Thursday, June 23, 2011
New Tea Estate Photos
Since we went to the Tea Estate many years ago, Nisha's brother Mike has gone to another similar estate. Since he is a real photographer he has some amazing photos you should check out.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Thai Train Guide
Hopefully my Indian Train Guide will be useful to other travelers, I noticed that it is already #2 on google, so it is pretty easy to find. With that in mind, I figured I might share some wisdom about long distance transport in Thailand, where the bus and train are both important. This is a little better documented in Lonely Planet, but I still feel like more information is better, I certainly would have liked to have access to more before I left. Anyway, here is my Thai Train Guide, the Bus Guide will be later.
THAI TRAINS
CLASSES
We took two classes. We only took two trains, both overnight, so I cannot vouch for how the regular chair classes would be during the day, or at night. The two classes we took were both quite nice. One thing is that Thailand works on a narrow gauge rail system, so all cars a quite a bit narrower then in India, or on most train systems, the configurations reflect that.
1st Class Sleeper
In this class you get your own private room with 2 bunk beds. Although the privacy is nice, this is not the orient express or anything like that. The rail cars were clean enough, but not immaculate, and the room is pretty small. Everyone on our car to Chiang Mai was a tourist, including some drunken brits who brought a bucket full of beer (they were actually not particularly loud or anything). One nice thing about Thai Railways is that they make up your bed for you. Around bed time in the evening the conductor will start working the hallway asking if you want your beds made for the night. When you grab him he will convert your room from daytime configuration to bunk beds and make your bed with clean sheets, very nice. In the morning they convert your room back to daytime configuration.
Another consideration is that, as opposed to some train systems, 1st class is only 50% or so more then 2nd class, rather then 100% or so as you sometimes see on other rail systems. I still think 2nd class is a much better deal, but if you have to take 1st class it is not a killer.
2nd Class Sleeper
This is very nice as well, better then anything, except maybe 1st class, in India. It is a setup where on each side of the aisle of the car there are two single seats that face each other with a table in the middle, in daytime configuration. At night it turns into bunks, two high where the two seats are. The nice thing is that each bed is almost like a little pod, with a nice large mattress and a private curtain. This would be a much nicer setup for a solo traveler then in India. As with 1st Class, they come and make your bed at night and take your bed apart in the morning. On our train from Chiang Mai the vast majority of people in this class were also tourists.
FINDING YOUR TRAIN
This is a whole lot easier then India, there are only 4 main lines and they all radiate from Bangkok. The railway website has all the information you need. The only thing that I would keep in mind is that a few of the trains are Rapid (RAP) or Ordinary (ORD), I am pretty sure that these do not have sleeper cars. The ones most tourists take are the overnight trains that go to Chiang Mai and to the beach areas down south. These are the Express (EXP) and Special Express (SP EXP) trains, that have numbers less then 100.
BUYING A TICKET
This is the thing that is a pain in Thailand. The trains seem to book up very early, so you need to try to get a ticket as far ahead of time as you can. I was able to buy a ticket one day ahead of time to Chiang Mai, but there was no 2nd class left and I got the last 1st class on any of the evening trains that night. Going back to Bangkok, I was several days ahead of time, but there were still only a couple of 2nd class berths on one train.
As far as where to buy the ticket, this seems pretty easy. On the way to Chiang Mai I just went to the station in Ayutthaya (a little north of Bangkok, where we were leaving from). There was a desk in the station for advance tickets with a very nice guy who sold me the tickets. In Chiang Mai I used a travel agent. This worked fine as well, I got legit tickets for only a small fee. The nice thing about this is that quite a few of the Thai train stations are not in the middle of town, so it can be a lot easier not to have to take a tuk-tuk all the way out to the train station just to get the ticket.
AT THE STATION
Our experience at the train station was very easy. The stations are not that big and there was plenty of signage and information as to where the trains are and when they are expected to arrive or leave. You do not need to show any tickets to get on the platform, they are checked on the train. They did not have much in the way of concessions at the train stations I was at. At least there were generally some food stalls and convenience store nearby. You do not really need any food for the train, since they have plenty of stuff to sell. Keep in mind however that the food on the train is quite expensive (by Thai standards), so if you are a budget traveler it is quite a bit cheaper to bring something with you from the stalls or the convenience store.
ON THE TRAIN
As I explained before, the attendants are quite attentive and make your bed in the evening and take it apart in the morning. Other then that things are pretty obvious. They do also have a person who works for the catering service who roams the train in the evening, selling dinner (if the train leaves before dinner time), beer and taking orders for breakfast the next morning. The food is OK, nothing special, but acceptable. The problem is that it is very expensive. My recollection is that a meal is around 200 Baht and a beer was more then 100 Baht, which is quite exorbitant in Thailand. After I found this out I brought a collection of convenience store and stall food and drinks on the train, saving quite a bit of money in the process.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
One thing I wanted to mention, as it worked out quite well for us, is that there is a station next to the old Don Muang airport North of Bangkok. This is nice because we were able to hook up a trip where we traveled all the way from Chaing Mai to Surat Thani leaving in the evening and arriving before lunch the next day, without having to buy two plane tickets, or pay the expensive fares for the direct flight. It was quite easy to get the evening train from Chiang Mai, get off at Don Muang, walk the 20 minutes over to the one terminal of the airport that is still open, and catch a morning flight to southern Thailand. A good way to go, and saves a night in a hotel. The walk to the terminal is kind of freaky however, since the part of the airport near the station is closed down, just walk about 20 minutes south along the old airport terminal buildings and you will reach the open domestic terminal.
THAI TRAINS
CLASSES
We took two classes. We only took two trains, both overnight, so I cannot vouch for how the regular chair classes would be during the day, or at night. The two classes we took were both quite nice. One thing is that Thailand works on a narrow gauge rail system, so all cars a quite a bit narrower then in India, or on most train systems, the configurations reflect that.
1st Class Sleeper
In this class you get your own private room with 2 bunk beds. Although the privacy is nice, this is not the orient express or anything like that. The rail cars were clean enough, but not immaculate, and the room is pretty small. Everyone on our car to Chiang Mai was a tourist, including some drunken brits who brought a bucket full of beer (they were actually not particularly loud or anything). One nice thing about Thai Railways is that they make up your bed for you. Around bed time in the evening the conductor will start working the hallway asking if you want your beds made for the night. When you grab him he will convert your room from daytime configuration to bunk beds and make your bed with clean sheets, very nice. In the morning they convert your room back to daytime configuration.
Another consideration is that, as opposed to some train systems, 1st class is only 50% or so more then 2nd class, rather then 100% or so as you sometimes see on other rail systems. I still think 2nd class is a much better deal, but if you have to take 1st class it is not a killer.
2nd Class Sleeper
This is very nice as well, better then anything, except maybe 1st class, in India. It is a setup where on each side of the aisle of the car there are two single seats that face each other with a table in the middle, in daytime configuration. At night it turns into bunks, two high where the two seats are. The nice thing is that each bed is almost like a little pod, with a nice large mattress and a private curtain. This would be a much nicer setup for a solo traveler then in India. As with 1st Class, they come and make your bed at night and take your bed apart in the morning. On our train from Chiang Mai the vast majority of people in this class were also tourists.
FINDING YOUR TRAIN
This is a whole lot easier then India, there are only 4 main lines and they all radiate from Bangkok. The railway website has all the information you need. The only thing that I would keep in mind is that a few of the trains are Rapid (RAP) or Ordinary (ORD), I am pretty sure that these do not have sleeper cars. The ones most tourists take are the overnight trains that go to Chiang Mai and to the beach areas down south. These are the Express (EXP) and Special Express (SP EXP) trains, that have numbers less then 100.
BUYING A TICKET
This is the thing that is a pain in Thailand. The trains seem to book up very early, so you need to try to get a ticket as far ahead of time as you can. I was able to buy a ticket one day ahead of time to Chiang Mai, but there was no 2nd class left and I got the last 1st class on any of the evening trains that night. Going back to Bangkok, I was several days ahead of time, but there were still only a couple of 2nd class berths on one train.
As far as where to buy the ticket, this seems pretty easy. On the way to Chiang Mai I just went to the station in Ayutthaya (a little north of Bangkok, where we were leaving from). There was a desk in the station for advance tickets with a very nice guy who sold me the tickets. In Chiang Mai I used a travel agent. This worked fine as well, I got legit tickets for only a small fee. The nice thing about this is that quite a few of the Thai train stations are not in the middle of town, so it can be a lot easier not to have to take a tuk-tuk all the way out to the train station just to get the ticket.
AT THE STATION
Our experience at the train station was very easy. The stations are not that big and there was plenty of signage and information as to where the trains are and when they are expected to arrive or leave. You do not need to show any tickets to get on the platform, they are checked on the train. They did not have much in the way of concessions at the train stations I was at. At least there were generally some food stalls and convenience store nearby. You do not really need any food for the train, since they have plenty of stuff to sell. Keep in mind however that the food on the train is quite expensive (by Thai standards), so if you are a budget traveler it is quite a bit cheaper to bring something with you from the stalls or the convenience store.
ON THE TRAIN
As I explained before, the attendants are quite attentive and make your bed in the evening and take it apart in the morning. Other then that things are pretty obvious. They do also have a person who works for the catering service who roams the train in the evening, selling dinner (if the train leaves before dinner time), beer and taking orders for breakfast the next morning. The food is OK, nothing special, but acceptable. The problem is that it is very expensive. My recollection is that a meal is around 200 Baht and a beer was more then 100 Baht, which is quite exorbitant in Thailand. After I found this out I brought a collection of convenience store and stall food and drinks on the train, saving quite a bit of money in the process.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
One thing I wanted to mention, as it worked out quite well for us, is that there is a station next to the old Don Muang airport North of Bangkok. This is nice because we were able to hook up a trip where we traveled all the way from Chaing Mai to Surat Thani leaving in the evening and arriving before lunch the next day, without having to buy two plane tickets, or pay the expensive fares for the direct flight. It was quite easy to get the evening train from Chiang Mai, get off at Don Muang, walk the 20 minutes over to the one terminal of the airport that is still open, and catch a morning flight to southern Thailand. A good way to go, and saves a night in a hotel. The walk to the terminal is kind of freaky however, since the part of the airport near the station is closed down, just walk about 20 minutes south along the old airport terminal buildings and you will reach the open domestic terminal.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Indian Train Guide
Before we left for India we knew that we would need to take the train as one of our major forms of transportation. However, despite reading up on the way the system works in the Lonely Planet and on the Internet, I found that I still had to figure out a lot of how to work the system on the way. With that in mind I offer my guide to how to take the train in India. I obviously do not guarantee any information to be current or correct, but if you are planning on going to India I think that this post will be very useful. Also, this guide that already exists is the best one available, so I would recommend reading it as well.
INTRODUCTION
If you are travelling in India you really owe it to yourself to take the train at least once. It is crowded, the trains are often late and it is very confusing, but it is also the quintessential Indian travel experience. It is how most Indians get around the country, and is a good way to experience everyday life. It is also vastly superior to any form of road transportation, bus or even private car. A car may be slightly more comfortable, but the bumps, curves and hair raising driving conditions make the ride a lot less relaxing. A flight is better, but taking the overnight trains is a great way to save money on hotel rooms and quite a bit cheaper.
CLASSES
There is really only 4 classes that you need to be concerned with on Indian Railways.
AC Chair Car - This exists only Shatabi Express day trains. It is the standard recline chair setup that you are used to on Amtrak or any European train. This is the only class where free food is served.
2AC or 2 Tier Air Con - This is the one that most people should take. It has air conditioned cars (sometimes a little too air conditioned), and is relatively clean (keep in mind this is India however). The car is separated into 6 bunk sections, 2 of the beds are on one side of the train, one above the other, lying parallel to the direction of the train. Then there is the hallway, then there is an area with 4 bunks, one on top of the other, on opposite walls, lying perpendicular to the train. At night curtains separate the 2 beds on the side from the hallway and the 4 beds from the hallway. During the day the bottom beds are used as seats for the 2 people in the bunks on that wall. Linens are provided, but you make the beds. Your cabin mates will be middle class Indian businessman types and some western travellers, depending on what the route is. We travelled this class on all overnight trains and we always got a very good nights sleep. The prime berths are the bottom bunks not on the side. The side bunks may also be good if you are travelling solo, as you have complete privacy when the curtains are drawn, rather then sharing the area behind the curtain with the other 3 people on the wider side.
