Some additional impressions of Malaysia:
This is a Muslim country. One tends to forget that, but I am reminded by the sight of women in the full black dress with mask and only the eyes showing. In contrast there are also women dressed in short skirts, apparently without comment or evidence of disapproval. I believe that the Muslim women in their abaya's are mostly tourists from Arab countries, who come here because it is easy to get halaal food. There is a "religious police" here, but they seem to spend their time looking for books to disapprove of. Books can be banned here. There are probably other functions that the religious police perform, but I didn't come across any. There are however, no bikinis at the hotel swimming pool.
The local cuisine is a particular blend of Chinese and Indian that is not found anywhere else in Malaysia. This was our special treat at the faculty dinner last night. It wasn't too inspiring. To give us a local flavor we were driven to he hotel in the Malay equivalent of a tuk-tuk. This is a man-powered tricycle with a side car, a kind of rickshaw. These are decorated with artificial flowers and multi-coloured lights, like Christmas lights.
My hosts here have been very solicitious, and if I was a demanding guest I am sure they would have catered to my every whim. I got up to go to the loo and they wanted to know if I needed anything. I told them I could manage by myself. I had had plenty of practice.
My flight tonight is at 8.00, but I have a 2 hour drive to get to the airport, so I will be leaving soon. I'll give you my impressions of Vietnam, as much as I can glean from a short visit in the next blog
July 1.
Hope everyone is enjoying Canada Day. I am in Vietnam
I gave my talk this morning and then my hosts took me around the city this afternoon. Ho Chi Minh City is like a mixture of India and Thailand, mixed in with a bit of Japan. There are masses of electrical wires strung between unsteady-looking poles, just as we saw in India. The are wealthy areas, looking much like many of the places we saw in Japan, cheek by jowl with poorer areas, where the shops are all holes in the walls, with no storefront and no counter. The goods are stacked inside and out, and the vendors sit in the street waiting for custom. My hotel is in the central business district, adjacent to several big and modern-looking hotels, Sheraton, Sofitel, etc, and adjacent to a few tall modern glass towers. But in the morning there is a rooster crowing outside my window. This is reminiscent of India and Thailand. The traffic is also different. The have different rules here, but everyone seems to obey the rules. Everyone travels slowly. Scooters by the thousands weave in and out of traffic. Cars and scooters cut across lanes at will, but nothing bumps into anything. The rules seem to be - go slow, avoid collisions, otherwise anything goes. Traffic lights are obeyed, sort of, and unlike India, people respect the direction that traffic is supposed to flow in. No-one going against the stream.
The most preferred form of transportation here is the scooter. There are more scooters than pedestrians. At a red light a line-up of scooters waiting for the green looks like a solid phalanx. The line-up is 20 yards deep an perhaps 20 feet across. In traffic they weave in and out of the stream, and at intersections without lights (the majority) the streams mingle and intermix like columns of ants going in different directions, some merging with one of the several streams, and some leaving their stream and joining others. Very different from what we are used to. They tell me there are 10 million inhabitants in Ho Chi Minh City, and 5 million scooters. I think they are all going my way. Apparently 80% come from China, Honda knock off's, down to the logo, that cost 1/10 of what the real thing costs
All the big box stores and designer labels are here, suggesting wealth, but apparently about 40% of this wealth has been obtained by corruption. There are many billionaires here, who, I am told, gained their wealth just as they did in Russia, and in China and South Africa, and no doubt many other places as well. My host took me to meet a friend of his, and internist at a private hospital, who enlightened me as to the economy of Vietnam. The increase in GDP last year was 5%. However, according to him the was mostly due to sale of resources, including the mines that produce the resources, to China. Vietnam is very much a client state of China. Despite this in the last few days China invaded an island belonging to Vietnam, apparently it has oil. Of course the Vietnamese government did not protest. However, there was a "large" street protest. About 1000 people. I guess that is large for Vietnam, where any form of street protest is illegal. Apparently there were more police than protestors.
