Taiwan: Very much unlike Asia!

Taiwan is a little island, existence of which as a country is fought over many a times! No matter what political status is, the nation is so unlike any other countries in Asia as I found out from my first step in these mystical lands!
Getting visa hasn't been so easy for me. Since I had a US visa, all I needed was an online approval letter and the immigration officer stamped my passport within 5 seconds of presenting, no questions asked! Taiwan, claimed by China to be theirs, has every board written in traditional Chinese script as well as English. Every step, every corner, every turn is very nicely marked by sign boards and you have to try real hard to get lost or to land in a situation to seek someone's help. My first discovery about this amazing country was its amazing people. There is no chaos, which usually so prevalent in any other Asian airport. Queues are disciplined, no one breaks the line, no one jumps the line and most of all, everyone is quiet. They have great deal of respect for atmosphere at public places. As such immigration, customs, getting the bus ticket and getting on the bus all transpired in a one harmonious movement, which I am not very used to after spending over 3 months in South East Asia.
Within 15 minutes, I found myself cruising on wide road of Taipei city, traffic moving ever so fluently, buses on one lane and small cars on another. The modern skyline rose on either side of the road, glittering against the ink blue sky as my bus took me into the heart of the city. Even in the dark, the cleanliness of the city was astounding. I got down at the Metro station and finding a metro to my hotel was even easier. Again thanks to so well maintained boards, I hardly had to ask anyone. But still, since I had not talked much to anyone through my journey, I decided to ignore the sign boards and ask people instead, who were really helpful and warm.
By the time I reached  my hostel, it was well past midnight, but one Japanese gentleman was up, who registered me in a small register and guided me to a small bunk bed. The hostel was about $ 11 a night, with free wi-fi, hot shower and unlimited quantity of coffee! Not a bad price, in this generally expensive city.
I sat at a Metro station the next day, watching mass of people moving in and out of station. There were business class people, students, shop keepers, families, all using this vein alike. I was also reading wikitravel page about Taipei and read that Taipei is one of the most densely populated cities on this earth. I looked back at the crowd and indeed there were just too many people. But, you would never notice that, as there is no shouting, no chaos and no hold ups!

In the Metro

At the station

I finally managed to meet Yushin, who took me to a documentary show, made by one of the documentary geniuses. The documentary was about Whale Sharks and it was in Mandarin. I did not understand much, but it was well made nonetheless, as I was able to sit through two and half hours of it without a single yawn. That must be one real genius!

Documentary time!

Famous 101!

Meeting Yushin and Huang was like a reunion. After a long time, I had friends to talk to and not just go from one place to another. Hang out at a cafe and talk. It was such a relief!

Amazing meal

Reunion

So after finishing a huge meal of fried pork and unlimited rice and spending some time in a nice local book store, Yushin took our leave and Huang and me headed to a small suburb called Danshui, which is situated along the banks of Danshui river. Light rain had started to drizzle, but it was a nice day overall. We got down from the MRT right at front of the river and started walking along the banks of it. The river side has a nice little park, with plenty of benches to sit on, there is a cycle rental agency and plenty of food stalls. We walked taking in nice smells of delicious food items being sold. There was fried chicken and fried squid, mushrooms, more sea food, hot tea. As we passed these shops, everyone would offer us small amount to taste, of which I was most thankful for a nice cup of hot tea flavored with ginger, so perfect for the weather. Huang joked that you don't really need to buy anything here, as walking along the street, you will find your belly to be full from free food offered by shopkeepers and which was almost true!

Danshui river

No idea what's that!

Fried Sea food

Tea packets

We continued walking towards a famous Spanish fort which is situated on a hill, but unfortunately it was closed. So Huang directed me to a university instead. Walking inside, I felt as if I was in Europe. The architecture is very western and a pool in the middle of brilliant, cool water hosts fish of many colors! It's more like a park than a university and true to that, there were many families and friends who had come to just to enjoy the nice weather. Walking through the university, we came across a Golf course and entered it, again no questions asked! I can not imagine people letting you on a golf course, just like that, anywhere else in Asia.