3AC or 3 Tier Air Con - Same as 2AC but with 6 beds where there are 4 on the wide side. The beds are 3 layer bunks rather then two. We never travelled in this class, because it was not that much cheaper then 2AC, but it seemed like it would be fine as well.
Sleeper - Same setup as 3AC but with no AC. Dirtier cars as well. This has the open barred windows that you have probably seen in classic Indian train photos. We took this a lot during the day, as it was never crowded during the day and the fresh air can be quite pleasant. It is also much cheaper, so why not save money during the day.
SCHEDULES AND AVAILABILITY
One of the hardest things to do in the Indian train system is figure out what train to take. There is no Internet application that figures out the most efficient route, including transfers, from one place to another. Rather, the Indian Railways site will only tell you if a train exists from one distinct station to another. This is really not as big a deal as you would think, since it would be very difficult to ever pull off an Indian railways journey with transfers. For most people there will always be a train that goes from any common origin to the next logical destination. If it is a place where there is no train, then you might need to take a bus. Another good way of figuring out where you might need to route your trip through is to look at a map, like in Lonely Planet, that has the railway routes on it. By looking at where the railways go you can figure out where you would probably have to connect.
The most impotent resource for finding your train is the Indian Railways website, it is very poorly designed, but does have a lot of useful info on it. There are two primary sections of interest both accessible from clicking on the top, "Trains between imp. stations", which has drop down boxes of all major stations (FYI. there is no station for Goa it is called Madgoan), and "Train/Fare Accommodation", which can look up any station in the Indian Railways network. On this page first you type in part of the station name, and then you will get drop down boxes of stations that match what you put in. The resulting information is the same, it is just easier to use the first if you are going to be using major stations. Please note that some cities have many major stations, so if there is no train between two places that obviously should have one, look for another station in the same city. Such as, if you put in New Delhi and Agra City you will get no trains, that is because the main station in Agra is called Agra Cantonment (AGRA CANTT). Sometimes you may have to refer to the Lonely Planet, since that is the only place you are going to find out things like that the main train station in Kolkata is called Howrah.
Once you have found your two stations, you pick your class and day and hit the button. The class is not totally impotent, I usually pick 2AC for a night train and sleeper for a day train. They show you a lot of the other classes too, so you do not necessarily have to pick the class you want. The next page shows the trains that run on the day you want to go. In order to find out how many seats are on any given train, click the radio button next to it and hit the "Get Availability" button. The screen you get show the availability in the class you selected earlier (as well as one class down) for the 6 days starting on the day you picked.
Now we get to the tricky subject of the different types of availability. In my experience there were 3 different statuses that a train would be in:
AVAILABLE - Obviously this is the best, it means there are seats still available. If you go to an advance ticket window they should be able to give you a ticket with a seat number on it.
RAC - Reservations Against Cancellations - I was never completely clear about this, but my understanding it that it means that they cannot give you an actual seat at this time, but you will have a seat on the train.
WL - Waitlist - This means that there are not enough seats right now, and you are buying a seat betting that others will cancel. This sounds really bad, but for some reason, there are always a lot of cancellations on an Indian train. I was told by several locals and family members that a number less then 10 in 2AC means that you are pretty much certain to get a seat. I would assume that number would be quite a bit higher in a class like sleeper, since there are a lot more cars and seats in sleeper then in 2 or 3 AC. We never had a WL ticket not work out, but according to the sign on the wall in the station you should be able to return your WL ticket, if a seat did not open up, and get your money back.
Little sidebar here...
If you do buy a RAC or Waitlist ticket there are two ways that you can find out what seat you are assigned to, or if you have a seat at all. The first is to go to the Indian Railways website and click on the link at the top that says "Passenger/PNR Status". On the resulting screen enter in the PNR number that is printed on the top of your ticket. The website will show you the current status of your ticket and your seat, if you have moved up on the list enough to get one. The second method is more basic. When you go to the train station there will be big dot matrix passenger manifests for every train tacked to a big board, usually around track 1. Look on these sheet for your train and class and you should find your name, and the name of everyone else on the train with a seat. This is the final authority on where you are sitting. They also sometimes stick these sheets to the side of the actual rail car and the conductor will always have a copy, which is what he uses to figure out what seats are empty.
Sidebar over, back to the website.
One additional important thing to use in this section of the website. Please note on the screen where you pick your train there is a box that says "General Quota". When you search under the General Quota you are looking at the seats that anyone can buy, you should run your search this way first. Luckily for non-Indians there is also a "Foreign Tourist Quota". These are seats that are only sold to people who have a foreign passport and are on a tourist visa (although probably any westerner will have no problem getting a ticket). In order to search for these change that box to "Foreign Tourist Quota" before you click "Get Availability".
I know these tickets sound great, but as with all things Indian, there is a catch. First of all, there are not foreign tourist tickets on all trains, only ones between major tourist destinations. Second, as near as I could tell, you can only buy these tickets at the special places for foreign tourists to buy tickets that exist at major (like Delhi, Mumbai, etc.) stations. The lonely planet can help you out if you want to find out if there is a special foreign ticket area in the city you are in. Basically, don't expect to just stroll up to a window at any one horse town along the line and be able to purchase a foreign tourist ticket. Also, the foreign tourist windows sell regular tickets as well, so even if there are only regular tickets and not foreign tourist tickets you can still go to the foreign tourist area.
One other scam to note here, which I saw only in Delhi, was that we were trying to walk into the train station to get to the foreign tourist ticket area and a man stuck his arm in front of me and asked for my ticket. He then tried to convince me that I needed a ticket to get in the station, and to go with him to an office (certainly his friends) to buy one. This is just a scam, there is no area of an Indian train station that you need a ticket to access, and most tickets are sold inside. The only place that anyone legitimate will ask to see you ticket is on the train.
BUYING A TICKET
Now that you have figured out what trains you are interested in, and if there are seats remaining (or a reasonable number on the waitlist) it is time to buy your ticket. For clarity sake I will separate this in to two sections, advance and day of tickets, as they are two very different systems.
Advance Tickets:
The line is a little uncertain to me, but supposedly as long as your are 24 hours before the train leaves you can buy an advance ticket. If you are in a big tourist destination, then your best move is to go to the foreign tourist area to buy tickets. The Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. I went to two of these, the one at New Delhi station is upstairs in a large office. In Mumbai CST (formerly Victora) it is a special window in the upstairs ticket window area. They have some system in Mumbai where an unruly mob of people get numbers for the windows upstairs in a chaotic pen downstairs, but if you are a tourist, just go upstairs, you just queue up at the window. These are the best places to buy tickets because the people who work there speak English and they sell foreign tourist tickets (if available).
If you are in a city, or major population center, that does not have a special foreign tourist area, then they will at least usually have a designated advance ticket area that is used by the locals as well. Once again, Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. Also, for those in Goa, there is one of these offices in the main bus terminal in Panjim, which is convenient since the train does not run by the coast. From my experience these windows usually have a system where you get a number and then they call you to a window, so it is not a total madhouse from a queueing prospective. These are OK, they just might now speak as good English, and as far as I know they cannot sell foreign tourist tickets.
I never had to do this, but if you are in a out of the way place, that does not have any of the above mentioned offices, then I am pretty sure that you just head up to the regular ticket window. There has to be some system to buy advance tickets in these places, so I assume this is it. Every time I bought tickets from the regular window it was on the day of the train, which is a different deal.
Another, quite reasonable, option is to pay someone else to do the leg work for you. Most backpacker type hotels and travel offices should be able to get a train ticket for you, probably for a 50 or so rupee surcharge. One catch is they will not be able to get you foreign tourist tickets. We did this once and it worked out fine. One caveat I would add is that it might be a better idea to do once you know what a real Indian train ticket looks like, so you might want to think about buying your own first. If you have not already seen one, they are printed on a dot-matrix printer on thin 1980's line feed computer paper forms and are about 8 inches by 3 inches. I would look at anything else with suspicion.
Day of Train Tickets:
If you cannot get tickets ahead of time for the train, you can get tickets at the regular window the day of the train. The thing about this is that you cannot get a seat reservation the day of the train.
The reason for this seemed to be that while the train is still more then a day in the future, the seat reservations are managed by the computer system and thus can be given out to people who want tickets. On the day that the train is leaving they print up these big passenger manifests that have the names of everyone on the train, as well as assigning all the people in RAC and Waitlist statuses to a seat, if they have one. Once these lists are printed up they are posted at all the train stations, as well as one that the train conductor maintains as a master copy, where he can move around people or put people in different classes as he sees fit. Thus, after these manifests are printed there are no more seat reservations.
We had two different experiences buying day of train tickets. Several times we took trains for a fairly short (less then 5 hour) ride in the middle of the day. When doing this I just went to the regular window and asked for a sleeper ticket to my destination (I was told I could not buy a ticket for any class higher at that time). They handed me a little printed chit that had the two station names on it, but no specific train or seat. So, when the train arrived we just hopped on and took a seat in a sleeper car. The thing is that the sleeper cars in the middle of the day were always nearly empty, I assume because most Indians do not want to pay for the relative luxury of sleeper during the day when they could travel in a lower class. So, we just gabbed an empty seat, the conductor came to take our ticket and everything was fine. Also, sleeper is perfectly comfortable in the middle of the day, all the windows are open so there is plenty of air.
One other time we had to take a night train from Varkala to Chennai without reservations. Before we went to the station I checked the loads on the Internet and found that there were two trains, one left 2 hours earlier, but had tones of extra space in 2AC. The later train was full. With this information, we decided to take the earlier train, and attempt to upgrade on the train. This time at the station I was told that I could only by unreserved 2nd class tickets (the lowest class). I think the reason I was not able to by sleeper at the window like before was probably due to it being an overnight train. So, we just got on the train and sat in 2 empty seats in 2AC. When the conductor came by we asked if there was room in 2AC, which there was, so he just took the difference in the fares (it cost 1000 rupees more a piece to go from 2nd class to 2AC, but believe me it is worth it) and assigned us seats in 2AC. So, the moral of the story is that it is possible to upgrade on the train, but you are probably best off making sure that there are plenty of extra seats, unless you are happy squeezed in the lowest possible class on an Indian train.
Also, keep in mind that if you do buy day of tickets you will have to deal with an Indian ticket queue. These things are a full contact sport, so don't go in without the right attitude. People will press up against you in ways that are pretty uncomfortable for a foreigner, you just need to get used to the fact that being in constant physical contact with other, often sweaty, people in a queue is the norm in India. Also, when you get up to the window people will try to reach around you with their money and hand it to the agent. Use your large western body and elbows to shield the area in front of the window, and have enough rupees in your hand so you can quickly shove them in front of the person who sells the tickets.
GOING TO THE STATION AND GETTING ON THE TRAIN
So now comes the big day and you are ready to get on the train. An Indian train station is an experience like few others. They are dirty, chaotic, confusing and often full of people who want your money (especially in big tourist areas). The layout is usually the same everywhere. There is a building with a central lobby where they sell tickets, and sometimes have some food vendors. Then there will be between 2 and 15 tracks (depending on if you are in a big city or a small town). There will be island platforms off in the middle of the tracks that are connected to the main building via a tunnel, or usually a footbridge (which only about half the locals use, the others just run across the tracks).
When you arrive the first thing you will see in a main station is usually hundreds to thousands of people sleeping on the floor of the lobby and sometimes out in the street in front of the station. These people are changing trains and have to kill many hours at the station, no big deal, there is always a pathway through them to the tracks.
In big stations they will usually have digital boards in some degree where you can look to find out on what track your train arrives. If these are available, try to find out what track you need to go to. The thing is that often the boards are broken, or if it is a small station they do not exist. If it is a small station then it is no big deal, usually there will just be one track running in either direction. In this case just ask around as to which side the train is going to show up, or if your train is in the near future and there is a big crowd on only one side, that is probably the side you want to be on.
