China
29/08 -26/09/2006
Kashgar - Lake Karakol - Yarkand - Hotan - Urumqi - Tian Chi -
Turfan - Dunhuang - Jiayuguan - Lanzhou - Xi'an - Chengdu
After 5 hours of waiting on Torugart Pass in no-mans land (our
Chinese transport did not show up) we were preparing for night in
the car on this 3700m pass. We finally made it to the Chinese border
and got a good introduction to China at immigration: 'Ladies and
Gentlemen, we have to wait for a few moments as the army officers
are having dinner'. After dinner, these officers were so tired that
they did not search our bags - fortunately, as we had a Tibet
guidebook with a foreword from the Dalai Lama. The determination to
'tame' and control 'autonomous regions' (invaded by China more or
less recently) is cleary visible, Xinjiang province where we spent
two weeks, belongs historically to Central Asia. The population is
Uighur, Islam is the religion and the language is close to Farsi
with an Arabic script. China's strategy is to outnumber the Uighur
population by introducing more and more Han Chinese (more than 50%
now), attracted by favours offered by the government: tax decrease,
better job offers, no 'one child' policy as in "Han-China", etc.
This strategy aims at a better access to Xinjiang natural ressources
(gas and oil). Uighur and Han Chinese do not mix and do not get
along well at all. All cities and towns have two clearly separated
parts. An Uighur historical part, with mud-brick buildings, wooden
balconies, small lanes, goats, chicken and donkey-carts and a
bustling life on the street and a a modern chinese part with large (and
often empty) streets, fast food restaurants, sopping centers and
concrete buildings. More and more of the historical parts of town
have to give way to new high rise buildings to house the incoming
Han-immigrants. We experienced this "mania" for destroying the 'old'
already in Bejing some years ago: the hutongs (old living quarters)
were bulldozed one after another, inhabitants sent to small
apartments in highrise blocks and the pace of destruction has been accelerating in
view of the 2008 Olympics. We were surprise to see that demolition
and destruction of housing is done by pure muscle work, by workers
with hammers! This preference of manual work might be a relic from
communist times (as is the dislike of 'old' and traditional things).
Very few signs of communism are left as the trend can be described
more as 'ultra-capitalistic': consumption comes first, shopping is
the dearest hobby and praying is often the occasion to ask for a new
TV or a better income. The new and rapidly increasing middle class
like one other thing as much as shopping: travelling. During holiday
season, all tourist spots in China are full with Han Chinese tour
groups taking pictures of themselves (and us!) in front of the
sights. The worst thing for a Chinese is to travel alone as nobody
could take a picture of him. One explanation we found is that the
tour groups have so little time for each sight that they need
pictures to proof that they have been there.
Minorities, like the Uighurs, are regarded as a curiosity themselves
and whole villages are sold to Chinese tourists as 'ethnic folk
parcs'. A huge Mao statue is strategically placed in all cities in
the minority regions (except in Tibet). Many young Han-Chinese do
not seem to be critical towards these policies. First puzzled, we
soon discovered that the reason lies in Chinese TV and newspapers.
News given to the population is so altered and 'propagandized' that
people simply don't (want to?) know the reality. One striking
example is the new train line to Lhasa. Sold as one of the marvels
of transportation in never-ending TV reports, the reality is
completely different: destruction of one of the most fragile
ecosystems in the world and mostly acceleration of the Han-Chinese
immigration to Tibet and destruction of Tibetan culture (through
impoverishment of the local communities). The Dalai Lamai condems
the construction of the railway and encourages to boycott it. All
this is not known by the Chinese population (as well as by many
western travellers) and all the ones we met in Tibet wanted to use
the train; even if they had to pay more for a 48h train ride than
for a 2h flight. More on this in the Tibet chapter......
We enjoyed a lot the Southern Silk Road, where we saw no tourists at
all (not even Chinese tourists). Neither did we meet anybody who
spoke english. We always had the same experience when entering a
hotel lobby: receptionists literally panicking, sometimes running
away or pretending to be busy: they were afraid not to understand
our questions and thus to loose face. We often got a NO as an answer
when the person did not understand the question.
