Southeast Asia Impressions (Eli 21.10)
Eli 21.10 is now in another country, after a change of plans, so I didn't actually see him in person. I did have him answer questions over the phone, though, about the countries he visited in Southeast Asia in comparison to each other.Geographical differences:
--Vietnam has lots of rolling hills and countryside.
--Cambodia is flat, with orange dirt, and wet
--Thailand has water and beaches on the coast, but it looks similar to Vietnam in the interior.
--Malaysia is dominated by highlands.
People:
--Everyone was super nice everywhere.
Food:
--Vietnam and Thailand have their own, established cuisines, but because the Khmer Rouge totally wiped out Cambodian culture, Cambodian cuisine, in many ways, is starting over.
--In Vietnam and Thailand, the focus is on rice and noodle dishes.
--Malaysian food has more similarities to Indian food. More curries and stewed meat.
Signs of overt Communism in Vietnam:
--A few classic examples, like the National History Museum, which is almost entirely propaganda.
--Besides flags and signs (which are prominent), Communism isn't very present. For a tourist, at least. -------People were very nice here, like they were everywhere else.
The vibe in Singapore and the police presence:
--It felt somewhere in-between 1984 and Disneyland.
--There are cameras on you all the time. Many, many cameras. It was a bit unnerving.
--There are also signs everywhere telling you what you can't do.
[sidebar: in every country they visited, there were signs telling people they couldn't bring durians on trains, which just seems like good common sense to me. Eli did not eat a durian.]
Tourists:
--The most were in Thailand and Singapore.
--Vietnam had tourists in city centers, but the rural areas were very quiet.
Music:
--Almost every country had lots of pop remixes with beats playing behind. Sort of an R&B/EDM/chill combination. Acoustic on top of a beat. He said they sounded fantastic, and I'm trying to find some online.
Any food he'd never experienced before that was fantastic:
--There was a dish in Vietnam called Cao lầu (rice noodles, greens, and pork, and herbs in a broth) that blew all of them away. It's just a simple dish, but he said it had incredible flavor.
Country with the most cats:
--Thailand. No contest.
<< Home