Archive for the 'Travel' Category

From our man on the scene, Fusion View brings you an eyewitness account of the recent Edinburgh Festival. David Grantley, poet and micro-short story writer*, reports:

For readers intrigued recently by Yang-May’s account of Brighton (the Saint Tropez of the English South Coast?), Edinburgh may be worth a visit. It is not so much trendy as the Piccadilly of the UK: everyone goes through at some point.

There are several festivals going on at the same time. The Film Festival (first showing of ‘Kill the Messenger’, that brilliant if no doubt controversial TV film), the International Music Festival (of music, opera, ballet), the Fringe (comedy and anything goes with hundreds to choose from), and the Book Festival (authors talk about their work).

Then there is an intermediate thing (I think) which includes The Lady Boys of Bankok (my cousin didn’t fancy, and five minutes for me would be enough) and the something or other of the Penis (Spanish friends recommend, but cousin’s husband didn’t fancy: he doesn’t like looking at what he calls human ‘bits’).

And there are art exhibitions, some good, some ‘interesting’ (cousin insists I see). It wasn’t until I got to Newcastle (the capital of England-lah, if you are young enough to survive it) on the way home that I found the contemporary Scottish artist I like: Michael McVey (please don’t spread the word about until I have bought one). Finally, (still in Edinburgh) there is street theatre (anything goes again). Food is plentiful, inexpensive and varied.

I had been booked to hear Andrew Rowson, cartoonist, on his cartoons, a man called Johnson who wrote the wine map of Europe (his love is only for the wine of France so only gets part of my vote), and Andrew Motion, the poet laureate talking about his autobiography: he came over as a very pleasant very English man (tall, too).

As ever I made a bee-line (wasp, hornet?) for the street theatre. My favourites: Peruvians singing in Spanish and playing all manner of pan-pipes: very jig-enticing sound when not deeply sad. Then some Tibetans, men and women, playing all manner of drum-like objects and a strange trumpet while a tall Tibetan does a dance with a long circular ribbon (if not Tibetan what could they be?). New ears needed: none of the guessable tonalities or tunes of any music I know (Indian, Moroccan, African, Chinese, Beethoven) but fascinating. There are also various magicians and excellent circus-like climbing and juggling acts, and even, this year, a ten-year old (I suppose) doing elementary juggling – he had to get two members of the audience to hold him up so he could be seen. All this free, of course, though donations expected (‘for foreign tourists the £5 note is the one with 100 written on it’).

Can’t imagine a cheaper holiday in the UK once accommodation is found.

Then there are constant oddities. Why was the wine talk sponsored by a whisky company? I came out with a wad of vouchers for free drams of their 12 year old single malt product. A dram is a very generous pouring out of a bottle into a generous glass. Whatever their reputation, the Scottish are never mean with the drink. The drams were poured in a refreshment tent-pub with tables and comfortable seats to the accompaniment of a skiffle and US country-music band. You don’t have to pay for a book-talk to use it. Free kazoos if you want to make a noise. As for the whisky, I like it, but it doesn’t like me. The morning after it takes half the day to stop hating the emphasis on thistles and tartan and everything Scottish (even Lloys-TSB is Lloyds-TSB SCOTLAND). Notable at all the events is the large number of local (= Edinburgh or Scotland in general) people out to enjoy themselves.

Of course I’ve forgotten to mention the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (bagpipes, marching and heavy-metal). But not for me, I’m afraid.

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*Inspired by a post on Fusion View about writing short stories in 55 words only, David submitted a macabre tale to micro short story site www.55fiction.com. Read more here.

OK, I know it’s not a Monday but I’m posting a film anyway - this is a response to the film I posted yesterday with the guy dancing around the world.

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Apart from being a very funny, very London take on the New World traveller portrayed by the guy dancing round the world, this illustrates the immediacy and creativity spiralling out of new media and the internet. On verbal based blogs like Fusion View, the community builds up through comments and emails. The next generation of communication is already with us in the form of podcasting and even more “now”, videocasting.

