Unkie Herb

Thailand gets lowballed sometimes when people rap it as nothing but a sex-tourist hub. Man, it is so much more. The north especially is all about mountains, parks, waterfalls, temples and markets. That isn’t to say that the bar scene is lacking in places like Pai or Chiang Mai, but compared to Bangkok and the Kos, things are pretty laid back.

Here are a few shots from my motorbike loop from Chiang Mai, through Mae Hong Son and Pai.

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One of Asia’s poorest countries is also one of its most delightful. There is little to do in many of the places I visited, and I loved it. Petanque-playing (French bocce ball), hammock-swinging, temple-visiting, Beer Lao-sipping, the country seems to be permanently on a coffee break. After the manic, greedy harassment of Vietnam, the sleepy indifference in Laos was refreshing, to say the least.

The culture and language are very similar to what one experiences in northern Thailand, especially in the northeastern region known as Isan. Yet it was colonized by the French after Vietnam (hence the silent ’s’ in the name), giving it a certain refinement and a few French stereotypes such as baguettes and great coffee.

It is, unfortunately, not without tourists. In Vang Vieng, you’re confronted with non-stop Friends DVDs blasting Phoebe’s ramblings into the street until closing time - at several locations. Nothing pains me more than seeing young travelers who have ventured around the world wasting away their days in a beautiful country in front of brainless American sitcoms. The town also boasts a beautiful river lined with bars, caves and limestone cliffs.

At any rate, many people tend to fly through Laos, giving it a week or so in order to spend more time in the more reputable Vietnam or Thailand. Such a mistake. I overstayed my one month visa and I still consider going back. Outside of Myanmar, you will not find a more authentic country in south east Asia. Slow yourself down and enjoy it, you won’t regret it.

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I wonder if I’ll ever go back.

I skipped the north. The oft-photographed Halong Bay, the charming insanity of Hanoi, the mountain retreat of Sapa. Missed it all. Why?

Because the Vietnamese drove me crazy. And I know I’m not alone.

A wonderful country rich in history and culture, Vietnam is a massive tourist destination. It is justifiably proud of rejecting a thousand years of Chinese occupation, over a century of French colonialism, and one horrific decade of American invasion. As a result of these influences, Vietnam is unique to South East Asia. It lacks the Theravada Buddhist influence and the South Asian curries that infuse Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. With your bowl of beef noodle soup, you might have a baguette and molasses thick coffee. The taoist temples light incense each evening while the monks try to swing deals with tourists. After making offers for my shoes and sunglasses, one young monk agreed to trade bracelets with me.

This would, in the end, define Vietnam for me. It is a country of deal makers, of scam artists, of ruthless business people. A woman will take you by the arm and, if you let her, drag you into her shop or restaurant. Waiters change prices on your bill and when you complain, they will bring you a doctored menu. Always count your change in Vietnam. Never keep anything in your pockets in Vietnam. I am not a paranoid traveler - I had wonderful experiences with the locals everywhere else - but you cannot be too careful in this land.

And so, I now look at it like a challenge. Will I go back? If I do, will I regret it? It is a beautiful country. From the streets of Saigon to the beaches of Phu Quoc to the sand dunes of Mui Nei to the architecture of Hoi An, it is lovely.

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A country that has never fully recovered from the horrors it suffered post-Vietnam War, Cambodia is immensely fascinating. Ravaged by the Khmer Rouge Regime, a military government that massacred more than a million of its own people, the country continues to struggle with poverty and corruption. A thousand years ago it was the centre of the Khmer Empire, based out of the city of Angkor, which ruled most of South East Asia. The ancient peak and recent valley of the country’s history are perhaps it’s most enduring themes, though it also has some great beaches, parks and parties as well.

Unfortunately, most of my photos were lost thanks to Apple’s Ipod, which seems to bust at the worst times (i.e. when you are taking a boat between Cambodia and Vietnam, before you burned your photos to a CD). So, here are some that were already posted on the site, sigh.
Phnom Penh:

From the prison/interrogation camp:

Sihanoukville, the beach resort town:

Angkor Wat:

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In August of last year, I traveled from Taipei to Shanghai to visit two high school friends. A beautiful but troubled city, Shanghai was surprisingly different from Taipei. Freshly flashed, it has dealt with it’s rampant poverty by slipping it under the carpet - a ploy not so successfully pulled off. My friends’ apartment was squarely central, jammed between dramatic new condos, People’s Park and a massive slum neighbourhood. Whereas Taipei grew naturally, free markets and democracy having taken effect there some time ago, Shanghai has shot off like a rocket, with predictable results.