To list few more surprising (more or less charming) discoveries:
- the curiosity...staring at us, laughing at our height or snapping
pictures from us,"the strange tourists"
- the "way of fighting flu": spitting everywhere, even in hotels,
buses or trains
- staff in banks, restaurants or hotels who wear often only numbers
on their tags instead of names
- english video lessons in public city buses
- friendly smiles on streets as soon as we smile or say the 1 or 2
words in Chinese that we know
- hotel carpets cleaned with a broom instead of an
aspirator...they look accordingly
- the sport of "backward walking", mainly practiced by olderly
people in city parks, but we also saw them walking next to the
highway
- smog-covered cities, leaving us without sun (even when shining)
for 10 days
Leaving crazy but fascinating China we will travel further to Tibet,
the Roof of the World.
TIBET26/09 - 12/10/2006
Lhasa - Ganden - Namtso - Samye - Shigatse - Gyantse - Zhangmu
A couple of things stroke us, among others, when we left China for Tibet:
the graceful beauty of the people and their traditional dresses as well as
the deep spirituality of the Tibetans. We soon discovered a main difference
between the Chinese and the Tibetan cultures when travelling on local buses:
the Chinese stop for eating, the Tibetans stop for praying. We got around
mainly in pilgrim buses to remote monasteries, sometimes taking 6h for 150km
as the Tibetans stopped at every main Buddhist monastery to pray and to walk
the kora (religious path with prayer wheels, going clockwise around the
monastery, used to accumulate karma).
Unlike China, where the cultural revolution killed most of the religious ads
spiritual inclinations, Tibet is a very faithful place, although the Red
Guards did their best to destroy both Tibetan culture and religion during
that time. Of the 6000 monasteries, many were completely destroyed in 1959,
religious scripts used as toilet paper and monks forced to marry and to work
in factories.
Ironically enough, most of the destroyed monasteries were classified as
national monuments only a few years later, were then partly rebuilt and
ensure now revenues from Western and Chinese tourists for the Chinese State.
It is a strange sight to see Chinese tour groups running through the
deserted Potala Palace (traditional seat of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan
Government, now in exile in Dharamsala, India), marvelling about the
architecture while completely ignoring the tragedy that happened around
those walls 47 years ago.
A few years ago, the Chinese government forbade any picture of the 14th
Dalai Lama. Still, many Tibetans wear an amulet picture, hidden under their
clothes. We even saw a monk carrying a huge framed picture of the Dalai Lama
in a monastery, using back alleys to hide from the eyes of Chinese.
The Han immigration to Tibet is similar, but even stronger, to what happened
in Xinjiang province, resulting in a clash between two completely different
cultures. The Chinese government is pushing hard to control Tibet through
this strategy, especially as Tibet is very rich in lucrative natural
ressources ....like Xinjiang. Lhasa and other towns are more and more
"Chinese" and Tibetan culture is still not respected. Koras are destroyed
and the proper way of visiting monasteries, always in a clockwise direction,
was voluntarily modified (Chinese tour-groups are often walking
anti-clockwise) in one of the most holy places, the Potala Palace.
Young Tibetans cannot get higher education in Tibetan language, their only
choice is studying in Mandarin (often outside of Tibet), forcing them to
give of part of their Tibetan identity.
We have learnt at our expenses that independent travelling is not welcome at
best - we mainly managed to get around in pilgrim buses, sometimes hidden
among the pilgrims (difficult with our height) as we did not have the
appropriate permit. The "aproved" way to travel for tourists is
unfortunately by hired land cruiser, chartered by most "independent"
tourists, who storm through Tibet this way, leaving little time to explore,
leave alone to interact and meet local people. We crossed through to the
Nepali border on a 14h bus ride, over +5000m mountain passes, and with a
glimpse on majestic Mount Everest en route. The landscape of the border town
Zhangmu already gives a first idea about Nepal's scenery: luxuriant
vegetation, waterfalls and rice paddies, very different from the wonderful
but dry Tibetan high plateau.
We will soon be in Kathmandu, a city that has also become a refugee place
for many of the Tibetan people.
