Christian Aiśa

Seen on on Manakula Vinayagar Covill Street, Pondicherry.

Have a dog

Some recent memories of Tibet (TAT).


Please horn for avalanche of the Kharo la.


A rare Gaza Strip venture on the same pass.


On Mentsikang road in Lhasa one is offered vagarious ice cream. Did not try.


At the Potala you are greeted by this welcome warning.


At Shigatse renovations are on. You are warned to be responsible whilst producing everyone. (God?)


Gyantse has traditional ties to French haute cuisine. As we all know, the yak is an essential ingredient.


Ceci n'est pas une no photo sign.


Nakartse, famous for its snowland...


This here will become an all time favourite of mine. Seen at the 7th dalai lama's palace in the Norbulinka.


The Lukhang apparently sits on top of dragon king poo. The official ticket says so.


The 'cool & sex' condom is certified by some agency with a very unfortunate logo choice.


This piece smuggled to Tashidzong (about 50km before Everest base camp) from the '42 German-Russian border?

No prinagi

Seen on Ramakrishna Lane, North Calcutta. The series of metatheses should give a hefty headache to linguists who will discover this door as an artefact in two-three hundred years' time.

Bad-tempered ghee

Best and testy. (seen on B. B. Ganguly Road, South Calcutta)

Back from Kathmandu

The funny pictures again:

All sorts of weird signs in Thamel.

Mbrdry (I might have already posted this).

Public convenience at Dakṣiṇakālī.

Is this some special form of utkrānti I've never heard about before?

Holy port

Being a great fan of port, I have long entertained suspicions that there must be something holy about it. Now we have irrefutable evidence from "Dpal Zha lu Gser khang khra mo dgon gyi ngo sprod rags bsdud - A brief description to the Shalu Monastery". The book is available from a small table on the right side of the lane leading to Zhalu (make sure to taste their original Red Bull as well, although that drink is not so holy).

Many treasures kept at Zhalu are related to holy port. Here are two examples:


Caption reads: "Bumchu Nyongtrol: beings will be liberated from the Samsara (suffering ocean) when they have some water* drops from this holy port." [*NB: 'water' is probably a contamination.]

'dir ma zad. Apparently Bu ston was also a great fan of port since there is a statue of him holding 'Life-port' at his abbatial seat.


Caption reads: "Buton Tshebuma (Buton Life-port Holder)"


Za khang ja khang chang khang in Zhalu is for the time being the exclusive distributor for Zhalu holy port. Coming soon to an Oddbins near you.

Love is bland

There were several highlights of this trip to the Kathmandu Valley and the two regions of Central Tibet. The first and most surprising of all was that I could count more tourists in Lhasa than in Kathmandu which - although explainable by the monsoon and the current political situation in the Valley - is a premiere I think. The situation in Kathmandu was described tersely as "tense" by fellow blogger and colleague Iain Sinclair whom I finally met and had a very pleasant conversation with in an atmospheric New Baneshwor restaurant. The blasts in Asan Tole claimed by Terai seccesionists set the tone and the frequent Maoist protests and roadblocks didn't help either. The season is now over in Tibet and it can be easily ascertained that the number of visitors will at least triple next year with the new railway station in place and the olympics hosted in Beijing. No Freak Street in Lhasa though. Yet.

Let's begin with the funny stuff.

This was seen on the back of a bus in the outskirts of KTM. If anyone thinks that they have the meaning sorted out - I owe you beer. Another funny truck logo was "Love is bland", again in KTM, but I wasn't quick enough to shoot it down.



The Barkhor is still full of these signs. Obviously they are using translating machines and the rest is due to oral transmission. There are many entertaining instances of textual corruptions around here. Some are even clever presuming that the author meant it. E.g. a grafitti in Gyantse's otherwise excellent "Tashi Restaurant" toilet: "Never say good buy." You certainly never should. Only way to get a good bargain.

Balconies a bit off? Actually they are meant to hold air conditioning units, but it's still funny. Wouldn't venture going out for a ciggie on a cold morning on one of these things.


Menus are always a goldmine. An advantage for the engrish-hunter is that it is less boring waiting for your food (which if not from the Chinese menu takes ages to arrive). Shigatse's (again excellent) Songtsen restaurant hence boasts "Hum burgers" (Humbug meat?), "Buff" momos (a particulary muscular cow?) and makes "Rugan Juice", presumably a particularly juicy variety of rogan josh.

This could easily be my all time favourite. Perhaps the picture is not so good, but believe me: this toilet sign in Sakya shows you to the 'Toiler'. Good upringing prevents me from explaining why some people who ate here disagreed with the name finding work in the bathroom surprisingly easy.

The funniest sign ever in Tashidzom (on the way to Everest Base Camp) was removed (legend goes that Lonely Planet offered a prize for anyone who could make out what it was supposed to mean). But there are some more humble substitutes.

Back in Bhaktapur you can take up Hibru courses. So much for Engrish today.