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Nomadic Gatherings - Synopsis of Chapters - https://magun.travelnotes.org/

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>> Paperback: 218 pages - ISBN-10: 1477666990 - ISBN-13: 978-1477666999

1. Taking Off - Pg 1 (11 HTML)

To Japan, where a booming economy meant a healthy tourist industry. I was quite
often the only blond foreigner surrounded by the ceremonious Japanese tour-guide
and her flock of homely punters.

So much of Japanese life seemed uniformed with rules, rituals, and ceremony;
keeping grace and saving face. I bowed; they giggled.

2. Kimchi and Gold Medals - Pg 6 (7 HTML)

The Olympic ceremony was on in Seoul, and the event was being transmitted live to
the on-board television above the driver. He was interested in the proceedings too,
and looked up continuously while travelling in excess of the speed-limit on the
outside lane.

People in the 'Hermit Kingdom' were open and forthcoming; often in an almost
missionary way.

3. Little Sister - Pg 10 (8 HTML)

Taiwan was a brief stop en-route from Seoul to Hong Kong. They found it amusing
that I was heading for China.

4. Colonial Gateway - Pg 13 (13 HTML)

Between the modern financial offices of Central Hong Kong, old trams still trundled
along Des Voeux Road, and peddlers tinkled bicycle bells almost unaware of the
diesel-fuelled double-decker buses behind them.

No-one stood still for a moment, it seemed that until 1997 at least, there would be
a New York edge to 'making-it'. I had to get a visa for China.

5. China Travel - Pg 18 (23 HTML)

The hard-seat section of the train was already overcrowded. Heads poked out of open
windows to escape the stuffiness inside, the little tables were piled high with
food and soft-drinks for the two-day journey, and in the restaurant-car kitchen
staff sweated and chopped vegetables.

Buying tickets can often be a problem with five-day waits and people camped at the
station. And what if you can't speak the language?

6. The Northern Capitals - Pg 27

Beijing (before democracy protests), and Harbin. Japan invaded Manchuria in the
early 1940s, and the Soviets followed in 1945. Some of the dome-shaped architecture
remains from the Russian period, although much was destroyed during the Cultural
Revolution.

7. Grasslands to Terracotta - Pg 32
With temperatures that drop below -35 degrees Celsius and stay around -20 on a good
day in the winter, it is a hard existence for the people of Inner Mongolia, and
unfortunately many are giving up their nomadic way of life to pose for tourists or
prospect for gold.

Then on to Xi'an.

8. Central China - Pg 39
Workers ploughed, hoed and fine tuned the cloggy soil, while their children carried
straw baskets on their backs to help with the work load. Further on, fishermen
punted small craft on a river. One of them pulled up his net, but the train had
passed before I could inspect the catch.

As with the rest of China, the day in Chengdu starts early. Still in the dark of
night at six in the morning, figures swing through a restricted motion in a space
between the trees; Tai Chi is a physical, meditational, art form popularised by the
elderly. It seems a way of keeping fit without the need for fitness.

9. Minorities and Tourists - Pg 46

The area in the deep south of Yunnan Province, bordering Burma and Laos, is
inhabited by a dozen of the minority tribes. CAAC flights are notorious for
cancellations, and when that happens in remote areas, a two-day bus journey is the
only alternative.

The daily flotilla of tourists from Guilin has turned Yangshou into a Chinese
Capri, complete with English menus and 'traditional Chinese massage'.

10. Leased Lands - Pg 58

I had flown into Britain's leased land, left it by train, and now I would return on
the waterway that many Chinese have risked everything in an attempt to float down
undetected by the authorities.

When the British used aggression against the Chinese in the Opium War, the
Portuguese diplomatically kept out of it; and today Macau finds itself the poorer
relation of a more dynamic Hong Kong.

11. Down Under - Pg 62

I was not emigrating, but as I flew from Hong Kong to Melbourne I was just as
apprehensive about the land I was approaching: the World's largest island and
smallest continent, with a red centre and the largest monolith on earth, the
largest coral in the world, and snow-fields larger than those of Alpine
Switzerland.

Sophisticated commercial centres alongside outback cattle-stations and flying

doctors; modern films, theatre, and music juxtaposing ochre-toned bark-paintings,
and Aboriginal rituals; mixed with the imported colour and culture of the
Mediterranean Europeans, the Lebanese, and the increasing number of Asians.

A young nation seemed to be making an old land work.

12. The Track - Pg 69

After Adelaide's social event of the year, the Formula One Grand Prix, it was time
to hitch-hike up the Great Interior.

