THIS ISSUE
Our Man in Hanoi : A letter from the editor
The Month in Review
Feature Destination: Hong Kong
Asia Trivia
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I. Our Man in Hanoi
In an age when people are traveling more than
ever before, Our man in Hanoi has been wondering what exactly it is about
travel that so interests people, if not actually to go, then to at least
express a passing interest, "Oh I've always wanted to do that" or " I'd
absolutely love to go to ….but we just don't have the time"
While he realizes the issue of why people travel is not in the same
theological or philosophical league as say "Why are we here?," and he cannot
claim to have the answer, he can let you know what he loves about life on the
road and in foreign climes. So in no particular order:
Sleeping on the clean white freshly laundered linen of a really good hotel,
far far fancier than the clean but drab sheets your own bed is furnished with;
Hammocks; Trains-almost everything about them, the ever-changing landscape,
the noodles, chicken or rice available at every stop ( as long as you're quick
enough), smoking between carriages, leaning out of the open doors and letting
the wind hit you full on (you'd probably get jailed for this in much of the
"developed world") and most of all the cute little beds that are made up, and
on which I swear I always get the best nights sleep as the train's chug chug
sings me a lullaby and the motion rocks me to sleep; Sunglasses; Arriving
disorientated late at night at an unfamiliar guest house or hotel and waking
up the next morning to brilliant sun bouncing of a blue sea and white sand as
you wander dopily on to the balcony, Yes!; Reading that classic you brought
with you because you deliberately brought nothing fun so as to force yourself
to read it and enjoying it; Beer Laos; Burying yourself under a mountain of
blankets in a top class hotel and turning the air con on full blast; Coconut
trees (corny I know but doesn't everyone love them?); Being surrounded by the
madness and noise of an outdoor market and just letting yourself be carried
along by the crowd--like a very small boat floating on a sea of foreign
voices, jostling bodies, sometimes delicious smells and vivid colors; really
hearing a language (you can't do that with your own you know); Finding out
that people really are the same all over the world, and completely different
at the same time; Waking up to face the prospect of another day at work and
then realizing…;Being invited into someone's house for dinner and to meet the
family even though you only met them ten minutes ago asking for directions;
Bagging a tiger; Not having to wear a watch; Manyana; Tiny dusty curio
shops--not the ones full of tourist junk-but the ones you can tell are on the
verge of closing down due to lack of sales and which are full of stuff you'd
never imagine buying but maybe under that old picture……;Rice wine; No worries;
Renting a motorbike in less than 5 minutes and not having to wear a helmet;
Nivea After Sun or any other lotion that cools and soothes your reddened skin;
Almost everything about beaches; Taking a boat trip to go snorkeling; Taking a
boat trip; Learning a few words of a foreign language and being understood;
Trying a beer you've never tried before; Packing just enough stuff to be
comfortable but not so much so your bag won't fit under a chair or is too
heavy to carry more than a few hundred meters(that one really takes
practice!); A lazy game of chess or cards; Smoking a cigarette as you come out
of the sea and are drying off; Knowing exactly how much you should pay for
something; Beautiful sunsets; Train stations; Tropical islands viewed from
some kind of peak or high point; House lizards against white walls; Trying a
new kind of food and finding out that actually it's really not too bad i.e.
pig's ear or bamboo grubs (the grubs taste exactly like fried bacon);
Guiltless daytime drinking; Hearing the sea as you drift off to sleep; Seeing
a storm as it approaches; Hard rain on corrugated iron roofs; Not knowing any
of the news in your home country.
I think I could go on for ever but as this issue is already late, I'll stop
there. What do you love about travel? Answers to hotels_in_asia@yahoo.com
International Health Insurance – Click here for an instant quote
II. This Month in Review
All Shook Up
The world's most powerful earthquake in over two years hit the island of
Hokkaido, Japan in the latter days of this month. Measured at 8.0 on the Richter
scale (that means it's big) it injured over 300 hundred people but praise be to
your god killed none with only two major injuries. It did however manage to
capsize two fishing boats, derail a train, knock out power to 16000 homes and
partially collapse the local airports roof. By the by, I felt a little tiny one
on an island in the Philippines a couple of years ago and that kind of shook me
up, feeling a big one must really be something and just today a Japnaese student
of mine was telling me that her biggest fear as a child was earthquakes. News
is courtesy of etravel.org .
