Vietnam

Vietnam:
Article published in the Sunday Times of Malta of Nov 25, 2007

I was moving forward, in a crouched position, along a narrow tunnel deep beneath the ground. The tunnel was just wide enough for my shoulders to pass through, and only just over a meter high. I was also hemmed in from the front and the back, as there were people ahead and at the back. So I had the beginnings of a feeling of claustrophobia; it must be my age!

These tunnels were actually widened for us burly foreigners; the original tunnels were Vietnamese-size; 80cm high, and the opening at ground level was just 22 cm by 30cm! So one can only imagine what it must have been like actually living in these tunnels beneath the ground. The tunnels open out into sleeping quarters, kitchens and other living areas, but still, the Vietnamese needed to pass through these narrow tunnels to get in and out.

Entering the tunnels

We were in the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 40km northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, still called Saigon by many locals. These tunnels were used by the Viet Cong (VC) while the South Vietnamese and the Americans were still nominally in control of South Vietnam; some 200 km of tunnels were dug out between 1960 and 1970, also containing hospitals and schools. And all this was done underneath the noses of the US and South Vietnamese armies.

The Cu Chi tunnels were used as the base from which the VC mounted the Tet (New Year) Offensive in 1968. When the Americans first discovered this underground network on their doorstep, they simply pumped gas down the tunnel openings and then set explosives. Around 50,000 VC were killed in the tunnels in 10 years. The Cu Chi district was assaulted using the full battery of modern warfare. Defoliants were sprayed and 20-tonne bulldozers carved up the area in search for tunnels. Then it was carpet-bombed: 50,000 tonnes were dropped on the area in 10 years by B52 bombers, as evidenced by the bomb craters still in the area.

The Cu Chi tunnels have now been turned into a tourist attraction. Visitors are shown a film of the tunnels during the war (obviously grainy and black and white). Then there are a series of booby traps laid for the Americans: man-sized, horrible-looking traps. There are also Madame-Tussaud-like wax figures, and also working mannequins, for example a man sawing wood. A bit too kitschy for my taste! You can also go to a firing range to try out your hand with an AK-47 assault rifle or a hand gun.

Another American War (as the Vietnam War is known here) memory is the War Remnants museum in Ho Chi Minh City. This museum was previously called the American War Crimes Museum, but the name was changed, either because it’s more politically correct, or else because it made good sense in view of rising tourism figures. Whatever the name, it still contains the same things; hundreds of photographs of atrocities, deformed foetuses in glass jars, the effects of napalm and phosphorus and the after-effects of Agent Orange defoliation. The courtyard is full of tanks, bombs, planes and helicopters, while a room by the side of the courtyard contains a guillotine, last used by the French in the 1950s on a Vietnamese dissident leader. Another room contains a model of a prison cell. A room in the main building is dedicated to war photographers and their pictures. The photos include shots from Robert Capa’s last roll of film before he stood on a land mine on 25^th May 1954.

At the War Remnants Museum

Ho Chi Minh City is not just about the American War though. It is a vibrant city, with seemingly chaotic traffic consisting mainly of bicycles and small motorbikes. Crossing the road feels like taking your life in your own hands; however, there is a certain order to the traffic, and if you set off purposefully, you can make it across safely, as the riders can calculate what you are going to do. But if you hesitate, then you’ve had it, and you’re stuck in the middle of the road with traffic swirling around you!

Another interesting place to visit close to HCM City is the Cao Dai Temple, 96 km northwest of the city. The Cao Dai (literally meaning “high place”) is a syncretic religion founded in 1920, when civil servant Ngo Van Chieu communicated with the spirit world and made contact with the Supreme Being (don’t civil servants have anything better to do?). The Cao Dai pantheon of saints includes the Buddha, Lao Tzu (the master of Taoism), Confucius, Quan Cong (the Chinese God of war) and Jesus. Victor Hugo, Vietnamese poet Nguyen Binh Khiem and Chinese nationalist Sun Yat Sen also enter the picture. The service, every day at noon, is a very colourful one. The Cao Dai head priests wear white, with a black turban. Other priests wear red, blue and yellow robes, signifying Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism respectively. There are an estimated two to three million adherents of the religion, mostly in Vietnam, but also approximately another 30,000 adherents, mainly ethnic Vietnamese, in the USA, Europe and Australia.

The Cao Dai Temple

The Cao Dai Holy See (they take a lot of names from Roman Catholicism) is certainly worth a visit (a day trip usually takes in both the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai temple), although some people find it gaudy; Graham Greene in The Quiet American called it “the Walt Disney Fantasia of the East”; Norman Lewis in A Dragon Apparent says that “his cathedral must be the most outrageously vulgar building ever to have been erected with serious intent”. These comments certainly entice you to visit the place to see what they were talking about!

