April 30, 2005

04:46:14 am Vietnam (Northern half)  

Country Background:
Population: 83 million
Per capita GDP: $3,000
Size: slightly larger than New Mexico. By coincidence, Vietnam is almost exactly the same size as Malaysia.
Currency: Dong, 15,700 per US dollar. Dinner cost us over a quarter-million dong! That's about $16.
Independence: 1945 from France--fighting with the French continued through 1954, though. Vietnam would state that the southern half of the country was liberated from an American puppet government in 1975, but the one million Vietnamese boat people may have a different perspective on this.
Language: Vietnamese. English is common.

Itinerary

Hanoi
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 - Thursday, April 28, 2005
Vietnam Airlines flight, operated by Malaysian Airlines, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Hanoi, Vietnam
Two nights at Sofitel Metropole

Temperature high/low during our stay: 85/70

Hanoi is the capital and second largest city in Vietnam. It was the capital of North Vietnam during the war. It was first founded in 1010, making the city nearly 1000 years old.
Population: the 1989 census was 1.1 million, but our guide says 4 million now as the city has expanded by incorporating outlying areas.

Hanoi Activities:
- Revolution Museum
- Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
- Army Museum
- Walk through the Old Quarter
- Cyclo tour through Old Quarter
- Water puppet show

Halong Bay
Thursday, April 28, 2005 - Saturday, April 30, 2005
Drive to Halong Bay
Three days and two nights aboard a junk boat (see Image Gallery)
Halong Bay is on the sea, 100 miles from Hanoi, about a three hour drive. There are hundreds of limestone outcroppings in the bay (see Image Gallery) that somewhat resemble the Guilin/Yangshuo area of China, where we will be in about three weeks.

Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/70

Halong Bay Activities:
- Boating around the harbor. Our boat was about the same size as the one we spent a week on in the Galapagos Islands. That boat had 16 passengers, a guide, and a crew of five. The Halong Bay boat also had a guide and a crew of five--for the two of us. Each meal had six to eight courses, containing no less than three times the amount of food we could possibly eat if we were completely famished.
- Sea kayaking. We did this all three days we were on board (see Image Gallery).

Hanoi
Saturday, April 30, 2005 - Sunday, May 1, 2005

Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/75

We have another five days in Vietnam (southern half) after Hanoi, to be continued in another log.

We were in Hanoi on April 30, a national holiday to mark the overthrow of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) from the South Vietnamese, which paved the way for reunification of the country in 1976. The celebrations are quite large this year, as it is the 30th anniversary of "Liberation Day." It is also Deanna's birthday, a historical event that happened a few years earlier. While April 30, 1975 was a sad day from an American perspective (everyone probably remembers the pictures of the helicopter on top of the US embassy evacuating people shortly before it was overrun), here it is joyous occasion. Their joy is not so much a boast about winning, but more the pride in unifying the country, after outlasting in succession: the French (who ruled them as a colony before and after World War II), the Japanese (who occupied them during World War II), the Chinese and the British (who were assigned to secure the north and the south, respectively, immediately after World War II until the French took over again), the Americans (who fought the communists in the south and the north after the French left), and the South Vietnamese (who continued fighting the communist insurgency in the south after the American soldiers left in 1973). At least that’s the perspective in the North. We are curious to see if the celebrations and attitudes in the South are the same.

It was interesting to note that the Vietnamese flag flies everywhere--not just on public streets and buildings, but also from homes and boats. It is reminiscent of the US on a major holiday. There seems to be a genuine patriotism that goes beyond government window dressing.

Vietnam while firmly communist politically, has turned to a capitalist economic system, much like China before it. China began liberalizing its economy in 1978 and Vietnam's reforms began in 1986. In each case, the reforms resulted from the pragmatic view that--as an economic system--communism was a complete failure, so we had better try something else before the people revolt. Our guide in North Vietnam, Neil, was born in 1976 and remembers that growing up, until he was around 10, "we had nothing to eat."

Today everything is much better. Having started later, Vietnam is not as developed as China, but things are changing quickly. Halong Bay still has the appearance of a fishing village, but one surrounded by hotel and subdivision construction. Neil laments that the time to buy was five years ago. That always seems to be the case everywhere we go, which suggests two things 1) the average person does not recognize when it is time to buy (it takes vision to see an isolated area as a future tourist destination before any development occurs); however, 2) trends run longer than people think (development in Halong Bay may run for years or even decades more--the price rises to date are probably not finished). A corollary to these two points, though, would be that when a trend has run for a long time and everyone is saying "you gotta get into this, look at all the money all these people are making!" then the trend has probably run its course and it is time to look elsewhere.

Crossing the street in Hanoi is quite an experience due to all of the moped, motorcycle, and auto traffic (see Image Gallery). It's like Frogger, the 1980s video game, and you are the frog. Your instinct is to run quickly, but you will be squashed if you do this, and unlike the video game, you only have one life in the Hanoi version. Neil gave us special instructions on what to do. "Walk slowly. You have to give the vehicles time to move around you." And so that's what we did and it works. Everyone understands the system.

The Vietnamese people in the north are extremely friendly toward Americans, a gracious attitude considering many of them personally remember us as the enemy that bombed them. Like people everywhere around the world, they distinguish between actions of a government and the citizens of that government. All of their firsthand experience with American citizens is as tourists, and since American tourists are by far the best tippers in the world, they are welcome most places in the world.

Send feedback • Permalink

04:42:47 am Malaysia  

Country Background:
Population: 24 million
Per capita GDP: $9,000
Size: slightly larger than New Mexico
Currency: Malaysian Ringgit, fixed at 3.8 per US dollar
Independence: 1957 from United Kingdom as Malaya. Malaya expanded to become Malaysia in 1963 when Singapore and two states on the island of Borneo joined the federation. Singapore seceded by mutual agreement in 1965, but the rest of Malaysia remained in tact. Language: Bahasa Melayu is the official language (a form of Malay), but all of the languages of Singapore, plus a few others are present. English is common, not quite to the extent of Singapore, but English speakers will have no problems here. Main ethnic groups include Malay, 58%, Chinese, 24%, and Indian, 8%.

Itinerary

Sunday, April 24, 2005 - Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Two nights at Le Meridien.

Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/75 and humid.

Kuala Lumpur (KL) is the capital and largest city of Malaysia. It is a relatively new city, founded in the mid-19th Century by the British.
Population: between 1 and 2 million

Kuala Lumpur Activities:
- Petronas Towers
- National Museum of History
- City Tour

Our hotel in KL is a new, five-star hotel with rooms on Expedia for $60 per night, including free breakfast, a great exercise room (free also), and a free high-speed Internet connection in the room. Malaysia is an inexpensive country. Its currency ought to be higher, but the government fixes it at 3.8 per dollar, much like China fixes the yuan at 8.28 per dollar. In coming years, both countries are expected to allow their currencies to float, at least partially. We expect both to rise.

Malaysia was hit extremely hard in the 1997-1998 Asian crises, during which its then-expensive free-floating currency devalued sharply and its stock markets plunged. We don't have the numbers at hand, but the stock market went down something like 80% or more in US dollar terms (Indonesia, Thailand, and other countries suffered similarly.) Mahathir Mohamad, the country's long-standing prime minister, went berserk, blamed foreigner currency traders for trying to ruin the country, and said the crisis was a failure of capitalism. These market unfriendly words, combined with follow-on currency controls and foreign investment restrictions, caused emerging market funds to sell their Malaysian stocks and move on to other countries that understood the lessons of capitalism better. Mohamad seemed unaware that his words and actions were exacerbating the crises. In a bizarre twist, he evened jailed and tried his finance minister--for sodomy of all things. While we have no knowledge of the finance minister's inclinations, we are confident that whatever sexual peccadilloes he may have were of no concern to the government in 1995, when Malaysia was receiving more foreign direct investment than any country in East Asia.

There are many universal truths around the world and here are two relating to politicians. One, when there is a crisis, foreigners are often blamed. Two, politicians are nothing if not creative and resourceful at trumping up charges to remove opponents and scapegoats from office, or to prevent them from running in the first place. A current example is the Mexican government prosecuting the mayor of Mexico City on an administrative matter that may disqualify him from running for president in 2006. So if you hear a politician blaming foreigners, look elsewhere for the truth. And while there may be some basis in truth to the charges against domestic political opponents, usually the charges are greatly inflated and stretched. Conservatives, liberals, presidential democracies, parliamentary democracies, socialist countries, authoritarian regimes--these truths are present everywhere on this globe.

