Brunei, the Gateway to Borneo

This week I'm in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunei) which shares Borneo, the world's third largest island, with parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. Brunei is ruled by (are you ready for this?) Hassanal Bolkiah, his majesty, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam, Grand Chamberlain YAM Pengiran Penggawa Laila Bentara Istiadat Diraja Dalam Istana Pengiran Hj Alauddin bin Pengiran Paduka Tuan Pengiran Hj Abu Bakar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassanal_Bolkiah).  There have been 29 Sultans of Brunei going back to the year 1405.

The Sultan is one of the world's richest men and owns extensive holdings of oil and natural gas. He also has what is purported to be the world's largest palace and grounds (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istana_Nurul_Iman).   The Sultan is also famous for his vast automobile collection, having been said to have owned between 3,000 and 5,000 cars: according to The Guinness Book of Records the Sultan's personal collection includes the world's largest collection of Rolls-Royces -- 500 in all. During the 1990s, his family accounted for almost half of all Rolls-Royce purchases, bulk buying slightly modified vehicles for diplomats and adding unique cars to their own collection. He also owns the very last Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, a 1992 state landaulette.

Sixty-five percent of the Sultan's 400,000 subjects are Sunni Muslim.  The Sultan has shown some religious tolerance by allowing a few churches, temples and shrines (but as of yet no synagogues) to serve foreign workers, businessmen and diplomats. He holds a firm line on alcohol which cannot be purchased anywhere in Brunei. However, in an attempt to build up tourism and to be hospitable, he allows foreigners to bring in small amounts for their own use. The volume is checked closely on the way in and out to try to prevent it from ending up in local hands.

During the past decade, the Sultan has led a major effort to modernize the capital with new infrastructure, mosques, restaurants, and a shopping mall. It has excellent roads and its drivers are among the most disciplined in Asia.  However, the city is "dead as a door nail" after dark.  There is very little crime in Brunei with the following being a possible reason: as my flight approached the Bandar Airport, the purser announced that anyone caught with drugs in Brunei would be punished with death.

Seventy percent of working Bruneians are employed by the Government. According to my tour guide, public sector employees typically work 4-5 hours a day with a two-hour lunch break and several half-hour tea breaks. Government employees get interest-free loans to build homes. Brunei residents pay no taxes and receive free medical care and education all the way through university if they remain in the country to work.

One of the capital's principal tourist attractions is the suburb of Kampung Ayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampong_Ayer) with 39,000 inhabitants living in houses on stilts along the estuaries of the Brunei River.  The government has provided electricity and plumbing to all of them which are connected through a series of wooden walkways.  There are also schools, mosques and clinics on stilts among the homes. Other points of interest in and around Bandar are the Royal Brunei Museum, the Royal Regalia Museum (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwBc3g4XEFI), several interesting mosques topped with golden domes, and the Palace which can be viewed from afar but can only be visited on special occasions.

The primary attraction outside the capital is Ulu Temburong National Park which is reached by boat and is a rain forest preserve for exotic flora and fauna (http://www.ecologyasia.com/html-loc/ulu-temburong.htm). 

Ok, so there you have it -- everything you always wanted to know about Brunei Darussalem. It's been an interesting place for a few days, but I'm ready to move on.

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque

Bangkok's Two Faces

Greetings from fascinating Bangkok, Thailand where I am working for a week.  It certainly has a very rich Buddhist culture with its stupas, temples and pagodas as well as it royal palaces (http://www.1stopbangkok.com/gallery).  For those who have reached a certain age, you will remember the 1950's vintage Oscar-winning film "The King and I" with Yul Brynner, Deborah Kerr and Rita Moreno (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PlnzCl5x-8)  which was set in the days when Thailand was still Siam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thailand).  The film was probably the first introduction of Thailand/Siam to many Americans.  The public at large became much more aware of Thailand during the Vietnam War when American GIs came here for Rest and Recuperation leave.  In 1979, Gertrud and I spent a belated honeymoon in Thailand because her brother was living here and could offer us the use of his company's beach house. We also stopped through here several times in conjunction with our foreign service posting to Australia in the late 1980's when it was a shoppers paradise and one could try exotic Thai food, long before it became a world cuisine.  I can still remember our first taste of sweet coconut milk in food and we weren't sure we liked it. Now it is one of our favorites.

