In ancient times Sumatra was known by the Sanskrit names of Swarnadwīpa (Island of Gold) and Swarnabhūmi (Land of Gold), due to the gold deposits of the island's highland. I think this description is also relevant to describe travelling in Sumatra.
Sumatra is the greenest place I have ever visited, from the rice fields to the coffee plantations, rainforests in the mountains and argiculture rich land around Lake Toba in the middle of Sumatra. With very little tourists, a language barrier and narrow windy rough roads, I felt like I was on an adventure again. I chilled out on Lake Toba, relaxed on the island of Pulau Weh, I climbed to the highest point on Sumatra, the 3,800m volcano Kerinci and hanged out with a local classic Vespa club in Bukittinggi. The Sumatrans are friendly, generous and a happy bunch of people.
1,000 years on, Sumatra can still be described as an island of gold.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Tsunami
There seems to be a recent pattern of visiting sites of human suffering but my visit to Aceh province in Northern Sumatra was to go diving around the north western most point of Indonesia, the island of Pulau Weh.
In Banda Aceh I visited the new Tsunami museum, the video and photos of the destruction of the town was beyond anything I have seen on the news at the time. The earth quake caused everyone to leave buildings and gather in the streets, then all of a sudden the water surge washed in around the buildings. Thousands of lives would have been saved if people had moved to the top of the buildings.
I drove down the west coast, the area of the greatest destruction and the coastline has been changed forever. What I saw was dead palm tree lagoons and new housing estates built on flattened hill tops. The rugged coastline, where the mountains meet the Indian Ocean, has been changed forever and so the lives of the people. One thing is unchanged, it is a beautiful part of the world.
In Banda Aceh I visited the new Tsunami museum, the video and photos of the destruction of the town was beyond anything I have seen on the news at the time. The earth quake caused everyone to leave buildings and gather in the streets, then all of a sudden the water surge washed in around the buildings. Thousands of lives would have been saved if people had moved to the top of the buildings.
I drove down the west coast, the area of the greatest destruction and the coastline has been changed forever. What I saw was dead palm tree lagoons and new housing estates built on flattened hill tops. The rugged coastline, where the mountains meet the Indian Ocean, has been changed forever and so the lives of the people. One thing is unchanged, it is a beautiful part of the world.
Malaysia - nothing exciting
On my way to the Malaysian border, the only thing I knew about Malaysia before this visit was that in 1993 the Australian PM, Paul Keating called the Malaysian PM, Mahathir bin Mohamad, recalcitrant. Would Malaysia be tough travelling?
I left Malaysia with an impression that could not be further from recalcitrant. I easily crossed the border within an hour and drove and fantastic roads down to Penang. In Georgetown there was free wifi throughout the city, very cheap 95 octane fuel was available and everyone spoke English.
Malaysia is recognized as a newly industrialized country, it has a GDP ranking of 48th in the world and 2nd in Southeast Asia. The head of state is an elected Monarch, the parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system and the road system around the country is excellent, especially in the capital. The country is rich in natural resources including agriculture, forestry, mining and the Straits of Malacca enable easy access to global trade, but there is no adventure to be found here.
I left Malaysia with an impression that could not be further from recalcitrant. I easily crossed the border within an hour and drove and fantastic roads down to Penang. In Georgetown there was free wifi throughout the city, very cheap 95 octane fuel was available and everyone spoke English.
Malaysia is recognized as a newly industrialized country, it has a GDP ranking of 48th in the world and 2nd in Southeast Asia. The head of state is an elected Monarch, the parliamentary system is based on the Westminster system and the road system around the country is excellent, especially in the capital. The country is rich in natural resources including agriculture, forestry, mining and the Straits of Malacca enable easy access to global trade, but there is no adventure to be found here.
Malaysia – Is Oil Palm all the future?
I spent 3 weeks in Malaysia and connected a loop around the peninsula from Penang, the British East India company trading colony. I crossed mountain ranges, drove along beautiful beaches on the east coast and trekked in the rainforests but I was never far from Palm Tree Plantations.