Cao Dai priests

Hue, the old capital city, is another place definitely worth visiting in Vietnam. This old imperial city stands on the banks of the Huong Giang, the Perfume River, with the tomb complexes of the emperors also standing on the banks of the river. Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyen dynasty, which ruled Vietnam between 1812 and 1945, when the last emperor, Bao Dai, abdicated the throne. The Imperial City at Hue was built on the same principles as the Forbidden Palace in Beijing. It is enclosed by thick outer walls, along with moats, canals and towers, while inside the walls there are a series of buildings, housing the emperor, his family, courtiers, bodyguards and servants. There is a massive flag tower from which the flag of the National Liberation Front flew for 24 days during the Tet Offensive of 1968. A lot of the imperial city was bombed and flattened during this period, and so there is much less to see than in Beijing’s Forbidden City. In fact, you can still see bullet holes in some of the buildings.

For me, one of the most interesting places in Hue was the Thein Mu Pagoda. The pagoda itself is very pleasant, well laid out and with Buddhist monks tending bonsai trees. However, this pagoda contained something that I did not expect; it houses the Austin car used by monk Thich Quang Duc to drive to Saigon in June 1963, to commit suicide through self-immolation in protest against the Diem regime’s suppression of the Buddhist religion, in favour of minority Catholicism (Diem was a Catholic). The Austin is the car seen in that world-famous Malcolm Browne photo of the monk, in a lotus position, with flames leaping from him. It is impressive to see something that became part of history. David Halberstam, an American Pulitzer-prize winning journalist who died earlier this year, described the immolation scene thus:

“Flames were coming from a human being; his body was slowly withering and shrivelling up, his head blackening and charring. In the air was the smell of burning human flesh; human beings burn surprisingly quickly. Behind me I could hear the sobbing of the Vietnamese who were now gathering. I was too shocked to cry, too confused to take notes or ask questions, too bewildered to even think.... As he burned he never moved a muscle, never uttered a sound, his outward composure in sharp contrast to the wailing people around him.”

The famous Austin

After the bustle of Hue, Hoi An, around 150km south of Hue, makes a pleasant change. Hoi An’s tranquil riverside setting, small scale and its shops, galleries and restaurants have made it one of the most popular destinations in Vietnam. Being small, it is easily navigated on foot. Most of the more attractive buildings, pagodas, shops and restaurants can be found either on, or just off Tran Phu Street, which stretches west-east from the market to the Japanese Covered Bridge, running parallel to the Thu Bon River. You can spend a very pleasant few days just wandering around Hoi An; it is one of the best places in Vietnam, if not the best, to pick up good-quality souvenirs, and you will certainly not be able to leave without a piece of silk clothing - the tailors of Hoi An are famous for their expertise and ability to put together a full made-to-measure suit in one day.

Street vendor

One should not leave Vietnam without visiting its capital, Hanoi. Although Ho Chi Minh is by far the largest city in Vietnam, Hanoi is the current capital of Vietnam. In fact, it was also the capital of French Indochina from 1887 to 1954, and became the capital of North Vietnam after the Vietnamese won the independence of North Vietnam from the French, in the renowned battle of Dien Bien Phu. And of course it became the capital of a reunited Vietnam in 1975.

The best part of Hanoi that I liked was the 36 Streets area of the old city, just north of the Hoan Kiem Lake. These narrow streets are named after the products that were (sometimes still are) sold there: Basket Street, Paper Street, Silversmith’s Street, Tin Street, etc. The dwellings in this area are known as nha ong, tube houses; they have narrow shop fronts, sometimes only three metres wide, but can stretch back from the road for up to fifty metres.

The Vietnam Military History museum is another fascinating place, containing many memorabilia and artefacts of Vietnam’s long fight for independence, from the struggles with China through to the anti-French

resistance, the epic battle of Dien Bein Phu, to the more recent American War. Tanks, planes and artillery fill the courtyard of the museum, There is a massive heap of aircraft wreckage piled up in one place, with the tail of what is probably a B52 sticking straight up out of the “sculpture”. The museum also houses tank number 843, the T54B tank that broke through the walls of the Saigon Presidential Palace on 30^th April, 1975, in the final assault on Saigon.

Being a Communist country, Vietnam also has its own embalmed hero, similar to Lenin in Russia and Mao Zeding in China. The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum is on Ba Dinh Square, where Ho read the Declaration of Independence on 2^nd September, 1945. 2^nd September thus became Vietnam’s National Day, and, coincidentally, Ho also died on 2^nd September. The embalming of Ho’s body was actually carried out against his own wishes; he wanted to be cremated. The embalming was carried out by chief Soviet embalmer, Dr Sergei Debrov. Apparently he did a good job, but I cannot vouch for it; the mausoleum was closed when I tried to see it, even though I made sure to get there early enough (opening hours are just 0730-1030). Apparently the mausoleum closes for a couple of months a year for maintenance on the body.

