A trip to Lhasa

I am finally in Lhasa! The purpose of this trip… So much experience in such a short time, so many newly met people that maybe I will never meet again, so many places that I visited which will stay in my memory forever… I sit now here in the main square of the city and try to remember what happened and what will happen now, after everything is finished.
For so many years I was thinking that my life will start just now. But there was always a difficulty, there was something that I had to start doing, to spend some time while getting it started, to give some debt back, to finish something and then I will really start living! And finally I understand that the main obstacle for me to live is my own lifestyle. I understand that there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So adore every minute of it. They will become more worth if you spend that time for something special..for such that it would be worth sharing. Remember that time is not waiting for anything. So it’s enough waiting until you finish university or come back to it, until you come back there, until you lose 10 kilos or put it on again, until your children grow up and start their separate life, until you start doing any job, until you get first pension, until you have family of divorce…until Friday night, Sunday morning, until you buy a new house or a new car, until you pay for those commodities..until spring, summer, autumn, winter, the first 15th day of the month..until you finish drinking your cocktail, get drunk, die and born again..and everything just to understand that there is no better time to be happy than this correct minute. Happiness is a trip, not a purpose. Work as you don’t need money, love like you would have never been pained, dance like no one sees you…
It is a very important lesson of life that you must learn as fast as it is possible. Don’t make plans to live later. Live now. And understand that there is no better time than to be happy now…

I reached it! I know in which city I am, but I’m not sure I in which country. In theory I’m in People’s Republic of China, but practically and with all my heart and soul now I’m standing in FREE Tibet.

China is like ex Soviet Russia- wants to have everything under control, & not only inside the country.  Only one difference occurs- Soviets lost everything, and China didn’t. Tibet was occupied in the end of XVII century and still belongs to the QUEEN  of the world. Though it has its money, autonomy and so on.

China nowadays, to be more precise, during this global BRAIN warming or others call it economical crisis, has a great influence in the world. The countries, which seem to be rich ones, like the USA, owe to China big big amounts of money, not speaking about the poor ones. So China bought a lot of property in those countries. For example Madagascar. This is a huge island where more than 80 % of people live below the poverty line. So now China rented millions of hectares of its land. It would be quite normal, but they pay almost nothing, and the workers are not native, but brought from China.

Though inside the country  the view is not the same- people in western part live poorly, the majority is unemployed, and if one of the family losses his job, about 10 people start starving, because they were reliant on him. The eastern part was different, but now… This year more than 6 million students gonna graduate from universities. This is a big amount even for China as the crisis inland is off-putting. A lot of people with university diploma work in factories practically earning cents. But this would be not so bad if only people didn’t need to support their parents and grandparents. Keep in  mind that people in China don’t get any retirement benefits!!

So coming back to Lhasa. It’s a very peaceful, beautiful, wonderful city. I even can’t find suitable words to describe it. It’s heaven on earth. Now I’m sitting in the highest capital in the world and I can’t pass off the mountains and the Buddhist monasteries, which are the most beautiful in the whole world. And the Potala Palace. Gorgeous! Come here and feel peace and quiet all around you.

Best wishes from Free Tibet,

Greta  

My journey lasts…oh, I even stopped counting…I don’t feel tiredness any more, joy of new experience keeps me going.
More or less we all are writers and photographers in our hearts, dreaming to travel all around the world and record impressions. And me, wanting to show you some photos which are strange, but very beautiful because are showing life’s of different people. Unbelievable, painful, childishly simple but real.

On the left – one’s Laos’s chief’s wife. She lives in insanitary conditions but has connections in America…she is very proud of it. On the right – countrywoman in Laos. Her pride is glasses, which gives her an opportunity to work and to survive.

Shaman’s wife. Those eyes could swallow you up…

A very sick man. He is almost blind. But he is happy now, because his previous life was not like a fairytale. Tattoos on his hands show that he was a slave.

This time I decide to stay in a peaceful and quiet place somewhere in nature. So as fast as I find a suitable place near the mountains and the Caspian sea in a quiet little village. But I still cannot forget my urbanized nature, visiting public catering places, the main streets and churches is necessary for me. I visit it this time also. Result-church unbelievably beautiful. I felt totally saint which is full misunderstanding. I see such a happy waitress (because of the tips) maybe because it is not yet a season, whatever. 
People are so strange here, not angry, not depressing ,not stylish, not sophisticated. It seems like no one here knows anything about that “K” virus. I decide that it is because of those incredible mountains that they have. It forms that relaxing atmosphere with quiet sought of trees and the Caspian sea. I walk by the sea for 3 hours. Three hours: made up plans-0, splashed out thoughts-all.
So my vacation takes 10 hours but I feel like after 10 days of holidays. Yes, everything depends on the mood, on the capability to enjoy small things. For me, concrete child such kind of places always looked different, a bit magical, a bit mysterious and breathing sneaking nostalgia. It seems like you even don’t need any shopping centres or full wallet, you don’t need anything. You just need to be there, you don’t need to search for anything, to find anything. I do not want to leave but I put that serenity into my pocket. When it is so near me…

