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Event Description
Chris Forse, who gave us ‘Thirty Years of Travel in China’, and ‘Fifty Years on the Road in North America’, will take us through his experiences of travel in South-East Asia over five decades. From the 1970s when this area was hard-travelling country to today when millions of tourists seek out its exotic delights, its beaches and sunshine, Chris has witnessed a transformation as profound as that which he saw in China during his one-third of a century sojourn in Hong Kong. In 1975 the war in Vietnam, was drawing to a close, Cambodia was about to endure the calamity of Year One of the Khmer Rouge, Burma was a closed country under the dictator Ne Win, Bali was a hippy destination, and Singapore an insular backwater.
Chris will take us by boat into the heart of Borneo, by bus to the 2000-year-old Banaue rice terraces in the Philippines, by train through Java, by boat down the Mekong River in Laos, and hiking in the jungles of Northern Thailand. He will share his experiences of Good Friday crucifixions in the Philippines, crawling through Vietcong tunnels in Vietnam, walking the killing fields of Cambodia, and visiting World Heritage Sites at Angkor Wat, Borobudur and Pagan.
Finally, Chris will contrast the ‘then’ to the ‘now’, when for a time Kuala Lumpur hosted the tallest building in the world, Singapore became one of the world’s most prosperous city states, and his son got married on a beach in Thailand. Meanwhile some countries have been left behind, or fallen further behind, during the explosive economic growth of this wonderful part of the world.
The talk features images of this beautiful corner of Asia garnered over fifty years, and of its rich cultural and ethnic diversity.
If you are interested in travelling to South-East Asia, you can browse our South East Asia travel deals here.
- Duration: 60 mins
- Online Zoom event: Join from your computer, phone or tablet (a recording will be available)
Meet the Host, Chris
Chris Forse is a retired teacher and administrator who spent 33 years in Hong Kong where he was also a sometime columnist and radio panel guest. He has travelled widely, enjoys travel photography and self-publishing and is a reputed speaker on travel, history and politics in the Midlands where he was for six years chairman of one of England’s largest U3As. He has produced several talks for Rest Less including his travel experiences in North America and China, and on the history of the Lake District.
More Information
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