tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83958639967031614972024-03-05T08:28:38.055-08:00Tig 'n' Pat on the Roadwhere Tig and Pat are found to be wandering about somewhere or other...P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.comBlogger130125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-63071322781333483212017-01-05T03:36:00.001-08:002017-01-05T03:38:50.028-08:00Relaxed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743381770/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5521/31743381770_5012705e8b.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257528.5156" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>We have paused for these few very relaxing days in Bentota, a strip of soft sand a few hours south of Colombo. Seriously very little of interest here, this is a tourist area, where the food is good but not spectacular, the longshore drift and shore breeze really kick up in the afternoon, and the days are mostly spent waiting for the sunset. Finally a relaxing part of the vacation, and we are both starting to think a lot more about work awaiting us when we get home. It's time.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743383400/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/581/31743383400_18a4eeb162.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257500.8528" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Going through my photos, I noticed a few signs of interest, so apropos of nothing:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743385020/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/316/31743385020_84ca90c2a3.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257469.2769" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> The relaxed nature of this warning made me smile. Totally out of nature with the nature of the threat. "Going about" also seems such an innocuous thing for a crocodile to do.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743387050/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/462/31743387050_99314c1577_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257462.7898" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="751"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> This, however, makes the threat a little too real. Look at the size of those (diagrammatic) wasps! And why would you designate a specific area for this type of activity?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743388230/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/527/31743388230_e1406a16b3.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257514.1406" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">It's not the age of the latrine, it's the quality of the maintenance.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31277464624/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/725/31277464624_429e6a4a6d.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257477.494" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">I'm feeling like we are should probably write a few of these down. It appears walking, touching, and leading a parade are off-bounds, but sliding down stairs is OK. And what's with the cuffs?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31277465604/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/400/31277465604_56e2f0ea42.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257454.2463" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Live Better, indeed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31277466834/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5535/31277466834_d1932c543e.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257467.015" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The first thing I think of when I think about my Smak - is it natural? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743396670/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/506/31743396670_6ffe05d52d.jpg" id="blogsy-1483616257511.4734" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">And this may be my favourite. Only because in a traffic-choked city like Colombo, there is an area dedicated to etching your kids to ride a bike. That it is right in front of a temple celebrating Independance for Sri Lankans seems apropriate. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-6255310701306065262017-01-02T04:19:00.001-08:002017-01-02T04:19:01.814-08:00Galle<p>A quick glance at a world map shows the south tip of Sri Lanka is a pretty important spot if you are the type that likes to carry consumer goods from "the Orient" to the colony of your birth via sailing ship, as was a popular activity in the Indian Ocean for several hundred years. The Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British all spent a bit of time using the south of Sri Lanka for this purpose, but it was the Dutch who really started the infrastructure-building part of colonialism, and it was they who built a fort at Galle.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31238312933/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/336/31238312933_23be1068b1_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540053.3381" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><p>Galle is located just around the west side of the southern tip of the island, protected a bit from eastern monsoons, with a pretty solid (if small) neutral harbour. Around 1665 the Dutch began building a fort that ended up being 36 hectares within the walls, and a few years later was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Within the walls is a very pleasant little city (dwarfed by The "New Town", only a cricket ground away). </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31930399511/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/262/31930399511_3d624895e2.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540072.4612" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32048360095/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/565/32048360095_677158048c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540091.0518" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31930488961/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/531/31930488961_3cdd3aa15d.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540125.831" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>There are a great number of colonial buildings from the 17th and 18th century, some very well restored, others in complete ruin. And as you might expect in a place that spent 400 years as a crossroads of the world, there are plenty of churches, mosques, and temples.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32048387095/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/733/32048387095_2dd8437c15_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540075.5847" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32009397106/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/480/32009397106_b134f66002_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540046.201" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="751"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31900199782/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/765/31900199782_75655436ca.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540135.44" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31239429103/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5451/31239429103_dd46cce4e2.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540116.8215" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="330"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31901146672/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5628/31901146672_139e4b82f4.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540086.1462" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>This is a serious tourist area. They sold beer on Sunday and took credit cards for payment, where we have been operating on a cash-only basis up to now. However, I suppose no-one is going to bring a stack of Sri Lanka Rupee to buy a Tag Heuer. Which raises a question I ask honestly, and with a bit of snark: who the hell travels to Galle, Sri Lanka to buy a Tag Heuer? What is the economics of a Cartier store in Galle?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31931349991/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/286/31931349991_a7e73e7318_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540110.4412" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31901154842/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/465/31901154842_409224f2ed.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540129.1226" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>This was the middle stop on our beach tour. We spent a few days (including New Year's Eve) in Tangalle, a beach town about 60km to the east. The beach was a little less tame here than ideal, but the sand was soft and the water warm.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31931355021/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/770/31931355021_36179e29c6.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540077.6973" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31931357631/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/558/31931357631_e4b17d59e0.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540133.6843" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>Tangalle itself had a colorful fishing port, and not much else. The 2004 Tsunami hit this area pretty hard, noted by both the occasional cairn 5 or 6 meters above the current sea showing the wave height, and by the significant number of semi-demolished buildings interspersed between the new builds and restored structures, even 12 years later. A stark reminder that more then 40,000 people in Sri Lanka were killed by the Boxing Day Tsunami.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32010343696/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5755/32010343696_86b20ab68c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540099.8425" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31239456273/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5512/31239456273_7b24d2a6cd.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540120.0435" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31208490424/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/270/31208490424_7089f4900e.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540144.9756" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><p>We travelled up the beach in an other spectacularly decorated bus driven by the ghost of Andrea de Cesaris, with what appeared to be the pelt of the Cookie Monster covering the dash. Wildest $3 carnival ride of my life.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32010363746/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/750/32010363746_0ee7850aee.jpg" id="blogsy-1483359540105.7725" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></a></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-18686698510053621002017-01-01T06:48:00.001-08:002017-01-01T06:48:14.827-08:00Lion, and other fluids. <p>No beach and sun vacation is complete without beer, much to the chagrin of my one Twitter troll (who spends half his time advocating for freer pot rules, and the other half critcizing me for even mentioning the existence of beer). </p><p>In Sri Lanka, beer means Lion. Lion makes a ubiquitous lager, and the occasional stout, apparently. You can get a Tiger from Singapore or licensed big-name brews from Europe, but <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">if you walk into a place that sells beer, and ask for a beer, you are generally given a Lion Lager. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31878592302/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/391/31878592302_0bc4426ec5.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092691.9333" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="332"></a></div><p>It isn't a bad beer, as far as tropically-brewed big-market lagers go. Clean, malty, a trace of hops, clearly corn in there somewhere. Best served and enjoyed very cold on a very hot day, with a bit of sand between your toes, which is generally how we enjoyed it.<br></p><p>The most interesting thing about beer in Sri Lanka is that it isn't advertised. You drive through towns with numerous signs advertising milk products, internet service, and re-bar (there is an incredible abundance of re-bar advertising), but you *never* see a beer advertisement.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31216947423/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/463/31216947423_fb18a4195d.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092643.6956" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="307"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/32026622435/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/711/32026622435_00c7351113.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092694.9902" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="347"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31909833641/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/435/31909833641_33821bc3af.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092674.9275" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="329"></a></div><p>It is only remarkable in it absence, when you come from a society like North America where beer ads are perhaps (to my troll's point) overwhelming. </p><p>Our host in Kandy mentioned the reducing alcoholism is one of his 4 priorities for the new President's term (along with kidney health, food security, and environmental protection), although I cannot pretend to know how much of the current booze culture is a recent reflection of this, or a reflection of larger cultural attitudes. </p><p>For example, we realized early on when we were in Colombo that there isn't really a locals restaurant/bar/coffee shop culture. We had read in guide books that Sri Lankans eat at mostly home, not a restaurants, but didn't appreciate the impact on the street of that. In Singapore, we were always surrounded by stalls, restaurants, coffee shops where people were sitting near or on the street eating food or drinking coffee. Some of our most memorable moments on other trips (Trinidad in Cuba, or Bangkok pop to mind instantly) is just sitting in a bar or a restaurant next to a busy street watching the world go by. </p><p>Out side of the areas of Sri Lanka where tourists from Europe fill the seats, that just doesn't seem to exist. So restaurants are few and relatively far between, and "pubs" the way we may think of them in Canada simply do not exist.</p><p>Beer is also not sold in most restaurants on Sunday, or the full moon ("poya"). The only place to buy beer retail is at a Wine Store. These are not government run, but are clearly very prescriptive in their operation. The sign is always green with white text, and again, no advertising aside from their apparently government-issue sign. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31216964983/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/293/31216964983_642f9039c2.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092635.2803" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="331"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31186056004/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/439/31186056004_aa54f7a275.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092690.0537" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="345"></a> </div><p>Here booze is behind a steel bar wall, and there is (aside from the sign) rarely any sign of wine. Beer and the local distilled-from-palms spirit ("arrack") are the main products. Of course, they are closed on Sunday and poya, and the few times we actually popped by one to buy a bottle of Lion, we discovered they are pretty exclusively a male domane. </p><p>So we aren't drinking much beer, and the coffee has been pretty terrible outside of pure tourist spots. We have been drinking a lot of tea (although I cannot get into the heavy-cream heavy-sugar Sri Lankan style), and the occasional bottle of Cola to keep our caffeine addiction slated. Ginger beer is a common throw-back to the colonial Sri Lanka, and we found it sharply flavored and not too sweet. </p><p>Finally, fruit juices are everywhere. Lime is great for cutting the heat when enjoying curry, but for the most part, a meal is completed with some fresh-squeezed mixed fruit cocktail. If it has yoghurt, it's a Lasse, if not it usually has some banana for texture. Super refreshing, and probably the only real fiber we are getting in our diet. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31216975403/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/340/31216975403_2347fee330.jpg" id="blogsy-1483282092718.5122" class="alignnone" width="500" height="298" alt=""></a></div><p>I could write an essay on Sri Lankan breakfasts, but I'm just going to sit here and enjoy it.</p><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-68045473354573329422016-12-29T18:19:00.001-08:002016-12-29T18:19:46.803-08:00Road to the beach<p>We are headed to the south coast. We have seen the jungle, the busy cities, a bit of the history and more than a few temples, it is time to get some R&R, sun & sand. But the south coast where we are headed is 150km as the crow flies, or 300km by road, from where we are, which is probably 12 hours travel by bus. More like buses. We will do this in two phases.</p><p>*note, all the tourist guides will tell you the proper way to get from Kandy to Ella is the train, as it is the better way to enjoy spectacular tea country. Therefore, tickets for that train are neigh impossible to attain. We tried for three days, stood in lines in various train stations, several other people even tried on our behalf. Not going to happen. That said, our trip by bus through yet same mountains was cloudy and rainy, so who knows if we missed anything?*</p><p>Day 1 we went 140km from Kandy to Ella, about 5.5 hours traveling time, plus an hour waiting for a bus change at Badulla. </p><p>We were riding regional buses for this leg of the trip. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The entire 2-leg 140km trip cost 214 rupee each, about $2.50 Canadian (not including the 200r we paid for samosas, vadai, and paratha for a snack). </span>What they lacked in creature comfort they made up for in decoration and character. And horn volume. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31854470041/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/562/31854470041_0610ed3ff2.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382422.7583" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The roads were generally good, and definitely improved in the second half where it seems they graded prior to paving, not an effort they took for the first half. The countryside was spectacular, even in shifting clouds and rain. The roads twisted up and over hills and along deep valleys. We were surrounded by tea plantations, rice paddies, even the occasional cornfield. The bus only occasionally stopped to let locals on and off in the varying villages and road stops along the way. This was a Super Express, after all.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31934061536/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5656/31934061536_8c8c1984f2.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382429.2058" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>The wait at Badulla where we changed buses was pleasantly broken up by a parade. What appeared to be several boys' and girls' schools marching bands marched past playing drums, accordion, and melodica. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31131017434/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/311/31131017434_471f5f4373.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382371.3215" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>As with every other trip we have taken in Sri Lanka, the driver stopped once to make an offering and a prayer at a roadside shrine (in this case, Bhuddist).