On the Beach Once More

Goa, India's smallest state on it's South Western coast is lined with palm fringed beaches and hence draws a large tourist crowd. Some say it is not really India, being relatively clean and orderly, with churches instead of temples, and with a large population of tourists and foreign residents. India however is a vast and diverse land, with states as different from one another as countries. No one can claim to be the 'real' India. And what a pleasant, relaxing side of India Goa is. I am staying at Anjuna beach, on Goa's Northern coast, a relatively laid back affair in comparison to the stretch of more commercialised beaches just south of here, where jet skis zip up and down and heards of cows meander through the large crowds. Yes, Anjuna is much more relaxed, allowing me to stretch out beneath a beach umbrella or in the shade of a beach hut with a book.

Cathedral, Old Goa

But Goa is not just a beach, yesterday I traveled by (several) buses to the state capital, Panjim and the nearby historic site of Old Goa. In line with the scale of Goa, Panjim is more town like, with colourful old Portuguese era buildings. The Portuguese held their colony in Goa from the 1500s, in which time a huge city grew. Now only the cities grand cathedrals remain, vast and beautiful structures that stand testament to the coloniser's drive to convert and spread their religion. From the large number of churches across Goa, I gather Christianity is indeed ingrained within the Goan population.

Goa has been a lovely resting point as I approach the end of my fourth month on the road and before I lunge into the next part of my journey in India's North. 

Anjuna Beach

Mumbai

Flying across India at night, the dark landmass spread out below, studded with the shining jewels of a thousand villages and towns. The scale of habitation was the first thing to strike me. Whereas flying over some countries at night there are great patches of darkness, here the patchwork of lights went on forever. I arrived in Mumbai after midnight, visions of hordes of touts and beggars waiting to pounce did not eventuate, it was all rather calm and orderly leaving the airport.

Within 10 minutes of leaving my hotel I had stepped in cow dung. The culprit stood ruminating across the street, looking very at home in downtown Mumbai. As I have learned, all the stereotypes of cows being everywhere are true. Just when you least expect it, a cow will appear, chomping on some rubbish, or just standing around chewing the cud as the city moves around it. Sometimes they are fed, I saw a man casually feeding a whole bag of bananas to one lucky bovine.

The part of Mumbai I stayed in was the old British built city, full of amazing colonial architecture. In fact in some parts it looked more like a hotter version of some English city than an Indian one. It was great fun exploring, further north the city became more Indian, chaotic and colourful. On the way to find Gandhi's Bombay residence (which I did not find in the end) some large rally sprung up around me, which was slightly disconcerting, but I managed to slip past it.

A street in Mumbai

As an escape from the big city I took a boat out to Elephanta Island from the Gateway of India. Mumbai rapidly was swallowed up in the smog as the boat passed through a maze of fishing trawlers and oil tankers moored in Mumbai Harbor. The island was home to the Elephanta Caves, ancient temples carved into the hillside. My time there was brief as I arrived only an hour before closing.

My favorite part of arriving in India however, was the food! So many curries, lassis and cups of chai massala. And all for very reasonable prices. Whilst a potential health hazard, so far the food in India has proved very good indeed.

Reflections on SE Asia

Today marks the end of my three and a half month travelling in SE Asia, and what an amazing 12 weeks it has been.

Travel
My South East Asian journey took the form a huge loop through four countries: Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. In all a journey of over 8000km! On this journey I travelled by train, bus, sleeper train, sleeper bus, sawngsaw,skytrain, speedboat, longtail boat, hydrofoil, bike, motorbike, metro, tuk tuk, pickup truck, taxi and most importantly: my own two feet. Here are some rough statistics of how far I have travelled thus far:

By Air      8048km
By Water 524km
By Road   3907
By Rail      3767

By Foot: Countless Steps

Total         16246km


I travelled with ducks and chickens and sacks of rice, with chattering locals and blaring music. Sometimes it was comfortable, airconditioned, leasurely and relaxed. Other times it was...an experience. The rice paddyfields, the mountains, the villages, cities and towns passed day by day forming the backdrop to the many thoughts that occupied my mind on thoese long journeys. Often I would listen to Radio National Podcasts, and use transit for learning.

