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Kill Your Status Quo
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6 January 1999subject: way down south where bananas grow...
so - it's been xmas (celebrated by the "xians" according to the indian press...) and new years. hope you all enjoyed it. we were poolside for the former and sleeping thru the latter ;-) so - after mumbai, we went to HAMPI, a really amazing place with soft light (like cappadocia in turkey or tuscany in italy) and wonderful ambiance. there are ancient ruins from a deserted capital. strange, but the capital had streets running over and around boulders - couldn't have been a smooth cart ride! we just relaxed for a few days before going thru BANGALORE, silicon town of india. it's got good shopping and lots of educated people, but things still go wrong in the typical indian way (atm machine with 100 rupee notes ($2.50), instead of 500 rupee. i wanted 10.000 rupees. the answer to my problem was not to add 500 rs notes, but do the transaction (and pay the fee) 3 times! ahhh - india...) so - then we went to CHENNAI, or MADRAS, as it was in the old days. it was a pleasant place, with the most efficient postal service we've seen, as well as a real shopping center (a/c! soft serve ice cream!). you don't know what you've missed until you meet it again... we didn't do much except enjoy the lovely old hotel there and listen to classical music which was part of the winter festival (and great for background music. a bit boring to watch...) after chennai was MAMALAPURAM, where there were shit-covered beaches (the fishermen don't give a shit about where they go ;-) and a dance fest. the dancing was really amazing - just like you'd expect. we bought cheap tickets but sat in front, since there weren't many people there. so much for multiple seating tariffs! then PONDICHERRY, the former french colony (english, portuguese, dutch and french were in india at one point; this is perhaps why they are so projectionist of their "independence". the government and people are proud of their indigenous products (from cars, to drugs to a-bombs). the only result of this policy seems to be inferior products (according to world standards) and the growing wealth of the indian industrialists. there has been much protest recently over allowing foreign firms to invest in insurance in india (and break the monopoly of the 2 current firms). the new rules allow 26% max ownership but specify that all the investments of premia must be in india. who needs diversification??). sorry for the rant.) anyway, we had french onion soup and great bread for a few days and saw the AUROVILLE phenomenon. there is something abt india that makes people nuts and this is just one segment of the nutters (and if anyone out there goes for the ashram thing, im sorry if we disagree, but there is more to life than wearing a white robe, paying dues to the "mothership" and chanting a mantra while thinking of the words of the "most recent" incarnation of christ or vishnu or ali baba!). the auroville phenom. seems to be very well managed; they've great product lines (but you pay for brand name!). ahhh - another moment in bizarre india! next was THANJAVUR and MADURAI, two temple towns with lots of nice people. we were eating fabulous veg food by now and the people were more and more friendly. it's really sad for the people who only see tourist india (primarily north, or the "triangle" between delhi, agra and rajastan) because the people in the south (as the far north) are the nicest ones. it took us a few days to relax and realize that the people are not there to rip you off/grab your ass/treat you as meat and its really a guilty feeling. you are not as nice as them! so - we adjusted and went to TRIVANDRUM, capital of KERALA and a very relaxed place. we saw "antz" (woody allen and sly in the same movie!) and "dance with me". it's amazing how amazing hollywood is when you are so cut off from the day-to-day. they get your emotions so well. i feel like a fresh new consumer just reaching for my first "2 for 1 product" ;-) no,
seriously. we have come to COLOMBO in SRI LANKA now and there is a total change: no wonder people love sri lanka! especially after india. so - we'll take a break from the rough life for 3 weeks, get a tan and relax among local people who are not "the opposition" more on here later...
have
a good day ******************************************************************************************** 30 January 1999 [TOP]subject: back from ceylon
dear everyone: so, you ask yourself (or us), how was "paradise"?? well,
as someone put it today: back
on topic: that is, sometimes... let's also say that we were relieved to go to a place where the shopkeepers had change, the streets didnt smell like a toilet and the longest distance to travel was 3 hours. the beaches were clean and the men didnt stare at you (because you were a "slut" woman or merely an alien from mars). on the other hand, we were glad to get back to india where the food is fabulous, the prices for lodging (and fooding?), transport and postage are halved, the people are just nuts, but friendly (and interesting) at the same time and walking around at night isnt dangerous. that's the difference in a nutshell. for
those of you who are considering it, consider this: we went from colombo (nice) to KANDY (nice, but cooler) and relaxed for a few days around the lake. saw the case holding buddha’s tooth. it's a relic, worshipped like a piece of the "true cross". next was a slooooow train ride thru the beautiful highlands to ELLA for the view and then down to TANGALLE, which has a beach and a few guesthouses. the owner there got mad at me, the "typical, pain-in-the-ass, america because we didnt agree on the bill. turns out that another american had broken his toilet (500$ damage ??) and we were also personae non gratae because we only ate curry and not fish (which was 4x more...). hmmm - he was a greedy bastard and one of few (thanks gott!). we then went to UNAWATUNA, which had more people, including those who are trying to tan every line and crevice (clothes on!) - funny to watch. i got a nice haul of ussr propaganda from the bookcase. sl was into that stuff a few years ago. we then returned to KANDY and saw the elephant orphanage. the best sights were the babies falling down on their knees while trying to walk and the big big (you know) that the bull could whip around and splash with. lots of videos of that! ;-) so - we got back to india, ate lots of yummy food and then saw "something about mary" (great!!!) and "rush hour" (also great!!). ahhh - india... we're here and next stops are mysore, madras, puri and calcutta. then.... burma!! btw - politics: sl has a civil war against the minority tamils in the north. this is primarily b/c the sinilese in the south and west want power and the tamils dont want to give it up. just another bully problem but it's made life very expensive for the sl-ans. we went to get our myanmarian (burmese) visa. the note on the wall said "journalists must identify themselves and get special permission to be journalists in burma", the second council asked "do you know our most famous citizen?" i replied, after discarding buddha and ne win (the dictator still in the shadows), "aung kyi, the dissident??" he just said "well, yes and let's just be tourists, eh? no journalism" we got the visa. the rest will be more interesting...
cheers ******************************************************************************************** 14 February 1999 [TOP]subject: on the edge... of paradise??
