So near yet so far

There are two reasons why I decided to pick Florida to hang out when in North America. Firstly, their weather is similar to ours in Jamaica and secondly, it is only an hour and a half flight to my home.

Well, all that made a lot of sense before an invisible plague hit mankind in 2020, showing proud humans that they are not as all-powerful as they thought. So,  although the coronavirus has been with us for over six months now, some idiotic politicians just cannot learn!

One of those politicians is the Florida governor, Ron Desantis, a follower of the imbecilic president whose handling of the virus has caused the USA to suffer unnecessary deaths, and devastation.

For both Desantis and the president, have not only refused to adhere to the primary  recommendations of knowledgable scientists but even the basic wearing of a mask, which has proven to help contain spread the virus, they have politicized, to the detriment of the entire country. 

So now Trump's rabid followers who take their every cue from him, have been spreading the virus in Red states, as they adamantly refused to wear masks and are even scoffing a social distancing. This has caused confrontation in some business places and on the streets. Granted in the USA it has not reached the point it did in France recently, where it was reported that in the city of Bayonne, a bus driver was severely beaten and later died, when he demanded  that four passengers wear masks when traveling on his bus. That is tragic but I actually expected to see that type of a report coming out of the USA before anywhere else!

 What's the big deal about wearing a mask if it can save lives? 

The people of Vietnam have been wearing masks for decades, not because of the virus, but because that absolutely beautiful country is being destroyed by smog. Actually, one of the masks I now wear, I bought there about two years ago.

Many scientists are now convinced that it is the widespread use of masks there, which has led to their amazing success in fighting the virus, for according to reports, with a population of over 95 million, as of 11 July 2020, they had 370 confirmed cases, 350 recoveries, and no deaths.'

Jamaica too has been doing quite well at managing the virus, since with over 737 positive cases of coronavirus detected, there have been only 10 deaths. In other words, these two so-called third-world countries have learned how to contain the spread of the virus.

 On the other hand, at this time, Florida, population just under 22 million and a supposedly first world state, has over a quarter-million cases of the virus and more than 4,100 deaths thus far. Interestingly, the government refuses to say how many people are critically ill in hospital, but reports are being leaked to the effect that most of the hospitals are running out of beds for critically ill people. All this is because of the governor taking his cue from Trump instead of qualified scientists. 

What started me on this rant is the fact that I wish to visit my beautiful home, but since I am presently in highly contaminated Florida, I have to take a test which should be no older than seven days, showing that I am virus-free before I will be allowed to go to my home.

However, the slothful authorities in Florida have caused the testing process to be a total mess.

To begin with, it took me about four days to find a place where I could get an appointment to do a test and when I actually did it, the time period to have the results returned, had moved from 4-6 days to 7-10 days. 

In other words, I am stuck here. 

I wonder how many people you can contaminate if you are going around with the virus for 7-10 days but don't know that you have it?

Of course, I am not blaming the Jamaican government for putting in place, stringent measures to curb the importation of the virus.

Oh yes, I have long maintained that we should learn to live with it, for it may be with us for years, and we certainly can't keep our country locked down. The fact is, this virus kills and severely affects very few who get it, but keeping the country locked down will be too devastating for the majority of the Jamaican population, some 17 % of whom already live in poverty. So if the government decides to open up tourism but bans people coming from severely contaminated places in the USA, I totally agree with them, even if it means that for the first time in my life, I will be unable to go to my home at will, although Florida remains, so near yet so far.

Cambodia surprised me

Entrance to the "Killing Fields" memorial in Sien Reap

Cambodia is a country that I had little or no interest in visiting when I decided to visit South East Asia. You see, I had closely followed events there during the terrible period, 1975-1979 when the despot, Pol Pot murdered over a quarter of the population in that country. His terrible regime was backed and armed by the Chinese communists.

Skulls found in mass graves in the region, on display

 

His reason for the genocide, resonated a great deal with us thousands of miles away in Jamaica, as it was in our view, a typical aspect of a communist cleansing.

This was the period during the cold war era when communists were trying to foist their violent ideology on the world. We too in Jamaica were in grave danger of being overcome by communists, as local communist forces were being armed and assisted by the Castro regime in neighboring Cuba.

From 1976-1980, we fought an "undeclared" civil war to keep the communists at bay, so the atroicities we were learning about in Cambodia which were broadcast daily by the British BBC, would not overtake us. By the time Pol Pot was stopped in Cambodia, he had massacred over two million of his countrymen and totally dislocated the population by moving people from their homes and dispersing them all over the countryside.