Unfortunately, Bangkok also has an ugly underbelly which has sullied its otherwise deserved reputation as a first class tourist destination.  It is probably the number one target city in the world for sex tourists, many from Europe, Australia and the US. It is not uncommon to see men in their 60s and 70s walking the streets with 18-year olds (perhaps even younger) on their arms. Unscrupulous businessmen and human traffickers entice many young girls from the impoverished countryside of Thailand and surrounding countries to Bangkok for jobs, which turn out to be quite different than what they expect. Apparently this sordid business is promoted by many in the Thai Government and Police and it has become a major source of foreign exchange for the country. 

Sorry to end on such a sad note.

Formerly Ceylon

I'm currently in Colombo, the capital of what used to be called Ceylon:  it became Sri Lanka in 1972 but due to my advancing age, I often follow the British habit of calling new countries by their colonial names so I don't have to remember the new ones (e.g. Myanmar is still Burma for me and its capital is still Rangoon, not Yangon).  At least Sri Lanka still considers itself "the pearl of the Indian Ocean" so not everything has changed.  This is my first time in Sri Lanka, although Gertrud and I did make an airport stop in Ceylon about 40 years ago.  To me the former name immediately conjures up images of the British colonial tea and rubber plantations which are still being worked.  However today, the country's primary foreign exchange  earner is the labor of Sri Lankans in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Emirates and other oil-rich countries of the Middle East.

Sri Lanka is about half way around the world and approximately a 24 hour flight from Washington.  I reached it via Atlanta and Dubai on one of Delta's new flat bed-flights and was able to get about 9 hours sleep.  I actually arrived in Colombo quite refreshed and can't imagine going on any more flights of this duration in "cattle" class. I'm now spoiled and our kids inheritance will have to take a hit if Gertrud and I take any more vacations further away than Europe.

I'm only here a few days and don't have much time to see the sights so can only report my basic impressions.  My biggest surprise has been to discover that Sri Lanka is about 70 percent Buddhist (the rest being Hindus, Muslims and Christians). I had somehow pictured it as being primarily Hindu or Muslim and much like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.  It feels more like Burma or Nepal with many pagodas, stupas and temples dotting the landscape. An interesting local tradition is Poya, a Buddhist public holiday for religious observance which takes place at each full moon (12-13 times a year). (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poya).

A Colombo City View

In terms of ethnicity, approximately 75 percent of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese with about 15 percent being Tamils (about half of the Tamils have their roots in Sri Lanka and the other half are of Indian origin). In the early 1970s the Sinhalese-run government declared Buddhism the official state religion and Sinhalese the official language. This stirred up the Tamils, who are Hindu, and they began agitating to secede and to create an independent Tamil state. The "Tamil Tigers" (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1869501,00.html) became infamous due to their early use of brutal, terrorist tactics against civilian populations and have been emulated by other terrorist groups since.

Berliner Luft

Click below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k65xxlwSYXw&feature=related

Greetings from Berlin, one of the world's most exciting cities, weather permitting. We have just finished a week here working, visiting family and friends, and enjoying as much of the "Berliner Luft" (ambiance) as time permitted.  And on the rainy weekend, we visited a few of the city's great museums which now total more than 200. (http://www.visitberlin.de/english/sightseeing/e_si_museen_liste.php).  Five of the major ones are located on the Museum Island which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_Island). 

On Saturday we spent several hours in two extremely thought-provoking museums -- the Jewish Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Museum_Berlin) and the open-air, Topography of Terror Museum (http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5545090,00.html). A large part of the former focuses on Jewish life in Germany before WW II and on the important roles Jews played in business, education, culture and entertainment in Berlin.  Later segments were on the great hope Jews had in the early days of the Weimar Republic when everyone was declared equal; and then how badly things turned against the Jews as Hitler rose to power. 

The Topography of Terror Museum contains panel after panel of documents, with analysis, on the rise of Hitler and the Nazis.  A major focus is on the organizations the Nazis used to control the population and to carry out Hitlers policies and programs. Many of these organizations were headquartered near what is now the museum.  Several analytical quotes on the museum panels make one realize that such a horror could happen again if we don't stay vigilant.  For example:

"The theoretical element played only a secondary role in the SS.  The essential connecting element was, instead, a certain mentality.  Thus SS training consisted of influencing the men's mentality: by the way they did their service, their communal life, jargon and the like.  In this way the SS man learned the attitude of a warrior for war's sake; unquestioning obedience;hardness as hardening himself, including against any human empathy; contempt for the inferior and arrogance towards all those who did not belong to the Order; comradeship and camaraderie; that there can be no such thing as the 'impossible.'  And then there were the simplified and absolute notions of the enemy: 'the Jew,' 'Boshevism,' the 'eastern Untermensch." 
Hans Bucheim, Historian, 1967.

