Segment 5 - Singapore and beyond

In preparation for being here, we watched a documentary on the fall of Singapore (the ship does do a gd job of finding and showing these films).  The Japanese correctly felt that if they could knock out Pearl Harbor (our ships and planes) and then capture Singapore, they would control the Pacific. The commander at Singapore felt that the Japanese might carry out a land attack, coming south thru Malaysia; he wanted to prepare against this but higher ups elsewhere felt that Singapore was impregnable and that the enemy would come from the sea and be stopped by huge guns fixed in place guarding the west, south and east.  Two hours before the attack at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese started attacking Malaya and there were no British there to stop them; the Japanese were quite surprised.  They actually came in largely on bikes…with heavier stuff to follow.  While the Japanese were trained in jungle warfare, the Brits were not and when the Japanese arrived, the British kept retreating; in a final attempt to slow the Japanese down, they blew up the bridge that separated the mainland from Singapore. 

The Brits were running low on water (the Japanese had cut off the water supply) for the population and to fight fires from the bombing, and ammunition was running out (it was for the much smaller number of Japanese as well); there was general chaos. Churchill sent orders to defend Singapore to the death.  The chubby Japanese commander gave an ultimatum – fight or surrender.  Short on food and ammunition, the British commander surrendered…tho it had been rightly impressed on the troops that being captured by the Japanese meant inhumane treatment.  (Ironically, the British troops who had bent sent to Singapore earlier were so pleased as it was seen as a marvelous place to be stationed.) 60,000 British soldiers were taken prisoner!

What greeted us certainly didn’t match what was in our mind’s eye, which was in my case Singapore in the mid-40’s (tho Bill has been here more recently).  We had both so looked forward to being here BUT Bill condition is now officially (blood work and x-rays) pneumonia.  He is now on IV as well as oral antibiotics (started a few days for diverticulitis); mercifully the ship’s medical staff is superb and kind. We discussed our choices – such as leaving the ship and getting into a hospital; flying home ASAP was not an option as he is too sick, and we felt the MD was doing what was needed and Bill is quite comfortable on the ship.  And also, more to the point, he refused to go...so here we stay. 

Singapore is a truly tiny place, about 227 sq miles, on the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It is the most densely populated spot in the world (about 4 million people) after Monaco; about ¾ of the population is Chinese, then Malays and Indians (together about 20%).  There are four official languages – Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English. There are 6 million visitors yearly – and I think most of them were here today.  Possibly because of the number of residents, there are many rules and they are seriously enforced and penalized: NO jaywalking, chewing gum, spitting, drugs (death penalty), not flushing public toilets. It’s very clean, very green and VERY HOT/HUMID. Some v spiffy modern architecture, appropriate for a place that has one of the highest average per capita incomes ($60kannually)on the planet…and is full of (we were told) overachievers.

This is the biggest commercial port we have ever seen.  So large that there were portable stop lights and road signs within the container area! (When I went into town, it took the shuttle bus about 20 minutes just to get to the gate.)

Bill was so disheartened that he was way too ill to do anything but esp not to revisit Raffles Hotel.  (Sir Raffles claimed the area for Britain in the mid 1850’s…and it is now a member of the British Commonwealth.)  So he sent me. Tho a Rolls would have been appropriate, I arrived at the Hotel by metro…an adventure in itself despite the use of English.  Raffles lived up to its expectations (complete with its own museum).  This side view of the veranda, hidden and presumably cooler behind palm fronds, indicates what a delightful stay could be had here. 

I tried to get into the lobby but the exceedingly tall doorman, dressed like a very colorful maharaja, quickly sent me packing.  Somerset Maugham was a frequent patron at the Writer’s Bar, possibly drinking its best known drink, the Singapore Sling.  I stuck to a diet Coke but did have a quick lunch there…and then returned to a very sick Bill. We sat and watched the lively harbor scene as the ship prepared to bring in the gangways and hoist anchor.

Fellow passengers have been very supportive while Bill is ill…and the staff have been more than kind. Our Butler, Ash, drops in so I can do a little wandering, makes tea for Bill or does whatever his bidding might be.  There is nothing much to be done but let him recoup and he spends most of his time dosing…tho we are making our way thru The History of the World in 100 Objects (from the British Museum) a few pages at a time, along with some entertaining fiction he likes. I have learned, and reported to Bill and Tarquin, that there are a surprising number of bears on the ship (as well as a giraffe and a camel who are taken on excursions and have their photos taken…Tarquin was horrified). The Captain has even hosted a bear tea party before we boarded in SF!