dear everyone: yes - it’s another of those "lash - here we are" updates (rather - there we’ve been…). so, here’s a bit o’ news: we’ve been, since returning to india from sri lanka in VARKALA, a very relaxing beach place where the biggest decision is where to get your dinner - the pizza place, the café on the cliff or the other café(s) on the cliff ;-) the only downer abt the beach in india is that there are the guys, fully clothed with shoes and sox, who are cruising along, not even hiding the fact that they are looking at the girls, no matter the girls’ code of dress (there are a few there foolhardy (or blase) enough to bathe topless. the great horny indian male lives on. it’s really amazing when you consider the kama sutra and erotic temple art that came from india. we went to many of these temples and saw adult (40’s?) men giggling and poking each other at the "art" from 800 years ago. really amazing. they have not and will not grow up, much to the dismay of their future wives, foreign touristas and their to-be sexually ignorant children. i see that the un population people are trying to raise up and educate women in the expectation that they will have fewer children. great idea. pity that they have to deal with indian men. end rant next, we went thru FORT COCHIN, a lovely relaxing, bohemian place that has art galleries and coffee houses (incl. cappuccinos, the first proper ones we’ve had, even among the coffee-loving south; the shop is run by an american woman and her husband). oh, by the way, KERALA, this southern state, is the most progressive of the indian states (infant mortality, women’s literacy, etc). there is a nice feel to the place and the people are not so ignorant as their northern cousins. i may sound preachy and perhaps racist to some of you, but i have to say (and sandra agrees), that the indians are the first people i have not had hope for. there are a few flashes of brilliance, but, by and large, the indians seem to be strangling themselves amidst religious idiocy, indigenous pride, nationalistic fever and out and out fear. the daily papers (6 killed in train crash - the station lights were out) supply a macabre reminder of how fucked up things are. it’s amazing that the place functions at all. the bengalis are a people who are famous for their humor and their communist politics and their poor city (calcutta). these things are all self-reinforcing and necessary given the reality. without laughing, you would cry or be violent all-too-often… end rant 2 so - ill try to stick to facts a bit now ;-) we went to MYSORE, a nice city with palaces, but little to linger over. after too much india-shock, we needed bangalore - pizza, internet, movies and books. we left stuffed with the first, 4 hrs of the second, 2 of the third (city of joy - not too bad), and 12 of the last - good for long train rides ;-) back in MADRAS, we met two americans. one was a professional asia dude - 32 years and still smoking. the second programmed for a london-professional gambler. this odd-couple gave us lots of laughs as we passed the joint and lamented the bad things that were or could be…. next was BHUBANDESHWAR, in ORISSA, site of recent missionary-burnings. that town and temple was ok, but PURI was much more relaxing. we just hung out and talked to the mellow locals. fishermen are always relaxed, even if their beach is disgusting (covered with shit), their village isn’t… the last train ride was to here, CALCUTTA, where we faced overcharging on food and rickshaws, but have been pleased with the humor of the locals. it’s amazing to us that these indians can joke - and that the jokes make sense. our nightmare at present is tracking down a camera that my dad sent that has not "arrived". rumor is that customs wants a big bounty, not that it was stolen, but you’ll have to find out abt this next time…. speaking of this, we are leaving to myanmar (burma) in 2 days. there, we will face the evil empire and not protest for democracy - just survive. we wont be on email until we get to thailand, so dont be surprised if we dont reply til mid march. if you want to write snail mail, try us at: david
zealand or sandra basic this mail address will be good til mid april. dont feel obliged ;-) perhaps
you are jealous of our 30 deg weather, but we are jealous of your: so - there are pros and cons. long term travel is no picnic. of course, we are glad to have done it, but sometimes the "doing" part is stressful in any case, send us good thoughts as we send you hugs
and kisses and good valentine’s wishes ******************************************************************************************** 15 March 1999 [TOP]subject: from the real land of smiles to the fake one...
hey everyone: we have made it to the next country (this is a boring sentence; this is our 21st and there are more to come. i have been to over 60 now on this (approaching) 4 year trip... ;-). there is a big culture shock when you come from MYANMAR (BURMA) to thailand. we left the 18th century for the 21st! actually, burma isn't that backward in terms of technology or development. rather, it is the people who are nice in the "good ol' days" way... so
- here's what's happened in the past month: the flight was uneventful, but we made it to myanmar, the evil empire, the land that time forgot, home of slorc - users and abusers of the "dark side". unfortunately, everyone at the terminal was smiling, presenting us with the typical traveler's paradox: the ruder the government, the nicer the people (sometimes) -or- the fewer the tourists, the nicer the people (more true) let's summarize by saying that this country is completely confusing. there is no such thing as truth or reality. it gets to the point where you think you are in the middle of _1984_ or stalin’s ussr. since i am a student of totalitarian systems, this was very interesting, though' aggravating at many times, like when we arrived... it is mandatory that all tourists exchange 300 us$ into fec’s (foreign exchange certificates). this monopoly money was originally created by the chinese to allow tourists to visit and pay lots of money for the domestic (cheap) goods and services. since slorc are students at the feet of the chinese, this also happens in burma (i use that word because it sounds better, is shorter and is also the one favored by all "free-thinking peoples"), along with currency controls, crazed paranoia about "outside intervention" and massive propaganda. in the chinese’s favor is that they are throwing these totalitarian relics out the window (not fast enough!) so, the
people's desire these "desires" are in the daily english prop/agit rag (the new light of myanmar) as well as on many sign boards (3x20m) in english and burmese. oh great... i cannot emphasize enough the horrible conditions that the government has created for the citizens and the complete economic incompetence that they exhibit in running the economy. the official exchange rate is 6 kyat=1$, but the (very open) black market rate is 325 (!). if a tourist were silly enough to exchange at the bank, a cup of instant packet coffee would be 6$ and it would cost 15$ to have the cheapest indian meal (or noodles in the market (40 kyat - 6$ or $0.12!) the biggest backer of burma is china, which uses the country as a source of raw materials (opium, produced with govt consent; teak and jade, among other things) in exchange for "fizzy soda and injection-molded plastic napkin holders." neo-colonialism, from the "friend of the working and poor peoples" china is the new evil empire. where is reagan when we need him (he couldn't tell you himself, unfortunately)??? so - i cannot go on and on with examples of the military dominance, the lack of power supplies (every other day, or 36 of 72 hours (12 on, 12 off, 24 on, 24 off), the closure of all universities (except military academies), the awful roads and complete suppression of internet ;-)! this would not be surprising in africa, but the people of burma are intelligent and could build a lovely nation on top of their lovely country. the problem is that the military are basically stripping everything of value and leaving little for the people (45 million) to live on. the cost of rice, after a good harvest, has doubled and the non-rice producing regions have to smuggle it in (and pay the guards at check points, who make 5$ a month), while most of the rice is exported... it goes on and on. the other culprits are singapore, thailand and asean. they all support or invest or take out of burma, leaving the people high and dry. what about the opposition? they are united behind aung san suu kyi, daughter of the man who led burma to independence and was assassinated by the opposition (an act with long historical president) and wife of a british man (thereby making her a neo-colonialist stooge; the military actually is so afraid of her that the constitution being drafted (which has taken 6 years and will take more; elections are supposed to happen when it is done) makes it illegal for someone married to a foreigner to hold the presidency). she is playing patience, a good idea when your opponent is both paranoid and well-armed (by the chinese). so - there's the politics. you can't avoid them and the big brother mentality. it's a miracle that the burmese are still sane, but they are cousins of the soviets who survived stalin and his craziness... the trip: we landed in yangon (rangoon) and found it a nice relaxed place (vs. india), with plenty of big public buildings left over from the british and the start of traffic jams (there are very few cars on the roads. at times, there are only bikes...). we got outa town to mandalay on the overnight bus and even managed to sleep a bit. MANDALAY is very hot, but has nice ice cream places and a big palace. we didn't visit it because it was rebuilt with forced labor, as well as costing 5$/each (tourists are hammered whenever possible for those fec’s). we went to hsipaw, a nice village in shan state (which has ethnic links with laos, thailand and china. the big draw in hsipaw is the people - they are very nice and don't overcharge for common goods and services. rooms are 250 kyat/person ($0.70), versus 3$ for most rooms. it isn't just the price, but hsipaw is a really relaxing place to spend a few days and meet burmese people (tip o' the hat to alex). there is a place there called "mr books", which is a bit of an israeli-shrine and he is upset by the "chinese incursion". racial tensions are growing, with economic hardship. we were very lucky to be in HSIPAW for the pagoda festival, where people came from the neighboring villages for trade and sell goods, eat at and