Anyway, getting back to Malaysia, Mohamad retired in 2004 after 23 years and a more open-minded successor, Abdullah Badawi, was elected prime minister. Badawi is saying all the right things and loosening the investment restrictions such that emerging markets investors are beginning to re-enter the country. Actually, Mohamad--other than going temporarily insane in 1997 and 1998--was not such a bad guy. Malaysia grew tremendously during his reign until then, averaging 8% annual growth during the 1980s. To its credit, Malaysia has learned a lot from Singapore and is not too proud to copy what works. So KL is clean, crime free, with an efficient airport and public transportation system. Malaysia is a lot like Singapore, but not quite as successful (this says more about the degree of Singapore's success than any shortcomings on Malaysia's part), and with the ethnic and religious majorities and minorities reversed. Whereas Singapore has a Chinese/Buddhist majority and a Malay/Muslim minority, KL has a Malay/Muslim majority and a Chinese/Buddhist minority. Both countries also have Indian/Hindu minorities. Singapore is more westernized, but both countries were British colonies and westerners are welcome in both places. To a westerner, though, KL feels more foreign.

We noticed several halted building projects, a legacy from the 1997-1998 crises. Overall, though, things seem vibrant enough in KL. There were no lingering signs of 1997 in Singapore or Indonesia either, although in Indonesia we were only in a tourist area, not a business center.

The reversal of majorities and minorities is one underlying reason why Singapore did not last as part of Malaysia. With Singapore included, Chinese edged slightly past Malays as the ethnic majority in Malaysia. Also, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party (PAP) began to campaign in Malaysian local politics. They were entitled to do this as they had become part of Malaysia, but let's just say the Malaysian government would have preferred the PAP to keep their focus on Singapore only. Other countries also were wary of Singapore. Indonesia and the Philippines viewed a Singapore-Malaysia combination as a regional competitive threat to the point where Indonesia may have clandestinely encouraged Malay-Chinese race riots in Singapore. So for these reasons and others, Singapore and Malaysia arranged a hasty divorce, ejecting Singapore from the country it joined only two years earlier.

One thing KL has that Singapore does not is a former world's tallest building. The Petronas Towers held that title from 1997-2004, taking it from the Sears Tower and passing it along to Taipei 101 in Taiwan. The subject of a recent e-mail no*prize trivia question, we note here for the record that Nick's father, Larry Padgett, was the first to answer the question correctly. Honorable mention goes out to Don Furman and Jan Johnson who had the correct answer, but were a bit late. Dangerous Don hails from Garner, Iowa, a small but prosperous little town where the tallest building, the grain elevator, is nearly five stories tall. In his youth, he was a corrupting influence on Nick, and was always the source of Nick's youthful indiscretions. But like George W. Bush, Don has cleaned up his hard-partying ways, and settled down to a life of respectability in Garner, where he has a monopoly as the only optometrist in two towns. The FTC is investigating.

Many spoilsports in Chicago took issue with losing the world's tallest title that they had for 23 years, and pointed out correctly that the Sears Tower is actually taller than the Petronas Towers in many ways. It's a bit of moot point now that Petronas is no longer number one and several other even taller buildings are planned. But how can it be that some claim Sears is taller than Petronas? Given two buildings, isn't it obvious which is bigger? Actually no. If you got a group of people together to decide how to measure building height, you would soon realize that there are many different ways to measure. All start from street level, but where do you stop? At the absolute highest point, counting all antennas? At the roof, ignoring all antennas and spires? At the highest inhabited floor, ignoring any floors devoted to mechanics? By all of these measures, the Sears Tower is taller than Petronas Towers. But none of these measures is the correct measure. The correct measure as determined by the Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat at Lehigh University is "from sidewalk level of main entrance to structural top of the building. Television and radio antennas and flag poles are not included." Thus, the spires on top of Petronas Towers, which are considered structural, are including in its height, but the television antennas on the top of Sears Tower are not counted.

We point this out not to further the claims of argumentative Chicagoans, but as background for a future discussion on future world's tallest buildings. We received several replies to this follow-on trivia question that we asked via e-mail. The two buildings we had in mind were mentioned first by Cheryl Hays, Deanna's mom, but several other buildings we were not aware of were also cited. So we need to do some more research on this topic before we hand out the priceless no*prize. More on this later.

In a postscript to our first contest on the current world's tallest building, we received an e-mail from our Asia advance man, John Krotzer, Nick's B-school roommate, and our provider of lodging in Shanghai, China. When John heard of our world tour last year, he voluntarily agreed to move his wife and three children to Asia and then arrange business trips to various destinations prior to our arrival to provide us with restaurant reviews, attractions to see, and the location of English-language bookstores. In a past log, you may remember that we detailed the notorious Kidman-Krotzer Dinner in Sydney. John writes, " I should get a bonus. I was IN this tower [Taipei 101] when you wrote this! I am in Taipei as we speak. This building also has the world's fastest elevator--38 seconds up and 46 down. It goes down [slower] so your stomach doesn't feel queasy."

Not to be outdone, while John is gallivanting around the Pacific, his wife Tania reports in from Shanghai of her recent shopping exploits, "Success!!! Now in addition to seeing the Krotzer-Romanoff family, you can look forward to drinking Snapple Raspberry Iced Tea. The good news for me was that the store FINALLY had Kraft Macaroni & Cheese today too (the first time I've been able to find it!)" Well, this is quite a treat and most unexpected. We may just cancel the remainder of our Vietnam tour and head right to Shanghai.

While Deanna can look forward to her trusty Coca-Cola every day in any country in the world, Nick has had no Snapple since Tampa, where Deanna's mom stocks a second refrigerator with no less than five cases of sugary beverages at all times. There was raspberry iced tea on occasion in New Zealand and Australia, but it was always the artificially too sweet Lipton or Nestea versions. Snapple was common in Singapore, but apparently the local distributor has an anti-raspberry tea bias, for nowhere on the island did we see this flavor. Cranberry/raspberry juice yes, but raspberry iced tea no.

Now this will come as a great shock to many, and one of us may even deny this fact, but truthful reporting must come ahead of martial bliss, so we will relate that on this trip Nick has been very flexible and adaptable with his food and beverage consumption, much more so than finicky Deanna with her ever-insistent two-legged vegetarian requirements. How she worries so about getting violently ill and throwing up her meal. Why Nick even ate lettuce at one meal in Singapore, as documented in our Image Gallery!

Send feedback • Permalink

04:41:01 am Singapore  

Country Background:
Population: 4.4 million
Per capita GDP: $24,000
Size: slightly more than 3.5 times the size of Washington D.C.
Currency: Singapore dollar, 1.65 per US dollar
Independence: Modern Singapore was founded in 1819 by Sir Stamford Raffles as a British colony. In 1959, it became self-governing within the British Commonwealth; in 1963, it joined the Federation of Malaysia; in 1965, it seceded from Malaysia to become an independent country.
Language: National language is Malay, but English, Chinese (Mandarin), Tamil (an Indian dialect), and Malay are all official languages. Everyone speaks English. Chinese is also spoken by most people, as Singapore's ethnicity is 77% Chinese, compared to 14% Malay, 8% Indian, and 1% other.

Itinerary

Tuesday, April 19, 2005 - Sunday, April 24, 2005
Singapore Airlines flight from Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia to Singapore
Five nights at Hotel 1929 in Chinatown

Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/75 and humid. Singapore is 2 degrees north of the Equator. It's hot and muggy year-round, except indoors where it is often freezing cold from the air conditioning.
Singapore is a city, an island, and a nation.

Singapore Activities:
- Spending hours at Borders researching future travel in Asia
- Spending hours booking future Asia travel over the internet
- Singapore Art Museum
- Singapore History Museum (Nick)
- Shopping (Deanna)
- Night Safari
- City Gallery, with exhibits devoted to city planning (Nick)
- Shopping (Deanna)
- Singapore International Film Festival
- Laundry
- Finding and utilizing a health club (Nick) and a yoga studio (Deanna)
- Dinner with Navinder and Hsiao Ming Singh (see Image Gallery), who Deanna stayed with previously in Singapore in 2000. Deanna's maid-of-honor Stacy Carlson and her husband Bill lived in Singapore for several years and are good friends with the Singhs.
- River boat cruise
- Asian Civilizations Museum (both of them)
- Changi Prison Museum (Nick)
- Shopping (Deanna)

While in Brazil, we wrote a post discussing what an accomplishment of human imagination and willpower the building of Brasilia, the country's capital, was. Brasilia, remember, was created from scratch out of the jungle in roughly 1000 days. We saluted Brazilian President Juscelino Kubitschek for pulling this off within one term because he knew if the project stretched beyond his tenure, a successor would not be likely to complete the work. Singapore was not built in 1000 days, but to us, it is even more impressive of an accomplishment of human willpower. And we could easily live in Singapore, where frankly we would not be that keen on residing in Brasilia, its remarkable origin notwithstanding. Lee Kuan Yew, the prime minister of Singapore country during its first 25 years deserves the credit for creating this masterpiece of cleanliness and efficiency through a recipe that is one-part George Washington, one-part Mayor Daley, and one part Mao Zedong. Lee is one of the best political leaders of the second half of the 20th Century, in our opinion, albeit not well known by the Western public because the stage he operated on--running a city-state of a few million people--was small.

