Kabul

I'm safe and sound in Kabul.  In route, I stopped for a night in Dubai.  Though I didn't have much time to get out and see the city, I got a comfortable night in the five star Intercontinental Festival City.  I just wish I would have had more time to go and see the world's tallest building up close.

Flying into Kabul the next day, we flew directly over Kandahar, the area where I will be working.  The whole south of Afghanistan was a large sand patch with a vertical green swath of agricultural land surrounding the winding Helmand River.  The closer we got to Kabul the taller the mountains were and the more snow there was on the mountains.  On our final approach into Kabul we were on the edge of the Hindu Kush Mountains which were blanketed in solid snow.  The highest mountain in Afghanistan is well over 18,000 feet tall, though it is quite far from Kabul. 

We were picked up at the airport and deposited at our compound where I'm undergoing some more training.  Since housing is tight and there hasn't been time to build physical structures, I'm living in a shipping container.  It isn't as bad as it sounds.  It is quite similar to living in a mobile home.  The containers are prefabricated as homes with two rooms in each container.  I share my half of the container (a single room) with Doug, who I've been training with since February.  We have a bunk bed and a bathroom, as well as 2 chest-o-drawers, a desk, a tv, and other important stuff.  Put it this way.  My living conditions are much better here than when I was living in the dorms as an undergraduate.  Overall life is a little boring as we are restricted to the compound except if we are out on official business.  The excitement revolves around the dining halls, the lone bar (The Duck and Cover), the gyms, and trying to figure out who might be in the many helicopters landing on the sports field.

As you may have guessed, I haven't seen much of Kabul.  I've been out all of two times, though I do have to admit that I'm already forming some opinions.  The traffic may be the craziest I have ever seen.  Pedestrians are constantly running out in front of the vehicles without looking, cars are cutting you off. Everything from donkey carts to big trucks are using the roads.  Making the matters even worse there are many blocked roads and check points, though this is presumably good for safety.  Houses are almost universally made out of mud with walls around them.  There are very few structures of more than two stories that I have seen in the city.  The best part is the beautiful and cool mornings as I have dramatic views of snow capped mountains.  But my mid-morning the temperature is up over 90 and the view has smogged over with the smoke from dung fueled fires and automobiles.  

Going to Afghanistan

I will be leaving for Afghanistan soon.  I have taken a job with USAID as an infrastructure advisor.  I'm excited and a little scared for this opportunity. I'll be working in a combat zone, where I will travel by helicopter or military cargo plane from area to area.  On the ground I will be in a hot (ready to shoot) convoy of armored humvees and MRAPs (mine resistant vehicles).  The days will be long as most days I will work 12 hours or so.  I'm not sure how I will cope with all this.

Why am I going?  I'm not really sure.  For one part I see this as an opportunity for my future.  It will provide valuable experience for securing future jobs as well as making me financially secure in the present.  I partially see it as a challenge, something new to be tried.  There is also a part of curiosity, where I want to know firsthand what is going on in Afghanistan. 

Many people have expressed concern for my safety.  For certain, my safety is at greater risk in Afghanistan than in most other places, but I have looked into and feel fairly certain about the measures which are in place to keep me safe.

I will be writing in my blog regularly and will have good internet access. 

BANGKOK, ALWAYS INTERESTING

Bangkok is a city of chaotic contrasts.  It is both beautiful and wretched.  The rich cruise expressways in their Rolls Royces and the poor amputees choke in the gutter begging to maintain their existence.  The traffic of the city creates a hum and buzz found few other places, but around each corner are tree filled alleys without hardly a sound or movement.  The sweet aromas of food waft over large areas competing with the strong smell of raw sewage emanating from canals and sewer grates.  The beauty of new skyscrapers prick the sky, while decrepit shanties hide in their shadows.  The beauty of the temples and monuments leave you breathless, as well as does the choking air pollution.

Bangkok has changed a lot since I was last here six years ago.  There are many new skyscrapers, and many more are going up all over.  The pollution has lessened as many big vehicles have been switched over to liquefied natural gas but it is still the worse I have experienced (Lima gives Bangkok a run for its money).  I have even seen some tuk-tuks running on LNG. 

