I chose Taipei as my last stay by chance. It was a way lay between the States and Asia as the airline I chose, EVA, hubbed out of Taipei. I decided to explore the City for 3 days before heading home with no expectations and zero study, just winging it. What a delightful surprise it was. I had never heard much about Taipei, and what I did hear was not good. I pictured crowded, polluted, industrial blight. I expected Western culture and not much Asia. At least not the Asia I just left behind. Taipei was some of that and none of that.
First, the airlines. I carefully researched my flight to Asia, the airlines that fly in that direction, down to the very seat I wanted to sit in using Seat Guru.* EVA's prices were substantially less than the competition to the main hubs that service Southeast Asia, namely Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and a few others. Better yet, EVA offers the new class of service many airlines are introducing for long haul flights called Premium Economy which offers more leg room, seat room and amenities than an economy seat at thousands of dollars less than a Business Class seat.
Not all airlines have caught on to Premmie. But EVA is on the cutting edge and so are their prices. The long haul part of the flight from L.A to Taipei was 14 hours. Doing this in coach was not happening for me. EVA offered a Premium Economy seat for only 400 dollars more than a coach seat. Well, well worth it. This was the best airlines I have flown for the money. Easy. If I do Asia again it will be EVA. Every time. I paid 1100 US to get to Taipei in Premium. By contrast, Cathay Pacific, based out of Hong Kong will give you a regular coach seat for 1500 US. Maybe more. Cathay is a very good airline too. But Coach? Forget it.
Other airlines may get you there for a comparable price, but the connections are not as good.
So Taipei it was. The airport in Taipei lets you know right away you are back in the first world. First class, very modern, very western airport with shopping galore. The airport was a distance from the city. My choices were a cab at 40 dollars US (ouch), or an express bus with a connection at about 9 dollars. The bus won. Long bus ride in but being low on funds this was it. The bus let me off under the bright neon lights of a thoroughly modern, totally Chinese downtown district. No English to be found here unlike my prior destinations which catered to Westerners and laid everything out somewhere in English. Taiwan doesn't appear to give a shit about English. So much the better.
TBC
* I highly recommend studying seat guru before your next big flight. It's spot on and shows you exactly what seats are good and which are bad on any given plane in the world.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Phnom Phen 2
Day 2 in Phnom Phen was abbreviated as a result of night 1 in Phnom Phen. At the advice of a friend who had been, I found my way to the FCC for a bite of dinner and a beer at the end of a day of exploring. The FCC, or the the Foreign Correspondent's Club, was in fact the locale newsmen covering the war in Cambodia hung out in their down time. It's also on the Quay with a river view.
The FCC in its present form is an open air French Colonial style restaurant and bar now. The walls are covered with vintage photos of the conflict in Cambodia that add an eerie mystique to the place. This night there was some kind of happening. The bar slowly filled up with lots of western faces and I ended up meeting a number of ex pats from different countries who apparently regularly meet up at the FCC for food and drink. People are so friendly to solo traveler's in this part of the world. I met so many gracious people who invited me to join their group or just other solo traveler's who I shared a meal with. There's an almost unspoken code that solo's just stick together. Great way to make new friends and I made plenty as I did this night.
Phnom Phen draws quite the oddball mix of ex pats. There were Aussies, Brits, Americans all of whom seemed to share a reckless sense of adventure that drew them to this particular rugged frontier town. There is little if any law enforcement in PP. So it really is a bit of the wild west. I never got too close to any of them because frankly the less I knew the better. But it was nice to have some company for a night. A late night tuk tuk ride back to the Intercon made for a later start the next day.
The actual sights are few in PP. The experience is more a sensory one. It's mostly not pleasant. The city is not crowded but it is bustling. It's a desperately poor city. Buses are flatbed trucks stuffed with people shoulder to shoulder standing up straight. Garbage is everywhere. But astonishingly there is little of the begging that beset Siem Reap. People plod on trying to make this wreck of a city work somehow.