When the boards are not working at a big station things are a little more complicated. They do generally have announcements in English on the speakers when the train is pulling in to the station, so that is one way of figuring it out. This may sound crazy, but if all else fails you can just pick a platform and wait on it, then carefully look at the placards that are on the side of the train as each one pulls into the station. What happens if the train pulls into a different platform then you are on, you might ask. Well, keep in mind that an Indian train pulls into and out of a station like a ship pulls into a dock. It is not like Japan where the train pulls up, the doors automatically open and you have 1 minute to get on. First of all, in India the doors are open on the train the entire time, even when it is moving. Also, trains usually stop for at least 5 minutes, sometimes much longer, up to 20 minutes. So, if you see your train at a different platform just hustle over there using the bridge or tunnel and you should be fine. Also, even when the digital board has the track number on it, you really should keep your head up and watch where the crowds are in the station and what trains are pulling in. It certainly would not be out of the ordinary for a sign in India to be wrong. If you ever find yourself waiting alone on a platform for an overnight train at a major station, you are probably in the wrong place, and should try to figure out where to go.
If there are digital signs you also might be able to see when the train is expected to arrive. Trains are almost always late, sometimes by as much as several hours. If there are no digital signs then there may be a chalkboard or some other means of telling you when the trains are expected to arrive.
So, now that you have found your platform the only thing left to do is wait. Now is usually also a good time to stock up on snacks and water bottles from the vendors in the station. You especially may want to get some water as it can sometimes be hard to come by on the train. Another thing is that you may get bothered by occasional beggars in the station. This is one of the few times that I recommend just giving them 5-10 rupees or whatever you think it will take to get them to leave. Unlike most situations where you can just keep on walking, you have to wait in the train station, and since they know this they will be very persistent.
One other note is regarding ticket scams. We never had any big problem with this, but just to reiterate from above. The only person who you need to show your ticket to is the uniformed Indian Railways conductor on the train. I would be very, very suspicious of anyone who asks to see your ticket in the station, as this is not something that is done, as far as I know. Also, all Indian Railways personnel wear a uniform, so do not show your ticket to anyone who does not. If for some reason you feel compelled to show your ticket to someone, I would not hand it to them, just hold on to in yourself and show it to them.
ON THE TRAIN
This part is pretty simple. You just sit in your seat, or go to bed, and watch the world go by. Often your fellow travelers will be pretty friendly, and talking to them is a great way to meet some everyday people. As far as security, the good classes of trains seem very safe, although most people chain their bag to something when they go to sleep. We used a bike cable lock for this and never had any problems.
As far as food goes, sometimes there is way too much of it offered, sometimes not enough. Guys basically just walk down the ailes and sell stuff, which can get annoying when there are too many of them, but that is part of the charm. Tea and coffee guys are always around, and there will be an occasional guy with water bottles. Usually around meal times they do come around with some small food items, aloo paratha and such. Occasionally, especially when we got on a train that originated before dinner a person would come around and ask if you wanted dinner, then return with some food later.
The thing about the food and the water is that it pays to make sure you have enough food and water to go the entire trip if you really need to. We learned this lesson when we got on a train midway down the line at around 9 PM at night. Basically all the food guys were done for the night, so we did not get anything, and had to eat glucose biscuits for dinner. Also, we never had any problem with food sickness from the train food or the platform food, but it is generally prepared with the same level of cleanliness as most Indian fast food, so you may want to be careful if you just arrived.
One other approach for getting food and drinks, which I have done many times but cannot wholeheartedly recommend is running off the train during a stop. As I said before, Indian trains generally stop of quite a while at the station, so there is theoretically enough time to run off and grab drinks or pre-made food. You can generally figure out when the train is leaving the station because they blow the whistle right before the leave, and you can watch the conductors, who usually hang out on the platform during the stop. When the conductors start moving back to the train, you need too as well. Since the doors are always open on Indian trains you probably could get on the train, wild west style, after it starts moving, but I never waited that long.
The open doors are also nice for another reason. On a long trip, when you want to stand and get some fresh air, it can be pretty nice to hang out by the open door and watch the world go by. You can even hang out the side a bit and see where you are going, but just look carefully and stick your head out a bit at a time to make sure you don't get hit by a pole or anything.
GETTING OFF
This can be more challenging then you think. Often when you arrive at a stop there is no sign saying what stop it is right out the window. Obviously one thing to do is to stop out of the train and look down the platform, then you can usually see a sign. Another thing is to ask other people, but be sure if you do this you ask "what stop is this?". If you ask "is this .....?" people will almost always say yes, even if they do not understand you. Another good thing to do is write down or print out the schedule for the train that you can get from the website. That way you will have an idea of what the stops are leading up to yours.
So, there you have it, my brain-dump of how to ride the Indian train, and as the say on the top of the tickets, Happy Journey!
INTRODUCTION
If you are travelling in India you really owe it to yourself to take the train at least once. It is crowded, the trains are often late and it is very confusing, but it is also the quintessential Indian travel experience. It is how most Indians get around the country, and is a good way to experience everyday life. It is also vastly superior to any form of road transportation, bus or even private car. A car may be slightly more comfortable, but the bumps, curves and hair raising driving conditions make the ride a lot less relaxing. A flight is better, but taking the overnight trains is a great way to save money on hotel rooms and quite a bit cheaper.
CLASSES
There is really only 4 classes that you need to be concerned with on Indian Railways.
AC Chair Car - This exists only Shatabi Express day trains. It is the standard recline chair setup that you are used to on Amtrak or any European train. This is the only class where free food is served.
2AC or 2 Tier Air Con - This is the one that most people should take. It has air conditioned cars (sometimes a little too air conditioned), and is relatively clean (keep in mind this is India however). The car is separated into 6 bunk sections, 2 of the beds are on one side of the train, one above the other, lying parallel to the direction of the train. Then there is the hallway, then there is an area with 4 bunks, one on top of the other, on opposite walls, lying perpendicular to the train. At night curtains separate the 2 beds on the side from the hallway and the 4 beds from the hallway. During the day the bottom beds are used as seats for the 2 people in the bunks on that wall. Linens are provided, but you make the beds. Your cabin mates will be middle class Indian businessman types and some western travellers, depending on what the route is. We travelled this class on all overnight trains and we always got a very good nights sleep. The prime berths are the bottom bunks not on the side. The side bunks may also be good if you are travelling solo, as you have complete privacy when the curtains are drawn, rather then sharing the area behind the curtain with the other 3 people on the wider side.
3AC or 3 Tier Air Con - Same as 2AC but with 6 beds where there are 4 on the wide side. The beds are 3 layer bunks rather then two. We never travelled in this class, because it was not that much cheaper then 2AC, but it seemed like it would be fine as well.
Sleeper - Same setup as 3AC but with no AC. Dirtier cars as well. This has the open barred windows that you have probably seen in classic Indian train photos. We took this a lot during the day, as it was never crowded during the day and the fresh air can be quite pleasant. It is also much cheaper, so why not save money during the day.
SCHEDULES AND AVAILABILITY
One of the hardest things to do in the Indian train system is figure out what train to take. There is no Internet application that figures out the most efficient route, including transfers, from one place to another. Rather, the Indian Railways site will only tell you if a train exists from one distinct station to another. This is really not as big a deal as you would think, since it would be very difficult to ever pull off an Indian railways journey with transfers. For most people there will always be a train that goes from any common origin to the next logical destination. If it is a place where there is no train, then you might need to take a bus. Another good way of figuring out where you might need to route your trip through is to look at a map, like in Lonely Planet, that has the railway routes on it. By looking at where the railways go you can figure out where you would probably have to connect.
The most impotent resource for finding your train is the Indian Railways website, it is very poorly designed, but does have a lot of useful info on it. There are two primary sections of interest both accessible from clicking on the top, "Trains between imp. stations", which has drop down boxes of all major stations (FYI. there is no station for Goa it is called Madgoan), and "Train/Fare Accommodation", which can look up any station in the Indian Railways network. On this page first you type in part of the station name, and then you will get drop down boxes of stations that match what you put in. The resulting information is the same, it is just easier to use the first if you are going to be using major stations. Please note that some cities have many major stations, so if there is no train between two places that obviously should have one, look for another station in the same city. Such as, if you put in New Delhi and Agra City you will get no trains, that is because the main station in Agra is called Agra Cantonment (AGRA CANTT). Sometimes you may have to refer to the Lonely Planet, since that is the only place you are going to find out things like that the main train station in Kolkata is called Howrah.
Once you have found your two stations, you pick your class and day and hit the button. The class is not totally impotent, I usually pick 2AC for a night train and sleeper for a day train. They show you a lot of the other classes too, so you do not necessarily have to pick the class you want. The next page shows the trains that run on the day you want to go. In order to find out how many seats are on any given train, click the radio button next to it and hit the "Get Availability" button. The screen you get show the availability in the class you selected earlier (as well as one class down) for the 6 days starting on the day you picked.
Now we get to the tricky subject of the different types of availability. In my experience there were 3 different statuses that a train would be in:
AVAILABLE - Obviously this is the best, it means there are seats still available. If you go to an advance ticket window they should be able to give you a ticket with a seat number on it.
RAC - Reservations Against Cancellations - I was never completely clear about this, but my understanding it that it means that they cannot give you an actual seat at this time, but you will have a seat on the train.
WL - Waitlist - This means that there are not enough seats right now, and you are buying a seat betting that others will cancel. This sounds really bad, but for some reason, there are always a lot of cancellations on an Indian train. I was told by several locals and family members that a number less then 10 in 2AC means that you are pretty much certain to get a seat. I would assume that number would be quite a bit higher in a class like sleeper, since there are a lot more cars and seats in sleeper then in 2 or 3 AC. We never had a WL ticket not work out, but according to the sign on the wall in the station you should be able to return your WL ticket, if a seat did not open up, and get your money back.
Little sidebar here...
If you do buy a RAC or Waitlist ticket there are two ways that you can find out what seat you are assigned to, or if you have a seat at all. The first is to go to the Indian Railways website and click on the link at the top that says "Passenger/PNR Status". On the resulting screen enter in the PNR number that is printed on the top of your ticket. The website will show you the current status of your ticket and your seat, if you have moved up on the list enough to get one. The second method is more basic. When you go to the train station there will be big dot matrix passenger manifests for every train tacked to a big board, usually around track 1. Look on these sheet for your train and class and you should find your name, and the name of everyone else on the train with a seat. This is the final authority on where you are sitting. They also sometimes stick these sheets to the side of the actual rail car and the conductor will always have a copy, which is what he uses to figure out what seats are empty.
Sidebar over, back to the website.
One additional important thing to use in this section of the website. Please note on the screen where you pick your train there is a box that says "General Quota". When you search under the General Quota you are looking at the seats that anyone can buy, you should run your search this way first. Luckily for non-Indians there is also a "Foreign Tourist Quota". These are seats that are only sold to people who have a foreign passport and are on a tourist visa (although probably any westerner will have no problem getting a ticket). In order to search for these change that box to "Foreign Tourist Quota" before you click "Get Availability".
I know these tickets sound great, but as with all things Indian, there is a catch. First of all, there are not foreign tourist tickets on all trains, only ones between major tourist destinations. Second, as near as I could tell, you can only buy these tickets at the special places for foreign tourists to buy tickets that exist at major (like Delhi, Mumbai, etc.) stations. The lonely planet can help you out if you want to find out if there is a special foreign ticket area in the city you are in. Basically, don't expect to just stroll up to a window at any one horse town along the line and be able to purchase a foreign tourist ticket. Also, the foreign tourist windows sell regular tickets as well, so even if there are only regular tickets and not foreign tourist tickets you can still go to the foreign tourist area.
One other scam to note here, which I saw only in Delhi, was that we were trying to walk into the train station to get to the foreign tourist ticket area and a man stuck his arm in front of me and asked for my ticket. He then tried to convince me that I needed a ticket to get in the station, and to go with him to an office (certainly his friends) to buy one. This is just a scam, there is no area of an Indian train station that you need a ticket to access, and most tickets are sold inside. The only place that anyone legitimate will ask to see you ticket is on the train.
BUYING A TICKET
Now that you have figured out what trains you are interested in, and if there are seats remaining (or a reasonable number on the waitlist) it is time to buy your ticket. For clarity sake I will separate this in to two sections, advance and day of tickets, as they are two very different systems.
Advance Tickets:
The line is a little uncertain to me, but supposedly as long as your are 24 hours before the train leaves you can buy an advance ticket. If you are in a big tourist destination, then your best move is to go to the foreign tourist area to buy tickets. The Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. I went to two of these, the one at New Delhi station is upstairs in a large office. In Mumbai CST (formerly Victora) it is a special window in the upstairs ticket window area. They have some system in Mumbai where an unruly mob of people get numbers for the windows upstairs in a chaotic pen downstairs, but if you are a tourist, just go upstairs, you just queue up at the window. These are the best places to buy tickets because the people who work there speak English and they sell foreign tourist tickets (if available).
