MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for just over six years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 21 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

In our latest issue, we catch up with Ray as 2012 gets underway. We have some highlights from his Christmas Day half-marathon race – his first in over two years - as well as news of a recent trip to Shanghai which could be quite influential in determining Ray’s direction over the coming months.

In case you missed our last issue, we had an update about Ray’s final few days in India from our seasoned guest correspondent Sam Ozer, who recently joined the team to follow Ray around during his first extensive tour. Sam went with our global traveller as he explored the ancient city of Hampi, then on to Hyderabad for a short and unexpected rendezvous with his brother, before departing India for Thailand. You can read it now at: The Wonder of India – Hyderabad and Hampi

Above: In our last issue, our global traveller spent a few days exploring the ancient ruins at Hampi before meeting up with his brother in Hyderabad and leaving India for now. You can read it now at: The Wonder of India – Hyderabad and Hampi

Below: Schoolchildren from a school in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad on New Years Eve (Picture: Reuters). On behalf of everyone at The Daily Explorer, we wish our readers a very Happy New Year and hope that 2012 turns out to be truly great for all of you

With the New Year celebrations rapidly fading into the distance and our traveller enjoying a return to his favourite city in Thailand, I caught up with him in Chiang Mai to find out what he had been up to since returning from India and to see how 2012 was shaping up for him. 2011 was a big year for us at The Daily Explorer, as we sailed past the milestone of having 100,000 all time online visitors to our site and I wanted to make sure Ray was aware of it. “That is brilliant news, Mozzie!” said our happy traveller. “I am thrilled that so many people are finding The Daily Explorer and using the information that you and your team provide. It definitely makes it all worthwhile” added our global nomad. “There has been a lot of speculation that 2012 could be the end of the world as we know it and I am not sure if I entirely agree with that assessment, although in some respects, it could be very liberating for humanity. My feeling is that this year ahead is going to be exciting, challenging, dramatic in some ways and life changing for many of us and I truly hope that all of you find your own path to a deep sense of peace and happiness during this year. I will be doing my absolute best to evolve into the best version of myself that I can be and would like to support all of you to do the same” said Ray.

Above: Is 2012 the end of the world as we know it? Our global explorer doesn’t think so, although we could be in for some pretty interesting times around the world, as well as in our individual lives

Below: In 2011, we sailed past the milestone of having 100,000 all time online visitors to our site! Since November, we have been tracking the locations of where people are visiting from, and as you can see from the red dots, we seem to be enjoying quite a good global coverage. You can click on the map to see the most up to date figures and get a breakdown in every country around the world of where visitors are coming from

From previous conversations with Ray, I was aware he had been slowly getting himself back into the world of business so I asked him what 2012 might look like from this perspective. “Some readers may recall that I went through a lengthy induction process last year to join a team of business coaches at a company in Singapore called Coach In A Box. In November, they set me up to work with my first clients and I now have nine in Asia. Three are based in Thailand, three in Singapore and three in India – all places that I have enjoyed as a traveller. Working with people again in a coaching role – after a six year break - is very satisfying and I am really enjoying it. The amazing nomadic journey I have been on has taught me a great deal about the art of living and I am finding ways to blend what I have been learning about myself with my years of business experience. The people I am working with are all trying to become better versions of themselves, just like I have been doing, so I feel a tremendous sense of kinship with my new clients and can see already that our time together is valuable and productive for them” he explained. “Although working in Asia is new and exciting, and something I dreamed about when I first started this great nomadic experiment, it is early days and I don’t want to allocate too much of my time to work at this stage. As 2012 progresses, I want to develop my ability to use my intuition to assess each opportunity that comes along and only accept those which feel absolutely right, both in my heart and to my way of thinking. There is one new situation which meets those criteria and I am very excited about it” added Ray. “Don’t worry Mozzie – travelling is still of great interest to me and I am not ready to settle yet! I also want to make some progress with my book writing this year. And I am determined to have another go at running a marathon in under four hours, having failed at my first attempt in 2009! I have already started training for it and it eats up quite a bit of time” said our ambitious athlete.

Above: Lots to think about for our global traveller, pictured here at his favourite guest house in Chiang Mai - “Slowly but surely, my vision of life is coming about. Now that I am working again, I have a great opportunity to keep growing and learning, and be participating in a region which is economically dynamic and really exciting geographically” said Ray. “I feel very fortunate that things are working out for me” he told me

I asked Ray if he could tell me a little bit more about the new situation that was exciting him. “Of course Mozzie, although the timing of it is hard to predict” he told me. “Some readers may recall that I went to Shanghai a couple of years ago to discuss the possibility of becoming an associate of a coaching business there. Although nothing materialised, the journey was not wasted as I met a really inspiring man during that visit called Raf Adams, and we instantly became friends. I had an intuition at the time that our paths would cross again and they have – it’s very strange how that happens! He has written an outstanding book called “The Suited Monk“, which is just being published now” explained our global explorer. I asked Ray what the book was about and why he was excited about it. “The last six years for me have been an incredible journey in which I believe I have discovered what is truly important in life (to me) which has given me a much deeper sense of inner peace and happiness, with far less status, recognition, income and material possessions, than I ever had previously. This is not to say that everyone should copy me – on the contrary - my own unique journey has only enabled me to find out the way I truly want to live my own life. And the essence of that journey, as well as the instructions for anyone else considering going in that direction, is the subject of Raf’s book. “According to Raf, we live in a society in which a multiplicity of external experiences, pressures, stresses, choices and distractions constantly pull us away from our inner wisdom – our intuition. Our limited notion of time and resources is the ‘suit’ we wear as we try to negotiate the fast-paced world around us. Yet we fail to realise that this notion has hijacked our ability to listen to our inner self – our ‘monk’ – and find lasting peace and happiness” added Ray. “Raf’s book brings together two worlds: the inner world of happiness, love, purpose and meaning and the external world of success and achievement. Or another way of saying it would be the world of the heart and the world of the ego/mind”.

Ray went on to explain why he is so excited about the book. “The stuff Raf talks about is something that I have experienced, yet it is very hard to explain to people how it feels or what the experience is like at a deeper level. Raf’s book articulates it perfectly, and not only that. It also includes his fascinating ”Life Journey Model®” which is a visual representation of the journey we all make and is designed to help people integrate both their external and internal worlds, whilst giving people some very simple and helpful tools they can use. For some time, I have been thinking about how I can pass on the knowledge I have gained from my six year nomadic experiment to people who are interested, and now that possibility is starting to manifest. At the end of last year, Raf invited me to join a team of facilitators and trainers who will be leading workshops based on the material in the book during the coming months and I went to Shanghai to meet the team and start learning about these materials in detail. From the exposure I have had so far, I am very pleased to be working with Raf to make this kind of knowledge widely available and accessible to people and it really compliments the coaching work that I have recently started doing” said our excited traveller.

Above: People’s Square, Shanghai (left) – the venue of the “The Suited Monk” workshop for trainers and facilitators – “It was a pleasure to return to Shanghai and very satisfying to get the opportunity to work with Raf and the team he is building” said Ray. The economic juggernaut that is the Chinese economy continues to grow rapidly and there are new buildings appearing in the skyline all the time (right). In 2012, the number of wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs (3.3m) has overtaken those in Europe (3.1m) for the first time – “That is exactly why this is the perfect time for Raf to be launching his book and running these workshops” said Ray

Below: Shanghai is the fastest growing city in the world, with a population of 23 million people – “That is more than the entire population of Australia” said a gobsmacked Ray. “It explains why the place feels so crowded” observed our traveller

Above: If you want an insight as to why Shanghai, and the rest of China for that matter, is developing so quickly, take a look at this amazing video that shows an entire building going up in 15 days  from start to finish (Yes! That’s days, not months)

Below: Ray stayed at the Pacific Hotel adjacent to People’s Square – “If you didn’t know where this picture was taken, you could easily mistake it for Central Park in New York” said Ray

Above: The metro in Shanghai is expanding rapidly, with one new station being completed every month (left). Like many countries, the changing demographics mean that there are growing numbers of elderly citizens in the society whose financial means are stretched, hence why these people are lining up for a cheap haircut on the sidewalk (right)

For our readers who are interested in knowing a little more about “The Suited Monk“, the core of the book is the Life Journey Model®. I contacted Raf Adams to find out more about it. “Having such a model years ago would have helped me understand the journey of my life as it began to unfold” said Raf. “My journey caused me so much pain, suffering, and unhappiness that I wanted to find a way to save others from the confusion I went through. Therefore, I spent years trying to develop a model that could give others greater awareness as they walk their journey. I based the model on my experience and on a wide range of religious and spiritual teachings from throughout history, which I carefully researched while I was seeking to understand my own experiences. The world’s religious and mystical traditions have led people on the journey of life since the beginning of time. Even modern writers have explained the journey of life. For example, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung revolutionized his field by introducing concepts such as the collective unconscious, which suggested that we are not all separate individuals, and synchronicity, which suggested that we can’t understand everything in life through the mind alone. According to Jung, on the course of your life journey meant “your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.” He further advised that those who looked to the external world lived life as if in a dream, and only those who were able to look within would awaken. My purpose was to pinpoint the central message of the world’s religious teachings, ancient traditions, schools of spiritual wisdom, and modern self-development theories, and to combine them into one model. It is important to me that this model not be identified with any particular belief system, religious group, or culture. Rather, I want it to be relevant to individuals from all walks of life and from different countries, cultures, and philosophical or religious persuasions. My intention was to create something that anyone on this planet can relate to and apply in daily life because it speaks to the core of our true being” explained Raf. (Editors Note: We look forward to reading “The Suited Monk” with great interest!)

Above: Behind Ray’s hotel, the tower of the Radisson Shanghai (left) was the location of the first trainer’s and facilitators training event for the new team that will run “The Suited Monk” workshops as they become available. Raf Adams (right) will be launching the book in Shanghai in February and it can be pre-ordered on Amazon - “The weekend was our first chance to see some of the details of the two-day workshop format and start practising with some of the ideas and tools in the programme. It is very exciting” Ray told me. The publicity accompanying the book’s publication includes this excellent two-minute video (below)

Below: Raf Adams (centre) with some of the people who will be helping him take the key messages of his book into the world. From left to right: True Black (Taiwan), Mike Thompson of the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Raf, our global traveller and Larry Lee (Australia) – “Raf is finding some great people to work with” said Ray. “Mike Thompson, who runs the MBA programme at CEIBS wants all of his students to gain exposure to the ideas so that they see early on in their careers that financial success alone will not guarantee their happiness” he told me

Above: Everybody pays close attention as Raf explains the key components of the Life Journey Model® - “One by one during our training, we all had to gain experience of using the tools by leading one session from the two-day workshop, which was then critiqued by our colleagues. It was very helpful for me” said Ray, “although as you can imagine, I was very nervous presenting the material for the first time to such experienced and qualified people”

After leaving Shanghai, my conversation with Ray switched from “The Suited Monk” to Theravada Buddhist monks, when our global traveller discovered on his return that the people of Bhutan were loaning a somewhat extra-ordinary national treasure to the people of Chiang Mai. “The travelling exhibition of the Tooth Relic of the Kassapa Buddha arrived at Wat Phra Singh, which is the Royal temple, a few days ago” Ray told me. “The exhibition is being presented by the Government of Bhutan (the Land of “Gross National Happiness”) and is accompanied by a host of Bhutanese lamas. The Kassapa Buddha is a previous incarnation of the historical Buddha. A selection of verses to honour the auspicious relic are being chanted throughout the day by the Bhutanese lamas and Thai monks, who alternate chanting. The Thai media described it as “a truly auspicious event for the New Year” so I just had to go along and see if I could spot the special ’tooth’ and catch some of the chanting” said Ray. “Besides, it is virtually round the corner from where I am staying” added Ray.

Above: Major excitement at Wat Phra Singh (Wat means Temple) as the citizens of Chiang Mai rush to see the ancient Tooth Relic of the Kassapa Buddha, which is embedded in the red case in the centre of the picture

Below: Inside the temple, Thai people line up to receive a blessing from a Buddhist monk (left). Meanwhile, Bhutanese lamas and these Thai monks (right) alternate throughout the day and evening as they chant a selection of verses to honour the auspicious relic – “It is a very unusual, mesmerising, almost hypnotic sound” Ray told me

Regular readers of The Daily Explorer will know that Ray is a bit of an athletic sort and enjoys things in the physical world as much as the intellectual world of coaching and training. So it came as no surprise to me that he sent me pictures of the half-marathon race on Christmas Day, as well as some lovely shots of a lively New Years Eve trek up through the forested hills on the outskirts of the city to the temple at Doi Suthep. It has been a while since our global explorer has entered a proper race and I asked him whether it was a one-off or if he was planning to enter more events in 2012. “It could well have been a one-off” he told me. “Let me explain what I mean. Just over two years ago, I set a goal to run the New York Marathon in under four hours. Some readers may recall that I picked up a bad injury five weeks before the race and so it actually took me 4 hrs: 16 mins :29 secs and although I was very happy to have completed my first marathon before I reached the age of 50, I have always felt dissatisfied about my time. I thought that if I could run the half-marathon on Christmas Day and secure a fast finishing time, it would indicate to me if I have a realistic chance of achieving my ultimate goal in a marathon. Returning from India quite late in the year meant I only had five weeks to prepare and that is always tough for a long-distance race. I trained hard almost every day and got myself ready to line up at 5am on the day of the race, hoping to achieve a sub two hour time. Everything went extremely well and I managed to finish in 1 hr: 57 mins: 28 secs which is my best ever time for a half-marathon. It gives me an ‘indicated’ time for the full marathon of around 4 hours 5 minutes – just currently outside my goal – which is great news. If I train correctly over the next 5-6 months, I am pretty sure I am capable of getting a sub four-hour time later in the year” said our excited athlete. “I have secured places in two big International marathons in 2012 - one in Phuket in June and the other in Berlin in September. The latter is one of the world’s five ‘majors’ that take place every year, along with New York, London, Boston and Chicago. Having spent three months in Berlin last year, I am thrilled to be going back to run through the incredible city” added Ray.

Above: Christmas Chiang Mai style. Thapae Gate was home to two giant Christmas Trees – one made from empty plastic water bottles and the other from old CD’s (Photo: S Piehler)

Below: “Is this where I sign up for the Chiang Mai half-marathon?” enquires our global runner (left). Minutes later, Ray has secured a place in his third competitive half-marathon race and proudly shows us his commemorative running vest – “I have got quite a collection of these” said Ray, ”and I am very happy to add Chiang Mai to my list of races as I have never been here at Christmas, despite spending quite a lot of time in the city during the last six years” he said (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Above: Our traveller had an early start on Christmas Day as his race started at 5am – “It must be the first time I have been in bed at 8.30pm on Christmas Eve ever!” said Ray. “Getting a good rest before a big race is critical, as is being well hydrated, well fed and warmed up (left)” said our runner as he lined up for the start of the race (right) (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Below: Looking fit and focused, Ray heads off at the start of the 21 kilometre (13.1 mile) race – “My target time required me to run at a pace of one mile every 9 minutes, which is the fastest attempt I have made over this distance. To give you an idea of what a leap that is for me, I ran the New York marathon at a slower pace of 9 mins and 41 seconds per mile, although it is twice the distance. Still, I am two years older than I was then and the training does not get easier!” he laughed (Photo: S Piehler)

Above: Still going well and right on schedule after about 8 kilometres (left). Crossing the finishing line in 1:57:28 (right) - “I am absolutely delighted with my time as I really did not think that five weeks would be enough time to prepare my body for this” he told me. “Not only that, I still had a bit of juice left in the tank which is a very good sign that I am coping well with the training regime” added our very happy runner (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Below: The relief after the race is obvious – “Now this is done, I can start to plan my training programme for another shot at the marathon with some real self-belief and confidence. It’s the best Christmas present I could have given myself” said our dedicated athlete (Photo: S Piehler)

Above: News of Ray’s return to long distance running was reported in the January edition of Runners World (left), who were keen to secure an exclusive deal with The Daily Explorer for media coverage of his two marathons this year. After the race, our tired athlete went to the Sunday market in the old city for a much needed foot massage, as one of his excited fans looked on in admiration (right) (Photo: S Moberly)

Below: Our traveller, who has not personally been drinking any alcohol for weeks during training, has heard about some of the cutbacks that businesses in some countries are having to make as economies tighten. One of our readers at a company in the UK sent us this picture from their Christmas party. Beforehand, the management sent a memo round with the following message: “May all members of staff please note that there will only be one drink per person at this year’s Christmas Party. And please bring your own cup! Regards, Management”

As if running a marathon was an unusual way for Ray to spend Christmas Day, the same spirit was embodied in choosing New Years Eve to trek to the temple high up in the hills to the west of Chiang Mai, called Doi Suthep. “It’s a great trek – some 5.5 kilometres straight up if you follow the trail. If you were to drive up to the temple, the journey is around 16 kilometres because the hills are quite steep so the road meanders backwards and forwards through a series of sharp, hairpin bends as you ascend” explained Ray. “I joined a small group of friends for the day and we met inside the old city. Finding hiking trails isn’t always straightforward – in Chiang Mai they are not signposted at all. Luckily, one of my friends has done the trek a couple of times and was able to show us how to find the start. We all jumped on our motor bikes and rode across town to the Suthep Road which is the main drag heading west out of the old city. A typically busy highway with roadside stalls and colourful traffic, the road ends at a crossroads with a narrow lane leading straight ahead up the hill. Here, you are right at the foot of the mountain that dominates the skyline to the west of Chiang Mai, the forest-covered Doi Pui. Doi Suthep is at the lower end of the ridge. At a steady pace, it took us about one and a half hours to reach the temple” recalled our traveller.

Above: Ready for a short, challenging trek? “I will be once I have stretched my muscles and warmed up” says Acro Yoga specialist Anastas, from Greece

Below: The yellow circle shows from a distance where Doi Suthep is located, roughly about 16 kilometres from the old city by road and about 3,500 feet above sea level

Above: Ray and his friends set off through the forest on the fairly steep, challenging one and a half hour hike to Doi Suthep – “For anyone thinking about doing this, take plenty of water. The distance can be deceiving – it gets very hot on the hills and you can easily dry up” said Ray

Below: Anastas takes a rest by the river that flows past Wat Palad which you reach when you are about one kilometre into the hike. Actually, although the temple grounds are over 650 years-old, Wat Palad itself remained unregistered by the Thai government until 1991- “Doing this hike reminded me of just how beautiful Chiang Mai and the surrounding countryside is” said Ray

Above: Ray’s group take a rest at Wat Palad (left). While the others are taking a look around the temple, Laurence Gilliot sits in a small cave containing nine stone Buddha images. It is said to have provided refuge for those fleeing Burmese forces. One of these relics within apparently continues providing protection from flocking crows, viewed in Thai culture as omens of bad karma. Folklore also has it that if you bring meat to Wat Palad while venturing to Doi Suthep, your innards will become plagued with discomfort. Yikes!

Below: Gaston Schmitz, from Holland (left) led the trek to Doi Suthep – “He is one of the nicest guys I know here” said our traveller. “He just got married to Laurence (see above) and for their honeymoon, the two of them are leaving Chiang Mai for five months to trek right across Nepal on the Great Himalaya Trail. He used our trek to test out the backpack he will take (the one he is wearing). You can follow their journey in their blog. Laurence’s brother Max discovered that there really is such a thing as a “free lunch” at Wat Palad (right). Unusually, the monks left food out for trekkers when normally, it is the other way round and it is the monks who ask people in the community for food. The sign reads “Please have a free lunch, donated by Monks”

Above: The temple grounds at Wat Palad are peaceful and very beautiful - “It is a great place to come and meditate” said Ray

Below: Anastas does a little bit of stretching by the river before the group continues upwards through the forest

Above: For anyone who does not like trekking, even the journey by road is very pleasant and you can feel the air getting cooler and cleaner the higher you go. The trek finishes by this bend and you have to walk a couple of hundred metres along the road before you reach the Naga steps that lead up to Doi Suthep temple itself

Below: Anastas (left) and Laurence (second from left) gather with the group outside Doi Suthep. Trekkers can choose to climb the 306 steps up to the temple itself and enjoy the panoramic view of Chiang Mai city. Or go past the temple into the National Park where another part of the trek loop takes you past two waterfalls

Above: If you climb the steps to the temple, you can see over the whole of Chiang Mai (left) and you also get a closer look at the amazing Golden Chedi (right)

Below: The second half of the trek loop in the National Park takes you past this amazing, giant tree (left) and the Sai Yoi waterfall (right) – “We are very lucky to have a trek like this right on the doorstep” said Ray

Above: Returning to Wat Palad on the way back to the city, our trekkers got another opportunity to appreciate the beauty and tranquility of the grounds which have been substantially renovated in recent years

Below: A couple rest by the river and look on as monks from the temple work on building a viewing platform that looks out over the city of Chiang Mai

Editors Note: It looks like Ray’s year is off to a great start and we hope yours is too. On behalf of everyone at The Daily Explorer, we wish you all a very Happy New Year and a peaceful, joyful and deeply satisfying 2012. Our global nomad is going to be in Chiang Mai for a few weeks now as he starts his marathon training and continues with his coaching work. Our next issue should be online in a few weeks time. Just to remind you, our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for just over six years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 21 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

Our latest issue will be the last one compiled for us by our seasoned Indian guest correspondent, Sam Ozer, who recently joined the team to follow Ray around India. Sam went with our global traveller as he made his way to the ancient city of Hampi, followed by a short and unexpected rendezvous with his brother in Hyderabad, before departing India for Thailand.

In case you missed our last issue, we had an update from Ray as he travelled through Rishikesh and Amritsar on his way to Dharamsala where he decided to stay for a couple of weeks so he could attend a three-day teaching with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. You can read it now at: From Rishikesh to Dharamsala

Above: In our last issue, our intrepid explorer visited the magnificent Golden Temple in Amritsar before heading to Dharamsala for three days of teaching with the Dalai Lama. You can read it now at: From Rishikesh to Dharamsala

Looking at the map, Hyderabad did not appear to be a logical choice as a destination for Ray from Dharamsala, so I asked him what had inspired him to choose this particular city to visit next. “A few weeks ago, I received an email from my brother, who is an airline pilot. He works as a Captain for British Airways on their Boeing 777 fleet, which service many of the airline’s long-haul destinations all over the world from London. In the six years since I became a nomad, we had never been in the same city at the same time, so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered that he had been scheduled to fly a bunch of passengers to Hyderabad whilst I was in India. It seemed like an opportunity that was too good to miss, so I decided to change my original plan and go and meet him there. It is relatively cheap, easy and quick to fly from Delhi so I took the overnight bus from Dharamsala to take a flight from there. I actually got to Hyderabad with a few days to spare so I decided to just make a brief stopover in the city for one night and spend the remaining time in the ancient city of Hampi, which is some ten hours away by bus. This gave me a day in Hyderabad to explore before I left, so I focused on visiting the Hussain Sagar (lake) in the centre of the city” explained our traveller. “The lake is home to one of the largest free-standing stone Buddha statues in the world” he told me. “It was completed in 1990 after five years of work. However, when the 17.5 metre high, 350 tonne monolith was being ferried to its place in the Hussain Sagar, the barge sank! Fortunately, the statue was raised – undamaged – in 1992 and is now on a plinth in the middle of the lake” added our well-informed globetrotter.

Above: Ray’s route from Dharamsala to Hyderabad, and then on to Hampi is indicated by the yellow line. The blue line shows the route he travelled to reach Dharamsala from Delhi, which we covered in the two previous issues of The Daily Explorer

Below: For the second time during his visit to India, Ray arrives at the Taj Mahal – “Sadly, this time around it is not the beautiful, awe-inspiring creation that has captured the imagination of millions of visitors from around the world, but a rather noisy, dilapidated budget hotel in Hyderabad” said our traveller, who laughed when I asked him why he had sent me the picture

Above: The giant stone Buddha statue in the middle of the Hussain Sagar finally made it on to its plinth in 1992 – two years after the barge towing it out into the lake capsized!

Below: Things are not always what they seem – on closer inspection, the shores of the Hussain Sagar (left), like so many places in India, are an unofficial repository for tonnes of garbage which an uneducated population discard without any concern or understanding of their impact – “They seem completely oblivious to the fact that there are rats running around everywhere and the stench is unbearable. They don’t even seem to notice it” observed Ray. Later that day, our eagle-eyed nomad spotted India’s only flying elephant passing over the city centre (right)

To get from Hyderabad to Hampi, you can either go by train or bus, or a combination of the two. Knowing that Ray had experienced some difficulties with travel arrangements in recent weeks, I asked him how things had gone for him after his arrival in Hampi. “Well Sam, I am exhausted” was his reply. “I have travelled all through the night on three different buses, without sleep and I am pretty fed up with schlepping around India on these old, noisy and grotesquely uncomfortable moving sandstorms” he grumbled. Sensing all was not well, I was keen to find out what actually happened.

“If you want to go to Hampi, you have to take a bus to a nearby town called Hospet and then change on to a different bus there. I made the fatal mistake of trusting someone else to arrange things for me – something I never normally do, but when I arrived in Hyderabad, the guy in my hotel seemed to know what he was doing, and I was pretty fed up with having to go through so much effort as you do in India, so I authorised him to go to the bus station and get my ticket for me. The next morning, which was my day of departure, he showed me the ticket – it was not a ticket to Hospet but a town some 35 kilometres away. “I could not get you a ticket to Hospet directly, but you take this bus then you can change en route, all for the same price” he explained to me. “It didn’t sound completely kosher to me but I was too tired to argue with him so took the ticket and left. When I got to the bus station, it was almost impossible to identify the correct bus from the hundreds that were parked and I struggled to find anybody who could help me. Eventually, someone pointed me towards a bus they were certain was the right one, so I jumped on and the bus pulled out. About thirty minutes into the journey, the conductor asked for my ticket and when I showed it to him, he explained (without speaking a word of English) that my ticket was not valid and I had boarded the wrong bus. With my frustration and anger building like a boiling kettle, I calmly asked where the bus was actually going. I discovered it was heading in the right general direction and given it was now dark, I decided to buy a new ticket and stay on the bus till it reached its terminus, in a small town called Gangavathi, at around 2am” recalled Ray. “

Above: Arriving in Gangavathi (the middle of nowhere) at 2am in the morning, the only people around were the ones who sleep in the bus station, like this family (woman under the blanket with one child, second child beside her and man on the bench) – “It is painful to see, but it is like this in every place I have been” observed Ray

With another 35 kilometres to go to Hospet, our global explorer had to wait for the next available bus, which finally arrived at around 3.30am. “By now, I was really tired, quite hungry and getting very short-tempered” admitted Ray. “I arrived in Hospet at around 4.30am and discovered that the first bus out of there to Hampi was going to be around 6.30am, which meant having to wait another two hours. This kind of hard-core, budget travel is really character building stuff” said Ray. “There were a couple of tuk-tuk drivers in Hospet who offered me a ride to Hampi, but they were asking about ten times the price of the bus and given I was not under any time pressure to get there, apart from the desire to find a room and take a shower, I didn’t take up their offers” he recalled. “I eventually got to Hampi at around 7am, to be greeted by the usual mob of around 20 tuk-tuk drivers and guesthouse touts all waving and shouting at me, wanting me to go with them. I cannot describe how exhausting it all is and anyone considering travelling here will no doubt experience it themselves when they come – it takes a lot of getting used to” added Ray. “Despite it all, Hampi was an amazing place and I am really glad I made the effort to go there”.

