I'm not a Monkey!

After arriving in Bohol we went via taxi and motorboat up a river to 'Nuts Huts', a typical backpacker place in the jungle, quite literally. We grabbed 1 of the 12 cottages by the river and proceeded to befriend the Belgium owners and other guests. The first activity was a swim in the river and to the waterfall nearby, followed by relaxing in the hammocks and enjoying the 30 degree heat, cold beers and yummy fusion food.

After a night on a comfy mattress -it really is just China alone that has awful mattresses- and without too many mosquitos, the next day beckoned as we cycled to the Tarsier Sanctuary, which is quoted as the 'smallest monkey in the world' -but it is not a monkey. It is small primate though, about the size of a small bird. It has massive eyes as it hunts in the dark and is quite cute, apart from when baring its teeth when one moves one's hand too close whilst trying to take a photo to compare the size of the hand with the Tarsier!

The little guys are adorable and thankfully expanding their population as their habitat is slowly regrowing after the forest's destruction (due to the increase in land needed for agricultural and limber trade). The bike ride continued via a beach through the countryside to the middle of a forest, before backtracking out of the forest (useless instructions!) to the main road and back to the 'Huts'.

The scenery in rural Philippines is not so different to the rest of South East Asia with plenty of rice paddies, jungle, adorable kids everywhere and so on. There are also a plethora of religious buildings such as churches, chapels and other religious sects's buildings (something inherited from the Americans I think when they ran the country for a few decades around the 2nd World War, building on the Spanish's Catholicism left over from Colonial times). Delighfully though the local's houses are built from 'nippa'. bamboo, wood etc which make them very pretty, environmentally friendly and apt for the environment. And, our buddies from coca-cola, have kept plenty of tiny stores stocked full -indeed, almost 1 house in 10 is also a micro-store!

Yesterday we motorbiked 150km or so up and down, primarily to see the 'chocolate hills', though in the current rainy season they are more green than chocolate colour -still pretty though... seeing hundreds of tiny 30m or so hills dotting the countryside. I also can declare that Philippino massages are nice and relaxing, comparing favourable with others across SE Asia.

Today we hiked up through the jungle, swam over 500m (impressive for me) in the river, chatted with some Peacecorps volunteers and relaxed in the huts. All that remains is to enjoy the stars and get up at 5am to get to the next place -on the beach, in time to spend New Years there. I am still getting over spending Christmas in the sun, let alone New Years on a beach!

p.s. if you are smiling wryly about the implications of the title of this post and my hairy arms... you are just immature, and succumbing to my ability to make a joke that everyone will get -so you are not clever!! Anyway, it might make you smirk as much as the rubbish joke in the Christmas cracker :)

Unusual transport

After scraping onto our flight out of Hong Kong (since they moved the flight forward 20 minutes so we actualy arrived 10 minutes after check-in closed and had to depend on a kind lady from another desk to print us a ticket and take us through security, whilst abandoning penkinfes etc in order to get our backpacks on as hand luggage, as we could not check them in), me and Dad ended up in Cebu, the second biggest city in the philippines, on Xmas Day.

There is not much going for the city, apart from the interesting insight into Urban living with relativlely low quality housing in most of the city apart from some bad slum areas, and the gated 'beverley hills' area (it is actually called that!) above the city, for the rich to look down upon everyone else (or so it seemed). It was our first introduction to the 'Jeepney' a cross between a Jeep and a bus, which is highly decorated by their owners with all kinds of sporty/religious/crazy painted designs and other things stuck on them.

I did not what to expect from the Philippines, as it is hardly high up the list of visitors' destinations. I guess it is poorer than i imagined and Cebu is quite similar to many run-down chinese towns with some exceptions -like the bizarre lack of eating places in the Philippines and the dominance of English signage everywhere, even though most local people use their local dialect for every day conversations (their English tends to be quite good though). Coca-cola has definitely used its US history and brand to its advantage with Coke or Sprite seemingly taking up half of the area's consumer spending (along with beer)!

After a day in Cebu we jumped ship for the island of Bohol to a scene of even crazier transportation options; whose name i am not even sure of. Nonetheless they are fundamentally a motorbike with sidecar, though modified somewhat as the metal roof/windows look a bit like something from a military vehicle with small windows and the inevitable painted cusomization of the vehicles!

treasure, lost jobs and snow

2 weeks ago, after a night out at treasure island (nothing too hard core, but it is no secret the treasure is the Russian women on stage dancing) we failed to go skiing and ended up playing golf instead. Fortunately this was only at a driving range to save too much embarrassment since it was the first time I had ever picked up a golf club. Personally I think it was more fun, and much cheaper and easier, to just play golf on the Wii (although more tiring playing on the Wii!).

Last weekend we did manage to go skiing, since the night before we had a quiet one in, playing Risk; though actually it did get rather heated, and we contemplated filming it for youtube or a reality TV show! Despite choosing the closest ski resort to downtown Beijing, at only 45 minutes drive, it was actually incredibly good. The fake snow was top quality and they had several runs that allowed us to get some decent speed as well as plenty of ramps and moguls which were too demanding for me and most others that were attempting to go down them.

In fact, the observation was made, on reflection from looking at the photos, quite how i managed to move my arms and legs around so fast and so much whilst attempting to get 50cm in the air off of a jump. Well, I did, and it looked spectacular, if not elegant. It was, though, quite bizarre skiing on perfect white snow whilst all around was greyish-brown countryside and a few miles away the city of Miyun and some sort of smog/cloud enveloping it. Ironically it did then snow in Beijing the next day!

On the topic of skiing and the related issue of climate change (apparently the Scottish ski slopes are no longer in business any more, not that many Southerners, like me, ever considered them in business!), China is, as you are probably reading whilst the Bali UN negotiations take place at the center, along with the USA. Thus it will be interesting to see what China is forced to do... it has said it will not even consider trying to reduce its total carbon footprint until at least 2020 (its current promises are to be more energy efficient to emit less carbon)... but all of a sudden China is feeling the impact of climate change and might not be able to wait that long.

The latest (and hopefully last) update on the taxi incident is as follows:
-The story made it into the provincial newspaper
-The taxi company (or city taxi authority) sent me a 3 page apology by fax explaining that the taxi driver had lost his taxi license and been fined about 60 pounds
-The local TV station started a minor investigation into the issue of rip-off taxi drivers (it is not just us that got ripped off).

Now, on one hand we feel very bad for the taxi driver, since he did not do anything horrendously wrong (he just lied and then tried to ask for more money) and probably did not deserve to lose his job. On the other hand, the taxi drivers in Yulin are known to be unkind and an example needs to be set (even if they decide the 'foreign friend' should be the excuse needed to do it). Then i wondered what could i do to try to get him his job back, and figured... not much, since the taxi company would not do that, as it would lose face and it might have other knock-on effects. I mean, no-one ever thought this fiasco would arise in the first place, and i do not want it going on any longer or taking any other twists really!

Famous

Although the purpose of the journalist's trip was to accompany one of our sponsoring companies on a visit to the villages they are funding a water project in, the journalist was more interested in the story of how the taxi driver screwed me and a colleague. Thus the website for Yulin City, in Shaanxi province has covers the story (in Chinese), but there is a photo.

