鎮居庸関内酒店

6月1日（日）快晴

万里の長城は全長6,352ｋｍ。全体の20％弱が有効保存されています。居庸関も最近修復され、僕の泊まるホテルの鎮居庸関内酒店は城門のすぐ横にあります。以前は岩山でしたが、植林政策が功を奏して長城は緑に包まれています。

シドニーの城門

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Kyoyo-gate Hotel
Sun. June 1 : fine

The Great Wall is 6,352km long. 20% of it is effectively reserved. Kyoyo-gate has been fixed recently and Kyoyo-gate Hotel where we are staying locates just beside the city gate. The mountain was rocky before but it is covered by green as the result of success of the forestation policy.

Sydney city gate

同床異夢？

5月31日（土）晴

中国第3の都市・北京はいたる所で工事中。市の中心部は高層ビルの建築ラッシュ。観光地でも駐車場、トイレ、レストラン、花壇などの整備中。八達嶺の万里の長城の正面に「1つの世界、1つの夢」と五輪ピック向けのスローガン。夜間はライトアップされますが、時々停電もあるそうです。近い将来発電用の風車が林立する日が来るかも。

カンボジアの停電

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Same bed, different dream
Sat. May 31 : fine

There are lots of places under construction in Beijing, the third biggest city in China. The center of the city building of skyscrapers is booming. The car parks, the public toilets, the restaurants, and the flower gardens in sightseeing areas are under construction, too. We saw the sign about the Olympics, “One world, one dream” in front of the Great Wall at Hattatsurei. The place is lighted up in the night but there’s sometimes blackout. You might see a lot of wind mills there some day.

blackout in Cambpdia

シドニーの中華街

2月5日(火)曇

北半球の熱帯地方に雪が降る異常気象の今年の冬は、ハノイも震え上がる寒さで、南半球のシドニーの夏も暖房が欲しいほど。僕が6年間住んだシドニーを捨てたのは冬が寒いことと、アラブ人対白人の人種暴動が起きたからです。豪州に置かせてもらっている以上、問題解決に参画することはやぶさかではありませんが既に僕の時代は終わりです。押し付けはできないし、若い世代自らが解決すべき問題です。シドニーは世界150カ国の人々が住む国際都市。中華街も中国正月に浮かれています。

シドニーの人種暴動

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China town in Sydney
Tue. February 5 : cloudy

Hanoi was freezing cold because of the abnormal weather that caused snow fall even in the tropic area in north hemisphere. Also in south hemisphere, summer in Sydney was as cold as I wanted a room heater. The reason why I have abandoned Sydney where I lived for 6 years is that it’s too cold in winter and because racial riot between Arabian and white people occurred. As I am allowed to stay in Australia I feel no reluctance in participating in resolving the problems in this country but my era has already finished. I cannot push my ideas and the problems should be resolved by young generations. Sydney is a cosmopolitan city in where 150 different nationality people are living. China town is warming up in Chinese New Year celebration.

racial riot in Sydney

A380

2月4日(月)雨

A380
非日常に身をゆだねる一人旅は苦難の連続。まるでマルコポーロか芭蕉か猿岩石。昨日早朝のシエムリアップ空港は停電で真っ暗。月曜の昼まで回復は期待できないとのこと。しかしこれは想定の範囲内のトラブル。ローソクの灯の下で手書きの搭乗券を作成し、手押し車で小荷物を積み込み、徒歩でタラップへ。機械頼りの現代人はあまりにひ弱。夕方シンガポール航空の新鋭機・A380 でシドニーへ。チャンギ空港にはこの超ジャンボ機のために第3ターミナルが完成していました。機内は広くて快適。しかし今朝のシドニー空港では800人分の小荷物のために1時間以上待たされました。

ジャンボかき氷

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A380
Mon. February 4 : rain

Traveling alone that leaves yourself in none-routine is the succession of hardships. I’m like either Marco Polo, Basyo, or Saruganseki. Siem Reap airport was completely dark because of blackout yesterday (Sunday) early morning. They said we couldn’t expect the recovery until Monday noon. It was an assumable kind of trouble, though. They made handwriting air tickets under the candle light, carried our luggage in carts, and we walked to boarding ramp. People of today who totally rely on machines are so weak. I flew to Sydney on A380, the new airplane Singapore Airline have in the evening. The new third terminal has completed for this double decked super jumbo jet in Changi airport. The flight was comfortable as there were a lot of space in the airplane. I needed to wait for more than 1 hour for my luggage at Sydney airport since the passengers were 800 in it.

