Cruising the Eastern Caribbean Islands

Earlier this month, my wife and I got on the Celebrity Summit in San Juan, Puerto Rico and headed south along the strand of islands that form a crescent between Puerto Rico and Venezuela on the South American continent.

We weren't much into sun, sand or shopping, the three major themes for most of our fellow passengers (in addition to unrestricted alcohol consumption) but we were interested in learning more about these islands and took in a bit of sightseeing at each port of call.

We were told that the Arawak Indians were the first to inhabit these islands as they migrated by boat from the South American continent. These hunter gatherers were peaceful. They were followed by the warlike Carib Indians, who believed in eating their fallen male adversaries and assimilating the women and children. By the time Columbus "discovered" these islands, only the Carib Indians remained to greet him.

The Spaniards that followed Columbus to the new world were only interested in finding gold to plunder. These islands didn't have any and therefore the Spaniards did not stick around. It took another 100 to 150 years or so before other western powers led by the Brits concluded that the conditions on the islands were excellent for growing sugar cane.

This was before the age of mechanization, and growing and harvesting sugar canes and squeezing the canes for the juice and refining the juice into sugar were labor intensive. The few surviving Indians weren't enough to go around and thus the cheapest form of labor was to bring in slaves from Africa.

The booming sugar industry from the Caribbean islands grew on the backs of massive import of African slaves. More slaves were brought to the Caribbean than were imported to work on the cotton farms of the United States.

The economic importance of sugar has faded and in any case there are other places in the world that can produce sugar more cheaply than on the these islands. Sugar from sugar beets in the U.S. thanks to heavy government subsidy is one of these.

Most of the islands are now economically dependent on tourism. Unemployment is as high as 20%. One indicator of how well an island is doing is the female to male ratio. High ratio, say 5 or more to 1, means that the island has plenty of service jobs and women come from other islands to find work. We were told this by our guide but would require further verification.

While there are certainly a lot of poor folks living on these islands, the climate attracts the wealthy from around the world to buy a vacation home or even retirement home there. One of the more interesting and somewhat unique investment we visited was Stony Hill on St. Lucia.

This villa on a ridge overlooking one of the scenic harbors of St. Lucia is owned by the Soni's. Dr. Soni is no longer a practicing neurosurgeon, having retired from a successful practice on the Caribbean islands. He invested in the property which he developed into Stony Hill. To go with the spectacular view, he cleared the native vegetation and put in a lovely three acre garden around the villa. He and his wife live on the property and they also host weddings and catered to special events to offset some of the cost of living in their private paradise.

View from the terrace of Stony Hill in St. Lucia.

Pleasures of touring Guizhou

I just came back after leading a group of 20 through the southern and southeastern regions of Guizhou. This is the part of Guizhou that is full of ethnic minority villages and enclaves. In addition to the great diversity of people in colorful native apparel, the rugged terrain of Guizhou offered spectacular scenery. It was the most fun and fascinating trip ever for my fellow travelers and me.

Lots of people do not know where Guizhou is. Even many Chinese don't. It is a landlocked province in southern part of China, one of the least economically developed regions of China.

With the tourism boom going on in China, Guizhou will become a future hot destination, first for domestic citizens within China and then later for western tourists that have already been to the popular Beijing/Shanghai/Xian/Guilin circuit.

China is a land of beautiful scenery and Guizhou has its share. We visited Huangguoshu (yellow fruit tree meaning tangerines) Falls 

Huangguoshu Falls at top right

and Xiaoqikong (seven small arches) Scenic Area in Guizhou. Both are world-class attractions and the good news is that these areas are being managed in a way consistent with their world-class status.

students at the Xiaoqikong
cascades

In other words, only park service vehicles inside the park, designated walkways for visitors, conveniently located trash and recycle bins, and relatively odor free restrooms.

We walked through villages belonging to Miao, Dong, Buyi, Shui and Yao people. We even stayed in Zhaoxing, a town with five clans of Dong people. We learned to tell the difference between the long skirt, short skirt and mushroom Miao people by their costumes. We even went to a Gejia village where the people are striving to be recognized by the central government as a distinct ethnic group and not as a branch of the Miaos.

Short skirt Miao

Long skirt Miao

Mushroom Miao

The displays in the Gejia museum claim that they are descended from northeast corner of China and Hou Yi, the legendary hero who shot down extra suns in the sky and saved earth from a scorching demise, as their ancestor. Hou Yi is a legendary figure that also has a place in the Han Chinese folklore.

Gejia people

By oral tradition, the Miaos believe that they migrated southward from the Yellow River basin before recorded history when their forefathers lost the battle to Huangdi and his coalition of warriors and were forced to vacate their farmlands. Since Huangdi is the legendary founder of the Hans, this is a case where the two sets of people are looking at opposing sides of the same legend.

In Zhenyuan we found a more recent example of seeing two interpretations of the same set of facts. Rated as one of China’s most beautiful ancient towns, Zhenyuan has the beginning of the southern Great Wall that runs eastward to Fenghuang in neighboring Hunan province. In Zhenyuan, we were told that the wall was built by the Miaos to keep the Hans out. A few years earlier, we went to see the southern wall in Fenghuang and we were told that the wall was to keep the Miaos out--one wall, two interpretations.