Although my wife is from Bavaria (which has had a long rivalry with Prussia), we love Berlin and visit it often during annual personal trips to Germany. One can never get enough of the Berliner Luft.

Hello from Warsaw

where the River Wisla is threatening to overflow its banks.  There has been a watch on for several days due to flooding up river.  The weather has actually been quite nice since Gertrud and I arrived in Warsaw but there has been a lot of rain further north. 

We spent much of this past weekend visiting museums and hanging out in the old city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Old_Town) which has been beautifully restored since the war during which an estimated eighty-five percent of the city was destroyed and 850,000 were killed.

Gertrud at Warsaw's Castle Square

We found the Warsaw Uprising Museum (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising_Museum) especially interesting. It documents the Polish Underground's uprising against the Nazis in 1944. There was also an 1943 uprising in the Jewish Ghetto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising). Unfortunately both were cruelly crushed. 

Poland, with its unfortunate location between much larger and historically more powerful Germany and Russia has had a very tragic history. And there are many monuments throughout Warsaw paying homage to patriots who tried to stand up for Polish sovereignty and culture. Among the most important historical and culture figures are Frederick Chopin, Madam Marie Curie, Nicolas Copernicus and more recently, Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II who Poles feel were the most responsible for the fall of the Soviet bloc and the Soviet Union.  They would strongly disagree with Americans who believe it was Ronald Reagan. 

The tragedies of Polish history are again very visible in Warsaw in the form of a large exhibit in front of the presidential palace honoring the recently deceased Polish president Lech Kazynski.  As you have probably read, he died this past April 10th in a plane crash, together with his wife and several senior government officials, near the Russian city of Smolensk, They were en route to an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Forest Massacre in which thousands of Poland's elite were executed by Soviet secret police. In 2007, a Polish director made a film about the Katyn incident (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1207748-katyn).   A friend recommended this film to us just a few months ago and we ordered it through Netflix.  It now appears that Lech Kazynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kazynski, who was formerly President, may run again to replace Lech.  Neither have been especially popular but Jaroslaw is likely to have a lot of sympathy on his side if he runs.

(Update on 7/5/2010: Jaroslaw Kazynski was defeated by Bronislaw Komorowski).

There is not much left of Warsaw's infamous Jewish Ghetto but a museum, now under construction to preserve its place in history, is scheduled for completion in 2011.  The following website also provides a history of the Jewish presence in Warsaw.  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Warsaw.html

Uzbekistan on the Great Silk Road

Greetings from Uzbekistan, the heart of the ancient trading route know as the Great Silk Road.  (http://www.orexca.com/silkroad.php)  As indicated on this map (http://www.orexca.com/silk_road.html), the Silk Road ran from the Gobi Desert in China to the Turkish Bosporus.  It is named after the famous Chinese export which moved along it by camel to become the rage of fashionable women in Europe and the Mediterranean.  The Uzbek cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent were major trading centers and cross-roads along the route and have become popular tourist destinations since the breakup of the Soviet Union.  I've been working in Tashkent, the modern Uzbek capital, for the past week which I find much less interesting than either Samarkand or Bukhara.  I visited Samarkand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samarkand) 5 years ago, and spent last weekend in Bukhara (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukhara), flying there in an ancient Russian Tupolev aircraft.  (When was the last time you flew in a commercial plane that had open shelves above the passengers).  Both Samarkand and Bukhara are UNESCO World Heritage cites and contain some of the world's most beautiful Islamic architecture. For examples, check out the pictures on the links.  And then put both cities on your "must see before you die" list.

With new friends in Bukhara

A mosque in Bukhara

The vast majority of Uzbeks are Muslims but not very religious.  They enjoy their Muslim traditions and festivities but few pray 5 times a day and rarely go to the Mosque, especially in the cities. Uzbek men also like their beer and vodka, perhaps a corruption inherited from their former Russian rulers.  The young urbanites of Tashkent follow the fashions of Europe and the US with an impressive percentage of the girls (sorry I meant young women) very chic and pretty.  In more isolated Bukhara, which has the feel of a small town, many wear traditional dress.  But I didn't see any burkas and surprisingly few head scarfs.  Large minority populations include Tajiks and Russians.  There is also a long Jewish history in Uzbekistan with the Jews of Bukhara having been especially prominent. I stayed in a bed and breakfast in the Jewish Quarter which was formerly a Jewish home.  Today there are only about 200 Jewish families left in Bukhara with most of the community having emigrated to Israel or the US.  (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Uzbekistan.html).

