March 4, 2008: Hey Bruni!!!

32 hours after leaving Los Angeles, I was flying over Africa and looking through the very dusty and dense air above Lagos, Nigeria. Seated next to me was Danny, my very fragrant and would-be husband had he not exited the plane upon landing. He even requested a "peck" as he called it before leaving. That was one of my first introductions to the "friendliness" of Africans. He was harmless and actually told me a lot of about Nigeria (we stopped over in Lagos to refuel on the way to Accra) and the African culture in general. The title of the e-mail is a common "call" that Justine and I get in the streets...it means "Hey Whitey"! Although Justine is half-black, she is so much lighter than the majority of Ghanaians that she is seen as a Bruni.

Over the past five days, I have thought this e-mail over in my head so many times because I don't want to be more verbose than necessary! This is a trip I cannot articulate briefly and still leave you with a sense of what every day has been like. So...I'll give it a shot and I'll tell you more when I get back. Today is our first chance to check e-mail (can you imagine...me without e-mail for this long!) I've relished the break, but it is very strange feeling totally removed from the rest of the world.

Justine and I met up in Accra last Thursday night and left for Cape Coast the next morning. In the taxi from the airport to my hotel, I pulled a Bob Gallivan and asked about the country...the literacy level, if school was mandatory/free, what the typical businesses were in the capital, and yes, alas, I even asked if the banks were run solely by the government or if there were foreign banks (Dad..you'll have to wait for that answer until you get back from your trip!)

Driving in our taxi to the "bus station", I got my first impression of Ghana...there were people everywhere and all of them had the most beautiful ebony skin. Tourists, particularly, Europeans and Americans are few and far between. Roads are lined with small stalls where everything you can imagine is sold...mufflers, mattresses, tires, furniture, phone cards...you name it. Some are made of corrugated tin, some of mud, wood or cement. Since we have been here, I have yet to see a central supermarket or something of the kind. Upon arriving at the station, we spent three hours waiting for our bus. At about 9 AM the heat kicked in and sweat started pouring off our bodies. We finally left at about 11:20 (on the 11 AM bus) and arrived in Cape Coast 3 hours later. Mind you...the distance to Cape Coast is only about 100 miles...took twice as long as it would at home. And that was a lucky trip.

At Cape Coast, we walked the streets to visit the Cape Coast Castle, built by the Portuguese and later taken over by the Dutch and the British. The walk from our small pension was very eye opening. Justine had to remind me that we are in a third world country where infrastructure is minimal if any. Taxis and tro-tros (shared buses) represent about 75% of the cars on the road and they WIZZ past you giving a quick honk to let you know you better move your ass or get run over. Now, that would be fine if you could walk on the side walk; the sidewalk is actually the open sewage ditches that line the roads. They are where garbage is tossed, the water from the "street baths" trickles and of course where waste ends up. Many people try to burn the garbage that lies everywhere (again...limited garbage removal) so that smell mixed with the open sewage smell took some getting used to.

Both the castle at Cape Coast and Elmina (both originally Portuguese built and eventually British occupied) were fascinating. Elmina is the oldest castle in all of Africa, built late 1400's. These forts, originally purported to host trading of textiles with the Ghanains, became the last stop for slaves being sent to the Americas, Europe and eventually Asia. I cannot even begin to explain the monstrosities that occurred at these forts and the conditions in which the slaves were kept. In March, it is 100 degrees and 100% humidity. The slaves...hundreds of them, were kept in underground dungeons with only slits in the upper walls to the exterior to provide air and basically no sunlight. We went in one chamber that was about 20 x 12 and 200 male slaves were kept in there for 2 months without ever leaving. The chamber had been excavated and several feet of "filth" had been removed that had accumulated over the years. The slaves were taken underground through a tunnel to the "Door of no return" where they were sent off in slave boats to their next destination.

