I hope readers of Podunk Pundit will forgive the rather long hiatis. I am now back and jet-lagged and will begin scribbling opinions again. I wasn’t completely out of touch with the news on a journey that hopscotched through southeast asia and ended with several stops in Japan, but I had less access than usual to wifi. 

This made inescapably clear that it is now an indispensible part of our everyday lives. But what I missed in daily headlines was made up for by in person immersion in the remains of ancient civilizations and a reminder of more recent events of a less civilized nature. 

The high water mark was a chance to cross Cambodia for a visit with an excellent guide to Angkor Wat. The world heritage site is more remarkable than words or pictures can capture. It includes many structures and provides a glimpse of the civilization that created them. One unexpected structure from a different historical period celebrates the victory of a powerful ruler over his foes with a huge depiction of the winning battle on land and sea. It shows hundreds of warriors from either side in bas relief carving as if an Asian Iliad had come to life in stone.

In addition to an appreciation for the arts and history of the region, one can’t escape the endless rise and fall of dynasties, tyrants and patriarchs, golden ages and dark ages. To their credit, local guides in Thailand, Vietnam, and other stops shared their regional treasures but also detailed some of the evils brought about by cruel leaders, civil wars, and, in too many cases, the exploitation of indiginous people by colonial invaders. In addition to places of great beauty, we visited places of horror including torture chambers and the gaudy throne rooms where vicious dictators ruled.

Also eye-opening, especially in Japan, was the endless production of manufactured goods. Every time our ship reached a busy city the first thing we saw was its bustling industrial port’s factories, warehouses, and acres of shipping containers stacked high and awaiting their next voyage.

I was reminded of the Great Lakes ports of my youth when ships from the iron range brought raw materials to the steel mills of Cleveland’s flats and Akron produced tires for the nation’s autos were made in Ford assembly and Chevy engine plants that our neighbors worked at. Eventually many of the factory jobs moved from the Rust Belt to non-union states and then to even less expensive factories abroad.

Then veterans of World War II reacted with outrage when American customers began to buy automobiles made in enemy countries instead of at home: first German Volkswagons followed by an avalanch of Japanese Toyotas, Datsuns, and Nissans. Even worse was their kids riding Honda and Suzuki motor bikes.

It was the beginning of the great internationalization of commerce that we now experience every day and that was on display in every port we visited. The chips of California’s silicon valley are now made in Taiwan. Teslas roll off the assemply line in Xi Jinping’s China. Whether this is progress or perilous remains to be seen, but seeing Asia’s present was just as eye-opening as the chance to experience immersion in it’s storied past.