Phnom Penh and the Khmer Rouge

21st May 2006, Day 62

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I should warn you that this post and the photos following are disturbing. I'm afraid, there's nothing particularly hopeful about this set of notes, other than what I'm describing is over.

The military and imperial success of Thailand is very different from Cambodia, it is almost as if Thailand casts a shadow over it's neighbour, starving it of light or peace. Cambodia has endured a stunted growth or blighted existence and it's past contains one major ingredient. Conflict.

From the great Khmer empire, the Siamese invasion, French occupation, Japanese occupation, Vietnamese occupation, Monarchical dictatorship and the genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime, from my limited knowledge it appears Cambodia is country without much rest.

We wanted to learn more about the modern history of this country, having briefly been aquainted with the ancient capital of Angkor. Following independence from France in 1954, King Sihanouk took power of the new 'Kingdom of Cambodia' and retained it by contesting 'elections' and gaining 99% vote. He ruled with an iron hand, crushing communism where it threatened to mobilise. Despite this Sihanouk allowed the North Vietnamese to station Viet Cong guerillas in Cambodia, leading to American bombings. Unease and US bombings led to a coup, which deposed Sihanouk in 1970, but the replacement government was weak and the Vietnamese pushed further into the interior of the Kingdom. The communist elements - the 'Khmer Rouge' - organised themselves whilst a small clique within them plotted to blight the country with one of the worst regimes ever manisfested on earth.

The Khmer Rouge seized power in Phnom Penh on 17th April 1975. They were welcomed on the streets as liberating heroes, but within hours, the heart was being ripped out of the urban society, with all residents being forced to leave the city for a new agrarian life in the country. Pol Pot's brutal regime claimed the lives of almost half of Cambodia's 7 million population (in 1975) over the next four years. Paranoid, but utterly compassionless and clinical, the regime was firing on all cylinders from the word 'go'. All doctors, engineers, lawyers, intellectuals or indeed anyone with non-manual labouring 'soft hands' were rounded up to be totured at the prisons or murdered at the killing felds in the countryside. Oh... and if you happened to wear spectacles, you were considered an intellectual.

'S21' or Tuol Sleng, one prison of 167, and Choeung Ek, the largest killing field of 340 in Cambodia are both in Phnom Penh. These were our destinations today, and a raw, heinous shock to the system they proved.

As the Khmer Rouge rose prior to the coup on 17th April 1975, hundreds of children, both male and female between 14-18, were taken from their homes in the villages of the country to the jungle in the north of the country and brain-washed by Pol Pot's charges. These children were to become the combatants for the Khmer Rouge army. After marching into Phnom Penh, the redistribution of people into the countryside began, starting with movement into the established rural areas and in later weeks and months movement onwards to more remote areas. Troops over saw this mass movement of people, which was unheard of (I think) since Indian Partition. Thousands starved to death or died of diseases on the road travelling insane distances by foot. Those that survived were kept on their toes by the brutal Khmer Rouge soldiers.

The young KR combatants were also employed as prison guards, torturers and executioners in the prison camps, which extracted 'counter-revolutionary' information from officers of the previous government. They detained citizens until they were no longer useful, at which point they were disposed of at the killing fields.

Tuol Sleng was perhaps the most notorious of these prison camps. Four blocks of a school were comandeered and transformed into a rudimentary prison. Tuol Sleng ('poisonous hill' in English) was established in 1976. The large downstairs rooms were unmodified and used for the high ranking officials, to avoid conference with other prisoners. Other folk were held in tiny individual cells with barely room to more or in mass cells.

Comrade Duch presided over Security Office 21 and encouraged the dehumanisation of the guards to new levels of barbarity. The families of prisoners were also taken en masse to S21 to be held or executed, often in front of the prisoners. Baby's brains were dashed out on tree trunks or the infants were thrown up in the air and shot. Usually inmates were held between 2 to 4 months before being shipped to the killing fields. In the interim, the unfortunate inhabitants were kept weak; they were fed a bowl of rice porridge only twice a day at 8am and 8pm, in addition to torture, so they couldn't rebel or easily commit suicide. This had a side 'benefit' of making it easier for the still-developing adolescent captors to murder them. Among the horrendous torture methods were the following:

- Men were hung from an exercise pole in the former school yard until they lost consciousness. They were then revived in rank smelling water used for pesticide.
- Prisoners were suspended by their arms above drowning pools, so that when they could no longer support themselves, they would drown.
- Women were raped on a rack, endured their nipples being pierced by pliers, then suffered a scorpion or millipede being released over their body, which would bite and sting them.