The goal seemed to be to starve and torture the slaves so that only the strongest and most valuable survived. The captors saved money on food and only sold the "best". The skinnier, the better - they could fit more on the ships. I will spare the other gruesome details until I return. Needless to say, both Justine and I were horrified at what we experienced. A funny note was that the man at the "reception" to the castle told us he would give us the student price if we promised to vote for Barrack. Justine was in...and I had to claim my Republican status; he let us both in anyway!

After seeing the Castle and Fort in Elmina, Justine and I walked the streets, followed by all the beautiful children calling "Hey Bruni!" and "Hello! What is your name?!" We chatted with some people as they are very friendly, but the men/boys are a bit "overeager"...asking for your e-mails and addresses and if you have a husband and children. Justine and I are apparently both married but yet to have kids! Still doesn't really stall the attention. One guide book writer actually gave out his address to all who asked for it and upon returning home had 40 letters from Ghanains! They are a friendly group! They do also like to touch you, which is a bit disarming when in very crowded places. Both Justine and I had our faces grabbed today in Kumasi, while we were trying to move through this very hectic town.

Travel in this country is a big pain. As mentioned above, it takes forever to go a distance that we take for granted at home. Yesterday, we traveled from 8 AM to 6 PM to get a distance of about 200 miles. We were fortunate in Cape Coast to befriend our taxi driver, Papa. He offered to drive us to Elmina from Cape Coast and then we made a deal for him to drive us to Axim, the beach "resort" we stayed at for two nights. We paid him $55 for the entire day, which, in retrospect was a bargain. The time at Axim was fantastic! We stayed in our own private hut on the hill above the ocean and had the quaintest room and shell encrusted bathroom. There was AC but as it is run on solar power, we discovered you cannot have a light, the TV and the AC on at once. Most everywhere seems to run on generators so we've experienced several blackouts at our hotels and tonight we had dinner by candlelight...fortunately they cook with gas so our pizzas (YUP!!!!) were just fine!

We went running on the beach every day and lounged by the beach. The ocean was wonderfully refreshing (not too warm) and we didn't venture to find out if there are sharks! Lizards are everywhere including one that hustles along a few feet and then does 3 push-ups! He's my favorite...little muscle head!

We left Axim yesterday for Kumasi...that entailed first checking out of our hotel. An aside...everything here is done in "Ghanaian time". Our trip demonstrates what that means. Checking out took 40 minutes. 40 minutes for the lady to process my credit card and call a taxi. Right. Then the taxi took us into town along one of the bumpiest roads ever (typical...most roads are not paved) with the biggest potholes you've ever seen and took us to the tro-tro station. Tro-tro's (shared buses) only leave when they are absolutely full to capacity (with the helper crouching in the front). We waited about an hour for ours to leave, sitting in the hot tro-tro to save our seats. Imagine sweat just pouring down your body...that was us.

The Ghanaians sweat too, but nothing like this Irish girl. After an hour and a half tro-tro ride to Takoradi in which our butts fell asleep from the bumping along and lack of cushions in our 1980's (maybe) beat up tro-tro, we arrived in Takoradi. Having some foresight, we had already bought our tickets for the bus that runs twice a day to Kumasi (4 AM or 12 PM - we chose 12). We waited about an hour and a half for the bus to leave on our 5 hour journey. A side quiz: what's the hardest thing to find in Ghana? Answer: a restroom. So...although it is 100 degrees, you have to be very careful not to over-hydrate or you will have no where to go. Literally. Justine warned me of this so we've unfortunately been slightly dehydrated most of the trip...also, finding something simple for lunch is practically impossible so of the last 5 days, we've only had lunch once and otherwise have subsisted on the lara/odwalla bars and dried apricots and mangos I fortunately brought. Our 5 hour bus ride was filled with wonderful entertainment...they played Ghanain movies. Remember the last time you saw a Ghanaian movie win an Oscar? Exactly. Pure torture played at HIGH volumes. Apparently the actors think if you shout it translates to the audience. Not really.