jumbo ice shavings

トンレイ・サップ湖クルーズ

2月3日(日)快晴

メコン川の源流は中国領ヒマラヤ山系。夏の雪解け水はメコン川河口からカンボジアに逆流し、巨大な湖を形成します。雨季に出現するトンレイ・サップ湖はカンボジアに豊かな漁業と農業をもたらし、クメール文化を育みました。湖の漁民は乾季用の村と雨季用の村に2軒の家を持っています。乾季用の村は町から遠く離れているので船を改造したスーパー・マーケット、食堂や警察、郵便局、銀行などもあり「浮かぶ村」と呼ばれ、観光客も大勢訪れます。

水上マーケット

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Lake Tonre Sab cruise
Sun. February 3 : fine

The headwaters of the Mekong River are Himalaya mountain chain in China. Water made by melted snow in summer flows backward from the mouth of the Mekong into Cambodia and makes a huge lake. The lake Tonre Sab that appears in the rainy season has brought the rich fishery and agriculture to Cambodia and brought up old Khmer Culture. The fishermen on the lake have two houses each, one in dry season village and the other in rainy season village. As the dry season village is far from the town, there are super markets, restaurants, police offices, post offices, banks and others made by old boats . It is called “floating village” and a lot of tourists visit there.

floating market

怪盗マルロー

2月2日（土）快晴

シエムリアップ周辺には10世紀頃の古い寺院が多数残っています。規模は日本の城郭と同程度で堀に囲まれています。石造りの3－5層の建物で、階段はピラミッドよりも急峻なのでまるでロック・クライミング。汗まみれで連日3－4箇所の寺参り。今日はバンテアイスレイという美しい壁画の寺院。「王道」、「希望」などの名作を書いた仏文科相のアンドレ・マルローが若かりし頃この寺院の壁画を盗んで逮捕されました。個人は有罪でも殖民国家の堂々たる遺跡窃盗は無罪。「1人を殺すと犯罪者、多数を殺すと英雄」という恐ろしい迷信と同じ。

ピラミッド

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Mysterious thief, Andre Malraux
Sat. February 2 : fine

There are a lot of old temples remained from 10th century around Siem Reap. The scale is as same as Japanese castles and they are surrounded by the moat. They are 3-5 storied stone buildings and their stairs are steeper than the Pyramids. The tour is like rock climbing. I visited 3-4 temples every day soaking with sweat. Today I visited Banteay Srey that is famous for its beautiful wall carving. Andre Malraux who was a French culture minister and wrote his masterpieces, “royal road” and “hope” stole the carving and was arrested when he was young. The individual was found guilty but the majestic national in colony, innocent. It’s the same as the superstition, “murdering one makes it criminal, many makes it hero”.

Pyramid

地雷原

2月1日(金)快晴

カンボジアの内戦では300万人以上の国民が殺戮されました。アンコール・ワットは共産主義勢力のクメール・ルージュが最後の拠点とし、周辺に地雷原を設置したのでジャングルにはまだ沢山の地雷が残っています。ピースボートも地雷撤去に協力して100円で地雷1発を処理できると言うのが信じられなかった。現地の青年が金属探知機も使用せずに、3mの長い柄のスコップで決死的な除去活動を続けていました。日本は島国で防衛線が長いとの理由で地雷廃棄に同意していません。

金属探知機

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Landmine field
Fri. February 1 : fine

More than 3,000,000 people were killed in Cambodian Civil War. As Khmer Rouge, the communist party built the last fort in Angkor Wat and made the landmine field around there, there are still countless numbers of landmines left in the jungle. Peace Boat helps the landmine removal, saying 100 yen can disposal a landmine but I could not believe it. Some local youths were desperately trying to remove landmine using a scoop with 3m long handle without an iron detector. Japan hasn’t agreed on rejection of landmines with the reason of having a long defense line as the island country.

metal detector

嘆きのアンコール・ワット

1月31日(木)快晴

鳥肌のハノイから無料サウナのシエムリアップへ。シエムリアップとは「タイには征服されない」という意味だそうです。アンコール・ワットはピラミッドやホーチミン廟よりはるかに巨大な政治宗教建築。本来はヒンズー寺院でしたが仏教が征服すると神体・リンガは破壊され、またヒンズーが席巻すると仏像を破壊。愚かな人間の記念碑。20年前の内戦では白兵戦が展開され外壁に銃痕が残っています。今また妙な王国がよみがえり、変な感じで修復され王国経済を支える観光収入源。世界遺産やオリンピックって奇天烈なものですね。

ヘッドロック・お陀仏

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pitiable Angkor Wat
Thu. January 31 : fine

