Dorothy, we're not in backpacker land anymore

Ubud has been very lovely so far. Unlike the rest of Indonesia which is predominantly Muslim, Bali is Hindu, and a very unique breed of Hindu at that. They mix it a lot with animism and it is very prevalent on a day to day basis. So, on top of the fact that the island is beautiful and blooming, as you walk by every shop they have carved chairs, statues, etc. with small fruit and flower offerings set aside that are changed multiple times per day. The doorways and walls of most dwelling reflect a style much more ornate than you should expect for such a small plot of land. Beauty isn't some goal of the Balinese--it's a given and essential to their way of life.

Because of this and its close proximity to Australia, Bali has been on the forefront of the backpacker scene for quite a while now. And what follows when backpackers call a place paradise too long is an expected conversion to more touristy travelers that have more money and more needs. They won't settle for third rate accommodation or food, so nicer places crop up and prices rise everywhere. Even the museum price has doubled since my guidebook was written. I have seen families with children for the first time in my trip, and they are everywhere! Bali seems to be the Quintana Roo of Australia. Luckily, that means they have good diving close by.

I went to the art museum yesterday, and fell in love with the rich, cramped style of Balinese art. I saw a few temples and then did a three hour traditional wood carving class, which was fun but definitely not easy! Today I'm headed to the monkey forest, complete with temples, and some traditional dancing tonight.

Tomorrow I head off to the much anticipated Gili islands for some world class diving. I may do a wreck dive on Sunday and will see what other sites they have for Monday and Tuesday. Then I have one day to relax and enjoy the main island before heading home! Crazy how the time flies.

A little about Sumatra

I've been in Indonesia long enough to get a decent impression of the culture, and so far I really love it and find it more tourist friendly than anywhere I've traveled so far. And, as opposed to the other places that have plenty of tourist traffic in down season, this is high season and one would expect a lot of people to be competing for tourist dollars. For example, when I got out of the airport I didn't get hassled at all by drivers asking to take me somewhere. I was politely approached by only one person, ad got a good price for a ride to my hostel without trying to convince me to go anywhere else. He was very talkative and pleasant and seemed genuinely interested in learning about my travels and America. The one thing an American will hear absolutely everywhere in Indonesia the second they tell someone where they are from is "Barack Obama", because he went to primary school here for a few years and his sister from his stepfather is from here. Therefore, Indonesia basically claims him as their own and is very, very proud of their ties to the president of such a prestigious nation.

The guides at Bukit Lawang were very nice as well, buying big amounts of food and giving some of it to us and helping us out in ways you wouldn't expect as part of just a "trek". One of the guides even brought me to his friend's wedding, which was very fun. He said that there is no real "normal" age for marriage in Indonesia, as some girls get married at 15 because of unexpected pregnancies and others wait until their twenties (the latter was the group our wedding belonged to, thank goodness). About half the women were in head scarves and half weren't--so far it seems like religions, though pervasive here, don't really come into much heated conflict. One of my guides was Protestant (they only have Protestant/Catholic, not further denominations) and said he feels safe and welcome in the community and never has had problems. Good to hear.

 

 The language also hasn't been as much of a problem here, as the phonemes and cadence of Bahasa Indonesia are a lot closer to English than other languages in Asia. The guides could all speak a decent amount of multiple languages, like French, Dutch, Danish, etc. And even though Sumatra is primarily Muslim, I fell like there is less of a culture shock here than in the rest of Asia. Maybe it's because the guides I work with  are always in contact with westerners, or maybe the cities in Sumatra are just more relaxed. Maybe it's because they all listen to American music (most of Asia listens to some, but mostly they listen to music from their own country). Either way, I don't feel like as much of a foreigner here, even with the light skin.

The saddest thing I've encountered in Indonesia is the strong memory of the tsunami of 2004. Everyone was affected by it in many ways, and there hasn't been one person I've talked to who didn't know someone who died during it. The most poignant story was a guide's friend whose child was 3 at the time. The eucalyptus trees grow here very infrequently, but they float really well. One happened to get uprooted during the tsunami and his child, who was about to drown, clung onto it and they didn't find her until the next day, 20 kilometers downstream of her house. She doesn't remember the event anymore, but her parents make her retell the story every few months to she will always know why she is alive now.

