Barb was on my bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. She was a tall woman in her 70's who wore a black travel vest spiced up with a large yellow fabric flower and yellow cap to match. Later she told me she had 3 hats and 12 wigs - always wearing one. There's no need to worry about your hair.
When she traveled she left the collection at home, however, Her bag was impressively small (about 1/2 the size of mine). I imagine she had learned to travel light after visiting 140 countries since retirement, most of the time depending on public transportation and hostels. She had been headed to Iran September 11th.
This time, she was on her way to Cambodia as part of a larger trip to Burma (after the government started shooting monks in the street, a change of plans was going to take her to Laos or Vietnam). She tried to make Cambodia part of many of her trips after first coming in 1991. At that time Pol Pot still had power in some of the Northern areas of Cambodia and she and her husband paid $20/day U.S. for the privilege of not being shot while in the area around Angkor Wat. At that time she met a 13-year old boy named Barang who spoke English and French. He was busing tables at a restaurant and struggling to pay for school. His mother made only $12 a month and his father had been killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was an infant.
Barb and her husband were so taken with Barang that they offered to pay for his schooling on three conditions:
1) He emailed regularly to keep in touch
2) He sent them his grades and kept performing well
3) And if his mother agreed
They journeyed out to his village to ask his mother. She was, of course, overjoyed and their friendship began. Only later did Barb discover that they had crossed into Pol Pot's territory and the taxi driver, the mother or anyone else could have turned them in for $25,000 US a head. Instead they returned safe and began sending small amounts of money for schooling and necessities. When they sent too much, Barang always returned the change.
As Barang got older he had the grades to go to university, but not the funds. Barb and her husband talked it over and agreed to pay. Right before graduation Barang's mother died of TB and they became his closest "family." They wrote a letter of recommendation to his prospective bride and made the trip to Cambodia to give him away at the wedding. They were now on their way back to see Barang and his lovely wife (former Miss Cambodia).
On this trip, Barb's husband (age 87) had flown from Bangkok rather than taking the land crossing. But Barb had brought friends who were ripe to experience their style of "adventure travel" and she insisted they needed the overland experience - a 7-hour ride on a bumpy 165 km stretch of dirt road. Although ready to be off the bus, I believe her friends, a former corporate executive for Tiffany's and former insurer of Tiffany's, appreciated the experience.
It was with such grace and humility that Barb told her stories. She had a smile and a spirit that even the most hardened criminal would not be able to cheat in good conscience. I will consider myself lucky if someday I have even half the experiences and spirit as Barb. She truly was an inspiration.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Thought I'd test out including video in the blog with footage of the daily public jazzercise in Lamphini Park, Bangkok.
Each day around 5:30 pm, Thai gather in the park to do public jazzercise. I couldn't quite capture the hundreds of people in attendence as they were stretched out around a curved street, but this gives you a flavor. As I left, I came accross another fairly sizable group getting started around 6:15 pm. As I sat there I wondered why San Francisco (in all its weirdness) hasn't caught this yet.
Okay, guys...I'll work on this but Cambodian Internet is even slower than Thailand or China. It may be a while before video can grace my blog. Sorry.
Each day around 5:30 pm, Thai gather in the park to do public jazzercise. I couldn't quite capture the hundreds of people in attendence as they were stretched out around a curved street, but this gives you a flavor. As I left, I came accross another fairly sizable group getting started around 6:15 pm. As I sat there I wondered why San Francisco (in all its weirdness) hasn't caught this yet.
Okay, guys...I'll work on this but Cambodian Internet is even slower than Thailand or China. It may be a while before video can grace my blog. Sorry.
Tom Yam Khung
In salivating again today over the memory of the delicious Thai cuisine I had during my cooking class, I thought it might be fun to share one of my favorite recipies. You'll have to go to an Asian market to pick up a number of these ingredients, but at least in the San Francisco area they're never more than a few miles away...
Tom Yam Khung (Sour and Spicy Prawn Soup pictured bottom left)
INGREDIENTS
300 grams prawns, shelled and deveined
200 grams mushrooms, halved
2 lemon grass stems cut into short lengths (best if cut diagonally to expose more flavor)
5 slices galangal sliced into thin rounds for flavor - do not eat(relative of giner, but not - got to the market)
4 kafir lime leaves, destemed and torn (not just lime leaves, you should find these frozen a the Asian market)
3-4 hot chillies broken with a pestle (the small hot chillies about 1 inch long)
4 tbsp. lime juice
3-4 tbsp. fish sauce
2 coriander stems (cilantro), chopped coarsely
4 cups water
PREPARATION
1. Heat the water to boiling. Add the lemon grass, shalots, galangal and kaffir lime leaves. Let boil for a minute or two.
