KOREA TURNS THE TAP ON WATERY INNOVATIONS

David Ellis
with
Hilary Roots


HANDS up if you've heard of Yeosu.

And hands up again if you know where it is, with top marks if you can say why it's currently revelling in the limelight.

The answer to the latter is that Yeosu, a small port city at the lower tip of South Korea, is the site for this year's World Expo, an event expected to attract 8-million visitors during its three months run to August 12th.

It's a nice boost for a city that's not really on the way to anywhere, but whose cool summers, mild winters and lengthy spring and autumn encourage plenty of tourists to Korea to make the three-hour trip there by fast train from Seoul, or around the same time by bus from Busan.

Not a trade fair, Yeosu's World Expo is an international event along the lines of what the inaugural Great Exhibition in London's Crystal Palace first paraded in 1851, and what Brisbane hosted in 1988. And with this year's theme of Living Ocean and Coast Expo, the 103 participating nations are highlighting just how precious is water to mankind's, and indeed the earth's, survival.

Denmark notes that global water use increases at more than twice the rate of population, while the Swiss pavilion headlines "Water is Nature's Bloodstream," and has a presentation of drops of water in an obscure tunnel that ends with a taste of fresh alpine water for visitors to savour.

Some world expos are precursors of what become everyday innovations. Our co-writer this week, Hilary Roots remembers the Italian pavilion at Brisbane in '88 presenting the extraordinary concept of a telephone with pictures – something pretty banal now.

And she recalls being impressed at Japan's Tskuba Expo in 1985 with hydroponically growing tomatoes – and a robotic man walking down stairs with awkward difficulty. So what of this year at Yeosu? Hilary says there are some electronic achievements that are remarkable, including from when visitors arrive into a passageway with a gigantic digital ceiling, 218 metres long, featuring a dreaming whale and other displays. No need to queue here, simply lift your eyes and watch the colourful swim-past of thousands of digitally-created images.

Some countries at Yeosu vaunt their careful use of water. Others rest on their laurels, while some encourage visitors to stop and think, pointing out that commonsense and sharing knowledge can contribute to more equitable water usage throughout the world.

The Dutch, for example, remind the world that climate change can be coped with – and point out that they've been doing just that for hundreds of years, given that much of their country is below sea-level. They built dykes and canals and set an example in a world that can be somewhat hysteric over what to do should the sea level rise – maybe, as Hilary says, we should be thinking the old Boy Scout motto.

Again the Dutch, ever so practical, present visitors with a flat water bottle at Yeosu - it deflates as one drinks from it, folds away to next to nothing, and is refillable. Korea itself, the US and Russia have impressive displays, and organisers have put together a well-patronised aquarium featuring rare creatures such as the small, white Beluga whale, and highlighting marine ranching or farming done in Yeosu itself.

Small countries are also present. Monaco one of them, and Pacific island states from Papua New Guinea eastwards through the Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Nauru, Fiji, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati.

And yes Australia is there with a two-fold purpose: firstly to build on trade and investment relationships with the Republic of Korea with whom Trade Minister, Craig Emerson says we've a long history of friendship, business ties and diplomatic links. And secondly with the theme "In Harmony with the Ocean" highlighting our credentials with high environmental, scientific and technical capabilities in marine conservation, and a commitment to sustainable development of our vast natural assets – our pavilion's already been visited by over a million expo-goers including Denmark's (our) Princess Mary.

So if you happen to be in or around Korea before August 12th, join those at Yeosu looking to a better world through sensible use of water and the oceans. The new Yeosu Hotel, two minutes from the gates, is a good place to start.


PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] UNUSUAL moving digital ceiling at this year's Yeosu World Expo

[] PRINCE Frederik and (our) Princess Mary head for the Australian stand at the Expo.

[] PRINCESS Mary meets didgeridoo player Kristian Benton on the Australian stand.

[] CORNER of the colourful Australian stand.

(Photos: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

CRUISING THE MEKONG IN YESTER-YEAR STYLE

David Ellis

WE recently ran into a colleague we worked with many, many moons ago at ABC News, returning to her now-home on the Isle of Pines after a week cruising the mighty Mekong aboard the replica colonial river steamer, Indochina Pandaw.

And so intrigued were we with what our friend Hilary Roots told us, that we asked her to share with our readers she and partner Albert Thoma's week aboard. Here's her account:

WE rode in ox carts and 'cyclos,' visited cat-fish farms and floating markets, sampled snake wine and exotic fruits, caught a rare, lithesome gibbon swinging from rafters above our heads, held hands with and gave school books to village children who tugged at our heart strings, all the while gently cruising down the Mekong.

No television, radio, piped music or internet, just the swirl of the mighty river, its banks sometimes close enough to touch, sometimes a kilometre apart, a 4,000 kilometre artery feeding, watering and housing millions along its route through South-East Asia from Tibet.

