by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
At the end of essay one on Bangkok, my wife and I were touring “high-end” stores so our tuk-tuk driver could get “gas coupons.” When our tuk-tuk tour ended, we gave our driver 60 bahts rather than the 40 negotiated at the beginning of our trip. Still, at 60 bahts for over 1 1/2-hours of travel, the cost in U.S. dollars was less than $2.00 (about $1.86 to be exact).
Back at the Grand Palace (once the official home for the Kings of Siam), which was our original destination when we left the Four Season’s Hotel in the morning, our intent was to see the Emerald Buddha located within the Palace walls. I’m not quite sure why our focus was on seeing a wide variety of Buddhas; however, that was what was happening.
The admission price to the Grand Palace and museum was about $10.00 U.S. (350 baht), but we discovered, in retrospect, that it was well worth the price. We shortened our self-guided tour, however, because of the excessive heat and humidity. There was bright sunshine, and in walking the grounds of the Grand Palace, we were continually in search of shade.
An Internet essay, “History of the Emerald Buddha,” offers a short explanation of the Emerald Buddha which we heard repeated several times by tour guides we overheard at the Palace: “According to reliable chronicles, lightning struck a Chedi in Chiangrai province of Northern Thailand in 1434 A.D.and a Buddha statue made of stucco was found inside. The abbot of the temple noticed that the stucco on the nose had flaked off and the image inside was a green color. He then removed the stucco covering and found the Emerald Buddha which is in reality made of green jade.” The explanation we heard for the stucco covering was to protect it. It was applied by people who knew the stucco would be unattractive to uninvited plunderers whereas the green jade would be stolen at once. The Emerald Buddha stands less than 18-inches tall.
To get to the Reclining Buddha (Wat Pho) — our next Buddhist destination — which was located next to the Grand Palace, we had to walk around half of the large, walled enclosure, but, fortunately, we walked in shade under trees and vendor umbrellas. There were at least 100 sidewalk vendors along the route from the Palace to Wat Pho. “The word “Wat” means “place of worship.” We moved rapidly among the locals, and there was never fear nor anxiety, even though we saw no other tourists and no other Caucasians during this long walk in the heat and humidity.
Also, just before getting to Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha, we walked to the edge of Chao Phraya River which flows through the heart of Bangkok. At the website, Virtual Tourist, it says this about the River: “[The] Chao Phraya River plays a main role [in] Thai life. Some of [Thai] history can be traced within [its] sprawling river banks. [There are] Old Temples, palaces, and [many] communities . . . along the river.”
Beside the river and looking out over it, we found the S & P Restaurant where we “enjoyed” a spicy cream/chicken/artichoke soup that I ate with tears coming to my eyes. My wife had a spicy tomato/beef/curry soup that was not as spicy, but spicy enough! Traditional Thai food is very spicy, and locals tend to use white rice to mute the intensity. I used all of the white rice we were provided — both mine and my wife’s!
Although we had many opportunities to eat from sidewalk vendors or in numerous local restaurants (especially in a “Food Park” at a mall close to our hotel, we ate all our breakfasts (3 total) in our hotel room with locally purchased bakery items), and we had entirely “safe” food (also cheap!) at a McDonald’s and a KFC. (You can find many of the well-known, fast-food, brand name restaurants in Bangkok such as KFC, Burger King, Dunking Donuts, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Dairy Queen, Starbucks, A&W and so on. (YUM! Restaurants, Inc., [owner of KFC] operates over 32,500 restaurants in more than 100 countries and territories in the world.)
Getting back to our walk from the Grand Palace to Wat Pho, you may wonder why we wanted to see the Reclining Buddha? At the website, “Into Asia” there is a description of it: “The highly impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long [151 feet] and 15 meters high [49 feet], and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.” If you ever think you’ve seen enough Buddhas, or that you’ve seen them all (there are over 1,000 images of Buddha in Wat Pho alone!), and you’ve missed the Reclining Buddha, you have missed a remarkable sight.
After our 2 ½ days in greater Bangkok, we were ready to head to Laem Chabang (the port that is two hours away, board our ship (the Diamond Princess), and begin traveling to Singapore (with over 2,600 others). The words “greater Bangkok” are important. According to the very short essay,“Thai Traditional Ways of Life in Bangkok” the writer claims we never saw “the real Bangkok.” “Bangkok is very much grounded in modernity,” the writer says. “It is a fast and furious city of business and commerce with a pace equal to that of any capital in the world. Despite this, Thailand’s capital also has a quieter, gentler side. The real Bangkok can be found in the backstreets and ‘Sois’ (small roads) where people live in communities that have not changed much over the years.
Obviously, getting out of the city centre is the best way to find Bangkok’s traditional way of life, but even in the centre a short walk away from tourism and business areas will find people sitting in the street, eating, chatting, listening to music and enjoying Thailand’s clement evening weather.” The point the writer is making is simple: There are even contrasts that those who visit Bangkok will miss if they don’t get out of the city center.
Despite not getting out of the city, however, we noticed the contrast between the traditional and the modern. For us, one of the best symbols of this contrast was seeing one of the women sidewalk vendors toting her wares in bamboo woven baskets, attached to a bamboo pole, carried over her shoulders, then selling her wares on the sidewalk beneath a large, modern, skyscraper. Where else in the world but Bangkok?
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At this tourist website, there is a brief history of Bangkok. I found the following paragraph the most interesting one in this essay: “A century ago, Bangkok had many river tributaries and canals until it was known as "Venice of the East." As modernization steps in during the past 30 years, more and more roads were built with the sacrifice of these canals. Small and mega-buildings replaced the rice paddy fields and agricultural farms. However, Bangkok still retains its charm by portraying the combination of old and new and is one of the most attractive cities to visit.”