The countryside is amazingly beautiful. It reminded me a lot of Cambodia and Vietnam...very lush and full of forests of palm trees, plantain and banana trees and high grasses. The scenerey stretches for miles and offers some insight to how traveling between Cape Coast and Kumasi (200 miles) took several months a few hundred years ago. Villages break up this scenery and are mostly mud or tin huts bunched together on the side of the road. One or two wells serve the villages for water and the poverty is rather striking. The people are so nice and very welcoming - taking pictures is something you have to ask to do, but most people are very inviting.

In Kumasi, we visited the cultural center and museum and then went out to a village to see the Kente cloth being woven. Today was our most exciting day overall. We had the most wonderful guide through the Kente village...he was kind of effeminate and very chummy...almost the Ghanaian version of a gay guy friend. We loved him. He took us all around and was very funny with an infectious laugh. While touring, he said, "I'm peeping." Justine, having been here for a month, said, "OK" and ushered me to the side. Apparently Christian had to use the restroom...right there. Another thing you see everywhere is Christianity. The stores all have names like, "God Bless you Business Centre" - although I didn't see a Xerox or Fax machine in the 4 x 4 stall that housed this sign. Or "May you walk with him Beauty Salon". It's all over the place. Literacy is pretty low so most signs are accompanied by a painted picture. At the herbal medicine doctor hut, there were images depicting all sorts of sexually transmitted diseases. I couldn't get a photo, but it was rather humorous. We verified that we're "clean".

I have left out so much detail, but I will send another e-mail from Germany if possible and of course have a million photos already. I've taken video too as that really helps you understand what we're experiencing over here. We are off to go home right now and shower and probably watch a movie before going to bed.

February 27, 2008: Adios!

Hey all!

I've made it part way...7 am flight to Chicago and now on my 2nd plane. Now only an 8 hour flight, 5 hour layover and another 8 hour flight before I join JW's in Accra, Ghana! I can't believe I'm on my way. Traveling is seriously so fun for me...although the long travers alone isn't. Damn giving up wine for lent! I'm already through one book, on to the crossword and will shortly start the Katherine Graham bio.

Thank you to all of you for your calls and best wishes. Yes I'll be safe! I will try to send my typical verbose emails so you can experience Ghana vicariously through me! And of course I'll have a million photos when I return. Thanks to the Lainger, I have 2.5 megs of storage! Hope my battery doesn't blow with my converter!

March 3, 2006: Vietnam...the end of the trip

Vietnam...a word that reminds me of numerous movies, classes taught in high school and college, papers written in retrospect, a word that I could never fully comprehend and although I've now seen a glimpse of what it encompasses, I can only begin to imagine what Vietnam means to the thousands of people from the US that were involved in the Vietnam War.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) by sailing up the Mekong River. The landscape alongside the river at first was green jungle/trees as far as the eye could see. Muddy brown water lapping up on the visibly vacant muddy shore.

 There were little blue fishing boats moored in the river, presumably awaiting the fishermen that lived amongst the large expanse of jungle along the shore. As we reached Saigon, there were more fishing villages, large factories, transport ships, and barges rushing up and down the river taking exports out of Vietnam and to neighboring cities.

Our first day in Saigon, we took a tour through the city, visiting the large market where the people sold all sorts of foodstuffs and handmade items. Who knew there were eight different types of sugar and fifteen types of mushrooms that would have been unrecognizable to any but someone from this region of the world. It was a fascinating stop on our tour. Chinese medicinal herbs were sold ...all sorts of things that most of us couldn't even recognize! We saw the Rex

Hotel, which was a frequent stop for US military and journalists during the war...they are in the process of renovating it right now. The most striking thing was the amazing number of people in the city. There are 7 million people that live in Saigon...and apparently 3.5 million of them drive motobikes. People were everywhere! Apparently the number one cause of death in the country is traffic accidents, which certainly wasn't surprising. And I thought we were justified for road rage in Los Angeles...we've seen nothing compared to trying to maneuver through these streets!

Now...the thing I found most difficult to keep in mind was that Vietnam is a, for all intents and purposes, communist country. And the majority of people who work for the government or who have a job in a factory or something are paid accordingly ($80-100 per month on average). A doctor that goes through 6 years of medical school (only 1% of the applicants even get in), graduates and must work in a government hospital for the first 5 years. They make on average $20 per month! Only after five years can they open up there own clinic and earn any sort of real money!