Then there is Halong Bay; nobody goes to Hanoi without visiting Halong Bay, usually on an overnight trip as Halong is about 110km away from Hanoi. Halong Bay is dotted with approximately 1600 limestone outcrops. Geologically, these are the results of chemical action and river erosion working on limestone to produce a pitted landscape at the end of the last ice age. When the glaciers melted, this area was flooded with seawater, turning the hills into islands. Whatever the reason, the bay is now a beautiful, sometimes eerie place, especially when it is calm and misty, with the limestone islands rising out of the water like sentinels. Then there are a number of caves dotted around the bay and on the islands, formed by the same erosive action, and with fantastic stalactites and stalagmites, which, with some imagination, turn into animals and demons.

Halong Bay

There are many other places one can visit in Vietnam, not just the ones mentioned above. Dalat, for example, is a scenic hill-station, where the French used to go to escape the heat of the lowlands. And Sapa, set in the hills northwest of Hanoi, is noted for its minority peoples, such as the Black Hmong and Red Dao. Vietnam might not be on everyone's itinerary, but it is definitely a most interesting travel experience, offering something for everyone.

Red Dzao

Flower Hmong

Fenkata at Challi il-Mahmug

Peru - Article first published in the Times of Malta

At midnight we were out in the wilderness, in a small van, somewhere between Puno and Juliaca. Fortunately it was almost full moon, as there was no artificial lighting at all. The landscape also looked like a moonscape, bare, barren and strewn with rocks. There was no road as such, simply dirt tracks in between the boulders. The two other passengers with us were getting desperate, and one of them began crying, as the driver lost his way several times, every time having to turn back as it was impossible to progress further. At one point, while climbing up a hill, we came upon four horses barring the way. It was almost surreal, seeing four horses appear before us in this desolate place. It turned out there was a campesino (a common name for a subsistence farmer in South America) living close by, complete with a barking dog.

This encounter was fortunate, as the campesino pointed out the correct way. After some more driving on the moonscape, we came upon a small lake, with a rural community on its shore, and eventually on to a good metalled road to Juliaca.

The reason for this detour from the main road was because of a strike, or protest, by the campesinos, apparently against an increase in taxes and transport costs. They were putting up roadblocks on the main roads and stopping any transport from getting through. We wanted to leave Puno, a town on Lake Titicaca, to get to Cusco, the ancient Inca capital. However, the three-times weekly train was not operating because of the stoppage, and the drivers of the regular buses were afraid, or could not, operate. Later on we saw why! Eventually a travel agent offered us tickets on what she described as a luxury bus that she said would come from Cusco, so it would not be affected. Later we found out that this must have been either an outright lie, or the travel agent was out of touch with reality! We were meant to catch this bus in the morning, so we settled in for dinner and a good night's rest, after having been to Taquila island out on Lake Titicaca. However, at about 9:30pm, the travel agent and a driver came for us in a small van, a sort of minibus, telling us that we had to leave right away in order to get to Juliaca, about 30 km from Puno on the Pan-American Highway to Cusco. They said that if we leave it till the morning we would not get through. So, bemoaning the loss of a good night's sleep, but reasoning that we had no choice if we wanted to leave Puno quickly, we got ready and left, on what we thought would be a nice comfortable journey on the Pan-American Highway.

On the outskirts of Puno, we met our first roadblock - a line of burning tyres completely blocking the road, with a few people around it. As soon as he saw this roadblock, our driver took a minor road to the left, meaning to bypass the roadblock using side roads. And that is what led us to the moonscape at midnight.

The adventure did not stop when we got back on the metalled road to Juliaca. On arriving at Juliaca, at about 2 am, we transferred on to a large coach, the supposed luxury coach described by the travel agent. However, the coach did not leave straight away, but waited till daybreak. And this was in the Peruvian altiplano at night, at an altitude of about 13,000 feet. So it was bitterly cold, around -10 degrees Celsius inside the bus. The locals are used to these temperature extremes, and they carry a blanket or two with them to use at night. But we did not have any blankets, and the bus apparently did not have any heating, even with the engine started. Eventually I borrowed a blanket from the driver.

When the bus left, heading northwest to Cusco, it did not take long before we met the first of many roadblocks. These crude roadblocks, put up by campesinos, the local farmers, consisted of several large boulders strung across the road, along with piles of earth. Our bus, along with two other buses, stopped, and the driver went out to negotiate with the campesinos manning the roadblock. Many of these campesinos were the typical Andean women, dressed in voluminous folds and their typical bowler hat. Their skin was parched, dry and prematurely aged, because of the sun and the dry thin air. In these negotiations, even though it seemed that there was a male leader, the women were usually the most vociferous and militant.