Ancient town of Zhenyuan

There are many signs and indications that Guizhou is getting ready for big time development in tourism. The roads are paved, in many cases double lanes in each direction. Some relied on switchbacks to climb and go around the many mountains but we did get on the Xiarong superhighway that was breathtakingly amazing. In a total stretch of around 400 kms, there were 163 tunnels, many over 5 km long, and most likely as many elevated flyovers, some hundreds of feet above the valley floor. This superhighway did not bend or switchback but simply went straight through mountains and soared over rivers and valleys. We were told that the construction company that built the superhighway is now working in Africa.

Even in the most remote village on the mountainside, we saw satellite TV dishes and solar panels deployed for street lighting in public areas. These modern conveniences along with the superhighways will inevitably change the life style of the people in these villages.

Working lunch for Dong men
Note satellite dishes in rear

Tourism itself will affect and possibly alter the native culture of these ethnic minorities. The Ping’an village in the Longji Scenic District located in neighboring Guangxi is representative of the contradiction in tourism. Unlike the villages in Guizhou, Ping’an sitting above the mountain ridge has been long known as the place to go to see spectacular arrays of terrace rice paddies. One measure of its readiness for tourism is the fast and free wifi at the hotel and numerous coffee shops that serve real expresso rather than instant coffee.

To help the tourists make the steep climb to the hotel from the mid-level where the park operated bus stops, there are middle age women ready to carry our backpacks and carry-ons up to our hotel. They can earn $5-7 for each trip up or down and on a good week, they can earn a lot more money than they can farm on the rice paddies for the year. On the other hand, if they let the paddies go uncultivated, the reason for the tourists to visit would go away. Thus it’s been necessary for the government to subsidize the farmers so that they would have the incentive to keep on farming. 

Yao women porters

This is the kind of classic dilemma and trade-off between keeping a native culture pristine and buffing it for the tourist. In front of the village entrance, Zhaoxing builds a new complex consisting of a shiny flower bridge, towers and water wheels. It’s jarringly fresh looking especially compared to the old weather beaten bridges and towers inside the village.

Zhaoxing, a Dong village

Walking through various villages, our guide repeatedly reminded us not to offer money in exchange for taking the photos of local residents. We don’t want to develop such an expectation, he said. It was a positive sign that he still had to give us the warning, which means the bad habit has not set in, but then inevitably it will.

The government is trying to perpetuate the various native cultures by providing facilities for special education. We drove past a new high school campus, not quite finished that will allow Miao students to live in and focus on the studies of Miao culture, one of the major ethnic groups in this part of China. Will it be enough to preserve Miao’s ethnic identity in face of urbanization, television and lure of modernization? Ironically, the Miao culture does not believe in education, which may do more to slow the dissipation of their culture.

Far from cultural genocide that China’s critics often like to accuse China of doing, the government policies are designed to encourage maintaining the native customs and practices. Will it be enough to keep the Miaos from going the way of American Indians, donning war paints and performing the rain dance only for fee paying tourist cameras? It’s hard to know at this point but my guess is that the Miao people won’t become so banal so quickly.

*                                   *                                   * 

Our itinerary was created by Dragon Delight, our tour operator. They were prompt and responsive to our queries and delivered everything they promised. The English speaking guide was excellent and exceeded our expectation. The driver was steady and conservative, important attributes for driving around the mountainous roads. Dragon Delight also offers group rate discount starting from a group as small as six, increasing the discount with increasing size. With a group of 20, the per person rate was a real bargain. For anyone considering going based on our itinerary and has more than two weeks to spare, I would recommend extending an extra day stay at Guiyang, Zhenyuan, Libo and Zhaoxing. There are plenty to see and do in Guizhou and extra days in one place would make the tour more leisurely and enjoyable.

Reflections from travel through Central Asia

An intrepid world traveler most likely won’t find a tour of central Asia daunting, but others just might. Unless you are accustomed to dealing with border crossing that require schlepping all your personal baggage across long no-man’s land—barbed wire fences, check points manned by steely-eyed soldiers carrying rifle, some with fixed bayonets, that speak no English—this would be the lowlight of the tour you don’t need.

Ironically, central Asia used to be a vast, open but loosely defined region that separated the European kingdoms in the west and the mysterious Cathay in the east. Today, this region is artificially divided into countries, all ending in “-stan:” Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. (Afghanistan is also part of Central Asia, but not presently recommended for even the intrepid traveler.) The Stans became independent countries upon the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 and they apparently took the borders created for them by Stalin in the 1920’s very seriously. Crossing from one Stan to another is strictly monitored and controlled.

Mountain range as seen from a Bishkek hotel

Before spending three weeks visiting the “5 Stans,” I thought of central Asia as a place of camel caravans trekking over endless deserts. I was to find the image off the mark. While the western part of central Asia is arid and dominated by deserts, the eastern part contains snow-capped mountain ranges, tree-ringed alpine lakes, lush valleys and rivers nurturing vast grasslands. Mother nature made sure I revised my understanding of central Asia by drenching my travel companions and me in sudden torrential downpour while we were in Tashkent, Samarkand and Ashgabat, about 1000 miles apart. 

