White Cliffs Country (England)

White Cliffs Country is an area along England’s southern coast, and is better known as “the white cliffs of Dover”: the landscape consists of tens of miles of blindingly white, almost vertical rock faces, grasslands and little villages perched on tops of cliffs or tucked away in bays.

The cliffs are made of chalk (a form of limestone), made up of the remnants of prehistoric algae – the same material they used to make school blackboard chalk from — these days it’s synthetic —, and if you scratch the cliff surface, it actually crumbles. (Note: standing on top of a cliff that crumbles under your fingers is a little scary). The cliffs are often higher than 100 metres (same as a 30-story building), and can be seen from France on a clear day.

The area’s historical significance is that it’s the part of England closest to the continent, and because of this potential invaders could always be expected to land here over the millennia. The Battle of Britain (Nazi Germany’s foiled attempt to gain air superiority over Britain in WWII) also took place mainly in these parts.

Trails

There are miles and miles of hiking and cycling trails along the cliffs with amazing views on a clear day (see the Getting there and around chapter below for recommended walking/cycling routes).

Samphire Hoe

Samphire Hoe (halfway between Dover and Folkestone) is a landfill built using the soil excavated during the construction of the Eurotunnel (the undersea tunnel connecting England and France). The landfill got an unfortunate concrete finish, which was then landscaped and turned into a public park with with cows (no, seriously) grazing on it.

Signs for the geographically challenged:

Towns and villages

Folkestone (the site of Eurotunnel’s English entrance) at low tide:

Tropical sunset outside Folkestone on a hot September day:

St-Margarets-at-Cliffe, a wealthy ‘village’ built on top of the cliffs:

Kingsdown and Deal, two less-known and very peaceful seaside resorts:

Beach huts and boats in Kingsdown:

“Be warned of possible dangers surrounding boat winching operations”:

People

Country for Old Men:

Homeward bound:

Hikers:

Kid:

Scenery

Getting there

Visiting the white cliffs is a great day trip from London. The easiest way to get here is to take a train (takes 1-1.5 hours) from London to Dover, Folkestone or Deal. Note that buying a “day return” ticket (meaning you’ll return on the same day) usually costs only a little more than buying a single (one-way) ticket.

Once you’re there, you can follow several signposted walking/cycling routes, e.g. the Saxon Shore Way or the North Downs Way. Recommended routes:

• Dover to Folkestone (10km; fairly flat apart from two major ascents, great for cycling)
• Dover to Deal (15km and hilly)

In Britain most land is private (often even mountains), but most of it is crisscrossed by public rights of way (meaning a public path crossing private land) designated by local authorities. Fairly new inventions are access lands, which allow you to roam freely on a designated piece of private land:

Approved by Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks:

Photography © Peter Visontay, www.earth-photography.com

Iceland

“I love England. It’s no coincidence it’s the first place I moved to for a more cosmopolitan life, which is the only thing Iceland lacks.” (Björk)

Iceland quick facts

Name: Republic of Iceland (Lýðveldið Ísland)
Language: Icelandic
Area and population: Iceland is approximately the same size as Pennsylvania, but has only 2% of its population: that is 300,000 people. (The population density is extremely low, about the same as that of Australia.)

The People

The first permanent settlers of this distant and hostile land had been Irishmen and Vikings, who became the ancestors of today’s Icelanders. According to the guidebook Icelanders have a strong national identity, which stems from the fact that it’s a small and isolated country, often overlooked by larger nations. (During World War II Britain occupied the whole country with only 700 marines, as the country has no full-time army). Still, being able to stand a winter of permanent (semi-)darkness is rather impressive, and the country is (or at least had been before the banking system collapsed in 2008) one of the richest in the world.

The language is Icelandic (a country of 300,000 people has its own language), which is similar to Norwegian, Danish and Swedish, but, similarly to the rest of Scandinavia, most people also speak English. One of the language’s peculiarities is the lettern Thorn, named after Scandinavian god Thor, which looks like this: þ. This letter was part of English for a long time — until it was replaced by the th sound in the 15th century (which is the sound it corresponds to). (If you had been alive five centuries ago, you could now be saying “What’s þat?.”.

