Southeast Asia

Spring 2009 turned out to be a busy traveling season. I was invited to Tokyo to speak at a forum. Cherry blossom--Japan's cultural icon--was to come a little later, but some flowers were declaring an arrival of spring. One very important meeting was cancelled, however, because of the major disruption in the flight schedules in and out at the Narita airport due to the crash landing of a FedEx cargo plane.

From Tokyo, I went on a country hop, starting from Thailand (Bangkok) onto Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and to Singapore. In Thailand, political tension was again rising. I could see pro-Thaksin (a former prime minister) "red shirts" demonstrators gathering in an increasing number at a park near the administrative center of the country. (After I came back to Hawaii, the demonstrators crushed with the Army, resulting in some casualties.) In Malaysia, Prime Minister resigned while I was there. The ruling Barisan National coalition, especially the UMNO party in it, faces tough electoral challenges, as the region's economy increasingly feels the effects of downturns in its major trade partners, like Japan, the United States, and China.

In Singapore, everything looked normal on the surface. Despite the heavy reliance of its economy on international trade, the cost of readjustment till now has been largely absorbed by the informal sector, it seemed.

Golden, Colorado

It has been a long while since my last post. I am in Golden, Colorado, enjoying trout fishing in Clear Creek. It was nice to find out that the tenkara style of fly fishing (using a light weighted pole with no reel) has made its way into the American fly fishing scene. When I brought my tenkara gear to Colorado 21 years ago, I definitely did not see any tenkara fisherman here.

Water in the creek has been far from clear. The unusual rain that has caused many deaths in the neighboring towns has raised the water level. Signs of a recent flood were quite visible, with mud on the rocks, dead fish in the woods, etc.

Well, fish were biting. Small brown trout were actively taking dry flies in the shallows. One was not so small, and it took a while to tame it and bring it in without a reel. Without an easy access to the sea, trout fishing will likely be my pastime for the coming months.

One thing about the tenkara fishing is that one must really stoke the fish carefully. The pole is only about 12 feet long, and one has to get really close to the fish in order to catch it. Fading into the background is very important. It is often the case that fish is just by the river bank, hiding in a shade of a tree or in weeds, or simply staying in a slower current. Not getting too close to the water is very important. This is very different from a typical image of a fly fisherman in a wader standing in the water with big backcasts.

It is great that I can just walk to the fishing spots. Thank you, Golden.