India and its neighbors

We left Rangoon at 330 pm as the tide rushed in. The trip to the mouth of the river takes about three hours. There’s not much to see on either side of the river except flat farm land. From here it’s about 1000 miles or two sea days to reach the Indian peninsula. We entered Colombo Harbor in the am. Sri Lanka is not much different than Burma in climate. The port is the usual jumble of old warehouses. We elected to go on a mission to paint a school in an outlying village about 20 miles from the city. We were greeted by the local officials and they had assembled the children to perform a welcoming parade. We enjoyed some tea and things to munch on before we set to work(picture). The exterior of the school really needed a cleaning rather than a fresh coat of heavily watered paint. The representative of the non-governmental organization which had arranged this project, as well as the school’s principal, were on hand to thank us. After lunch, more painting, and a small presentation, we headed back to the port. I am skeptical about the utility of these kinds of projects. Having worked with Global Volunteers and the Pathologist Group, it’s clear some projects are useful and others(perhaps most), contrived and ineffective. The recipients are generally looking for anything they can get that doesn’t cost them too much.Props! Action!(Out on display are the beautiful and innocent children dressed in traditional garb, doing(picture)traditional dances!)The NGO’s are eager to show themselves useful as the caring and prudent mediators between donors and recipients. Cameras!The donors are generally Westerners looking to demonstrate their good will, genuinely want to improve the world, and/or unburden their guilt. Is this kind of handout more effective than the efforts and decisions the local people could do on their own? I doubt it. What the town really needs is a system that generates the dollars necessary to maintain the school. For example, there were no toilets at the school we could use. In the end we got to see a small (not very poor) village and their children, and I must say they were rather good-looking and healthy, and prepared to be able-bodied adults.

The ship arrived in Cochin, India the next morning and we decided to visit the St. Francis church (picture) and the synagogue. Vasco de Gama died here and was originally buried in the wall of the church.His body was later returned to Portugal. The church is the oldest one in India, dating from the mid 1500’s. Over the years it has seen different Christian denominations practiced within. Today it no longer serves a strictly Catholic congregation. There’s a monument to World War I dead in front. From there we visited the Chinese fishing nets (picture) deployed in the harbor’s inlet. We went to see the old synagogue. We had never been inside. In 2004, we saw the clock tower(picture) before its recent renovation. The tower abuts a compound containing the synagogue. Photos of the compound were not allowed. The Jewish presence in India dates to the Roman Era, following destruction of the Jerusalem Synagogue and subsequent diaspora. Other groups of settlers appeared in India following the European expulsions. Finally, the British rule attracted Bagdadi Jews seeking relief from decadent Ottomans. With the establishment of the modern Israeli state, most of the young Jewish people have left Cochin. Mumbai is next on our itinerary.

Rangoon- the city that time forgot

After leaving Singapore following our 2-day stay, we headed off to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived early the next day at Port Kelang, the port for KL. It is a long boring ride into the city and we’ve been there before, so we elected to visit the local shopping center. We were here 3 years ago and it has been spiffed up quite a bit since our visit. There is now a food store on the bottom floor and there’s a fancy electronics store up on the second floor. We were unable to find any fabrics for Eiko and returned to the ship within 2 hours. Following 1 day at sea we arrived at the dock in the Rangoon River at 330 in the PM. The water is rather muddy in the river and in the shallow sea 40 miles in front of the river’s mouth. There’s a strong river tide and the river must be almost a mile wide near Rangoon. Rangoon is located at a bend where 2 rivers meet. Our ship docks across from the city, in the industrial terminal, as it did 3 years ago. Not much has changed in the port. The people here are Indo-Chinese in appearance while in Vietnam; they are Chinese-Indo or Malay-Chinese. While there are some churches and mosques in town, the people are overwhelmingly Buddhist. The Buddhist monasteries and pagodas with their golden stupas dot the landscape. And the Shwedagon Pagoda is the grand-dad of them all.

Our first full day here we took the shuttle into the Traders Hotel. This is an hour’s drive. We took off in search of the Strand Hotel, which is just across from the old docks on Strand Street. There is some demolition and foundation-creation on the river side of Strand Street. What this activity will eventually yield is unclear at this point. The Strand Hotel has been beautifully refurbished. Sad to say most of the city is still in decline. To go to the Strand, exit the Traders hotel and go to the right down Sule Pagoda Road. When you reach the river, turn left. It’s about a 20-minute walk. We found the St. Mary’s Church undergoing repairs and perhaps the City Hall as well. It was difficult to tell since high fences surrounded city hall. Most of the colonial buildings are in a deplorable state. It doesn’t look like too much was added after 1915. We found some unusual crafts in the hotels’ shops. The sidewalks are broken or absent and making your way in town on foot is not easy. But I think you are probably not in danger of physical assault during the day. People do approach you in the central district to change money or tell you of their business. But it is not aggressive. Walking is the best way to savor the markets and feel the street life. I imagine the Chinese will finally jump-start this country as it needs their abundant resources. But I doubt I will see much physical improvement in my lifetime. There’s a heck of a lot of repair to do. The international community has pretty much isolated this country, financially. My sense is that this is counter-productive. It generally just punishes the people and the leadership finds a way to hang on. We will sail west from here for 2 days across the Bay of Bengal to arrive in Colombo, Sri Lanka. All pictures are from Rangoon.

