Travelling Experiences 7 – Sunmound Ranch

DENMARK

In early 2009, our son Dale’s wife, Bodile, was experiencing deteriorating health. She had been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer for a number of years and the treatment was no longer effective. Our daughter, Cynthia, and I went to Denmark to offer what support we could.

We had intended to stay one week but the eruption of a volcano in Iceland, that grounded all air traffic in Europe for ten days, meant that our stay was longer than expected. Although this was an inconvenience, we were in more favorable circumstances than the many people who were camping in airports throughout Europe and North America. When the air traffic resumed, we were assigned flights from different airports than originally planned. This, however, was not a serious inconvenience.

VIETNAM AND CAMBODIA

In 2011, I joined a group of 80 people representing three Canadian and five American universities on a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. The trip was basically a cruise on the Mekong River in Vietnam and the exploration of ancient temples in Cambodia.

The group from the University of Alberta is shown in front of the Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

We flew from Vancouver to Hong Kong and continued on to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, in Vietnam. The population of Vietnam is 90 million people, with 7 million living in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city. The area of Vietnam is 330,000 km². The GDP per capita is $1900. Prior to 1945, Vietnam was a colony in French Indochina. Following independence from France, there was considerable internal conflicts culminating in the war in which the United States was a major participant from 1965 to 1973. Since then the country’s economy has improved significantly and the people seem to be successfully established as a independent country. I was surprised at the apparent lack of anti-Americanism that might have resulted from the war. This may be due to the fact that the majority of the people were born after the war. We spent two days in Ho Chi Minh City before boarding our river cruise ship for the cruise on the Mekong River.

Along with modern buildings the city has the traffic problems associated with millions of motorcycles and thousands of cars and no apparent system in place to effectively control them, to say nothing of the hordes of pedestrians.

These views of a typical street in the older parts of the city and a market are more like the former city. The market displays the wide variety of fruits and vegetables brought in by farmers and sold at very reasonable prices.

The old and the present types of transport are shown here. The motorcycles and trailers, known as Tuk-Tuks, are the common form of taxis throughout South-East Asia. However, the ox carts are still in use.

We spent six days exploring the sights along the river.

There were numerous small boats moored along the banks were they had been stored by fishermen.

We saw dredges working in the river digging silt from the river bottom that was being shipped to the cities and to farms to be used as fertilizer.

By this time we had left Vietnam and were in Cambodia. Cambodia has a population of 14 million people and an area of 180 km². The GDP is $800 per capita. In the years following independence from France, there was considerable internal warfare, primarily caused by the Khmer Rouge, a group based in the northwest part of the country trying to maintain a former way of life. As was the case in Vietnam, the economy in Cambodia has improved significantly in the past 25 years.

The headquarters building of the Mekong Bank

A group of Cambodian People waiting outside a temple

This is our cruise ship alongside a bridge built across the Mekong by Australia as part of a development assistance program. Since this was during the dry season the river was at its lowest level and thus the bridge appears unnecessarily high.

We left the ship here and travelled to Siem Reap by a ten hour bus trip. Siem Reap, in northern Cambodia, is the site of the Angkor temples. The present population of Siem Reap is 180,000, a significant increase from the 2,500 who survived the Khmer Rouge occupation. The largest of the Angkor temples in the area is Angkor Watt. This structure was originally built in the early 12^th century as a Hindu temple. The estimated 5,000,000 tonnes of sandstone required were brought from the deposit 40 km away, probably by raft. The actual construction was done by people, assisted by elephants to do the heavy lifting. In the early 15^th century, the Temple was converted from Hinduism to Buddhism.

Angkor Wat is being reconstructed as a United Nations restoration project. The funds and some labor are provided by other countries.

From Siem Reap, I flew to Seoul in South Korea. Seoul has a population of 30 million people and a thriving economy. There were five new bridges under construction across the relatively small river which flows through the city.

A panoramic view of Seoul, on a rainy day, from my hotel window.

On my second day in Seoul, I went on a guided city tour. In conversation with the tour guide, I asked her about the population of Seoul and commented that I came from a city with a population of 1 million. Her comment was, “So you live in a village of 1 million”. I doubt that the mayor of Edmonton would appreciate this assessment of Edmonton.

There were several dozen busloads of school children visiting the President’s Palace at the same time that we were there.

From Seoul I flew to Vancouver and back to Edmonton. The flight took a different path than the usual great circle route over Alaska to take advantage of the jet-stream, which was stronger than usual. The assistance provided by this air current reduced the flying time by nearly two hours and presumably saved a considerable amount of fuel.

The usual great circle route over Alaska is shown in red and our actual return route in green. Although the great circle route appears longer it is actually shorter because of the spherical shape of the earth.

INDIA AND NEPAL

In 2012, my sister, Nora, and I went on a trip to India and Nepal with a group organized by a tour company in London, England. Nora and I flew to Delhi, in India, a day before the main group arrived from London. Our plane landed 2 A.M. Nora had made a reservation in a hotel in Delhi and we set out for the hotel from the airport in a taxi. The driver was unable to locate the hotel after driving us around for two hours. We decided that we would go back to the airport and wait for the rest of the group to arrive later in the morning. Nora felt that we should not pay for the taxi because he had been unable to find the hotel. The taxi driver was unhappy with this situation but he did not attempt to have the police intervene, as he might have done. Later in the morning, the main group arrived from London and we joined them to go to the hotel where we were to stay. The group of 16 people included three Canadians and two Americans, the remainder were British.