If you are in a city, or major population center, that does not have a special foreign tourist area, then they will at least usually have a designated advance ticket area that is used by the locals as well. Once again, Lonely Planet can tell you where this is. Also, for those in Goa, there is one of these offices in the main bus terminal in Panjim, which is convenient since the train does not run by the coast. From my experience these windows usually have a system where you get a number and then they call you to a window, so it is not a total madhouse from a queueing prospective. These are OK, they just might now speak as good English, and as far as I know they cannot sell foreign tourist tickets.
I never had to do this, but if you are in a out of the way place, that does not have any of the above mentioned offices, then I am pretty sure that you just head up to the regular ticket window. There has to be some system to buy advance tickets in these places, so I assume this is it. Every time I bought tickets from the regular window it was on the day of the train, which is a different deal.
Another, quite reasonable, option is to pay someone else to do the leg work for you. Most backpacker type hotels and travel offices should be able to get a train ticket for you, probably for a 50 or so rupee surcharge. One catch is they will not be able to get you foreign tourist tickets. We did this once and it worked out fine. One caveat I would add is that it might be a better idea to do once you know what a real Indian train ticket looks like, so you might want to think about buying your own first. If you have not already seen one, they are printed on a dot-matrix printer on thin 1980's line feed computer paper forms and are about 8 inches by 3 inches. I would look at anything else with suspicion.
Day of Train Tickets:
If you cannot get tickets ahead of time for the train, you can get tickets at the regular window the day of the train. The thing about this is that you cannot get a seat reservation the day of the train.
The reason for this seemed to be that while the train is still more then a day in the future, the seat reservations are managed by the computer system and thus can be given out to people who want tickets. On the day that the train is leaving they print up these big passenger manifests that have the names of everyone on the train, as well as assigning all the people in RAC and Waitlist statuses to a seat, if they have one. Once these lists are printed up they are posted at all the train stations, as well as one that the train conductor maintains as a master copy, where he can move around people or put people in different classes as he sees fit. Thus, after these manifests are printed there are no more seat reservations.
We had two different experiences buying day of train tickets. Several times we took trains for a fairly short (less then 5 hour) ride in the middle of the day. When doing this I just went to the regular window and asked for a sleeper ticket to my destination (I was told I could not buy a ticket for any class higher at that time). They handed me a little printed chit that had the two station names on it, but no specific train or seat. So, when the train arrived we just hopped on and took a seat in a sleeper car. The thing is that the sleeper cars in the middle of the day were always nearly empty, I assume because most Indians do not want to pay for the relative luxury of sleeper during the day when they could travel in a lower class. So, we just gabbed an empty seat, the conductor came to take our ticket and everything was fine. Also, sleeper is perfectly comfortable in the middle of the day, all the windows are open so there is plenty of air.
One other time we had to take a night train from Varkala to Chennai without reservations. Before we went to the station I checked the loads on the Internet and found that there were two trains, one left 2 hours earlier, but had tones of extra space in 2AC. The later train was full. With this information, we decided to take the earlier train, and attempt to upgrade on the train. This time at the station I was told that I could only by unreserved 2nd class tickets (the lowest class). I think the reason I was not able to by sleeper at the window like before was probably due to it being an overnight train. So, we just got on the train and sat in 2 empty seats in 2AC. When the conductor came by we asked if there was room in 2AC, which there was, so he just took the difference in the fares (it cost 1000 rupees more a piece to go from 2nd class to 2AC, but believe me it is worth it) and assigned us seats in 2AC. So, the moral of the story is that it is possible to upgrade on the train, but you are probably best off making sure that there are plenty of extra seats, unless you are happy squeezed in the lowest possible class on an Indian train.
Also, keep in mind that if you do buy day of tickets you will have to deal with an Indian ticket queue. These things are a full contact sport, so don't go in without the right attitude. People will press up against you in ways that are pretty uncomfortable for a foreigner, you just need to get used to the fact that being in constant physical contact with other, often sweaty, people in a queue is the norm in India. Also, when you get up to the window people will try to reach around you with their money and hand it to the agent. Use your large western body and elbows to shield the area in front of the window, and have enough rupees in your hand so you can quickly shove them in front of the person who sells the tickets.
GOING TO THE STATION AND GETTING ON THE TRAIN
So now comes the big day and you are ready to get on the train. An Indian train station is an experience like few others. They are dirty, chaotic, confusing and often full of people who want your money (especially in big tourist areas). The layout is usually the same everywhere. There is a building with a central lobby where they sell tickets, and sometimes have some food vendors. Then there will be between 2 and 15 tracks (depending on if you are in a big city or a small town). There will be island platforms off in the middle of the tracks that are connected to the main building via a tunnel, or usually a footbridge (which only about half the locals use, the others just run across the tracks).
When you arrive the first thing you will see in a main station is usually hundreds to thousands of people sleeping on the floor of the lobby and sometimes out in the street in front of the station. These people are changing trains and have to kill many hours at the station, no big deal, there is always a pathway through them to the tracks.
In big stations they will usually have digital boards in some degree where you can look to find out on what track your train arrives. If these are available, try to find out what track you need to go to. The thing is that often the boards are broken, or if it is a small station they do not exist. If it is a small station then it is no big deal, usually there will just be one track running in either direction. In this case just ask around as to which side the train is going to show up, or if your train is in the near future and there is a big crowd on only one side, that is probably the side you want to be on.
When the boards are not working at a big station things are a little more complicated. They do generally have announcements in English on the speakers when the train is pulling in to the station, so that is one way of figuring it out. This may sound crazy, but if all else fails you can just pick a platform and wait on it, then carefully look at the placards that are on the side of the train as each one pulls into the station. What happens if the train pulls into a different platform then you are on, you might ask. Well, keep in mind that an Indian train pulls into and out of a station like a ship pulls into a dock. It is not like Japan where the train pulls up, the doors automatically open and you have 1 minute to get on. First of all, in India the doors are open on the train the entire time, even when it is moving. Also, trains usually stop for at least 5 minutes, sometimes much longer, up to 20 minutes. So, if you see your train at a different platform just hustle over there using the bridge or tunnel and you should be fine. Also, even when the digital board has the track number on it, you really should keep your head up and watch where the crowds are in the station and what trains are pulling in. It certainly would not be out of the ordinary for a sign in India to be wrong. If you ever find yourself waiting alone on a platform for an overnight train at a major station, you are probably in the wrong place, and should try to figure out where to go.
If there are digital signs you also might be able to see when the train is expected to arrive. Trains are almost always late, sometimes by as much as several hours. If there are no digital signs then there may be a chalkboard or some other means of telling you when the trains are expected to arrive.
So, now that you have found your platform the only thing left to do is wait. Now is usually also a good time to stock up on snacks and water bottles from the vendors in the station. You especially may want to get some water as it can sometimes be hard to come by on the train. Another thing is that you may get bothered by occasional beggars in the station. This is one of the few times that I recommend just giving them 5-10 rupees or whatever you think it will take to get them to leave. Unlike most situations where you can just keep on walking, you have to wait in the train station, and since they know this they will be very persistent.
One other note is regarding ticket scams. We never had any big problem with this, but just to reiterate from above. The only person who you need to show your ticket to is the uniformed Indian Railways conductor on the train. I would be very, very suspicious of anyone who asks to see your ticket in the station, as this is not something that is done, as far as I know. Also, all Indian Railways personnel wear a uniform, so do not show your ticket to anyone who does not. If for some reason you feel compelled to show your ticket to someone, I would not hand it to them, just hold on to in yourself and show it to them.
ON THE TRAIN
This part is pretty simple. You just sit in your seat, or go to bed, and watch the world go by. Often your fellow travelers will be pretty friendly, and talking to them is a great way to meet some everyday people. As far as security, the good classes of trains seem very safe, although most people chain their bag to something when they go to sleep. We used a bike cable lock for this and never had any problems.
As far as food goes, sometimes there is way too much of it offered, sometimes not enough. Guys basically just walk down the ailes and sell stuff, which can get annoying when there are too many of them, but that is part of the charm. Tea and coffee guys are always around, and there will be an occasional guy with water bottles. Usually around meal times they do come around with some small food items, aloo paratha and such. Occasionally, especially when we got on a train that originated before dinner a person would come around and ask if you wanted dinner, then return with some food later.
The thing about the food and the water is that it pays to make sure you have enough food and water to go the entire trip if you really need to. We learned this lesson when we got on a train midway down the line at around 9 PM at night. Basically all the food guys were done for the night, so we did not get anything, and had to eat glucose biscuits for dinner. Also, we never had any problem with food sickness from the train food or the platform food, but it is generally prepared with the same level of cleanliness as most Indian fast food, so you may want to be careful if you just arrived.
One other approach for getting food and drinks, which I have done many times but cannot wholeheartedly recommend is running off the train during a stop. As I said before, Indian trains generally stop of quite a while at the station, so there is theoretically enough time to run off and grab drinks or pre-made food. You can generally figure out when the train is leaving the station because they blow the whistle right before the leave, and you can watch the conductors, who usually hang out on the platform during the stop. When the conductors start moving back to the train, you need too as well. Since the doors are always open on Indian trains you probably could get on the train, wild west style, after it starts moving, but I never waited that long.
The open doors are also nice for another reason. On a long trip, when you want to stand and get some fresh air, it can be pretty nice to hang out by the open door and watch the world go by. You can even hang out the side a bit and see where you are going, but just look carefully and stick your head out a bit at a time to make sure you don't get hit by a pole or anything.
GETTING OFF
This can be more challenging then you think. Often when you arrive at a stop there is no sign saying what stop it is right out the window. Obviously one thing to do is to stop out of the train and look down the platform, then you can usually see a sign. Another thing is to ask other people, but be sure if you do this you ask "what stop is this?". If you ask "is this .....?" people will almost always say yes, even if they do not understand you. Another good thing to do is write down or print out the schedule for the train that you can get from the website. That way you will have an idea of what the stops are leading up to yours.
So, there you have it, my brain-dump of how to ride the Indian train, and as the say on the top of the tickets, Happy Journey!
Friday, February 1, 2008
Cruising Halong Bay
This has been in the works for the last month:
Ian and I despise tours. You and 10 - 50 some odd people pile onto a bus made for tiny-framed Asians. You are driven around terrible roads for hours until you arrive at an attraction. After disembarking the bus, you have 15 minutes to see it before you get back on to be taken to the next sight. If you are lucky, you get no food. The less lucky are taken to restaurants making food the locals wouldn't feeds to their dogs. All tours stop at the tourist trap retail "wholesale-for-you-only" store for at least an hour.
Why then did we deliver ourselves and money into the hands of a tour guide for a 3 day 2 night tour of Halong Bay? Partly because to see the area, which is 150 km from Hanoi, on your own requires such planning and time that even Lonely Planet suggests you take a tour. We went with Handspan, a Vietnamese owned well respected tour company.
After a 3 hour bus ride, Peter, Ian, and I board our junk in Halong City. Over the ensuing 72 hours, we fraternized with our fellow shipmates - a fun mix of 9 other tourists from Canada, NZ, Australia, and Ireland. Cruising around Halong Bay is of course stunning, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Amazing Cave (actual name) which was quite touristy with lights and walkways. This was fine for me. Spelunking with minimal equipment is something I have already done in Hungary, and would like not to do again. The famous fog over Halong Bay made for an incredible sunset, competing with the group jumps off the upper deck of the boat. We spent the evening playing drinking games (such has Jenga on a rocking boat!) with some horrid rice whisky that smelled like rubbing alcohol. After 3 hours of playing, the majority of us were completely wasted, and I sneaked away never having lost and therefore never having to imbibe the Vietnamese rocket fuel.
The next day was a rare perfect sunny warm day in Halong Bay. We spent the time kayaking around a few of the thousands of coves and lagoons. Sprinkled all around the bay are floating fishing villages. These villages are made up of small wooden houses mounted on styrofoam or air filled tubes. Most have fish farms below or aside the houses. There is even a school. Some people have generators and pet dogs. We were awoken at 8 AM on the boat by some breakfast time karaoke in one of the floating houses. I though a cat was being killed.