No Dogs Or Poor People
Allowed
APEC is due to hold its annual summit in Bangkok this year and local authorities
have managed to create something of a stir. Look, People know that Thailand's
not the richest place on earth, no biggy but no amount of supercilious P.R is
going to fool any but the dumbest. Stray dogs are being rounded up and taken to
private dogs homes with lots of comfy beds, big fields full of chasable rabbits
and pedigree chum three times a day..or shot.... I don't actually think this is
the worst idea in the world but you know that a couple of months later there
will be as many rabid mangy mutts roaming the streets as before (and that's a
lot) Beggars and vagrants of any kind are being kindly asked to leave the
capital and those guys, or usually ladies, who sell Garlands of flowers at
traffic lights in the most atrocious conditions (stifling heat, pollution,
traffic jam crazed drivers) just to make ends meet, have been informed that
there services won't be required while the delegates are in town. Now that's
real compassion. News courtesy of my mate
Safe As Houses
It's a bit out of my price range but for all you jet setters out there on
company accounts, the Marriott in Jakarta has reopened. It's stepped up its
security to prevent any chance of the suicide bombers catching even a whiff of
the ridiculously high priced coffee I'm sure they serve in the lobby. Of course
the added security is absolutely necessary but I can't but help remember the
flight I took a few days after September 11. Security was huge as you'd imagine,
but I was kind of thinking, well isn't this a bit like the proverbial stable
door. Its already happened! Right now is probably the safest time ever to fly!
Kind of like a horse getting out of its stable and..oh yeah I said that. News
courtesy of etravel.org
Bad News If You Are A
Indian Fish
While many in traditionally cold northern Europe have been enjoying an unusually
long hot or "Indian summer", it's worth sparing a thought to some of the
negative effects, or so think DR Charles Shepard of Warwick University. As
reported in the Guardian website, Dr Shepard claims that in the year 1998 high
sea temperatures killed more than 90% of the corals on shallow Indian Ocean
reefs. "In 1998, there was a huge wipeout of corals," Dr Sheppard said. "The
global figure seems to have been about 16% of all corals, but the Indian Ocean
was the worst affected." These corals killed were up to 500 years old and while
they might eventually rejuvenate themselves the good doctor predicts a
temperature peak every 5 years with similar effects. Not good news if you're a
fish... Ok or a diver, or actually anyone who cares about some off the richest
habitats on Earth.
Nepal: Not Right Now Unless
You Really Have To
Unless you're going to book a hotel through us, and are thinking of going to
Nepal, DON'T. The Maoist rebels have called of their cease fire off and the
British Foreign Office's Statement implies that a return to the violent clashes
seen in the last few years is a lot more than possible. News courtesy of The
Guardian
III. Feature
Destination: Of Tea and Opium :A Short History of Hong Kong
Hotel Packages in Hong Kong: 7 Days 6 Nights
The dramatic history of how this once barren rock became the bustling metropolis
of 7 million it is now has almost all the themes associated with a Hollywood
Blockbuster; Emperors, Drugs, Colonials, Silver, Greed and Trade. If only I
could intersperse some steamy sex scenes and pass it of as fiction I'd surely
have my movie. Except its true, all of it and, perhaps unfortunately in terms of
my dreams of movie stardom, one of the most important elements in this epic saga
is one of the most mundane. Tea, yes tea. that hot beverage that I, and probably
you, drink every day without so much as a passing thought as to the spectacular
events that put it in our hands.
Way back when, in the 1600's, Hong Kong was just a small fishing community and,
thanks to its deep safe waters, a haven for the travelers and pirates of the
South China Sea. This placid state of affairs though was set for tumultuous
change when in 1699 the British East India company made the first successful
British sea venture to China and in doing so "discovered" a plant whose
existence was to change history. So successful was the Companies trade in tea
that by the mid 1700s it had become the most popular drink in the Western
Hemisphere. It seemed that the West's thirst knew no bounds and just one off
shoot of this were the Indian Tea clippers, some of the most graceful ships ever
sailed, sleek, multi-sailed and most of all fast, these boats were designed to
get you and your tea back to Blighty before your competitors, and thus hold the
highest price. So graceful were these boats that they are held by boating
aficionados in the same kind of awe car enthusiasts might show a vintage Morgan
or a cigar smoker a good Monte Cristo.
So all was well, everyone was drinking tea, there were beautiful boats
everywhere and trade between the British and China was prospering. Well yees,
but there was a problem.
The Chinese, who were pretty much self sufficient, demanded payment in silver
and by the late 1700's the balance of trade between the British empire and China
had become so unequal that, while not exactly teetering on the edge of
bankruptcy, The British were certainly feeling the pinch. And, while neither
silver nor tea grew on trees-exactly- it was certainly easier in China to lay
your hands on a sack of tea than it was in Britain a couple of bars of silver,
increasingly so as we'd given it all to the Chinese! There was no way the
greatest empire the world had ever seen was going to be held hostage by a bunch
of heathen occidentals! (In retrospect it seems that growing the stuff in India
a bit earlier might have solved the problem but apparently none of the empire's
brilliant minds thought of this.) By the late 1700's "Perfidious Albion" had
hatched a dastardly plan…...