PS: just after we arrived in Nepal, some Tibetans trying to flee to Nepal
were "discovered" by the Chinese army on the high Himalayan mountain passes.
The army shot at them, killing at least one of the refugees.
Nepal
12/10 - 11/11/06
Kathmandu - Annapurna Circuit - Pokhara - Kathmandu Valley - Bhairawa - Lumbini
We had the first "tropical" experience on our trip right after the border,
crossing to Kathmandu: ricefields, waterfalls and mud roads wiped out in many
places by landslides. Then Kathmandu...partly a tourist ghetto full of hotels,
internet cafés and bars, but a fascinating place with great people once you head
into "real" Kathmandu. After a few days of preparations, we headed straight to
the beginning of our trek: 250 km of walk through the stunning Annapurna region,
with the highest pass on the way being the 5416m Thorung La. This trek, as well
as others, is part of the old trade route between Tibet and Nepal. Salt was
exported from Tibet and exchanged with goods from Nepal, transported either on
donkeys or on people´s backs. Those porters had (and still have) one of the
toughest jobs imaginable. Even today, the villages that we crossed are only
reachable on foot, thus transport is assured by donkeys and, cheaper (!), by
porters. We saw one porter carrying a veranda to Muktinath village, a 7-day walk
from the nearest road. Today, many porters convert to the tourism trade,
carrying backpacks for tourists. As the usual weight of the load they carry (potatoes,
rice...or verandas) can be up to 80 kg, a tourist backpack (around 15-30 kg) is
an "easy" charge, (except that tour groups make them carry 2 of them sometimes).
However, it is a strange sight to see tiny Nepali carrying packs, often wearing
only flip-flops and inadequate clothing in snowy areas, and so we decided to
carry our stuff on our own.
Although those old trade routes were already discovered as trekking routes by
some hippies in the 70´s, and many tourists passed through them since (the
Annapurna Circuite is also called the "apple pie trail" because the villagers
cater so well for the trekkers needs), villagers are incredibly friendly. We
often ate with them in their kitchen (the warmest place in the house) and, as
their English is quite good, they could tell us about their daily life. They
live in very harsh conditions, lots of cold days, snow, often without running
water and no medical facilities. The average Nepali life expectancy is a low 61
years, with only 5 doctors per 100.000 inhabitants!
An NGO (Himalayan Rescue Association) opened a medical outpost with volunteer
doctors in Manang village, but this is too far to reach for many other villagers
and is operated only a few months per year.
This fact of missing medical coverage became a sad reality when we witnessed an
accident of two Swiss and 2 Nepali climbers up on Thorung La. All four of them
had broken bones (falling down from a glacier) . We were told by some Nepali
guides that the rescue helicopter was informed and would arrive in a couple of
hours (this was at 11am), so we descended down to the next village, which we
reached by night fall, about 7h later. Still no helicopter in sight.
Some Nepali guides went up to 5400m again to bring food and warm covers for
those who would spend a night below freezing without being able to move. They
stayed the whole night up there with the victims. The helicopter arrived the
next morning, 24h after the accident! Sadly, one Swiss died from his injuries
while waiting for the heli. We heard later that the reason for the delay was a
quarrel between agency and insurance over whom should would pay for the
helicopter costs.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world (GNI is 240$ per person per
year), with 82% of the population living on less than 2$ per day).
The average age is 20 years and literacy rate only 63%. Especially in rural
areas, arranged marriages are still common. Tourism is an important income
factor but with the political unrests and the maoists insurgency in 1996 came a
dramatical drop in tourism that is still clearly visible. Maoists still dominate
whole areas in Nepal. We met them at the beginning of the trek where they ask
for a "donation" to their cause, whilst for tourists refusing to give money
results being denied access to the trek or even being beaten up. However, once
we paid our donation, we were given a nice receipt, duly signed and stamped.
Quite puzzling for a rebel organisation! In April 2006 King Gyanendra restored
democracy and while we were there, a deal between the government and the Maoists
were signed which recognized and took on board the rebels in Parliament. Those
are good news after the bad news of the last years; among others, the royal
massacre that happened in june 2001 (Prince Dipendra killed 10 members of the
royal family, including his parents, brother & sister, and finally shot himself).
