Author: Fred Hoyt

I was a millionaire before I left Saigon, but in Hong Kong, I’m a pauper.

Part of that came from the currency alone. The unit of money in Saigon is the “dong,” which is in serious need of reducing the number of zeros. One dollar equals around 18,000 dong, so when I had to pay for the group’s 24 rickshaw rides around the old city, I had to pay over 3 million dong. I guess a million doesn’t buy as much as it used to!

By contrast, Hong Kong is a place where you can easily spend a million dollars—U.S. With its incredible setting of the islands and Victoria Harbor, it’s easily one of the most beautiful, and certainly one of the most memorable cities in the world. A duty free special administrative region of China (since 1997; a British Crown Colony for nearly 150 years before that), Hong Kong is a city of almost 7 million that bills itself as a shopper’s paradise, and it fully lives up to its billing.

We flew here from Saigon early—we left our hotel at 4 a.m. for the 6 a.m. flight (that goes on to Chicago!), arriving, with time zone change, at our hotel around noon. Our rooms were not ready, so we scattered to savor the delights of the city—duty free and tax free clothing, electronics, tailor made suits (I went to my tailor and found that indeed I had eaten well this trip), eye glasses, the Scout Shop (the Hong Kong adult leaders have a tailor made dress uniform that looks like a tuxedo), tickets for a Saturday trip to Macau, a jaunt through Kowloon Park, which has a pool with a waterfall—all before checking in to the hotel. My colleague, Professor Trimble, vanished to view Disneyland here in Hong Kong; she’s a former employee of the Magic Kingdom, and HAD to see what the smallest park was like.

I’ve probably spent more time in Hong Kong than in any other Asian city, partly because in the old days, it was the gateway to China. You flew to Hong Kong, then went on to Beijing or elsewhere, then came back from China to Hong Kong before your flight to Chicago. That’s changed to some extent because you can now fly direct from Shanghai or Beijing to Chicago (as the students will do next Friday and I’ll do in two weeks).. That’s a metaphor for what’s happened to Hong Kong as an entrepot for the China trade, too. Once the funnel for most of China’s trade with the West, Hong Kong has a rival in Shanghai, which now draws the Yangtze River valley to itself, as the Chinese government has gone from punishing Shanghai as the former bastion of capitalism, to building it up as its most modern city and financial capital (the New York of China). Hong Kong has a major container port (either it or Singapore usually does the most volume in the world), as the contact point for Guangdong province (you might have heard of Shenzhen and Dongguan and the other cities just north of Hong Kong in the Pearl River delta that produce much of China’s export for the world). Like Singapore, it is a city that depends on location and its human capital. Trade and tourism are down here, too, though the Chinese government has made it easier for mainlanders to get visas, and the word is that rich Chinese (and there are a lot of them; remember, if you’re one in a million, there’re 1,500 Chinese just like you) are increasingly coming to Hong Kong to buy real foreign brands at a savings of 15% of mainland prices. Certainly Nathan Road (the main shopping street in Kowloon) has no shortage of people mobbing the street, giving one the sense of energy that differentiates it from Singapore. One of our business speakers, an IWU alum from Galesburg, noted that Hong Kong is the place to work when you’re single, Singapore when you’re married.

Having experienced Bird Flu and been criticized for not doing anything about it, Hong Kong is determined to avoid the swine flu. You may remember that a Mexican tour group got confined to a hotel for a week (and left praising Hong Kong, meaning even being confined to a hotel might be considered a treat). When we got to the Cityview Hotel, which has been running at 86% capacity for the year (I saw the figures and experienced the result), we were greeted by masked employees who shunted us to a corner where they scanned us for temperature before we were let in. The hotel had a sign on the elevator buttons that indicated a sanitizing of the buttons every hour.

One of the joys of visiting Hong Kong is visiting friends here. When I went to a conference in 1994 in Saigon, I met a Chinese professor from the City University of Hong Kong, and every time I’ve been here, we’ve visited. It’s become a tradition for her to take my group out to a Chinese restaurant for a very Chinese meal, not the kind that the tourist agencies arrange. Here are my tips for a great eating experience:

1) you get in an elevator and go higher than the first floor (there’s a ground floor then a first floor)

2) when you get off the elevator, no one speaks English. In Hong Kong, that may include not speaking anything but Cantonese.

3) you don’t see the people staying in your hotel, or any tourists for that matter.

4) there’s no gift shop.

5) there’s no menu in English, and no pictures on the menu.

6) your Chinese host says, “I don’t know the English name for this…”

I do know we had some exotic items that my friend said were very expensive, and I know we had roast goose (because the head was on it), and a big fish, pig’s tongue, and chicken feet, and lots of semi-identifiable and “you don’t want to know” foods. Can you imagine the look on students’ faces? We have one who had never eaten rice or fish….

Yesterday combined business and pleasure, which is a great way to travel. Our alum, Matt Dredge, who works for PWC, got six of his coworkers or friends together, and met us at the PWC conference room. They came from a variety of countries and states, and not all were accountants, but gave us a great picture of what it’s like to work in Hong Kong. The general consensus was, “Work hard, play hard,” and the advice for Americans who want to come to Asia was, “Be invited by your company, because if you are, you’ll get an expat package, which includes housing allowance, transportation, and many other amenities.” If you come because you want to, you’ll have to pay—and in Hong Kong, real estate can be expensive. One rents a 350-square foot apartment (I have a tent that size, I think) for nearly $1,800 a month. No wonder so many restaurants and bars exist; it you’re going to party with friends, you have no room at home to do so. And they did point out that the expat privileges are becoming fewer and fewer as more companies retrench. The students also raised a tough question—repatriation. I would imagine it’s difficult to go back to the states after Asia. I empathize. Sometimes it is for me, too.