drink all night. the gambling started in earnest when the police left and the transvestite dancers were always good for a diversion. the "magic" show was a bit of smoke and mirrors, with a body "mysteriously" losing its head as well as body at times. you had to see it (not the mirrors, the audience), to believe it ;-) after hsipaw, we went to INLE LAKE, but didn't get there (it too 2 whole days), because we had a mexican standoff with the pickup drivers (seats in back, euphemistically called a "mini-bus") because they wanted to charge us double fare. in fact the government charges 14x the local fare for train tickets and the locals use this as an excuse. there are very many tourists who try to avoid these charges and many are successful. it becomes spy-vs-spy. on the way, we did enjoy the train ride, which passed over a big bridge. the soldiers on board said "no photos", which became ".. of the bridge", which became "...of the highway" which became so confusing that we ended up taking many photos anyway. language barrier ;-) we stopped in KALAW, a town that we were fond of for the incident of getting my head shaved by a monk (who was very eager for "us dollars") and the lovely noodles in the market. unfortunately, we discovered later that about 20$ was stolen from my bag (this was because the biggest bill is 500 kyat and we had changed 300$, meaning about 290 pieces of paper in our wallets at one point. the overflow was "shortened" by a room maid. sign o' the times ;-( after that, we went to the lake, met some nice people and went for a boat ride (which was more of a tour of shops selling handicrafts). there is a restaurant there called "four sisters" which has the novel idea of "pay as you want" for their dinner. this is a good way of making money off tourists who are generous as well as pleasing those who like to get "value" for money ;-) one of the sisters is married to a german man and many burmese women have been married in the past to europeans. the current law for women with foreign husbands is that they can leave the country for 6 months max and have to come back for 6 months. if they take a foreign passport, they cannot ever come back. great, eh?? soooo - we went to BAGAN and saw the famed "fields of payas (pagodas)". as a place for atmosphere, it is lovely, but the problem as the incredible heat (40 deg) as well as the dust in the air. if you come to burma, make a point of avoiding the pre-monsoon heat!! we left in a hurry and went to PATHEIN, in the IRRAWADY DELTA, about 5-7 hours from yangon. the bus takes ages because there is a queue to get on the ferry. on the way there, we were behind about 100 cars and trucks. that was bad enough, but the driver let 15 cars pass and then shut off the engine to have breakfast…… why
are you waiting, we asked? pathein was a nice place. the people saw very few tourists and were very friendly. we had lovely pancakes, bought monk's parasols (big ones for 2$/ea) and sandra was "mugged" by a lady who put tannaka on her face (a yellowish cream from tree bark that protects from sun and smells good). very funny photos. so - back to YANGON, ice cream and air con and we left for thailand last night. we had spent the least money there (including airfare) in all the countries we visited so far and the people were definitely the best. go and help those people. if you cant go, make the reality known. [btw - will viagra mean that the chinese stop killing tigers for their magic penises???] now, BANGKOK is something else. everything works, everything costs more and the people are rude (80%) and preoccupied. for sure, this has to do with the economic troubles. people are no longer so proud to be an asian tiger. of course, bkk is a big city and has big city disease (though the bengalis never lost their sense of humor!) we have internet, postal packing services (you mean you sell boxes? you have tape?), 7-11, mcdonalds and dunkin donuts. here (khao san road), there is a virtual mini-city of tattooed, pierced, hip, hopped and tie-dyed travelers wondering about. internet is rife, banana pancakes and fresh pineapple everywhere. good news, bad news. well - that's it for now, write us when you can and stay tuned for the sex-scene report ;-)
love
and hugs from ******************************************************************************************** 20 April 1999 [TOP]subject: sex lies and videotape...
hey everyone: i know that you probably know this, but we send these "mass mailers" just to fill you in on the common details all at once and save out fingers (and $$). if you write back, we will write you a real, personal note (wow!!). those of you who are "lurking" for ages without writing - write us! we love to hear from you and get the gossip. even tho our adventures are pretty unusual, we like to hear about the things you are doing, b/c variety is so nice.... that much said, let's get down to the subject at hand - sex!! well - there's a lot of it coming and going in THAILAND. there are many farang (foreigners) who are here to get into some young and lovely flesh, in exchange for their $, pounds, marks, etc (euros soon!). we were at the airport yesterday and it was truly sad to see the "girls" (and some are transsexuals, called ladyboys, who confuse the hell out of the visiting men, who never know or like to guess or like it more.... the line between men and women in this part of the world has been vague for years, but, with mtv, modern surgery and the leisure industry, the line has blurred beyond recognition. how can you tell? only the doctor (or a dna test) could tell you sometimes...) who are on the arms of these men who are really outa their league. we are talking father to daughter relationships here.. the funny thing is that the women (and the culture) does not look down on these relationships, since the sexual permissiveness is strong and the culture accepts it (lie madagascar, for those of you who were following these notes 18 months ago). so - no harm done, right?? well - i wouldnt agree with that, since this permissive culture leads to farangs behaving like idiots ("bong bong" in thai) and really disgracing what is a very nice aspect of the culture here... that much said - no - we didnt go to patpong road or pattaya to see this sex biz in full swing. there is something so disgraceful at the foreign men here for sex tours that it makes you ill... yes, the thais make a lot of money but it is not the tropical paradise that gauguin was thinking of. the farang _believe_ that the women actually like them and hold them in contempt for being so "easy" yet flip out when "their girl" goes on business to the next payer. nasty and sordid... speaking of that, ive gotta say that khao san road is one of the most nasty and sordid places ive ever seen. there are video-restaurants with foreign foods, souvenir stalls and loads of dodgy travel agents around to cater to the backpacker community, but the level of conduct (by half-naked and usually drunk foreigners and incredibly rude and dishonest thais) is disgraceful compared to the generally very nice attitude that thai’s have to farang (who they dont respect like the indians might, since farang are not thai in dress, smell, language or behavior - things that are necessary for respect here, but not in india, where colonialization taught humility to another culture. the thais were never colonized and are justly proud but the indians know that other ones are out there that have aspects worthy of respect (like a postal system?? ;-). that much said, the other thais have a great culture and are good to get along with. we will get back to you on the other se asian cultures later. so - besides sex and ksr, what else is there?? sandra was visited by ivan, her 19 yr old brother, from zagerb. he took his first plane trip to get here (with loads of yummy mamma-made food) and, suffices to say, his eyes (and video camera) were wide open the whole time. quite a culture clash (as well as temperature) to come here, in the pre-monsoon, from icy central europe (despite rumors of airport problems from the nato airstrikes in serbia. if any of you are wondering, croatia is well-away from the problems (besides planes flying over from italy) and we are sad to see that milosevic has dragged his people (who are manipulated by shameless nationalism and propaganda) into another conflict. it is amazing to see the lies coming out of that region and we hope that ol' milo loses his facilities or is taken out power before this goes on longer... it seems that an independent kosovo is inevitable, even with nato occupation (and invasion of serbia??)). he had a wonderful time and wanted to stay longer, but lack of plans, time and $$ conspired against him. he will lead the next charge of travelers ;-) so - sandra and ivan went to the island of KO SAMED (samet) and partied for 9 days while i went to CHANG MAI and the region around. there were nice places to relax (PAI and NAN) as well as a monk initiation ceremony at MAE HONG SONG, where the boys are dressed elaborately in costumes and makeup and paraded around on the shoulders of semi-drunk relatives for 3 days. quite a sight. the real action was for songkran in CM, also called the water festival or new year. the original ceremony involved bathing the buddhas in water to gain merit and washing the hands of elder relatives, but this festival has taken on a different, riotous character in the past few years (ahh - the good ol days). now, there are chinese water guns that will take out your eye are 10 meters and buckets of moat (the one around the old city) water in the nose and down your shorts. basically, the world's biggest water fight. we were soaked for 2-3 days and then retreated to our hotel and pool for the last 3 days. for those of you in croatia, you've gotta see ian’s videos - wow!! (and even more interesting was trying to keep from getting the camera doused in water!). chang mai was interesting to see, but, like most thai cities, was very modern. now i understand what people mean when they say that rangoon (in burma) is like bangkok from 50 years ago... BKK reminds many people of "the sprawl" described in neuromancer. if you want bkk without coming, read this book (by william gibson). so - back here we came and have had a good time, more or less.. played pool, saw shakespere in love (all the videos are pirated) and ate banana pancakes and hummus (not at once!). ivan treated us to a great italian dinner. yum! i gotta go back there just to eat! we are off to cambodia tomorrow, followed by vietnam, china and laos. stay tuned for more adventures in a few weeks. no email til then, so dont hold your breath!