At One-Stop Bangkok, the essay states: “The bigger size of Buddha statues can also be seen in every temple in Thailand. Bangkok boasts many exquisite temples which are regularly visited by pious Buddhists on special religious occasions. The most famous one is the Temple of Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew), situated within the Grand Palace. The emerald Buddha acts as a sacred symbol of the Rattanakosin. Thai people always go to the temples to offer food, candles, incense sticks and lotus flowers to the Buddha statues and also give money to make merit to the temple and monks. Some also receive blessings from the monks which they believe will bring good fortune and prosperity.”
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Bangkok: Big City of Contrasts
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
It was dark when we landed at the airport, and we could see little (or nothing) during the shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel just outside the main areas of most interest (e.g., the Old City, China Town, and sights along the Chao Phraya River). After a 21-hour, 36-minute (total) series of flights (3 different aircraft) — 3 legs (Detroit-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, and Tokyo-Bangkok) — we were dead tired and ready to check in to our Princess-cruise arranged, Four Seasons’ Hotel, which we did around 2:00 a.m. We slept in until 9:30 a.m. the following day.
Although we were still a bit sluggish from our long trip yesterday and the day before (we lost a day in transit), we decided to spend the first half day staying fairly close to the hotel. Out on the street walking, openly using our maps for direction, and looking unclear and confused, crossing the street at the first light after leaving our hotel, a woman asked if she could help us.
We didn’t know there was a hospital on this corner where we were standing, and this helpful woman was the wife of a physician, and she was just going to meet her husband for lunch. She had a great deal of information to share, and when she heard of where we wanted to go (the Gem and Jewelry Trade Center), she recommended it. (I wrote about her and professor Chanchai in a previous essay, “Orchestrating a Sale,” so I won’t repeat it here, except to say, this was our opening experience in Bangkok. Although Bangkok was quite a contrast to anything we had previously experienced, meeting a woman fluent in English and so anxious to help us was really a sensational introduction — like being welcomed by a warm, friendly greeter into a department store in a new city.
Getting to the Trade Center we used a tuk-tuk. One website writes this about the tuk-tuk: “So named because of the sound of their engine, these are motorized rickshaws and are popular amongst tourists for their novelty value. They are occasionally faster than taxis in heavy traffic as weaving in and out is easier, but generally about the same or slower.” The website, “Into Asia” writing about tuk-tuks, also says, “they expose passengers to the high pollution levels in the middle of Bangkok's roads and offer almost no protection in case of an accident.” Despite these drawbacks, and having had the experience ourselves, any adventurous traveler to Bangkok should take a ride in a tuk-tuk.
Why should tourists take a tuk-tuk ride? First, it places you down among the locals because, with the exception of the small motorcycles and scooters, it is a common and heavily used form of transportation. Second, it offers a real look — through immersion — at the traffic congestion of which this big city is characterized. Third, you see how much the pulse of the city depends on local sidewalk vendors for you travel through sections where these vendors form the side rails of the city streets. You see the fruit and vegetable vendors, smell the charcoal grills cooking kabobs and small pieces of chicken, and absorb the pungent odors of deep fryers cooking chicken, pork, and fish. Fourth, you get — first hand — the rich mix of odors that make up the material substance and grittiness of this big, active, thriving city. Sure, there is the exhaust of the buses, trucks, and tuk-tuks, the acrid smoke from burning incense and cigarettes, the smoldering charcoal grills and deep fryers, but this is the rich, thick, penetrating flavor of this big-city’s life.
It was our second day in Bangkok when we experienced even more of the grit and texture of the city. In a metered taxi secured at the hotel, we traveled to the Grand Palace, through China Town and parts of the Old City. In China Town, there were small, open-front shops selling flashy (brilliant gold) Buddhist statues (—there is a Buddhist shrine, temple, or symbol on many street corners and 95% of Thai people are Buddhist ---), food, clothing, bolts of fabric, shoes, sandals, and all kinds of merchandise. Once again, it was as if the street was the center thoroughfare of an active and thriving bee hive with worker bees moving here and there all with purpose and a destination — except for the shop owners who sat just outside their shops drawing deeply, one after another, on their Thai cigarettes
When we arrived at the Grand Palace we were told we couldn’t see the Emerald Buddha until after noon, and because we had over an hour a fellow who could speak some English sent us to see the White Stone Buddha (located in a small monastery), then a Happy Buddha, in yet another Buddhist temple.
One thing you can say about Buddhists, and you can say it without reservation and based solely on a limited experience in a Buddhist country, the temples and houses of worship, statues, and other testaments of faith, tend to be ornate, flashy (often adorned with small pieces of mirror or bright colored tiles (usually orange, red, green, and blue). Their religious buildings and pagodas and other houses of worship are, too, ornate, with fancy, often gilded, roof extensions that bend upward to give the feeling of flight or lightness.
As we were driving by bus from Bangkok to Laem Chabang, the port closest to Bangkok, we could easily spot temples throughout the small villages.
It may reflect my limited travel experience or lack of traveling expertise, but the “gas coupon” situation was new. When we negotiated the 40-baht (about $1.25 U.S.) tuk-tuk ride (for more than 1 ½ hours), from the Grand Palace to see the White Stone and Happy Buddhas, we had no idea what we bargained for. 40 bahts was extremely cheap for both the time and distance we traveled, but there’s a catch. Because of previous agreements, numerous “high end” stores give tuk-tuk drivers gas coupons for bringing their customers to their stores.
