‘Travel is… Getting to know yourself by facing new EXPERIENCES’. Sofie Cowenbergh, Wonderful Wanderings.
‘Not I, not anyone else, can travel that road for you, you must travel it for YOURSELF’.
Walt Whitman.
The next port of call was Hong Kong. This is a very busy harbour with a one-way system for boats entering and leaving. The ex-colony has a population of 7.5 million over 1100 km². It consists of the Kowloon Peninsula, New Territories and Hong Kong Island. It has a considerable amount of reclaimed land with multiple high-rise buildings. We were told the tallest is 118 stories and sways 3 metres in a typhoon. It is traffic bound despite the hundred percent tax on cars. We were delayed at immigration for about an hour. The gangway was high with several arms again with glass sides but I was not quite so anxious. The first stop on the tour was a flower market which was enormous and understandably all the flowers were imported from Indochina and Vietnam. There is no room in Hong Kong to grow them. Around the corner was a bird market where several hundred birds were in cages all contributing to the general ambient noise. I somehow don’t think this would be tolerated in the UK or North America. This was followed by a visit to a floating restaurant in Aberdeen harbour. This is named after George Aberdeen who at the time of founding was the UK Prime Minister. The lunch was typically Chinese with all carbohydrates. After that came the Stanley market with all sorts of merchandise and was ideal to hone my haggling skills. Next stop was the Temple Street market under canvas; the sole commodity on sale was Jade which the Chinese revere. Yet another market was the Jewel Factory Limited. That is one of the downsides of being a tourist being hawked around these magnets. One has to be fairly hard headed to say thank you but no. I experienced this in a previous visit to Beijing. The tour continued to Victoria Peak where unbelievable high-rise residences and expensive houses are juxtaposed to government funded apartments. The descent was suggested in a funicular cable car which Lesley took but I stayed on the bus. Lesley loved the day with all the bustle but I was not quite so enamoured. There is a big United Kingdom influence after independence in 1997 without full integration with China. It will be several decades before that can be achieved. Driving is on the left and there were double deck buses as in the UK. The traffic was not as bad as Bali or Manila. There are 8 golf courses on the island each with a joining fee of $3 million Canadian. A small apartment (180 ft.²) was very expensive and with a minimal wage of six dollars per hour it seems impossible to be afforded. A lot of these houses are built on very steep hills. I had been offered after qualification to go to either Hong Kong or South Africa and I’m pleased I chose the latter. We stayed another day and walked to the Ocean terminal which is very pleasant with some interesting architecture and upmarket stores. There was a short distance to the subway to the main shopping district. There was nothing to buy there for us. The road signs were in both Cantonese and English. The whole city reminded me of George Orwell’s 1984 with everything too well-organized and routine. The crowds and traffic in the streets were reminiscent of Dante’s version of Hell with everyone dashing about their business and nobody caring about anyone else. Perhaps this is a reflection of a big city. Youths staring into handheld machines and even talking to them oblivious of traffic dangers, ear plugs dangling. Like rats living in coops coming out to a maze motion in the streets and going back when finished. Lesley cared for it, not for me.
‘To those who can dream, there is no such place as far away’. Anonymous.
Yet another ’put your clocks back one hour’. Two days at sea. On Saturday, March 10 at 9.30 p.m. we were roused from our reverie by a sudden siren for a drill. This was for real. The ship had previously had several practice drills so we were instructed as to what to do. The first alarm was for the crew only. Nevertheless in the middle of watching a DVD in our pyjamas we donned warm clothing, shoes got personal documentation out of the safe, got our medications to the ready and waited. Thankfully five minutes later Capt. Jonathan announced from the bridge that the incinerator was giving up too much smoke and automatically sounded the alarm. 10 minutes later the all clear was sounded. A very professional approach, well done!
‘Of all the books in the world, the best stories are found between the pages of a passport’. Unknown.