Society seems to be quite informal (probably due to the number of people in the country — many medium-sized towns elsewhere have larger populations than the whole of Iceland), apparently anyone can meet the prime minister to discuss ideas with him/her (the position is currently held by the openly lesbian Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir — her last name literally means “daughter of Sigurðar”, as Icelanders don’t have family names in the Western sense). We wanted to meet her and suggest the following touristic slogan for the country: “Iceland — where trains are never late.” Note that there aren’t any trains in the country, but still, it does sound good. (The folowing is from a blog entry teaching various Icelandic expressions to the prospective traveller: “Where is the train station? There isn’t a train station either, forget about it.”).

Icelanders have had a parliament (for more than 1070(!) years — the parliament had its first session in 930 AD on the fault line between the North American and Eurasian Plates — in the picture below yo ucan see Europe on the left, and America on the right:

Most people live in the capital, Reykjavík, in not particularly pretty concrete houses. Apart from this there are a few smaller towns and many small, godforsaken settlements scattered around the country:

And a bit of suburbia in the middle of nowhere:

Geology and Fauna

Volcanic activity has created incredible landscapes with mountains, glaciers, endless plains and plateaus, waterfalls plunging off cliffs and rivers winding into infinity.

Iceland is one of the few places left in the world where the land is still “forming” — occasional volcano eruptions cover places with lava, new islands are born (the world’s youngest island, Surtsey, can be found here — it came into being in the 1960s) — this is the same process that formed the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, only much slower now.

Dirt track across the lava fields of the Reykjanes Peninsula (south of Reykjavík):

Volcanic activity means that the country has access to a huge amount of geotermic energy, and hot water is often directly sourced from underground hot springs (this is easy to tell as the high sulphur content makes it smell like rotten eggs) — roadside geotermic power plants are a common sight:

The landscape often changes so quickly that things in the background look surreal, as if they were put there with Photoshop:

Weather

Iceland’s weather is extremely fickle, but mostly cold and windy (the daily high is 14 degrees Celsius in the summer), so a day, for example, can be sunny, cold and windy in the morning, rainy, cold and windy in the afternoon, and foggy, cold and windy in the evening. It also tends to hail. If it wasn’t windy though, summers would be quite easy to tolerate.

Though lies mostly south of the arctic circle, summertime is marked by an almost unbroken several-month spell of sunlight (the sun does dip below the horizon, but only just), while winters are long, dark and cold. The midnight sun in May:

The extra sunlight is confusing at first, 10pm often feels like it’s just late afternoon. This picture was taken at 11pm:

Due to the cold and windy weather not many plants manage to cling on to the loose soil, so Iceland is mostly covered by tundra — trees are a rare sight, but even bushes are hard to come by.

The weather is perfect for kite-flying, but be careful, you might never have encountered winds of such strength before:

The wind blowing two waterfalls into thin air as soon as they leave the hillside:

Infrastructure

Icelandic infrastructure owes much to American forces occupying the island during WWII (Iceland conveniently lies halfway between Europe and the US), as they built many of today’s roads. Still, roads can still turn into a muddy dirt track with alarming suddenness. However, what’s bad for drivers is great for the land — Icelanders do seem to respect the incredible nature that surrounds them and don’t over-develop anything, leaving vast swathes of land nearly intact. If you choose to access more remote areas, don’t leave without a 4WD though — getting stuck in the middle of a lava plain is not that fun.

Most of the interior of the country is untouched, barren landscape — there are a few dirt tracks, but that’s it. This sign (very subtly) warns the driver that this road will become nonexistent after a few miles, after which you’ll find yourself even more in the middle of nowhere:

The almost completely deserted Route 365:

Vík

Vík is a rundown and seemingly deserted settlement on the south coast, and is famous for the black volcanic sand of its beaches:

It was a great day for a walk on the beach (only got half-drenched under bigger waves):

The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is a (mostly) open-air spa heated by an adjacent geothermic power plant — its turquoise waters look completely surreal in the middle of the black lava field:

To see and to read

Halldór Laxness: Independent People
101 Reykjavík (like a Pedro Almodóvar movie, but with Icelanders)

Tips

• Take a kite.
• Rent a 4WD.
• Eat a puffin.
• Don’t ask Björk about Icelandic eskimos.

