East Eats West

The Marble Mountains Central Vietnam

As I pointed out in a previous blog entry the Vietnamese are very skilled in various handicrafts with their skills ranging from cloth-tailoring to wood-carving and lantern-making, skills being passed down from family to family. One village where one can see these ample skills are the Marble Mountains between Hoi An and Da Nang in Central Vietnam. Half an hour from Hoi An one and only a few hundred meters away from the seashore the five mountains, less than 100 meters high each, were for a long-time the source of marble. The marble started a thriving industry of stone carvers and shops. On a normal day one can hear the deafening noise of Bosch hand drills working relentlessly on hundreds of Buddhas, lions, Virgin Maries and dolphins across town. The finishing touch is applied by the gentle hands of female workers sandpapering incessantly the surface of the sculptures. The final objects are then sold across the whole of Vietnam. Even though the marble comes now from the north of Vietnam (otherwise they would be no more mountains) the stone carving village grows almost weekly with new shops setting up shop and more and more marble being processed.

Besides being the center of Vietnamese stone-carving the Marble Mountains also house Buddhist temples on their peaks and some atmospheric caves in their wombs. We visited the mountains during a misty afternoon and we wandered around almost by ourselves with only a few Vietnamese tourists around. The various caves ranged from small to medium size and some housed simple temples and shrines. One bigger cave had a small temple inside and some dime daylight shone through a whole in the cave roof on its roof. We felt like in a Indiana Jones movie. Rusty and moss-covered gates let to scenic pathways and made us feel like entering a spiritual world. An efficient monk showed us where to donate incense to the male and astonishingly numerous female Buddhas.

Have a look at the pics here.

A Very Happy New Lunar Year to everyone!

I wish every one a very happy and prosperous Chinese New Year and welcome to the Year of the Dog! We had a blast in Saigon; keep tuned for my newest entries!

Pictures from Saigon and the Cu Chi Tunnels

Here are my new pictures from Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City) and the infamous Vietcong Cu Chi Tunnels. Enjoy!

Tipps for Visiting Zurich, Switzerland

While reading this blog about Asia I hope you, my dear readers, have started to love Asia with itsas much as I do. Yes, I do love Asia and it never stops to amaze me. But at the bottom of my heart I still love Switzerland a bit more. Nothing beats Switzerland for beauty of the nature, the living-standard of its cities and the sheer cultural diversity. And funnily enough travelling only has deepened my love for my home country and my home town Zurich.

Foreigners are sometimes startled about how critical Swiss are about their country whereas polls show that the Swiss are very happy and Zurich for example is the city with the best living-standard in the world! Well, we Swiss like it to be perfect or as my German friend Alex puts it: The Swiss are the better Germans. Maybe. You might accuse me of being biased and just a bit too romantic or even homesick. about my love for Switzerland. Probably a bit, but then again, check out what the most trusted and honest weekly magazine in the world, The Economist, says about Zurich. Planning to visit Zurich in the near future, check out The Economist City Guide for Zurich here.

The Foreigner-Mark-Up in Vietnam

As a foreigner you always pay more in Asia but most of the time it is still dirt cheap. Just to give you two examples for  the price differences:

• Shoe shine costs about 0.25$ for locals and up to 1$ for a foreigner
• A Vietnamese coffee costs also 0.25$ or about 0.75 to 1$ for foreigners

The mark-ups vary, depending on your bargaining skills, from from 300-400%!

On the other hand, Alex told me that if you earn two million Vietnamese Dongs (the equivalent of 250$) you are considered belonging to the middle-class in Vietnam and you can go on holiday to China during Lunar New Year. At least that makes me feel better about over-paying: I finance the Vietnemese their holidays... Happy New Year then!

New Pictures from Vietnam

See my new pics from Hoi An, MySon Champa Temple and Marble Mountains here:

Hoi An

MySon Champa Temple

Marble Moutains

The Beauty of Spiritual Hoi An at Night

Hoi An at night: where the spirits meet the ghosts from ancient times...