I have moved from goose skinned Hanoi to the free sauna Siem Reap. Siem Reap means “Never be conquered by Thailand”. Angkor Wat is a much bigger political and religious facility than Pyramid or Ho Chi Ming Shrine. It is originally a Hinduism temple but when Buddhism conquered the symbol, lingam was destroyed, and when Hinduism conquered Buddha statues were destroyed. It is the memorial of stupid human history. There are a lot of bullet marks on the wall that were given by the hand to hand fight of the Civil War 20 years ago. Nowadays the curious kingdom is revived, the temple was repaired peculiarly, and the tourism income sustains the economy of the kingdom. The World Heritage and Olympic Game are unusual.

head-locked Duddha

ナデシコ・クラブ

1月30日（水）曇

混雑を避けて閉店間際にホテルのレストランに行くと他の客はいません。結構いい感じのウエイターたちが僕のテーブルを囲んでにわか日本語教室。閉店後彼らは日本人女性とデートするのだそうです。夜の街を案内し、食事の後はバーで飲み、翌日は客室から出勤です。日本人女性もぼったくりのガイドやシクロやバイタクより安心で安上がり。パースに住むワーホリの友人もOZと同棲しています。「生活費も半分で済むし、英語の勉強になるし、日本の彼にはばれっこないし」そんなことでいいのカニ？

ロータリー・クラブ

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Pink Club
Wed. January 30 : cloudy

When I went to the hotel restaurant just before closing to avoid crowd there were no other customers there. Several good-looking waiters surrounded my table and started unexpected Japanese lesson. They said they would go on date with Japanese ladies after closing the restaurant. They would escort the ladies in the night town, drink together after dinner, and come to the restaurant from the guest room next morning. It is securer and cheaper than an unfair guide or driver of cyclo or bike-taxi for Japanese ladies. One of my friends in Perth, a working holiday maker is living with a OZ. “The alimony is half, it’s useful for learning English conversation, and my Japanese boyfriend would never find it out.” Is that really OK?

Rotary Club

ハロン湾クルーズ

1月29日（火）曇

ハロン湾はハノイから150km。松島を巨大化させ、桂林を沈没させたような青松奇岩の名勝地。1泊2日のクルーズは6000円。木造ジャンク船に冷暖房完備、バスつきのキャビンが10室。4回の食事は地場産海鮮コース料理でびっくりの美味しさ。途中で鍾乳洞を探検したり、島の山頂の寺院目指して登山をしたり、漁師の筏で生魚を買って厨房で調理してもらったり。1年に2－3度は通い詰めてもおかしくない超弩級クルーズ。

花より団子

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Harong Bay cruise
Tue. January 29 : cloudy
Harong Bay locates 150km away from Hanoi. It is a place of scenic beauty with blue pines and curious rocks that are like huge Matsushima or sunk Keirin. A 1 night 2 day cruise costs $60. There are 10 cabins with the private air conditioner and the bathroom in the wooden junk. 4 times of meal during the cruise is sea food course made by local ingredients and it tastes amazingly good. On the way of the cruise we explored caves, climbed on the temple on the top of the mountain, and bought live fish to cook in the boat kitchen. It was a super excellent cruise that is worth to go on 2 or 3 times a year.

flour is more valuable than flower

ホーチミン廟

1月28日（月）曇

ホーチミンは偉大な人物ですが、神格化されると人格を落とします。ハノイの中心地にあるホーチミン廟を見学する人々は武装兵に守られた門からかなりの距離を2列に並んで行進しないといけません。寒いのでポケットに手を突っ込んでいたり、隊列を乱したり、姿勢が悪かったりすると兵隊から怖い顔で注意をされます。入り口でカメラや携帯を預けなかった人は兵隊詰め所に連行されて油を絞られます。ホーおじさんは若作りの生態標本で展示されていました。可哀相なホーチミン。94歳の名将ボー・グエン・ザップは隣接する大きな家に住んでいます。

不思議な骨

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Ho Chi Ming Shrine
Mon. January 28 : cloudy

Ho Chi Ming was an outstanding person but once he is deified he loses his character. People who visit Ho Chi Ming Shrine that locates in the center of Hanoi have to make two rows and parade a long way from the gate protected by the armed soldiers. If you put your hands in the pockets, step aside the row, or have bad posture, the soldiers would give you an attention showing scary expression. If you didn’t leave your camera or mobile phone at the entrance, soldiers would bring you to the guardroom and scold you persistently. Uncle Ho’s body specimen was displayed as a youth. Poor Ho Chi Ming. 94-year old Bo Gueng Zap, the great commander is living in the big house next to the shrine.