As we entered the first of these “high end” stores, we were told by our tuk-tuk driver we had to remain for 15 minutes in a store for him to receive his coupon. When we entered the store, we were asked by an attractive hostess if we wanted a free beverage from a bar, before being ushered into a sales area. (Having encountered — endured — a similar sales situation the previous day, we refused the drink, left the establishment, and denied our tuk-tuk driver a coupon.) In the next two stores, we asked how long we needed to stay for him to get his coupon, kept close tabs on our watch, and we immediately left when we could — in just five or ten minutes.
This essay will be continued in a second essay on Bangkok — which was not planned when the original essay was written. Looking back on our entire Southeast Asia trip, both my wife and I agreed that Bangkok was our favorite city of the nine we visited. Perhaps, this is the influence of first impressions; however, it could have been our freedom (and time) to explore the city on our own, the experiences we had there, the friendly and helpful people we met, or, as I most suspect, it could have been the exciting, interesting, and obvious contrasts this big city offered.
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At Lonely Planet, there is a wonderful paragraph which support my essay, “Big City of Contrasts”: “Of the famous and infamous attractions, Bangkok’s best feature is its intermingling of opposites. A modern world of affluence orbits around a serene traditional core. Step outside the four-star hotels into a typical Siamese village where taxi drivers knock back energy drinks and upcountry transplants grill chicken on a streetside barbecue. Hop the Skytrain to the glitzy shopping malls where trust-fund babies examine luxury brands as carefully as the housewives inspect produce at the open-air markets. Or appreciate the attempts at enlightenment at the city’s famous temples and doorstep shrines, or simple acts of kindness amid the urban bustle.”
“Buddhism in Thailand: Its Past and Its Present,” is an essay by Karuna Kusalasaya that includes this comment: “Thailand is perhaps the only country in the world where the king is constitutionally stipulated to be a Buddhist and the upholder of the Faith. For centuries Buddhism has established itself in Thailand and has enriched the lives of the Thais in all their aspects. Indeed, without Buddhism, Thailand would not be what it is today.”
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC
It was dark when we landed at the airport, and we could see little (or nothing) during the shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel just outside the main areas of most interest (e.g., the Old City, China Town, and sights along the Chao Phraya River). After a 21-hour, 36-minute (total) series of flights (3 different aircraft) — 3 legs (Detroit-Chicago, Chicago-Tokyo, and Tokyo-Bangkok) — we were dead tired and ready to check in to our Princess-cruise arranged, Four Seasons’ Hotel, which we did around 2:00 a.m. We slept in until 9:30 a.m. the following day.
Although we were still a bit sluggish from our long trip yesterday and the day before (we lost a day in transit), we decided to spend the first half day staying fairly close to the hotel. Out on the street walking, openly using our maps for direction, and looking unclear and confused, crossing the street at the first light after leaving our hotel, a woman asked if she could help us.
We didn’t know there was a hospital on this corner where we were standing, and this helpful woman was the wife of a physician, and she was just going to meet her husband for lunch. She had a great deal of information to share, and when she heard of where we wanted to go (the Gem and Jewelry Trade Center), she recommended it. (I wrote about her and professor Chanchai in a previous essay, “Orchestrating a Sale,” so I won’t repeat it here, except to say, this was our opening experience in Bangkok. Although Bangkok was quite a contrast to anything we had previously experienced, meeting a woman fluent in English and so anxious to help us was really a sensational introduction — like being welcomed by a warm, friendly greeter into a department store in a new city.
Getting to the Trade Center we used a tuk-tuk. One website writes this about the tuk-tuk: “So named because of the sound of their engine, these are motorized rickshaws and are popular amongst tourists for their novelty value. They are occasionally faster than taxis in heavy traffic as weaving in and out is easier, but generally about the same or slower.” The website, “Into Asia”
Why should tourists take a tuk-tuk ride? First, it places you down among the locals because, with the exception of the small motorcycles and scooters, it is a common and heavily used form of transportation. Second, it offers a real look — through immersion — at the traffic congestion of which this big city is characterized. Third, you see how much the pulse of the city depends on local sidewalk vendors for you travel through sections where these vendors form the side rails of the city streets. You see the fruit and vegetable vendors, smell the charcoal grills cooking kabobs and small pieces of chicken, and absorb the pungent odors of deep fryers cooking chicken, pork, and fish. Fourth, you get — first hand — the rich mix of odors that make up the material substance and grittiness of this big, active, thriving city. Sure, there is the exhaust of the buses, trucks, and tuk-tuks, the acrid smoke from burning incense and cigarettes, the smoldering charcoal grills and deep fryers, but this is the rich, thick, penetrating flavor of this big-city’s life.
It was our second day in Bangkok when we experienced even more of the grit and texture of the city. In a metered taxi secured at the hotel, we traveled to the Grand Palace, through China Town and parts of the Old City. In China Town, there were small, open-front shops selling flashy (brilliant gold) Buddhist statues (—there is a Buddhist shrine, temple, or symbol on many street corners and 95% of Thai people are Buddhist ---), food, clothing, bolts of fabric, shoes, sandals, and all kinds of merchandise. Once again, it was as if the street was the center thoroughfare of an active and thriving bee hive with worker bees moving here and there all with purpose and a destination — except for the shop owners who sat just outside their shops drawing deeply, one after another, on their Thai cigarettes
When we arrived at the Grand Palace we were told we couldn’t see the Emerald Buddha until after noon, and because we had over an hour a fellow who could speak some English sent us to see the White Stone Buddha (located in a small monastery), then a Happy Buddha, in yet another Buddhist temple.