love
and hugs from david and sandra ******************************************************************************************** 4 May 1999 [TOP]subject: in the 'nam
hello all and sundry (or rainwet...): we are here, in the capital of america's shame, and having quite a nice time, actually... obviously, we were not blown beyond recognition by landmines, nor kidnapped by khymer rouge guerillas - nor even held up on our way back from the bars in phnom penh... ahh - such good luck. what _did_ happen was the following: we left bkk at 6 am on the train to the boarder. crossing into cambodia was no problem, except that i ran outa film taking pix of all the lovely children (who were there to beg, not get pix taken) and the "porters" who were making big business taking the loads across "no man's land" b/c trucks weren't doing it (high taxes, against the law???). those were big wagons of beer, etc etc... we then got on a pickup for the _worst_ ride we've taken (i had one worse in eritrea in africa, but that was a ride into the hills, not the major road between two countries!). it wasnt the bumps or the craters (abt 2m across, generally), but the sheer length (100+ km) that made it hard. our backs and heads were sore (sandra hit her head on the roof inside the cab so many times that she came outside so she could stand), not to mention our bums (who lose quickly in the battle with the truck bed). we did survive, arriving in siem reap in the evening (and we made good time, others arrived 3 hrs later the next day when one of the (already dodgy) bridges collapsed. many people
were complaining abt this road. there are a few explanations why its so bad: oh well - we made it the reward
was... so - stoned and full, we headed for angkor wat wow....some place... we had heard
that it was this, that and the other from loads of people, but actually had
never seen photos of much of it. here's what it is the ancient capital of the
khymer empire, which peaked in 1200 or so and extended well into thailand and
vietnam, it was sacked by the thais in 1400 or so and abandoned as a capital.
there are about 30 temples and monumental building left, the most famous of
which are: there were others too. the whole place was evocative of indiana jones and better than disney could ever do. just being there was lovely and made you gawp when you came around a bend and saw the gate with its smiling faces looking down at you. you gotta go... in terms of what we've seen, this place was tops, but not head over shoulders. there are just too many amazing places in the world to put one as best. it was "one of the best" (with petra, the pyramids, the registan (in samarkand), and many places in india ;-) there is
quite a scam going in aw in relation to buying tickets. you can buy one that's : even if you _do_ buy anew ticket (to "save angkor") most of the $$ disappears (the tourist director for the province is, let's say, wealthy beyond his visible income...). the government, which is trying to justify all the foreign aid it receives, has just awarded the ticket collection contract to a private company in exchange for $1million per year. this is better than before, but the company is quite powerful in cambodia and who knows what will happen now... after a few days relaxing, we faced "the road" again, going to phnom penh, a city famous for drive by robbers and ngo capital of the world. ngo's (non
governmental organizations): there is definitely work to be done, but i am very cynical abt whether the ngo's actually do help in the places and at the pace that cambodians want (as opposed to the foreign government's idea of progress). the ngo scene is quite amazing, with bars and restaurants at the standard (and frequently the price) of those in the west, as well as lots of white 4x4's and armored buildings... enough of that.... (we did enjoy the break in scenery for a bit, but had such an odd hopeless (and paranoid) feeling when we were there. who's in control??) cambodian people are lovely, the countryside (what we saw) is flat and green. the monsoon has just begun, so it will probably be more green after a bit... we left cambodia after 12 days and came to vietnam. the trip was uneventful, if slightly expensive (due to the vietnamese love of charging you more and saying "you are falang (foreigner), you can afford it" - oh great, back to equality based on nationality and other crap communist/nationalist philosophy (as seen in burma. china doesnt even do it very much anymore...)). besides this, the people here are very nice, helpful, etc we are in a backpacker ghetto. the major souvenirs of vietnam appear to be pirated cd's (1.50$/ea, from china) and copies of european oil paintings (50$ for a van gogh?). sometimes they dont even know the artist, just that tourists really pay for "that one" ;-) there is no signs of anti-americanism (yet) but ill get back to you... our plans are to stay in vietnam for 1 month, then move thru china (to mongolia??) and back to laos. after that, its thailand and ************change of plan****************** we'll probably head back to europe (via nepal??) before the end of 1999. this is because we are both quite tired of travelling (getting saturated), want to start "the next thing" and dont really feel an urge to fight thru malaysia and indonesia (not the most stable places now; not that that would ordinarily stop us...) we are very sorry to those of you in oz who we will miss, but drink that beer you are chilling (and save the wine!), 'cause we are sure to make it in the (not so far) future... arg!! it's a very big world and its very tough to go thru it, see it, experience it and not be dead of fatigue or old age before its done. [future plans: w/s africa, c/s america, pacific rim - another 3 yrs..] so - that's all for now. you can let out your breath ;-)
love and hugs
from us, ******************************************************************************************** 26 May 1999 [TOP]subject: vietnam a few weeks later...
hey everyone: (btw, if you dont want to receive these messages, be sure to tell us) we have had a few weeks to "experience" VIETNAM (vn) and now have more to say.. there is definitely a socialist incompetence here in terms of the way things work. there are tourist prices for many official goods and services and for un-official things as well. let's just say that the locals dont need too much encouragement from the government to rip off tourists. this is frustrating, given the lazy situation in cambodia and the high degree of service/value for $$ in thailand. ie, it's frequently a rip off here. that means that we have skipped many "essential" sights since they are 5$ to walk in and more to enjoy it! SAI GON (vietnamese have distinct sounds for these places. foreigners have run the separate words together, eg, "viet nam" becomes vietnam) is still the commercial heart of the country. the people we dealt with there were more professional and the kids selling post cards (a barometer of sorts) were funny. this was pleasant surprise after all the horror stories we heard abt theft and rudeness in vn. we went on a shopping spree and bought 40 cd's. they are 1.50$/each (ms office 2000 is 3.50$). we also got some clothes. sandra is really hitting the limits, i can tell, since she is buying formalwear, not t-shirts ;-). there are also copies of impressionist and other (monet, picasso, klimt, et al) painters that are _really_ good, but we decided not to plunge into this b/c they were 40-50$/ea and we werent about to post them from the costly and unreliable post office (vignette: i bought some cd's for my dad's b-day. how to send them? we met some friends for drinks; one was headed to france the next day; 5$ and off it goes via the "expat post"). the vietnamese people are really good at copyright violations. there must be at least 5 brands of nike shoes and sinh cafe (a big mafia for transport) has 3 knock-offs in hanoi alone. they are shooting themselves in the feet! so - we liked it in saigon but had to move on, since we only had 30 days in the country (visa extensions are just 25$ extra, but we also wanted to get to china/mongolia/etc...) and wanted to see the rest (vn is 1500km top to bottom, with 80 million people). we left on the "tourist bus" to dalat in the highlands (a word about the bus system here: since tourists have to pay 2.5 times more than locals for the buses, they go on private mini-buses on "tours". these are usually ok, but sometimes traps, where you end-up with bad food stops and (worse) souvenir shops. as it is, the prices for tourists are falling (via competition) and the prices for locals are rising (the govt is broke). there should be an end to "tourist class" in the next few years). in DA LAT, we were sick. not much more that i could say except we were _amazed_ by the light at sunset the first evening and then disappointed later to find that it usually rained at that time. i had left my camera behind ;-) (im taking _many_ photos here. this is one of the most photogenic countries yet - different from chaotic india due to grace and natural forms and colors. i hope half my photos come out (many of the photos i _saw_ i couldnt take; the vn people have a way of stepping in front of the camera at the exact wrong moment - arg!! when will they invent a camera attached to your eye/brain!?!?)). the staff at our hotel broke in and gave sandra some of the local treatment for her flu. she had tiger-balm stuck on her forehead and some kind of burning-pinch-bruise in chain patterns around her neck. in case this didnt work, they gave her drugs as well as cookies. she felt better the next morning but then re-lapsed ;-( we took the local bus (paying only 50% extra) down to NHA TRANG to go on mama han's famous boat tour. she was unfortunately sick as well, so we missed her and had to drink, eat and smoke on our own (with 45 close friends ;-). it's a real party and you shoulda seen the folks who had been 7 days in a row (deserving a purple heart, for sure!)