13. Alice and Nurses - Pg 74

A car crash after my visit to Ayers Rock blurred events at The Centre, and I was
flown to Alice Springs by the Flying Doctor Service.

14. The Top End - Pg 79

Even without a railway link between the two major Northern territory towns of Alice
Springs and Darwin, traffic on the road was still slight.

15. Queensland - Pg 84
The road quality changed at the Queensland border. The bitumen was only wide enough
for one lorry. When two trucks passed, both had to drive half on the dirt edge. If
a car came, the lorry-driver held his course, and the smaller vehicle drove on the
dirt.
16. A Trip to Cairns - Pg 90
The reason for hitch-hiking was not to save money, but to get the whole of the
country's nothingness into perspective and perhaps unearth a few local gems by
meeting the natives, or at least those on the move or on some personal mission.
Albert was one.

17. South No Schedule - Pg 96

I only had a directional skeleton plan, but I was subject to outside influences
that could not guarantee time.

18. Along The Coast - Pg 105

'Beachies' may look for work, but they prefer having fun in the sun on the sands of
Noosa, Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour; also known as the Sunshine
Coast, Gold Coast, and Holiday Coast.

19. City of Culture - Pg 113

Whole books are written about Sydney, yet I try to condense the conscious capital
into a chapter. With so much going on, I hope that I've managed to pull it off.

20. Moving On: Two Islands - Pg 123

The beauty of moving is that you find something different, and somewhere among the
sheep and the scenery of New Zealand, I hoped to find the people.

21. Return to Oz - Pg 133

The return flight to Australia. I was told that anyone who spent more than a week
in Canberra, the diplomatic meeting place, would find themselves attending the
House of Representatives for entertainment. But the capital in the parkland was
also the place to finalise visa formalities for onward Asian countries.

22. The Indian Pacific - Pg 139

A two-night party of a train from Adelaide to Perth.

23. Bali: Tourist or Traveller - Pg 144

Tourist or traveller? Paradise or an attempted retreat from the prying eyes and
long lenses of the world's press?

24. Surabaya to Singapore - Pg 149

The crowded island of Java. And most of them seemed to be in the streets of
Yogyakarta to see the Coronation and parade around the Kraton of the new Sultan.

Where was the genuine smile in Lee Kuan Yew's towering-modern-triumph-in-the-

tropics?

25. North Borneo: Not The Jungle - Pg 159

"The Jungle?" the Dutchman in Jakarta had shown surprise when I expressed a desire
to travel to the Philippines, via North Borneo. In fact there is a preposterous
oil-wealth, alongside houses-on-stilts-in-the-water poverty, and a King with two
wives.

26. Catholics and Communistos - Pg 170

The only Catholic nation in Asia, Filipinos take their belief seriously; to the
extent that in San Fernando, Pampanga, they are prepared to flagellate themselves
and carry out genuine crucifixions on Good Friday.

The baranguay (local) elections were also approaching, and the 'risk areas' were in
their thousands. The media contemplated rebel strongholds and announced the daily
shooting toll, guerrilla leaders were being arrested, and Cory Acquino's holiday
movements would not be revealed.
27. Days Between Night Trains - Pg 185
From Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok, via Penang and Koh Samui.

The best trains are the long-distance overnighters, where everybody lives on it for
the moment. The restaurant car, sharing a bite to eat or a drink or two; the queue
for a trickle of water to attempt to wash and clean your teeth in the morning, when
no one looks quite how they like to present themselves; and the time-passing
occupations of the passengers with their guard down.

28. A Splashing New Year - Pg 194

The three-day New Year in Laos and North-East Thailand. The Vientiane I found was
nothing like Paul Theroux's visit, where 'a naked waitress jumped on to a chair and
puffed a cigarette in her vagina by contracting her uterine lungs'.

29. The Saigon Scene - Pg 202

The Vietnamese march of communism in South-East Asia was retreating in a bid to
restore its ravaged economy. Even Communism needs capital, and Le Tho could return
confidently with an US passport and his Dollars, twelve years after his bid for
freedom.

Twelve years on, people were still sailing for the unknown; stories of piracy and
almost terrible conditions did not deter them. Perhaps in ten or fifteen years time
they too could return with an adoptive passport and gifts for relatives.

30. The Return - Pg 207

On my return to Bangkok, I needed to think about where was home.

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Thank-you for your interest in Nomadic Gatherings by Michel Guntern.

Find out more at: https://tnot.es/Nomadic

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