Interestingly, there seem to have been some rather bitter and twisted comments in response to Matt Harding’s dancing round the world video - generally, I think, from people who would like to be travelling or being creative but instead are chained to their desks/ jobs etc. There’s no substitute for just getting on out there and doing it - whether it’s dancing round the world or dancing round your flat!

Matt Harding is another internet sensation. He went travelling round the world and made a video of himself dancing wherever he went - and he dances in some very precarious places along the way! It made me laugh and want to pull on my hiking boots/ dancing shoes and head off into the wide blue yonder.

So “Where the hell is Matt?”

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See his website at www.wherethehellismatt.com, which tells us that apparently a chewing gum brand was so taken by his dancing (or rather the audience he was getting from his video) that they sponsored him to go on another round the world dancing trip!

Photo: Tell us Your Story - from flickr.com, by linda manymuses

On Fusion View, I have been writing stories about my experiences of being from the East and living in the West - take a look in the Category “Fusion Stories” in the sidebar on the far right. Talking to my friends and wider family, I realised that I know many people who live “fusion lives”, or cross-cultural lives - or who travel widely around the world and are interested in cross-cultural living. One friend is a German who has studied in San Francisco and is now an English-qualified lawyer in the UK - he is married to a Greek art expert who travels regularly round the globe. Another friend taught English in Hong Kong and then cycled across China and Europe home to Somerset in the UK. Through this blog, I have also met many cross-cultural bloggers such as Sharon Bakar, a Brit who has made Malaysia her home.

So I thought: Wouldn’t it be great to hear more “fusion stories” from around the world?

I am issuing an Open Invitation to all my readers - and anyone who happens upon this blog by chance - to write a post for Fusion View about any cross-cultural aspects in your life. I would love to build this blog into a community blog or forum and I hope that you will take part and share your stories.

I would love to hear your story if your family or you have migrated from East to West or West to East - or in fact, any place that is culturally different from your country of origin (so South Africa to Germany counts as would New York to Toulouse etc).

What is your experience of moving your life across the world? What have you loved about your new life? What helped to get you through the tough times?

Or maybe you are living and working in the medium- to long- term in another country. What cultural curiosities have you noticed?

The questions I’ve mentioned are meant just to start you off and are not specific requirements. The content of your blog post is up to you - but your post must be relevant to
the topic I’ve described and in keeping with the aims of Fusion View, which is to celebrate fusion lives and diversity.

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Our first fusion story by a guest blogger will be posted on Thursday 22 June 2006 after 08.30am so come by then and check it out.

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Your fusion story should be no more than 1000 words. Please read my Guest Blogging Submission Guidelines here - or see the Announcements section of the sidebar on the near right.

You can submit your posts anytime starting now. If I like them and they are suitable, they will be posted onto Fusion View as soon I have approved them. This Open Invitation will close by midnight on 31 August 2006.

You can submit your fusion story to me by using the form below.

Jesus is among us. Or rather, Jesus is among us through his living heirs. That is the premise of the Da Vinci Code and I think that is one of the reasons for its sensational appeal.

In a post 9/11, secular and questioning world where the Church is in decline and fragmented with internal arguments about
sexuality and AIDs, among other things, the myth offered up by the Code resonates at many levels.

Jesus - The Human Story

The hallmark of modern Christianity is its questioning and seeking, ever since the days of Martin Luther. In the Anglo
Saxon Anglican countries, our modern emphasis on individuality and personal choice is a direct evolution out of the spiritual (an sometimes political) strugges that resulted in the Church of England itself and subsequently, denominations such as the Quakers, Methodists, Presbyterians and non-Conformists where the personal relationship with God is a strong focus. We in the West in
the 3rd millenium have now questioned ourselves out of a faith but the pull of spirituality is strong - many people may not go to church but they believe in "something out there" and some look to Buddhism, other religions and New Age
practices to fill the gap.

Then this myth comes along that Jesus the man fathered a child with Mary Magdalene, who, after his death on the cross and
bearing his child, was spirited away to a secret location in Provence. Here is a recognisable real man with his recognisable human desires for love and family. Here is a tragic human story of loss and survival that we can all relate to at a human level. And as for running away to start a new life in Provence - well, we can connect with that completely.