Above: Panoramic view of Hampi with the Virupaksha temple in the centre (Photo: Wikipedia)

Hampi in Karnataka state, is the site of the once-magnificent capital of the Vijayanagar Empire. The ruins of the empire are spread over an area of 26 square kilometres. “This is definitely one of the most impressive places I have visited as a traveller” said Ray. “On a par with Angkor Wat in some ways, the site is sprawling and a huge amount of time would be absorbed if you were to totally explore every facet. The whole area is a visual delight, especially due to its stark contrast from most other places I have visited in India. Rocks are all you see whichever direction you look in. It is an ideal spot for people who are interested in history and/or nature” said our traveller. “A bicycle is the best way to explore Hampi if you enjoy history, culture and nature. I was able to rent one for about 30 rupees per day ($1) , including a padlock. If you don’t want the exercise, there are plenty of rickshaw drivers who are more than happy to take you round the various sites for a day, for around 500 rupees ($15)” he added.

Above: “Entering Hampi is a bit like stepping back in time into a vast, ancient, secret world” said Ray. “An amazing place to spend a few days in, very meditative and peaceful” he told me

Below: Locals down at the river washing clothes and bathing as the day begins

Above and below: The main bazaar in Hampi. In the background is the Virupaksha temple, which is the oldest and the principal temple in Hampi. The very origin of the city and its history as a sacred place revolves around the myths associated with this temple. It is believed that it has been functioning uninterruptedly ever since its inception in the 7th century AD. That makes this one of the oldest functioning temples in India. It is located on the south bank of the river Tungabhadra, just next to where the local bus arrives from Hospet. This area in general has been an important pilgrimage centre for the worshippers of Lord Shiva. Virupaksha temple is equally sought after by tourists and pilgrims and the annual festivals attract huge crowds

Above: Ray takes a closer look at some of the hand-carved stone pillars inside the Virupaksha temple

Below: Once you start to get out from the centre of Hampi, there are literally miles and miles of pathways and ruins to explore, giving this whole area an “unreal and bewitching” feel, according to Lonely Planet – “They are spot on” confirmed our global adventurer

Above and below: At the epicentre of Hampi’s attractions, the Vittala Temple is the most extravagant architectural showpiece of the whole area. No amount of words can explain this spectacle. The temple is built in the form of a sprawling campus with compound walls and gateway towers. There are many halls, pavilions and temples located inside this campus. Vittala, after whom the temple is known, is a form of Lord Vishnu. This aspect of Vishnu was worshipped in this part of the country as their cult deity by the cattle herds. The temple was originally built in the 15th century AD. Many successive kings have enhanced the temple campus during their regimes to the present form. The highlight of the Vittala temple is its impressive pillared halls (below, left) and the stone chariot (below, right). The halls are carved with an overwhelming array of sculptures on the giant granite pillars. The stone chariot located inside the campus is almost an iconic structure of Hampi

Above: For our readers with sharp eyesight, this view from inside the vast compound of the Vittala temple shows the tiny, white Hanuman temple perched high up on one of the tall hills in the background, near Anegundi (right of centre) – “When I saw it in the distance, I just had to find out how to get to it and whether or not it was possible to climb to the top” he told me (Editors Note: Ray did find a way to get there – see below)

A very popular part of the huge complex is the Zenena enclosure, which was a secluded area reserved for the royal women. This walled harem houses many interesting highlights including the beautiful Lotus Mahal - a two-storied, very symmetric structure exhibiting a fine example of Indo-Islamic architecture. The base of the structure depicts a Hindu foundation of stone just like in the temples, typical of Vijayanagara architecture, while the upper superstructure is Islamic in architecture with pyramidal towers instead of regular dome shapes, giving it a Lotus-like look, originating in the name. “I discovered that this is one of the very few buildings that has the plaster intact, though it is defaced at several places due to wear and tear; the dampness on the walls is very visible. The exemplary carvings on the pillar arches including those of birds and delicate art work can be very mesmerizing, especially with the Makara Torana on top of these arches that can still be seen on some of them” said Ray. It is also believed that the Mahal or Palace was air-cooled and maintained its temperature during summer. The proof of this can be seen in the pipeline work above and between the arches. The entire monument is surrounded by a fortifying wall which is rectangular in plan. The four corners of the fortifications have watch towers that would have been used to keep an eye on the intruders into the Womens’ chambers. While it was a very popular practice to have Eunuchs hold guards at Queens’ Palaces in the North India, especially during Moghul rule, the existence of such a practice has not come to light in the Vijayanagara kingdom and era.

Above: The Lotus Mahal is a fine example of Indo-Islamic architecture

Below: Ray makes friends with a group of students on a field study trip – “For some reason which baffled me, schoolkids kept wanting to take pictures of themselves and their friends standing next to me. Maybe they thought I look like someone famous? Anyway, it was very sweet” he told me

Above: Also in the Zenena enclosure is the Elephant Stables. This long building with a row of domed chambers was used to ‘park’ the royal elephants. These were not the military elephants but were the ceremonial ones which were used by the royal household. Apart from the royal elephants, temples also had elephants of their own to perform various pujas. There are 11 domed tall chambers; some of them are inter-connected. The centre one is specially decorated and larger than the rest. Probably, the musicians and the associated band troupes had been using this during ceremonies involving elephant processions. It has a greater Islamic character about it. The domes are of brick and mortar, drum-shaped, ribbed and octagonal. The superstructure of the central upper pavilion is lost. It probably had a Hindu Shikhara in consonance with the Indo-Islamic architecture

Below: A view over part of the Royal Centre gives an indication of how vast this ancient city would have been

Above: Bathing seemed to be very important to these people – this is what is left of the Queen’s Bath.  In all probability, this was a royal pleasure complex for the king and his wives – “It’s a bit of an unassuming, plain rectangular building from the outside, but when you get inside, the story is quite different” observed Ray. For an idea of what the Queen’s Bath might have originally looked like, you can see it in 3D in the short video clip here:

Below: The water for the Queens Bath was supplied from huge stepped tanks (left) in the Royal Centre, via a series of stone aqueducts (right)

Above: When taking a break in Hampi, there are several choices for food, with plenty of budget street vendors like this one….

Below: …. and some nicer restaurants, like the Mango Tree – “It was recommended to me by a fellow traveller and I really enjoyed my meal there” said Ray. “It has one of the nicest, most relaxed settings I found during my visit to India, at a very affordable price. It is set along side the banks of the river and you can lounge comfortably on the steps underneath the huge mango tree while sipping some of the best lassis you will come across” he told me

Above: After a good meal, someone always has to do the washing up. This young girl is watched closely by a chicken (left) – “I wonder if he thought he might be on those plates sometime soon” laughed Ray. For really large numbers of pots and pans, serious help is required as demonstrated by this woman who has enlisted the family cow to assist (right)

Just across the Tungabhadra River is Anegundi, which literally means “Elephant’s pit”. A small village, it is from a bygone era dating back to the time of the Ramayana. This rustic hamlet is steeped in history older and richer than Hampi. Archaeological digs have revealed 8,000 years of continuous human settlement here! Anegundi is believed to be Kishkinda, the vanar (monkey) kingdom of Ramayana. The birth place of Hanuman, Anegundi was the capital of the Vijayanagar kingdom before it was shifted to Hampi. “I discovered that the Hanuman Temple I saw from a distance a couple of days earlier was here” explained a quite excited Ray. “So I crossed the river, took a bicycle and rode about four kilometres until I reached it. Then, it was a relatively straightforward and pleasant climb up 570 twisting, turning steps to the top of Anjanadri Hill to reach the temple. I was courted by many impish monkeys as I went up, who all had their eye on my backpack, hoping there might be some food” recalled Ray. “I made it to the top in around 15 minutes and discovered the views over the surrounding countryside are truly spectacular” he told me.

Above: Ray approaches the Hanuman Temple perched on top of Anjanadri Hill in Anegundi, which was the original capital city of the Vijayanagara Empire before Hampi replaced it

Below: The temple is accessible via a winding staircase in the rocks – “It is definitely worth every one of those 570 steps for the views when you reach the top, but watch out for the monkeys as you ascend” warned our traveller

Above: And what about those views! You can see from these pictures that Hampi is well worth the visit. The area is simply stunning and you will be in awe of the millions of boulders as far as the eye can see. However, within this arid landscape lies a little oasis with lush palm, banana, and mango trees nestled near the river. Hampi is a super place to spend a few days wandering around and discovering the rich, vibrant history while also having a bit of ‘your’ time – “It is also a great place for reflection and contemplation” said Ray

Below: Anegundi retains much of its old traditions – these farmers are looking after their goats ……

Above: …. whilst these people are harvesting the wheat – “It looked like very hard work to me” said Ray

Today, Hampi is in the list of “Unesco World Heritage Sites in Danger”. It was inscribed in the endangered list in the year 1999 following the proposal and construction of the controversial suspension bridge on the Tungabhadra river. The heavy traffic on the road to this bridge led to dismantling and reconstruction of a mantapa within the borders of the site. The government of Karnataka decided to destroy the bridge, taking the brunt of nearly one million US Dollars on to its not so healthy coffers. The decision came after several meetings between Unesco officials and the state government and a stern warning from Unesco that it would deprive Hampi of its Word Heritage status unless corrective measures were taken. After this episode, Hampi’s dangers are far from over. Today, Hampi faces more problems than ever. Pressures of urbanisation haven’t spared this once divine abode of Gods. Only 58 of the 550 individual monuments at Hampi have been included in the conservation plans. Many historical villages, temples and mantapas, residencies and shops are not protected by the official agency. The most difficult challenge at Hampi is the establishment of a park service to control the vast site. Every day, ancient site materials are removed for use in nearby construction projects. New roadways and buildings are illegally encroaching upon the marked site areas. Huts and shops can be seen close to and sometimes inside the sites of archaeological importance. Deforestation, increase in vehicular and industrial pollution is causing a threat to the delicate creations at Hampi. The effects can be seen on the fading natural colouring used on the ceiling of Virupaksha Temple. These colourings were all natural extracts and were a great piece of art. Pollution, looting, unregulated stone quarrying and the limited nature of existing monument protection hamper current conservation measures.

Above and below: As Ray prepares to leave Hampi and travel to Hyderabad, he takes one last look at the Bazaar. Whilst conservation efforts are underway to preserve the ancient site, some consider the measures being taken as heavy-handed and unfair to the ordinary people who live in the collection of ruins in the Hampi Bazaar. These people are in a fight with the authorities to keep their homes and condemn the inhuman and illegal eviction and demolition taking place there. Eviction notices were issued a few hours before the demolition, giving no time and opportunity for people to respond and react to the notices. Neither alternate housing nor clear guidelines for conducting business were issued prior to the eviction. The fallout of this demolition has been that many families, some with small children and some with aged people have been pushed on to the streets, do not have a place to live, and livelihoods have been affected – “The conditions do appear to be quite awful, but par for the course in India, based on what I have seen. To be really honest, I am looking forward to meeting my brother in Hyderabad and staying in a five-star hotel for a change” admitted our global nomad

Hyderabad (see map above) is the capital of Andhra Pradesh and is sometimes referred to as the ‘City of Pearls’. As of 2011, the city is one of the largest metropolitan areas in India with an area of 650 square kilometres (250 square miles) and a population of around 14.5 million, making Hyderabad the fourth most populous city in the country. Established in 1591 AD on the banks of the Musi River on the tip of the Deccan Plateau, the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad come under the ambit of a single municipal unit, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. The city was once a global center of the diamond and pearls trade and during late 20th and early 21st century, has emerged as a major global centre for the information technology (IT) and biopharmaceutical industries. The city is also home to the Telugu Film industry, known popularly as ‘Tollywood’. “If it were not for my brother Paul flying here, I don’t think I would have come” said our traveller. “The timing couldn’t be more perfect as I have been in India for a few weeks and am getting ready to head back to Thailand for the end of year celebrations. It will be great to meet with Paul and stay in a relatively comfortable place before I have to face the horror of going back to Delhi to leave” explained Ray.

Above: Captain Paul Martin, a.k.a Ray’s brother, arrives at the crew hotel in Hyderabad shortly after touchdown at the recently completed Rajiv Gandhi airport, at around 6am - “As luck would have it, I arrived at the hotel less than ten minutes after Paul, having been travelling all night on the bus from Hospet (Hampi)” said Ray. “It is the first time in six years that the two of us have met up like this. He flies to different cities all around the world so the chances of him going to the same place as me are pretty slim. When I ran in the New York Marathon in 2009, he cleverly and covertly arranged his schedule so that he would be in charge of the BA flight that I was booked on, without telling me. It was a huge surprise and something I will never forget!” he told me. “He is a great friend as well as my brother – I am very lucky” said our traveller. “If he treats his crews the same way he does me, I am sure he must be regarded as an excellent Captain too”

Below: A little bit of luxury goes a long way with our traveller, who stayed with brother Paul at the ITC Kakatiya hotel – “Soft, fluffy pillows and room service are a couple of the things that I miss the most from my ‘old life’ and I always appreciate the chance to have a bit of comfort when the opportunity comes” he told me

Suspecting that Ray and his brother Paul would simply be glad for the chance to hang out together, I wondered if they had planned to do any sightseeing whilst they were in Hyderabad? “There are a couple of places we would like to see, which we can do without having to rush around too much. I know from my research that Hyderabad is home to many historical sites, including the Chowmahalla Palace. We also want to visit the Charminar, which is a four-sided archway with soaring minarets in the old city’s hub arch and the Mecca Masjid mosque, which is one of the oldest and largest mosques in India, with some of the bricks made out of soil from Mecca” he told me. “Last but not least, there is the Golkonda Fort, which is perhaps Hyderabad’s most popular site for visitors” added Ray.

Above: Once rested, Ray and his brother Paul headed for the Charminar (centre, left), which is a striking four-sided archway with soaring minarets in the old city

Below: From the gallery at the top of the Charminar, you get a great view of the chaotic and colourful Laad Bazaar

Above: The Mecca Masjid Mosque is one of the oldest mosques in Hyderabad and one of the largest mosques in India. Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, the fifth ruler of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, commissioned bricks to be made from the soil brought from Mecca, the holiest site of Islam, and used them in the construction of the central arch of the mosque, thus giving the mosque its name. It formed the centrepiece around which the city was planned

Below: The chandeliers in the splendid Durbar Hall at the Chowmahallah Palace. The 19 spectacular chandeliers of Belgian crystal were recently re-installed to recreate the lost splendour of this regal hall. The palace is unique for its style and elegance and it is believed to be modelled on the Shah of Iran’s palace in Tehran. Building of the palace began in the late 18th century and over the decades a synthesis of many architectural styles and influences emerged. This palace consists of two courtyards, the southern and northern courtyard. The palace originally covered 45 acres (180,000 square metres), but only 14 acres remain today (Photo: Wikipedia)

Above:  Ray’s brother Paul, outside the Chowmahallah Palace, enjoys being able to spend some quality time with his younger sibling – “The two of us had a great time and it was brilliant to catch up and hang out together” was what Paul told me when I spoke to him afterwards. “It was just like being two kids again!” added Paul

Below: Just like being kids again? Here are a couple of pictures we managed to obtain from Ray (taken in the sixties) that show these two were friends from an early age – “Apart from some odd moments here and there, we generally got on pretty well” said Ray, who used to share a bedroom with his older brother Paul when they were growing up. “We are both aviation fanatics too – something which was a hobby when we were really young and is now a career for Paul. Although I obtained my private pilots license in 1990, I have only flown with him once, as I think he really appreciates his time off for other things” added Ray

Above and below: Last but not least, our global explorer had time to visit the impressive Golkonda Fort before leaving Hyderabad. “The complex consists of four distinct forts with a 10 kilometre long outer wall with 87 semi-circular bastions” said Ray. “Some are still mounted with cannons. There are eight gateways, four drawbridges, a number of royal apartments & halls, temples, mosques and stables inside. I am told the fort used to have a Vault chamber where once the famous Kohinoor and Hope diamonds were stored” he told me

Back in Delhi to catch his flight to Thailand, I spoke to Ray to find out what lasting impressions of India he would be taking with him. “I hate to admit it Sam, but I am very happy to be leaving. Yes, there are some very beautiful places to visit and some spectacular sights, like the Taj Mahal and Hampi. However, getting around and functioning here is exhausting and most travellers coming here would do well to expect this” he said. What did he think of the Indian people? “People here routinely shout loudly at each other when they converse, they spit constantly without paying attention to where it lands, they urinate everywhere which leaves an unpleasant stench in most of the cities, they push and shove to get on buses and trains because there are so many people and they appear to me to be quite inconsiderate towards each other. A lot of the men seem to be always touching themselves and generally, their clothes are always filthy. Nobody here drives with any concern for safety and with tourists, I think there is definitely a rip-off mentality which is predominant. Some people who I asked to help me have blatantly lied or tried to cheat me, which has worn me down and left me constantly on my guard. But apart from these things, they are great” he laughed. “If you don’t mind travelling on noisy, slow, dirty buses through polluted cities, on roads which are often unsurfaced and very dusty, where you are likely to receive either poor service or none in most guesthouses and have no access to drinkable water, then you might actually love India” added Ray. “Perhaps it is precisely these things that make it the complete adventure that it is” he said reflectively.

Above: Despite his grumbles, our traveller had a nice surprise awaiting him when he made it to Delhi – “The management at the Hotel Singh Empire in Delhi had put my name up on their welcome board, which went a long way to making me feel better as I was preparing to leave” he told me

Below: Ray spent his last night in Delhi dining on the roof of his hotel – “They try really hard to get things right for their guests here, although they still have a lot of catching up to do to match the standards most westerners would expect, even at the budget end of the market

Above: Whilst in Delhi, our traveller had a chance to meet one or two interesting people – “I have a friend in England who said to me that if I ever went to Delhi, I must meet one of his best friends, called Shiv, who he studied with at the London Business School many years ago. So I contacted Shiv and spent a lovely afternoon having lunch with him and his family (left). They made me feel very welcome and it was a lovely way to complete my trip” recalled Ray. “Whilst I was with Shiv, I received a text message on my phone from another English friend Alex Soskin who had just arrived in Delhi with his girlfriend Marilyn (right). Unbelievably, when I texted him back to tell him exactly where I was, it was literally three streets away, so I was able to meet them too and share my experience of the country, as they had just arrived that day. Life just flows sometimes!” said our happy traveller

Editors Note: A huge thank you to our guest correspondent Sam Ozer, who has done a fantastic job on pulling together all the news and pictures from Ray’s visit to India. As we end the year, our global traveller has returned to Chiang Mai in Thailand to take part in his first half-marathon race for over two years. When I asked him about his prospects, he said: “I only have a few short weeks to get my body ready for it, which means having to train harder than I would ideally like to. Having said that, I love the feeling of getting into shape and as long as I can cope with the 5.30am starts most days, I am sure I will be in good shape for the race. I am hoping to register a personal best time” said our traveller cum athlete. We will be bringing you news of how Ray got on in the race, as well as an update on how things are shaping up for him regarding professional work in our next issue of The Daily Explorer, which will be online by mid January 2012.

As many of you know, our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

To end 2011 on a high note, we have selected a couple of video clips for you. The first was sent in to us by one of our readers and is very timely as we head into 2012 – a time when we definitely could do with more love and kindness in the world. It has been viewed over six and a half million times on Youtube!

The second is the clip that was most popular with our readers during 2011. Many people commented on its power, beauty and inspirational nature so if you missed it the first time around, it is well worth your time and for those of you who have seen it, you can enjoy it all over again!

Finally, on behalf of Ray and everyone at The Daily Explorer, I would like to wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and look forward to keeping you up to date with news and stories about Ray’s nomadic adventures in 2012. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for just over six years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 21 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

In our latest issue, we continue to follow Ray around a country that he has been longing to explore for many years and one that is a target for many travellers and soul-seekers alike – India! Joining our team to report on what our global nomad has been up to is our guest Indian correspondent Sam Ozer (above). Sam is one of India’s most seasoned, talented online journalists with an extensive knowledge of the terrain and we are delighted to have him on board with us. Ray has been travelling through Rishikesh and Amritsar on his way to Dharamsala where he decided to stay for a couple of weeks so he could attend a three-day teaching with His Holiness, The Dalai Lama.

In case you missed our last issue, we had an update from Ray as he began his exploration of India in Delhi and saw how he fared during his subsequent visits to Jaipur in Rajasthan and the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal in Agra. You can read it now at: The Wonder of India – The Taj Mahal

Above: In our last issue, our intrepid explorer began his exploration of India in Delhi and we saw how he fared during his subsequent visit to Jaipur in Rajasthan, as well as the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal in Agra. You can read it now at: The Wonder of India – The Taj Mahal

Anyone who has travelled through India will know that the country is absolutely vast and journeys that look relatively short on a map will often take much longer than you might ever expect. When I spoke to Ray in Rishikesh, he confirmed this. “Most people travelling to Rishikesh from Agra would head back to Delhi and take a train or bus from there” he told me. “But that didn’t make sense to me as it seemed to be out of the way and I was hoping there might be more of a direct route. I then discovered that there were a number of buses that run between Agra and Haridwar, which is about one hour from Rishikesh and the nearest you can get using trains or buses. The downside was that these journeys were only possible on what they euphemistically call ‘local’ buses ie. they have bench seats, no limits as to the number of passengers, are generally 40-50 years old and offer an extremely uncomfortable, very slow ride because most of the main ‘roads’ are nothing more than pot-holed sand traps and very few highways have tarmac surfaces” he explained. “However, they are very cheap which makes them popular with hard-core budget travellers. I arrived at Agra bus station to discover there was a “sleeper” coach available, but it was not going to leave for 5-6 hours and when I took a look inside, it was so filthy that I decided to give it a miss and take an earlier bus instead” he recalled.

Above: Map of India showing our global nomad’s route. The blue lines represent the part of Ray’s journey we covered in our previous issue – The Wonder of India – The Taj Mahal - and the yellow lines show his route from Agra to Rishikesh (circled in red), then on to Amritsar and Attari and finally to Dharamsala (larger red circle) – “It looks like a stone’s throw on the map, yet it took me 14 hours to get to Haridwar (for Rishikesh) and a further hour from there. I hardly slept a wink because there was a permanent sand storm going on inside the bus, due to the fact they have no windows and the roads are all unsurfaced, making them incredibly dusty. Add to that the near absence of suspension and being squashed by hundreds of standing passengers and you can see why people find travelling in India so exhausting” said Ray

Below: To get to Rishikesh from Agra, Ray decided to forego a ride on the overnight “sleeper” bus (left) and go on the “local” bus instead (right) – “I took one look inside the sleeper bus and just couldn’t bring myself to get on it, despite the consequences – a hard bench seat in a very uncomfortable, dust cloud on wheels for 14 hours” said our budget traveller

Rishikesh represents the gateway to the Himalayas (see map) in the Tehri-Garhwal region of Uttar Pradesh. It abounds in natural splendor. The spectacle of the Ganges rushing through the Himalayan foothills is an awesome sight. Several temples dot the banks of the Ganges at Rishikesh, which is located at a height of about 1,360 feet above sea level. It is believed that several yogis and sages lived and practiced penance here. According to the Lonely Planet, ever since the Beatles rocked up at the ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the late ’60s, Rishikesh has been a magnet for spiritual seekers. Today it styles itself as the ‘Yoga Capital of the World’ – with some justification – as there are masses of ashrams and all kinds of yoga and meditation classes. Most of this action is north of the main town, where the exquisite setting on the fast-flowing Ganges, surrounded by forested hills, is conducive to meditation and mind expansion. In the evening, the breeze blows down the valley, setting temple bells ringing as sadhus (spiritual men), pilgrims and tourists prepare for the nightly ganga aarti ceremony. “Even in 2011, Rishikesh is still very New Age” said Ray. “I found out that you can learn to play the sitar or tabla on your hotel roof, try laughing yoga, practise humming or gong meditation, experience crystal healing and all styles of massage, have a go at chanting mantras and listen to spiritually uplifting CD’s as you sip Ayurvedic tea with your vegetarian meal” he added. “For me, I was simply happy to rest and relax, take walks along the river and read spiritual books whilst enjoying coffee at the rather lovely German bakery by the bridge overlooking the Ganges. It was the first place in India where I was inspired to stay for a while, with a really great vibe, decent food and guest houses and most importantly, laundry services” he laughed.

Above: The spectacular view of the hills surrounding the River Ganges as you enter Rishikesh. In the distance you might be able to see the Lakshman Jhula suspension bridge. The Ganges abounds in fish and offerings of puffed rice are made to these creatures

Below: The Lakshman Jhula, a 450 feet long suspension bridge was built in 1929.  This is where Rama’s brother Lakshman is said to have crossed the river on a jute rope. The freshness of the air, and sound of flowing water, the scenic beauty of the region and the distant sound of bell chimes create an unforgettable experience for those that visit this ancient pilgrimage town. The building in the background is the Tera Manzil Temple, a multi-storey complex of idols of Hindu Gods and Goddesses which is very popular among the domestic pilgrims

Above: While Rishikesh has a permanent population of around 60,000, the city (left) attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists each year, from within India, as well as from other countries. It is a vegetarian city by law, is alcohol-free, and has also banned the use of plastic bags by shopkeepers and vendors. The Shiva Ghat (right) is where many of the pilgrims take holy dips and is also the location for a beautiful puja ceremony each evening

Below: Pilgrims and visitors gather around the God Shiva at sunset. Every evening, the Ghat becomes a sight to behold as the golden shadows on the river illuminate rows of devotees sitting patiently on the steps of the Ghat. They hold blazing plates filled with ghee and to the accompaniment of drums, chants, bells and prayers, release tiny oil lamps on flower bedecked leaf boats and allow them to float down the river

Above: Visitors, devotees and pilgrims gather around the Swami’s who lead the puja ceremony. A Swami is an ascetic or yogi who has been initiated into the religious monastic order founded by Adi Sankara or to a religious teacher

Below: “There was a pretty big crowd of people gathered at the Ghat the night I attended the puja ceremony” said Ray. “In Buddhism, puja’s are an expression of honour, worship and devotional attention. Acts of puja include bowing, making offerings and chanting. It is very colourful and really gives you a buzz if you join in with the singing and chanting” said our global explorer

Above: The Shiva Ghat also has an image of Hanuman, a Hindu deity – “I noticed that something strange started happening as the puja ceremony began” recalled Ray. “Every now and again, there would be a noise similar to the sound of sliding doors opening in a science lab or space station, which co-incided with two red doors in the chest of Hanuman (left) sliding back, revealing smaller images of Sita and Ram inside his chest (right)” observed Ray. “I am not too sure of the religious significance but it was certainly entertaining for a little while” he told me. “I later discovered that Ram is an incarnation of Vishnu, hero of the Ramayan. Sita, his queen, is also an avataric incarnation (in Hinduism, God incarnates as divine couples, Ram and Sita, Shiva and Parvarti, Krishna and Radha, etc…”

Below: A pilgrim sits beside the river Ganges between Lakshman Jhula and Ram Jhula

Above: The so-called “Yoga Capital of the World” has literally hundreds of courses going on for people in pursuit of personal growth

For those readers who like the history of popular culture, The Beatles visited Rishikesh in 1968 to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation (TM) training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Amidst widespread media attention, their stay at the ashram was one of the band’s most productive periods. Their adoption of the Maharishi as their guru is credited with changing attitudes in the West about Indian spirituality, and encouraging the study of Transcendental Meditation.The Beatles first met the Maharishi in London in August 1967 and then attended a seminar in Bangor, Wales. Although planned to be a 10-day session, their stay was cut short by the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. Wanting to learn more, they kept in contact with the Maharishi and planned to attend his ashram in October, but their trip was rescheduled due to other commitments.