Tourism is more plentiful than ever.  It seems as if Bangkok captures the travels who are interested in partying and other pleasures of a new and exciting place, but at the same time accepting them for all the tattoos, piercings, and shocking clothes choices they may wear (there would have been a scandal in rural Honduras if I had the accessories that many tourists in Bangkok have).  Though I have to admit that I'm surprised again by the number of Caucasian white males with their rent-a-girlfriends.  Prostitution still holds a significant place in Bangkok's tourist industry, a hold over from it being the closest safe big city to South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  Who knows, maybe it even goes  further back.

The openness of the city may bring about a lot of drugs and prostitution, but it also allows a mosque, catholic church, and a Buddhist temple all to be located with a block or two of each other.  I have been few places where I have seen so many people of different backgrounds.

International business is in full force in Bangkok.  The number of western businessmen (oddly, I haven't seen that many western businesswomen) is astounding, with major international business areas of the city seeming to be completely western. 

Shopping malls here in Bangkok are confusing.  There are many varieties, and they all look architecturally amazing from the outside.  What is odd is how different the insides are.  Of course there is the super high-end luxury mall with Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, and other stores that I can't even afford to enter.  There are other malls with their food court with McDonalds, KFC, Krispy Kreme (it had the longest line I've seen in Thailand) and others.  However, most malls here look more like the market of yesteryear.  The architectural skin will be beautiful and modern, while the inside is full of shops set up over a lettered and numbered square on the floor, much like the booths at a convention.  I went into one mall that was six stories tall and just had booths/stores selling electronics.  Most of the stores sold knock-offs, but there were legitimate ones as well.  I found these malls interesting as they didn't just replacing the average local tenant in the name of big international tenants, but actually accommodated them many times alongside a McDonalds or Starbucks.  It makes the mall experience a little less sterile than I would normally have expected.

I have been taking Bangkok's local buses instead of taxis or tuk-tuks.  One reason is to save money, but a bigger reason is that I'm always interested in seeing how the average person gets about.  Bangkok's buses run the gamut of beautiful luxury to ancient diesel belching rattle traps.  I have been riding on the rattle traps as they run the shorter routes.  Initially, I had some difficulties with the buses as I couldn't read the destinations written in Thai.  The Thai alphabet looks more sanskrit than Roman, leaving my illiterate.  I started by having the woman at my hotel write the name of a major site near where I wanted to go in Thai on a piece of paper.  I would just show the name to other transit riders who would tell me when the bus I needed arrived.  It worked surprisingly well.  Now that I know the buses that run to the areas where I need to go (this is only two or three buses) so I need very little help.  It was also nice to get away from all the mean tourist-dependent Thais and around the wonderfully gratious and friendly average Thais.

I'll be in Bangkok for a day or two more before I head south towards Malaysia.  I'm excited!

 

COFFEE, WATER, TEMPLES, AND LAND MINES

As always, I got too into my travels and have forgotten to write.  I'm currently in Siem Reap, the city nearest to the ruins of Angkor Wat and the dozens of other temples from the Khmer Empire.  Tomorrow, I will dive into the temples, coming up for air in three days when I head to Bangkok.

 

I last wrote from Da Lat, Vietnam.  After enjoying days of coffee drinking in Da Lat, I went to Saigon.  I met up with a fellow traveler, Rhino from South Africa, on the bus.  I had met him initially on the bus to Nha Trang.  We spent a day hanging out in the chaos that is Saigon before heading off to the Mekong Delta.  Saigon is definitely a metropolis on the move, with only a slightly smaller ratio of motorbikes to cars than in Hanoi.  The city is much more westernized than much of the rest of Vietnam, with more skyscrapers and international commerce.  But that isn't surprising considering that it is a metropolis of nearly 8 million.  There was a surprising lack of international chain restaurants.  I only saw one KFC.  

