Year of the Tiger

It's a special day today. On this day, exactly a year ago, I left for the great unknown, taking a plane and flying half-way around the world to Southeast-Asia. It's been one year on the road. Happy anniversary to myself!

Back then I didn't know what to expect, nor did I know where I would end up in a year's time. There was a real possibility that I would have been home again. When I left, I didn't have that much money on me. But, in the back of my mind, I knew I would try to make it whatever the odds. And I did it.

Two years ago I visited Hong Kong for the first time and you could say it was love at first sight. It took me a while, but I made back to this bustling city. How much I try, I'm still awestruck by the place. It's clean, modern, energetic, busy and the vista's are unbelievable. The second time around the admiration has only deepened.

Driving from the airport to the city you see huge skyscrapers, apartment blocks three times higher then anything you see anywhere else, green mountains, huge suspension bridges and in the waterways and bays countless ships, in all forms and sizes. At night, Hong Kong lights up. The skyline is still the most beautiful I ever seen.

As you may know, it's officially the year of the Tiger. Chinese (and Vietnamese for that matter) don't celebrate the New Year the way the Western world does: on the 1st of January. No, they do it according to the lunar calender. And the new year started in China with a big bang on the 13th of February. The only downside was the weather: unusual cold and rainy for the time of year – though not as freezing as back home, in Europe.


Being fortunate enough to visit Hong Kong for a second time, I was especially lucky to see the city during it's new year celebrations. Together with my old friend Wai (remember him from Vietnam?) and his family we saw the amazing fireworks spectacle in Victoria Harbour, had front line seats during the annual Night Parade and witnessed traditional “lucky” Lion dances on the street and in shopping malls.

I haven't only been in Hong Kong for the last two weeks. I just got back from a little detour to the “other” China: Taiwan. The beautiful island left a lasting impression. But to make things a little bit more manageable, for me and for you, you can read all about that in the next installment.


For the moment I'm staying for a couple of more days in Hong Kong, organizing my onward travels. Not that I mind at all. Big city, bright lights.

Halfway Home Part II

Note: because of the accumulated backlog, I'm updating The Great Escape in two installments. This time, it's less about my travels and more about the unique country, it's problems and virtues I'm currently travelling in. The first part can be read here.

One thing can't be denied. Chinese are getting more and more aware of their country's power and influence. They don't accept critism from the West anymore. They are telling the rest of the world: we are doing it our own way.

Internet censorship? That's for social stability. Tibet? Internal matter. Domestic market closed for international corporations? Chinese companies first. Some of it is understandable and maybe some of it rightly so.

On the other hand, too many times is China hiding behind the excuse of being a “developing” country and shying away from it's international responsibility. Or they retreat back behind their Chinese Great cultural wall: we have Confucius; our culture is different; we have five thousands of years of history; so we play a different ball game.

If that doesn't work, they can always revert back to the most childish one: the West doesn't have the right to say these things after years and years of abuse, neglect and bullying.

You can see all of this travelling around. There are the obivous signs of economical progress. Big, wide boulevards, huge construction sites, fast food restaurants, department stores, gleaming, new super highways, big SUV's and all-terrain vehicles. Money, status, pleasure girls, corruption, poverty and a serious lack of respect for the environment.

And there obvious signs of the “different” attitude of the Chinese. They find it kind of strange that the white monkey's (that's me) don't speak Chinese at all. Go anywhere else in the world and the traveller will find it strange that the local population doesn't speak English.

The last couple of weeks I have travelled and stayed with Frank. Together with another Dutch friend, he lives, works and enjoys himself in Kunming, the provencial capital of Yunnan. The so-called “City of Eternal Spring” has a population of six milion. That's as big as Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam. It was a great base for exploring the province.

Frank speaks the language, immerses himself into the culture and country and has plenty of Chinese friends. Chinese people don´t really talk about politics and I actually haven´t had any discussions about censorship or democracy. He was an invaluable help showing me the “real” China. Going south, to small cities, talking with the people from the street, going to kareoke bars and sauna's, tasting genuine Chinese food. Without him I wouldn't have had such an valuable experience.