Well, maybe famous is not quite the right word. Nonetheless yulin is an interesting city; in a poor area of China, half of it is desert and the city could not be much further from the sea. However Yulin is blessed with natural resources and going there is like going to California during the gold rush.

Although the average person in the countryside 5 miles away earns less than 1 USD a day, Yulin is getting a new airport, has 6 line highways stretching through the desert, has a brand new 15 story government building and countless other 30 story hotels and apartment complexes. Fortunately there is some knock-on effect for the poor (it seems), how much of the tax money goes to help them though is another question... Then there is the number of small companies that (almost literally) hire a digger and start digging up coal, bribing a local official to print the required certificate the next day if they find something. It is a city whereby coal and gas are cheaper than water.

Actually one of the highlights of the trip was visiting one family whose grandparents were in their 90s as the grandmother had bound feet. When she was a child (and this practice continued for hundreds of years, only ending about 50+ years ago) it was believed that a woman was more beautiful if she had small feet, so girls wrapped their feet in bandages to make the toes grow towards the heel in a 'n' shape. In some cases the toes would reach the heel, of course totally destroying the bone structure of the women who would walk around in agony for the rest of their lives. This lady (right) is already wearing a child's shoe and still her foot does not fill most of it (she walks on her tiptoes).

winter and the olympics

Winter is well and truly here which means the big coats are out; it also means the babies are all wrapped up in 6 layers of clothes and look more like telly tubbies than people. Every time i see the little bundles i struggle not to laugh, not because the babies are wrapped up warm, which is sensible, but that the parents still make their kids wear the trousers (that all Chinese babies wear) with a slit under the crotch, so babies can easily do their thing anywhere, anytime (and they do, even at bus stops or on trains, as i have witnessed -beware!). Thus the little babies' bums are still freezing to death, and i wonder what the impact is on their future abilities to reproduce!

The 5-a-side sunday football league finishes the autumn term next sunday, though i will miss it as i'll be working in the countryside. Today was not a good end to the season, personally. I did manage to score 1 out of my 10 or more chances and we lost both games, including to the Iranian Embassy team who are top of the group with some skillful players and elegant passing.
No comments about our team's abilities, except most weeks we struggle to get 5 people out of bed from the night before!

This week i had a thought, what will China be like after the Olympics? Yes, there are other big events (the World Expo in Shanghai) and possibly the World Cup and other activities, but is there much bigger than the Olympics? I am sure many people will prefer to take their own lives rather than continue to live after the Olympics. It has gone beyond mere government sponsored patriotism to some kind of a cult. At first it is just used by every single organisation to market something somehow, then it becomes mentioned in almost every single press release about anthing at all, because next summer is 'the' date that matters... will the charity law change by then? will the media law be revoked afterwards? will the subway lines be finished in time? will kids ever play sport ever again?

Yesterday morning was a small environmental awareness event in a park near the Forbidden City, led by a group who campaign for a 'green olympics' -what will they do in 10 months? Next we went to a famous lake next door, which is well and truly on the tourist map, and found, to our shock, a newly installed disabled chair lift in one of the old stone structures. Now, the fact that we were so surprised should make readers aware that i have never seen any such chair lift in Beijing ever before. Even subway stations fail to have any elevators and though most have escalators sometimes, 95% of the Beijing stations still have stairs at some point from the train to the exit. The poor Paralympians who come next summer will not see too much of Beijing it seems!

After 3 weeks in Beijing including a trip to the capital club (on the top of a skycraper) where, for a change, i could actually see the view, I am off travelling from wednesday for a couple of weeks. By the time i am back it will almost be time for some more birthday ice skating and christmas/new year in the Philippines. 4 months of winter to go...

Success at work

On Friday was the launch of our 9 million USD partnership with Nokia China; so it was sort of a big deal, with media etc. The highlight was the ice mountain of ice being smashed in order to release the 'love' inside (i.e. let the potential of rural children be released) and the lowlight was when one of the pretty ladies on stage feinted :(. Still I can claim some responsibility for the partnership (on my CV!) and we are happy with the money contribution (And are hoping to develop other elements of the partnership in the next couple of months) and hope to leverage the partnership to raise our profile. Plan is the most unknown of all organisations unfortunately!

On Saturday i went to watch a Chinese band playing in a bar. The warm-up band was excellent (soft-rock) and the main band were pretty good too, though different. They mix rock with a traditional old people's singing style; they also like wearing their underwear on stage and the singer's does a sort of Marilyn Manson by using make-up on his face.

Today is wonderful blue sky: Beijing is definitely getting better, even if there were a couple of bad days last week. The previous week I was in Shanghai, again blown away by its pomp, skyscrapers and trendy drinking options. Read 'trendy', think 'expensive' but that is Shanghai for you!

I was also in Suzhou where a few months ago their (famous) lake was a big cess pit due to industrial waste discharge leading to an algae explosion and all sorts. It was so bad the PM of China said something had to be done. Eventually it seems something was done (though probably only through the cheapest, temporary solution) and thus the government put on a conference about Corporate Responsibility including a trip on the lake. I could not make the boat trip unfortunately, but at least there was no subtlety about the motivations for the conference! Apparently, it will cost 14 billion USD to solve the problem long-term. Now that is a lot of money to pay for a mess caused by irresponsible companies polluting the lake... who will presumably not be putting in towards that cost!

And, i have no travel plans for at least 2 more weeks; which must be a first in 2007!

Extravagent

Yes, I prefer Beijing to Shanghai in almost every way. Shanghai people are disliked by almost everyone, their accent sounds horrible, Shanghai has the cheek to actually have some decent public transportation and forward thinking government, Shanghai has more skyscrapers than people (i think) and Shanghai has more money than it knows what to do with.

Anyway, it now has more of my money than I would like it to. Even in a chinese restaurant (with some beers, admittedly) the bill hit 50+ RMB; about 20 more than equivalent in Beijing. Then the bars, well it's close on 4 pounds for a pint in almost anywhere here nowadays. Fortunately a friend took me out to the Piano bar in Jin mao building, the 88 story skyscraper, whose bar requires minimum spend of 8 pounds a head.

Yesterday a yellow sports car zoomed around, for the sake of zooming; today i had to go to the ridiculously trendy xintiandi with the gucci shops selling real gucci watches, and people actually buying something from them! Then there is the car issue... Shanghai rations its number of new license plates each year so prices are driven up through official auctions. Not that that stops anyone buying a car here.

Moving on, since when I talk about Shanghai i always say the same things, I had the wonderful pleasure of going into starbucks to enquire about their wireless internet and being told, i would have to pay for some card or something to use it, but that the coffee place next door was free. I know Starbucks likes to provide good service, and i was thankful, but i wonder if this is going too far?

The 17th Big

Yesterday the 17th Big finished. It was the 17th Communist Party of China's party meeting which takes place every 5 years and is so important, it is called the 'big meeting' in Chinese. So it means lots of extra police on the streets, guarenteed blue skies and lots of behind the scenes shuffling going along as the current Leadership will be in power for another 5 year term -but at this mid way point, start to promote those they want to succeed them. In China, the most important thing for a PM is normally to retain control after they finish their term.

In the western media the analysis of the 17th Big is all about who those new people will be and what changes might there be in the next 5 years to policy -but most commentators are left guessing as there is such secrecy involved (no-one even knew the exact start or end dates of the meeting until 2 weeks before) and rarely any new policies are ever declared at such meetings.