Ho Chi Minh City or otherwise known as Saigon, Vietnam was our next port of call. We docked at Phu My and a coach took us the 90 minute ride to the city. The road was lined with broken down stores, a few rice fields with water buffalo and egret birds. Vietnam is a long narrow country which borders on the east the South China Sea, to the north China and to the West Laos and Cambodia (Kampuchea) and further west is Thailand. It has suffered multiple invasions often with neighbouring countries. It was colonized by France in the mid-19th century and subsequently America. Its population amounts to 90 million and it has two seasons, hot and very hot. It has a huge American inheritance with the road signs in both English and Vietnamese and the traffic drives on the right. Hanoi, the capital city in the north, previously known as Thong Long was named after a dragon ascending. The rehabilitation of the country began in 1986 with fiscal reform. At present the economy is growing at 6% per annum and the median age is 28 years. It remains communist and education is paramount. In the south, Saigon has attracted international investment and now has the financial vibrancy of Hanoi. Our tour began in the militant Museum containing multiple statues of Buddha. Buddhism reflects multiple religions and ways of life. We were told about the multiple invasions and the Vietnam War which is now called the Civil War locally being the Vietcong versus the South. There were several tourist groups all very loud and drowning out our tour guides information despite a microphone. Our next visit was to a factory to see lacquered paintings , chinaware and chit chat. It was very touristy with elevated prices. The factory was all very congested and sweaty and again I resented being fleeced as a tourist. I think I was in a minority of one as it seemed very popular with my other companions. We then were taken to the sky deck which was a very tall building to be able to see over all of Saigon but the $10 charge was overpriced for the panorama by all accounts. I gave it the body swerve. All around were multiple high-rise skyscrapers downtown with new buildings everywhere. We lunched in a very fancy hotel and had a buffet with hundreds of similar visitors. I think some Americans need educated about what to stand in line or queue means. Politeness noticeably absent. We then saw the Opera house and the Notre Dame Cathedral from outside. The presidential palace was very impressive with a banqueting hall, cabinet room and a bunker below for protection if attacked. Once in 1975 a traitor flew over and bombed the palace creating some damage but not totally. We saw two residual tanks from the Civil War in the grounds. We then stopped at a cheap souvenir shop and were accosted physically by vendors selling cheap T-shirts and chit chat. We did not have US cash so did not buy anything. The tour guide advertised a book called the Tunnels of Cuchi authored in part by a BBC TV presenter describing how the Vietcong manoeuvred a subterranean approach to outwit the Americans in the war. I had to borrow $10 from a nice Canadian lady which I repaid when back on board. The next day was at sea which was a great rest!
‘All that GLITTERS is not gold, all who wander are not LOST’. J. R. R. Tolkien.
Lesley was painting and I played bridge , with reading and writing and we saw that the hoses for the anti-piracy precautions had been removed. Every day at 10.30 am there was a walk around the periphery of deck 3 for a mile. Lesley did this every day and was joined by many others. For some the description was more a waddle than a walk. We are bound for Singapore.
We went through the Strait of Malacca which is the busiest sea lane in the world. After docking, to my consternation, I found the gangway was from deck three and involved several glass walkways but on this occasion I found the tingling and numbness with some dizziness of my acrophobia had ameliorated so perhaps things were improving. Again there were huge areas of reclaimed land on which multiple high-rises were being built. We took a boat on the Singapore River right in the centre of the city surrounded by impressive high-rise financials as well as old buildings from previous Indian and Chinese traders. The architecture was very impressive mixing avant garde with traditional. We visited a Buddhist temple and then went on to have a Singapore sling drink but unfortunately not at the iconic Raffles Hotel because this was being renovated. We drove through the Arab quarter and Chinatown. Overall Singapore is a very clean and tidy place with no litter or chewing gum and punitive charges for licenses for cars and scooters. This means the traffic is not nearly as heavy as other Oriental cities. They drive on the right and overall it is very westernized with a population of 5.6 million. Housing is very expensive. In the evening we went to the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which has 57 storeys. The sky deck according to Lesley provided amazing views over the city, I stayed in the lobby and had a beer. Then we took a trishaw around India town which was lovely and afterwards a repeat of the same river cruise but at night with lots of lights. The bars beside the river were packed with young people at night emitting a noise along with a band of about 150 dB’s and again I wonder how they can communicate. There were also street performers entertaining the crowd. I certainly felt my age at that stage. Singapore started as a small fishing village and was spotted by Raffles who correctly identified it as a great trading post perfectly situated between East and West. It has a great harbour and freshwater supply from the Singapore River. Singa means lion and poura means city (Sanskrit) and hence the British named it Singapore. One of the early explorers thought he saw a lion but probably this was a tiger as there are no lions in the area. It is mainly a Buddhist religion followed by Malay and Hindu and many others. On our second day we went shopping via the underground and even the escalators move faster than elsewhere. The subway is very clean and efficient, the doors at the platform prevent people falling on the tracks which is a lesson that could be learned in London England. We took the wrong subway and ended somewhere at the terminus so returned and having drawn a blank at the shopping went to the Botanic Gardens. This was a haven of peace and quiet from the mayhem of the city. We had lunch near the orchid gardens. The food was very expensive and not very good. It would appear that foreigners have to pay to see the orchid gardens whereas locals are free.