In 1965, Singapore became an independent nation after a hasty divorce from Malaysia, the country it joined two years earlier. It was a third-world city--dirty, with too many people, too few jobs, and too little prospects. It had no natural resources for industry and no natural sites to draw tourists. Within 20 years, by the mid-80s, it was an international city, vying with Hong Kong to be the economic capital of Southeast Asia. It had compiled a long list of world bests: it had become the world's cleanest city; its airport and national airline were repeatedly voted best in the world by frequent flyers; arguably, the world's nicest subway system had just opened; its port was the busiest in the world; and it had the world's highest level of home ownership (over 90%). All of these attributes remain in place in 2005.

Desired social goods were created through administrative fiat. If you want people to own their own homes, force them to save money to do so. Currently 20% of every paycheck goes into a Central Provident Fund for housing, healthcare, and retirement (companies pay in an additional percentage, 12% of each employee's salary, if we remember correctly). If you don't want litter on the streets, don't allow the sale of chewing gum in the country as it is one of the hardest forms of litter to remove. Want traffic safety? Then arrest people for jaywalking, require taxis to have sensors that beep annoyingly when the speed limit is exceeded, and install red light and speed cameras that photograph your license plate and send you a fine in the mail. Want to eliminate congested traffic in the city center? Then collect an electronic toll from all cars entering a designated area, with the fee adjusting automatically based on time of day and traffic conditions. Don't want opposition to your ideas? Then have one party rule and censor the press. Then there is Nick's personal favorite: hate graffiti? Then cane the bastard graffiti criminals (including famously an American teenager)! Result: no graffiti.

Over time, some of these ideas have been abandoned (you can now purchase chewing gum and jaywalking is common); some have been reduced (press and movie censorship is less but not completely gone, one-party rule remains, but the opposition has strengthened); while others have expanded and are being copied around the world (speed and red light cameras are present throughout Australia and other countries and electronic road pricing is being trialed in central London). We think as more time passes, many of the rules most objectionable to civil libertarians will be further eased, while Singapore retains its overall sense of order and efficiency.

Now here's a question that we think most Americans would answer differently than us. If you had to choose between full-fledged capitalism and full-fledged democracy, which would you choose if you had to live in a place with one or the other but not both? Most Americans would say democracy. We would choose capitalism. We see it as a more basic ingredient to a successful society that will ultimately facilitate other positive attributes. In other words, capitalism creates prosperity and that prosperity leads--over time--to democracy. There are plenty of places in the world which have democracy, but that also have many constraints to free enterprise (e.g. currency controls, restrictions on foreign investment, heavy regulation, many businesses government owned), to the point where prosperity never occurs. In general, we think these places are worse off than those with the reverse--fairly unrestricted capitalism but not full-fledged democracy.

Nick's view on this was formed when he lived in Asia in 1990 and saw firsthand that countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Taiwan, the territory of Hong Kong, and others were all prospering economically even though they had fairly authoritarian governments over the most recent decades. In contrast, the country he lived in, the Philippines was struggling economically even though it had been a democracy, excepting parts of the Marcos years, since World War II. Since 1990, all of the prospering countries have moved further toward democracy (the territory of Hong Kong is a special case as it has reverted back to China, although Hong Kong had a limited degree of democracy then and now) as their economic strength has led to greater political freedom. Meanwhile, the Philippines continues to lag economically, its democracy notwithstanding. Of course, China is the best example of this, its unlikely combination of political communism and economic capitalism producing 9% annualized economic growth over the past 27 years. This is the highest rate of growth recorded by any country in modern times.

We should stop at this point and state that we are talking about a matter of degrees. Singapore is a democracy as it has had elections dating back to when the British still ruled it. And the Philippines is capitalist. But on a spectrum, you would classify the Philippines as more of a democracy than Singapore (because one party dominates Singapore politics) and you would classify Singapore as more conducive to free enterprise than the Philippines (because the Philippines have more restrictions on foreign investment, less transparency, and more government corruption).

So we think civil libertarians miss the point when they criticize Singapore. Singapore's single-minded focus on raising living standards and improving quality of life has been hugely successful. The People's Action Party deserves to remain in power if they have transformed the country from a poor backwater to one where everyone has a job, owns their own home, and enjoys a high standard of education and health care. It's a great place to live. It's clean, efficient, and crime free. The shopping is world class and you can eat any kind of food from all over the world. Westerners from dozens of nations live there. Some say it's boring, and maybe if we were in our early 20s we would agree, although our friends who did live there report there is plenty of debauchery if you know where to look for it. (As an aside, when we went out for dinner with the Singhs, Navinder was delighted to point out to us several brothels within a block or two of our hotel! And let's point out that Singapore has just approved two casino integrated resorts to try to ensure it remains a top tourist destination.)

Another overlooked accomplishment of Singapore is that it is a multi-ethnic, multilingual, multi-religion society that lives in harmony. We did not appreciate this when we had each visited Singapore previously, but spending more time here, we came to recognize this. It is the melting pot of Asia.

Send feedback • Permalink

April 27, 2005

10:45:41 am The Old Man and the Sea, Part II  

Monday, April 18, 2005

After the last post was written, Nick went surfing a second time in Bali--this time without instructors--while Deanna shopped. The familiar sports analogy of the sophomore slump did, in fact, apply. Where Nick was a rookie phenom, his second outing was a different story altogether. Standing was no problem on Saturday, but he was not able to stand during any of his first 10 attempts on Monday. At no time on Monday did he conquer a wave as well as any of his top half dozen waves on Saturday. It seems the sea had it in for him. Apparently, the ocean was tipped off to his braggadocios earlier post, and decided to teach this old man a lesson.

Afterward Nick had as many excuses as Dusty Baker following a loss to the Cardinals. "Clearly, the tide was too high, except of course when it was too low. The waves broke much further from shore than on Saturday, but when I moved out, the waves moved in. Obviously, I had a different board, and that was a big problem, as my second board was clearly too small. There is no doubt that Deanna is to blame, as she forced me to put too much sunscreen on, and of course, that made the board too slippery. I don't know what she was thinking."

Apparently the cost of lesson provides not only the lesson itself, but also an instructor who: positions you in exactly the right place at the right time; spots the perfect wave and tells you exactly when to begin paddling; and pushes or holds your board if you are paddling too slow or too fast.

The lesson price also provides a wetsuit top, a rather invaluable piece of equipment, as Nick learned the next day when--after not wearing a top while surfing on Monday--his nipples were as sore and chaffed as if he were a new mother with a baby who did not know how to suckle. By Tuesday, he had tiny scabs on every mole on his chest from the friction of lying on top of the board while waiting for a wave. And so, the arrogant beginning surfer, imbued with the false confidence that an instructor provides, was reduced to a scab-crusted old man by the mighty sea.

Send feedback • Permalink

April 18, 2005

07:54:51 am Bali, Indonesia  

Country Background:
Population: 234 million
Per capita GDP: $3,000
Size: slightly less than three times the size of Texas
Currency: Indonesian rupiah, 9450 per US dollar
Independence: 1945 from Netherlands
Language: Bahasa Indonesian (modified form of Malay; official); local dialects; English and Dutch are leading foreign languages; English is common on Bali, the major tourist island.

Itinerary

Thursday, April 14, 2005 - Tuesday, April 19, 2005
Qantas flight from Darwin, Australia to Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia
Three nights at Mercure Hotel, Kuta Beach
Driving tour of island, ending in Ubud
One night at Adi Cottages, Ubud
Van transport back to Kuta
One night at Mercure Hotel, Kuta Beach

Bali
Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/75
Temperature feels warmer than this due to extremely high humidity
Bali is the top artistic and tourist island in Indonesia, itself an archipelago of 18,000 islands. While Indonesia is nearly 90% Muslim, making it the largest Muslim country in the world, Bali is mainly Hindu. Both the country as a whole and the island of Bali are quite secular, however. There is little sympathy on Bali for terrorism, as the island's tourist economy was crippled following the October 2002 bombing (it's mostly recovered now) of the Sari Nightclub in Kuta, which killed over 200 people, most of them foreign, with the largest group from Australia. (Australians travel to Bali like Americans travel to Cancun, Mexico.) Signs, posters, and t-shirts here promote a shall-we-say rather hostile attitude to terrorists.

There are many destinations within Bali. We went to two, Kuta, which is on the beach and close to the airport, and Ubud, which is inland. People describe Kuta in a Yogi Berra sort of way, "Nobody goes there anymore because it's too crowded." Nick tended to discount this advice, as he had been to Bali in 1990, and did not consider Kuta to be overcrowded. Besides when you are traveling for one year, you don't really need to get away from it all. We are away from it.