Hopefully, this recent deal will improve the political situation in Nepal.
Culture, nature and tradition changed en route. During our 2 1/2 weeks trek we
passed from Nepali tribes, mainly planting rice and fruits at about 1000m to
villages of Tibetan refugees, above the treeline, on heights similar to those
found back home in Tibet. Religion changed too, with the Nepali mainly being
Hindu (85% of the population) and Tibetan fervent followers of Buddhism. This
peaceful cohabitation of religions is present in the whole country. Often,
Buddhists and Hindus worship in the same temples. We saw Buddhists praying in
Muktinath, one of the most important Hindu holy shrines in Nepal, and Hindus
making a pilgrimage to Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha, close to the Indian
border. One reason is certainly that Nepali are gentle and tolerant people, but
probably also because Hinduism, and especially Buddhism, being very accepting
religions.
We loved this country and we will certainly come back for some more trekking.
It´s time to get ready for India, of which we heard from many travellers that
it´s far from being as easy-going as Nepal. Let´s see for ourselves.
India
11/11 - 29/11/06
Sulawi - Varanasi - Agra - Fatehpur Sikri - Jaipur - Udaipur - Jodhpur -
Jaisalmer - Delhi
And they were right. From the first minute we crossed the border we were not
left alone anymore for the following 3 weeks: Rikshaw drivers, shoe shiners,
vendors of about anything imaginable, beggars....everybody was questioning us,
touching us, shouting at us. It took us some time to build our "inner wall".
This was more difficult than we thought, for us Europeans found it impolite to
ignore questions of the kind "what´s your name, your country, etc".
One reason for this "tourist chasing" might be the number of people having to
fight everyday to survive. But the main explanation is certainly the negative
influence of mass tourism in this area of India. We travelled through the most
heavily touristed region (Varanasi, Agra, Rajasthan). As one fellow traveller
put it: "Rajasthan needs to have a 10 years break from tourism to be back to
it´s natural state". Uncontrolled tourism development since decades pays it´s
toll and makes human interaction between tourists and Indians involved in
tourism industry very difficult.
We found out soon that people not involved in the tourism trade were a lot nicer,
like the people we met on trains or, a most memorable encounter, the aunt of a
good friend that took care of us in Delhi and treated us like her own family,
although we never met her before.
India is an extremely poor country and the number of people without a roof or
enough to eat is shocking. Rajasthan, despite (or because?) it´s developed
tourism industry, is a backward state, with one of the lowest literacy rates in
India ( 64%, and only 45 % for women). Women have a lower status and girls still
happen to "disappear" after birth in the countryside: another mouth to feed and
only of little help on the fields. Parents would have to give an important dot
to the groom´s family, a significant financial burden that many poor parents
need to avoid. In fact, some newly wed wifes have "house accidents" and
disappear so that the man can get newly married and the family thus receives
another dot.
Witch-hunting is still on in remote villages. Women can be accused of witchcraft
if any villager happens to become sick or dies. They consequently risk to be
stoned to death or to be tortured otherwise. All this is actually being debated
in respected Indian newspapers.
Rural life is in strong contrast to urban community lifestyle, where young
people have access to university education, country exchanges (often with
Britain), etc.
The cast system is a special and complex feature of India (to a lesser extend
also practiced in Nepal): It consists of 4 casts, plus the untouchables, who are
doing the lowest tasks of society. People are born into a cast, which is a
destiny and cannot be changed. With foreigners not being "classable" in this
system, some Indians consider them (us) untouchable. For non-Hindus, it is quite
difficult to capture the complexity of cast interaction. One expat told us that
at work the cast has to be considered when hiring staff or when forming work
groups: A lower cast employee cannot be the supervisor of a higher cast one.
Lower cast Indians neither can criticize nor speak against higher cast collegues.
Although this is changing in international companies, it still seems to be very
much part of daily business.
