According to the World Bank, Nicaragua is the second poorest country in Latin America (after Haiti). The average annual earning are in the region of $1,700 per head of population. Daniel Ortega, the leader of the Sandinistas and scourge of the neo-cons in the Reagan administration, is the current elected president and has out survived those in the US administration who ran the shameful and illegal Arms to Iran for Cash policy, in order to fund the Contras.
We arrived here on Monday evening after a day spent travelling from Los Angeles to Managua via Houston. After a 45 minute taxi ride at 11pm, along empty roads, we arrived here in Granada, the oldest colonial city in the western hemisphere. Like the roads, it too was empty at midnight.
Our hotel is just off the main square, which houses a cathedral on one side and a sizeable park in the middle. Various hawkers have stores along one side selling T shirts and woven clothes and on another side, scrawny horses are tethered to wooden carts waiting for tourists to pay the necessary dollars for a ride.
Granada has been well restored with money from various foreign governments/agencies. The buildings are predominantly single storied and most are painted in vibrant colours : purple, orange, green, blue, pink. Like Peru it seems, the poorer the people, the more colourful the surrounds (in Peru it was the clothes rather than buildings). The compact city is sandwiched between Lake Nicaragua home to freshwater bull sharks who have made their way up river from the Carribean, and a volcano called Mombacho (which is extinct).
It is very hot here but the heat is dry. The sun shines strongly all day and the small pool in our hotel is a relief. Last evening, when the temperature had dropped to 80 degrees, we went to an open air gym where entry is provided for free by the hotel. Tess did a 90 minute yoga class while I sweated to saturation on a cross training before joining the locals in the weights room, where the equipment was a bit rusty and clunky, but the users seemingly friendly.
It is great to be back in Latin America and to be brushing up on our pidgin Spanish. This afternoon we are off to a mercado followed by a trip to the Masaya volcano, about 25kms away, which is still very active, having last exploded in 2012. We hope to get a view of some lava pools.
Wednesday, 5 February 2014
Saturday, 1 February 2014
Always the lucky country
I am blessed to be a citizen of two democratic and fair countries sharing a joint history and an understanding and admiration of each other that probably does not exist elsewhere.
Sydney is one of the world's truly great cities. The weather, the food, the harbour, the beaches and most of all. the people, make it such. Things are always half full here rather than half empty. The natives, whether they be humans, animals or birds are friendly and loud. They are generous in nature and spirit.
The sun hurts both your skin and your eyes here as it is so bright. The landscape glistens.
It may be, as one of my Sydney friends suggested, near the end of the earth, but to me, that only intensifies why it is so lucky.
The best of the world is already here and the people want for nothing.
It will always be, in my eyes at least, the lucky country.
Sydney is one of the world's truly great cities. The weather, the food, the harbour, the beaches and most of all. the people, make it such. Things are always half full here rather than half empty. The natives, whether they be humans, animals or birds are friendly and loud. They are generous in nature and spirit.
The sun hurts both your skin and your eyes here as it is so bright. The landscape glistens.
It may be, as one of my Sydney friends suggested, near the end of the earth, but to me, that only intensifies why it is so lucky.
The best of the world is already here and the people want for nothing.
It will always be, in my eyes at least, the lucky country.
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Goodbye to South East Asia
Eights hours at Bangkok airport is pretty boring. The connections from Phnom Penh to Sydney on our Star Alliance ticket are not as slick as one would like and we are spending the day here in the Royal Silk Lounge. No wine has appeared so far although there is some beer and spirits. I am sticking to water anyway thanks to some refried beans and hummus last night.
I have probably been on holiday more times to SEA than any other part of the world. Apart from the fact that I am exceedingly lucky to be able to say this, there are also clearly lots of obvious reasons : the food is great, the weather warm, the people of the countries that lie in this part of the world are universally welcoming.
