Illustrated notes from a small world

Cities by night are interesting.

Sneaking up to get some night shots from the top floor of the hotel gives a couples of perspective of why.

The first photo here is taken towards the My Khe beach. Da Nang is such a neat and well designed modern city.

And it is truly lovely in the evening. If you need partying along the river with its bars and restaurants, or more quiet street food venues. Like here.

Night cloudy backdrop

The other photo is taken just ten minutes earlier. It shows that photos taken just after sunset, the clouds and sky makes a nice backdrop in city night shots. The larger amounts of light from a city center gives a rich palette of colours as well.

But as the nights come quickly in South East Asia, you have to take your shots quickly.

The classic street of Hoi An old town are for obvious reasons a World Cultural Heritage site.

Cultural benefits of trade

The narrow streets, roads and alleys mixed with channels and river waterways represent a typical Asian trading port between 1500-1900 CE.

And as a trading port, this city in the old Champa Kingdom is filled with the cultural mix of architecture, arts and artefacts so typical for trade and human interconnections. And it has been like a human mix pot for several centuries.

A old town worthy to be part of our common World Cultural Heritage.

Hoi An is also proud to be called the city of lanterns. Another fact that is hard to ignore, both by day and night.

Or by sunset, when the boats are filling the channels offering a sunset boat trip with a lantern on the side.

Long term civilization actor

Cham civilization and Champa kingdom was a culture and a more or less continuous political structure and kingdom for 1500 years in South East Asia. The core geographical area was what we today know as South Viet Nam. Hoi An was its commercial center, My Son was its Spiritual center and Vijaja near present day Quy Nhon was its capital for most of the kingdoms existence.

A lady strolling along the Perfume River pass Pagoda of the Celestial Lady.

Autumn muddy river from the rain washing out the dirt upstream. The fall means a new color and also new smell of Perfume River.

Flowers upstream falls into the river, and gives off the odors giving the river passing the Imperial City of Hue its scented name.

Powerful vietnamese lady

At this bend in the river is the site of the Celestial Lady, an important figure in the myths of power and ruling in Viet Nam from old times.

The place has a pagoda and a monastery. And with the great tower, bell, exterior garden and the old Austin driving the venerable Thich Quang Duc to Saigon in 1963, it is an important cultural and historic site for visitors. Domestic and internationals.

The Hien Nhon gate/Cửa Hiển Nhơn is the main East gate out of the Imperial forbidden city in Huế.

.It also leads into the main business district of the old town. As can be expected, the first few blocks are filled with sales booths for touristy things and gadgets.

Get some food and drink

More important, there are some nice hole-in-wall places to eat and drink in the area. If the Forbidden City has gotten the attention and time deserved, get something to eat and drink before continuing.

This gate is often referred to as the "colourful gate" for obvious reason. It is modelled after the Beijing Forbidden city with Feng Shui principles, Viet unique architectural style and principle of European styled military warfare and defences of the early 1800's. The Huế Imperial City and Citadel is a unique site.

Sometimes we need to be reminded that vital duties has been around for thousands of years. And the rivers was the first sources of civilisation.

Here is a literary a layer to that effect.

The Perfume River, or Hương Giang or Sông Hương, runs through the former imperial city of Hue. It got its name from the time in the autumn when the flowers of the orchards up river falls into the river giving it a scent of flowers.

Daily life

As city rivers do, people live, work, fish, bathe, make food, transport and put waste in the river. These steps from the narrow roads down to the riverside are everywhere, showing the importance of the river infrastructure for the city and citylife.

And when the sun sets and temperature gets cooler, life along the riverside gears up for the socialising and experiences that comes with the night.

The small town of Skóun is where the National Road 6 and 7 splits today. But even if the place are offering a wide array of food and drinks for the road traveller, there are some more to see and experience.

One of them is the Yellow Pagoda, the main building inside the Wat area and the necropolis close by. A simple, yet splendidly decorated building with some intricate design details.

Visit Skóun

I attended a funeral for a good man in Skóun back in 2019, and got a lot of opportunities to look around and inside the temple area and wat.

Inside the Pagoda in Skóun.

Later I have visited in connection with parties, weddings and religious holidays like Pchum Benh. It is nice to revisit this pagoda from time to time.

An evening in the KLCC park, close to the Petronas Twin Towers.

People gather around the open water bassins, chat, play, eat and drink, surrounded by the Kuala Lumpur CBD. After a Malay cuisine tasting late dinner, we were heading back to the guest house.

We took our time. It was a splendid, cool night, we were jetlagged. And it was quite nice.