‘Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God’. Kurt Vonnegut.
Phuket, Thailand is an island which is sweltering. We took a tour to the elephant Safari Park. We had a demonstration on how to grow rice and saw an ox with a plough to freshen the underwater soil. This was followed by sowing the seed, growing and whacking the grass to free the rice. This was then pounded. We then watched an elephant getting washed followed by a cooking class with Thai herbs. We were invited to smell some green sludge as a result but thankfully I could not smell anything. Then we had the treat of the voyage, a ride on an elephant. I had forgone the opportunity 25 years previously just outside Delhi. Another box ticked! Were also shown how latex was harvested from rubber trees and elephants that were trained to hunt bananas even when hidden in a tourists clothing. These elephants also threw darts at balloons with some accuracy. I felt somewhat uneasy at the spectacle almost as if in a circus. Lesley was not happy that the tour was not as advertised so we complained and had a partial refund. On return to the ship we met several stalls selling T-shirts etc.
‘Travel is REBELLION in its purest form’. Anonymous
The next day was at sea to recover. The weather like all ports in that part of the world is febrile with incessant sweating (diaphoresis) the likes of which I could not remember as badly as this. I thought we had become acclimatized by this time. By this time we were in the Bay of Bengal.
‘Every hundred feet the world changes’. Roberto Bolano.
Throughout our trip I was absolutely disgusted with the hectares of redundant adiposity fed by the wheaten Tsunami of the North Americans. The undulating quivering flesh offended my clinical eye and in particular the amount of carbohydrates ingested in the dining room. One could not help being disgusted by the gluttony of some passengers. Plates recurrently overloaded with food left half eaten with the eye larger than the stomach. Bowls overflowing with blueberries which led to shortages for other passengers. One couple both of whom were diabetic and hugely overweight seemed to survive on carbohydrates alone. Another American ordered two entrees at every meal in case she did not like one!
‘Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends’. Maya Angelou.
Colombo, Sri Lanka was hot and humid. However the mitigating factor was an easy gangway. We had a walking tour of old Columbia through a market, very busy and overcrowded and lots of Tuk Tuk taxis. These are essentially motor bikes with passenger seating. The island has been colonized by the French, Portuguese the Dutch and British. The tour began with a visit to the cabinet meeting and I felt angry that this consisted of several dummies sitting at a table. The tour guide thought this was highly amusing but I did not share his sense of humour. The stores in the streets were specialized in areas, for instance the bag street. Most of the stores sold bling for the tourists. We visited a mosque and were told that 7% of the population is Muslim. The religion is mainly Buddhist which is a philosophy rather than a religion. The languages spoken are Ceylonese, Tamil and English. The old fort has been converted to the Grand Oriental Hotel where we had a drink. The Civil War with the Tamil Tigers lasted 30 years and only finished in 2007. Sri Lanka means the resplendent island. They have reclaimed 275,000 ha of land by mainly Chinese workers. We saw the Pettah district. In the past were incredible bazaar streets teeming with oxen carts and alive with the sounds and smells of the sea. Multiple spices were on display contained by sacks arranged at the front of the street stores. The sensory overload was overwhelming. We saw the Jami Ul-afar mosque and the Khan Clocktower. Street stalls sell everything from textiles to electronics. The whole city was very vibrant. The commercial hub surrounded the fort. Vehicles were heavily taxed at 200% to avoid overcrowding. The heat was such that Lesley felt ill so we returned to the ship before the end of the tour. We missed the old Dutch hospital complex built in the 17th century which has now been restored to restaurant stores and bars. The old Dutch and English architecture has been maintained.
‘The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes’. Marcel Proust.