This part of the world was home to fabled empires at different times and overlapping territories that belonged to such ancient people as Scythians, Parthians, Sogdians, Bactrians and Kushans. Much of their cultures have been lost over time abetted periodically by total massacre and destruction in the hands of ruthless invaders resulting in a consequent loss of historical continuity. It shouldn’t be surprising—though I was initially—that we found frequent mention of Chinese sources to establish and authenticate the archeological finds on display in the museums we visited. Neighboring China, after all, has uninterrupted historical records that kept track of the interactions China had with various peoples in the west.

One of the museums attributed “the ambassador from China in 109 BC” as the beginning of trading on the Silk Road between China through central Asia and the West. I was thrilled by this apparent reference to Zhang Qian, the emissary sent by Han Wudi to form alliances with the kingdoms in central Asia. Zhang Qian is an important historical figure well known to school children in China. At first I thought the reference was an independent validation of the years he spent in central Asia, but upon further reflection, I asked myself, was it merely another citation of the same Chinese historical source?

Invasion by Alexander from Macedon around 330 BC became the first major defining event for this region. In his campaign against the Persian Empire, he ran over most of central Asia in part because his opponents didn’t know how to overcome soldiers marching in phalanx formation, the leading warfare technology in its day. When he got to the capital of Sogdiana, near today’s Khujand in Tajikistan—as the local guide related to us—he met fierce resistance, which he solved by marrying Roxanne, the princess of the local king. Thus a romantic story from the ancient era was born. The influence of Greek culture to central Asia and beyond to India and China can be attributed to Alexander’s conquest.

Statue of El Khoresm in Khiva

The Arabs invaded this region in the 7^th century and conversion of the people to Islam began. The Arabs also introduced great Islamic architecture and science and mathematics, the former such as the invention of the double dome structure found in mosques, mausoleums and madrassas. The many structures we saw were ancestors to the Taj Mahal built in India many hundred years later. Khiva proudly displays a stature of al-Khwarizmi, who wrote the definitive book on algebra, as their native son. The word algorithm in computer science was derived from his name. 

The Mongolian invasion led by Genghis Khan in the 12^th century was the next cataclysmic disaster to strike this region. He left a wake of annihilation and destruction in his path as he swept through on his way to Europe. Much the memory of the people and evidence of their culture were erased by the Mongols. Our guide in Kunya Urgench explained that the tragic outcome could have been averted save for a grievous misunderstanding. Genghis Khan had sent emissaries to the emir then seated near Kunya Urgench to establish trade relations. The emir got bad counsel and looked down on the unwashed horsemen and beheaded them. A furious Genghis then mounted a fierce assault that eventually overcame the fortress.

Annihilation of the population and leveling of the city was a customary practice to intimidate the next opponent and convince them that surrender to avoid slaughter was a wiser alternative. Genghis was not the first to use this practice. Alexander did the same some 1500 years earlier when he invaded southern parts of Greece.

The next ruthless ruler to dominate central Asia was Timur, whose detractors derisively called Timur the lame, which in the West became Tamerlane. Timur was home grown from a village outside of Samarkand who rose to conquer much of this region roughly a century and a half after Genghis Khan. He made Samarkand his capitol and built a great city for posterity. He also destroyed other cities and kingdoms that rivaled his power, such as the kingdom of Khorezm based in Khiva. At its peak, Timur’s empire rival in size to that of Genghis Khan and Alexander. In 1405, nearing 70, he died on the road as he was preparing to invade China. The threat of his invasion was said to lead to Cheng Ho’s sailing the seven seas as the Ming Emperor sought alliances that might mitigate the threat of Timur.

Peter the Great had designs on this region as early as 1717 but took the Russian military another 150 years to conquer and incorporate central Asia into its empire. After the Bolshevik Revolution, central Asia became part of USSR. To discourage insurrection and large-scale rebellion, Stalin somewhat arbitrarily divided this region into the aforementioned 5 Stans. At the time, each autonomous region had to have a minimum 1 million population and over 50% belonging to one ethnic group, such as Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen and Uzbek. Some of the borders, reminiscent of the fine art of gerrymandering in the US, reflect the need to meet the criteria.

Ivory rhyton on display at Hermitage

Central Asia was the prize Russia won in the Great Game over Great Britain. There were pluses and minuses attributable to their occupation. Under Tsarist Russia, there weren’t much respect paid to the cultural artifacts and madrassas, for example, were converted from being religious schools to stables and warehouses. The Soviets began to paid attention to the artifacts buried in the many ruins in central Asia and excavate some of these sites. Much of World Heritage sites and other archeological gems that we can see today owe their existence to the recovery and restoration efforts by Soviet archeologists. On the other hand, just as some of the finest art found in British colonial past are in the British Museum in London, so it is that some of the best finds in central Asia are on display in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The ivory rhyton at right was found from the Nisa ruins outside of Ashgabat, now on display at the Hermitage, similar ones are also on display at the National Museum of History in Ashgabat.