An evening meet by the Aquaria and Congress Center

Walking back from a late dinner, we spend as much time looking at the city skyline as on the buildings.

Except this one. Situated close by the Petronas Towers in the KLCC Garden in the Kuala Lumpur CBD, it is a bit overshadowed by a lot of tall buildings.

But this wavery architectural uniqueness contains a mall, aquaria and a Congress center.

The Petronas Towers stretching into the night are inspiring. It also demonstrates how the skybridge between the towers are under halfway to the top.

At 170 meter and 42nd floor, there is still 382 meter to the top. But the 58 meter long bridge is worth a visit by itself.

The topmost observatory deck is at 85th floor, 348 meter above ground.

A wise woman once said that stretching gives a career payback as years goes by. Actually, it is quite healthy, too. Inspired by Petronas or not.

Tallish neighbours

To the east of the Petronas, there are two other tall buildings.

The rectangular squared one is Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur. It is 342,5 meter tall with 74 floors. In 2023 it is the 4th tallest building in Malaysia. It was build between 2013 to 2018.

The other circular cut off stove pipe is the Maxis Tower. That building is 212 meter tall with 49 storeys. It was finished in 1996 as phase 1 of the developing of the KLCC, KL City Center, of which Petronas Towers are the centerpiece.

The hippopotamus is a big herbivore, with a rather friendly appearance. At least with its mouth shut.

Extremely dangerous

But it also quite ferocious when defending itself or its family, they are agressive and considered to be one of the most dangerous animals in the world.

Imagine meeting those teeth, delivered by a heavy body weighing a good 1500 kg at a speed of 30 km per hour. I have seen one charging in shoulder high river water, and they are madly fast! Hippopotamus amphibius kills over 500 humans each year.

No wonder this one is well fed when he flex his teeth.

This guy studied me with the same intensity as I studied him. Being early in the morning, he sat outside his cave, where he later would retreat when the sun got to hot. Or when the noises annoyed him.

The orangutans are great apes and among the closest genetical family members to Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The name of the species means “Man of the woods/forrest” in Malaysian.

Ouy! Ookh!

This male, Ouy the Orangutan as he is known, is a full grown adult Bornean Orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with bulging cheeks and beard.

As any fans of the great English author Terry Pratchett will know, there is no coincidence that The Librarian at Unseen University in his Discworld series turned into an orangutan. The species is considered to be among the most intelligent of the great apes.

These gentlemen was having a brisk, sunday roadwalk near Tingere, on the road to Meng.

The red earth of Cameroon followed us anywhere. And in part, all the way home, on and in bags and items used when travelling and taken home.

The highway between Nguandere and Tingere. With a promising lane for people on foot.

The red soil in Cameroon is likely to result from the weathering of rocks that contain iron oxides. The most common type of rock that contributes to red soil is called basalt. As Cameroon have several former active volcanoes, the amount of basalt is not surprising. The process breaks down the basalt into smaller pieces, and then the smaller pieces are broken down further into silt and clay.

Add some rain, and a large truck, making the roadtrip even more exciting.

Much of the ground in Africa is called laterite and that is a clay which has been enriched with Iron and aluminium. The type of clay and soil has been developed over long periods of time by the heavy rainfalls and the intense heat.

Working on the highway, colourful and incredibly dusty work.

Unfortunate, this red soil does not result in very good farmland. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Cameroon’s soils are generally poor in nutrients and organic matter.

These dirt tracks roads are not paved with asphalt, concrete, brick or stone but are made from the native material of the land surface through which it passes.

The interesting part of this for roadtrips in Cameroon, is making the travels colorful. But, as dirt track roads without pavement makes up for 92,5 percent of all the roads, it means that travels here gets dirty and dusty. Out of a 121,884.7 linear kilometer network as of November 2021, 112,740.2 kilometers were dirt roads while 9,144.5 kilometers (7.5% of the network) were paved.

A visit to his highness Lamido Mohamadou Hayatou Issa in Ngaoundere. The laamiido is the traditional ruler of an fulani area or vassal state, and is at translation of the arabic Emir into the Fula-language.

In the republic of Cameroon they play an important role as community and regional leaders even if their role is not formal in the constitution.

I met two of these leaders, interesting people working to balance tradition and history with modern times and what is best for their subjects.

The master of horses is a very prominent role in the hierarchy of the Lamido. The Fula-people was horse riders, conquering the Sahel area from horseback and their ability to use horses offensive with newer weapons and the motiviation of their faith.

A member of the court of the Lamido in Ngaundere in ceremonial robes and sword.

