 Hey, this is Think Tech Global Connections. I'm Jay Fidel, and I have the honor of doing a show here about Southeast Asia with Yukari Kunasui. She just came back. Hi, Yukari. Hi. Thank you for bringing me here. And I left a map behind us. It shows exactly where I was. I'm excited. Well, I mean, it's a special cachet sort of thing. And I feel that a lot of people have been to Japan and China, Korea, all that, Taiwan, maybe. Out of Australia, New Zealand, and maybe Malaysia and Indonesia, maybe. But Southeast Asia, these countries on the peninsula there, they're very interesting. And I also feel, and maybe you will join me in this, that they're not going to stay that way. They're changing. They're moving into the 21st century. And the exquisite things that you can see there now find there, historic, cultural, remarkable things, maybe old things, maybe even developing country, poor things. Not forever. What do you think about that? Well, that's a good point. But yes and no, there are parts really progressing and moving forward. But also the area that I went, which I am going to talk about a little bit later. For instance, northern part of the Vietnam, where we went near the highest mountain, Vietnam called Phan Si Phan, where people still living in that dirt. And so there are mixtures of that. And in contrast, of course, a big city like Ho Chi Minh City, which used to be called Saigon, is just moving forward really fast-paced. So I can see your point. Yeah, it's interesting that Vietnam is different from the others. Thailand, to some extent, too. But Vietnam had the American influence. You know, war leaves an influence. And the American influence is right on through Vietnam, both north and south. And so you can see it there. And you can see that. You can immediately conclude, I'm really asking you, that it would not be the same had there not been the American influence, but just like Japan, too. All over Asia, for that matter. You said American influence, but also French influence, Vietnam and Cambodia, and also there are French colonies. So you can see those influence as well. But I wanted to give you some highlight that I have. Please. So first we went to southern part of Vietnam and then northern part. And I went on to Cambodia and Thailand. So the southern part of Vietnam is Ho Chi Minh City. And it's a booming town. It's like Shanghai is in China's maybe Ho Chi Minh, versus Beijing is Hanoi, like a political town. So there, everything is really progressing fast. Wi-Fi systems, pubs, restaurants, and other young people's energy is really vibrant. And one of the places that I went was called New Progressive Idea Restaurant, I guess. And it's called Noire. And Noire, as you know, that means black or dark in French, right? And as you said, in French, in French. And Noire is a restaurant is hire only blind or visually impaired waiters and waitresses. And us, the clients, going in in the pitch-dark restaurant. And you experience this while eating very nice meal. And it's nothing like you close your eyes, open your same thing, pitch-dark. But then it really gives you opportunity, dining experience, that you can't really have in a regular restaurant. Because your eyesight is deprived. Sensory deprivation. Exactly. Then what happens is your senses, smells, textures, tongues are really enhanced. And my partner, who I went with, said, it felt like he was in the spirit, spirit eating a food. And it's not like human being eating dining or that. Interesting. Yeah, it was a very interesting experience. And if you have any chance to go to Ho Chi Minh City, it's in District 1, it's called Noire. Maybe you can show the pictures here. This is the place. Noire, and then you can see sister restaurant called Blanc, which is actually for the people opposite. It means white. And it is a restaurant for deaf people. So you have to use the sign language to order food, requesting whether bathroom, that sort of thing. It was very progressive. Oh, interesting. So big question. With those places work, I mean, you look at it from a psychological point of view, deprivation, sensory information point of view, it's so interesting. So what's the word? It's engaging. It's a provocative notion of doing that. So would they work in Japan? Would they work in the US? Would they work in Hawaii? That's a very good question. I heard that there is a similar concept restaurant in San Francisco area. Maybe it's progressive. I believe there is none in Hawaii yet, but I think it's definitely a very good concept, especially helping people with disabilities. And as you can imagine, it's very hard to find employment. But they provide good training and also give a regular clientele more experience. What it's like to be in disability. I forgot to mention that Yukari is a psychologist. Is that OK with me to tell you? Yeah, sure, sure. And so she sees the world through the lens of psychology. It's different than regular people, you know? OK. I am not a regular person. So what's the profile of the Vietnamese these days? Those kids, for example, what are they like? Can you describe them? Very vibrant, very hungry, very motivated. They want to learn Japanese. They want to learn English. They want to go outside the world. Oops, not quite yet. This picture is actually moved on. This is a picture from the northern part of Vietnam. It's called Sapa area, mountain rural town. Let's look again. Yeah, let's look again. And this particular picture was taken at the center of Sapa town. And these people are wearing very colorful Hmong, H-O-M-O-N-G. Hmong people. This is another kid. Well, those kids are cute. They're cute. And they look like, I don't know if you can notice, but quite different from Vietnamese features. They are more basically Chinese descent. But