Tuol Sleng, or s-21 was the camp the KR used to brutally torture it's prisoners before sending them on to their fate at the Killing Fields. The site is a converted high school turned into a prison. There are a few museum exhibits and an attempt at telling the story of the place through an audio video presentation that doesn't translate well. It's a brutal place. Unlike the concentration camps of Germany, Austria and Poland this place has not been sanitized. It's the real thing. The death is present and it's near. This was in our lifetimes. We watched this unfold....and our governments did nothing. And still, to the day, they do nothing for this place. It's a cursed country.
The one site with visual appeal is the country's Royal Palace and main Pagoda, the Silver Pagoda. It's a grandiose complex reminiscent of many of the Wat's and palace's I had seen already in Laos. So it was nothing new. It's the country's other jewel after Angkor Wat. After a quick walk through I wandered out to the river for my last sunset over the Mekong. Marketers pedeling all sorts of edible creepy crawlers that only the locals and very brave dared eat. Fried roaches, snakes, rats and the like all ripe for the picking. I settled for a burger back at the hotel where I packed for the last part of my journey in Taiwan.
Southeast Asia is magical. Once you get used to the shock of it, you can easily slip in and see why people can become an ex pat here. Here, things are simple. People live to survive. It's not complex. Nothing costs money by our standards and the people are as kind as you will ever find. Americans always ask the same question. So was it dangerous? You have to be careful what you eat and drink and use a bit of common sense. If so, it's safer than most places you will find in the U.S. I never felt at risk here. Only welcomed. Traveling in places like this help to put things in perspective. The rat race will always be here. But we have so much and they have so little. We complain about how hard it is here now. We don't know hard.
The FCC in its present form is an open air French Colonial style restaurant and bar now. The walls are covered with vintage photos of the conflict in Cambodia that add an eerie mystique to the place. This night there was some kind of happening. The bar slowly filled up with lots of western faces and I ended up meeting a number of ex pats from different countries who apparently regularly meet up at the FCC for food and drink. People are so friendly to solo traveler's in this part of the world. I met so many gracious people who invited me to join their group or just other solo traveler's who I shared a meal with. There's an almost unspoken code that solo's just stick together. Great way to make new friends and I made plenty as I did this night.
Phnom Phen draws quite the oddball mix of ex pats. There were Aussies, Brits, Americans all of whom seemed to share a reckless sense of adventure that drew them to this particular rugged frontier town. There is little if any law enforcement in PP. So it really is a bit of the wild west. I never got too close to any of them because frankly the less I knew the better. But it was nice to have some company for a night. A late night tuk tuk ride back to the Intercon made for a later start the next day.
The actual sights are few in PP. The experience is more a sensory one. It's mostly not pleasant. The city is not crowded but it is bustling. It's a desperately poor city. Buses are flatbed trucks stuffed with people shoulder to shoulder standing up straight. Garbage is everywhere. But astonishingly there is little of the begging that beset Siem Reap. People plod on trying to make this wreck of a city work somehow.
Tuol Sleng, or s-21 was the camp the KR used to brutally torture it's prisoners before sending them on to their fate at the Killing Fields. The site is a converted high school turned into a prison. There are a few museum exhibits and an attempt at telling the story of the place through an audio video presentation that doesn't translate well. It's a brutal place. Unlike the concentration camps of Germany, Austria and Poland this place has not been sanitized. It's the real thing. The death is present and it's near. This was in our lifetimes. We watched this unfold....and our governments did nothing. And still, to the day, they do nothing for this place. It's a cursed country.
The one site with visual appeal is the country's Royal Palace and main Pagoda, the Silver Pagoda. It's a grandiose complex reminiscent of many of the Wat's and palace's I had seen already in Laos. So it was nothing new. It's the country's other jewel after Angkor Wat. After a quick walk through I wandered out to the river for my last sunset over the Mekong. Marketers pedeling all sorts of edible creepy crawlers that only the locals and very brave dared eat. Fried roaches, snakes, rats and the like all ripe for the picking. I settled for a burger back at the hotel where I packed for the last part of my journey in Taiwan.
