So my journey is over. At least, the part where I travel around aimlessly is over. Now, I’m going to be getting down to business, doing some work on my Chinese. I went through four countries (unless you count Holland, where I had a four hour layover) and the one feature that has unified them has been that they all drove on the left side of the road, a weird coincidence. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite make it to Singapore. Instead, I chose to go to a little island paradise about three hours away from Singapore. Still, I’m pretty sure that I’ll be traveling around southeast Asia some in the upcoming year, so I’ll get there.
This island paradise was pretty sweet. I’ve heard its where they filmed the movie “Blue Lagoon,” but I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Still, it was fairly unspoilt, having some guesthouse bungalows along the three or four miles of beach, along with a small town in the middle. The rest was mountain jungle and sweet snorkeling beaches. It felt kind of like living in a zoo with all the animals we saw. There were Monitor Lizards, these big lizards with long claws that grew up to about 10 feet long, half of that tail. There were lots of bats hanging up in the pine trees lining one of the beaches near the town. At night they would swirl around me while I read outside my bungalow, swooping in to catch bugs hanging out at the florescent light. Pythons hung out in the trees, and monkeys jumped around on some of the ships harassing tourist and going crazy when one of the Monitor Lizards approached them.
We also did some snorkeling, which is what the island is known for. It was some of the best snorkeling that I had ever done, which surprised me because we originally thought it was just a place for lame Malaysian families to put on life jackets and wade out into the ocean. But when we got in there, there were some giant fish coming right up to the beach. All colors, all sizes just swarming around you. Some of the Malaysian tourist were feeding the schools of fish entire loafs of bread, causing them to swarm around the dock. Out away from the Malaysian tourist, there were some small reefs along a point, and smaller but more colorful fish darted in and out between the rocks and coral.
All and all it was a pretty cool place, and I’m glad I skipped Singapore to go there.
If you want to see the pictures from the island and the rest of the trip, check out:
http://mapvivo.com/journey/8746
As for the addendums, I wanted to mention a couple of things I had forgotten or had intentionally left out of the other emails.
The first was when I was discussing what was wrong with India, I mentioned the fat main in the black jacket who worked for the railway as bad case of Indian bureaucratic no-think. I have a better example. When we were hanging out in Varanasi, the holy city on the Ganges, we wanted to store our bags in the train station’s left luggage office, but they had a regulation: you had to put a little lock on the main opening of your luggage. Of course, Robby and I had hiking backpacks, so you can’t really lock them. We argued with him for a little while, explaining that they wouldn’t be held responsible if anything was stolen from the bag, but that they were responsible if the bag was gone. He refused to comprehend the logic that the little lock on the bag would not prevent someone from walking out with the bag. We debated for about fifteen minutes until he signaled he wouldn’t help us. I was getting pretty annoyed, and since he wasn’t going to help us, I decided to send him a little message: I took a ruler on his desk and broke it in half. I gathered my bags up quickly and left.
Take that Indian bureaucracy. For the rest of the trip, Robby and I argued over whether my violent protest at the bureaucrats stupidity was right or wrong. Let me know what yall think.
The other thing was about the Nepalese government. I mentioned that the communist had abandoned the government after trying democracy for a year. The communist leaving the government was more than an article in the newspaper for us. Coming into Nepal, our bus got caught in the tail end of some protests after the son of a communist leader was run over. I meet a British guy who said he had been there for six hours just sitting. But get this: Nepal is so dependent on tourism (I think 70-90% of its GDP comes from tourism), that the communist protesters agreed to stop and allow tourist buses through during the middle of the day but continued to dam up Nepalese traffic. Later that night, as we ploughed through the darkness towards our destination I noticed a fire burning in the middle of the road up ahead. I was worried. The bus slowed down and pulled off to pass it. As we went by, I saw teenagers standing around the fire looking agitated and wearing red clothes. The watched us go by but didn’t do anything. I asked one guy if that had to do with the communist, but he said he didn’t know.
Anyways, it was a really cool trip. Learned a little, saw a lot and had fun along the way. Glad to be back in China where they drive on the right side of the road.
Best,
Lee
Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
The Sweet, Sunny South
Take me back to the place where I first saw the light
To the sweet, sunny South take me home
Where the wild birds sing me to sleep every night
Oh!, why was I tempted to roam.
-Joan Baez, "The Sweet, Sunny South"
Hey yall,
We were standing in a junkyard. The grass was overgrown and a few cars were up on cinderblocks. There were chickens running around underneath our bus as they raised it on a jack to tried to fix it. I walked to a little stream rolling through the back of the junkyard. I could just barely hear the words to the above song plucking away. It was then that I realized I was kind-of back in the sweet, sunny South. Kind of.
