In Malang, A Precious Treasure

Located around 2 hours south of Surabaya in East Java, Malang is a pretty town endowed with everything magical: from ancient Hindu temples, beautiful mountain ranges, (the famous Mt. Bromo is really a stone’s throw away) and its wealth in nature and vegetation.  It is a university belt, and whichever way you turn there is a large university or college to greet There is the famous Malang apple, beautiful orchids, and the cool Malang temperature that decidedly puts you in a good mood.

For me though, it was Hotel Tugu that brought on the magic.

Tugu Malang Hotel

The hotel is a jewel box that sings to you the way filigree bracelets chime on the arms on a pretty girl. It is history, art, and elegant living. Located in the heart of the old town, it overlooks the main Independence  Monument and a  gorgeous lotus pond which is the main element of the dazzling round about.

Tugu Malang is home to a priceless collection of  Javanese Babah Peranakan antiques, the centuries old mixed culture art that is Chinese and Javanese, a vast and beautiful richness that demonstrates the history of Java.

A simple but splendid table setting

Each piece of furniture tells a story

The Genghis Khan Room

The Silk Road

 

Sheer colors to astound

The Silk Road Pavilion is the hotel’s exquisite dining hall, inspired by the exotic places that dot the historic Silk Road and the Spice Route. It consists of four rooms:  the Tirta Gangga, the Persian Room, the Kublai Khan Chamber, and the Marco Polo.

Long delightful hallways pour forth astounding colors so dazzling, you can only sigh.  Reds, pinks and lavender call attention to the wooden banquettes  polished to a pretty glimmer .

Lovely paintings dot the walls, completing the resplendence that defines the ambiance of rooms that leave you in wonder.

There are quiet spaces to rest and simply enjoy the experience of such lovely surroundings, as if the designer knew that such a saturation of the senses would require some respite.

This wonderful hotel is a careful thought, a beautiful pause, an aria that lingers long after you’ve left Malang.

Peeling the layers off Bangkok

I love Bangkok because it is never the same, yet it is never different! Grand palaces and magnificent temples lie side by side with street markets that peddle the cheapest goods on the planet. The sharp contrast can be heady, much like the tastes and smells of Thai food. Most of the time Bangkok makes sense to me, although there are infinite layers to it that can be intoxicating.

You emerge from Bangkok somehow redefined by your choice of  Things You Did.

Patpong!

There’s the shopping first of all, and there’s Patpong of course.  Located  between the parallel streets of Silom and Surawongse Roads, palpitating Patpong  is home to around a hundred strip bars, though its seedy reputation has been softened by a sleazy overpriced market on Soi 1 where you can get  cheap knock offs  if cheap is your trip. No one there pretends it is real either! Shopping here is not limited to Farangs (foreigners), and you will find many locals looking for the cheap.

For really serious bargain hunters, there is the Chatuchak (Jatujak in Thai, hence “JJ”) weekend market, the  king of all shopping markets, covering around 35 acres containing around 5,000 stalls. Chatuchak can swallow you up and spit you out in utter confusion. You might think at first that you will do the rounds first, figure out what what interests you and then return from whence you started.  Doesn’t happen that way. This market is Dante-esque and you either jump in or get voted off that island.

For some elegance, there is the Jim Thompson House on  Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama 1 Road, opposite the National Stadium , where you will find the finest silks and the best Thai designs. The house /museum consists of teak structures and  six traditional Thai-style houses. There is also a wonderful restaurant there. It will be a leisurely and enchanting visit with the assurance that you get you get your money’s worth for the quality of Jim Thompson goods.

But one does not go to Bangkok without visiting its temples. It is said that there are around  450 Buddhist temples, 170 mosques, 60 churches, 3 Hindu Temples, 3 synagogues, 1 Sikh gurdwara and 1 Jain temple in Bangkok.

The Wat Phra Kaew is the temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram), the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand.

The temple is located within the grounds of the Grand Palace and enshrines Phra Kaew Morakot (the Emerald Buddha)on Na Phralan, Phra Nakorn .

Wat Arun ( Wat Chaeng)  is on the west (Thonburi) bank of the Chao Phraya River. It is called the Temple of Dawn because according to legend King Taksin fought his way out of  Ayutthaya when it was attacked by a Burmese army and arrived at this temple just as dawn was breaking. The Temple is absolutely stunning at sunset, particularly when lit up at night.