One thing you can say about Buddhists, and you can say it without reservation and based solely on a limited experience in a Buddhist country, the temples and houses of worship, statues, and other testaments of faith, tend to be ornate, flashy (often adorned with small pieces of mirror or bright colored tiles (usually orange, red, green, and blue). Their religious buildings and pagodas and other houses of worship are, too, ornate, with fancy, often gilded, roof extensions that bend upward to give the feeling of flight or lightness.
As we were driving by bus from Bangkok to Laem Chabang, the port closest to Bangkok, we could easily spot temples throughout the small villages.
It may reflect my limited travel experience or lack of traveling expertise, but the “gas coupon” situation was new. When we negotiated the 40-baht (about $1.25 U.S.) tuk-tuk ride (for more than 1 ½ hours), from the Grand Palace to see the White Stone and Happy Buddhas, we had no idea what we bargained for. 40 bahts was extremely cheap for both the time and distance we traveled, but there’s a catch. Because of previous agreements, numerous “high end” stores give tuk-tuk drivers gas coupons for bringing their customers to their stores.
As we entered the first of these “high end” stores, we were told by our tuk-tuk driver we had to remain for 15 minutes in a store for him to receive his coupon. When we entered the store, we were asked by an attractive hostess if we wanted a free beverage from a bar, before being ushered into a sales area. (Having encountered — endured — a similar sales situation the previous day, we refused the drink, left the establishment, and denied our tuk-tuk driver a coupon.) In the next two stores, we asked how long we needed to stay for him to get his coupon, kept close tabs on our watch, and we immediately left when we could — in just five or ten minutes.
This essay will be continued in a second essay on Bangkok — which was not planned when the original essay was written. Looking back on our entire Southeast Asia trip, both my wife and I agreed that Bangkok was our favorite city of the nine we visited. Perhaps, this is the influence of first impressions; however, it could have been our freedom (and time) to explore the city on our own, the experiences we had there, the friendly and helpful people we met, or, as I most suspect, it could have been the exciting, interesting, and obvious contrasts this big city offered.
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At Lonely Planet
“Buddhism in Thailand: Its Past and Its Present,”
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Proud to be an America
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
Just for the fun of it, I pulled out a 20 Chinese Yuen at a cash register in a local store, and because I had just returned home from China, I told the cashier where I got the money, and she said, “You know, I’ve never had any desire to leave this country.” I responded saying, “It is a positive experience, and it makes you proud to be an American.”
Of course, I didn’t have the time to explain my statement, but what I said to the clerk made me stop and think about it. How does it make me proud to be an American?
There are three caveats regarding my comments. First, they are based on my personal perspective only. Second, they are generally based on this one experience abroad, even though I have traveled around the world, lived in Pakistan for fourteen-and-a-half months, and taught at several universities in Australia. Third, they are generalizations. They capture my feelings at this moment, within a week of my return from twenty-three days abroad.
Also, I must mention the reference base for my observations. Perrysburg, Ohio, where I have lived for more than 35 years, is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. It is a small town where most residents are educated, literate, well-informed, and either middle or upper class.
On the 16-day cruise, my wife and I visited nine large Asian cities: Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Saigon and Nha Trang, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipai, Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan, and Shanghai and Beijing, China. Although each of these cities has qualities similar to the others, each has a unique and distinct quality all its own, and in the observations that follow, I do not want to suggest that I am grouping these cities or considering them a single entity. Grouping them is unfair. For example, there is a radical difference between all of these cities and Saigon. Singapore, too, offers a situation that is radically different from all of the others. (I have written separate essays on my experiences in each of these nine cities, and they are published elsewhere.)
Why am I proud to be an American? There is no question (in my mind) that travel abroad makes you proud to be an American, because with no experiences outside of our country, it is hard to appreciate what it is that makes us special—special enough to make me want to write about it.
The first element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S. and know that I can drink the water. I cannot believe, for example, that in Beijing, the capitol of China, where over 15 million people live, you cannot drink the water. Anywhere! The residents boil their water before drinking it, and many depend on bottled water. Even in the luxurious hotels, bottled water is provided, and you are warned not to drink it from the tap.
The second element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S., and there is little or no pollution. Of course our large cities suffer from pollution problems, but the nine cities I visited each has serious pollution problems. In Hong Kong, we never had a day when we could clearly see all the buildings. Every one of the cities we visited have heavy pollution, and Beijing (once again) is the worst polluted city in the world. Often, as you drive from the dock area into the city, you can see the cloud of smog that envelopes the city. As we approached Istanbul, a couple of years ago, the gray-yellow mass that hung over the city was obvious, thick, and covered the city like a large, dirty comforter.
The third element is litter, dirt, and poverty. I don’t want to suggest we don’t have areas of our country that are affected by litter, dirt, and poverty, but I have never seen as much of each in one place as I saw when traveling from the dock (Phu My) into Saigon. There are unlikely to be many places in the U.S. where residents use the side of the road as a dump, where residents (millions of them) live from hand-to-mouth on a daily basis, where the air is filled with swirling dust, dirt, and exhaust emissions, and where small open-front stores selling all kinds of goods, including fruit, vegetables, and other foods—and even restaurants—cannot help but be contaminated by the dirt, litter, and pollution.
In addition to Vietnam, nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and East Timor rank near the bottom of global development lists. Across Southeast Asia, more than 1 billion people live on less than $2.00 U.S. per day.