The preceding sketch of the history of this region is no where comprehensive and perhaps not even precise but is, I believe, a minimum framework necessary to understand today’s central Asia.

           

On the tour, the most striking thing I noticed was the people of central Asia. They come in all sizes, shapes and coloration and as non-homogeneous as one can imagine. Some are blond and pale and some look Asian, but most seem to fall in gradations somewhere in between. They could be easily mistaken for someone from Mexico, or Morocco or Iran or Egypt or India or Italy. Remarkably, they mix and mingle and seem oblivious to differences between themselves. I could not detect any ethnic sensitivity or tension as we mingle with them on the streets and bazaars. In various times, nomads from Siberia, Mongolia, Manchuria and western China have migrated or passed through from the east, as have people from Russia and Ukraine from the north and Turks and Greeks from the west and Persians from the south. With such a long period of intermingling, perhaps it’s natural that they stopped noticing the differences among themselves.

Even though the dominant religion is Islam, the people’s attitude is quite secular. Few pray five times a day, most consider themselves devout if they regularly pray on Fridays. During the three weeks we were there, we did not hear the call to prayer even once, unlike our experience in other Islamic countries. Perhaps this is a legacy from the Soviet era when practice of religion was actively discouraged.

           

Another Soviet influence is the universally accepted notion that education is important, even for women. Free public education through the 9^th grade seems to be the norm in all the Stans. Every tour guide seemed quite proud of their national university and seemed perplexed that I would asked if the university had any foreign students. (The answer was they do not.)

The sudden dissolution of the Soviet Union seemed to have left the Stans poorly prepared for nationhood. All gravitated to some form of strong man government, and, except for Kyrgyzstan, have enjoyed the support of the population to varying degrees. In the case of Kyrgyzstan, the first two presidents were thrown out of office, the third, a woman, accepted the emergency appointment for one year and voluntarily stepped down for the next elected president.

Economic development among the 5 Stans seems uneven, largely dependent on whether or not the particular country possesses deposits of oil and gas to subsidize the economy. Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan have plenty of oil and gas and thus have stable economies. Uzbekistan does not and is wrestling with ongoing inflation. The official exchange rate is 1800 som to a dollar. At restaurants, if you offer to pay in dollars, they offer a black market rate as high as 2850 to a dollar. Kyrgyzstan is rich in water and natural scenery and Tajikistan is the least economically developed of the five.

           

Uzbekistan’s attempt to control inflation is apparently to exert tight monetary control. We were told that the daily receipts of enterprises, large and small, are collected by the state at the end of the day and deposited in the state-owned banks. This would allow the state to monitor and control the circulation of their currency but apparently the state can’t help resorting to printing more currencies as their remedy. The consequence is that everybody carry wads of 1,000 som bills and are experts at counting stacks of bills quickly and accurately. On a flight from Urgench to Tashkent, I happened to stand next the interpreter for a World Bank team visiting the country. I asked her if the World Bank was recommending an open economy that welcomes foreign direct investment, she agreed that would be a step forward.

China’s influence in the local economies is readily evident. The bathroom amenities as well as the sinks and toilet bowls in many hotels are from China. In the bazaars, used fertilizer bags from China are popular for holding whatever commodities the stall operator is selling. In Bishkek, I bought an electrical plug converter for the equivalent of $1.10, made in China of course. That little purchase was essential to power my iPad, mobile phone and camera for the rest of my trip.

The roads in 5 Stans are extremely uneven. New roads are excellent. A JV, we were told, built the toll road from the border to Khujand in Tajikistan, with a Chinese company. While driving from Bishkek to Lake Issyk-Kye, we were mostly on a road still under construction. When completed, it was going to be a major arterial highway from Kyrgyzstan to China. At a roadside restaurant, I was delighted to take over from our guide and ordered a Chinese meal from a menu with dishes written in Chinese.

Group photo of American travelers with Uzbeks in Tashkent

           

This part of the world has not seen many tourists from America. When they asked and found out that we were from the US, we were invariably greeted with warm, welcoming smiles. In Uzbekistan, especially the young people loved to have their photos taken with us, the American tourists, and they would frequently approach the women of our group and ask for group photos with us. We felt like celebrities. The people in Tajikistan loved to have their photos taken by our camera and were pleased to see their images on our camera. The people of Turkmenistan were more formal and distant and did not encourage taking of photos. 

Driving into Ashgabat, we saw gleaming white marble office buildings, white marble apartment towers, spectacular monuments, broad boulevards and fountains everywhere. Being the capitol of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat was probably the most ostentatious, but the other major cities that we drove through also contained spectacularly looking edifices. On the other hand, the highways between the cities are not in good condition and rather than drive, it was quite inexpensive to fly, under $20 per person from Mary to Ashgabat and from Ashgabat to Dashogus. Fuel in oil-rich Turkmenistan must be quite cheap.