The Maharishi’s compound was across from Rishikesh, located in the holy “Valley of the Saints” in the foothills of the Himalayas, and the home to many ashrams. The Beatles arrived there in February 1968, along with wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous reporters, joining about 60 other TM students, including musicians Donovan, Mike Love of The Beach Boys, and flautist Paul Horn. While there, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison wrote many songs (Ringo Starr wrote one), of which eighteen were later recorded for The Beatles (White Album), two for Abbey Road, and others for solo works. Ringo Starr left on 1 March, after only a short stay; Paul McCartney left mid-March due to other commitments; while John Lennon and George Harrison left abruptly in April following financial disagreements and rumours of inappropriate behaviour by the Maharishi, accusations which were made public. Harrison later apologised for the way the Maharishi had been treated by himself and Lennon, and in 1992, he gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party. In 2009, McCartney and Starr re-united at a concert held at New York’s Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which funds the teaching of Transcendental Meditation in schools. “I have always loved the music of The Beatles and still listen to it regularly. I hope I manage to be as creative in my own life as they were and I am very happy to have come here to see where it all happened for them” Ray told me.

Above: Meditation chambers for Transcendental Meditation, at the old Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram, now abandoned and in ruins. The Ashram got famous internationally with the arrival of The Beatles in Feb 1968, though it was later shifted to Noida near Delhi in the late 1990′s. For anyone old enough to remember The Beatles, they composed nearly 48 songs during their time at the Maharishi’s ashram, many of which appear on the White Album. Several other artists visited the site to contemplate and meditate

Below: The Maharishi’s ashram was located in this quiet spot right beside the Ganges (left) – “Thesedays, the only musicians in town (right) are “The Monkees” joked our ageing traveller

Above: Our global traveller departed Rishikesh by train for Amritsar. Fortunately for him, it was not as overcrowded as the one in this picture, sent to us by one of our readers – “It was my first experience of taking a sleeper train and it worked out pretty well” he told me. “Once I had chained and padlocked my luggage to the bed, I was able to sleep pretty comfortably and arrived in Amritsar in great shape” said our global nomad (Picture: Susie Moberly)

Like Rishikesh, Amritsar is also in the northern part of India (see map) with a population of over three and a half million. Amritsar is very close to India’s western border with Pakistan. “I knew I was only staying for a day or two here so I had to do my research and have a plan of action when I arrived” recalled Ray. “I was staying at the Grand Hotel near the railway station and they had an afternoon tour to the border ceremony at Attari (which some other travellers had recommended) so I arranged to go later that day. That left me time to visit the Golden Temple – which is without doubt Amritsar’s most famous attraction - and the Jallianwala Bagh which was the location of a violent massacre of Indians by the British in 1919″ explained Ray. The city is the main centre of Sikhs’ cultural, religious and political history and it houses the Sikh temporal and political authority, as well as the Sikh Parliament.

The Harmandir Sahib (referred to as the Golden Temple in western media), is an important Sikh shrine that attracts more visitors than the Taj Mahal with more than 100,000 people every day. It is the number one destination for Non-resident Indians in the whole of India. During the eighteenth century, the Harmandir Sahib was the site of frequent fighting between the Sikhs on one side and either Mughal or Afghan forces on the other side and the gurdwara (temple) occasionally suffered damage. In the early nineteenth century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh secured the Punjab region from outside attack and covered the upper floors of the gurdwara with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and English name of “Golden Temple”. The present day Golden Temple was rebuilt in 1764 by Maharaja Jassa Singh Ahluwalia with the help of other Misl Sikh chieftains. “It is a spectacular sight” said Ray. “Although it is a religious place, I couldn’t help feeling that I had walked into a giant James Bond movie set and kept waiting for the speedboats, soldiers with machine guns and an evil-looking man with a white pussycat to appear” he laughed.

Above and below: The spectacular ‘Golden Temple’

Anyone who has watched the 1982 Richard Attenborough movie about the story of Gandhi may remember the portrayal of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre under the direction of British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer (played by Edward Fox in the film). “I watched it again soon after my arrival and India and was totally shocked and appalled by what happened. When I realised that this tragic event took place in Amritsar, I knew I wanted to visit the site for myself and try and make sense of it” recalled our traveller.

For our readers who are interested in the history, here is a brief summary of the background and build up to the event: In 1919, when India was still part of the British Empire, Gandhi’s call for protest against the Rowlatt Act achieved an unprecedented response of furious unrest and protests. In Amritsar, more than 5,000 people gathered at Jallianwala Bagh. This situation deteriorated perceptibly during the next few days. British politician Michael O’Dwyer is said to have believed that these were the early and ill-concealed signs of a conspiracy for a coordinated revolt around May, at a time when British troops would have withdrawn to the hills for the summer. On April 10, 1919, there was a protest at the residence of the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, a city in Punjab, a large province in the northwestern part of the then unpartitioned India. The demonstration was to demand the release of two popular leaders of the Indian Independence Movement who had been earlier arrested by the government and removed to a secret location. Both were proponents of the Satyagraha movement led by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The crowd was shot at by a military picket, killing several protesters. The shooting set off a series of violent events. Later the same day, several banks and other government buildings, including the Town Hall and the railway station were attacked and set afire. The violence continued to escalate, culminating in the deaths of at least five Europeans, including government employees and civilians. There was retaliatory shooting at crowds from the military several times during the day, and between eight and twenty people were killed. For the next two days, the city of Amritsar was quiet, but violence continued in other parts of the Punjab. Railway lines were cut, telegraph posts destroyed, and government buildings burnt. Three Europeans were murdered. By April 13, the British government had decided to put most of the Punjab under martial law. The legislation restricted a number of civil liberties, including freedom of assembly. Gatherings of more than four people were banned.

On April 13, the holiday of Baisakhi, thousands of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims gathered in the Jallianwala Bagh (garden) near the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar. Baisakhi is a Sikh festival, commemorating the day that Guru Gobind Singh founded the Khalsa Panth in 1699, and also known as the ‘Birth of Khalsa.’ During this time people celebrate by congregating in religious and community fairs, and there may have been a large number who were unaware of the political meeting. An hour after the meeting began as scheduled at 4:30 pm, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer marched a group of sixty-five Gurkha and twenty-five Baluchi soldiers into the Bagh, fifty of whom were armed with rifles. Dyer had also brought two armoured cars armed with machine guns, however the vehicles were stationed outside the main gate as they were unable to enter the Bagh through the narrow entrance. The Jallianwala Bagh was bounded on all sides by houses and buildings and had few narrow entrances, most of which were kept permanently locked. The main entrance was relatively wider, but was guarded by the troops backed by the armoured vehicles. General Dyer ordered troops to begin shooting without warning or any order to disperse, and to direct shooting towards the densest sections of the crowd. He continued the shooting, approximately 1,650 rounds in all, until the ammunition supply was almost exhausted.

Above: The Amritsar Massacre portrayed in the 1982 film “Gandhi” by Richard Attenborough

Apart from the many deaths directly from the shooting, a number of people died in stampedes at the narrow gates or by jumping into the solitary well on the compound to escape the shooting. A plaque in the monument at the site, set up after independence, says that 120 bodies were pulled out of the well. The wounded could not be moved from where they had fallen, as a curfew had been declared – many more died during the night. The number of deaths caused by the shooting is disputed. While the official figure given by the British inquiry into the massacre is 379 deaths, the method used by the inquiry has been subject to criticism. In July 1919, three months after the massacre, officials were tasked with finding who had been killed by inviting inhabitants of the city to volunteer information about those who had died.This information was likely incomplete due to fear that those who participated would be identified as having been present at the meeting, and some of the dead may not have had close relations in the area. Additionally, a senior civil servant in the Punjab interviewed by the members of the committee admitted that the actual figure could be higher.

Above: Jallianwala Bagh today is a memorial to the tragic events of April 1919, in which British Indian Army soldiers opened fire on an unarmed gathering of men, women and children. The firing lasted about 10 minutes and 1,650 rounds were fired, killing 1,579 people. The well into which many people jumped and drowned attempting to save themselves from the hail of bullets is also a protected monument inside the park – “When you are there, it is hard to imagine the horror of what took place” Ray told me. “Back in 1919, news did not travel so fast as it does today. Despite the Government’s best efforts to suppress information of the massacre as it happened, rumours spread elsewhere in India and widespread outrage ensued. However, the details of the massacre did not become known in Britain until December 1919″ said our well informed traveller

Below: This building has been preserved and you can see numerous bullet marks from shells fired by British soldiers. In 1997, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, participating with an already controversial British visit to the monument, provoked outrage in India with an offhand comment. Having observed a plaque claiming “This place is saturated with the blood of about two thousand Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims who were martyred in a non-violent struggle”, Prince Philip observed, “That’s a bit exaggerated, it must include the wounded”. When asked how he had concluded this, Prince Philip said “I was told about the killings by General Dyer’s son. I’d met him while I was in the Navy”

If Jallianwala Bagh is the darker side of Amritsar, then the border ceremony at Attari is definitely its lighter side counterpart. Attari is the only road border crossing between Pakistan and India, and lies on the Grand Trunk Road between the cities of Lahore, Pakistan and Amritsar. Wagah, as it is called on the Pakistan side of the border, is a village through which the controversial Radcliffe Line was drawn. The village was divided by independence in 1947. Today, the eastern half of the village remains in the Republic of India while the western half is in Pakistan. “Having been to Berlin this year, I was amused to discover that the Wagah border is often called the “Berlin Wall of Asia” said Ray. “Each evening, there is a retreat ceremony called ‘lowering of the flags’,which has been held since 1959. At that time there is an energetic parade by the Border Security Force of India and the Pakistan Rangers soldiers. It may appear slightly aggressive and even hostile to foreigners but in fact the paraders are imitating the pride and anger of a Cockerel” said our knowledgable visitor.

Above: The Bab-i-Azadi entry gate on the Pakistan side of Wagah Border (left) and the entry gate on the Indian side of the border (right). With over 8000 people visiting the border on an average day just on the Indian side, both governments have started developing Wagah as a tourist destination, improving tourist and custom facilities. The Indian government plans to develop a global tourist complex at the  border, which is 30 kilometres away from Amritsar

On August 14–15, 2001, the respective Independence days of Pakistan and India, the candle-lighting ceremony at the Wagah border, in which 40,000 Pakistani citizens and 15,000 Indian citizens took part, was seen as a reflection of the changing public mood over India-Pakistan reconciliation. Such candlelight vigils and the yearly ‘Midnight Peace Festivals’ were also reported in subsequent years. In May 2005, Pakistan allowed the import of five specified food items, free of tax via the Wagah border to tide over shortages in the domestic market;eventually, in an unprecedented move, on 1 October 2006, trucks carrying goods crossed the Wagah border for the first time since the independence of Pakistan and India over 60 years ago.

Above and below: Troops of each country put on a show in their uniforms with their colorful turbans. Border officials from the two countries sometimes walk over to the offices on the other side for day to day affairs. The happenings at this border post have been a barometer of the India-Pakistan relations over the years. In July 2010, as part of a move initiated by India, both countries agreed to tone down the aggressiveness exhibited by soldiers during the gate closing ceremony because the soldiers hurt their feet and knees performing the goose-stepping every day – “It was very dramatic and really entertaining with the crowds on both sides of the border cheering on their respective sides. The atmosphere reminded me a little of my school sports days” said our traveller. “If you go to Amritsar, it is well worth seeing” added Ray (Photo’s: Wikipedia)

Above: Before departing Amritsar, our global explorer took the opportunity to return to the Golden Temple after the border ceremony in Attari – “It looks and feels so different at night and is quite mesmerising” observed Ray  (Photo: Wikipedia)

To get from Amritsar to Dharamsala is relatively straightforward – you either take a bus or train to Pathankot, which takes around four hours and from there, another bus winds its way up into the mountains for another 3-4 hours to reach the secluded, charming hillside town of Macleod Ganj. I was curious to know why Ray had included it in his itinerary. “Some of our readers may be aware that Dharamsala is the exiled home of The Dalai Lama and many thousand Tibetan monks. I wanted to attend a special three-day teaching with him” explained Ray. “My friend Silky was going to be there and she told me about the teachings His Holiness does about twice a year which are open to the public, and they sounded really interesting. It was fortunate for me that I chose to go, because by the time I arrived I was really dying to get away from the cities which are extremely noisy, polluted, crowded and unpleasant. Macleod Ganj is up in the mountains, the air is much cleaner and cooler and the ambience is entirely different from typical, larger Indian cities – to me, it feels more like being in Tibet than in India, and I loved Tibet when I visited there in 2008” said our happy traveller.

Above: On the way to Macleod Ganj, which is a suburb of Dharamsala in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. It has an average elevation of 2,082 metres (6,831 feet). McLeod Ganj was named after Sir Donald Friell McLeod, a Lieutenant Governor of Punjab, while the suffix Ganj is common Hindi word for “neighbourhood”

Below: Ray’s friend Silky enjoys the early morning sunshine – “She has attended teachings with the Dalai Lama in previous years and when she told me about them, I felt inspired to come” said Ray

There is sometimes confusion around the distinction between Macleod Ganj and Dharamsala, so I asked Ray if he could clarify it for me. “Sure I can, Sam. It goes back to March 1849, when the area was annexed by the British after the Second Anglo-Sikh War. Soon after, a subsidiary cantonment for the troops stationed at Kangra was established, on the slopes of Dhauladhar, in an empty land, with a Hindu resthouse or dharamsala, hence the name for the new cantonment, Dharamsala. During the British rule in India, the town was a hill station, where the British people spent hot summers. When the district headquarters in Kangra became overcrowded, the British moved two regiments to Dharamsala. By 1855 it had two important places of civilian settlement, McLeod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj, named after a Divisional Commissioner.Lord Elgin, the British Viceroy of India (1862–63), liked the area so much that he even suggested at one point, that it be made the summer capital of India. The twin towns of Forsyth Ganj and McLeod Ganj, continued to grow steadily in the coming years and by 1904 had become important centres of trade, commerce and official work of Kangra District. But much of the town was destroyed by the devastating 7.8 magnitude 1905 Kangra earthquake, in which close to 19,800 people were killed and thousands were injured in the Kangra area. The earthquake destroyed most buildings in Kangra, Dharamsala, and Macleod Ganj. Thereafter district headquarter offices were shifted to a lower part, and the town waited for another half a century before anything significant transpired in its history” explained Ray. “In March 1959, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled to India after the failed uprising in 1959 in Tibet against the Communist Party of China. The Indian Government offered him refuge in Dharamsala, where he set up the Government of Tibet in exile in 1960, while Macleod Ganj became his official residence, and also home to several Buddhist monasteries and thousands of Tibetan refugees. Over the years, Macleod Ganj evolved into an important tourist and pilgrimage destination, and has since grown much in population” added our global explorer.

Above: Macleod Ganj from a distance. It is sometimes known as “Little Lhasa” or “Dhasa” (short form of Dharamsala, used mainly by Tibetans) due to its large population of Tibetan refugees. The Dalai Lama’s residence, and the venue for his three-day teaching, is circled in red

Below: Our traveller stayed in a room adjoining the Kirti monastery, which gave him some fabulous views across the mountains and down in the valleys below

Above: Sam Ozer asks Ray: Are you smiling because you are enlightened? “No” says Ray (left) – “I have just registered to get my badge so I can attend the teachings, so I am nearly enlightened, but not quite!” The Namgyal Monastery is a huge complex and provides a perfect space for the teachings (right)

Below: It is a buddhist tradition to say prayers as you light butter candles inside the monastery

The most important Buddhist site in the town is Tsuglagkhang or Tsuglag Khang, the Dalai Lama’s temple. It has statues of Shakyamuni, Avalokiteśvara, and a statue of Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche). Other Buddhist and Tibetan sites in McLeod Ganj include the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, Gompa Dip Tse-Chok Ling (a small monastery) and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. “I met several westerners in town who were attending many different kinds of teachings each day, including some at the Library, so I went to a couple of sessions myself to find out what more I could learn about Buddhism” he told me. “You can see that tourism is an important industry in Macleod Ganj, but overwhelmingly, people come here to study Tibetan Buddhism, culture and crafts. The town is also known for Tibetan handicrafts, thangkas, Tibetan carpets, garments and other souvenirs. I am delighted to say that there are one or two excellent Tibetan restaurants too” added Ray.

Above: Mainstreet, Macleod Ganj (left). The town is situated on the Dhauladhar Range, whose highest peak - ”Hanuman Ka Tibba” – at about 5,639 metres (18,500 feet), lies just behind it, as you can see from this picture of our traveller as he sits down for lunch

Below: Silky walks behind a Tibetan nun and touches the prayer wheels outside the Tsuglagkhang Temple. In the early morning, you are welcome to participate as the monks chant and meditate. You can join local residents for a meditative walk around the temple/monastery complex, which is known as a Kora. Along the way you will see many prayer flags and “mani” stones. Kora is performed by making a walking circumambulation around a temple, stupa, or other sacred site. Kora many be performed while spinning prayer wheels, chanting a mantra, counting mala, or repeatedly prostrating oneself. In this way kora functions as a mind-calming meditative exercise. In accordance with Buddhist tradition and belief, kora is always performed in a clock-wise direction, and is often performed 108 times

Above: The Tsuglagkhang Complex is the largest Tibetan temple outside Tibet, and it has a large meditation hall containing some beautiful statues and thangkas, as well as a Kalachakra temple with beautiful murals. It is the monastery of the Dalai Lama and is located just in front of his residence. “In case you are thinking of visiting, you can find the Namgyal Cafe on the basement level of the complex where they serve really amazing pizza’s” Ray told me

Below: Near the Tibetan Government in Exile, is the library (left) which has a small but interesting museum and adjacent rooms for daily teachings about many different aspects of Buddhism (right)

Above: His Holiness The Dalai Lama talks about meditation and serenity during the three-day teaching organised in honour of a group of Korean monks….

Below: ….. and attended by hundreds of members of the public (left) from all over the world. Long time Tibetan supporter Richard Gere also showed up (right) – “There was an audible gasp emitted by the audience as he joined the proceedings on the second day” said Ray

Above: An aerial view of Macleod Ganj from the road to Bhagsu, which is about two kilometres from Macleod Ganj and is a holy pilgrim site for Hindus. Bhagsu has an ancient Shiv temple. However, the main attraction and the crowd puller here is not the temple, but the public swimming pool! It is a treat for tourists making it to Dharamsala during the hot months. But if you are not a great fan of busy places then steer clear as it is always crowded, except during the cold winters when the water is freezing

Below: A picturesque trail leads towards the Bhagsu waterfall, which takes about 20-30 minutes to reach from Macleod Ganj. If you have a lot of clothes to wash and you don’t want to give it to the laundry man to save some bucks, then this is the ideal place to do your own laundry and take a bath in the cool, clear water from the Dauladhar ranges – “I think I’ll take my washing to the laundry” said Ray

Above: Our traveller enjoys the peaceful and calming Bhagsu waterfall – “I am very lucky to be able to do things like this” he told me. “After six years of nomadic living, I still pinch myself sometimes to make sure I am not dreaming!”

Editors Note: Our special thanks to our new guest correspondent Sam Ozer, who has made a fantastic debut contribution with this excellent edition of The Daily Explorer. Sam will be uploading the third and final edition covering Ray’s first visit to India in the coming week, so look out for an email in the next few days. Our thanks to everyone at The Daily Explorer whose tireless work makes this journal possible. And our thanks to you, our readers, for your continued interest and support. Many of you know that our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

From time to time, readers send in video clips which we really appreciate. Whilst some are not appropriate for inclusion, the following clip is amongst the most inspirational clips we have ever received here, so sit down with some tissues for the next few minutes and take a look:

That’s it for now. My special thanks to Susie Moberly who took the picture of Ray below. Our next issue of The Daily Explorer will be online before the year is out and I will send regular readers an email with the link next week. Enjoy your Christmas!

MOZZIE BYTE

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for almost six years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 21 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

In our latest issue, we follow Ray to a country that he has been longing to explore for many years and one that is a target for many travellers and soul-seekers alike – India! You can find out how our global traveller adjusted to things after his arrival in Delhi and how he fared during his subsequent visits to Jaipur in Rajasthan and the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal in Agra.

In case you missed our last issue, we had an update from Singapore as our intrepid explorer was finalising preparations to enter the Asian business world on a part-time basis to coach managers and executives in the region. He went there to take part in a week-long training programme with the Singapore based company, Coach In A Box. We also looked back at Ray’s last few days in Berlin and found out what happened during his brief stopover in Chiang Mai as he returned to Asia. You can read it now at: From Sing-a-Berlin to Singapore

Above: In our last issue, our intrepid explorer was finalising preparations to enter the Asian business world and took part in a week-long training programme with the Singapore based company, Coach In A Box (Ray is standing in the centre). You can read all about it at: Sing-a-Berlin to Singapore

With rainfall levels reaching all time high’s, our global traveller certainly seemed to have left Thailand at the right time. “It is not unusual for there to be heavy rain at this time of year, as it is the ‘rainy’ season, but in the five or so years that I have been coming here I have not seen such consistently heavy downpours in Chiang Mai as I have now” he told me. “Just a couple of days before flying to Delhi, the Ping River had overflowed its banks and was causing plenty of disruption to the daily lives of locals and travellers alike. I saw many tourists staying down by the river who had been evacuated as their guest houses shipped more and more water. Close to the river, all residents and business owners were busily building sandbag barricades to defend themselves against the worst floods in years. And I believe the same is also true in Bangkok, which has been having an even harder time” said Ray.

About three years ago, whilst travelling through Australia from Adelaide to Darwin, our intrepid explorer met Patrick Schmid from Germany aboard the Ghan train from Alice Springs to Katherine. “We were sitting next to each other and I soon realised he did not have any food, so I offered him half of mine and we struck up a great conversation which has continued to this day” Ray told me. “When I was in Berlin earlier this year, I had hoped we might see each other but Patrick lives at the other end of the country in Munich so it didn’t happen. So when he told me he was going to be spending his vacation in Asia and visiting Chiang Mai, I was thrilled and timed my departure carefully so that I would definitely be there when he arrived. I have discovered one or two really amazing friends on my travels and he is definitely one of them” said our traveller.

Above: The Ping River in Chiang Mai recently – “The tops of the trees on the right are submerged in the water” observed Ray. “Normally, people can walk along the river bank under these trees and there are one or two coffee shops which are underwater” said our shocked traveller

Below: A view from the road beside the river reveals a small boat with outboard motor has been provided to transport local residents to and from their homes (left). Meanwhile, these buddhist monks do their best to protect themselves from floodwater entering their temple on the Tha Pae Road (right)

Above: Some of our readers may recall that Ray attended a seven day retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh at the Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in Ayutthaya, Thailand. The area has also been severely affected by flooding and the University now serves as refugee center for flood victims in nearby area

Below: Fellow traveller Patrick Schmid is re-united with Ray in Chiang Mai. The two met each other three years ago on a train in the middle of the Australian outback – “I love the way these things unfold” said Ray. “Life continues to send me some really great people” he told me

According to our global traveller, arranging to go to India from Bangkok is quite straightforward. “You basically need to arrange a visa and book a flight” he told me. “In Chiang Mai, the Indian Consulate issue six month visa’s for British passport holders and unlike many government/immigration offices, the service they provide makes it effortless and quick. As far as flights are concerned, there are many budget airlines that offer direct flights between Bangkok and Delhi/Mumbai which means that if you plan ahead, you can pick up a relatively cheap seat, maybe as little as fifty or sixty pounds” he told me.

I was curious to know what made Ray decide to make India the 21st country he has visited since becoming a nomad. “I took part in a fund-raising event in 2004 called Enduro India, in which a group of about 100 people ride 2,000 kilometres on Royal Enfield motorcycles across southern India to raise money for charity. It was an amazing experience and it opened my eyes to the country” he recalled. “I made a promise to myself that I would return to really explore the place properly when I had a decent chunk of time. Added to this, my girlfriend Silky was also going to be in India for a few weeks so I planned my trip in such a way that I would be able to spend some time with her whilst I was travelling around” explained our global nomad.

Above: Map of India, which is the seventh-largest country by geographical area and the second-most populous democracy in the world with over 1.2 billion people. Delhi, Jaipur and Agra are circled as these were the first three ports of call for our traveller as he started to explore this vast and charismatic country

Below: After several weeks apart, our traveller meets his girlfriend Silky in Pahar Ganj, Delhi – “We were both headed in different directions from here, so it was great to spend a couple of days together before we set off on our individual routes” recalled Ray. “She has lived in India and knows the country pretty well, which is very helpful to someone like me who is suddenly confronted with a culture that is so entirely different from what we are used to in the West” he added

Above: Silky introduces our first-time Delhi visitor to the market streets in Pahar Ganj – “Don’t be fooled by the picture” said Ray. “These streets were for the most part very crowded, noisy and absolutely filthy, with cows and goats loitering everywhere. The smell of rubbish was almost unbearable and the constant badgering by beggars for money was sufficient to try the patience of a saint” he added. “Not to mention my budget guesthouse in Pahar Ganj – they do not even put any toilet paper in the rooms! Having said all that, it is wonderful to experience somewhere so vibrant and raw. This is about as hard-core as budget travel gets, or so I thought” said our global explorer

According to Wikipedia, there were 1,210,193,422 residents reported in the 2011 provisional census, making India is the world’s second most populous country (China is the first). Its population grew at 1.76% per annum during the last decade, down from 2.13% per annum in the previous decade (1991–2001). Medical advances made in the last 50 years as well as increased agricultural productivity brought about by the “Green Revolution” have caused India’s population to grow rapidly and the country continues to face several public health-related challenges. According to the World Health Organization, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air. Traditional Indian society is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. The Indian caste systemembodies much of the social stratification and many of the social restrictions found in the Indian subcontinent. Social classes are defined by thousands of hereditary groups, often termed as jātis, or “castes”. Most Dalits (“Untouchables”) and members of other lower-caste communities continue to live in segregation and often face persecution and discrimination. Multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm in India, though nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. An overwhelming majority of Indians, with their consent, have their marriages arranged by their parents or other family members. Marriage is thought to be for life, and the divorce rate is extremely low. Child marriage is still a common practice, more so in rural India, with more than half of women in India marrying before the legal age of 18.

