High in the Himalayas

24th May
The upside is there are times when I clearly understand, the age of someone like me. This does not have anything to to with anything. In other words you are only as old as you think you are. At the moment, I am ageless.

I am lucky. At times I get to think I am ageless. Ageless at 58. And now I have all that additional experience that only comes with living. I am one lucky SOB to be able to appreciate this.

29th May
It is my second day in Manali. Manali is a much cooler place after landing in Delhi. I took the first night bus out of the 40C plus, scorching heat during the day. I sat next to a nice young Israeli lady called Sharon. Sharon was from Jerusalem.
Tomorrow I head across the river to Vashaist. It is almost like revisiting the past. So much has changed in 15 years, but some parts remain the same.
I am pinching myself. I am back to my  second home. It is taking a day to adjust to being back in India. The Himalayas are my new reality for the next few months. My next destination is Leh at 3500 meters. A great place to explore ancient Buddhist temples and monks.

A great place to chill out and forget the past. All that matters is the present and in the present - Wow. This is awesome scenery.

It is raining outside, so I am stuck in my room listening to my recently altered list of favourite song list on Spotify. It was put together in a rush, since my previous favourite song list was mysteriously erased at Lake Toba. Oh well, such is never the same for long these days. With this new song list I get to listen to James Taylor for a change. "you have a friend" and Radiohead.

Maybe this is our destiny. Never ending change. Then one day in the future. Utopia. On this day. All this never ending change. It comes to an end. Why would you need to change - perfection?

But this day is some days away I fear. This is because perfection lies solely, in The dreaded eyes of the beholder.

I should cut to the chase here. The beholder at this present time is the dreaded ego. This ego is nothing more than a ghost. It is conjured up my the mind. The mind has mistaken the true master of consciousness. In this continuing state of ignorance, the true master is forgotten in an ongoing phenomenon. This ongoing phenomenon is better known as Maya.

Our soul purpose in this human life is to escape from this dreaded false ego. Our sole purpose is to regain our previous/proper one...

I still have no idea how to achieve this seemingly easy feat. A feat so easy as crushing a flower in your hand. How do you let go of your ego? How do you stop letting your ego lead you astray?


This super human, aka egoless state. This infamous state of enlightenment, aka nirvana. Aka the end. I am listening to Jim Morrison aka the Doors.

Death is not the end Jim and Kurt. Far far too young to take your own talented life's when you had so much more to say. Death is one of the biggest illusion of Maya. Death does not exist in consciousness. Taking your life before the due time is the biggest sin. Mainly because it results in the pointless suffering of loved ones. Instead talk to a trusted friend.

I have just posted my time in India to my travelling blog of many years. It is titled "High in the Himalayas"

How do I really feel right now when I am so high? This has been my dream for many years. To hightail it to the Himalayas for a while...

I am in a state of poetry with out words. I am so inspired...

Sometimes you need to be alone. Yeah I am listening to Guns and roses. November rain in May. Wtf is life all about? I need to take time out - all alone, high in the Himalayas to figure it all out...

Travelling journal of self discovery

19th May
I have just taken a photo from my guest house room balcony. It shows a coconut palm tree, amongst a well kept garden complete with mango tree. In the background is Lake Toba, the waves are gently hitting the shore. Beyond the lake is a natural rain forest national park. Lake Toba is bordered with mountains. It is a glorious setting at dusk, watching the local ferry pass by.

The best part, is the guest house is empty. It is off season at this time of year through out Sumatra. I have the entire garden to myself.

I am pinching myself. This place hits the spot. The scenery is stunning. I am only here for less than a week, so I need to enjoy every moment. It does not get much better than this when travelling. I have just eaten, pineapple and olive pizza with a large Bittang. (Beer) The pizza was good. Life is good.

It is times like this, you wonder what life is all about. Who am I? At the moment, I have no idea. Maybe this is a good thing. It opens up your mind to other things.