It’s been 10 days since I’ve left India, and life has been much easier. Southeast Asia feels a little bit closer to home. Its dirty, but it’s the kind of dirt that I like. The people are nice, and the lifestyle here is laid-back as lakeside lawn-furniture in the heat of summer. There is a really cool mix of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Thai cultures here, leaving a fusion of all of Asia on this thin strips of land. The weather is also a little bit nicer. I sweat, but I don’t get heat exhaustion, usually. So far, the monsoons have not dropped onto us yet.
Robby and I have been heading towards the equator for this leg of the trip. We started in Bangkok and, after India, we were amazed at the efficiency. The buses run. The people are nice, mostly. It’s not normal to have streets filled with slums. Of course, Bangkok has its ills, but we even enjoyed some of those.
From Asian modernity of Bangkok, we took an overnight bus/boat to an island called Ko Tao. It’s a part of an archipelago off southern Thailand’s east coast, in the Gulf of Siam. Of the three island’s in this archipelago, this island is a scuba hub, and the other two islands are party/beach islands. We did two dives, snorkeled, motorbiked, etc. for two days. We were tempted to stay longer, but these islands have a way of sucking you in if you stay too long. Some of the westerners who live there for years seemed to have lost all their will. Every day, their life is dive in the morning, sleep in the afternoon, party at night. Repeat. Despite the party mentality of some of the local expats, I really liked this island and may have to come back (but not for too long).
From there, we penetrated deeper into Asia’s sweet, sunny south. From Ko Tao, we took a night boat back to the mainland, and I was rocked to sleep by the waves tossing the boat around. The next day we arrived in Penang, Malaysia. Penang is an old colonial city that used to be a major trade node between China and India until it was overtaken by Singapore. It has a lot of crumbling colonial architecture and the population is a majority Chinese, so I got to practice some. Here, we also meet up with Robby’s girlfriend, Laurie.
We made a quick stop in the Cameroon Highland, hiking around this colonial hillstation in the middle of mountains and tea plantations. The Cameroon Highlands is one of the few places in Malaysia where it’s too cool to sleep naked, a welcome break from the equatorial heat of the rest of the places we had been in Southeast Asia.
Now we are hanging out in Kuala Lumpur, the biggest city you’ve never heard of. It’s the capital of Malaysia, and has the Petronas Towers, once the tallest buildings in the world, still the tallest pair of twin buildings. Tonight, we’ll be taking a night bus to another cool scuba island. At that point, we will split off: I will head back to Kuala Lumpur to fly to China on the 19th where I will start classes. Robby and Laurie will continue on to fly from Singapore to China and maybe travel with me for a weekend or two, when I’m out of class.
Best,
Lee
To the sweet, sunny South take me home
Where the wild birds sing me to sleep every night
Oh!, why was I tempted to roam.
-Joan Baez, "The Sweet, Sunny South"
Hey yall,
We were standing in a junkyard. The grass was overgrown and a few cars were up on cinderblocks. There were chickens running around underneath our bus as they raised it on a jack to tried to fix it. I walked to a little stream rolling through the back of the junkyard. I could just barely hear the words to the above song plucking away. It was then that I realized I was kind-of back in the sweet, sunny South. Kind of.
It’s been 10 days since I’ve left India, and life has been much easier. Southeast Asia feels a little bit closer to home. Its dirty, but it’s the kind of dirt that I like. The people are nice, and the lifestyle here is laid-back as lakeside lawn-furniture in the heat of summer. There is a really cool mix of Chinese, Indian, Malay and Thai cultures here, leaving a fusion of all of Asia on this thin strips of land. The weather is also a little bit nicer. I sweat, but I don’t get heat exhaustion, usually. So far, the monsoons have not dropped onto us yet.
Robby and I have been heading towards the equator for this leg of the trip. We started in Bangkok and, after India, we were amazed at the efficiency. The buses run. The people are nice, mostly. It’s not normal to have streets filled with slums. Of course, Bangkok has its ills, but we even enjoyed some of those.
From Asian modernity of Bangkok, we took an overnight bus/boat to an island called Ko Tao. It’s a part of an archipelago off southern Thailand’s east coast, in the Gulf of Siam. Of the three island’s in this archipelago, this island is a scuba hub, and the other two islands are party/beach islands. We did two dives, snorkeled, motorbiked, etc. for two days. We were tempted to stay longer, but these islands have a way of sucking you in if you stay too long. Some of the westerners who live there for years seemed to have lost all their will. Every day, their life is dive in the morning, sleep in the afternoon, party at night. Repeat. Despite the party mentality of some of the local expats, I really liked this island and may have to come back (but not for too long).