Temple of Dawn

The ancient city of Ayutthaya is  the centre of museums, temples, palaces and historical sites and is 76 kilometres north of Bangkok .The  Bang Pa-In Palace at Amphoe Bang Pa-in is  the Summer Palace, and is located on the Chao Phraya River bank in the Bang Pa-In district.

the Aisawan Thiphya-Art (Divine Seat of Personal Freedom), a pavilion constructed in the middle of a pond

Ho Withun Thasana (Sages' Lookout), a brightly-painted lookout tower

Warophat Phiman (Excellent and Shining Heavenly Abode), a royal residence

West  of Ayutthaya is Wat Chaiwatthanaram,  an imposing monastery.  The temple has a main ‘prang’ (or tower) which is 35 meters tall surrounded by a series of smaller prangs situated alongside a gallery containing over 100 Buddha images. The temple is spacious and its well-kept grounds are peaceful. Well worth a visit if history and culture are your interest.

Food! Or you can really simply indulge in that world famous Thai cuisine.

The famous pad Thai

The famous Tom Yum Goong!

Mango with glutinous rice

But the best to-do Bangkok is to see the beautiful daughter, the one who makes Bangkok truly beautiful!

Tish!

In Lourdes: Finding the prayer in spite of the kitsch

Lying in the foothills of the Pyrénées in south-western France,  Lourdes is  famous for the apparitions of Our Lady to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. The location is spectacular: you have the contrast of rough stone church spires, eggshell colored houses and dark tiled roofs. The valley is punctuated with very tall poplar trees and embroidered by pretty winding rivers.

The point of the visit of course is ground zero: the scene of Bernadette’s religious vision. Since Lourdes has this weird suddenly one way street traffic plan, it is better to walk.  In fact Lourdes is a pedestrian town meant to encourage walks and strolls.

The path to the sanctuary is an amusing display of honky tonk religious shops lining Boulevard de la Grotte where you must pass in order to get to the sanctuary.  The shops are quite tacky and display Virgin Mary night light statuettes, a bijouterie of rosaries in wood, plastic and porcelain, Lourdes water bottles in every shape possible: cross shaped, Mary shaped, round, square, octagonal, made of  plastic, glass, vinyl.

But suddenly you are the end of the boulevard, at St. Michael’s Gate.  The gate is topped by three archangels and you get the feeling you are now free of the tourist trap. At the end of the lane is the 120,000 foot Rosary Square with two ramps framing the Basilica of the Our Lady of the Rosary, and beyond and atop that, the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception (Basilique de l’Immaculée Conception), also known as the Upper Basilica.

The church bells  peal  to the tune of the hymn Ave Maria , calling the faithful to prayer, mesmerizing you  to respond so you follow the throng forming a line for the rosary. The continuous mass praying of the Ave Maria, the Hail Mary is somewhat hypnotic  and by the time you get to the Grotto, you are calm and prayerful and are truly moved. The prayers at night are magical as thousands of candles flicker like fireflies around the Marian square. The pilgrims, led by malades in wheelchairs chant Ave, Ave, Ave Mariam in supplication.

Right around the Prayer Path is the Grotto, its rocks smoothened by more than a century of touching and rubbing and on the floor of the Grotto is a port hole where the original miraculous spring itself continues to gurgle forth the holy spring.  Long troughs with spigots provide water from this spring for the faithful to drink or collect. There is holiness to this drinking or collecting as pilgrims chant quiet prayers around the spigots.

The Original miraculous spring

Pilgrims continually light candles in the metal prayer stalls, representing prayers and offerings for special people or causes.

When I was there sharp needles of rain poured on everyone but the candles did not die out and the pilgrims, caught up in the trance of the prayer were impervious to the cold wind and the freezing rain.

The real miracle at Lourdes today is being able to go past the Las Vegas atmosphere of the pilgrim trap outside, to enter a sanctuary of prayer and discover that the abstract power of the spirit is still there, somewhere within you.

One with the Gods: the Parthenon, the Temple of Apollo and the Temple of Athena

It is a pleasant boatride  from Kusadasi to the Greek Island of Samos, said to be the birthplace of the goddess Hera. After a  plane ride you are in Athens and the embrace of Mythology.