“People are always asking me about eskimos, but there are no eskimos in Iceland.” (Björk)

Photography © Peter Visontay, www.earth-photography.com

Singapore

Singapore Quick Facts

Name: Republic of Singapore
Population: 5 million
Area: 710 km^2
Official languages: English, Malay, Chinese, Tamil

History

The history of today’s Singapore began when the British bought the island in the 19th century in order to use it as a trading post in the Far East. The town quickly became one of the biggest ports in the world (and it’s still one of the busiest ports according to certain criteria), and as the colony developed, a large number of tradesmen and refugees started arriving from various countries — the diverse demographics of the country includes 75% Chinese, 14% Malaysians and 8% Indians. It seceded from the crumbling British Empire in 1959 and, after a short spell as part of the Malayan Union, has been an independent republic since 1965. Since gaining independence the country has invested a lot in improving the quality of education and making English (the main language of international commerce) the primary language (which, along with the ‘mixed’ Singlish, is frequently used by locals to communicate with each other). The effects of these measures are instantly visible: Singapore is now a major financial and business centre, and has one of the highest standards of living in the world.

Ships along the East Coast as far as the eye can see — they’re waiting for entry into Singapore’s port, or refuelling and letting the crew take a few days off:

A multi-lingual classified (“welcome all race”):

Geography

Singapore is a city state, and is entirely situated on one big, and several smaller islands, off the Malaysian coast. Since the islands have almost entirely been built up, they’re trying to expand upwards — even though most of the city already consists of high rises —, and also doing expensive landfills to accommodate the 4 million strong population:

Climate

Singapore is situated about 100 miles from the equator, therefore its climate is equatorial — that means one season, the hot and humid one (that’s 30 degrees Celsius and extreme humidity year-round). It was good to know that I’m not the only one affected by the heat, even locals who had lived in London for a few years found it intolerable after moving back to the country. If you have some business to do, it’s safest to dash from air-conditioned building to air-conditioned taxi to yet another air-conditioned building.

Even he found it too hot (also, a local can be seen in the background protecting herself from the sun with an umbrella):

Hot and sunny spells are often followed by sudden tropical rain:

These guys were not only running despite the 30-degree heat and maximum humidity, but also singing impeccably, and clearly enjoying it:

Food

Due to the mixture of cultures present in the city, a staggering variety of dishes is available from various parts of China, India and Malaysia, and there are a million places to try these, like small, family-run eateries and huge food courts with hundreds of stalls (you can have lunch every day in some food courts for weeks without having to eat the same cuisine twice).

One of Singapore’s national dishes is the chicken rice, originating in China’s Hainan province. It’s basically rice cooked partially in chicken stock (recipe) which you can have with assorted stuff:

Another local speciality is the fish head curry, with a whole fish head in it (recipe):

There’s a multitude of dishes — some of the more memorable ones:

• rib soup (locals had a great time watching me try to eat ribs with chopsticks — a Chinese couple at the next table even asked the waitress to get me a fork and a knife, which, though they were just trying to help, was slightly humiliating :) The trick was to use chopsticks and a spoon — definitely try this the next time you’re having rib soup at home.
• rice ice cream with bean paste (an unlikely, but brilliant combiation).

These cookies say ‘sweet’, and the first ‘letter’ is actually a bear:

And let’s not forget about this very promising protein sausage either:

Rules

Singapore is famous for imposing fines for various misdemeanours (hence the local joke: “Singapore’s a fine country”), from not flushing a public toilet toilet to chewing gum (it’s banned because it often leads to littering). However, multiple sources claim that it’s unlikely that anyone would be found out and fined by an eagle-eyed policeman after not flushing the toilet. They cannot be accused of not telling people what’s allowed and what’s not though:

Rainforest

Since Singapore lacks most natural resources, including freshwater, the middle of the island contains several reservoirs, and to protect these, the surrounding tropical rainforests had been left intact. This is a real rainforest (defined as a woodland with almost 2000mm (or “2 metres”) of rain per year), although it doesn’t look like the Amazonian jungles. It has flying snakes and 3-metre lizards (so-called water monitors, which can be easily mistaken for crocodiles) though (fortunately/unfortunately I didn’t manage to run into either of these). Its trees can reach heights of 40 metres (equivalent to a 13-storey building), which is unbelievably high.