</p><p>We pulled into Ella, and quickly realized we were out of the backwoods and into tourist town. The town is little more than a stretch of tourist services and slightly confused Europeans. It may not have helped that we arrived shortly after the train *that everyone must not miss* arrived, but the bars and restaurants were full of people of varying language. Actually, the fact there was a plethora of bars and restaurants made it somewhat unique.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31131021154/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/680/31131021154_92a7042018.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382359.3196" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="342"></a> </div><p>The setting, however, is spectacular. To give you a sense, this is the view from our guest house.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31597444860/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/686/31597444860_3153040557.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382435.662" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>So we enjoyed a nice dinner, a restful sleep, and a spectacular breakfast before bus journey part 2, to get other actual beach, just as the rain seemed to be settling into Ella.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31970883985/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5572/31970883985_045a541a54.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382395.2524" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a> </div><p>We caught a stuffed local bus to Wallawya (27km, 1 hour, 60 ruppee). There were no seats but the high volume Sinhalese Pop music was free with the fare. With the twistiness of the road and extreme grades, it was probably good we couldn't always see out the window.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31597456980/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5793/31597456980_d680eff3f7.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382375.7043" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="373"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31597461290/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/421/31597461290_27fc79d338.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382362.0574" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>At Wallawaya, we switch to a more stuffed express bus to Tangalle (~120km, 3 hours, 200 ruppee). The land flattened out as we approached the coast, and the temperature steadily rose. We have left the mountains and the rainy forest behind, and entered coastal wetlands where waterbufflo seem most at ease (probably unaware of the ginormous saltwater crocodiles in these parts).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31970908855/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5687/31970908855_b31a1735d8.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382420.272" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>And the wheels of the bus went round and round.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31970916325/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/344/31970916325_6c4d2d40a2_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382396.7625" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="665"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Until at Tangalle, where we found the beach.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31970922675/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/733/31970922675_3987ecc704.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382434.8203" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Which probably means updates here will become less frequent...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31161703143/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/325/31161703143_74e9a9de10.jpg" id="blogsy-1483064382430.5088" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-20491562065603851372016-12-28T18:30:00.001-08:002016-12-28T18:30:20.400-08:00Kandy<p>Traveling south in the more mountainous interior, we have spent a couple of days in Kandy. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31801402512/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/744/31801402512_22687f464b.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616275.4668" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="310"></a></div><p>All roads leading to Kandy are curving and swooping (I could see myself coming back here with a road bike and spending a week just riding hills - supercharged by Tuktuk exhaust). The city centre is nestled around a narrow lake, but the rest of the town sprawls across the steep surrounding jungle slopes like a Japanese landscape painting. I can only infer the lake is man-made as the main street leading to the train station and impressive rugby green is *downhill* from the lake.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31948850945/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/597/31948850945_af7ec92a85.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616287.9033" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="345"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31139744913/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/452/31139744913_7e10e15431.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616233.7593" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="343"></a> </div><p>This is tea country. The hills surrounding Kandy are where the tea that made Ceylon a household name in England is grown and processed. Appropriately enough, we visited a historic tea factory not far from our guest house. </p><p>The factory demonstrates how tea was processed in the late 1800s at the peak of the British empire. From winnowing the leaf to grinding, fermenting, drying, sorting and grading, featuring all the cool archaic 1880's machine technology and an actual working 1:100 scale model of the process.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31948857955/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5536/31948857955_aa7d243feb.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616315.3623" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="316"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31948862345/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/627/31948862345_677c93127d.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616276.8345" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="331"></a> </div><p>Of course, there was much discussion about how all tea in the world comes from a single species of plant, but the terroir imparts important and distinctive characteristics which can be enhanced or modified with various processing techniques. I am reminded and impressed, once again, the endless human capacity for geeking out about the details of something as simple as boiling leaves in water to make it taste better.</p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31801416922/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5598/31801416922_49e7805597.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616297.6313" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31801418332/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5493/31801418332_9671e02ffd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616286.06" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="321"></a> </div><p>The other claim to fame in Kandy is the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic. This shrine houses what has been interpreted to be a "left tooth" of the Buddah himself. Apparently scavenged from his funeral pyre, this dental totem was spirited off to Sri Lanka 800 years later, and has historically been known to take a somewhat interventionist attitude toward royalty in Sri Lanka, amongst other miracles.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31911859026/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/520/31911859026_b673ed62b1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616234.0378" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31139765983/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/455/31139765983_3c0bcb939f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616285.5432" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="456"></a></div><p>The temple grounds where the tooth is preserved (in a series of protective cases, covered with a gilded roof, behind the opulent curtain above) are an important pilgimage for Sri Lankan Bhuddists, and is located on the picturesque lakeshore in the centre of Kandy.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31139768903/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/772/31139768903_7b78c22037.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616287.572" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="328"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31911869346/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/597/31911869346_e65deb8fcf.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616235.643" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We also found beer in Kandy (there was no beer to be had in Sigiriya, it being Sunday and Christmas and all) which helped with the humid heat. Memorable meal #3 came from the Moslem Hotel, which was curiously out of most menu items in the middle of the day, but made a killer biryani and spicy samosas, all washed down with a fresh lime juice!</p><p>We enjoyed the afternoon just walking around the lake, seeing some of the local wildlife hanging around the trees...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31832544241/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/447/31832544241_ddb6d50257.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616275.8054" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>... and enjoyed some of the unique architecture and sights of a pretty little city, completely mired by noisy, stinky traffic. Progress.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31832546721/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/450/31832546721_6c5272203f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616337.6936" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="349"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31832550341/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/449/31832550341_8fdcc7b5c0.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616270.6443" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31139793483/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5603/31139793483_2b1b9af70d_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616286.5269" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="751"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31948907725/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/492/31948907725_cf15eb37f4.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616273.594" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31109089204/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/538/31109089204_f5e334b3d1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616269.199" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="326"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31109090924/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/508/31109090924_a5e184abed.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616290.6062" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>Then saw an evening performance of traditional dance and drumming, which is what tourists do. The drummers were excellent, and the dancers were athletic / graceful as per their assigned gender roles. There were some remarkable acrobatics, and even some expert plate spinning. A well-spent hour!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31575890980/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/700/31575890980_eae39c2b10.jpg" id="blogsy-1482978616338.1663" class="alignnone" width="500" height="292" alt=""></a></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-5732788128690749462016-12-27T17:38:00.001-08:002016-12-27T17:38:19.964-08:00Sigiriya<p>As we shift south towards higher country, we spent Christmas Day in the tiny village of Sigiriya, which is named after a much larger ancient city, which was located at the base of a 150m-high flat top rock that was home to a temple/palace of the same name.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887613636/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/673/31887613636_3546636bf4.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095710.585" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>For tourists and locals alike, traveling to the top of Sigiriya to visit the ruins of that palace is quite the popular endeavor. We woke up early to be at the trailhead at 8:00, hoping to beat the worst of the sun, and of the crowds.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887616256/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/304/31887616256_2c9faa0b53.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095669.8027" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The rock is a very attractive pre-Cambrian quartz feldspathic gneiss, with some areas rich in garnets as big as your thumb:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887619566/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/691/31887619566_f5c47407aa.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095701.185" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">But no-one is here to look at the rocks. The walk up is built of brick steps, of steel stairs with some grades verging upon ladders, and the occasional strange steel step hybrid. All around is evidence of the steps and shelves carved into the walls by the iron-age founders of the mountain top temple, presumably dug to support rope and wood ladders or staircases.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887622986/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/279/31887622986_d79e1f7f46.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095679.5664" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>At places, there are rock overhangs where 1000-year-old frescoes are preserved, depicting either celestial nymphs, or King Kassapa's concubines, depending on who you ask. How the hell the artists got to the shallow hollows halfway down a sheer 150m cliff to lollygag about painting nymphs is not clear, nor is how any presumed audience would get here...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887625006/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5458/31887625006_e0feb9a88e.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095705.6887" class="alignnone" alt="" width="488" height="275"></a> </div><p>The most harrowing part of the climb is from the first platform to the top, a section you enter by walking between the lions paws, which is a pretty Indiana Jones kinda way to go anywhere...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887629686/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5777/31887629686_f10ee9204f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095668.4897" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Archeologists are pretty sure the paws are the remains of a large lion figure that created an imposing entrance to the palace. Interpretations differ on what the lion's head actually looked like.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887634986/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/538/31887634986_95b09819a4.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095718.9429" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><p>At the top is a couple of hectares of relatively flat plateau, where from ~400ad to ~1300ad, a palace stood. All that remains are some foundations, staircases, garden walls and pools, all 150m above the surrounding countryside. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887642516/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/341/31887642516_641152f6cb.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095662.4937" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31924555935/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/411/31924555935_aedd4d6113.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095681.854" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31084753864/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/576/31084753864_73ba8a2f51.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095695.5405" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We spent probably an hour on the site, then started down just as the tourist busses arrived. The difference between 8am and 10am is notable.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887664846/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5764/31887664846_50716a0889_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095654.5542" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31887672036/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/545/31887672036_b306b8f094_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095658.3806" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><p>That evening we hiked up a nearby hill called Pidurangala, which was an easy 20-minute scramble to the bare mountaintop. Up there we were provided sunset views of the nearby Sigiriya and the spectacular jungles and farms of the surrounding countryside.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31084769334/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/763/31084769334_0c1702848e.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095688.6345" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>Christmas dinner was curries served from clay pots in a dirt-floored thatched-roof hut, served by a very pregnant woman (which made the environment uncomfortably manger-like).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31808228591/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/497/31808228591_815e1ca7a5_b.jpg" id="blogsy-1482889095693.8286" class="alignnone" width="488" height="651" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">There was no turkey, but the pumpkin curry was out of this world.</div><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-40843219787803171852016-12-25T01:22:00.001-08:002016-12-25T01:22:52.603-08:00Christmas Eve<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31743911291/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/560/31743911291_515d876a10.jpg" id="blogsy-1482657764197.4893" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Christmas Eve we went to Kaudulla National Park, and we saw elephants. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31487548560/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/436/31487548560_b6a5d2d0d6.jpg" id="blogsy-1482657764217.0315" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="323"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31487574110/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/370/31487574110_bdbaf1df26.jpg" id="blogsy-1482657764163.1191" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="330"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Not much else to say, because what can you add to elephants?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31822770556/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5796/31822770556_3e5d571ba5.jpg" id="blogsy-1482657764138.3247" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="317"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Hope everyone has a great Christmas. We are hitting Sigiria on Christmas Day, then a stopover in Kandy before we book it the beaches of the southern coast to do some serious relaxing. Peace and love, everyone!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31487600240/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5347/31487600240_ce38ff48c8.jpg" id="blogsy-1482657764146.3672" class="alignnone" width="500" height="318" alt=""></a></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-37280802944832625902016-12-24T09:05:00.001-08:002016-12-24T09:05:17.790-08:00Anuradhapura<p>All full up of bustle for now, we got out of town to the City of Anuradhapura, which is just north of of the centre of Sri Lanka, sorta like a Singalese Prince George, but with monkeys.