Unfortunately I have travelled so far Google Maps can not fit the journey onto one page but has split it from Saigon onwards (see below). Click here to see a larger version.








Highlights

This journey has taken me through many wonderful diverse cultures, landscapes and cities and brought with it a wealth of amazing experiences. Here's a few highlights:

• Boating down the mighty Mekong River
• The picturesqe village of Kong Lo and it's amazing subteranian river
• Street life in Hanoi
• Kayacking through the submerged limestone kasts of Ha Long Bay
• Sleeping overnight with a Hmong family
• Heading south to Hue, Hoi Ann and Saigon with Mason
• Spending a night with the local teenagers in Sai Gon
• The mighty temples of Angkor

Food

Four countries, four cusines with many regional variations. Despite some intitial worry, I had no problems seeking out meatless dishes wherever I went and think I have experienced a wealth of different dishes. From pad thai on the street in Thailand to bowl after bowl of Noodle Soup in Lao. From the simple cooking of the Hmong in Sapa to the time Mason and I splurged and had wonderful hot chocolates and lemon meraunge pies at a fancy cafe on the lakeside in Hanoi. In Cambodia I saw fried crickets, teranchulas and duck foetuses for sale...I did't try these. Food is an important part of travel, and in SE Asia it has come cheap, a meal generally costing $1 to $2.50.

People

I have passed through four countries but many more cultures, each with their unique styles, foods and ways of doing things. From the hill tribes in Vietnam to the urbanites of Bangkok, SE Asia is rich in cultural diversity, home to scores of different ethnic groups. So too is there huge inequality between these countries and between different groups within them. Meeting locals has provided deeper insights into these cultures and provided many memorarble experiences. Soo too have I enjoyed meeting with countless fellow travellers, people to share experiences and split tuk tuk fares with.

Onwards


Tonight I depart on a flight to Mumbai to begin the next stage of my journey, India. If SE Asia was anything to go by, the next three months in India, Nepal and China should be equally as amazing and full of unexpected experiences. Whilst my journey in SE Asia has mostly consisted of a solo affair (bar the 10 days with Mason), in India I am to be joined for three weeks by my mother and brother, and in Nepal I shall be joined by my friend, Emme.

Goodbye, SE Asia! Hello India!

The Bridge Over the River Kwai

The grave of An Australian Soldier

To escape the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, I overnighted in nearby Katchenburi, a town made famous for it's roll in WW2 as the railhead of the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. It was a sad place to visit. In the center of town is a cemetary for Allied Soldiers who died in the terrible conditions working as slave labour on the railway. There are mostly Dutch, British and Australian soldiers buried here, just one of several large war graves in the area. I must admit it is one of the most imaculately well tended park or garden I have seen in all SE Asia, tragic yet beautiful. What is often forgotten however, is that for the 16000 POWs who died in it's construction, 90 000 prisioners from Japan's occupied territiories in SE Asia also died.

The bridge over the river kwai is all I did see of the rail line (something about an accident and an exploding water pipe and the trains are not running) however it was still a nice tangable peice of history, symbolic of the greater construction effort.

The Thai Burma Railway, Bridge Over The River Kwai

Back in Bangkok

Three months after begining my journey in this city I have come full circle and returned to Bangkok. It is a city like no other in this part of the world, pulsing with modernity, a city of slick skytrains and expansive mega malls. The first time I visited, it didn't really strike me as anything special, I had arrived in a big, modern city from a big modern city. I wanted culture, adventure in exotic, developing lands. However after spending three months in 'less developed' parts of the world, the return to Bangkok brought a welcome change, ('oh wow, toilet paper!').