Manning the barricades

Combative campesinos

On one of the other buses there was a French-Canadian whom we immediately nicknamed “Indiana Jones”. He was dressed in brown leather pants, with matching brown waistcoat, and a leather hat with flaps covering the ears. After some time at the roadblock, Indiana Jones left the bus and started arguing with the leader of the campesinos, using fluent Spanish. The discussion became more heated and the Canadian began challenging them to a fight. There was no reaction from the campesinos, however, which was probably fortunate! Eventually, after a couple of hours at this roadblock, we were “allowed” to remove the boulders ourselves. Obviously we were pleased to be on our way, however, only a few kilometers away we met the second roadblock!

Indiana Jones

The same routine started again, discussions and heated arguments, until eventually we were allowed to remove the roadblock and continue on our way. This happened so many times, maybe five or six times, that I lost track. At one of the roadblocks, a couple of police officers arrived, and we thought, “Ah, now all will be OK”. However, the police did not order the strikers away, but simply tried to negotiate with them. They did not win the argument and eventually left! So it simply took longer until we were allowed to remove the roadblock. In the end, these roadblocks lost their novelty and merely became a great nuisance. I really could not see what the campesinos were getting out of it, as they were only annoying us visitors, and not harming the people they wanted to get at.

Unfortunately for travellers, strikes and protests are becoming more frequent in Peru. Some of the recent protests were against the signing of a free-trade agreement with the US. More usually, the strikes and protests are of a localised nature, for example in the Cusco area the protesters want a larger cut of the tourist revenue. And protests are usually accompanied by roadblocks - they seem to be a popular protest weapon in Peru. However, modern Peru is a far cry from the days of the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), the Maoist guerrilla movement. Since the capture of its leader, Abimael Guzman, in 1992 (see the film, The Dancer Upstairs), it has only been sporadically active, and despite occasional bursts of activity in localised areas, it is a far cry from its heyday. The major aggravations nowadays, apart from the petty thieves, are the protests. But Peru has a lot more to offer than strikes and protests!

Children of the Andes

There is obviously the magnificent and famous Machu Picchu, called the Lost City of the Incas, because the American Hiram Bingham “rediscovered” it in 1911. This is the most-visited place in the whole of South America. There are two ways of getting there from Cusco: the famous Inca Trail or the easier train. If you are planning on the Inca Trail, make sure that you book well in advance, as only a limited number of trekkers are allowed on the trail. And it is closed at certain times of the year for maintenance, usually around February, in the rainy season.

The face of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

When visiting Machu Picchu, plan for an overnight stay in Aguas Caliente (officially renamed Machu Picchu Pueblo, although I did hear anyone using the new name). Apart from being more relaxed, this will also give you time to walk up Mount Putukusi, a sacred mountain close to Aquas Caliente, set across the valley from Machu Picchu itself. The walk is aided by high rough ladders (one of them with 120 steps) in the vertical parts, so it is a very enjoyable climb.

Climbing Mt Putukusi

Cusco itself, the ancient Inca capital built in the form of a puma, is a fascinating place. In the main square, it is easy to imagine the violence this place has seen. The Inca leader Tupac Amaru I was beheaded here in 1572 for rebelling against the Spanish conquistadores. The Spaniards set the Inca’s head aloft on a pike for all to see, but soon buried the relic when they discovered that a multitude assembled every night to worship it in silence.

Even though the Spaniards killed Tupac Amaru I and his son, a daughter survived, and, 200 years later, in 1780, a direct descendant assumed the name Tupac Amaru II and led a great rebellion that came close to ending Spanish rule. However, this was not to be, and Tupac Amaru II was cruelly executed, together with his family, in the same square that had witnessed the death of his great-great-grandfather two centuries before. He was forced to watch as his wife, uncle and eldest son had their tongues torn out and subsequently garroted. The Spaniards reserved a special fate for the Inca himself: his limbs were attached to horses, which were then spurred in four directions. But the Inca’s body resisted this symbolic rending of the Inca empire. He was returned to the gallows, where he was disemboweled while still alive and then hacked to pieces. The bodies of the executed Incas were then dispersed throughout the rebellious provinces.

Today’s Cusco is a mix of Inca and Spanish architecture. In fact, some of the Spanish buildings were built on dismantled Inca temples, like the Church of Santo Domingo, built on the Koricancha Temple (Temple of the Sun). This is indeed a great pity, as Inca walls are some of the most impressive I have ever seen. The stones, some of them massive, are irregularly shaped, and interlaced one into the other, so that they fit like dovetails, matching so well that not even a knife blade will enter the cracks. One particular stone, probably the most photographed stone in the world, has twelve edges!

Wall at Hatun Ramiyok, Cusco

Other Inca sites near Cusco are Chincero, the fortress of Saqsayhuaman, and the town of Ollantaytambo, all magnificent examples of Inca architecture. Then there are the salt pans at Maras, built by the Incas and still being used by a local cooperative. These are fed by a natural underground salty river. For me, seeing salt pans at around 10,000 feet was an impressive sight!