A cheeky macaque who knows that it’s enough to give visitors an innocent look to get some food from them (which is strongly discouraged by the park authority, by the way):

Kids:

East Coast Park

One of the best places in Singapore is the East Coast Park, which was built on a landfill and is spread along a 20km-long stretch of coast. Each weekend thousands of families flock to the park to lie on the beach, have a picnic, or rent rollerblades/bicycles. (I definitely recommend renting a bike, but bear in mind: if the climate makes you sweat while sitting in one place, try to imagine what’ll happen when you start pedalling.)

Scenes

Tai chi in the square:

Five stars:

Courses by the Siglap Community Centre…
Drumming for seniors (50 and above!):

Pork with Preserved Vegetable, Crispy Roasted Chicken, Red Bean Sago Making Workshop:

The ‘Short Course Names’ course wasn’t on at the time:

Chinese couple in the Botanical Gardens:

MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, the local underground/suburban railway network) train arriving in the tropical rain:

It’s raining:

Huge ships along East Coast Park:

Meditating under the bridge:

To read and to see

Crossroads: A Popular History of Malaysia and Singapore
From Third World to First: The Singapore Story
The Singapore Song (with scenes of Singaporean life)

Sources

Wikipedia
Singapore Insight City Guide

Photography © Peter Visontay, www.earth-photography.com

Hong Kong

Hong Kong quick facts

Full name: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (中華人民共和國香港特別行政區 in Cantonese — the last character, which looks like a little blueprint, means ‘region’ or ‘area’)
Official languages: Cantonese, English
Population: 6 million (95% of which Chinese)
Area: 1000 km²

History

The 19th century saw the British Empire expand towards the Far East, but they had a difficult time tackling China — while the Empire needed to import many things from the East, huge and self-sufficient China barely needed anything in return. It became apparent after a while that what the Chinese needed was opium — and the British could provide this in abundance. While its trade wasn’t legal, Chinese authorities turned a blind eye, and so the export of opium became a profitable business, up until the point when a Chinese official unexpectedly attempted to ban it. To show how ‘upset’ they were with the proceedings, the British declared war on China (this was the first Opium War), which ended in a peace in exchange for Hong Kong Island, which seemed a convenient base for Far Eastern trade. Two further conflicts ended in the Brits acquiring two more territories: neighbouring Kowloon Peninsula, and the so-called New Territories (the latter they only leased for 99 years, while the rest they acquired “forever”), which, together with Hong Kong Island, formed the colony of Hong Kong. Under British rule the territory became a blooming centre of trade, and, in the past few decades, a major financial hub too. When the New Territories lease was nearing its end, the British knew (already having lost most of their colonies) that there was little point in trying to keep Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and they intended to hand the whole territory back to China — this finally happened in in 1997 (“the Handover”). However, Hong Kong is still not completely part of China — I’ll talk about this in more detail in the One Country, Two Systems section.

Empire

While a lot less “European” than many former British colonies, there are many little details that show its Imperial heritage — they drive on the left, the underground’s announcer says Mind the gap before opening the doors (a very English peculiarity), and a huge number of signs look exactly like their British counterparts — for example this LOOK RIGHT text painted on a street crossing (warning people of road rules different from rules used in most of the world):

At the same time there are many things that show that the colony is very far from England — like this sign, for example:

…or the Hong Kong Transport Department’s stickers asking you to “Be nice. Be happy.”, and “Don’t push. Don’t rush.”:

…or the drawings below in which a government agency (the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department, EMSD) uses manga character Doraemon to demonstrate correct lift usage (he’s happy if you’re doing OK, but you can make him sad by getting caught in the door, so don’t do this.)

Geography

For most people the name Hong Kong conjures up a massive jungle of high-rises. This is correct, but only in built-up areas, which make up less than 25% of Hong Kong. The rest is covered by mountains and forests with great hiking trails and the occasional 6-foot tropical snake:

Because locals need horizontal space to build on, massive areas have been landfilled. The place where the English first landed (now called Possession Street) is now several hundred metres inland.