Malaysia is the second largest producer of Palm Oil after Indonesia. Approximately 12% of Malaysia is planted with Palm Oil trees which produce 18 million tonnes of Palm Oil. I never realised the multitude of use, from cooking oil to biodiesel.
Palm Oil is rich in Carotenoids and people with diets rich in carotenoids, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality – interesting to know but I won’t start eating margarine! Malaysia is leading the world with legislation requiring diesel to contain 5% palm oil but Greenpeace claim that the clearing of rainforests and burning of peat bogs will do more harm to the global environment than the cleaner emissions from bio-diesel. Time will tell if replacing rainforests with Palm Oil plantations is the best decision long term.
Malaysia is the second largest producer of Palm Oil after Indonesia. Approximately 12% of Malaysia is planted with Palm Oil trees which produce 18 million tonnes of Palm Oil. I never realised the multitude of use, from cooking oil to biodiesel.
Palm Oil is rich in Carotenoids and people with diets rich in carotenoids, such as fruits and vegetables, are healthier and have lower mortality – interesting to know but I won’t start eating margarine! Malaysia is leading the world with legislation requiring diesel to contain 5% palm oil but Greenpeace claim that the clearing of rainforests and burning of peat bogs will do more harm to the global environment than the cleaner emissions from bio-diesel. Time will tell if replacing rainforests with Palm Oil plantations is the best decision long term.
Monday, August 16, 2010
Thailand – a nation divided
To understand the recent ‘Red Shirt’ protest’s that lasted approximately 2 months, you need to go back to the 1997 constitution, understand the rise of the Bangkok’s middle class and political history.
In 1997 a new Constitution was put in place which brought it up to a similar standard as Developed countries. This meant both houses of parliament were elected, a reduction of police authority, independent government agencies were established, (like the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court, the Office of the Auditor-General), electoral reform to stop vote buying were some of the major changes. These changes were seen by some as enabling government to be too strong and stable.
There is a divide between the new Bangkok middle class and the poor Northern farming class. In 2001 Thaksin was elected as Prime Minister and his grassroots economic policies helped reduce poverty and provided universal health care, making him hugely popular in rural Thailand. Thaksin became seen, by the ‘Yellow Shirts (new Bangkok middle class)’ as an Autocrat, with conflicts of interest, anti-Royal comments and a political rift with a senior Monk. Loud anti-Thaksin support came from a media moghul, prominent socialists, scholars and 'royalists' and factions within the Thai Military. In September 2006 the General Election was not required because of a Military coup a month earlier.
The military drafted a new constitution, which a majority approved in a national referendum in 2007 but Northern Thailand voted against the new constitution. The new constitution watered down many independent bodies but provided clearer lines on corruption. In December 2007, Thaksin’s party, with minor party support, formed a coalition government. This was seen as vindicating Thaksin against the military coup.
The new government, the ‘PPP’, vowed to amend the 2007 constitution prompting the ‘Yellow Shirts’ to resume protests, culminating in the shutdown of the Bangkok International Airport in 2008. Then the ‘Constitutional Court’ dissolved the PPP party due to corruption, a new coalition government was formed with a majority from the Democrat Party (Yellow Shirts) but the ‘Red Shirts’ were not happy with how the coalition was formed and started to protest again.
The Thai constitution has the King as head of state, where the King appoints an 18-member privy council who perform policy around the monarchy but with half the council formerly involved with the Military there is innuendo that the council plays a pivotal role behind scenes of Thai politics.
At the end of the day, all the people I had spoken too (the middle class in Bangkok) have less regard for politics and more interest in the King’s comments … so similar to the Middle East, maybe Western Democracy, anti-corruption legislation and a check and balances constitution is not for everyone but the Northern Thai’s will put their hand up to disagree.