We have found in general that it is difficult for people to calibrate their recommendations to what would appeal to two people traveling for one year. They are forever suggesting places that are too low-key and often too expensive, because when you are working--as our recommenders are--you value your time and your relaxation more than your money. But you can't fill an entire year with expensive beach resorts. Boring! The recommenders with the best advice? Rich and Mary Miller, who we visited in Argentina. They are taking a year off to live in Argentina--although they would have just returned to the US now--so they could relate well to our experience and needs. Everything they suggested in South America was right on the mark for us.

Getting back to Kuta, Nick discovered upon arrival that Kuta must not have been where he stayed in 1990, for he recognized nothing. It was actually quite crowded and congested, just as everyone said it would be. We went to several neighboring towns during our stay, but Nick did not recognize anything there either. Yes, Bali has grown tremendously, but it could not have grown that much! So where he vacationed previously remains a mystery. Nevertheless, we enjoyed Kuta just fine.

Bali Activities:
- Shopping--everything is cheap, cheap, cheap. In general, Bali may be the cheapest place we have been yet for lodging, food, taxis, and souvenirs. It is a major tourist destination, so you can spend hundreds of dollars per night for a hotel if you want to, but there is no need to. Our hotel in Ubud cost us $30 with breakfast included and it was quite nice. You can spend a lot of money here buying thing--and we did buying two paintings and a number of gifts--as it is an artist colony and the quality is high for the price you are paying.
- Surfing lessons. Neither of us had surfed before. Now with the onset of middle age (at least for one of us), we regret not doing this earlier. It was much easier than we expected. Nick stood on his second attempt, and Deanna was not far behind. See Image Gallery.
- Island tour visiting temples and artist areas: wood carving, stone carving, painting, and hand painted batik cloth.
- Visiting Monkey Forest on Monkey Forest Road in Ubud. Hundreds of monkeys roam in the wild in a tropical setting. It appears that a monkey's life here consists of playing, eating, and sex.

Send feedback • Permalink

07:52:21 am Australian Question Time, Final Edition  

Now we at last get to the final questions that many of you submitted so many weeks ago. First, let us recognize on this web log what we mentioned previously via e-mail, that Simone Pritchard of Katherine, Australia wins the no*prize for correctly answering the question of who competed in the Australian Football League 2004 Grand Final. The regular season leader Port Adelaide Power beat the three-time defending champion Brisbane Lions, as you all now should know.

Okay, on with the questions. The ever-curious Darius Vaskelis asks a rather delicate question, that we will try to paraphrase for our general audience as follows. Mr Vaskelis states that he has read two things: 1) kangaroos are known for their sexual prowess and 2) some Aborigines, seeking to emulate the prowess of the kangaroo, have conducted certain anatomical procedures on a rather sensitive part of their body to replicate the kangaroo's amazing feats of endurance. Well, Mr. Vaskelis, we do wonder just what is the source of your prurient reading material? Nevertheless, we are here to educate, so we put this question to our panel of Australian correspondents. We found two individuals who claimed to have observed kangaroo mating rituals, strictly in the name of science no doubt, and both Steve Mack of Adelaide and Bob Pritchard of Katherine (why is it always men with these questions) reported to us that kangas are actually rather speedy when it comes to romance. They are not at all long lasting, as Mr. Vaskelis supposes, at least not when leering 40ish men are watching. Bob, a real Australian unlike Steve who is just pretending to be one, reports that he has never heard of the native ritual that Mr. Vaskelis inquires about; however, he has heard that an Aborigine coming-of-age ritual involves circumcision around age 12 involving natural cutting tools, i.e., a sharp rock. Well ouch indeed. I think we are all a bit wiser, now. Gentlemen, you can uncross your legs now, as we will return to more polite subjects.

Gentle reader Adrienne Johnson of Moline, Illinois asks why does Sydney, Australia have such a large population of Greeks? Her understanding is that other than Athens, it is largest Greek city in the world. We were never able to establish whether that is true, Adrienne, although we have no reason to doubt you. We do know that Chicago is the largest Polish city in the world other than Warsaw, so it is entirely possible that Sydney is number two in the Greek world. Australia, like the US is a nation of immigrants, and no, they were not all British prisoners! At present, something like 23% of Australians were born outside of Australia. By comparison, something like 99% of all Americans were born outside of Australia, but only 11% of Americans were born outside of the US. After World War II, Australia's population was only 5 million (it's four times that now), and the country pursued a populate-or-perish policy, which actively encouraged increased immigration from Europe, and not just from mother England. People from war-ravaged Europe poured in, especially those from Italy and Greece. Australia feared that a populous Asian country might look longingly at its vast unpopulated land, so it figured it better add to its population and fast. Australia thought Japan would invade it during World War II--it did not, but it did bomb Darwin over 60 times and it did launch a submarine attack on Sydney Harbor. Interestingly, Brazil--with a huge population relative to Australia--also felt that its relatively unpopulated interior might tempt a foreign power to invade following World War II. This is one reason it encouraged migration to the interior by building a new capital, Brasilia, in the jungle. We don't think like this today, but many countries post-World War II feared that history would repeat itself and their land may be invaded the next time around. So better to fill up the unpopulated areas with welcome foreign immigrants and internally migrants than have them filled up with unwelcome foreign invaders.

Speaking of Brasilia, our Toronto correspondent, John Kelleher--a Canadian by birth but an American at heart--reports that Canada now has Fox News Channel. In our January post from Brasilia, we reported that FNC was available in the Brazilian capital and noted that it was not available in Canada, as it had not received government approval (note: Al-Jazeera is approved in Canada). Well, embarrassed by his countries aversion to fair and balanced news, John quit his job last summer and launched a personal quest to bring Bill O'Reilly and friends to the Great White North. Great work John, I'm sure that lower taxes and private healthcare are about to follow. By the way, FNC is broadcasting loud and clear in Bali. Some guy is talking about raccoons in his roof, while the Andy Griffith theme is playing in the background. This is news the world needs.

John also has a question in which he asks, "Have you seen any sharks with frickin' laser beams tied to their heads?" Well, John, as I'm sure you know, fellow Commonwealth member Australia is home to many of the deadliest species on earth. Quick: How many of the world's 10 snakes are in Australia? Answer: 10! You can't swim on the beaches of Cairns for eight months a year because of the deadly box jellyfish. And don't pick up that seashell. It could kill you. Yes, even the seashells are deadly. However, we must disappoint you to report that laser-beam-enabled sharks only exist on the island of Dr. Evil, and are not present in Australia. We did see four sharks while diving on the Great Barrier Reef, however, if that makes you feel better. None attacked us.

Tonna Padgett of New Troy, Michigan has "A question on behalf of the girls here in the office---Deanna, how do you keep your clothes so nice and unwrinkled, living out of one suitcase? They want to know your packing secrets since they think you have yet to wear the same outfit twice!!!!" Well, Tonna, here's the secret. Nick has far fewer clothes and often wears the same outfit four days in a row. So, while Deanna has worn the same outfit twice, it just does not appear that way, because she is pictured next to Nick in either his white, blue, or black t-shirt. Also, we are using a digital camera with limited resolution, so you can not see the wrinkles. Actually, the most common question we received before we left was "How do you pack for such a trip?" so this is a topic that deserves more attention. In a future log, we may detail the complete contents of our luggage since people seem to be so curious about it.

But we will put off that inventory for a future day, and close with another question from the prodigious Mr. Vaskelis, who asks, "Based on the rising rates of skin cancer in Australia, how long until every Australian statistically will have it?" The truth is that we do not know--we just aren't that good with numbers. But we can provide some non-statistical insight on this subject. In the US, you read about how there's a hole in the ozone layer over take-your-pick: Antarctica, New Zealand, or Australia. This may be true, we are not qualified to say, but we can report there is a much simpler reason for high levels of skin cancer in Australia. The weather is beautiful and it is sunny all the time, everywhere (except maybe in Melbourne). Again, this is the country where no major city ever sees snow. Even now, a month into Fall, the weather is still warm or downright hot throughout the country. The simple fact of ever-present sun, combined with increasing awareness and early detection of skin cancer pretty much explains why skin cancer rates are high there. No articles ever mention these obvious points, but sometimes the simple answer is the overlooked one.

Send feedback • Permalink

April 14, 2005

05:16:52 am Australia For the Record  

Country Background:
Population: 20 million
Per capita GDP: $29,000
Size: slightly smaller than the US
Currency: Australian dollar, 1.29 per US dollar
Independence: 1901 from UK
Language: English

Itinerary

Monday, March 21, 2005 - Thursday, March 24, 2005
Qantas flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia
Qantas flight from Sydney to Adelaide
Three nights at our friend's house, the Macks. Steve and Mi live about six blocks from us in Chicago. Steve is taking a one-year course in Adelaide learning how to make wine. Nick and Steve first met at Andersen Consulting in 1989 and later worked together at Inforte.