When we got to Samarkand, one of the first stops was to visit a family still making paper from the fibers of the mulberry tree in the traditional way, i.e., by manual labor. I found an interesting historical footnote related to this stop. I discovered that Samarkand was the first place to make paper outside of China and they learned papermaking from the Chinese prisoners of war because of a pivotal battle that took place in 751 AD. Taking place in the valley of Talas in today’s Kyrgyzstan, a force of soldiers from Tang court fought a force led by the Arabs. The Chinese suffered a devastating defeat as some 2000 soldiers were taken prisoner; among them were skilled craftsmen who knew how to make paper and pottery. Thus was how the papermaking technology was transferred to the west.

While largely forgotten, it has been argued that this battle had a major impact on history. After this battle, the Tang court turned away from central Asia and lost interest in advancing its sphere of influence westward. Even though the Arabs won the battle, the logistical challenge of supporting their army over great distances may have also discourage their expansionary ambitions. They too turned away to consolidate their control in central Asia. I recently came across an article that discussed this historic battle more fully here. 

Travel tips, if you decide to visit central Asia:

All the electrical outlets use the two round pin configuration. If you don’t have an adapter at home, you can easily buy one in bazaars and street-side stalls upon arrival.

Most of the major stops on the Silk Road are in Uzbekistan. So if you would rather not deal with the hassle of crossing borders by foot, just book your tour for Uzbekistan.

As you enter Uzbekistan be ready to accurately complete the customs form and declare the amount of currency you are bringing in. Avoid hassle by making sure that you report no increase in the amount of currency you are taking out on departure.

Travel as light as you can and make sure your luggage has sturdy wheels. Perhaps because of perceived threat to airport security, cars and buses are not allowed to drive up to the terminal door. Instead, you are dropped off some distance away and have to haul your luggage to the terminal.

Bring plenty of US currency in small denominations, which will be handy to make purchases and as gratuity. The bills should be in good condition free from tears and unsightly wrinkles.

Hygiene standards are quite high everywhere we went. We ate fresh fruits, cucumbers and tomatoes and none of us got sick.

Do bring along an umbrella.

We booked our tour with East Site Travel, based in New Jersey with offices in the 5 Stans. You will find their website interesting and informative.

For those of you interested in more photos and less verbiage, I have produced a photo book on Shutterfly that you are welcome to access and view.

Autumn in Jiuzhaogou， 九寨沟

The natural scenic beauty of Jiuzhaigou was not "discovered" until modern times. The Tibetans that reside in the nine villages of this "Y" shape valley knew about its breath taking scenery, of course, but this valley is located in such a remote northwest corner of Sichuan that it was unknown to the Chinese in ancient times. For this, today's visitors are blessed with the total absence of man-made edifices and calligraphy carved into rocks. All one sees is mountains, and strings of mirror smooth lakes connected by cascades, water falls and running stream.


To visit Jiuzhaigou during the autumn foliage colors is to take a out of the world journey. The serenity and beauty literally takes ones breath away. Most of the fall color comes from the oily pine tree, a pine tree that is not evergreen and the color change only lasts about two weeks. Thanks to the advice of Dragon Delight, our tour operator, we were in Jiuzhaigou in the last week of October and witnessed the peak of nature's display.

The Chinese authorities deserved all the kudos for taking the most ecologically friendly route in developing this valley into a tourist attraction. Some examples of their green policy: Only park operated buses are allowed inside the park. Visitors are allowed to walk only on designated walkways. Hundreds of miles of footpath were constructed out of wooden boardwalk. The wooden planks were grooved to improve slip resistance. Plenty of rest pavilions, toilets and trash receptacles dotted along the parthways. Unlike toilets in many other parts of China, these toilets were oder free and even featured water less urinals.

On our first day, our group of 12 rented our own park operated minibus and driver. It was a particularly crowded day and by renting our own vehicle, we could skip around various stops and alight where it was least crowded and avoided the jostling crowd. The next day, a few of us went into the park on our own. We got off the park bus about mid way and walked downhill, following the path along the strand of lakes. It was a magical walk to be savored especially for the time when we've become too old to tour again.
The town of Jiuzhaigou came into existence because of the park. There are now a large assorment of hotels to choose from. There are however only two 5-star hotels in the area. The Sheraton is within walking distance to the entrance of the park. The Intercontinental is more than half hour drive from the entrance. The feeling of staying in the latter is more like staying in a self-contained integrated resort because of its isolated location.

To get there: There are direct flights from many of China's major cities to JiuHuang airport. Or, fly to Chengdu and connect from there. You can also drive from Chengdu but that would be a long ride requiring a very long day.

Nouveau Art is Thriving in Tibet

Most people get their information on Tibet based on declarations from Dalai Lama or his exiled followers residing in the west. Since these sources have not been to Tibet for decades, people can be expected to have at best a partial idea of what today's Tibet is like.

Those that have visited Tibet are likely to have a more well-rounded impression of what Tibet is like today. By touring various temples and souvenir shops, visitors would have been exposed to the richness of traditional Tibetan art embedded in religious objects and takeaway thangkas.

