Blogs from Asia - page 14701

Returning from Hsipaw, we stayed overnight in Mandalay (no Bay) before our boat ride to Bagan. We, of course, visited our favorite 'Chapati Stand' for a final dinner in Mandalay. The boat ride lasted approximately five hours down the Ayerwaddy River. The distance between Mandalay and Bagan is not actually far at all but the river is extremely shallow at many points. As if our boat wasn't slow enough, it needed to traverse (read: zigzag) from bank to bank for virtually the entire trip. Regardless, as the boat is only for tourists - we're probably the only people who could afford the $15 ticket - and there are hardly any tourists, the boat was empty outside of a handful of foreigners. It was a beautiful day and we were able to enjoy the riverside scenery and ... read more

May 16-20, 2006. Bangkok-Pattaya-Bangkok. The trip that jumpstarted my wanderlust, the four-day sojourn in Thailand was made possible by a regional conference in Pattaya that the KMBI was participating. Since my mom was part of the organization and my dad usually tags along in such trips, they were nice enough to tag their little ones along for some Southeast Asian fun. Unfortunately, an upset stomach and an unexpected drumming stint kept me in the hotel for most of two days. That didn't dampen the newfound zest I had for traveling. Only a few pictures herein as most other prints have been lost. This trip was before I laid my antique film SLR to rest.... read more

14th May (Sun) - We took a bus from Phnom Penh to the Cambodia-Vietnam border. The tiny bus was packed with passengers and the road was damn bumpy. At the Vietnam border, we queued for a long time because the immigration officers were paid by travel agencies to settle the passports of the people in the tour groups... Since we were not in any tour groups, we couly only helplessly watch the tour operators pushing piles and piles of passports to the immigration officers. After sometime, my mum and some fellow passengers in our bus were fed up and they complained loudly in front of the tour operators and the immigration officials... The tour operators, being scared by our loud voices, finally let us go through the immigration first... After another 2 hours, we finally reached ... read more

Hoi An... read more

Aruna’s fight continues. She has been explaing the ‘reservation policy’ to me. Here in India, the cast system is alive and well. It is visible in the way some children won’t play with or hold hands with others and it is visible in the number of unversity palces awarded to students of different backgrounds. Aruna addresses the former in here school simply. Everyone is expected to perform the same rituals as everybody else (normally only a ‘brahmin’ would be allowed to peform the dialy hindy temple rite of ‘puja’) and everyone plays with everyone else. Discrimination within the school is tackled head on by getting the children to reflect on their words and deeds. The government however is dealing with the caste division differently. It has introduced quotas so that universities have to take certain percentages ... read more