Baanessa

New York City (population: about 8,008,000) Fast paced and distracting, New York certainly has it all. After being in non-English speaking countries for over a year, suddenly I could understand every sign, every word, everyone. I was amazed at people’s willingness to talk about absolutely anything personal on the street as loudly and proudly and possible, despite being surrounded by strangers. All this plus neon advertising and sculpture was extremely distracting. Plenty of world class icons to speak of here, including the Empire State building, Statue of Liberty and Central Park. This is the city, where even its residents are proud enough to wear the “I love NY” T shirt. I met a lovely girl from Sydney on the bus back to the airport who spent my first day with me. We marvelled at Times Square, ... read more

Roma (Rome; population 2.65 million) Home of the great emperors, gladiators, gelato and the great Renaissance art. On arrival I was hit (again) with the culture shock of disorganisation. Trains sometimes are cancelled or delayed 20 minutes and the train station signs seem to direct you through a maze that gets to nowhere. But, if you block out all the loud English-speaking tourists by escaping the tourists traps, the charm of the city shines through. This amazing country has been inhabited by Italic tribes since 2000 BC. In brief, Rome conquered Spain and Greece in 202 BC, then Gaul and Egypt under Julius Caesar and then all the way up to Britain. In I have never seen so much marble and grandeur in my life. It becomes blatantly obvious the enormous wealth of the Catholic Church ... read more

Helsinki (population 560, 000) If you want to experience some cultural extremes, just fly from Asia to Baltic Europe. Completely different climate, people and food. Already on the plane, I felt comfortable as I blended in with the blondes with blue eyes around me. It’s always a relief to feel like you are not always being watched or targeted as a tourist. Walking off the plane in Helsinki, nobody hassled me for accommodation or tried to coax me into a taxi. I looked and felt completely like everybody else - until of course somebody started talking to me in Finnish only to receive a blank expression then “I’m sorry, I’m not Finnish” in return. Suffering from jetlag and confused by the long hours of daylight, I crawl into my bed at 6pm for a quick ... read more

Phenom Penh The “Tuol Sleng” Genocide Museum was a former Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison used to detain people accused of opposing Angkor. Apparently “Tuol” means higher than that around it, and “Sleng” means supplying guilt, poison or and enemy of disease. This literally translates to a poisonous mound to keep those who bear guilt toward Angkor. Security Office 21 (S-21) was secretly created at Tuol Sleng in 1976 for interrogation of anti-Angkor individuals. Before that, it was a high school which was enclosed by corrugated iron sheets, electrified barbed wire and the class rooms were converted into 0.8 x 2 meter prison cells. While there were 1,720 ‘general workers’ at the prison, male and female children (10-15 years) were trained were trained to be selected as guards for S-21. These normal children were transformed into ... read more

Guizhou (population 8,940, 116) Our guide for Guizhou took us trekking to some of the more remote Miao ethnic minority villages. The Miao people are the largest minority groups in China and divided into branches, including: Black Hmong, White Hmong and Stripped Hmong depending on their dress. Here people believe that everything has a spirit that controls their destiny. So during disasters, an elder will perform ceremonies to drive out evil spirits. There are yearly memorial ceremonies are festivals celebrated in this region. While we were there, the sister festival was beginning, which is the equivalent of Valentine’s Day in the west. During this week all the young girls dress up in colourful clothes and arrange their hair into a bun at the front decorated with a big fuchsia pink flower. According to Fox, the ... read more