Yesterday was also the half marathon which was generally not too badly organised logistically but definitely some room for improvement; such as putting signs up to warn motorists the roads would be closed (no-one knew so there were huge traffic jams all over north-west beijing), finishing the race in a park and not in a slip lane of a highway and them many other things they could do to actually make the environment fun and lively. Never mind, the weather was good and that is all that matters!

The most exciting development of the last 2 weeks? A new subway line opened -finally, and before the Olympics the one next to my apartment will be open making life so much easier.

The Chams

Back around 1,500 years ago there was a small empire covering southern Vietnam along the coast that lasted around a thousand years through was constantly fighting the Chinese (in the north) and the Khmers (in the West). Of course I had never heard of them but keen to learn more went to the site (called My Son) with the most Cham remains, which was religious site.

Unfortunately, despite having a guide (who seemed more keen on talking about selecting a female virgin from amongst our group to throw in the sea for good luck than telling us about the Chams) and the area being a UNESCO -protected site; I came away having learned very little from the poor museum and disappointed from viewing the limited remains of the site (partly destroyed by time, partly during the Vietnam war).

Most striking though was the TOTAL lack of information anywhere, no signs saying what the building used to be used for, what it was made of, how it was made, who made it, when it was built or anything. I know there is not much information about the Champa Empire but there must be some. An embarrassment to UNESCO, especially since there is a sign up declaring one of their restoration projects 'a model restoration project'! ha ha. Anyway, the whole group agreed the 4 USD we had paid was probably only used to pay for the (quite nice) paving stones on the paths. Fortunately the boat ride back was quite pleasant with a wonderful breeze!

In complete contrast to the disappointment of going to My Son, a visit to Hoi An was one of the highlights of Vietnam. The city was an important port a few hundred years ago with traders from across East Asia using it frequently but then, all of a sudden, deserting the town to use another nearby port instead due to the river in Hoi An silting up. They left behind an old town of a few square kilometres of wonderful old buildings, mostly wooden, though some with French influence. The town has a wonderful set of 'attractions' like temples, museums, houses open to the public, cultural sites and so on that can be visited as well as just walking around the streets and into the houses; many of which have lots of information and the owners proudly tell you of their family history.

Of course, most of the contents of those buildings is now taken over to art galleries or gift shops, but the buildings are unchanged and the atmosphere is lively with a busy local market and plenty of friendly backpackers. It is rather unlike Li Jiang in China which has almost no local atmosphere (as insanely crowded as it is with tourists) and has been restored and rebuilt countless times and, though being pretty to look at, lacks little other opportunities to learn about the town's culture or history. The best part to Hoi An, though, was the swimming pool (and accompanying bar with free cocktails for an hour a day) and the beach, which is totally under-rated.

After the War ...

I spent a day spent travelling around the area known as the De-Militarized Zone which was set up as buffer between North and South Vietnam when the country was split after WW2. Once the war between the two countries started it quickly became very heavily militarized indeed!

Viewing some of the sites; such as bomb craters, old look-outs and pill boxes, monuments to the dead, a cemetery and the remains of a bombed out tank lying by the road I began thinking what it must have been like for the soldiers who were fighting there in the 60s and 70s. I've been reading an excellent book, The sorrow of war, by a North Vietnamese who fought throughout the war and through tremendous strokes of luck managed to live through countless battles. The book really adds to the feeling of imagining what it was like (and i suppose still is in other countries) in the midst of a war.

Most obvious were the brand new forests that covered the landscape; all of the trees in the whole area were planted after the war and most of the villages were rebuilt too. There does not seem to be too much of an impact of the war on the Vietnamese now; though i did not get a chance to talk to any war veterans. Everyone else seems to have quickly forgotten the war, happy that the country is back together again and developing so fast. Maybe the generation of young people whose lives were totally changed from fighting (as described so vividly in the book) has now been overtaken by the new generations since; Vietnam suffered a population explosion after the war and continues to grow (there is a 2-child policy for urban residents) and so with this in mind and despite the many many differences between the 2 countries, maybe there is some hope for countries like Iraq, in 30 years....

Solitude

The first trip to Halong Bay was canceled due to thunderstorms (the evidence we saw later in the bay with 2 sunken ships!); the second (when we returned 4 days later) was full of incredible weather, views and food. We spent a few days lounging on an 'Imperial Junk' which actually was rather Imperial-like, wooden, 3 decks etc, kayaking, swimming, cycling and looking at the spectacular limestone peaks.

It was the first time I had slept on a boat before (almost felt like a cruise) and the first time, memorably, to sleep on the top of a boat under a perfectly clear sky, all alone, looking up at the stars and the moon. I am always surprised that the stars are still there since i so rarely see them (not just because of the pollution, also because of all the ambient light in all the cities) but it is always worth reflecting on how far away they are and how small we really are. It is even more poignant when in the sea and there is not a sound to be heard or a person to be seen. It was a wonderful benefit of falling asleep on the deck and then waking up at 2am to enjoy the serenity. After a few hours sleep down below, I was back up for sunrise which was just as fantastic. All the pictures will be up on flickr later. For me, it was the highlight of the trip. And yet, it is so simple!

After that we were back in the craziness of Hanoi at rush hour with as many motorbikes as people, less cars than travel agents and less buses than cafes. One can only wonder what the city might be like if people could afford to buy cars (or cars were made locally), since the roads are so narrow and motorbikes ... everywhere. One opportunity for the budding entrepreneur is to sell non-petrol powered motorbikes though. The city smells of Diesel unfortunately.

We've also been shopping rather a lot, eating rather a lot (though me less so, since i ate something that did not agree with me), drinking endless mango shakes, getting frustrated at how the museums close for lunch and on mondays and so on. I have to say the buildings here are so much nicer than in China- and stranger too, since all buildings are very narrow and deep (they are taxed based on their street-frontage); the women are much prettier (i think it is the humidity); the museums better (well we only went to one but it was the complete opposite of the equivalent in Beijing, thankfully).

Interestingly after meeting my Plan colleagues I have realised how alike Vietnam is with China; the same pretend Commmunist/Socialist government, the same state controlled media, the same crazy economic growth (to get faster now Vietnam has joined the WTO), the same corruption, the same entrepreneurship, similar food, similar language (as similar to chinese as French is to english roughly) , similar recent history etc. It is not that surprising since China used to occupy Vietnam for several hundreds of years leaving behind linguistic, religious and educational legacies.

Mud and rain

Up in the hills of North-West Vietnam where it permanently rains and is always green, with fresh air and waterfalls everywhere you look.... there is also a lot of mud. There was also a lesson learned. When preparing clothing to go hiking, it is worth copying the tour guide. That means choosing wellington boots and a large umbrella over hiking boots, rain coats etc. Lesson learned.

During the trip we chatted with the various tour guides, spent the night in a village (that had WiFi and computer thanks to a pilot project from various companies and foreign governments), met millions more Australians (it is their school holidays) and checked out schools and toilets (interesting for me, as related to work. Less interesting for the others in the group!)

