The best part about international travel is the destruction it renders to your preconceived notions. Engage your senses and your curiosity and you will be richly rewarded. This may be particularly true for Americans, because we can live huge stretches of our lives without any need to cross our own boundaries. Yet, when we do so, we realize that our perceptions could use a tune-up.
After 19 days in SE Asia, ranging from the uber-global wealth of Singapore and Hong Kong to the open wound of convalescent Cambodia, it has taken almost two weeks to bring much of this intellectual assault into perspective. You’ll find many of my impressions and photos in the extensively refreshed section of articles on SE Asia. The premise of Cruisereader.com shines through in this part of the world. Read something before you go. It will help make sense of everything that comes rushing at you. Over the next several blog posts, you can bet I’ll be drawing on this experience to share impressions. I welcome your participation, as well.
For today, I would like to share some surprising lessons learned over the course of our immersion in these fascinating places. Enjoy!
1. For American baby-boomers, Vietnam was a postage stamp country that was considered a tiny “domino” of the Cold War. However, it has a coastline roughly the equivalent to that from Maine to the Florida Keys, and 58% longer than the US West Coast.
2. The population of Vietnam is 87 million people, almost a third of the US.
3. Vietnam’s central coastline has world class beaches. The international five-star resorts are being built even as we ponder the transformation of our perception of Da Nang from bomber base to surfer paradise.
4. It is possible to embroider images with nothing but silk thread in a manner so subtle as to be mistaken for a photograph.
5. The Cambodian civil wars started when Gerald Ford was President and did not end until the Clinton presidency. During the 25 years, about 2 million people, over 25% of the population, died of starvation, combat, or execution. As a country, they are still healing.
6. At its height of power, around 1200 CE, the Khmer metropolis of Angkor may have had about a million people. At the time, London is estimated to have had about 25,000 inhabitants.
7. Angkor Wat, the primary temple complex of Angkor, is the largest religious structure in the world.
8. Buddhism is not a religion in the view of SE Asian cultures. It is a “Philosophy”. Buddha was not a god. He was a man. His lessons apply to your current lifetime.
9. In Singapore, you can peacefully visit Buddhist and Hindu temples, Islamic mosques, and Catholic and Anglican churches all in a day’s touring. You are welcome in them all, if you are respectful. It’s quite refreshing!
10. Ho Chi Minh approached Harry Truman in 1945 to assist with his discussions of independence from the French. He received no response. Five years later, he found sympathetic ears in Moscow and Beijing. Imagine what could have been…
That’s enough for now. I look forward to your observations.
Bon Voyage!