Adelaide, South Australia
Population 1.12 million. All population figures from newspaper article in The Age [Melbourne] quoting from government estimates of 2004 population.
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/60
Adelaide is the capital and largest city in the state of South Australia. Adelaide is the fifth largest city in Australia.

Adelaide Activities:
- Errands to include hair cut (Nick), dry cleaning (Deanna), getting watch fixed (Nick), a trip to the Big W (Wal*Mart's Australian operation!), and shopping at Rundle Mall (a street downtown). Nick continues to believe that the Macomb Wal*Mart is the best store on this planet for buying every day functional items.
- Wine tasting at McLaren Vale
- Driving around Adelaide and hanging out in Hyde Park, the Mack's neighborhood. Both are fantastically livable.
- Several very nice dinners, prepared by Mi, the master chef, with help from Steve; and at the Indian restaurant named best in Australia. Oh and I think we had some wine.

Thursday, March 24, 2005 - Friday, March 25, 2005
Driving a rental car from Adelaide to Brisbane (11 days/10 nights)
One night in Melbourne at the Comfort Inn & Suites Flagstaff City

Melbourne, Victoria
Population 3.6 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 70/55
Melbourne is the capital and largest city in the state of Victoria. Melbourne is Australia's second largest city, behind Sydney. In the 19th Century, Melbourne was larger than Sydney was and it remained the more prestigious place until the 1960s when Sydney began to surpass it. Melbourne hosted the 1956 Summer Olympics. Melbourne is okay, but Sydney blows it away as a world-class city in our opinion.

Melbourne Activities:
- Watching opening night Australian Rules Football match on TV, Brisbane Lions beating St. Kilda Saints in a real ripper of a contest
- Lonely Planet self-guided walking tour of downtown area
- Driving around city and suburbs: St. Kilda, Collingwood, Fitzroy, Carlton

We were in Melbourne on Good Friday, a national holiday, so it was like being in Chicago on Thanksgiving Day. Most things were closed.

Friday, March 25, 2005 - Sunday, March 27, 2005
Two nights in Canberra, one night at the Chifley Hotel, and one night at the Saville Hotel

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Population 324,000
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/55
Canberra is Australia's capital. It is a planned city, created from scratch, just like Washington, DC and Brasilia, Brazil. It is not located in any state; rather it is in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), conceptually similar to the District of Columbia (DC). Canberra is less than 100 years old, and really has only become a city over the last three or four decades.

Although it was a four-day weekend, everything in Canberra was open. Canberra has a reputation as a boring place because it does not have the café culture of cosmopolitan Sydney and Melbourne. But as a capital it works--its museums are high quality and it has a spacious open feel with lots of parks and a big lake in the city center. It's similar to Brasilia in this regard, although it was built over decades, not in four years like the Brazilian capital.

Canberra Activities:
National Museum of Australia
Parliament House
National Archives
War Memorial Museum
There are other museums we did not get to. You can spend a half-day each at the National Museum, Parliament, and the War Memorial Museum. All are good.

Sunday, March 27, 2005 - Friday, April 1, 2005
Five nights in Sydney at our friend's house, the Strongs. Deanna met Dana in high school through a mutual friend, Stacy (Berger) Seibrecht. Dana and her husband Mark work in Sydney. They just bought a house that we stayed at--it is empty pending renovations. They are still living in the house they rent, so we had the place all to ourselves, a nice change after months in hotels.

Sydney, New South Wales
Population: 4.23 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/55
Sydney is the capital and largest city in the state of New South Wales. It is Australia's largest and best city, but it is not the country's capital as many people assume.
Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics

Sydney Activities:
- Harbor ferry (see Image Gallery)
- Obtain Chinese visas
- Receive final shot of hepatitis immunizations we began in Chicago. Obtaining malaria pills for Cambodia and India
- Museum of Sydney
- Opera at Sydney Opera House (Fledermaus)
- Architecture walking tour
- Walking around Sydney, something you could spend several days doing
- Royal Botanic Gardens
- Lawn bowling (see Image Gallery)
- Several dinners with Dana and Mark (see Image Gallery)

Friday, April 1, 2005 - Sunday, April 3, 2005
One night in Grafton, New South Wales at the Best Western. There is no reason to go to Grafton; it is just on the road from Sydney to Brisbane, where we stopped when we were tired.
One night in Brisbane at the Chifley Hotel on George

Brisbane, Queensland
Population: 1.77 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 75/60
Brisbane is the capital and largest city in the state of Queensland. It is the third largest city in Australia. Queensland is the Florida of Australia, where everyone goes for a beach vacation. The area from Brisbane south to the border with New South Wales is known as the Gold Coast. Surfer's Paradise, about an hour south of Brisbane, is the heart of the Gold Coast with rows of high-rise condos along the beach. It's reminiscent of Waikiki in Honolulu, and similar to Waikiki, it's better than its reputation, which for inexplicable reasons is not that good. We spent most of the day in Surfer's Paradise and concluded that if you do not like it, you won't like much of anything. North of Brisbane is the quieter Sunshine Coast, where we did not go unfortunately, as we ran out of time.

Activities driving from Sydney to Brisbane:
- Billabong Wildlife Park (kangaroo and wallaby feeding and koala patting, see Image Gallery)
- Hanging out / walking on beach in Surfer's Paradise

Sunday, April 3, 2005 - Wednesday, April 6, 2005
Fly from Brisbane to Cairns
Three nights at the Rydges Hotel

Cairns, Queensland
Population: 99,000 according to Lonely Planet
Temperature high/low during our stay: 90/65
Cairns is the main departure point for snorkeling and scuba diving trips to the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns Activities:
- Scuba diving on Great Barrier Reef
- Watching the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship. Nick had to search for over one hour for the elusive needle in the haystack--the one bar in town that a) had ESPN International and b) was open at 11 AM Tuesday, April 5 to be able to watch the game live. A lively crowd of five Americans (including us and one other Chicagoan, a Cubs fan, but otherwise a good guy) watched the Illini's sad shooting performance as the dream season ended in a 75-70 loss to North Carolina.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 - Friday, April 8, 2005
Fly from Cairns to Yulara (Ayer's Rock)
Two nights at the Outback Pioneer Hotel

Yulara, Northern Territory
Population: a thousand or so employee residents and a few thousand tourists
Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/60
Ayer's Rock is the big red rock in the middle of desert that it Australia's most recognizable outdoor icon. The native Aborigine name for Ayer's Rock is Uluru, not to be confused with the nearby tourist village name of Yulara. So stay in Yulara to see Uluru. Uluru and Ayer's Rock are two names for the same place. If flying in, your airline ticket will read Ayer's Rock, but the airport is much closer to Yulara than Uluru. Got it? Some people don't stay in Yulara at all, instead visiting Uluru from bustling Alice Springs, a close-by metropolis of 25,000 people that is a mere four hours away (there is no closer "city"). Surprisingly, some people found this excursion tedious, so the tourist village of Yulara was created about 20 years ago. Yulara essentially is a half-dozen hotels, a campground, a grocery store, and the last gas station for over 500 miles (no kidding, so Image Gallery).

Yulara Activities:
- Two trips to Uluru (naturally!), to hike around it and to watch the sun set on it
- Hiking around Kata Tjuta/The Olgas. The Olgas are another rock formation about 30 miles away from Ayer's Rock. The Olgas are made up of several rocks instead of one big rock, and are as visually spectacular as Ayer's Rock. If you have traveled multiple hours to see Ayer's Rock (and there is no way to see Ayer's Rock without traveling multiple hours--it's not on the way to anything else), you definitely should see The Olgas as well. Like Ayer's Rock, The Olgas have two names for the same place. The Olgas is the English name and Kata Tjuta is the Aborigine name.
- Observatory Star Show. There's virtually no competing lights for hundreds of miles, so the stars at night are spectacular. It is most likely the clearest view of the stars you will ever see. Also, there are maybe 40% more stars in the Southern Hemisphere sky versus the Northern Hemisphere. So don't just look at the rock in the day, look at the sky at night!

A few points for future travelers. First, if you are pressed for time, you can see both Ayer's Rock and The Olgas in one day if your flights are timed right, with your departing flight leaving at least 24 hours after your arriving flight. You will probably arrive and depart mid-day, so immediately after checking in to your hotel, head out to hike one of the two sites, doing the other in early in the morning. You will have time to do another activity at night, such as the Sky Show or dining under the stars, since you cannot visit the rocks at night. It will be a bit rushed, but it's doable. We took two days, which was fine, but there was some downtime as there simply is not much to do other than visit the rocks. Second, rent a car. You can get by without one as there are tours to the sites, but it's probably cheaper to rent a car if you are doing both sites or multiple trips, plus you will have control of your time. You can rent either at the airport or at the village. There's a free shuttle between the airport and the village. Book ahead for best rates as there are only so many cars in this isolated area. Third, buy one of those silly-looking fly net hats in Yulara or at the Uluru visitor's center. You'll look stupid (see Image Gallery) but the flies are likely unlike anything you've ever encountered. Sorry Grandma Mason, even years of living on the farm will not prepare you for the flies at Ayer's Rock. Without a fly net, there is not a single moment over multiple hours that you will not be swatting flies. They land on your ears, face, lips, and any other place you do not want them. People without fly nets have to use their hands in a sort of human windshield-wiper motion known as the Outback wave. Finally, be prepared that everything is expensive when you are in the middle of nowhere. The nicest hotels are $300-$500 per night. We paid $150 for a decent room, but with a common bathroom. You can probably get a private bath for under $200, if you book ahead at least a few weeks ahead, which we did not and so they were all sold out. At times, the entire village sells out, which means you'll be driving four hours to Alice Springs to find the next closest room if you did not make an advance reservation!