A little about Singapore

I really enjoyed my time in Singapore. It is amazing to think of how much they did with their country in only a few decades, and that the man who made modern Singapore is still alive. Singapore built its economic strength by maintaining its base (which started mostly in the 19th century) as a massive port city. Even today, many of the commodities we use have passed through Singapore at least once. Two days ago I went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands, and aside from the beautiful view of the island and ocean what is truly remarkable are the vast number of ships that crowd the coastline. They are all either leaving the harbor or waiting to dock and relieve their loads. The shipyards are massive, with giant crates piled on top of each other taking up what appear to be acres of land. Looking from the ships back to the gleaming buildings on land is the clearest explanation I've ever seen to how a nation acquires wealth. You can trace cause and effect in a mere glance across the horizon.

That day I also went to the Asian Civilizations Museum, which has excellent exhibits on all Asian cultures: south, west, straits, etc. They had an array of artifacts, from giant drums to wedding garments to illuminated copies of the Quran. Every exhibit has multiple multimedia stations that you can stop at that play videos and display more information on any topic you could possibly think of. One thing people in Singapore do right is give you ALL the facts.

I also went to the Peranakan museum, which celebrates the rich history of the Peranakan people. Peranakan is like mestizo, it means someone who has mixed native ancestry with some other county--in this case India and China. Men who traded with the native people in Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia interacted a good deal with the women and sometimes decided to stay put and marry to make a family there. Many people in this region identify as Peranakan, and have unique foods and traditions that set them apart from their fully Indian or Chinese counterparts.

I also had a good deal of Singapore food. They absolutely love toast, so there are toast-themed restaurants to be found everywhere. It's served with kopi (coffee) or teh (tea). The accent and phonetic spelling confused me at first, but you get used to it once you hear them talking long enough.

One of the last things I did was very fun but not very cultural: visit the Harry Potter exhibition, where they have on display many of the real props and costumes used in the lining of the eight Harry Potter movies. This is the first time the show has hit Asia, and I was offered a discount ticket when I went to enter the Marina Bay Sands viewing area. Of course I couldn't say no! And it was a very fun time indeed: I got to see wands, gowns, even the creatures they used in the films. The best part was I wasn't the only adult woman there--I meet a teacher from the Philippines who was traveling, like me, and just couldn't say no to the opportunity.

I'd like to tell more about Singpore, but unfortunately I am leaving on a trek to see some wild orangutans! Wish me luck! I should be back on the 7th. Take care until then!

Singapore--the city/country

I landed in Singapore last night, and as I was expecting it is much different and more first world than the rest of SE Asia. I actually planned it in the middle of my trip for that exact reason--if I needed a break I could have it, and then continue on my journey refreshed from the A/C in every building and coffee shops on every corner. So far I've explored Little India (where my hostel is), and found out they are having a food festival, so I couldn't be happier.

I also went to the National Museum of Singapore and, after only getting 1/4 of the way through one of the exhibits in an hour, will be going back after my lunch break here to continue learning about Singapore's interesting history. I'll be here until the 4th, and plan on seeing the Night Zoo along with some other historical landmarks. I'll go to Orchard Road, the shopping capital, but will do more looking than buying. Overall I just have enjoyed walking around and taking in the different flavors and languages of this bustling city. I can say for sure that if I had to move anywhere in SE Asia, this wouldn't be a difficult adjustment to make.