The whole area has a real energy now and this means it is losing perhaps a bit of its charm. But that is first world wealth regret rather than what Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians want. They want to be in the first world and many of their inhabitants now are with large cars, homes, expensive clothes etc. The wealth disparity is enormous, particularly in Cambodia. While I sat smiling at the TV ads selling the benefits of insurance to the growing middle class as we waited for our first flight of today, I also thought of the truckloads of riot police I saw in central Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon, plastic shields at the ready, speeding through the Sunday afternoon traffic. As we later discovered, they were off to push back a peaceful protest by garment workers seeking a living wage. The liveable wage in Cambodia per week is $7 according to one of our taxi drivers. We passed large sweat factories when we came back from the Killing Fields, full of women toiling in the heat, making the cheap clothes we wear in the west.
Cambodia has probably suffered the most in this part of the world. But the new wealth seems to be concentrated in very few hands indeed. We were told that corruption is rife and we saw backhanding in action at the airport this AM. Perhaps you have to pay a bribe to get entry into the shining modern building that houses the anti-corruption unit? The people we met throughout Cambodia were lovely. I sincerely hope that conservative trickle down economics that appears to be the policy here turns into a torrent soon.
I have probably been on holiday more times to SEA than any other part of the world. Apart from the fact that I am exceedingly lucky to be able to say this, there are also clearly lots of obvious reasons : the food is great, the weather warm, the people of the countries that lie in this part of the world are universally welcoming.
The whole area has a real energy now and this means it is losing perhaps a bit of its charm. But that is first world wealth regret rather than what Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians want. They want to be in the first world and many of their inhabitants now are with large cars, homes, expensive clothes etc. The wealth disparity is enormous, particularly in Cambodia. While I sat smiling at the TV ads selling the benefits of insurance to the growing middle class as we waited for our first flight of today, I also thought of the truckloads of riot police I saw in central Phnom Penh yesterday afternoon, plastic shields at the ready, speeding through the Sunday afternoon traffic. As we later discovered, they were off to push back a peaceful protest by garment workers seeking a living wage. The liveable wage in Cambodia per week is $7 according to one of our taxi drivers. We passed large sweat factories when we came back from the Killing Fields, full of women toiling in the heat, making the cheap clothes we wear in the west.
Cambodia has probably suffered the most in this part of the world. But the new wealth seems to be concentrated in very few hands indeed. We were told that corruption is rife and we saw backhanding in action at the airport this AM. Perhaps you have to pay a bribe to get entry into the shining modern building that houses the anti-corruption unit? The people we met throughout Cambodia were lovely. I sincerely hope that conservative trickle down economics that appears to be the policy here turns into a torrent soon.
Friday, 24 January 2014
The Killing Fields
The drive out to the fields of Choeung Ek is along dusty tarmac roads full of holes. On the way you pass both slums where the poorest in Cambodian society reside alongside the gleaming new Cambodia including the shiny Khmer Brewery that makes Cambodia Beer. In fact you can see the brewery in the distance from the fields of Choeung Ek. They are better known as the most infamous of the 300 or so "Killing Fields", and have yielded up the remains of thousands of victims of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rogue. In just over 3 years, when civility took leave of its senses, he decimated the country leaving a quarter of the citizens dead. The sheer control over the country and the complete madness and evil he inspired is illustrated by his troops, who were able to clear Phnom Penh of its 2m inhabitants within a few days of victory in the civil war in 1975.
Most of those who were systematically killed at Choeung Ek, were political prisoners who had been incarcerated and tortured at S-21, a former school converted by the KR into a prison and torture centre in downtown Phnom Penh. That prison has hundreds of photos of the victims as well as still blood stained tiled floors. To walk around the former prison is still eerie and photos of some of the last 14 killed there at the time of liberation, still shackled to the beds, left nothing to our imagination.
The fields of Choeung Ek, about 15kms away, were used simply to exterminate. Prisoners arrived from S-21 at night and were immediately clubbed and knifed to death as bullets were too expensive. Apart from the intelligentsia, it included a number of KR themselves who had been accused by colleagues of spying or anti-KR thoughts or actions. Like Stalin, Pol Pot got rid of rivals too by declaring them anti-revolutionaries or CIA stooges.