Friday, April 8, 2005 - Sunday, April 10, 2005
Fly from Ayer's Rock to Perth
Two nights at the Rydges Hotel

Perth, Western Australia
Population: 1.46 million
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/55
Perth is the capital and largest city in the state of Western Australia. It is the fourth largest city in Australia.

Lonely Planet self-guided walk of downtown area
Dinner and walking around in Fremantle, a suburb on the coast
Western Australia Museum
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Australian Rules Football at the Subiaco Oval: West Coast Eagles 88 Fremantle Dockers 80.

In the early 1980s, ESPN in the US would show replays of Australian Rules Football games. Nick and all his 16-year old friends were captivated by this sport of organized chaos, where there seemed to be no rules against physically attacking your opponent. Australian Rules is a combination of rugby, soccer, and Gaelic football, played on an oval field (a cricket ground) with a total area about three times the size of an American football field. Instead of the helmet and full pads of American football, players wear sleeveless shirts and short tight shorts. In other words, no pads whatsoever. It's a fantastic game, perhaps not quite as violent as it was two decades ago, but faster, better played, and just as exciting. There is as much history to the game as American baseball--most of the teams date back to the 19th Century. The Grand Final, played each September in Melbourne, draws 90,000 people and is the biggest sporting event in the country. Sadly, though, one of the game's great traditions has ended in the last two years. The goal judges no longer wear bowler hats and white sports coats. Now they are simply decked out in athletic warm-up pullovers. Fortunately, though, they still wave white flags and give the gunslinger salute to signify each goal. Kurt Jefferson would be proud.

We attended a West Coast versus Fremantle match between two Perth-based rivals. The crowd of 42,000 fans was split between the two teams, and while the fans were loud and passionate, the atmosphere was somewhat more civilized (fewer obnoxious fans) than what you might hear at a Cubs/White Sox game. Australians just might be the nicest, most polite people in the world. The whole country is full of people you would otherwise meet in the American Midwest.

Sunday, April 10, 2005 - Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Fly from Perth to Adelaide
Two nights at our friend's house, the Macks
Temperature high/low during our stay: 80/55

Adelaide Activities:
Migration Museum (small, but excellent)
Art Gallery of South Australia

Tuesday, April 12, 2005 - Thursday, April 14, 2005
Fly from Adelaide to Darwin
One night at the Quality Hotel Frontier
Drive rental car to Katherine, population 8,000
One night at Simone and Bob Pritchard's house, who we met climbing Huayna Picchu, the mountain overlooking Machu Picchu, in February.
Drive rental car back to Darwin for flight to Bali, Indonesia

Darwin, Northern Territories
Population: 110,000
Temperature high/low during our stay: 95/75
Darwin is the capital and largest city of the Northern Territories. The Northern Territories are not a state. A statehood ballot was defeated by the citizens of the territory several years ago, and whether to pursue statehood remains a much-debated issue.

Darwin-area Activities:
Museum & Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, good exhibit highlighting Cyclone Tracy
Fannie Bay Gaol (Jail) Museum (skip)
Military Museum, highlights Darwin bombing during World War II
Litchfield National Park to see the magnetic terminals mounds (see Image Gallery)
Watching Star Trek Deep Space 9 videos at Simone and Bob Pritchard's, Bob having every episode of the original series, Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager on tape
Hiking Katherine Gorge

If any city could be named Phoenix, it is Darwin. The city has risen from its own ashes twice in the past 65 years. In February 1942, Japan bombed the city, killing nearly 300 people, including many US servicemen. The city suffered 60 more bomb attacks in 1942 and 1943, none as devastating as the first day. On Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy damaged 90% of cities' homes. In one suburb, 97% of the homes were destroyed. Immediately afterward, 3/4 of the population was evacuated, mainly via airlift. Within 10 years though, Darwin's population exceeded its pre-cyclone level, and it has doubled since then. The city is much closer to Indonesia than the east coast cities of Australia, making it a gateway to southeast Asia. It is hot and humid year round, like a central Florida summertime.

Send feedback • Permalink

05:14:04 am Australian Notes  

A great book on Australia from an American perspective is Bill Bryson's travelogue that came out in 2000. The copy we have is titled "In a Sunburned Country," but it appears to be named, "Down Under," outside of Australia. If ever you travel to Australia, you should buy the book and read it before or during your trip. It's the kind of book we would like to write if someone we paying us to do so. That our web postings are not the equal of Mr. Bryson's writing caliber are entirely due to our receiving no compensation, and thus our patience, desire, and energy to write as insightfully and humorously as he is not being properly stimulated. That and we don't have a Dartmouth professor back home at our disposal to keep us from making statistical and factual blunders!

Having read Bryson's highly entertaining account of his Australian travels makes it seem a bit plagiaristic for us to write about our Australia trip. Read his book. There's no place we've gone that he has not been and our experiences are similar, albeit less colorful at times. We draw the same conclusions; largely that Australia is a wonderful country that most people know far too little about. The people are friendly, the weather is generally fantastic (it never even snows in any of the major cities to our knowledge), albeit very hot and arid at times, and the cities are modern, efficient, and inviting. Other than possibly the most annoying flies on this Earth, there is little for a tourist to complain about.

The country is bigger than you can imagine, and more empty than you would think possible. Picture a country about the size of the US (but again where the weather is much better!). If Australia was superimposed on the US, imagine the largest city is around where Washington D.C. is. That's Sydney, population 4.2 million. Put the capital around where Atlanta is. That's Canberra, population above 300,000. Place Melbourne, population 3.6 million near Tampa. Let's incorporate Cuba into the US and call it Tasmania, population 500,000. Adelaide, population 1.1 million, is around New Orleans. Put Brisbane, population 1.8 million, around Boston. And finally add Perth, at 1.5 million, the largest city on the west coast, where Los Angeles is. That's about it. We just discussed 2/3 of the population and all of the big cities. There's no other city much larger than Peoria. In the entire country. Nothing from Boston to Los Angeles, across the entire country. There is a big rock, though, about where Abilene, Kansas would be, and a lot of people visit it.

We will spend 3 1/2 weeks in Australia, visiting all states and capitals, other than Tasmania. But if anything, that's too rushed to try and see it all. We could have easily have spent five weeks. It's great. You should come.

What follows are some random comments during our time here. These are not comprehensive, and may not provide even an accurate impression of the country as a whole. There's just things that we took note, of or amused us, or that we felt like writing about.

- Australian society strikes a balance between being paternalistic and permissive at the same time in ways that seem odd. For example, prostitution is legal and nude sunbathing is present, but hard-core pornography is banned. Australians prefer participatory sports to spectator sports apparently. Pornography is legal in the Australian Capital Territory (equivalent to Washington DC), however. The US Congress is not the only legislative body prone to exempting themselves from the laws they pass.

- Road signs are extremely paternalistic. Think Singapore. On the east coast, you can't drive more than a few miles without being reminded that "Drowsy Drivers Die" or "A micro nap can kill in seconds." You are forever encouraged to "Rest, Revive, Survive."

- When Nick was here in 1990, there was a government campaign to reduce drunk driving, or drink driving as it is known here. That's probably a more accurate descriptor, as the Blood Alcohol Content limit is now only .05, hardly a state where you would be drunk. Anyway, in 1990, billboards all over the country would state "You Drink, You Drive, You Die. Bloody Idiot." The short version was "Drink, Drive, Bloody Idiot." Ads here are to the point. No messing around with diplomatic language. Now there's a big campaign to reduce speed, "Take Off 5." One public service ad shows a speeding driver hitting a baby carriage, and then shows a close up of blood all over the baby. Australians don't leave much to the imagination with their words or their visuals. Their isolation, it seems, results in a certain earthiness, both refreshing and surprising.

- For such an empty country, speeds limits and actual driving speeds are surprisingly low. Motorists in the UK may zip around their motorways at 90-100 miles per hour, but in Australia, you'll go either 100 or 110 KPH (61 or 67 MPH) thank you. There are areas with no speed limit, such as the Northern Territory (think Wyoming, but 10 times bigger with fewer people), but most of the country speed limits are not only low, but rigorously enforced. You'll encounter speed cameras at least once per hour and you will get a fine in the mail if you are going too fast.