... in nha trang itself, there is little else besides the beach - we saw most of the town out there doing tai-chi at 6 am and that was something! after that, we went to HOI AN on another tour bus (which had picked us up after we ate breakfast at 7am and stopped immediately at another restaurant for "30 minutes breakfast". when everyone protested that they wanted to go, the crew made up "we have to wait 30 minutes for the saigon bus to bring back 2 people who went the wrong way" - this was a complete lie and also very upsetting. the vietnamese have a serious reputation for deceit in the region and we have been victim of it many times. they lie to your face. i have started just not believing anything unless i check myself. this slows down our progress by a bit, since local sources of information (in india, only slightly unreliable) are completely untrustworthy. this is another reason that many businesses have decided against vn and many tourists avoid it altogether... ;-( hoi an is the best place so far - its scenic and small and the people are friendly. we stayed for 3 days just breathing it in (but didnt pay 5$ to get into the houses and temples that are normally free elsewhere). two cousins running a popular restaurant told us that taxation from the government basically depends on what the local "assessor" sees in terms of business. if he thinks business is good, taxes go up. that's the "rule of law" here. there are also many shops making clothes for tourists in hoi an. if you're ever there, you can get a 2 - piece silk suit for 25$ or jacket for 20$. life is tough.. next, we took a quick swing thru DA NANG (for the museum) and HUE (to look at the forbidden purple palace from outside... and took the overnight bus to hanoi HAN OI is not the place it used to be (described as...). there is lots of traffic and new building all over the place and its looking more and more like saigon. this is unfortunate for the city's natural beauty. it's also unfortunate for the people's hospitality since they are very rude to foreigners (like always, im talking about the people we deal with regularly, not the ones "off the beaten path," who are lovely, if sometimes suspicious (or mischievous, like the kids are)) or even clueless as to customer service (like the rest of the communist world). complain complain, but it gets on your nerves to be constantly overcharged, lied to, shoved out of the way and/or ignored - always when you dont want it... we've see bac ho ("uncle ho") at the mausoleum and he's looking same as always ("hasnt changed for 20 years" "he has to get out - so pale from the indoors") and saw his museum (the winners write history). actually, the ho museum is very impressive, seeming out of place to the chaos and dirt outside. the boys in curation deserve some lauds... we also went to HA LONG BAY and CAT BA ISLAND - probably the most scenic part of vn (and ironically, a place that few americans saw up close during the war) and had a lovely time riding the boats here and there and saw a little of what life was like before (they have karaoke tho ;-) the weather has been hot and humid and monsoon is officially here. i sweat buckets everyday and wonder what it's like to wear a coat and not sweat (let alone be cold!). cant wait for europe for winter... a few sidelights: china
- we hit the embassy, but there seems to be no problem. i gotta hand it to the
cia - they have a sense of humor ;-). we get visas tomorrow. the viet nam war
("american war", they say) was a terrible waste of life and nature in
this country. the americans had a legitimate reason to fear the spread of
communism but they also were impatient. the communists won, despite the
americans and french, and their system broke down on its own after 20 years.
such a waste. graham greene, in _the quiet american_, quotes byron: indeed. so - its ironic that we are here while the americans (sorry - nato) bomb yugoslavia. there are differences between the two scenarios but i think that the americans are making enemies among the serbs who will not forget or give in merely because they are under attack. i know that there's a big difference b/c of the defense of the kosovars, but the parallels are just too striking (the vn govt lends support to the serbs "just hang in there," they say). i wish i had one hand (as truman said) so that i could stop going from "one hand to the other"... the vietnamese people are very much post-war. they had another 4 wars (south vs. north post us-withdrawal, invasion of cambodia, invasion from china and economic disaster) to live thru after the us left and there are very few reminders around (apart from the us war crimes museum in saigon which does not give the "other side" (what's the point of propaganda, after all...)) and half the people were born after the war anyway. we are headed to china soon. it should be nice, but the cost will be high. ive no idea how easy it is to access email but write anyway. for those of you who are counting, we've passed 1 year on this trip and ive passed 4 yrs, 1 month of travels. we hope to get back to europe (croatia) by xmas 99, via nepal, if possible. hope that you are all well. dont forget to drop us a line!
love
and hugs ******************************************************************************************** 14 June 1999 [TOP]subject: shanghai'ed
hey everyone (nee-how!): we have made it to CHINA and have not been crucified in tianamen square as capitalist embassy-bombing running dogs - success!! it is in fact ironic, for those of you who follow politics, to know that chang kai shek, the opponent of mao, wanted a military dictatorship with strong capitalist class. he lost - right??? so - back to reality and a few travel tales: we left hanoi at 530 am on the wrong train (after being told the wrong track and getting the wrong ticket and having to change $$ to get the wrong exchange rate) and took it to the right place - to arrive at the wrong time - lunch (?? international boarder??). we waited our 2 hours and then got the very nice vietnamese exit stamp. not sure that we'll be back to get another. its days like that (and this exit was mild - our papers were in order) that makes vn such a hard place to go. the chinese were, by contrast, the picture of pleasant. in fact, we have had a good streak here for tickets, hotels (see exceptions) and general dealings - unlike the brute vn-ese to the south. we traveled continuously until we got the YANGSHUO in guanxi province. this place has lovely scenery, bakeries and movies in the evenings for backpackers. what else could you ask for? overcharging? darn - well - we got it and the blame lies on the pkg tourists who come off the plane and think 1/the price offered is the last price (or fixed) and 2/that its "really cheap" (which it is, vs hk, germany or the states). this is unfortunate for us, since we like to pay the local price, if only on principle (besides, we can buy more souvenirs that way!). this is a major problem in china, as many pkg tourists are wondering around... so - we took in that spectacular scenery and bought some goodies (spent 60% of our $$ on (expensive) postage and souvenirs) and went over the hills to LONGSHENG, a small dirty town famous for the rice terraces falling over 800m. that was great but the pigs getting killed at 5am (and waking you with their screams) is not. we left in a hurry to SANJIANG, yet another horror city (in fact, most chinese cities (over 10.000 pop) are horrible agglomerations of concrete horror buildings, honking polluting cars and kids shitting in the street. shanghai is the first exception - go down with the peasants (as mao would say)). we got out of there are stayed in a new private guest house in a dong village with a lovely view of a bridge (and what a bridge - you'll have to wait for the pix ;-(. after 2 days, we went on the road again, going by tractor and minibus thru some really amazing scenery and i just couldnt get enough pix of people planting rice (hmmm - yes he's flipped after 4 years). we ended up in a few more small places, with the highlight of a porch overlooking a tranquil river and smiling hosts and lowlight of a hotel without running water and toilets that were so foul that we just peed on the steps and ran away (good time to be constipated; mao was too - maybe he saw the toilets??). there were maggots on the floor. are you gagging yet? yuch! after this kind of experience, we were not looking fwd to 35 hrs on the train, but we were amazed to find that "hard sleeper" was: spacious, clean, punctual and full of polite people (not spitting _too_ much). the bottles out the window was a bit dangerous tho. we ended up, after this epic journey (one of our longest) in SHANGHAI. wow - what a great place, a cross of bladerunner and marco polo. ive seen potsdammerplatz in berlin and this city looks like that (but this is a _city_). cant blame the chinese for wanting to catch up... the people are charming, the shopping is great (well - quality and prices are low) and the views from just about everywhere are amazing (sandra went to the top of the "world's highest hotel" - it was tall - 420m tall and actually _did_ have good views) we are spending $$ like crazy getting ready for mongolia (needles, iodine, sleeping bag, sunglasses - no saddle tho) as well as "catching up" from a self-imposed famine. this would not be a problem, but that my bank choose to cancel my cash card after sending a new, improved one to my calif address. thanks guys - call that customer service??? so - we are fine, the chinese are very nice (we go north to try _that_ place out) and there are no real hassles. dont worry - we're happy. just
a brief word on politics: we had a chat with a chinese woman who was in the
states studying and was back for a holiday. she thought that: i said and in the end, we did agree that the chinese govt was interfering with the lives of chinese people and that tibet was not an issue, b/c who cares abt china owning tibet. re: taiwan, she still thought that roc and prc would reunite, but after time (when prc becomes democratic??). it was interesting that every time she said "it is our opinion", she couldnt point to a popular expression of opinion. democracy does have its uses... so - another wrench in the gears and i hope that the politburo chokes on it (they do still sell stalin posters here; not found in russia!) that's all for now
much
hugs and love from ******************************************************************************************** 14 July 1999 [TOP]subject: a few words from mongolia...