Of course, there were loads of highlights waiting for us in beautiful India:
great diverse (vegetarian) food as well as beautiful colours everywhere: sarongs
and saris are an explosion of different shades and cities of Rajasthan are
renowned for their colours: Jodhpur is the blue city, Udaipur the white one,
Jaipur is pink and Jaisalmer, the desert city, seems to be made of gold under
the setting sun. India is full of a unique kaleidoscope of colours, scents and
sound. And, of course, the streets are full of holy cows, which are, since not
allowed to be removed, the main reason for innumerable traffic jams.
We just visited a tiny part of such a huge country and certainly need to go back
to see other regions and cultures to deepen our understanding. Some say this may
take a life time.
Hong Kong
29 - 30/11
Great to be back in HK, even if it´s just for one night! Just the view of HK
skyline and a Dim Sum breakfast makes it worthwile. Our arrival on HK airport
was a special experience. People asked us if they could help us - we were so
often too solicitated in India that we first ignored them. One pointed us to a
free telephone; something free...that was hard to believe for us, we felt like
in another world!
But one gets used quickly to comfort and "luxury" and when our 24h in this great
city were over, we would have liked to stayed more. At the same time, we are
impatient to get to know the Philippines, a country that we heard many good
things about from an American friend of Filipino origin.
The Philippines
30/11 - 19/12/06
Manila - Puerto Princesa - Sabang - Port Barton - El Nido - Coron
When we arrived from Asia mainland, we were impatient to see the sea, from which
we were quite far during our 6 months on the silkroad. We would spend the next 3
weeks near (or in) the water; being woken up by the waves in the morning and
spending the day swimming, diving, snorkelling or boating around the islands. We
stayed in one of the less visited parts of the Philippines, in Palawan
Archipelago, which experienced a backdrop in tourism after some foreigners were
kidnapped near Puerto Princesa some years ago.
The Philippines are an incredibly beautiful place - over 7000 islands,
rainforest, volcanoes and, above all, wonderful people. Despite the violent
history of this young country - they were invaded by the Spanish, Japanese and
the Americans and, since independence in 1946, experienced corrupt presidents
and a long period of martial law - Filipinos are very friendly and curious about
other cultures and countries. The Philippines have one of the highest literacy
rate in the world and more than 90% of the population speaks English fluently as
a second language, making it the "biggest" English-speaking country in Asia.
Even small kids in hidden fishing villages could discuss with us and the primary
schools we visited all did their lessons in English. We were asked the same
questions like in India, but here they were out of curiosity and we spent
sometimes hours talking to people in the villages.
Filipinos are very religious, about 90% of the population is Christian. It was
interesting to see the different types of Christmas preparations. In Manila, a
city full of American-style shopping malls, we heard Christmas songs about
everywhere, and the general hype, was about buying the biggest presents and
preparing the best turkey. In the villages it was different. Nearly every small
town or village had a life-size "creche", handmade by the villagers, often by
the schoolkids, with the bed of Jesus child empty and Maria being pregnant with
a big belly. Of course, "the baby Jesus would only be delivered on Christmas day",
the kids told us.
We spent a long time in El Nido, a quiet and beautiful fishing village in the
northern tip of Palawan, surrounded by innumerable small islands. Here is where
we learnt to dive (the waters are clear and full of wonderful tropical fishes)
and here is also where we experienced our first typhoon. All day the wind got
stronger, the sky greyer and the waves grew bigger when we went to bed. The next
morning we woke up to find chaos in the street: Boats broken or sunken, houses
next to the beach damaged, and our neighbours, an Australian family, speachless
that we did not wake up that night. The waves had reached our doorsteps at night
and they were all up and ready for evacuation...but we just slept. The
Philippines are often hit by typhoons, often leaving people homeless or worse,
but this time fortunately only material damage happened in El Nido.