Very few, however, would know that there is such thing as modern Tibetan art and the art is dynamic and evolving in dramatic directions. My good friend, Dr. Cyrus Hui knows. A PhD economist and former banker, he became fascinated with Tibet, its culture and people, and he visits there often. He has written a historical fiction based on his Tibetan experiences.

He got to know some of the artists and had decided to help promote the new Tibetan art by opening an art gallery in Lhasa in late June 2011. See his eloquent discussion of the evolution of Tibetan art on the website of his gallery.

Many years ago, Cyrus was the first to recognize the universal appeal of paintings from Vietnam by artists trained in French impressionism. He bought the first collection of paintings back to Hongkong that became the seed for Galerie LaVong, the first gallery to launch its business exclusively on Vietnamese art.

Owned and operated by Shirley Hui, Cyrus' wife and good friend, the gallery in Lan Kwai Fong, has become the place where trendy new art is first unveiled. Prior to opening of the Lhasa gallery, a selection of Tibetan art was shown at Galerie LaVong with a gala in mid June. A selection of Tibetan art depicting its versatility and diversity can be seen at the end of the blog.

By opening an art gallery on Tibetan art, Cyrus is doing more than introducing today's Tibetan culture to the world. He is also explicitly saying: "Look, Tibet is a thriving place where its artists are free to experiment, innovate and create." Can we say the same for the residue of Tibetan culture eking out an existence in Dharamshala?







From top to bottom and left to right, the paintings are
Thousand Buddhas by Ang Sang
Story from Ruins by Penba
Deliverance by Sonlang Tsering
Longevity by Han Shuli
Shepherd Weavers by Bama Tashi
Posted with the permission of Cyrus and Shirley Hui.

South Africa, Tourist Destination - 2

The game watching experience at Kruger is different from that on the Serengeti Plains where herds of animals range freely and predators can be seen stalking them. At Kruger, presence of game is more elusive and one has to work harder to spot them. The hyena appeared on the roadside for a fleeting second and disappeared into the bushes.



Impala is by far the most common sighting but nevertheless one of the handsomest animals on the Reserve.







Spotting lions copulating in the bushes is not difficult. While they tryst often, each tryst does not last long. The hard part of catching them in the act is the act itself.

At the Mkaya Reserve in Swaziland, wild nyalas and warthogs walked freely around the camp grounds and rangers took us on walks for close views of rhinos, tsessebes, zebras and giraffes.


As our ranger quickly backed the safari vehicle out of the way, he said, "You'd never want to get between a herd of elephants and their water."

South Africa as a Tourist Destination

South Africa is a beautiful country: spectacular coast lines on eastern and western part of the country that funnel down to the famous Cape of Good Hope; Drakensberg mountain range with peaks higher than 10,000 feet that runs north-south and divides that the country into a wet eastern region and a dry western region; wild game preserves, waterfalls, beaches, breathtaking mountain passes and Cape Town, the crown jewel of South Africa.

The surface area of South Africa is about 10% larger than the combined territory of California and Texas. Officially the population of South Africa at 50 million is about 10 million less than the two states but there could be as much as 10 million unregistered immigrants from other parts of Africa living in South Africa. Even though California and Texas have illegal immigrants residing within their state borders as well, the number is believed to be vastly less than those in South Africa. My observations of the challenges facing South Africa have been discussed in my earlier blog.

On our tour of South Africa, I find Kruger National Park, Mkaya Preserve in the Kingdom of Swaziland, Sani Pass of the Drakensberg Mountain and Cape Town especially memorable and selected photos are presented in this blog. We were in South Africa early March, which was the beginning of autumn, and we experienced ideal weather. The one thundershower that met us as we arrived at the hotel in Drakensberg was impressive by the massiveness of the quick downpour and made us appreciate the clear blue skies that preceded and followed that shower.

Just as I am glad to have visited Tunisia and Egypt when we did, I am appreciative of the natural beauty of South Africa and a bit fearful of its future as a tourist destination. My advice to anyone thinking of visiting South Africa is to do so sooner rather than later.

Rock formations caused by swirling waters on Blyde River.

The three rondavels on the Blyde River Canyon.



The morning mist that envelops the lowveld and Kruger National Park.

Borobudur near Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Four days in Yogyakarta (Yogya for short and first y is pronounced as a j) were enough to form some impressions about Indonesia. The roads we traveled on were by and large in good shape though some in the countryside can be quite narrow and for this reason favored smaller, narrower foot print cars. Especially in the city, the streets swarmed with motorbikes. I guessed that for every car, there might be 10 mopeds and the like but our guide thought the ratio was closer to 25 to 1. Most of the scooters and mopeds looked less than 3 years old, perhaps an indicator of the recent improvements in the Indonesian economy. Most people, particularly in the city, wore helmets when they rode or drove the motor bikes. Ironically, young children rode sandwiched between their parents and usually were without helmets.

Despite varying degrees of aggressiveness among the drivers, the traffic was fairly orderly. We did not witness any road rage or arguments and did not see any traffic collisions. In general the people were friendly to each other and to foreign visitors. I believe the gentleness of Javanese culture fosters harmony among the people far more successfully than say the Chinese culture has.