I also “did” the tourist route, going north. It was a bit different from the typical, banana pancake trail in Southeast Asia. Tourism in China doesn't mean Western tourists, but domestic tourism. So a lot of Chinese taking a lot of pictures of unimportant things. It was nice though, and eventually I did manage to get to Shangri-la, high up in the mountains, close to Tibet.


Travelling like this was a lot harder. China is not easy, especially not when you don´t talk the language and when you can´t read the characters on signs and buildings. Walking through the streets, or trying to get a bus to a different city or ordering something at a small, dinky street restaurant almost felt like trying to access websites that before were easy to get on, but now were behind a closed door, the key thrown away. The feeling of being disconnected is frustrating.
Coming back to the Great Firewall: it serves two purposes. Not only does it blocks websites that are considered detrimental to the Chinese cause, but equally important, it enables Chinese companies and websites to set up shop and copy succesful concepts without having to worry about foreign competition.

An interesting pattern can be seen here. China is not only known for the being the world's workshop, manufacturing everything from shoes to oiltankers, but also the leading nation of counterfeiting consumer goods. China is the world's greatest copycat.

As far as the Chinese are concerned – they don't give a rat's ass about possible complaints or what the rest of the world thinks about this. Or them. Because for the Chinese, China is the world.

On a personal note: as you might have guessed from the title of this post, I have decided to head back home. After being on the road for more than a year, living out of my backpack, I'm starting to feel tired and the strain. I feel the definite curse of travel fatigue. Though I can't say exactly when, I'm planning to be back home in the near future. How? The long way of course.

And at the moment I'm in Hong Kong, that lovely city, finishing up celebrating the Chinese New Year. Welcome to the Year of the Tiger! Grrrraaauw...!

Halfway Home Part I

Note: because of the accumulated backlog, I'm updating The Great Escape in two installments. This time, it's less about my travels and more about the unique country, it's problems and virtues I'm currently travelling in. The next installment will be in a couple of days. Enjoy the read!

For once, I am not to blame for the lack of updates on this weblog. Ever since I set foot in China, I haven't been able access certain websites such as youtube, facebook and even this site, blogspot. This is not a new phenomena and I'm not the only one who has this problem. I'm currently being denied access by the Chinese government thanks to the so-called “Great Firewall” a pun on that famous Chinese feat of engineering The Great Wall.


It's internet censorship and technology in it's greatest form. Not only normal websites, such as facebook.com or blogspot.com which enables your average netizen to start a blog, get blocked, but also websites the Chinese government deems offensive (such as pornography), the Chinese version of BBC, websites that belong to outlawed groups like Falong Gong and even individual search strings.

It doesn't matter if I'm on Google or Wikipedia looking for “subversive” material. For example, if I would look for Tianamen Square (Plein van de Hemelse Vrede) or Tibet or the Daila Lama, the search result will automatically get blocked.

There are ways to get around the Great Firewall. Using proxy servers, little software tools, or in my case, hopping over to “that other” China: Hong Kong. Because, even though this magnificent, former city state is nominally a part of China, it's still independent in many ways. And one is internet access. And Hong Kong is where I'm currently at.

The Chinese government calls it “monitoring and control” to safeguard the social security (whatever that means) and to keep all those evils and propaganda spawned by the Western cultural world away from the pure and innocent Chinese. For all intents and purposes, it means that China (with it's 360 million internet users) is outside “the internet” and using it's own, domestic version.


A lot of the blocked sites are renowned English digital domains, which is for the average Chinese internet user no big concern. According to some sources an astonishing amount of ten million Chinese speak English. Sounds alot? That's 0.77 percent of the total population (of 1.3 billion people – 1.3 miljard voor de Nederlanders). Everything in China's version of the internet gets replicated – in Chinese. So Google becomes Baidu, Youtube Tudou and the copycat of Facebook is Xiaonei.

