Same Same But Different

We came into this world on the same day. My forceps provided the slipstream for her, 5 minutes later - and twin-life began. It was a mixed bag. The fun of having a ready-made playmate was diluted by sibling surveillance, and sharing. People said we were polar opposites. Maybe. Or maybe we were the same…

Drop your Angkor, weigh your thoughts…

Cambodia, a perplexing place - one day you're watching the sunrise over the "8th wonder of the world". The next, you're standing in the middle of the killing fields shocked by the evil humans are capable of. After a month on the beaches of Goa I can handle sightseeing again. So we fly to the…

Temple Tunes

There's something about a Hindu temple that makes me wanna sing a bit of Sanskrit. I've only gotta enter one of those places and the words "Govinda jaya jaya" or "acintya bheda bheda tattva", are in my head. So as I'm in India (the home of Sanskrit), I thought I'd find out what these old…

KL: The Second Coming

It's been 6 years since I was last in KL, but that was a honeymoon and sightseeing weren't exactly a priority, so we're back for another look... One thing we missed on our last visit (much to the disappointment of the missus) was a trip up the Petronas Twin Towers. So we book ourselves in…

These Buddhists might be onto something…

My trips to Big Buddha and the A-Ma Temple got me thinking about this Buddhist teaching I came across a few years ago. It's the only one I know, but to me it makes perfect sense. Don't believe anything simply because you have heard it. Don't believe anything simply because it's spoken by many. Don't…

The Wisdom of the “Fool”

  Visiting Big Buddha* reminded me of that old Beatles tune - The Fool on the Hill**. Not because he's a fool, but because people don't seem to be taking much notice of him. In a place where Buddhism is the most popular religion, I find it ironic that there's so much consumerism going on.…