A small pool at the university

European like architecture of the university

Golf course

Golf course

I said goodbye to Huang at Shilin station, and went straight to the night market for which this district is famous. Here night market is more for food than for other stuff. There are food stalls selling all kinds of food items. Barbecue, sandwiches, noodles, deserts, drinks. I spent at least an hour just trying to figure out what to eat, everything is so tempting! Walking through the night crowd, I stumbled upon an old temple. Temple of a goddess, which guides the fishermen. This a typical Chinese architecture, is situated right in the middle of the night market. Hanging red lanterns decorate the roof and big jar holding numerous incense sticks welcomes you inside.

Night market at Shilin

Incense pot

Temple at Night market

Red lanterns

I spent some time in the temple, eyes closed, and let myself breath in the smell of incense sticks and listen to bells ringing somewhere in the temple, before turning back to the Metro to carry me back to the hostel.

Southern Cambodia: Beaches and Mountains

Leaving the harsh history of Cambodia behind, I took a bus to a southern city of Sihanoukville, which is the beach capital of the country and which is more popular than two other southern towns viz. Kampot and Kep. Naturally, the place is quite crowded and hotel prices are a little more than elsewhere. I chose a room with an ocean view, air conditioner, huge bathroom and a swimming pool. All for $ 10 a night, my most expensive room till then. Since the ocean could be viewed from the balcony, there wasn't any need to go out in the sun at all and so I spent couple of those days just sitting in the balcony and reading, taking a swim in the cool waters of the pool and occasionally going out for food or a drink. All in all, it was another relaxing stay.

A beach at Sihanoukville

On the third day, however, I abruptly decided to move on and went to the bus station to catch a bus to another town called Kampot. The minivan was real fast and turns and twists on the road did not slow us down. We completed a 3 hour ride in just 2 and by the time I got down in damp air of Kampot, my insides were squirming. As usual touts were waiting for the unwary travelers and they crowded the passengers as we got down. Being smaller than western folks and not so white helped me to move away quietly, without attracting any of those touts and I felt blessed for that. A short walk found me in front of a tourist information center and I entered. The fellow was good-natured and helpful and immediately pointed a few cheap hotels on a map and handed it to me. I started the walk in search of the cheapest and my first try turned out to be a $ 3 dorm. Thinking that this ought to be the cheapest of the lot, I got in, where I met a couple of Germans who warned me against the bed bugs. Keeping my bags on the bed I moved to the source of bright light in the dormitory, which was a balcony with another splendid view of the river front, which was marked by several benches and green trees along the clean blue waters of the river and a very old looking bridge connecting to the other side of the river. This particular bridge looked uneven, as if it was made out of wastes and whatever was left. It was quite interesting.

Riverfront and the old bridge

The next morning I went to the reception to ask for a bicycle and at that time I met two Germans again. "We are going to Kep" they said. "Want to join?". Five minutes later, I was on the backseat of a Vietnamese motorbike, sky was clear and surroundings were green. Kep is only about half an hour ride from Kampot and used to be the beach capital of Cambodia. Now it is not so famous and less crowded. The ride from Kampot to Kep is beautiful with many a rice fields and salt lakes on the sides. As we neared Kep, vast blue ocean emerged on our right side and impressive green mountains on the left. We found a good beach, parked our bikes near a shop and ran straight to the warm waters. It was very comfortable, except for the fact that by the time we came out of the water, our skin was stinging, the reason unknown. We sat in the Sun drying ourselves, where we met a couple of more Germans and then all of us headed to the famous crab market. But it was bad timing. At 5 in the evening, all the baskets which might have contained crabs in the morning were now empty. Only one woman was selling crabs and so many people surrounded her that by the time we even had a glimpse of the basket, it was empty again. Dejected, we headed to a restaurant, where we had not so bad fish and rice. The sun began to edge towards horizon as we started back, waiting only a couple of minutes to take pictures of the sunset.

Kep Beach

Last of crabs!

German friends

Time to go back

Sunset!