Salt Pans at 10,000 feet

Of course Peru is not just about the Incas. There is Lake Titicaca, the highest commercially navigable lake in the world, at 3821 metres (12,536 feet) above sea level and with an area of approximately 8,300 square kilometers (twenty-six times the size of the Maltese islands). In fact, the Bolivian military uses the lake to carry out naval exercises, maintaining an active navy despite being landlocked! I had seen this lake from the Bolivian side, having visited the Island of the Sun and the Island of the Moon. Now, from the Peruvian side, we visited the Los Uros floating islands, built of totora reeds, on which a community of Uros people still live. The Uros originally created these artificial islands to escape the Inca, who dominated the mainland at the time. About 3000 descendants of the Uros are alive today, but only a few hundred still live on the islands. And some of them have modern amenities, such as radios, powered by solar panels.

Los Uros

Uros lady

We also visited Lake Taquile, about 45 km offshore from Puno, whose inhabitants are known for their old community lifestyle and handwoven textiles and clothing.

Then there is Colca Canyon, that, at a depth of 10,725 ft (3,269 m) is almost twice as deep as the US Grand Canyon. If you get there in the early morning you will certainly see the huge Andean condor (Vultur Gryphus) hovering high above the canyon floor. The Andean condor is one of the largest flying birds with a wingspan ten feet across and is also an endangered species. As you will be on the sides of the canyon, the condors will be at eyelevel or even below you, giving you an unparalleled close view.

Andean Condors at Colca Canyon

In the Pacific coast, just off Pisco, there are the amazing Islas Ballestas, situated in the Paracas National Reserve, or the Peruvian Galapagos. You cannot land on the islands, but a boat will take you very close to the shore. The islands are covered with guano (bird droppings), highly prized as a fertilizer, and harvested when it reaches several metres depth. In the past, guano was a strategic commodity, in fact, the War of the Pacific between the Peru-Bolivia alliance and Chile was partly based upon Bolivia's attempt to tax Chilean guano harvesters.

On the islands you will see tons of birds, including pelicans, flamingos, penguins, cormorants, red boobies and terns, that seem to cover every inch of land. Thousands of birds fly in formation just over the water. You will also see sea lions and dolphins, and there are also supposed to be whales and turtles, although we did not see any. What you see is more than enough though!

Sea lions-Islas Ballestas

In Peru one can also get a feel of the Peruvian Amazon, usually reached from Iquitos, a jumping-off point for tours of the Amazon jungle and trips downriver to Manaus in Brazil. Iquitos, like Manaus, had an economy based on the rubber industry, until this industry came to an end when rubber trees were smuggled out of the country and planted in Asia.

From this brief description, it is evident that Peru offers something for everyone, and is well worth a visit. If you do go, plan carefully and keep a close watch on the news. Strikes are quite frequent. Keep yourself updated, as there will certainly be a lot of change in Peru.

Africa Travel Experience - Article first published in the Times of Malta

Where we fell, the Zambezi River is over sixty feet deep. I was immediately sucked down into a whirlpool, and I could swear I saw the bottom. Luckily, I had a lifejacket, strapped on tight (you cannot breath underwater, I was told). I floated up to the surface, stayed there for a couple of seconds, and was sucked down again. I spent what seemed like a long time underwater, being whirled around by the swirling waters. Dark thoughts entered my head, and my life flashed before my eyes. After what seemed like a long time, I found myself at the surface again, where the rescue kayaker was picking us up one by one.

We had gone for a day's rafting on the Zambezi River downstream of Victoria Falls. Here, the Zambezi forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. We were staying at Livingstone, a town on the Zambian side of the falls. A few agencies in Livingstone organise white water rafting on the Zambezi. According to rafting literature, the Zambezi is "classified as a high volume pool drop grade five river, extremely difficult, long violent rapids, steep gradients, big drops and pressure areas". For the uninitiated, rapids are classified from grade one to grade six. Grade five is the most furious rapid that can be "safely" navigated. Grade six is a waterfall, so you can forget about it. This part of the Zambezi River has a number of grade five rapids, with names like Devil's Toilet Bowl, Gnashing Jaws of Death, the Washing Machine and the Terminator.

The rafting agency we used, Bundu Adventures, is owned by Daniel, a Frenchman born in Bangui, in the Central African Republic. He said he had been organising rafting on the Zambezi for the last five years, and his operation appeared to be fairly well organised. David himself took us to the drop-off area, a few kilometres from Livingstone, at the top of the Zambezi gorge. The river itself was 1000 feet below us. We were a group of eighteen people, enough for three rafts. We were handed lifejackets and helmets, given some basic safety instructions and told how to use the oars. Before setting off, we were asked to sign an indemnity form, a common thing nowadays in this type of activity, holding Bundu Adventures harmless for what might happen to life, body and limb throughout the day. When I asked about the accident rate, I was told not to worry, nobody had ever died yet on one of their trips!