We went to a market. You how I love that sort of thing - not!. It stank. Apparently durian was the cause. For those of you who don't know, durian is a fruit about the size of a very large pineapple. It looks like one of those spiky medieval maces that are swung on a chain. when opened it stinks to high heaven. Apparently the taste is delicious, if you can get past the smell. I was not prepared to try it. Some places have banned durian because of the smell. The smell permeated the whole market
My host took me for dinner to a local restaurant, one where Vietnamese eat. There was nothing fancy about this place. The tables were metal topped, no table cloths, the paint peeling and everything looking shabby. There was nothing shabby about the food. Fried soft shell crabs, from tank to table accompanied by "vegetables". These were actually leaves of various sorts, including peppermint and other herbs that I did not recognize. Very good.
Now it's getting late (for me), 9.30 pm. Time for bed, with an early start tomorrow
July 2
Leaving Vietnam is more hassle than it should be. Just as well I left plenty of time to get through the departure formalities. Spent 30 minutes in passport control. Not that they were that busy, just painfully slow. In addition, as always I chose the slowest line. We were progressing nicely when in front of us there was a Vietnamese couple whose papers were not in order. That took 20 minutes of discussion before they were allowed to leave. I waited in line for a while, and then in frustration moved to another shorter line, only to have another hold-up, who knows why. I would have done better to stay in the original line. But I am getting used to this. Apparently it is my karma to always chose the slowest line. So if we have to line up together somewhere, do not join my line.
Nice hotel room here in Bangkok in one of the glass towers of the city. Nice trip in from the airport as well, in a new, spotless expensive Mercedes. They are treating me well on this trip.
I am here now for a few days. I've already done some washing, and I will be doing some catching up with work. With a little luck I will be up to date when by the time I get home.
Had dinner tonight at a restaurant in the mall attached to the hotel. I had a red duck curry, which was delicious, but much less spicy than I had expected. There were these things floating in the broth that looked like peas, green and round and pea-sized, but they had a tougher exterior, and when you bit into them the squirted out a flavoured juiced. Not sure what they were, but they were good.
Tomorrow I give another talk at lunch time. think I will just stay in the hotel and work in the morning. It's hot and steamy outside.
This is a Muslim country. One tends to forget that, but I am reminded by the sight of women in the full black dress with mask and only the eyes showing. In contrast there are also women dressed in short skirts, apparently without comment or evidence of disapproval. I believe that the Muslim women in their abaya's are mostly tourists from Arab countries, who come here because it is easy to get halaal food. There is a "religious police" here, but they seem to spend their time looking for books to disapprove of. Books can be banned here. There are probably other functions that the religious police perform, but I didn't come across any. There are however, no bikinis at the hotel swimming pool.
The local cuisine is a particular blend of Chinese and Indian that is not found anywhere else in Malaysia. This was our special treat at the faculty dinner last night. It wasn't too inspiring. To give us a local flavor we were driven to he hotel in the Malay equivalent of a tuk-tuk. This is a man-powered tricycle with a side car, a kind of rickshaw. These are decorated with artificial flowers and multi-coloured lights, like Christmas lights.
My hosts here have been very solicitious, and if I was a demanding guest I am sure they would have catered to my every whim. I got up to go to the loo and they wanted to know if I needed anything. I told them I could manage by myself. I had had plenty of practice.
My flight tonight is at 8.00, but I have a 2 hour drive to get to the airport, so I will be leaving soon. I'll give you my impressions of Vietnam, as much as I can glean from a short visit in the next blog
July 1.
Hope everyone is enjoying Canada Day. I am in Vietnam
I gave my talk this morning and then my hosts took me around the city this afternoon. Ho Chi Minh City is like a mixture of India and Thailand, mixed in with a bit of Japan. There are masses of electrical wires strung between unsteady-looking poles, just as we saw in India. The are wealthy areas, looking much like many of the places we saw in Japan, cheek by jowl with poorer areas, where the shops are all holes in the walls, with no storefront and no counter. The goods are stacked inside and out, and the vendors sit in the street waiting for custom. My hotel is in the central business district, adjacent to several big and modern-looking hotels, Sheraton, Sofitel, etc, and adjacent to a few tall modern glass towers. But in the morning there is a rooster crowing outside my window. This is reminiscent of India and Thailand. The traffic is also different. The have different rules here, but everyone seems to obey the rules. Everyone travels slowly. Scooters by the thousands weave in and out of traffic. Cars and scooters cut across lanes at will, but nothing bumps into anything. The rules seem to be - go slow, avoid collisions, otherwise anything goes. Traffic lights are obeyed, sort of, and unlike India, people respect the direction that traffic is supposed to flow in. No-one going against the stream.
