like I owned the street. On our way from Udaipur to Jodhpur, the car made some weird noises, somewhere just after Ranakpur. It was around 1pm, super hot, in the middle of desert mountains, and the car stalled next to a small hut where some villagers were sitting down doing nothing. Sometime later, Birender managed to get a tuktuk to, get this, tow our Tata Indigo, which is roughly the size of a Saga, with all four of us in the car, with just a very thin steel wire! to a nearby town to be repaired. As Birender puts it, in India, everything is possible! Truly Incredible.

India has the second largest population in the world at 1.21 billion, second only to China. So you can only imagine the number of people around! Being on the road for many2 hours driving from one city/village to another, we saw all kinds of people. I wondered what it would be like in the life of any one of these people. God knows what they do, where are they going. There were people just sitting down under the shades of the trees doing nothing, people watching probably, and watching other people people watching, geddit? People selling fruits, vegetables, kuih-muih, drinks and anything else you can think off. Shops open late, around 10 or 11 in the morning. In the smaller cities or villages, or the slums area of a big city like Jaipur, you can really see how poor these people are. I saw an area in Ajmer where they lived in only a small space, house doors open for the world to see there's really nothing inside, people brushing their teeth and bathing in front of their houses, using tap waters by the roadside. Families so poor they don't even have pants to provide for their kids. Children begging for food or money is a normal sight. The thing is, as much as you want to help these kids, once you give to a lone pigeon, the rest will flock to you, and then you're in a dilemma. Its either you help everybody, or help nobody. And we had to resort to the latter. I have mentally prepared myself to be heartless and emotionless because I've read about these conditions, so I wasn't really affected with what I saw. But its really not a nice situation to be in.

One glaring thing to note is that the women (everywhere we went to except Delhi), wore saris all the time, no matter what they were doing. Be it tending to the crops and hays, doing construction work, carrying heavy stuff, pushing carts. Everyone. And the women are so excellent on carrying loads, big or small, on their heads, without falling or tripping, I'm sure they can become successful top models in no time, given the chance.

Most shop keepers can guess that we are Malaysians, almost always saying.. Malaysia, Truly Asia! I can't imagine how our tourism tagline is famously known there, I would think that adverstisments on tv would be the main source of information dissemination, but not once I saw any advert promoting our country on tv, and we did watch a lot of tv while we were there. But some clueless people guessed we were from Korea and Japan, going as far as greeting us in Korean. This happened at places where I think not many Malaysians have gone to. I guess most Malaysians like comfortable and luxury travels, going on tour groups and all that. So they are only brought to touristy places and expensive showrooms (to get conned by overpriced highly marked up prices) by the tour operators. Once I was thought to be from Sudan.. damn! I know la I'm not even near to being fair, but I'm not THAT 'tanned' am I? Is there something I'm not seeing? Haha. Someone figured I was Iranian.. that's not too bad I suppose. One guy thought TH was a Bangladeshi.. hahaha. We were so making fun of each other about this. On one of our many road trips, a truck fell on its side and a crane was trying to pull it back up right. So the road was blocked and it was nearby a very small village. A large group of the villagers were gathered by the road side to watch, including a group of children. And then they saw us, our car, and the most bizarre thing happened. All of a sudden this group of kids surrounded our car, looking inside. These strange looking people in the car were more interesting to look at than the fallen truck, and the truck was huge!! I felt like an alien. But it was also endearing to see the kids looking very excited, to err... look at us! I brought out my camera to take their pictures and they were so excited and was smiling and laughing and pointing to us and covering their faces and the car window.. The road was finally unblocked,  Birender who got out of the car earlier shooed the kids away, and CN and I waved at the children and they waved back. Incredible.