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31472716780/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5465/31472716780_d2f74ef8ff.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113615.8015" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We sped past some spectacular beaches (more time for that later), and arrived in town early enough to catch a Tuktuk out of town to Mihintale, a temple complex dating back to 250 b.c. which, according to legend, is the place Bhuddism was first established in Ceylon.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035660393/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5325/31035660393_788216edb7.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113620.796" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We stopped first to get an unexpected tour from out Tuktuk driver of Kaludiya Pokuna, or "black water pool", an ancient (~300ad) constructed water reservoir which serviced an adjacent boathouse for monks. They build directly onto and under the adjacent rocks, as they were probably cooling, and had some pretty advanced plumbing systems.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31005048574/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5593/31005048574_2fd7dddef6_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113574.9062" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31472784660/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/604/31472784660_7dd9609eae.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113644.8074" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035717533/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/744/31035717533_2925fc1c91.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113585.7231" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>The countryside here is generally low, and Mihintale represents a bit of a highland, with a few very prominent rocks that define the Temple area. On several of them, Dagoba had been build (some currently in ruin, several meticulously restored). To visit the complex, one climbs 1,843 granite steps, passing through several landings, where important historic/legend events occurred, and through the ruins of 2,000 years of monestary technology.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31845645845/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/621/31845645845_91de34f6fb_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113639.4495" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><p>Your reward for 1,843 steps are a rock prominary with views of the surrounding countryside, a large Dagoba, and a large Buddah for which to offer your blessings. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31472851490/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5513/31472851490_defdd7a032.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113644.9229" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We were fortunate to be there at sunset. I mean really, can you beat this? </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31729372681/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/739/31729372681_4cb2e4ac91.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113597.704" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>We are staying at a small guesthouse just outside of Anuradhapura, appropriately called "Heaven Upon Rice Fields". I always expected the roadway to heaven to be better paved, and less festooned with stray dogs, but with the sunrise, I saw the point they were trying to make.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31729391511/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/355/31729391511_7a0468e944.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113625.869" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>The area around Anuradhapura is rich in ancient history. It was a capital city of Sri Lanka for about 1,000 years beginning ~300 b.c., and through a series of legendary kings, massive infrastructure was built. These works were seemingly left to the jungle after the capital shifted to Polonnaruwa, but over the last 1000 years, archaeology and restoration have been extensive.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31005206594/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5757/31005206594_b6023d8bfe.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113622.9702" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035839263/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5615/31035839263_4456a60bd2.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113628.7886" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="344"></a> </div><p>There are many restored Dagoba, and other semi-restored areas. Here is a temple housing the most holy site (to Bhuddists) in Sri Lanka: the sacred bodhi tree. Grown by monks from a sapling brought here from India, the tree has been meticulously cared for over more than 1,000 years. It is surrounded by protected trees grown from cuttings of the holy tree, all well protected. There were crowds of pilgrims here to pray at the tree, and to provide the requisite offerings.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035864583/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/526/31035864583_cc68fc874c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113663.2083" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31698520402/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/259/31698520402_7d847fc150.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113615.3977" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>Surrounding the preserved and protected temple sites are hundreds of acres of forest, well tended by random cows and administered by roving gangs of monkeys. The local gneissic rock, cut into pillars, was a well used building material of the ancient city, and everywhere you look, they stand as sentinels demarking the size and scale of the ancient city.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035928933/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5583/31035928933_699f0686e5.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113610.358" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035968543/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5571/31035968543_a64687b182.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113670.6096" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="338"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31035991383/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/261/31035991383_e3abc5bb6e.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113655.781" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="340"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31729576541/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/586/31729576541_b84f346bbb.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113585.9727" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>We spend most of the day riding bicycles around the expansive site, tempting heat stroke and death-by-Tuktuk, and visiting the occasional impromptu roadside market to enjoy the contrast between woven and carved local goods and over-wrapped chinese junk. A cold colonial Coca-Cola was appreciated, though.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31005406474/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/711/31005406474_e818d88dbd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113619.6875" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="335"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31036058273/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/313/31036058273_05866b82c3.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113660.8816" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31808121016/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/289/31808121016_7b062d4d4a.jpg" id="blogsy-1482599113650.299" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-57268595012164609352016-12-23T04:56:00.001-08:002016-12-23T04:56:56.604-08:00Colombo day 2<p>Colombo is the main city of Sri Lanka, the financial and business capital, even if the legislative capital is technically in a suburb. With something like 5 million people, it is a big city by Canadian Standards, but only a decent sized town for for Asia.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31784717736/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/413/31784717736_23721a4916.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813154.219" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>On our second day, we headed into the heart of the City, an area called Pettah where all the parts that make a City are located: the train station, the old City Hall, and the main markets. We asked out Tuktuk driver to drop us at the Main Market (knowing there was more than one) and he obviously dropped us at the brand new, floating, tourist t-shirt shop markets, which were devoid of shoppers on this warm mid-day in late December.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31449486490/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/631/31449486490_2758df02de.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813190.3174" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Fortunately, the Manning Market was right across the street. This is essentially the wholesale fruit and vegetable market for the City. It is papaya and banana season (perhaps bananas are always in season?) </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30981457174/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/746/30981457174_72aeb83060.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813130.2683" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="327"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31705909461/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/692/31705909461_0eb0848e96.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813194.2908" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="336"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">But this was clearly a wholesale place, no-one tried to hawk us those enormous bundles we saw spread around. There are more than 20 varieties of bananas grown in Sri Lanka, although we only distinguished between the fat yellow ones (sweeter) and the long skinny green ones (more flavor). But I'm not expert. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">They also had meat. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31705914921/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/667/31705914921_03582708d8.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813188.9434" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="320"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> On the other side of Manning Market is the real heart of Pettah, where dozens of small cross-crossing streets are as stuffed full of commerce and humanity as one can imagine. The streets are, in places, only 10 of 12 feet wide, with goods in the shops pouring out onto the street such that barely two Tuktuks can pass. It is loud, chaotic, and bustling.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31705921631/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5540/31705921631_0e0ee07e4b_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813230.682" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="542"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30981473384/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/497/30981473384_ae22d841a0.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813225.584" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The street are somewhat organized - it is clear when you are in the textile street, or the electronics street, or even the bicycle district. There are so many people working and selling, it is hard to tell how much is retail and how much I'd wholesale. The goods are plentiful, and being moved around by handcart and well-decorated transport trucks that kind of feel their way through the bustling crowd. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30981477074/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5522/30981477074_b8a0f2fde3_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813156.693" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="612"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30981481654/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/743/30981481654_f0ded7b927_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813213.599" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">How many times have I said "bustle" now? I need a thesaurus. </span>Around every corner, there was a treat, like this remarkable mosque:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31705941571/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5525/31705941571_322f0784be_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813197.8335" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Or the old Municipal Hall, which is not longer used, but where amongst tattered town plans and scattered historic photos, there is a boardroom featuring wax versions of previous mayors, being preserved for some sort of posterity:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31012616863/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/651/31012616863_a117912138.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813200.7324" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">I suddenly felt ashamed that in a City with such strong traditions as New Westminster, not one former mayor has been sculpted in wax and bagged for display at City Hall. A project for my return. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We found a hole-in-the-wall "Hotel" for lunch. In Sri Lanka, the word is used to denote a small family-run restaurant, or a place to rent rooms, or both. This was the former. It was every bit as sketchy looking as you would expect, but after being ushered upstairs, we had our first truly memorable meal of the trip. Rice, a spice mix of caramelized onions and shaved coconuts, a couple of curries that were only a bit hot but stuffed full of complex flavours, and a Ginger Beer to take the heat off. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31784772326/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/569/31784772326_f672dcd0ea.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813175.926" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="500"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Culture shock now properly overcome, we started to see the beauty of the place. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31675049252/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/530/31675049252_1074348ed7.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813160.4375" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">On our way back to the guest house, we wandered through a few park areas, and enjoyed the cooling evening. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31675055002/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/682/31675055002_6878cc5c32.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813150.342" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> And as the sun set, we noticed something familiar from home. Large flocks of crows sweeping through the sky, no unlike what you see in Burnaby on a summer sunset. Except these bird were bigger than crows, and had a funny wing shape and... holy shit those are bats!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31675059902/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5700/31675059902_09e05b7acd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482497813212.935" class="alignnone" width="500" height="317" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> Apparently, "flying foxes" in this part of the world have wingspans as big as 5 feet, and bodies the size of a house cat. Fortunately, they are fruit bats, not blood suckers or crime fighters. But holy shit...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-77512740979560879792016-12-21T21:47:00.001-08:002016-12-21T21:47:16.316-08:00Colombo arrival<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We left Singapore on a red-eye half way across the Indian Ocean, and landed early in the morning in the capital city of Sri Lanka. The main destination for this trip is the island of Ceylon, where we hope to mix some jungle and beach time, see some ancient temples, eat some fresh curries and dip our toes into the Indian subcontinent in the gentlest way possible. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31681192491/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/270/31681192491_9a0620cfff.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631282.2393" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Colombo Transportation Demand Management is nothing like Singapore: </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31797472105/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5641/31797472105_a2ba3709e0.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631290.014" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="296"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">CcWe are staying in a nice guest house on a surprisingly quiet back street a few blocks from the University, which puts us about 3-4km from downtown. Arriving early in the day, We enjoyed a short walk around the neighbourhood and stumbled upon an expansive park where the monument to Sri Lanka independence is located.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30987928513/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/718/30987928513_11e8a009b9.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631278.377" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="275"></font></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><font color="#000000"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30956744794/" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/675/30956744794_b7cbffabf4.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631346.5627" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="312"></a> </span></font></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is attached to a retail mall of sorts, converted from an old "insane asylum", where we enjoyed our first dark, strong, Ceylon tea with lunch as the day heated up and humidity climbed. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31425102370/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5614/31425102370_cb1cbe5d51.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631295.3315" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="304"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Turns out the are we are staying in also hosts the University of Colombo, a fair smattering of Government Offices, and the home of various sporting institutions. Cricket, hockey (of the non-ice variety) and rugby were all around us. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30956750814/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/698/30956750814_a9c57ae808.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631320.8962" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="347"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760356656/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/312/31760356656_3b259a1fdd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631327.8418" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="305"></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">After getting the feel of our neighbourhood, we caught a Tuktuk into town to visit the old Fort area and to enjoy a walk on the beach at sunset. Which all sounds idyllic, until you remember we are in Sri Lanka, which is crazy. And I don't even know where to start. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31681211931/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/345/31681211931_67aab7318e.