Delhi is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the territory at the 2011 census. Located on the banks of the River Yamuna, Delhi has been known to be continuously inhabited since at least the 6th century BC, though human habitation is believed to have existed since the second millennium BC. After the British East India Company had gained a foothold in North East India in the late 18th century, Calcutta became the capital of British held territories under Company rule (1774–1857) and remained so under the British Raj (1857–1920). The British had captured Delhi by 1857 and George V announced in 1911 that the capital of British controlled parts of India would move back to Delhi. A new capital city, New Delhi, was built to the south of the old city during the 1920s. When India gained independence from British rule in 1947, New Delhi was declared its capital and seat of government. Owing to the migration of people from across the country (mostly from the Northern and Eastern states of India), Delhi has grown to be a multicultural, cosmopolitan metropolis. Its rapid development and urbanisation, coupled with the relatively high average income of its population, has transformed Delhi into a major cultural, political, and commercial centre of India.

“It is such a culture shock” acknowledged Ray after a couple of days in the city. “I don’t think I have ever been anywhere as crowded and the noise and pollution levels beggar belief. Poverty is everywhere – I have read that around 800,000,000 Indians (i.e. three quarters) live on less than $2 per day. Of course, it is a third world country and I guess this is what one should expect but if the rest of India is like this, it will be very challenging for me to function for any sustained period of time” he told me.

Above: First stop on Ray’s sightseeing list was the Red Fort, a 17th century complex constructed by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the walled city of Old Delhi (in present day Delhi) that served as the residence of the Mughal Emperors. It also served as the capital of the Mughals until 1857, when Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was exiled by the British Indian government. It was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007 and is the location from which the Prime Minister of India addresses the nation on Independence Day

Below: The various pavillions inside the huge courtyard at the Red Fort (Photo: Wikipedia)

Above: The Red Fort showcases the very high level of early Indian art form and ornamental work (left). It is a synthesis of Persian, European and Indian art which resulted in the development of unique Shahjahani style which is very rich in form, expression and colour. Red Fort, Delhi is one of the important building complexes of India and it’s significance has transcended time and space. It is relevant as a symbol of architectural brilliance and power. Even before its notification as a monument of national importance in the year 1913, efforts were made to preserve and conserve the Red Fort, for posterity. Naturally, it draws many admirers from overseas as well as from within India, like the woman pictured (right)  (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Although India is predominantly populated by Hindu’s, around 10% are Muslims. So the second stop for our visitor was the Jama Masjid mosque. Commissioned by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal, in the year 1644 CE and completed in the year 1658 AD, it is the largest and best-known mosque in India. ”I was told that the courtyard of the mosque can hold up to twenty-five thousand worshippers” said our gobsmacked traveller. “The courtyard can be reached from the east, north and south by three flights of steps, all built of red sandstone. The northern gate of the mosque has 389 steps. The eastern gate of the mosque was the rural entrance and it has 774 steps. These steps used to house food stalls, shops and street entertainers. The mosque faces south and its roof is covered with eight domes with repeated stripes of purple and white marble. Two lofty minarets, 130 feet (41 metres) high and containing 130 steps, longitudinally striped with white marble and red sandstone, flank the domes on either side. The minarets are divided by three projecting galleries and are surmounted by open twelve-sided domed pavilions. On the back of the mosque, there are four small minarets crowned like those in the front.

Above: A panorama of the vast square showing the domes and minarets (Photo: Wikipedia)

Below: This is what it looks like when it is full (Photo: Wikipedia) – “I would have liked to have seen it like this but unfortunately there was no service taking place when I visited” said Ray

Above: Our global traveller has a wander through the market outside the entrance to the Jama Masjid mosque (Photo: S Piehler)

Below: “One of the things that you notice in India is the multitude of colours everywhere you look” observed Ray (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Most people reading this journal will be familiar with the inspired phrase “Be the change you wish to see in the world” and some may also be aware that these prophetic words were spoken by Mahatma Gandhi, widely regarded as the founding father of modern India. “I have always been inspired by this great man” said Ray, “whose existence proved that great things can be achieved by one individual who speaks the truth. Another one of his quotes which I love and often refer to is “Even if I am in a minority of one, the truth is still the truth” Ray told me. “He was assassinated in Delhi in 1948 and the place where this tragic incident took place is now a shrine to his memory. I felt compelled to visit the site even though I suspected I would be a bit overcome with emotion. The older I get, the more I feel upset about the use of violence in society to accomplish desired outcomes and he was someone who was very particular about the use of non-violence in all of the protests he led” added Ray. “He also led by example and demonstrated that one person can make a difference”.

According to Wikipedia, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known in India as “Bapu”, first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women’s rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 kilometre (250 mile) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both South Africa and India. “I have watched Richard Attenborough’s film about his life again since I arrived in India and it is a wonderful depiction of this epic story. I highly recommend it to our readers” said Ray, who singled out this inspirational speech given by Gandhi to generate the (non-violent) support he wanted to have India become free from British rule (below):

Above: Gandhi (2nd October 1869 – 30th January 1948) – “He strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest” said our traveller

Below: The Gandhi Smriti, formerly known as Birla House or Birla Bhavan, is a museum dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, situated on Tees January Road, in New Delhi. It is the location where Mahatma Gandhi spent the last 144 days of his life and was assassinated on January 30, 1948

Above: The Gandhi Smriti was originally the house of the Indian business tycoons, the Birlas. It now houses the Eternal Gandhi Multimedia Museum established in 1995 (left). Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting – “You can re-trace his steps along the red path (right) until you reach the platform where his assassin, Nathuram Godse shot and killed him. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi’s memorial bears the epigraph “Hē Ram”, which may be translated as “Oh God”. These are widely believed to be Gandhi’s last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed

Below: Gandhi was universally admired by people all over the world, including Albert Einstein

Above: Our global nomad walks the last few steps along the path to the exact spot where Gandhi was killed – “It was very moving indeed to stand in this spot and try to imagine what it might have felt like to be here that day and see such a great man be lost forever” he recalled. After the shooting, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio and said: “Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives. There is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country” (Photo: S Piehler)

About four hours by bus from Delhi is the city of Jaipur (see map above). “It is located in the neighbouring state of Rajasthan” explained Ray “and it gave me my first taste of travel within the country, which went pretty well until we reached the outskirts of the city” he recalled. “About eight kilometres away from the bus station – the final destination – a guy got on the bus and told me that we had arrived at the bus station and that I should get off. I checked with the (not very helpful and non-english speaking) driver and he nodded, so he went with me to the back of the bus to offload my luggage. When I told them both the guest house I was looking for, they told me I would have to take a ride in their taxi for an additional 150 rupees – more than the cost of the journey from Delhi! My intuition told me immediately that I was being scammed so I quickly grabbed my luggage and ran to get back on the bus before the driver could depart. It seemed obvious that the two men had arranged to rendezvous at this place and that they would split the proceeds of their scam. This type of thing is routine for travelling in India and is something (I am told) you just have to get used to. People are generally very poor and see tourists as an opportunity to prosper. They will lie to you about all manner of things to get a few rupees from you – I can understand it but it is none-the-less bloody annoying and quite frustrating at first” admitted our streetwise traveller. “Another example – at the bus station are ‘pre-paid’ tuk-tuks which you can hire to take you where you want to go. In my case, 30 rupees was the fare to my guest house. Later that day, when attempting to take one the other way, from my guest house to the bus station, the touts outside were all telling me the fare was 100 rupees! You have to have your wits about you and try not to be impolite whilst letting them know you can see you are being overcharged” recalled Ray. “Usually, a bargain can be struck which is acceptable, as I started to discover after a week or so”.

Above: The city of Jaipur, as seen from the 14th floor of the OM restaurant in the city centre. Jaipur is also popularly known as the Pink City and is the capital of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million

Below: Panoramic view of the city from the surrounding hills (Photo: Wikipedia)

Above: Although the present city has expanded from outside its walls, the original planning was within the walls. The gates (left) used to be closed at sunset and opened at sunrise. Almost all Northern Indian towns of that period presented a chaotic picture of narrow twisting lanes, a confusion of run-down forts, temples, palaces, and temporary shacks that bore no resemblance at all to the principles set out in Hindu architectural manuals which call for strict geometric planning. Today, there are plenty of options available to budget travellers for getting around (right)

Below: Ray visited the City Palace, which was the seat of the Maharaja of Jaipur, the head of the Kachwaha Rajput clan. The Chandra Mahal palace now houses a museum but the greatest part of it is still a royal residence. The palace complex, which is located northeast of the centre of the grid patterned Jaipur city, incorporates an impressive and vast array of courtyards, gardens and buildings. The palace was built between 1729 and 1732, initially by Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber. He planned and built the outer walls, and later additions were made by successive rulers right up to the 20th century

Above: Adjacent to the City Palace (you can see it in the background) is the Jantar Mantar, a collection of architectural astronomical instruments, built by Maharaja (King) Jai Singh II at his then new capital of Jaipur between 1727 and 1734. The observatory consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring time, predicting eclipses, tracking stars’ location as the earth orbits around the sun, ascertaining the declinations of planets, and determining the celestial altitudes and related ephemerides. Each is a fixed and ‘focused’ tool. The Samrat Yantra, the largest instrument, is 90 feet (27 metres) high, its shadow carefully plotted to tell the time of day. Its face is angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur. The Hindu chhatri (small cupola) on top is used as a platform for announcing eclipses and the arrival of monsoons

Below: This piece forms part of a giant sundial. Built from local stone and marble, each instrument carries an astronomical scale, generally marked on the marble inner lining. Bronze tablets, all extraordinarily accurate, were also employed. Thoroughly restored in 1901, the Jantar Mantar was declared a national monument in 1948. An excursion through Jai Singh’s Jantar is a unique experience of walking through solid geometry and encountering a collective astronomical system designed to probe the heavens – “It felt quite surreal, like something out of Alice in Wonderland” observed our traveller

Above: Our traveller was also getting acquainted with the various forms of retailing in India, starting with this street vendor blocking the traffic….

Below: …. when he soon discovered a couple of interesting shops. First of all, a tailor called Raymond (left) – “The poster in the window reads “When you are on top of the world, it shows” and I have to say that some days, it is true!” Meanwhile, anyone in India pursuing a spiritual path of enlightenment might want to try buying their fashion items at Vasari (right)

From Jaipur, it was on to Agra, which gave our intrepid explorer his first experience of the Indian Railway network – I asked him to tell me what it was like. “Well Mozzie, my first journey was due to take about four and a half hours and in any other country, I guess it would be quite straightforward – but not in India. The first challenge I faced was where to go to board my train when arriving at the station. There are literally thousands of people milling around and virtually none speak english. Some are there to travel, others sleep there or beg for money. Others, like rickshaw drivers or porters just want to hassle you for business. It is extremely crowded, dusty and hot” said Ray. “Eventually, someone directed me to a tourist information office where I was able to find out which one of the twenty or so platforms my train would be leaving from. So far, so good. Climbing over bodies to get to the platform, I realised the next challenge was to work out where to stand, as the platforms are very long indeed and if you enter the train in the wrong carriage, it could take you literally hours to get to your seat, which will definitely be occupied when you get there. And that’s because there is (apparently) no limit to the number of people who are allowed to board these trains. In this instance, I was lucky that I booked a ticket in advance, as I was guaranteed a seat! The standard class ticket only cost 87 rupees (about $1.80 US), which is cheap by western standards, yet it is prohibitively expensive to most Indians who want to travel by train. Consequently, most people stand and they take every inch of available space until the roof is the only option! Within 20 minutes, after the first two stops, the carriages were heaving – there were five of us sitting on my bench designed for three and it was literally impossible to leave the seat whilst the train was moving!” recalled Ray. “As I was the only foreigner in the entire carriage, I drew a lot of attention and felt hundreds of eyes on me for most of the journey. The person sitting next to me spoke English so I was able to get a conversation going, which meant I was able to find out about how things in general in India are working for most of the people there. Unfortunately, the train was severely delayed which meant I arrived in Agra close to midnight, hoping that I would be able to easily find the guest house I had booked a couple of days earlier” he added.

Above: It may not look very far on the map, but the journey from Jaipur to Agra crosses a state border and took about five and a half hours in a jam-packed, hugely overcrowded rickety train with bench seats and metal bars across open windows, like a cattle-truck!

Below: This is what the inside of Ray’s carriage looked like 15 minutes before departure from the station at Jaipur. Within 20 minutes of leaving, he tells me that it would have been impossible to take this photograph, as there were literally hundreds of people squashed into every available inch of space!

Unfortunately for our traveller, not everything worked according to plan as he arrived at Agra station. “I was able to establish that my guest house was quite close to the Taj Mahal, about 10-15 minutes by tuk-tuk from the station. Having gone through the annoying ritual of getting the price agreed, starting with the driver asking 150 rupees and eventually agreeing to accept 50, I made my way with him to my accommodation feeling exhausted from the long, uncomfortable journey and the hassling over getting a ride” recalled our global explorer. “I have to say, I had been warned about the touts in Agra and their relentless, aggressive pursuit of extracting money from tourists, but had chosen to give them the benefit of the doubt, thinking they could not all be as bad as people had made out. How wrong I was! As my tuk-tuk driver stopped at my hotel, he stayed there as I went to check in, almost as if he knew that something wasn’t quite right.

“Ray Martin – I have a reservation” I said to the guy at the desk. “We let your room go – you never showed up when you said” came the totally insensitive, uncaring reply. “I guess you can imagine that was the match which lit the fuse and I lost it at this point. Appeals that the train delays were outside of my control bounced off like water off a ducks back. Here I was in Agra, no clue as to exactly where because it was pitch black as I left the station as it was past midnight, with no place to sleep and no contingency. To make matters worse, one of the wheels on my holdall containing 22 kilos of luggage had broken which meant I could not wheel it along the street and would have to carry it instead. The tuk-tuk driver who witnessed all this just sat and smirked as he sensed another business opportunity to make some money from me by helping me find an alternative place. I was not very happy” said Ray.

Needless to say, our inventive traveller eventually managed to find somewhere to sleep and recover from the ordeal of his journey. “I have been doing this a long time, nearly six years now so things like this do happen from time to time and it’s not the end of the world” he said philosophically. “And anyway, I reminded myself that the whole reason I was in this place was to see one of the Wonders of the World. So from the moment I woke up the next morning, I kept my mental attention on that idea and decided to make the most of my limited time in Agra” he explained. So I asked Ray how was the Taj Mahal for him? Was it how had imagined or expected? “Yeah – it is incredible” was his answer. “It’s a bit of a cliché to say it, but you really have to be there” he told me. “Part of the thrill of visiting the Taj Mahal is the continuous suspense in the build-up before you set your eyes on it and the ultimate relief after the revelation. I have chosen these four pictures for our readers to see if I can explain what I mean” he told me.

1. “It is early morning, about 7.30am and the sun has risen. As you enter the West Gate and walk towards the centre, you get a glimpse of the Taj Mahal rising above the red surrounding wall of the compound. There is a magical energy and you cannot wait to get through the inner gate to see it in all of its glory”…..

2. “You are standing outside the inner gate and you peer through – you can see the Taj Mahal through the arch and it seems to be much closer than it actually is. You sense the excitement as you move your way towards the inner gate”….

3. “You are halfway through the inner gate and you are starting to see more and more of the entire structure. You get your first sighting of the whole building with its four minarets from ground level and your perspective changes. You can see it is actually much further away than it first appeared and considerably larger. Like a thirsty man walking through a desert spotting an oasis, you cannot hold yourself back and you want to get through the inner gate as fast as you can” …..

4. “You are now fully in the presence of one of the Wonders of the World. You are left utterly speechless as you remain still and take in the magnificent structure in front of you” said our traveller. “You see? It is virtually impossible to convey in words how spectacular this place really is and feels – it is somewhere that will stay in my memory for years to come” he confirmed

In case you didn’t know, the Taj Mahal has a story that has been melting the hearts of millions of listeners since the time the Taj has been visible. It is a story that although it ended back in 1631, it continues to live on in the form of Taj and is considered a living example of eternal love. It’s the love story of Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal, two people from the course of history who set an example for the people living in present and the future to come. An English poet, Sir Edwin Arnold best describes it as “Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passion of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones”. The story that follows next will prove why the statement is true.

Shah Jahan, initially named Prince Khurram, was born in the year 1592. He was the son of Jehangir, the fourth Mughal emperor of India and the grandson of Akbar the Great. In 1607 when strolling down the Meena Bazaar, accompanied by a string of fawning courtiers, Shah Jahan caught a glimpse of a girl hawking silk and glass beads. It was love at first sight and the girl was Mumtaz Mahal, who was known as Arjumand Banu Begum at that time. At that time, he was 14 years old and she, a Muslim Persian princess, was 15. After meeting her, Shah Jahan went back to his father and declared that he wanted to marry her. The match got solemnized after five years i.e., in the year 1612.

It was in the year 1628 that Shah Jahan became the Emperor and entrusted Arjumand Banu with the royal seal. He also bestowed her with the title of Mumtaz Mahal, meaning the “Jewel of the Palace”. Though Shah Jahan had other wives, Mumtaz Mahal was his favorite and accompanied him everywhere, even on military campaigns. In the year 1631, when Mumtaz Mahal was giving birth to their 14th child, she died due to some complications. While Mumtaz was on her deathbed, Shah Jahan promised her that he would never remarry and will build the richest mausoleum over her grave.

It is said that Shah Jahan was so heartbroken after her death that he ordered the court into mourning for two years. Sometime after her death, Shah Jahan undertook the task of erecting the world’s most beautiful monument in the memory of his beloved. It took 22 years and the labor of 22,000 workers to construct the monument. When Shah Jahan died in 1666, his body was placed in a tomb next to the tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. This magnificent monument came to be known as “Taj Mahal” and now counts amongst the Seven Wonders of the World.

Above: “I did it all for love” might have been how Shah Jahan would have described his magnificent marble creation (left). Our global explorer seems to have got considerably bigger since leaving Jaipur as he attempts to lift the Taj Mahal up and take it with him to Rishikesh (right)

Above: The interior chamber of the Taj Mahal steps far beyond traditional decorative elements. The inner chamber is an octagon with the design allowing for entry from each face, although only the door facing the garden to the south is used. The interior walls are about 25 metres (82 feet) high and are topped by a “false” interior dome decorated with a sun motif. Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves. Hence, the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan were put in a relatively plain crypt beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned right and towards Mecca. Mumtaz Mahal’s cenotaph is placed at the precise center of the inner chamber on a rectangular marble base of 1.5 metres by 2.5 metres. Both the base and casket are elaborately inlaid with precious and semi precious gems. Calligraphic inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the lid of the casket is a raised rectangular lozenge meant to suggest a writing tablet. Shah Jahan’s cenotaph is beside Mumtaz’s to the western side, and is the only visible asymmetric element in the entire complex. His cenotaph is bigger than his wife’s, but reflects the same elements: a larger casket on a slightly taller base, again decorated with astonishing precision with lapidary and calligraphy that identifies him. On the lid of this casket is a traditional sculpture of a small pen box

Below: The Taj Mahal sits on the bank of the River Yamuna. In the distance is the Agra Fort and legend has it that Shah Jahan would stare from the windows in the fort across to the Taj Mahal and mourn the loss of Mumtaz. In 1983, the Taj Mahal became a UNESCO World Heritage Site

Above: Whilst the Taj Mahal may be beautiful, sadly the rest of Agra is not – “It is by far the filthiest, smelliest and most unpleasant place that I have visited since arriving in India” said Ray, who sent us these photographs, both of which were taken less than five minutes walk away from the Taj Mahal. “I ended up staying in a guest house very close to the square in the photograph above” he told me. “The touts are extremely aggressive here. For any readers who may be visiting India in future, I would highly recommend you consider a day trip excursion from Delhi, as there are many and they are all very good value. It means you can get the best of Agra without all the aggro” added Ray

Below: According to Ray, Agra is definitely a ‘lame horse’ city, just like this poor creature which he found tied up in the local market up the road from his guest house

Above: Before leaving Agra, our global explorer took the opportunity to visit the fabulous and enriching fort. Also a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is about 2.5 kilometres north-west of its more famous sister monument, the Taj Mahal. Agra fort can be more accurately described as a walled city. At the end of his life, Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb in the fort. It is rumored that Shah Jahan died in Musamman Burj, a tower with a marble balcony with a view of the Taj Mahal. The fort was also the site of a battle during the Indian rebellion of 1857, which caused the end of the British East India Company’s rule in India, and led to a century of direct rule of India by Britain

Below: Unlike his grandfather, Shah Jahan tended to have buildings made from white marble, often inlaid with gold or semi-precious gems. He destroyed some of the earlier buildings inside the fort in order to make his own

Above: As he leaves Agra, Ray takes one last look at the magnificent Taj Mahal, through a window in the fort – “My most treasured pictures are the one’s which are etched into my mind” he told me. “I am very happy to have come here and seen this wonderful creation”

Editors Note: India certainly looks and sounds like a fascinating country. Ray will also be visiting Rishikesh, Amritsar and Dharamsala where he will be attending three days of teachings with the Dalai Lama. We will have news and pictures from his trip in our next issue. Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Above: On behalf of everyone at The Daily Explorer, we would like to congratulate one of our most dedicated readers – Ray’s mum – who celebrated her 75th birthday recently. “I am very lucky to know her and wish her good health and long life” said our global explorer, pictured here with Hetty during his visit to London earlier this year

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for almost six years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 20 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

Everyone at The Daily Explorer office has now returned after our summer break, and we waste no time in bringing you our latest issue. We have an update from Singapore as our intrepid explorer pursues the possibility of entering the Asian business world to coach managers and executives in the region. To finalise his preparation, he takes part in a week-long training programme with Coach In A Box. We also take a look back at Ray’s last few days in Berlin and find out what happened during his brief stopover in Chiang Mai as he returned to Asia.

In case you missed our last issue, Ray was taking a break from global travel for a few weeks to discover and enjoy life in the fabulous city of Berlin with his girlfriend Silky. We also accompanied them as they made a short trip across the border to Switzerland to visit Ray’s ex-wife Charlotte giving us an intimate, behind the scenes view of a part of our travellers personal history. You can read it now at: The Swiss Connection

Above: In our last issue, we followed Ray to the beautiful and captivating city of Berlin which he was exploring with girlfriend and fellow traveller Silky. You can read all about it at: The Swiss Connection

The business world is something we rarely touch on at The Daily Explorer, as we mainly observe and report on Ray’s experiences as a nomadic traveller. So I was particularly intrigued to find out more about the nature of Ray’s recent visit to Singapore and the possible implications for him. But first, I wanted to know more about his departure from Berlin as I could tell from our last issue that he was really enjoying his time in the city. “You are absolutely right Mozzie – Berlin has to be one of the most interesting, chic, bohemian and sexy cities that I have visited on my travels and certainly enters my list of places I would be happy to live in, or at least return to many times” said Ray. “First, it has a truly compelling history, with its years of division either side of the wall and its eventual re-unification. I was utterly fascinated as I discovered remnants of this period of the city’s austere and tragic story. Like most major European cities, Berlin has a very varied mix of culture, architecture and cuisine which gives you a sense of great character. Yet unlike London and Paris, prices are relatively low although I am sure they are catching up fast. To any of our readers based in Europe, if you haven’t been to Berlin, I highly recommend it, at the very least as a long weekend break destination” he added. 

Above: The Spree river used to be the dividing line between East and West in some parts of the city (left). A residential street in Charlottenburg (centre) – “Some parts of the city are stunningly beautiful and very peaceful” observed Ray, who celebrated his 51st birthday before he left Germany. “Silky made me a beautiful birthday cake” (right), “which I must tell you was full of very nutritious nuts, fruits and other nourishing contents” laughed our health-conscious traveller (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Below: Silky took Ray to see the Reichstag building (left), which is the home of the German government. And if you are into shopping, no trip to Berlin would be complete without a visit to Kurfürstendamn, which is one of the most famous avenues in Berlin – “If you half close your eyes here, it is easy to imagine you are in New York (right), except the buildings are not quite as tall” observed Ray

Above: Our nomadic traveller explores the Palace at Charlottenburg, which was built at the end of the 17th century and is the largest palace in Berlin (Photo: S Piehler)

Below: Potsdamer Platz in the city centre. The grassy banked area was once a huge section of ‘No Man’s Land’ between East and West, divided by the Berlin Wall. If you are interested, you can read more about the fascinating history of this area at the Wikipedia site

Above: The restaurant on the top floor at the Kaufhaus des Westens (“Department Store of the West”), usually abbreviated to KaDeWe, which is in central Berlin. With over 60,000 square metres of selling space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second largest department store in Europe (left). Trumped only by Harrods in London. It attracts 40,000 to 50,000 visitors every day. Elsewhere, our traveller spotted these rather colourful bears in a nearby street (right) – “They are being exhibited all over the world” Ray told me. “Up to 25 million people on five continents have admired them. The Buddy Bears stand together hand in hand in a peaceful circle, promoting tolerance and understanding among different nations, cultures and religions. Each Buddy Bear has been designed by an artist on behalf of his or her native country. The international artists’ different styles are joined together in one work of art, spreading the zest for life. The diverse design of the Buddy Bears – always typical for the respective countries – enables the visitors to experience a journey around the globe. Buddy Bear activities and aid for children in need have formed an inseparable unit. To date, over €1,768,000 has been raised through donations and auctions in aid of UNICEF and local child relief organizations” said our well-informed traveller

Below: Silky stands outside ‘Kaffeehaus Sowohlalsauch‘ on Kollwitzstraße, Prenzlauer Berg – “As a visitor in a new city, there are very few things you get to experience more than once as you tend to want to experiment and try new things as much as you can” said Ray. “However, the breakfast was so good at this particular brasserie, I ended up going back there several times during my stay and I highly recommend it if you go to Berlin” he told me

Above: Just before he left Germany, Ray took his bicycle to Potsdam (left), which is situated on the River Havel, about 24 kilometres southwest of Berlin city centre. Potsdam has several claims to national and international notability. In Germany, it had the status Windsor has in Britain: it was the residence of the Prussian kings and German Kaisers, until 1918. Around the city there are a series of interconnected lakes and unique cultural landmarks, in particular the parks and palaces of Sanssouci (right), the largest World Heritage Site in Germany (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Below: Silky takes our traveller for a closer look at the palace at Sanssouci - the former summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. It is often counted among the German rivals of Versailles. The palace was designed between 1745 and 1747 to fulfill King Frederick’s need for a private residence where he could relax away from the pomp and ceremony of the Berlin court. After World War II, the palace became a tourist attraction in East Germany. It was fully maintained with due respect to its historical importance, and was open to the public. Following German reunification in 1990, the final wish of Frederick came to pass: his body was finally returned to his beloved palace and buried in a new tomb overlooking the gardens he had created. Sanssouci and its extensive gardens became a World Heritage Site in 1990 under the protection of UNESCO. These palaces are now visited by more than two million people a year from all over the world

No visit to Berlin would be complete without an excursion to Mauerpark, in Prenzlauer Berg district. “This is the area where Silky lives and where I was renting my apartment” explained Ray. “On a Sunday, a huge flea market is in operation and if the weather is good, thousands of Berliners come to enjoy the market, food and the street entertainment on offer. Like Potsdamer Platz, the site was formerly an area of ‘No Mans Land’ between East and West Germany, which adds something special to the atmosphere of being there” he added. “The first time Silky took me there, it was on a Sunday afternoon and we watched the weekly open-air karaoke taking place. This is so popular that well over a thousand people gather at the amphi-theatre in the park every week to be part of it. One by one, courageous members of the community step forward (voluntarily) to sing and (hopefully) entertain people in crowd. There is a really great sound system and the musical backing tracks are excellent – it is very well run by the guys who organise it. People in the audience recognise that those taking the stage need a lot of support and encouragement, as most of them are not performers, so the crowd enthusiastically cheers, dances and applauds everyone, no matter how terrible they are! When I went the first time, I just knew I would not be satisfied to leave Berlin without having a go myself” said our traveller. “My nerves got the better of me for several weeks, which meant I left it until my last weekend” recalled Ray. “I arrived at the park and put my name down to sing “When You Say Nothing At All” by Ronan Keating, as it’s a lovely ballad and I know the words pretty well. Then I sat in the crowd with Silky, who helped to keep me calm and watched the others do their numbers while I waited for my name to be called. It was probably two of the most stressful hours of my life! But once I got to the stage and got going, I calmed down a lot and was able to get the crowd onside. Silky thought I was both crazy and courageous in equal amounts although I think she appreciated the song being dedicated to her – the crowd certainly gave a loud cheer when I told them” said our romantic singing traveller.

