The pain of travelling

The pain and boredom of my regular Friday night shlep up to
London is being lightened tonight by the luxury of first class travel and the promise of arriving at a civilised hour.
Tomorrow I am flying to India for work and so they are paying for my train ticket, a nice perk!


-- Post From My iPhone

Back tracking

So many times, I find myself thinking 'oh - I can put a picture of this on my blog' and then of course - I never - or rarely, do. There is written somewhere in my head that a blog post has to have a picture - I like pictures more than words, that is how my brain is wired, and so, a blog post that is only words is somewhat boring to me. In fact, this is not true, I have been entertained and interested, even cried with laughter at some peoples posts I have read, without the need for pictures.

Nonetheless, I have some images for you today, as I back track to my trip to India last month. I have never been to India before, and following several peoples tales I was expecting to be mauled by beggars and pickpocketed by street children at every turn, cheated by every person I met and thoroughly left high and dry. To my relief and pleasure, I found that this was not the case, and I had a wonderful experience, due in part to the fact that I was traveling with work, and had the luxury of local people to guide us to our destinations, and see that everything was tip top. We stayed in a beautiful Ex-Maharajah palace hotel in Bangalore, which being a small and relatively wealthy city, (when you call the bank - you probably get through to someone in Bangalore), felt safe and welcoming. We had a train journey to a small town in Tamil Nadu reigon, named Tirapur, and there we met the family of our business associate, who's mum cooked us dinner. It was wonderful.

meeting the family

Train To Tirapur

train station

Bangalore hotel

St Ives

Happy New Year in KL.

I'm in Kuala Lumpur this week, and next week as well. It was an economic descision, although it sounds rather an extravagant thing to be doing. It is cheeper than a 2 week stint in HK, and cheeper than a trip home - which was also a consideration. Since there is a perfectly good Chinese consulate in KL, then we opted to come here for a visa. The Consulate is closed though, which we discovered after a 2 day treasure hunt for the correct location to make our application.

It all started when we headed to the embassy on day 1 for what we thought would be a simple stand in line, and hand over forms situation. Sadly not, as after our train/walk/ taxi dash to find the embassy ended in a guard handing us a slip of paper with the address of the consular office on it and telling us to go there. Bother! we thought, and off we trudged, in the humid heat to find this mysterious address. Being at number 229 on Jalan Ampang, the office we wanted was at number 25, so it appeared a simple task of walking the length of the road and getting there..

1Floor office
OSK Plaza
25 Jln Ampang
50450 KL

HA! no so, as number 25, when we finally got there in an exhausted and hot state, was a small derelict building. Hmm. most frustrating. Number 35 was a Chinese consulate office, so we opted for the 'address must be wrong' solution to the mystery. The said office was however closed for the Chines Lunar New year, a notice on the door politely told us, and would be open on Saturday 29th. Blast. Oh well simply return on Saturday and get the job done. We remained slightly baffled to the address's reference to a 'Plaza" since the area was singularly devoid of any plaza like buildings, in fact appeared to be virtully in a ramshackle part of town close to the bus station.

Saturday arrived, and although we did sleep through the alarm, we still managed to make it back to the consular office before it closed at 11.45 (chinese lunchtime) Only to met with puzzled responses to a request for a visa application. They told us to go to the Bank of China building. Odd. This time we had no patience for walking, and jumped in a cab. Arriving at the Bank Of China in a few minutes, and seeing it is located in a big shiny building named OSK plaza. AHHH all becomes clear. The number 25 bit was just a cunning plan to confuse us right? who knows. On arrival another polite notice informed us that the offices would be closed until Tueday 3rd Feb, because of the Chinese Lunar New Year. So the visa application sits quietly in our hotel room, waiting for Tuesday. Joy.

Hangzhou

we went to Hangzhou for the weekend. It was beautiful and scenic and felt like a world away from the hustle bustle of home, although only 1 hr 20 on the train. we had first class train tickets, and a beautiful view over the Lake. There are still 12 million people in Hanzhou, but there is also a massive Lake and beautiful hills and countryside right on the doorstep. On Sunday we hired mountain bikes and cycled into the hills in search of Longjin, where 'the best tea in the world' is made. There we had a lesson in tea at the tea museum, and drank some tea in the beautiful gardens. It was great tea.

Hangzhou June 2008

Terracotta warriors

Xi'an

Last Month, after a brief visit to the Olympic City, I went with TLE and JVP to an ancient city in the West. "Xi' (pronounced 'shi') means 'west'. T and I arrived first, and upgraded ourselves to an executive room at the Hyatt, while J followed arriving to find us drinking gin in the dodgy sports bar on offer within the hotel.

Saturday morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we made our way to the bus station. I had read that a trip to the warriors museum was easily done buy bus, rather than joining a 'tour' and risking exposure to many tourist traps, such as museums that you never wanted to see in the first place, housing disproportionate shops, and 'furniture workshops' mostly selling lacquerware. I know all this because of my experiences last year, in the same city. The public bus turned out to be easy and very well organised. we stopped at a natural spring 'palace' on the way , which was quite nice, but we hurried ourselves on to the main event. It was, after all, what we had come to see.