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631352.5796" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There is a large waterfront park called Galle Face, and everyone is here to enjoy the sunset. There are many signs warning against entering the water (the dangers were strangely both vague and specific), but many kids and parents were enjoying playing in the sandy surf below the sea wall. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760361366/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/488/31760361366_21d1fa5272.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631332.3303" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There was an aging pier extending out into sea, from which one could enjoy creating nightmares for marine engineers worldwide. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760363906/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5645/31760363906_4d505754a7.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631285.7952" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">There was a large steel Christmas tree being installed in the park. This was the 20th of September, and it was reportedly meant to be in place before the 23rd, although progress appeared slow (our host expressing some skepticism regarding its completion before the 25th). The construction of the two 50-story towers right next door seemed a little less frantic.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31681218011/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/416/31681218011_d3224038e1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631317.8726" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="358"></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The sunset was beautiful, the food hawkers were working hard, crowds of young families and scene-minding teens were milling about. There was the usual music, kids games, lots of kites being flown, the traffic was loud and chaotic, the sounds, the smells, and the sights were constantly shifting. There were a few things that would make sense later, but for now, we just found a place to sip a Lion Lager and let the culture shock sink in.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31681219871/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5717/31681219871_28b2a2dd99.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631358.0247" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></font></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760371506/" target="_blank" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/405/31760371506_1e090c03de.jpg" id="blogsy-1482385631293.2207" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></font></a></div><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-46469559872511983212016-12-21T07:55:00.001-08:002016-12-21T07:55:02.124-08:00Singapore wrap<p>We only had 3 full days in Singapore, which is a ridiculously short time to get to know any City, but here are our quick take-aways:</p><p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31785685455/" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/418/31785685455_f0e1511ac2.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700528.1436" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="354"></a></p><p>The City was ridiculously easy to visit. The transit system makes it easy and cheap to get around, the streets are safe (just don't try to cross them against a light) and everything is comfortable. Singapore has a bit of a "law and order" reputation, but it is hard to tell if the apparent orderliness is a result of the hefty fines posted for every crime from jaywalking to carrying a durian onto the MTS, or it is just a cultural attitude that grew from making a City of so much diversity livable. During three days out and about, I only remember seeing a police officer once, and that was a small group of young cops riding the train one day.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31638414662/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5350/31638414662_8c4db69d4c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700475.9595" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>It is clear Singapore is all business, and the business of Singapore is business. The glass towers of the CBD (Merryl Lynch, CitiBank, all the usual characters) were quiet on the Saturday we wandered through first, giving us the sense it was a dead downtown? Re-visiting around lunch time on Monday, it was hustling and bustling with people in corporate wear, and the sushi bars and CrossFit centers that prey open them.</p><p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30944537524/" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/295/30944537524_6f89549dff.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700504.3335" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></p><p>However, it is clear the other real business of Singapore is shopping. It was hard to escape the feeling the entire City is a series of air-conditioned Malls. From the dazzling and gigantic Marina Bay development (under that cricket-wicket-boat-in-the-sky hotel) to the sprawling metropolis of Orchard Park Road, which only serves to connect malls. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We are traveling light, so shopping wasn't our goal, but if you need a Gucci bag or new Swiss wristwatch, I know a place...</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30976069643/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/478/30976069643_d380650c49_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700508.1548" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Fortunately, they have not completely replaced the older markets, like Tikka Place in little India where we tended to have our breakfast or random meal from one of the Hawker stalls. It was everything you expect from a public market in the tropics: piles of fresh fruits and vegetables, some very unfamiliar, and fresh seafood of every shape, size and species.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31669478211/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/753/31669478211_2b6af3bd7e.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700536.8452" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="339"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31669481821/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/698/31669481821_618c875ec0.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700537.2085" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>Which brings us to the topic we were most looking forward to about Singapore: the food. The Hawker food and noodles are what makes Singapore famous, and we were only a little disappointed. We had good biryani, decent Indian food, some nice Thai dishes, watched our breakfast parati get hand-made by the hardest working man in Tikka, and generally grazed at Hawker stalls for cold drinks and snacks.<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30944560974/" target="_blank"><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/615/30944560974_ecdd37e149.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700471.321" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="335"></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30976086263/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5512/30976086263_84fa0f5129.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700457.1218" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>But this is not the street food of Thailand or Vietnam. In a City of rules, the Hawkers are concentrated in markets or designated and dedicated hawker areas, with fixed stands and pretty repetitive menues, more like the food truck areas of Portland. The food was plentiful, fairly cheap, and there was indeed food from around Asia, prepared by people from all over Asia, but I am hard-pressed to think of a single meal that stood out like the Tom Yum in Chiang Mai, papaya salad on Ko Samui or the Bun Bo in Hue.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31669490641/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/593/31669490641_bfb3e66116.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700525.955" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="356"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We did find a couple of decent beers, but paid $17 for pints, and a lot of not-so-good beer sells for $12 a pint, so we took the $17 option the few times it was presented to us.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">In many ways, Singapore was more like a diverse and exotic big American City than it is like Kuala Lumpur or Shanghai. It has none of the murky disorder of a Bangkok, or the endless concrete canyon feel of New York. the powpulation diversity is such that you might think you were in Downtown Vancouver, except for the heat, and everyone was so polite (in 3 days, I don't think I heard one person honk a car horn). The neighborhoods were walkable and distinct, and the hills small and insignificant. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">So, basically, Toronto. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Edit: Tig actually drew a better comparison. It is a dynamic City on a river, with hawker food areas, lots of great public space, progressive transportation, but still living the American Dream, if in a quirky way. Maybe it is more of a Portland.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31638433072/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/714/31638433072_e04dc4143f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482335700475.0208" class="alignnone" width="500" height="331" alt=""></a></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-79523245783989480412016-12-20T01:14:00.001-08:002016-12-20T01:14:23.614-08:00Singapore day 3 <p>We decided to get a little extra sleep on day 3, as it was ending up with us catching a midnight flight to Sri Lanka. We also thought it might be a good after three days of mostly being outdoors in the equatorial heat, we might want to spend some time on the other side of these: </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760242485/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/732/31760242485_2f8929743d.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261855.884" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>Not being shoppers, we went off to the museums instead of the malls. Specifically, the Asian Civilizations Museum, and the Singapore City Gallery. </p><p>I did not take any pictures in the former, as it just wasn't that kind of place. It was the kind of place where spectacular artifacts from 3,000 years of (mostly southeast) Asian cultures are on display, along with many items related to the variety of civilizations that have relied on trade through the Straits of Malacca. Paintings, textiles, furniture, gold, silver, jade, ivory, and a dizzying array of ceramics. Highlights may be the entire recovered cargo of a 3rd century ship found on the bottom of the Straits, encrusted in coral. </p><p>The Singapore City Gallery is not a gallery of traditional arts, but of the darkest, most mysterious art of all: City Planning! A City growing as rapidly as Singapore, in a country as rigidly managed by government as Singapore, needs a strong City Plan and vision to be successful. People who know me (why would anyone else be reading this?) know I can geek out on a good City Plan.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30950472503/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5532/30950472503_db4a24b352.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261773.902" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="410"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Housed on the bottom couple of floors of the Urban Development Agency, which appears to be a combination of the City's Planning and Economic Development departments with a bit of an entrepreneurial edge, here is where all of the plans large and small for the development of a City of 17 Million are on display. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">It was also a well presented display on how the City got to be the way it is, a bit of promotion for the successes of the City (transportation, water supply, garbage collection, etc.), and a bit of an explanation of the planning process. I loved some of the interactive displays such as this one, where you could drag the sliders to divide the city up into different proportions of low-density housing, high-density development, and preserved green spaces, then watch what complaint bubbles pop up with every choice:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31644004631/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/475/31644004631_7f9b8ff3c1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261845.2761" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="287"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31613278712/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/431/31613278712_36d02a99ac.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261816.042" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="300"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">There was an obvious theme to the Gallery that came across pretty clearly:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31644007721/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/715/31644007721_98a83130e1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261800.4175" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31722829916/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/317/31722829916_9466a31334_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261801.896" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="522"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">If I was geeking out before, I went into geek overdrive with the 1:5000 wood model of the entire island, here I lord over the Central Business District:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31644010291/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/438/31644010291_a0e5d62261.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261791.5222" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="348"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">...until I went upstairs and saw the entire "City Centre" was rendered in highly detailed 1:400 scale! To get a sense of the City Plans, the bare wood buildings in the model in front of me are the ones not yet build, but already planned: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760255775/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/257/31760255775_0a8b41efdf.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261841.6091" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="357"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> And here is Tig pointing out where our hotel in Little India is rendered:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31760257975/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/589/31760257975_ffd4a0b7b1.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261861.4949" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="385"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">What a geek. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Getting around has been really easy, as we have been relying on the MTS, a network of 5 medium-weight driverless electric trains that cover the island pretty extensively.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31722836206/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/622/31722836206_043ab39c27.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261814.0042" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="348"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The trains are connected by spacious multi-level underground stations in the City Centre, and fares (through a Compass-card and fare-gate type system) are generally between $1 and $3 per ride. The entire system was super efficient with frequent trains and really easy to navigate system maps and stations. The trains were occasionally crowded, which is something to say considering the trains were wide and some were so long, it was difficult to see the far end on a mostly-empty train. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30950491703/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/570/30950491703_0f56fbf324_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482225261855.8328" class="alignnone" width="500" height="557" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><span style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">There are also three smaller LRT loops in outer districts, and construction of line expansions and an entire new line are ongoing. Enough investment in public transit to make any City Councillor geek out. </span></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-47637083319818285522016-12-19T22:20:00.001-08:002016-12-19T22:20:34.302-08:00Singapore day 2b <p><em> 2b because sketchy software or wifi made me lose the first, much more elegant and insightful version of this post</em>... </p><p>Still not time-zone optimized, we woke early on our second day and after grabbing a Hawker breakfast, we hopped on the MTS and rode out to the Southern Ridges parks. These are a series of low forested ridges just north of the mother of all container ports built on reclaimed land west of the main City Centre. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31641966231/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5711/31641966231_3533e76fd6.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830961.4292" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The ridges are connected by surface trails, minor roads, and elevated walkways up in the jungle canopy. We managed to stretch a 4.5km walk to probably twice that length, moving along the ridges through thick jungle and the cacophony of jungle critter noises, all the time catching views of massive residential developments, close and far, beside, above and below us. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31720784866/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5724/31720784866_65e92fa846.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830884.6055" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30916483794/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/278/30916483794_8f6a5fc918.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830962.81" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30948405193/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/657/30948405193_e48470a81a.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830984.7036" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">On the way to the high point, 105m Mount Faber, we crossed a couple of interesting pedestrian bridges spanning deep cuts in the ridge lines with ubiquitous race-track multi-lane freeways. The Alexandra Arch was pretty:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31758124015/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5663/31758124015_c1810874dd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830923.599" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> ...but held nothing to a bridge called Henderson Waves, which is simply one of the nicest public spaces I have ever visited. It is a swoopy, curvy bridge, clad in some sort of exotic weather-defying hardwood, built to change grades through subtle slope shifts that are almost imperceptible while walking along, but create a "wavy" surface expression. Along the couple-of-hundred meter span, there are a couple of enveloping sitting areas with views of the southern islands and central business district below. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The result is comfortable, a little whimsical, and inviting. Absolutely perfect execution of a public space, where a boring overpass would have sufficed. A real highlight. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30948408083/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5783/30948408083_e1ce19ae71.