Blinking #2

Since returning to Autralia, the Baroness has been drinking a lot of Vietnamese coffee. Unfortunately she had grined the beans too fine (again) so a lot of it ended up at the bottom of the cup. She almost choked to death at one point. She has made it a point to overfeed the magpies, whom perch on the roof harrassing her with their not-quite-broken voices. Being jet-lagged and not particularly inspired her bed mate has been Shiner , the elderly and temperamental alziemerist cat rather than a group of toned and bronzed surf-life-savers she more than once glimpsed upon magazines. There's lots and lots of gum trees outside, releasing an incredible gingery smell. It is very rare to have a day like this in the middle of summer where the grass is dressed in rain drops. She has absolutely no doubt that she is flying.

Reading: Namma: A Tibetan Love Story - Kate Karko.
Listening: Evolve - Ani DiFranco.

A Cheezy Post to say How Much I Love You All

I'll never remember where I put the keys; I'll never forget who found them for me
I'll never remember which cousin ate my chips; I'll never forget which one found some more for me
I'll never remember what we sang at Kareoke; I'll never forget the hangover
I'll never remember the pin to my bank account; I'll never forget who wrote it down for me
I'll never remember their birthdays; I'll never forget the first time I met them - in the baby room at the hospital; at that bloody birthday party
I'll never remember when my plane leaves; I'll never forget who came to wave me good bye
I'll never remember to call; I'll never forget to love - every single one of them

At It Again

at it again, but never would have done it without the unique heritage and the support of my devout fans. From left: Uncle Joh, Uncle Cory, Aunty Mei Fong, Aunty Lily, Aunty Vicky

A Bite of Taiwan

On Sunday we celebrated "Bwei Ye", which is one of the smaller lead up festivals to the Lunar New Year. Traditionally Taiwanese ppl make offerings (food and prayers) on the 2st and 16th of every month to the Earth God who protects things like your house, land, crops, businesses. Sunday was the last 16th of the year (ie. December) and the last offering of the year, therefore its a pretty huge feed. In pre 20th century poor agrarian Taiwanese society, people used to only eat meat and better food when they make offerings to the Earth God, so the 2nd and 16th are big days.

On Bwei Ye we eat Lun Bian - which is a version of spring rolls - the wrapping is a lot larger and bread like than the Cantonese spring rolls that we get in NZ. Its made by "pasting" or "throwing" a big lump of wet dough onto a hot hot-plate leaving a thin layer to cook for about 3 seconds before removing as quickly as possible. I had the pleasure of watching this done at the ShiLin Night Markets on saturday - it really is an art. You serve Lun Bian with peanut powder, coriander and sweet chilli sauce (smooth paste not lumpy like the Singaporean version) , and then roast pork or roast firm tofu for the vegos, any kind of veges that's handy, and off you go with your roll. Similar fillings is used for Gua Bao, another food you eat at Bwei Ye - its like a white chinese bun and its pretty much like a sandwich version of Lun Bian.

YUM!!

Not Excited About Pandas, either.

To my surprise I have very little interest in Taiwanese politics at the moment, except for yelling at a few particularly insatiable politicians when they turn up on the telly.

I told you I was in a vegetating state. I arrived in Taiwan between President Chen making a full on speech on New Years Day re "China is for real, lets buy more missiles to get back at them" and the pending decision on the naming of these pandas that the Chinese want to give to Taiwan. If I had enough energy I'd say, fuck pandas, even if I was five. But I don't. (What's in a name? Just read the Chinese version of the story. Fuck Pandas.)

But I did find a cool picture of my Dad at the anti-sucession law protest he went to last time he was back visiting Grandpa. Go Dad.

Blinking

I am in a total inactive mode at the moment. Its been four days since arriving in Taipei and the idea of indulging into a total wind down has gotten too far into my head and I do feel like a vegetable. Its about 15 degrees here and when I arrived on Sunday I was like a snail shrivling into its shell.

its kind of slightly abrupt given the sort of days I'd lead in the last few weeks yet my body hasn't told me that it doesn't like it (yet) - ie. It doesn't feel as if its a shock to the system or anything, but maybe it is a shock to the system after all otherwise I would otherwise not be feeling this way. or that it should be unsual.

days are slightly mundane at the moment - two weeks before the Lunar New Year and everybody is busy trying to finish things off and trying to fend off the crazy marketing from shops and department stores. The kids have their exams and my uncles and aunties are working overtime so they can go away early.