A shrine to the victims at the "Killing Fields" memorial

That period has long passed and the Berlin wall has fallen, so in 2018, communism was no longer a threat, but my memories of the story of Cambodia remained so entrenched, that it took my friend Gabby, a Jamaican resident in Vietnam, quite some time to convince me that Cambodia was worth visiting. The cheap air fares in the region were also another incentive!

The final spur though came from a young lady I met on a visit to Ha Long in Vietnam. She was a teacher in Britain but had been undertaking the arduous task of having to work while studying for her master's degree. So she said she decided to take a break to tour Southeast Asia and had been doing so for some three months. When I picked her brains about which was the most scenic country she had visited so far, the unhesitant answer was Cambodia.

On a  Tuk Tuk tour of Angkor

With only two days to spare, we flew from Thailand to Siem Reap, a highly recommended UNESCO World Heritage site.

 That was probably the best decision of my life as from what I saw of Cambodia in that short time, certainly indicates that my British friend and Gabby were both on target.

To begin with, the Cambodian people were by far the most friendly, helpful and humble people I encountered during my short visit to South East Asia.

In questioning some who I met about the events during the Pol Pot genocidal period, while I discovered that most had not even been born then, just about everyone knew someone who had either been killed, forcefully relocated or imprisoned during the period so knew everything about it. I also learned that nothing was taught in the schools about that aspect of their history but the older generation always spoke about it, always expressing bewilderment with the question; "Why did he do that to his own people?"

No one seemed to have a real explanation and it is something that I suspect will remain unanswered during their entire history.

The impressive Angkor Wat (Wat means temple)

While the government does not give much information about the period, I was told, to their credit, all over the country there are killing fields memorials where skulls retrieved from mass graves are put display along with written, harrowing tales as told by survivors and of course shrines for the souls of the dead.

We got the opportunity to visit the memorial at Siem Reap and it certainly brought home the real brutality of that terrible period and communism in action.

Cambodia is now open for business though and no more is this more obvious than in Siem Reap where the

A young Buddhist monk performs rites at Angkor Wat

US dollar is even used interchangeably with their own Reil. That province is certainly very tourism oriented with a night market where just about every type of Asian food can be found as well as arts and crafts. And the prices are really good.

The big drawing card is, of course,  the Angkor Complex which has been recognized and protected by UNESCO  for 25 years. This is located on over four hundred acres of land, much of which is still in the forest.

Here you have on display, one of the largest collections of religious monuments in the world some of which are still being used.

Hindu carvings are visible all over

This area was originally constructed in the 9th century as the center of the Khmer Empire but was finally abandoned in the early 1400's.

What you find here are the most intricate designs and architecture and even where huge tree roots take over buildings, they seem to do little damage as happens with modern buildings.

A massive tree trunk envelops this temple but does little damage

As I toured a minuscule section of the vast complex in wonderment, I was also enthralled by elephants all around transporting people and the monkeys which wondered easily among their human relatives!

When one baby tried to climb up the long, colorful Cambodian skirt which I had to buy to enter the sacred temple complex, I was tempted to pick it up but was reminded that they often have diseases.

One of the most inappropriate businesses I saw in' Cambodia though was a restaurant near our hotel named "Trump cafe."  Although I wondered about the choice of name, was amused to see that during

 my entire two days there, I never observed anyone entering or leaving the premises. Does this mean the American president has no fans in that part of Cambodia, I wondered?



Some other images from Angkor

Elephants demand right of way!

Impressions of Vietnam

Vietnam was never on my bucket list but when a planned trip to Kenya fell through, I said "what the heck, why not visit my friend's
courageous daughter Gabby in Vietnam. She had gone off to that country to teach English a year ago, although she never knew anyone in the region or a word of the Vietnamese language.

It was with some trepidation that I took the decision as I am quite a foodie and had often heard that they ate things that I would never consider digesting, like cats and dogs! "As I don't know the language, how will I know if I get my pets to eat?" I worried as I packed my bags with all sorts of junk food including barbecued pork rind!

Sadly, some beautiful scenery is barely visible because of the heavy pollution

I needn't have worried though, as when I finally expressed my fears to Gabby, she assured me that cats and dogs are delicacies there, so I would never get them to eat by mistake.