It is also a region where children only go to school for 5 years maximum, so they can work in the tourism industry making and selling jewelery and clothing along side their grandmothers. It was very depressing to see grandmothers who have worked their entire lives in the fields, brought up countless children and grandchildren and lived through Wars against France, China, the USA etc only to be almost begging you to buy their handicrafts. It is a real shame, especially as the Women are not that poor, but still feel they need to get as much cash as they can anyway they can to provide for their families.

The area also houses a local branch of 'baguette et chocolat' which is a wonderful French cafe that trains street children to work there and provide jobs for them. Their chocolate mousses are to die for.... They need to open in China!

Cafes and Motos

It is true, Vietnam is even more crazy than Cambodia for motorbikes. Approximately 1 for every 2 people in Hanoi (so maybe there are some kids that do not have one!), and very few cars. Unfortunately all the motorbikes are petrol powered, and not electric.

Hanoi is a very cool city with some nice art galleries, French colonial buildings, fantastic food, wonderful fruit, small streets and lots of cafes. We went to 3 cafes today as well as 1 restaurant. i managed to have 2 ice cream deserts! We also had a massage, and the poor little 20 year old was sweating by the time she finished trying to manhandle me!

This does not bode well for my supposed preparations for the half marathon. i did manage a 65 minute run before i left Beijing; but i need to do more exercise up in the mountains next week to keep fit with so much great food to try, and cheap local beer to drink! The next 3 days will be spent in supposedly spectacular Halong bay on boats, beaches and kayaks. Often these kinds of trips are a bit hit-and-miss as the tour operators are not always trustworthy about the quality of the boats etc, so fingers crossed.

Some people here speak Chinese, but not many, which is actually useful for talking to my travelling buddy behind the locals' back. Weirdly the word for goodbye in Vietnamese sounds a lot like the word for 'number 2' in Chinese.

Registered

Once upon a time when I first came to China 3 years and 3 days ago I stayed in a little apartment with 2 bedrooms and 1 living room; a kitchen and a small toilet/bathroom. There were 4 people living there (me in the living room). 2 and a half months later, just before my visa was to run out and i had to get it extended, I went to the local police station to 'register'. Unfortunately I turned up on a Saturday, and the man who could register would only come to work on Monday.

On the Monday I went back to the police station to register only to be told that I need to register within 24 hours of moving into the apartment, and since I had been there since Saturday, unregistered, I would be punished for breaking the law. This is, of course, absurd -what was I to do? In hindsight the lesson is never try to register on a weekend! My punishment was to sit for 1-2 hours with a friend translating for me, though neither of us had to say or do anything. Instead we watched as the special man wrote out pages and pages of stuff bout what i had done wrong. He literally wrote about 8 pages by hand. Then, for some totally unknown reason declared he had to make another copy of his essay (not sure why the photocopier was not used...) by hand.

I had to 'accept' my punishment and make sure to register within 24 hours of any apartment i ever stay in ever again in China (unless it is a hotel where you register at the hotel). I was even told if i broke the rule again i might not be allowed into the country, so i am sure there was no computer involved (and my essays were just filed in some backroom) so noone would know.

None the less I was sufficiently scared to have NOT registered in any of the 2 places in Beijing or 3 places in Xi'an I have lived since (and the many many other friends' places i have spent a few days in Shanghai and elsewhere). But I decided, last week, in my new place in Beijing to register (because someone put a sign on our front door telling me to!). And since the place i live is fancy and there are other foreigners living there (there are quite literally more than 100 buildings in the complex), it was relatively painless: Ask the office responsible for area D for instructions. They direct me to the office responsible for areas A-E for a note that takes 5 minutes. They direct me to the police station, where 10 minutes later I was registered.

The main problem was the fact my passport was at the Vietnam embassy. I had hurried off to show may face as soon as the sign appeared on the door with a photocopy of my passport; only to have to ask the question "If i come back in 2 days to register properly will I be fined/punished?" Deja Vu anyone? Anyway the police woman almost laughed at me, like she really gave a monkey and when i returned 2 days later, all was good :)

And now I am back in Xi'an again; in 8 days time I will be on holiday in Vietnam. Such is life. And the highlight of the last couple of weeks? coming to the office today and being able to see the mountains 10 miles away (for the 4th time in a year). Actually the highlight was me running 15km (once) and 12 km (once) as part of my preparation to run (and hopefully complete without stopping and within 2 hours) the Beijing half marathon in a month's time.

The worst part of the week was hearing of the death of Anita Roddick. 1 of the few people that comes to my mind as a real role model who really made a lasting difference in the World and kept to her values as well as spreading those values across the World. But, having amassed a fortune of 100+ million pounds, what a shame she will not be alive to spend it on all the good causes she has helped over the years.

A very Chinese experience continued

After the last day of the trip, I feel like I need to add to the previous list:

-A hop-on, hop-off bus strip around Chong Qing which included a stop at a 'museum', but which is actually a shop selling kitchen knifes and where you get a 20 minute 'demo' and then buy the knifes. Actually the demo was quite good and it seems the price was not too bad since 80% of all the Plan staff made a purchase -I hope our tour guide will be happy with the commission she must have got!

-A visit to a few Communist History sites (actually they were mostly prisons where the Communist revolutionary martyrs were locked up/died during the civil war with the KMT) which all my colleagues had read about extensively at school. I accepted the fact that it is sad that people died in a civil war, but was not so sure the sites were really that big a deal, since there was no historical significance to the prisons what-so-ever: no famous communists were there, no defining moment of the civil war took place, no barbaric acts etc. Never mind, it was still somewhat interesting to read all the propoganda.

-A view of a place where the Yangtze River meets another river and you can see the 2 colours of the river mixing. The Chinese think this is interesting; the Westerners tend to think more which of the colours indicates which river is most polluted...

-A group photo. This is obligatory, even at a simple half day conference there are group photos. Everyone says 'Qiezi' (sounds somewhat like cheese when you pronounce it and hence has the same effect of making people smile) and holds their 2 fingers up in a 'V' for Victory (the same fingers as swearing but with your palm away from you). This happens across East Asia.

-A fantastic hotpot (i.e. fondu where you boil your own food) in Chongqing. The spicier it is the more ice-cold beer needed to deal with it :)

A very Chinese experience

Last week 135 of Plan China's 150 staff began our annual retreat. In truly Chinese style it took 23 hours to get to our destination via coaches and trains; though we all had beds the electric fans on the 25 year old trains struggled to beat the 30 degree evening heat. We ended up at a place called Bamboo Sea, 'not that famous' a place according to my colleagues almost none of whom had heard of it before.

Not that that matters, it was far enough into the mountains to have fresh air and a great opportunity for me to be forced to speak more chinese. Unfortunately most of my colleagues from the field offices have rather thick accents. Bamboo Sea was, as the name implies, a forest entirely made of Bamboo (not actually a sea, but a metaphor) which was rather large and took up several mountains.What makes the trip so Chinese?

-the tour guide talking for more than 2 hours on the bus about the local area, then organising a 2 hour karaoke competition on the bus (she did not get the humour when i sang Oasis' Wonderwall whilst looking at her: "I don't believe that anybody// Feels the way I do about you now") and forcing everyone to participate.

-the party 1 evening whereby offices/groups perform 'short' skits which in total lasted over 3 hours. It did look funny, and everyone else was laughing a lot, even though i had barely a clue what anyone was saying. Never the less there was some fruit and munchies...

