Culture Shocks: Asian adventure
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] would like to think that I am blessed, or rather ‘privileged’, enough to identify myself as a well-travelled person. However, there have been many strange instances during my extensive travelling where things have come as a bit of a shock to my otherwise sheltered lifestyle.
During my time the wonderfully large country of China, I was stunned by the questionable Communist propaganda posted all over Beijing: the ogling of westerners by large groups of men at train stations, partaking in family photos at the top sites, the joy of dodging the clumps of human spit (and sometimes human excrement) on the pavements and most of all, braving the length of the Yangtze River on a local cruise liner with only squatting toilets for three days.
My next stop was Hong Kong, which overall was a lovely experience, except for a near-death experience on the cable cars on my way to see the Golden Buddha. When some stranger on the underground warns you that the cable cars are dangerous in a tropical storm, BELIEVE THEM!
I was stunned by the questionable Communist propaganda posted all over Beijing…
I also spent some time in the darling country of Laos, home to tubing and other pleasantries like weaving and waterfalls bear sanctuaries and stunning French architecture. However, whilst in Laos, my friend and I were enjoying a pleasant stroll through the capital city of Vientiane, when we happened to look down the street, merely to check where we were on our map.
We saw something that, to this day, I am still very much confused about. A local man of about 50 or so, no one of particular interest, was walking down the street towards us. I would have thought nothing of it, if it hadn’t been for the fact that he was bollock naked, wielding a large machete in his right hand.
He was a small man of about 5ft and the machete was a good 4ft. We stared for a good few minutes before we shouted a few colourful profanities and ran off in the opposite direction.I must say I am glad to be alive today, despite this momentary situation of living in a real life horror film.
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