hey everyone (and welcome back to those who have come "back in contact"): our last notes were from shanghai and after that we went to BEIJING, the ever-so-popular-with-tour-groups, businessmen and politicians capital of the people's republic of china (incl. taiwan, tibet, macao and even vietnam) - ironic - yes?? i guess that irony is another of the great inventions of china (along with gunpowder, paper, etc...) so - beijing - what's it like?? there are lots of big buildings and boulevards and many people. it is better than moscow, another big communist city, in terms of style and upkeep but worse than other, perhaps capitalist, towns. it is very big and i dont know how much. the biggest problem is the bus system, one of the worst in the world that ive had the bad luck to experience. the buses all have unique stops (they dont stop in one place) and the distance between stops is sometimes 2 km. sometimes they dont stop at the designated place because its not rush hour or saturday morning; this is, unfortunately, not explained in any legible way to strangers... besides the appalling transport problem (made a bit easier by the half-completed underground system), there are the advantages of shopping and good food in abundance. since we left china, we have missed the wonderful food that is always available. sandra and i agree that india and china have been the eating highlights of our trip, especially as we can eat and drink for so little (this is important: you can get good food everywhere for a lot of $$!) we didnt see any of the sights because we were trying to get around and take care of business. tiananmmen square is "closed" for renovations for the oct 1, 99 50th anniversary of the prc, but it isnt anything special or beautiful (vs the kremlin, for example)... we were pleased to leave china and its people (many of whom are rude, thieving (encouraged by their government) or just ignore us (since we dont speak mandarin). i read somewhere that the chinese do not like to travel a lot because they are afraid of the food not agreeing with them or not being able to understand the dialect. i guess we had that experience directly... one
last "adventure" that we had was when i bought "kodak" print
film from a clothes store near tiananmmen square. to cut to the point, the film
was counterfeit (it had been repackaged) and we were very nervous about being
able to get our money back. we were able to (with lots of evidence) and the
woman who sold it was very happy to get us out without a fuss. it strikes you
that there are 3 ways asians treat you: there are very few exceptions to this and it gets tiring after awhile trying to defend yourself and get a "fair price" for your bus tickets, bananas or bar of soap.. i still make a fuss b/c it goes against my beliefs of being fair (this is neither love nor war!) we took the trans-mongolian train to ULAAN BATAAR. it took about 36 hours and was a lovely journey (except for the food car and its overpriced meals. i wanted to get just rice and it went from "you" (available) to "mei you" (not available) in a flash, despite the large pot sitting in sight in the kitchen. after an altercation, i managed to eat. this is where you start to hate the chinese... the
mongolians are a different breed altogether, we noticed many things immediately: we were very pleased to get to ulaan bataar (ub) and be able to cook our own food and relax. the people dont stare and its just nice to wonder around and feel no pressure, noise or pollution... after a few days of adjusting, we went to the countryside. we stopped and camped at: KHORKHORIN - site of chingis khan's capital and erdene zuu, the nicest monastery in mongolia (many were destroyed by the communists; ub had 100 monasteries and a population that was 50% monks 100 years ago) TSETSERLEG - a nice town where the children brought us eggs and gift-paintings - just for being there! tsaagan nuur - a small lake that is quite beautiful - if it isnt raining! rain plagued us at this point and we wondered why mongolia is called "land of blue skies!" we had a relatively easy time up to then before we tried to cross overland (without regular transport; very few roads are marked, let alone paved. perfect horse country!) with a jeep. it was an expensive trip (100$) but turned for the worse when our driver changed course. since he would have added time and cost to the trip, we stopped and cut our losses. one thing that we discovered is that there are many places in mongolia with the same name. "moron" for example, means river and there are several of those you might not want to end up at... we stayed at: BULGAN - a 2 horse town (but they had biscuits!); BULGAT - 40 km away, but it took 2 hrs to get there since our jeep driver didnt know the way. the flies did know the way and we spent lots of time "indoors" listening to them beat on the tent like hailstones EDERNET - a town that rose from nothing in 1974 on the soviet model. this was a place that harkened most strongly of the past communist days of mongolia (and they had a very strange relationship; mongolians in space??). we took the train back to ub (yes! no bumps! movement of the primary muscles and joints!) and were very happy, even tho we never made it to khovskhol nuur, our destination and a mini-lake baikal with 1-2% of the world's fresh water... our experience here has been lovely. besides the poor roads (not so bad) and bus schedule (which forces you to be modest in plans), there have been few hassles or headaches (tho many people are pickpocketed, especially getting off the trans-sib train. and, the souvenirs are way overpriced due to the rich tourists who are "there and gone" in 4 days). the people here are some of the nicest we've met traveling (and ive met ever). they will give you their horse to play with, feed you and let you sleep the night if you rock up. all for free or very little, of course. they are sympathetic to people trying to save money and very honest. although we are looking forward to noodles and easy getting around, we are going to miss these lovely people. it is now nadaam, the annual festival celebrating the "3 manly sports" of wrestling, archery and horseracing. the wrestling is amazing to watch, primarily for the size of the men. the archery is so-so and the horse races are more interesting for the audience and riot-control techniques to keep them in order than the race (we see the start and finish of the 40km course), whose interesting characteristics are the young riders (6-12, boys and girls) and the dead horses (abt 3-4 per race). its a big country fair ;-) so that's abt it for now. we are headed back to beijing tomorrow to see the great wall and forbidden city. after that, we are going way out into xingyang ("west place") to see a few muslims and sand dunes (that's why we are skipping the gobi here... hope you are all well. more to come
d&s ******************************************************************************************** 17 August 1999 [TOP]subject: last china update!