I feel like I spend my life moving from one chaos to another. I sort of watch and blink a bit.

4 Days Worth of Writer's Block

My Last Sunset

The lady at the noodle soup shop insisted that I look at the sunset tonight. It was just beautiful - a dark orange that sank into a red that melted into the busy streets of Saigon. I watched it and thought about how much I have learnt, how much I have given and taken, and how much I just love being alive. The Sunset gave in to the street lights and it was just me on a cyclo roaming into town.

Like all photos on this trip, the picture just does not do it justice.

Met a brit guy and a german girl today at the Cu Chi trip so we are having a few drinks tonight.
And here I am at 12.09am on a break from my beers blogging with more Vietnamese kareoke balsting out in the background and motobikes zooming by. I am sitting at the front of the bar exactly opposite my guest house and they have rolled on the iron bar doors about 1 hr ago - i am a bit worried that i won't get in - hello! no one mentioned a curfew to me!!

Ahh. Can't believe its the end, but I am so glad I'm coming home. I miss my family in Taipei so much and there's even more in Australia that I am missing.

I am just so glad that its ending the way that it should - happy, comfortable, complete.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi Tunnels is part of a huge network of underground tunnels used by the Viet Minh (or Viet Cong, which apparently is no longer a derogatory term as the Vietnamese have reclaimed it, so I'm going to use it) used during the Vietnam War.

Cu Chi town is about 60km from Saigon – I took a 4USD group tour there. The Guide is a comedic guy who breaks into song every now and then and makes pretty tasteless jokes about being injured by booby traps. Its a pretty good set up at the Ben Dinh tunnels - where you get a little class room to learn about the history etc, then you have some replicas of booby traps and munition factories and a fantasitc rubber-tyre sandle making workshop for tourists. Only the tunnels that we were allowed to crawl in were genuine left overs from the war, the rest is pretty much replicas. Flocks of Vietnamese kids just loves them. Most of the propaganda (obviously in the text book communist style) the outdoor Tunnel Museum blasts are really really anti-American, ie. almost personal. they call them "merciless devils" "ruthless representation of demons" and other stuff like "heartless bombs destroyers" and had a profile on a twelve year old girl soldier who was given the honour of "American-killer hero". Kind of like a less toned down version of "Tour of Duty" or "Rambo" - except the Americans are the villains. As much as I feel for the Vietnamese as victims on their own land, and they do have the right to gripe - its just as one sided as American versions of the war. Its interesting to an extent but it actually made me shut off after a while.

Saigon is the HQ of the South Vietnam and American armies - which controlled the teritory by day, but at night its the Viet Cong guerillas hiding in the tunnels that controls the vast area around Saigon. They come out at night to get supplies from the Villagers and do some fighting and booby trapping. Most of their years would be spent in darkness. We got to try crawling some 1 km of the tunnel system (I only lasted 30m...) it was dark and narrow and the fact that you are stuck in there with 20 other ppl is bloody scary - I never knew I could have claustrophobia but hey, I would be definitely after a few years in one of these, particularly having to fight, look for food, and dodge napalm.

I can not but admire the tennacity and determination of the Viet Cong - the Americans probably had ten folds more amount of resources and technology than they did - the VC had Chinese and Russian backing but really it didn't quite reach the amount of power the Americans had. I am not quite sure if ideology was really what each side was fighting for - I doubt that many of the peasants and gurillas would actually understand what communism really means. Nor most of GIs for that matter. The VC had nothing to lose - most of them are starving to death. Many of them fight on pure resentment of foreign control, revenging for the deaths of their families, and the sheer determination to protect their own land and be their own master. This is their land, that's why they won. No matter how much you may shell it, poison it, burn it - its their land.

Much of the land near Cu Chi is still laced with chemical defoliants which poisons the soil and water which still affects agricultural production in that area. Not mentioning two or three generations of babies that are born through out the years with deformaties due to their parents being exposed to various chemicals sprayed by the Americans.