First, we had to walk down the steep side of the gorge to the river. This was probably the most dangerous part of the adventure, and it's specifically mentioned in the indemnity form! Having got down to the riverside safely, we found the rafting team pumping up our three inflatable dinghies. The descent path is too narrow for inflated dinghies. This did not take long, and we took our places for the start of an unforgettable experience. Our steersman was Timba, a 27-year old Zambian with bulging muscles. Three of us crouched on each side of the raft, while Timba sat at the back, using a long oar as a rudder. Along with us in the river were four kayaks, single-man canoes where the canoeist almost forms part of the canoe. They are practically unsinkable if they do not hit a solid hard object. It flips over, but the experienced canoeist always manages to right it almost immediately. Very soon, we found the reason for these kayaks!

The author with Timba

We pulled out into a grade five rapid in the main part of the river, the appropriately-named Gnashing Jaws of Death! On hitting the rapid, we immediately flipped over! This was my first introduction to white-water rafting! After some time, one of the canoeists picked me up and took me back to our raft, now the right side up. Most of the team was already there.

Once we got ourselves together, we attempted the rapid again, and this time passed through without overturning. We proceeded down the river and through the next few rapids, safely and upright. The problem with our raft was the crew, not the steersman! In order to go through the rapids safely, you need to "shoot" the rapids. This calls for strong efforts by the oarsmen, and everyone has to pull their weight. Apart from my friend and I, there were two French couples. The girls did not look very strong, and one of the French men looked scared out of his wits. He said that he had not expected to end up in the river, and he almost expected the organisers to guarantee that we would not have another mishap!

At Rapid 16, the Terminator, we did it again. This time we had more experience, at least with flipping, so we managed to hold on to the upside-down raft using the ropes at the side. After this flip-over, we managed to make it through to the end with an upright raft! A total of about 25km down the Zambezi rapids on an inflatable dinghy. Would I do it again? Definitely! Now I have more experience, having started my white-water rafting with grade five rapids.

The rafting team

Obviously this trip did not just consist of the Zambezi rafting. Victoria Falls is worth a visit in its own right. It is called "Mosi-oa-Tunya" in Swahili, which means "the Smoke that Thunders", and you can see and hear why while still several kilometres away from it! A white cloud of spray hangs over the falls, and there is a continuous roar that becomes overpowering once at the falls themselves. The falls are about one km wide, less than Iguazu Falls on the Brazil/Argentina border, but much higher, some 250 metres in some places. And with the mist that forms over it, there are plenty of rainbows. It's a sight that needs to be experienced, and not read about. You can view the falls from both the Zambian and the Zimbabwe side, crossing the border to get to the other side. One advantage for us Maltese is that we do not need a visa for either Zambia or Zimbabwe, which makes crossing over each time relatively easy and cheap.

Lusaka crowd

Scaramanga Universal Services

After Zambia, we headed to Zanzibar, off the eastern coast of Tanzania. Zanzibar is famous for its Stone Town (a UNESCO world heritage place), its spice and its blend of African and Arab culture, having been settled by Omani traders, who used to deal in spice and slaves. Apart from that, there are a number of unspoilt beaches in the north, in the Nungwi area, where one can live very cheaply and laze around on the beaches if so inclined.

Sunset in Zanzibar

Going to Tanzania one should not miss going on a safari to the famous Serengeti, Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro crater. Over a few days, you should be able to see or at least catch a glimpse of the "big five" - lion, rhino, leopard, elephant and buffalo. We saw all five. This is apart from other common animals, such as wildebeest, gazelles (thousands of them), hyenas, vultures, large fantastically coloured lizards, monkeys, baboons, hippos, wild pigs, etc., etc.

Zebra crossing

On a safari, one can choose between accommodation in tents or in "lodges". The lodges are basically small hotels in the park itself, with an electricity generator (usually switched off at night) and the usual hotel amenities. Obviously these are more expensive than the tents. We tried both. The lodges are more comfortable, but the tents provide a more authentic experience, as they are situated in the park itself and are not fenced off. Intrusive animals such as baboons are continuously wondering around during the day looking for something to steal. And zebras and wild pigs come into the tent area at night. Apparently the wild pigs can be dangerous and have been known to knock down a tent if the smell something they fancy! So we were told to lock up food and our boots in the Toyota Landcruiser during the night. This bit about the boots gave a German travelling with us a bit of a problem. He wanted to be able to put on his boots in the night, in case he needed to go out for a call of nature! So, in his opinion, the tent area should be fenced.

