A documentary on the Khmer Rouge

A new documentary has been made about Pol Pot's communist regime that wiped a quarter of Cambodians, and much Cambodian culture, just 30 years ago.

Enemies of the People. 2010.  Directed and produced by Teth Sambath and Briton Rob Lemkin.

Miranda Leitsinger, "Filmmaker tracks Khmer Rouge killers to learn the truth," CNN, http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/25/cambodia.khmer.rouge.filmmaker/index.html


Amok in Siem Reap

Amok, Angkor Palm Restaurant, Siem Reap, Cambodia, taken July 2010.

Amok, baked fish in banana leaf, is the most popular dish in this trendy Seam Reap restaurant.  It has been featured on Cambodian TV, lauded in my Lonely Planet guide, and probably reviewed online extensively.  I can't help but feel that Khmer cuisine contains overtones of the French kitchen that was introduced to Cambodia during the 100-year-long French occupation.

Home away from home

Ironically, Backpacker's District on Khao San Road has become one of the top attractions for tourists in Bangkok.  For one, many visitors are likely to stay there.  Khao San has, by my estimate, about 100 hostels.  But these hostels come with the added price premium of being located in the Backpacker's District.  Frugal travelers, travelers "in the know," and worn travelers who scorn touristy areas shun Khao San and stay elsewhere.  Yet nearly all, I am told, venture there at least once during their trip, if only to gape at the bleary-eyed Westerners.


For me, Khao San was an attractive introductory course in Bangkok.  Here, and nowhere else, street foods are occasionally labeled in English, which allowed me to get a sense of what I was ordering -- a sense largely missing from looking at the item's color and shape.  Vendors catering to all Western tastes cram into the short street, and spill over into neighboring streets.  So a short walk introduced me to all kinds of massages, stores, vendors, and, through the travel agencies, events and sights that I later bargained for away from Khao San.

Brits, people speaking German and Americans are the predominant species in Khao San's ecosystem.  Brits are mostly rising college juniors on summer vacation after a nearly ubiquitous junior-year internship.  The German-speakers I saw have always been in families or large groups.  The Americans seem scarce, or at least don't announce themselves the way Americans traveling through Europe do

A bargain

Yesterday at the night market I got a belt in return for $5 USD and my own belt.  I wonder how much that hawker will sell my belt for.  It's worn, and perhaps that gives it the rustic feel some travelers expect in the goods they buy in Thailand.  It's also about to fall apart -- another aspect of wares bought in Thailand that travelers do, or should, expect.  But the belt I bought definitely won't fall apart any time soon.  Definitely.

An interesting scam

Today I encountered one of the more interesting scams that tuk tuk drivers run in Bangkok.  A guy is crossing a street intersection with me as I head to the temple complex across the street.  He asks me if I'm going to the temple.  I confirm.  He tells me that the temple is closed until 3pm because the monks are praying.  So far this is a typical Bangkok scam - he is about to tell me to visit a silk or fabric factory while I wait for the temple to re-open.  He asks to see my map.  Here we go.  But instead, he offers me a 3-point route:  one buddha statue, a silk emporium, another buddha statue, then back to the temple complex area -- all for $2 USD!  The scam works for them because the tuk tuk drivers get commission from the "silk emporium" for bringing foreigners there.  But the scam also works for me, because I am not obligated to stay at the emporium long, and end up paying for about 3 hours of getting driven around for 2 bucks.

Fight to Hong Kong

The American Airlines flight operated by Cathay Pacific from San Francisco to Hong Kong runs on the Boeing 747-400, which I estimate seats 1,000 people.  Most of the passengers are Chinese, given the flights destination. About 1 in 10 is Caucasian.


The best line from my trans-Pacific flight comes from the movie "The Ghost Writer" that I watched on the plane: "I know of a reporter on the Guardian who uses the gym!"  One innovation of their entertainment system I have not seen elsewhere is that this one calculates the duration of the film you're watching and, if it exceeds the amount of time you'll be on the plane, asks you whether you want to proceed.  A small but useful update.

The New York Times special report on Afghanistan

The New York Times released an fascinating and incisive analysis of the myriad pages of classified information that it, along with two other newspapers, was granted access to by the website WikiLeaks.  I think this analysis clearly shows that American involvement in Afghanistan is not going as well as American military and political leadership wishes, and not as well as it portrays those efforts to the American public.  I cannot help but feel that the lack of adequate governance in Afghanistan, especially relative to the presence of strong governance in Iraq, plays a key role in stifling our efforts to rein in corruption, defeat the Taliban, and strengthen Afghani military and political institutions.  Afghanistan has more territory than Iraq, fewer people, is less economically developed; its political institutions are less centralized and more corrupt.  The success of our efforts there, it seems, rests on America's ability to strengthen political institutions so that Afghanis have no need to turn to the Taliban to resolve their political or territorial or other claims, and strengthening military and para-military entities such as the police force so that they can defend their territory against invasion attempts by Taliban troops.  The strengthening of political institutions sounds like a long process that requires financial and military commitment from the United States over a very long period of time.  The Afghanistan war has already taken 10 years.  I have doubts that America can maintain the level of investment needed in Afghanistan to build the political and military institutions in the face of disruptive Taliban forces and the recently-revealed extensive involvement by Pakistani intelligence.  In light of these difficulties, perhaps American goals in Afghanistan should be curtailed to simply be the creation of a central Afghanistan government free of Taliban personnel.  And that increasingly sounds like a government that has cut a deal with the Taliban of some Taliban governance or power in return for non-agression.

The beginning of my trip to Asia

I have decided to blog my trip throughout Asia.  Today is the first leg of that trip.  I am flying from Boston to San Francisco and spending the day seeing friends and finishing last-minute planning.  From there I fly directly to Bangkok, where I will spend three days.

For this trip -- the longest amount of travel I've done -- I started with an exhaustive packing list.  Lonely Planet recommends packing a multi-function knife, bug spray, umbrella.  After some thought and consultation with friends who traveled to the Mekong region, I decided to pack light and buy most supplies after I land and as I travel through Asia.  The one crucial item I chose to buy in the US and bring abroad: duck tape.

The Malachite King


Photo taken by Michael B. in February 2010 at the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

This malachite costume of a mask, necklace, arm bands, and rings was created for one of the ancient kings in the area of Mexico.  The king was buried in a sarcophagus, displayed next to this costume, the dimensions of which were so large, and its weight so heavy, that instead of creating the sarcophagus in a workshop and then bringing it into the tomb, craftsmen had to construct the entire thing within the tomb, carving it out of rock they found there. 

Trip to Asia

I have an exciting trip to east Asia planned for this August.  I am flying from Boston to San Francisco to visit friends there, then to Bangkok, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Hanoi, Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, and finally home to Boston.  Orientation for my graduate school program starts on August 24; my plane lands in Boston at 1:30 pm on Aug. 23.

I plan to spend about two non-travel days in each city in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and then about three or four non-travel days in cities in China.  In Cambodia, I will follow the typical tourist route of visiting the temples at Angkor Wat; in Vietnam, I am deciding between the train from Saigon to Hanoi and the plane.  The plane is pricier and faster, while the train affords better scenery and costs less.