hey everyone: this is our last update from CHINA, as we are headed to laos in a few days/weeks and it will be expensive to email from there (abt 8-12$/hr?!?!). here are a few of the hi/lo-lights of china since we last ranted... we left beijing after seeing the forbidden city (lots of the same buildings, none of which you could go into; the celestial temple, formerly for the emperors to worship their ancestors, was turned into an arts center and there was an opera group singing arias which enchanted sandra. there were signs everywhere "no burning" to discourage any ancestor worship ;-), the summer palace (big lake, lots of people in boats and picnicking) and the great wall (it was great. we went to an run-down section and hiked around. probably the largest man-made object in the world and damn impressive, as it swept and curved over the hills farther than the eye could follow. a perfect example of man improving on nature (and very rare in modern china, famous for the blue window, bathroom tile look)). we also rode bikes around town and choked in the fumes and ran into all the wrong-way drivers. so crazed... [forgive me if i repeat our experiences; im not sure where the last update updated too...] so
- we went to XI'AN to see the terracotta warriors. i was a bit fed up with all
the tourist prices and rip-offs and tried our most daring (for china) scam. we
got some used tickets and strolled back to the gate with a bottle of water: so, we saw the "eighth wonder of the world" (so-declared by the chinese), which wasnt but was nice (from the 20m or so distance) and took photos (like everyone else), ignoring the 150 yuan photo "delivered to your hotel; it's worth more than you pay" opportunity offered at the site (sandra posed in the same place, i took it for free !) we passed on the qing emperor tomb, the qing emperor amusement park and the qing emperor underground gardens. these chinese tourist sites resemble circuses in the bad sense of the word so quickly that my cumulative experience is that few are worth going to, they are robbed of flavor so quickly. you find that "minority attractions" are quickly colonized by han merchants and that the locals are left to sing and dance for a few yuan in their "colorful costumes" in front of noisy, nosy, native groups (foreigners are very cautious, knowing that the imperialist label was only recently lost. btw - isnt it funny that china is the only modern country with imperialist intentions/reality? any debate??) so - we left this very hot place for a hotter place - XINING, off in the GOBI. the ticket scrum to get out deserves mention as the closest i have ever gotten into a fight, as it was mobbed by ticket "brokers" who had created a shortage of seats to leave xi'an. i bumped to the head of the queue marked "soft seats, foreigners, hong kong, macao and taiwan peoples ticket window". they were upset that i got in front of them, by i had little guilt.... china does that to you (and far less - to their credit - than before) in the way they can just look you in the face and re-calculate how to deal with you based on skin color... in general, i have to give some credit back (that i denied earlier) of how nice many chinese are to us. they are frequently helpful and always friendly and curious except when they are dealing with you and money (or what they want), when they revert to the china-centric, us against the big nose barbarians, attitude. this is encouraged by the government, one that echoes many other totalitarian governments in their paranoia (the announcement by president lee of taiwan that taiwan and china should negotiate on a "country-to-country basis" is still in the press and denounced in all kinds of silly ways over a month later....). that's a rant and should cover my current (and probably final) opinion of the chinese (han) peoples... ah - and the southern chinese are noticeably more relaxed, a global trend ;-) back in xining. not much but a buddhist temple and a pickpocket attack to report. a friend made a "pilgrimage" to the dali lama's nearby birthplace. it wasnt as to find and it wasnt built up, perhaps a sign at the government's success at suppressing pro-dalai lama activities (his photo is everywhere, but also madly desired as an icon by the yellow-hat buddists). it's also sad to see the tour groups being led 'round the temple complexes anti-clockwise - the wrong way. it's the most basic aspect in buddhism! we headed off to DUNHUANG to see the famed grottos, passing thru the most desolate region i have ever seen (besides plain ol' sahara). the grottos were a disappointment, primarily because of the damage done by red guards (isnt it sad the most of the good chinese art and history is outside china?) and the poor viewing conditions (you have to get the keys to see the caves. some are "special", some cost extra) from the concrete enclosures and non-existant lighting. ajanta in india was better in terms of viewing, quality and price (0.25$ vs. 3$). the other ridiculous thing in dunhuang was the sand dunes, which stretched 60+ km into the distance and cost 2$ to see. we just walked around the gate (!) and up into the dunes, where i nearly killed myself hiking up (abt 200m high). men are soo stupid (sometimes!! ;-) we went thru LANZHOU to XIAHE, a nice tibetian town full of about 200 souvenir shops. that was nice, but we headed out (after getting my head shaved) and to LANGMUSI, which has become (due to the poor competition) our favorite tibetian, not-in-tibet, town. there were nice monestaries, great hills to walk around and a nice restaurant/hole-in-the-wall, where we had chocolate cake ;-).. after that, it was SONGPAN, where sandra realized her goal of horse trekking, but only for 1 day because it started to rain. the horses were slipping everywhere, we were cold and 1 day was just fine (three days in the wet were going to be murder!).. off to CHENGDU (and the only time we paid tourist price for bus tickets), where we took hot showers and watched mtv (wow! is it a good or bad sign that lopez and "give it to me one more time" girl are the most popular "singers" in the west now??). we took the soft seat overnight (sleeping on the floor. at least it wasnt hard seat - sitting on the floor) and bus all day to get to LIJIANG, in YUNNAN province. yunnan is famous for minorities and diversity, but (see above), we were a bit fed up with the sino-cization of these people and are headed to laos to see minorites who are in charge of their lives. the americans mismanage the natives, the aussies did the same with the aborigines and the han do the same with theirs (who are more of a long-term danger, occupying the western 60% of the country.) there is lots of speculation abt the future of the prc, but the direction seems to be on a controlled de-evolution to a capitalistic, decentralized state (optimimists). pessimists are for more crackdowns and bad times or violent crack-up. wait and see... lijiang, by the way, is a little cool place buried in the middle of a big chinese "town" (more white tile) and over-run by tourist groups. it was nice, but a bit surreal and pathetic. i wish i were here 50 years ago... we came here, to DALI, from ZHONGDIAN, a nice (friendly people) town w/o much unique character. dali is a "famous backpacker" hang out by certainly nothing special. sorry - it's too late for the local look to survive. it's all sterilized and packaged and looks suspiciously like the soviet re-workings of samarkand and bukhara ;-( we are leaving soon, as i mentioned earlier and i have seen and heard and thought quite enough about china. it is an amazing place, for the first part because so many things are happening here that we cannot begin to understand and, on the second, its happening so fast. change has become a drug here and many people are doing all they can (legally or not) to try to keep up. i regret that i dont speak chinese, but this is perhaps a bonus. there are some pretty mean things said (according to those who do speak), in-between the nice times you wish you could communicate... i dont think ill come back again tho ;-(
lots
of love. next "letter" from thailand (we hope!) ******************************************************************************************** 18 September 1999 [TOP]subject: back in bangkok (and some regrets??)
