Raise the Bamboo Curtain: Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma

In a Burmese pagoda, a Buddhist monk engages in his life's work: training a cat to jump through a hoop; in Saigon, the most popular bar is called "Apocalypse Now;" at Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, pillagers are smuggling out the priceless ruins to be sold on the street in Thailand. Rick Ray, whose other outstanding travel videos Bali: Life in the Balance, Letters Home From Iceland, and South China Seas, were covered in our November, 1992 issue, returns to the hinterlands armed with a 16mm camera and a wise (and often wisecracking) eye. In Burma (Myanmar), Ray visits the massive Buddhist temples: one, a modest structure housing six sacred hairs of the Buddha is 32 stories high, comprised of 8,500 solid gold slabs, overlaid with 60 tons of gold leaf, and lightly sprinkled with 5,500 diamonds and 2,300 rubies. On Inle Lake, Ray watches the "floating market" and the unusual rowing style of the Burmese: they wrap one leg around the oar, "kick" it through the water, and repeat. He also visits the "long-necked women," who wear ornamental stacked metal rings around their necks, increasing the length of same by as much as 10 inches; and looks at the "world's largest book," the tablet-inscribed pages of which are strewn across a series of baby pagodas within a giant daddy pagoda. In Cambodia, a much more somber Ray assesses the horrors of the Khmer Rouge's ongoing atrocities in Phnom Pehn; at a high school, the walls are adorned with macabre head-and-shoulder pictures--not of the graduating class, but rather the 20,000 individuals who were tortured and killed there. In Vietnam, Ray saw signs of capitalism raising its inevitable head as the doors of trade--only recently opened--are spurring economic growth which, in turn, is bringing smiles to the faces of the South Vietnamese. Driving north from Saigon, Ray--who is apparently not claustrophobic--crawls through the Vietcong's Cu Chi Tunnels, encountering trophy-size spiders. He also visits China Beach, stops in at the lovely fishing village of Nha Trang, and looks at the DMZ, before reaching Hanoi, where he's greeted by a major typhoon. Ah, the life of the traveler, boldly going where no man, woman, or child would go (if they were of sound mind), and, like Marco Polo, bringing back glorious tales (and gorgeous footage) of fabulous lands and peoples. A surefire hit, Raise the Bamboo Curtain is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (R. Pitman)