Mass graves containing hundreds of bodies have been unveiled since the downfall of Pol Pot in 1979. There is little left, no original buildings, but rather graves as well as a tall Memorial Stupa which contains the remains of hundreds of the victims. As you walk around accompanied by an excellent audio guide, you can still see bits of bone, teeth and clothing emerging from the ground. This site of pure evilness has been preserved in a simple and powerful way.
Phnom Penh is a bustling large city with a growing skyline. When we arrived at our hotel yesterday, an oasis of calm from the traffic and heat outside, we were confronted with preparations for the Phnom Penh Designers' week (fashion shows are taking place this weekend around the front courtyard of our hotel). The young and the beautiful, both local and ex-pat were present last night, drinking and smoking and flirting. Cambodia, at least for some of its inhabitants, is moving on.....quickly.
Most of those who were systematically killed at Choeung Ek, were political prisoners who had been incarcerated and tortured at S-21, a former school converted by the KR into a prison and torture centre in downtown Phnom Penh. That prison has hundreds of photos of the victims as well as still blood stained tiled floors. To walk around the former prison is still eerie and photos of some of the last 14 killed there at the time of liberation, still shackled to the beds, left nothing to our imagination.
The fields of Choeung Ek, about 15kms away, were used simply to exterminate. Prisoners arrived from S-21 at night and were immediately clubbed and knifed to death as bullets were too expensive. Apart from the intelligentsia, it included a number of KR themselves who had been accused by colleagues of spying or anti-KR thoughts or actions. Like Stalin, Pol Pot got rid of rivals too by declaring them anti-revolutionaries or CIA stooges.
Mass graves containing hundreds of bodies have been unveiled since the downfall of Pol Pot in 1979. There is little left, no original buildings, but rather graves as well as a tall Memorial Stupa which contains the remains of hundreds of the victims. As you walk around accompanied by an excellent audio guide, you can still see bits of bone, teeth and clothing emerging from the ground. This site of pure evilness has been preserved in a simple and powerful way.
Phnom Penh is a bustling large city with a growing skyline. When we arrived at our hotel yesterday, an oasis of calm from the traffic and heat outside, we were confronted with preparations for the Phnom Penh Designers' week (fashion shows are taking place this weekend around the front courtyard of our hotel). The young and the beautiful, both local and ex-pat were present last night, drinking and smoking and flirting. Cambodia, at least for some of its inhabitants, is moving on.....quickly.
Wednesday, 22 January 2014
Leaving Laos as we are half way through....
We are shortly to fly off to Cambodia from Luang Prabang on the day that marks the half way point in our travels. This is a great country full of gentle, warm people. I have been surprised at how cold it has been in the morning...we sit outside at breakfast with little wood burners under our tables. We are being told it is unseasonably cold at the moment, as the frost permeates from the mouth of the hotel staff. Once the morning mist is burnt off by the sun, the temperature rises quickly so by mid afternoon we are keen to be back at the hotel jumping in the pool.
Tessa and Jacqui have done a silk dyeing and weaving course while the lads have taken a boat up the Mekong to the Cave of 1000 buddhas with a stop off at a whiskey distilling village where the local poison is made. It burns all the way down to the intestines.
The Mekong is a fast flowing river in parts, with various sandbanks, small islands and rocky outcrops all ready to hole the ill prepared river captain. The river is alive with activity though, with moored long boats serving as petrol stations and large barges loading and unloading produce. Here and there are teak forests being felled for the timber and in this, the dry season, when the river level is low, the steep banks are cultivated virtually down to the water, with various crops.
The two caves which contain all different types of buddhas are being preserved with money from the Australian Government and a lot of the temples and other sites within Luang Prabang itself are supported by foreign money. Being landlocked, Laos is reliant on its neighbours. The Chinese have dammed the Mekong further up though the country is lucky that 70% of the water in the Mekong in Laos comes from large tributaries that rise in the jungle clad mountains. The people outside the towns are very poor and access to healthcare is minimal.
Buddhist monks loom large here in Luang Prabang given the number of temples here. Their colourful orange robes are seen all over town and down by the river, especially after school in the late afternoon.
As we sat having a drink at a café above the spot where the Nam Khan river flows into the Mekong as the sun set behind the mountains, we hoped that the serenity of this place will be preserved.