Everywhere we went, the Indians were generally very friendly. After guessing where we're from, they'd ask a lot of other questions as well. Between the 3 of us, sometimes we were siblings, or cousins, sometimes husband and wife. Sometimes we work as engineers, lecturers, accountants, teachers, doctors.. or students.. whatever we feel like at the time. Depends on the flow of conversation. Haha. Role playing is fun! We didn't go to the mechanic with Birender when the car broke down, he left us at a small shop that sells handmade carpets, and we waited for 4 long hours. God knows what we did to pass the time. At one point I just went outside by the road to.. do nothing (like the locals haha), and then there was this woman walking around. She clearly couldn't speak English, but we ended up chatting using hand signals haha. I was intrigued by the plastic bangles that she wore on both her arms, from the wrist right up to her biceps. I touched them, she gave me one of the bangles to try on, she even tried to take out some of the harder ones to remove, but seeing her struggle I gestured, its ok. She was happy to show me whatever it was.. If I had the camera with me at the time, I would've definitely taken a cam whore pic with the lady! After the friendly woman left, I noticed a young guy nearby, standing by his car, watching us. He spoke English, so when I asked, he explained that in some cultures, when the women get married, their husband will give them these bangles to wear.. and they can never take it off ever.. not until the husband dies. How the hell do these women sleep yo? The 20 year old dude was a Muslim from Jaisalmer, waiting for some French customers to meet him there that wants to buy his textile products. He spoke good French, which he learned from interactions with customers.. how awesome.

The buildings and houses all around are mostly half done, its like they don't care, as long as its liveable inside. Its an eyesore really. But not all are like that. In Bolivia and Oman buildings are not completed on purpose so that they pay less taxes. But here, buildings are not completed because they're just plain lazy to finish it, I'm guessing. The flat rooftops suggests that rain does not come often in Rajashtan. I've always dreamed of living in a place where I can chill on the rooftops, overlooking the city/hills, reading a book while laying on a hammock. So I was super thrilled when our hotel in Udaipur had a rooftop restaurant. For two nights, we sat at the edge, overlooking Lake Pichola and the sunset. We played cards, read books, ate dinner, and of course, talked and talked and talked non stop until the restaurant closed shop. At night, the full moon was even more gorgeous, pics taken did not do justice at all. The stars can be seen very clearly and after 6 years, I could finally see the Ursa Minor (Small Dipper) again, the only constellation that I can recognize and remember from my astronomy class during my freshman year. The luxury hotel in the middle of the lake arranged for a fireworks display. It was perfect, words alone couldn't convey what I felt and experience during those moments. Again, it was Incredible.

In Jaipur, we chilled at Nahargah fort during sunset, that overlooked the huge city. During maghrib, we could hear the echoes of azan from every corner of the city, from on top of the hill. It sounded like there were hundreds of masjid surrounding us. It was Incredible and definitely one of my favorite moments of the trip.

You should know that we did not book any hotels prior to the trip, except for the first night in Pahar Ganj. This was by far the most unplanned trip I've ever been on, I was on the belasah je la mode, just go with the flow. Turned out to be great coz Birender got us cheap rates at decent hotels. We skimped on shopping and hotels, but we definitely did not skimp on food. Its the one thing that everyone is worried about the most. So we only ate at nice clean proper restaurants, none of us got the Delhi Belly.. I drank chai masala almost everyday, but TH and CN did not dare to, because they were worried about the milk. Synthesized milk is a big problem in India and the govt is trying to put a lid on it, they were being careful, but I just couldn't help myself. Chai masala (spiced milk tea, as opposed to just chai) is SOOOO YUMMMMMM!!! Its now officially my favorite drink, until I find something else haha. Being a vegetarian for 11 days was fine for me, but some people can get really frustrated for not being able to eat any haiwan for that long.

If our local newspapers are full of sports news on EPL and football, theirs were cricket cricket and only cricket. Times of India has a daily, or maybe weekly, I'm not sure, pullout The Speaking Tree. Its dedicated to only articles and discussion of spirituality, god, health, religion, doing good etc. The articles are really good, at least the ones that talks about these topics in general, not relating it to any gods of any religion. Its like how Christianity and Islam preaches the same good moral values to its followers. TOI has compiled some of the better articles in a book. Speaking of books, they are dirt cheap over there, I bought 3 books for a total of RM60, and really good books too which are otherwise expensive here.. Also got good deals on some cotton materials and clothings.. Everything is cheap in India, if you know where to find it (read: avoid places catered for tourists, explore the local market.. rajin la sikit).

