The very Indian sounding Manjushri Monastery (named after one of the Boddhisattvas) was my first site of visit here in Chengdu. Locally known as Wenshu Yuan, this is a pretty place, if you ignore the high commercialization outside. Once inside the temple premises, it’s calm and peaceful.
Chengdu right now is freezing. The temperature is hovering around 6 to 7 degrees Celsius. The skies speak for it. Slate grey is the only color I have seen so far in the three days that I have been here. This is the centre of the city, near Tianfu Square where I went exploring today....
Just a short post to say that today was a complete rest day. After yesterday’s gruelling exercise we needed to give our battered bodies a rest. So all we did was lounge around, sleep, eat and shop at the night market. And it was also a no bicycle day. Also, so far in Luang Prabang,...
I have not known the meaning of true tiredness for a long time until today. But then bicycling 60km is not a joke. I even doubted if I was up to it. But K/G said we must give it a shot after our newer fitness levels and I thought yes we should. So we set...
A good night’s sleep restored my tired limbs and muddled senses. Since we had not planned on anything concrete today we took bicycles again and went around town. Visited a couple of Wats or temples. The highlight of the day was cycling all the way to Ban Pho, which is a village of weavers. The...
Our bus tickets to Luang Prabang were booked. After a long wait, a van finally came to pick us up at our hotel. There was a further wait in the bus itself but at last it left around half an hour late. For the first time in my life I found myself not shivering in...
The rain has finally tired itself out I think. Yesterday it poured the whole day with alternating strength. But I hired a bicycle for 10,000 kip (a little more than $1) for half a day and a blue poncho that says “Shower Attack.” After equipping myself with these items I had lunch at a vegetarian...
This latest trip was long due. Well, by my standards. Its been more than five months since I went anywhere and the travel bug had started biting badly. So here I am in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, which most people mistake for Lagos in Nigeria. A sleepy town, its hard to believe that its...