The fourth element—and this could, and perhaps should, be listed first—is our freedom. In Taiwan, we were told by our tour guide, Jan de Vries, that the people cannot own land. All the land is owned by the government, and people can only rent it. In Singapore, it is against the law to chew gum in public—and the law in this pristine, litter-free place is enforced ruthlessly. In Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, the media is owned by the government, and although things are more open today than ten or twenty years ago, free speech is limited, and there is no open political debate or discussion. If you think what you see is democracy because it looks free and open, think again: it isn’t. A political junkie like myself who enjoys the free and open discussion of politics and relishes the controversy displayed in the media would go nuts in these countries—and maybe be imprisoned.
As the fifth element (and beyond), I want to group a number of things that I observed that make me proud to be an American. I like our malls and shopping centers for their cleanliness and fixed prices; I have experienced enough dirty markets and bazaars where there are no fixed prices, where you must bargain for everything, and where hawkers grab at you, yell at you, and try to pull you into their shops. I like speaking English and enjoy interacting with people who at the very least have English as a second or third language. Although I enjoy seeing street vendors, they are rampant in Bangkok, and the local people depend on them for food and snacks. Their stalls, stands, or carts are generally dirty and poorly maintained. In the U.S. they would be banned as a health hazard. I like our sanitation and health standards. Although not always maintained as well as they could be, I love our interstates, highways, and roads. The roads in Saigon are horrendous, and the streets within most of these large cities were never constructed for the amount of traffic they bear. It is overwhelming, and in Bangkok and Saigon, motor cycles and scooters are preferred, and few drivers respect the rights of pedestrians—anywhere.
My list could go on to mention 5,000-year-old traditions and beliefs, populations density, societies that depend on class consciousness, or the garishness of religious symbols, but I want to add a final note. We enjoy traveling widely, and our trip to Southeast Asia was no exception. Just because I observed differences between cultures, does not mean I disliked anything I observed. It comes back to the old cliche: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” “While no nation is greater than another,” one writer on the Internet said when I Googled, “Proud to be an American,” “and no nationality is superior to another, I am happy to be among those who call the United States their home.” .My conclusion is simple: “It sure makes you proud to be an American.”
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At “The Heritage Foundation” website, the article there by Walter Lohman, “Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia,” (March 20, 2007), will give you phenomenal perspective and interesting insights as to why the U.S. has an interest in this particular area of the world. This article is valuable and offers an eye-opening examination of Southeast Asia.
At the website “Encyclopedia.com,” I found the following comment, which I quote here (f.y.i.), in full: “SOUTHEAST ASIA EXHIBITS TREMENDOUS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS diversity; all the major religions of the world can be found in the region. It is also marked by vast economic disparities. At one end of the spectrum is Singapore, which has a standard of living higher than that of Spain or Portugal. At the other end are countries like Laos and Burma (Myanmar), which are desperately poor. There is also a great deal of variety in the types of political systems that characterize the region. The Philippines is a democracy, the Republic of Vietnam a one-party state, and Brunei a semi-feudal …“ The rest of the article is available at HighBeam Research, and I did not read it.
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Just for the fun of it, I pulled out a 20 Chinese Yuen at a cash register in a local store, and because I had just returned home from China, I told the cashier where I got the money, and she said, “You know, I’ve never had any desire to leave this country.” I responded saying, “It is a positive experience, and it makes you proud to be an American.”
Of course, I didn’t have the time to explain my statement, but what I said to the clerk made me stop and think about it. How does it make me proud to be an American?
There are three caveats regarding my comments. First, they are based on my personal perspective only. Second, they are generally based on this one experience abroad, even though I have traveled around the world, lived in Pakistan for fourteen-and-a-half months, and taught at several universities in Australia. Third, they are generalizations. They capture my feelings at this moment, within a week of my return from twenty-three days abroad.
Also, I must mention the reference base for my observations. Perrysburg, Ohio, where I have lived for more than 35 years, is a suburb of Toledo, Ohio. It is a small town where most residents are educated, literate, well-informed, and either middle or upper class.
On the 16-day cruise, my wife and I visited nine large Asian cities: Bangkok, Thailand, Singapore, Saigon and Nha Trang, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taipai, Taiwan, Okinawa, Japan, and Shanghai and Beijing, China. Although each of these cities has qualities similar to the others, each has a unique and distinct quality all its own, and in the observations that follow, I do not want to suggest that I am grouping these cities or considering them a single entity. Grouping them is unfair. For example, there is a radical difference between all of these cities and Saigon. Singapore, too, offers a situation that is radically different from all of the others. (I have written separate essays on my experiences in each of these nine cities, and they are published elsewhere.)
Why am I proud to be an American? There is no question (in my mind) that travel abroad makes you proud to be an American, because with no experiences outside of our country, it is hard to appreciate what it is that makes us special—special enough to make me want to write about it.
The first element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S. and know that I can drink the water. I cannot believe, for example, that in Beijing, the capitol of China, where over 15 million people live, you cannot drink the water. Anywhere! The residents boil their water before drinking it, and many depend on bottled water. Even in the luxurious hotels, bottled water is provided, and you are warned not to drink it from the tap.
The second element that makes me proud to be an American is that I can go almost anywhere in the U.S., and there is little or no pollution. Of course our large cities suffer from pollution problems, but the nine cities I visited each has serious pollution problems. In Hong Kong, we never had a day when we could clearly see all the buildings. Every one of the cities we visited have heavy pollution, and Beijing (once again) is the worst polluted city in the world. Often, as you drive from the dock area into the city, you can see the cloud of smog that envelopes the city. As we approached Istanbul, a couple of years ago, the gray-yellow mass that hung over the city was obvious, thick, and covered the city like a large, dirty comforter.