Leaving Turkey for Greece

Greek mythology tells you that you will find the center of the earth if you drive through lower central Greece and soon find yourself in Delphi which is north of the Gulf of Corinth in central Greece. Here, along the slope of Mount Parnassus lies the Sanctuary of Apollo where the ancient oracles were pronounced in a trance by the Sybil, and the one to Athena, complete with a theatre and athletic areas, or the stadium.

Apollo’s sanctuary is rough hewn, built of limestones that surround the area, unlike the Parthenon in Athens which is built of marble. This roughness adds to the mysticism of the area, and its location on the highest peak of Delphi provides an arresting view of the surroundings , evoking silent reverence.

You walk up the slopes in a sort of awed silence – perhaps because you know the spiritual and cultural significance of the area, but also because the multiple plateaus and terraces bespeak the depths of two sanctuaries.

In the ancient past, the Aegean area emerged from the Dark Age and these two sites forged the cultural unity of the Greek world: Zeus’s Olympia and Apollo’s Delphi. While the Olympic games demonstrated civilized competition among Greeks, the Oracle at Delphi was the essential site for knowledge. In fact, the motto on Apollo’s temple reads, “know thyself” and “everything in moderation”.

In the Delphi museum a lateral sculpture depicts the “Omphalos” or the navel – symbolic of Delphi as the center of the universe. This navel stone also symbolized worship to the goddess Gaia, the earth mother.

The Temple of Apollo

Apollo spoke through: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi . The sibyl was an older woman who had lived a pure life and chosen from among the peasants of the area. It is said that she would sit on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth where Apollo slew Python. Fumes from its decomposing body rose as vapors and the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied. The Sibyl would get into a trance and she would incantate prophecies whih were translated by the temple priests.  It is here that the the most famous Greek prophecy was revealed – a prophecy that was the central theme of what is probably the most famous Greek tragedy, the tragedy of Oedipus.

The Stadium

The amphitheater where spiritual contests were held

The Laurel represents Apollo’s first love, Daphne.  It is said Apollo’s love for her was triggered by an earlier dispute between Apollo, god of the silver bow and Eros (cupid) who used bows to enchant individuals to love. Eros flies to the peak of Mt. Parnassus and shoots his gold tipped arrow against Apollo and the fatal love for Daphne ensued. At the same time Eros shot a lead tipped arrow at Daphne, putting her into flight, upon which she turned into a laurel tree.  Apollo broke a branch from the tree and set this on his head, declaring

Since you cannot be my bride, you shall at least be my tree. My hair, my lyre, my quiver shall always be entwined with you, O laurel. (Apollo. Ovid Metamorphoses).

ATHENA’S SANCTUARY: MARMARIA

Athena’s sanctuary  is situated below Apollo’s sanctuary and is probably  one of the most well-recognized structures in Greece.

The Treasury

Delphi was so extremely developed and a treasury was built to house its wealth. In the ancient past the treasury was embellished with friezes and statues of caryatids – (“carya” – place south of the Peloponnese where girls were extremely beautiful and danced to honor the gods; therefore caryatids refers to the lovely girls from his area ) – holding up larger statues,such as that of the sphinx, and Kouros (statues of young men with the ‘archaic smile). Now these works are found in the museum close to the sanctuary.

The Parthenon , Temple to Athena, goddess of Athens

Work on the Parthenon began in 447 BC and displays the height of the Doric era. It is a temple to Athena built on the Acropolis, a hill overlooking the city of Athens. It is said to have been designed by Phidias at the behest of Pericles, a Greek politician credited with the founding of the city of Athens and with stimulating the Golden Age of Greece. The temple was sacred to two aspects of the Greek goddess Athena, Athena Polios (“of the city”) and Athena Parthenos (“young maiden”).

The Parthenon is a dazzling display of marbles,  so treasured that many dominant countries struggled to own at least some of them. The controversial Elgin Marbles refer to  ancient sculptures taken from Athens to England in 1806 by Thomas Bruce, 7th earl of Elgin. The Parthenon is meant to dazzle and to awe.

The Parthenon drenched in the Greek Sun

The Parthenon all lit up, the most awesome sight in Athens

Istanbul and Kusadasi: A Double Take in Turkey

Istanbul

In 1929, a swing style song about Istanbul was an international top tune.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople)

Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople/ Now it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night . . .