2. Add prawns, mushrooms and fish sauce. Let boil until shrimp cooked (not long).
3. Season to taste with more lime, chillies and chopped cilantro. Remove from heat and serve hot.
4. Enjoy!
Tom Yam Khung (Sour and Spicy Prawn Soup pictured bottom left)
INGREDIENTS
300 grams prawns, shelled and deveined
200 grams mushrooms, halved
2 lemon grass stems cut into short lengths (best if cut diagonally to expose more flavor)
5 slices galangal sliced into thin rounds for flavor - do not eat(relative of giner, but not - got to the market)
4 kafir lime leaves, destemed and torn (not just lime leaves, you should find these frozen a the Asian market)
3-4 hot chillies broken with a pestle (the small hot chillies about 1 inch long)
4 tbsp. lime juice
3-4 tbsp. fish sauce
2 coriander stems (cilantro), chopped coarsely
4 cups water
PREPARATION
1. Heat the water to boiling. Add the lemon grass, shalots, galangal and kaffir lime leaves. Let boil for a minute or two.
2. Add prawns, mushrooms and fish sauce. Let boil until shrimp cooked (not long).
3. Season to taste with more lime, chillies and chopped cilantro. Remove from heat and serve hot.
4. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Trading Hippies for Expats
I've found it fascinating to visit the expat haunts in the major economic hubs through Asia so far - LAN in Beijing, House of Blues & Jazz in Shanghai, Take Out Comedy in Hong Kong. It is a whole other culture from both the host country and the homeland.
Tonight I returned from a lovely 2-day Thai cooking course 40 minutes north of Bangkok in an area of quaint river canals (www.thaihouse.co.th - highly recommended for those visiting Bangkok). While the friends made were terrific and the food outstanding, to describe it at length would be a bit boring so I'll spare you and move straight to Sukhumvit, Bangkok's expat district.
Instead of returning to Banglamphu, Bangkok's drifter hippie party district, I decided I would be better off in a new location. I settled on the Hostel International Sukhumvit. After a nice cool shower (I'm sweating buckets here) I scanned the guidebook and set off for Soi 33, a street with many English-style pubs, to try and find the local expat rag (see what was going on) and watch the natives (or non-natives as they were). Upon finding the "Big Chili," Bangkok's rather conservative monthly English-language magazine targeted at foreigners, I ordered a beer and started reading...
One thing that really struck me was the "socialite" pages. Every local magazine has them, they are pictures from fundraising galas, snotty celebrations and the like. Bangkok's pictures, however, have a running theme: relatively unattractive white men and Thai women. I scanned through five pages of snapshots only to find 6 white women out of dozens of pictures. When I looked around I realized that a snapshot at that moment would reveal the same shocking scenario. I was the only white woman in the bar apart from a rather loose looking middle aged woman wearing leopard print and deep red lipstick to the pub.
After finishing the magazine I quickly left and ventured a stone's throw down the road only to find another bar filled with relatively unattractive white men and Thai women. I wouldn't have gone in, but it seemed that I had fortuitously stumbled across trivia night and was curious how well I might do in a foreign land (with questions geared toward expats, of course). The answer...not that well. My attention quickly turned back to this obvious and fairly creepy observation.
Thailand, and particularly Bangkok, is known for its sex trade (prostitutes). All of the hostels have big signs saying "No guests in rooms. Especially prostitutes." But what qualifies? There are women who you can pick-up a brothel for a few bucks who obviously fit the definition, but what about the Thai women who become the short term "girlfriends" of visiting tourists (or even longer term expats). They are EVERYWHERE (tourist sights, Banglamphu, Sukhumvit, the Southern beaches...everywhere). They may not explicitly be paid for their services, but are well fed, get new clothes (like the "He's my favorite" T-shirt I saw on the street) and maybe even a chance at striking gold and getting an invitation back to his home country. The whole thing makes me a bit queasy. I'm sure there is love in some of these matches, but I'm not entirely convinced that it is what the women trolling the bar are really looking for or that is what them men think they are getting when they strike up a conversation with the dolled up Thai bird with the fake boobs.