-the 'sightseeing' which requires being bussed around the area we were in between various bamboo related sights (often involving lots of carvings of famous sayings or legends into the rock that is really nothing to do with bamboo and that are found at every famous place in China).

-the food which was 90% made of bamboo dishes. There are, in my recent experience, at least 30 different dishes you can make from bamboo and many other herbal medicines that can be created from bamboo according to the women trying to sell it to me.

-the incredible amount of photos the chinese people took of bamboo and of themselves in front of bamboo (bamboo is quite common all over china).

-lunch on a boat cruising along the river looking at more bamboo

-how loud (and how fast) chinese people speak on buses

and so on.... Anyway it has been a fun trip and great to get out of the office and enjoy more social time with my colleagues. Especially after reading Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe by the EU.

Banteay Srei amongst the trees

Banteay Srei amongst the trees
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Banteay Srei is undoubtedly the most beautiful of all the temples in Angkor. Many people miss it as it is 25km from the main complex, but the completeness, the intricacies, the colours, the designs and the stories are breathtaking. I walked around it for over an hour doing at least 6 laps and still did not want to leave.

Bayon and lake 1

Bayon and lake 1
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Another view of Bayon. Impressive?

Bayon and lake 2

Bayon and lake 2
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Bayon, one of the most impressive temples in Angkor has an incredible amount of faces carved into the rocks and some even more incredible carvings of daily life, wars and escapades the rulers got up to at the time. One of the many interesting aspects of Angkor's temples is the various religious influences on them: sometimes Buddhist, sometimes Hindu depending on the year. And of course, depending on which ruler built the temple.

Pretty hut

Pretty hut
Originally uploaded by adam lane

A family's home in rural Cambodia. Nearby is their 1 pig, a small fire that they cook over and some other huts.

Painting of the killing fields

Painting of the killing fields
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Evidence of the incredible regime run by Pol Pot wiping out a third of Cambodia's population. A visit to the school that was turned into an interrogation/torture centre coupled with a trip out to where the unlucky inhabitants were clubbed to death is sobering. The children (of which there were hundreds, often only a few years old) somehow ended up being killed as 'children of political enemies' by being held by the legs and swung against trees. How does mankind do such things?

Adam and massive tree in Ta Phrom

Adam and massive tree in Ta Phrom
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Indiana Jones eat your heart out. These are the big mama trees that are taking over thousand year old temples. does put the little old human into perspective

Angkor Wat rising above the forest

Angkor Wat rising above the forest
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Angkor Wat and the many other temples are lying around in a jungle... almost literally. indeed the smaller temples are so rarely visited it is a fantastic experience to be there alone amongst the nature.

Stunning Angkor Wat at first light

Stunning Angkor Wat at first light
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Angkor Wat at sunlight; photos do not do it justice... though i did try enough times!

Mirror image of Angkor Wat

Mirror image of Angkor Wat
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Angkor Wat -the greatest of all the temples at Angkor which is now in tiny Cambodia but which used to be the centre of an empire covering most of South East Asia. At sunrise it is incredible.

Immaculate Banteay Srei carvings -closeup 2

Immaculate Banteay Srei carvings -closeup 2
Originally uploaded by adam lane

Imagine entire temples packed full of carvings like this; built more than a thousand years ago -and the hundreds of temples sited in a 'capital' whose population was 1 million people! And then, they all disappeared and the jungle swallowed up the entire complex. As spectacular as Angkor and surrounding temples are, the area around it is one of the poorest in Cambodia.

luxury

I missed out on the (presumably) impressive celebrations on the 8th which marked 1 year to go till the Olympics, as I was in a seminar talking about the role of China in Africa. A very interesting topics, since there are all kinds of phrases that are associated with it from 'the new colonialism' to 'south-south co-operation'. There is no doubt why China is dealing with Africa -it is for its own benefit, as every other country deals with Africa. The question is will Africa benefit from China's involvement or not?

Will trading help reduce poverty or flood the market with cheap, subsidised, imported Chinese goods? Will China's endemic corruption make Africa's corruption worse or is this a chance for Chinese companies to turn over a new leaf in a new continent? Will the media and NGOs be successful in forcing China to help Africa; using the 'genocide' Olympics as leverage? How will Chinese people who can barely speak english deal with African people, and will they just live in their own communes eating Chinese food? Since Chinese workers have now started being kidnapped for ransoms, will China have to stray form its policy of 'non-interference'? Will the government controlled Chinese media ever start to accept whatsoever that China's motivations for being in Africa are not really just to help the poor black man that the white man screwed over?

All interesting questions, and all affect the whole poverty reduction agenda. Unfortunately the seminar barely touched on any of these issues, but never mind. Work is going well; organisation-wide retreat coming up soon. should be interesting/exciting/good chance to practise chinese.

I moved apartments a couple of months back into a cheap place of rather low quality; but it keeps out most of the mosquitos and has a few drips of water flowing into the sink and into the hole that is both a toilet and a shower. It is good enough for temporary stays. The reason I moved was that I am expecting to spend more time in Beijing, hence the greater expenditure of rent in Beijing instead.

A big bed in a big room with my own bathroom; a living room with 3 sofas, big screen TV, dining table, kitchen with oven, a study and a little bed+bath-room for a maid (we do not have a maid, so it is used for storage) amongst all the other fancy things i am not used to having; like bookshelves, plants and air conditioning. I honestly feel guilty living there (though i do conserve electricity), compared to the people that Plan is actually helping. But never mind, it lets me live close to work in Beijing, gives me space to study chinese in quiet and provides a green park between the 58 buildings of the complex to go for a run in the mornings.

Unfortunately this week i am in Xi'an. But never mind. Spurs won, and that is all that matters!

3 years without...

...going to a cinema, since cinemas are so expensive in China (around 10 USD), they only have around 20 foreign films a year (due to government regulations) and fake DVDs are so cheap.

But, in Bangkokg, in one of the best cinemas in town, it is only a few dollars and they show loads of movies, so I popped in on saturday to watch Die Hard 4 (a great 'return to the cinema after 3 years' choice).

Now the Thais love their King -and it really is not possible to understate the word 'love'. In fact, though 95% of Thais are Buddhist I think the king fulfills a god-like role. Yellow is his colour so Thais often wear yellow t-shirts (especially on Monday, when the subway is full of yellow). On many tall buildings there are massive (covering 20 or more storeys/floors) posters of their dear king. Along the roads there are posters and temples to the king. He is everywhere. I have no problem with this, and was quite willing to stand up during the 3 minute 'infomerical' about the kind that was showed just before the movie started. It was quite surprising though, when after an advert about shampoo, the whole movie theatre gets up and bows their head and then the king comes on!

...going to a live sporting event, since there are not many world famous teams in China. However, on sunday 1 world famous team, Barcelona, was in town so i went to buy the cheapest ticket (18 Euros; most expensive was 180 Euros!) to watch them beat Beijing 3-0. The game was surprisingly good and open. Barcelona were in another league altogether, especially in individual skill, but Beijing did get better towards the end.