Tessa and Jacqui have done a silk dyeing and weaving course while the lads have taken a boat up the Mekong to the Cave of 1000 buddhas with a stop off at a whiskey distilling village where the local poison is made. It burns all the way down to the intestines.
The Mekong is a fast flowing river in parts, with various sandbanks, small islands and rocky outcrops all ready to hole the ill prepared river captain. The river is alive with activity though, with moored long boats serving as petrol stations and large barges loading and unloading produce. Here and there are teak forests being felled for the timber and in this, the dry season, when the river level is low, the steep banks are cultivated virtually down to the water, with various crops.
The two caves which contain all different types of buddhas are being preserved with money from the Australian Government and a lot of the temples and other sites within Luang Prabang itself are supported by foreign money. Being landlocked, Laos is reliant on its neighbours. The Chinese have dammed the Mekong further up though the country is lucky that 70% of the water in the Mekong in Laos comes from large tributaries that rise in the jungle clad mountains. The people outside the towns are very poor and access to healthcare is minimal.
Buddhist monks loom large here in Luang Prabang given the number of temples here. Their colourful orange robes are seen all over town and down by the river, especially after school in the late afternoon.
As we sat having a drink at a café above the spot where the Nam Khan river flows into the Mekong as the sun set behind the mountains, we hoped that the serenity of this place will be preserved.
Sunday, 19 January 2014
Laidback in Laos
It takes just an hour to fly on an ATR7 prop, over the mountains from Hanoi to Luang Prabang. It's like going from chaos to calm. Whereas the Vietnamese will one day take over the world, the Laotians are far to into searching for inner peace to get too flustered about anything. Alex has joined us from London and we have caught up with our dear friends Jacqui and Tom and their youngest, one of my godsons Brendan, from Sydney. The daytime temperature has also risen by about 10 degrees and the sun has shone brightly, since we left northern Vietnam.
We are staying in a self styled boutique hotel set on the banks of the Nam Khan river, a wide tributary of the mighty Mekong, about 1 km from the confluence of the two. In fact a large part of Luang Prabang is on a peninsula framed by the two rivers. From our hotel, the sun sets behind a large hill in the centre of LP crowned with a Buddhist temple. At dusk, the young monks in their orange robes, are swimming of the sandbars that occupy large parts of the Nam Khan. Our quickest way to walk into central LP is to pay 5000 kip (about 40p) and walk across a bamboo bridge that is rebuilt every year. In the rainy season the river flows far too quickly for the bridge to survive so it is dismantled and then rebuilt when the flow loses its strength.
Perhaps one of the key differences between the Vietnamese and the Laotians is their respective attitudes to driving on the roads. They don't use their horn here at all unlike the constant beeping in Vietnam. Cars and mopeds stop at junctions, give way to those with the right of way and drive on the correct side of the road. It's tranquil.
Today we visited the Kuang Si waterfalls, about 30km south of LP. The water cascades down into beautiful turquoise pools surrounded by wonderfully green jungle. It is winter here and despite the fact that the temperature rises to as high as 30 degrees in the afternoon, the temperature falls away as soon as the sun goes down. It is so cool in the morning for breakfast and in the evening, that the restaurant here at the hotel places little brick burners under your tables to keep you warm. Winter does mean it is dry but the water in the falls is on the cool side. It was only us lads who ventured into the turquoise waters after hiking to the top of the falls. We all turned purple initially but it was worth it.
Tomorrow holds out a day of silk weaving for the ladies with the blokes heading up the Mekong to a cave containing 1000 Buddhas and a stop at a whiskey making village. This place is great.
We are staying in a self styled boutique hotel set on the banks of the Nam Khan river, a wide tributary of the mighty Mekong, about 1 km from the confluence of the two. In fact a large part of Luang Prabang is on a peninsula framed by the two rivers. From our hotel, the sun sets behind a large hill in the centre of LP crowned with a Buddhist temple. At dusk, the young monks in their orange robes, are swimming of the sandbars that occupy large parts of the Nam Khan. Our quickest way to walk into central LP is to pay 5000 kip (about 40p) and walk across a bamboo bridge that is rebuilt every year. In the rainy season the river flows far too quickly for the bridge to survive so it is dismantled and then rebuilt when the flow loses its strength.
