From all over Asia and Sri Lanka: Swasticas. They're everywhere. And they have no sinister connotation. They appear as decorative motifs on all sorts of things: Candleabra in Sri Lanka, musicians' uniforms in Bali, etched in stone or mosaic in Cambodia or Thailand. I assume these countries weren't touched by WWII in the same way Americans and Europeans were. To the extent they were involved, their main enemy was Japan, not Germany. And while the Nazis probably hated asians and Sri Lankans as much as they hated jews, Poles, gypsies, slavs, etc., asians and Sri Lankans didn't suffer at the hands of the Germans in the same way our European friends and relatives did.
More than once, I've told people about this great book I once found in the library of the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. It was published in 1910 (long before the Nazis) and was devoted to studying the swastica as a decorative motif. Turns out, the swastica is a symbol(sometime religious, sometimes decorative only) that is indiginous to every single culture on eart. Every single one. And the stupid Nazis went and ruined it for most of the world. Stupid Nazis.
At the Sydney airport:
Also, the Sydney airport had several moving walkways that were -- I'm not exaggerating -- only about 20 feet loong. I've been in cars longer than those walkways.
In Australia and New Zealand:
From Australia:
Our guide Di told us a story about the day London Bridge fell down: Supposedly, there were two people -- a man and a woman -- out on the peninsula when it collapsed. A group of teachers and children were on the mainland nearby, so they knew about the collapse and went to call for help (remember, pre-cell phones). For some reason, no emergency responders wanted to come out to rescue the trapped couple or see the fallen-down Bridge (according to Di, at least!).
So someone called a news station and told them the bridge fell down and a couple were stranded on it. The news crew sent a helicopter, which landed on the now-island. In addition to rescuing the couple, the crew of course wanted to interview them, but they were insistent on not being filmed and refused to give interviews, then they took off in their car as soon as the helicopter got them back to the mainland. A bit of them and the Bridge wound up on the news anyway.
A day or two later, the news had an update: It turns out the man had called in sick to work the day he got stuck on the Bridge and he was a married man who'd snuck out for the day with his lover. Which is why they were so camera-shy. According to Di, at least.
My electronics:
The second problem arose one evening in Phnom Penh. The hotel had free wifi, which I could access from my room. I was chatting online with a friend when my connection started going in and out. Assuming it was a problem with the hotel's router, I went to the lobby to ask. But the hotel's systems were fine, and others in the lobby were using their wifi with no problem. I was upset not just because I thought my computer was broken, but because I'd disappeared mid-conversation with someone back home, and I didn't want to leave them hanging all night. Some research online failed to turn up solutions to my exact problem -- only related problems. But fortunately, the problem has not happened since then. I suspect I let my computer get too hot that night, and I now take more care to keep it off the bed or pillows.
From French Polynesia:
I find large-denomination coins (like 1 or 2 dollars, Euros or british pounds) to be annoying in any case. They are always the heaviest, if not largest, of a country's coinage, and if you carry more than a couple, they are both heavy and space-consuming in my wallet or pocket. And when I travel, I prefer having lots of small denominations to a few big ones, because I never know what I'll need for bus fare, or a pay toilet, or a small tip, and it's better to have exact change in those cases.
Back home, I like it that most Americans won't adopt the dollar coin. I understand that it costs the government more money to print dollar bills than to mint dollar coins -- over the long run that is, because paper wears out faster than coins. But it will cheapen the value of our base unit of currency if it becomes just more "spare change" jingling in our pockets, and tossed unthinkingly into tip jars and wishing wells. So keep hoarding those dollar coins instead of spending them! The paper money in F.P. is annoyingly large, and the coins are annoyingly large and heavy. Twice on this trip, I thought that two key pieces of my equipment were broken: First my camera and later the wifi ability on my netbook. About one month into my trip, my camera refused to focus on anything. It then gave me an error message that ... um ... well, I forget what, but it was bizarre! I freaked out because I was in Sri Lanka and didn't know if I could even replace the camera there. Nor did I want the hassle and expense. Fortunately, some message boards on the internet offered a suggested fix, which worked and I've had no problems since. (The fix was to take out the SD card then put it back in. Weird.) One of our stops on the Great Ocean Road, along the southern coast of Australia, was to see the London Bridge, a natural rock formation that used to be a peninsula until one of the two spans of the bridge collapsed about 20 years ago.All the houses have fences around the entire property. And for the most part, not decorative little fences, but fences taller than a man which clearly say "Stay Away" (although I don't know if the owners mean to say that). The fences in Alice Springs, Australia were the worst. They were the tallest fences, ugliest fences, and least "transparent" fences. Maybe it's because Alice Springs has the highest percentage of shady people. But the little suburb of Christchurch that I stayed in didn't seem to have any shady people, so I can't explain the love of tall ugly fences there. No one asked me for an I.D. at any point. Oversight or standard operating procedure? I didn't want to ask and risk losing the chance to write about this anomoly in airport procedure. ;-)
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| Outside a Sri Lankan buddhist/hindu temple. |
At the Sydney airport:
Also, the Sydney airport had several moving walkways that were -- I'm not exaggerating -- only about 20 feet loong. I've been in cars longer than those walkways.