It’s no surprise that Indonesia, being a nation of archipelagoes, has many ethnic people and many local languages. Bahasa is the national language that was created in the 1930’s by revolutionaries as part of the attempt to unify the chain of islands that was to become the nation of Indonesia. The language apparently borrowed a lot from the Dutch and looked easy to learn. Some words were naturally intuitive such as gratis, polisi (police), taksi (taxi), apotek (pharmacy). Other words, we saw so often that we can figured out what they meant, for example, masuk (enter) and keluar (exit), nasi goreng for fried rice and mie goreng for chow mein.

Day 1

We left Singapore in the midst of a huge tropical storm. The Air Asia flight was only a few minutes late. Yogyakarta airport did not have gates that connect directly to the terminal but we alit on the tarmac and walked into a small entry to go through immigration. Buying the visa on arrival was actually a shorter line than the line for foreigners carrying passports with visas already in them. On the spot tourist visa at $25 per person was also cheaper than getting it ahead of time in America. Mr. Herry, our guide, was late getting to the airport so that a momentary panic was creeping in when he showed up. I had just gotten a new HTC Droid phone and did not really know how to use it yet and was trying to call Mr. Herry when he appeared.

Prambanan temple complex was located near the airport, both east of Yogya. The temple complex was restored from rubble of gray volcanic rocks that we were to see a lot of during this visit. Volcanic rocks being the most available were used to erect temples, unfortunately without any binders. The tongue and groove method of constructions proved unable to resist the shaking from the movement of the faults over the centuries. While the volcanoes provided the building material, the earthquakes destroyed the man-made structures leaving piles of rocks for puzzle loving archeologists to solve.

From Prambanan, we headed west into the city of Yogyakarta to the Phoenix Hotel. Phoenix was located near the center of town but not in a very interesting neighborhood. The hotel itself was interesting from an architecture point of view, converted from a previous British estate.

Day 2

We got up at 3:30 AM in order to be picked up at 4 to see the sunrise at Borobudur. The sunrise tour was available exclusively through the Manohara Resort Hotel situated next to the site. The tour included a give-away flashlight for each person and tea or coffee with pastries afterwards. We could have selected a tour that included staying at the Manohara and sleep an hour longer. The other advantage was that the temple was just a short walk away and hotel guests could then go to the Borobudur at any time at no extra admission charge. For anyone thinking of seeing only Borobudur and not stay in the area for more than 2 nights, Manohara would have been an appealing option.

We were not rewarded with a spectacular sunrise as we took the dawn trek up the terraced temple site but we did enjoy the serenity of the morning calm undisturbed by any throng of noisy tourists—which we were to meet on our way down. From the top of Borobudur, we watched the post-dawn fog rolled into the valley providing a veil over the hillside and the light from the sun behind the clouds gradually giving definition to sculptures of sitting Buddha in various poses of meditation. On our descent, we made partial circles of each terrace to enjoy the artistry of sculptured stone panels. On the very bottom terrace, Mr. Herry told us to go clockwise from the east gate to see the beginning-to-end portrayal of Ramayana, the classic Hindu epic of good vs. evil, abduction and rescue, heroic battles and heart breaking suspicion of marital infidelity.

In line with the Borobudur were two other small Buddhist temples that we stopped briefly to see. Be they Hindu or Buddhist, the temples were uniformly gray due to the use of volcanic rocks. The differences in style were subtle and the casual tourist would be tempted to dismiss them in the mold of “seen one, seen them all.”

From Borobudur we drove back to Yogya and headed for the Sultan’s Palace and then the Water Palace where once the Sultan and his many wives cavorted. The Sultan’s palace was in part a museum and in part the living quarters of the current and 10th Sultan and his family (off limits to visitors). We were told that the Sultan’s father (the 9th) joined the struggle for independence from the Dutch early on and at one time served as the vice president of Indonesia when Suharto reigned as president for life. The tenth is the current governor of the province that has Yogya as the capital.

Our guide also took us to a batik making factory and show room and then to a silver shop called Ansor in the southern part of the city. Both were located in upscale neighborhoods.

We got back to our hotel shortly after noon but it already seemed like a long day for us. We walked to a nearby Chinese restaurant for a late lunch. We ordered mie gorang (chow mein) along with chicken with vegetable and pork with pickled vegetables. We must have been hungry and felt that we didn’t have enough to eat and supplemented with an order of nasi gorang (fried rice). Food was inexpensive in Indonesia while beer was comparatively more pricey though still cheap compared to US prices. For dinner last night and lunch today, we ate for less than the equivalent of ten dollars but a large bottle of beer cost about $3.

We were supposed to see a performance of the Ramayana ballet tonight. We ended up in traffic gridlock and Herry saw that we were not going to make it on time. He quickly cleared with his boss and changed our attendance to the following night. Even then turning around and getting out of the traffic was a challenge. The driver of the car obstructed by our driver’s attempt to make a U turn on a narrow two-lane road quickly got out of his car to halt traffic so that our driver could complete the maneuver smoothly. Nobody honked but waited patiently. We found out later that there was a chemical fire near the theatre that had caused the traffic congestion.