The night’s sail north into the Malacca Strait brought us to the west coast of what is called Peninsular Malaysia (the rest of Malaysia is on the island of Borneo which is shared with Indonesia) and the gateway to Kuala Lumpur, the capital.  

Malaysia (previously, until 1963, called Malaya), has been of interest to Europeans for about five centuries.  First the Portuguese arrived closer to Singapore, in Melaka – 1511 – and overcame the local resistance (led by fighters using Solit, a v old martial art involving a uniquely shaped knife with a poisoned blade – we know this thanks to another documentary).  The Dutch took over in 1641 and then the British in the early 19^th C with bases in the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Melaka and Penang). Except for the Japanese during WWII, the British held on despite a revolt until independence in 1957 (in Penang I saw the bullet-ridden Rolls in which the head British official was riding when he was assassinated). There is still a king but he has ltd power; the kingship rotates among a group of nine sultans (one for each of the states which make up the country) who serve for five years. Intriquing.

Not wanting to travel far from Bill, being templed out, and not being keen on another big teeming city, I left the new cruise terminal at Port Kelang…

…and opted for a quick trip to Putrajaya…the center for the country’s government buildings and officials and about a half-hour from the capital of Kuala Lumpur.  The land for this area was gifted by the sultan who owned it and thus he was given a large residence here.  Note the tall, modern and expensive apartment buildings in the background.

 I felt as if I had been transported to Oz.  In the middle of this country coming out of poverty is this high tech, cutting edge totally planned city! No telephone poles (everything is underground), and because it is Saturday, completely deserted by workers.  

The massive government buildings – at least a hundred of them – are situated around a huge manmade lake…on which we sailed (on a smallish luxury craft…a real toilet with TP and soap).  The bridges are modeled after world famous ones, this one from Paris.

Not surprisingly, manyof the buildings had a mosque-like quality.

The buildings are glorious…I took many photos but they just look like really spiffy modern ones that one could find anywhere (but are surprising here).  Note the street lights which are shaped like cobras (this land was a palm tree plantation and cobras were used to keep the rats/vermin in check).

 The following photo is what the land looks like on the undeveloped side.  This city is in the middle of nothingness.

Our guide emphasized that this is a secular country but Islam is the official religion and has been dominant since the 14^th C; tho there is religious freedom, the flag bears the crescent of Islam…and the coat of arms is marvelous. 

Of course, there was an enormous mosque…a new one which I didn’t go into (infidels can see some of it but not all) as it wasn’t of historic interest and also I did NOT in this heat (and given that I am totally against the covering up of women) want to put on a robe complete with hood.  

There were fellows who dealt promptly and with no smiles with any woman whose foot trod over the line…kind of like the bears waiting for Christopher Robin to step on a crack. I watched as he pounced on several women and then his gaze fell on me…he was poised to shoo me away.

When I went searching a bathroom, I smelled something really awful, like vomit, and then saw this ad and knew durian fruit was being served somewhere nearby.

Leaving and returning to the ship (free wifi at the dock – tho the temp was grueling) we saw living conditions nothing like what we saw on our tour; here was what looked like abject poverty in buildings that were windowless and crumbling and there appeared to be no electricity…the perfect venue for a zombie flick.  However, things are changing – rapidly. Most of this is attributable to one forward looking PM who realized Malaysia could not rely on just its traditional revenue sources of rubber and tin and palm oil, but needed to modernize and expand. This was only a few decades ago but Malaysia certainly has caught on…with a vengeance, as exemplified in Putrajaya and the metropolis of Kuala Lumpur. Manufacturing (esp of high tech electronic goods), petrochemicals and tourism have boomed.  Our guide promoted a new program, My Second Home, that has been launched to encourage vacation homes among foreigners (unlike Thailand, foreigners are allowed, in fact wooed, to purchase land here). 

The ship then moved a bit north up the coast to Penang for another day ashore in the “Pearl of the Orient” (aka the island of betel nuts…tho the chewing of the leaves has fallen out of fashion and is used by only some of the elderly).  Penang is mostly an island (a chunk of it is on the mainland and connected by an 8-mile bridge, almost visible in the photo of the very new if mostly empty terminal building).  