Singapore-Futuristic City

Singapore is a fantastic place. The ship docked at the terminal across from Sentosa Island. The Sentosa Project is nearly finished. It is a large casino and amusement park with beaches on the south-facing side. We visited the new ION Center and then the Takashimaya Department Store located in Ann Ngee Plaza on Orchard Road. These shopping complexes are beautiful, clean and ultra modern. We then waited for the Orange On-Off Bus which offers 4 slightly different routes through town, for one price, and one ticket is good for 2 days. You can pickup the bus on Orchard Road just east of the Tourist Information Booth. The price was 19 Singapore dollars each and Eiko couldn’t resist this bargain, because this bus can serve as your taxi. Singapore is a confusing city because there are no mountainous landmarks, other than Mt Faber’s cable cars….only the winding Singapore River and the giant skyscrapers. There are many hills covered with beautiful trees. But they block your vision of landmarks from street level. It is spread out, hot with frequent downpours and this makes an entire day, outside, on foot, difficult. The first day we ate lunch at a Japanese noodle place in the shopping center. The second day we brought sandwiches and ate on board the buses. Singapore is crowded (but not so crowded as Hong Kong) with immense complexes of enormous buildings. There is tremendous activity here and I can think only of Miami as a US city with so much building. Europe seems somnolent compared to this. The shopping experience is high-end although we didn’t have time to explore much. European fashion brands dominate these shopping centers. There are a couple of museums that probably merit some time. We have been to the Botanical Gardens but there is also a Bird Park that might be fun. I would have enjoyed exploring the new shopping center at the Sands Resort but there wasn’t time. We were able to avoid most of the rain and the ship pulled out of port about 7 pm, headed for Port Kelang, the port for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. All the pictures were taken in Singapore.

Finishing Australia

We visited Brisbane, Cairns and Darwin to complete our Australian visit. Brisbane is a riparian city, and is situated in a sigmoid-shaped bend in the Brisbane River, about 8-10 miles from the ocean. The skyline is modern and expanding rapidly(picture). The climate reminds me of Miami and its latitude is about that of Hollywood. There are mountains nearby to the west and south. On this summer day in the Southern Hemisphere, I found it altogether too hot and humid. The downtown is the same combination of office towers, casinos, condos and shopping centers we saw in Melbourne and Sydney(picture). There are tremendous numbers of young Asians, mostly Chinese, on the streets. Eiko thinks many are here to learn English. Many are. But many are here to make money and find opportunity. And I think they are more appreciated here(where there is a lot getting done) than in a place like Fiji. Well, we walked the downtown a bit and returned to the ship. After 2 days at sea, we arrived in Cairns, a littoral town facing the Coral Sea and the Great Barrier Reef. The Reef is a vast sheet of relatively shallow water which even contains mountainous islands. It extends from just north of Brisbane almost to New Guinea. Fresh water washing out of the Fly River in New Guinea is lethal to the coral. We passed through a channel formed by the WhitSunday Group, named by Cook. There’s not much to do in town. Darwin is completely tropical and steamy. It is the capital of the Northern Territories so it is an administrative center. We spent time in their new library and visited an exhibit about its participation in World War II. The war forced the construction of a road north from the nearest railhead as well as the construction of airfields around Darwin. I noticed a liquefied natural gas ship in the port. We headed northwest to Komodo Island in the Indonesian Archipelago. Following a day at sea, we arrived at the island. We took a stroll on-shore with our guides. (See pictures.) The guides carry long poles with forked ends to deflect any aggressive dragons. We ran into them almost immediately. Many were gathered around the watering hole. I would characterize these reptiles as land-based alligators(picture). They are large. Why they are here and nowhere else is not clear to me. There are no barriers to separate the people from the animals. The following day we arrived in Bali and toured some of the palaces and recreational parks of the now defunct monarchs(picture).You can see the quiescent volcano Mt Agung as it towers over this end of the island(picture). I thought the water park at Tirtigangga was beautiful(picture). Bali is unusual because it is primarily Hindu in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. The bombing attacks of 2002 occurred there in nightclubs of Kuta, a strip of beach shops at the southern tip of the island, not too far from our dock. Following our return to the ship, we heard the news of the large earthquakes and tidal waves in Japan. The captain told us there would no impact in the Java Sea. With that, we headed off to the northwest. Singapore, the next port, is about 1000 miles and 2 sea-days from Bali.