The lodges can sometimes provide an experience on their own. One lodge we stayed at was close to a hippo pool. The pool is a place where a group of hippos stay during the day, as their skin cannot bear the heat of the sun. But they will come out at night and wonder the area around the pool. The hippopotamus is the most dangerous animal in Africa, judging by the number of human deaths it causes. This is not because it is carnivorous, but simply because of its huge size, and because it will charge for no apparent reason.

During the night at this lodge, a hippo came right up to our room window. We were a bit wary of taking photos with a flash, having heard of the hippo’s reputation, and considering there was only a large piece of glass between us and the animal. So we thought it best to leave him in peace! After a while, he turned around and left, presumably to go back to his pool. And we were left in peace to continue on our journey back to Malta.

Cambodia - First published in the Times of Malta

1. You must answer according to my questions. Do not turn them away.

2. Do not try to hide the facts by making pretexts of this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3. Do not be a fool for you are a chap who dares to thwart the revolution.

4. You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.

5. Do not tell me either about your immoralities or the revolution.

6. While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry at all.

7. Do nothing. Sit still and wait for my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet. When I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.

8. Do not make pretexts about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your jaw of traitor.

9. If you do not follow all the above rules, you shall get many lashes of electric wire.

10. If you disobey any point of my regulations, you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

These words were written on the wall of each cell of Tuol Sleng, a security prison of the Pol Pot regime in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Tuol Sleng, or S-21 (Security Office 21), was housed in a converted high school in a quiet suburb of Phnom Penh. The location itself, amidst a residential area of Phnom Penh, is all the more chilling for its location. Any visit to Cambodia is not complete without a visit to this prison, now turned into a museum, to see the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge (Red Khmer) regime between 1975 and 1979.

Classroom at Tuol Sleng

Cambodia as a country is only just recovering from thirty years of civil war. Pol Pot himself, the leader of the Khmer Rouge, died relatively recently, in 1998 (April 15). In fact, some people do not believe he has died, as he was cremated soon after he died, without any official autopsy. And the Khmer Rouge, as a party, were officially outlawed in the same year, 1998, that is, over twenty years after they committed the atrocities, mass murders, and genocide of the 1970s.

Pol Pot, Brother Number One in the Khmer Rouge regime, is a name that still sends shivers down the spine of most Cambodians and foreigners alike. It was Pol Pot who was most associated with the bloody madness of the regime he led between 1975 and 1979. During this time, millions of Cambodians were killed or starved to death in "The Killing Fields", immortalised in Roland Joffe's 1984 film of the same name. After the Khmer Rouge's overthrow in 1979, by the Vietnamese army, Pol Pot fled to the jungle near the Thai border, and the Khmer Rouge continued engaging in guerrilla warfare aimed at demoralising its opponents. During this time, they were supplied with aid and military equipment by the Chinese, supported by the USA. And the USA also provided diplomatic support to the Khmer Rouge, and backed the Khmer Rouge delegate as the official representative of Cambodia at the UN. For the remainder of Pol Pot's life, just knowing he was still alive was traumatic and unjust for the Cambodian people. Nowadays, 20^th May is National "Hate" Day in Cambodia, to mark public anger against the Khmer Rouge-led genocide.

Pol Pot was born Saloth Sar in a small village in Cambodia in 1925. He had a relatively privileged upbringing, and, as a young man, he spent several years studying in Paris. Apparently it was here that he developed his radical Marxist beliefs. Back in Cambodia, Saloth Sar became a schoolteacher, entered politics in the late 1950s and joined the Khmer Rouge in the 1960s. He became its leader in the 1970s, and took over Phnom Penh, and practically the whole of Cambodia in 1975.

Cambodia has had a turbulent history since WWII, highlighted by Japanese occupation in WWII, the French-Viet Minh war in neighboring Vietnam and Laos, declaration of independence in 1953, and the American intervention in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia itself in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1969 and 1973, huge areas of eastern Cambodia were carpet-bombed by US B-52s in a secret programme to eradicate suspected communist base camps. This bombing (more than 500,000 tons) killed uncounted thousands of civilians and turned hundreds of thousands more into refugees. At that time, Cambodia was run by Lon Nol, who was installed and supported by the USA, and the Khmer Rouge were fighting to overthrow his regime. The US bombing alienated large segments of the population, enabling the Khmer Rouge to grow rapidly by recruitment. Despite massive US military and economic aid, Lon Nol never succeeded in gaining the initiative against the Khmer Rouge, and, on 17^th April 1975 (two weeks before the fall of Saigon), Phnom Penh surrendered to the Khmer Rouge.

Clearing landmines

Upon taking Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge implemented one of the most radical and brutal restructurings of a society ever attempted; its goal was to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated, agrarian co-operative. Within two weeks, the entire population of Phnom Penh and provincial towns, including hospital patients, was forced to march out to the countryside and organised into slave-labour teams to work for twelve to fifteen hours a day. The advent of Khmer Rouge rule was proclaimed "Year Zero". Currency was abolished and postal services were halted. Except for one fortnightly flight to Beijing (China was providing aid and advisors to the Khmer Rouge), the country was cut off from the outside world.

