Perhaps something in between.

Daniel Lak: Asked what he liked the most and least

I doubt that I give them satisfaction - but here's a version of what I usually say, starting with something close to my heart.

For years now, the magnificent peaks of the Himalayas have defined and enriched my time in this region.

Their name means abode of snow in Sanskrit and their splendour and spirituality are unmatched.

No other mountain range sits at the heart of a major religion, as the Himalayas define Hinduism.

Muslims too regard them with awe.

Fears

But I have very real fears for the future of these sacred peaks.

I tell my friends that India and Pakistan are destroying the Himalayas and don't seem to care.

Kashmir: Poisoned by conflict

In Kashmir, more than a million soldiers and armed men shed blood and destroy the environment.

Peaks and passes in the Kargil area have been poisoned by cordite and human waste left after the sublimely pointless conflict there in 1999.

An even more meaningless battle for the uninhabitable heights of the Siachen glacier devours resources and ravages a once pristine setting.

I've walked along the Baltoro glacier beneath the world's second highest mountain, K2, and lost my way among the towering mounds of horse and mule dung, courtesy of the Pakistan army's Siachen supply line.

The roads around India's Tibetan Buddhist enclave, Ladakh, are choked with diesel fumes from military convoys.

Then there's the deep human and cultural damage inflicted on the once near perfect Vale of Kashmir.

Both countries seem unconcerned that their deadly chess game is using the Kashmir people as expendable pieces, destroying a culture of tolerance and creativity thousands of years old.

Death by religion

As for the peaceful bits, religion is killing them.

In Pakistan, fanatics foster sectarian hatreds in the mountain valleys among Shia and Sunni - blowback from attempts to harness the intolerant and angry extremes of Islam to encourage fighting in Afghanistan and Kashmir.

Pilgrimage pressures affect the environment

In India, the steady pressure of Hindu pilgrimage to the holy sites of the middle Himalaya is slowly poisoning water and denuding hill forests.

Amid fears that melting glaciers could cause the holy Ganges to dry to a trickle, five million largely unaware pilgrims will walk the fragile heights this year alone.

Of course, all this shocks my questioners, so I pass on to other double-edged swords, other dichotomies.

Problems are soluble

The benefits and ravages of globalisation, the failure to extend its benefits beyond the already rich and the aspirational middle classes; the pollution and overuse of fresh water, usually in the name of political populism.

Free water and free power for the rich; power cuts and droughts for the poor.

All of these problems are soluble.

Everyone knows the solutions, even to Kashmir.

But compromise, creativity and good will are in short supply among politicians and the economic elite.

I say as I leave that it's time to start taking the future seriously - especially in the abode of snows.

Daniel Lak, who has spent just over three years as the BBC's correspondent in Delhi, will continue to report from the region for BBC News Online