20th May
I am currently reading a book set in early 18th century. It is about the life of an Irish convict in an Australian penal colony near Brisbane. The convict escapes from a hellish existence of back breaking manual labour and atrocious living conditions. The convict ends up marrying an aboriginal woman from one of the many aboriginal tribes living in area. This worked to his advantage. He needed to hide from the cruel British authorities - intent on his capture.
The convict lives with one of these Aboriginal tribes for 5 years before he was tracked, caught and summarily put in solidarity confinement. This severe punishment was to last for a period off 20 years.

The interesting part of the story. It turns out, Aboriginal tribes move around the place a lot, but often revisit good hunting places where water is available and there is a plentiful source of food. Once a year they all get together with other friendly tribes for a celebration and general catch up. There is much dancing, singing, playing of musical instruments, feasting and socialising.

The Aboriginal tribes sometimes have other tribes as enemies. If they cross paths, fighting and killing each other becomes inevitable. This is a life all about raw survival skills. You need to know how to hunt and be good at using spears and other tools to be able to kill you prey. You need to know how to kill your enemy.

This book has got me thinking about a lot of things. How much we are a product of our upbringing. And how quickly we adapt to other living conditions when survival is at stake. It is not like a person sometimes has a choice. It is either adapt or die. Hardship is a true test of a man. It tests a mans will power. How much hardship can a man tolerate before he succumbs and looses the will to live?

Fast forward to today, and the taking of ones life prematurely is endemic among the young of today. Why is this?


21st May
Night time. I am outside of my guesthouse room balcony. It is raining and there is flashes of light shining for brief moments, I can see the surrounding mountains on Toba Lake. It is an awesome sight. There are frequent cracks of loud thunder. I am barely able to hear. It is raining heavily now. I am now unable to hear Enigma on Spotify.
I am in a strange mood. Kind of melancholy but sombre. I am of an age where I am aware of my mortality and what I have remaining to look forward to. There is no point in pretending anymore. I am old. The downside is not worth thinking about. Any former vitality and excitement of youth is gone. It is becoming more difficult to get motivated by anything anymore. This can go on for long periods of time.

24th May
The upside is there are times when I clearly understand, the age of someone like me. This does not have anything to to with anything. In other words you are only as old as you think you are. At the moment, I am ageless.

I am lucky. At times I get to think I am ageless. Ageless at 58. And now I have all that additional experience that only comes with living. I am one lucky SOB to be able to appreciate this.

The revolution has started...be proud to be part of it!

The problem with using my blog is it kind of opens me up. It contains all my personal beliefs, some of which are undoubtedly controversial. At heart, I have known for a long time, I am something of a revolutionary and rebel. Not that anyone would necessary know these days. The name of the blog is no accident. I desperately want a revolution to happen and like most revolutions. I am suggesting a dramatic change to the status quo. I am no fan of the capitalist system. Sure there is no doubt, the modern world is only where it is today because of this dreaded system based on the greed and the pursuit of money. But the cost. OMG, the cost to the natural environment and previous cultures based on co-operation and looking out for your fellow man. This goes completely by the wayside. It is replaced with jealousy and the drive to have more and more money. If you are a business, it is all about the bottom line. How to increase profits and be even more successful. Competition becomes more and more ruthless. In extreme, it becomes downright nasty. Any sense of sharing or cooperation are replaced with distrust and a sense of faking being nice until you make it. Once you have made it. Then you can do whatever you like.

In a place like Indonesia, big business is all about destroying rain forests and converting them into a source of income. Palm oil plantations and increasing forest fires become the norm. You end up replacing the perfection of nature with all of its wonderful diversity of species with something much less appealing. That is if you not so much into making lots of money.

To be fair, what Indonesia is doing to its natural rain forests is the same thing that has already been done in more developed countries such as New Zealand. Land is converted to farming to secure an income and improve the countries GDP by exporting the products that come from farming and other business/industrial endeavours. Indonesia is only playing catch up and there is a lot of rain forest remaining to convert.

