The Tribune from San Luis Obispo, California • 34

Arthur Frommer TRAVEL Budget Traveler F4 THE TRIBUNE SUNDAT FeBIOAIT 15 ZOO9 SanLubObispocom' TIIE BAY AREA'S 'ELLIS ISLAHD OF TIIE WEST' I I I I I I Blue seas clear values in Cancan ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS Dais Chlng 87 talks about his three-and-a-half-month detention at tha Any cl Island Immigration Station In 1937 during a press confsrenca on Angel Island Hundreds of thousands of Immigrants mostly from Asia were detained bofbre World War II at tha facility The detainee barracks at the Angel Island Immigration Station Is newly restored the first phase of a $60 million prefect -ii begun In 2005 nll TULUM Quintana Roo Mexico On a soaring cliff that overlooks the turquoise blue of the Caribbean a magnificent Mayan temple reminds you of the artistry and scientific talent of the civilization that occupied this coastal area of Mexico as late as the 10th to the 15th century You look down at the sea and there immediately below are hundreds of modern-day tourists frolicking on a whitesand beach ami plunging into that turquoise sea They are part of an amazing 11 million visitors a major travel development not yet fully realized who came to vacation last year on this stretch of Yucatan seashore starting in Cancun at the north and extending to Tuhim (the place I am describing) in the south When Cancun first burst on the tourist scene some 30 years ago hardly anyone lived on the 90mile stretch of coastline directly south of it And for die first 20 years of Cancun's development only a few small (thafrhd roof) hotels sprouted up along that shore to house the price-conscious visitors who sought a quieter vacation on a whitesand beach that was the full equivalent of Rio de world-famous sugary-soft strand Thai the chains came in throwing up giant self-contained all-inclusive first-class and deluxe resort com-plexes that lined the coast on all sides of the little hotels The 44th such resort the several-hundred-room Maroma Beach (near Puerto Morelos halfway to Tulum) opened just five months ago and more are still coming All-Inclusive resorts Now I defer to no (me in preferring to stay at resorts in or near villages or towns with restaurants and shops within walking distance where you can avoid die canned flavor of the But if the isolated location of a resort (more than several miles from such towns) requires that it be operated as an altindusive (all meals drinks activities and entertainment included in the price) then surety these new Mexican resorts deserve some appreciation They are something special Unlike a cruise ship which chaiges extra for drinks these Mexican resorts are truly inclusive You can have pifia co-ladas as often as you choose to down diem And unlike many an allinclusive in the islands of die Caribbean which simply serve three buffet meals a day and are mysteriously at the smaller specialty restaurants mi site the Mexican all-inclusives actually urge you to try their Japanese Italian French seafood Benihana-like and barbecue dining rooms At one typical all-inclusive I visited on the Mayan Riviera there were eight different dining options and various maitre were all eagerly inviting me to step inside Best of all vacation prices on die Mayan Riviera are as reasonable as want At the most deluxe of the new giant resorts (there are many cheaper ones) around $230 per person per day buys you an ocean-front room all meals throughout die day (unlimited steaks prosecco wines at breakfast lobster tads) all those multiple pifia coladas and daiquiris unlimited room-service snacks unlimited use of your in-room mini bar drinks and meals brought to your beachside chaise lounge use of die kayaks and small sailboats cooking classes and various evening entertainments And for visitors concerned about narrowly-confined breakdown in public order associated with Tyuana Juarez and Nuevo Laredo the socalled Kviera is as law abiding as any area in our own nation and where no one can point to any reason not to visit it Arthur Frommer is a syndicated travel columnist After a multimillion-doilar restoration the facility that served for decades as a bottleneck to limit Asian immigration into the US reopens today on Angel Island in San Francisco Bay IRABUP 5 ml BAY jUj-j 5 km Angel Island PACIFIC OCEAN CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO I SAY AP accurate of an experience fdr-H the visitor so they can see to what it was actually like to beff detained here" said Kather-ine Metraux a museum cura-1 tor with the state Department of Parks and Recreation The abandoned barracks had been scheduled to be -v torn down in 1970 when a park ranger rediscovered theo Chinese poems many cov- ered by paint that con- veyed the sadness anger and' loneliness of being held cap- tive on the island One poem reads: in the wooden building day after day My freedom is ui withheld how can I bear to 1 talk about it? look to see who is happy' but they only sit quietly I am11 anxious and depressed and cannot fall i i SOURCE: ESRI By Terence Chea Allocated Pren Angel island state The Angel Island Immigration Station once known as the Island of the is reopening after a multimillion-doilar restoration of the historical landmark aimed at showing visitors a chapter of American history that many would rather foiget Hundreds of thousands of immigrants mostly from Asia were detained on the largest island in San Francisco Bay for days weeks and -sometimes months in the three decades before World WarlL They were housed in crowded dingy barracks while undergoing humiliating medical exams and grueling interrogations administered by officials intent on upholding federal laws restricting immigration from China and elsewhere Island is a commentary on the kind of racist thinking that really impacted how people from Asia were said Eddie Wong executive director of die Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation To correct those errors for other people not just Asians important to know that history" Nearly seven decades after it closed the station is reopening today following completion of the first phase of a $60 million restoration project that was started in 2005 The initial work has focused on restoring the bar racks where many immigrants carved poems into the wooden walls The station was built on Angel Island a short boat ride from San Francisco to help enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and other laws aimed at curbing immigration at a time when Americans were worried about immigrants stealing jobs and depressing wages From 1910 to 1940 about 1 million immigrants from some 90 countries including an estimated 175000 from China were processed at Angel Island Some passed through fairly quickly but many Chinese immigrants were detained for up to two years while immi- sessions in which inspectors asked him detailed questions about his farnQy home village and neighbors in China not there to welcome you really there to discourage you up to them to bounce you" said Lee who now lives in Concord about 30 mDes east of San Francisco The station was closed in 1940 after fire destroyed the main administration building Then it was used to process German and Japanese war prisoners during World War when the US repealed the Chinese Exclusion Act because China and the US had become allies The island became a state park in 1954 and until the restoration project began in 2005 about 200000 people visited the station each year even though they could see only a small section of the oarracKs Now visitors can tour the entire twostory facility including several rooms famished with suitcases clothes books games and other items from the period trying to create as gration officials questioned their legal status Don Lee was 11 when he left his rural village in Guangdong Province to join his father in America in 1939 After three weeks crossing the Pacific on the steerage deck of a steamship he was held fin a month on Angel Island whole place is really congested and full of strangers so I was more scared than anything else" Lee 81 said during a recent visit to the renovated barracks The retired civil engineer remembers long interrogation morednuneG Angel Island State ftric httpytinyurlxomtokM Angel Island Association: wvreangelisiandjorg Aagd Island knalgretioa State RwndattahttixAiisfjotg Right a recreated meal sits a bunk Inskit tha detainee barracks at the Angel Island Immigration Station Far right poetry written by detainees adorns tho walls Inslds tho barracks.