they are between China's and Vietnam's border. And they're left in very basic lifestyle. Maybe you can show the next picture with. Yeah. So you can see this is a local house that we had at lunch. And she's still cooking in a dirt floor house living with buffaloes and chickens and all that kind of thing. It's like Hawaii some time ago, right? But she's cooking an excellent meal there. And you have only one oven like that on the floor. The magic that you can get with a cell phone camera, you told me this was a cell phone camera. Well, yeah. It's unbelievable. I'm not very good. Talking about cell phones, in this northern part of Vietnam, we decided to do trekking. And as I said, this is the area that originally came from China. And the rice is a big deal. And so you can see terraced rice fields here. And a lot of people are walking up and down these rice fields, right? The trekking has to be done through the guide. And so we hired a guide from an organization called SAPA Sisters. And interestingly, guides are girls. And they were wearing this really colorful, the picture that I showed you, outfit. And they move around like a goat. And we were going, ha, ha, ha, ha. But they are living in this very basic sort of ancient lifestyle. Yet those SAPA girls had this iPhone coming and bringing it out. And they are very progressive. So the contrast was very interesting. All over the world, is it? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And you know, smartphones in general, they signify one thing. Facebook. I bet these kids, these people were on social media just the way we are now. Right. It's not more. Oh, yeah. It's definitely everywhere. Maybe you can show the second picture here. What else we have? We had me talking to this monlady. She is about 50 something. And she showed her, you see the background photo that I think that was her daughter's picture. And she was very proud. She was a widow and raised seven children on her own. Some of them became guides, making some money, or money bringing in. She was a happy lady. She actually served us this happy water, cold. Happy water was happened to be a cold, but I enjoyed it. Did you like Vietnam best of the places you visited? I wouldn't say best because each place has unique features and unique history and unique ambience, I think. And because we were in big cities and a small town, also Hanoi will win. I liked each place. Yeah, well, I could see you were getting out there in the rural areas and enjoying whatever is there because that's the true culture. That's where it all comes from. I think so, but it's still touristy. I was just a tourist, so it's nothing like I was in P.O. or N.G.O. or anything like that. But it's just you get the glimpse of it. Before the break, why don't we talk about one more country in your trip? OK. Very quickly, then I went to Thailand, Chiang Mai because of the Lantern Festival. But we ended up not staying in Lantern Festival because Lantern Festival, Hawaii has that in Alamoana too, right? It goes to the ocean. But this Lantern Festival, the Lantern goes up because of there. Above the streets, yeah. Because of going up, coming down, it goes some accidents. And so fires and stuff. So government decided not to do this. But I had a very interesting experience. How much time do I have here? I want to talk about interesting place. Let's move on. Whatever comes to mind, you know? OK, so I chose to go to this massage center. And I'm sure our viewers know Thai massage, a very unique. Famous, world famous. Oh, yeah. It's like that. Some men go without telling their wives. Well, my place wasn't like that. And so Thai massage is originally, you might have heard, that I came originally out of this picture that she's doing Thai massage. Ayurveda, Indian medicine science. That was the origin I heard. And sometimes people call this one two persons yoga. OK, so you can see this one. So maybe I don't know if you can see the sign. It says women's massage center by ex-prisoners. So these ladies were actually inmates or war inmates before. And so this is a part of the employment enhancement program. And as you can see, once you are present, it's very hard to find employment after you come out. So they ended up repeating the same type of thing. So in Thailand, women prisoners are, 80% I heard, is drug-related, amphetamine and cocaine and staining drugs. They come in strict about it. Right. And they became very strict about it. So women prisoners are ever increasing. And they come out, there's no job, go back out, in again, in and out like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This helps them break the circle, yeah. And as I said, two-person yoga. It's not only a person who receive massage, but also masseuse is being healed. So that's the kind of reciprocal healing modality I heard. So that was very interesting. What's your profile? Your profile of the ties. What do they like? As you mentioned, it's much more middle class compared to southern part of Vietnam or Cambodia that I went. I felt, well, price-wise, it's a little bit more expensive. And people are much more affluent, it looks like. And because of the political stability, more or less, compared to other countries, people seems to be a little bit more relaxed. There is a certain amount of affluence. Oh, yeah, definitely. I remember holding shops, extraordinary shops. And shopping centers and trains and subways, I mean, not subways, elevated railways. Maybe Bangkok and the big city. Yeah, that was extraordinary. Cambodia is a little bit different because it's northern, old, ancient cities with lots of temples and all that. But I can feel. And also, the tourists tend to go to the southern part of Thailand, which is more affluent because of the tourist money