This is just to show that China is big. Very big. I've spent the last month in the southwestern most province, Yunnan, and even now I've only scratched the surface of this magnificent province with it's diverse landscapes and people. And that's only one region. Travelling through Yunnan made me realize, maybe really for the first time, how big China actually is and the ridiculous amount of people that live here.

The last couple of weeks I have travelled and stayed with a Dutch friend from the old days. Together with another Dutch guy, he lives, works and enjoys himself in Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan. The so-called “City of Eternal Spring” has a population of six million. That's as big as Hanoi or Saigon in Vietnam. It was a great base for exploring the province.

Frank, (check his excellent Dutch blog here, and his English blog here) speaks the language, immerses himself into the culture and country and has plenty of Chinese friends. Chinese people don´t really talk about politics and I actually haven´t had any discussions about censorship or democracy. He was an invaluable help showing me the “real” China. Going south, to small cities, talking with the people from the street, going to karaoke bars and sauna's, tasting genuine Chinese food. Without him I wouldn't have had such an valuable experience.

The Chinese have a feeling that they are going somewhere for the first time in recent history. The big question is: are they going forward , to being a respected, international player, into the future or are they going to go inwards, closed off, unwilling to deal with the big, bad (Western) world, much like previous incarnations of the Chinese empires in the days of yore.

Like I said before, I am in Hong Kong staying with the family of a friend from previous travels (remember Wai from Vietnam?). Chinese New Year is just a couple of days away. It's been a while since I've been in Hong Kong, but this place is magical.
Don't worry, I'm back from the internet void. Expect Halfway Home Part II in the next couple of days.

Year's End

Lời chúc tết (Greetings from New Year!), or well, that's what the Vietnamese dictionary says. Best of wishes for 2010 to everybody who's reading this blog, back home and abroad. My time is almost up in Vietnam. I'll be leaving in a week's time, up north towards the mountains and that great big country yonder: China.


Christmas and New Year's aren't really celebrated in Vietnam. Though that's not really true. On Christmas Eve, we had a great night with colleagues and students doing “Vietnamese” stuff: a lot of drinking, cheering and eating dog. That's right, I ate a dog. Morally repulsive but by that stage my taste buds weren't objecting and didn't get tickled negatively.


The big festivities happen around Tết-holidays. For the non-Asians here, Tết is the Vietnamese equivalent of Chinese (Lunar) New Year and, depending on the lunar calendar, falls in the end of January or early February. This year it will happen on the 13th February, when I'll hopefully be in Hong Kong.


The month of December has been quite uneventful. Working took a great deal of my time. Watching the Vietnamese football team lose against Singapore in the SEA-games (Olympic Games for South-East Asia) and a couple of hours later finding all the Vietnamese celebrating their second place position by racing down the street and waving flags was quite amusing.


I grudgingly had to accept three little kittens into our house and found them violating my room, computer and bed on more than one occasion. I threatened my flatmates multiple times that I would eat one of them. But hearts and minds – and I these damn felines won over mine.


After working for almost six months I can honestly say that I enjoyed my time here – with some ups and downs. Almost everybody that I meet that lives and works in the capital of Vietnam has the same experience: the good days are great and plentiful, but the bad times suck monkey balls. Traffic starts annoying you or maybe the people. Rolling blackouts, corrupt cops or the government blocking websites (such as Facebook!). It could be the language barrier, the culture or the smog and pollution, the irresponsible behavior of some or just simple boredom.


Living in Hanoi is easy, until you want to get stuff done. Sometimes I started doubting myself: I lived in South Africa before, I have been to some difficult countries and area's of the world, why do I have troubles in Vietnam? It's safe, plenty of stuff to do, other Western people to meet and mingle with. Not all is what it seems to be.


The American magazine Business Week published a list of “Hardship Posts” in 2009: places in the world where living is difficult because of climate, crime, pollution or other things. Apart from the usual suspects (Lagos, Nigera; Jakarta, Nairobi, Mumbai) surprisingly Hanoi and Saigon also make the list ranked 11th and 9th respectively. Read the article.