In Australia and New Zealand:
 |
| Maybe it's to keep the neighborhood kids off the lawn... |
 |
| That gap used to be a bridge. |
So someone called a news station and told them the bridge fell down and a couple were stranded on it. The news crew sent a helicopter, which landed on the now-island. In addition to rescuing the couple, the crew of course wanted to interview them, but they were insistent on not being filmed and refused to give interviews, then they took off in their car as soon as the helicopter got them back to the mainland. A bit of them and the Bridge wound up on the news anyway.
A day or two later, the news had an update: It turns out the man had called in sick to work the day he got stuck on the Bridge and he was a married man who'd snuck out for the day with his lover. Which is why they were so camera-shy. According to Di, at least.
My electronics:
The second problem arose one evening in Phnom Penh. The hotel had free wifi, which I could access from my room. I was chatting online with a friend when my connection started going in and out. Assuming it was a problem with the hotel's router, I went to the lobby to ask. But the hotel's systems were fine, and others in the lobby were using their wifi with no problem. I was upset not just because I thought my computer was broken, but because I'd disappeared mid-conversation with someone back home, and I didn't want to leave them hanging all night. Some research online failed to turn up solutions to my exact problem -- only related problems. But fortunately, the problem has not happened since then. I suspect I let my computer get too hot that night, and I now take more care to keep it off the bed or pillows.
From French Polynesia:
 |
| The bills are nearly as big as a paperback book. |
 |
| The two most common coins, with a U.S. quarter in between. |
Back home, I like it that most Americans won't adopt the dollar coin. I understand that it costs the government more money to print dollar bills than to mint dollar coins -- over the long run that is, because paper wears out faster than coins. But it will cheapen the value of our base unit of currency if it becomes just more "spare change" jingling in our pockets, and tossed unthinkingly into tip jars and wishing wells. So keep hoarding those dollar coins instead of spending them! The paper money in F.P. is annoyingly large, and the coins are annoyingly large and heavy. Twice on this trip, I thought that two key pieces of my equipment were broken: First my camera and later the wifi ability on my netbook. About one month into my trip, my camera refused to focus on anything. It then gave me an error message that ... um ... well, I forget what, but it was bizarre! I freaked out because I was in Sri Lanka and didn't know if I could even replace the camera there. Nor did I want the hassle and expense. Fortunately, some message boards on the internet offered a suggested fix, which worked and I've had no problems since. (The fix was to take out the SD card then put it back in. Weird.) One of our stops on the Great Ocean Road, along the southern coast of Australia, was to see the London Bridge, a natural rock formation that used to be a peninsula until one of the two spans of the bridge collapsed about 20 years ago.All the houses have fences around the entire property. And for the most part, not decorative little fences, but fences taller than a man which clearly say "Stay Away" (although I don't know if the owners mean to say that). The fences in Alice Springs, Australia were the worst. They were the tallest fences, ugliest fences, and least "transparent" fences. Maybe it's because Alice Springs has the highest percentage of shady people. But the little suburb of Christchurch that I stayed in didn't seem to have any shady people, so I can't explain the love of tall ugly fences there. No one asked me for an I.D. at any point. Oversight or standard operating procedure? I didn't want to ask and risk losing the chance to write about this anomoly in airport procedure. ;-)
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