So take me back to Constantinople /No, you can’t go back to Constantinople /Been a long time gone, Constantinople /Why did Constantinople get the works? / That’s nobody’s business but the Turks

Who knows why a song about such an exotic country became an American hit?

There are countless beauties to love about Turkey (Türkiye), but what I love most is the fact that is authentically Eurasian. Turkey spans across the Anatolian peninsula in western Asia and Thrace (Rumelia) in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe. The beautiful country is embraced by eight countries which border it : Bulgaria to the northwest; Greece to the west; Georgia to the northeast; Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran to the east; and Iraq and Syria to the southeast.

It is surrounded by awesome seas: the Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus to the south; the Aegean Sea to the west; and the Black Sea to the north. The Sea of Marmara, the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles mark the boundary between Eastern Thrace and Anatolia and separate Europe and Asia.

Most of Modern Turkey is comprised of the Anatolian peninsula, one of the oldest continuously inhabited regions in the world. The settlement of Troy, setting of one of the world’s most important literary works, began in the Neolithic and continued into the Iron Age. The Roman emperor Constantine I chose Byzantium to be the new capital of the Roman Empire in 324, renaming it New Rome (later Constantinople and Istanbul).

Various religions exist side by side, all forming a spiritual base of a country so unique in beauty, history and culture. Many monuments and world heritage sites punctuate this heritage.

Sultanahmet (The Blue Mosque), right across the Haghia Sophia was built by the architect Mehmet Aga by the order of Sultan Ahmed I.in the 17th century

Aya Sofya (Haghia Sophia) Museum is an ancient Byzantine church built by Justinian I between 532-537 AD. Minarets were added to this church when it was converted to a mosque in mid 15th century and today it is a repository of both Christian and Islamic art as well as some of the best examples of Byzantine mosaics.

The Topkapı Palace (Topkapı Sarayı) : for 400 years of their reign, the Ottoman sultans used this palace as their official and primary residence. A huge compound, it consists of 4 courtyards, several gardens, and a harem, which was served as as luxurious residences.

The Grand Bazaar (Kapalicarsi) covers around 31,000 square feet and houses over 3,000 shops. It is probably the first ever mall the world ever knew, and to date it is the oldest. Because it has around 22 gates, and is composed of labyrinthine alleys, it is easy to get lost in this enormous shopping area.

The Egyptian Bazaar (Misir Carsisi) is also known as Spice Market. Built in mid-17th century by the architect Kazim Aga, it was restored in the mid-forties. The spice market contains 86 shops inside, a plant market on one side and a food market on the other. It is a saturation of colors, sights, and sounds!

South of Izmir: Ephesus and Kusadasi

But it is south of Izmir where things will take a turn, and a enthralling blend of religions take shape. South of Izmir are Ephesus (Efes), Selcuk and Kusadasi.

The library at Ephesus

Ephesus

The Lay out of Ephesus

The Medusa in Ephesus

Built by the colonizing Athens in 1000 BC as a port in the Aegean Sea, the magnificent ruins of Ephesus now overlooks an arid valley.  The city, dedicated to the goddess Artemis, was known for its Temple to Artemis. It was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ephesus represents countless facets of the ancient Greek and Roman cultures and is located between Mount Coressos and Mount Pion near Selcuk in Izmir.

The Marble Walkway

The Ampitheatre

Meryemana Evi (Mary's House)

Meryemana Evi

Around Six kilometers from Selcuk  near Ephesus is the Virgin Mary’s house. Turks call the house Meryemana Evi, or simply Meryemana.

The house is believed to be the last residence of the Virgin Mary when she was brought to Ephesus by the Apostle John after the resurrection of Christ. Mary is said to have lived her last days there.

The house is a small stone building consisting of a bedroom and a kitchen. The interior is kept simple and austere, fitted only with an altar, images of Mary and candles.

The spring that runs under the Virgin’s House is believed to have healing properties, and many miracles have been reported. Inside the house are crutches and canes said to be left behind by those who were healed by the sacred spring.

The prayer wall where I posted a prayer amidst the thousands.

Archaeologists believe that the house dates from the 6th or 7th century though its foundations are much older and may well date from the 1st century AD, the time of Mary.

Turkey is a land of vast open spaces  and  august mountain ranges, overflowing with rich archeological wonders. Graeco Roman cities here are so unbelievably well preserved. Roman aqueducts, Byzantine churches and Ottoman mosques and palaces lie side by side, as the song said, truly a Turkish delight on a moon lit night!