Perhaps one of the key differences between the Vietnamese and the Laotians is their respective attitudes to driving on the roads. They don't use their horn here at all unlike the constant beeping in Vietnam. Cars and mopeds stop at junctions, give way to those with the right of way and drive on the correct side of the road. It's tranquil.
Today we visited the Kuang Si waterfalls, about 30km south of LP. The water cascades down into beautiful turquoise pools surrounded by wonderfully green jungle. It is winter here and despite the fact that the temperature rises to as high as 30 degrees in the afternoon, the temperature falls away as soon as the sun goes down. It is so cool in the morning for breakfast and in the evening, that the restaurant here at the hotel places little brick burners under your tables to keep you warm. Winter does mean it is dry but the water in the falls is on the cool side. It was only us lads who ventured into the turquoise waters after hiking to the top of the falls. We all turned purple initially but it was worth it.
Tomorrow holds out a day of silk weaving for the ladies with the blokes heading up the Mekong to a cave containing 1000 Buddhas and a stop at a whiskey making village. This place is great.
Thursday, 16 January 2014
Red light means I still can go
Whereas Ho Chi Minh City has wide streets and wide pavements, the old quarter in Hanoi, the spiritual heart of the one party state that is modern Vietnam, is a pedestrians' nightmare. In fact, the pavements are completely taken up either with street vendors and restaurants or for moped parking. When you walk down the street here in Hanoi, you literally walk down the street. Dodging the bikes and mopeds and cars has after almost 3 weeks in Vietnam become second nature. It is all in the steady movement so that the bikes etc can swerve around you as they predict your next step.
Hanoians are a bit cooler than their southern colleagues. It is not simply because the weather is perhaps surprisingly fresh here in northern Vietnam. It is also I suspect a product of the weariness the true champions of communist Vietnam have of their more capitalist leaning fellow countryman. Hanoi is Ho Chi Minh town with a large mausoleum housing the mummified remains and museums given over to the glorious history of the nationalist leader who founded the Vietnamese Communist party and led the revolt that lead, finally, to the unified country it is now. We have found the whole place more challenging than the old Saigon. Part of it I am sure is the difficulty you have in getting round and partly because of the weather in winter.
My favourite T shirt seen on the stalls of Vietnam is one of an inverted traffic light. It says next to the green light : I can go. Next to the yellow it says the same thing. Next to the red light is what it says in the title of this post. And it is so true here. We have seen cars and buses heading down the wrong side of dual carriageways, trucks that simply pull out on to the roads and bicycles cycling against the traffic across busy intersections. Like India, we will always remember the traffic here. My runner up in the T shirt competition is a shirt that says Pho Metal Jacket.
We have been in Halong Bay the last 3 days which partly explains why there has been a gap in posting on the blog. The other reason was the first hotel we stayed at here in Hanoi before our journey down to Halong had very poor wifi. Halong Bay is a four hour trip by road from Hanoi. It is clearly one of the places to visit in Vietnam and I think both Tess and I would agree deserves its World Heritage listing. It is stunning.
The only problem with Halong Bay is that it is so popular to visit. In the high season apparently upwards of 500 boats are operating. Although this is the low season now, we were playing bumper junks with at least 60 other large vessels as we left the mainland port at lunchtime and headed into the maze of limestone outcrops. Hundreds of others joined us in large caves, climbing to the top of one of the outcrops for a great view and watching Tess, me and a family of Australians go for a swim in what would diplomatically be described as refreshing conditions. As night fell it did not matter so much that there were so many boats out until we moored next to the Halong Party boat which blared out a ribcage shaking beat into the early hours. I could put up with the large junk which had pulsating lights running along its decks like a rundown casino or massage palour. The music on the other hand spoilt the experience for hundreds. We were fortunate to have an extra day on our trip and head down much deeper into the limestone cliffs to go cycling on an island, kayak and swim. For those who spent just one night on the Bay, they were gifted a sleepless night. The signs are not good for Halong. Very large hotels are being built on the mainland, along with waterside villas just like in Florida or on the Gold Coast.