Artisanal Skills in Hoi An

In the 16th and 17th century Hoi An was a major trading port. Its annual commercial fairs which lasted up to six months attracted merchants from China, Japan, Holland and India. Some of them settled down and especially the Chinese influenced the local architecture heavily. The Chinese families at the same time brought their handicraft skills from home. Some of those skills can be still found today in Hoi An and it is not uncommon that those skills have been passed down from generation to generation. Nowadays those families serve the tourists and one can buy Chinese silk lanterns for a dollar or two, one can have clothes tailor-made and especially the happy and lucky Buddhas and Dragons carved out of local Mahogany wood are a supreme example of manual skills. Eric Kappeler the Swiss stone and metal sculptor is living off those skills (see former blog entry the Jesus Buddha). He employs Vietnamese stone sculptors and bronze workshops that produce his designs. In six months his shop has grown to ten staff. He is impressed by the skills of the Vietnamese and finds it rewarding working with them. He said this would have not been possible in Switzerland. It is the first time he is employing so many staff and finds the teamwork very rewarding and each day brings new progress. The Vietnamese artisanal skills can also be found in the ancient houses. The ancient house of the Quan Thang family for example is over three hundred years old and made out of Teak wool according to a Japanese layout. The house is inhabited by the seventh generation. The Quan Thang family used to sell Chinese medicine after the first generation migrated from China. The front of the house is dominated by the living room and kitchen followed by a courtyard with a well and in the back are the living quarters with the ancestral shrine. The wood beams and panels are all elaborately carved and being in the house one feels to be back in the 16th century.

Visit Hoi An's website here: www.hoianworldheritage.org

Responsible Blogging

Blogging is a wonderful way of sharing thoughts, photos and experiences with the cyberworld: everyone can easily post any text in seconds. But there are also ethical problems with a public blog like mine which eventually lead to the question: what exactly is a blog?

For example if I write about personal experiences I like to incorporate now and then a ideas, experiences and thoughts of people I travel with or meet. In this case one has to carefully quote those persons while being aware that the person might read the text. I came across blogs of people who become very personal and judgemental about people they meet. Additionally quoting other people and their experiences is relying on the accuracy of their stories: I am not a journalist and cannot verify remarks or experiences. Furthermore while travelling I read books and newspapers in order to get a better picture of the country. Some books like the ones about the Thai prison system are obviously very biased and they just portray an extreme situation. Experiences and stories might then not represent the normal situation.

Besides being an easy why to share thoughts blogs are also interactive and people can post comments or remarks on them. This gives the opportunity of offering a second opinion or different view.

My goal is to have a travel-blog that first and foremost inspires you, my blog-readers, to visit those wonderful countries and have the curiosity to dig a bit deeper than just the obvious tourist traps. I therefore do not want to be a private dairy with detailed accounts of my daily routine and emotional state but a travel-blog with added information and insights. I also learned that like newspapers accuracy and clear statement of the source are a virtue for my blog. In the future I will try harder to clearly and accurately quote people and portray extreme views as what they are: extreme opinions. Nevertheless a blog is not a newspaper and it lacks editing and proof-reading (so please forgive me my typos). There is also an obligation for you, my blog-reader: post comments on my blog and tell me and other readers what you think. It is easy and quick and increases the value of my blog for everyone. Last but not least I hope you my reader agree that Asia with its many amazing sites, cuisines, traditions and peoples is a truly breath-taking place to visit. There is not a single day where I do not smile and there is not one country I visited I did not enjoy. Yes, sometimes it takes a bit of time and patience to unearth the charm of a country but the rewards are always bigger than the worries. Every time I am asked which country or place I like best my answer is always the same: the very place and country where I am currently am and all the ones before.

The Bliss of the Curfew in Hoi An

Asia seems never to stop or sleep, at least not in the big cities of Bangkok, Singapore

or Saigon: a constant noise of cars, bikes and construction tears on the nerves. In contrary Hoi An: a strictly enforced curfew at 11pm shuts effectively the little town down and only the illegal bars out of town still buzz with people. It is then when a lulling quietness embraces the city and slowly the senses adjust to this gentle sensation. It is also around that time, right before going to bed, when many inhabitants of the old city of Hoi An come out and give offerings to the gods or wave incense sticks solemnly in the near dark. It is then, when only a few lonely silk lanterns dimly lit up the street Hoi An has its biggest charm. I am sure the gods blessed the curfew!