From there, we penetrated deeper into Asia’s sweet, sunny south. From Ko Tao, we took a night boat back to the mainland, and I was rocked to sleep by the waves tossing the boat around. The next day we arrived in Penang, Malaysia. Penang is an old colonial city that used to be a major trade node between China and India until it was overtaken by Singapore. It has a lot of crumbling colonial architecture and the population is a majority Chinese, so I got to practice some. Here, we also meet up with Robby’s girlfriend, Laurie.
We made a quick stop in the Cameroon Highland, hiking around this colonial hillstation in the middle of mountains and tea plantations. The Cameroon Highlands is one of the few places in Malaysia where it’s too cool to sleep naked, a welcome break from the equatorial heat of the rest of the places we had been in Southeast Asia.
Now we are hanging out in Kuala Lumpur, the biggest city you’ve never heard of. It’s the capital of Malaysia, and has the Petronas Towers, once the tallest buildings in the world, still the tallest pair of twin buildings. Tonight, we’ll be taking a night bus to another cool scuba island. At that point, we will split off: I will head back to Kuala Lumpur to fly to China on the 19th where I will start classes. Robby and Laurie will continue on to fly from Singapore to China and maybe travel with me for a weekend or two, when I’m out of class.
Best,
Lee
Thursday, June 4, 2009
“Bangladesh is God’s cruelest joke. 120,000,000 impoverished people living in a cyclone-prone country where the average elevation is about 10 meters above sea level.”
First, I know it was wrong to tease yall about a trek to the Himalayas and not provide any pictures. This must have been troubling for those of yall who believe that New Zealand or Colorado has 'real' mountains. Well, the situation is now being rectified, and you can check out my journeys to India and Nepal
Nepal: http://mapvivo.com/
India: http://mapvivo.com/
This morning we left Calcutta, India, a city that calls to mind the regal settings of the British capital of India and the worst poverty in a country known for slums. This afternoon, we arrived in Bangkok, Thailandg the South Asian leg of our journey, and starting the South-East Asian leg. For me, south-east Asia is a little closer to home, and I’ve been to Vietnam and Laos, so hopefully, this won’t be as trying. So far, its been a freakin' breath of fresh air. Unlike in India, things are not unhealthily dirty, the air is breathable, and the girls know how to dress a little bit better. I'll let yall know more as I encounter it.
I know that it has sounded like I have hated India. And to a certain degree, that’s true. It’s been a rough trip with some parts that I really didn’t like. That said, travel isn’t just about sitting on a beach, imbibing strawberry daiquiris and reading pulpy novels. For me, travel is also about learning, and this trip has been a real learning experience. In fact, it has been a great time to be in South Asia since there has been a lot of news coming out of the area. I’ve been able to see, first-hand, the news happening, talk to the people living it, and look at how local media has viewed it. Anyways, here’s some of the stuff that I got to see.
Indian Elections
Just after I arrived in India, the results for the month-long voting process in the world’s largest democracy were announced. About 600 million people voted, and the voters continued the Congress party’s (the party of Gandhi and Nehru) rule in the Indian parliament. This affects you because George Bush tried to ignite the US-India relationship by creating a bond with the Congress party and making a deal that we would sell them nuclear energy technology (selling Indians nuclear teachnology was illegal before Bush legalized it). This election is, in some way, a mandate for the improvement in US-India ties. It is also a rejection of the BJP, the Hindu nationalism party.
Nepal’s Government
A couple of years ago, Nepal, then a monarchy, deposed its king and became a monarchy. A year ago this May, they formed a republic, a big step for Nepal. Last Friday was the first anniversary of the new republic, but no one was celebrating. Just recently, the communist prime minister quit the government in protest of some military problems. This has been huge deal here and is kind of rocking Asia’s international scene. I won’t go into it any more.
Cyclone
Cyclone Alia hit Bangladesh and the east of India. There has been huge amounts of flooding, and many have died. I’d heard about it before, but it was interesting to see the local perspective. We haven’t really noticed any major problems in Calcutta, where all the refuges are flooding in. The only problem we have encountered is the cancellation of a light show because of the flooding (how the light show and the cyclone are related are anybody’s guess).
Hindu nationalism
One of the coolest things I saw in Delhi was the world’s largest Hindu temple. It was built a couple of years back to this Swami who preformed miracles as a child, levitating a basket of fish, jumping in a fast river and floating down it for days, standing on one leg and meditating in the Himalayas for seven years straight. But he’s not important. The cool thing about this temple is that it was a monument to Hindu nationalism, the belief that Hinduism and India can save the world and teach the West how things should be done. The temple had an Imax, an animatronics show, and a little boat ride (like the monster pageant ride at Six Flags Atlanta). The boat ride claimed Hindu’s had invented several things several thousands of years ago: the number zero, math, philosophy, democracy, plastic surgery, rocket ships and airplanes. They also claim that if everyone in the world embraces Hinduism, the world’s problems will be solved.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)