The geography of Penang (as well as Melaka and Singapore) – on the tea and opium sea route between India and China – really piqued British interest; the remnants of Fort Cornwallis are still here in the capital of George Town (named after George III) with a cannon that the initial Britisher (Captain Light) used in a unique way; to encourage the local workforce, he filled the cannon with silver coins and fired it…to find the silver, they cleared the area of jungle.  Some of the colonial buildings remain, and are in current use.

After a 94^th birthday breakfast with Bill (he loved the Raffles mug), I went out to quickly see a little of Penang. There is no Chinatown here…the whole city is dominated by the Chinese.  There are five main clans here and my short tour visited the Khoo Kongsi, the meeting houses and ancestral temples of the Khoo family.  Incredibly ornate and elaborate Chinese décor and furnishings (we are talking beyond rococo) were on display but other than learning that clans don’t get along well (think of the Tong wars) and are not welcome at each other’s clan houses, our tired guide was not among our better ones.  Some of the clan members (the older ones who don’t like more modern accommodations) continue to live in stilt houses on the water, of which I could not get a photo.

Parts of the relatively recent film with Jodie Foster as Anna (King and I stuff but not a musical) was filmed here (in this clan house); Thailand wouldn’t let it be filmed there – and it is illegal to see either film version there (inappropriate familiarity with the royal family).  (Clearly the photo taken at night was NOT one of mine but it shows the façade of the meeting house without any tourists cluttering the scene.)

The interior shots are mine...but don't do justice to the beauty inside (and on outside walls).

We passed a Buddhist temple in full swing for a celebration (note the oversized jost sticks) before going to see a Chinese mansion built at the end of the 1800’s.  More incredibly ornate and elaborate Chinese décor, much of the furniture being superb examples of black lacquer with mother of pearl inlay (including the opium bed on the first floor). 

At that point my camera died…possibly from the heat; I felt the same way so it and I returned to the ship, had lunch with Bill, charged the battery (mine and the camera’s). I then went back to the fray with one objective: I was intent on seeing the snake temple outside of the city (Temple of the Azure Cloud,) built in 1873 in honor of a priest with healing powers.  On the way, examples of Penang's skyscrapers.

The snakes are very venomous Wagler’s pit vipers and are very well fed (note the offerings – LOTS of eggs – left by Taoist worshippers who were present…I was the only interloper other than the snakes).  Thankfully lethargic (heat and incense), they are artistically draped around the temple.  At night, they are moved (carefully) out to the trees in the gardens.

My taxi driver, Kamal, said there was more to see if I was willing. But of course! Who would turn down a chance to have a python wrapped around one?  Note the viper acting as a hat band…that final sartorial touch.  The python was quite lively, fairly heavy, cool to the touch (which I was not), and felt surprisingly squishy.  All in all, less terrifying than riding the Indian elephant. 

The ship then sailed due west for several days in the Indian Ocean (the smallest of the three oceans) toward Sri Lanka.  (We have learned – or relearned – that oceans are large bodies of water surrounded by continents, as opposed to seas which are also large but surrounded by countries.) This route means that we are seeing nothing of the countries to the north of Malaysia on the other side of Thailand: Myanmar (Burma) or abutting India, Bangladesh.  In the meantime, Bill is still on IV meds but is coming around…his breathing is not sounding so much like porridge on a low boil.  He is very weak and tires easily.

We had been given a written notice about the (slim) chance of piracy in the area we are going to be sailing in for the next two weeks until we arrive in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.  Not only will there be specially trained folks from the Royal Navy coming on board, but the verandah deck where I do my miles will be closed from sunset to sunrise and the ship will make a number of changes to diminish its visibility: passengers will be required to keep window and balcony draperies closed when cabin lights are on.  We also had a drill for what to do in case there is trouble; for those of us with windows and balconies, we are to move into the corridor and stay put, and not sit/stand in front of our cabin doors (lest we get shot).  WOW!

Segment 4 - We're in Cambodia!

Cambodia snuggles right up to Vietnam’s west border…and is also strangely shaped: long and narrow (all of the SE Asia countries have these southern tails, odd).  It too is waking up to internat’l tourism and our first port of call, Sihanoukville (named after King Sihanouk) on its west coast, had its start in the 1950’s as a resort where the well to do (aka the French) could get away from the heat of Phnom Penh just up the road.  (On the ship we watched a wonderful documentary on the Clouded leopard, a beautiful and endangered creature – due not just to deforestration but also poaching – which calls northern Cambodia home.)