Day 3

We didn’t have to leave quite so early but it was still a 7:30 AM departure. We were heading for Dieng Plateau, about 3.5 hours away. Along the way, we came to a farmer’s market on a small village half way up the mountain. At the lookout point, our next stop, someone spoke to May first in English to find out if she spoke Chinese and then broke into Mandarin. They are overseas Chinese apparently many generations in Indonesia but still they felt so proud of China’s achievement and talked wistfully of visiting China someday.

The ostensible object of our tour today was the oldest known Hindu temple complex dating back to 5th century AD and only restored in 2008. This temple complex was on a much lesser scale than Prambanan and couldn’t justify a trip on its own merit. On the plateau we then came to scalding hot springs and Lake Warna, known for multi-colored water in a scenic setting. On the way home, we stopped at a roadside restaurant known for their satay for a real cheap meal. By chance a parade celebrating a mass circumcision of boys coming of age (10) and their families riding in horse carts came by. The designated boys dressed in white were being honored and unaware that they were about to encounter the first traumatic experience of their young lives.

Tonight we attended the Ramayana ballet that we missed the previous night. It was lightly attended, consisting of one Japanese tour group and one European tour group along with a handful of others, altogether may be 40 in the audience. It was colorfully costumed and appeared to be well done. We were given an English description of the story so that it was easy to follow along. The actors/dancers were good at catching arrows shot at them across the stage, that and one of the actors rolling on a trough of fire added color to the performance.

Day 4

This was another early morning departure at 7 AM. About an hour later, we were at the slopes of the Merapi volcano, youngest of 11 active ones on Java at about 150 million years old. Herry showed us the bunker where two foreign journalists were baked to death during the eruption of 2004, when the lava flow went right over the bunker. After some roadside photo stops, we went into Solo, also known as Surakarta (pop. 900,000), a much newer and more modern city than Yogya (pop. 600,000). Our first stop was to see the Sultan’s Palace, where the ninth, 58, still lived there with his second wife and kids. His first wife was a daughter of Sukarno. Not being an early supporter of independence, he did not become governor of his province.

The palace was nicely kept up since the Sultan still lived inside with his immediate family. As our guide explained, the sultan still ruled inside the palace grounds. The visitor can take photos on the grounds and inside the first reception hall but not inside the next room, which doubled as former throng room and a museum of the sultan’s memorabilia. There were some priceless jewelry and other objects of art, but it was poorly displayed in dim lighting that greatly detracted from the appeal.

After the palace tour, we went to a nearby Chinese restaurant for lunch. The owner came to speak Chinese with us. One of his sons was cutting swatches from rolls of material. The material is for an apparel factory that he also runs, he explained.

We had fried whole fish, sautee’d soft shell crab, spinach and chow mein, plus beer and tea for under $14 but nearly took all the Rupiahs in my wallet. The ATMs in Indonesia worked very nicely. Usually the maximum amount one can withdraw at one time was one million Rupiahs. I was to feel like a millionaire about three times while in Yogya.

After lunch, we went to see the antique market, said to be the largest in Java. The shop owners did not seemed to be doing much business and made only half hearted attempts to entice us into their stores. We probably look too much like tourists and not like serious buyers.

Nearby was the so called Solo’s Chinatown. It consisted of one large complex that looked like any farmers’ market selling fresh produce, fruits, meats, herbs, and other sundries. Across the way, sandwiched between two larger buildings was a Chinese temple. The temple was undergoing renovation, especially being painted. The smell of paint persuaded us not to tarry.

Day 5

We got up early in the morning again to catch a 7 AM AirAsia flight back to Singapore. One thing our guide forgot to tell us was airport departure tax, which was 100,000 Rupiahs per person. I thought I had carefully and cleverly spent every one of my Rupiahs the night before only to having to make a last minute change of my Singapore dollars to pay for the departure tax.

Reflections:

Judging from a scarcity of bicycles on the road (but numerous new scooters and mopeds) and relatively few beggars on the streets, I have the impression that Indonesia’s current government is working effectively and the country is on a trajectory of economic growth. However, we did not see modern high rises. Pedicabs out-numbered taxis and most restaurants were not air conditioned. Therefore Indonesia does not appear to be on the verge of an economic boom like that of China.

Historically, Java had its share of powerful kingdoms but apparently never one strong enough to take control of the entire island and perpetuate a culture and language that would endure. Consequently, the people of Java do not enjoy an institutional memory of the glory days of old. Borobudur, Prambanan and other edifices are man-made wonders without the benefit of human records and thus remain enigmas for generations to ponder.

Getting there: AirAsia offers non-stop flights between Singapore and Yogyakarta. Other airlines connect via Jarkarta and turn the 2 hour flight into a much longer proposition. Everything with this no-frills airline is a la carte. You can prepay your meal and be the first ones to eat and you are charged for checked baggage depending on the weight (free for one carry-on plus one personal handbag). By booking well in advance, I got two round trip tickets for around US$350, meals included.