There were 30,000 fans, though the stadium is very different to British ones: no roofs, jsut 1 tier of seating and an athletics track means the atmosphere is not as good. Though it did heat up when some Americans (supporting Beijing) had a scuffle with some Chinese (supporting Barcelona). Of course there was plenty of fake t-shirts and posters outside the stadium, but the Chinese still have some way to go to prepare for the Olympics -for example, there was so few snack stalls that they ran out at half-time and were only twice the price of normal shop prices! Wembley can give them some advice on extortionate pricing I am sure!

Motos

A city of 2 million people, and probably more than a million Motos (Motobikes), Phnom Penh gets my award for the most dangerous traffic of all the cities I have been to. It is hard to describe in words; but suffice to say there are about 4 times more Motos than cars and if ever proof is needed of how dangerous it is, surely the fact that at least 1/3rd of drivers wear helmets is it. Spot a helmet elsewhere (especially China) and you deserve an award!

For a capital city it really is a bit disappointing: barely a building over 6 stories tall and an airport that is probably smaller than Wembley Stadium, but as towns go it is a fantastic place full of character and pleasant architecture, a lack of slums (considering the poverty of Cambodia), tremendous food, nice sunsets and very warm people.

Despite this, despite the great guest houses that extend into a pretty lake (and provide rooms for only 3 dollars), despite the fun that can be had when travelling with a girl whose hair is braided and attracts all kinds of attention.... despite all these and more, the endearing memory of Phnom Penh is still of the [... how can one describe this...] despicable atrocities that took place during the late 70s when the Khmer Rouge killed 1/4 of the population (the civil war lasted a shockingly long 30 years in total). These atrocities are remembered in the museum at a school which was turned into an interrogation and torture centre for almost 20,000 'enemies of the state'.

I've been to Nazi concentration camps, I've read about the Rwandan genocide, I've seen movies like Blood Diamond and I can deal with the evil that is in all of us. But it is very, very hard to accept the fact that adults can pick up babies by their legs and kill them by smashing their heads against trees. It is extremely hard to understand how 6 year old children can be accused of being political enemies and need to be tortured and killed. I asked a friend what she would do if told to kill a child or be killed herself -no answer of course; it is awful when these kinds of situations are created whereby everyone down the chain of command is ensuring those beneath them are committing these kinds of acts in order to stay alive themselves.

The best part of the (sparse) museum [though best is not the right word] is the small section about those who were the torturers and killers. Is the excuse of 'If i didn't kill the innocent child/adult i would have died myself' an excuse anyone can actually believe in themselves?

On a lighter note, whilst visiting the projects that Plan supports in Cambodia it is impossible not to see how much aid other countries are pouring into Cambodia to try to help them recover from what the country went through (note that the Americans also did their best to destroy the country whilst the Viet Cong were hiding there during the Vietnam war) and it is evidently working. Though how effective it is when so many charities are all trying to help the same village with different techniques is questionable. I saw a school with 3 different wells, built by 3 different organisations. I suppose the school needed 3 wells, but why 3 different kinds of well?

No wonder the whole country still harks back to the incredible glory days of 9th-12th centuries when the Angkor empire ruled much of South East Asia and build such incredible temples and housed cities of a million or more people (London, at the time, was apparently about 40,000 people). Even now, no one is quite sure how such a population was sustained (water, food, sanitation, order etc). At least the future can only continue to get better for poor Cambodia; even if their current government is as corrupt as most of the others in developing countries. Interestingly this week the UN organised war crimes tribunal finally started to actually do something about convicting those in charge of the awful regime 30 years ago. A bit late though, since most of those leaders are already dead of natural causes!

Impressed

After a week in discussions about how business can contribute to Earth's and Society's sustainable development (which i basically what i am doing in my work), which was complete with plenty of Thai food, a swimming pool and fresh air, I am now in Siam Reap, Cambodia. Siam Reap is the town next to Angkor Wat and other nearby temples, one of the most impressive sites open to tourists anywhere in the World.

The temples, of which there are more than 30, though only about 15 major ones, are all 1,000 years old and many are of a simply incredible size.... literally the size of modern day palaces; all made of rocks, all done by hand, all intricately carved, almost all done solely for religion. They are impressive; though many of them are in some what of a state.

The highlight so far: Walking around in the jungle and coming across a 'lost temple' appearing out of the ground, walls and statues are intermingled with hundred year old trees! Granted, the temple are not lost, and 2 minutes later a tour group or some other backpackers will invade the pace, but it is unusual and makes one feel 'at one' with nature to some extent. It is great that many temples were not restored and so feel so natural. Of course, if it was in China, all the temples would be rebuilt with cranes and painted in bright blue (or whatever c0lour they were originally) in preparation for the Olympics! Plus of course, there would be pictures of the famous people who have visited and the awful destruction that other countries did of the original site (note for readers: much of China's historical and cultural heritage was destroyed by the commnist party during the 'cultural revolution').

The other great thng is how not so over-toursity the area is, much aganst what i expected. There are bery few beggars, few few locals harrassing tourists to sell them t-shirts or water really; bearng in mind this is the most famous tourist site in South East Asia. And, maybe this is just caue it is the 'low season', there are surprisingly few tourists -still lots of course, but the number is certainly acceptable. Another plus is that the entrance fee is only 20 USD a day -a bargain really!

On Monday Plan's local staff will show me around the poor villages and the work Plan is doing here. It should be very interesting, and a great way to get to know a country. I cannot wait!

Xi'an

It is the middle of July. Wow. Almost 1 year of being at Plan and in Xi'an. My contract has been renewed for another year, though I may soon move back to Beijing, rather than just traveling there every other week. As with most things it is only when you contemplate change that you realise just what things are like now -i say this in regard to Xi'an. A city that at first sight is polluted and grey, boring and dangerous (never try to cross at a pedestrian crossing in xi'an; keep going to a road junction where the traffic lights afford slightly more protection) is in many aspects wonderfully chinese where the middle class is taking over and where on saturdays shopping streets are crowded, buses are packed and personal cars clog streets.

A city that is cheap enough for it's millions of inhabitants living of a few pounds a day (average taxi driver's take home salary here is 100 pounds a month) to drive consumerism; yet one that is trying price itself out of these people's range. The accommodation that these people live in is disappearing (though not as rapidly as East China), the number of places where farmers can drive up in their 3 wheeled carts piled high with vegetables to sell is declining, and the number of bars on the (only) bar street that actually have people in them is increasing (though not as fast as the number of clubs opening). I may be exaggerating a little -but observing this is what makes Xi'an an interesting place to live. It might not change as much as Beijing, it might not have anything actually happening (politically, culturally, business etc) in comparison but it does have an atmosphere, hidden in the old villages that have been absorbed into the massive city.

These villages are surviving and they are just like any other village that could be in the middle of nowhere: market streets, evil dogs, hundreds of kids, litter and all. It means that the culture these people that grew up there have lives on, though in different forms. Going to the South gate is a bizarre example of how old people are forced to socialise, play instruments and dance in modern times where land is at such a premium. Of course, just like British culture (and one could even say, values) have changed so much in the last century China's are too. Whether it will actually be quicker or not, I am not sure. It might still be dependent on older generations dying, middle generations forgetting their past and younger generations only knowing consumerism -which all takes time.