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830985.2712" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31720807296/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5685/31720807296_c33b7985c0_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830947.6917" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We also visited another remarkable public space. At the Marina district, far below the boat-on-a-cricket-wicket hotel tower we visited yesterday, is a large public garden and green space, the Gardens by the Bay:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30948418993/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5714/30948418993_bd771b4073_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830960.4553" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="582"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Here there are to conservatory domes (flower dome and cloud forest dome) and a dozen or so large themed outdoor garden exploring different aspects of ecology and horticulture. However the are is probably more noted for several groves of what they call Supertrees. These large mushroom-shaped steel and glass latticework towers were being encroached by climbing plants, blurring the line where organic ends and mechanical begins. They are part of the mechanical heating/cooling system for the conservatory domes, and at night they are lit up in various ways to create a unique light show.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30948422363/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/752/30948422363_2ddeae1e1f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830938.8064" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31720817486/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/606/31720817486_1881936a7c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830954.7454" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31385818180/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/665/31385818180_f468744398.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830919.3447" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Unfortunately, the day we were there, the grove was dominated by some sort of "Christmas wonderland" attraction with its own much more garish lighting, and the light show was synced to Mariah Carey Christmas songs. Bah humbug.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Overall, we were impressed by the quality and quantity of public spaces in Singapore. Aside from the malls (ugh), it seemed you were never far from a nice public space, some large, some small, but all very open and inviting. There is a ton of public are, again some very small and subtle, others space-dominating. Clearly, this is a City that values and invests in public spaces. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31720828186/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/535/31720828186_5f97fa10c4_z.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830989.984" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="555"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30948441713/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5324/30948441713_f509aed10c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830924.219" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> Q<a href="assets-library://asset/asset.JPG?id=0E06796F-66BD-4DC4-9FEB-7A44688293E7&ext=JPG" target="_blank"><img src="file:///var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/50654BF7-4F16-41DF-A534-6E7C25A34116/Documents/temp/offline_image_2016-12-20%2005:28:26%20+0000.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830939.9785" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="347"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31642007521/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/362/31642007521_fb67bd32cb.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830922.6353" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="385"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">The only thing we never really focused out was the timing of Singapore. IT seemed the place was empty at noon (Englishmen and Mad Dogs?), it was hard to find an open restaurant before 6, but at midnight the streets were packed. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30916521434/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/545/30916521434_86615144aa.jpg" id="blogsy-1482214830912.1506" class="alignnone" width="500" height="492" alt=""></a></div><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-88429467531265828002016-12-17T23:49:00.001-08:002016-12-17T23:49:38.477-08:00Singapore day 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We are back on the road. For the last two years, things have been a little crazy, and we have only managed to sneak away for short beach vacations at Christmas, and no-one wants to read endless posts about our sitting in warm sand and taking occasional Caribbean soaks. Time for some adventure.<br></div><p>We start this trip pretty much where we left off last trip: in a big, rapidly growing SE Asian City of Lights. We are spending a three-day cultural and circadian rhythm adjusting stopover in Singapore, before popping over to our eventual destination in Sri Lanka. My first impression is much like that of Shanghai when we visited there in 2014: This is the kind of big, prosperous, and happening city that reminds you that Vancouver is a very pretty backwater. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31599521991/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/581/31599521991_1a1fd72cfe.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377184.9858" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>First things first. We are staying in a funky little boutique hotel in the Little India neighbourhood. Funky and little also describes our room, which is about 8 feet wide, and saves a lot of unnecessary wall space by putting the bathroom and the bed all in the same room. The view out the window is of an alley two floors below that operates as some sort of ad- hoc restaurant overflow seating until well past midnight. This is in no way surprising, as In Little India, pretty much any open space seems to serve as some sort of ad-hoc restaurant seating.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30905372783/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/545/30905372783_821b2b592c_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377202.7585" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31342238010/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5649/31342238010_174797587a.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377171.8145" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>On our first day, we walked at least 20 km, just to get the feel of the place. From Little India, through an Arab neighbourhood, to the marina, the central business district, Chinatown, and through the Colonial area back to home. It was hot, humid, and we managed to be inside while it rained.</p><p>As you can tell from the sentence above, Singapore is an incredibly diverse city, with people from around the world here to engage in the business of Singapore, which is business. A bustling commerce and trade City, the glass canyons of the CBD tower over colonial architecture. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/30873472954/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/441/30873472954_c1942ca131.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377161.1128" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31599533711/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5531/31599533711_2d89cb8b23.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377256.4783" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a> </div><p>We are here on the weekend, so the business traffic is limited, but the streets were quiet for another reason: Singapore appears ot back night time City. There are more people on the streets at midnight than at noon, and way more people in the mall than on the street. But more on that later. </p><p>Our first impressions are that Singapore is almost a great City for walking, but it is a great City for driving. It has long been touted by transportation planners as a City that does things right. An extensive and affordable subway system, a comprehensive bus network including dedicated bus lanes, one of the world's first regional road pricing systems and high licensing costs for private automobiles: Singapore checks all the Transportation Demand Management boxes that should make it a traffic-paradise. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31677912946/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/753/31677912946_99dc18a0fd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377252.7058" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><p>It is also, quite clearly, a booming economy. construction is everywhere, as are indications of wealth. A few more Cartier stores than a population might be expected to support, a healthy proportion of European sports cars on the street, and a bustling energy in restaurants where you can pay the equivalent of C$70 for a steak. </p><p>Back to walking; There are phenomenal public spaces of all sizes, from covered and open car-free shopping promenades and "hawker" food courts to ample green spaces and riverfront walkways, however, getting from A to B on foot is sometimes surprisingly difficult, as walkways dead-end at the back of buildings and the aforementioned construction blocks your preferred route. And the roads are sometimes remarkably hostile. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31342257050/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/577/31342257050_dcce464ee2_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377243.974" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31715237115/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/780/31715237115_d0d06ab6b4_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377220.934" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="750"></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Apparently when people pay congestion charges to enter the City, they expect value for that money, and they get it. Four-lane-wide one-way streets are virtual raceways through places that should otherwise be pedestrian friendly. When you need to build metal fences to separate pedestrians and speeding cars in a retail area, something has gone wrong.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31715240025/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/67/31715240025_434759c76f.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377259.8823" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> The highlight of Day 1 was taking the elevator to the top of the Marina Bay Sands, where we sipped slightly too expensive cocktails next to the infinity pool 57 stories above the bay, as the sky opened up into a remarkably intense 30-minute thunder storm.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31568713992/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm1.staticflickr.com/62/31568713992_f8369ac9dd.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377199.4863" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="333"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/31715243955/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5615/31715243955_3a762dc9fc.jpg" id="blogsy-1482047377184.4026" class="alignnone" width="500" height="333" alt=""></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"> </div><p> </p><p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-30940315667249170672014-01-03T07:12:00.001-08:002014-01-03T07:12:49.922-08:00Shanghai<p>We arranged for three-day stopover in Shanghai on the way home. Three days is hardly enough time to see one of the world's biggest cities, never mind China in general. However the Chinese government has just started to allow stopovers in a few select cities for up to 72 hours without a visa, and flights to Ho Chi Minh City happen to stop in Shanghai, so we took the opportunity.</p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/11731782743/" target="_blank" style=""><img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5487/11731782743_ed26d453f6.jpg" id="blogsy-1388761967844.5925" class="alignnone" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a> </div>
<p>First off, let me say this: You might think you live in a City, but you are almost certainly wrong. You might make a case if you live in New York or Mexico City or Tokyo, but all my friends in various parts of Vancouver, or (god forbid) Calgary - you live in a sleepy farm village, a dusty backwater that time and forces for development have completely bypassed. Shanghai is a City, and few others can compare. It is huge - 25 million people huge - but it is tall, expansive, growing, bustling, and richer than you can imagine. But I will go on in later posts or in my everyday blog about the various reasons why Shanghai is so much more than your City.</p>
<p>We got a lot done in the 68 hours we were in Shanghai, and I as we only scratched the surface on our trip, I can only scratch the surface of our short adventure here. I'll skip many of the details. </p>
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<p>In Shanghai, the train that runs you into town from the Airport goes 430km/h and has no wheels, as it is supported by magnetic levitation. </p>
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<p>This is the kind of building you run into in Shanghai. Note the traffic roundabout in front, and the pedestrian roundabout above that. There are a lot of pedestrians in Shanghai, becasue the metro is so much better then driving. They also have a bike share program.</p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Oh, here is the rest of that spectacular tower building, viewed from the 87th floor of an adjacent building. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">On New Years Eve, we drank ridiculously expensive and complicated cocktails in a bar on the 87th floor of a building (not, notably, the tallest building in the neighbourhood) with an incredible view over the City.</div>
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<p>...then went down to the Bund to share the light/laser/fireworks show with about a million other people. </p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Happy 2014.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We did not spend a lot of time shopping in Shanghai. You may think of going to China to buy cheap knock-offs, and that is still a possibility, but in Shanghai the Gucci, Armani Exchange, Burberry, DeBeers, Versace (etc, etc, ad nauseum) stores are plentiful, Apple stores are on every street corner, and there is plenty of opportunity to buy a $20,000 watch. The few malls we went into were very far from Metrotown. </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">To avoid mercantile urges, we toured a few temples, and saw (amongst other things) a very chilled Buddha.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We walked through dozens of Contemporary Art galleries in a former industrial district that has been converted to artist work/live spaces, with collective workshops and constant showings at probably 100 separate gallery spaces, all collected within about two city blocks.</div>
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<p>We walked down too many dark narrow alleys, some of which brightened up (but didn't really widen) into food stands and open markets. </p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We ate noodles and dumplings good enough to melt your face.</div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">We toured a museum to look at jade and bronze artifacts from 5000 years ago, Ming Dynasty furniture and ceramics, and historically significant art from the entirety of Chinese history. </div>
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<p>We went into a 5-story museum right downtown next to the City Hall that was dedicated to... wait for it... urban planning! Besides the ample display of community plans, waterfront enhancement strategies, and transportation infrastructure, the center piece is this gigantic 1:500 scale model of the City, showing the urban plan for the decades to come. Well, not the entire City, just the 110 square kilometers within the inner ring road.</p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">...and noted a lack of expressways in that big model. Shanghai has a couple of them, and they don't plan to build too many more. </div>
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<p>Because as we discovered, the Metro system is exceptional. It has expanded In the last decade or so from 4 lines to 13, with at least two more on the way. The stations are big, the trains are long (up to 8 cars long at 4 doors per car - roughly 4x the length of a Canada Line train). The system is cheap, incredibly easy to understand and navigate, and packed with people. That said, it it was safe, clean, and we never got passed up by a train. </p>
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<p>The architecture is simply stunning, every direction you look. along the Bund and in the older parts of town, there are countless beautifully maintained colonial era buildings of every shape and style...</p>
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<p>And then you look up and see another cluster of 60-story buildings, every one with a unique architectural flare. Amazement, everywhere you look. </p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">I don't know what I thought about China before, but I know everything I thought was basically wrong. Scroll to the top of the page with me leaning on a railing with those gigantic buildings behind me. The one just being finished will be almost 2000 feet tall - the second tallest building in the world. That entire area behind me on the other bank of the river was, in 1990, farmland. This City is exploding, but they are doing it by a plan - high density, lots of green space, protecting the river habitats, sustainability in solid waste, sewer recovery, and transportation. In Vancouver, we can't even build a fucking subway under Broadway. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">I read a story in the newspaper on New Years Day about Chinese manufacturers exporting jobs to Ethiopia and other African countries. The simple reason was wages, Chinese workers are now making too much money and the competitive advantage China had with wages is going away. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: none;">Everything I thought I knew about China was wrong. I can't wait to go back, and Tig wants to move to Shanghai! It is an amazing, beautiful, and exciting City. </div>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-78381719678145747712014-01-02T20:11:00.001-08:002014-01-02T20:11:24.688-08:00Vietnam Wrap<p>We are out of here. In the next 24 hours, we will take a "sleeper bus", a taxi, a wide-body jetliner, a 400 km/h Maglev train, and a subway to get from here:</p>
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<p>...to here:</p>
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<p>...then, about 60 hours later, we start our journey home. </p>
<p>So I guess it is time to wrap up our impressions of Vietnam. Seeing as it is the calendar-flipping time of year and everyone else is doing it, I can do is list-style. So here are the best and worst things about Vietnam:</p>
<p><u>Best: Food</u>. </p>
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Beyond the <em>pho</em> (which on its own was pretty damn good most of the time), we had numerous street-food encounters that were outstanding.<em> Banh khoai, bun bo Hue, banh xeo, banh mi</em>, or basically anything wrapped in rice paper and dipped in savoury sauce. We had hits and misses with restaurant food, and the coffee was either really good or really terrible, but the street food encounters were almost always exceptional. As was the abundance of fresh fruit (we ate a lot of pineapple, dragon fruit, and lychees), seafood, and crusty, chewy, freshly baked baguettes.