Tonight I returned from a lovely 2-day Thai cooking course 40 minutes north of Bangkok in an area of quaint river canals (www.thaihouse.co.th - highly recommended for those visiting Bangkok). While the friends made were terrific and the food outstanding, to describe it at length would be a bit boring so I'll spare you and move straight to Sukhumvit, Bangkok's expat district.
Instead of returning to Banglamphu, Bangkok's drifter hippie party district, I decided I would be better off in a new location. I settled on the Hostel International Sukhumvit. After a nice cool shower (I'm sweating buckets here) I scanned the guidebook and set off for Soi 33, a street with many English-style pubs, to try and find the local expat rag (see what was going on) and watch the natives (or non-natives as they were). Upon finding the "Big Chili," Bangkok's rather conservative monthly English-language magazine targeted at foreigners, I ordered a beer and started reading...
One thing that really struck me was the "socialite" pages. Every local magazine has them, they are pictures from fundraising galas, snotty celebrations and the like. Bangkok's pictures, however, have a running theme: relatively unattractive white men and Thai women. I scanned through five pages of snapshots only to find 6 white women out of dozens of pictures. When I looked around I realized that a snapshot at that moment would reveal the same shocking scenario. I was the only white woman in the bar apart from a rather loose looking middle aged woman wearing leopard print and deep red lipstick to the pub.
After finishing the magazine I quickly left and ventured a stone's throw down the road only to find another bar filled with relatively unattractive white men and Thai women. I wouldn't have gone in, but it seemed that I had fortuitously stumbled across trivia night and was curious how well I might do in a foreign land (with questions geared toward expats, of course). The answer...not that well. My attention quickly turned back to this obvious and fairly creepy observation.
Thailand, and particularly Bangkok, is known for its sex trade (prostitutes). All of the hostels have big signs saying "No guests in rooms. Especially prostitutes." But what qualifies? There are women who you can pick-up a brothel for a few bucks who obviously fit the definition, but what about the Thai women who become the short term "girlfriends" of visiting tourists (or even longer term expats). They are EVERYWHERE (tourist sights, Banglamphu, Sukhumvit, the Southern beaches...everywhere). They may not explicitly be paid for their services, but are well fed, get new clothes (like the "He's my favorite" T-shirt I saw on the street) and maybe even a chance at striking gold and getting an invitation back to his home country. The whole thing makes me a bit queasy. I'm sure there is love in some of these matches, but I'm not entirely convinced that it is what the women trolling the bar are really looking for or that is what them men think they are getting when they strike up a conversation with the dolled up Thai bird with the fake boobs.
The Perfect Stranger
Dave and I parted ways in Hong Kong - he back to work via a few days visiting friends in Japan and I to Bangkok. I hopped a taxi from the airport and made my way to Banglamphu an area over-run with wandering hippies and Australian and British frat boys. Luckily, one of the bars on the street showed movies every night as I wasn't in much of a mood to chat with anyone, but at the same time didn't want to hold up in my lonely room. So, I spent my first night watching what likely qualifies as Bruce Willis's worst hour, "Perfect Stranger" with Halle Berry. And yes, I've seen some of his other films and will stand by my assertion that it is among the least impressive of his unimpressive movies. However horrific, it did the trick of taking my mind of my emotional overload after saying goodbye to Dave and facing the world for the first time really on my own.
Luckily, the next night, after a day visiting 3 of Bangkok's famed temples, I ventured out open to socializing. Still over-run with hippies and frat boys, I was lucky enough to meet a friendly Australian man from Perth (non-frat boy) who had circled the world over the past 13 months and was now returning to Siagon (his point of origin) to wrap his adventure up in a nice tight symetrical package (also a Virgo).
The company would have probably been enough to help temper my nerves, but he offered so much more than friendship - tales of adventure, words of reassurance, practical advice on both general traveling and destinations of interest and, above all, a message from a higher power that while what one will not always get exactly what one wants (e.g. "Perfect Stranger"), the world has a funny way of helping us out (e.g. Greg, a once perfect stranger, now friend).
Luckily, the next night, after a day visiting 3 of Bangkok's famed temples, I ventured out open to socializing. Still over-run with hippies and frat boys, I was lucky enough to meet a friendly Australian man from Perth (non-frat boy) who had circled the world over the past 13 months and was now returning to Siagon (his point of origin) to wrap his adventure up in a nice tight symetrical package (also a Virgo).