New Delhi is the capital of India. Its population, 12.5 million, is a relatively small part of India’s total of 1.2 billion people. It is a mixture of ancient and modern buildings. The congestion on the streets is out of this world. All kinds of users from large trucks to people and cows are competing for space. The highways are not much better, although the posted speed limit is 40 km per hour, we seldom averaged more than 20.

Connaught Place is an example of modern New Delhi

After spending a day touring Delhi we left, by bus, for Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Jaipur is known as the pink city of India, because many of the buildings are built of the pink sandstone found in the area.

The next day we left for Agra and spent the day sightseeing there. The main attraction in Agra is the Taj Mahal. This impressive building was erected by Emperor Shah Jahan, in 1631, as a memorial to his deceased wife.

After a day of sightseeing in Agra, we took the overnight train from Tundla to Varanasi. This was a different experience; we had the two lower berths in the compartment and two local men had the two upper berths. Varanasi is located on the Ganges River and is considered to be a holy site. There is a large area of its steps leading down to the Ganges River. Pilgrims come to this site from all over India to bathe in the Ganges River.

Perhaps a local pilgrim waiting for a turn in the Ganges

Our next stop was Lumbini in Nepal. On the way we stopped, unannounced at a village. The people had likely never seen tourists before. They were very hospitable and gave us samples of their food and showed us examples of handicrafts. This was a highlight of the trip.

Getting into Nepal involved going through the Nepalese customs, which can be a challenge. However, we did not encounter a serious problem here because our guide provided the “baksheesh” for the customs officials. Lumbini is considered to be the birthplace of the Buddha, and is being developed as a tourist destination for Buddhists and others.

The next two days were spent in Chitwan, a favorite destination for tourists from India and Nepal. The town is similar to Banff and Jasper in that its main economic base is tourism. Its location close to the Annapurna mountain range is a major asset. The other chief attraction is a nature park. We spent a few hours in the park riding elephants and looking for the other animals. One of the rare animals that we saw was a female black single horn rhinoceros and her young baby.

Our next stop was Pokhara. This involved a drive of 140 km requiring seven hours. By this time we were well into the foothills of the Annapurna range. The mountains in the Annapurna range are parallel to the Himalayas but they are not as high. A feature of our stay in Pokhara was a climb to the top of a small mountain to watch the sunrise over the mountains to the east. After this, we spent the day at leisure in Pokhara and enjoyed the scenery, which included a small mountain lake.

The next day we had another long bus ride of 200 km, which required eight hours on the road. On the way, we passed over a mountain pass and could see the Himalayas in the background.

This shows the extensive terracing of the mountain sides that has enabled food to be produced in otherwise unusable terrain.

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, has a population of 5 million people and is located in a valley between two ranges of the Annapurna Mountains. I was surprised to learn that so many people live in the city; in fact, the population of Nepal, at 30 million, was more than I expected. The unemployment rate is close to 50% and the main occupation of many people seems to be standing around talking. We were told that about 1 million Nepalese are working in the Middle East. The main industry in Kathmandu is tourism. This city is the starting point for mountaineers climbing Mount Everest. We went to an evening show that featured Nepalese dancers. Some of the members of the group accepted their offer to accompany them in their dance routine. This looked to be too energetic for me so I declined the offer.

Temple in downtown Kathmandu
Many of the magnificent buildings that we saw were severely damaged by the recent earthquake.

The rest of the group took a flight back to Delhi and on to London. Since we were going to Beijing, our flight was a day later so we spent an extra day in Kathmandu. We had six hours in Delhi waiting for the 3 AM departure to Beijing. Since we could not go into the departure area until the Air China representative came with the necessary documentation, we spent six uncomfortable hours, mostly lying on the floor, in the arrival area. After we finally were cleared to enter the departure area, our flights to Beijing and on to Vancouver were routine.

CHURCHILL, MANITOBA

In October 2013, our daughter Cynthia and I went on a tour to Churchill, in Manitoba, to view the Polar Bears which inhabit the region. We left Calgary early in the morning on a charter flight that arrived in Churchill about 9 AM. We travelled by bus from the airport to the tour headquarters, which are a few kilometers from the town. Here, we boarded Tundra Buggies for our trip to look for Polar Bears.

The Buggies are specially built vehicles that accommodate 15 passengers in relative comfort. They have large low pressure tires that enable the vehicle to travel over rough rocky terrain and through muddy spots.

The tundra is basically the way the glaciers left it many centuries ago. The surface is littered with rocks of various sizes and the principal vegetation is sparse grass.

The polar bears normally live on the ice and hunt seals through their breathing holes. In the summer, the bears move onto the land. Since there is very little food available, they essentially live off the accumulated fat in their bodies. In the fall when the water in Hudson Bay freezes, they move back onto the ice. The weather had been warmer than usual this fall and the bears had not yet come down to the water in large numbers. The few bears that we saw were essentially resting. The guide told us that they avoided exercise because their thick fur would result in their bodies overheating.

More interesting pictures of bears and of the other animals we saw are shown in more typical surroundings.

Ten days after we had been there, a Polar Bear wandered into the Town of Churchill and attacked two people who had to be taken to hospital in Winnipeg because of their injuries. It is important to remember that the bears are carnivores and are very hungry at this time of year.