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<p><u>Worst: Motorcycles</u>.</p>
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<p>At first they were kind of cool, an obvious approach to rapid urban growth with little infrastructure to support it. More motorcycles fit on the road than cars, use less gas, and people need to get places, right? After three weeks, it is obvious they are a bane on the livability of the community. I noted in a small fishing village of a few thousand people that we were the only people walking down the street. Everyone else was on a motorcycle, some doubled up, some carrying cargo. It is like everyone forgot how to walk a few blocks. In the bigger centers, every sidewalk and every open space is full of motorcycles. You need to run the gauntlet of them to get to a storefront. Huge numbers of them are in poor repair, and many are very smoky, but all of their horns work. Constantly. </p>
<p>It makes you wonder what the society was like 20 years ago when people were mostly using bicycles, or what it would have been like if, 20 years ago, the Country had the money to build any kind of public transit system. As it is now, the local bus service is notoriously unreliable because it is mired in motorcycle traffic. The ground-level air quality in the big cities is atrocious, and the use of (ridiculously ineffective) dust masks is ubiquitous. </p>
<p>A tour guide on one trip told us that your motorcycle sets your fate as a young man in Vietnam. Nice motorcycle means nice girlfriend, old broken down motorcycle means old broken down girlfriend, no motorcycle means no girlfriend. Two motorcycles, two girlfriends. No doubt a bit of a joke for the tourists, but telling of the deep societal hold the motorcycle has on a country with more than 70 million of them on the road (a number, notably, larger then the number of adults living in Vietnam). </p>
<p><u>Best: Ease</u>.</p>
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<p> Vietnam is a remarkably safe and easy country in which to travel. Aside from crossing the street in a big city (which you kind of get the rhythm of by watching the old ladies), we were never troubled by how to get to where we were going, or ever felt unsafe, even at night in some grubbier parts of the big towns. We travelled by boat, local bus, regional bus, turboprop, train, taxi, bicycle, and foot, and always got where we intended with little drama, and sometimes even on time. The closest we ever felt to being harassed was in the retail environment. </p>
<p><u>Worst: Sales</u>. </p>
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<p>This was especially bothersome for Tig; we generally couldn't walk past a retail store, a restaurant, a bar, a taxi or a person on a motorcycle without someone shouting greetings, honking a come-on, or asking us where we were from, or if we might be interested in an "easy rider" tour - only one hour! Going for a 10 minute walk inany touristy area could become tiresome after being berated every 15 seconds with some retail offer. Even when we did go into a shop, the clerk followed you about, three feet off your arm, asking you questions, showing you a knick-knack that was essential to your enjoyment of life, is only 10,000 dong, but that you somehow walked right past without expressing an interest in. The hard sell was always on, and there was no sense of personal limits.</p>
<p>It almost became a rule of thumb for restaurants that the more aggressively inviting the waving street-shouter out front was, the more casually indifferent the serving staff inside was. Attempting to order a second drink or (god forbid) getting the bill could take ten or fifteen minutes as the staff seemed to have forgotten there was already someone inside the restaurant. Even the street food vendors who work so hard to entice you to try their version of the same thing the other stalls are offering commonly dump the food on the stool in front of you with indifference bordering on surliness once the order is made. I just couldn't square this particular circle. Maybe it was us.</p>
<p><u>Best: Service</u>. </p>
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<p>In contrast to above, we stayed at some fabulous Guest Houses and Inns, and had almost universally excellent service - above and beyond in most cases. From giving us hot tea and a warm towel on arrival to helping us arrange tours or just directions to a nice restaurant or around town for sights. They took an effort to learn our names (often comically in the case of Mrs. Antigone), and greet us by name on our return each day. Even the place we paid $18 a night! Friendly without being too intrusive, and seemingly always in good cheer,the people who ran the guest houses were just nice peope being nice! It made "coming home" after a day of exploring a strange foreign culture, strange streets, and general bustle of traveling much more pleasant, and it seemed more genuine than the street hustle, as there was never a sale involved. </p>
<p><u>Worst: Trash</u>. </p>
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<p>Like some other "developing" economies we have visited (Belize comes to mind) there is a patina of plastic film rubbish on everything. Every view, no matter how idyllic, has garbage in view. This is clearly a cultural, not economic, phenomenon, as we have visited other "developing" countries where this is not so prevalent. Unfortunately, plastic film and other litter is everywhere, and people from cops to bus drivers to fishermen just toss their plastic to the side and walk away. It is a shame to see such a beautiful landscape spoiled. </p>
<p><u>Best: Landscape</u>. </p>
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<p>From powder-white beaches and sand dunes in Mui Ne, to colonial buildings and urban greenspace in Hue to paddy fields and mountain streams through cloud-forests and a thousand secluded bays on karst islands, everywhere you look in Vietnam there is a beautiful scene unfolding. I wish my photography skills were up to the task of some of the spectacular examples. </p>
<p><u>Finally, both best and worst: Youthfulness</u>. </p>
<p>This takes a bit of explaining.</p>
<p>Despite the millennia-plus history of the region, Vietnam is a young country. After spending the last couple of centuries fighting off colonizers from adjacent lands and the opposite side of the Earth, the modern Vietnam did not find peace and start defining itself until after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The population is also young. Despite a recent drop to a more sustainable birth rate (enforced by a government "two child only" policy), the post-conflict baby boom and sudden immigration to swelling urban areas gives at least the impression of a very young average age.</p>
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<p>This gives the entire nation a youthful sense of energy. It is always moving, always on the go. The zooming motorcycles, the cell phones, the ubiquitous wifi in neighbourhoods with barely functioning sewers. Walking down shoulder-width alleys in Hanoi, we could see into the tiny, dark, cramped (often filthy) living quarters of some of the new urbanites, and they all had flat-screen TVs on. Motorcycles, if not ridden by young adults, were often ridden by young families (sometimes 4 on one - adults with helmets, of course). The evening street corners are packed with young workers drinking <em>Bia Hoi</em>, texting, laughing and listening to tunes. There are countless LED-saturated Karaoke bars and dance clubs. It looks fun to be young and Vietnamese in 2014.</p>
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<p>But youth isn't all fun and hijinks. With youth comes the experiments, blustering confidence masking self-doubts, and the potential failures that bring adulthood and wisdom. I sense these in Vietnam - maybe the inevitable self-contradictions of a society trying to find itself in the hormone rush of capitalist adolescence. The Apple Computer logo is omnipresent, next to the revolutionary banners with Hammer & Sickle. Although up to 70% of the population are farmers, it is hard to imagine the youth we see with their smartphones and Nikes and Yamahas slopping around knee-deep in the rice paddies when their parents retire in the coming decades. The youth are leading by raising their Samsungs, not the Kalashnikovs the leaders of the last generation are displaying in patriotic posters that still line the country - even if they look a little faded by the sun. </p>
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<p>The tentative steps into western-style retail providing soetimes strange examples (a store in Mui Ne sold bus tours, shirts, pizza and tattoos); The shitting-in-your-own-nest attitude that results in a garbage-strewn countryside and temple grounds and exhaust-filled skies blighting the beauty of the place; The aggressive development adjacent to barely-finished buildings that are already falling apart; Cement trucks pumping at midnight on Christmas Eve in the centre of a tourist area; so many times we wondered - what the hell are they thinking?!</p>
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<p>I'm aware this sounds very holier-than-thou. A rich tourist passing what sounds like judgments on people whose experience I can hardly begin to understand during my three week vacation. Just another economic exploiter (my MEC travel backpack says "made in Vietnam" in the little label inside) interjecting his colonial ideals where they probably aren't welcome. But that's not my intention. It's just me voicing my curiosity about where this young, energetic, exciting country is going to go when the acne clears up and it decides what it wants to be. </p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-62172562571709316252013-12-29T16:43:00.001-08:002013-12-29T16:43:55.383-08:00Mui Ne<p>I wish I had more to report about the last few days, but we really found the beach. A couple of hundred kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City, the sleepy fishing village of Mui Ne happens to be adjacent to about 15 km of powdery white beach.</p>
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<p>So we spent most of the time sitting on the beach. </p>
<p>I'm not afraid to admit, I slept more in the last week than I did in the entire month of November. I mean 12-hour sleeps interspersed with snoozy beach time and meals. Beer served in 450ml bottles for 50 cents. It seems we needed the break. </p>
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<p>Seriously. Three days of this...</p>
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<p>We did manage to make a trip out to Mui Ne proper, which is a small fishing village. The bay at the head of the long beach (have I mentioned the long powdery-white-sand beach?) is where the regional fishing fleet moors. There is a bit of a market at the entrance to town where the fresh catch comes in and is sold off, but we spent a bit of time watering the village away from the market, including the waterfront areas where boats are maintained and the fishing families live, and dusty back streets. </p>
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<p>Something we have noticed across Vietnam was prevalent here: the bane that is plastic film. In vast stretches of Vietnam, it is everywhere. </p>
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<p>But I don't want to complain about that here, because we are at the beach. A beach whose afternoon winds are popular amongst the kite-surfing set. </p>
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<p>...however, we are staying at a nice spot, where there is a pool for when the ocean gets too rough. So we swim in the warm South China Sea in the morning, and in the sun-warmed pool in the afternoon. </p>
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<p>And we suntan. And we sleep. </p>
<p>At this point, I would love to report more, but all that is happening is the recharging of batteries, and thinking about how lucky we are. </p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-61524678946403814902013-12-28T06:22:00.001-08:002013-12-28T06:22:12.251-08:00Nhe Trang 2 <p>So, it turns out "construction zone next door" was a bit more of a problem than we thought. We were a little concerned when we went out to dinner, and a fresh concrete truck was showing up as the guy revved the rattly old pumper truck. We were doubly concerned when we got back from dinner and a walk, and yet another concrete truck showed up, and the pumper was apparently not quite up to the task, so hammering on the pipes was required to keep it flowing.</p>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: left;">Our concern reached a peak around midnight, when it became apparent that the construction was not going to end early evening as suggested by our hotel staff, but was going to go on all... freaking...night. "Next door" was also a bit of an understatement, as we had adjoining walls and the installation of rebar is not generally a quiet process. We changed hotels early the next morning.</p></div>
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<p>Nhe Trang being a beach town, we didn't do much but sit on the beach. the weather was just warm enough, and just sunny enough to sit on the beach and make up for lost sleep. But you had to dedicate a certain amount of willpower to the process. </p>
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<p>One day we decided to hit the water and see a bit of the offshore islands. The largest of these is Vinpearl, which has been developed in to a "resort" of the approximate scope and quality of the one at Tsawwassen - waterslides, go carts, small aquarium. The most remarkable feature being the access, which is in the form of 3.5km-long areal tramway 300 feet over the ocean. </p>