The War Reminiscence Museum

Lucky me got to visit the War Reminiscence Museum in Saigon on the way back from the tunnels. Its like their version of the War Memorial,except ofcourse resources meant that its much smaller and less well curated. There are some pretty gruesome photos of massacres committed by the Americans that not many of us are familiar of, which wiped out entire villages of the elderly and children (can a five month old baby be accused of "helping the VC"??). Including one partly committed by a former American Senator Bob Kerrie who admitted to his crimes in 2001. Its really ironic that Americans can put any one they like on the international war crime trials but they deal with their own kids with their martial law. One law for me, one law for every one else. Sounds familiar?

Another irony about this museum is that a lot of the photographs are supplied by American and Western journalists rather than Viet Cong photographers from their own side of the story. Mainly because war coverage was quite novel and every news agency sent their own photographers rather than buying stuff from each other. The Viet Congs on the other hand had next to no resources to fight, let alone photography. They did have some very good photographers but the products were low in quantity and quality as they had no equipment for processing either. The ones that actually did come out had to be paint brushed like early 20th century studio photos.

A very very touching exhibition one should not miss is a gallery dedicated to photographers world over that has died in the line of duty. It was touching to me because some of the photos they took were the ones that I first ever saw about the Vietnam War as a child - ie. the one by Koichi Sawada of the woman and her kids swimming away from bombs in the river. And one of Dicky Chapelle, one of the only women photographers around at the time who's dying photo after a helicopter crash just stabbed right into me.

Other points of interest is pretty unsavoury - a guillotine brought in by the French to get rid of anti-colonialists and then used by the South Vietnam gov to get rid of communists. And some very unerving jars where deformed foeti affected by chemical sprays are preserved. You should really be prepared when you go.

So this concludes my very gruesome day of learning about the Vietnam War.

Say Saigon

Heeeeyyyyy!! I'm in Saigon!!

I am travelling alone again after a good 3 weeks with my mate Emma and then the PEPY team. I flew out of Siem Reap this morning (after a last minute dash to the temples to do a Bayon binge with Emma on a tuk-tuk, cutting it fine getting to the airport, the usual WaWa style).

Saigon is quite different to Hanoi - one obvious thing is weather - its sooooo hot here compared to the bleak coldness of Hanoi. Motorbikes are just as crazy but the roads are a lot wider and I can handle it a lot better after 4 weeks of good training all over South East Asia.

Still am not sure whether to call it Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon - I have referred to the city as HCMC before I arrived as it is the official name and seems to be a bit more PC/respectful. But since arriving and soaking in the atmosphere I've decided that Saigon is more feel good. I asked the guest house host what he calls it, he recons the older generation calls it Saigon, youngsters call it HCMC, but now there's a come back for Saigon. So dunno, I don't think the locals mind either way.

Obviously not the same city portrayed in the romanticised Western docos on the "Fall of Saigon" or the "Quiet American" type things anymore (was it ever?) - this place has seriously modernised, reminding me more of Taipei or Bangkok in many ways. Vietnamese chicks are a lot more boisterous than Cambodian girls and they seems to run the show here. Food and shopping is pretty choice here - less of the hot soups here as its hot as, so lots of fruits and cold fruity nutty coconut drinks like in Thailand and Cambodia. Seems to have more Chinese speakers here too and things are a wee bit cheaper, most likely cos its just a bit less toursty. What I mean is that there's heaps of tourists too, but that they blend in with the local consumers just as much cos its so businessy here.

My guest house room is up in a loft type place on a really really really really really busy street corner - the interior deco theme colour is obviously cream I feel like I am Repunzel living on a white pagoda. I have a little balcony overlooking the chaos, long flowy curtins and a giant picture of a water fall on the feature wall. trippy. The more expensive room I ordered (which I didn't want anyway) had been given away (again) so this room is cheaper at 11 USD/ night. Its steep compared to Laos and Thailand but its quite good for a city like Saigon. So yeah not too fussed for the time being.