Didn't get the memo.. I did have all my photo permits in order, but this guy in the parade of nobility wasn't told…

Not much sleep on a night train when this landscape appears with the sunrise.

I found a farm in Africa somewhere after Ngaoundal at the morning train to Ngaounderé…

I seem to have become less happy with the red dirt impressions later on my trip. I found this note written on a posting: "Honestly, the red shitty dust is all over my carrying gear, but not on my precious camera, lenses, Surface p3 or harddisks."

A village weaver bird trying to lure a (birdie)damsell in distress into the safety of his nest.

In the shadow parts of the Wilderness Center in Limbe, this redeyed hooded village weaver, Ploceus cucullatus, was busy splitting time. One part tailoring this seasons homely nest. The other trying to get attention from prosperous weaver ladies to mate, move in and lay 2-3 eggs.

These birds are noisy and colonial birds, hand make a ruckus of the noisy sort when they establish their colonies in trees near humans in towns, villages and hotel grounds.

Noisy, pesty, useful, adaptable

Their natural habitat is forests and savannah in most of sub-saharan central and west-africa, from DR Congo and CAR via Cameroon to Southern Mauretania. They are introduced into other areas by European travellers, like into the Iberian peninsula, and northern parts of South America and the Caribbean.

They feed on seeds and grains and may be a crop pest. On the other hand, they eat a lot of insects too, especially when feeding and bringing up their young, adding a positive value to agriculture as well.

Weaving half the globe

The weaver birds, ploceidae, are a large family of species, closely related in size to finches, though some are significant larger. They live in Africa south of Sahara and in a belt into the indian subcontinent regions. They build more or less intricate nests and hanging homes out of different kinds of materials, and uses it both to find a suitable mate and to safely bring up their offspring.

The citizens in this lepra colony are treated and no longer sick. But the social stigma means that the former lepra sick cannot travel home after they get well. The entry from the road is way back on top of the hill, and then a ten minute drive to the center of the village of Mbé.

Nice and friendly visit

Visiting the colony was a joy. Very awesome people, curious and happy children and a good place to visit. We were warmly welcomed and showed around.

The stigma people treated and free from leprasy are still alive. Considered unclean and 2nd class fellow humans, the isolated small village are home to former patients and their families. It was somehow unclear how the ratio between former lepra patients and family members who had never been diagnosed was.

As and example of how social stigma and lack of knowledge isolates lots of former lepra-patients, we had this lady. By request and sign language, she asked for a photo taken with a fellow european human was sort of a dream. My fellow traveller, a retired pharmacist, had no second thoughts grabbing the opportunity to make a memory for life.

Challenges of old to new

It was the Norwegian doctor and scientist Gerhard A. Hansen that identified the origin of leprasy and developed the first modern treatment. Modern medicine can effectively eradicate this 4000 year old curse to humanity, but there are still some regions of the world were it exists.

The entry to the Basilique Marie-Reine-des-Apôtres/Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica.

Very impressive

The catholic Mary Queen of the Apostles Basilica are on the outskirts of the capital Yaounde of the republic of Cameroon. A splendid building mostly build in wood, with a lot of religious art from carved woodwork and large painted panels with localised version of biblical stories.

Most of the photos from Cameroon in my articles here were taken during a 2 week trip in the country in February 2015.

I was travel in a group including my aunt, who had worked as a nurse and missionary in the country for several years in the 1970s and 1980s, and two brothers and a cousin. The group was led by a couple who had served as missionaries in Ngaounderé in the 1980s.

During the first ten days, we travelled these parts of Cameroon. From the capital Yaoundé via Ngaoundal to Ngaoundere we travelled by train. The travel north to Benoue National park and west to Gadjiwan and south to Tibati was by Toyota Landcruiser.

Honestly, I cannot think those roads or distances could be handled by any other vehicle than the Toyota and their vehicles of the Landcruiser or Hilux kind.

From Tibati via Foumban and Bafoussam to Limbe we travelled by minibus, a Toyota Coaster, of course. The same bus brought us to Douala for our flight to Europe.

In general, Cameroon is Toyota country. The same quality in design and construction making Toyota popular in the rest of the world and in Top Gear, are extremely well suited for the demands of roads and climate in Cameroon. Including the ease of repair, even the more creative ones.

On the road to Seme Beach, we caught up with this Toyota. Or, the winner of "how much to put into a Toyota Carina E"! Each bag can take 100 kilogram, and we counted at least nine. Cameroon is Toyota-country, those cars can take a sh*tload of beating and still work.