The company would have probably been enough to help temper my nerves, but he offered so much more than friendship - tales of adventure, words of reassurance, practical advice on both general traveling and destinations of interest and, above all, a message from a higher power that while what one will not always get exactly what one wants (e.g. "Perfect Stranger"), the world has a funny way of helping us out (e.g. Greg, a once perfect stranger, now friend).
Monday, September 24, 2007
Reflections on China
China was an adventure and I enjoyed it thoroughly (especially spending time with Dave and catching up with my expat friend Walter in Beijing), but at times it felt like I was having the same adventure again and again - arrive in a big (pop. 6 million +) smoggy dirty city with crazy drivers, eat in generic (but delicious) homestyle hovels and try to avoid roads filled with the same kind of kitch one finds in Chinatowns accross the world.
It was interesting traveling with Dave and hearing about how places had changed (at least the ones he had visited before) and it seems that China is plagued by unbridled "progress." Major cities have 25 skyscrappers going up each day, tourist destinations are over-run with tour buses full of the Chinese who for the first time in their lives have the economic means to travel, etc. The most enjoyable times were when we visited the "untouched" China - Leaping Tiger Gorge, wandering off the beaten path into smaller neighborhoods and alleyways and even just looking out the window of the train or bus at the countryside. Apparently this is what many of our destinations had been like a mere 10 years earlier. I'd like to go back, but I think seeking out the remaining rural areas would be more rewarding the second time round -- perhaps the Silk Road to get a taste for the "Wild West" of China where a lack of plush hotels and smoothly paved roads keep the neon lights and masses at bay.
It was interesting traveling with Dave and hearing about how places had changed (at least the ones he had visited before) and it seems that China is plagued by unbridled "progress." Major cities have 25 skyscrappers going up each day, tourist destinations are over-run with tour buses full of the Chinese who for the first time in their lives have the economic means to travel, etc. The most enjoyable times were when we visited the "untouched" China - Leaping Tiger Gorge, wandering off the beaten path into smaller neighborhoods and alleyways and even just looking out the window of the train or bus at the countryside. Apparently this is what many of our destinations had been like a mere 10 years earlier. I'd like to go back, but I think seeking out the remaining rural areas would be more rewarding the second time round -- perhaps the Silk Road to get a taste for the "Wild West" of China where a lack of plush hotels and smoothly paved roads keep the neon lights and masses at bay.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Hong Kong Has Everything!
We put it to the ultimate test - Mexican food. Those who have traveled or lived abroad know that Mexican food has the greatest potential for catastrophe, but the nachos in Hong Kong were almost as good as home (we weren't quite confident enough to go for enchiladas or burritos). In addition to nachos, we've been very successful here in our shopping endeavors...tailored slacks and shirts for Dave, a new (more sturdy) day pack for me, new prescription sunglasses for Dave, books for the road, t-shirts, more travel shots for me (1/2 the price they would have been in the states)...and more!
The things that Hong Kong doesn't have, it's getting. We went to an open night comedy night. Granted, the MC and the majority of the performers were American, but actively recruiting among Hong Kong's English and Chinese-speaking funny people. SMOG too! You may be familiar with the brilliant colors of Hong Kong's evening skyline as seen from Victoria Peak. The peak is still there and the tourist still flock there in droves, but the day-glow created by the relatively new smog problem is more depressing than the view is spectacular (The quickly growing manufacturing mecca of Shenzen, across the Chinese border, is largely responsible for this influx of pollution).
Hong Kong also has fast(er) Internet services. There are a someof new pictures up at www.jheinzelman.smugmug.com, but keep checking back as some of the best (like Dave and I dressed up like terracotta warriors) are yet to come.
The things that Hong Kong doesn't have, it's getting. We went to an open night comedy night. Granted, the MC and the majority of the performers were American, but actively recruiting among Hong Kong's English and Chinese-speaking funny people. SMOG too! You may be familiar with the brilliant colors of Hong Kong's evening skyline as seen from Victoria Peak. The peak is still there and the tourist still flock there in droves, but the day-glow created by the relatively new smog problem is more depressing than the view is spectacular (The quickly growing manufacturing mecca of Shenzen, across the Chinese border, is largely responsible for this influx of pollution).
Hong Kong also has fast(er) Internet services. There are a someof new pictures up at www.jheinzelman.smugmug.com, but keep checking back as some of the best (like Dave and I dressed up like terracotta warriors) are yet to come.
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