The country’s history shares some of Vietnam’s, as it too was part of the French colonial empire; independence came in 1953 but then the country got caught up in internal strife and the American (Vietnamese) War. Trying to get at Viet Cong camps, we bombed northern Cambodia and even Sihanoukville; recent revelations indicated that we dropped more tons of bombs (at Nixon’s insistence) on Cambodia than the Allies did in all of WWII! (And it is the third most landmined country in the world.) Then Pol Pot (the Hitler of Cambodia)/Communist Kymer Rouge took over in 1975 and things got immeasurably worse, as depicted in the Killing Fields.  He was responsible for the deaths of about a quarter of the population, leaving a peculiar age pyramid.  Professionals and intellectuals (or just folks who wore glasses) were killed and others were forced into labor camps to turn the country into an agrarian paradise…which did not happen.  Oil and gas fields in territorial waters may bring prosperity soon, but right now it’s a desperately poor place.  Another problem is corruption – right up there with North Korea and Myanmar (aka Burma)…which bodes ill, as does the poverty, for elimination of the illegal trade in endangered animals/parts/skins/tusks (such as the clouded leopard and elephants) and for keeping the country beautiful (developers only interested in the bottom line are moving in from China and Russia among others). 

If anything, the Cambodians are even more polite than the Vietnamese…much bowing…and less hawking.  My day (after Bill saw the ship physician again and is now on more antibiotics; he is getting sicker rather than better which is v worrisome to us both) started with a visit to a village school, a true village school as opposed to the more upmarket one visited in Vietnam. The children and teachers were charming; the kids sang Oh My Darling Clementine in Khmer and were all smiles.  Half of the population is under 21! Note that slates are being used rather than more expensive paper.  

There was much activity in the school yard – a new religious statue being put into place and some gardening (note the fowl family).

The gold stand that vaguely resembles a bird feeding station is a spirit house, almost all dwellings have them (even the shrine/stupas) to bless the dwelling.  Along the road, there are stores selling them much as one would see bird baths or gargoyles for sale outside a store in the US.

The houses in the village were on stilts and pretty basic.  The family sleeps on the (literally) ground floor in hammocks. I was given a variety of reasons for the stilts…the most intriguing one being that it enabled the family to simply shift to another location by bringing in an elephant to move their dwelling.  Less poetically it could be flooding.

Cars are too expensive for most people, so mopeds rule here too.  Here is a village gas station.

Almost everyone is Buddhist and there are many newish and colorful temples (called wats)…and many equally colorful stupas (shrines for cremated ashes).

I was surprised by the water feature with little boys happily peeing away…in front of a temple.

And of course elephants.

And Buddha with his protective cobras.   

One of the many grim acts of Pol Pot was to not only destroy the temples but kill the monks. But, they are back in great numbers as service as a monk is more or less mandatory for all young men (some of whom are still boys).  They wear the traditional saffron robe, have their heads shaved monthly, and beg for all their food (they cannot take any money – just food, which must be eaten by noon). Note the tin food containers (tiffin) in the photo.

The temples were lovely - and ornate, with glorious interiors.

The monkeys find safe haven – and possibly food – in the temple areas.  The photo is of a jackfruit tree – a huge fruit that is the size of a volleyball, it is used as a veggie when small and not ripe but as a fruit when it is matures.  When it is still small, it is used (or was when our guide was a boy) by teachers as punishment – miscreants would have to kneel on it (it is spikey). 

At the end of the excursion, we were taken to and let loose at one of the resorts built by the Sokar Development Company: a huge 5 star clearly for foreigners (rooms from $200 to $1000 and that may include all meals). This was not what we came to Cambodia to see but the beaches were dazzling (and large containers of cut up fruit, your choice, were $1 so I sat and watched the azure water and relished the sweet – if exceedingly warm – papaya). 

What we didn’t consider visiting (it involved a three day excursion which Bill is too sick to even think about) is the highpoint of Cambodia: Angkor Wat…in the north. What a story! The Khmer Empire – with a city of over a million – was highly advanced, wealthy and cultured when Europe was fumbling around in the Dark Ages, and lasted about five centuries.  It was visited in the late 1200’s by an emissary from Timur Khan (descendent of Genghis), probably seeking tribute; the Mongols – austere and totally warlike – from the colder climate in China had apparently had their fill of jungle battles and didn’t invade.  The emissary was captivated by the richness of the place, the graciousness of the culture (Hindu turned peaceful Buddhists), and the beauty and willingness of the females and thought about deserting. Instead he took copious notes about everything including the fact that the entire empire was dependent on rice which, in turn, was dependent on their very sophisticated water management/irrigation system. After he left, with his notebook which apparently survived the ages, things went sour… there were invasions from envious outsiders, notably the Chams, and ecological disasters caused the water to dry up. And then jungle took over.  Europeans knew nothing of this wonder (tho the Jesuit priests here in the 16^th C. were aware of it).