However, compared to Cambodians, the Vietnamese are very entrepreneurial people. Our guide spoke English very well and told us a lot of about the "flexibility" of the Vietnamese government. Apart from his job as a guide, he also had a dry cleaning service to offer the hotel guests a more economic dry cleaning option as well as he had met a tourist from Michigan who had a boutique at home, and he acted as a middle man purchasing silk embroidered purses for her and took part of the profit selecting them and sending them to her to sell in the US. And apparently the government doesn't intervene at all in his businesses. Our guide told us so much that I can't even begin to reiterate in this e-mail, but basically the average age of a Vietnamese person is my age ....between 27-30 years old. And the majority of them want to make money, they strive to be successful, and they recognize that a Communist society will defeat those goals. However, they are able to live and accept a life of duplicity...a contradictory one at that. 

They are ruled by a Communist government but operate under Capitalist ambitions. This is what they call "flexible".

The most affecting experience we had while in Saigon was our visit to the Cu Chi Tunnels. For anyone who has ever read about or seen the depictions of these tunnels in movies or documentaries, it can't be understood until it's been experienced. The Cu Chi tunnels are a small fraction of the existing tunnel infrastructure that was constructed by the Viet Cong presumably during the French occupation of Vietnam. Apparently there are approximately 250 km (150 miles) of these tunnels built all around the country, but no one "knows" exactly where. Very suspicious. I went with a small group of eight people to visit the tunnels and it was a very emotional and educational experience. The tunnels are run by the Vietnam army and the "museum" portion of the location is told from the Viet Cong perspective which was very hard for all of us to experience without reacting negatively. There are no words to effectively explain what we saw and what it was like to go into these tiny tunnels...to see the "traps" that the Viet Cong used to trap American soldiers or the tricks they had to evade our soldiers finding them. It was unimaginable. And the location of the tunnels was amidst dense forests/jungles, horrible heat and humidity and I came to understand just being there what "guerilla warfare" must mean. Going into the tunnels in present day made my heart beat faster and caused a lot of anxiety amongst our group, but I couldn't even imagine what emotions it caused 30 years ago for soldiers that were my age and younger. I can only show you pictures later of these tunnels and the size of the real openings for I cannot do it justice in this e-mail.

After our visit to Saigon, we went to Nha Trang yesterday, which is a very pretty beach city in the middle of the Vietnam coast. Apparently it's where a lot of our soldiers went for R&R during the war. It was a very pretty area with a lot of fishing villages, wide boulevards reminiscent of the French occupations (same in Saigon) and a gorgeous beach area. The funny thing about the Vietnamese girls is that they don't like the sun. Most of the girls drive around on their motos fully covered (faces, arms, hands, everything)...apparently the whiter you are, the more successful/wealthy you look.

Now we are on our way to Hong Kong which we will get to tomorrow and I fly back to the US tomorrow afternoon. It has been an amazing trip, and I am sorry that it is over, but I obviously am living vicariously through my parents. We've met many fascinating people on this trip, and I have learned so much about an area that I didn't know at all before. There is so much more that I could write, but I'm sure most of you have lost interest already...all I can say is that this (Southeast Asia) is a place we should all see if possible in our lifetimes because it will only keep changing and growing.

February 22, 2006: Cambodia

Imagine flying over an expanse of green, luscious fields covered in water, interrupted only by rivers, wooden and tin huts on stilts and an occasional dirt or rudimentary paved road. No factories, not even any farm equipment...just water buffalo. This was the sight we saw as we circled over Siem Reap, Cambodia. One of the most beautiful sites....no pollution whatsoever for there is nothing to pollute the apparently untouched landscape.