I just had a shrimp rice cake soup drizzled in fish source + pig fat?!?! type dish, not entirely confident on the hygiene and am worried it might hit me some time tomorrow...
The ladies serving them at the Ben Than markets laughed at me because I had no idea how to eat it and asked for it to go with noodle soup (i had seen another girl with something similar so just asked for what I thought it was). How embarrassing.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to the Cu Chi tunnels (Viet Cong tunnels during the VN war) for a half day trip - wish me luck!!

Don't Buy The Wrong Bottle

Otherwise you'll be very very sorry. Don't rely on the labels either. Gassoline for your motorbikes comes in recycled alcohol and softdrink bottles on the side of the road. YUM!

Mystic Angkor Wat

Another dream came true this week when I visited Angkor Wat... We were lucky enough to be able to visit the temples for 2 full days and 3 quick dashes in between going to the PEPY Ride School and various other Siem Reap escapades. There are over 70 temples spread over about 40km square worth of space, so a week was really not quite enough to cover everything. Although we got to spend a lot more time than most other tourists there, it was really just a quick scrape of the highlights. For a better and more comprehensive version of history, I'd refer you to this or this, or google, rather than having me blab on and not quite doing it justice...

The first day at the Angkor was spent with our fourth grade buddies from the school, which was really quite special for them as well because most of them have never been to the temples themselves, a pilgrimage for many Cambodians. Being there was just senstational. The sheer height and spread of the main temple (Angkor Wat) was just overwhelming. Not mentioning having to descend the Wat via steel ropes! My highlight was definitely at Bayon, at Angkor Thom (Second most popular temple) where I was taken aback by the stone faces which adorned the top of the stupas. The sunlight shifting on the faces make them look as if they were alive, the lips look as if they would begin speaking and telling stories of the people that used to live and die here thousands of years ago. It would be better if there were no one else around, just me and the jungle and the stone faces - just like how Indiana Jones would have liked it. Ta Prom again was just amzing - its referred to as the "jungle temple", a low level (as in height) temple with its bricks shrowded in gigantic vines of tree roots and growth. Apparently most of the temples were in that condition at the beginning of the 20th century, but upon renovation a lot of the jungle growthwas removed. It was decided that they won't remove the growth at Ta Prom because a) its too far gone, it would take too long and too expensive, b) the root systems has in fact supported the structures of the buildings for thousands of years, to remove them it would simply collapse in a heap, and c) it just looks asthetically cool that way!!

The second full day there was probably the best day of my holiday so far - Emma, Patricia and I rode from Siem Reap to the temples and roamed the shaded paths for a day, just chasing the wind and soaking up the chill that the sandstones and the jungle gives you. Highlights include: Monkeys doing monkey business in the middle of the road, learning a silly song from kids at a shrine, finding a great pink lake at sunset, racing the local kids home, and being stuck in a traffic dispute at peak hour.


Emma and I did something rather crazy again on January 2nd, when we turned up to the temples at 5.30am for sunrise. When we arrived it was still the dead of night, shooting stars falling from the sky. We entered the main wat in pitch blackness - aided only with my tiny little kathmandu flash torch. The ground is quite uneven and it was really hard navigating through because you can't see where your feet is landing. We climbed up the Wat, again in pitch blackness - thank goodness i didn't look down. There were drones of bats shreaking in batches, one of them even did a dropping on Emma, who was obviously not impressed. There were staircases and corridor turns every where and we soon lost the 10 or so ppl that we came with. There was however a glimpse of light coming from the shrine to the giant buddha in the middle of the wat, where a few monks were guarding. Beside the giant Buddha there was a row of smaller Buddhas statues in the dim light, headless (thanks to the tombraiders - as in, the real ones) and some adorned in yellow shrowds. It was quite a spooky affair. When one of them started moving I just screamed like a baby. It was in fact one of the security guards just checking that everything is ok... Sunrise however was a bit of an anti-climax after our experience in getting there. We simply chose the wrong spot right beside a renovation construction thingimo. But being there with so many other punters was just fun by itself.