Southeast Asia is magical. Once you get used to the shock of it, you can easily slip in and see why people can become an ex pat here. Here, things are simple. People live to survive. It's not complex. Nothing costs money by our standards and the people are as kind as you will ever find. Americans always ask the same question. So was it dangerous? You have to be careful what you eat and drink and use a bit of common sense. If so, it's safer than most places you will find in the U.S. I never felt at risk here. Only welcomed. Traveling in places like this help to put things in perspective. The rat race will always be here. But we have so much and they have so little. We complain about how hard it is here now. We don't know hard.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Phnom Phen 1
Found a not so hotspot in the airport here in Taipei. I got here 3 hours early why? Hopefully I can catch up. Facebook exporter has been dodgy so unable to post the last entry on Facebook.
I would have liked to have spent more than 2 days in Phnom Phen. I spent a half day too long in Siem Reap and did not reach Phnom Phen until aroun 3 p.m. I found a great rate at the Intercontinental, the cities only true 5 star and lived it up a bit. Beautiful oasis in the sea of madness that is Phnom Phen.
The city is more of a sprawling slum. There are some decent central areas that are tourist friendly, mostly on the waterfront where most of the lodging, pubs and restaurants can be found. With only about 3 hours to get anything done on day one I hired a tuk tuk driver with the ambition of seeing the Killing Fields exhibit, the S-21 prison and one of the other sites mostly related to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. It didn't quite work out that way.
What we know as the Killing Fields is called the Choeng Ek extermination camp. Those who saw the film of the same name will have some idea of the history. In short, when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, after the Americans abandoned the City, Pol Pot and his cronies ordered the city to be evacuated in total. Executions of government officials began almost on the spot. Over the course of the next few years the Khmer Rouge engaged in a killing rampage designed to create a true agrarian communist society.
To the KR this meant the need to dispense with anyone that had even the slightest amount of education. All professionals and the educated class were murdered. Anyone that the KR didn't see as fitting in to this new society were killed at random. But not before being tortured in the most grizzly manner. Families were killed so there would be no reprisals for killing other family members. Even babies were killed, many of which were simply smashed against trees.
Millions were killed and the country was ravaged before the Vietnamese invaded in 1979 and tossed the KR out of power and installed a puppet regime. Civil war continued on in the country for more than another decade. In 1999 when, I was in Cambodia last, there were still pockets of KR resistance out in the remote jungle.
The KR is gone as a fighting force but sadly not gone from the country. Many sit in the existing government and except for a few token trials no Khmer Rouge leaders have ever been brought to justice. The Khmer Rouge were a creation of the Chinese while the Russians supported the Vietnamese led government which led to the 2nd civil war and even more deaths.
The exhibit at Choeng Ek was not what I expected. There was a large gallery in the center of the field complex containing hundreds of skulls of the dead. Otherwise the facility is more or less empty fields and ponds with mass grave markers at different locations. There is a small museum which explains the use for the fields. But I found the history that was offered to be lacking. I was left with the feeling that no one really wanted to press the issue too much with the KR because of the underlying terror that still persists in the society. Cambodia is still a tragedy playing out and appears to be a country that will always be a failed state.
Short on time, and with all the other exhibits closed for the day I asked my driver where I could go. His response. "you want go shoot?" It had long been rumored, and I know people who have done this, that for a price there was a place in the city you could go and fire off Vietnam War era weapons. Primarily the Ak-47. When in Rome.......
I would have liked to have spent more than 2 days in Phnom Phen. I spent a half day too long in Siem Reap and did not reach Phnom Phen until aroun 3 p.m. I found a great rate at the Intercontinental, the cities only true 5 star and lived it up a bit. Beautiful oasis in the sea of madness that is Phnom Phen.
The city is more of a sprawling slum. There are some decent central areas that are tourist friendly, mostly on the waterfront where most of the lodging, pubs and restaurants can be found. With only about 3 hours to get anything done on day one I hired a tuk tuk driver with the ambition of seeing the Killing Fields exhibit, the S-21 prison and one of the other sites mostly related to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. It didn't quite work out that way.
What we know as the Killing Fields is called the Choeng Ek extermination camp. Those who saw the film of the same name will have some idea of the history. In short, when the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975, after the Americans abandoned the City, Pol Pot and his cronies ordered the city to be evacuated in total. Executions of government officials began almost on the spot. Over the course of the next few years the Khmer Rouge engaged in a killing rampage designed to create a true agrarian communist society.