- The roads are good, but probably not what you would expect. In many places, the motorways are just like US interstates, but outside of the cities, the main road will no longer be limited access and is often only two lanes. So using the visual map we provided above, imagine that portions of road from Boston to Washington D.C. to Atlanta to Tampa to New Orleans is only two lanes. It's not all that bad, though, because there is not that much traffic anyway.

- Considering that 1) there is no complete 4-lane, limited access motorway between any two capital cities and 2) the government has a budget surplus; we'd say they probably ought to step up road infrastructure spending. We think this would facilitate commerce and economic growth.

- Quick what two countries suffered the greatest number of casualties per capita in World War I? Germany? Austria-Hungary? Serbia? Turkey? France? Great Britain? Why no, it is New Zealand and Australia, perhaps the two countries furthest from the fighting. World War I was a nation-defining shared experience for these two newly independent countries (Australia, 1901, New Zealand, 1907) who dutifully followed former colonial master Britain into the war. Anzac Day (Anzac stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corp) is a national holiday on April 25 in both countries, commemorating the disaster battle at Gallipoli, Turkey, where each country suffered thousands of casualties.

- Australia is about as reliable a wartime ally as the UK or US could ever hope for. They entered both world wars at the same time as the UK, even though they were not directly affected at the time. Earlier they provided troops for Britain in the Sudan in the 1880s, and the Boer War in South Africa and the Boxer Rebellion in China, both around the turn of the 20th Century. They fought along side the US in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Iraq in the first Persian War, and most recently in Iraq. Also after World War II, they fought communist insurgencies successfully in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. Throughout the 90s, Australia has been involved in UN peacekeeping operations throughout the world. Most Americans are not fully aware of the loyalty Australia shows us in return for the US helping defend Australia from Japanese attack in World War II. Americans are aware of our tight bond with the UK, but we overlook Australia unnecessarily. They are every bit as worthy an ally as the UK, and frankly they have stuck with us far more often than Canada, New Zealand, or other English-speaking countries.

- On our drive from Sydney to Brisbane, we came across a radio station counting down the top three songs from April 1984. Why, we don't know (sometimes things here can be a bit behind), but it seemed to us a great thing to do. Nick's first guess as to what may be at the top of the list 20 years ago in a foreign land was "Footloose," which actually placed at #2. Upset that he had not guessed the #3 song (Wouldn't It Be Good by Nick Kershaw, apparently a bit more popular Down Under than it was in the States), Nick rattled off about 20 more guesses as to what the top song might be. His last guess, a one-hit wonder sung in German by Nena, 99 Luftballoons, was shouted out moments before the playing of the #1 song. This guess was, in fact, correct. There was a self-congratulatory scene of bedlam in the car, and then we continued up Highway 1 toward Queensland.

And now for a contest. We'll award a "Does anyone actually read this stuff" no*prize to the first person who can correctly identify what post previously mentioned 99 Luftballoons?

- Like those in many countries, Australian cities have a bit too much graffiti for our taste, although nowhere near as bad as South America. However, we must compliment the Aussies for their public toilets, always extremely clean, readily available, and accessible to anyone. What causes one country (the US) to have relatively less graffiti, but dirty, unplentiful, and inaccessible (customers only) toilets, and another (Australia) to have the reverse? Why do Australian graffiti criminals operate in public spaces, but never in bathrooms? What laws, actual or unwritten, governs the cleanliness of Aussie public toilets? And, given a choice, which society would you prefer?

- If Australia's land mass is the same size as the US, if they are developed, English speaking, and resource rich, and if they are 125 years younger as a country than the US, could Australia ascend to world power status at some distant point in the future? Today, their population at only 20 million makes their total economy far too small for superpower consideration. Environmentalists would argue that Australia's growth will be constrained by the inhospitable land. You just can't live without a great deal of difficulty in most of Australia. There is a reason everyone lives on the coasts, most of the interior is too barren. This is quite different from the US Midwest, South, Great Plains, and Rocky Mountain states. So, no, Australia cannot be a superpower, this thinking goes. While in Australia, we read two analyses of what the sustainable level of population is for the country. One environmentalist put it at 40 million, another at only 8 million! While we find that latter estimate preposterous (apparently everyone other than those living in Sydney and Melbourne need to return to their ancestral home), we do think the larger point that the barren land could limit growth is valid. Still we would not rule the Aussies out completely. After all, if you can build one of the glitziest cities in the world in an inland desert (Las Vegas), there is a lot that time, technology, and economic growth can overcome.

- Australia reformed its economy, beginning in the 1980s, eliminating its fixed exchange rate, currency controls, and privatizing and deregulating businesses. But there are many leftover welfare state anachronisms that remain, probably too many considering that they have had 14 consecutive years of economic growth. Unlike the US, there was no recession here in 2001. It's as if the boom-boom 90s never ended. But then, there never was as much boom-boom (and silly excess) here as in the US. In contrast, the early 1990s recession here was much tougher in the US, with unemployment hitting post-Depression highs. Australia's early 90s recession was much like the US recession in 1981-1982, in that regard. But since the early 90s recession ended, Australia has had consistent growth. It seems this prosperity may have caused some complacency, with further needed reforms put off. For example, the top tax rate is a backbreaking 47% and it kicks in at just over US$60,000. Now that growth is slowing (GDP was up only 1.5% in 2004, including a flattish 0.1% in 4Q04), there is some talk in the press at cutting taxes, funded by eliminating some of the many income exclusions present (many people receive a company car as an untaxed perk).

- Australia's current economic situation is similar to that of New Zealand, which we described at length in our New Zealand posts. Interest rates are high here (the Australian Reserve Bank rate is 5.50%, compared to 6.75% in New Zealand, but only 2.75% in the US and 2.0% in the Euro zone). The Australian Reserve Bank raised rates by a quarter-point in March (causing a record drop in consumer confidence), but held steady in April. Further rate rises are viewed as a 50/50 proposition. Rising inflation of around 3% is the concern, just as in New Zealand, the US, and much of the world. Unemployment is low at 5.1%, and employee shortages, and more generally supply shortages, are pushing prices up. Workforce participation is at an all-time high at 64%, but still at a level below some developed countries that have rates in the high 60s. One problem needing reform is that effective marginal tax rates for people to enter the workforce from welfare or to re-enter from early retirement are far too high, so many people that could work, do not. Factoring in a loss of welfare or retirement benefits with the actual tax rates on income, means that some welfare recipients or retirees would lose over 70% of the first dollar they earned should they work. Until that is fixed, it will be difficult to increase workforce participation rates, and the resulting labor shortage will pressure prices.

- The Australian stock market hit an all-time high around the time we entered the country. For many of the same reasons that we predicted on March 11 that New Zealand's market would be an underperforming investment over the next year or two, we think Australia's stock market may have a tough time going forward. We aren't as negative on it as we are New Zealand, although we wonder if this just reflects our not having spent as much time thinking about Australia's equity market as we did New Zealand's. (We spent more time in Australia with friends and watching Australian Rules Football, compared to our time in New Zealand spent reading the financial pages.)

Similar to New Zealand, Australia's main negative is high (and possibly rising further) interest rates, which make fixed income markets relatively more attractive and stock markets relative less attractive. We saw three-year investment company instruments advertised with a yield of nearly 10%, although we acknowledge we are not familiar enough with the market to know what, if any, level of risk these instruments carry. The second risk is that of slowing economic growth, which considering that Q4 growth was only 0.1% in Australia is a polite way of saying recession. There is surprisingly little worry about recession considered the Q4 result--we are not sure if that's because everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room, or if there is enough other data to suggest that the Q4 result is an aberration. We actually suspect it's the latter, as it does not feel like there is a recession at hand. Having said that, we trust numbers over gut feelings, and we're keen to see the Q1 GDP report out in a few weeks. Moreover, in a rising rate environment, there is always risk of recession down the road. We conclude that Australia has a significant, and above-normal, risk of recession occurring in 2005 or 2006. The third risk for Australia is that of falling housing prices, which is happening in Sydney, and if this continues or spreads, could itself lead to a consumer recession. See our March 21 post for discussion of housing price levels worldwide and in Australia.

The biggest factor in Australia's favor is that it is a resource-based economy, so while rising commodity prices are bad for keeping inflation down, they are good for Australia's economy and corporate earnings as a whole. Also, Australia's equity markets sport a relatively high dividend yield of 3.66% (the US is around 2% or less; New Zealand at 4.5% is one of the few developed markets that is higher than Australia), which should help total stock market returns. Finally, there's the Australian dollar. On the negative side, it is above its traditional level and it is likely too high on a purchasing power basis, although not as extended as the New Zealand dollar. On the positive side, strong commodity prices will keep funds flowing toward Australia, supporting the Aussie dollar.