The next morning the dorm was entirely empty and getting ready I started my first ever organized tour in my whole trip. A $ 10 tour of Kampot, which included Bokor national park, a dry waterfall and sunset cruise on the river. Not a bad price! The tour group consisted of an Irish guy, a dutch girl , a french couple and two British girls. Bokor mountain is covered by dense forest and being elevated, has cool weather. There is an abundance of various species of animals and plants. If not too cloudy, one can enjoy beautiful view of the ocean and Phu Quoc island in the distance. Fascinated by the view perhaps, french built a huge Casino on the hilltop about a century ago. There is also a French church and king's summer palace on other parts of the hill. The summer palace was our first stop, which no more than a small house. It's hard to believe that it used to be a king's palace. Dirty walls are now covered with many artistic graffiti. Cigarette butts litter the ground. But one thing is still the same, the view from the front. The vast blue ocean lies beneath the mountain and there on the horizon, an island is visible, which now belongs to Vietnam, though Cambodians believe it to be theirs.

Graffiti

Empty halls of the palace

Summer palace

Stunning view!

Further on, we stopped near an old church building. Another century old structure, a little crumbling, its red walls having dark blackish patches. It has a serious haunted feel to it as you roam inside. It might be a little spooky if you venture alone. I did not try that and stuck to the group instead. The french casino is not that far from the church and it is said that it used to be Khmer Rouge's stronghold for years even after their fall from the capital city. The casino which used to have a Gothic feel just like the church has lost it due to preservation project by the government. Once red-black and scary walls are now covered with grey paint. The insides have been cleaned out and now it looks like a semi-finished new building. It is still marvelous, but has certainly lost the charm!

Wonderful view of the church

French Church

Walls

The casino

View from the top of

There are a couple of more century old buildings nearby which are now covered with plants and vines crawling along the walls and the roofs. Dense and thick grass is covering the grounds surrounding these structures and it is very easy to believe that these places maybe haunted.

Another scary structure

Our tour price included lunch and we had it at the waterfall, which had no water due to dry season. We finished our lunch and headed back to the town, where we were given a free hour to roam around before taking the sunset cruise. Our tour group had only one couple and as our boat started its slow, lazy journey on the river, sun slowly sinking to the west, all the rest of us started to feel a little out of place. "What the heck!" I thought and I got up and sat next to the boat driver, an old and frail looking fellow, with broken teeth, who gave me a warm smile as he took a deep puff of a cigarette. There I sat, observing his activities, which were far less interesting than I thought and involved more smoking than anything to do with the boat. It was a pleasant ride nonetheless. While everyone else sat on the passenger seats which were a little lower than the driver's seat and had a roof on top, I sat in the open air and had a better view.

We passed many of these on the way

Green!

Yet another beautiful sunset

With a cool breeze playing on my face and a wonderful sight of dark and dense green trees along the river-side, I found the ride much more interesting without a company than I thought. We saw a private boat from top of which some westerners were jumping in the river, coming back on board and jumping again and felt strong inclination to do the same. None of us carried spare clothes though, and we had to settle for just staring at them with a bit of envy. Our boat took a U-turn as the sky overhead turned bright scarlet and birds began retreating to their homes. Small children still played in the river with no apparent track of time and waved at us as we passed them, their smiles broad and their enthusiasm having no limit. Sooner than I thought, our boat came neare the town and the breeze subsided. The peace which held us for so long was now broken by horns of the vehicles in the distant. Small, dim lights could be seen of the cars and motorbikes crossing the bridge ahead of us. And by the time our boat stopped at a place where it had started, stars had started twinkling in the sky. We got out of the boat, shook hands with each other with satisfied smiles on our faces and parted the ways!