Our 17 days in Vietnam are about to end. Tomorrow we fly to Luang Prabang in Laos. We have both loved Vietnam though and the Vietnamese in particular. They work very hard and the country deserves to succeed, as I am sure it will continue to do so. This is capitalism with the foot down hard on the accelerator. I like to think FDR or Ike would have been far too smart to have got embroiled in the ultimately needless fiasco that their successors in the 60s did. Still, the people here have forgiven and are getting on. There is an awful lot to like here.
I should also note that H is the second most commonly used letter in Vietnamese after the ubiquitous N. It might also explain why every place we have visited and stayed in : Ho Chi Minh, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi and Halong has started with H ! It is coincidentally in the bottom half of the table of letters used most frequently in English.
Hanoians are a bit cooler than their southern colleagues. It is not simply because the weather is perhaps surprisingly fresh here in northern Vietnam. It is also I suspect a product of the weariness the true champions of communist Vietnam have of their more capitalist leaning fellow countryman. Hanoi is Ho Chi Minh town with a large mausoleum housing the mummified remains and museums given over to the glorious history of the nationalist leader who founded the Vietnamese Communist party and led the revolt that lead, finally, to the unified country it is now. We have found the whole place more challenging than the old Saigon. Part of it I am sure is the difficulty you have in getting round and partly because of the weather in winter.
My favourite T shirt seen on the stalls of Vietnam is one of an inverted traffic light. It says next to the green light : I can go. Next to the yellow it says the same thing. Next to the red light is what it says in the title of this post. And it is so true here. We have seen cars and buses heading down the wrong side of dual carriageways, trucks that simply pull out on to the roads and bicycles cycling against the traffic across busy intersections. Like India, we will always remember the traffic here. My runner up in the T shirt competition is a shirt that says Pho Metal Jacket.
We have been in Halong Bay the last 3 days which partly explains why there has been a gap in posting on the blog. The other reason was the first hotel we stayed at here in Hanoi before our journey down to Halong had very poor wifi. Halong Bay is a four hour trip by road from Hanoi. It is clearly one of the places to visit in Vietnam and I think both Tess and I would agree deserves its World Heritage listing. It is stunning.
The only problem with Halong Bay is that it is so popular to visit. In the high season apparently upwards of 500 boats are operating. Although this is the low season now, we were playing bumper junks with at least 60 other large vessels as we left the mainland port at lunchtime and headed into the maze of limestone outcrops. Hundreds of others joined us in large caves, climbing to the top of one of the outcrops for a great view and watching Tess, me and a family of Australians go for a swim in what would diplomatically be described as refreshing conditions. As night fell it did not matter so much that there were so many boats out until we moored next to the Halong Party boat which blared out a ribcage shaking beat into the early hours. I could put up with the large junk which had pulsating lights running along its decks like a rundown casino or massage palour. The music on the other hand spoilt the experience for hundreds. We were fortunate to have an extra day on our trip and head down much deeper into the limestone cliffs to go cycling on an island, kayak and swim. For those who spent just one night on the Bay, they were gifted a sleepless night. The signs are not good for Halong. Very large hotels are being built on the mainland, along with waterside villas just like in Florida or on the Gold Coast.
Our 17 days in Vietnam are about to end. Tomorrow we fly to Luang Prabang in Laos. We have both loved Vietnam though and the Vietnamese in particular. They work very hard and the country deserves to succeed, as I am sure it will continue to do so. This is capitalism with the foot down hard on the accelerator. I like to think FDR or Ike would have been far too smart to have got embroiled in the ultimately needless fiasco that their successors in the 60s did. Still, the people here have forgiven and are getting on. There is an awful lot to like here.
I should also note that H is the second most commonly used letter in Vietnamese after the ubiquitous N. It might also explain why every place we have visited and stayed in : Ho Chi Minh, Hoi An, Hue, Hanoi and Halong has started with H ! It is coincidentally in the bottom half of the table of letters used most frequently in English.
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