Prisoners showered only twice a month and suffered terrible skin diseases. Aside from those who starved or murdered before reaching the killing fields, there were many instances of suicide and every attempt was made - fencing, constant observation etc. - to prevent this passage to relief.

We were shown around the prison by a lady of 38, who was 7 at the start of the Khmer Rouge regime. Her father, brother and sister were all killed. Despite conducting tours every day, I could see her body language change when she walked around the exhibitions of victim's mugshots and photos of dead bodies. I asked if she was OK, but she indicated that she was. This is her income, of course. She confided that she still cries everyday about what happened; how awful that she is confronted with this appalling grotto every day. I asked her if she held out hope for the future, but she said that one can still get in trouble for criticising the present government. While things have hugely improved with peace for the common man, freedom in western terms is still beyond reach.

As we were left to our own devices, wandering around the compund, you could see the barely disguised rage of the Kampuchean people in the gallery of Khmer Rouge leaders. Pol Pot - Prime Minister (a nick-name, short for 'political potential'), Son Sen - defence and security, Yun Yat - intelligence and information and Ke Puak - secretary of the northern zone, all had their pictures severely vandalised. Pol Pot's picture had been ripped clean off the wall.

After driving out to the killing field, Choeung Ek, the largest of this terrible phenomena, we took a new guide - this time someone from our own generation. This lad was more divorced from the situation; he was born in 1981 and therefore after the Rouge regime was over. His Uncle went missing but no-one else in his family, fortunate by Cambodian terms. It was interesting to hear how he had been effected growing up in the post-Khmer Rouge age.

Of the 20,000 people that were dispatched at Choeung Ek only 8,985 were exhumed from the mass graves. A permanent memoria charnal, or stupa, containing their skulls stands as a disturbing permanent reminder of the 'soft-hands' (non-labourers and hence potential political agitators) that died at the hands of child in a black shirt and red scarf. 500,000 people were ordered to leave Phnom Penh behind as a ghost town to work as a slave of Pol Pot's in the rice fields. Men, women and children were separated, working in different areas. They worked 15-16 hours for 2-3 bowls of rice porridge a day. Overwork leading to physical exhaustion was another rouse to keep the workers weak so they couldn't unite and overthrow their captors. Of those sent for execution at the killing fields not a single person escaped. You can see the foot shackles below, which would keep up to 30 men restrained in a line blind-folded awaiting their fate.

The fields had large holes or graves dug in them about 15-20 ft across, which you can see below. With the victims lined up in shackles, a Khmer Rouge combatant would kill one blind-folded victim by smashing him over the head with a bamboo truncheon (bullets were expensive) and pushing him into the hole, before moving on to the next - once a few were dead, the others would would topple in still alive from the weight beneath them. They were buried alive. The sound from an amplifier pumping out extraneous noise drownded out the sound of the screams. There were 86 mass graves found but a further 11,000 corpses lie undisturbed under a nearby lake. Any babies brought here would be killed in he same manner as at Tuol Sleng. Variations on the abominations committed were:

- Victim's throats slit with a palm leaf stalk
- Beheading for suspected traitors - Every day at Choeung Ek more innocent bones and clothes are washed up from the soil.

The net result of this regime was a halving of the population. A genocide.

Sosal, our guide, told us about life after Pol Pot, and he was optimistic about Cambodia's future. The Vietnamese toppled the Khmer Rouge regime in early 1979 and held the first meeting of a new assembly on May 20th, which is the date on which people remember the genocide annually. The secrets of the killing fields, unknown as a classified operation to the people, were discovered by farmers who smelt the stench of rotting human flesh. Once alerted, a full exhumation began in 1980 when the scale of the mass-murder became apparent.