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<div class="separator" style="text-align: left;clear: both; ">Anyway, we gave Vinpearl a pass, and instead shared a small boat with three Aussie medical students, and a studly Kiwi PE Teacher and his t'ween son. We bobbled around the sometimes-swelling ocean to a few more protected coves to do a bit of low-visability snorkelling and general warm-water hijinks, had a big spread for lunch, and generally touristed the hell out of the day.</div>
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<p>Then, after a little streetfood, we returned to our new hotel, far from construction, and had a peaceful sleep, calling it a (Christmas) day. </p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-33003616249790390432013-12-27T01:56:00.001-08:002013-12-27T01:56:06.557-08:00Nha Trang<p>We finally found the sun. </p>
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<p>Three weeks in, but we are only now getting past halfway down the astonishingly long coast of Vietnam. </p>
<p>Nha Trang is a real beach town - if the stretch of China Beach had (the beginnings of, at least) resorts like Cabo and Kona, the white sand of Nha Trang invokes Waikiki - bound to the shore by high-rise resorts and a bustling, hustling tourism. </p>
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<p>We found a nice (not great) hotel a few steps back from the beachfront, and were at first lamenting the adjacent construction site and its potential for noise. Then we started to walk around town and wondered where we could stay that would not be adjacent to a construction site! it seemed every block of Nhe Trang featured a new concrete high-rise resort being built - they covered the land like Starbucks on Vancouver.</p>
<p>30-story towers replacing the older 7- to 10-story hotels. Sheraton, Melia, Best Western, you name it, they are all here. There is a serious boom going on in Nhe Trang. Even the (very rare) appearance of American Fast Food is here, as the Colonel's benevolent gaze offered us "Ga Ran Kentucky". </p>
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<p>...we chose instead a street-stand baguette sub sandwich that, for 50 cents, put all Subway "sandwich artists" to shame. </p>
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<p>The second thing we noticed about Nhe Trang is that, for the first time in our travels in Vietnam, English is the third language. Cyrillic text dominates, as Nhe Trang is a popular resort for Russian tourists. As we learned in Langkawi a few years ago, Russians make their mark on a tourist town, from the volume of conversation to the drinks offered, not to mention the glut of critically-strained speedo fabric on the beach (I'll spare you the photos of the latter).</p>
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<p>But at least we found a beach, and the sun came out for some more-than-brief appearances, and there is brewpub that makes flavourful beers, and the rooftop lounge at our hotel makes lychee mojitos and Tig'n'Pat are set up for a happy Christmas. </p>
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<p>Even if the construction next door might go on a little later than we hoped...</p>
<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-29334777232516975602013-12-25T03:54:00.001-08:002013-12-25T04:17:46.428-08:00DanangWe split on Hoi An after three fun, interesting days. All the passive negativity of my last post has not taken away from our impression it is a nice town! its just us learning how to operate in a culture different than ours - not better or worse. But it's still cold out, and we are running out of time, so we are headed south yet again to get some more sun. it would be a shame to get back to Canada without a tan, and to not be able to spend Christmas on a beach or swimming in the ocean! to get south, we first need to head north up to Danang to get a connection to Nha Trang. <br />
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Danang is at the north end of (currently very stormy) China Beach, 30km from Hoi An. This is a regional capital for the north-central part of Vietnam, and a moderately large port town. From first impressions, it is so exciting and growing so fast that no-one notices it is falling apart.<br />
The ride up from Hoi An took us along a ~30km stretch of coast highway that paralleled China beach the entire way. A relatively recent 4-lane boulevard, at places bereft of traffic, connected seemingly unconnected resort developments and golf courses. These are indications that things are changing in Vietnam, and there are visions for keeping that change flowing. <br />
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As the highway is located about a kilometre from the actual beachfront, there is a 30-square-kilometre strip of sand that was seaside for the resorts of the future. There are already a couple of golf courses that look very nice (what the hell do I know? They are green and there are people in carts wearing pastels - that's very nice, isn't it?), and a handful of very posh looking gated resort complexes that would not be out of place in Cabo or Kona.<br />
Then, between these, kilometres of vast empty sandy space. Creepier are the resorts that are not yet, or may not be, as someone spent some money building a concrete and brick wall around a square kilometre of sand, started building some structures, then apparently walked away, as the wall and structures are crumbling. One wonders if the pace of speculation outstripped demand, or if there is a political aspect to what is going on here that we have no idea about. <br />
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Pulling into Danang, the first thing you notice is the bridges and stadia and glossy new high-rises. This is an electric city, with LEDs instead of neon. There is a kilometers-long waterfront walkway that connects the 5 bridges across the Han River, and where new waterfront hotels and street front pubs and cafes buzz with life. The bright advertising billboards on the other side of the river compete with three brightly-lit bridges.<br />
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There are two rather dull bridges: the northernmost an older steel suspension span, and the southernmost a wide, squat concrete causeway of no note. However in the 5km between, the light show is on. One is a newer cable-stayed bridge with a unique canted single tower is lit up from lights around the base, often contrasting the spire an the cables. A second is a cable-stayed swing bridge (!) that has been bedazzled with LEDs and puts on a multi-color show all night. <br />
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In the centre is a through-arch bridge where the arches have been formed into a dragon motif, complete with fire-breathing at 9:00 every night.<br />
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The funny part about Danang, however, is the juxtaposition of gleaming new high-rises that make it look like the Shanghai of Vietnam as other buildings seem to be falling apart. This is not too unusual, I guess, except that there are signs some of the landmark buildings have been "under construction" for a very long time, and at the same time some of the hotels that are rated as new highlights in a three-year-old guidebook are prematurely falling apart on the outside, and moldy on the inside. <br />
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It reinforces an impression we have had in various places in Vietnam, but no more than along China Beach: there is ample money for speculative development - for big dreams about the future - but no money for day-to-day maintenance and operation. It is almost like the growth is so fast, so exciting, that there is little interest in what is already here. Or maybe land is still so cheap that real estate can be effectively abandoned. Why fix what's broken when it's easier to just move on? <br />
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P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-59551166370511509262013-12-24T05:53:00.001-08:002013-12-24T05:53:56.812-08:00Face<p>We had our first cultural stop-gap moment of the trip. After staying in three incredibly good and affordable hotels in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hue, and being pretty much pampered on the boat, our place in Hoi An was just OK. We have stayed in much, much worse places in southeast Asia, Africa, and Central America (and for that matter, in Indiana). It wasn't by most accounts a <em>bad</em> place considering what we paid, but it was just a little grubbier, and a little more threadbare, that we were becoming accustomed to, entitled jerks that we are. </p>
<p>Example? The computer in the room (hey, a nice bonus!) needed two plug-ins, one for CPU, one for the monitor. Only one plug in the wall worked. This came a surprise to the staff, although in every outlet in the room, only the bottom spot worked. The air conditioner also didn't work - again, not a big deal, as it was cool and comfy enough without it, except that the fan in the AC was the best white noise to block out the noise of the lobby activity a floor below and the dog outside barking through the night. It also provided enough positive pressure to push the second-hand hallway smoke away. Much like everything else, the functioning of the bikes for rent was at about 50%. The coffee here was remarkably bad, perhaps the worst coffee I have had in my life (and I have been to trucks stops in Arkansas and the little booth at the Mayne Island ferry terminal - so this is no light statement!), which is very unusual for Vietnam - they know how to make coffee in this country. </p>
<p>These are all little complaints, some outside of the control of the hotel, and in their defense, the Hotel addressed the issues when we raised them as best they could. However, there was enough frustration on our part after three days, that we decided to just check out a day early, take a car to Da Nang, and spend a night there prior to our very early flight to Nha Trang. We let them know a day in advance about our change of plans, and even had them arrange the car. </p>
<p>The counter staff were very concerned about this turn of events, though. They were very curious about where we were going next, and why. Being polite Canadians not interested in making a fuss, we basically say it is time for us to move on, and we were just wanting to make the airport run easier and all... we did not want to tell them we were not particularly attracted to spending another night at their place, we just wanted to move on. </p>
<p>When it came time to pay the bill in the morning, we found that the bill did not reflect the rates we agreed to when we checked in. The difference was minor in real dollars, but about a 20% premium on our last two nights. When Tig asked about this, they tried, kind of, to explain it away, but it never really made much sense. At some point, We just agreed to pay the extra, but we made it clear we were not happy about it. That might have been our mistake. </p>
<p>It's not like we made a scene, they just asked if we were ok, and Tig said, in a bit of an exasperated voice, "No, but I just don't want to argue about it. I just want to pay and go." It immediately became very important to the staff that we were happy with the result. It seemed clear that it was not about the money (although, they were not about to fix the bill), but it was about not letting us leave with an unhappy experience. </p>
<p>We paid and sat in the front lobby waiting for our car to arrive. We saw a car there, but (wary of driver scams - not those trying to scam us, but trying to scam drivers of each others' fares, as we had already paid for our ride) we were not sure if it was for us. Eventually, the hotel staff came up and told us that was our car, but they would like us to wait 5 more minutes so they could clear up the issue with the bill. We had already paid the full bill, so it was this point when I realized (perhaps later than a smarter person would have) that we were in a bit of a cultural conflict here. The east Asian concept of "face" was at play here. The way we expressed our displeasure with the bill, after several small issues with the room and us checking out a day early, was causing them some existential grief. They really wanted us to be happy, to the extent that they were not going to let us get into that waiting car until we admitted to some level of happiness. </p>
<p>Once this occurred to us, it was easy to smile, say thank you, and get the hell out of Dodge (and into the Hyundai).</p>
<p>Customer service in Vietnam is almost always exceptional, in the Stepford Wives over-the-top anythin-to-make-you-happy sense. This sometimes has unintentionally comedic results, as in long, super friendly but slightly aggressive conversations between a guest and a porter if the guest suggests he might choose to carry his own bag the 50 feet to his room. </p>
<p>In touristic areas, this expresses itself differently. Any eye contact with a host/hostess in front of a store, restaurant, bar or coffee shop will result in an invitation for you to enter. The staff wants to make sure you do not walk by without at least a cursory glance at their menu, and if you are enticed to enter, they will make sure you are seated and comfortable and have a drink ordered. Then, as often as not, they will ignore you for the rest of your visit. Ordering a second drink and paying your bill can sometimes be paradoxically difficult.</p>
<p>The overall impression is that people genuinely want you to be happy as a customer, even if they are sometimes a little too aggressive about it. Our cynical North American impression is that they just want to hustle more money from you, or are too much "in your space", but that may say more about us than about them... </p>