Above: A bit like an outdoor version of “Pop Idol” or “Britain’s Got Talent”, well over a thousand people gather every week (left) in Mauerpark for the Karaoke which creates a daunting prospect for anyone wanting to take the microphone and have a go, although it did not seem to deter this little girl (right) who was on just before our global nomad (Photo’s: S Piehler)

Below: With the crowd completely behind our traveller, he gave it his all and kept the people of Berlin entertained (the audience is not in view as Ray is actually facing them) – “It was my way of thanking the people of the city for having me stay there and being so good to me, although I am not sure if they liked my way of doing it” he laughed (Photo: S Piehler)

For those of you who would like to be reminded of how it should be done, here is a video clip of the man himself performing live:

Some of you may recall from previous issues of The Daily Explorer that Ray has been exploring the possibility of working part-time as a business coach in Asia and he made significant progress towards that aim during his time in Berlin. “Earlier this year, I was introduced to an organisation in Singapore called Coach In A Box (CiAB) who have corporate clients in several countries in Asia. I explained to them that I had not been involved with business for about six years and wanted to try out working part-time so that I could still travel and engage in not-for-profit activities, as well as being able to make progress with writing my book. As it happens, they are expanding their client base in Asia and require more coaches in the near future, but cannot accurately predict the level of demand they will be expected to meet. So they are looking for people like me to join the team as an associate and be available as and when needed” explained Ray. “On paper, it seemed like the perfect match, so I agreed to enrol in their Associate Development Programme, which started (for me) in March this year. They offer a coaching service to their clients using the telephone or Skype, which is one of the major attractions for me as it is not location dependent. For both me and CiAB to see if their would be a good fit, the first thing they asked me to do was to be coached for about six weeks by one of their established people. This was really important because it would enable me to see how they do things and experience the service my own future clients would be expected to receive when I work with them. I was very impressed with Kenny Toh, who was my coach and it gave me a lot of confidence in CiAB as an organisation” added Ray.

Ray completed this phase of his training programme and in phase two, the roles were reversed. This time, it was Ray’s turn to be the coach. “There were several new associates joining the team at the same time, which made it possible for us to pair up and work with each other to gain experience of using their unique coaching tools” explained Ray. “I was asked to coach Pramod Gothi in Mumbai, India for about six weeks (during July and August), using a typical CiAB programme normally provided to commercial clients. Some of my calls with Pramod were recorded for assessment and I was also given feedback at various stages by my mentor so I could get a sense of what to focus my attention on to improve my own coaching capability. It also gave CiAB the opportunity to see what my level of capability is and make decisions about future deployment. It has been an extremely supportive and enjoyable process and I am really impressed with the Coach In A Box culture. In many ways, their culture reminds me of the business I used to run in England so I feel very ‘at home’ in their team and surrounded by a great group of people – a bit like joining an International community” said our traveller. “I am looking forward to the final phase of training for this year, which involves attending a five-day workshop in Singapore. It will be an opportunity to learn, which is always welcome, as well as meet the entire team in Asia. I have spoken to many of them on the phone so it will be great to see them in person” said Ray as he departed from Berlin and headed for Chiang Mai in Thailand.

Above: Our intrepid explorer thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Berlin, with the possible exception of some very early starts, like the one here at 3 am for a ‘community learning’ conference call with the CiAB team (left) – “I guess I have forgotten that being part of the corporate world sometimes eats into one’s personal time” said Ray. “Because I am affiliated to the Asian team, everything usually happens for me during normal business hours when I am in Asia, but since I made a spontaneous decision to extend my visit in Berlin by a few weeks, I had to get up five or six hours earlier than my Asian colleagues to be present for our weekly calls” recalled Ray. Another one of the new associates to join CiAB is Pramod Gothi (right) from Mumbai, India – “He is a charming man and very modest. He has recently retired from working in a large corporation and wants to spend some of his twilight years passing on his knowledge and experience to younger executives who are learning the ropes. He graciously allowed me to coach him which gave me my first experience of using some of the CiAB coaching tools. Thank God for modern technology, like Skype!” exclaimed our traveller

When I telephoned Ray in Chiang Mai, I discovered that the Associate Development Programme with CiAB had led our traveller to an unusual opportunity to contribute to the work of an NGO involved in helping communities tackle social problems. “It amazes me sometimes how random events connect up to produce completely unexpected outcomes” said Ray. “One of my colleagues at CiAB who was coaching me on the phone suggested I find someone in Chiang Mai and coach them on a pro-bono basis (free) in order to gain further practise in using the tools we had been given. I thought this was a great idea, so after I arrived I approached a friend of mine called Gaston Schmitz, who works for an organisation called “The Constellation“. They help poor communities around the world by sending facilitators to their villages and working with them to come up with workable solutions to local problems such as AIDS, pollution, domestic violence and the like. Gaston has been totally committed to his work for a couple of years and asked me if I would have a chat with him about a couple of decisions he was considering related to his career, which I was very happy to do. Shortly afterwards, he telephoned me to say that he was making a short video about the work of The Constellation, which is funded entirely by donation, and asked me if I would record the narrated voiceover for the film. I love new experiences so I joyfully accepted and went to their office where I spent a few hours refining and practising with the script before finally recording the soundtrack. It was great fun to do it and I am really happy to give my energy to something which is truly worthwhile” explained Ray, who tells me that Gaston has now gone to Europe to get married. His fiancée Laurence has also been working in Chiang Mai and our traveller tells me that both of them are fantastic people. On behalf of everyone here at The Daily Explorer, we offer them our sincere congratulations and best wishes for a very happy life together!

Above: Our traveller enjoyed his brief return to Chiang Mai, en route to Singapore and managed to spot a couple of unusual things in the city which he enjoys so much. First, the ‘HUG’ Academy (left) – “I can’t help wondering what entry criteria they have but the idea of going doesn’t really grab me” said our curious observer.  Another sighting which had Ray intrigued was this woman in her garden (right) – “I heard that scientists have really made advances with the genetic modification of fruits, but this seems like a bit of a cock-up to me” he laughed

Below: Shortly after his arrival in Chiang Mai, Ray was invited to the office of the AIDS Network Development Foundation (left) to record the narrated voiceover for a short video describing the work of The Constellation. The invitation came from his friend Gaston Schmitz (right – grey shirt) who had also enrolled Rachan Peace to assist with the recording and editing

Above: Rachan (left) and Gaston (right) work on the dialogue in the script and decide how they want the voiceover to sound to get the desired impact for the viewer - “I had never done voiceover work before and I discovered that there is a lot more to it than meets the eye” said Ray

Below: For any of our readers who would like to hear our global nomad narrating the final cut, you can watch this short video clip. For more information about The Constellation, visit their web site

With the voiceover in the can, Ray departed for Singapore to join his CiAB colleagues for a five-day training programme that marked the end of the first phase of training for new associates joining the team. “I am really impressed with everybody at CiAB” re-iterated Ray. “They work to very high standards, which are reflected in everything they do including the way our training event was run. There were about 18 people in our working group and those of us coming from outside Singapore were accommodated in wonderful apartments in groups of four, which gave the whole event a ‘summer camp’ feel. I established a great connection with my three room-mates and feel like I have joined a like-minded community of sparkling people from all over Asia. I am very happy to be part of the team” Ray told me.

Did he have to work hard during the training? “The toughest part was facilitating one of the modules on the course for the rest of the group” he recalled. “I have experience in coaching people, but not in running training groups and it is very daunting to be given that task when your audience is made up of experienced facilitators! Still, I did the very best I could and prepared thoroughly so that my session, which I co-facilitated with one of my colleagues, would come across well. And judging from all of the feedback we received afterwards, it seems to have worked” added our relieved traveller. “The five-day programme was crammed full of exercises and working sessions and all of us were fully absorbed by it. I have made a lot of new friends and learnt a lot from my colleagues and trainers and am very excited about working with clients going forward. It has been a long time since I put my ‘business’ hat on, but it still fits very well” he laughed.

Above: The venue for the Coach In A Box five-day training programme in Singapore was the Lotus Residence near Joo Chiat – “It was a great place to be together and enabled all of us to get to know other members of our group, creating a strong sense of community. This is something which is very valuable and important to me” said Ray

Below: The people taking part in the Coach In A Box five-day training. Back Row, from left to right: Leo (Shanghai), Julian (Shanghai), Ian (Dubai), Ray, Kenny Toh (Singapore), April (Singapore), Jason (Hong Kong), Pramod (India). Front Row, from left to right: Cynthia (Hong Kong), Marisa (Thailand), Michelle (Singapore), Poyee (Shanghai), Jane – Group Leader (UK), Felicia (Singapore), Sabrina (South Korea) and Paula (Japan)

Above: Everyone was given an opportunity to practise facilitating a session for the rest of the group. Here, it is Ian and Pramod’s turn (left). Ray and April are keen to capture what they are learning (right) – “My turn to lead the group came on Wednesday morning, halfway through the week, so I found the second half of the course a bit more relaxing than the first half, during which I was decidedly nervous” recalled Ray

Below: There were plenty of opportunities for the new CiAB team members to get to know each other, including a group supper event (left) and some short trips downtown to explore the city (right) – “The organisation in Asia is only a couple of years old and is growing quite quickly, so it is good to join the team at this time as there are many opportunities to grow with it” Ray told me

Above: As far as Singapore attractions go, there was really only one thing on Ray’s “must see” list, which is the highly acclaimed Marina Bay Sands Resort. It is billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including the cost of the prime land. Originally set to open in 2009, the owners faced delays caused by escalating costs of material and labour shortages from the onset. The severe global financial crisis also pressured the company to delay its projects elsewhere to complete the integrated resort. It was officially opened with a two-day celebration on 23 June 2010

Below: Adjacent to the Marina Bay Sands resort is an exhibition concerning sustainable development in the rapidly growing city-state, which was of great interest to our visitor

Above and below: With the casino complete, the Marina Bay Sands resort features a 2,561-room hotel, a 1,300,000 square-foot (121,000 square metres) convention-exhibition centre, the 800,000 square-foot (74,000 square metres) shopping mall, an iconic ArtScience museum, two large theatres, seven “celebrity chef” restaurants, two floating Crystal Pavilions, an ice skating rink, and the world’s largest atrium casino with 500 tables and 1,600 slot machines. The complex is topped by a 340 metre long ‘Sky Park’ with a capacity of 3,900 people and a 150m infinity swimming pool, set on top of the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which overhangs the north tower by 67 metres

Above and below: The Sky Park is home to the world’s longest elevated swimming pool, with a 146-metre vanishing edge, perched 191 metres above the ground. The pools are made up of 422,000 pounds of stainless steel and can hold 376,500 gallons (1,424 cubic metres) of water. The Sky Park also boasts rooftop restaurants, lush gardens, hundreds of trees and plants, and a public observatory deck on the cantilever with 360-degree views of the Singapore skyline. There are four movement joints beneath the main pools, designed to help them withstand the natural motion of the towers, and each joint has a unique range of motion. The total range of motion is 500 millimetres (19.68 inches). In addition to wind, the hotel towers are also subject to settlement in the earth over time, so engineers built and installed custom jack legs to allow for future adjustment at more than 500 points beneath the pool system. This jacking system is important primarily to ensure the infinity edge of the pool continues to function properly. The developer declared the undertaking as “one of the world’s most challenging construction projects and certainly the most expensive stand-alone integrated resort property ever built”. It expects the casino to generate at least $1 billion in annual profit. The casino attracts around 25,000 visitors daily, about a third being Singaporeans and permanent residents who pay a $100 daily entry levy or $2,000 for annual unlimited access. Half a million gamblers passed through the casino in June 2010. For the economy, Marina Bay Sands is projected to stimulate an addition of $2.7 billion or 0.8% to Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product by 2015, employing 10,000 people directly and 20,000 jobs being created in other industries

Above: Hopefully, many of the gamblers who visit the Marina Bay Sands resort will have some money left over for shopping, which is something that Singapore is famous for. Ray sent us this picture, taken on Orchard Road which is home to several mega-malls and department stores

Below: Ray spotted this unusual troupe on Orchard Road – If you would like to suggest a caption to accompany this picture, you can send me your ideas in an email (mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com). We will publish the best caption in our next issue!

Editors Note: Ray has briefly returned to Chiang Mai and will be leaving for India in a few days. I spoke with him on Skype to get more information about his itinerary. “I have been meaning to visit India for a long time, ever since 2009 but put it off to train for the New York marathon and establish my “Calling All Angels” Fundraising Campaign. One thing led to another and life took me elsewhere for a while. I am back on track with it now” he explained. “I will initially go to Delhi and then travel through the country for a couple of weeks before I head for Dharamsala in northern India. This is the home of the Dalai Lama and many thousand Tibetan monks who live there in exile. I aim to be there in time for the Dalai Lama’s teachings and explore the region. It is eight years since I was last in India and even then it was only for two weeks. So I am very excited about returning to fully experience the vibrancy, energy, colour, smells and tastes of this incredible and challenging country” said our global nomad.

Above: Ray is very excited about returning to India after eight years and is a big fan of spectacular dance sequences in Bollywood movies, like the one in this clip! Our research department informs me that it is possible for tourists to work as extra’s which is something that may well appeal to our traveller, judging by his escapades in Berlin above

That’s about it for now. Before you sign out, you might want to check out the advertisement in the video clip below, which was sent to us by one of our readers. It has a rather haunting theme and a very unusual twist at the end!

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. We will be following Ray as he travels through India and should have our next issue of The Daily Explorer online in a few weeks. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Above: One of our readers sent us this rather unusual TV commercial, which has a very unexpected twist at the end. Enjoy!

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been travelling and living nomadically for five and a half years since he left England in November 2005, visiting 20 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

In this issue, we have an update from Berlin as our intrepid explorer takes a break from global travel for a few weeks to enjoy life in this fabulous city. And we accompany Ray as he visits his ex-wife Charlotte in Switzerland. If you want some great entertainment, there are also three video clips sent in by readers for you to enjoy.

In case you missed our last issue, Ray made the most of his return to London and organised a ‘mini-tour’ of Europe. He first visited Haarlem in the Netherlands, where he spent the weekend trekking and cycling, followed by a few days in the vibrant German capital city of Berlin. You can read it now at: Haarlem and Berlin Uncovered

Above: The Brandenburg Gate is one of Berlin’s most easily recognised landmarks. Our global traveller encountered the wonderful city of Berlin during his recent mini-tour of Europe. You can read all about it in: Haarlem and Berlin Uncovered

Having a basic daily routine is something that has been absent for our global traveller for a very long time. So it was not a huge surprise to hear from Ray that he was enjoying his three month stay in Berlin when I spoke to him recently. “You know Mozzie, I have loved and enjoyed my mobility over the last five and a half years, the spontaneity that is possible through being unencumbered by circumstances and the freedom of not having responsibility for looking after property or other people” he told me. “Yet in some ways, it has come at a price and every now and again, it is interesting to re-experience some aspects of the life I left behind when I started this great experiment in 2005. I sometimes miss having a place of my own, being able to plan my activities well in advance and getting to know people in one place. And having access to the kind of modern amenities that are not always available in third world countries” explained Ray.

“Although my reason for coming to Berlin is primarily to spend as much time as I can with Silky, it has given me a chance to meet some of these other needs. I am renting a lovely little apartment which is very cosy and right near the centre of the city. This gives me a feeling of being ‘at home’ whilst I am here – something I do not experience very much whilst travelling. Having a fixed base here has been important for me as I am preparing to move back into the coaching/business world when I return to Asia in the summer. Right now, I am spending more time studying documents and communicating with people over there and my set up here has made it very easy and enjoyable. Knowing I would be here for several weeks also made it possible for me to take on a gym membership so I can train regularly. Best of all, I am running three times a week again, taking advantage of the many parks, rivers and tracks the city has to offer. Global travel is absolutely amazing, and so is being able to take a break from it and stay here for a while in a slightly more conventional set up! Although there are still plenty of interesting things for me to do and see in this city before I leave” added Ray.

Above: Whilst in Berlin, our global traveller is renting a small apartment – “It is a lovely place” said Ray, “although it has required a bit of a change in me as I have to clean the place and do my own laundry and cooking – all of which are taken care of for me in Thailand” admitted Ray. “Every cloud has a silver lining though and I am making the most of having my own kitchen (right) to learn how to cook some new and different meals, with a great deal of help from Silky” he told me

Below: The apartment Ray is staying in has a beautiful garden – “Surprisingly, it has been a pleasure looking after the plants and cutting the grass – quite therapeutic” said our traveller

Above: When he is not in his apartment, Ray continues to explore Berlin and learn more about the history and culture of this amazing city. This is the Volksbühne Theatre, located in Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. Built during 1913-1914, it has its origin in an organization known as the “Freie Volksbühne” (“Free People’s Theatre”) which sketched out the vision for a theatre”of the people” in 1892. The goal of the organization was to promote the social-realist plays of the day at prices accessible to the common worker. The original slogan inscribed on the edifice was “Die Kunst dem Volke” (“Art to the People”). During World War II, the theatre was heavily damaged like much of the rest of Berlin. It was rebuilt from 1950-54

Below: Founded around 1200, the Nikolaiviertel (Nikolai Quarter) is the reconstructed historical heart of the German capital. It is also in the Mitte locality – “I was told that it is sometimes used as a location shoot for period movies and it is easy to see why” observed Ray

Above: Ray and Silky enjoy a coffee in Prenzlauer Berg - “Silky has really helped me to get set up here and I am very much enjoying the change to a chic, cosmopolitan lifestyle while I am here” said Ray

Below: Although Berlin has many attractions for visitors, our global nomad has definitely been drawn to the story and history of the Berlin Wall and it’s significance in today’s world – “It is very hard to get your head around” said Ray. “Up until 1989, in the middle of Europe, there were still people whose basic freedom to come and go as they please was totally denied” he recalled. “I have to be honest and admit that I never really connected with any of this at the time – it is only since meeting Silky, who is from East Germany, and hearing her stories about what life was really like that has made it real for me and helped me to appreciate what a truly awesome and powerful event the collapse of the wall must have been for the people on both sides”. Although there is virtually nothing left of the wall today, the largest preserved section is in East Berlin and is about 0.62 miles long. To the right (out of view) is the Spree River which divided the two parts of the city. The grassy area in between was known as “No Man’s Land” and was heavily patrolled to prevent people escaping

Above: A satellite image of Berlin, with the former wall’s location marked in yellow (Source: Wikipedia)

Talking to Ray, I could tell he was fascinated by his visit to the ‘East Side Gallery‘ (as the preserved section of the wall is known). “The gallery consists of approximately 100 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the former Berlin Wall” Ray told me. “It is possibly the largest and longest-lasting open air gallery in the world” he added. In commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the “Fall of the Wall”, the East Side Gallery was restored in November 2009 at a cost of about one million Euro.

For those readers who are interested in statistics, when the wall was in operation (from August 1961 until November 1989), the total border length around West  Berlin was 96 miles (155 kilometres). Of that, about 23 miles (37 kilometres) went through residential areas in Berlin. Each concrete wall segment is 11.81 feet high (3.6 metres). There were 302 watch towers along the wall and 192 people were killed trying to escape, with a further 200 injured by shooting. Around 5,000 people managed to successfully defect to the West before the wall collapsed.

Above: (Left) In 2006, a 40 metre section of the wall was moved so that people could access the O2 Centre directly from the Spree River. Silky (right) and her friend Hedda take a closer look as Ray begins his own examination of the concrete slabs that still stand today at the East Side Gallery (right)

Above and below: The paintings at the East Side Gallery document the time of change and express the euphoria and great hopes for a better and free future for all people of the world

Above and below: Further examples of the stunning paintings by over 100 artists from all around the world – “I quite liked the painting of the Trabant crashing through the wall” noted Ray (below left)

Above: The image of Leonid Brezhnev (Russia) and Erich Honecker (East Germany) kissing, depicted in painting No. 25 by Dimitri Vrubel entitled ”My God, help me to survive this deadly love” is perhaps one of the most iconic at the East Side Gallery

Below: A bleak reminder of how things looked back in 1961. The date on which the Wall fell is considered to have been 9 November 1989. Starting that evening and in the days and weeks that followed, people came to the wall with sledgehammers and chisels to chip off souvenirs, demolishing lengthy parts of it in the process and creating several unofficial border crossings. Crowds on both sides waited there for hours, cheering at the bulldozers which took parts of the Wall away to reinstate old roads. New border crossings continued to be opened through the middle of 1990, including the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989. On 1 July 1990, the day East Germany adopted the West German currency, all de jure border controls ceased, although the inter-German border had become meaningless for some time before that. The dismantling continued to be carried out by military units (after unification under the Bundeswehr) and lasted until November 1991

While the fall of the Berlin Wall was a significant event in world history in the last 25 years, the tiny village of Steckborn in Switzerland, on the shore of Lake Constance was the unlikely location for a significant event in Ray’s own recent personal history. “Some of our readers know that one of the catalysts for the start of my nomadic journey in 2005 was the end of my marriage to (my ex-wife) Charlotte” explained Ray. “When our divorce was finalised in 2004, we separated everything we shared, except for our collection of personal photographs, as it just felt too emotionally raw for us to do it at the time. Back then, we talked about it and decided we would leave that particular job for five or six years, assuming that by then, our divorce would be old news and we would both have found happiness in our ‘new’ lives. I am happy to say that in hindsight, it was a great decision and we have remained the closest of friends ever since that time. Not only was my visit to Europe a great opportunity to finally get together and divide up our pictures, it meant we could actually enjoy reminiscing for a little while as we paid tribute to the best parts of our shared history” explained Ray.

You will see from the map below that Lake Constance divides Germany, Switzerland and Austria. When Silky heard that Ray was going to visit Steckborn, which is located on the Swiss side (see map), she decided to go with him. “When I mentioned to her that I was going to Steckborn for a couple of days, I found out that she had once lived in the tiny village of Gaienhofen which is directly opposite Steckborn (on the German side) just minutes away by car or boat. This was both a shock and a surprise! She explained how it had been her home for four years when she left East Germany in 1986. By coming with me, it was a great opportunity for her to experience re-connecting with a part of her own past, especially as she still has friends and family who live there. And a chance for me to introduce Silky to Charlotte so they could find out a little bit about each other” explained Ray. “It is always amazing to me how these things happen” reflected Ray. “If you had said to me ten years ago, that I would get divorced, travel the world and live as a nomad, then meet someone in Asia who had been living just across the way from where my ex-wife now lives, I would have said you were crazy, but such is life!” he mused.

Above: Map showing the location of Steckborn, on the Swiss side of Lake Constance, with Gaienhofen just to the north on the German side (both circled in red). To get to Gaienhofen by car requires crossing the bridge in the tiny, picturesque village of Stein am Rhine (circled in green) and takes about 20 minutes

Below: The view from the jetty at Gaienhofen – Steckborn can be seen in the distance on the opposite bank of the lake

Above: Charlotte’s home in the village of Steckborn – “I can honestly say that I am delighted she is happily married to husband Patrick and they have two lovely children” said Ray

Below: Charlotte with daughter Lola (left) – “We talk on the phone fairly regularly but I hardly ever get to see here thesedays, so this weekend was a blessing” said Ray, who also spent some time getting to know her son Joey (right)

Above: Ray impressed Charlotte’s children, Lola and Joey, with his ‘Four Kings’ magic card trick – “I actually learned it last year to show to the kids at the orphanage in Nepal who I support through my “Calling All Angels” Foundation. It came in very handy and provided some great entertainment” he recalled

Below: Charlotte (left) with Joey (centre) and Silky (right) - “I was very happy that Silky was able to meet Charlotte” Ray told me. “One of the things that I am most proud of in my life (so far) is the wonderful relationship I have with Charlotte, especially after everything we went through. It provides me with living proof that unconditional love can transform any relationship and the effort made to understand the other person’s needs is always worth it” said Ray. “Silky has entered my life recently and is someone I am very close to” added Ray.”By coming here with me, she got to see a little window into my past and establish a connection with Charlotte. Of course, they both can speak fluent German!” he laughed

For readers considering travelling in the region, Lake Constance has a circumference of some 273 kilometres, of which the southern 72 kilometres belong to Switzerland, the eastern 28 kilometres to Austria and the remaining northern and western 173 kilometres to Germany (including a little strip in Bavaria). The lake measures 14 kilometres at its widest point and is up to 250 metres deep. Sometimes called the ‘Swabian Sea’, this giant bulge in the sinewy course of the Rhine offers a choice of relaxation, cultural pursuits, hiking, cycling and water sports. During stormy weather, Lake Constance can get quite dangerous, with huge waves crashing onto the shoreline. Visibility is especially good when the Föhn – a warm dry wind that’s common in March, April and October – is blowing northward from the Alps. If you’re on the German shore, you can sometimes enjoy the awesome sight of a row of breathtaking snow-capped Swiss peaks. April and May are among the best times to visit because that’s when the fruit trees are flowering. Summers are humid but at least the lake is warm enough for swimming (around 20° to 23°C). The autumn wine harvest is also a pleasant time to go. Winters are often foggy, or misty at best. The area gets extremely crowded in July and August, when it may be hard to find a room for the night and the roads are constantly choked.