 The journey from Siem Reap was long, begining early in the morning and involving a mini bus, standing on the side of the road for two hours, a bus, walking through the casino filled no mans land between Thailand and Cambodia, stading in the tray of a ute, another mini bus, a skytrain. I felt oddly excited as we reached the 8 lane motorway but slightly nervous as our driver sped at 130km/h, overtaking unecessarily amongst the refreshingly calm and ordered traffic. I arrived in Bangkok alive and caught a skytrain to my hostel in the Sukhumvit, a cheaper but quality place in a rather more ritzy part of town. What did I eat that first night back in Thailand? Pad Thai street food style of course!

Standing in one of SE Asia's largest and most expensive mall, 'The Siam Paragon', it was hard to reconcile this world of opulent consumption and high end glamour with the Asia I had stood in just a day ago. One day, surrounded by beggars missing limbs, children forced to sell trinkets rather than attend school, people so desperate just to make themselves a dollar. The next, surrounded by the brand's of high end European and American fasion labels, on level four a shop selling Lamboughini cars, all air conditioned; polished chrome, glass and marble. World apart and yet only a days bus ride away.

I guess Thailand has been the lucky country of this region, one of the few nations to skillfully avoid colonialisation by ceeding parts of it's territories to it's colonial neigbours, the French to the East, the British to the West, it avoided invasion and maintained good diplomatic relations with the western powers. Eagre to be seen not as just another 'servile' race requiring western paternalisim, it has always regarded technological advancement as a high priority. There are pictures in the National Museum of the first steam train imported to Thailand back in 1893, today an elevated and underground metro sytem conects this bustling modern metropolis, something back in Sydney I think we all would envy. Thailand escaped the tragedy of the civil and American wars of the 20th century. Colonialiation, conflict and corruption have left Indochina impoverished with only Vietnam now experiencing an economic boom  that has brought prosperity into the country since it followed China into the global economy in the early 90s. Still Lao and Cambodia are languishing by the wayside in the middle, their recovery will take far longer. To the west there are rumblings of change in Burma, one country that was not part of my SE Asian oddessey but that I would love to go someday. Last night I met a woman in the hallway feverishly ironing US dolllars, she was going to Burma where they are rather pedantic regarding the crispness of US currency.

In the huge mega mall I did luxuriate a little at the movies. You know those moments when you do not realise how much money you just handed over in a foreign currency? Well, I ended up buying one of those ultra exclusive recliner couch seats with supplied pillows and a blanket infront of a huge screen. In the end I guess it was worth the money and the movie, 'The Lady', regarding the life of Aung San Suu Kyi was wonderful and I higly recomend it. Being the cultural city it is, I went and saw an exhibition of Australian Aboriginal Photography yesterday followed by a screening of the best films from Berlin's Interfilm short film festival which was great fun. There is but a week left on the SE Asian leg of my journey, next Tuesday I fly to Mumbai.

Ancient Wonders of Cambodia

Bass Relief Carvings

My first day at the temples of Angkor was lengthy, cycling out at 7am to beat the heat. My first destination was the grand Angkor Wat, the iconic symbol of Cambodia and Khmere culture. The sun was already biting as I crossed the stone causeway that bridges the vast moat and entered through the gates into the huge temple complex. Before me lay the main structure of Angkor Wat with it's five towers symbolising mount Meru, the centre of the Hindu universe. I spent the morning exploring this stone colossus with the help of an excellent guidebook loaded on my phone. It felt the ultimate juxtaposition of technologies, the thousand year old stories depicted in stone relief carvings illuminated by a device in the palm of my hand. These carvings were my favourite part, encircling the temple with depiction's from the Hindu epics.

By 11am the heat was becoming unbareable, forcing me to seek refuge in a cafe with aircon. It wasn't untill 2.30pm  did I dare venture out again into the heat.