<p>All cultural apprehensions aside, we hope all of our family and friends reason this have a nice next couple of days, doing what makes them happiest and fills them with joy. Merry Christmas! </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-23958197167496771322013-12-23T01:10:00.001-08:002013-12-23T01:10:27.105-08:00Hoi An<p>What a remarkable town. </p>
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<p>Hoi An is an old harbour town at the south end of a 50-km-long stretch of white sand that extends south from De Nang and became known by a recent group of imperialists as China Beach. We are still a little too far north for it to be considered beach weather, but the aforementioned 50km stretch clearly has it's season and there are clearly plans for future seasons as well, but more on that later. </p>
<p>For now, we are in Hoi An - a harbor town that apparently had the stunning good luck to lose it's harbour to situation before in industrialization. It therefore avoided the worst ravages of the various wars that we have already cover to too much depth here. Because of this, there is a human scale to the old harbour front, and with tourists the main source of import income, there is a feeling here not unlike Victoria or any "fisherman's wharf" development you might visit in any reclaimed harbour town...</p>
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<p>...except with a kick-ass market.</p>
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<p>This feeling is vastly improved by the closure of much of the harbour area to motorized vehicles during most of the day. Pedestrians and cyclists rule the area, and there are countless small restaurant fronts where you can have a coffee (yeah, the Vietnamese know their coffee, and it is really good more often than it is really bad) or a beer and watch the world go by. </p>
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<p>At night, the rivers and walkways and pedestrian bridges light up with lanterns and LEDs, and the scent of street food fills the air. </p>
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<p>The sights in Hoi An are historic, and UNESCO protected sites include many family homes that have become shrines to the ancestors or benevolent societies that built them, sometimes more than 300 years ago. </p>
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<p>It seems the frequency of floodwater has increased in recent years, but the homes built a few meters from the river seem to survive, with their relics intact. </p>
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<p>Hoi An also gave us a chance to rent a couple of local bikes and head out to the nearby beach - the far southern end of a long stretch of white sand. This involved a leisurely ride through the countryside, small villages, and ubiquitous rice paddies (Vietnam is the world's second largest rice producer - so you are never far from a paddy).</p>
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<p>At the beach, the weather was cloudy, and the sea was rough, which might have been good for the local fisherman, but not so good for a hopeful beach bunny.</p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-92203765495941019752013-12-21T19:11:00.001-08:002013-12-21T19:11:37.237-08:00Into the Zone<p>Just north of Hue, the 2000-km long nation of Vietnam narrows to a 45-km wide waist. Cutting east-west across this thin strip of mountanous land between the East China Sea and the Laotian border is the Ben Hai River. At approximately 17 degrees north of the equator, this is where the (always mentioned in quotes) "temporary" dividing line between North and South Vietnam was drawn to facilitate free elections as the French were kicked out of the country in 1954.</p>
<p>Things changed, and by the time the American War was ramping up, a 10-km-wide zone straddling the Ben Hai River became the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating American forward bases (working, of course, in partnership with their friends in the Saigon-based government of the South) and the relentless spread of communism - first through French Indochina, then to the rest of the World! Or something like that.</p>
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<p>Our tour through the DMZ took us up into the mountains north of Hue, which is nasty country in which to try to fight a war, but an absolutely beautiful landscape. We drove through rubber tree plantations, gum tree forests, coffee fields, and even farms where black pepper is grown. </p>
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<p>Along the road that once connected US Army bases located south of the DMZ, we visited a rural village, where people are living a largely agrarian lifestyle. Despite the rapid growth of the major cities in Vietnam over the last decade, more that 70% of Vietnam's 90 Million people work in farming. In the mountainous parts of the country, some of these people still live in small villages of houses built on stilts to keep the snakes and bugs out. </p>
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<p>The less idyllic parts of the area are a long list of well-known landmarks for students of the Vietnam War: The Rockpile, Hamburger Hill, Khe Sanh. </p>
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<p>The battle of Khe Sanh was a major turning point in the American War. As such, the Vietnamese victory is commemorated with a large statue in the townsite, and the nearby location of the former US Marine forward base has been left to go to fallow, except for a small museum and the standard collection of discarded American military equipment?... </p>
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<p>Including, at this location, a freaking C-130!</p>
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<p>Our long tour ended with a visit to the Vinh Moc tunnels. this was a village north of the DMZ that suffered intense bombardment from sea and air during the height of hostilities, as US forces attempted to stop the flow of weapons and soldiers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The villagers took refuge from the contestant bombardment by tunneling into the hard clay earth. Unlike the Cu Chi tunnels - which were built to facilitate guerrilla fighting in areas of ground fighting, the Vinh Moc tunnels were just a survival technique for local residents. They were not designed for quick escape, but for longer-term survival, sometimes for weeks on end. As such, they were bigger and had living areas, kitchen areas, and even a maternity room where several children were born. </p>
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<p>Ahh... This is all too depressing, the whole damn war is just too depressing. We are headed south to where the sun should be out. The South China Sea is just too stormy in these parts.</p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-36336180961773365322013-12-20T17:22:00.001-08:002013-12-20T17:22:40.280-08:00More Hue <p>The weather in Hue has been less than spectacular. Not nasty a far as tropical depressions can be, but breezy, rainy, and cool. Daily high temps have not been out of the mid-teens since we arrived. Still, it isn't a beach town, so we dug our sweaters out from the bottoms of our packs, donned our Vietnam Sun Dresses, and hit the town.</p>
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<p>Hue, as I may have previously reported, was a Capital City during several Dynastic rulers of Vietnam, including the last Emperors (the Nguyen Dynasty ended here in 1945 when they turned over rule of the Northern half of Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh). As it was the seat of Empires during the times that emperors did this sort of thing, the City includes a large walled portion: the Citadel, </p>
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<p>which contains an inner walled portion: the Imperial Enclosure, </p>
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<p>which also contains an inner walled portion: The Forbidden Purple City. </p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/72372695@N07/11472565033/" target="_blank" style=" "><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2845/11472565033_839698d7fd_c.jpg" id="blogsy-1387588956762.707" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="667"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I think the rain is getting to Tig. </td></tr></tbody></table>
<p>All the walls and moats were good for keeping out the Mongols, but not the artillery of the French War and the massive aerial bombardment of the American War, so much of what was the glorious interior of the Imperial enclosure was destroyed or damaged. </p>
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<p>Although nothing but rubble remains of the Forbidden Purple City (which was only accessible to the Emperor and his Family) many of the temples, residences, gardens and offices of the Imperial Enclosure are open for touring as a long restoration process is being undertaken. </p>
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<p>No military/historic site in Vietnam would be complete without displays of abandoned or destroyed Imperialist weaponry. Here an AD-6 with some prop issues.</p>
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<p>A surprise display of Vietnamese advanced tech from the American War - a MiG-21. Hard to believe this riveted- together claptrap flew at twice the speed of sound. Oh, those Russians!</p>
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<p>Along with the sights, Hue provided opportunity to sample some of the unique cuisine of the Hue region of Central Vietnam. They like their <em>bun</em> (fine rice noodles, thinner than <em>pho</em> but served the same way) spicy around here, but also have some unique dishes.</p>
<p>We had "<em>banh khoai</em>" at a little shop just off the street, then again at several other places - it was that good. This is a fried rice-flour pancake with some ground shrimp and pork on it. It is served with a variety of condiments, and is despite appearances, it is not eaten like breakfast at De Dutch. First you stick a bit of salad greens and fresh herbs into your little soup bowl and garnish with shredded onion, carrots, cucumbers, fresh garlic, hot chillies, and chili paste (if brave). Then you stick about half of your loaded pancake into the bowl, and smother it all with a cold gravy made from fermented soya beans and spices. Holy shit, it's good. </p>
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<p>We were also repeat customers on "<em>banh beo</em>", which are steamed rice paste patties topped with ground shrimp and a variety of other savory flavours. These were served by the tray of up to a dozen individual saucers, which you cover with a sesame-oil based sauce then pop in your mouth as a single-spoon serving. </p>
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<p>Finally, we enjoyed some if the freshest spring rolls ever, in that we rolled them ourselves at the table. The delicate rice paper was stuffed with a grilled pork mixture (that was grilled over flame while skewered on a stalk of lemongrass!) and the shredded onion, cucumber, and fresh herbs, all dipped in spicy soya sauce. In our inexperienced hands, a slightly messy treat!</p>
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<p>These put the smile back on Tig's face. We discovered that pretty much anything (excepting soup) in these parts can be mixed with some fresh veggies, wrapped in rice paper and dipped in some sweet- savory-spicy sauce. Good times. If only we could find a place to wash these tasty treats down...</p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8395863996703161497.post-20361974165937951402013-12-19T17:37:00.001-08:002013-12-20T02:31:55.699-08:00Hue<p>The train took us to Hue over about 12 hours. We were in soft sleepers, so we got a bit of a snooze, but the music, the partying Dutch hooligans next door, and the second hand smoke (free!) might have disturbed the sleep a bit. </p>
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<p>My rumbling tummy didn't bother me too much, although it would limit the distance of my venturing from the hotel on our fist day in Hue, but that is all I'm going to say about that. </p>
<p>Hue is a river town, and a former Capitol, with some pretty random preserved heritage buildings amongst rapid new development. Sound familiar to anyone back home? </p>
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<p>The first impression we got of Hue is of the ample green space that lines both shores of the Perfume River - the lazy muddy waterway that bisects the town - as well-maintained waterfront parks line much of the shore. There are several other small rivers, canals, and moats (more on them later) that cut through the City, so it seems we're always crossing a bridge. This makes navigating by foot much easier on the narrow twisty roads - just count the rivers you cross and note which bridge you used.</p>
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<p>Our first day wanting the (closer) streets of Hue led us to a few older Pagodas (Pagodi?) </p>
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<p>...and the expansive old waterfront market that had an absolutely spectacular variety of fruit and vegetables. </p>
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<p>But mostly, we caught the ambience, and had our first Bahn Khoai. </p>
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<p> </p><div style="text-align: right; font-size: small; clear: both;" id="blogsy_footer"><a href="http://blogsyapp.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://blogsyapp.com/images/blogsy_footer_icon.png" alt="Posted with Blogsy" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-right: 5px;" width="20" height="20" />Posted with Blogsy</a></div>P@Jhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04224139690760183921noreply@blogger.com1