And while it is true what everyone who’s been to Turkey says –  that everyone’s uncle will try to sell you a carpet, the people are warm and friendly, even if you do tell them you will not buy their carpet!

This little girl was helping her father sell T shirts on the road. She invited me for tea in their modest home.

This man was making wire mandalas and gave me one for free after a conversation about personal mandalas.

Gone fishing – Schooling the seas of life

My whole life has been devoted to schools.

For more than three decades I was committed to schools for people.  Around ten years ago I shifted my attention to schools of fish.

Schools of people can be funny, trying, challenging, and always fun.  Schools of managers may define (or ruin) what the school will be, schools of students will keep it challenging, but it is the school of teachers that provide (or not) the soul of the people school.

Schools of fish on the other hand provide a universe so beautiful and baffling.  It is not only the fish, but the boats, the oceans and the fisher folk that  come together on those early, early mornings, ready to start the rituals of folk that live symbiotically with sea. It is pure theatre in dynamic and captivating settings. Soon y0u discover that there is a sameness in the rituals involved, as if written and directed by the same person.

The personae soon look the same too, the sun endowing new colors on their skin, toasting this  to a crisp darkness , hair reddened a deep copper, eyes  somewhat lighter. Some magic happens.

Fishing boats in Estancia, Iloilo, Philippines

Fishing Boats in Muncar, Indonesia

Fishing boats in Penglai, China

Fishing Boats in Vietnam

The boats have a universal look and feel. The catch is held in a hold, somewhere below the floor of the boat. The fishermen take extreme care to treat the catch with a sense of fragility.

Muncar, Indonesia

Bohol, Philippines

The catch is brought to land where it blesses the lives of many , finding  its way to various markets, or sold as food in restaurants or the streets as street food.

Shrimps - Zambales, Philippines

Stingray - Iloilo, Philippines

The commerce of the catch is itself quite entertaining.

There is an element of the  theatre in the buying and selling of fish in the Philippines.  At dawn, buyers meet with fishermen on the shores as the fishermen unload their catch, and the “bulungan” (whispering) ensues.  The blocking is simple – a buyer approaches the fisherman and whispers his price for the catch.  This goes on until the fisherman is offered the best price

Qingdao, China: Street food, squid

Muncar, Indonesia

In wet markets on the other hand, sellers sing out their goods, in and effort to outsell the competition.  This is called “kantahan” (sing-out), and makes for a very lively and energetic ambience as vendors try to out sing each other.  Musical theatre in the wet market!

This element of theatre seems universal and the same can be seen in many fishing villages around the world . . .

Following your Bliss or your Blisters? – The Monastery in Myanmar

In the 970’s Joseph Campbell would tell his students at Sarah Lawrence College to “follow their bliss”. This statement resonated so deeply with the general masses that to this day, it has become a mantra for many.

Campbell taught at Sarah Lawrence  for 39 years, and in the latter years of his teaching there, students misunderstood Campbell’s bliss statement to mean an invitation to a life of hedonism, to which  he reportedly responded snidely: “ I should have said follow your blisters”!

In fact Campbell derived his most popular and probably most misunderstood admonition to “follow your bliss” from the Upanishads:

He said:

Now, I came to this idea of bliss because in Sanskrit, which is the great spiritual language of the world, there are three terms that represent the brink, the jumping-off place to the ocean of transcendence: sat-chit-ananda. The word “Sat” means being. “Chit” means consciousness. “Ananda” means bliss or rapture. I thought, “I don’t know whether my consciousness is proper consciousness or not; I don’t know whether what I know of my being is my proper being or not; but I do know where my rapture is. So let me hang on to rapture, and that will bring me both my consciousness and my being.” I think it worked

And he added:

If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are—if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time

Clearly to Campbell the ‘hero’ is the one who possesses the courage to follow her (or his) calling.  This involves obtaining the knowledge and skills required to follow the bliss and to use that wisdom and experience for the benefit of others, a sacred and heroic journey.

So I was thinking of Campbell when I visited a Monastery in Myanmar, especially since tourists were allowed to ogle and watch the young monks during their meal time. I found this quite extraordinary and contrary to the monastic lifestyle I thought would be the hallmark of their life.

But the young monks went on with their rituals in spite of the small band of tourists and never spoke a word to us. It was a fascinating event.

Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble. Joseph Campbell

The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature. Joseph Campbell

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are. Joseph Campbell

Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths. Joseph Campbell

I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive. Joseph Campbell

Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. Joseph Campbell

Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. Joseph Campbell

Thinking of the white man’s burden: what did Kipling not experience in Mandalay?

Rudyard Kipling has been  vilified as the  jingoistic poet of The Empire, a reputation Kipling lovers have tried to re cast for many years.

But in 1899 Kipling wrote two poems which seem to map his thinking for us:

After returning to England in 1899, when he was 24 , Rudyard Kipling wrote “The White Man’s Burden” in which he appealed to the United States to seriously assume the task of developing the Philippines, which they recently won in the Spanish-American War.

In this poem, Kipling advised the United States to:

Take up the White Man’s burden– / Send forth the best ye breed– / Go bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives’ need;/ To wait in heavy harness, /On fluttered folk and wild– / Your new-caught, sullen peoples, / Half-devil and half-child.

His poem “Mandalay” was written that same year when  Kipling  arrived in England after seven years in India.   Rangoon was his first port of call en route to England after Calcutta, and he had a stop at Moulmein. Kipling noticed nothing of the serene culture of Mandalay; instead, he only had eyes for the Burmese girls. He wrote that, love the Burman with the blind favouritism born of first impression. When I die I will be a Burman … and I will always walk about with a pretty almond-coloured girl who shall laugh and jest too, as a young maiden ought. She shall not pull a sari over her head when a man looks at her and glare suggestively from behind it, nor shall she tramp behind me when I walk: for these are the customs of India. She shall look all the world between the eyes, in honesty and good fellowship, and I will teach her not to defile her pretty mouth with chopped tobacco in a cabbage leaf, but to inhale good cigarettes of Egypt’s best brand.

But the most famous Kipling impression of Mandalay is in his poem “Mandalay”:

By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin’ eastward to the sea, / There’s a Burma girl a-settin’, and I know she thinks o’ me; / For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say: / “Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!”

Come you back to Mandalay, / Where the old Flotilla lay: /Can’t you ‘ear their paddles chunkin’ from Rangoon to Mandalay?

On the road to Mandalay, /Where the flyin’-fishes play, / An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!

And yet . . .

Mandalay is the old citadel of Myanmar kings.

Mandalay palace is right in front of Mandalay Hill where the last two Myanmar Kings, King Mindon and King Thibaw resided, a reminder to British colonial time.

Mandalay Hill

The hill is the landmark of Mandalay City, the last royal city of the Myanmar Kings. It is also the hub and centre of Myanmar culture, arts and crafts, Myanmar literature, music and dancing, fine Arts.

Laquerware

Carved Bible Box

Laquer Temple Offering Urn

Emroidered tapesty: "Buddha's Footprint"

Bronze casting

This is where the core of Buddhist learning and architecture can be found and is the place where the so-called Myanmar Ten Flowers bloom and flourish. These Ten Flowers refer to the ten Myanmar traditional arts which have been passed on for centuries and which continue to be nurtured and preserved today. These are:

• Panbe (the art of blacksmith)
• Panbu (the art of sculpture)
• Pantain (the art of gold and silver smith)
• Pantin(the art of bronze casting)
• Pantaut (the art of making floral designs using masonry)
• Panyan (the art of bricklaying and masonry)
• Pantamault (the art of sculpting with stone)
• Panpoot (the art of turning designs on the lathe)
• Panchi (the art of painting)
• Panyun (the art of making lacquer ware)

Ancient traditions and culture are well respected here.

Amazingly 111 languages are spoken in Myanmar (Burma)  although the majority speak the Myanmar language (more popularly known as “Burmese” or myanma bhasa) which is the official language of Burma. Burmese is largely monosyllabic and tonal, a very formal language with specific sentence and word forms for persons of authority, the elders and monks.

Monastery

It is in Mandalay that these traditions find their home.

To visit Mandalay is to awaken your soul and journey through an invisible threshold into an exotic new world of harmony and grace.  A fragile beauty gradually unfolds, and soon you begin to fall into its allure. Dusk falls on the U-Bein Bridge with the gentleness of a calm whisper, and in the all-embracing serenity everyday cares fade away in the presence of nature’s gifts.

