Posted: March 9th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 1 Comment »
The 2-directional Tonle Sap River
#27 from SE Asia
March 7th, 2010
along the Tonle Sap river
I leave Phnom Penh at sunrise before the heat of the day. The road traffic is not frantic. I stay on highway 5, on the south side of the Tonle Sap River and Tonle Sap Lake. Within 10 miles, the traffic and street noise has dropped to the level of a country road. The drill is clear to me. Get in as many miles as early as I can, before the heat of the day. I am doing 3 gallons of liquids a day. I will have to do this all the way back to Bangkok, for winter is over here. It is now getting hot. My goal is 90+ kms ahead, to Kampong Chhnang (that is honestly how they spell it in English), where the Tonle Sap River meets the Tonle Sap Lake.
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Posted: March 9th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 1 Comment »
The Tuol Sleng Prison Museum
Post #26 from SE Asia — the Khmer Rouge
March 6th, 2010
pulling into Phnom Penh, Kampuchea
I could feel the difference immediately riding in Cambodia. (They call it Kampuchea.) Slower drivers, much less honking, the roads not nearly so dangerous. More smiles. I knew that I was back in the ”Buddhist belt’”.
You have surely heard of the disasters that Kampuchea has been thru. Just watch THE KILLING FIELDS again to get an idea. Briefly, after the bombing of Cambodia destabilized the country, there was a civil war where the Khmer Rouge came to power in April of 1975. In the next 4 years, the Khmer Rouge proceeded to kill 2 million people, 1/4th of the entire population in one of the most insanely genocidal unleashings of this century. Anyone with any education, who spoke any foreign language, was immediately executed.
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Posted: March 9th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | No Comments »
Coming into Phnom Penh, in the middle of the street...
Post #25 from SE Asia
March 4th, 2010
Time and travel
Time and Travel:
Einstein’s general theory of relativity states that the faster you go, the slower time passes for you. My corollary to that is that the more you travel, the slower time goes. I personally know this to be true.
I have been traveling now for about 10 weeks. Yet, personally, it seems like this is all that I have ever done. Every day is crammed with so many new experiences, events, locations, people, cultures, foods, languages, all coming at me so fast, that it seems like I have been traveling for years. I am learning so much about everything. In a 2 month period, I now know Bangkok, the Mekong River, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Dien Bien Phu, Hanoi, Hue, Saigon, the Mekong Delta, The Tonle Sap basin, Phnom Penh, 4 new countries, and beginning tomorrow for 4 days, Angor Watt.
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Posted: March 4th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 2 Comments »
#24, from SE Asia
March 1st, 2010
from the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
evidence of road kill all over
An educated Vietnamese told me in Saigon that the #1 cause of death in Saigon and Hanoi is in fact traumatic head injury from motorcycle accidents. It seemed to me that it had to be, given the way they drive. No turn signals, no head checking, left and U turns whenever they feel like it. Both Saigon and Hanoi have 4+ million motorcycles, each increasing at over a 1000 a day. It is a disaster. I am relieved to be out of these cities.
Well, yesterday morning I came upon the remnants of a fresh accident. A badly crushed motorcycle,with oil, gas, and blood on the road. While the cops were trying to stop the traffic, the motorcyclists continued riding thru it. They drove right over the oil, gas, and blood. They probably would have gone over the body, except that it was already gone. The accident scene specialist had already sprayed the positions of the motorcycle and body on the road.
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Posted: March 4th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 1 Comment »
Post #24 from SE Asia
The Mekong Delta and rice
March 2nd,2010
A rice field in the Mekong Delta
Growing rice in South East Asia is not a crop. It is a complete culture and belief system. It is incredibly labor intensive. The dikes, drainage, the flooding, the immensely difficult stoop labor, done mostly by women, are a way of life. There is probably 10 times as much labor per amount of grain as compared to corn. So with rice farming comes high densities of population. Even though there are now water tractors that assist in rice farming, the very nature of rice growing limits mechanization. The plots of land must be level and cannot be too large, or one family could not do all the work. Because of this intensive bond of labor to the crop, rice growers are intimately attached to their land. They know their plots and stay with them. They have developed a culture and belief system to support this.
The Mekong Delta may well be the MOST fertile agricultural area in the world. Its 15,000 square miles produces over half of Vietnam’s rice,enough to feed the entire country.
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Posted: February 28th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 7 Comments »
First, I want to thank Allen Tucker, a former student of mine, who has done all of the technical legwork to set up and keep running this blog. It gives teachers true joy when they see that their students are exceeding all expectations, and their teacher’s abilities too. Thank you so much, Allen.
Beware of the taxi dancers
Warning: Profanity and a disturbing story follows. I have always felt that the raw ugly truth is better than any whitewashed lie:
The Lonely Planet travel book clearly warns all tourists to NEVER get on the back of a motorcycle with a woman offering ‘massage’. Look closely at this picture. One of them is most likely a transvestite. But the other one is definitely a viper. The cycle in front is their getaway vehicle. There must be many 100’s of them in Saigon.