The Khmer Rouge and Khmer Rouge guerillas were still abundant after the end of their rule, with a strong-hold in the northern jungle. Many ex-Rouge leaders found senior positions in the new government by defecting. Those that remained committed many terrorist acts the 80's and 90's disrupting the slightly improved governance of the country. The UN supported elections of 1993, began to see a more profound change in Cambodia, but it was not until 1996 when Pol Pot was found and arrested that the Khmer Rouge was truly defunct. The Angkar, or organisation, had ceased to exist.

Sosal felt he should have been taught about Pol Pot earlier than he age of 13 in school, but he still thought that understanding about the Khmer Rouge among his generation was improving. It's hard when a country wants to heal and forget, to be obliged to run over such painful ground. The Cambodian population has now shot up to 13 million. New life is great answer to all the death and destruction for an adult generation that could not escape the Khmer Rouge. It's also a reason to live.

In Cambodia the agrarian society Pol Pot forcibly created has not changed beyond recognition in 25 years, though it is fading. Sosal reckoned the requirement for both professionals and intellectuals was still high, but that changing children's aspirations from moto drivers to doctors was the key to a remedy.

Our guide inside a cell at Tuol Sleng, or 'Security Office 21' as the Khmer Rouge called it.

Kosal, our guide at Choeng Ek, the dips in the ground are the mass graves.

Ankle shackles at Choeung Ek. 30 men blind-folded would be led to the side of the mass graves and systematically beaten over the head with bamboo truncheon or machetes and pushed into the grave.

Skulls of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, stacked in the Memorial Charnel at Choeung Ek.

Photo of victim at Toul Sleng museum, it is stained with what I assume is blood.

Peering through the gates of hell. You can see the single cell constructions on the right hand side.

A better view of the individual cells. 2 bowls of rice a day, 2 showers a month.

The utter misery and hopelessness of Tuol Sleng

Kampu-cheer!

19th May 2006, Day 60

Siem Reap, Cambodia

In Chiang Mai, James and I were in a quandry. The teaching idea had fallen through, and we'd already used up near 3 weeks of our 30 day Thai visa. With Kate and Tim's visit still a month off, what were we going to do in the meantime? With the small amount of initiative we could pool, we decided that we wouldn't give up on the volunteering idea and resign ourselves to growing barnacles on our arses. Fortunately, whilst searching for 'ethical' treks among the mountain tribes of Thailand - trekking being what the average 'farang' (foreigner) does in Chiang Mai - I stumbled across this. We can therefore kill two birds with a solitary stone, by doing something half-useful and getting to know a community very different from our own. We begin this project on Thursday 25th May (thanks for sending the cheque in, Mum), making it a necessity to re-new our visas in the meantime: a border hop was on. We'd heard fascinating tales about the Angkor temples in Cambodia, so off for a few days in country number five we went!

My knowledge of Cambodia (or Kampuchea) is even more limited than that of Thailand or Vietnam, which is to say that I knew Pol Pot was a mass-murdering dictator. By deciding to head for the Angkor Temples in Siem Reap in North West Cambodia, we planned to start with the ancient history of Cambodia first. Getting over the border was a bit of a palaver. Despite buying our tickets through the offical TAT office, we were still prey to the usual visa scams (nothing illegal, just paying an un-identified surcharge), followed by a few different queues, passport stamps and eye-ballings from bored officials. We took some unnecessary bus rides a few hundred metres from one gate to another, before passing under the ornate gateway into the Kingdom of Cambodia. Immediately you could tell the place was poorer and more unkempt than it's neighbour. It reminded me of India because of the shacks, beggars and seemingly hasty constructions all around. Our party went along with rough and ready feel as we packed into an elderly minibus, with our belongings shoved into any nooks or crannies in order to make way for several bags of concrete.

The six hour bus journey to Siem Reap was along a flattish, but un-asphalted highway which was not pot-holed but very bumpy none-the-less. Upon arrival we plumped for staying in the guesthouse that the bus was on commission for taking us to because it was 10pm. When we found out that we could take a moto (a moped/motorbike hybrid) ride around the Angkor temples the next day, we snapped up the chance. It's the default method of travel in these parts... I suppose we took the easy option again.