In today’s world, it is also easier to believe those events could have happened than to believe in the "rose from the dead and ascended into heaven" thing.

Euro-Jesus

For a myth to be successful like this one, it has to fall within the realms of plausibility - and if the events narrated also
could have been possible, that is even better. So far, so plausible and so possible. Add on a theme that picks up on the current zeitgeist and you have a true zinger.

So, let’s take the location. In this post 9/11 world, it is significant that the myth places Jesus’s bloodline in Europe and
away from the Middle East. He - through his purported descendants - become French: still foreign and exotic enough for English speakers and the rest of the world but not as foreign and unsettling as being Israeli or Arab. In the present climate, it claims Jesus for Europeans - and by extension for Western civilisation.

And fortunately, the French don’t have an official royalty any more so this myth comfortably blends with the other haunting legends of secret princes living among us. You can test the power of this construct by asking yourself this question: Would the myth work if Mary had run away to live in the Home Counties and it is revealed that Prince Charles is the Holy Blood incarnate?

Blood

In a time of HIV and AIDS and anxiety about disease, a secret founded around blood - royal and holy blood, no less - has a
contemporary resonance that builds on our primordial response to blood as family, sacrifice, honour and death. Against all our instincts, the Christian story tells us letting of blood brings life, not death and the duality for us in modern times is hauntingly hopeful.

Pilgrim Tours

Medieval pilgrims made their way to Jerusalem to seek expiation of their sins, collecting holy tokens and relics at significant
way stations along the route - here is the finger of St. Someone or Other; here, so-and-so saw a vision of the Virgin. Pilgrims today travel by Easyjet and bring home tokens of David Beckham from the World Cup. So the cult of Jesus that became Christianity comes full circle. We need to see for ourselves, touch for ourselves, come within the lingering aura - whether it is a celebrity’s sweaty football shirt or a holy bone of a saint or the shroud that wrapped Jesus himself. We can now travel around England and France and do the Da Vinci tour, seeking out the glamour of the book and the movie and at some level, reaching
out to the aura of Jesus himself.

Easyfaith

It is so much more beautiful and safe, picturing a nice European great-great grandson of God in France that one might bump into while sipping espresso at a lovely cafe. He might truly be one of us, a man yet God, that suave Frenchman at the next table. It’s easier for the Western world to connect with that than to think of Jesus, the icon of love and forgiveness, (with or without descendants) as part of the troubled and wartorn Jerusalem and rooted in the Middle East. A trip to France is so much more do-able than a visit to Israel. Playing puzzles and codes is so much safer than having any true faith. The myth gives us this short cut to Jesus, if only we can be clever enough to solve the riddles. In some ways, it’s salvation by Sudoku.

pic from flickr by rk catch; non commercial use; no derivations

I have just arrived home in Sydney after spending 2 weeks overseas. One of the highlights was encountering a mammoth sized mechanical elephant and giant girl in London. I had been visiting the National Gallery at Trafalgar Square and was  
aking my way back to my hostel when I heard the sound of music playing a couple of streets away. I made a detour and wandered towards the music.

There were people standing on the street corner pointing and taking pictures. Around the corner of a building, I was shocked to see the giant puppet of a girl dressed in a green smock walking down the street towards me. Her head was peered into the windows on the first floor and I could see people leaning out of the upper stories to have a look at her.

She was operated by about 15 puppeteers. She was almost tripping over the crowds of people gathering around her. I was engulfed by the crowd and we followed her at a brisk pace to Horse guards - a large parade ground at the end of St James Park. We were stunned by the sight that met us there.

A huge mechanical elephant was standing in the square, its ears flapping and its trunk sniffing out the crowd. On the elephants back was perched a wooden house with decking and there were people in oriental costumes parading on the deck, observing the crowd as a tourist would. The crowd was mesmerized by the spectacle and I had never seen anything like it.

The giant girl approached the giant elephant and they greeted each other - the girl stroked the elephant’s head as its trunk felt her face. It was as though they had been lost from each other and were now reunited. The elephant trumpeted its joy across the city and pigeons flew startled from the rooftops.