The city tour takes you to four or five places that aren’t as easy to get to as the main shopping and residential areas (Hong Kong has a subway, ferry, bus, and train system that moves people quite well). The trip includes Aberdeen, which used to be the home of the “boat people,” but they’re fewer and fewer in number, Repulse Bay, which has a nice beach protected by a shark net, and a newish and splashy temple, Stanley, site of a world War II prison camp, now a place that entraps foreigners, with its combination of lower-priced Western brands and pretty neat Chinese items, not the standard “tourist market,” and the 1,200-foot Peak, which provides the backdrop for the skyscrapers in the central part of the city. I remember the first time I took Mrs. Hoyt here. I asked her what she wanted to see. She said, “Old buildings.” I said, “There’s one. It’s from 1950.” Which is almost true. See the movie, “The World of Susie Wong” if you don’t believe me.

Hong Kong, according to our guide, grew into what it is during the 1960s. It was probably due to two events: the Vietnam War, which channeled a lot of money to Asia, and the Cultural Revolution in China, which sent almost a million refugees into Hong Kong. The incredible energy here is palpable.

One other treat for me is to take advantage of the ferry system and the fact that Hong Kong consists of a number of islands other than the main one and Lantau (where the airport is located). Hence, last night Carrie and I took the ferry to Cheng Chau island, a place where the locals get away for a weekend. It was fun navigating the subway system to the wharf area, where we caught a boat and got to the island. Finding a restaurant was hard/easy because they met most of my requirements set out above, but there was no Eleanor to help us order. The upshot was that someone took pity on us, we ate, took the ferry back to the Star Ferry, then the subway back to our hotel. Hong Kong is truly spectacular at night.

Saturday, I bought tickets for the jetfoil to Macau. Macau fascinates me because it was one of the first European possessions in Asia, and also the last. Conquered early by the Portuguese, it remained in Portuguese control until 1999, when it was handed over to the People’s Republic. Like Hong Kong, it’s now a special administrative region. Though it’s probably best known as the Las Vegas of the East for its gambling casinos (which have increased in number since the handover to 26, some owned by Americans; under the Portuguese, Stanley Ho had the monopoly; the money he made earned him four wives and a home on the Peak in Hong Kong) Macau still has a Mediterranean feel. The government buildings are in pink (you read it correctly); the town is 40% Catholic, with a number of churches that one of our students remarked remind her of colonial churches in Mexico. The Franciscans and the Jesuits contested each other and the dominant Buddhist religion. At one of the temples, Caleb Cushing signed the Treaty of Wanghsia with China that got Americans into China’s Century of Humiliation, extending the rights Britain had gained by force in 1842. Because Portugal was neutral in World War II, the Japanese did not invade its colonies, so Macau was not destroyed then. Development may do so. There’s now a tower that has sky jumping and bungee jumping—about four times the height of more famous places in New Zealand.

We split into groups, and I gave my thoughts on what to see–the ruins of St. Paul, the most famous non-church in Asia—it burned in a fire in the early 19th century, leaving only a wall; the old fort and the new museum; the Leal Senado, the center of commerce, which is very Mediterranean in its pastels; the churches; the Protestant cemetery, whose tombstones tell the litany of life in Asia—died storming the forts at Canton, died at sea, died of malaria, died during childbirth, and where to eat (the old Portuguese officer’s club is now a restaurant). And we went our separate ways.

Two things altered my wonderful plans. One was the weather. I just had dinner with Mark Sheldon, and IWU alum who lives and works here, and he said, “I thought it was a typhoon.” It rained steadily and violently all day, and Mark said he wondered if the jetfoils would run. They ran, but we had a hard time doing anything outside other than sloshing.

My group had an experience that they’ll remember for a long time. I talked with a driver about getting a van tour, and listed all the places I wanted to go, including the gate to China, the island of Taipo, etc. “No problem,” he stated, which should have alerted me; no problem usually means, “we have a problem.” We didn’t know it, but we would.

He took us where he wanted in the morning, and when we asked about lunch at the officers club, he said he knew a restaurant much closer that had Luso-Chinese food (that’s Macau), and left us there, telling us to meet him again in 3 hours for the rest of the tour.

Fighting the rain by staying in museums or under eaves as much as we could, we were back at the anointed spot at 3—and no driver. By 3:30 we realized we had no information about him—his name was “Ronald,” he told us, and I spotted “Choi” on the license he showed us, but I could not name his company or license—and he had purses and cameras in the car.

Some took a taxi back to the Ferry terminal, while the rest of us pondered what to do. We finally realized the driver had contacted the restaurant originally, so maybe the restaurateur could contact him? As it turned out, the restaurant was closed, but Dan Cummings (bless him) knocked on the door, and the owner told us that the driver had been in an accident and wanted to talk with me. He said he was “sorry” and would be there in time to get us to the ferry.

He did. When I suggested that he might refund some of our money because he had not fulfilled his contract, he got indignant about how much the accident would cost him, etc., etc., but finally eased our pain. But not enough to prevent us from reporting him to the tourist bureau, and putting the story into my marketing class as a poor example of service recovery.

As you can tell, we are having an adventure. I think everyone will be reluctant to leave Hong Kong, but you can see why I am not leaving here a millionaire. Too much to do, too much to buy.

Before I let Saigons be Saigons (again—see my January post for the first impressions), there are two items that were in the Singapore paper this morning that sum up well what I’ve mentioned about Singapore:

1) The strict controls by the government (which have led to close business-government cooperation): A minimart had its license to sell cigarettes revoked for six months because the store had been caught twice selling cigarettes to minors. It is a well-run, usually benevolent, one-party dominant state.

2) I’ve mentioned the twin pillars of trade and tourism as providing the means for a city-state of 3.2 million to become one of the most prosperous nations of the world. Tourism was down 13% March this year versus March last year; Singapore has a special promotion that anyone flying Singapore airlines (and after the 2-hour trip here on Singapore Air, I think everyone in our party wanted to fly Singapore Air across the Pacific, instead of United) who lands in Singapore can stay overnight in one of six very nice hotels for $1, with some fringe benefits thrown in. As I said, I’m astonished that the government of the nation has allowed gambling, but that is one of the major attractions, especially for Chinese in the region.