mysterious bones

ハノイ

1月27日（日）曇

今年のハノイの冬は記録的な寒さ。夜間は10度以下に気温が下がります。ホーチミンは雑然として不潔な街ですが、ハノイは黄色の洋風建築の多い綺麗な町です。公共建造物も個人の家も装飾の多いテラスが目立ちます。厚化粧の厭らしさを感じます。「黄色は力の象徴です」36歳のガイドのミン君は陽気な好青年なのに博物館や革命記念碑の前では高圧的で説教調になります。「ベトナム国旗の赤い地と星の黄色は何を意味しているのか分かりますか？」とまるで子供への説明。「赤は血で黄色はアジア人の肌です」どうでもいいことを。どちらが子供なのか。

緑の書

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Hanoi
Sun. January 27 : cloudy

The coldness in Hanoi this winter is record breaking. The temperature becomes below 10 degrees at night. Although Ho Chi Minh is messy and dirty Hanoi is a neat city with lots of yellow Western style buildings. The terraces of most public buildings and private houses are decorated nicely. It’s a little slimy since they are over-decorated. “Yellow is a symbol of power” said Mr. Ming, 36 year old guide. He is a cheerful young guy but he becomes oppressive when he comes to the museums or revolution monuments. He explains me as I am a child “Do you know what the red background and yellow star mean?” “The red means blood and yellow, the skin color of Asians” It makes no difference to me. Which person is more childish?

Green Book

潮汲み

1月26日（土）曇

ベトナムは急速に発展中の国なので社会構造と人間行動の歪みが目立ちます。インフラ整備の追いつかない都市は不潔で渋滞だらけ。田舎も乱開発で自然破壊と公害だらけ。ビーチに行ったら砂浜はビニール袋とタバコの吸殻が潮風に舞い、野犬が残飯を漁っています。海も濁ってゴミが浮いています。海水浴客に混じって潮汲みの姿。地元の新鮮な魚介類を食べさせる海鮮レストランの従業員が1日中水槽の海水を汲み替えています。夕方ハノイに飛びます。

日本より少し増しなビーチ

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Scooping up salt water
Sat. January 26 : cloudy

As Vietnam is a rapidly developing county the distortion of the social structure and the human behavior has stood out. Cities are dirty and full of traffic jams since building the infrastructure is still insufficient. The countyside is full of nature destruction and the pollution caused by disordered development. When you go to the beach there are countless numbers of plastic bags and cigarette butts being drifted by the sea wind and stray dogs are foraging scrap. Garbage is also being drifted on the surface of muddy sea water. I saw some people who scooping up salt water among the group of tourists swimming. They are staff from the seafood restaurant that offers fresh local fish and shells to the tourists and they keep changing sea water of the tanks whole day. I will fly to Hanoi this evening.

a little better beach than Japan

戦争を知らない子供たち

1月25日（金）晴

ホーチミンに知人はいませんが、僕が解放戦線の支援者だったことを知る人はまだ残っているようです。メコン川クルーズに案内されて大勢の住民が殺された村を訪問。人口の10倍くらいのお墓がある村です。子供たちが天然の蜂蜜レモンを作ってくれました。この村では龍眼（ローガン）という果物の産地で、ローガンの蜂蜜はベトナムでは最良品とされています。

解放戦線

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Children who don’t know war
Fri. January 25 : fine

There are no acquaintances in Ho Chi Minh but some people still know that I was a supporter of Vietnam Liberation League. I was guided to Mekong River cruise and visited the village where a lot of villagers were killed. There are about 10 times as many tombs as the population. Children made some natural honey and lemon juice for me. This village is famous for producing longans, a kind fruit, and honey from longan has the best quality in Vietnam.

Vietnam Liberation League

ベトナム戦争博物館

1月24日（木）曇

シンガポールとホーチミンは空路1時間半。36年振りの訪問です。当時はサイゴンと呼ばれ時には銃弾が飛び交う街でした。戦争博物館は3階建てですが未完成なのか1階しか使用されていません。展示物は当時の写真と米軍が逃げる時に残していった戦車や飛行機など。写真の一部は僕が収集と展示に協力したものです。米国人の観光客は大勢見かけましたが、日本人はいなかった。

韓国の戦争博物館

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Vietnam War Museum
Thu. January 24 : cloudy

It takes 1and a half hour by airplane to go to Ho Chi Minh from Singapore. 36 years has passed since my last visit. In those days this city was called Saigon where bullets sometimes flied. War Museum is a three-storeyed building but only the ground floor is used as it doesn’t seem to be completed yet. The display is the pictures from that time and tanks and combat planes that American army abandoned when they retreated. I cooperated in gathering and displaying some of the pictures. I saw a lot of American tourists but no Japanese.

war museum in Korea