coming in. Before we go to this break, I don't think I have a short story about a fellow who gave a talk at the China seminar a few years ago. And he left New York where he was born and raised. And he went to China in the early days. And he slipped into China, drove a taxi cab. He managed to be able to drive a taxi cab in Shanghai. And he did that for a couple of years until he learned Mandarin. And he did that for a couple of years until they caught up with him. And they said, you're going to have to leave. You can't stay here. He said, where shall I go? And they said, well, why don't you go to Taiwan? You can use your Mandarin in Taiwan or anything. He says, well, I can't go to Taiwan. I don't speak Thai. Wrong Thai, dear. Wrong Thai. We're going to take a short break. Aloha. It's down under Jimann here. You can see me every Tuesday at 3 PM here on Think Tech Hawaii. We're not on Friday anymore, so don't be looking for me on Friday. I'm on Tuesday at 3, here on Think Tech, coming to you live and direct from the beautiful studios in downtown Honolulu's Pioneer Plaza. So please join me. We'll talk everything about hydrogen and clean energy, not only for Hawaii, but for the whole wide world. Aloha. Hey, hello, everyone. And welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Pretty Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 AM Hawaii time, trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us, and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Yeah, we're back in Southeast Asia. Karikuna Suni, we're talking about her trip and some of the really interesting provocative things that she saw and learned and enjoyed over there. It's not a travel log. It's sort of an understanding and evaluation. Personal impressions. Yeah, cultural impressions. Right, right, yeah. So we have some pictures that we want to show again. So what have you got? Yeah, we saw this one already. This is the noir outside. It's a restaurant that I described in Ho Chi Min City. It used to be called Saigon, as you know. That's noir restaurant. OK, here I am. I'm in the northern Vietnam wearing a black mons outfit. And they're all handmade, hemp made. And then ladies are using their own fingers and dye, indigo dye. You can see some aprons and headbands. And those are the things, not just for the occasions. They wear this one every day. Me? I've seen that picture that she's standing in front of. I've seen that somewhere. Yeah? And you brought some art back. What did you bring back? What did you like that you brought it back? What did I like? The art. What is it? You brought some art back? No, I did not. I just, impression is back. OK, OK. Autos back. So what was your impression? What did you like about it that made it special? It made you take the picture, for example. Well, it's really kind of nostalgic, to be honest with you. I remember my great-grandma making things, and maybe not in exactly the same way. But we used to make things in handmade, not store, kind of. So that made me feel like, well, we used to live like this. And that's what I really liked about it most. Yeah, you know, the art, the design points, you wouldn't see them generally in the US. You wouldn't see them in Hawaii, even though Hawaii is largely an Asian place. And so that's, you know, travel is broadening. Right, definitely. And one thing I wanted to offer you and see your reaction is this, it's more than just that you learn stuff. It's that you have ideas you never had before. Exactly. You put things together, like the noir and blanc thing. Right, right. You know, somebody watching this might decide to do the same or try the same thing. Yeah, please do, I think. So like you said, to me, traveling is, yes, superficially speaking, you are seeing other world, other parts of the world, but it's actually seeing yourself. But that reflects in you. So like you said, I didn't know the success. I didn't know I had this kind of reaction. And so it's more like in our journey as well as outside journey. Oh, that's going to be on the final exam. Telling you that. I'm a psychologist. Yes. OK, so you wanted to cover more on what? Well, yes. I want to talk about Cambodia. And I went there basically because Angkor Wat, as you know, it's a world UNESCO heritage. And you've probably seen the pictures. I didn't bring the pictures today, but very famous sunrise from the original Hindu or Buddhist temple. It's beautiful to take this. And also there are a couple. This town is full of temples. So you get templeed out. And so temples are impressive, or the Buddhist. But to me, most impressed part is the recent history of Cambodian people, which was I was still, I was already high school, I think, in the 1970s. And they were suffering. This is right after American left. We call Vietnam war, but in Vietnam, they call American war, as you can see. So after that, the balance of the Asian region has really changed. And Cambodia, previously a communist labor party led by Polupot, the name of the leader, became very powerful and tried to re-educate all the city tutorials and intellectuals, just like China did. And what they ended up doing was since 1975 to 79, only for four years, they managed to kill 2 million Cambodian people. Their own people. Own people. It's like ethnic cleansing, except you're own people. Exactly. And this is hard to believe. And in 80s, you probably remember that there was a movie called Killing Feel. And I think it was a British movie. And recently, Angelina Jolie made a movie based on the true story called First They Killed My Father, which was made in 2016, I think. I highly recommend if you're interested in this area or this region or history. And it's just crazy, massive work. And I personally experienced meeting Cambodian people who