Still with me? In the middle 1800’s a French natural historian with wanderlust came to Southeast Asia.  In Bangkok, he dined with the King.  This would have been the monarch of The King and I who was much smarter than the movie/play made him out to be.  One of his v clever moves was to sign treaties with both Britain and French so that if either one of them tried to colonize the country, the other would undoubtedly step in.  An intelligent ploy as Siam (now Thailand) was the only SE Asian county NOT to be colonized! (The son of that King, the little boy who was taught by Anna, the English governess, visited England and Queen Victoria and took further steps to modernize Siam; his love of all things English is the reason traffic here is on the wrong side of the road, unlike the other former French colonies.  Anna’s son was so taken with Siam that he returned as an adult, served in the army, and created a business – still going.)

Anyway, the natural historian (who of course shot all the specimens he found) stumbled across Angkor Wat totally by accident. After spending three years here and then dying, he did produce a book which got back to England but went largely unnoticed; the site has now come into its own and is being restored and preserved…and visited by hordes of tourists.  A gd reason to return some day.

The sailaway at dusk was lovely.

And then a quick overnight sail into Thailand and into the port of Phu My so that most of the passengers could go to Bangkok. Bill was not doing well at all and I didn’t think disappearing for endless hours was wise.  And who could pass up an opportunity, closer to hand, to play with elephants? This is a non profit sanctuary for the pachyderms…retired ones.  Their union is not as strong as that of the koalas but the elephants and their keepers (mahouts) looked in gd shape.  I was a bit timid to jump right in with them at first…feeding them while keeping out of the way but then got the hang of it (peeled bananas for the baby, the bunch for mom). We were not deterred from strolling among these behemoths – something that would not happen in the US and certainly not without signing a lot of waivers/release forms.

I then moved on to putting the whole bunch right into their huge maw. (My mouth is open in all the photos – either from amazement or, while up on the elephant, terror).  Getting on this beast required defying gravity and the pushing and pulling of two mahouts.  It was a bumpy and fairly terrifying ride…no reins, no saddle.  I can now cross that experience off my list.

Thailand looks far more prosperous than either Vietnam or certainly Cambodia and there are lots of international visitors. We got to see the effects of this in our port the following day, on the other side of the Gulf of Thailand and southward down the east coast…to the island of Ko Samui, a popular honeymoon spot for Americans, among countless others.  It must have been gorgeous at one time probably not long ago…and some of the private beaches owned by the top resorts still are…but fast food (McD, Pizza Hut…even Seven Eleven stores) and tacky hotels have had their way.

We visited way too many Buddhist and Hindu temples (climbing the 75 steps to a v large Buddha, and walking around the temple hitting the bells three times…one for the Buddha’s teachings, one for the monks and one to cleanse the mind), which became blurrier with the heat. I started out listening carefully to the guide and held out through the first Buddha…then I used what little effort I could muster into just taking photos. The heat is completely sapping. There were many locals at the temples today for tonight is an especially auspicious one – a full moon in the third lunar month.  

I had forgotten to mention that we are now firmly in the lands of not just bring your only toilet paper but possibly your own toilet…I didn’t think to take photos, a gd thing. I have also made a mental note to myself to bring skirts on any future trips that have similar plumbing. 

And then one last (I hoped) temple - the Goddess of Mercy I think...hopefully mercy is truly this immense.

Monkeys (macaques) are used here (after training…at a monkey school) to bring down the cocoanuts on the remaining plantations and they were amazing to watch.  Again, they seemed to be well treated and in good health…tho probably not unionized.

Other than the monkey workers, the most amazing bit was running into a fellow from Union, Missouri with whom I shared a platter of pad thai in a seaside bar/restaurant before going back to the ship.  (Union is a small town near an even smaller hamlet, Owensville, where my family was from…astounding to run into someone from those parts so far afield!)

And then…under the aforementioned auspicious full moon, we glided off straight south, leaving Thailand and sailing along the east coast of Malaysia (Malaysia has two parts – where we will be but also on the other side of the South China See, in northern Borneo) for a day and another night, into Singapore!  As we left the Thai port, a sight of other travellers.