We arrived in Melbourne on Friday February 25, Eiko’s birthday for a 2-day stop. The port is within view of the downtown just a couple of kilometers away. Arriving the same day (Friday) was the new Queen Elizabeth of Cunard. We took the shuttle bus over to the Federation Square and picked up the on-off tram for a bit before getting off at the 1880 Exposition Grounds to view the gardens(see picture)and the exhibition hall. These were magnificent. We walked north a bit to pick up the on-off bus and rode this back to our start. Melbourne has a compact complex of tall buildings. It spills south over the Yarra River to form an area called Southbank. Here is a casino complex, museums, concert halls and gardens. On the following day, Saturday 26 Feb, we went to the library for some internet, and headed over to the Immigation Museum. I was surprised to learn the Australians also interned suspect foreign nationals and its own nationals of Japanese and German origin in camps during WWII. These predate the American camps. We then headed off to the open air market. These are almost identical in any city on earth and didn’t hold too much interest. Melbourne is a dynamic and clean city. There is a tremendous amount of activity here. The parks are beautiful. I’ll show you an equestrian statue of Edward VII and a picture of the railroad station on Flinders Street which dates to 1910. The Australians have done a great done of maintaining their colonial architecture and combining it with great new skyscrapers. Following a day at sea, we arrived in Sydney and parked right across from the opera house. If Melbourne was really good, Sydney is just sensational. It has a downtown absolutely bustling with people and buses, cars and trams. The buildings are immense, tall and broad. The skyscrapers are modern and tower over the colonial era structures. Sydney has spent an enormous sum redeveloping its colonial era buildings and developing its waterfront. They have created a magnificent downtown, maybe the best I’ve seen. It is packed with just about everything, exhibitions halls, museums, casinos, parks, shopping centers, luxury hotels and office buildings. It is beautiful and clean. They even have a new swimming complex named after Ian Thorpe, their recent Olympic hero. Can you imagine a project brought to fruition so quickly in any American city? There is certainly no city in Europe which matches the dynamism one finds here. We spent our day on the on-off bus. One segment covered the inner city, the second took a trip out to Bondi Beach, about 20 minutes by car to the East. Bondi is a resort beach but the communities leading back to the city, such as Double Bay, Point Piper, and Rose Bay, are even nicer. It was a beautiful day to be on the top of an open-air bus. We left Sydney at 11:59 Monday night, Feb 28 headed north to Brisbane.

Melbourne and Sydney

We arrived in Melbourne on Friday February 25, Eiko’s birthday for a 2-day stop. The port is within view of the downtown just a couple of kilometers away. Arriving the same day (Friday) was the new Queen Elizabeth of Cunard. We took the shuttle bus over to the Federation Square and picked up the on-off tram for a bit before getting off at the 1880 Exposition Grounds to view the gardens(see picture)and the exhibition hall. These were magnificent. We walked north a bit to pick up the on-off bus and rode this back to our start. Melbourne has a compact complex of tall buildings. It spills south over the Yarra River to form an area called Southbank. Here is a casino complex, museums, concert halls and gardens. On the following day, Saturday 26 Feb, we went to the library for some internet, and headed over to the Immigation Museum. I was surprised to learn the Australians also interned suspect foreign nationals and its own nationals of Japanese and German origin in camps during WWII. These predate the American camps. We then headed off to the open air market. These are almost identical in any city on earth and didn’t hold too much interest. Melbourne is a dynamic and clean city. There is a tremendous amount of activity here. The parks are beautiful. I’ll show you an equestrian statue of Edward VII and a picture of the railroad station on Flinders Street which dates to 1910. The Australians have done a great done of maintaining their colonial architecture and combining it with great new skyscrapers. Following a day at sea, we arrived in Sydney and parked right across from the opera house. If Melbourne was really good, Sydney is just sensational. It has a downtown absolutely bustling with people and buses, cars and trams. The buildings are immense, tall and broad. The skyscrapers are modern and tower over the colonial era structures. Sydney has spent an enormous sum redeveloping its colonial era buildings and developing its waterfront. They have created a magnificent downtown, maybe the best I’ve seen. It is packed with just about everything, exhibitions halls, museums, casinos, parks, shopping centers, luxury hotels and office buildings. It is beautiful and clean. They even have a new swimming complex named after Ian Thorpe, their recent Olympic hero. Can you imagine a project brought to fruition so quickly in any American city? There is certainly no city in Europe which matches the dynamism one finds here. We spent our day on the on-off bus. One segment covered the inner city, the second took a trip out to Bondi Beach, about 20 minutes by car to the East. Bondi is a resort beach but the communities leading back to the city, such as Double Bay, Point Piper, and Rose Bay, are even nicer. It was a beautiful day to be on the top of an open-air bus. We left Sydney at 11:59 Monday night, Feb 28 headed north to Brisbane.