A friend of mine is running a soup-kitchen in town, which operates 3 days a week and has over 50 people coming each time -mostly regulars. Going there reminds me what real charity is like (Plan is a multi-million dollar development organisations and though in no means ineffective, is operating on a totally different level) -and that though it is not sustainable, it is still required. Several of the regulars there are now volunteers themselves and it is clear how much they get out of being offered a chance to help themselves and others, even if that is just by cleaning tables and handing out soup and baozi. This weekend I will running a couple of workshops at the AIESEC conference and one is going to focus a great deal on the linkage between entrepreneurship and empowerment (along with micro-finance, an incredibly hot topic nowadays). This is a topic i am increasingly getting interested in.

In other news, camping/hiking is still my favourite past-time (apart from when i get my hands on a new series of 24!), the sun has actually come out recently and there has also been a few showers, i am off to thailand/cambodia next weekend and i am feeling more chinese after downgrading my living situation :) I can highly recommend Little Children movie-wise and facebook for a place to upload embarrassing photos of people!

p.s. not the most exciting last 3 weeks, but pretty busy. The main highlight was watching the torture my colleagues went through listening to my presentation (in chinese) about my 'resource mobilisation' plan for the next 12 months!

Chinese culture

Many things in China are fascinating to watch as they change: economy, environment, internal politics, international affairs etc. As China becomes more important and develops all of these are changing, but possibly the most fascinating of all it to see how China's culture changes, or at least deals with, all these other changes.

As you may know the Chinese are rather proud of their 5,000 year old culture entailing all kinds of elements: from education to ethics or religion (in a sense) to guanxi (relationships) and of course language! The best thing about having a tutor is the chance to discuss and often argue about all these kinds of topics and really get to understand different views on China.

Today we argued about whether Chinese culture is fundamentally changing -she denies it; though i did manage to convince her that at least there will be some impact on culture from all these changes and that it will be interesting to see what happens. What is most interesting is that she recognises the changes to everyone's lives due to economic changes and does not think it is due to cultural changes; though i disagree. However, we both agreed that irrelevant of the cause, there will be impacts.

A few examples include that the massive internal migration that leads to parents separating from each other, and/or from their kids and/or their grandparents which is a massive change for China and impacts on education and the role of the family unit. Another might be the increasing number of divorces -brought on according to my tutor not because of people leaving others to find something better (which it is in the West apparently), but just because of economic change, jobs and communication issues; so what will happen to the single parents kids and the grand parents; and how does the 1 child policy affect this (you can normally work it out to have 1 child per marriage).

Finally consider the impact of the drive to emulate Western culture and values, closely aligned with the drive for (Western) economic growth and quality of life leading to people becoming fatter, but becoming more obsessed with being thing; going clubbing and dating more; living with partners before marriage and so on. In theory a strong traditional Chinese culture can help China develop and avoid some of the problems of the West, like 'anti-social' or 'disrepectful' youth for example. But then it may make things worse; since it is relatively common for men to visit other women on business trips, which are becoming more and more frequent nowadays!

rain

In Hong Kong it was raining, but the rain was coming from my body due the humidity (and not from the sky). Even at night, on the 38th floor with the window open, and without moving, i started to sweat. Yikes, though HK is a great place, i dislike having to sleep with air conditioning on, or carrying around 3 spare shirts... (though the taxis are nice and cold).

In Xi'an there was rain for about 4 hours combined out of the week i was there. Well, it's a start. In Beijing there was also some rain, though it was the day before I arrived there, so that meant the few days I was there were nice and cool. In Shanghai it has been drizzling non-stop. Drizzle is great cause you don't get soaked or drowned in puddles. The only problem is, along with the rain, come the Mosquitos :(

The week in Xi'an was quiet. The 4 days in Beijing a bit hectic. The week in Shanghai totally hectic. Just the way I like it. It is not that Xi'an is so bad, or that I struggle to work effectively there (how to set-up and manage corporate partnerships when there are no corporations there?), but that I am just not that busy there... the only things to do are eat, drink, work, study or escape the pollution. Having said that, the cycle to the mountains-climb the mountain-cycle back was fantastic and the ride is much more enjoyable than Beijing; where it takes an hour to get out of the city and another 30 minutes to escape off the highways.

I am staying in a Hostel in Shanghai as it is in a very central location with wireless internet -perfect for in between meeting times (plus there are 3 crazy kittens running all over which adds some life compared to staying in friend's empty apartments during the daytime). You'd think hostels are full of travellers. Not Shanghai's -they are full of opportunity-seekers. People live here whilst job hunting, whilst working (it is cheaper than trying to rent an appartment, if you are happy sharing a room with 5 others and a good way to make friends) and whilst planning their new business venture. Walk into the hostel and not only do you find the 2 computers permanently in use, you find several people with laptops...Typical Shanghai.

oxygen

Only 1 day left to enjoy clean air, clean rain and 'freshness'. I've got a lot of oxygen on this trip, hopefully enough to last until my next trip back here (or out of China -though to be fair, there are places in China with some oxygen)... although Xi'an is 25 degrees, which is nice.

A lot of my outdoor activity has involved exercising. Well, I say exercising; mostly it has been pleasurable cycling or walking. Some of it has been more challenging (5 mile cross-country, 6 mile road races and a triathlon) though some has been quite relaxing (outdoor hot tub!). There is a reason for so much exercise, other than just a dash for air (which is not that bad, I am totally over-exaggerating a lot of the time; please feel free to still visit!). 1 is that my Dad does this kind of stuff all the time, so I might as well join him. Though he beat me on the 5 mile-er by 4 minutes and the 6 mile-er by 2 minutes, I beat him on the Triathlon by 2 minutes, cause his swimming is useless! The 2nd reason is that my family does have a bit of a liking to chocolate and deserts in general. My mum is a great cook and even when I'm out, I can't not buy desert.

Why? Because China does not have deserts. It is not just that everything comes at once in cheap restaurants (there is a bit more order in posh places), but just that there is no concept really of cakes or similar sweet things (not helped by the lack of ovens). Such a shame. The ice cream is not bad in China (though avoid the weird flavours, e.g. green pea, sweetcorn etc), but the chocolate is awful and the birthday cakes are very very similar to the cream pies that you shove in someone's face for a joke. Despite the exercise, I have most definitely regained my sweet tooth and put on weight. My suitcase has also gained weight: you have no idea how much chocolate is inside it (but no Apple Crumble, sorry Fumi!).

It is a bid sad (and pretty poor writing for me to even try this ending for this post) but you could almost say deserts and chocolate are as important as oxygen for my Mum and sisters especially. That is the real reason they could never come to China for too long!

p.s. For the BLCU/Wudaokou gang, i do have to make a special 'shout' out to the 'Fish Man' by BLCU west gate selling fish shaped waffles filled with chocolate sauce. 1 RMB... buying just 2 is never enough!

Memories

A long time ago I came to realise, or rather accept, that people come and go. There comes a point where there is little point setting wrong expectations that friendships can be maintained when (normally due to changing circumstances) people end up moving in different circles. Then if a friend does end up in contact again for various reasons, intentionally or otherwise, no-one need feel embarrassed. Each accepts people come and go; and 'catching-up' is still a good thing to do as a one-off.

Though, it does seem due to social networking sites like Facebook, My Space, Linked In etc that everyone any of us have ever come across in our entire lifetime could get back in touch with us. What are we supposed to do with thousands of friends, most of whom were barely friends of friends and whom we cannot remember?