ok ok - you've been waiting on the edge of your seat to find out if we plunged over a cliff in to the raging mekong or were trampled by elephants... well - amazing how well you can write when you are in a body cast, hmm??? just kidding we
left CHINA in high spirits (b/c we were leaving china) and found that LAO PDR
("people's democratic republic" - all of which it isnt - see below) is
as good as it gets: ***********and full of the most friendly people!!******************** it's interesting, really, how we always come to thailand "the land of smiles" from a happier place. i guess a flight from germany or japan would give you a pleasant surprise, but from burma or lao, it's a re-adjustment to a more serious people (who are ethnically alike). there are definate cultural differences when you cross boarders in the world and we have been noticing them alot lately (china>mongolia, etc...). sometimes there are regional similarities (nepal/india/pakistan vs. himalayas), but in se asia, this isnt so apparent, tho cambodia and lao are very similar, even in the way they differ from vietnam... does that make sense?? i guess you could say so in theory, but experiencing it directly is quite interesting... anyway, we went to LUANG NAM tha first off. nothing special, just a town with 1$ hotels and good rice curry. we were lucky (?) to stumble on dope (grass, marijuana) quite fast and that was a good thing. china is quite a boring place and grass would make it much more bearable. that's the irony, of course, that you dont need grass half the time in lao to trip out and you can get it all the time (btw - 1$ for abt 3oz/80gm of the best stuff ive ever smoked - shhh - dont tell the feds!).. the surreal scenes and slow pace that you experience in lao are just amazing. i didnt even take photos all the time (this is weird, if you know i take abt 1roll/day) b/c the scenes and especially the people are just wonderful and you dont want to spoil it with a camera lens... back to surreal: one night the waitress insisted on changing the napkins so that they all matched (when usually you are chuffed to get a napkin at all), a friend we had seen 5 months before (taj!) just walked in the door, the bus that didnt exist to sekong sudddenly was the bus we were on, the good roads were bad and the bad roads were good, i was standing on an airstrip built by the americans in the vn war (lao was bombed and bombed and bombed some more - didnt make a difference to the war or the landscape (jungle) or the people, except those who were blown up (and still are). there was no greater symbol to the futility of war than the "secret" us effort to "bomb them back to the dark ages" (where they were already). an uxo (un-exploded-ordinance) worker said that there was abt 25 years of clearing to do, which would not be done without international aid b/c the govt doesnt care. the uxo office was clogged with hangers-on and the like, allthere too collect their "share") oops - off on a tangent... yeah - surreal... so anyway, the lao people are very friendly and relaxed and accepting of foreigners (unlike the vn-ese), much more open to conversation (than the chinese) and just good fun to be around. we got tired (not really) of saying "sabaidee" to all the kids. our mouths are recovering nicely in thailand, b/c no-one says hi here... (gotta pay for that!) we cruised to MUANG SINGH, the center of the lao trade and growing of opium (the real golden triangle; you can see it in chang mai/rai, thailand, but that's just t-shirt country!). the town was unexception (again), but full of nice minority people. we "discovered" the country villages while the bus broke down on the way - how convenient! in ms, i overdosed on opium (swallowed too much). i say this b/c everyone is (im sure) curious. it was a body high that was just on and on and my head was very clear. about 30 hours after ingesting, i felt that i had to go to the toilet and, wow, both ends at once. not a pretty sight, but i was glad that it "came out" instead of continuing to poison me. dope is much better (especially for me), and it was sad to learn later that a few foreigners are getting busted by the police in the opium dens in "fundrasing" raids that let you buy your passport back for 250$us (ouch! about 6 weeks of travel in lao). that's my drug experience... then we took a motorized canoe down the NAM THA river to PAK THA and a speedboat (abt 80km/h!!! you literally float over the waves and hope you dont hit a (big) log; many people have died) down the mekong to pak bang, where we caught the "slow boat" to luang prabang. these boat rides were very nice, especially the first (despite rain which killed our first chinese umbrella) river, which was narrower than the mekong. it was the closest we felt to indiana jones, except at angkhor wat. there were some scams to get extra $$ outa us, but we prevailed and moved on to: LUANG PRABANG - what a cool place. 60.000 inhabitants (the capital has 120.000 and the country 4.000.000!!) and just cool as can be. there are many old wats (temples) and monks and monestaries, but get there fast, b/c the place is being turned into a package tourist drop-center. if all the restaurants and souvenir shops were filled to capacity (of sorts), there would have been about 10x the number of people we saw there. there is already an increase of theft and sexual harassment in these places in lao and it's a pity. the people are just too poor and there is just too much easy money to be made (especialyl off those people coming from thailand direct; i dont like them and the way they trample on local sensitivities). we had a nice few days and moved along... a
note on money in lao: a note on international aid (while we are making notes...): evil, pure and simple. the aid agencies (bi- and multi-lateral) have an agenda to "help" and the governemnt is all to eager to please. the things that are done are usually according to the aid-agencies desires and agendas, disrupting the social/economic/etc balance in the country. there are lots of expats in white landrovers "disbursing funds" and lots of restaurants/stores/housing/shops to cater to them. the whole business creates another tier over the people in the country and creates all sorts of biased incentives. all aid is evil - for reading, aids, clean water, women abuse - everything that is supposed to be improved actually gets disrupted and moved sideways (or backwards). this opinion i think many aid workers share (the sense of futility). the world bank recently said that targeted projects were "not effective" and that a multi-pronged approach was now en vogue. good luck. there are plenty of bureaucrats out there to "help the people with what they need" but not much results. fewer bureaucrats would be a good start. and who ever thought that projects to teach farmers to grow rice or make clothes (real ones) were sane?? it's just a big hoax put over the taxpayers who want to help (try at home first??) ok - bit of a rant - sorry so - we went to VANG VIENG, a town famed for caves (we didnt explore) and tubing down rivers (we didnt do). not much interest there for us , actually, as we were doing quite well relaxing already... next was VIENTIANE (called wang chiang originally, but the french couldnt handle that pronounciation; the start of many an international confusion), the capital and not so bad. a very relaxed place with lots of ex-pat facilities (see above) and, as sandra said later, all the 4x4's that they need in the south (the roads in lao are famously bad. they are getting better due to asian development bank, vn and thai investments to improve regional trade but are awful in many places...). we used email, browbeat the thais into "rushing" sandra’s visa (big problem - no pages left. there are a few drawbacks to being from croatia), ate lots of indian food (we are missing it) and checking email (6$/hr - vs 1$/hr here in bkk). left after a pleasant stay to SAVANNAKHET, a town you can see from thailand (or v.v.). we had a bit of yuch with the local"sophisticates" there, teens who thought they were soo cool and looked to be soo trashy. glad im not that young and stupid (well - so much) any more... the town was low rise and nice for a few days. PAKSE, the southern lao hub, was nothing special, so we went to ATTAPEU (surreal place b/c we met an american team recovering mia remains, 13 bodies in 4 weeks, 1.800 +/- to go...), SEKONG and TAAT LO in quick sucession. there is nothing in particular to report, just nice folks and bad/good/bad/good/non-existant roads. we had the sad opportunity to sleep next to a nice and romantic waterfall in the last place (tadlo resort) but that was a bit spoiled by the lack of running water (!!) and bad food ;-(. we stopped in CHAMPASAK on the way outa lao and that was the nicest place in the south. relaxed and nice people (even more sabaidees than normal!) and a great chip-off-the-old-(angkhor)-wat ruin which was very scenic (indy jones again but no killer savages, just a guy cutting grass) the
weather in lao deserves mention, since it was the rainy season. there were
several consequences: so - we are back in BKK and its no so bad. things are good value for money (vs. china, eg) and everything is easy to get and works. we had a different impression coming from india, but bkk works well for se/easia. we dont have any pretensions abt the "smiling" thais or the "innocence" of the girls and therefore are pleasantly surprised on occasion. ok - we dont mind ;-) ********************we are coming home/end of trip******************* you knew this already, but we are really closing fast on europe for november. first is nepal and then somewhere from which we will get back to croatia for xmas (new years?? still dont know. y2k means perhaps we should go where there are no computers...). perhaps we/ill travel some more, but the states (calif/sfo) are in sight. yeah its been 16 months for us, 53 months for me so far. we are/i am really looking forward to some stability (and burek!) and work and all those things you guys are bored of and we envy. ahh - that'll last a few months ;-) love to all of you. hope this hasnt drawled on too long past your interest (the advantage of email: you can ignore me!)
d
(and sandra, who hasnt the patience to sit and type while i pester her to go
faster) ******************************************************************************************** 23 October 1999 [TOP]subject: walking up rivers
hey everyone: we are back again after 25 days of vigorous trekking thru the nepali countryside. i’m not kidding – we gained (and lost) a total of 30.000 m on the trek and covered i don’t know how much ground while walking from here to there… it was a wonderful experience and different from last year. if you are in a hurry, that’s enough description. if you want to hear more, read on ;-) so – we left KATHMANDU on 26 september and rode on the bus all day. we arrived just before the 7am bus was to depart and heard that our tickets were for the seats in the back of the bus (not only is this discrimination (just kidding), but the last seats are generally the ones which will bounce you all over the place (tho you are less likely to die in a head-on collision! gotta balance the odds!). so – we said we would take the next bus. “oh no sir – you can have the first 2 seats”. well well – that’s nepal in action – from rear to front in nothing flat.. we had our last 30 rupee dhal bhat (rice and bean soup – the national dish, traditionally all-you-can-eat) and went to bed in the tres cher 40 rupee room (67 rs = 1 us$). just to give you an idea of the cost of things to come… the
trek can be summed as: |