After a perfect day of kayaking, we were then dropped off in a fishing village on Cat Ba Island and taken to the Sunrise Resort. I had not expected such a classy resort as part of an organized tour. We spent the night drinking bia hoy (fresh beer) with the Aussies. It was too cold for the beach or pool, but perfect for a Vietnamese massage (by the way, these are much better than the Thai massages. I don't feel like I am being tenderized).
Overall an extremely amazing tour. Highly recommended. Tours aren't now totally forbidden in my book. You just have to pick them well and add plenty of Vietnamese rice whisky.
~ Nisha
Ian and I despise tours. You and 10 - 50 some odd people pile onto a bus made for tiny-framed Asians. You are driven around terrible roads for hours until you arrive at an attraction. After disembarking the bus, you have 15 minutes to see it before you get back on to be taken to the next sight. If you are lucky, you get no food. The less lucky are taken to restaurants making food the locals wouldn't feeds to their dogs. All tours stop at the tourist trap retail "wholesale-for-you-only" store for at least an hour.
Why then did we deliver ourselves and money into the hands of a tour guide for a 3 day 2 night tour of Halong Bay? Partly because to see the area, which is 150 km from Hanoi, on your own requires such planning and time that even Lonely Planet suggests you take a tour. We went with Handspan, a Vietnamese owned well respected tour company.
After a 3 hour bus ride, Peter, Ian, and I board our junk in Halong City. Over the ensuing 72 hours, we fraternized with our fellow shipmates - a fun mix of 9 other tourists from Canada, NZ, Australia, and Ireland. Cruising around Halong Bay is of course stunning, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Amazing Cave (actual name) which was quite touristy with lights and walkways. This was fine for me. Spelunking with minimal equipment is something I have already done in Hungary, and would like not to do again. The famous fog over Halong Bay made for an incredible sunset, competing with the group jumps off the upper deck of the boat. We spent the evening playing drinking games (such has Jenga on a rocking boat!) with some horrid rice whisky that smelled like rubbing alcohol. After 3 hours of playing, the majority of us were completely wasted, and I sneaked away never having lost and therefore never having to imbibe the Vietnamese rocket fuel.
The next day was a rare perfect sunny warm day in Halong Bay. We spent the time kayaking around a few of the thousands of coves and lagoons. Sprinkled all around the bay are floating fishing villages. These villages are made up of small wooden houses mounted on styrofoam or air filled tubes. Most have fish farms below or aside the houses. There is even a school. Some people have generators and pet dogs. We were awoken at 8 AM on the boat by some breakfast time karaoke in one of the floating houses. I though a cat was being killed.
After a perfect day of kayaking, we were then dropped off in a fishing village on Cat Ba Island and taken to the Sunrise Resort. I had not expected such a classy resort as part of an organized tour. We spent the night drinking bia hoy (fresh beer) with the Aussies. It was too cold for the beach or pool, but perfect for a Vietnamese massage (by the way, these are much better than the Thai massages. I don't feel like I am being tenderized).
Overall an extremely amazing tour. Highly recommended. Tours aren't now totally forbidden in my book. You just have to pick them well and add plenty of Vietnamese rice whisky.
~ Nisha
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Saving the Best for Last
Hong Kong was obviously our last destination, and I have to say, that it was probably my favorite big city that we visited the whole trip. It is a really incredible mix of east and west, a efficiently run place with perfect subways and clean sidewalks, but also a place where you can get cheap Chinese food on a plastic table late into the night.
I covered most of our first several days in Hong Kong in this post, but I just wanted to talk about our last day in Hong Kong, where we decided to go check out the Hong Kong countryside.
One of the most unique and cool things about Hong Kong is the amount of nature that surrounds the city. My first taste of this was the Bowen Rd. path on Hong Kong Island. I like to get out and do some running in every place we visit, and thus I was pleasantly surprised that the Conrad Hotel had a little laminated card in the desk that gave you directions for how to get to Bowen Rd., which they billed as one of the most popular places to run in Hong Kong. As I found out quickly the first night when Pete and I ran up there, running in Hong Kong is great for those who like hills. We ran up probably around 400 feet of elevation in a half mile to get to Bowen Rd. Once you get there however, you are rewarded with the best running paths I have ever seen. Bowen Rd. clings to the side of a steep mountain, with constant views of the Hong Kong Island skyline. There are a whole bunch of other paths and lightly used roads up on the ridge as well. On one day I ran for 1:15 and made it quite a way up the top of the ridge towards The Peak.
We also spent a nice time up at the Peak after dinner one night, taking the tram up to The Peak and walking around the paths that circle the top. Looking down on Hong Kong Island on a cool night drinking beers from a backpack has to be one of the more atmospheric ways to spend an evening.
Anyway, our travels into Hong Kong nature culminated with our trip to the "Big Buddha" (officially called the Tain Tan Buddha) high on Lantau Island, an island of similar size to Hong Kong which is a 30 minute subway ride away and also houses the airport. Lantau is pretty lightly populated, by Hong Kong standards. Most of the inside of the island is a big forested park and there are just a few population centers around the outside of the island.
We arrived at one of these centers at the end of the subway, it consisted of around ten large (probably 40 stories) and new apartment buildings around a small mall. There is a 5 mile long gondola that normally takes you up to the big Buddha in a few minutes, however, evidently a gondola fell off a few months ago during maintenance, so the gondola is out of commission. So, on to the bus we went. The problem is that there is no road directly to the Buddha, so this bus takes you all the way around the mountain on a narrow road that is under construction, for a trip of about an hour. It was easy to tell who the veteran travelers were in our group as we were all sitting in a three across seat, Nisha asleep, me relaxing and looking out the window and Pete getting aggravated trying to figure out why the bus was taking so long.
We get off the bus to a rather uncrowded parking lot and the Big Buddha looming over us on the top of a small hill rising over the ridge. You can go up the steps to the Buddha for free, but it costs 80 HKD for the combination of the museum inside the Buddha as well as a vegetarian lunch. The Buddha itself is quite nice, he is a very peaceful and calming image, with only the sky as his backdrop. The views from up on the ridge are obviously quite impressive as well.
The vegetarian lunch was actually a very good deal. The food is served in a big Chinese dining hall in the monastery below the Buddha. It is all set menu, you just grab a seat and they bring 5 big bowls of vegetarian food and rice to your table. The food is actually quite good, and the portions are huge.
To get back to the subway, I looked at some maps and it appeared that we could get there with a 1 1/2 hour downhill walk. Comparing this to the 1 hour bus ride the choice was pretty obvious. The walk was very nice, kind of strange since you are basically on a paved sidewalk out in the middle of the woods. The views of the airport and the cluster of apartment towers around the subway station was quite a contrast to the undeveloped hills.
After walking by a few small monasteries and a few random houses out in the woods we finally got to the cluster of buildings. It is very abrupt, one minute you are walking through a field, then the next your are among the towering buildings. There were actually two groups, one a little older with about 15 buildings and the newer cluster right next to the subway. These had this strange kind of perfect/imperfect ideal society thing going on. It was kind of the perfect efficient socialist development, there are no cars and just some pedestrian courtyards surrounding grocery stores and shopping in the middle of the complex. It was quite bustling and everyone there looked pretty happy, but is certainly is depressing for me to think of living in Unit 1634 of Building E of the XYZ complex. Hard to think of yourself as anything other then just another bee in the hive. On the bright side, the new mall next to subway station had a nice little patio bar that had specials on giant Hoegaarden beers, perfect refreshment after a long day in the hills.
I covered most of our first several days in Hong Kong in this post, but I just wanted to talk about our last day in Hong Kong, where we decided to go check out the Hong Kong countryside.
One of the most unique and cool things about Hong Kong is the amount of nature that surrounds the city. My first taste of this was the Bowen Rd. path on Hong Kong Island. I like to get out and do some running in every place we visit, and thus I was pleasantly surprised that the Conrad Hotel had a little laminated card in the desk that gave you directions for how to get to Bowen Rd., which they billed as one of the most popular places to run in Hong Kong. As I found out quickly the first night when Pete and I ran up there, running in Hong Kong is great for those who like hills. We ran up probably around 400 feet of elevation in a half mile to get to Bowen Rd. Once you get there however, you are rewarded with the best running paths I have ever seen. Bowen Rd. clings to the side of a steep mountain, with constant views of the Hong Kong Island skyline. There are a whole bunch of other paths and lightly used roads up on the ridge as well. On one day I ran for 1:15 and made it quite a way up the top of the ridge towards The Peak.
We also spent a nice time up at the Peak after dinner one night, taking the tram up to The Peak and walking around the paths that circle the top. Looking down on Hong Kong Island on a cool night drinking beers from a backpack has to be one of the more atmospheric ways to spend an evening.
Anyway, our travels into Hong Kong nature culminated with our trip to the "Big Buddha" (officially called the Tain Tan Buddha) high on Lantau Island, an island of similar size to Hong Kong which is a 30 minute subway ride away and also houses the airport. Lantau is pretty lightly populated, by Hong Kong standards. Most of the inside of the island is a big forested park and there are just a few population centers around the outside of the island.
We arrived at one of these centers at the end of the subway, it consisted of around ten large (probably 40 stories) and new apartment buildings around a small mall. There is a 5 mile long gondola that normally takes you up to the big Buddha in a few minutes, however, evidently a gondola fell off a few months ago during maintenance, so the gondola is out of commission. So, on to the bus we went. The problem is that there is no road directly to the Buddha, so this bus takes you all the way around the mountain on a narrow road that is under construction, for a trip of about an hour. It was easy to tell who the veteran travelers were in our group as we were all sitting in a three across seat, Nisha asleep, me relaxing and looking out the window and Pete getting aggravated trying to figure out why the bus was taking so long.
We get off the bus to a rather uncrowded parking lot and the Big Buddha looming over us on the top of a small hill rising over the ridge. You can go up the steps to the Buddha for free, but it costs 80 HKD for the combination of the museum inside the Buddha as well as a vegetarian lunch. The Buddha itself is quite nice, he is a very peaceful and calming image, with only the sky as his backdrop. The views from up on the ridge are obviously quite impressive as well.
The vegetarian lunch was actually a very good deal. The food is served in a big Chinese dining hall in the monastery below the Buddha. It is all set menu, you just grab a seat and they bring 5 big bowls of vegetarian food and rice to your table. The food is actually quite good, and the portions are huge.
To get back to the subway, I looked at some maps and it appeared that we could get there with a 1 1/2 hour downhill walk. Comparing this to the 1 hour bus ride the choice was pretty obvious. The walk was very nice, kind of strange since you are basically on a paved sidewalk out in the middle of the woods. The views of the airport and the cluster of apartment towers around the subway station was quite a contrast to the undeveloped hills.
After walking by a few small monasteries and a few random houses out in the woods we finally got to the cluster of buildings. It is very abrupt, one minute you are walking through a field, then the next your are among the towering buildings. There were actually two groups, one a little older with about 15 buildings and the newer cluster right next to the subway. These had this strange kind of perfect/imperfect ideal society thing going on. It was kind of the perfect efficient socialist development, there are no cars and just some pedestrian courtyards surrounding grocery stores and shopping in the middle of the complex. It was quite bustling and everyone there looked pretty happy, but is certainly is depressing for me to think of living in Unit 1634 of Building E of the XYZ complex. Hard to think of yourself as anything other then just another bee in the hive. On the bright side, the new mall next to subway station had a nice little patio bar that had specials on giant Hoegaarden beers, perfect refreshment after a long day in the hills.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
War From the Other Side - Vietnam
As I posted earlier from Japan, seeing a counties war sites and museums is certainly a interesting experience when your country was the adversary. However, the surreal level really cranks up when the war in question is viewed by the other country as their glorious and successful revolution, rather then a unfortunate mistake in the past. We went to three major war sites in the Saigon area:
Reunification Palace - Saigon
This building in Saigon was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and was where the North's victory was made official in 1975. The war ended when North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates and then troops demanded the surrender of the president of South Vietnam. Interestingly, the president was not Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the leader for most of the war, but Dương Văn Minh, a poor sap who was handed power 48 hours before the tanks rolled through the gate.
The building is a piece of 60's architecture that would look at home on most US college campuses. It would be the semi-modern building that would look out of place and everyone would hate. It is only as old as 1966 because the original was bombed by the South Vietnamese (you read this correctly) Air Force in an assassination attempt of the unpopular president, Diem.