As for our 36-hour R&R in Saigon (we got in around 3 this afternoon and will be leaving our hotel after 36 hours here), the city means different things to our students than I’m sure it does to my generation. Those of us who came of age in the 60s have memories of Saigon whether we served in Vietnam or did not. Over 50,000 Americans died in what the Vietnamese, who have a history of being invaded and then defeating the invaders, call “the American War.”

When we got in, we were whisked to AA corporation, where Chad Ovel, whom I met in January, had agreed to talk to this class. He’s a Carleton grad, major in economics and international relations, who as a student did a semester in Beijing, and got infected (as I have) with Asia. A week after graduation, he packed his bags for Asia, and hasn’t been back to live in America since, about 15 years in total. Along the way, he’s worked for the World Wildlife Federation (the panda guys), acquired an MBA from the University of Chicago (which has campuses in Singapore as well as Chicago and I believe London), and now is taking a $20 million niche furniture company (custom-made for rich people and corporations—the next time you’re at the Intercontinental in New York) to the $200 million level and turning it green as well. His office had a meeting going on, so he found a café on the Saigon River in the expat neighborhood that I’m sure we were one of the few non-locals (either expat or local Vietnamese) to grace. He talked and answered questions for about an hour, and a number of students commented that they really thought it was as good a visit as I’d promised—and I promised a great one, with discussions that paralleled Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded book. He earned high marks from the students, and not just because he bought everyone two rounds of drinks!

Today we spent on the history of Saigon, partly its French period (abut 100 years, ending in 1954, when the French left Indochine), and partly the American War (as they call it) period, from 1954 in effect until 1975, when the famous North Vietnamese tanks smashed through the presidential palace gate and, on April 30, “liberated” South Vietnam, renaming the presidential palace the reunification palace instead.

There’s a lot from both periods here. For example, as I’ve mentioned, the baguettes. In the morning, students who wanted to join me got up and went to a street stand, which was selling a breakfast sandwich that could only have been inspired by the French—a baguette with fillings that made the hotel breakfast (which does serve lots of fruit and juices) seem tame.

The Cu Chi tunnels, our first destination, spans both periods, though the Vietnamese developed the 150-mile tunnel system mostly after 1954, when it became the terminus of the Ho Chi Minh trail. At one time, over 100,000 Viet Cong lived, fought, and died in the tunnels, which were three stories high (or maybe I should say low, since they were below ground), in three different levels. The defenders took about 80% casualties, but caused havoc in Saigon and the local U.S. Air Force base nearby. One partial tunnel is opened, expanded wide for tourists, and one could crawl through it and see how people lived for up to 20 years. The area also has ghastly reminders (if one were needed) of the havoc bombing played in the American War, huge craters being one of the distinctive features of the area. It shows the lengths (and depths) to which the Vietnamese went to reunify a country that the U.S. and other powers had stated in 1954 would be reunited peacefully. The Vietnamese (and this wasn’t on display) came very close to seeking a peace treaty (rather than imposing one) until the 1968 Tet offensive (I have clear snapshots in my mind of the sack of the Citadel in Hue by Vietcong troops, and the bitter fighting at the American Embassy in Saigon) created sufficient war weariness in the United States that we looked for ways to say, “We won,” and get out saving some face.

An even starker message came at the War Remnants Museum, which promised to provide us with historical accuracy in the history of the American War, and it’s depiction of the suffering the war caused, and the desperate means we used to defoliate and defeat (Agent Orange being one item) that made me hearken back to the response I’ve had when viewing the Holocaust museums in Europe. Over 3,000,000 Vietnamese died in the American War, mostly civilians. Nonetheless, the Vietnamese have put the war behind them, and I wish we would, too. That was over 35 years ago, aeons in historical time. Probably 70% of the Vietnamese, like my students, are too young to remember the war.

At least the experience is less macabre than I remember it in 1995, when we walked through the jungle at Cu Chi and periodically a sign would pop up telling you that you’d been killed by a sniper or walked on a land mine, or landed in one of the bamboo traps that mauled and maimed.

The other places we visited reflect mostly the French colonial period, in the shape of the remnant buildings (there were some American buildings; we stayed at the Rex in 2001, the home of wartime journalists, and a decaying but genteel hotel; it’s now the most expensive hotel in town). We took pictures in front of City Hall, the Notre Dame Cathedral, and the Post Office, all of which, plus the Opera House, might well be in Paris. In fact, Saigon was one of several cities in Asia that earned the nickname, “Paris of the East.” I got to a museum I’d never been to before, a city museum, and found our guide’s warning—the building is elegant, the contents are not—right on target, but it enabled me to hide from a thunderstorm that temporarily cooled the city, but heightened the humidity. If possible.

Tonight, we’re taking a rickshaw ride around the area on our way to see the Hanoi-based water puppet show, one of the highlights of visiting Hanoi, and hence, a treat here too. Carrie and I have reservations at what we’ve been told is a really nice Vietnamese restaurant (the food is outstanding!), and two students are joining us. The rest decided to spend their R&R in Saigon as young Americans (and young Aussies, and young….) are wont to do. We have a 4 a.m. departure time from the hotel, so it could be an interesting plane ride to Hong Kong.

Good night, or should I say, “bon soir.”

 

In front of the merlion in Singapore harbor.

In the late 1930s, Singapore was held out as the great hope of the British Empire to stem the advance of Japan, the Gibraltar of the East. Unfortunately for Great Britain, it was instead the scene of the biggest loss in British history, the 80,000 troops surrendering to a Japanese army of around 30,000, albeit with superior naval and air power, on February 15, 1942. That surrender is generally calculated as one of the decisive turning points in Europe’s psychological dominance in Asia, the beginning of the end.