remembered those. Sure, wasn't that long ago? No, it is. If you're 50s, they remember. I was a teenager. I was a little kid. And many of the Cambodian people do have relatives and friends and neighbors. Or must be. So that was a big part as a tribe. But you must ask. I mean, anyone not from Cambodia going to go to Cambodia, know about the Killing Feel, all that, which is still a subject of great discussion of international interest. Try to figure out what really happened. I mean, this is like madness that they tell their own people for no reason. And so did you think about that? Did you contend conclusions? Of course. No conclusions. So you're a lens of a psychologist now. What could you conclude about the history of Cambodia, culture of Cambodia, the people of Cambodia? Well, I don't have a conclusion. But what I could observe was, obviously, we can be cruel as much as anybody else can be to us. And that this happened to happen in these political ideas. It can just change the brain function, I think. It's part of the human condition, then. Yes, yes. And although, ultimately, we recover our sanity, there are moments in the human history when we are not sane. Yeah, right. And that happened. Yeah. People talk about it, I'm sure. It's part of the international reputation of the country, for sure. But at the same time, we don't know much about it, as you mentioned. And I don't think American kids, for instance, in college, did they learn about it? It's a recent history, 30 years ago. We know about Vietnam War or American War, but killing fields, a massacre in Cambodia, nothing to do with me. But it was because of the political and war situation that US closed, in a way. And the people, what's your profile on the people? A friend of mine actually pays, his wife is Cambodian, and you can see the connection. But he pays to create schools in Cambodia. And he has several hundred students at his schools. The schools he's created is very nice. His office is a block away from where we're sitting. And so I wonder what makes it, the kids must be sweet, the people must be sweet. But tell me what your profile is. Right. They're wonderful, and then very friendly, very helpful, very hardworking. That was my impression. But of course, within a tourist group. But those kind of helping, I think, the country still needed, 30 years is not long time ago. And they do need more assistance and humanitarian help. So when you go to Cambodia, do you see elements of the Chinese as you do in northern Vietnam? Do you see elements of Vietnam? Do you see elements of Thailand? Is there a cross connection between these countries? You know Cambodia, yes, we can see the similarity. But Cambodians are historical Khmer people. They have totally different civilization from Chinese. And Thai has different. So they are next to each other, but actually hate each other. They use each other. And they politically and economically think that their cooperation is helpful. But I don't think in a way like Japan and Korea has a very complicated history. We are assimilated, we're married together. But not necessarily we're like this, right? So I sense a similar difference there. Well, that was going to be a question I have to ask you. I ask everybody who's been to that area, and I ask them, do you think there'll come a time in Southeast Asia, these countries, very countries, will become one like the EU, will have trade agreements that are really tight, will have cultural connection, lots of free travel back and forth across the border, where everybody intermarries, for example, and creates a sort of Europe of Southeast Asia. You see that as a possibility. Well, first of all, EU is one, I don't know, but probably in 200 years. OK, there it is. Why didn't you go to Laos? Well, time constraints. Well, these three countries, was it a tour or did you specifically choose these three to go to? We specifically chose. We wanted to go here. We wanted to go here. But we'll be back, we'll be back to these countries. First time that you went? Vietnam's second time. Second time, right. And that was a long time ago, or was that recent? Last year. So we went to Blanc, and this year we went to Noir. Fair is fair, balance reporting. Exactly, thank you. So, OK, this is a hard question, but I do want to ask you to go there and you spend the time and you, you know, there's a certain amount of, I would say, risk in travel these days. You're sort of penetrating a barrier of some kind to make it trip like that. And OK, and then you get down with the people, you meet them, you enjoy them, all that. And you bring back a new piece in your life. Because every trip, it's beyond broadening and beyond finding sort of intellectual arbitrage is more than that, too. You bring back a new piece in your life. So if I ask you, the day you arrived back in Honolulu International, what was the piece that you brought back, you guys? Hmm, well, as you all experience, when you arrive in Honolulu International Airport, you look up the sky and go, God, so beautiful. That was my first impression. But my piece, any piece that I brought is there are so many different countries and cultures and languages and people. I need to experience, I want to experience, I want to grow more. That's the things that I wanted. So this is a time to travel. Go places. And if you're watching this, and if you have any time and money and space, go out there, especially young people, go out there and see the world. You're not kidding, either. I am not kidding. I am serious. Yukari Kudasui, the host of Konichiwa Hawaii. Thank you so much for coming and talking to me about this. My pleasure. Thank you. I'm honored. It's been a great discussion, much more than a travelogue. Yeah. Thank you, Yukari. Okay, thank you. Aloha.