To the KR this meant the need to dispense with anyone that had even the slightest amount of education. All professionals and the educated class were murdered. Anyone that the KR didn't see as fitting in to this new society were killed at random. But not before being tortured in the most grizzly manner. Families were killed so there would be no reprisals for killing other family members. Even babies were killed, many of which were simply smashed against trees.
Millions were killed and the country was ravaged before the Vietnamese invaded in 1979 and tossed the KR out of power and installed a puppet regime. Civil war continued on in the country for more than another decade. In 1999 when, I was in Cambodia last, there were still pockets of KR resistance out in the remote jungle.
The KR is gone as a fighting force but sadly not gone from the country. Many sit in the existing government and except for a few token trials no Khmer Rouge leaders have ever been brought to justice. The Khmer Rouge were a creation of the Chinese while the Russians supported the Vietnamese led government which led to the 2nd civil war and even more deaths.
The exhibit at Choeng Ek was not what I expected. There was a large gallery in the center of the field complex containing hundreds of skulls of the dead. Otherwise the facility is more or less empty fields and ponds with mass grave markers at different locations. There is a small museum which explains the use for the fields. But I found the history that was offered to be lacking. I was left with the feeling that no one really wanted to press the issue too much with the KR because of the underlying terror that still persists in the society. Cambodia is still a tragedy playing out and appears to be a country that will always be a failed state.
Short on time, and with all the other exhibits closed for the day I asked my driver where I could go. His response. "you want go shoot?" It had long been rumored, and I know people who have done this, that for a price there was a place in the city you could go and fire off Vietnam War era weapons. Primarily the Ak-47. When in Rome.......
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Siem Reap Final
It's over...: ( Home tomorrow. Been running around the thoroughly underrated city of Taipei having a blast. They really do eat ALL of that over here. You name it, they seem to eat it here. More later.
The final two days in Siem Reap were about temples, temples and more temples. Day 2, I spent focusing on the the other inner temples of Angkor including the walled City of Angkor Thom, the magnificent Bayan and the jungle ruin at Ta Prohm. I wish I could provide some amount of history on these temples but I just didn't have the time or energy to study up on it in detail. I was more focused on photographing them. In a nutshell the various temples remained undiscovered to the West until the 19th century when some French guy claimed discovery of the Temples. Locals will tell you that Angkor Wat was never undiscovered. It was just unknown to us in the West. Nevertheless the French claimed it, as they did the rest of Southeast Asia for nearly a hundred years. The complex has both Buddhist and Hindu influence as the Khmer empire had heavy influence from both China and India and these cultures are reflected in the architecture and the art.
My last day in Siem Reap I spent exploring some of the outer, less visited temples which was far less hectic. Though these outer temples are in a greater state of disrepair, there were far few tourist hordes here. The older Roulous group consists of three separate temples, the most impressive of which is Bakong. Another lesser visited complex is the pink and orange smaller complex at Bantay Srei. A 30 minute Tuk Tuk ride there is not for the feint of heart.
No visit to Angkor Wat would be complete without watching sunset from the hilltop complex of Phnom Bekang. A steep climb that some do by Elephant, this complex provides a 360 degree view of the jungle and the temples. Once hiking the hill the physical climb of the building is harrowing as the stairs are steep and very narrow. Some of the steps were maybe a couple of inches wide making concentration a must. A misstep could actually prove fatal if you are high enough up the temple.
I arrived early, at the recommendation of my tuk tuk driver, at 4pm and made the climb to find a small group of maybe 30 people camped out at the top. The sun was still beating down pretty hard at this hour. I was pleased to see that the hordes had not seemed to find this place. One of the most serene moments at Angkor is quietly watching the sun disappear into the jungle, shining its warm red light on the face of Angkor Wat in the distance. Now a balloon operation has also set up to view sunset which can be seen from the mountain as well.
By 5 pm my moment of peace was over. The hordes arrived by the boatload. Group after group of mostly Chinese tourists, who paid zero attention to the signs that asked people to remain quiet, invaded the peace of Phnom Bekang. These were some of the worst behaved tourists I have ever come across. Yelling and screaming, singing and bantering, these Chinese tourists killed a moment of utter peace and beauty for hundreds of us quietly waiting for the sun's departure. I personally got so angry that I almost got physical with more than one of them who parked themselves and their tripods in front of several of us who were sitting quietly waiting.