Today, the Lion City also holds symbolic importance—but for different reasons. A city of around 3.5 million citizens, about 75% Chinese, Singapore’s efficiency and wealth have made it an example of bootstraps to riches. Evicted from Malaysia in part because its inclusion would have ensured Malaysia would have a majority Chinese population, the city-state has a higher average income than Great Britain. Much of its progress comes from the PAP (I think it’s the People’s Action Party) which has ruled Singapore (there is an opposition, but it’s small) since the 1960s, when it became independent. Much of its success comes from the vision and determination of Lee Kuan Yew, its senior minister for most of that period. Even today, the hand of central planning plays a big role, as we’ve seen in our business visits—more later on them.

When I taught an Asian Pacific course in the past, one assignment would be to have students write a memorandum to a fictional personnel officer, describing two cities the student would like to be posted in, and why. Invariably, Singapore would be one of the two—and for the reasons that have made it a business and tourist hub—it is clean, efficient, with infrastructure (especially transportation; Changi airport is one of the world’s finest), an educated work force, and an orderliness that makes one wonder if he is really in Asia.

Tourism is vital here, and the natural features (our Cat executive told us wryly that a lot of foreign executives seem to find a reason to come here in December-January, when it’s cold in Peoria), fine dining, and general safety—and better English spoken than in Chicago—make it comfortable. There are 10 million visitors a year here (meaning 3 of 4 people are likely to be from out of town), which makes it possible in part for Singaporeans to enjoy their lifestyle.

 

Enjoying the elegance of the colonial period Raffles Hotel, Professors Hoyt and Trimble and several students savor the Singapore Sling, supposedly invented by a bartender at the Long Bar in the hotel.

To supplement the classical attractions of the colonial past (those of us of age visited the Long Bar at the Raffles, one of the great elegant hotels of the 19th—and 21st centuries—to savor the Singapore Sling, supposedly invented there, while being fanned by a pukka-wallah (look it up), the government has done more. We visited a theme park on a former convict island that the government has encouraged foreign investors to develop. We saw a world class light/laser/water show that we ought to find a way to bring to Bloomington, summer housing, casino (a recent addition to the tourist traffic here has been the licensing of casinos—the feeling seems to be if Chinese and others are going to gamble, they might as well do it in Singapore as elsewhere), 6 hotels, including one that has 120 suites with 24/7 butlers, that is by invitation only for high rollers (and, I’m hoping, short Scoutmasters from Normal, Illinois), and a family-oriented fun park. Only 5% of the revenue can come from gambling. On filled-in land, we saw 3 more huge hotels being constructed, with casinos, as the centerpiece for a whole new downtown. As our guide put it, Singaporeans anticipate the next wave, plan ahead, and can do.

 

The IWU group visited the Caterpillar distribution facility on Tractor Road in Singapore.

The visit to the Caterpillar logistics facility was equally instructive. Largely because of the infrastructure, Cat came to Singapore almost 40 years ago and made it the hub of its Asian logistics operation. We toured the Caterpillar parts area, which stocks 180,000 parts with a $160 million value; since the parts take 38 days to arrive from Seattle, I was able to point our the importance of forecasting, a skill we need to emphasize even more than we do in our business curriculum. The plant is doing well in a company that we read about is having trouble financially; while executives in the Singapore plant have cut their salary in compliance with the directives from Peoria, we were told that the employees are working overtime. Interestingly, 65% of the sales of the facility (Cat also does logistics for other companies, but that’s in another warehouse) go to Indonesia, primarily for gold mining.

 

Singapore values creative faculty, and naturally, that means us.

The government, as mentioned, plays an important part in the economy, through quasi-government businesses, including Singapore Air (which we’re flying tomorrow), Tomasek, which owns Sentosa Island, the recreational area I mentioned, even down to housing. I’m still having a hard time believing that 84% of Singaporeans live in public housing, but I think that refers to the fact that the government is committed to apartment ownership, and makes possible the building and financing of apartments through low-cost, long-term loans (currently 2%). The government regulates automobiles, too, with a tariff of 110% plus a license to buy that now costs around $8,000, down from $50, 000 several years ago. A certain number of licenses to buy are put up for auction every year. Drivers pay extra to visit the Central Business district during the busy part of the day, and cabs cost more then, too (and after midnight). Public transportation is abundant, efficient and cheap.

Singapore has the reputation of being a “nanny state,” or a “fine” city, where you can get fined for jaywalking, spitting on the street, chewing gum—or any of the other things that make, say, Bangkok or Beijing—or even Chicago—so different.

The Lion City is different in lots of good ways—and that’s no lion.

Talk to you from Saigon in 24 hours or so.

Malacca or Melaka seems to be a fit place to end our stay in Malaysia, which bills itself as “Truly Asia.”

An old city at the southern entrance to the Straits of Malacca, through which pass over half of the shipping of the world, Malacca traces its history back to the 13th century or so, when an Indonesia prince (the connections between Indonesia and Malaysia are pretty strong even today; Bahasa is spoken in both countries, both are Muslim, and Sumatra, one of the over 2,000 islands that constitutes Indonesia, is 1-½ hours away by ferry on the other side of the straits) came here and had his dogs outfoxed (that sounds wrong) by a mouse deer, a small and now endangered species, under a Malacca tree. The sultan built a dynasty that lasted until 1513, when the Portuguese wrested away control of the city, beginning several centuries of Portuguese rule. The famous Cheng Ho, featured occasionally on the History Channel, visited here, and has a small corner in the history museum. There’s a rebuilt Istana (palace) of the sultan, which I can see from the window in my hotel, but Malacca is one of the four states in Malaysia now with no sultan.