In a move that surpasses that of the Columbian and Mexican Drug Cartels of today
the British decided to move into the drugs business and began flooding China
with Indian grown opium and, with its inherent addictive qualities, they found a
ready and increasing market. Job done, Britain had finally found a means of
balancing the books and have a nice cuppa.
As the market for this 'foreign mud' increased so did the Chinese government's
concern at the alarming number of addicts. It's worth pointing out, if only to
highlight the hypocrisy at play, that the trade and use of opium was illlegal in
England because of its perceived harmful effects and such was the drugs negative
impact on Chinese society that trade in opium was, by Imperial decree, banned in
1836. Not that this meant too much to those making money out of it though, who
through bribery and corruption managed to keep the trade going until 1939 when,
due to the efforts of one Lin Zexu, a zealous Chinese official, the British
Chief Superintendent of Trade in China, Charles Elliot was forced to hand over
all remaining stocks of opium for destruction. This didn't really go down too
well with the Brits and sparked the famed Opium Wars.
After The British
Government refused to hand over two British sailors who had attacked and
murdered a Chinese citizen, the British were expelled from China along with
their 'foreign mud'. "I say bit strong that, probably all a misunderstanding. "
Surely now was the time for tact and diplomacy, or not. British reprisals
were swift and efficient. Possessing infinitely greater fire power than their
Chinese counterparts a couple of the British Navy's Gun ships quickly won
battles at the mouth of the Yangtze and Pearl rivers before finally occupying
Shanghai in 1842. The subsequent Treaty of Nanking forced the Chinese to once
again open their ports to free trade, including of course opium (the trade of
which doubled over the next three decades) as well as cede to the British Hong
Kong. It is doubtful whether at that time the Chinese were really very concerned
about this tiny island with the few fishermen who lived there but someone,
somewhere in the British Government or the East Inda Company had seen its huge
potential as a trading base with its proximity to China and peerless harbour;
deep and safe from the typhoons that regulaly plague the south china seas.
Following yet more British style diplomacy with the Chinese in the later
1800's the British also gained control of Kowloon and the New Territories. And
although the population of Hong Kong at first grew slowly, Japans incursion into
China and the later rise of communism meant that by 1950 the population of Hong
Kong had reached two and a half million.
Now of course the people once again live on Chinese soil. And the population?
Well that rests at around seven million with the land upon which they live being
some of the most expensive in the world. It's certainly a very different place
than that of two or three hundred years ago but no less fascinating. Its just
different. If you take the opportunity to step away from some of the more major
roads you'll find that while its façade may be Western, its heart and soul is
most definitely Chinese and the island's colorful history is matched by the
colorfulness of its bustling streets, hidden alleys, and industrious people.
Hotels in Hong Kong : Luxury hotels to budget guesthouses at discounted
prices.
Go
III. Asia Trivia
Did you know that...
…Laos is the only
land locked country in South East Asia?
…The Mekong river
(often dubbed “The Danubr of Southeast Asia”) crosses or borders six different
countries?
…The language of
Malay is virtually identical to Indonesian. They both spring from the
Malay-Polynesian group of languages which includes Filipino?
…Indonesia is the
most populous country in Southeast Asia with around 200 million people. That
makes it the forth most populous in the world?
...Bangladesh is the
most densely populated non-island region in the world, with more than 1,970
humans per square mile?
…Bhutan is derived
from the Indian word Bhotanta, meaning "the edge of Tibet."
…China produces about
70 percent of the world's silk supply.
…In Siberia, it can
get so cold that the moisture in your breath freezes instead of forming vapor.
It can actually be heard when it falls to earth as ice.
…Kuwait’s name is
derived from kut, the Arabic word for “fort.”
…Of the twenty-five
highest mountains on Earth, nineteen are in the Himalayas. The Himalayas are
also the fastest growing in the world, rising about half an inch every year.
…One of the deadliest
diseases in the world is Japanese River Fever, with a mortality rate of more
than 50 percent. It is found only near rivers in certain areas of Japan,
China, Korea, Burma, and India.
…Thailand means "land
of the free."
…The Huang He River
(or the Yellow River) in China has flooded more than 1,500 times in the last
years. In 1931, it flooded and killed 3.7 million people.
…The Japanese
national anthem is only four lines long.
…India’s national
bird is the peacock.
VI.
Important Information
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