I met two men near my hotel, Danno of Japan and William Chang of Singapore. They are in their late 40’s — early 50’s, in Saigon on business. When I saw them, both are clearly agitated. William speaks flawless English, but Danno struggles. They tell me that they have just been robbed. They explain that they, independently of each other, hopped on the back of motorcycles driven by women, were taken to the same hotel, and then robbed. Danno is freaked out, and William is outraged. They have lost cash, iPhones, watches, and some papers. As they explain the story, while they were getting a ‘massage’, someone else snuck into the room, (or was there already) and went thru their clothes and ripped them off. Neither of them can believe that this could possibly happen.
Posted: February 28th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 2 Comments »
Huey gunship at war remnants museum
Post #21 from SE Asia
February 25th, 2010 Saigon
The LAST war post, about dioxin-laced Agent Orange, the War Remnants Museum, US Vets claims, and Jeff Sharlet
This is the last thing I say about the Vietnam War in this blog. BTW, here they call it the ‘American War’.
I went to the War Remnants Museum here in Saigon yesterday. It is the most visited museum in Saigon. Thousands of people walking thru it daily. Most all of them appear to be international visitors.
Get this straight. This is a grim museum. The Vietnamese government rubs your face in it. It takes hours to cover it all. Yes, the Vietnamese government gets to display what they want. And they do it with a vengeance. 100’s and 100’s of large photos, taken mostly by US freelance photographers, of the war, the dead, the maimed, the civilian casualties. The results of carpet-bombing areas from 40,000 feet, where civilians were living. The Vietnamese resistance takes no credit at the museum for any of the civilian deaths, and this is self-serving and not true. But the evidence is that most of the civilian deaths were from US air strikes. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 23rd, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 5 Comments »
A smile of relief after getting out of the tunnel
Post # 20 from SE Asia
February 23rd, 2010
The Cu Chi Tunnel Complex, and my high school friend, Steven Stofko
I am running out of time, and there is so much more I want to do here. Just like in life. So I change my plans. Today I did manage to extend my trip for 16 more days. But that is all I can do. And do I miss my dog.
I managed to scalp a train ticket in Hue during Tet for about 40% over face value. I paid $35 for a ticket to ride about 700 miles. I was lucky to get any ticket at all during Tet.
I folded up my bicycle onto an overbooked train and rode for 26 hours at 30 mph to Saigon. It was a 15 car diesel-powered train, with about 100 people per car. But I did have a reserved seat. People stood, sat, laid down, and even slept for long periods of time in the aisle and in the space between the railroad cars. I made it a point to not eat or drink on this train, because I did not want to try to go to the washroom. A number of university students returning to school changed their seats and sat around me. They wanted to practice their English and talk with me about the outside world. They were really decent, helpful kids. They were constantly offering to run errands for me, such as getting me food and water, and whatever else.
We pulled into Saigon around 1 pm. Ohh infamous Saigon. City where anything goes. Immediately a bunch of touts surround me, trying to sell me their taxi services and everything else in the world. But then they watch me assemble my bicycle and load on the gear. It is a quick process. Disappointment on their faces. I hit the streets of Saigon rolling. BTW, the government may have changed the name to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) but everyone calls it either Saigon or ‘the city’. I quickly get lost, then ask for directions. Then I get a very clean, spacious, secure room at the first place I check, with a private hot shower, for $10 a night. I wash my clothes by hand, hang them in the sun, on my balcony, and shower. Time to hit the town running.
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Posted: February 19th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 3 Comments »
Post #19
from Hue, Vietnam
20 February. 2010
I was north of the Vinh Moc at sunrise, ready to pedal there. This is where a whole Vietamese village choose to live underground for 9 years. It is north of the former demilitarized zone, at latitude 17 degrees. A cycling friend of mind, George Christensen had visited it and said that it was worth it.
But as I started to pedal into the rain, I heard a grinding sound coming from my front axle. It was wobbling off center and hitting the brake pads. I had to disconnect the front brakes to continue. The brake pads were good. I checked it out and no amount of tightening it could stop the wobble. The front quick-release hub was collapsing. 8 days of rain along with all the sand had not done it any good. It would go soon. So here I was out on a country road in the heavy rain early in the day. I could push my bike back to the town behind me. There I could wait for Tet to end and then see if we could jerryrig some kind of fix. That would be maybe 3 days. I thought my other option was to try to wave a truck or bus down and go ahead to the next big city on the road, Hue.
Posted: February 18th, 2010 | Author: dwight | Filed under: SE Asia 2010 | 5 Comments »
#18 the long ride south
From Hue, Vietnam
February 19th, 2010
First, look at this dessert photo. Almost all of these are fresh fruit conncoctions. You have the lady fill up a large glass with them and ice. You do not stir it up. That is so you can taste the individual flavors. I had no idea what many of the things I was eating were, except that they were simply delicious.
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