Pickled Eel
Random tales from a Sydney-based blogger, who finds plenty of opportunities to head overseas. (Read interview with Pickled Eel)
Features
Singapore at 6 am
Getting around a city in the early hours always opens up a new vista on a place. This week I am staying down on the outskirts of Chinatown (Duxton Hill to be precise) and am therefore well away from the tourist and shopping end of town. A travel “snobbery” I am happy to admit and continue to indulge. This part of the city gives you a feel for what the place used to be like, before the high rise apartments and office blocks and chic shopping centres messed with the heart of the place. Mind you Duxton hill is not what it appears either - the old shuttered houses which are so appealing are usually the home now of upmarket restaurants and very hip bars. Selling expensive drinks.
The Camera Trap
If you have ever had a video camera fixed to your eye at an airshow, or at the car race track you will understand what I mean by the camera trap - so fixated are you on capturing the moment (to be stored forgotten in your camera) that you miss the real experience. When filming or photographing people that loss is even more profound. That is what happened here.I was being guided through the Forbidden City in Beijing. According to the China National Administration of Tourism; China Statistical Yearbook 2003, 878 million domestic tourists moved about China in 2002. If you visit Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City in summer you could be forgiven for thinking most of that number were walking through the place with you.
Hidden Piper in Xian
It is a not uncommon cliche of those who observe China that these are a people comfortable being in close proximity with each other. They live right on top of each other and being comfortable around other human beings is something that is part of the their DNA it seems. Certainly they have a sense of personal space which is VERY different to our Australian culture, which likes to put wide open spaces between us, even between those who live in our capital cities. (Want to see a bunch of Australians at their most uncomfortable? Insist they crowd into an elevator or commuter train!)
But that does not mean the Chinese don't appreciate their space...
An Evening in Baghdad
A dog across the road barks and gets our attention. We wander across the roof top and gaze down into the dark to see what has distracted it. Nothing appears straight away but then a modified Ford pickup truck drives though. Modified with a gun turret mounted on its chassis. A soldier sits in the turret swinging his machine gun from side to side. Three others laugh and chat in the open back as they push on through the street. Like guards in any environment they are booted and spurred but clearly bored and settled into a routine. Even the dog barking had not got the attention of our own guards - they are in their own routine too.
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