 

The Mekong Delta is the watery southern end of Viet Nam.  As the Mekong River enters Viet Nam on its way from Tibet to the South China Sea, it splits into seven branches; it used to be nine but two have silted up over the years.  The area is the rice basket of the country harvesting three rice crops annually and growing an enormous assortment of other fruits and vegetables.  The area also supports a surprisingly large population, 20 million or equivalent to the population of Southern California, despite it nearly all being swampy land.  The area is impressive for many reasons: the enormous expanses of water, the houses built on stilts, the markets created within the rivers channels, the bridges built to span the river channels, among others.

 

From the Mekong Delta, I took a really slow boat up the river to the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.  The contrast between Viet Nam and Cambodia is drastic.  The people have a different ethnic makeup looking much more similar to the Thai than the Vietnamese.  The Vietnamese seem to more resemble the Chinese.  The food became spicier and more Thai-like (I guess the fact that the Khmer Empire ruled all of Thailand may have produced these similarities).  However, the most drastic change was the increase in economic disparity.  In Viet Nam everyone seemed to be at a relatively equal economic level.  I noticed very few super-rich, and almost no destitute. All in all, Viet Nam was poor by western standards, but the country was definitely middle income and it felt like everyone was going in an upward direction.  Cambodia, on the other hand, had rich driving around in high-end Mercedes visiting fancy restaurants, while the poor and destitute begged and slept in the filth just a few blocks away.  

 

That being said, Phnom Penh is a city of temples and monuments.  There are gilded Wats throughout the city and plenty of monuments representing one regime or another.  There are also many sites representing the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.  The two most notable are the prison S-21 and the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek.  S-21 was a school converted to a prison for all those the Khmer Rouge determined to not be pure.  The Killing Fields were where the prisoners had their impurities beat out of them and were thrown into mass graves.  Many of the mass graves have been dug up and now there is a memorial with the bones of the victims.  The bones are on display to the public as a reminder of the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge.  The most disturbing aspects of my visit to the Killing Fields were the teeth and bones on the trail brought to the service by the annual flooding and the victims clothes still littered around on the ground.  

 

After Phnom Penh, I spent a few days in Battambang.  Battambang Province is a large rice producing area of Cambodia.  It is also an area riddled with land mines from past wars.  While visiting one of the many temples in the surrounding country side, there were signs warning me to stay on the path, due to mines in the surrounding forest.  I didn't have to be told twice.  I rented a motorbike for a day and toured the countryside discovering temples and villages as I rode aimlessly.  I could tell once I had left areas where tourists frequent as I started to receive double-takes from the locals as I passed by.  The people also became nicer, not trying to hassle me, but curious on whom I was.  Amazing, I wasn't just a money symbol any longer.

 

That is all for the moment.  

Vietnam is a Great Place Because of the Vietnamese

I'm currently in Dalat in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.  Tomorrow, I head to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon).  I have absolutely fallen for Dalat.  I really can't say why, but I think it encompasses many of the magical qualities that have made Vietnam such a tremendous experience for me.

I have been surprised be the Vietnamese.  Their kindness, their entrepreneurial spirit, their industriousness, and their discipline give me great hope for this country of 85 million people.

I have been surprised by the lack of animosity that the Vietnamese have for Americans.  After the United States funding and fighting with the losing side in a series of wars lasting from 1945 through 1975 (the US provided much of the funding for a weakened post WWII France to fight from 1945 to 1954 (Indochina War).  The US then supported the South Vietnamese with training, arms, and funding from 1954 to 1965.  The US had troops on the ground from 1965 through 1973 (Vietnam War or the American War as the Vietnamese call it).  The South fell to the communist North, reuniting Vietnam again in 1975) I would have expected to have seen at least an inkling of dislike, blame, or hard feelings over the misery that those wars inflicted on the population.  Around ten percent of the population was killed in these wars.  I have seen no animosity.  In fact, I have felt uncomfortable several times for the extreme hospitality that I have received.

Vietnam is a communist country.  There is one political party, the communist party, that determines policy for the country.  My understanding is that the population generally is happy with their government (that says a lot since I can't remember the last time that the majority of the US liked their government).  Interestingly, from street level, you would think that the US was the country whose government heavily influences/regulates the local market.  However, I'm not suggesting that all the controls that the US has placed on its market economy are bad, many have had very positive effects like copyright infringement laws. Capitalistic commerce is alive and well in Vietnam, with shops everywhere.  There are hawkers everywhere selling their wares.  Every street has twenty different shops selling similar services/products all in competition with each other. 