 I was even pleasantly surprised when during my visit I did notice that some people had pet dogs on leashes and even on their bikes, indicating that the trend to eat those animals was probably slowly, very slowly receding. During that same period when I was there, however, I only saw what could be considered, one pet cat, as it had a collar. I saw no stray cats.

The destination was far better than I expected in most ways but far worse in a few.

My biggest disappointment was the high level of pollution in the capital city, even following us to the beautiful countryside. One often hears about the terrible pollution in India and China but had never heard of it in Vietnam, so it came as quite a shock to see almost everyone wearing masks in Hanoi. I got one, but it didn't help much since the immediate effect was the severe stinging of my eyes.

I personally have never seen such a high level of pollution anywhere. It even blots out the sun completely many days. This is caused by the extremely highly developed manufacturing industry which apparently operates without any form of regulations.

My next shock was the absolute chaos in traffic in Hanoi.

That capital city has a population of some seven million people but it is rumored that there are six million motor scooters of all shapes and sizes.
(This of course makes it impossible to judge ones status or wealth by their mode of transportation as just about everyone in the city use bikes to get around.)

Many roads n the city have bike lanes, but very few riders use them. I have never seen such anarchy on the roads in my life. In fact, I would describe what I felt on the first few days as total culture shock as I saw riders, some even texting on their phones,  ride out in front of bikes, cars or trucks without appearing to look at all. It was not unusual either to see a bike with up to six persons on board, most being children and while the adults usually wore helmets, the children are never provided with any.

I must admit that after about three days, when I did drum up the courage to take a bike taxi with a Grab, rider (Grab is the Asian equivalent of UBER and they have both bike and car taxis,) I was pleasantly surprised to be supplied with a helmet.

The ride was not as scary I expected,  but on reaching my destination, my driver who was traveling behind a truck was nearly crushed as the truck driver stopped suddenly, then started reversing without checking if there was anyone behind him!

 My poor rider, he nearly had a heart attack.

What I found interesting too was the total absence of police or soldiers on the streets or anywhere, in a so-called communist state with an amazingly low crime rate.

This is a fairly clear sidewalk!

With the chaos on the roads,  I had expected to see regular, terrible accidents but amazingly, never saw one during the time I was there.  On one occasion, I did see one policeman trying to direct traffic during peak hour, (all day looks like rush hour anyway!) only to observe in amusement that the bike riders simply ignored him and did their thing while a few drivers obeyed his signals. However I hear that just about every car you see in the city, has a dent on the side and every rider has a muffler burn amusingly, dubbed the Hanoi kiss!

As to the treatment of pedestrians, Oh lord....they are of no value at all to those on wheels as no one pays any attention to any pedestrian crossing or traffic lights. In fact, I dare say, trying to cross a road in Hanoi appeared to me at first to be the ultimate challenge and almost like making a date with death! And where the sidewalks are in good shape  (not full of holes and broken slabs) they are captured by merchants or used as parking lots for the bikes.  So it's on to the streets for walkers.

Newlyweds pose in the street for photos

 I could not believe my eyes too when I saw sections of several sidewalks, both in and outside of Hanoi, with long beautifully decorated tents installed as reception halls for weddings. The Vietnamese seem to be great lovers as there are streets lined with nothing but flower shops and ever-present, are women with bicycles loaded with bunches of flowers which they sell on the streets and around the lakeside.

A dedicated bleacher!

 Although Vietnam describes itself as being socialist, it is among the most capitalist cities I have ever seen with every type of small business, especially food businesses. I am really surprised how slim everyone is!

And whereas one would expect a socialist society to be somewhat ordered, when it comes to town planning, the word that springs to mind immediately is anarchy. So it is not unusual to see the most fabulous building on the first few floors and literal shacks on their tops.

 Really weird.

Another practice I found culturally shocking was the widespread use of bleaching creams by Vietnamese women. It is as every woman there wants to be white.

 At first, when I saw women fully covered from head to foot as they rode their scooters, stupidly I thought they covered themselves up so if they fell, they would minimize the bruises. I was quickly disabused of this thought when it was explained to me that they remain fully clothed from head to foot in the boiling sun in temperatures in excess of 80 degrees because they fear the sun darkening their skin. It was uncanny, as uncanny as the habit of most young men growing the nails on their left hand to extraordinary lengths.

When I find out what's behind this practice, I will certainly let you know.

With bleaching being so prevelant, I should really not be surprised at the level of racism in the country, but I was, for this is 2018 and I had no idea racism could be so open in any country of the world still.