From an architectural standpoint is does improve once inside, where there are large open foyers that actually give the building a very open feel. The stuff on the main floors is mainly the official presidential offices and meeting rooms for foreign dignitaries. The main thing that struck me about this area is the chincyness of the whole place. It is trying to be fancy in a Chinatown restaurant kind of way and does not look like a place of any real power or history. Disturbingly it pretty much looks like the seat of a low budget government, which is pretty much what it was.
In the upper floors of the building is the presidents residence, which is quite modest with the exception of a collection of stuffed elephant's feet. Also on the top levels is a small movie theater with vintage projection equipment and a helipad with a vintage US huey parked on it. There is also a lounge and game room that Austin Powers would be happy to have in his flat, for the use of top government officials.
Next you go to the basement where the command bunker facilities are. It is a really dank and almost claustrophobic place. There are seemingly endless rooms, all with gray painted concrete walls, that have crappy institutional desks and chairs, as well as vintage US radio equipment. You definitely get the feeling of how maddening it must be to command a country from such a dark and cut-off place.
For the last bit of the tour they drop you off at an area where they play a government produced video of the history of the building. The narrator was really hard to understand and we walked in at the end, so we only stayed for a few minutes. The only memorable part was the song they played during the video montage at the end. It had marching band type music as a background and then a choir singing "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh..." over and over and over again.
War Reminence Museum - Saigon
This is the museum set up for the Vietnam War and the conflicts of that era. Evidently is used to be called "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes", but was renamed to something a little more subtle when Vietnam reopened to the west.
The museum is three smallish halls surrounding a courtyard filled with captured American tanks, artillery and planes. The first hall was actually a very nice photo exhibit dedicated to news photographers who died in the war. It was actually sponsored by a bunch of western companies, I believe FedEx was one of them. This had a lot of great pictures from the photographers, most of which were published in magazines at the time, and often pictures of the photographers themselves before they died. The photos that I found most affecting were of a female war photographer who's name I cannot find. They had many of her photos as well as one of her in cammo garb. They also had a photo taken by another photographer of her being read the last rights as she lay dieing in a field of tall grass.
The second hall was mostly photos of terrible stuff that was done by the US in the war. Topics covered included My Lai, Agent Orange and the massacare that was admitted to by Bob Kerry in 2001, which I had actually never heard about. Of these the Agent Orange photos were quite disturbing, as well as a very grisly one I had never seen before of a Marine holding up the head and shoulders of a exploded corpse.
The third hall focused on the cruelty of the South Vietnamese regime as well as the French. For the South Vietnamese they had a waterboarding type of device as well as mock ups of the little cages that they used to keep political prisoners in on a deserted island. For the French they had one of their old Guillotines. It makes you jump about three feet back when you look though the little slit into the dark cage and find out there is a wax figure of a prisoner looking back at you. They should really put up a sign about that.
Chu Chi Tunnels - Chu Chi
There are several networks of tunnels that were built by the VC during the war, these are the most visited because they are right outside Saigon and have been set up into kind of a campy war tourist attraction.
Evidently this village of Chu Chi was a hotspot for the VC and war right near a big US military base. The VC in the area fought with the US for the length of the war by using a massive network of tunnels, a few of which have been enlarged for the viewing of tourists.
After buying your ticket, the first thing you do is go in a room where they show a propaganda video that was actually produced by the North Vietnamese during the war. It follows, in its own way, the story of the "Chu Chi Guerrillas". The movie starts with showing the peace loving villagers of Chu Chi tending to orchards and rice patties. Then the US starts bombing the village and kills many innocent people. The ingenious and determined Chu Chi Guerrillas then fight back the US with their network of tunnels, as well as hiding anti-tank mines in rice baskets and other guerrilla war tactics.
The strangest thing is the part where they follow one male and one female (who is quite attractive and made-up for a guerrilla fighter) member of the Chu Chi Guerrillas. They both win the "Killing Many Americans Award" (exact quote) for their mine planting and sniping abilities. I do not know if it is mainly just an issue with the translation of if that is actually the name of their medal of honor. Needless to say, I have never heard of a WWII medal called the "Killing Many Japanese Award".
After the video you get a free tour guide and they take you into the park. The first thing is an old entrance to a tunnel that is just a tiny hole in the ground. If you are skinny enough you can slide down into the hole, but not into the tunnel that leads away from it, and get your picture taken half in the ground. After that there are some bomb craters, a burned out US tank and many surface level bunkers with exhibits of how they were used to make weapons, treat the wounded or cook food. The kitchen is kind of neat because they have an underground chimney that lets the smoke out 20m away from the bunker. There is also a workshop where they make sandals out of old tires that were supposedly used by the VC in the war and were supposedly invented by Ho Chi Minh.
We declined the offer to go to the firing range where you can shoot an M-16 or AK-47 for one US dollar a bullet.
Our tour guide was a really nice and funny guy, but his habit of referring to US soldiers as "your army" made everything sound even more disturbing. When you are in the area where they have models of various sharpened bamboo traps he demonstrates each one by saying "your soldier step here then... whap!".
As for the tunnels themselves, you can walk about 200m through a tunnel that is only barely big enough to allow you to walk through bent over rather then on your hands and knees. There was a little bomb shelter room in the middle, but mostly it was just a tunnel. The air is really hot and stuffy and since only the guide has a flashlight, the person at the back walks mostly in the dark. It is a short experience, but the fact that people spent years living in this underground environment gives you an idea of how determined the VC was to win. The fact that after 5-10 minutes in there I was drenched in sweat also makes you appreciate how tough they were.
Conclusion
Let me start by saying that I in no way think that the Vietnam war sights are presented in any balanced way. The point of these places is to celebrate the glory of the current regime and they certainly in no way say anything about the ruthless tactics of the VC and NVA. However, the effect of these types of places, at least to me, is to emphasize how terrible war is, regardless of who is right and who is wrong.
It is also a little disappointing how few Americans are exposed to pictures of mangled corpses and deformed children that are the result of modern war. There is such an effort in our country, in newspapers, museums and on TV to shield us from any objects or images that disturb the myth of the glory of war. I would love to see someone build a place like this in DC. I don't think the effect of more exposure on people would be to make them never want to fight when it is necessary, but it may temper the belligerence that exists around how we need to bomb this country or that. It may also give people an idea of what it means to "Take the Gloves Off", which is too often floated as a solution when wars are not going well.
On a side note, as Japan made me want to do some more research into the endgame of WWII, Vietnam made me want to look more into the use of Agent Orange. I would be interested to know how the people who approved the use of a powerful chemical that killed all vegetation, and had effects on humans that were not fully understood at the time, would not be classified as war criminals under most accepted definitions. On one level it seems rather obvious that such a powerful chemical would have some adverse effects on humans. On another level, going on a focused campaign to destroy the natural environment of a country is not very ethical either. If we had sprayed Vietnam with a chemical that was designed to bring about chronic illness and birth defects that would be a war crime, correct? Ignorance of these obvious side effects does not seem to be a very compelling defence.
Reunification Palace - Saigon
This building in Saigon was the seat of the South Vietnamese government and was where the North's victory was made official in 1975. The war ended when North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the gates and then troops demanded the surrender of the president of South Vietnam. Interestingly, the president was not Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, the leader for most of the war, but Dương Văn Minh, a poor sap who was handed power 48 hours before the tanks rolled through the gate.
The building is a piece of 60's architecture that would look at home on most US college campuses. It would be the semi-modern building that would look out of place and everyone would hate. It is only as old as 1966 because the original was bombed by the South Vietnamese (you read this correctly) Air Force in an assassination attempt of the unpopular president, Diem.
From an architectural standpoint is does improve once inside, where there are large open foyers that actually give the building a very open feel. The stuff on the main floors is mainly the official presidential offices and meeting rooms for foreign dignitaries. The main thing that struck me about this area is the chincyness of the whole place. It is trying to be fancy in a Chinatown restaurant kind of way and does not look like a place of any real power or history. Disturbingly it pretty much looks like the seat of a low budget government, which is pretty much what it was.
In the upper floors of the building is the presidents residence, which is quite modest with the exception of a collection of stuffed elephant's feet. Also on the top levels is a small movie theater with vintage projection equipment and a helipad with a vintage US huey parked on it. There is also a lounge and game room that Austin Powers would be happy to have in his flat, for the use of top government officials.
Next you go to the basement where the command bunker facilities are. It is a really dank and almost claustrophobic place. There are seemingly endless rooms, all with gray painted concrete walls, that have crappy institutional desks and chairs, as well as vintage US radio equipment. You definitely get the feeling of how maddening it must be to command a country from such a dark and cut-off place.
For the last bit of the tour they drop you off at an area where they play a government produced video of the history of the building. The narrator was really hard to understand and we walked in at the end, so we only stayed for a few minutes. The only memorable part was the song they played during the video montage at the end. It had marching band type music as a background and then a choir singing "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh..." over and over and over again.
War Reminence Museum - Saigon
This is the museum set up for the Vietnam War and the conflicts of that era. Evidently is used to be called "Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes", but was renamed to something a little more subtle when Vietnam reopened to the west.
The museum is three smallish halls surrounding a courtyard filled with captured American tanks, artillery and planes. The first hall was actually a very nice photo exhibit dedicated to news photographers who died in the war. It was actually sponsored by a bunch of western companies, I believe FedEx was one of them. This had a lot of great pictures from the photographers, most of which were published in magazines at the time, and often pictures of the photographers themselves before they died. The photos that I found most affecting were of a female war photographer who's name I cannot find. They had many of her photos as well as one of her in cammo garb. They also had a photo taken by another photographer of her being read the last rights as she lay dieing in a field of tall grass.
The second hall was mostly photos of terrible stuff that was done by the US in the war. Topics covered included My Lai, Agent Orange and the massacare that was admitted to by Bob Kerry in 2001, which I had actually never heard about. Of these the Agent Orange photos were quite disturbing, as well as a very grisly one I had never seen before of a Marine holding up the head and shoulders of a exploded corpse.
The third hall focused on the cruelty of the South Vietnamese regime as well as the French. For the South Vietnamese they had a waterboarding type of device as well as mock ups of the little cages that they used to keep political prisoners in on a deserted island. For the French they had one of their old Guillotines. It makes you jump about three feet back when you look though the little slit into the dark cage and find out there is a wax figure of a prisoner looking back at you. They should really put up a sign about that.
Chu Chi Tunnels - Chu Chi
There are several networks of tunnels that were built by the VC during the war, these are the most visited because they are right outside Saigon and have been set up into kind of a campy war tourist attraction.
Evidently this village of Chu Chi was a hotspot for the VC and war right near a big US military base. The VC in the area fought with the US for the length of the war by using a massive network of tunnels, a few of which have been enlarged for the viewing of tourists.
After buying your ticket, the first thing you do is go in a room where they show a propaganda video that was actually produced by the North Vietnamese during the war. It follows, in its own way, the story of the "Chu Chi Guerrillas". The movie starts with showing the peace loving villagers of Chu Chi tending to orchards and rice patties. Then the US starts bombing the village and kills many innocent people. The ingenious and determined Chu Chi Guerrillas then fight back the US with their network of tunnels, as well as hiding anti-tank mines in rice baskets and other guerrilla war tactics.
The strangest thing is the part where they follow one male and one female (who is quite attractive and made-up for a guerrilla fighter) member of the Chu Chi Guerrillas. They both win the "Killing Many Americans Award" (exact quote) for their mine planting and sniping abilities. I do not know if it is mainly just an issue with the translation of if that is actually the name of their medal of honor. Needless to say, I have never heard of a WWII medal called the "Killing Many Japanese Award".
After the video you get a free tour guide and they take you into the park. The first thing is an old entrance to a tunnel that is just a tiny hole in the ground. If you are skinny enough you can slide down into the hole, but not into the tunnel that leads away from it, and get your picture taken half in the ground. After that there are some bomb craters, a burned out US tank and many surface level bunkers with exhibits of how they were used to make weapons, treat the wounded or cook food. The kitchen is kind of neat because they have an underground chimney that lets the smoke out 20m away from the bunker. There is also a workshop where they make sandals out of old tires that were supposedly used by the VC in the war and were supposedly invented by Ho Chi Minh.
We declined the offer to go to the firing range where you can shoot an M-16 or AK-47 for one US dollar a bullet.
Our tour guide was a really nice and funny guy, but his habit of referring to US soldiers as "your army" made everything sound even more disturbing. When you are in the area where they have models of various sharpened bamboo traps he demonstrates each one by saying "your soldier step here then... whap!".