Above: About 3-4 kilometres from Charlotte’s house is the “Viewpoint” where passers-by on the road can stop and take a look out over the lake

Below: Silky identifies Gaienhofen on the map (left) – “When I offered to take her there in the car, she was really thrilled” said Ray. “She had not been there for about twenty years and was very happy to connect with the people she knows” (right)

Above: Gaienhofen re-visited. Silky takes a walk on the newly constructed jetty

Below: To reach Gaienhofen by car, you have to cross a narrow road bridge in Stein am Rhine – “For our English readers, think of a Swiss-German version of Henley-on-Thames and you will get a good sense of what the place is like” said Ray

Above: The monastery of St. Georgen is one of the many preserved buildings in the compact medieval town of Stein am Rhine (left). Seven years after their divorce, Ray and Charlotte (right) are still very close friends – “She is very special to me” said Ray. “The period of time we spent together was one of the most enjoyable and creative periods of my life. I have known her for twenty five years and we were friends for six years before we even thought of the idea of being a couple! When we talk, she always makes the time to really listen and understand me – something which I greatly appreciate. I am truly happy that things are working well for her and that she has created the family life she envisioned” he told me. “We have honourably completed everything now, including the final step of sharing our photographs. It feels good to have arrived at the point where we can simply enjoy being friends in the present moment without the need to reference our past” said our appreciative traveller

Below: Stein am Rhein received the first Wakker Prize for the preservation of its architectural heritage in 1972. The award noted that Stein am Rhein was unique in Switzerland and rare in all of Europe for the number of notable buildings in a compact space. It also noted the excellent care with which the city was preserved (left). Our global traveller was quite impressed by it all (right)

Above and below: The colourful centre of the old medieval town of Stein am Rhine

Above: Ray and Silky enjoy the discovery of their historical ‘connection’ with Lake Constance and their weekend in the Swiss sunshine before heading back to Berlin

Editors Note: What a lovely story! Our global traveller has informed me that he will be remaining in Berlin until the middle of August when he will be returning to Asia. We will be closing the offices of The Daily Explorer for our summer break and will most likely be back online with our next issue sometime in September. In the meantime, if you would like to get in touch, then please email me (mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com) or Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com) at the office. Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing.

As you know, we are always on the lookout for interesting video clips. Here are three that have been sent in by our readers for you to enjoy:

1. We’ve seen examples of shared facilities before, but never seen anything quite like this! Watch how these streetmarket vendors in India share the space for their food stalls with the local railway company…

2. This video was contributed by Ray – “It is absolutely haunting and well worth every second of your time. Make sure you view it to the end. Watching it always brings tears of deep joy to my eyes” is what he told me. We agree – it is definitely one of those videos that truly defines the power of the Internet – a must see…

3. It’s old but it’s still good! For those of you who have not seen it, these three boys perform the hilarious “Balloon Dance”…

For those of you who think you know your geography, why not have a go at naming the countries on the map below? It is amazing how often we speak of these countries and don’t really know where they are. All you have to do is click on the image and then try and name each of the countries in the white area by dragging the name you think is right from the list at the bottom. It may be harder than you think!

That’s about it for now! We will be back online with the next issue of The Daily Explorer after our summer break in September. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Above: Our thanks to Rosemary Bolivar and the Wild Rose Global Family for this picture!

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been living nomadically for five and a half years since he left England in November 2005 and has visited 20 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his many encounters and experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive). Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com.

In this issue, our global explorer takes advantage of his short visit to London by heading to mainland Europe for a ten-day tour. Starting in Haarlem in the Netherlands, our traveller spent the weekend trekking and cycling around the picturesque city before taking the train across the border to explore the vibrant German capital of Berlin. As he completes 2,000 consecutive days on the road, we also find out if Ray’s plans involve a return to Asia in the near future or if he is going to extend his exploration of Europe.

In case you missed our last issue, we had some terrific pictures and information about Ray’s experience at the fascinating seven-day “Understanding Our Mind” retreat just outside Bangkok with Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. You can read it now at: Happiness is Here and Now

Above: The magnificent meditation hall at the Machachulalongkornraja Vidyalaya University of Bangkok. Our global explorer recently attended a seven-day retreat there with Thich Nhat Hanh, whom he described as one of the most loving and compassionate men he has ever met. You can read all about it in: Happiness is Here and Now

The city of Haarlem in Holland is not necessarily found on the “must see” list of many global travellers so I was curious to know what had tempted Ray to add it to his. “Well Mozzie, I made a promise to visit someone I became friends with when I was in Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand just over a year ago” he told me. “Marianne Blaak had voluntarily left her job and home in Holland to support some Burmese refugees near the Thai border. To help improve their lives, she was arranging small loans for them to start their own businesses through an innovative microfinance programme” he explained. “With very little experience and a lot of heart and passion, she had raised enough money to provide loans to a handful of qualifying people and I was very inspired by what she was doing. We instantly became friends and I promised I would visit her the next time I was in Europe - and this was it!” added Ray. “Staying for only two days and with both of us liking outdoor activity, we arranged to spend most of the weekend hiking and cycling, especially since the city is within easy reach of the coastline (see map below) and the weather forecast was excellent” recalled our traveller.

Above: The beautiful city of Haarlem at daybreak

Below: Map showing location of the city where Ray’s friend Marianne lives (circled in red). It is a very picturesque place, within easy reach of Amsterdam and very close to some beautiful coastline and nature trails

Haarlem is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland, which at one time was the most powerful of the seven provinces of the Dutch Republic. By the end of 2010 Haarlem had a total population of 150,611. The city is located on the river Spaarne, about 20 kilometres west of Amsterdam and near the coastal dunes. It has been the historical centre of the tulip bulb-growing district for centuries and bears the nickname ‘Bloemenstad’ (flower city) for this reason. It was at the epicenter during tulip mania, when outrageous prices were paid for tulip bulbs. From the time that the Leiden-Haarlem canal Leidsevaart was opened in 1656, it became popular to travel from Rotterdam to Amsterdam by passenger boat rather than by coach. The canals were dug for passenger service only, and were comfortable though slow. The towpath led these passengers through the bulb fields south of Haarlem. Haarlem was an important stopover for passengers from the last half of the 17th century and through the 18th century until the building of the first rail tracks along the routes of former passenger canal systems. As Haarlem slowly expanded southwards, so did the bulb fields, and even today rail travellers between Rotterdam and Amsterdam will see beautifully blooming bulb fields on the stretch between Leiden and Haarlem in Spring. Every year in April the bloemencorso (flower parade) takes place. Floats decorated with flowers drive from Noordwijk to Haarlem, where they are exhibited for one day. In the same month there is also a fun fair organized on the Grote Markt and the Zaanenlaan in Haarlem-Noord.

Above: The Grote Kerk or St. Bavokerk (left) is a Protestant church and former Catholic cathedral located on the central market square. Like many people in Holland, Ray’s friend Marianne (right) regularly uses her bicycle to get around the city and beyond – “Unlike London, the city is designed for the bike rider, with dedicated cycle paths everywhere and storage facilities for thousands of bikes at every station” observed Ray

Below: Haarlem Railway Station, which is one of the two oldest stations in Holland, was used as part of a set for the movie “Oceans’s Twelve”

In case you may be wondering if there is any connection with the borough of New York known by the same name, you would be absolutely right, although it is spelt differently. “In 1658, Peter Stuyvesant, the Director-General of the Dutch colony of Nieuw Nederland (New Netherland), founded the settlement of Nieuw Haarlem in the northern part of Manhattan Island as an outpost of New Amsterdam at the southern tip of the island” explained Ray. “After the English capture of New Netherland in 1664, the new English colonial administration renamed both the colony and its principal city “New York,” but left the name of Haarlem more or less unchanged. The spelling changed to Harlem in keeping with contemporary English usage, and the district grew (as part of the borough of Manhattan) into the vibrant center of African-American culture in New York City by the 20th century” added our very knowledgable visitor.

Above: Ray and Marianne headed for the coast via some well laid out trekking paths from the tiny town of Santpoort, which is about twenty minutes west of Haarlem by train – “From the station, we hiked around 15 kilometres through some beautiful countryside” recalled Ray, who sent us this picture as they passed some of the Highland cattle residing in the area. “You wouldn’t believe that some Dutch right-wing extremists want to send these ‘illegal immigrant’ animals back to Scotland” said Ray, who discovered the sensational ”World War Moo” story on the Internet 

Tulips have been a popular symbol of the The Netherlands for years and the vast fields in which they are grown can look spectacular when they are in bloom. “Many years ago, when I was a young child, I came with my parents to see the bulb fields and it was a pleasure to return” recalled Ray. “I managed to rent a great bicycle from the railway station in Haarlem for a whole day for just three or four Euro’s and it was perfect for the 40 kilometre round trip that Marianne had planned for us” he explained. “After stopping to take in the extra-ordinary colours and fragrance of the tulips, we headed for Zandvoort, which is one of the major holiday resorts in the Netherlands. It has a long sandy beach, bordered by coastal dunes. We walked for a few kilometres during the afternoon and much to my surprise, ended up at a nudist beach just as the sun was beginning to set. By then it was getting pretty cold so I chose not to take advantage of the opportunity” laughed our global nomad.

Above and below: The vast tulip fields around Haarlem are really spectacular and brought back some childhood memories for Ray. Tulip mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. At the peak of tulip mania, in 1637, some single bulbs sold for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled craftsman. It is generally considered the first recorded speculative bubble, or should that be ‘bulble’?

Above: Marianne (centre, sitting down) and Ray stop for some coffee after an extensive survey of the beautiful bulb fields. Their blue and yellow bicycles can be rented very cheaply from Haarlem Railway Station

Below: Zantvoort has some truly spectacular coastline (left) and a few excellent restaurants on the beach – “I was sitting talking that evening with Marianne when we were approached by a chap at the next table who showed us this photograph (right) of the two of us” said Ray. “He really liked the fact that he had captured the empty wine bottle so perfectly in the fading sunlight” added Ray, who sent the picture to us. “For Marianne and me, it was a great and unexpected souveneir from a brilliant weekend” added our traveller

As he was leaving Holland, Ray informed me that he was travelling east to Berlin, via Duisburg by rail. “The train is really easy to pick up from the centre of Amsterdam and only takes about six hours to reach Berlin” Ray told me. “Although it costs about the same as a flight, I thought it would be nicer to see some of the countryside, particularly as I have never travelled in Germany, except for a couple of business trips to Berlin in the eighties and Munich (in the south) about 15 years ago” he added. Sensing that Ray was being a little bit coy with me as to his reason for going to Berlin, I gently pressed him a little further and he eventually let me in on what was happening. “I am very happy to say that I have met someone special and she lives there” he disclosed. “I won’t say too much about it at the moment as it is early days but I can tell you that we met in Chiang Mai at the end of January. Her name is Sylke (most people call her Silky) and we made a really great connection in the four or five weeks that we were both there. She had to return to Berlin in early March and I wasn’t sure when I might see her again, but as luck would have it, I had already booked my ticket to fly to London a few weeks ago which made a visit to Berlin much easier” explained our traveller. “Naturally, I checked with Sylke to see if she would be pleased to meet again and she confirmed she would. I guess it will give us a chance to find out how we get on from here. I have eight days and if Sylke has time, I am hoping that she will help me get acquainted with everything this fabulous capital city has to offer” added Ray.

Above: One way of travelling from Amsterdam to Berlin is on the ICE High Speed Train – “I was pretty impressed with the ride” said our global nomad

Below: Map showing location of Berlin

Berlin, which is the capital of Germany, has a population of 3.4 million people and is Germany’s largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany, around one third of the city’s territory is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes. First documented in the 13th century, Berlin was successively the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945). Berlin in the 1920′s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989). Following German reunification in 1990, the city regained its status as the capital of all Germany hosting 147 foreign embassies.

According to Wikipedia, Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media, and science. Its economy is primarily based on the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, media corporations, congress and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail transport and is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the EU. Significant industries include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, biotechnology, optoelectronics, traffic engineering, and renewable energy. The metropolis is home to renowned universities, research institutes, sporting events, orchestras, museums and personalities. The urban and historical legacy has made it a popular setting for international film productions. The city is recognized for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts, public transportation networks and a high quality of living. Berlin has evolved into a global focal point for young individuals and artists attracted by a liberal lifestyle and modern zeitgeist. “No doubt about it, the place definitely has a buzz and is very cool” said Ray when I asked for his first impressions. “They even host one of world’s five top marathons here – maybe I will come back and run it in 2012″ added Ray.

Above: Berlin Mitte in the 21st century. Some landmarks include the Hauptbahnhof (main railway station) to the right of the river, the TV tower at Alexanderplatz (in the centre, top), the Spree river and O2 World (bottom right). Berlin had 746 hotels with 112,400 beds as of the end of 2010. The city recorded 20.8 million overnight hotel stays and 9.1 million hotel guests in the same year

Below: Different parts of Prenzlauer Berg, now a trendy district within the unified city, but formally part of East Berlin - ”You can really see how much investment and modernisation has taken place in the last 20 years when you compare different parts of the city” observed Ray. “Some, like the street on the right, are still reminiscent of the old Eastern Bloc era” he told me 

Above: The magnificent and now obsolete Tempelhof Airport in the centre of Berlin. The airport ceased operating in 2008 in the process of establishing Schönefeld as the sole commercial airport for the city. Tempelhof was designated as an airport by the Ministry of Transport on 8 October 1923 and Lufthansa was founded there on 6 January 1926. In anticipation of increasing air traffic, the Nazi government began a massive reconstruction in the mid-1930s. Tempelhof Airport’s main building was once among the top 20 largest buildings on earth; in contrast, it formerly had the world’s smallest duty-free shop. Tempelhof has been used since closing to host numerous fairs and events and in 2010, the old airfield was opened as a city park. The city authorities will spend an estimated €60 million on developing the park between now and 2017

Above: The city of Berlin needs a good transport system - as well as its own residents, it has a yearly total of approximately 135 million daily visitors, which puts it in third place among the most-visited city destinations in the European Union. There are many S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations connecting different parts of the city, like this one at Eberswalder Strasse

Below: There is also a network of modern trams – “Having been to so many different cities during the last 2,000 days, I am realising the systems are all pretty similar so getting used to them does not take very long” said Ray

Above: Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, pretty much the only car available to East Germans who could afford them was the Trabant. Produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau, it was the most common vehicle in East Germany. The main selling points were that it had room for four adults and luggage in a compact, light and durable shell and that it was fast (when introduced) and durable. With its mediocre performance, smoky two-stroke engine and production shortages, the Trabant is often cited as an example of the disadvantages of centralized planning; on the other hand, it is regarded with derisive affection as a symbol of the failed former East Germany and of the fall of communism. It was in production without any significant changes for nearly 30 years with 3,096,099 Trabants produced in total. The ones here are owned by a tour operator and are parked in front of what was the old Gestapo headquarters

Below: Our global explorer takes to the streets on two wheels – “I love riding a bicycle in a city like this” he told me. “There are plenty of dedicated pathways and it is easy to get around very quickly whilst getting good exercise at the same time” said our health conscious traveller. This picture of Ray was taken in front of the Reichstag Building. The structure to the left behind the trees is the TV Tower, which at 368 metres is the tallest structure in Germany

Above: The Berliner Dom (Cathedral) is an impressive basilica known as the “Protestant St. Peter’s.” The present Baroque structure dates only from 1905, but stands on the site of several earlier structures – “Berlin’s cathedral is not a must-see, but it is certainly worth a look if time allows” said Ray

Below: The inside of the dome is intricately decorated with mosaics (left). Our traveller stops for a few minutes to take a good look (right)

Above: Inside the amazing Berliner Dom

For readers who are interested in modern history, on 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power. Nazi rule destroyed Berlin’s Jewish community, which had numbered 170,000 before 1933. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, thousands of the city’s German Jews were imprisoned in the nearby Sachsenhausen concentration camp or, in early 1943, were shipped to death camps, such as Auschwitz. During the Second World War, large parts of Berlin were destroyed. After the end of the war in Europe in 1945, the victorious powers divided the city into four sectors, analogous to the occupation zones into which Germany was divided. The sectors of the Western Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom and France) formed West Berlin, while the Soviet sector formed East Berlin.

Above: The Berlin Wall in 1986, painted on the western side. People living in the East were not allowed to leave. Anyone crossing the so-called “death strip” on the eastern side were at risk of being shot – “It’s one of the few things I wished I had seen and understood when it existed” said Ray. “Hearing stories from Sylke, about what life was like for her in East Germany before she got out has really brought the whole thing to life for me” he told me (Photo: Wikipedia)

 

Below: Map showing the entire wall encircling West Berlin including checkpoints

 

The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions. West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory. East Germany, however, proclaimed East Berlin (which it described only as “Berlin”) as its capital, a move that was not recognized by the Western powers. Although half the size and population of West Berlin, it included most of the historic center of the city. The West German government, meanwhile, established itself provisionally in Bonn. The tensions between east and west culminated in the construction of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin and other barriers around West Berlin by East Germany on 13 August 1961 and were exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961. West Berlin was now de facto a part of West Germany with a unique legal status, while East Berlin was de facto a part of East Germany. It was possible for Westerners to pass from one to the other only through strictly controlled checkpoints. For most Easterners, travel to West Berlin or West Germany was no longer possible. The East German population broke free across the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, which was subsequently mostly demolished. Not much is left of it today; the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke preserves a portion of the Wall.

Above: The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 (Photo: Wikipedia)

Below: Ray’s friend Sylke shows him a little part that is left of the Wall, which was destroyed almost everywhere – “She took me to an 80 metre (263 feet) piece of the first (westernmost) wall at the Topography of Terror, which was the site of the former Gestapo headquarters, half way between Checkpoint Charlie and Potsdamer Platz” said Ray. Some other isolated fragments and a few watchtowers also remain in various parts of the city

Above: One of Berlin’s most famous landmarks is the Brandenburg Gate (left). The picture on the right was taken in the 1930′s as Hitler was coming to power

Below: Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point during the Cold War. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 - “What you see today at Checkpoint Charlie has been created purely for tourists and is nothing like the original building, which is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighbourhood” said our well informed traveller

Above: The signage at Checkpoint Charlie has changed considerably over the years

Below: Some of the residential areas of Berlin are simply stunning, with much of the character of Eastern Europe having been retained

Above: Berlin has a fabulous cafe culture (left) and Sylke took Ray to some of her favourite places during his visit. Meanwhile, our attempts to get some inside information about how things were shaping up between her and Ray were hopelessly disappointing – “Hi Mozzie; its very sweet of you to ask, and I am terribly sorry that I am not able to give you an exclusive interview for the Daily Explorer just yet” said Sylke tactfully (right)

Below: One of Berlin’s lovely little street markets in Kollwitzplatz – “It is open on Saturday’s and is a great opportunity to taste all different kinds of home-made local foods and delicacies” said our traveller

Above: Sylke outside the very popular Anna Blume Cafe on Kollwitzstrasse (left) and a view of the Reichstag Building from the rear alongside the Spree River (right)

Below: The Reichstag Building is the home of the modern German parliament, known as the Bundestag. The huge glass dome, designed by the British architect Norman Foster, was added in 1999

The Jewish Museum is one of the city’s finest and covers two millennia of German Jewish history. It consists of two buildings. One is the old Kollegienhaus, a former courthouse, built in the 18th century. The other, a new addition specifically built for the museum, designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind. This was one of the first buildings in Berlin designed after German reunification. The museum opened to the public in 2001. It adjoins the old Berlin Museum and sits on land that was in West Berlin before the Berlin Wall fell. The Museum itself, consisting of about 161,000 square feet (15,000 square metres), is a twisted zig-zag and is accessible only via an underground passage from the Berlin Museum’s baroque wing. Its shape is reminiscent of a warped Star of David. A “Void,” an empty space about 66 feet (20 metres) tall, slices linearly through the entire building. Menashe Kadishman’s Shalechet (Fallen leaves) installation fills the void with 10,000 coarse iron faces. An irregular matrix of windows cuts in all orientations across the building’s facade. A thin layer of zinc coats the building’s exterior, which will oxidize and turn bluish as it weathers.

Above: An aerial shot showing Daniel Libeskind’s zig zag design for the Jewish Museum in Berlin

Below: Outside the main entrance

Above: One of the many exhibits depicting Jewish history inside the museum

Below: Our intrepid explorer takes a few minutes to appreciate Menashe Kadishman’s Shalechet (Fallen Leaves) installation, which fills the bottom of the “void” with 10,000 coarse iron faces, all dedicated to innocent victims of war and violence

Above: Mauerpark is a public park in Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg district – “As far as I am concerned, this is a must visit place” said Ray. “The open air Karaoke contest pictured here takes place every Sunday afternoon and is an absolute hoot!” he told me. “The park is one of the most popular places for young residents of Berlin and attracts basketball players, jugglers, musicians, and many other types of people. It is a crowded leisure ground and a site of sustainable improvised nightlife, especially in the summer” added Ray. The name translates to “Wall Park”, referring to its status as a former part of the Berlin Wall and its ‘Death Strip’. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Mauerpark area served as the location of the Old Nordbahnhof (“Northern Railway Station”). After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the former death strip was designated as a public space and one of several green spaces in the city by local residents. With a contribution of DM 4.5 million from the Allianz environmental fund, the park was built on the eastern half of the former train station. The western half has served as the location for a flea market next to the park

Below: Sylke takes Ray to a traditional beer garden at Clarchens Ballhaus – “She is such an amazing woman” Ray told me. “She has put a lot of thought into making my visit here really special and I just love being around her. She is one of the kindest and most gentle people I have ever met – totally irresistable” added our traveller

Above: Last but not least, Ray makes a visit to the famous Konnopke Imbiss at Eberswalder Strasse for some Curry Wurst – “Konnopke is one of the truly long-established and original city institutions” said Ray. “You can get the standard Bratwurst or original curry sausage, which is the traditional Berlin fast food on the street. They are cheap, hot and tasty” said our global explorer

Below: Sylke (third from left) lines up in front of the Konnopke kiosk – “Apparently, there is a long queue here most times of the day” said Ray

Editors Note: Ray certainly seems to have enjoyed his 10 day visit to Europe and Berlin sounds like a very interesting and dynamic city. Our thanks to Ray for sending us such wonderful pictures. I caught up with him upon his return to London to find out more about his immediate plans. “Most of our readers know that one of my aims is to write a book about my five and a half year nomadic experiment and Chiang Mai is a great place for me to do that, so I am going to return there” he told me. “Having said that, I have really enjoyed getting to know Sylke and would like to spend more time around her, so rather than go to Chiang Mai immediately, I will make another stop in Berlin on the way and rent a room there for a couple of months” explained Ray. “I am very happy about this – it is a completely unexpected and most welcome development” added our open-hearted traveller.

Above: Ray met some of this publications most avid readers while in London. Jacob Florijn (left) works as a consultant in the City and has been following Ray’s journey for the entire period – “We met several years ago through work and are now personal friends. He has always been so encouraging about my journey” said Ray. Meanwhile, friend and digital marketeer Jez (right) had a beer with Ray at the Anglesea Arms in Onslow Gardens – “Talk about big changes in life! Jez is about to become a dad, to twins!” Congratulations to Jez from everyone at The Daily Explorer

Below: The face of Nic (Scott) Meredith (left) may be familiar to some of our readers as he and Ray have bumped into each other several times during the last five years. This time, their schedules overlapped by just one day in London – “It was very touch and go as to whether we would see each other as he had to fly back to the USA just as I was returning from Berlin. But we managed to have our favourite big English breakfast at the old ‘greasy spoon’ cafe in Queens Park, close to the office where we both worked together over 20 years ago! We were joined by Bernie Woods (right, red top) who was one of our colleagues from that era. I am so lucky to have really enduring, quality friends such as these” he told me

Above: What is the most important thing for a global traveller to do whilst visiting London? Have a game of Scrabble or two with his mum, of course! – “She loves to play so I always do my best to make time for her” said Ray. “Besides, she used to tell me when I was a child that I always liked to have the last word, and this is one way I still can!” he laughed. Do any of our readers know the longest word in the English dictionary? “It’s the ‘Post Office” said Ray – “It has millions of letters!”

Ray has asked me to inform you all about a forthcoming book called “Developing Consciousness”, written by friend and Daily Explorer reader Nicholas Vesey. He told me this: “I used to work with Nick many years ago and he is a very creative and inspiring man” said Ray. “After many years working in advertising and marketing, he decided to follow his deepest truth and leave the world of business for the clergy – a life changing decision which I have personally witnessed at every stage. He has been a vicar for quite some time now, is happily married and lives in Norwich. Through his work, he is dedicated to helping people discover who they are and find inner peace and happiness – I am very excited that he has documented his personal journey as some of it runs parallel to my own and I cannot wait to read his book when it is launched at the end of July”. Anyone who would like more information or wants to pre-order a copy should visit Nick’s web site.

Above: Reverend Nicholas Vesey (left) is the author of the soon to be launched book “Developing Consciousness” – “He has certainly led an interesting life” said Ray, who first met him in the early eighties (right) when they worked together. “I am very excited about reading his book when it comes out in July”

That’s about it for now. Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. Our next issue should be online in a few weeks. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Above: In our last issue, Happiness is Here and Now, Ray talked about how he is learning to “live in the present moment” and fully experience all of the tiny wonders of life as they happen without being too attached to what is coming next. “After 2,000 days on this journey, I can authentically say I feel such joy and gratitude for everything that is happening now, including Sylke’s presence. Like the mural painted on the side of this building in Berlin (right), I have no idea how long it will last or what our lives will look like down the road, yet it doesn’t really matter. Right now, I am lucky to be alive, to be well, to eat good food, to have wonderful friends and much love in my life and to have my freedom to be anyway I choose” said our appreciative traveller

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been living nomadically for nearly five and a half years since he left England in November 2005 and has visited 18 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his many encounters and experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive).

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com

In this issue, you can read about Ray’s experience at the seven-day “Understanding Our Mind” retreat just outside Bangkok with Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Currently in London for a short visit, our global nomad also updates us on a new business idea he is developing and to wrap up, we have some interesting video clips which were sent to us by readers. It is likely that Ray will return to Asia soon for a few months to continue his book writing programme. Consequently, new issues of The Daily Explorer may appear less frequently in the second half of this year.

In case you missed our last issue, we had an update from Chiang Mai, Thailand where Ray started work on a long awaited book about nomadic living. He attended a five-day “Writers Retreat” to learn some of the basics of good authorship. And he had also been meeting on a regular basis with his newly formed club of fellow authors in the city, prior to heading for London. You can read it now at: Turning Over A New Leaf

Above: Full moon over Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, where our global nomad recently began the long and challenging journey to become a published author. You can read all about it and find out what else he got up to in: Turning Over A New Leaf  (Photo: Mark Meurs)

There was definitely something different about our traveller, who seemed very grounded and peaceful when I met him in London recently. So I asked him if his experience at the retreat in Thai ‘Plum Village’ had anything to do with it. “That would be a most definite yes!” said Ray as he explained to me what had taken place. “Most Daily Explorer readers know that I continue to dedicate some of my energy and time to personal and spiritual development. It is becoming clearer to me that my own peace of mind and happiness is totally (and I mean TOTALLY) dependent on what is happening on the inside of me, as opposed to what is happening externally. There is a great sense of freedom for me in this realisation. I appreciate that this can be a difficult idea for people to accept sometimes but none-the-less, through practising ‘mindfulness‘, I am finding out the truth of this for myself. Being at this retreat was like being wrapped in a huge blanket of loving kindness for seven whole, blissful days and is one of the most powerful experiences of connecting with ‘life in the present moment’ that I have experienced so far” recalled Ray. “It is really helping me to tune in more strongly to the voice of my own intuition and be happy with whatever life brings.