Notable Portuguese were the Duke of Albuquerque, who was the second governor, and Francis Xavier, the Jesuit who was instrumental in bringing Catholicism to Asia. The priest was in fact buried in Malacca for 9 months, but was finally interred in Goa. Although the Portuguese rule ended centuries ago, there’s still a gate from the old fort, a bastion rebuilt (as part of the push for tourism), and a church on top of a hill that’s hollow and roofless, but picturesque, rather like its counterpart in Macau, also Portuguese. On a cruise on the Malacca River, the guide explained that his heritage was partly Portuguese, and there are descendants still in town.

The next stage marked the showdown for supremacy in colonial Asia between the Dutch and the British. The Dutch evicted the Portuguese, and built their own church, their own statehouse, and several other buildings that remain today, characterized (and standing out because of it) by large windows; the philosophy was that air could circulate better.

Finally, with the British already established at Singapore and Penang, the Dutch in 1824 exchanged Malacca for British possessions in what was becoming the Dutch East Indies, and Malacca became part of the Straits Settlements until 1947 (with the exception of World War II, when it was part of the Japanese empire); the British Club in town was where independence was proclaimed.

All periods are represented, which is to say, Malacca is an historian’s treat. From the Portuguese period, the church and fort; from the Dutch period, the red brick Stadthuys and the Church; from the British period some stately mansions (including the Majestic Hotel, a colonial bungalow that when David and I stayed here in 1997—in it—was the cheapest hotel in town; today, after extensive and expensive restoration, it is the most pricey hotel in town; glad we stayed in it when we did!)

I was heartened to learn that Malacca and Penang acquired UNESCO grants to preserve the heritage, and we were able to see some of the results: the area around the waterfront is being rehabilitated and renovated, and the houses already completed will certainly do as much for the important tourist dollars as the malls that are otherwise omnipresent in the bigger Malaysian cities. There was a Carrefour in the three-story mall across from our hotel, located in what was a hawker area when David and I visited here in 1997. Tourism has come to replace trade; the once prosperous harbor has silted up, replaced by Penang to the north, and more impressively, the city of lions (Singapore) to the south.

Of course, the foreign and colonial patina was marked, but the dominant population then as now was not foreigners, and that’s one other thing that makes Malacca attractive to me. There’s an old Chinese area in the town that has become a lot hokier than I remembered. On the boat ride, we saw an all-Malay area. Of course, there’s an Indian section, too. As befits a country that is 60% Malay, around 30-35% Chinese and 10% other (mostly Indian), all areas are visible and obvious.

The official line is that Malaysia is a model of peaceful mixing of races, one the world should emulate. We heard the story time after time, and the message is certainly true. As I’ve noted, the “mixing” isn’t as thorough as in the United States, though. Malays get favors in government jobs and education and in financing from banks; Chinese have a strong hold on business; Indians seem to do a lot of the service jobs. And the country has had a troubled history of race relations in the 1960s especially.

It does enjoy some wonderful natural scenery, even from the train, where there were broad plantations of rubber and palm oil. Then, there’s a whole side of the Peninsular Malaysia we did not get to—Muslim sultanates and spectacular beaches that you can see on the Travel Channel at least once a week. The country has at least one big advantage in attracting tourists from the Middle East—it’s proudly (but secularly) Muslim, and the obvious efforts that Mahathir made to replace the British administrative buildings with a distinctly Malay appearance is noted and noteworthy. Like many of the developing countries, it is heavily dependant on spending by the developed world. I found out, for example, that the Dell factory we visited has gone from 7 lines to 3. Even Singapore reported a first quarter decline of 7.8% this week.

Perhaps that’s one reason the cities have so many malls, and such spectacular ones. So many, indeed, that I’m tempted to call the country Mallasia.

We spent all day on the train getting to Singapore, where we’re going to spend a few days.

Best wishes for a wonderful weekend.

I’ve used the Confucian saying before to introduce a topic, and I’m going to do so again: the Old Sage remarked, “It is a pleasure to welcome guests who come from afar.”

The person who demonstrated the truth of the saying was the alum I mentioned in my last blog, Johnny C.H. Lai, an IWU alum who is a Malay Chinese living here in Kuala Lumpur.

I’d been in touch with Mr. Lai on and off since he graduated, and in fact tried to connect with him when we were here four years ago. At that time, he was on holiday, but this trip, he was here. Having him as host, as you’ll see, also shows the difference between going with a packaged tour and having a real experience.

He picked me and colleague Carrie Trimble up last night, with the intention of showing us Kuala Lumpur. The city is full of malls, and interesting ones at that, but he took us to one that really creates “buzz.” I knew that when we drove up to the entrance, and looming over us at the entrance was a three story high sphinx, with an entrance framed with columns as though we were at ancient Thebes. I’ve been to Harrod’s in London which has somewhat the same approach, but on a scale of one with the Sunway Mall (where we went) around a 20.

That was our introduction. As we walked past the elephants and elegance, we came to one of the atriums, and there was a crowd gathered. When we looked down, we saw it was a book launching, a Chinese translation of the letters of Dr. Mahathir Mohammed to world leaders. Dr. Mahathir was supposed to speak—and the talk was supposed to start in five minutes. I know not everyone would be as impressed as I was, but having followed the former prime minister’s career, I knew he was the man who, as I said yesterday, put Malaysia on the map. And I had a chance to see him in person! About two minutes later, he walked out with his bodyguard, bounding as few other 84-year-olds can do, to the accompaniment of great applause. He was shorter than I realized, but that’s in his favor too. I confess to being star struck. Who would have predicted it (though I thanked Mr. Lai for his courtesy in arranging the visit!)

The daze continued afterwards, as we continued to walk through the mall. We came to the ”ice atrium” which had a full-sized hockey rink (Hockey? When it’s 95 degrees out? Well, there is a professional team in Phoenix.)

But the complex was more than just an over-the-top mall. It included an elegant hotel (pictured elsewhere), two theme parks (one water based, one with roller coasters and other non-liquid treats)—AND a university. Now that’s buzz.