We landed in Siem Reap and were all a bit unsure what to make of our new surroundings. The group we were with for this pre-cruise trip consisted of six people. My parents and I, a couple (Jeremy and Rosemary) from Sussex, England, and one single lady, Ms. Mary Margaret Carroll from Tucson, AZ. To give you a perspective on the demographic of the group, my dad was the third youngest of the group! But these people were the most ENTERTAINING bunch I've ever been with ...I laughed the entire time! First of all...Ms. Mary Margaret....well, she's an 86 year old woman who is my new idol. I was smart-assed by her more than I think I will ever be capable of smart-assing! Appropriately, she goes by "Marty" and has almost her entire life, but it's just ironic that her given name sounds more like a nun when she's so un-nunish! Jeremy and Rosemary are almost as entertaining....love the Brits!

Back to the trip....we were picked up by our guide and brought to our hotel, The Raffles Grand d'Ankor. The hotel was built back in the 1920's and retains the same architecture and charm of a hotel of that decade (although remodeled and with AC). It was like stepping back in time. Apparently Jackie Kennedy was one of the first visitors of this hotel, and I can understand why. Our first evening was just a relaxing one...we explored the grounds and the spa. All of us ended up getting massages....an 85 minute massage was only $50! And it was fabulous as you can imagine.

The Cambodian people were the nicest people I have ever met. And this is shocking considering that this is the poorest country I have ever seen. An average annual salary is $300 per year, but most people make much less than that. However, everyone was wonderful and so nice and beyond accommodating.

We spent three days touring the temples of Ankor, which were fascinating. We learned all about the Hindu and Buddhist influences and walked through countless temples and tombs. I'm sorry to say it, but if you've seen "Tomb Raider", this is really what it's like. Temples out in the jungle built centuries ago with amazing designs and even more fascinating how they were constructed. Blocks of sandstone carried by elephants and men for 100's of miles to build these enormous temples surrounded by moats and huge walls.

The Cambodian cuisine was equally as wonderful....tandoori and curry foods, Ankor beer, (we even had lunch in the Ankor cafe, sipping Ankor beers, in front of Ankor Wat, in the Ankor region). One evening we had a Cambodian barbecue....outside with all sorts of regional foods and then traditional dancing by the local Cambodian people. It was fascinating. The only caveat to the trip was the heat and humidity....we showered some days four times because we would just be sitting there at a temple sopping wet. 90 degrees and I swear 300% humidity! I'm almost getting used to it at this point! 

From Siem Reap we traveled by plan to Phom Penh....a much more industrialized city. There were actual car lanes and a few street lights (lacking in Siem Reap). No McD's, Starbucks, etc. anywhere as there is in Singapore, Taiwan. They do have a Lucky Burger though....we didn't try our luck. Here we visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This was the site of one of the prisons used during the Khmer Rouge. It was a devastating experience to see what a group of people could do to their own people....pictures of the women, men and very, very young children, even babies that were killed because they were thought to be "spies" were shown along with many other things that I won't go into. Talking to our guides about this time period was very interesting and eye-opening. I had read a few books about survivors of this genocide, but to hear it first hand is so much more blatantly real.  

Last night we were taken from our hotel by "cyclo" to a restaurant on the Mekong River. A Cyclo is like a rickshaw, but a little seat that you sit on and a person behind you on a bike that is touring you around. My cyclo was PINK! Torrey...you'd be jealous. It was fabulous! Most people in Cambodia don't have cars (too costly) but drive motos. And you don't have to have a license. Imagine the chaos! It was a bit frightening, but very entertaining watching our six cyclos (Marty leading the way) maneuvering through the roads....there is no "right of way" or "signaling"...it's very similar to Boston driving...if you don't look at the oncoming driver, they hopefully won't hit you! 

All in all...one of the most fantastic countries I have ever visited. A place I would suggest for a honeymoon to anyone our age...relaxing but still with a lot of culture to experience. Despite the poverty, both my dad and I agree that this country is up and coming. Worth a look if you are considering investing in Southeast Asia. We are back in Singapore today and get on the boat tomorrow afternoon, but we will return to the south of Cambodia (Shihanoukville) this weekend to go to a beach resort on the Thai Sea...crystal blue waters and everything and then on to Vietnam. 

Till then...