Asia – Page 19

Digging Up the Past

While setting up shop in Bangkok, I unearthed some travel stories and photos from a six-month tour I took through Europe and parts of Asia in 1994. I found over 60 pages of never-before published material that I had written to document the journey. I also found a box of still photos taken before the digital age with great shots of my trip. For a writer, this is akin to an archaeologist finding a misplaced artifact or detective uncovering vital evidence in a cold case. I was excited to bring these media together for the first time since I took that tour, which was my first in Europe and Asia. A trip like that for someone who enjoys traveling as much as I do is like falling in love.

The stories detail at length the adventures of a poor college student who wended his way through 19 countries in Europe, Russia, and the People’s Republic of China. From touching down in Europe for the first time in Frankfurt, Germany, to meeting my then-fiancée and her parents in Shanghai, China, to traveling thousands of miles to city after city, these stories chronicle an unforgettable journey. Anyone who’s spent weeks or months traveling by rail through Europe can relate to their vignettes.

Over the next few months, I plan to publish these stories on this blog and highlight them with photos. I will not revise facts overcome by events (such as pre-euro currencies or prices) because they reflect the situation as it was in 1994. I will intersperse the stories with new ones about our travels in Southeast Asia, and previous entries about Africa, South America, Korea, and China updated with photos.

So stay tuned, or the stories will go write past you.

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Remembering the Falklands

The news story about British sailors captured by Iran reminds me of a crisis between Great Britain and another nation that occurred 25 years ago. 25 years ago today, on April 2, 1982, the Falklands War began when the Argentine military occupied the Falklands Islands (Islas Malvinas) in the southern Atlantic Ocean (it was not officially a war, because neither the British nor the Argentinians declared war during the conflict). Two weeks earlier, the Argentine Navy occupied two other sparsely-populated archipelagos, the South Georgia Islands and the South Sandwich Islands. All three island groups are disputed territory. They remain territorial possessions of the British, although the Argentinians claim sovereignty over them as well as a large section of Antarctica. The British also claim virtually the same portion of Antarctica. The Falklands War ended on June 12, 1982, when the Argentine military surrendered to the British.

Here’s a memorial in Rio Gallegos, Argentina on coast of the Atlantic Ocean dedicated to the Argentine soldiers who lost their lives during the Falklands War. We passed through town and visited the memorial in January 2009, on our way from Tierra del Fuego to Chile.

Paraguay (my home in 2007) was not directly involved in the dispute. However, it affected Paraguay because Argentina has traditionally loomed large in Paraguayan history, and their relationship has generally been less than amicable. Many Paraguayans were sympathetic to the British in this conflict. The “war” was one of the seminal events of the latter half of the 20th century in South American politics. To this day, territorial disputes between Argentina, Chile, and Great Britain over territory ranging from the Beagle Channel to the Falklands (Isla Malvinas) to Antarctica remain unresolved. Paraguay is not involved in any of these disputes. However, it lost territory to Argentina following its defeat in the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-70), and its territorial claims were never fully resolved by treaty.

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Another Fish Head on the Table?

Dear Reader, why is it that every time I dine at a restaurant in China, I invariably find myself staring at some fish with its head still intact? The fish could be battered, fried, basted, baked, broiled, sautéed, deboned, or carved into intricate designs, but the head is always there, staring at me like a poor animal frozen in place, gazing at me as if it is in its final throes of death with its mouth open in anguished horror as whatever blunt instrument bludgeoned it struck in, or as it grasped for its one final gulp of oxygen-filled water before its gills hit the air on the cutting board. It is decorative to leave the poor fish’s head and tail intact while turning its gutted innards into some eye-pleasing creation. I know it’s not much more humane to remove the fish head, but as an American I psychologically prefer not to have my food staring back at me while I eat it. It reminds me of a time when I dined with family in China. I picked up some chicken from a bowl of chicken in some sauce I don’t remember, and I stared right into the closed eyes of a chicken head stuck between my chopsticks. I gave the piece away. Eating the head of an animal just isn’t appealing to me.

I have a game I call “count the number of fish heads on the table.” Each time I dine at an “authentic” Chinese restaurant (fast food Chinese restaurants in the states do not count), I like to count how many fish dishes come with their heads intact. The “authentic” quotient of the restaurant goes up with each head I count. So far all the restaurants I’ve been to on this trip have had one or fewer fish heads. Perhaps the best meal I’ve eaten was in Xi’an, when we ate at a Shaanxi restaurant. Shaanxi cuisine is heavily influenced by the large Muslim population living in the area. We feasted on roasted lamb and lamb dumpling stew with noodle. As a fan of Middle Eastern cuisine, I have a new-found love for western Chinese cuisine. Thankfully, none of it is served with a head intact.

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