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy” – Thich Nhat Hanh

I was curious to know what inspired our traveller to attend the seven-day “Understanding Our Mind” retreat near Bangkok? “For the last couple of years, I have been attending a weekly gathering in Chiang Mai of the Green Papaya Sangha. Every Thursday, anywhere between 15 – 40 people gather for a couple of hours to meditate in the style of Thich Nhat Hanh, who is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist now based in France” Ray told me. “I read one of his books which profoundly affected me and the regular meditation has been a transformative catalyst sometimes. When I discovered he was going to be visiting Thailand to host a retreat, I registered immediately for a place. He is 84 years old and I thought this could be one of the last opportunities to spend time with one of the truly great men of the world” said Ray.

Above: Does this University near Ayutthaya have the longest name in the World? We are not sure, but it was most definitely the venue for the Thai Plum Village “Understanding Our Mind” retreat which our traveller attended recently

Below: Over 800 people, mainly from Thailand, attended the retreat – “When I arrived to register (left), I was amazed to see just how much support there is for the Plum Village style of Buddhism, especially in Thailand where Theravada Buddhism is popular – “This modern university (right) is now one of the main centres of learning in Thailand for all forms of Buddhist studies and welcomes students from all over the world” Ray told me  

“The source of love is deep in us and we can help others realise a lot of happiness. One word, one action, one thought can reduce another person’s suffering and bring that person joy”  - Thich Nhat Hanh

For readers who would like to know a little bit more about him, Thich Nhat Hanh joined a Zen monastery at the age of 16, studied Buddhism as a novice, and was fully ordained as a monk in 1949. In the early 1960s, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS) in Saigon. This grassroots relief organization rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers, and resettled families left homeless during the Vietnam War. He travelled to the U.S. to study at Princeton University, and later to lecture at Cornell University and Columbia University. His focus at the time was to urge the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He urged Martin Luther King, Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in January 1967. In 1973, the Vietnamese government denied Nhat Hanh permission to return to Vietnam and he went into exile, establishing Plum Village in France. From 1976 to 1977 he led efforts to rescue Vietnamese boat people in the Gulf of Siam. “It is still one of my dreams to go to Plum Village” said Ray. “But for now, I am just very grateful to have had the opportunity to be in this man’s presence” he told me.

Thich Nhat Hanh spends a great deal of his time dispensing his teachings about Mindfulness so I asked Ray to explain to me what this means. “Let me answer your question by quoting the man himself” said Ray tactfully. “In one of his recent articles, he described it like this: “Mindfulness brings concentration. Concentration brings insight. Insight liberates you from your ignorance, your anger, your craving. When you are free from your afflictions, happiness becomes possible. How can you be happy when you are overloaded with anger, ignorance, and craving? That is why the insight that can liberate you from these afflictions is the key to happiness. There are many conditions of happiness that are present, but people don’t recognize them because they are not mindful. When body and mind are together, you are fully present. You are fully alive and you can touch the wonders of life that are available in the here and the now. So you practice not only with your mind but with your body. Body and mind should be experienced as one thing, not two. On that ground, you see that everything you are looking for is already there. Whether it is enlightenment, nirvana, liberation, Buddha, dharma, sangha, or happiness, it is right there. In fact, that is the only place, the only moment, where you can find these things. Conversely, when mind and body are separate, when we’re lost in thought and are not in the present, we lead what you’ve described as a kind of corpse-like existence. Maybe intellectually people know that they should live in the present moment, but the habit energy that has been there for a long time is always pushing them to rush around, so they have lost their capacity to be in the present moment in order to lead their life deeply. That is why the practice is important, and talking is not enough. You have to practice enough to really stop your running around so that you can establish yourself in the present moment. That is the very beginning of the practice: stopping. Stopping, looking deeply, and finding happiness and liberation – that is the Buddhist path”.

Above: Picture of Thich Nhat Hanh as a young novice (left). He has been an advocate of peace his whole life and fought tirelessly for it during the Vietnam war (right)

Below: Thich Nhat Hanh with The Dalai Lama

“When we are mindful, deeply in touch with the present moment, our understanding of what is going on deepens, and we begin to be filled with acceptance, joy, peace and love” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Above and below: The University was one of the few places in Thailand that could accommodate the 800 or so people attending the seven-day retreat – “With three meals each day for such a huge number of people, outdoor food ‘tents’ were erected and the group was split into four sections so that everybody would be able to eat their food at the same time” explained Ray. “Unfortunately for us, the weather during the retreat was unusually cold and wet for this time of year, with very high winds and plenty of rain. Being completely unprepared for this, I sat shivering during meals once or twice” he recalled

Above: The accommodation at the University was very basic – “It was essentially a number of classrooms converted into makeshift dormitories, with nothing more than a thin straw mat on a hard concrete floor in an icy cold air-conditioned room” said Ray. “Knowing this in advance, myself and a few friends managed to find rooms (with proper beds!) in a nearby guest house and ‘commute’ in each day” admitted our comfort seeking traveller. “I did a 10 day silent Vipassana retreat in 2006 and slept on a concrete floor the entire time, which felt appropriate. This time around, I was quite OK within myself to forego the opportunity” he laughed

“We are here to awaken from our illusion of separateness” – Thich Nhat Hanh

So what exactly happens at a Plum Village Retreat? “Well Mozzie, the day begins by waking up at 5.00am. The first sitting meditation takes place in the hall at 5.30am and continues until 6.30am. Then everyone goes outside for walking meditation, which lasts around an hour too. Breakfast is at 7.45am and after everything has been cleared away, which you all do together, the day resumes for a Dharma discussion from 9.30 – 12.00. This is basically a talk given by Thich Nhat Hanh in which he explains more about Buddhism, how to live in the present moment, unravels important concepts such as mindfulness and really creates understanding and inspiration for a more peaceful, compassionate way of living with loving kindness towards oneself and others at the centre” explained Ray. “All of this activity is done mindfully i.e. with absolute attention on one’s breathing and being in the moment that you are in. All meditations are done silently and meals are eaten in silence too until the sounding of a bell after twenty minutes which is the sign that it is OK to talk to your friends. I actually found the practise of eating mindfully to be a wholesome, wonderful experience” said Ray. “As I slowly chewed each mouthful of food, I contemplated all of the work that nature had done to have that food manifest on my plate – the creation of the soil, the seeds, the sun, wind and rain required to harvest the food etc. My food actually seemed to taste better as a result and I had a sense of deep happiness and gratitude for something I habitually take for granted and never consciously think about. I figured that if I was doing this with my food, I may well be doing it in other areas of my life too so I have paid a lot more attention to this since the retreat and am noticing that I feel more connected with the planet and the people around me as a result” observed our global explorer.

Above: A group of monks from the Plum Village Sangha attending the retreat in Ayutthaya

“After lunch, there was an activity called ‘Total Relaxation Meditation’ which was without doubt one of the best parts of the entire day” recalled Ray. “All you had to do was to go to the huge meditation hall at 1.45pm and lay down on the floor on your back with a cushion under your head (blankets optional) whilst the lights were all dimmed. Then one of the Plum Village nuns would quietly and gently sing lullabies for an hour and a half in the most beautiful, melodic, angelic voice” recalled Ray. “It felt so soothing, so relaxing – I was usually asleep within minutes as were most people in the room and what a deep sleep it was – it was perhaps more restful than the sleep I have every night” he told me. “It felt so magical, like being back in the womb. I would recommend it to everyone” added Ray.

At three o’clock, the main group was divided into smaller units of around 20 people, called ‘Families’ for a meeting lasting until 4.30pm. “The purpose of this group was to give individuals an opportunity to speak for any reason; to validate what we were experiencing, ask for help with any issues or problems coming up for us in the retreat, share something we had learnt or just report to everyone about something we were experiencing gratitude for” Ray told me. “I loved this part of the day as it made me feel very closely connected with the people in my family, which was appropriately named ‘Harmony’. We also ate all our meals together from day three onwards and I could sense the bond that was being strengthened in this group as each day went past. There was even one of my friends from Chiang Mai in my ‘family’ group and it was a chance for me to get to know him even better than I did already. I am sure many of us will stay in touch in days to come, especially as we have set up a group page on Facebook!” said our traveller.

“My actions are my only true belongings” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Above: The magnificent Conference Centre at the Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University provided a huge meditation hall for the Plum Village retreat and can easily hold well over 1,000 people comfortably – “The lake beside the hall was the perfect setting for our daily walking meditations every morning” said Ray

Below: The Buddha inside the entrance hall at the Conference Centre

People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar”  - Thich Nhat Hanh

At 5pm each day, there was an opportunity to practise mindfulness in exercise, with a variety of different groups to join. “I spend a fair amount of time in Chiang Mai, where many of my friends practise yoga and other forms of meditative exercise so for most of them that came with me on the retreat, this was not really anything new” explained Ray. “I am not habitually used to this type of thing – most readers know that I prefer running and find that it gives me the peace and space I desire from time to time as the stresses of daily life build up. One group I joined was practising some kind of martial arts using sticks, slowly and mindfully moving into different positions to get a good stretch, increase the heart rate and exert the body. It was pretty cool” Ray told me. After mindful exercise, attendees had their evening meal, followed by another Dharma talk or presentation in the main hall which would finish around 9pm. Thich Nhat Hanh is very big on ‘Applied’ Buddhism, which means that it is not sufficient to merely understand it, but critical that it becomes integrated with your practise of living everyday life” explained Ray. “That is why so much emphasis is put on the practise part – how we walk, how we eat, how we speak to one another. Regarding the latter, there were some demonstrations given during the evening seminars on how to bring more loving kindness to our relationships with our dear ones. I found this particularly useful and have been practising in my conversations with close friends ever since” acknowledged Ray. 

Above: Thich Nhat Hanh with monks from the Plum Village Sangha – “He explained to us how important the family (Sangha) is” said Ray. “He never gives retreats on his own as he does not believe that the words he speaks have any real power to transform people’s lives. That power comes from their interaction and the relationship with all of the Sangha members over the course of a week, so deep connection takes place and inspires people to open their hearts to each other. I can tell you, having been there, that his philosophy is sound and it definitely does happen” observed Ray

Below: Gaston Schmitz (in red) and Steve Epstein (blue cap) listen attentively as someone simultaneously translates for one of the Thai monks. Both are members of Chiang Mai’s Green Papaya Sangha and good friends of our global explorer (left). Brother Pittaya, who is a Thai Theravada Buddhist monk (right), spends a lot of time with the monks from Plum Village – “He is known in the Sangha as the ‘Smiling Monk’ as he almost always has this huge, beaming smile on his face” observed Ray. “Compared to the austere nature of monk culture in Thailand, Plum Village offers an opportunity to engage with and experience the brotherly and sisterly love that Plum Village advocates and is drawing huge support amongst the Buddhist community in Thailand. A new, permanent Plum Village for Thailand is currently under construction and should open in 2012″ added Ray

“Compassion is a verb” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Above: Every afternoon, the larger group broke up into smaller ‘Family’ groups for a discussion about what has happening for everyone during the week – “There was a tremendous sense of connection between all of us in the ‘Harmony’ family by the time the week was over” said Ray. “We have created our own Facebook page and I hope to stay in touch with many of the people I met” he added

Below: Maiko Nomiyama (centre), also from Chiang Mai, leads a group for ‘mindful exercise’ during one of the afternoon sessions

“Life is available only in the present moment” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Above: According to Thich Nhat Hanh (left), “in modern society most of us don’t want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book – we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us”. (Right) Ray mindfully eats his meal in silence - ”Becoming conscious takes a lot of practise” said our traveller. “I am so habitually used to doing mundane things in ‘automatic pilot’ mode that half the time, I haven’t even noticed I was eating or driving somewhere. It’s as if I get lost in my thoughts and miss the little details of life going on while I am doing those things. I have discovered that walking, singing, talking and eating food are great opportunities to be in the present moment and experience the joy of being fully alive” he reflected. ”And with that discovery comes an enormous sense of peace. Every breath we take, every step we take, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. The question is whether or not we are in touch with it. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment” added Ray. “When I am at peace in myself, I feel like I used to when I would enter my own home in London, except I don’t actually need the place anymore – it’s as if I have my own island right here within myself which I can access just by breathing in and breathing out mindfully”

Above: During some of the evening seminar sessions, demonstrations of loving kindness in communication were given (left), which really made it easy for everyone to see how Applied Buddhism works and how to integrate it into your daily life and relationships with your loved ones. Many of the retreatants decided to commit themselves to the Five Mindfulness Trainings and a special ceremony was held towards the end to witness their commitment (right)

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Above: Ray receives his completion certificate from Phap Huu, who has been a monk in Plum Village all of his adult life. Born in Vietnam and raised in Canada, he decided that this was the life he wanted to live when he was 13 years old, which came as quite a surprise to his family. They have been very supportive ever since – his parents sometimes attend the retreats too – “He was an amazing, living example of everything Thich Nhat Hanh talked about during the week; very kind, open-hearted and always sharing himself authentically” observed Ray

Below: The ‘Harmony’ family gather one last time to celebrate the completion of their retreat – “One of the things I love about Plum Village is that they run several retreats every year for whole families, including young children which makes it a lot easier for people with kids” said Ray, who is third from the right

Above: Ray’s friend Azriel Cohen from Chiang Mai (left) articulates some of the joy he has experienced during the ‘closing circle’ ceremony which marks the end of the retreat. Many others echoed his sentiments (right) – “Everybody there took something away from this week that deeply touched them, myself included” Ray told me

One of the members of Ray’s ‘Family’ compiled this short video clip with some highlights from the week, set to one of the many Plum Village songs:

Below: Our traveller hasn’t quite made the leap to living as a Buddhist monk just yet – “In some ways, it would be quite tempting – to know oneself deeply is a very blissful state to be in. I guess I like too many earthly pleasures to live at that level of discipline, for now anyway” he told me (pictured here by Susie Moberly in 2008)

Ironically, having spent his last week in Thailand with a group of monks and nuns, it was another group of nuns of quite a different kind that motivated Ray to hot-foot it back to London. “Some time ago, I found out that both my niece Rebecca and my nephew Daniel, who attend the Emanuel School in south-west London were going to be appearing in this year’s production of “The Sound of Music“. Becca was playing the part of Sister Margaretta – one of the nun’s in the Abbey where Maria is sent from to be the replacement Governess to local hero Captain Von Trapp’s seven children. Dan was cast as one of them – Friedrich. My sister-in-law Kitty, who is an actor, was helping behind the scenes at various stages of production, so it really was a bit of a family affair” explained Ray. “I managed to get a ticket for the last night of the run, which gave me just enough time to get back from Thailand. And I am so glad I made it – they both gave really superb performances and the show was really well produced. I love most of the songs, which I grew up with as a kid myself and enjoyed humming along to them” added Ray.

Above: The 2011 Emanuel School production of the Sound of Music starred 16 year old Rebecca (left) as Sister Margaretta and 12 year old Daniel (right) as Friedrich Von Trapp – “I am so impressed with these two” said Ray. “They study and play really hard and both have a lot of talent” he said proudly

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the story, set in 1930′s Austria, a young woman named Maria is failing miserably in her attempts to become a nun. When the Navy captain Georg Von Trapp writes to the convent asking for a governess that can handle his seven mischievous children, Maria is given the job. The Captain’s wife is dead, and he is often away, and runs the household as strictly as he does the ships he sails on. The children are unhappy and resentful of the governesses that their father keeps hiring, and have managed to run each of them off one by one. When Maria arrives, she is initially met with the same hostility, but her kindness, understanding, and sense of fun soon draws them to her and brings some much-needed joy into all their lives — including the Captain’s. Maria teaches the children to sing, and through her, music is brought back into the hearts and home of the Von Trapp family. Eventually the Captain and Maria find themselves falling in love, even though Georg is already engaged to a Baroness and Maria is still a postulant. The romance makes them both start questioning the decisions they have made. Their personal conflicts soon become overshadowed, however, by world events. Austria is about to come under the control of Germany, and the Captain may soon find himself drafted into the German navy and forced to fight against his own country.

Above: The cast from Emanuel School performing the wedding scene at the marriage of Maria and Captain Von Trapp, watched by the nuns in the abbey (Becca is fifth from the left)

Below: Maria brings music back into the Von Trapp household for the first time in years, as they all sing ‘Edelweiss’ (Dan is on the right)

From films and plays to books - I was curious to find out how Ray’s writing project was coming along. “To be honest, I am making very slow progress” he said. “I have not been writing much since I went on the retreat and probably won’t until I get back to Thailand in a few weeks. I am happy with the small amount I have done and got some good feedback from my colleagues in the writers club I am part of. The London Book Fair was happening at Earls Court last week, so I went along to have a look and start researching in advance of when I will be ready to open discussions with publishers” he told me. “Another friend of mine from Chiang Mai, Mel Campbell, who has nearly finished writing her first book (about Yoga for pregnant women) was there too. Her husband Matt is my running coach and he was taking part in this years marathon. Mel has reached quite an advanced stage and a couple of publishers have expressed interest in giving her a contract. I don’t think it will be too long before she wraps up a deal” Ray told me.

Above: The main hall of the London Book Fair at Earls Court Exhibition Centre – “Every major publishing house was represented there” observed Ray. “It was quite intimidating and I am very aware that it is a huge challenge to produce something of high quality that will stand out and grab the attention of this community” he told me. “I am going to give it my best shot though” added Ray 

Below: The London Book Fair attracts thousands of visitors every year (left) and is where you can see first hand how competitive the market really is. To be considered by one of the mainstream publishing companies, your manuscript has to be presented by an agent so wannabe authors like our global traveller have to try and meet potential agents at the show to create interest in their projects (right)

Above: Spotted in a coffee shop beside the London Book Fair: “Tell them I am not prepared to accept anything less than a one million advance and a full colour spread in Hello! Magazine” says Mel to her agent as they attempt to negotiate a book publishing contract on her behalf – “I have seen her draft manuscript and her work is excellent” said Ray, “so if any pregnant mum’s want to continue with their yoga practise, Mel’s book is a must have item” he added

Below: Whilst Mel was in London setting the book world alight, her husband Matt was in town to take part in the 2011 London Marathon (left) – “He was very excited to be in the race although I am not sure if he stuck to his training programme with as much discipline as he taught me” said Ray. “I don’t think things went according to plan for him on the day, with knee problems making his goal time practically impossible. Lets just say he was a fair bit slower than the winner Emmanuel Matui (right) from Kenya, who completed the course in a record time of 2:04.38″ said Ray diplomatically

Above: The London Marathon attracts thousands of runners who are raising money for charity, including this couple dressed as Prince William and Kate Middleton as a tribute to their forthcoming Royal Wedding (Photo: PA)

Editors Note: Ray will be taking advantage of being in Europe by visiting friends in Amsterdam and Berlin shortly, so we will be despatching one of our journalists to see what he gets up to and make sure you get the full story in due course. After that, a return to Chiang Mai is possible but we will not know for sure until he is back in London in a couple of weeks time.

In case you missed our last issue, Ray told us that he is exploring the possibility of offering a service to bring people to Chiang Mai who are in need of expensive dental work. The facilities there are really world-class and yet are available at a fraction of the price that people living in the UK, USA, Australia or New Zealand might pay. “Many of my friends have had work done there, including one couple from Sacramento who were quoted $8,500 at home for metal removal, a few caps, crowns and fillings. They were able to get all of their requirements met here in six or seven sittings over a two-week period. The total bill came to $1,500. Not only that, they commented on the brilliant service, saying that their chosen dentist had been totally focused on them and they had felt really taken care of. He even played an American radio station for them whilst they were in the chair! And on top of all of this, they enjoyed a great holiday in and around Chiang Mai which was essentially free” he explained. “Many people are aware of this but are still too nervous to venture abroad, which I can understand. Going to a new place can be a daunting experience, even without having to be concerned with medical treatments. So my aim is to provide a concierge style service and take care of people from the moment their plane lands to the moment they leave. I hope to have more detailed information for our readers later but in the meantime, anyone who is requiring expensive dental treatment is welcome to get in touch. You may be able to save a huge amount of money, depending on what you require” said Ray.

Above: There are world-class facilities in Chiang Mai for people requiring complex dental work. Slowly but surely, more and more foreigners are coming to get their needs met – “Inflation makes everything more expensive and some people’s finances are under greater pressure than ever before” said Ray. “I am aiming to help people save money and still get a first class job done, in a beautiful city where they can also relax and enjoy themselves. Having spent so much time in the city myself, I am clear that many people would be thrilled if they really knew what is available and how to access it” added Ray

Some of you may recall me asking you to send in humorous video clips and I am pleased to say that we have had a great response! So here are three short clips for you to enjoy. If you find any others that you think are special, please send us the links!

1. This is an inspiring TV commercial that comes from Taiwan for anyone who feels like their lives are lacking something, but especially for older readers with more miles on the odometer. This movie used Thai actors and was directed by the Thai director who won the award from Cannes Lion for 5-6 consecutive years. It has had nearly 3 million views. Enjoy!

2. A new spin on animal conservation!

3. The safety briefing on Cebu Pacific Airlines is one of the most unusual we have seen and will leave you smiling!

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Above: Some of you may remember Ray’s 50th birthday last year, which we covered in a special edition of The Daily Explorer. One person who was not able to celebrate him in person was his mum, Hetty (left). Waiting for him to arrive in London for several months, she generously arranged for our global traveller to have a belated birthday lunch with her to mark the occasion – “It was a very big moment for her and for me” said Ray. “She is one in a million and probably the only person who consistently reads everything in these blogs! She has always been there for me. I am delighted that we have finally been able to get together and give thanks for her continued presence at this stage of our wonderful lives” said Ray

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been living nomadically for nearly five and a half years since he left England in November 2005 and has visited 18 different countries so far on his journey. We have been publishing exclusive news and stories about his many encounters and experiences (you will find all of these in our Previous Issues archive).

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com

In our second issue of 2011, we have an update for you from Chiang Mai, Thailand where Ray has begun work on the writing project he talked to us about in the last Daily Explorer. He recently attended a five-day “Writers Retreat” to learn some of the basics. He has been meeting on a regular basis with his newly formed club of fellow authors in the city and it is likely that he will be writing for the next few months at least rather than travelling. Consequently, new issues of The Daily Explorer may appear less frequently during this year. Aside from writing, our global nomad is also exploring a couple of new business ideas and to wrap up, we have some amusing video clips which were sent to us by readers.

In case you missed our last issue, Ray was in Sydney where he celebrated Christmas and New Year amongst friends and sent us a fantastic selection of personal pictures to give you a flavour of his visit there. You can read it now at: Between The Lines

Above: Our global traveller experienced the spectacular, $5,000,000 firework display in Sydney on New Years Eve. You can read all about it and find out what else he got up to in Between The Lines

Back in familiar territory, I asked our global explorer how it felt to be in Chiang Mai again for a while. “Well Mozzie, it is actually quite wonderful to be here” he told me. “I am in my favourite room in my favourite guest house and have made so many friends here since my first visit in 2006 that whenever I show up, I actually feel a sense of joy and calm, like I have arrived home. This is a bit of a revelation to me as it suggests that the feeling I refer to as ‘home’ is just that – a feeling – and not a specific place as I have habitually thought of it. The longer this great nomadic experience goes on, the more I am letting go of mental concepts that just don’t seem relevant or applicable to me any longer and this is a typical example. I am intending to distill and capture some more of these examples in my book” explained Ray. Naturally, I was curious to find out what progress Ray is making with his writing and whether or not the world of book publishing is as alluring now as it seemed initially.

“On reflection, it was a good move to attend a five-day writers workshop at the end of January – an opportunity that arose after I had made the decision to come here and start work on the book, so quite serendipitous” he told me. “The course was run by Wendy Goldman Rohm, who has masses of experience. She published a controversial, best-selling book in the nineties called The Microsoft File, about corruption within the software giant” recalled Ray. On the workshop, I was in a group of fifteen people with mixed levels of experience. Some people have published two or three books already whilst others, like me, were complete newbies” he added.

Above: Our global traveller returned to Chiang Mai to discover that the seasonal weather patterns in Thailand, and the rest of Asia for that matter, seem to be changing – “We have had some of the coldest, wettest days I have ever seen here, at a time of year when you can virtually count on it to be sunny, dry and very hot” said our rather puzzled traveller. “It’s been so cold, I have actually been wearing my fleece some evenings” he told me. This picture was taken by Daily Explorer reader Susie Moberly, who managed to capture a typhoon in action near her home off the coast of Ko Samui, an island in Thailand’s southern gulf

Below: Ray’s rather posh transport whilst in Chiang Mai is this 35-year-old Honda moped (left) which he borrows from the manager of his guesthouse – “It’s great for running around town and I only have to fill it up with petrol about once every 10 days” said Ray, who really enjoys the relaxed atmosphere and beautiful garden at his favourite Tip Top guesthouse (right)

Above: A peaceful, comfortable and inspirational space is required if you are trying to get to grips with the challenge of creative writing and the Tip Top guesthouse provides it for Ray

Ray’s course teacher, Wendy Goldman Rohm, New York Times bestselling author and literary agent, has taught and lectured for MediaBistro, Yale University, onboard the QEII, and numerous universities and organizations in the US, Europe and Asia. Her work has been published by Random House, The New York Times Syndicate International, Wired magazine, Tina Brown’s Talk magazine, Men’s Vogue, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Financial Times of London, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and many others. She’s been a literary agent and author for Sterling Lord Literistic, New York; The Waxman Agency, New York; Waterside Productions; and founded the Rohm Agency to represent emerging authors of fiction and nonfiction. She’s been a commentator on numerous television and radio broadcasts, including: The Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and dozens of programs on NBC, CNBC, PBS radio and television, CNN, CBS, ABC, and BBC radio and television. She is currently working on her fifth book. I was curious to know what it was like to work with someone of her calibre at such an early stage?

“It was both a blessing and a curse in some ways” explained Ray. “Wendy is very smart and knows her stuff from a technical standpoint inside out and back to front, so in that sense, she was a perfect tutor. However, I felt the course structure could have been improved. There didn’t appear to be a set agenda for the five days which is something I am used to in the business world, so I was not entirely sure what we were specifically expected to learn. Before arriving, I was asked to complete a questionnaire regarding my own goals for taking part, which was not referred to during the course so I never knew if there was any correlation between the work we were doing and my personal aims, or if the programme had been adapted to take these into account” recalled Ray.

Was the course useful? “Yes it was. The content we covered helped me to see more clearly how to get started with my writing and one or two good ideas for how to set out the story” he told me. “On reflection, it may have been better for me to have worked with a group of beginners, as there were several people in my group with years of writing experience, including one or two authors Wendy actually represents. So when it came to do some of the writing exercises, I felt out of my depth and found some of the instructions hard to understand. My confidence was low and it was hard to follow much of the conversation going on in the room during de-briefs, due to excessive reference to literary works and techniques I am not familiar with. This was quite frustrating for me. On a more positive note, I got an opportunity to practise technical writing skills using different tools and techniques, like constructing dialogue and writing in the third and first person and got some useful feedback. And I found out about many of the things I need to know in order to get a book published, so when the time comes, I have a better chance of success” explained Ray.