It is very easy for someone like be to be sad, disappointed and even angry with the level of destruction going on in rain forests like this right now. I feel it is not right and something needs to be done urgently. But am I prepared to petition my government to pay Indonesia ongoing royalties to preserve its rain forests for future generations. Actually I am, but I do nor believe for one second this petition would stand any degree of success. I would be in Gaga land. All governments in the OECD like New Zealand, Australia, UK, European Union and the US etc have their own issues to sort out first. All OECD governments are elected democratically. To get elected, you need to be able to prove you can keep to a balanced budget. Deficits are o.k., but a surplus is better. And a deficit needs to be paid back with ongoing interest. There is only one way for modern governments to survive the next election cycle. The must have a strong economy and this means strong GDP growth.

Keeping to a balanced budget these days in stagnant global GDP growth is becoming an impossible task due to the increasing costs in health, education and paying government pensions to increasing number of people who have retired and are living much longer. This is all thanks to relatively recent advances in modern medicine. Then there is paying for weather related disasters and in a country like New Zealand. Natural earthquakes in the major category. There is a bottom line and this bottom line is being fiscally responsible. With all these mounting costs and expenses...There is no spare government money to pay for preserving rain forests in developing countries such as Indonesia, parts of Africa and Brazil.

Instead, we will encourage these developing countries, with large rain forests to immediately stop any more rain forest destruction with a sense of moral responsibility. If you think about such arrogance from countries in the OECD. It is kind of rich considering the facts. We have destroyed our own rainforests to become wealthy nations. We now have a problem with other countries that are following in our destructive wake? It all smells like blatant hypocrisy to me.

There is only one logical way to over come such arrogance. This logical way involves using our  current way ward capitalist system - at its worst extreme of unfairness. Just like the US and other OECD countries like the US, UK, Japan and European Union (and China) can cheat and print money to exit out of a monetary crisis - so can the United Nations use QE, to cheat our way out of an environmental crisis.

The United Nations is an international body, well aware of what needs to be done to preserve rainforests and endangered species. You simply pay countries like Indonesia and  Brazil a generous royalty. With this royalty, there is an incentive to protect natural rain forests for future generations. After all, it is in the best interests of every countries economy and sense of ongoing natural well being.

The revolution I am talking about is breathtakingly simple. In essence there is no need to change from the status quo where central banks print money; to solve a financial crisis associated with the Great Recession.

The only slight tweak is to allow another central bank capable of QE. This central bank is managed by the United Nations. Unlike other central banks, this bank has only one mandate. To help protect and conserve the natural environment and natural ecosystems for the entire planet. This includes endangered species like the Sumatra tiger and rare birds like the hornbill.

You know what I am saying. We all agree it is in everyone best interests to have a global universal reserve currency. The brand new global reserve currency is required to pay for what does need to be done on the planet. And rather urgently. This new currency should be called the UN. The $UN will be managed under the auspices of a global international body that we already have. (Ie the United Nations)

All that is needed for this to occur is a tad of common sense. We all need to have faith in our more inspired leaders to do the right thing in this increasingly technological and modern world. We need to have faith our inspired  leaders of the UN will always have the best interests of this wonderful rare planet called Earth. A planet blessed with the full diversity of many different species and life forms.  A rare planet of breathtaking natural beauty that is truely awesome.

We owe it to future generations to get our act together to help protect this awesomeness. There is not a moment to waste for this modern revolution to start. Money is not the root of all evil. It is the love of money - over what is more important. It goes without saying. You only get one chance at changing governments priorities at this relative late stage - before the dark side of blatant stupidity of greed and selfishness takes over. The manifestation of such stupidity is becoming all too obvious for anyone with a decent heart. At the end of the day, we are all on this incredible journey together. We all need to work as a combined team to succeed. We need an enhanced sense of pride associated with what it really means to be a good human citizen in these fast changing times. Where almost anything is possible thanks to the wonders of human ingenuity associated with modern technology.