The third element is litter, dirt, and poverty. I don’t want to suggest we don’t have areas of our country that are affected by litter, dirt, and poverty, but I have never seen as much of each in one place as I saw when traveling from the dock (Phu My) into Saigon. There are unlikely to be many places in the U.S. where residents use the side of the road as a dump, where residents (millions of them) live from hand-to-mouth on a daily basis, where the air is filled with swirling dust, dirt, and exhaust emissions, and where small open-front stores selling all kinds of goods, including fruit, vegetables, and other foods—and even restaurants—cannot help but be contaminated by the dirt, litter, and pollution.
In addition to Vietnam, nations such as Cambodia, Laos, Burma, and East Timor rank near the bottom of global development lists. Across Southeast Asia, more than 1 billion people live on less than $2.00 U.S. per day.
The fourth element—and this could, and perhaps should, be listed first—is our freedom. In Taiwan, we were told by our tour guide, Jan de Vries, that the people cannot own land. All the land is owned by the government, and people can only rent it. In Singapore, it is against the law to chew gum in public—and the law in this pristine, litter-free place is enforced ruthlessly. In Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing, the media is owned by the government, and although things are more open today than ten or twenty years ago, free speech is limited, and there is no open political debate or discussion. If you think what you see is democracy because it looks free and open, think again: it isn’t. A political junkie like myself who enjoys the free and open discussion of politics and relishes the controversy displayed in the media would go nuts in these countries—and maybe be imprisoned.
As the fifth element (and beyond), I want to group a number of things that I observed that make me proud to be an American. I like our malls and shopping centers for their cleanliness and fixed prices; I have experienced enough dirty markets and bazaars where there are no fixed prices, where you must bargain for everything, and where hawkers grab at you, yell at you, and try to pull you into their shops. I like speaking English and enjoy interacting with people who at the very least have English as a second or third language. Although I enjoy seeing street vendors, they are rampant in Bangkok, and the local people depend on them for food and snacks. Their stalls, stands, or carts are generally dirty and poorly maintained. In the U.S. they would be banned as a health hazard. I like our sanitation and health standards. Although not always maintained as well as they could be, I love our interstates, highways, and roads. The roads in Saigon are horrendous, and the streets within most of these large cities were never constructed for the amount of traffic they bear. It is overwhelming, and in Bangkok and Saigon, motor cycles and scooters are preferred, and few drivers respect the rights of pedestrians—anywhere.
My list could go on to mention 5,000-year-old traditions and beliefs, populations density, societies that depend on class consciousness, or the garishness of religious symbols, but I want to add a final note. We enjoy traveling widely, and our trip to Southeast Asia was no exception. Just because I observed differences between cultures, does not mean I disliked anything I observed. It comes back to the old cliche: “Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there.” “While no nation is greater than another,” one writer on the Internet said when I Googled, “Proud to be an American,” “and no nationality is superior to another, I am happy to be among those who call the United States their home.” .My conclusion is simple: “It sure makes you proud to be an American.”
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At “The Heritage Foundation” website, the article there by Walter Lohman, “Guidelines for U.S. Policy in Southeast Asia,” (March 20, 2007), will give you phenomenal perspective and interesting insights as to why the U.S. has an interest in this particular area of the world. This article is valuable and offers an eye-opening examination of Southeast Asia.
At the website “Encyclopedia.com,” I found the following comment, which I quote here (f.y.i.), in full: “SOUTHEAST ASIA EXHIBITS TREMENDOUS CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS diversity; all the major religions of the world can be found in the region. It is also marked by vast economic disparities. At one end of the spectrum is Singapore, which has a standard of living higher than that of Spain or Portugal. At the other end are countries like Laos and Burma (Myanmar), which are desperately poor. There is also a great deal of variety in the types of political systems that characterize the region. The Philippines is a democracy, the Republic of Vietnam a one-party state, and Brunei a semi-feudal …“ The rest of the article is available at HighBeam Research, and I did not read it.
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Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Cruise Number 10: Bangkok to Beijing
by Richard L. Weaver II, Ph.D.
There is a certain safety and security that can be appreciated when you are protected and followed pre-travel (and during your travels) by a well-known cruise-industry line. For example, when my wife and I traveled to the Great Rivers of Europe via Grand Circle, a representative met us at each of the airports: the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Amsterdam, and Vienna, our final destination. Nothing was left to chance, and there was someone at all points to shepherd us to the places we needed to go—even when a plane was missed in Amsterdam because of a prolonged security investigation of our carry-on baggage.
The same is true for our trip to Southeast Asia via Princess. Although it costs more to do it, we booked flights, hotel stays, transportation to and from the hotel to the cruise-ship dock all through this company. Because of this, Princess has maintained contact with us regarding numerous itinerary changes and the acquisition of all necessary documents, including obtaining (expensive!) visas for China. Further, they provide an easy-access phone number and a cruise-line representative to answer all our questions as we proceeded through the preparation stages. (AAA, our travel agency, has helped as well, and they will give us our final boarding passes.)
One question we had for our cruise-line representative—to show you how trivial the questions can be—when and how do we attach the cruise-line identification tags to our suitcases. Sounds easy? We covered them in clear tape to reinforce the flimsy paper tags downloaded from the Internet, but it was clear we could not attach them at home for they would be ripped off by the airlines, because they did not apply to them. The cruise-line representative told us to attach them as we picked up our baggage at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand. That’s fine, however, the tags clearly said to staple them at the bottom to secure them to our bags, and airline security would surely remove and discard any stapler we would carry. She said the Princess representative in Bangkok would have a stapler, and I said to her, “Yeah, right!” So, we’re taking a roll of tape to secure them.