In 1997 a new Constitution was put in place which brought it up to a similar standard as Developed countries. This meant both houses of parliament were elected, a reduction of police authority, independent government agencies were established, (like the Constitutional Court, the Administrative Court, the Office of the Auditor-General), electoral reform to stop vote buying were some of the major changes. These changes were seen by some as enabling government to be too strong and stable.
There is a divide between the new Bangkok middle class and the poor Northern farming class. In 2001 Thaksin was elected as Prime Minister and his grassroots economic policies helped reduce poverty and provided universal health care, making him hugely popular in rural Thailand. Thaksin became seen, by the ‘Yellow Shirts (new Bangkok middle class)’ as an Autocrat, with conflicts of interest, anti-Royal comments and a political rift with a senior Monk. Loud anti-Thaksin support came from a media moghul, prominent socialists, scholars and 'royalists' and factions within the Thai Military. In September 2006 the General Election was not required because of a Military coup a month earlier.
The military drafted a new constitution, which a majority approved in a national referendum in 2007 but Northern Thailand voted against the new constitution. The new constitution watered down many independent bodies but provided clearer lines on corruption. In December 2007, Thaksin’s party, with minor party support, formed a coalition government. This was seen as vindicating Thaksin against the military coup.
The new government, the ‘PPP’, vowed to amend the 2007 constitution prompting the ‘Yellow Shirts’ to resume protests, culminating in the shutdown of the Bangkok International Airport in 2008. Then the ‘Constitutional Court’ dissolved the PPP party due to corruption, a new coalition government was formed with a majority from the Democrat Party (Yellow Shirts) but the ‘Red Shirts’ were not happy with how the coalition was formed and started to protest again.
The Thai constitution has the King as head of state, where the King appoints an 18-member privy council who perform policy around the monarchy but with half the council formerly involved with the Military there is innuendo that the council plays a pivotal role behind scenes of Thai politics.
At the end of the day, all the people I had spoken too (the middle class in Bangkok) have less regard for politics and more interest in the King’s comments … so similar to the Middle East, maybe Western Democracy, anti-corruption legislation and a check and balances constitution is not for everyone but the Northern Thai’s will put their hand up to disagree.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Thai Islands are suffocating
The only way to describe the islands is the way I saw them… ‘They are oversubscribed and the locals don’t care about their environment!!’. I dived at the premier dive island, Ko Tao, great fish but the coral is dead or dying and way too many people around to let it re-grow. Next, on a tourist tour of the islands around Krabi, the boat dropped the anchor on the coral while the tourists swam around fish eating bread thrown from the tour staff.
I spoke to the tour leader about the coral destruction from the boat anchor when we were on onshore… his reply was ‘The boat captain is in charge of that, I can’t help’. The boat captain did not speak English, so later I went to the national park headquarters to make a compliant, no one spoke English. This is a continuing theme in developing countries.
I spoke to the tour leader about the coral destruction from the boat anchor when we were on onshore… his reply was ‘The boat captain is in charge of that, I can’t help’. The boat captain did not speak English, so later I went to the national park headquarters to make a compliant, no one spoke English. This is a continuing theme in developing countries.
A railway made from death
I visited the Hellfire Pass Museum on the site of the longest and deepest excavation on the 415km railway built by the Japanese during WWII. The British surveyed a railway route in the early 20th century and decided it would be too difficult to complete. The railway was built in 16 months with 250,000 Asian laborers and 61,000 POWs – British, Australian and Dutch of which 16,000 died working on the railway. Approximately 90,000 Asian laborers also died but the Japanese did not count them.
The way the POWs were treated, reading the stories of survival and cruelty, once again I was disappointed how people can treat each other and it reminded me of negative comments, about the Japanese, from my Grandparents. Simple things like the Red Cross assistance packs were stored in a warehouse and not given to the POWs.
The way the POWs were treated, reading the stories of survival and cruelty, once again I was disappointed how people can treat each other and it reminded me of negative comments, about the Japanese, from my Grandparents. Simple things like the Red Cross assistance packs were stored in a warehouse and not given to the POWs.
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