It is still not known how many Cambodians died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge over the next four years. Estimates range from one to three million (the population was then around seven million). Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's security forces. Tuol Sleng, or S-21, became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. More than 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the extermination camp of Choeung Ek (15 kms from central Phnom Penh) to be executed. After digging their own graves, the favourite method of execution was a blow to the back of the head, and then the throat was slit.

Memorial Stupa at Choeung Ek Killing Fields

Inside the memorial stupa

The stupa - A closer look

Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge was meticulous in keeping records of its barbarism. Each prisoner who passed through S-21 was photographed, sometimes before and after being tortured. The museum displays room after room of these photographs of men, women and children covering the walls from floor to ceiling; virtually all the people pictured were later killed. Several foreigners from Australia, France and the USA were held here before being murdered. In S-21, the prisoners were kept in small cells and shackled with chains fixed to the walls or the concrete floors. Prisoners held in the large mass cells had one or both of their legs shackled to short or long pieces of iron bars. Other rooms in S-21 were used as interrogation rooms, using various methods of torture. The instruments of torture are on display in glass cases in the museum, and the methods are depicted in paintings by some of the very few prisoners who remained alive. Young boys were indoctrinated and used as prison guards. As the Khmer Rouge revolution reached new heights of insanity, it began devouring its own children. Groups of executioners and torturers who worked here killed their predecessors, and were in turn killed by those who took their places.

During its regime, the xenophobic government in Phnom Penh instigated a series of border clashes with Vietnam. In December 1978, Vietnam launched a full scale invasion of Cambodia (which invasion was condemned by both China and the USA), toppling the Pol Pot government in January 1979. On entering Phnom Penh, and the Tuol Sleng prison, they found only seven prisoners alive. Fourteen others had been tortured to death as Vietnamese forces were closing in. Photographs of their gruesome death are on display in the rooms were their decomposing forces were found. Their graves are nearby in the courtyard.

Of course, there is a lot more to see in Cambodia apart from the remnants left by the Khmer Rouge regime. The scenery is typical Indochina, mainly flat plains, rice fields and rivers. The two main geographical features are the Tonle Sap Lake, in the centre of Cambodia, and the Mekong River, which passes through Phnom Penh, in the southern part of Cambodia. The Tonle Sap is linked to the Mekong at Phnom Penh by a 100-km-long channel known as the Tonle Sap River. In the rainy season (May to October) the level of the Mekong rises, backing up the Tonle Sap river and causing it to flow north-west into the Tonle Sap lake. During this period, the Tonle Sap lake swells from 3000 sq km to over 7500 sq km. As the water level of the Mekong falls during the dry season, the Tonle Sap river reverses its flow, draining the waters of the lake back into the Mekong. This extraordinary process makes the Tonle Sap one of the world's richest sources of freshwater fish.

And then there are the temples of Angkor, in the northern part of Cambodia. These are considered one of the foremost architectural wonders of the world. The Angkor temples were built between the 9^th and 14^th centuries, when Khmer civilisation was at the height of its extraordinary creativity. From Angkor, the kings of the mighty Khmer empire ruled over a vast territory that extended from the tip of what is now southern Vietnam to Yunan in China and from Vietnam west to the Bay of Bengal. Angkor's 100 or so temples constitute the sacred skeleton of a spectacular administrative and religious centre. Its houses and public building have long since decayed away, as they were built of wood - the right to structures of bricks or stone was reserved for the gods.

The Khmer empire went into decline after the death of Jayavarman VII around 1220. The Thais sacked Angkor in 1351, and in 1431 they sacked it again. Until the 19^th century, Angkor was "lost" to the outside world, and was overrun by the jungle. It was then "discovered" in the 1860s by French explorers, and this created a great deal of interest in Cambodia. From that time on, Angkor became the target of French expeditions.

The temples of Angkor are spread over about 100 sq km. The chief attractions are Angkor Wat, the "city" of Angkor Thom (principally the Bayon), and Ta Phrom. Ta Phrom is famous for having been left to the jungle, with dislodged stones and massive trees growing straight through the walls, and it is truly amazing. It was also the location for part of the filming of the Tomb Raider movie, starring Angeline Jolie as Lara Croft.

Angkor Wat

Relief at Angkor Wat

The work of the jungle

There are many other interesting things to sample in Cambodia, such as the delicacy of the town of Skuon: deep-fried four-inch spiders. And one can also see land-mine-clearing teams at work in the countryside around Siem Reap, near Angkor. Cambodia might not be on everyone's itinerary, but it is definitely a most interesting travel experience.

Fried spider delicacy

Should I try it?

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More photos

Buddhist monk with acolytes

Discussing a tricky point