More or less Russia is different from another countries. County where such kind of values like honour has other meaning. Everything what is understood as crime in all civilized world has romantic spice and becomes heroic movement in Russia. I am talking about war, post-war and all other uncomfortable episodes of our history. Can anybody count how many medals and awards got people (if we can call them like this ) who barely restricted with shooting armless people? How many people were martyred for the better tomorrow which somehow never came?(maybe only for few units) And how many those sons of the bitches are kept in Moscow that, for heaven’s sake, they wouldn’t be condemned somewhere in the world? But all the world is keeping still. What would you neglect for a drop of oil… You would even kiss the syphilitic eroded Lenin for filling your petrol tank for less money.
It is not a secret that after the collapse of the Soviet union Russians felt like emasculated. It is said that having to high ambitions sooner or later leads you to frustration. Maybe that’s why Russian fascists foam and feel becoming heroes after shooting a Niger?.. The same like twenty years ago. Ok, on the other hand it is possible to understand all this…
But one of the most exciting fact is why Russian nation which was injured by their own “heroes” not less than other kolkhoz unions countries still keep that degenerate syphilitic in their capital? Unfortunately we don’t have any analogue or maybe we should embalm any maniac who killed many people? Or maybe that person who was just released from prison and murdered 10 or more people?
Obviously it is not every ones destiny to figure out the politic of Russia…

Kazakhstan is a country I always had a dream to visit. It’s a country which was never filled with tourists. Though the rarely settled countryside is really suitable 4 the active holiday- skiing, skating, mountaineering. Almost all Kazakh culture involved the horses. They were the main means of transport, during hard times- food.  People drink kumis everywhere & all the time, kumis & the horse beef sausages are real delicacy. Kokpar is a traditional Kazakh game which is played sitting on the horse- riders compete who is the first that throws a dead goat into excavation. The winner of the games gets a brand new Lada. :D

Astana, the new capital, embodies all the president’s ideas. His purpose was to build a futuristic city where the wind pulsates the steppes. Astana is famous not only for its architecture but also 4 the origin of its name. In XIX century it was called Akmolinsk, which means White Graves. In the late fifties when Nikita Chruschov started a program of set-aside land, the city was named as Celinograd (A City in Wilderness). After regaining the independence the city regained its old name. Finally it was decided to name the city as Astana, as it means The Capital.

The previous capital Alma-Ata now is a commercial and cultural centre of Kazakhstan. However it attracts the majority of tourists. It’s a great city with a perfect night life!!!

Kazakhstan is famous for being a melting-pot: there r more than 130 ethnic groups! Ethnic Kazakhs make only 40 % of the population! Not long ago there was a fight between Kazakhs and Turkish guys. More than 200 people were injured, and it’s because Kazakhs think that immigrants try to steal they jobs and women.

Speaking ‘bout their culture these people are really hospitable- they are always ready to share even the last bite.  Usually the stay at Kazakhs’ ends up with slaughter of goat or sheep.  Bon Appétit!

Moscow is the most expensive capital in the world. I admire this city. It‘s gorgeous. It’s expensive not only speaking ‘bout the prices where a bottle of water costs about 10 bucks in a restaurant, but also about people. 74 billionaires, such as Oleg Deripaska, Vladimir Lisin & Roman Abramovich,  live in Moscow. All the best & the most expensive posh parties are held there. The best gold is Russian one. The majority of Russians know what word luxury means. They are show-offs, but really good ones!

So, now we’re in Moscow. It is beautiful- all those buildings- I just can’t grad away my eyes. Everything is knee-deep in beauty. Especially I like churches; though some people say, that’s enough 2 c one church, ‘coz all of them r the same. But I have none of. They’re similar in some ways, but have so many differences! Each of them has something that refers only 2 it, as e.g. the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. It was demolished during the Soviet period, but now it shines in glory!

It has a beautiful history as well. My country, 2 tell the truth, shares the majority of history with Russia, starting from auld lang syne! By the way, If u think that only Russia attacked us, u make a mistake, buddy! In the XIV century we stepped in Russia with the Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas to the fore! And we kept the Kremlin surrounded for 3 days! ‘coz later Russia occupied us for several times but this is not the point

We’re crossing Moscow, and I remembered my dad had an old friend there living, so I got his contacts to ask if we could spend the n8 in his place. So, now I’m sitting on the couch, eating goulash and writing. These were long days, so probably, we’ll sleep long 2morrow.