Transport is a funny thing in the Philippines. One needs lots of time,
especially for travelling in between islands by boat. Most of the connecting
ferries leave just once a week and are often delayed. The most remarkable ferry
we took was the one from El Nido to Coron: A cargo night ferry, transporting
water buffalos and pigs on the lower level and "sardines" (passengers - one next
to another) on the upper deck. At 6 am in the morning we were waken up by a full
blast of Boney M. "Feliz Navidad". On the islands, the most common transport is
the jeepney, a mix of jeep and bus, colourfully painted and, mostly, very old
and very very slow, always packed with chicken, bags of rice and passengers
hanging outside the back windows. In one village we were told that only one of
the two village-based jeepneys was running because the second jeepney had flat
tires since months and the owner could not afford to buy new ones.
It was difficult for us to leave this wonderful, easy-going country...and to
leave Asia after 7 months on this fascinating continent. Our next stop will be
the Pacific.
Australia
20/12/06 - 12/01/07
Sydney - South Coast - Melbourne - Tasmania
After 7 months in Asia we arrived in Australia, the country of "Down Under". We
landed in Sydney just before Christmas: a great city, with a stunning opera
house and wonderful harbour, very organized and clean, everything is easy and
straightforward...but with so little surprises! After a couple of days in
Australia, we are missing Asia´s fantastic chaos already.
We made some nice encounters in Sydney, the city is full of immigrants from all
over the world. Australians are generally very friendly and helpful, apart from
some notable exceptions: A guy shouting at Susanne "go back to Sweden" (Blonde +
"strange" language = Swedish) and a bus driver that decided to call Rabih
"Hassan" instead (Lebanon = Muslims, Muslims = Hassan). Quite surprising to hear
such comments in a multicultural society.
We expected to find the Australian "prototype" sporty, slim and suntanned, but
even on Sydney's famous Bondi Beach people looked more like what we have read in
some statistics: up to 60% of the population is apparently overweighted.
We felt sometimes cut from the "other side" of the world as local newspapers are
dominated by national events and only very little space is left for
international news.
After Christmas we hit the road along the south coast towards Melbourne. This is
where we appreciated Australia´s main treasure: it´s natural beauty. We walked
along some of the world´s whitest beaches or hiked through rainforest and across
dry bushland with "weird" plants. Camping was great, except from a nightly
possum - a small aggressive marsupial - attacking our tent (it was keen on the
banana that we left inside). We prefered another, more polite, visitor to our
camping sites: the kangaroos. Often whole kangaroo families were coming around
to look for food.
After a short stop in Melbourne (another great, multicultural city with amazing
New Year fireworks), the nature superlatives continued in Tasmania.
During our stay, we did not meet any Aboriginal people. Most of the aboriginals
were slaughtered by the early European settlers or died from "imported" European
diseases. Today, only 2% of the population is of Aboriginal origin living mainly
in the Northern Territories and are often confined to "reserves". Unfortunately,
not much is left of Aboriginal heritage and culture.
We will soon be heading to New Zealand, another country reputed for it´s natural
beauty.
12/01 - 28/01/07
Arthur Pass - Franz & Fox Glaciers - Mt Aspiring NP - Queenstown - Te Anau -
Milford - Manapouri - Aoraki (Mt Cook) NP - Christchurch
In the first 24 hours after our arrival we experienced the full extent of NZ
weather "caprices": blue sky, pouring rain, burning sun and freezing cold.
We will have this weather pattern accompanying us for the next 2 weeks....but
as one NZ lady rightly put it: "We need all that rain to keep the country
green".
Soon we discovered another well-kept NZ secret: sandflies. Those nasty
buggers are very aggressive, hurt more than mosquitoes and die only when
it´s over 21 Degrees (not often the case in NZ). We wondered during the
first days if we could stand our "tent life" for the whole stay...but we did
and it gave us great independence as one can pitch his tent about everywhere
in NZ. Far eastern tourism is very strong (Japanese, Koreans), especially
after the launch of the "Lord of the Rings" triology a real "Ring" tourism
started.
The nature is outstanding and very diverse: glaciers next to rainforests,
snow-covered mountains close to the beaches, fjords and lots of lakes. It´s
an incredibly empty country (apart from the never ending lines of tourist
campervans) with only 4 Million New Zealanders, but 40 Million sheeps and 60
Million possums.