As for the tunnels themselves, you can walk about 200m through a tunnel that is only barely big enough to allow you to walk through bent over rather then on your hands and knees. There was a little bomb shelter room in the middle, but mostly it was just a tunnel. The air is really hot and stuffy and since only the guide has a flashlight, the person at the back walks mostly in the dark. It is a short experience, but the fact that people spent years living in this underground environment gives you an idea of how determined the VC was to win. The fact that after 5-10 minutes in there I was drenched in sweat also makes you appreciate how tough they were.
Conclusion
Let me start by saying that I in no way think that the Vietnam war sights are presented in any balanced way. The point of these places is to celebrate the glory of the current regime and they certainly in no way say anything about the ruthless tactics of the VC and NVA. However, the effect of these types of places, at least to me, is to emphasize how terrible war is, regardless of who is right and who is wrong.
It is also a little disappointing how few Americans are exposed to pictures of mangled corpses and deformed children that are the result of modern war. There is such an effort in our country, in newspapers, museums and on TV to shield us from any objects or images that disturb the myth of the glory of war. I would love to see someone build a place like this in DC. I don't think the effect of more exposure on people would be to make them never want to fight when it is necessary, but it may temper the belligerence that exists around how we need to bomb this country or that. It may also give people an idea of what it means to "Take the Gloves Off", which is too often floated as a solution when wars are not going well.
On a side note, as Japan made me want to do some more research into the endgame of WWII, Vietnam made me want to look more into the use of Agent Orange. I would be interested to know how the people who approved the use of a powerful chemical that killed all vegetation, and had effects on humans that were not fully understood at the time, would not be classified as war criminals under most accepted definitions. On one level it seems rather obvious that such a powerful chemical would have some adverse effects on humans. On another level, going on a focused campaign to destroy the natural environment of a country is not very ethical either. If we had sprayed Vietnam with a chemical that was designed to bring about chronic illness and birth defects that would be a war crime, correct? Ignorance of these obvious side effects does not seem to be a very compelling defence.
Home at Last
After 5 months away we are finally back in the US. The flight was fine and was actually a piece of cake when you have the travel zen gained over many hours on Indian buses.
However, the blog is not over.
Because of issues with getting on the internet, as well as wanting to pack more activities into a short period of time, I left out a bunch of stuff from the end of the trip. So, stay tuned as I will be writing up the end of the trip as well as some overall thoughts and small travel guides over the next few weeks.
However, the blog is not over.
Because of issues with getting on the internet, as well as wanting to pack more activities into a short period of time, I left out a bunch of stuff from the end of the trip. So, stay tuned as I will be writing up the end of the trip as well as some overall thoughts and small travel guides over the next few weeks.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Last Quick Update?
- Only one more day in Hong Kong, so this might be the last of the updates. I have mental notes on a bunch of things however, so I am probably going to write quite a bit when there is some Christmas down time in Baton Rouge.
- Hong Kong is great. Probably the most "international" city on earth. It is certainly Chinese, but the British influence is still very strong here. There seems to be a large Ex-Pat community in the mix as well. It is certainly as easy as anyplace we have been to get around with English here. Almost everyone seems to speak it quite fluently.
- Pete was nice enough to use hotel points to put us up in the Conrad Hotel for the first three days. Needless to say, staying in a high end hotel in Hong Kong is pretty nice. He also has a gold card so we got free breakfast and evening drinks, really great food as well.
- Speaking of great food, we have enjoyed a great Lunch and Dinner courtesy of our family friend Bob's sister Cecilia and her husband Hans. As usual with Asian cuisines they have meats and ingredients here that are just not available back home. The food was so good I even enjoyed eating a whole fish, which is pretty unbelievable for me.
- We had the latest night out of the entire trip in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's nightlife district. Great place where you can drink on the street and there are loads of bars. There was also a charity event going on where for 300 HKD (about $40) you got a Santa suit and 10 free drinks. As you can imagine this resulted in a whole street of drunk people in Santa suites, definitely a sight to see. If we had gotten there earlier, before we had a bunch of drinks ourselves, I would have thought about forking over the 300 HKD.
- Another strange thing. Often on this trip we have tried to avoid what we call "Human Zoos". By this we mean a tour where you go to see tribal people, boat people, etc., and seeing the people is really the only attraction. In Lan Kwai Fong there is a very mixed crowd of drunks, but a good amount are westerners. This results in quite a few rich Chinese and Japanese tourists walking down the street doing the human zoo tour of drunk westerners, snapping photos indiscriminately. Weird to be on the other side of the glass.
- The amount of money spent on luxury goods in this city is crazy. A Louis Vitton or Channel store is about as common as the Gap is in the US. It is kind of annoying because they do not really have regular shopping centers. A mall of the Copley Place quality is as low rent as it gets here. Evidently most of this consumption is fueled by mainland Chinese. Definitely boom times out here.
- The currency of Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Dollar. Interestingly it is issued by one of three private banks, Standard Chartered, HSBC or Bank of China. This makes it a little confusing because the notes from the three different banks all look different, but are the same basic color, based on the amount. There is something a little strange about money that is not issued by the government. I was thinking that if we had a similar system in the US banks would probably start printing the bills with "Free Checking", "New Low Rates on Home Equity Loans" or some other form of advertisement.
- Hong Kong is great. Probably the most "international" city on earth. It is certainly Chinese, but the British influence is still very strong here. There seems to be a large Ex-Pat community in the mix as well. It is certainly as easy as anyplace we have been to get around with English here. Almost everyone seems to speak it quite fluently.
- Pete was nice enough to use hotel points to put us up in the Conrad Hotel for the first three days. Needless to say, staying in a high end hotel in Hong Kong is pretty nice. He also has a gold card so we got free breakfast and evening drinks, really great food as well.
- Speaking of great food, we have enjoyed a great Lunch and Dinner courtesy of our family friend Bob's sister Cecilia and her husband Hans. As usual with Asian cuisines they have meats and ingredients here that are just not available back home. The food was so good I even enjoyed eating a whole fish, which is pretty unbelievable for me.
- We had the latest night out of the entire trip in Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong's nightlife district. Great place where you can drink on the street and there are loads of bars. There was also a charity event going on where for 300 HKD (about $40) you got a Santa suit and 10 free drinks. As you can imagine this resulted in a whole street of drunk people in Santa suites, definitely a sight to see. If we had gotten there earlier, before we had a bunch of drinks ourselves, I would have thought about forking over the 300 HKD.
- Another strange thing. Often on this trip we have tried to avoid what we call "Human Zoos". By this we mean a tour where you go to see tribal people, boat people, etc., and seeing the people is really the only attraction. In Lan Kwai Fong there is a very mixed crowd of drunks, but a good amount are westerners. This results in quite a few rich Chinese and Japanese tourists walking down the street doing the human zoo tour of drunk westerners, snapping photos indiscriminately. Weird to be on the other side of the glass.
- The amount of money spent on luxury goods in this city is crazy. A Louis Vitton or Channel store is about as common as the Gap is in the US. It is kind of annoying because they do not really have regular shopping centers. A mall of the Copley Place quality is as low rent as it gets here. Evidently most of this consumption is fueled by mainland Chinese. Definitely boom times out here.
- The currency of Hong Kong is the Hong Kong Dollar. Interestingly it is issued by one of three private banks, Standard Chartered, HSBC or Bank of China. This makes it a little confusing because the notes from the three different banks all look different, but are the same basic color, based on the amount. There is something a little strange about money that is not issued by the government. I was thinking that if we had a similar system in the US banks would probably start printing the bills with "Free Checking", "New Low Rates on Home Equity Loans" or some other form of advertisement.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Back From Halong Bay
We just got back from our tour and it was actually a great success.
The first day we spent on a nice cruise boat Junk kind of thing, had a good food and lots of drinks. The second day was two kayak sessions followed by a night at a really nice resort on Cat Ba Island. Third day was a half day at Cat Ba followed by the transport back to Hanoi.
As usual these days I do not have enough time to write a big post, but it really was an incredible natural environment. The giant floating villages were something very interesting as well.
Nisha is uploading some pictures right now and we are flying to Hong Kong tomorrow.
Perhaps I will have a little more time there to write.
The first day we spent on a nice cruise boat Junk kind of thing, had a good food and lots of drinks. The second day was two kayak sessions followed by a night at a really nice resort on Cat Ba Island. Third day was a half day at Cat Ba followed by the transport back to Hanoi.
As usual these days I do not have enough time to write a big post, but it really was an incredible natural environment. The giant floating villages were something very interesting as well.
Nisha is uploading some pictures right now and we are flying to Hong Kong tomorrow.
Perhaps I will have a little more time there to write.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Quick Update
- We flew successfully up to Hanoi today and checked out the town. Very nice city, a lot different from Saigon since it is an older city with small little streets rather then wide boulivards. Still at lot of motorbikes however.
- Dispite our usual problems with orginized tours, we signed up for a 3 day trip to Halong Bay since it really seemed like the only practical way to do it. We will be on a boat the first night. The second will be on Cat Ba Island.
- Dispite our usual problems with orginized tours, we signed up for a 3 day trip to Halong Bay since it really seemed like the only practical way to do it. We will be on a boat the first night. The second will be on Cat Ba Island.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Quick Update
Since Pete is now here we are a little more busy, so I might be in quick update mode for a while.
- Checked out the old South Vietnamese White House type building and the American War museum. Will probably write something serious about that later.
- Had a really full afternoon and evening in Saigon yesterday. Highlights below.
- Went to the Dam Sen water park. This place was really fun, normal water park setup like the US, but only 5 bucks to get in. They had about 10 water slides, including one I had never seen before. The new one sent you shooting down a tube at incredible speed and then shot you out into a big toilet bowl kind of thing. After circling the drain as many times as you could go around, you fall out the bottom of the bowl into a pool. The first time I rode it I thought it was the scariest water slide I had ever been on.
- Drank some Bia Hoi, or "fresh beer" on little sidewalk tables. This was in the real neighborhood near the water park, so we did stick out a bit. Bia Hoi is beer that is made fresh without preservatives and delivered to bars that sell it out of a big metal tank. It is sold by the liter and is the worlds cheapest beer at 25 cents per liter. This was our first time having it, and we ended up getting 3 beer mugs filled with ice and an old 2 liter plastic bottle, that looks like something you would use for petrol, filled with Bia Hoi. Mixed with the ice it was pretty good, very light and refreshing.
- Went to this big faux western music bar near the hotel. In this palace of varnished wood walls and giant totem poles they had the most bizarre cover band I have ever seen. It was a long haired guy and two scantily clad girls backed up by a normal set of musicians. The three singers with switch off on who was the lead vocalist and they covered everything from Beyonce to Roxette to Metallica. Really bizarre hearing two Vietnamese singers playing the roles of Beyonce and Jay-Z. They actually were really entertaining.
- Checked out the old South Vietnamese White House type building and the American War museum. Will probably write something serious about that later.
- Had a really full afternoon and evening in Saigon yesterday. Highlights below.
- Went to the Dam Sen water park. This place was really fun, normal water park setup like the US, but only 5 bucks to get in. They had about 10 water slides, including one I had never seen before. The new one sent you shooting down a tube at incredible speed and then shot you out into a big toilet bowl kind of thing. After circling the drain as many times as you could go around, you fall out the bottom of the bowl into a pool. The first time I rode it I thought it was the scariest water slide I had ever been on.
- Drank some Bia Hoi, or "fresh beer" on little sidewalk tables. This was in the real neighborhood near the water park, so we did stick out a bit. Bia Hoi is beer that is made fresh without preservatives and delivered to bars that sell it out of a big metal tank. It is sold by the liter and is the worlds cheapest beer at 25 cents per liter. This was our first time having it, and we ended up getting 3 beer mugs filled with ice and an old 2 liter plastic bottle, that looks like something you would use for petrol, filled with Bia Hoi. Mixed with the ice it was pretty good, very light and refreshing.
- Went to this big faux western music bar near the hotel. In this palace of varnished wood walls and giant totem poles they had the most bizarre cover band I have ever seen. It was a long haired guy and two scantily clad girls backed up by a normal set of musicians. The three singers with switch off on who was the lead vocalist and they covered everything from Beyonce to Roxette to Metallica. Really bizarre hearing two Vietnamese singers playing the roles of Beyonce and Jay-Z. They actually were really entertaining.