So today, early in the morning I was trying to reach city centre by a public transport-bus and it is such place where you want it or not you become a silent witness of other people lives. I go by a bus and hear how one young Russian boy sais to one girl very quietly and miserably, like he would have committed a crime, like telling her that he is sorry and asking to forgive: „Prasti,… nu ja tibia liubliu…”. (sorry…but I love you…”) I carefully scan the bus to check who here “liubit” someone and see how a simple boy, with eyes full of emotion, declares one’s love for a simple honest girl in a public place, in front of alien people. His hands are on her shoulders, I see how his fingers desperately clings, eyes run through her face trying to read her reaction and find an acceptance. Both very shy, as scared roes with big timid eyes. It is just a matter of few seconds. Then faces change, brightens. Smiles peers from under their shy eyelashes. His fingers relaxes, slides down her shoulders, sleeves, finds her palms, their fingers meet, gently entwines. It happens unconsciously, they don’t even mention it . I see that it is the first time for them, maybe the first confess of love, first apology, who knows. Although I am very curious, I understand that I can’t stare so tiresomely. I recoil from them. The bus stops and they debus, quiet and shining. I see their receding meshed silhouettes.
I still remember those kindly, undulating as velvet, as a splash of milk, slowly like a smoke floating in a coffee, spitted out words „Ja tibia liubliu“. It is one of the most subtle and specific aspect of the Russian language-that unbelievable fitness to tell a person you love him.

So as you know I am now in Poland sitting and eating ice cream near a church (oh I have seen lots of them in this country!) with my good friend. She explains me that polish people are very religious and conservative as I already mentioned while traveling here. Then she tells me one quite interesting and shocking story when a simple polish woman was pregnant and didn’t want to give birth to that little baby because doctors said that if she will give birth to it, she will get blind. Church prohibited it. Now she is blind…Religion…you won’t get to heaven after having an abortion…and it is much more important then to see…really..?

How many millions of people were burned on fires, terribly tortured in many different ways, etc. by the partisans of Christianity? How many millions died in religious wars and crusades? Have you ever tried to calculate? Believers only think about what HERETIC MARKSISTS, COMUNISTS (THESE ARE ALSO RELIGIONS) made bad for the world but don’t see their own hundreds of years lasted cruel jobs.

Religions are supported by a LIE, which was born because people were not able to explain some world’s phenomena and wished to get all world as a present in the name of God. Generally in all religions saint writings give a world to their believers-for those, who had written those texts. Religion is a FOOLING of simple-minded people with an intention to get as much money as it is possible to those who collect it for their living needs.

Actually religions work as insurance companies – collect material values – “payments” from their clients and promise to take care of them after an accident-death and put them into Heaven, a place of eternal sanatorium. The only difference between religion an business is that in real life, in real business you or your relatives get a part of given payments back if an accident happens – car crash, death etc. But in church case all that money just stays in the pockets of priests, bishops and in Vatican’s safes. Of course that money is also used for the spreading of religious propaganda.

The other scary fact is for example the situation in Africa, where the diffusion of AIDS in some regions is 15-50%, missioners of Christianity propagate that it is a sin to use condoms and even lie that it doesn’t help to avoid AIDS. God is of course good, but if to look from the Africans point of view such kind of short-sightedness and propaganda of Christianity is nothing else but GENOCIDE!!! So because of that to demand respect and obedient quietness for religion from a person who has all information about Christians “jobs” in the world and negative opinion about religion is incompatible with sober logic and kindness…

Me and the new company (Ana, Miroslav, Nadia, Sergej and Nastia) started our trip to Russia. We left home about 6.30 a.m. The weather wasn’t as great as it had been before. The dark clouds surrounded our group, the wind blew a lot. We were afraid of the storm. Yes, our fairs came true! Still we decided 2 reach Konotop, a city in North East. We made a few stops because Nadia wanted 2 pee quite often. And of coz we had 2 stop to have a dim and think a bit about the weather.

The storm started and we really wanted to find some shelter. So we stopped at petrol. As the storm was really terrible, we decided to spend the night in petrol. For unknown reasons the man who was working there was friendly and even opened a bottle of vodka. And we started drinking. The most common word that night was BUDMO(cheers in Ukrainian)! I really like this country, coz there is always some occasion 2 drink! Somebody arrives, and they drink, when that somebody leaves, they drink again. If something good happens, they celebrate, if something bad, they drink 2 forget. But that good or bad occurs almost every day. Yeah, I could get used 2 that. It seems that they worship alcohol. No, it’s not alcohol, it’s VODKA. It’s healthy, it’s useful in many cases (e.g. 2 cure some disease, no, all disease).

After a drunk night in petrol we left to Konotop, only this time we were moving slower than normally people go by bikes. 2day we made a lot of stops because most of us had to puke regularly! Still we reached Konotop by the end of the day. Now I’m sitting in a youth hostel and dreaming about shower and bed. 2morrow we’re leaving to Moscow!