Above: The five-day writers course was hosted at the Nugent Waterside Resort just outside Chiang Mai – “It was a great place for a learning event” said Ray

Below: Fellow writers Philip Cornwel-Smith (left) and Salisa Pinkayan (right) attended the five-day course. Both are published authors. Philip’s book is an unconventional guide to Thailand, called “Very Thai” and Salisa writes romantic novels – “I was able to learn a lot from them” Ray told me. “Salisa shared some of Ernest Hemmingway’s wisdom with me: All good books have one thing in common – they are truer than if they had really happened, and after you’ve read one of them you will feel like all that happened, happened to you and then it belongs to you forever; the happiness and unhappiness, good and evil, ecstasy and sorrow, the food, wine, beds, people and the weather. If you can give that to readers, then you’re a writer”

Above: Ray and the other delegates at the writers workshop during an exercise – “Typically, Wendy would ask us to close our eyes and visualise a scenario that she would describe to us. After a few minutes, she would ask us to open our eyes and start writing immediately, with no censorship or editing, so we could see how to tap into our consciousness more deeply for greater expression. Wow, I sound like I know what I am talking about!” he laughed

Below: All good writers need plenty of refreshment breaks (left) to get their creative juices flowing. Wendy Goldman Rohm (right) led the five-day course – “She knows her stuff, but her course did not seem to be structured very well or particularly suited to someone just starting out. It does contain some useful and relevant material but overall, I would have to say that it was not good value for money” said our traveller

Above: Breaks also provided a great opportunity for Ray and the other delegates to get to know each other and get feedback on some of the exercises. Left picture, from left to right: Sherry Tousley, Ezio Tamburrini, Ray and Joanna MacLean. Right picture, from left to right: Ezio Tamburrini chats with Tammy Stone and Prasad Tgc – “Many of the books that these people are writing have great potential” said Ray. “Their stories include a Harry Potter style fantasy novel, charming short stories from a retired hairdresser and personal recollections of travel adventures” said Ray

Below: Ray talks to fellow writer Amber Christensen from the USA as they head towards the meeting room for another creative working session. Mo Tejani, who is behind Ray (grey shirt) lives in Chiang Mai and has had three books published, including “A Chameleons Tale“

Above: There were some great opportunities for everyone on the course to socialise – “My life gets more and more interesting every year” said Ray. “If someone had said to me a few years ago that I was going to live out of a bag for five years, act in a play, trek to Mount Everest, meditate with Buddhist monks, run a marathon, become a successful global fundraiser and write a book, I would have had trouble believing them” said our appreciative adventurer. “It seems that there is truth in the statement “Anything is possible” he mused

Ray and I touched base a couple of weeks after his course had finished which gave me an opportunity to discover how he was getting on. “In the workshop, I came up with a ten chapter ‘plot outline’ which is writers jargon for a plan of what goes in the book and in what order. This is a crucial decision as it will determine how engaged (or not) my readers will be. In my case, I am writing a ‘narrative non-fiction’ book, which means that the story is describing actual events that took place as well as my thoughts, feelings and insights that relate to them. Currently, my main task is to get all of the information that resides in my memory on to paper, which generally means writing a couple of hours a day or at least as often as I feel I can. I am attempting to recall events spanning seven years so the farther back I go, the harder it is sometimes to remember the detail. And I have understood from all the input I have received that the devil is in the detail. My challenge is to describe reality in such a way that anyone who reads it feels as if they were actually there seeing it for themselves – very easy to say but not so easy to do. That is what I am trying to learn and am quite a way from where I would like to be” admitted Ray.

Had being part of the newly formed writers club been helping him progress? “Definitely yes, Mozzie. By giving and receiving feedback regularly, I have started to see ways of constructing ideas that are more powerful and ironically it often means saying less” observed Ray. “It has been very beneficial to share the journey with other people and I have highly valued their input. As I will be leaving Chiang Mai soon, I will have to support myself for a while” he told me. “I am still deliberating with myself as to the overall theme of my book and how to organise it in the best way for potential readers. Much has happened to me in the last five years and I am not clear how to select what is most important or how to convey it in a compelling way so that my readers can really enjoy and get some value from it. Every time I meet people and ask them what they would most like to read, I get a variety of different responses so it is important that I give myself an opportunity to clarify the big picture first while I simultaneously dig out the nitty-gritty and get it on paper” said our global nomad.

Above: Members of Ray’s newly formed Writers Club get together for a feedback session – “Each time, 2-3 people are chosen for feedback and they circulate an excerpt from their book about one week before the meeting, enabling the others to read it and make a note of their comments” explained Ray

Below: All of us at The Daily Explorer office are very impressed with Ray as he attempts to forge a new direction for himself as a writer. Although he is still learning, I am sure he could do a better job than the people who came up with this bunch of ridiculous newspaper headlines!

Aside from his writing, I asked Ray what else was on his agenda in the next few months. “There are a couple of things cooking slowly on the back burner” he said. “For some time, I have been exploring the possibility of offering a service to bring people to Chiang Mai who are in need of expensive dental work. The facilities here are really world-class and yet are available at a fraction of the price that people living in the UK, USA, Australia or New Zealand might pay. Many of my friends have had work done here, including one couple from Sacramento who were quoted $8,500 at home for metal removal, a few caps, crowns and fillings. They were able to get all of their requirements met here in six or seven sittings over a two-week period. The total bill came to $1,500. Not only that, they commented on the brilliant service, saying that their chosen dentist had been totally focused on them and they had felt really taken care of. He even played an American radio station for them whilst they were in the chair! And on top of all of this, they enjoyed a great holiday in and around Chiang Mai which was essentially free” he explained. “Many people are aware of this but are still too nervous to venture abroad, which I can understand. Going to a new place can be a daunting experience, even without having to be concerned with medical treatments. So my aim is to provide a concierge style service and take care of people from the moment their plane lands to the moment they leave. I hope to have more detailed information for our readers later but in the meantime, anyone who is requiring expensive dental treatment is welcome to get in touch. They may be able to save a huge amount of money, depending on what they require” said Ray.

Above: There are world-class facilities in Chiang Mai for people requiring complex dental work. Slowly but surely, more and more foreigners are coming here to get their needs met – “Inflation makes everything more expensive and some people’s finances are under greater pressure than ever before” said Ray. “I am aiming to help people save money and still get a first class job done, in a beautiful city where they can also relax and enjoy themselves. Having spent so much time here myself, I am clear that many people would be thrilled if they really knew what is available and how to access it” added Ray

Some of our readers know that Ray worked in the business world for many years before he left England in November 2005 to start his global nomadic adventure. He told me about an opportunity he was looking into that may see him making a partial return to that world sometime in the next few months. “I have been in dialogue with a company based in Singapore who provide coaching services to business executives throughout Asia. That in itself is not unusual and some of our readers may remember that I have held discussions with similar businesses in the past in this region. What is unusual about Coach In A Box is that much of their coaching is done over the Internet using Skype, which makes it ideal from my perspective” said Ray. “It means that I could work from any base and be able to look after clients without having to physically travel to their office for every meeting. In the past, this has made it too cost prohibitive for me to operate from Chiang Mai but now, it would not really be a problem. Of course, I could also take on clients who require face to face coaching in the future, but for now it would give me a smooth and painless re-entry into the business world. The people who I have met at Coach In A Box are very professional and on the face of it, I seem to be a good fit with their needs for experienced coaches. Right now, I am being coached for a few weeks myself by one of their team so that I can experience what their service is like from a clients perspective, which is a really great idea and is actually helping me with my own development too! I will let you know how things pan out” said Ray.

Above: Ray on Skype on the beach in Cherating, Malaysia in 2010 (left) and on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Maarten in 2007 (right). After five and a half years of living without a fixed base, our global nomad has become very comfortable with working remotely via the Internet – “As readers of my forthcoming book will find out in due course, being technically savvy and Internet/PC literate is a pre-requisite for living life effectively as a nomad. I manage all of my finance and investments, business and personal relationships, document production and administration, travel arrangements and conversations via my laptop from wherever I am. Location doesn’t really matter, as long as there is a good Internet connection and somewhere quiet to talk” he told me

Despite the temptation to become totally immersed in ‘doing’ stuff, I discovered that Ray is still as dedicated to his personal and spiritual development as he ever was and asked him to share a little bit of himself with me on the topic of ‘being’. “Well Mozzie, as I follow this highly unconventional path, it is becoming clearer to me that my own peace of mind and happiness is totally (and I mean TOTALLY) dependent on what is happening on the inside of me, as opposed to what is happening externally. I appreciate that this can be a difficult idea to accept sometimes but none-the-less, I am finding out the truth of this for myself. And this change has come about as a result of much self-inquiry as well as taking time to be still on a regular basis so that I can tune in more strongly to the voice of my own intuition. For the last couple of years, I have been attending the weekly gathering in Chiang Mai of the Green Papaya Sangha. Every Thursday, anywhere between 15 – 40 people gather for a couple of hours to meditate in the style of Thich Nhat Hanh, who is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist now based in France” Ray told me. “A couple of his books profoundly affected me and the regular meditation has been a transformative catalyst sometimes. When I discovered he was going to be visiting Thailand in March to host a seven-day retreat for 1,500 people, I registered immediately for a place. He is 86 years old and this could be one of the last opportunities to spend time with one of the truly great men of the world” said Ray. “I intend to provide our readers with an update from the event sometime in the next couple of months” said Ray.

For readers who would like to know a little bit more about him, Thich Nhat Hanh joined a Zen monastery at the age of 16, studied Buddhism as a novice, and was fully ordained as a monk in 1949. In the early 1960s, he founded the School of Youth for Social Services (SYSS) in Saigon. This grassroots relief organization rebuilt bombed villages, set up schools, established medical centers, and resettled families left homeless during the Vietnam War. He travelled to the U.S. to study at Princeton University, and later to lecture at Cornell University and Columbia University. His focus at the time was to urge the U.S. government to withdraw from Vietnam. He urged Martin Luther King, Jr. to publicly oppose the Vietnam War; King nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in January 1967. In 1973, the Vietnamese government denied Nhat Hanh permission to return to Vietnam and he went into exile, establishing Plum Village in France. From 1976 to 1977 he led efforts to rescue Vietnamese boat people in the Gulf of Siam. “It is one of my dreams to go to Plum Village” said Ray. “But for now, I am just very grateful to have the opportunity to be in this man’s presence” he told me.

“People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child – our own two eyes. All is a miracle” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Editors Note: After the Thich Nhat Hanh retreat, Ray will be visiting the UK for 6-7 weeks. “I have got to renew my Thai visa and take care of a few personal things” he told me. “As I will be in London, I am going to visit some friends in Amsterdam and Berlin too” added our global traveller. Rest assured we will be bringing you all of the news and pictures from these events in forthcoming issues of The Daily Explorer. Some of you may recall me asking you to send in humorous video clips and I am pleased to say that we have had a great response! So here are three short clips for you to enjoy. If you find any others that you think are special, please send me the links!

1. With all of the turmoil in the Middle East, terrorism is back on the agenda. If you are concerned about your personal safety, then you may enjoy the hilarious ”Achmed the Dead Terrorist” which has been viewed a staggering 130,000,000 times! (Editors Note: The clip contains some strong/offensive language)

2. All babies tend to be really cute and this one is no exception. We guarantee you will not be able to watch this without laughing!

3. If only animals could talk – well in this clip, they do! The brilliant voice-overs are extremely convincing!

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com. We will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE

Question: Can you find the man hidden in the Coffee Beans below? ‘

MOZZIE BYTE (Editor): A warm welcome back and a very Happy New Year to all our Daily Explorer readers. For those of you who are joining us for the first time, Ray has been living nomadically for over five years since he left England in November 2005 and has visited 18 different countries during that time. We have been publishing news and stories about his journey (you can find all of these in our Previous Issues archive).

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com

This is our first issue of 2011. Some of you may recall that Ray celebrated Christmas and New Year amongst friends in Sydney, Australia and he has sent us a fantastic selection of personal pictures to give you a flavour of his visit there. Now back in Chiang Mai, Thailand our global nomad is researching ideas for a writing project (Editors Note: More information about this to follow later). It is likely that he will be involved with this for the next 3-4 months at least, so issues of The Daily Explorer may appear less frequently during this period. As the project unfolds, he may get in touch with some of you as part of his research. We will be receiving regular bulletins from Ray so we can keep you updated regarding his progress.

In case you missed our last issue of 2010, our Australian correspondent Chuck Maboomerang met Ray on his arrival in Sydney. En route, our traveller made a brief stop in Bangkok and a short visit to Vancouver in Canada before going ‘down under’. And to wrap up the year, Ray selected a few of his favourite clips from YouTube for you to enjoy over the holiday season. You can read it now at: Christmas Down Under

Above: Our global nomad made a short visit to the beautiful city of Vancouver in Canada before heading to Australia for Christmas. He also selected his top five YouTube video clips from 2010. If you missed it, you can read it now at: Christmas Down Under

On the opposite side of the world, the festive holiday season in Australia promised to be quite a different experience for our traveller from those he used to enjoy in England. I was curious to know how things turned out for him. “Well Mozzie, although it did feel very strange to me to have bright sunshine every day in December and to be walking around in my shorts, it was absolutely fantastic to be there!” he told me. “There is something magical about the city of Sydney and I was very excited to go back there for my fourth visit in ten years. I now have a base of really good friends including Matt and Elizabeth (a.k.a Charlie) Taylor, who I used to share a house with when I was in my twenties. We have tracked each others lives and stayed in regular contact and it was ten years ago when their son Pete was born, that I made my first visit to Australia. So I have known Pete since he was tiny and have developed a great friendship with him too” explained Ray.

Above: Map showing location of Sydney in New South Wales. On his way into Australia, Ray visited friends in Brisbane which, since the new year, has experienced some of the worst floods in its history (Editors Note: More about this in my comments at the end of this issue)

So where did our global nomad end up on Christmas Day? “Matt and Charlie are friends with a charming American family (living in Sydney for about 15 years). I have met them before on several previous visits and was delighted when they extended an invitation to me to join them all for Christmas celebrations at their home in Mosman, just north of the city centre” recalled Ray. “A couple of days prior to this, I got my first taste of ‘Chrissie Australian style’ when we all went to sing carols at twilight on the beach in Balmoral – it was quite surreal but very heartwarming to join hundreds of people picnicking in the late afternoon sunshine by the sea whilst belting out some of our favourite yuletide anthems” he told me. “You just couldn’t make it any more different to what I remember in the UK, where you would probably be standing outside in the freezing cold, with layers of insulating clothes on doing the same thing” observed Ray.

Above: Our explorer managed to capture this shot of the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge, showing that his photographic skills have definitely improved over the last five years – “Whether it is Christmas, or any time of year for that matter, Sydney is a fantastic city to experience” he told me. “I always love coming back” added Ray

Below: Spotted in ‘The Rocks’ near Circular Quay (Sydney Harbour), this Aussie Christmas Tree (left) has been fashioned entirely from old bicycles as part of an ongoing programme to raise awareness about re-cycling. And in Martins Place in the Central Business District, only the sight of the colourful Christmas decorations remind people as to this special time of the year (right)

Above: The Taylor Family were Ray’s hosts for his four-week visit to Sydney. From left to right, Pete, Matthew, Charlie and Jasper (the dog) who was being looked after by them while his owners were away on holiday – “In the ten years I have been coming to Australia, they have always been so generous and hospitable with me” said Ray. “One day, when I settle somewhere, I would be delighted to do the same for them” he added

Below: Balmoral beach at sunset – the unlikely venue for our traveller to experience invoking the Christmas spirit by joining the lively crowd assembled to sing a few carols – “Seeing people wearing Santa hats in the sunshine seems a bit weird to me but I guess the guys here are used to it” observed Ray

Above: Balmoral is also home to some really amazing fig trees

Below: Already overwhelmed by their hospitality, Ray was moved to tears when he discovered that his friends had also placed presents under the Christmas tree for him (left) – “Matt kindly set up a subscription to ‘New Scientist’ magazine for me which I can read online every month. And Charlie, who is extremely creative artistically, gave me a wonderful box with 52 hand painted cards bearing different fishes, one for each week of the year” said Ray, who sent us this excerpt from Charlie’s note that came with it: “Dear Ray. I wanted to give you a gift which would be with you all year but it needed to be easy to carry. So in this magic box you will find a saying and a picture for every week of 2011. I wish the words were mine but they instead belong to a mixture of wise and interesting people. The cards have been shuffled and I trust that some greater power than me will ensure the next one in the pile is the right one for the week in question. However, what are mine are the tiny paintings on each card. This will be a little bit of me appearing in your space every week… wherever you are in the world. You will see the painting and know I love you, am thinking of you and wishing you well on your travels. I chose the ocean theme because I see you swimming as a fish in the sea – a great sea with boundless possibility. Nothing is tying you down, keeping you still; there is always a new vista. I have no doubt that your journey has seemed daunting at times but you have continued to bravely step forward providing inspiration to me and others. You remind us all that we should not be still, stop learning or questioning”. Needless to say, Ray was quite overwhelmed by it - ”Moments like these are so precious” he told me. (Editors Note: What an amazing gift for our traveller! It is no wonder that Charlie (right) and the Taylor family were the recipients of the highly prestigious ‘Daily Explorer Hospitality Award’ on one of Ray’s previous visits in 2007)

Above: Christmas dinner host, Doug Henry (left) shows Matt and Pete the table for lunch. In case you are wondering, the bird Doug is holding is not part of the meal! It is one of four hens they keep in their garden – a growing trend amongst city dwellers who like fresh organic produce – “If and when I get my own place again, I would certainly like to have one or two myself” said Ray. “The tiny little chicks are so cute” added our traveller

Below: (LEFT) The wonderful Katherine Henry (centre) carefully briefs daughter McCalla (left) and Matt (right) about preparing for the exquisite meal that is soon to follow. (RIGHT) A little while later and Charlie is salivating at the prospect of tucking in to Christmas dinner, Aussie style – juicy king size prawns, delicious Morton Bay Bugs and dozens of tasty oysters… yum!

Above: Two from Ray’s personal archives: Like many great friendships, Ray and Matthew go back a long way! These pictures were taken twenty years ago, when they both worked together. During the local annual snooker tournament, called “The Harrington Cup”, both Matt (left) and Ray (right), who were considered to be ‘hotties’ at the time, managed to reach the final. After a hard-fought match, Ray emerged victorious – a return match has yet to be staged!

Below: Two decades later, Matt and Ray are the best of friends and still have a certain charm when it comes to chicks!

Above: Give peace a chance! After a great Chrissie meal and some fun and games in the garden, our intrepid explorer takes a much needed mid-afternoon nap

Below: The winner of the 2010 race was previous winner and record holder ‘Wild Oats XI’ (left). All of the yachtsmen had some seriously bad weather to contend with as you can see in this picture of one of the boats approaching a dramatic looking storm front (right). Recently, Australia has been beset by some of its worst weather in years, with huge areas the size of France and Germany combined in neighbouring Queensland underwater

For most of us, the period between Boxing Day and New Year is a relatively quiet time. So it was a great opportunity for our global traveller to take a long overdue, one hour drive North West from the city with Matt and Pete to call in on an old friend. “Actually Mozzie, Lily is both a young friend and an old friend” explained Ray. “When Matt and I lived and worked together in London in the eighties, we also worked with a couple called Pauline and Stevo, who had a young daughter called Lily. Fast forward twenty five years and Lily is now grown up with a young child of her own. Knowing that I was coming to Sydney, Lily kindly invited me to the farm in Glenorie which her and her partner James have recently moved into.  James is a vet and they have ambitious plans to make their property a top centre for horse reproduction. They have 37 acres of land and have already built a number of paddocks for the first bunch of horses they are looking after” Ray told me. “Their son Hamish was born last year and he is an absolute delight. I love what they are doing with the farm and wish them all the best for it being very successful” said our traveller.

Above: Matt, Pete and Jasper arrive outside the renovated farmhouse in Glenorie where Lily, James and Hamish live

Below: James took guests Ray, Matt (right) and Pete (left) for a tour of their property, which includes several acres of beautiful forest

Above: As 2011 begins, there is much to celebrate for James and Lily, with new life being one of the key themes. James (left), who recently assisted with the birth of this foal (centre) is growing his reputation as a horse breeder and vet whilst also taking on the joyful challenge of becoming a dad to his wonderful son Hamish, pictured in their pool with happy mum Lily (right)

Below: Pete (left) and little Hamish get to know each other

Above: Lily’s father Stevo (left) also lives in Sydney – “We used to share a flat together in Kilburn in the eighties” recalled Ray “and we have remained friends to this day, although I do not see him all that often. On this trip, he was quite excited to show me his newly renovated home in Palm Beach (right)

Knowing that Sydney hosts one of the most spectacular New Years Eve firework displays in the world, I asked Ray if he was able to get to a good vantage point. “I was really lucky” said our traveller. “The day before New Years Eve, I still had not found a place to go and I was introduced to a lady called Julie Miller by a mutual friend. She had only recently moved apartment to Milsons Point, just behind Luna Park and very close to the Sydney Harbour bridge which is the launch pad for a lot of the pyrotechnics” explained Ray. “She asked me if I had any plans to see the display and when I said no, she promptly invited me to join her party at home! I was really happy about that because I had never seen the live fireworks here and had really set my heart on making it happen in this trip without knowing how it would happen. Someone up there must like me” he joked. “I am so glad it worked out as the display was truly spectacular” added our global explorer.

Above: Night draws in on 31st December 2010 in Sydney Harbour (left). Meanwhile, Ray is perfectly positioned at his new friends apartment behind Luna Park, at Milsons Point (right)

Below: The wonderful Julie Miller (left) gave Ray his first opportunity to enjoy the spectacular Sydney Harbour fireworks (right)

Above: Over $5,000,000 dollars were spent on the Sydney New Years Eve display which lasted for about 25 minutes – “That’s over $200,000 per minute!” said our gob-smacked explorer

Below: Even as the fireworks were exploding (left), people all over Sydney were making their New Years resolutions. Ray’s friend Pete was encouraging others to join him on New Years Day by promoting his intentions on his tee-shirt (right)

Above: Our visitor had time to explore two of Sydney’s attractions. At the Australian Museum in Hyde Park, Matthew a.k.a Dr. Dolittle was spotted having a deep discussion with two furry friends (left). And at the Lord Nelson Hotel, which is the city’s oldest hostelry, our traveller was treated to a traditional ale and pork pie lunch

Below: The Daily Explorer rocks! The day before departure to Thailand and Ray and Pete enjoy a bit of air guitar as they sing along to rock anthem ’Living on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi – “Ten year old Pete is really into music now and for his Christmas present, I made him a gift voucher that entitled him to sit down with me and go through all the music files on my computer. I invited him to select any that he really liked for his own collection! Then all that was left to do was to gear up and play them!” said our wannabe rock star. If my year finishes as it has begun, it is going to be pretty good and I hope this is true for all of our readers” added our traveller

Editors Note: We expect to see some changes this year for Ray as he leaves the world of travelling for a little while to explore the world of writing. He has signed up for a five-day writers workshop in Chiang Mai at the end of the month and told me this about it: “The course is being offered by a published author and literary agent called Wendy Goldman Rohm and I feel it would be beneficial to approach the challenge of book writing like I would anything else that is new to me, by learning from someone with experience. By attending the course, I will also (hopefully) get some input as to the overall theme of my book and how to organise it in the best way for potential readers. I came across the course by chance as I was trying to work out some of these things and it felt like it was meant to happen, so I went with my instincts and enrolled. So much has happened to me in the last five years yet I don’t really know how to select what is most important or how to convey it in a compelling way to anyone else yet. Every time I meet people and ask them what they would most like to read, I get a variety of different responses so it is important that I give myself an opportunity to clarify the big picture first before getting into the nitty-gritty” said our global nomad.

Above: Our global nomad has recently returned to Chiang Mai, where he spotted this message emblazoned on the wall of the HUG Academy Dance and Arts centre (left). The challenge of writing is giving Ray plenty of food for thought (right)

Ray has asked me to inform those readers who don’t already know, about the people of Queensland, Australia whose lives have been ravaged by some of the worst flooding in their history. Having recently been in the devastated city, I asked Ray for his view of the situation there. “When I arrived, it was raining heavily around the clock and the worst had not hit by the time I left. You could sense that trouble was brewing. Now, the full extent of the damage is apparent and it is an absolute catastrophe for some” said Ray. “There are plenty of information sources online for anyone who is interested in the details. What struck me personally was the sheer scale of it – at one point, an area larger than the whole of France and Germany combined was underwater and in Brisbane alone, over 20,000 homes were flooded. Although the friends I stayed with have escaped the worst, I have spoken to some of them in the last few days and they have joined the other tens of thousands of volunteers who are out on the street with shovels helping to clear up the mess. It is probably going to take months to return the city to normal and cost the government somewhere in the region of $3 billion. My heart goes out to everyone there, including those who lost loved ones in the flash floods at the height of the disaster” said Ray.

Above: The swollen Brisbane river burst its banks, unleashing havoc for residents in the lower lying areas of the city – “It’s such a shame” said Ray. “The people in Queensland are fantastic and don’t deserve this. By all accounts, they have responded in the best way possible, accepting what has happened and getting it sorted out” he told me

Below: Even the giant Suncorp Stadium was inundated (Photo: Torsten Blackwood/Getty Images)

Above: To give readers an idea of the horror that was facing residents in Brisbane, this graph illustrates the impact of the flooding at the peak level, which was mercifully about a metre below that of the floods in 1974

Below: In case the graph above doesn’t shock you, take a look at the pictures below and you will see how the quiet suburban street on the left was transformed in to the murky lake on the right. Queensland is a sub-tropical area and the floods bring all sorts of problems with them, especially snakes

Finally, in our wrap up of 2010, Ray selected a few of his favourite clips from YouTube for you to enjoy over the holiday season. We received several messages from readers about one of the clips, called “Validation” which turned out to be extremely popular. (Editors Note: The links to many of the videos we select are sent to us by readers so if you come across something you would like to share, please email us and let us know about it). For those of you who missed “Validation”, or would like to see it again, here it is:

On the subject of validation, this just came in from one of our readers: “I am starting a campaign called “Love your Bankers”. They need therapy and they need to be loved because they think money is all there is. Poor, deluded people. The banker who jumped in front of a train because he was down to his last million, is a perfect example. We must look after them and make sure that they’re happy, otherwise we won’t get anywhere on time if we’re going by train”.

Our aim at The Daily Explorer is to create a great publication for you, so please keep sending us your comments and suggestions as to how we can improve what we are doing. You can use the comments box on this site, or email Ray (ray@thedailyexplorer.com), ‘Mozzie’ or any of our correspondents at mozzie@thedailyexplorer.com

That’s it for now. On behalf of everyone at The Daily Explorer, we wish all of you a very Happy New Year and hope that the next 12 months is everything you would like it to be. As to Ray’s progress, we will keep you posted!

MOZZIE BYTE