Friday, December 7, 2007
The Last of the Beaches
Ian and I left our last beach location today. Let's see, we have been to Diu, Goa, and Varkala in India. Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phagnan, and Railay in Thailand, then Mui Ne Beach in Vietnam. You may be thinking that we have spent an inordinate time at beach places, but can you really ever have too much? Especially since it's 19 degrees in Boston, where we are headed on December 19th.
Mui Ne was a spectacular beach. I'm glad we didn't take the advice of a Australian-Norwegian couple we met on a bus. They live in the Mekong Delta and said that Mui Ne stunk. Stubbornly, we headed there anyway. Like Railay in Thailand, it has large sporting activities - kite-boarding and wind-surfing, neither of which Ian or I tried.
Our foray into the giant surf was to rent a divorce-boat (two person kayak). We have done this a few times before without incident. Unbeknowest to us, this particular kayak had a leak that let in water when it was turned over. We would be kayaking on an extremely wavy and windy beach, swimming in which made me nervous. We were paddling happily near the breaking surf when we had our first dump. Ian righted the kayak and we hopped in, prepared for such an event. In the next 5 minutes, we fell over 2 more times until we realized the kayak was sinking. We decided that Ian would kayak back to shore. He suggested that I swim back to shore, about 200 meters in very heavy surf. Instead, I held on to the back until 10 meters from the shore and swam hard the rest of the way. No papers served.
The rest of the three days we spent on the beach, at the pool, and checking out the local attractions. Due to the geography of the area, the beach gets very high winds daily and is relatively dry. We visited a stretch of picturesque sand dunes. Similar to India, it is difficult to visit any attractions without various people following you around try to peddle something. It looked like every tourist was on some desert expedition. Two kids followed us for about 20 minutes asking us if we wanted to rent a sled to slide down the dunes. Not quite sledding on snow, but it was fun nonetheless.
I highly recommend Mui Ne beach to anyone visiting Vietnam. The long, clean, and white stretch of sand is not overdeveloped. There are excellent Vietnamese and international restaurants. We went to an Italian one that we recognized by Slow Food International. There are many activities around the area if you get bored of baking in the sun. The Vietnamese people are surprisingly and extremely friendly. Most of all, unlike Thailand, there was no trance music or hookers.
- Nisha
Mui Ne was a spectacular beach. I'm glad we didn't take the advice of a Australian-Norwegian couple we met on a bus. They live in the Mekong Delta and said that Mui Ne stunk. Stubbornly, we headed there anyway. Like Railay in Thailand, it has large sporting activities - kite-boarding and wind-surfing, neither of which Ian or I tried.
Our foray into the giant surf was to rent a divorce-boat (two person kayak). We have done this a few times before without incident. Unbeknowest to us, this particular kayak had a leak that let in water when it was turned over. We would be kayaking on an extremely wavy and windy beach, swimming in which made me nervous. We were paddling happily near the breaking surf when we had our first dump. Ian righted the kayak and we hopped in, prepared for such an event. In the next 5 minutes, we fell over 2 more times until we realized the kayak was sinking. We decided that Ian would kayak back to shore. He suggested that I swim back to shore, about 200 meters in very heavy surf. Instead, I held on to the back until 10 meters from the shore and swam hard the rest of the way. No papers served.
The rest of the three days we spent on the beach, at the pool, and checking out the local attractions. Due to the geography of the area, the beach gets very high winds daily and is relatively dry. We visited a stretch of picturesque sand dunes. Similar to India, it is difficult to visit any attractions without various people following you around try to peddle something. It looked like every tourist was on some desert expedition. Two kids followed us for about 20 minutes asking us if we wanted to rent a sled to slide down the dunes. Not quite sledding on snow, but it was fun nonetheless.
I highly recommend Mui Ne beach to anyone visiting Vietnam. The long, clean, and white stretch of sand is not overdeveloped. There are excellent Vietnamese and international restaurants. We went to an Italian one that we recognized by Slow Food International. There are many activities around the area if you get bored of baking in the sun. The Vietnamese people are surprisingly and extremely friendly. Most of all, unlike Thailand, there was no trance music or hookers.
- Nisha
One of a Kind
I have been reading this book The Glass Palace the last week. As a historical fiction fan I have found it quite fascinating because of the different prospective that it offers. It is written by a Bengali author, in English, and is about the British empire from the late 1800s to WWII from the prospective of an extended Indian/Burmese family. It is a nice change to read something, in its original language, about the colonial era from the prospective of those being colonized, rather then the British colonialists.
The reason I am writing about this is that a part in the book, as well as being in these countries torn apart by violent revolutions, makes me finally "get" Gandhi. As I wrote earlier, I read an autobiography of Gandhi awhile ago and this gave me a much more full picture of his life then I had before. I now know him as more then just a peaceful, Dohti wearing guy, but I still thought before today that he was too much of an idealist.
The thing about Gandhi is that even though he wanted India to be free, he wanted even more to solve India's social ills. In fact, he said that he did not want the British to go until India was ready to rule itself in a just way. Even at the point of independence, he still thought India was not really ready to rule itself. Also, he never wanted there to be a violent revolution. Despite the fact that it took 40 years for India to gain its freedom, he fought ferociously against the elements that wanted to go to war with the British.
When I first read this, I thought it was very admirable, but I did think that it was a little weak. Granted his strategy did work, but it took an incredible amount of time, and only worked because the British got tired of ruling a country that did not want them there. I did think that perhaps if the Indians has taken a more active course they may have still had independence, but just a lot sooner.
The thing that I did not take in to account is that, in general, even if your violent revolution is a success, you end up with a country ruled by violent revolutionaries. The problem is that the kind of people that are effective at fighting a war are also terrible, ruthless leaders after the war is over. A large part of the reason why a chaotic country like India became a stable democracy is that its political revolution resulted in politicians, not generals, becoming its first leaders. I am not an expert on Nehru, nor do I agree with all his ideas, but at least he was a secular politician who believed in democracy. The chances of a violent revolution producing a leader who fits that description are slight at best. The problem is that there is only one Gandhi, so violent revolutions will exist for as long as there are people who do not like their government.
Incidentally, I do realize that the American revolution is the one example I can think of where a violent revolution did not result in an early government with totalitarian tendencies. I am not sure yet why I think this happened the way that it did. One thing I can think of is that it was a different era, and it was English colonists fighting against the English crown, not another race or culture of people. It also, however, makes one think about how unique the early Americans were to take power for England but then give all that power to a democratic government. Perhaps they were one of a kind in their own way as well.
The reason I am writing about this is that a part in the book, as well as being in these countries torn apart by violent revolutions, makes me finally "get" Gandhi. As I wrote earlier, I read an autobiography of Gandhi awhile ago and this gave me a much more full picture of his life then I had before. I now know him as more then just a peaceful, Dohti wearing guy, but I still thought before today that he was too much of an idealist.
The thing about Gandhi is that even though he wanted India to be free, he wanted even more to solve India's social ills. In fact, he said that he did not want the British to go until India was ready to rule itself in a just way. Even at the point of independence, he still thought India was not really ready to rule itself. Also, he never wanted there to be a violent revolution. Despite the fact that it took 40 years for India to gain its freedom, he fought ferociously against the elements that wanted to go to war with the British.
When I first read this, I thought it was very admirable, but I did think that it was a little weak. Granted his strategy did work, but it took an incredible amount of time, and only worked because the British got tired of ruling a country that did not want them there. I did think that perhaps if the Indians has taken a more active course they may have still had independence, but just a lot sooner.
The thing that I did not take in to account is that, in general, even if your violent revolution is a success, you end up with a country ruled by violent revolutionaries. The problem is that the kind of people that are effective at fighting a war are also terrible, ruthless leaders after the war is over. A large part of the reason why a chaotic country like India became a stable democracy is that its political revolution resulted in politicians, not generals, becoming its first leaders. I am not an expert on Nehru, nor do I agree with all his ideas, but at least he was a secular politician who believed in democracy. The chances of a violent revolution producing a leader who fits that description are slight at best. The problem is that there is only one Gandhi, so violent revolutions will exist for as long as there are people who do not like their government.
Incidentally, I do realize that the American revolution is the one example I can think of where a violent revolution did not result in an early government with totalitarian tendencies. I am not sure yet why I think this happened the way that it did. One thing I can think of is that it was a different era, and it was English colonists fighting against the English crown, not another race or culture of people. It also, however, makes one think about how unique the early Americans were to take power for England but then give all that power to a democratic government. Perhaps they were one of a kind in their own way as well.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Quick Update
- We have been doing the last real beach stay of our trip on Mui Ne beach in
Vietnam. Is one of the top beaches that we have visited. There are
quite a few hotels, but it is pretty mellow. The beach is very long and nice, with pretty big surf, a nice change after Thailand;s calm waters.
- We really stuck gold with a hotel here. After a few places were
full we ended up with a bungalow literally 5 steps from the beach. The place is undergoing renovation, so there is construction, but it is just painting and quiet stuff. Because of the construction our room is half price and we get free breakfast and use of the big pool next door.
- Mui Ne is evidently one of the worlds best Windsurfing and Kitesurfing locations. Every day a sea breeze whips up that must be up around 25 knots in the middle of the day. This makes it a little annoying to sit on the beach (it is calmer before 10 and after 3), but watching the guys out there surfing is amazing. I have not windsurfed because it is really advanced and everyone seems to know how to do an in-water start and a carve jibe, which I never learned how to do. Also, since everyone else windsurfing is very, very expert I do not want to get in over my head and make an ass of myself.
- Kitesurfing has to be a pretty dangerous sport but is incredible to watch. Most people seem to keep their board on the water and just zip back and forth, but a few people do jumps, which are amazing. When they jump they look like they go about 10m in the air and stay up for at least 5 seconds. The really good guys make it look like a cross between windsurfing and hang-gliding.
- I might write more about this in the future, but I am kind of amazed how hard the Vietnamese work. At the construction in our hotel and around town in general, they get started at around 6 in the morning and are often still painting and sanding by the light of big florescent tubes until 8-10 at night. This is typical as people here in general are up and about at 5:30-6 in the morning and ofter are still working late in the evening. A Vietnamese construction site is pretty serious too, not much standing around. Seems like it could be part of the reason they were such worthy adversaries 40 years ago.
- Today we go back to Saigon (I am using the old name in this instance because that is what it is universally called here by the south Vietnamese, it is only written down as HCMC). Tomorrow we pick up Pete at the airport, he will be with us for the rest of the trip.
Vietnam. Is one of the top beaches that we have visited. There are
quite a few hotels, but it is pretty mellow. The beach is very long and nice, with pretty big surf, a nice change after Thailand;s calm waters.
- We really stuck gold with a hotel here. After a few places were
full we ended up with a bungalow literally 5 steps from the beach. The place is undergoing renovation, so there is construction, but it is just painting and quiet stuff. Because of the construction our room is half price and we get free breakfast and use of the big pool next door.
- Mui Ne is evidently one of the worlds best Windsurfing and Kitesurfing locations. Every day a sea breeze whips up that must be up around 25 knots in the middle of the day. This makes it a little annoying to sit on the beach (it is calmer before 10 and after 3), but watching the guys out there surfing is amazing. I have not windsurfed because it is really advanced and everyone seems to know how to do an in-water start and a carve jibe, which I never learned how to do. Also, since everyone else windsurfing is very, very expert I do not want to get in over my head and make an ass of myself.
- Kitesurfing has to be a pretty dangerous sport but is incredible to watch. Most people seem to keep their board on the water and just zip back and forth, but a few people do jumps, which are amazing. When they jump they look like they go about 10m in the air and stay up for at least 5 seconds. The really good guys make it look like a cross between windsurfing and hang-gliding.
- I might write more about this in the future, but I am kind of amazed how hard the Vietnamese work. At the construction in our hotel and around town in general, they get started at around 6 in the morning and are often still painting and sanding by the light of big florescent tubes until 8-10 at night. This is typical as people here in general are up and about at 5:30-6 in the morning and ofter are still working late in the evening. A Vietnamese construction site is pretty serious too, not much standing around. Seems like it could be part of the reason they were such worthy adversaries 40 years ago.
- Today we go back to Saigon (I am using the old name in this instance because that is what it is universally called here by the south Vietnamese, it is only written down as HCMC). Tomorrow we pick up Pete at the airport, he will be with us for the rest of the trip.
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