If I was to give a practical description of Southeast Asia I'd present it as a family, being Malaysia and Thailand the parents, Laos and Cambodia the children (note that Vietnam would be the missing child) and Myanmar and Singapore the aunt-uncles. Malaysia, a hard-worker tradition-based man that built himself up from a farmer to a successful businessman (with a squillion-worth oil flooded backyard).
Thailand, a beautiful woman who has spent the last 40 years of her life offering all her beauty, kindness and delicious food to anyone dropping by. What can I say, I've got a soft spot for her; I spent most of my time visiting her and I cannot wait to come back! Then Laos and Cambodia, the youngsters of the family. Two different personalities though. Laos would be the naive and funny young boy running around offering some of the most genuine experiences in the continent. Let's hope mother Thailand keeps him out of trouble during these difficult years as a teenager (i.e. drugs widely available everywhere plus lots of greedy self-entrepreneurs eager to drain the national natural resources). Cambodia would be a disheartening sad-eyed grown-up girl. Her childhood was stolen by a bunch of assassins. Luckily for her, numerous people (mostly foreigners) have taken her rehabilitation process as a personal challenge. Their good work is showing early results and I'm confident that one day she will be the shinning star of the family (as she used to). Not much to say about uncle Singapore, he's always been the $mart guy of the family. Always looking for new business, he'll be fine. Finally aunt Myanmar, a tired older replica of Cambodia. Different problems, different manners, same consequence: a suffering population. Some say once she used to be even more beautiful that Thailand, difficult to believe now that she's all covered in cheap governmental make up. Please be aware of this the next time our politicians decide to look somewhere else.That completes my modest interpretation of Southeast Asia. It shouldn't be taken very seriously after all I've only spent 152 days in this beautiful land. However that's how I felt it and that's how I'll remember my diversion around Southeast Asia. All the best and hope to be back soon!
Interesting things I've learnt during my last weeks in Asia:
- How to build bamboo furniture, always useful.
- How to restrain my desire for killing my-annoying-self after a few days in the solitude of a tropical island.
- That old coconut juice shouldn't be drunk.
- How to dive from high rocks (well there's not much to learn here, just let gravity do the job).
- How to dive underwater rocks (in open waters).
- That Nemo's full name is anemonefish from the subfamily Amphiprioninae.
- What KL stands for.
- That any Malaysian business must be co-owned by at least one Malay person (that excludes the Chinese and Indian citizens).
- That due to a discriminatory quota, Chinese and Indian descendants born in Malaysia have more difficulties to join the Malaysian public universities that Malay students, forcing them to complete their studies overseas.
- That littering the Singaporean streets with chewing gum or cigarette buts can cost you more than 30 euros!
Es la hora de poner rumbo a nuevos horizontes, pero antes de hacerlo me gustaria hacer balance de la segunda etapa de mi paseo por el mundo. Si alguien me pidiera un resumen practico y pragmatico del sureste asiatico, yo me decantaria por la metafora de una gran familia. En primer lugar encontrariamos a Malasia, un solido cabeza de familia basado en la tradicion y que gracias al duro trabajo (y a una despensa llena de oro negro) ha conseguido pasar de granjero a exitoso hombre de negocios en menos de 30 años. Junto a el mama Tailandia. Que quereis que os diga, a pesar de mi primera impresion esta preciosa mujer se ha ganado mi corazon gracias a su belleza, simpatia y buena comida. He pasado casi 3 meses conociendola y no veo el momento de volver a su encuentro. A las faldas de mama Tailandia encontramos a Laos y Camboya, los pequeños de la familia (junto a Vietnam, la hija prodiga). Laos seria algo asi como Daniel 'El Travieso', un niño revoloso y divertido correteando de aqui para alla regalandonos algunas de las experiencias mas autenticas del contiente. Solo espero que mama Tailandia sea capaz de sacarle adelante durante la dificil edad del pavo (como destino turistico) que se le avecina; drogas y especuladores acechan a la puerta de su instituto. Camboya por su parte seria una adolescente de ojos tristes. Una banda de asesinos le robaron su infancia y ahora trata de salir adelante gracias al buen hacer de cooperantes locales y extranjeros. Para completar la foto de familia los tios Singapur y Birmania. Respecto al primero decir que el siempre fue el tipo li$to de la familia. Serio (aburrido) emprendedor no creo que debamos preocuparnos demasiado por el, es un valor seguro. Por desgracia las cosas pintan de manera muy diferente para tia Birmania. Dicen que en su dia fue tan bella o mas que Tailandia. Es dificil de decir hoy en dia viendo la cubierta de los moratones y heridas inflingidos por un gobierno del todo no-democratico que roba y oprime a su poblacion. Donde esta la justicia!
En fin, 152 dias que aunque paracen mucho no dan ni para empezar. Ha sido un periplo inolvidable que permanecera para siempre en mi recuerdo. Cuidaros mucho y espero volver a veros pronto!