Even for the second time around (I never thought would find myself returning to this amazing place!) It was an awesome experience, and i took as many pictures as the first time, much to my own surprise.
THE STORY OF THE WARRIORS
The warriors were created as a personal army to the emperor Qin (chin) between 247 and 208BC. their purpose was to protect the emperor in his death. The mausoleum is 35 km outside the city, in an auspicious site between Mount Li and the river Wei. Pits containing warriors and tombs have been discovered in a surrounding area of 56 km.
Emperor Qin was the first Emperor to unite the 6 states that formed Ancient China at the time of his reign. Qin declared himself the first Emperor of China. and also ordered the formation of a single unified Wall to protect the Chinese from invading armies.

What I find so awe inspiring about the warriors are their faces, each is an individual, and one can only imagine that you are looking into the face of a man who lived 2000 years ago. Each body is an individual, every warrior is different. How else would these faces have been formed that by the observation of a real face? It is truly fascinating and far more exciting than looking at a computer generated image of a man who may have lived 2000 years ago, from some boggy remains.

extreme climates

The last three weeks have whizzed past in a whirlwind of packing, travelling, and generally having a rather exciting time. I think I shall write seperate pieces about it all, because it is rather diverse. In short, I've packed up my life, had a beautiful sunny and hot week in Thailand, Diving and relaxing, followed by an emotional farewell in Bangkok airport, and now here I am in my new home city under 2 inches of snow, freezing cold, and the whole country is in a pre-holiday frenzy as the CNY approaches and they are going to visit family.

I arrived Last Sunday, and am now installed in "Sun Shine International serviced appartments" as a temporary measure.My suitcases, however did not arrive. I'd sent them on from London,before I left, to avoid carrying them all the way to Thailand. So I have spent the first week wearing an interesting collection of 'beachwear' layered with as many teeshirts and tops to keep warm! Luckily my cases arrived on Friday to save the day.

What to name my new home? Well, I would use it's real name, but i don't need to, since anyone reading this actually knows where I am. The name of the city means "City By The Sea" so that is what I shall call it.

Snow is very unusual here, I think the last time it snowed like this was 20m years ago ( it gets longer every time i speak to someone about it...) and they are utterly ill-equipped for it. No grit, no clearing, nothing. the airport has shut down, the roads are a quagmire of freezing slush, and all the taxi's are hiding because they don't want to crash their cars. For a newcomer who speaks no language and has no clue where she is, it's all rather strange, not to mention dehabilitating. I am confined to a small area that I can walk within, being careful not to skid and fall over in the snow.

I am Tired from my first week in the Office here, getting to know my teams of colleagues, and just taking it all in. This morning I have found a global cafe and got myself online, which is quite a relief, as anyone who knows me will know that I do have something of a addiction to the Internet.

Happy Christmas!

Yes, Happy Christmas!, this year I have spent my christmas in the full glare of the hardcore marketing and consumerism of Great Britian. I really felt it too, the advertising, and the simmering panic as the big day grew near. Last year I was in Ranomafana, Madagascar, with my friend EC, we went trekking in the rainforest to look for Lemurs, and ate freshwater crayfish for supper on Christmas eve. It was a beautiful place, in the middle of the forest, with the overwhelming sound of the nature all around us. One day we went for a walk, and got invited into a chapel to watch the children rehearsing their nativity and carol singing for christmas day. Madagascar is largely Catholic. It was Ranomafana where I bought my remarkably sturdy 'Chicken Basket', which I love because it has such great memories and it's so useful - although I refrain from porting live chickens in it, as they do in Madagascar.

This year I managed to get all my gift buying done early, but still got swept up in the last minute shopping frenzy thanks to Mr V. and his 'laid back' approach to buying presents. I found myself comicly negotiating Romford Market on Christmas Eve clutching a huge box containing 16kg of 'DJ mixing kit' whilst in the throwes of my customary Christmas cold. The look of joy on mr. V junior's face apon opening the (lovingly wrapped) gift was indeed, worth the pain. thank goodness.

So, in-between all this crazy shopping, we have been rushing about the country visiting friends and family, trying to sell furniture on E-bay, and I have been planning my removal. Next month I am officially moving to a place I shall refer to as "luckyland" , my Visa is almost done and the shippers are knocking down the door to carry my goods off to far flung shores. Instead of being all fairy lit and festive our flat looks like some kind of Oxfam Depot, while I try to determine what I would like to keep, sell, give away or take with me. It's Cathartic, depressing and exciting all at the same time.



And yet amidst all this I momentarily recall the rainforest and the peace and simplicity of the Christmas there, and realise how lucky I am to have been there, and hope that one day I can escape it all again.