Uzbek is a Turkic language and Uzbekistan belonging to the Turkic community of countries (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turkic_states_and_empires).  During the Soviet period Uzbeks favored use of the Cyrillic alphabet, but after independence in the early 1990's, the government had the schools switch to teaching the Latin alphabet with the goal of strengthen their cultural and business ties to Turkey which they anticipated would become their top trading partner, However, this was a miscalculation: while relations between Turkey and Uzbekistan are good, Uzbekistan has found that their strongest trading ties remain with Russia and that after several years of teaching the Latin alphabet, they now have a shortage of young business people who can read and write Cyrillic.

Delhi in the Heat

I'm in New Delhi where not only the food is hot, but the average daily temperature during the last week has been at about 110 F with high humidity.  The early mornings are pleasant though and I enjoyed this morning's breakfast out near the hotel pool.  This is my second trip to New Delhi: I was here with the family about 25 years ago when we stopped during our transfer from Nairobi to Canberra to see the Taj Mahal and it was just as hot then.

To me the Indian subcontinent may be the world's most exotic area.  I find Hinduism and its derivative religions of Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism extremely fascinating although I can't begin to comprehend them.  From our years in Cairo, I can relate much better to Islam and Judaism since they like Christianity are monotheistic and share common roots.  Even Chinese Confucianism is easier to relate to since it is more a system of ethics and a way of living and not really a religion. And Africans are largely followers of Christ or Mohamed mixed together will a little animism or paganism and vestiges of European colonialism so were easier to understand.

There are many aspects of Indian religion and culture that are extremely interesting.  For example, did you know that both the "swastika" and the "Star of David" are also common Hindu symbols?  Of course they have different names and meanings but they are virtually the same in appearance.  One often sees stickers with the Indian version of the Swastika on the back of cars but it has nothing to do with the symbol made infamous by the Nazis. Here are some links providing more information on this subject.

http://www.kamat.com/indica/culture/sub-cultures/swastika.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_David#As_a_Hinduist_symbol

http://www.gaiamind.com/starbird.html

 
Although India legally banned its ancient caste system several decades ago, caste still plays a role in Indian life, especially in rural areas.  Urban Indians still make occasional reference to the caste they descended from but now intermarry and seem to regard it as past history.  But I'm told it still greatly determines the quality of life for rural Indians which even in today's booming India make up 70+ percent of the total Indian population.  And many peasants are among the "untouchables" which is something they may never be able to overcome.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caste_system_in_India#Modern_status_of_the_caste_system
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Indian_caste_system

There also seems to be a permanent servant class in Indian cities that I would guess have emerged from the old caste system.  These servants are readily evident everywhere one goes in Delhi and become a bit irritating for Westerners. I spent the last week in the Taj Palace Hotel in Delhi and here are some of my experiences with the servant class:

1. When I arrived at the hotel from the airport on my first day, I had been traveling for about 8 hour in my wrinkled jeans.  Nevertheless I was met taxi side by about 20 hotel employees all dressed in their finest and performing deep bows towards me as I got out of the car. Several called me by name and wished me a wonderful stay. One would have thought I was the King of England and I was frankly embarrassed.  It was really over the top.

2. I felt really harassed by the young man who performed the "turn down" service in my room each evening.  Instead of doing it while I was out, he would wait until I returned from work and then follow me down the hall and into my room before quickly starting all of his little tasks and asking me lots of little questions about how I like the hotel, his service, etc. After the second day, I finally had to tell him to take care of his duties when I wasn't there and to stop following me around.

3. In the hotel gym was a young man whose job was to do such things as adjust the seat on the stationary bike to my desired height, to put the pins in the weight machines where I wanted them and to push the buttons on the treadmill to get it going at the rate I wanted it at.  Now how's that for an interesting career?  But somehow he seemed happy doing it and was absolutely joyous when I thanked him or paid any attention to him. 

One last comment on servants in India:  A friend who was one posted in New Delhi told me that household servants are extremely specialized and territorial and refuse to do things they don't consider their duty. Ironers only want to iron and cleaners only want to clean which means one has to have several servants on a full or part time basis to get all the household tasks taken care of.  He said it also drove him crazy to have so many people around the house. The servants we had during our days in Africa were much more flexible and we generally got along quite with them. And before you say, "what, you had servants!" you need to know that we didn't have a lot of the amenities we have in the US such as dishwashers, dryers, etc.  And besides, why not -- wages were cheap and we provided employment for several people. 
Click on the following link for just one more interesting story about servants in India http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25083907/

Ok, that's enough. Now I can't wait to get to a country where I am allowed to do a few things for myself.