From a beautiful laid back town to sad history of the country

After spending a week in Kratie, almost doing nothing at all, except walking, eating, swimming and cycling, finally it was time to say goodbye to this beautiful town and our laziness. Having packed our bags and geared for the bustle in Phnom Penh, we said goodbye to our hotel owner, who seemed to be gravely disappointed as we did not take any tours from him. He smiled nonetheless and we walked to the market center where vans usually wait to be loaded before heading to PP. End of new year's holiday meant huge crowd going back to the cities from hometown and increase in the van fare. We negotiated a bit and saved ourselves 50 cents each before we were shoved on the backseat with our bags on our laps. Once again, the van was packed with people twice its capacity and it was off!
It took 4 hours before we caught a glimpse of a commercial city in the distant from a bridge over the river. As we entered the city, the first bump welcomed us into its heart. The road seemed to be under development, but lack of any workers and activity meant that the road had been in this condition for a long time. First sign of a corrupt city. More bumps followed and we had to hold on to wherever we could. About an hour inside the city on bad roads and crowded street, we finally reached what looked like the central market and were dropped off there. As is the case with any touristy city, we were surrounded by touts and agents asking us about hotels or tuk tuks. Denying everyone politely, we started east-wards, to the river side, which is crowded by numerous hotels. The streets were lined with food stalls, restaurants and shops. It was a crowded area. Everyone seemed to be hurrying towards something important. After checking out a few hotels, we finally found one to our liking and checked into it. But as the ceiling was leaking, we had to check out again and find a new hotel.

The central market

Our basic room

The next day, all three of us started walking aimlessly. Checking out the surroundings, a map in hand. We realised that we could actually walk to a famous tourist spot, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and started to head that way. Cambodia perhaps has worse history than Vietnam and Laos. First because of its occupation by French in the beginning, then their involuntary involvement in Vietnam war and finally an enemy within the country i.e. Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot. It is one of the saddest episodes of history and quite a long one. It is advisable to read about it before coming to Cambodia to understand and respect the country and its people.
Towards the end of Vietnam war, Cambodia had three armies, Americans, Khmer Rouge and then governing political party. Khmer Rouge with their aggression managed to win this war and took over Phnom Penh. The Cambodians welcomed this new regime as it has finally ended an ever going war. But the peace did not last. Khmer Rouge's philosophy was that every country man need to work in the field to maximize the agricultural produce. Pol Pot believed that education and foreign involvement are bad for the country's development and banned schools throughout the country. Well educated people such as doctors, lawyers, architects etc. were kept as prisoners and schools were converted into prison camp. The regime itself had well educated people at the top, most of whom had completed their education in France or other countries in Europe. Any slightest sign of uprising was punished severely and towards the end Pol Pot became so paranoid about a plot against him that many people were imprisoned or murdered without a slightest proof. By the end of the Pol Pot regime, as many as 25% of total population had been murdered and the country's economy was transferred back to the stone age. It was a gruesome act and reminders of this can be seen throughout the country.
One of such reminders is the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. This, previously a school, was a prison camp for political and other prisoners. All the classrooms were converted into jails and the prisoners were subjected to various methods of torture. By the end of the torture, many people would just accept the crimes they had not committed, to get out of the torture. Well, once accepted, they were subjected to death sentence. It is said that screams could be heard throughout the nearby areas when innocent were tortured. The prisoners included children, women and old people. So many people died in this establishment that it is said that the bad stench of decay lingered throughout the premise for months even after the fall of the regime.

Entrance to the museum

School campus

As a reminder, this prison has now been converted in a museum. The now empty classrooms and faded walls are witness to these episodes. Blood marks can be seen on the floor where innocent people were tortured, many of whom could not withstand it and died. Photos have been put on the walls of tortures and dead people. Many of the weapons used for torture are on display. Some rooms have numerous amounts of photos of prisoners, others have photos of the Khmer Rouge soldiers. On both sides, children as young as 5-6 can be seen. Their innocent eyes, quite aloof to what was actually happening.

One of the last victims

Deathbed?

Torture room

Silent witness!

Pol Pot: The reason behind everything!

Victims

Prisoners

Young Khmer Rouge soldiers

It is hard not to feel stunned after going through these rooms and as I sat on a bench waiting for Huang and Yushin, a small breeze playing with my hair, my mind had become numb and it seemed as if all happiness was sucked out of me....by a gruesome act in the past!