The Vietnamese always seem to be working.  Family run shops are open from before I get up until after I go to bed.  For example, the same man is working at the internet café now, ten hours after I came this morning.  I wouldn't be surprised if he was here from opening, 8:00a.m., until closing, 10:00p.m.  It seems like every family with a little bit of money is opening up some sort of small business.  Sometimes there will be several different businesses in the front area of a families house.  Much to my annoyance, the Vietnamese are always trying to make another sale.  Being in Vietnam is like being in a store where all the employees work on commission. 

I have been surprised by the order and discipline I have seen in Vietnamese society.  I most notably witnessed this in Hanoi, where an enormous crowd of people was out for the celebrations in honor of the 1000 anniversary of the founding of the city.  I did not see any drunks in the streets, no one was causing problems, people were orderly, but still clearly having a good time.  The police presence was minimal and very soft (directing traffic and not cracking people over the head with batons).  Many skeptics may attribute this order to fear of the communistic regime, but I don't believe this.  I feel it probably has more to do with the Confucian principles with which the culture is based and the collective spirit forged to bring in the annual rice harvest century after century.  Whatever the reason, it creates for a nice atmosphere. I love traveling in a place where my greatest fear is that I will be overcharged.  This is a far cry from the violence of Central America that weighed so heavily upon my psyche.

I will only be in Vietnam for a few more days before I head to Cambodia to visit Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat. 

The Veins of Vietnam Are Full of Motorbikes

Motorbikes dominate the streets of Vietnam with a chaotic ballet.  The streets of any big city here are flooded with motorbikes.  Lanes and directional signs don't prevent them from making use of every inch of the pavement.  Intersections look more like the cross of figure-eight demolition derby races, but, somehow, without the accidents. 

Vietnam is commonly conjures images of bicyclists with conical reed hats pedaling through rice patties.  Though many examples of this slower life style still exist, the country has convincingly left the past to nostalgic recollections. 

Most certainly you have seen images of motorbikes completely overloaded with people and material.  These pictures were probably taken in Vietnam.  I have seen up to five people, 4 adults and a child, on a single motorbike.  I saw a motorbike with at least six cases of half liter beer bottles on the back.  It may seem ludicrous to transport so much on one motorbike while seated in the U.S., but here it feels right.  In fact, I would probably do the same if given the opportunity.

Having masses of motorbikes on the streets has a different feel than masses of automobiles.  Of course, I'm not considering that the cities here would never be able to support all those motorbikes becoming cars, the traffic jams would be unbearable.  But what I'm considering is how much more human a feel motorbikes have on the street.  A car is a steel cage that encircles us. It gives us a sense of security from bodily harm, but it acts as a barrier between us and the world.  On the other hand, a motorbike leaves the rider exposed, but open to all those around, like a pedestrian. Our terminology reflects this in that we see a car, an inanimate object, on the road but we see a motorcyclist, a person.  The motorbikes on the street create a warm sense of humanity, whereas the car emits a cold sterility.  

Though motorbikes may make Vietnam's streets feel more personal they certainly make it frightening to cross the street.  Even a simple two lane road is like crossing a six lane freeway when it is full of motorbikes.  On most main streets the flow of motorbikes is constant.  To cross you just have to go.  What do I mean by that?  Well, you don't look at the traffic.  You just step out into the traffic and walk across at a slow and steady space.  Kind of like how when you are high up on a ladder you shouldn't look down, when you are crossing the street, you shouldn't look at the traffic.  If you do, you'll get scared.  But no need to worry, the motorbikes swerve and miss you.  A blind man could cross the streets here without a problem.  He just has to walk slowly and deliberately and the traffic will avoid him.  Proof of this was an old women crossing an exceptional wide street in Hanoi.  She was stooped over hobbling along with her cane, moving at a snails pace.  I felt fear as I saw her disappear behind a bus to only see her on the other side surrounded by a dozen motorbikes all moving around her as she slowly made her way across mid-street.  I figure if she can survive this long with her no look, snailish crossing of busy streets, my odds must be pretty good that I'll make it too.