Shrine at Ho Chi Minh museum complex

Let me make it clear, I personally never experienced any form of racism and in fact, found everyone I encountered, extremely nice and helpful. But it is a well-known fact that visitors and residents never have the same experiences.

 I was really very appalled when my friend who works there, revealed that many employers will tell you up front that the salary scale for black people and whites are not the same. Blacks must, therefore, accept considerably less pay for doing the same job!

She also had the terrible experience of persons refusing to serve her in their establishments or telling her to leave because she is black. Yes in Hanoi in 2018.

Another shock I got, was the seeing the easy availability of all drugs, prescription and otherwise, by  simply going into the pharmacy and asking for it. I have no idea if Vietnam has a serious drug abuse problem, but I am sure the American druggists who are widely reported to be killing themselves with overdoses of prescription drugs, would have a ball in Vietnam where everything is so easily available!

Shrine at a local pagoda

As someone who loves to travel, I often find myself having to make it clear up front that when I write about a trek of mine, I pay more attention to the natural beauty of a country, rather than cultural practices or the type of government.

This is where I move from the negatives to the absolute beauty of what I saw in Vietnam.

 Despite being a communist country which long imposed on restrictions on religion, the government does not appear to prevent religious adherence, so pagodas (temples) with the most beautiful shrines are all over. I was really taken in by the way their elaborate shrines are cherished and protected.

Nowhere are they more cherished and on display than at the Bia Dinh Pagoda, in Ninh Binh province which was the ancient capital of Vietnam during the 10-11th century.

This sacred area which has both old and new temples, covers over 500 hectares in the mountains and forest, is a treasure trove of absolute beauty and great pride to the Vietnamese people.

(These photos cannot really depict the breathtaking beauty there but nevertheless, I must share them.)

Apart from the temples and pagodas, Vietnam has a proliferation of lakes which the government uses to establish fantastic recreation areas for the people. It is so pleasant to walk around these lakes and see people fishing or just hanging around with their kids.

Pollution in that country is really severe though and it affects the lakes as much as anything else. Unfortunately, therefore, while those lakes provide visual pleasure, I saw no one crazy enough to be swimming in any.

I am somewhat of a waterbird so always go on the tours involving the sea. Ha Long Bay was quite a hit for me.

This is  is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Gulf of Tangkia, which is approximately 175 km from Hanoi.

I found this area so beautiful that I dedicated an entire blog with photos to it elsewhere. (https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2018/10/unforgettable-beautyha-long-bay.html)

Another spectacular UNESCO protected area just minutes from Bia Dinh is Trang An in the Red River Delta. This area is said to have provided shelter for humans for 32,000 years and it is  where one of the King Kong movies was filmed!

"Awesome" was the word which kept springing to mind as we wended our way slowly past huge kast formations and under fabulous caves, in a canoe propelled by a lady no less.

With the immense beauty of their land and their rich history,  the Vietnamese people have a lot to be proud of and this pride is on display in the three museums I had the opportunity to visit in Hanoi.  My favorite was, of course, the Woman's museum for very view nations revere their women to the extent that they dedicate an entire great museum to them.

The similarity to craft in Latin America is striking

Here we learnt a great deal about the 78 tribes that make up the population, naturally, quite a few being matriarchal.

 As I observed their dress and traditions, I could not but be struck by the similarities between women in this region to those in Latin America. This reinforced in my mind, the long-held theory that the so-called new world was populated by people from south-east Asia, long before Europeans even thought about world travel.

I think it is the high level of respect with which women in Vietnam are awarded, that accounts for their extremely low crime level!

Ho Chi Minh

Naturally, there is an elaborate museum dedicated to Ho Chi Minh, and deservedly so. He is greatly revered in the country as demonstrated by the hundreds of students you see studying his life and works there, all of which are on full display in the museum dedicated to him.

 He was indeed a great hero. 

The third museum I visited was the History Museum and that too proudly displays the history and achievements of the people.

 Another brief, informative and entertaining aspect of the story of Vietnam, is depicted through world-class dance, music, and art at the show, the Quintessence of Tonkin.

Uniformed students pour into the Ho Chi Minh museum

This show is staged close to Duong Lam village which has a history of over 1200 years. This was really world-class choreography and state of the art technology and is performed entirely by the local people from the village.

My first visit to Vietnam may have been brief and while I have highlighted some culturally offensive aspects of life there, that beautiful country is now high on my bucket list for more intensive exploration.
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