The Angkor temples are the most exotic and grand in scale of all the places of worship we've visited; a vast collection of over one thousand temples. It was the centre of the Khmer Empire - the most legendary in all of South East Asia. If religion was ever used by the powerful to awe the masses into work and compliance, this displays it - an intimidating manifestation of monarchy, rule and veneration. Lasting from 802 until the Siamese invasion of 1431, the Angkor period added more and more temples and palaces as tributes to the successive God Kings, starting with Jayarvanar II. A legacy of amazing shrines, stupa, walled cities, causeways, bridges, moats and steps remain.

During our day's tour we visited the following temples:

1. Angkor Wat and mausoleum, 12th century)
2. Bayon Temple (12/13th century)
3. Baphuon Temple (12/13th century)
4. Ta Phrom monastery (12th centruy)
5. Banteay Srei temple (10th century)
6. East Mebon temple
7. Preah Khan temple and royal residence (12th century)

The most famous among these is Angkor Wat, which we got up at 4.30am in order to view at sunrise. Despite the huge crowds which congregated to behold this dazzling goliath, we enjoyed another of the 'magic moments' on our tour. A vaguely eerie and expectant silence hung over us as scores of digital cameras blinked in disbelief at the slumbering giant. The combination of Khmer architecture and ominous divinity swells as you walk the causeway across the moat and take in the scale of one of the largest temples in the world. Originally built as a Hindu temple and then converted to Buddhism, Angkor Wat stands as a metaphor for the mutating faith of this part of South East Asia. The temple is three-tiered and damn steep at the top! Travelling through the Gallery of One Thousand Buddhas, I left James held captive to the strains of pop-band 'The Killers' music being played on some dolt's tinny mobile phone speaker, while I scaled the third tier of the Wat. From this vantage point I could see the fruits of the empire and Mr. Asker's simmering anger at the sound of lame alternative rock.

We saw an amazing range of Deva (God King) inspired temples which appeared suddenly out of the jungle putting me in mind of cartoon jungles scenes from 'boy's own' comics. My favourite temples were the Bayon and Preah Khan. The former sits within the 12th century walled city of Angkor Thom, an impressive sight after crossing through one of the moat causeways lined with gods and demons representing 'The Churning of the Ocean of Milk'. The Bayon temple with it's huge stone Deva faces is described by our Rough Guide as possessing 'poor workmanship and haphazard sculpting' with which I completely disagree. It's towers, galleries and surrounding terraces were unique in my experience and of rare beauty. It looked like it had been beamed down from space into a jungle clearing. Like many of the temples, the warfare that goes with an empire had been enshrined into the construction, whether by motifs/reliefs of the thwarted Cham invasion of 1181, or the damage the temples suffered following the eventual Siamese occupation.

Apparently this area and Siem Reap are anomalies in Cambodia, especially in terms of development. Incredible change precipitated by tourism in the late 90's/early 2000's, has left Siem Reap with a long strip of 5-star hotels and bars catering for foreigners, chock full of Cambodian prostitutes. Tourism has brought plenty of work, but a different kind of poverty exists here. Plenty of children are kept out of school by their parents to vend postcards and trinkets, whilst others cut short their education to become moto drivers: short-term living it seems, is a Cambodian trait. In Siem Reap, the effect of the Khmer Rouge has been erased, at least for the benefit of the tourist, perhaps. Beggars and land-mine victims (such as the ones in the band below), are common and these individuals sit next to stalls selling such items as 'Danger! Cambodian Land Mines!' t-shirts and other tat in equally poor taste.

'The biggest tree I ever saw' - Angelina Jolie jumps down from this in 'Tomb Raider'. Ace.

















Ta Prohm













Land-mine victim band













Deva carved face at Bayon temple


















'Well you'll work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day.'