One Country, Two Systems

Having left Mao’s rule long behind, the “soft communism” of Deng Xiaoping allowed the fairly unthinkable to happen: when the United Kingdom and China were negotiating the terms of the Handover in the 1980s, they agreed that the colony would retain its political, legislative and economic systems (capitalism, free elections, freedom of speech, …) for 50 years after the Handover (that is, until 2047). This is the One Country, Two Systems doctrine (also applied to a similar former colony, Macau), on which an official Chinese document can be found here.

Many people say that not much has changed in Hong Kong since the Handover took place more than 10 years ago (although the English language must have lost some of its prominence) — when I was there in 2009, an article in the colony’s most prominent English-language newspaper (South China Morning Post, estd. 1903) was openly criticising Chinese government, claiming that they lied about their treatment of human rights. In another article (part of which can be seen below) they claimed that it was completely unacceptable that a press photographer had recently been denied entry into neighbouring Macau, supposedly for political reasons.

If you thought that constitutional monarchy (the form of government of the UK, Japan, Netherlands, etc.) was a complicated form of government: Hong Kong’s form of government (according to Wikipedia) is a Non-sovereign partial indirect democracy.

Architecture

If you like tall buildings, you’re in the right place — there’s an apparently endless supply of skyscrapers and high-rises. They range from the rundown and ugly…

…to the rather nice:

Most people seem to live in 20-30 story buildings, while some live on top of a 20-story building in a small, single-story, tin-roofed house with clothes hung out to dry (a couple of chickens or cows are all that’s missing for the perfect rural atmosphere):

Countryside

Areas untouched by modern development still exist, for example some parts in Fanling in the New Territories (take the train to Fanling station), with its old residential buildings, farms and free-range chickens:

Some parts of Fanling don’t even have sewage pipes:

Bye-laws(?) at the entrance of a road:

Food

Cheap and good. Most restaurants (and I’ve mostly been to small, off-the-beaten-path eateries that are almost never visited by tourists) have either an English menu or one that has a picture for each dish. Pick an appetizing-looking picture and you’re unlikely to regret it. Also, despite what many westerners may think, most restaurants only sell dishes made from the same animals eaten in Western countries (chicken & co.), the risk of accidentally ordering stuffed crickets is very low.

Trams

Doubledecker trams are an interesting mode of public transport on Hong Kong island — they can get very crowded, but if you can squeeze up to the upper deck, they’re brilliant for people-watching:

The trams cost HK$2, payable in exact change when getting off. Buses and underground trains require cash payment when you get on though — it’s safer to get an electronic Octopus card, which you just need to touch to Octopus card readers on buses, trams and underground stations to pay.

The Peak

If you want to get a sense of scale, one of the best places to do so is 550m high Victoria Peak, below which a few-mile long path (Lugard and Harlech Roads) runs around the mountanside, offering amazing views of the territory (including the south side of Hong Kong island, with smaller towns called Stanley and Aberdeen) and the surrounding islands.

The funicular called the Peak Tram takes you to Harlech/Lugard Road — experiencing the incredible steepness of the track (there’s a point where you think this is ridiculous — and then it starts to get real steep) is worth paying the fare alone.

Scenes

Wan Chai Sports Ground is a rare example of a large open space in the middle of downtown Hong Kong island — these guys were very passionate and were having a lot of fun:

Spectator:

Odd and slightly scary (yes, a bulldog with a pouch is scary) playground toy:

Traffic:

An attractive shopping mall in an area with several shady-looking characters. I tried to blend in, but probably didn’t quite succeed:

Lanes:

Bird:

If you thought such signs were painted using stencils — no, it’s all manual and this man does it:

On the tram:

Winters are pleasant (twenty-odd degrees and humid), but summers are extremely hot with the heat trapped among the high-rises:

Tired local on the Star Ferry that runs between Kowloon and Hong Kong island:

To read and to see

Jan Morris: Hong Kong
Made in Hong Kong (a gangster movie slightly reminiscent of Guy Ritchie’s gangster flicks)
La Moustache (a movie, in which the main character spends days travelling to and fro between ports on the Star Ferry).

Sources

Wikipedia
Hong Kong Insight City Guide
South China Morning Post
Jan Morris: Hong Kong

Photography © Peter Visontay, www.earth-photography.com