Mandalay is well-known for its significant monasteries, pagodas, temples and religious edifices and here too lies the royal palace, Kuthodaw pagoda, the blue ridge of the Shan mountains, and  the sleepy town of Sagaing on the bank of ever-flowing Ayeyawady or Irrawaddy.

The Palace

One of its most important sites is Kuthodaw, known as the world’s largest book. Rows upon rows of white miniature pagodas contain 729 marble slabs, which are inscribed on both sides with the Tripitaka, or Buddhist scriptures.

In 1857 King Mindon built the Kuthodaw  to safeguard the Buddhist Canon of Tripitaka Texts, which were previously recorded only on palm leaf. The texts were inscribed on 729 marble slabs, each housed in a small shrine. They say if   these shrines were piled one on top of the other, the pile would reach the height of a 20 story building.

It is said that that Kind Midon gathered 2400 monks for six months to deliberate and agree upon an authorized version. It took 5000 masons eight years to inscribe the marble slabs. Upon completion, the whole work was read aloud without a pause. It took 220 days for a monk to recite the full scriptures and five managed to memorize them.

It was also the place where King Mindon passed away.

So what is it that Kipling failed to experience in spiritual Mandalay?  Was he merely a brazen faced imperialist? Was he really the trumpet of the Empire?

These lines from him poem “The Naulkha” seem to suggest an answer: “And the end of the fight is a tombstone white with the name of the late deceased, and the epitaph drear: A Fool lies here who tried to hustle the East.”

In 1907 Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature , the first English writer to receive the award.

What to do When Things Become Ostentatious In London

Knightsbridge is an exclusive district west of Central London. It  runs along the south side of Hyde Park and is a ten minute walk to the Victoria and Albert Museum.  The area is famous as a very high end residential area and for its upmarket shops such as Harvey Nichols. You will find Jimmy Choo and Manolo Blahnik here, as well as Chanel, Prada and such similar stores.   Most importantly, it is home to Harrods.

You realize soon enough that you are in as close a proximity as possible to English Aristocracy especially when you witness Rolls Royces pouring forth their signature clad passengers.

So really, it has to be Harrods.  You realize Harrods is the thing to do in Knightsbridge even if you have to settle for the green shopping bag with the word Harrods emblazoned on it, or perhaps the iconic little teddy bear bearing the shop’s name.

Harrods’ motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique—All Things for All People. Yes, so you have your shopping bag or your little teddy bear, and you wander around the highly ornamented enclave, gawking at all things expensive.

They even sell gold bars over the counter.

Harrods’ personal shopping assistance program is known as By appointment, and they have a wine steward as well.  The place is opulent, and  some areas quite gaudy.  It has around 330 departments, with a customer service desk for each. They say they have more than five thousand staff from over fifty different countries. They are part of legend –  why they say a baby elephant was purchased here and given as a present to Ronald Reagan and in 1919 an aircraft was sold here! It is also the only place they say, where a proper present for Noel Coward could possibly be bought!

Harrods is a seven floor extravaganza!

Up from the lower ground which focuses on the ultimate in hair styles and men’s designer collections you move up to the areas of splendor: the Egyptian Hall, Fine Jewellery Room, the Room of Luxury and finally The Food Halls! Now if you happen to have just been at the Borough Market , this is the place for contrast:

Seafood displayed in elegance

Edible flowers for the flower eaters

Berries quite properly

Raw almonds

Thai mangoes for international flare!

There is a memorial to Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed, Mohamed Fayed's son. A photograph of the two is encased in a pyramid shaped glass and includes a wine glass smudged with lipstick from their last dinner together. There is also an engagement ring Dodi was supposed to have purchased the day before the tragic accident.

If you are hungry you could possibly have something to eat at any of the wonderful places at the food section.  It will be expensive, but hey, this is Harrods!

So you are wearily saturated and you now long for something quite different and perhaps less expensive.

Well, there is Hyde Park nearby.  Hyde Park –  a wonderful place for a cold drink on a balmy summer.  Its wonderful trees are old and offer cool shade to the hot and the weary. You will find the Speaker’s Corner here, where since the end of the 19^th century anyone may speak up to display erudition – although disappointing the discriminating audience may mean torment by heckling   or even police intervention if the crowds become too unruly.

If all this does not suit you there are other places of escape from ostentation: There is the Victoria and Albert Museum, The Natural History Museum and The Science Museum. If you are interested in modern and contemporary art, you might want to escape to the Serpentine Gallery.