The Bayon temple













View from the top of Angkor Wat


















Third-tier of Angkor Wat


















Looking out from the Gallery of One Thousand Buddhas













Angkor Wat shortly after sunrise














'It's a Holiday in Cambodia'

Visaka Bucha (Vesak) - Buddha Day

May 12th 2006, Day 52

Chiang Mai

Vesak, Visaka Bucha or ‘Buddha Day’ commemorating Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha, falls today this year. This is because it was on the same day - the full moon night of the sixth lunar month - when Lord Buddha was born, attained enlightenment 35 years later, and died when he was 80.

Chiang Mai, with its wealth of fantastic 'Wats', or buddhist temples is a fine place to be on such a day. All true Wats have resident training monks, and they've been out in force today! It's a great thrill to be privy to such an occasion and I made sure I saw some of it by getting up early to go and look at the buddhists assembling to worship in the temples, sing and raise buddhist flags.

You can see such activity in the photos on the left I took this morning at Wat Pan Tao.

Despite their diversity, all Buddhists venerate the triple gems of Buddhist philosophy: The Buddha, his teaching (The Dharma) and the brotherhood of Buddhist monks (The Sangha). It's a particularly appealing day to me because it's an exclusively vegetarian day and many birds and animals in captivity are released in the spirit of freedom. Sadly some of the domesticated or caged animals simply cannot survive in the wild and die. During the day, among other rituals, the monks will give speeches based on those made by Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha.

After these sermons, the final part of this day of pilgrimage is the circuambulation (!) of the main chapel in the temple (the Bhote). If you're a proper pilgrim you must walk around the main chapel clockwise three times with incense, candles and lotus buds. Many Thai buddhists believe that they can create positive karma by doing good deeds and achieve a favourable rebirth; this is the best annual opportunity to do so.

What else would I do in this situation but join in? James was not tempted to grab a lotus flower and incense sticks, but he accompanied me on the triple skirting of the Chedi, whilst avoiding the stray dogs which are everywhere in Chiang Mai. You can even donate money for their welfare, which James was not tempted to do. Tight fisted bugger.

The smell of incense and the pleasant atmosphere of people gathered outside together in the summer were very relaxing, although I can't say I could really feel the significance of the event in the air. Despite being outside the faith I was allowed to join in the ceremony, as one of the central tenets of Buddhism is respecting others' beliefs and values.

Wat Chedi Luang


















VERY young monks outside Wat Chedi Luang












Wat Chedi Luang during the evening ceremonies


















The burning drums make a spiritual whirring shound during the ceremony












Who invited him?! Muggins gets in on the act.


















More Visaka Bucha shenanigans













Prayer and personal offerings to humanity and Buddha

TUFC and their nine lives

Torquay United 0 - Boston 0

I'd prefer seven (Kevin) hills. All I can say is thank god that's over for another year. We ended up in 20th position: ultimately it was poor old Oxford who went down with Rushden. Just how many times can we escape relegation by a whisker? Listening to a match over the internet is little better than actually being at the match in terms of nerves and feeling sick.

It reminded me very much of Colchester game on the last day of last season when we were waiting on the MK Dons result on Col U's shitty cramped terrace. This time when the Stockport result came through (which meant we couldn't be relegated) it was good news, rather than misery. I let out a strange primeval howl, of which I had hitherto thought myself incapable. Strange and concerned looks in the internet caff all round. Anxiety returned and I started feeling sick when the commentary mentioned that a man had collapsed at the ground and was being taken away by ambulance; I knew Dad was there. Fortunately he was just home late because of the end of season award ceremony. I hope whoever it was that collapsed responded to medical treatment.

Here's looking forward to another close season of inactivity in the transfer market, and another term of struggle and grind come August ;). Still it was nice that Plainmoor was full (see above), even if I couldn't be there. I really think Hilly should be club captain. I won't be back to see any games until March next year, but just maybe by then it'll be the play-offs or promotion we're chasing. I couldn't let this auspicious occasion go by without a post. Sorry to most people reading this blog who have no interest in football, let alone Torquay United.

I should probably write about where I am - we've just got to Chaing Mai, but I need to get my head around the place before having anything insightful to say.

Siam-Easy

6th May 2006, Day, er... I forget.