Mr. Lai and his girlfriend took us to another KL activity—a hawker food court, where we tried a variety of interesting local dishes—jellyfish, for example (which is Chinese, but served in a Malay peanut sauce).

We agreed to meet again today after our trip.

I had arranged a choice of two bus trips, one in the afternoon to Petrajaya, the new administrative capital near KL, and the other to a nearby Forest Research institute, which has a rainforest/jungle with a canopy walk. Most of the students opted for the jungle, which is hard to duplicate in central Illinois.

When we got to the van at 8 a.m., the guide told us the jungle walk, which was the feature we were most interested in, was under construction, but the company would try to find something suitable to replace it if we went to the Batu Caves, a Hindu temple within a cave near here. We agreed to go and see what happened. Well, the Caves were really south Indian, who constitute the majority of the Indians in Malaysia. We climbed 272 steps to get into the cave, which was a nice morning exercise.

The driver then told me that we could kill an hour and then be taken to the only rainforest in a major city (KL) and go on a scheduled nature walk. Since that was close to our hotel, I said, “Let’s go back and let our students do what they want to do.”

Which meant Carrie and I would be able to visit with Johnny (whose girlfriend said he counted down the days until the IWU group and his former teacher arrived). Since he had offered to take us to the Scout office, I asked one of the other students, an Eagle Scout from St. Louis and former Philmont staffer, to join us.

We did get to the BP House, which is the headquarters, but there was no Scout shop there (the store was in the Central Market, which we would visit before dinner), which gave us just enough time for Mr. Lai to suggest we go the Genting Highlands. Built by a Malay-Chinese gentleman, the highland’s name in Chinese in “the head of the clouds.” He took us to an Indian restaurant for roti canai, martaback, and other delicacies, then drove to the funicular for the longest cable car ride in southeast Asia—nearly two miles—that took us to the gambling and hotel and shopping complex (complete with a statue of liberty!) that, at 6,000 feet, left me lightheaded but, for the first time on this trip, cool.

We came back, joined the group for dinner, and a visit to a mall (that had the Scout store) and the local Chinatown before Mr. Lai told us he had to get home and get ready to go back to work tomorrow as an independent graphic designer.

As I said, it was a pleasure to be welcomed as a guest who comes from afar. We leave KL tomorrow morning so I better get packed.

Selamat datang.

I’ve just said hello (and goodbye) in Bahasa, which is the language of Malaysia (and after a fashion, of Indonesia as well). We just entered Malaysia at Padang Besar after a 17-hour trip from Bangkok on the train. We had a sleeper compartment (the seats changed to a bed) for around $33. I still remember the first time I came here—1997. I was on sabbatical, and had a ticket from a conference in Mumbai to Bangkok, and then a ticket from Singapore to Hong Kong.

The challenge was the over 1,000 miles from Bangkok to Singapore, through a country I’d barely heard about—Malaysia.

I’m as delighted to be here as I was the first time. I’m checking in from Kuala Lumpur, after two long (almost too long) train rides—from Bangkok to Penang (about 20 hours) then from Penang to Kuala Lumpur (only 9 hours, but it got in here at 5 a.m.)

I fell in love with Pulau Penang (an island that with some mainland constitutes a state in the 13-member federation of Malaysia) that time, and I’ve been back 3 times since. Nothing has dampened my ardor. I think my students were as awestruck as I am. Here are some of the reasons why:

1) our site visit graphically demonstrated the truth of Friedman’s the world is flat. We toured the Dell factory which makes 95% of the US laptops and ships them to Nashville or Reno for redistribution. They make the laptop to order within a day. I remember getting mine within a week from the time I placed the order. The Penang area has become a mecca for high tech, and perhaps that’s why Dell located there (AMD, a supplier, was there first). The work force, mostly Muslim women (around 5,500) get around 300 a month, plus overtime. The parts come from all over the world, illustrating the principle of the “disassembly line.” The result is an affordable computer, customized for each order.

2) Penang is now a UNESCO world heritage site, and I’m glad it gained that distinction because it has marvelous old colonial architecture. It’s older than Singapore, and was the first British colony in the eventual British Crown Colony (I think it was the Straits Settlements and Malaya—the old Sultans remained in power as heads of states with British advisors, the Straits Settlements being Malacca, Penang, and Singapore). There’re wonderful old colonial hotels (Mrs. Hoyt and I stayed at the Eastern and Oriental, an 1885 gem, that was reopened in an indication of the multiple ethnicities of Malaysia); historical sites that one stumbles on (Dr. Sun Yat-sen made Penang his home in exile for about five years as he raised money trying to overthrow the Qing dynasty and establish a republic. He was the president of the Republic after 1911 and is revered in both mainland and Taiwan, no mean feat); and preserved architecture that looks like I thought Hong Kong ought to resemble—and probably did in the 1950s! I was glad to see one of the old buildings (that I’d considered buying and restoring for my 29 servants—that was one reason I did not buy it) had been saved and restored by a well-known American company—and it now is the most elegant of KFCs in the world!

3) Penang is predominantly a Chinese city in a majority Malay (Muslim) country. Penang area is around 1.5 million people, half Chinese, but Georgetown (aha now you know it was British, and the rail station is on the mainland, across from the island, and it’s called Butterworth!), but as I said, it’s a diverse mix with great ethnic foods and ethnic sites. There’s a Burmese Buddhist temple which is even more over the top in its showiness than the Thai Buddhist temple across the street. I was so impressed by the Burmese one that I was inspired to visit Burma a few years ago. Our guide called Penang a food paradise, and then proved it. We had one dinner by the ocean at a hawkers (food court) where the guide (Chinese background) ordered dish after wonderful dish of some of the best food that we had on the trip. I managed to convince him spaghetti and French fries (staples in Bangkok because we were Americans) was not the reason we’d come to Asia. As my grandson is fond of saying, “Yum yum.” Wisdom comes from 2-year-olds.