Good day exploring Vietnamese history

Since I took it pretty easy yesterday (not that it mattered--it rained a lot yesterday and would have slowed me down even if I had intended to do a lot of sight seeing) I was refreshed and ready to take on the day this morning. I had a full breakfast at my hostel since it is included in the room rate and headed toward my first stop: the war remnants museum. The Vietnamese have been in the middle of too many colonization attempts (real, perceived, or ambiguous) for their liking, the most recent and/or despised being the Chinese, French, and Americans. Because of this, the museum apparently used to be called the museum of Chinese and American war atrocities--and it's not hard to imagine why that name didn't stick. I was told from the start, and assumed from the other museums I have seen, that the museum would be very one-sided. And, to a good degree, it was. However, it really wasn't as biased as I could have imagined (that could be indicative of the Vietnamese government actually doing a better job or just of how low my expectations were--I don't know yet).

The outside lawn of the museum has helicopters, tanks, planes, and long range missile launchers parked outside to show the sheer quality and quantity of brilliantly destructive equipment the US government had at their disposal. The ground floor showed an exhibition of the people that "supported a free Vietnam", a euphemism for the people that spoke out against the US aiding in the South's war effort (the distinction, of course, being that disagreeing with an outside country's involvement with a civil war does not necessarily mean they support the side that ended up winning it). I was impressed that they spent so much time documenting the protests in the US, including Kent State. It surprised me only because it seemed to really attempt to paint some Americans in a positive light--not all Americans were the "colonial aggressors" (a term wrongfully adopted by the North) the VC fought against; many were against the war and extremely vocal about it. In another floor, I was sad to see that they kept a really good explanation of the typical American soldier's psyche during the war in English without translating it for the Vietnamese. I think it would have been very moving for the Vietnamese. After all, the college-age boys that too often were the ones on the from line weren't the politicians escalating the war. They were victims too, even if they are painted as killers. Seeing this side is essential and something most Americans have access to, especially through amazing writers like Tim O'brien. The other exhibits were dedicated the the massacres, like My Lai, amid quotes of European intellectuals condemning the actions, along with pictures of victims on Agent Orange, which was terribly sad. As we know too well, civilians and soldiers from both sides were affected because chemicals don't care whether you have a gun in your hand or what color your uniform is.

After that, I went to the museum of Ho Chi Minh City, which was extremely interesting because it covered everything from previous invasions and uprisings to the crafts that were native to the city and where they came from, art, traditional ceremonies, and an economic history detailing changes in imports/explores and GDP. At the time, There were also two Vietnamese brides that came to the beautiful museum building to get their wedding photos taken. It was fun to watch them, one in white and one in red, pose with their new husbands.

After the museum I headed over to the Reunification Palace, which used to be the President's palace before the end of the war.

For dinner, I went to a coffee shop that reminds me very much of Starbucks to escape the chaos. However, I won't just be drinking a mocha and eating banana bread. When in Saigon, do as the Saigonese do--and Saigonese love their noodle soup, or pho. So I had a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee, sweetened with condensed milk the way they like it, and some delicious beef pho. The one thing I don't think I'll try here is the weasel coffee. It is normal coffee beans fed to a weasel and collected after it's made the trip through their digestive system--noooo thanks!

Tonight I will meet up with a French Canadian I met in Hanoi who finished her bus trip from there to Saigon a few days ago--it's great that you can keep running into the same people here. After that I'll be off to bed and then wake up early for a tour of the Mekong Delta south of here, which is supposed to be stunning. Hope you are all well and, if you can believe it, I'll already be heading home in three weeks! How the time flies.

Stuffed!

Today I stuffed myself with delicious Thai food during a cooking class in the afternoon after visiting the Jim Thompson house in the morning. What a good day! Tonight we are heading to the Moon Bar at Vertigo for some great city views. And tomorrow we head to Thailand's old capital, Ayutthaya, for a quieter feel.

Water Puppets

I went to the water puppet theater last night, and it was so fun! And it had A/C, so I was doubly happy.

Ho Chi Minh

Saw the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum, museum, and homes today. It was a very interesting experience and made me think a lot.

I want to write about my thoughts on Hanoi, Sapa, the mausoleum and the Vietnam War, but I'm completely wiped out right now because of the heat. Look at that--and it's already afternoon!


 I'm off to the water puppet show for now!