The elephant and girl went on a parade through the streets of Central London followed by a huge crowd. The streets had been closed off to vehicles so people had the novel experience of walking in the middle of the normally congested roads. Some of the streets were eerily deserted as though the city had been evacuated. But turning a corner, I would come across a throng of people running towards the puppets as they moved, tall, amongst the buildings.

In the afternoon, the elephant and girl made their way to Trafalgar Square where a crowd had gathered. People had been awaiting their arrival for hours and they were not disappointed. The elephant walked into the top of the square in front of the Gallery and let out a deafening trumpet. Children covered their ears yet laughed. Adults had big grins and waved. It was one of the most memorable events Londoners would witness for many years.

I was to find out later that the visit of the Sultan’s elephant and the giant girl had been to commemorate Jules Verne and that these were characters in one of his short stories.

posted to Fusion View by Guest Blogger: Kiril Goring Siebert

Chef Melissa de Leon’s blog at http://www.panamagourmet.blogs.com/ - From Panama: Delicious Original Tropical Creations and Cooking Adventures by International Chef Melissa De Leon. She posts recipes and blogs about everything to do with food. A wonderful, mouth-watering experience!

(Melissa noticed my humble recipe for Grandma’s Soy Sauce chicken and blogged about it in a round up for Global Voices Onling at http://www.globalvoicesonline.org. Now the whole world knows about Grandma’s recipe!)

• The Evening Standard, a daily paper in London, reported on a list, just published, of the world’s best restaurants. The top 50 show a strong European and American bias, with a couple of entries from antipodean Australia and South Africa. There was only one entry each for Asia (India) and South America (Brazil). Among them are the fanciest restaurants that you see talked about in the society pages of the style and fashion magazines like Vogue etc.

• What? No mention of Malaysia where food is a passion for all of us? I have to ask, what do these fancy restaurant critics know!

• Now, let me tell you about the best restaurants on my list - where you get great food, never mind whether the surroundings are fancy or not or whether you get the top vintage of wine served with your meal. I’m talking about real food for real people who love real food.

• There are great places to eat in London but the ones I pine for, needless to say, are all in KL, Malaysia - except one.

• First of all, there used to be Imperial Room on the edge of Chinatown down a dark, narrow alleyway. They served the best dish in the whole world - eels stewed in thick dark soy sauce and garlic. My grandparents used to take us to its previous incarnation at a fancier location in the 1960s where Ah Lan was the head waitress. Then she took it over and ran it with her husband in its last location. Everyone in my extended family loved the food here and even though many of us now live in England, America, Australia and Canada, every time we went home to KL, we had to go to Ah Lan to eat eels. Tragically, Imperial Room isn’t there any more and I have been depressed ever since.

• Then, there’s Hakka Restaurant near my old school, Bukit Bintang Girls School, which does the best stewed belly pork with salted greens. You can sit outside in the open air and if it rains, they roll out the sliding roof. Again, plain surroundings with the emphasis on the food and being with your family.

• And Sakura on Imbi Road, which does a great laksa - whether lemak or Penang. Their chicken rice is also pretty good. Now, Sakura is a bit fancy because it has aircon and smoked glass in the front. But a little luxury now and then doesn’t necessarily spell disaster for the quality of the food!

• Near Sakura there’s a coffee shop that does amazing fried kway teow. I have no idea what the name is - but it’s on a corner and I know it when I see it. They only do kway teow at lunch time, it’s always crowded and the parking is hideous but we will always set off mid-morning and do whatever it takes to make sure we get there and get a table!

• As for places to eat in Taiping, my family’s home town, well, I could go on forever. But I will only mention one place today - my second cousin Meng-Huat and his wife Wee-Lee took us there one evening. It’s a small hut, really, under a big tree somewhere outside town near Air Kuning. It does the most delicious fresh seafood I have ever tasted. The fish and shellfish splash around in big tubs of water and you choose the one you want. Within minutes, it’s on your plate fried in ginger and spring onion and chilli.

• If you have an off-beat restaurant on your list that you’d like to tell me - and the other readers - about, why not add a comment to this post? It can be anywhere in the world - the only criteria is that it must not be the kind of place that turns up in guidebooks or official lists and it has absolutely got to serve great food!