Bangkok

Today is D-Day. Either Torquay United get a point at home or (dependent on results elsewhere) near 80 years of league football in Torbay will come to an end. I'm glad Dad is at Plainmoor to see the match regardless of what happens. I'll be on-line listening and following the action as it happens. In the 16 years I've been following the Gulls this is the most important match they've played... since the last time we were almost relegated in 2001. That time, an away win against Barnet was enough. Strangely enough Barnet are back in the mix and stand a chance of being relegated for a second time. It's weird that we're even in this position considering the quality of the squad compared to previous years. Mike Bateson gave Leroy Rosenior the benefit of the doubt for a long time this season, as I wanted him to. He then installed John Cornforth, however, who was not experienced enough for a situation where our biggest asset, our league status, was at stake. It was the cheap option, which Bateson is wont to take. Finally Bateson installed a manager with the right level of experience, and we're ALMOST back from the brink.

Turning to less significant matters, we're in our fourth country (count them) in just over a fortnight. Thailand is a similar size country to Britain, just as Bangkok is comparable sized capital to London. For the moment (excluding all the Brit-backpackers) that's where the comparisons between the countries begin and end.

We've settled into Thai life with little hassle. We reached the notorious Khao San road with ease, and holed up in a decent little hostel. Since we've been here, we've mainly just been trying to sort out a teaching position with a local language centre (the details of which seem too good to be true at the moment, and therefore probably are), eating Pad Thai and hanging out with a Thai Radiohead cover band, Desktop Error, of whom you can see photos below.

My first impressions of Bangkok are that it is perfectly set up for you to stay in a tourist bubble if you so wish to do so (around the Khao San road anyway). If you want ATM's, English Breakfasts, body piercings, dread-locked hair, 24hr internet cafes, massages, tuk-tuks or (god forbid) Coca-Cola, you've got it. Maybe it's time to check out somewhere further afield, or just the further reaches of Bangkok.

We did make it out to the Grand Palace this afternoon, which was beautiful experience, improved (strangley enough) by the torrential rain which pored down as we sat cross legged in the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, creating a special atmosphere. It's hard to convey the difference between and the quality of the places of worship we've visited since we left for India. Rain seems to usher in the ethereal on this trip... and you NEVER point your feet at the Buddha, of course. Unless you're James Asker.

However easy life gets around here, it still isn't as facile as the pun which titled this post. It didn't quite out-do 'Be (Causeway Bay) the world is round', though, did it?

Rounding up the Gaijin experience

3rd May 2006 - Day 45

Narita Airport, Tokyo

There's a lot to recount of the last few days, but I'll try to pack it all in.

We had a proper night out in Tokyo on Saturday, which involved staying out all night as our hostel had a curfew of 12pm (!). Perhaps inadvisably, we went to Roppongi for the night out, after turning up in Shinjuku and finding no decent bars after 20 minutes searching. To give you an idea how set up for Gaijins (foriegners) Roppongi is, we had our first pint watching Chelsea lift the Premiership trophy in a Hobgoblin. We might as well have been Maidenhead. After escaping from a Turkish bar which a tout had dragged us into, we ended up in a lame hip hop joint. It was a bit too agressive and I selfishly managed to corner the only girl who spoke English, which wasn't exactly fair on James who got bored. At about 2am we decided to head for Shibuya but it was probably too late in the evening and everything was winding down, so we waited the rest of the night out in a restaurant until the trains started running at five. We met a total idiot on the train home who was an '80's heavy metal promoter', who wandered up to us presuambly because we were speaking English. He declared himself 'sick of this country' and told us that he was only there because of his Japanese girlfriend, although he didn't have 'yellow-fever'. What a knob. I was about to give him a piece of my mind, when we heard the twee music that plays on the train/subway/shinkansen everytime you reach a station. He gave James his business card, which I promptly tore up and threw in he bin.

We're heading for Bangkok today, hoping that we can still do some teaching. We only have Jaz's lead, but we're going to be at a slight loss as to what to do with ourselves if we can't arrange anything. Perhaps we're being naive.

