Zilang

In March, Sapu Sacred Mountain in Tibet is still frozen hard, well below minus ten degrees Celsius. The ice sheet on the sacred lake is a full twenty centimeters thick. What I still cannot work out is how, at such a low temperature and with ice so thick, there was a hole in it at all; and how I managed to stumble straight into it; and how, in my panic, I somehow found the strength—as if the gods were helping me—to pull myself out and climb to safety. Iraq, a country ravaged by war: the great ancient city of Mosul has been bombed until nothing is left intact—not a single complete house remains. Ruined walls and bullet scars are everywhere. To see it makes you tremble all over, sick at heart and wiping away tears. People turn pale at the mere mention of the ocean, yet in the Caribbean lives an extremely gentle species of large shark that people can swim and play with. I couldn't help throwing my arms around one, and had a wonderful time—but you must never go too far, for these are wild creatures four or five meters long, and if one hurts you there's no negotiating about it. In the Bahamas there is a remarkable small island. Strangely, it grows no marine life, yet it has become famous for a herd of wild pigs in all sorts of colors and patterns. To win the food people offer them, they can perform tricks in the water, standing upright or swimming in various styles. They even seem to understand a little of the human art of greeting guests and seeing them off. In the "Devil's Ray City" sea area of Antigua, the fearsome stingrays with their highly venomous tail spines can actually be picked up and played with. I managed with some effort to catch one and felt the silky softness of its body, but in the end it was so huge and heavy that I simply could not lift it.