Send feedback • Permalink

April 05, 2005

08:05:39 am Mailbag  

April 5, 2005

It's been a while since we have blogged, as our Australian schedule to date has been quite busy. Our writing absence has led to a long queue of unanswered reader questions, which we will begin to answer here.

First, we have a submission from a rather litigious fellow by the name of Ed Mason of Oak Park, Illinois, who accuses us of promoting "bad science" with regard to the Coriolis Effect, otherwise known as the direction that water swirls when draining from a sink, tub, or toilet. In a prior post, responding to a question from a curious Mr. Darius Vaskelis, we had reported seeing with our very own eyes a demonstration of the Coriolis Effect on the Equator where water drained clockwise, counter-clockwise, and straight down depending on whether the tub was in the Southern Hemisphere, Northern Hemisphere, or on the Equator, respectively. While what we saw in Ecuador was quite convincing, apparently, we've been had, and the Coriolis Effect--while valid--is too miniscule to have produced the appropriate swirls according to http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html . Imagine--a site devoted to the way that water drains out of your toilet! As this site details, the gimmick of producing different swirling effects is produced by the manner in which the tub is filled. We're about 75% convinced the site is right and what we saw was wrong, although we must say that if it was a gimmick, they certainly did a great job, especially on the difficult-to-pull-off straight-down draining maneuver. We'd like to see this again. So science has triumphed over an urban legend, although we must say we preferred to think that Australian and Americans really do have opposite draining toilets. So thanks Ed, for correcting us and spoiling our fun!

Next, we have a breathless submission from the well-traveled John Krotzer of Shanghai, China, who confessed to us: "I was in Australia on business last week. I ate at a restaurant in Sydney, which was awesome. I am not [pulling your leg]--I sat right next to Nicole Kidman. We were back to back, and the only seat in the house better than hers was ours. [It's] wedged between the Opera House and the Bridge (whatever it is called)." The world famous bridge John refers to goes by the difficult-to-remember name of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and there are several shots of it in our Image Gallery. Now, one of the many things Australia excels at is producing gossipy magazines. Nicole was on the cover of most of them as we arrived in Australia, and wouldn't you know that they all seemed to be reporting on a certain harbor front dinner that she and her potential finance Bing had with her parents purportedly to announce their engagement. Surprisingly, though, there was no mention of Mr. Krotzer in any of these articles. Further, while the paparazzi pictures of her dinner showed many other diners at nearby tables, none of them resembled Mr. Krotzer (all of the men had too much hair for it to be John). Therefore, we are left to conclude that perhaps Mr. Krotzer has a vivid imagination and secret Nicole Kidman fantasy. We plan to confront him with our glossy magazine evidence in China next month. Meanwhile, you can view a picture of our dinner with our Sydney hosts, Dana and Mark Strong, at one of Nicole's favorite restaurants, in the Image Gallery. Nicole was not present that night, neither in the restaurant, nor in our imagination.

The erudite John Stierman of Macomb, Illinois, who in addition to teaching US History, also is Nick's mom's neighbor, commented on our post summarizing South America. Our post, among other things, asserted that we in the US were fortunate to have been colonized by the English, for they were better colonists than the Spanish were, in our opinion. John commented, "I agree that England was better at colonization, but I would say that England's success began at home. England began colonization a century later, but continued to grow into the greatest power on earth. Spain squandered its colonial riches and continued to decline as Great Britain grew. I like the mother/child analogy that many historians use to describe the colonial experience. We were simply lucky to have been colonized by a nation that was on the cutting edge of many modern ideas: capitalism, democracy, and industrialization. Spain never got with the program." Well said John--you made our point better than we did.

Moving on to less academic subjects, Dr. Stacy Carlson of Tampa, Deanna's maid of honor, inquires, "Are Australian men as cute as I remember?" Deanna's research concludes that the men of Australia all resemble Russell Crowe. As do some of the women.

Dan Gathof of Glen Ellyn, Illinois wrote in to contrast cricket with NASCAR. This came after we were shall we say less than enthusiastic in our response to an e-mail he sent us describing some NASCAR race where a guy named Carl Edwards edged Jimmy Johnson (apparently he's moved beyond coaching football) by a "nanosecond" to win. Apparently, some people found this race exciting. We replied to Dan that we were trying to learn the rules of cricket, and had bought a book to that end. Dan, who for a while worked in the UK, contrasted the two sports nicely:

- NASCAR has a beginning and an end. A race typically takes three hours. The current cricket match that you are watching on TV started in April of 1986. The match had two brief delays--for the start of the Persian Gulf War (Desert Storm) in 1990 and then again in November 1999 upon announcement of the death of cricket legend Malcolm Marshal. (Note: while all cricket members paid tribute, some circles believed that Malcolm's fame was due, in part, to doping.) The current match is scheduled to end in early '07.
- A cricket player may go an entire day before getting an out. A NASCAR driver may die in the first 20 minutes of a race. Added anticipation occurs when a spinning wheel hurls into the crowd.
- Fans at a cricket match wear their Sunday best clothes and are quite behaved. At NASCAR races, it is not uncommon to see fans fornicating on the actual cars before a race.
- Cricket players wear white, boring outfits (typically sweaters in the middle of summer). NASCAR drivers wear colorful onesies with exciting logos all over their body.
- NASCAR is the number one spectator sport in the US. Cricket is, well, it's cricket, cricket, cricket.

Lana Smith of Dade City, Florida wants to know "Why is Australia known for the boomerang and is it still in use today?" Yes, Lana, the boomerang remains heavily in use, although its purpose has shifted over the centuries. Historically, boomerangs were used by Aborigines in hunting, either to conk the prey directly on the head or to scare birds out of the bushes and into a net. Today, boomerangs are widely available in shops that sell T-shirts and postcards. Their main usage is to hang on foreign travelers' walls to announce to their friends, "Hey, I've been to Australia!" There are actually two types of boomerangs, those that return to you and those that do not. While these two types have different purposes for hunting, either looks equally attractive on your wall at home.

Our correspondent Jan Johnson reports that she gets questions about the food in our different locations. Well, Jan, in South America, beef is what's for dinner, but there was enough chicken, seafood, pizza, and pasta that Deanna got by okay. Actually, food there was less of a problem than we expected. South American food does tend to be somewhat bland, and Asian food is not that common, although occasionally present. In New Zealand and Australia, if the city or town we are in is big enough to have it, we generally have either Asian or (non-deep-fried) seafood. Our Asian favorites are Thai, Indian, sushi (Deanna), and those pan-Asian noodle places that combine foods from different countries. Chinese is common, but we prefer the other countries, so we don't have it that often. Plus, we will get all the Chinese we want during our five weeks in China and Hong Kong. In smaller towns, local cuisine is all you get, so let's fire up the deep fryer and see if you can tell what you are eating. The quality of local New Zealand and Australian cuisine ranges from decent to longing for Macomb. We prefer Australian food to New Zealand, although it is often similar. As we drove through remote stretches from Adelaide to Melbourne to Canberra, Nick had a meat pie three days in a row for lunch, it being the best option available. Actually, the chicken and vegetable pie was pretty good, but nonetheless, we did have Thai food once we reached Canberra (no need to make too much of a habit of the meat pie).

Jan also gets an honorable mention no*prize for attempting to answer our question on who were the two Australian Rules Football finalists last year. She guessed Collingwood and Adelaide, both of whom are AFL teams, but neither of which made last year's finals. This question remains unanswered, and we will now lift the prohibition against Australian residents and citizens answering. So send in your responses, and remember the first correct answer wins a priceless no*prize. We have tickets to the Fremantle versus West Coast game next Saturday night and we must say that we are quite excited about this (one of us is anyway).

Tonna Padgett, of New Troy, Michigan, inquires as how people are reacting to news of the pope dying. She reports that in the non-Catholic mecca of Macomb, where she was when the news broke, people seemed more concerned with and interested in the Illini, than talking about the pope. We can report that in all of Australia, there are only five people interested in the Illini, and we watched the NCAA finals mid-day Tuesday (Monday night in the US) with the other three, in the only bar in Cairns showing the game. More about that at a later time. The pope has been the top story in newspapers and on TV here for several days, but no one we've met has mentioned it. Perhaps this is because it was not a surprise or perhaps it just does not affect people personally.

Religions in Australia are about evenly split 25% each between: 1) Anglican (the Church of England established in 1534 when King Henry VIII broke with Rome), 2) Roman Catholic, 3) (non-Anglican) Protestant denominations, and 4) everything else (including Islam and the Asian religions--Buddhism, Hindu, etc.). While the pope has no authority over Anglicans, they are closer in practice to Catholicism than other Protestants are. Easter is a big holiday here (as in New Zealand and the UK), a four-day weekend perhaps similar in importance to Thanksgiving in the US.

There are other unanswered questions, but we are out of time and energy for now. Stay tuned next time for Deanna's packing secrets.

1 feedback • Permalink