We've already had a fair share of good fortune. Our friend Iain put us up for a couple of night's at his flat in Inuyama. Inuyama is the site of the oldest surviving castle in Japan, and it's literal translation is 'Dog Mountain', also the name of Iain's blog. Teaching English for a living with a company called Nova, Iain lives in a flat with Darius, a New Zealander and fellow teacher.

I would imagine that working for a large organisation like Nova, is a good route to teching abroad, but to be employed by Nova if you don't have a TEFL, then you must at least have a university degree, so I wouldn't be able to work for them at present. Picking stuff up on the hop doesn't look feasible. This makes the situation with Practical Action (the NGO I was hoping to work for) all the more frustrating, and it's increasingly likely that we may be consigned to being fairly worthless during what could be the most productive time of our lives. Iain's been teaching in Japan for 10 months having left Aberdeen behind, and he's just signed a new contract with Nova. A TEFL is a route I might consider in the future, but I guess it might be impossible to teach in the meantime.

I digress - Iain met us at Nagoya, with his girlfriend Fiona, and took us back to Inuyama; a small town, but not exactly out in the sticks. Kei, one of Iain's friends and proprietor of a local bar/restaurant/tattoo parlour, was our host for the evening as we sunk beer and ate fantastic Enchiladas. Another of Iain's friends, Ray, an American ex-pat, also popped by and offered to show James and I around the castle and shrines the following day. It was great to be among some company again, and we really appreciated being invited to Kei's house for barbeque the following night.

From left: Fiona, Iain (with hat), Darius, James and Kei.













Inuyama castle built in 1537, orginally had a moat which protected not only the castle but the whole town. Numerous 20th century Shinto shrines, line the base of the castle with red (the colour of the fox), prominent throughout. In Japan, the fox is a legendary creature with supernatural powers for doing both good and evil. Peaches, which ward off evil spirits, were heavily incorporated into some of artwork on the shrines. One of the traditions which still continues in the local river for the benefit of curious tourists is cormorant fishing. Cormorant are restrained on leads and when they dive and swoop for fish, they cannot swallow because of the noose around their neck, so they return to the surface and return the catch to the fisherman. Needless to say I find this cruel.
One of the unique festivals held here every year, occurs during the cherry blossom in early April. During this festival huge carts, about 30 foot high, are paraded down the narrow streets of Inuyama, which have not changed their lay-out since the castle was built in the 16th centrury. These carts contain platforms for Karkuri puppetry which recount ancient folk tales which have fused with (and informed) both Buddhism and Shinto in Japan. The complex working of the puppetry was originally developed as a clandestine system for experimenting with mechanics and new technologies, which were outlawed by the Emperor of the time for being western or more specifically un-Japanese. The carts which have special building for housing their bulk during the rest of year, and these sheds are dotted among the shrines and traditional wooden housing of the castle area. The carts are pushed by local men during the festival, having no motors inside. When the cart needs to turn, it is physically lifted despite weighing several tonnes! For compensation and to keep the party atmosphere going the men have a crate of beer or sake positioned underneath the chassis for swigging as they go on their merry way, being slave drive by foreman (a lot of that goes on in Japan, by my observation). Needless to say the guys get pretty drunk over the course of a day, and the whole precarious wooden structure wobbles down the lane in a rather perilous fashion.

Aside from this and he beauiful Buddhist shrines in Inuyama, there is the small matter of the vagina and penis fertility festivals (!) which take place once a year. The celebration at these events is rowdy, but the intention is fairly innocent celebrating creation, renewal and prosperity for the rest of the year. All generations attend and from the very youngest to the oldest everyone rubs the fake phallus and vulva devoid of embarassment or shame. Of course it's a bit much for an English gent!

We only know/saw all of this because of Iain, Ray, Fiona, Darius and Kei's good will, I hope I can return the favour a some point..

Detailed carving on a new buddhist shrine, built in the last few years.












Ray and I. Ray was our voluntary tour guide for the day and all round fantastic bloke.This picture is not far from Ray's house in Inuyama, what a place to live! Ray paid for our entry to the local sights and museums taking pity on two backpackers. We appreciate the kindness - Ray, if you ever want a guided tour of Slough or Windsor...