Heading South Through Vietnam

It has been awhile and a few miles since I last wrote.  I’m currently in Hoi An, Vietnam waiting to catch a bus to the beach town of Nha Trang.  I don’t think I will stay but will head to Dalat in the mountains.  It all depends on bus connections.

I left Timor-Leste nearly three weeks ago.  I spent a quick night in Singapore with a friend of a friend and left some stuff behind.  The next morning I had an early flight to Hanoi on Tiger Airways.  However, on my flight into Singapore I was reading an article in the Strait Times (the Singapore Newspaper) on how Tiger Airways was canceling many of its flights due to two aircraft that needed unexpected maintenance.  I was nervous.  We were only going to spend a few hours in Hanoi before catching a night train to Lao Cai on our way to Sapa.  Out of the Tiger Airways’ eight morning flights, only two weren’t canceled, the ones to Hong Kong and Hanoi.  We were in luck.

The immense development of Singapore was a sharp shock to the senses after rough and tumble Timor.  The streets were pristinely paved; I narily felt a bump as cruised along a freeway with well manicured landscaping. Lights climbed into the sky, emitted from the offices of high-rise towers.  The port, the world’s busiest, hummed along on the left of the freeway for what seemed most of the 45 minute taxi ride.  It doesn’t need to be said that it was a shock to the senses, but it was nice to shake off the dust from Timor.

I was going to Hanoi to visit Nancy, a friend from UCLA, who has family in the city, and to celebrate the 1000^thanniversary of its founding.  Hanoi was founded on October 10, 1010.  Its not very often that you get to go to a 1000^th birthday party.  The party was to last from October 1 to the 10.  We were leaving Hanoi immediately so we could go to Sapa and make it back for the important last three days. 

Sapa is a mountain town by the Chinese border.  Mt. Fanispan (aka Fancy pants), Vietnam’s highest mountain, stands out as a bump in a long ridge of mountains.  Our goal for Sapa was to climb the 3143 meter mountain.  We were blessed with amazing weather and completed the climb over two days. 

Sapa is known for more than its mountains and cool weather.  There also is a large number of ethnic groups. Familiar to many Americans are the Hmong, which live in the mountains of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. There are four different Hmong groups differentiated by their dress:  Black Hmong, White Hmong, Flower Hmong, and Green Hmong.  There are also a couple other groups like the Red Dao. 

Hanoi was a crazy place.  Being a large SE Asian city, it has only been limitedly affected by the rapid westernization and high-rise building boom of places like Saigon, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur.  It’s old merchants quarter is still intact, though today it is would better be called the tourist’s quarter.  The streets are dominated by motorbikes cris-crossing paths in a chaotic ballet, more resembling a school of fish chasing chum than traffic as we American’s know it.  Hoam Kiem Lake is Hanoi’s central park.  Much of the people looking to get involved in the festivities went there.  The busiest night was Saturday, October 9^th, with what seemed a mass of a million people doing circles around the lake.  Stages were set up on several corners, but many of the acts were bad.  This didn’t affect the mood; most people were out to revel in the masses of people and spend time with family and friends. 

I made a quick stop at Halong Bay, which was beautiful, but touristy beyond belief. 

Next I stopped in one of Vietnam’s historic capitals, Hue.  Until the August Revolution of 1945 that put the communists in power this is where the emperor’s ruled from.  An enormous and spectacular citadel dominates the northern bank of the Pearl River.  The citadel is slowly being restored after being heavily damaged in the wars of 1945 and 1968 and a couple natural disasters.  It was here where I finally rented a motorbike and hit the streets on my own.  I’m proud of myself!  Only one person cursed me.

I’m currently in Hoi An, and old trading town that has slickly maneuvered into becoming a mega tourist trap. I’m not impressed.  The old parts of town don’t look that different than many other areas I’ve been.  I would like it more if I was looking to buy a tailored suit or some other handicraft good.  But, I’m traveling on a budget and don’t have room in my bag for too many souvenirs, especially this early in the trip.

You are now up to date with my travels.  In the coming days I will write more on other aspects of Vietnam.