Heads of the Bayon

I cycled next through the jungle to the gigantic ancient city of Angkor Thom and at it's heart, the Bayon temple. This smaller structure contrasted with the monumental grandure of Angkor Wat as a smaller, more organic jumble of towers and passages that made for enjoyable exploration. From each tower faces stare out in four directions, perhaps indicating the god's/king's omniopotence. They were quite a site to behold. I also explored some other nearby temples, including the pyramid like Baphuon which presented a steep climb to it's summit, again representing the summit of Mount Meru. The Khmer were certaintly keen to have the centre of the universe in their own back yards.

I returned to Angkor at sunset, by which time a full moon was on the rise behind it's illuminated facade. I arrived back in Siem Reip as the last of the light was fading from the sky, completing a huge day of exploring ancient wonders. Tomorrow I shall return for further exploration of these wonders of ancient construction, these testamounts to the madness of religious devotion, the temples of Angkor.

The second day of temple seeing was equally as exhausting, but well worth the extra kms to further flung temples such as Ta Phrom, crumbling into the jungle. Here however the atmosphere was somewhat ruined by the hordes of tour groups noisily crowding the temples. In the smaller, less crowded temples however I found respite from the crowds, making for a more peaceful exploration of the ancient stone monuments. That evening I climbed the nearby hill to see Angkor Wat from a different perspective, illuminated by the setting sun.

Roots engulf Tah Phrom

On the third day I rode out to find the Rulous temples, 13km east of Siem Reap. Yet despite possessing a map I became quite lost on the Cambodian country roads and after much searching returned to the city defeated. Instead I returned to Angkor Wat that afternoon for one final visit to these wondrous, inspiring ancient monuments. 

Indochina's Dark Past

Skulls of the killing field victims at the memorial

 Beneath the smiling, relaxed air, Indochina (The former French colonies of Lao, Vietnam and Cambodia) hides a history of sadness and tragedy. From French oppression in the mid 19th Century to the period of civil wars and American intervention in Vietnam in the 70s spilling  over into Lao and Cambodia, the regions troubles would be brought to a climax in the genocidal rule of the Khmere Rouge in 1975. As I sit and write beneath a beach umbrella upon a stretch of white sandy beach eating a mango, such tragedy seems so far away. Yet it was not long ago that this country was wreaked by one of the most brutal regimes in history.

 I arrived in Cambodia a few days ago, crossing between the two countries was like stepping into another world, a poorer and browner world, but one that puts on a brave smile. On my first full day in Cambodia I visited what was the most emotionally difficult place I have been thus far. Simply referred to as the killing fields, these were just one of the facilities the Khmere Rouge used to exterminate thousands upon thousands of their citizens in their four year rule from 1975. Today the mass graves where victims of the genocide were bludgeoned to death before pits at night are mere shallow depressions in the ground, but if you look closely the ground is littered with fragments of human bone, teeth. Every few months the bones are cleared from the surface, but they keep on surfacing, year after year, as if the ground is trying to purge itself of the evil buried within. It was a place of great sadness and quiet reflection on the atrocities committed here. In the center of the fields is a large stupa that houses the bones of exhumed victims piled high. It was a difficult sight to behold, but served as an important reminder as to the devastating effects of extreme ideologies when enforced upon populations and the danger of the decent into genocidal policies.

Faces line the halls

Next stop on my tour of Cambodia's terrible past was prison S-21, a former high school converted into prison, torture and execution center. It was so sad to see what this former place of learning had become. Today the faces of the Khmere Rouge's madness stare out from the walls of the classrooms, a product of the regimes meticulous record keeping, photographing every prisoner. Only a handful of the thousands of people who went in here ever came out alive.

These are my first experiences of Cambodia, but on the beach I see it is a land that both shocks and delights. Swimming, fruit shakes on the beach, dinner on the beach, actually I have spent the last 24 hours or more almost entirely on the beach relaxing, leaving only to sleep. It is an idyllic spot, it is hard to reconcile it's beauty with the depths of sorrow suffered here.