We returned for sunset on the last night before we were leaving Siem Reap, this time at Ta Prip which was a much farther away temple with less tourists. It was what I would call an abandonned castle - with its tall towers and dusty orange appearance in the sunlight, and flex like grass growing in patches on the towers - it looked like an unshaven man. It was a dramatic sunset to be on the top of an endless jungle and the sun disappearing behind the gold rims of the purple clouds. I feel so lucky, so so lucky.

PEPY Ride School

About PEPY
PEPY stands for “Protect the Earth, Protect Yourself". http://www.pepyride.org/ PEPY Ride School is the labour of love of Daniela Papi and Greta Arnquist, two very inspiring young women who started the project from their experiences of travelling in Cambodia. It started as a group of bike riders cycling around Cambodia teaching school children about environmental protection. It soon grew into a bigger fundraising project cooperating with the NGO called American Assistance for Cambodia/ Japan Relief for Cambodia, an organization that has built over 250 schools in rural Cambodia since 1999. PEPY began building a school in about 1.5 hours drive from Siem Reap. PEPY also equipped the school with desks, funded a water pump, vege patch and greenhouse, computers, and a very exciting solar panel!! (see what else on the website)

I started as a volunteer fundraiser in Australia in July this year for PEPY. My chance to check out the school and other PEPY projects was with the first PEPY volunteer trip scheduled for December 05-January 06. This is actually the main reason why I am in South East Asia right now, while combining Vietnam, Laos and Thailand while I can!!

The Volunteer Trip 31 December to 6 January
The Volunteer Trip spanned over a week where 30 of us (Many of them English teachers living in Japan) based ourselves in Siem Reap and commuted out to the school most days to work with the children and on the school grounds.

Opening Ceremony
The first day we were there was the opening ceremony for the new classrooms that PEPY built in cooperation with the Japan American Assistence and the Asian Development Bank. It was an extremely emotional morning where the overwhelming welcome and warmth from the Kerela (Amatya Sen fans – I am seriously not kidding!!) people . Most of them had not met foreigners before, and to have a bus load descending upon them was quite a shock to the system. There were 13 nations represented: We all got to introduce ourselves and our country, and it was just the most proudest moment of my life when I stepped out for Taiwan with my flag. (see previous post)

The week consisted of the following activities:

Teaching Activities
- each volunteer “buddying up” with a 4th grader – mine was a girl called Pinh. We spend a few hours with them talking to them and get them to know us. Which proved to be quite difficult as we couldn’t communicate and the kids were mostly really shy.
- English lessons – out in the field and in the class room which they just loved
- Art and craft classes - I coordinated the arts program – we gave them crayons and colouring pencils which many of them hadn’t seen before
- Sports - we also gave them soccer balls and frisbees etc)
- Environment and hygiene - Clean up rubbish competition, and teaching them how to brush their teeth

Classroom Upgrades
- Desks – which we donated were sanded
- Decorations, a lot of which were contributions from Japanese children
- Gifts to the school: books and stationary, including a special edition of Harry Potter in Khmer – which JK Rowling gave special permission to translate and publish

Ground Projects
- Greenhouse – contracting students from a nearby Agricultural School also run by an NGO to train homeless kids
- A water pump – water comes straight out of the pump so kids don't have to exploit the lily pond at the back of the school
- Vege patch – already completed, to feed the staff and some kids that may need to travel a bit
- Paving and Fencing – PEPY volunteers to complete
- Other gardening
- Solar Panel – to be completed - I was disappointed to not get my hands on the solar panel as it had been late, but hopefully the March and August Trips would yield some pictures for me!!
- And A FANTASTIC MURAL which a Japanese school girl designed and we painted on the walls

It was really really hard work as we were working right through under the boiling sun. Every day was a grilling bumpy ride out and in from the school and usually I was covered in mud – but when we left we knew that it was a huge achievement for us and appreciated by the whole town immensely. What is most fantastic about PEPY is that it’s a continuous commitment with the School. There’ll be another trip in March and another one in August already planned. I will certainly be continuing to fundraise and advocate on behalf of PEPY and keep you all updated with their progress.

More extensive photos on the PEPY site: http://www.pepyride.org/gallery/index.php

Follow the PEPY Riders (they began on January 10th)
http://www.pepyride.org/journal/journ.html