There are a variety of measures one must take, or at least be aware of, when planning to cruise in Southeast Asia—different than the elements involved when cruising the Caribbean or other American or local destinations. It is normal, of course, to plan your wardrobe according the weather and the length of the trip. You make certain, too, that all your papers, medications, and toiletries are in order. Planning for a tenth cruise is easier simply because you are better prepared. The only problem is taking things for granted. The best method is to have a checklist to make certain nothing is overlooked or forgotten. The two sites recommended at the end of this essay both include checklists; the second article is more complete than the first.
What difference does it make that we’re beginning our cruise in Bangkok and ending in Beijing? First, it demands early preparation. There are a number of inoculations, for example, that must be begun early. They’re not required but recommended. They had to be started early because the Hepatitus A vaccine requires a series of two shots at least six months apart. Along with the Hepatitus A shot, I received one for tetanus, one for pneumonia, another one for MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), and a shingles shot as well. In addition to the Hepatitus A second shot, I received a flu shot, and a Swine Flu shot. I feel totally shot-up. (The shingles shot protects you for life and resulted from a bout with shingles my father-in-law experienced.)
A second difference between cruising from Bangkok to Beijing and cruising in the Caribbean (or within the U.S.) is having to get a visa for entering China—a double-entry visa since we’ll visit both Shanghi and Beijing. Another call to our cruise representative told us we did not have to have a visa for Hong Kong (China). This process had to begin early because we had to send our passports to the embassy to have them stamped, and there had to be time to allow them to return them as well. This was handled by a company called Travisa which took care of the entire process (for a fee), but using a secure mailing service (FedEx in this case) helped insure the safety of the entire transaction. Also, we needed an additional picture to be used to secure a passport onboard to Vietnam by Princess. My assumption is that you have up-to-date passports that will not expire within 6 months of your cruise.
If you fly you are already aware of the 3-ounce requirement for all liquids in carry-on luggage. There is no difference between domestic and international flights with respect to this requirement, but a long trip such as ours (17-day cruise, plus 3 days on each end equals 23 days) means planning ahead. Three ounces of hairspray, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, or whatever, may not be sufficient, thus, some must be placed in the check-in baggage as well.
A fourth difference, because this is an international trip involving a number of different countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and China), requires that we notify our credit-card companies that we will be traveling abroad. On one of our trips, for example, a credit-card company stopped payment on a card because it looked as if it was used improperly. We, generally, take two cards in case this happens. We found there is a 3% handling fee on one for use in foreign countries, but there is a cheaper rate on another card (AAA-Visa) for such use, and we prefer using it if there is a choice. Some people open a free checking account, put part of their travel allowance in the account, and use a debit card—which is a good idea as well. The point is, whatever you plan to do and however you plan to do it, requires some early preparation.
A fifth difference requires getting advance information on all the ports and cities you plan to visit. This may not be a difference if you have never traveled in the Caribbean, for example, and you want to get information on each country or port-of-call. Traveling in Southeast Asia was an entirely new experience (exotic, to say the least), and we wanted to make certain we didn’t miss anything. We like to get general information (history and culture) on each city from Wikapedia, then check the Internet for other sites that offer specifics on the important places tourists should visit. This is collected in a notebook with material arranged in the order of places to be visited, and they can be read just prior to moving to a new location. On this trip, we will be in nine separate and distinct places.
There is another preparation process required because of travel abroad and that has to do with any medications. Security inspectors want medications in their original containers. One thing involves having enough medications to cover the entire trip, quite another is having small-enough containers for each of the medication types. Also, if you have significant medical problems, take a copy of your records and tests—helpful if you need a doctor onboard.
This essay was not intended to scare-off would-be world travelers; however, once aware of the kinds of things that require early thinking and preparation, the entire process becomes easier, more efficient, and less stressful. Although it is comfortable being protected by a cruise company, a cruise company cannot nor will not remind you of all the activities and processes necessary prior to traveling. As I said, the more you travel, the easier it becomes to remember everything. One key for us is simply starting the process early. For example, we began setting things out a month or more before traveling, and we were fully packed (except for small last-minute items) a full five days before leaving home. It was Henry Ford who said, “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.”
-----
At Cruise Guide Direct, there is a short essay, “Preparing to Cruise,” that offers nine reminders—a “to-do list”—for those planning to cruise.
Susan J. Young, in a two-part essay, “The Before-You-Cruise Checklist,” at CruiseMates, includes a truly superb set of reminders of things to do well before you travel, six weeks before, then two-to-four weeks before,
one week out, the day before, and the day of departure. This is an excellent article well worth a read.
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
There is a certain safety and security that can be appreciated when you are protected and followed pre-travel (and during your travels) by a well-known cruise-industry line. For example, when my wife and I traveled to the Great Rivers of Europe via Grand Circle, a representative met us at each of the airports: the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Amsterdam, and Vienna, our final destination. Nothing was left to chance, and there was someone at all points to shepherd us to the places we needed to go—even when a plane was missed in Amsterdam because of a prolonged security investigation of our carry-on baggage.
The same is true for our trip to Southeast Asia via Princess. Although it costs more to do it, we booked flights, hotel stays, transportation to and from the hotel to the cruise-ship dock all through this company. Because of this, Princess has maintained contact with us regarding numerous itinerary changes and the acquisition of all necessary documents, including obtaining (expensive!) visas for China. Further, they provide an easy-access phone number and a cruise-line representative to answer all our questions as we proceeded through the preparation stages. (AAA, our travel agency, has helped as well, and they will give us our final boarding passes.)