For more on this fascinating city and China in general, check here.

Unfortunately, after my travels I seem to have lost my favourite photos of Shanghai, showing it’s grit. Old men in pale boxer shorts playing chess in the park, the watchful eyes of a Marx/Engels statue over their shoulder. A small child playing in a scummy pond under drooping trees. Sagging two story houses, the number of people dwelling inside astounds as much as the fact that the building still stands. This is China.

My photos below show another side, China the new. Soaring, brightly lit skyscrapers, museums, parks. Jackie, a Shanghainese friend of my buddies, laughs over martinis at a hotel bar forty stories up. A child plays with a sprinkler in the park. This is China.

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This is the first of a new line of posts in which I’ll try to capture countries in photos. I’ll try to say as little as possible, and allow the photos to speak for themselves. I’ll also try to cut down on random shots of people along the way, but I’m sure a few of them will make their way in. I’ve had more than a few people tell me that I should consider a career as a photojournalist, but first I’ll need a real camera.

Here is a small selection of my favourites from my first six months in Taiwan:

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Where to start…

I rented a motorbike two days ago, a bicycle yesterday, and so I’m already familiar with Phnom Penh’s streets. As with every poor Asian city, the number of motorbikes is astounding, the insanity with which they drive is hilarious, and the ease with which they deal with the craziness is nothing short of remarkable.

Having driven around Taiwan for more than a year, I was pretty prepared for driving here. One thing that is very different is the pace. Whereas Taipei is all “I’m late for work” speed demons, P.P. is all “we’ll get there eventually” relaxed. It’s a nice change.

Driving around yesterday we saw some sights, including the independance monument, with a palace in the background.

As well, we went to S-21, which is a former high school. During the Pol Pot, Khmer Rouge genocide during the seventies, this place was converted into an interrogation centre and work camp. The regime tortured and jailed thousands of their own people here, eventually sending them off the the more infamous Killing Fields for execution. This genocide was massive, and the Khmer Rouge regime was supported by the U.S. and other western governments. Learning about it firsthand is moving to say the least.

The school itself was left largely alone, although they’ve cleaned the bloodstains and placed hundreds of photos, many of the victims, in the former classrooms. The gallows for hanging are still standing, as are the cell walls and steel beds used for electrical torture. The whole place had a surreal feeling about it, and if you allowed yourself to imagine what had transpired where you were standing, it became difficult to swallow. Overall, impressive and disturbing, but worth a view. Here’s a photo I took of one of the torture beds.

As well, we (the Aussie guy, Rich, who I rented the bikes with) went to Wat Phnom, the spiritual centre of the city. Placed on a small hill near the river, it’s an impressive Buddhist structure that warmed me up to what I’ll see in ancient form in Angkor. As well, the hill had its own troop of monkeys (hilarious) and an elephant show (sort of depressing, poor fella). The big guy didn’t seem poorly treated, but that might have been because dozens of tourists were around. I wasn’t going to snap a photo of the elephant, but then I saw this Cambodian boy squaring up to challenge the behemoth, so I crouched down behind the kid and captured this David v. Goliath moment:

My guesthouse is pretty sweet. It’s Number Nine, and might be one of the most popular in the tourist area near Boeng Kak Lake, in the north end of the city. It has a twenty-four hour bar and restaurant, a free pool table, hammocks, and cheap rooms. Because the lake is so high, the water runs right up under the patio, and so you can hear fish jump and smack against the underside of the platform that your dinner table is perched on.

I caught a couple of decent photos. One of the view from my chair the first morning I arrived:

And another of the flooding between the bar and the rooms. My room is down that row to the left, behind the ferns.

The guesthouse is at a perfect level of business. If it was high season now it might be a little too busy, but its just busy enough to be interesting, without getting overly loud or crazy.

One more thing that is clearly noticable here is how young the population here is. Because of the genocide I mentioned above, the average age here is somewhere in the teens, and around half the population is under twenty. Just walking or driving down the street, you notice it. There are no old people. None. I have maybe seen two or three people over fifty or sixty years old my whole four days here. Wild.

All in all. First impressions are great. I’m excited to move on from Phnom Penh, though, because the friends I’ve made here have given me great advice. They all had nothing but great things to say about the other places they’ve been in the country, and I’m pumped for another new scene and a new group of people.

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