And then there was their need to be photographed in front of everything! These folks made us ugly Americans look like saints. One of these arm waiving, shouting tourists who stepped on another traveller so he could be photographed in front of the sun directly blocking my view almost got the heave ho from yours truly. Fed up, I thumped this bafoon in the chest and ordered him to sit down and be quiet. To the delight of my neighbors he shrinked away and we got a few moments of peace as the glowing red sun vanished below the jungle to the delight of the hooting and hollering Chinese.
WIth that I scrambled down the hill with the thousand or so other tourists to my Tuk Tuk where I wrapped up my 2nd and probably last visit to Angkor Wat. No longer is this the prisitine, serene place of 99. It's the Disneyland of the Southeast Asia. I'd still tell people to go. But be forewarned about the mobs.
Off to Phnom Phen the next day.
The final two days in Siem Reap were about temples, temples and more temples. Day 2, I spent focusing on the the other inner temples of Angkor including the walled City of Angkor Thom, the magnificent Bayan and the jungle ruin at Ta Prohm. I wish I could provide some amount of history on these temples but I just didn't have the time or energy to study up on it in detail. I was more focused on photographing them. In a nutshell the various temples remained undiscovered to the West until the 19th century when some French guy claimed discovery of the Temples. Locals will tell you that Angkor Wat was never undiscovered. It was just unknown to us in the West. Nevertheless the French claimed it, as they did the rest of Southeast Asia for nearly a hundred years. The complex has both Buddhist and Hindu influence as the Khmer empire had heavy influence from both China and India and these cultures are reflected in the architecture and the art.
My last day in Siem Reap I spent exploring some of the outer, less visited temples which was far less hectic. Though these outer temples are in a greater state of disrepair, there were far few tourist hordes here. The older Roulous group consists of three separate temples, the most impressive of which is Bakong. Another lesser visited complex is the pink and orange smaller complex at Bantay Srei. A 30 minute Tuk Tuk ride there is not for the feint of heart.
No visit to Angkor Wat would be complete without watching sunset from the hilltop complex of Phnom Bekang. A steep climb that some do by Elephant, this complex provides a 360 degree view of the jungle and the temples. Once hiking the hill the physical climb of the building is harrowing as the stairs are steep and very narrow. Some of the steps were maybe a couple of inches wide making concentration a must. A misstep could actually prove fatal if you are high enough up the temple.
I arrived early, at the recommendation of my tuk tuk driver, at 4pm and made the climb to find a small group of maybe 30 people camped out at the top. The sun was still beating down pretty hard at this hour. I was pleased to see that the hordes had not seemed to find this place. One of the most serene moments at Angkor is quietly watching the sun disappear into the jungle, shining its warm red light on the face of Angkor Wat in the distance. Now a balloon operation has also set up to view sunset which can be seen from the mountain as well.
By 5 pm my moment of peace was over. The hordes arrived by the boatload. Group after group of mostly Chinese tourists, who paid zero attention to the signs that asked people to remain quiet, invaded the peace of Phnom Bekang. These were some of the worst behaved tourists I have ever come across. Yelling and screaming, singing and bantering, these Chinese tourists killed a moment of utter peace and beauty for hundreds of us quietly waiting for the sun's departure. I personally got so angry that I almost got physical with more than one of them who parked themselves and their tripods in front of several of us who were sitting quietly waiting.
And then there was their need to be photographed in front of everything! These folks made us ugly Americans look like saints. One of these arm waiving, shouting tourists who stepped on another traveller so he could be photographed in front of the sun directly blocking my view almost got the heave ho from yours truly. Fed up, I thumped this bafoon in the chest and ordered him to sit down and be quiet. To the delight of my neighbors he shrinked away and we got a few moments of peace as the glowing red sun vanished below the jungle to the delight of the hooting and hollering Chinese.
WIth that I scrambled down the hill with the thousand or so other tourists to my Tuk Tuk where I wrapped up my 2nd and probably last visit to Angkor Wat. No longer is this the prisitine, serene place of 99. It's the Disneyland of the Southeast Asia. I'd still tell people to go. But be forewarned about the mobs.
Off to Phnom Phen the next day.
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