One question we had for our cruise-line representative—to show you how trivial the questions can be—when and how do we attach the cruise-line identification tags to our suitcases. Sounds easy? We covered them in clear tape to reinforce the flimsy paper tags downloaded from the Internet, but it was clear we could not attach them at home for they would be ripped off by the airlines, because they did not apply to them. The cruise-line representative told us to attach them as we picked up our baggage at the airport in Bangkok, Thailand. That’s fine, however, the tags clearly said to staple them at the bottom to secure them to our bags, and airline security would surely remove and discard any stapler we would carry. She said the Princess representative in Bangkok would have a stapler, and I said to her, “Yeah, right!” So, we’re taking a roll of tape to secure them.
There are a variety of measures one must take, or at least be aware of, when planning to cruise in Southeast Asia—different than the elements involved when cruising the Caribbean or other American or local destinations. It is normal, of course, to plan your wardrobe according the weather and the length of the trip. You make certain, too, that all your papers, medications, and toiletries are in order. Planning for a tenth cruise is easier simply because you are better prepared. The only problem is taking things for granted. The best method is to have a checklist to make certain nothing is overlooked or forgotten. The two sites recommended at the end of this essay both include checklists; the second article is more complete than the first.
What difference does it make that we’re beginning our cruise in Bangkok and ending in Beijing? First, it demands early preparation. There are a number of inoculations, for example, that must be begun early. They’re not required but recommended. They had to be started early because the Hepatitus A vaccine requires a series of two shots at least six months apart. Along with the Hepatitus A shot, I received one for tetanus, one for pneumonia, another one for MMR (mumps, measles, and rubella), and a shingles shot as well. In addition to the Hepatitus A second shot, I received a flu shot, and a Swine Flu shot. I feel totally shot-up. (The shingles shot protects you for life and resulted from a bout with shingles my father-in-law experienced.)
A second difference between cruising from Bangkok to Beijing and cruising in the Caribbean (or within the U.S.) is having to get a visa for entering China—a double-entry visa since we’ll visit both Shanghi and Beijing. Another call to our cruise representative told us we did not have to have a visa for Hong Kong (China). This process had to begin early because we had to send our passports to the embassy to have them stamped, and there had to be time to allow them to return them as well. This was handled by a company called Travisa which took care of the entire process (for a fee), but using a secure mailing service (FedEx in this case) helped insure the safety of the entire transaction. Also, we needed an additional picture to be used to secure a passport onboard to Vietnam by Princess. My assumption is that you have up-to-date passports that will not expire within 6 months of your cruise.
If you fly you are already aware of the 3-ounce requirement for all liquids in carry-on luggage. There is no difference between domestic and international flights with respect to this requirement, but a long trip such as ours (17-day cruise, plus 3 days on each end equals 23 days) means planning ahead. Three ounces of hairspray, deodorant, shampoo, toothpaste, or whatever, may not be sufficient, thus, some must be placed in the check-in baggage as well.
A fourth difference, because this is an international trip involving a number of different countries (Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, and China), requires that we notify our credit-card companies that we will be traveling abroad. On one of our trips, for example, a credit-card company stopped payment on a card because it looked as if it was used improperly. We, generally, take two cards in case this happens. We found there is a 3% handling fee on one for use in foreign countries, but there is a cheaper rate on another card (AAA-Visa) for such use, and we prefer using it if there is a choice. Some people open a free checking account, put part of their travel allowance in the account, and use a debit card—which is a good idea as well. The point is, whatever you plan to do and however you plan to do it, requires some early preparation.
A fifth difference requires getting advance information on all the ports and cities you plan to visit. This may not be a difference if you have never traveled in the Caribbean, for example, and you want to get information on each country or port-of-call. Traveling in Southeast Asia was an entirely new experience (exotic, to say the least), and we wanted to make certain we didn’t miss anything. We like to get general information (history and culture) on each city from Wikapedia, then check the Internet for other sites that offer specifics on the important places tourists should visit. This is collected in a notebook with material arranged in the order of places to be visited, and they can be read just prior to moving to a new location. On this trip, we will be in nine separate and distinct places.
There is another preparation process required because of travel abroad and that has to do with any medications. Security inspectors want medications in their original containers. One thing involves having enough medications to cover the entire trip, quite another is having small-enough containers for each of the medication types. Also, if you have significant medical problems, take a copy of your records and tests—helpful if you need a doctor onboard.
This essay was not intended to scare-off would-be world travelers; however, once aware of the kinds of things that require early thinking and preparation, the entire process becomes easier, more efficient, and less stressful. Although it is comfortable being protected by a cruise company, a cruise company cannot nor will not remind you of all the activities and processes necessary prior to traveling. As I said, the more you travel, the easier it becomes to remember everything. One key for us is simply starting the process early. For example, we began setting things out a month or more before traveling, and we were fully packed (except for small last-minute items) a full five days before leaving home. It was Henry Ford who said, “Before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success.”
-----
At Cruise Guide Direct, there is a short essay, “Preparing to Cruise,” that offers nine reminders—a “to-do list”—for those planning to cruise.
Susan J. Young, in a two-part essay, “The Before-You-Cruise Checklist,” at CruiseMates, includes a truly superb set of reminders of things to do well before you travel, six weeks before, then two-to-four weeks before,
one week out, the day before, and the day of departure. This is an excellent article well worth a read.
-----
Copyright March, 2011, by And Then Some Publishing, LLC.
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