The muddy colour belies its intense richness. Every year from June to November melting Himalayan snows swell it so much that the tributary from Tonle Sap lake (Asia's largest) halts, then goes backwards, gorged with tonnes of fresh water. Such dramatic changes bring new fish, flood rice and corn fields with rich alluvial sands and silt…

Not the sort who enjoy organised tours, we'd been enticed by an article torn from a magazine a few years back and put with the proverbial 'bucket list.' Or was it purely the photo of the ship? A replica of wooden craft the British once used to ply the Irrawaddy in the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. An olde-worlde vessel, only three decks above water level, thirty passenger cabins – the whole outfitted in teak and brass.

Run by Pandaw Cruises, she was more like home from the moment we stepped  aboard. Our cabin cosy, easy to live in, wood panelling, white and navy blue linen, highlighted by the finer touches of fresh flowers and silk bathrobes.

Such details were enhanced by the young crew, ever devoted to making our seven-day stay comfortable and memorable. A mix of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Burmese, they reflected the vessel – discreet, attentive, innovative. Refined dining of a quality and variety to match the best anywhere, whether sampling Asian dishes or enjoying those appealing to Western palates. Intrepid excursions to explore markets and fields, temples and villages, often scrambling up the bank where the ship had drawn alongside, tying up to the nearest tree… guides brimming with history, facts and figures and their own personal accounts of growing up through recent tumultuous decades in Cambodia and Vietnam.

While Indochina Pandaw can take 60 passengers, we were only 22, coddled by 26 crew. Early June is considered the low season, the water level just starting to rise. And it can rain every day, but we were lucky: only one afternoon did the wind whip up, the skies darken and the rain pelt down for an hour. The rest of the week it was warm and humid. Exploring was fun, but it was always with a welcome sigh we returned to the cool and respite of the ship.

Our fellow voyagers were all widely travelled, mainly retired, but with the mental and physical verve of people interested in extending their experiences and horizons. The canopied sun deck bar and salon, and no set-seating for dining meant we made new acquaintances, swapped many a travel tale. All dressed simply yet correctly, with no pretentiousness.

Interestingly all were Australian, except us: I'm a Kiwi, Albert is Swiss. And the pivot point, the person who made the cruise zing, who had an eye on everything from technical details to visas, from orphan children performing a magical concert with their own hand-made costumes, to a crew/guest farewell party the last evening, was Rosie – a Cambodian university graduate, officially the purser, but more like cruise director, confidante, coordinator for all aboard.

Her vivacity and contagious laugh make her precious to Pandaw, and will echo with us for a long time to come.

It could well be we'll meet again on the waterway to Mandalay…

(Details of Indochina Pandaw from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City: www.pandaw.com)
 
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
 
[] GOING aboard at Kampong Chhang in Cambodia.

[] COLOURFUL markets like this one in Sa Dec, Vietnam abound.

[] DUCKING up the river at Chau Doc in Vietnam.

[] SKILLED art: making rice paper wrappings at Cai Be, Vietnam.

[] SHORE excursion by ox cart on the mighty Mekong.

[] CHILDREN from an orphanage in Phom Penh give a performance aboard.

[] ROSIE – a precious possession for Indochina Pandaw.

[] INDOCHINA PANDAW on the Mekong.

(Photos: Hilary Roots)

 

Struth! Give me a sign

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says that on a recent visit to Hong Kong and Lantau, travel writer Hilary Roots came upon these somewhat out-of-the-ordinary signs that contain, shall we say, food for thought.

Hilary shared them with us, and we don't think there's any need any explanations.

STRUTH! Japanese horse play for thanksgiving

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says that while people in many parts of the world set aside a day each year as Thanksgiving for good harvests and the results of man's toil, last weekend Australian writer Hilary Roots found a much more unusual form of Thanksgiving.

It was in Japan, and rather than in tribute to man or crops, it was in honour of the humble work-horse and its once-role in the rice fields pre-mechanisation.

Hilary, who now resides on New Caledonia's Isle of Pines, was visiting Northern Japan when she says she came upon the Chagu Chagu Umakko Festival, that for centuries has been held on the second Sunday in June each year in Morioka in Iwate-ken Prefecture. Tens of thousands of locals lined the streets as a hundred immaculately groomed work-horses draped in brightly-coloured cloths and sporting myriad trinkets and ornaments were paraded through the city by men, women and children in their own equally spectacular garb that's unique to the region.

The four-hour procession was followed by public and private partying throughout the day and into the evening… while the horses that are still bred today for sentimental and ceremonial purposes, were allowed out to rest after their big day of the year.

Writer Hilary tells us that Morioka is a city of 300,000 that combines the best of the modern while respecting the traditions of its past. Its lively restaurant scene features unique local noodle dishes and Sake, while local craftsmen still produce centuries-old products made nowhere else in Japan, including hand-woven indigo-dyed small textiles, and unusual cast-iron kettles and tea-pots.

The Tohuku Shinkansen Bullet Train races 535km up-country from Tokyo to Morioka in just 2.5 hours.

(Photo: Hilary Roots)