I truly feel that the combination of the bad rep stories prior to going to India, a laid back unplanned trip, and good company made the trip so much more wonderful that I ever thought it could be. We took everything as it came, nobody even complained when the car broke down, Birender must've felt really bad but it wasn't his fault was it? Plans changed everytime, we explored the local markets on our own, at one point Birender was worried we couldn't find our way back to our hotel in Jaipur that he came later that night to check upon us. Its a pity we couldn't give more tip to him than what we could afford given that we were strapped for cash. The drives between cities were long hours, a 400km distance took 8 hrs.. but it was such an enjoyable trip, and time passed by super slow.. it felt like more than 2 weeks. I didn't expect it to be so different! And this is only one small part of India.. Even with an entry this long, there are still so many things that I haven't written.. but I can't possibly do that, I'll have to write a book if I want to tell it all!

I'll definitely be going back there again.. Jammu Kashmir in the north, Darjeeling in the east, Mumbai in the west.. Kerala and Goa in the south.. there's still so many places to experience and explore in India.. Lesson to learn, you can listen, but don't believe everything you hear, everyone's experience is his own, what we appreciate and tolerate is different from others, see it for yourself and then decide. I'm sure many people probably can't agree with my take on India, but hey, that's the difference between travelers and tourists, no?

Dear India.. I'll be back someday! Wait for me!

p/s: South America is still the best trip of my life so far.. NZ reallyyyyyyyy close at second.. But India was really something different. 

Pre-Travel Blues

Music: So Far Away by Avenged Sevenfold

It happens to me every time.
It contradicts my love of traveling.
So, I have come to the conclusion that its a mechanism that my brain and body has unconsciously developed so that I will always enjoy my trips, by having low expectations and not getting excited.
Its whack really.
But I guess it works, because after every trip, I always want more and more..

So I'll be gone for 11 days starting this Thursday on yet another adventure..
And I haven't even started on those wonderful days in South America.. let alone Dubai/Muscat and Beijing prior to that.

As If I'm That Much More Experienced, I'm Only Twenty-bleeeeep!! LOL

Music: Seize The Day by Avenged Sevenfold

I just finished Slam by Nick Hornby, bought it only coz it was on sale for 10 bucks.
Well, I liked about a boy, and i heard fever pitch and high fidelity are really good.. have to check them out.
Slam was ok i suppose, its about a teenage boy dealing with his gf being pregnant at a young age.
It was a light read.. he's funny as always.. his style of writing is different.
I liked all the characters in the book.
But the main issue was a little too... trivial for me.. hahaha ntah..
Teenage stuff (although being pregnant/parent at 16 years old is a serious issue, i guess).
And of course because its a story about teenagers, i feel their immaturity.. and i couldnt be bothered really.
hahahaha.. its like this one time, i just finished hiking bukit tabur and we were waiting for our friends who were lagging a bit, and then out of nowhere a bunch of college students walked passed us..
Although I couldnt be sure that they were college students, but then again i was sooo sure they were because of how they looked like, how they dressed, how they talked, the expression on their faces..
Hmm im not sure where im going with this actually.
I've lost track of my train of thoughts.
But anyway, it was an ok read.
Nothing to rave about.. sorry to all the Nick Hornby lovers out there.

Wordless Wednesday

Music: Been So Long by M-Flo

Nothing Revolutionary

Music: Tomorrow by Shimokawa Mikuni

Took me about 4-5 hours to read The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, with my reading pace of a crawling turtle.
I can see why the book was such a success, his first book that gave him international recognition.
The ideas he presented were definitely not originally his, but what he did was that he compiled a whole lotta researches and experiments and statistics, provided many examples and related it to the happenings around the world, in a coherent way, so as to better present the idea to the masses like me.
But I'm not that utterly wow-ed, but definitely an interesting read nonetheless.
This time round (because I read his third book, Outliers, first), the ideas were more interesting and new and is something that we can learn from and maybe successfully execute, if we're good/brilliant enough.
(To me, Outliers was crap.. read it sometime in June last year.. I think I wrote a review about it here too).
It was an OK read I suppose, not a waste of time, unlike Outliers.
(God, I really hate that book huh)