It was difficult leaving 19th century environs (Fort Cornwallis, named after the governor of Bengal, the very same Cornwallis who lost at Yorktown and was posted in India had an encampment that paled before the reenactments we’ve gone to at Fort de Chartres, which is roughly the same period!) Chinatown to the train—and not just because the train was a sleeper, but left no space for bags, and got into Kuala Lumpur (meaning muddy waters) at 5 a.m.

Malaysia was a country that had not crossed my radar before I stumbled upon it, but it’s impressive as a predominantly Muslim country that is quite progressive. It helps that it had, for many years, an intelligent Prime Minister who was even more powerful than the Sultans. Dr. Mahathir Mohamed was determined to put Malaysia on the map as more than, “O, we’re the country close to Singapore, which you’ve heard of.” He was the one who built the Petronas towers, which were until recently the tallest buildings in the world (now, there are tallest with antenna, tallest with hotel, etc.). We got in and went to breakfast and I told our guide I thought most of our students would enjoy an Indian breakfast—murtabak (mutton and chicken filled pancakes, made mostly by Muslim Indians), various breads so called, made with banana or eggs, dipped in dal or sambal, nasi lemak (coconut rice) and mango lassi, along with dosa (rice-based pancakes)—I better stop writing about food! To their surprise, most of the students, and all the A students (of course) enjoyed the meal! I know I did.

Touring KL gives one a sense of the desire of Dr. Mahathir; the buildings are impressive, and in the Malay style, with specific roofs. There’s also some Moorish-British architecture that’s also distinctive—in fact, some of us commented that the old train station looks more like a mosque than the National Mosque we toured. Malaysia also has a king—the nine sultans rotate the position every five years and get to live in the palace; every hour there’s a changing of the guard, including mounted soldiers; the uniforms are pretty spiffy, but it’s not the UK.

One other place we toured that I thought was interesting was the memorial to soldiers, a monument designed to honor not only WWI and WWII soldiers, but also those who died in the “Emergency.” What delayed Britain’s exit from Malaysia was an ongoing civil war against Communists that resembled the American War in Viet Nam, but had a different result.

Malaysia is a secular state, but as I said, it has a Muslim majority that has ruled the country from the beginning. Our (Chinese) guide in Penang said that Muslims are tried under Muslim rule, and that if you marry a Muslim, you must convert. The government gives preferences in government jobs and in university admission to Malays. Our guide here in KL said that if you call someone a Malaysian, you mean they’re Muslim; otherwise they’re Malaysian-Chinese or Malaysian-Indian. He noted that the Chinese do well because they have been successful in business and help one another out. We saw three clan houses in Penang, and I know we’ll see some in Malacca when we get there—it’s where the “fraternity” exists by last name—in Penang there were 24th generation Chinese!

We’re meeting an IWU alum tonight, James Lai, who graduated around 1995. He’s a graphic designer, and should have interesting things to share with our students about what it’s like to live and work in KL, his home town.

Incidentally, it rains 300 days a year in KL—and, no coincidence, it’s raining right now.

I should point out for the parents reading this blog that at the Khoo family clan house in Penang (they’re the wealthiest clan), the building features prominent Confucian virtues, including one of a daughter who stays up all night to fan her parents so they can sleep. If your child does not share his or her copy with you, let me know; I have a copy which I’d be glad to share with you so that you can have proper filiopiety exhibited in your household.

Selamat datang.

It occurred to me today that Bangkok, at least for the tourist, and based on our two fully-filled days, is a tribute to two rulers—the Lord Buddha in a religious sense, and the Lord Rama (the ruling dynasty) in a political sense. They’re related. The Chakri family has supplied the kings since the foundation of Bangkok in 1782. Rama IX, who has been the king for over 60 years, is the longest reigning monarch in the world.

While the kings were absolute rulers (even despots—see the thinly historical King and I) until 1932, King Bhumibol (his non-reign name) and his wife have earned a great deal of respect from the Thai people. Our guide proudly refers to him as “our king,” and the pictures are ubiquitous. At various times, he has called the military rulers into the palace and ordered them to grovel, thereby saving the constitutional monarchy.

He and his family certainly enjoy the trappings of royalty, as we’ve seen the past two days, having visited the summer palace yesterday, the Grand Palace today, and various and sundry palaces today. The current palaces were heavily influenced by Chulalongkorn, otherwise known as Rama V, who was one of the children in the King and I, where Yul Brynner, as Rama IV, King Mongkut, fell under the spell of Anna, and his son brought lots of Western influences into the then Kingdom of Siam. Under Mongkut, the Thais built a summer palace that for all the world looked like Versailles; it’s very European. The Grand Palace, similarly, has some very European buildings, but with the Thai roofs (which I learned today have a triangular shaped roof with the Garuda at the top—a bird-like figure who was the carrier of Lord Shiva [look up your Hindu/Buddhist gods]—and the Naga, a snake, at the corners of the triangle), making the appearance definitely Thai-European. We were in the palace this morning, and, ala London, there was a changing of the guard—spiffy uniforms, white pith helmets, not so spiffy drill. We were told the soldiers had no bullets, very unlike London, but then the royal family no longer lives in the Grand Palace, which is used only to house dignitaries, and possibly impress tourists, which it certainly does. The other palaces we saw were interesting, too, but less grand—a summer house made of golden teak that had been moved from elsewhere in the country to Bangkok, and still had the marks from a bomb that had been dropped on it in World War II (when, interestingly, Thailand sided with the Japanese and declared war on the United States)—it had a lot of windows, which indicated before air conditioning there was only one way to cool off, and that was to depend on breezes, or what was known as a pukka walla, a contraption which allowed a servant to foot-pump a fan. The final “palace” we saw had been the home of one of the sons of Chulalongkorn; he was an avid collector of a variety of things—including some sculptures that had once been at Angkor Wat—whose family had various homes from around the country brought to Bangkok to house his collection. The prince himself had been sent into exile in 1932; when the generals ended the absolute monarchy, the prince, as the head of the absolute monarch’s state council, was invited to leave, and lived his life in Indonesia.