So it's not all in my head. But then you have the days that the sun is shining, the people are smiling and traffic just eases along. There is so much to be found in this city, so much history. Little temples, parks or lakes tucked away behind huge hotels and apartment buildings, alleyways that lead to cozy and beautiful courtyards, crooked houses and broad tree-lined boulevards. Many times it felt I was discovering new things everyday. Like somebody once told me: this city is all about the details.

I'm going to miss Hanoi and Vietnam, I'm going to miss the friends that I made here, both tourists, expats, students and colleagues But it feels good leaving when the feeling is still good.

Thanks for the great times and a big hug to everybody!

Tourist

My time in Hanoi is slowly coming to an end. It was a good stretch but I'm starting to look forward to travel a bit again. I managed to break the monotony of working and to inject some excitement into my life, apart from the daily motorbike trip to work and back again. It was time for me to be a tourist again.


Two weeks back, together with some of my flat mates and friends, I went to a magical place called Snake Village. The purpose of Snake Village? To eat snakes of course! Now, as some of you may know, I'm not that big on food. I see it as fuel, to keep me going, and if I like something, why change? But on the other hand, I do try new things and though the idea of eating bugs, spiders or other creepy crawlers didn't really excite me, indulging myself on a snake did have a certain manly appeal.


So off we went, to Snake Village, on the outskirts of Hanoi. It's not really a village, more a neighborhood where you can find a large variety of restaurants specializing in cooking snakes. Like everywhere else in Vietnam, shops specializing in certain goods or services tend to concentrate in one area or street. Their thinking: if your shop is not on “the street” it's not good enough.


This concept is taken to the extreme though; say for instance you want to buy a alarm clock, you go to alarm clock street, you want to buy toys, go to toy street. The school where I'm teaching is located in the small water pump and generator street. You've got scrap metal alley, 24-hour food road, bamboo furniture avenue and second hand leather jacket street. This also means that sometimes you have drive for at least an hour in a heavily congested city to acquire something.

Anyway, back to Snake Village. There all the restaurants serving tasty snakes are conveniently located in a very small area. When you enter the restaurant the owner will offer you and your group a choice of several different snakes. The bigger, or more dangerous (and more endangered), the more expensive. Then, after selecting one, the owner / cook will beat the snake senseless on the ground, take a knife, cut open the snake along the belly, drain the blood and take the (beating) heart out together with some other vital organs.


Two things happen next. The blood, mixed with rice wine, is offered as a drink, the (still beating) heart and other organs such as lungs or bile have to be eaten (or drunk, in my case) raw. Different organs will bestow different powers or strengths. The rest of the snake is used in a large variety of dishes, from soup, to meatballs, a kind of fried rice dish with snake meat and spring rolls. It's amazing that they use every part of the body, nothing goes to waste. Even the scales and spine are used. Snake meat tastes a bit like chicken or beef, but a lot more “chewy”.


After Snake Village I took a couple of days off. With a slightly upset stomach I took my motorbike and drove two and half hours south to a town called Ninh Bihn. I never realized that I actually didn't venture out of Hanoi for the last least three months. Being in the countryside was a great change from the chaotic, noisy and polluted streets of Hanoi. No more sunglasses or face mask to protect my eyes and senstive lungs against exhaust fumes, dirt and other toxins.


Close by to Nihn Bihn is Tam Coc and famous for it's karst mountains. In appearance Tam Coc is very similar to Halong Bay of UNESCO Heritage fame, but instead of the mountains rising out of the sea, the sometimes bizarre formations jut out of endless fields of rice paddies. The motorbike is great to get off the beaten track and you've got a couple of great little roads snaking through the countryside. The scenery is amazing. I met a couple of cool backpackers and I spent a blissful Sunday driving around, climbing mountain tops and taking pictures.


That was two weeks ago. But, rest assured, I haven't only been a slave to my students. I also had a great time with friends and flatmates. Sadly enough a couple of friends had to leave, but not before we had a good send off.