The people are even more relaxed than in Australia and are genuinely
friendly. Everybody is a "mate", most things are "wicked" and "no worries"
is what we heard most during our trip. We found the New Zealanders much more
"British" compared to the Australians, perhaps due to the low level of
immigration, which started only quite recently. On the contrary of what many
of us think, New Zealand and Australia are very different in many ways and
the people do not like to be compared, jokes about the other nationality are
quite common (like in many neighboring countries). Maori culture is very
strong, with European invasion having been less anihilating, largely thanks
to the strong fighting spirit of Maoris and some joint peace treaties. 15%
of the population is of Maori origin and Maori is, beside English, an
official language of the country. We also saw much more mix between Maori
and "European" New Zealanders.
We could have listed NZ also under the next chapter, Polynesia, because the
island is part of Polynesia´s region. Maori culture is similar to Tahiti´s
or even more Easter Island culture. Some words are similar as well as rites
and customs (like tatooing or traditional dances). We are curious now to see
more of these cultures during our stay on the Polynesian islands.
Polynesia
27/01 - 09/02/07
Papeete (Tahiti) - Moorea - Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile)
Having heard about it as a luxury destination for French and American
honeymooners, we considered French Polynesia as a mere stopover on the way to
Rapa Nui, the most isolated island in the world. But we were positively
surprised by it´s strong Polynesian traditions and the availability of "non-luxury"
options off the beaten track.
To the contrary of what many people think, Tahiti is only one of many islands in
French Polynesia. In it´s capital, Papeete, we joined the protestant mass,
delivered in Tahitian language on Sunday mornings; an interesting experience,
everyone wearing his nicest dress with huge hats for the women and singing
wholeheartedly during service. We then left Papeete for Moorea, a small island
with a beautiful lagoon and green mountains, where we spent some days biking
around, kayaking and diving, before moving on eastwards to Rapa Nui.
Rapa Nui might well be one of the most magical and beautiful places that we have
visited during our journey. A tiny, secluded island, 3700 km from the nearest
mainland and 1900 km from the nearest, even smaller, inhabited island.
Covered by volcanoes, green pastures - which are in sharp contrast to the
incredibly blue ocean all around - and having hundreds of wild horses, the
island´s big mystery remain the Moais, these huge stone statues scattered all
around.
These Moais, hundreds of them, were supposedly erected as an offering to the
gods by early settlers - the first settlers arrived by canoe as early as the 4th
century from 3200 km distant Marquise islands. All Moais are carved from lava
stone coming from a volcano nearby. Some of them are more than 20m high and many
wear the traditional topknot, a sort of huge "hat" made of a different red lava
stone. Mysteriously the Moai-erecting tradition must have stopped all of a
sudden, as one can still see many of them "waiting" to be transported from the
volcanoe's quarry. One theory suggests that conflicting tribes and warfare
caused the abandoning of the Moais creation, resulting also in the toppling of
many already standing Moais.
The islands bloody history continues with Peru´s invasion, deporting nearly all
inhabitants to slave work (where most of them died), soon followed by Chile
annexing the island in 1888. The islanders were regarded as second citizens,
Rapa Nui language suppressed in favour of Spanish language and labour often
unpaid until as late as the mid-sixties. No secondary school existed on the
island even some decades ago and kids were sent to mainland Chile for further
education. Many of those did not come back to live on Rapa Nui, leading to a
huge cultural loss. Traditions only were rediscovered some decades ago, with the
creation of the "Tapati Rapa Nui" festival being of great help. This two-week
event features traditional dancing, singing, ceremonies and ancient competitions
like "sliding down volcanoes on banana trunk trees" or "body surfing on palm
tree boards".
We landed on the first day of this great festival and it was an incredible
experience to celebrate with the very hospitable Rapa Nui people. Even during
Tapati, probably the only time of the year when tourists (Chilean and foreign
ones) outnumber the 4000 inhabitants, Hanga Roa - the only village on the island
- felt like one big community. We could stay for months on this tiny island, but
South America is calling.....before the Patagonian harsh winter comes.
Site : Copyright 2006 Horus
Information Services - Text and Images : Copyright 2006
Susanne et Rabih Khoury
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