The Lord Buddha received his due today from us as well. There are reputedly over 650 Wats (Buddhist temples) in Thailand, a religion the Thais share with the approximately 5 million Chinese in Bangkok—who control much of the larger businesses (as our guide remarked, they’ve been in the country for years, and they’re hard-working; we’re not). The Wat we visited was one of the Royal Temples. It’s in the grounds of the grand palace, and houses the Emerald Buddha, one of the most important relics of the faith in Thailand. The whole complex houses statuary that are the typical “guardians” of the Buddhist temples, but with the colorful cut glass and precious stones and the faces that are typical Thai. It’s a stunning display that still impresses me after years of coming here.

Finally, we’ve spent more time on the Chao Phraya, which is the “River of Kings.” We came back from Ayudhya by boat yesterday, and had a dinner cruise tonight on the river, that took us past the palaces—and the newer palaces for the rich, like the Mandarin Oriental hotel, usually ranked as one of the top five hotels in the world. The buffet, thanks to our guide, included Pad Thai, one of the most popular and famous of the Thai dishes.

Tomorrow we get on the train for Butterworth Malaysia at 2:49, an overnight train ride.

The adventure continues!

May 10, 2009

Good morning from Bangkok, capital of Thailand and the first stop on our six-country odyssey. I knew we were in the tropics (13 degrees north, over 8,500 direct miles, and around 13,000 frequent flier miles) when I got out of the plane and my glasses fogged up. It was 94 degrees—11 o’clock at night—probably 99 percent humidity—and it will probably be like this through Hong Kong. My colleague, Bill Walsh, describes it as a three showers a day area, but I think that’s true if you can take only three showers a day. If you can take more…you probably do.

I knew it was May 2009 when we got to Tokyo and we had to change planes. That’s always an ordeal at Narita, but it was complicated by the Japanese government’s response to Swine Flu. We sat on the tarmac, filled out forms about where we’d been, etc., put on face masks, and had medical staff with masks come through with a heat gun to take our temperatures before we could evacuate the plane and resume our flight on another aircraft. No problems anywhere else, including at the new Bangkok airport, which is competitive with the great airports of the world.

It’s been five years since I was in Bangkok, but it’s still (despite the heat and partly because everything is either air conditioned or outside) one of my favorite cities to visit. We’ve eased into the rigors of the trip reasonably well partly because the city is so different from anything most of our students are used to, even those from Chicago. It’s at least 10 million people, with the usual juxtapositions of the developing world—shacks beneath skyscrapers, Beemers next to the tuk-tuks (motorbikes with a chariot-like rear that haul 3 people through the city), open markets selling the most wondrous fruits (some you know, like fresh pineapple; some you don’t, like durian, the fruit that “smells like heaven, tastes like hell” and is banned from hotels), restaurants wafting wondrous smells, etc. Since I arrived here for the first time in the mid-1990s, the city has acquired a lot more freeways and built a skytrain, and that’s made the traffic (which includes bright pink cabs), somewhat more tolerable, but like most Asian cities, one must plan on a long trip any time you take a ride.

Our guide says business is way down, and certainly it is for tourism, which is not just one of the world’s biggest businesses, but one of Thailand’s. The combination of the global economy and the political unrest that it’s caused here (plus the political turmoil that closed the airport in December) has scared away tourists.

We’re not able to visit any businesses (for class purposes) because it’s the Buddha’s big day here—birth, death, and enlightenment—a big day especially in a country that is 95 percent Buddhist. Small businesses are open, including the Tony’s Fashion House that I think every tour group gets taken to (and some get taken at) that is one of the many tailors (Thai silk is a specialty). The Buddhism here is quite different from what one sees in East Asia. It’s incredibly colorful, and I’m sure the pictures you’ve seen of Thailand show the Wats (temples), with gold chedis and prangs.

Our day was pretty full, so we didn’t have time to experience jet lag. We left here at 7:30 yesterday morning for a trip to Ayudhya, which was the capital of Thailand from the 14th century until the Burmese leveled it in 1767, and the Thais moved further south (Bangkok itself dates from the early 1770s, when the Chakri family became the rulers and moved from Thonburi, across the river, where they built the Grand Palace, which I’m about to visit later today). My son, David, once described SE Asia as the “Balkans of Europe,” and having been to the Balkans last summer, I can understand what he means—in the sense that the borders shift historically, and the “tribes” have had a history of warfare—the Burmese and the Thais have warred for centuries.

Ayudhya reflects the influence of Buddhism in SE Asia, as all the Wats were built in stone, and their remains are all that are left. When I saw Ayudhya, it was one of the inspirations for me to visit some of the other great ruins (Borobodur in Indonesia, Pagan in Burma, and the most wondrous of all, Angkor in Cambodia), so it was a treat to return—especially with a digital camera, which reduces the 8 rolls of slide film that I used to take to a doable card which enables me to erase mistakes). The chedis and prangs still tower in the sky, the outlines of the rest of the temples still there, with fragments of the destroyed Buddhas (I think I was told that precious stones or relics of the Buddha were in the statues, which is why the Burmese lopped off the heads!)

The highlight was an elephant ride through the ruins. That’s something you don’t get to do at home, and we all took advantage of climbing aboard and imagining lumbering through the jungle from Pagan, Burma (or for the European-minded, over the alps with Hannibal). We took a boat back along the Chao Praya, the river that cuts through Bangkok, which was a nice way to leisurely adjust to being 12 hours time away from you.

You’re about to begin your weekend. We’re about to have breakfast and to be taken someplace spectacular that none of my students have seen before.