I've got one month left of work. Afterwards I'll travel a bit through northern Vietnam before heading of to my next destination: China! That was all for today. Good luck, take care and have a great weekend!

In the City

Dark clouds are forming over the city of Hanoi. Thank god, I say! The weather has been changing ever so slightly the last couple of weeks. It's still quite warm sometimes, but the rain showers start coming more and more. It's definitely becoming more chilly; autumn is on it's way in the north of Vietnam. Apparently it gets so cold here in the winter that you have to wear a jacket. The insanity!

All is well. I moved into a new house with a couple of friends. It's across the Red River from the main city in an area called Lon Bien. You have to traverse an old, rickety railway bridge to get here. Funny enough, this bridge was designed by Eiffel - you know the guy - and is still standing to this day.


It's a completely different area where I'm living now. Every morning I wake up and it feels I'm in the countryside. Instead of the always present rumble of motorbikes and cars, the beeping and the hustle and bustle of a big city, I hear roosters, dogs, birds and the wind. From the roof terrace (yes, we have one) I look out onto of field of some kind with corn or wheat. Quite nice.


We got our little headquarters because everybody was looking for a new place to stay. The task was quite daunting: cheap, for seven people, for a short time and available immediately. But it worked (and the rent is ridiculously cheap) after a couple of days searching. That's the big advantage of living in Lon Bien: its relatively close to the city, cheap, but still not that popular to rent a house or place. Disadvantages: it's out of the way, internet is crappy and the house was very basic with no furniture or kitchen present (though not anymore).


What makes it cool is that my new flatmate's (7 in total) are all awesome people and we get along really good. Everybody is quite creative: some paint, others make music and two of the guys are into fixing up motorbikes. Some teach, other volunteer. Funny enough, everybody here has got a similar attitude to their stay in Hanoi.

For the time being living is good. In a month or two we'll see where winds of change will take me.

After Hours

Well hello there, have you been waiting long? Have no despair, it's time for another update. The sun is shining outside - instead of what you people may think, it's not only mayhem, death and chaos here in Asia. There's been a couple of earthquakes and tsunami's (in the following order: Samoa, Sumatra, Sumatra, Tonga) and one typhoon that skirted Hanoi and made landfall a good deal south, but all is peachy perfect here.


We had a little bit of rain the last couple of days, but nothing serious; no torrential downpours, or streets turned into rivers, just a little drizzle that sucks monkey balls if your driving around on a motorbike.


But life here, though mistakingly Vietnamese and interesting, is quite mundane. I go to work, teach (getting better at it, if I might say so), go back and hook up with one of the many new friends I made the last couple of weeks. One beer leads to many and before you know it you wake up again, very late into the next morning. Damn those after hours! One more day relegated from the present to the past, from an is to a was.


Now to say that I didn't have any free time would be a lie, but fair enough, I'm getting a bit complacent with the blog and taking pictures. Lugging around a big photo camera is not something I do every day. But, yes, I do go out once in a while and shoot some photographic evidence of my stay here (including drinking buddies and friends).


But life is good here. Big city, bright lights and every day there's something new to do or to see. The Vietnamese are funny people; the crazy things you see. I was thinking about doing some short "Observations of Hanoi" the next time, but I guess I can't leave you with one as a teaser:

Little human kids abound on the streets and like their grown-up counterparts they need to do their "thing" every now and then: pee and poo. But the youngest ones get a little help from their mothers in quite an unusual way (from our viewpoint of course).

When the baby needs to go for a number one, the mothers hold the kid up, at least at chest height, take their pants (or whatever) off, hold their legs apart but supporting the butt and let them pee like that. And they do this facing the street. I think they like the spectacle it presents. It's quite a sight when you round a corner walking or driving and you have a split second to dodge a little arch of yellowish liquid emanating from a kid-devil aiming at your face.


Signing off on a happy note: I have become an uncle again! My sister Janina didn't give birth to one, but to a twin, a baby boy and girl! As long as she's not going to bring the kids up the Vietnamese way, pee-ing wise, I'll be happy. ;-)