The most preferred form of transportation here is the scooter. There are more scooters than pedestrians. At a red light a line-up of scooters waiting for the green looks like a solid phalanx. The line-up is 20 yards deep an perhaps 20 feet across. In traffic they weave in and out of the stream, and at intersections without lights (the majority) the streams mingle and intermix like columns of ants going in different directions, some merging with one of the several streams, and some leaving their stream and joining others. Very different from what we are used to. They tell me there are 10 million inhabitants in Ho Chi Minh City, and 5 million scooters. I think they are all going my way. Apparently 80% come from China, Honda knock off's, down to the logo, that cost 1/10 of what the real thing costs
All the big box stores and designer labels are here, suggesting wealth, but apparently about 40% of this wealth has been obtained by corruption. There are many billionaires here, who, I am told, gained their wealth just as they did in Russia, and in China and South Africa, and no doubt many other places as well. My host took me to meet a friend of his, and internist at a private hospital, who enlightened me as to the economy of Vietnam. The increase in GDP last year was 5%. However, according to him the was mostly due to sale of resources, including the mines that produce the resources, to China. Vietnam is very much a client state of China. Despite this in the last few days China invaded an island belonging to Vietnam, apparently it has oil. Of course the Vietnamese government did not protest. However, there was a "large" street protest. About 1000 people. I guess that is large for Vietnam, where any form of street protest is illegal. Apparently there were more police than protestors.
We went to a market. You how I love that sort of thing - not!. It stank. Apparently durian was the cause. For those of you who don't know, durian is a fruit about the size of a very large pineapple. It looks like one of those spiky medieval maces that are swung on a chain. when opened it stinks to high heaven. Apparently the taste is delicious, if you can get past the smell. I was not prepared to try it. Some places have banned durian because of the smell. The smell permeated the whole market
My host took me for dinner to a local restaurant, one where Vietnamese eat. There was nothing fancy about this place. The tables were metal topped, no table cloths, the paint peeling and everything looking shabby. There was nothing shabby about the food. Fried soft shell crabs, from tank to table accompanied by "vegetables". These were actually leaves of various sorts, including peppermint and other herbs that I did not recognize. Very good.
Now it's getting late (for me), 9.30 pm. Time for bed, with an early start tomorrow
July 2
Leaving Vietnam is more hassle than it should be. Just as well I left plenty of time to get through the departure formalities. Spent 30 minutes in passport control. Not that they were that busy, just painfully slow. In addition, as always I chose the slowest line. We were progressing nicely when in front of us there was a Vietnamese couple whose papers were not in order. That took 20 minutes of discussion before they were allowed to leave. I waited in line for a while, and then in frustration moved to another shorter line, only to have another hold-up, who knows why. I would have done better to stay in the original line. But I am getting used to this. Apparently it is my karma to always chose the slowest line. So if we have to line up together somewhere, do not join my line.
Nice hotel room here in Bangkok in one of the glass towers of the city. Nice trip in from the airport as well, in a new, spotless expensive Mercedes. They are treating me well on this trip.
I am here now for a few days. I've already done some washing, and I will be doing some catching up with work. With a little luck I will be up to date when by the time I get home.
Had dinner tonight at a restaurant in the mall attached to the hotel. I had a red duck curry, which was delicious, but much less spicy than I had expected. There were these things floating in the broth that looked like peas, green and round and pea-sized, but they had a tougher exterior, and when you bit into them the squirted out a flavoured juiced. Not sure what they were, but they were good.
Tomorrow I give another talk at lunch time. think I will just stay in the hotel and work in the morning. It's hot and steamy outside.
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