If all else fails, there is always the ride on the London eye. You can even see Knightsbridge from there, actually.

Dancing the world of Borough Market

Borough Market is a wholesale and retail food market located beneath the railway viaducts and  flanked by  the river Thames and Borough High Street in South East London , just south of the London Bridge . Probably the most renowned food market in London, it spreads itself any which way in an adventure packed series of mazy streets and walkways  housed  under a Victorian-style warehouse roof.

Those who care about the quality and provenance of food will think they died and went to food heaven here. and it’s not just the food – it is that whole atmosphere of well crafted food and food tasting, the artisans who will proudly explain their age old food crafts (and offer you a free taste to prove their point) ,  and the stall holders who grow, rear, or bake the food they sell.  Some magical transformation from animal grower or cheese maker happens when they describe their products. The shift from food practitioner  to actor assaying a role would have put Richard Burton to shame. It begins with the attack on the role as they take a deep breath and then burst suddenly in staccato- speak:  excitedly, though in a lyrical cadence that reminds you of poetry.  It all becomes street theater as they define the role further, making big gestures, their eyes shining with happiness.

Food practitioner as artist.

Yet some of them would bother with the briefest responses, or sometimes even an incomprehensible grunt, too busy with the slicing, chopping, or cooking at hand. The soliloquy of work well loved.

It is a place to ask questions, to explore food, and to learn from the real foodies.  There is a friendly vibe about the place and it always fun to be there to experience its vibrancy. The market teems with artisans who create products by hand  –  this would range from sigh inducing French patés  to passionate curries  and from English preserves to meat pies.

There is the familiar of  baking or sweetness baked. Confections and patisseries exude the happy and familiar aroma of cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, fruits. It is fascinating how the sense of smell engenders such happy memories, especially that of cakes and pies.

The  grand arrays of traditional pies and breads, home made fudge, chocolates so colorful they remind you of an artist’s palette , will challenge your mouth not to water. Sin, sweet sin!

Chocolate wrapped candied fruit

Cakes to tittilate the sweet tooth!

Home made exotic Turkish delights!

You turn a corner and there are restaurants, bars, cafès . . .you can have what you want, from home made fish soups to ‘real’ fish and chips, from meat steaks to sausages and anything vegetarian. It is all so alluring and you find yourself wandering from stall to stall, from restaurant to bar, your head teeming with too many choices.

Proper Fish and Chips!

Fish and Chips with mushy peas

Raclette on potatoes

Hot chowders

It is also a cheese lover’s paradise. Cheeses from all over the United Kingdom and Europe dominate a large section, and the scents beckon. You know you are in the presence of great cheeses! Sellers will always give you a taste and the cheese is always matured to perfection. Aside from this plethora of perfection, there is also an abundance of butter, cream and yogurt – the best your palate will ever experience! The food artisans are quick to offer you a sample, whether the typical English Cheddar, Camembert, Stilton or Parmesan, or rare cheeses  such as Crotin du Chavignol.

A seller I spoke to  was extremely  proud of  the English  stilton, which he proclaimed to be  “The King of Cheeses” as he grandly offered me a taste. As soon as I tasted his stilton, my taste buds did a curtsy.

And there’s more: the freshest seafood.  You will find diver caught scallops, smoked salmon, Essex oysters – such an impressive variety, too many to mention. The seafood here come in all colors, sizes and textures. You will find salmon, oysters, monkfish, groupers, scallops, anything that swims!

Diver caught Scallops

The freshness, variety and alluring colors of vegetables will take your breath away. They sit in bins next to great selection of fruits, each a universe in itself, carrying seeds of life.

And the meats ! *Gasp* the market offers all imaginative edible meats from water buffalo to kangaroo, from bison and zebra to impala and crocodile.  You can have ostrich eggs or feather dusters . . . . Nothing is wasted and offal is considered prime cut.All this gawking, tasting, touching, smelling soon behooves the palate to respond, and there are cafe and bars where one can either dine in or carry home  heart melting food of any sort – a gourmet adventure!

And then there always those marmalade, jellies, jams and sauces for you to take home, bringing with a few pieces of the market and the astounding food experience!

Marmalades, Jellies and sauces to take home

It’s a short walk to the Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre from the  Borough Market, in case one desires to continue the journey to the sublime . . . .