Since the family house is going to be sold soon; I've been packing up my few possessions (there have been many a tidy-up before to reduce what i own to just 1 satchel or 2 apart from clothes) and finding fantastic things: pen pal's letters (i can barely remember what a letter is now!), swimming certificates, pens bought on school trips, photos from primary school, school projects, contact details of people on group trips I took and so on. Weird to think how much has been achieved so far in just 25 years, how many people have come and gone. Nice to keep some memories, though I am not entirely sure.

A lot more still to come, presumably, though the memories of the future might be some what greater since there are so many more emails/photos/videos/documents and other tangible evidence of relationships nowadays. The good news is most of this stuff is virtual -can be taken anywhere easily and cannot be lost thanks to google/yahoo's fantastic online servers :-)

My room is currently a mess; only a few more nights in a bed I've slept in for 22 years pretty much. All that is left is to ask: Does anyone want to volunteer to scan in hundreds of photos going back 25 years, name them and tag them?

Wonders...

(a few of my favourite things not to be found in China)
Supermarkets with great food, easy to find, from all over the World, in all kinds of weird combinations
Food with little marks all over them telling you how much fat, calories, sugar etc in them
Intercity motorways with cars on them
Weddings in Churches
Clear blue skies; birds singing; freshly cut grass; the smell of flowers
Ale, Ale, Ale, wonderful Ale: beer without bubbles but with plenty of taste
Fields full of nothingness; just grass and sometimes some sheep/cows
Country houses made of sturdy, attractive brick, with flower gardens
Pubs with huge portions, lots of sauce, footy on tele and wireless internet
Train stations with electronic ticket machines and online booking facilities
Seat-belts in buses, taxis and cars
Car Parks
Deserts/Puddings, Chocolate, Ice Cream and all 3 mixed together
Footpaths, signposts, maps, stiles, kissing gates and the like
Real, wood fires
Couples in love and friends with new surnames
Discussions about religion
Discussions about politicis
Music: new, old and very old
TV with funny ads, funny shows and funny presenters
Interesting, stimulating newspapers full of debate, analysis, criticisms, humiliations, revelations, endless regurgitations, enticing advertisements......

Old friends together and it is like nothing has changed

home

Sitting outside in the sun eating a pub lunch with fat chips
Sitting inside a pub watching the football, pint in hand
Commuting to London on the tube, paying ridiculous amounts for peak-time tickets
Walking in the woods, with the dog
Eating home-cooked deserts
Cooking a BBQ
Sleeping in a comfortable bed
Lying outside in a garden, in the sun, breathing in fresh air, with birds all around

... a typical trip home

Topped off with a visit to Jongleurs for some live comedy (sorry, but the Chinese are not known for their sense of humour!), a walk around Hampstead (one of the poshest areas in London with expensive houses, trendy cafes etc), a trip to some 'fringe' theatre (intimate theatre with only 80 seats, that is not in the West End) and catching up with friends/family.

London is, and always will be, such a special place full of wonderful drinking establishments, eateries and people from all over the World... I am still recovering from seeing so many non-Asians! It has been a perfect week of walking around, seeing the history, culture and chic-ness of london. Plus meeting all the Plan UK people has been a real pleasure; partly as most of them are all young ladies!

If only London was not so damn expensive...
p.s. i had forgotten what it is like to drive... on the left... in a little car in areas full of posh cars... and had to park between 2 Porsches on a hill. Good job I remembered.

the good and the bad

I have always said that China is a paradox (though i suppose most countries are the same, though China might be more than most). Though most of last week was actually quite unpolluted (1 day i could see 'as far as the eye could see' for the 1st time ever in Xi'an), on friday it started to get bad again, and especially dusty (since all the building near the apartment). Thus, yesterday we went down to the Qin Ling Mountains a couple of hours away for some fresh air.

There are at least 8 panda reserves in these mountains, and we ended up in the worst. The 'zoo' is more like a jail in a war zone: full of concrete and metal bars. There is more money and space devoted to the trees by the paths in the zoo than on the animals in the zoo. It really was that depressing. There was no grass inside any of the cages -even the leopard was stuck in a 3x3m concrete and steel jail cell. It is a crime. And so depressing. Ironically WWF do a lot of work with other panda reserves and zoos in this area; I presume they do not even know that this zoo exists. The highlight of the zoo trip was when a peacock opened its feathers; the lowlight when some kids threw stones at the leopard trying to get it to move.

Thoroughly depressed we almost ran out out of the zoo angry at all things Chinese (not all zoos are this bad in China, honest) and drove West parallel to the mountains, spotted a village by the side of the road and thought that would be a good place to start our camping trip. The driver thought we were a bit weird; the locals in the village thought we were even more so, as we sauntered through heading along a small river in a valley, deep into the mountains. The village was named after a 1,000 year old pagoda nearby which we quickly checked out and discovered that most of the pagoda complex had been destroyed during the cultural revolution (10 year period from 1966 where Mao encouraged everyone to destroy anything of cultural value and defy elders and academics -which is somewhat weird, since China's 5000 year culture is based on the 2 elements of family and education; but hey, that is Mao -the evil dictator)

Thankfully the water, the green, the smells and the exercise made us forget the morning and after a few hours we were exploring villages that consisted of 3 buildings in a 1 mile stretch with the only transport to them being a footpath. It was great (again) to be in places untouched by development. No phone lines and even no electricity at the farthest village we reached to, and the views of the mountains were beautiful.

We camped along the stream and spent a while talking to a local who had 4 sons (20-30), but none of them were married (as no woman wants them, they are so poor) and only 1 was left at home (the others were working in the cities). He only had 2 cows for ploughing but spent ages telling us about the plants that could be eaten and the ones that could be used for medicine. He had lived on the hill for 50 years (though he had been to Xi'an infrequently). It is a joy to still talk to some of those 25-120 million people who are still in relative poverty in China (25m is china's number of extreme poor, 120m is World Bank's definition of poverty) who Plan is focused on helping (though we do not work in the area we were hiking in). Although this guy (in his 70s but still working the fields) is probably in the 120m bracket not the 25m, he lives mostly off what he grows and a few things to trade to buy other food. If anyone is near Xi'an; I highly recommend heading south and then west tot he edge of the mountains, picking a village and go off exploring. We'll be doing it again, that is for sure.

The water was so fresh and clean, as to be drinkable (according to the man, and verified by us); the people were so kind to us strangers it really is the opposite of Chinese cities where people and cars seem to actively barge or crash into other people and cars; where there is trash and pollution everywhere. I guess I'll be talking more about China over the next month in the UK to my Plan colleagues, and of course to friends and family, most of whom I have not seen for 18 months.

Chai

Chai (拆) is the character for Destroy and last month started appearing on a couple of the buildings on my little alleyway where i live. It is, the ultimate alleyway, with all kinds of shops selling useful and yummy stuff. A real, bustling, street full of people shopping and with a great vegetable market and small restaurants to sit outside of and eat in the summer. However after my 2 weeks out of Xi'an (Beijing -Thailand -Beijing), I returned to find 3 buildings already knocked down and another 10-15 marked. I guess it is only a matter of time until my alley with just a couple of apartment buildings becomes yet another cluster of 20 storey buildings and cars parked everywhere. Such is China.

It will be a shame, I like the cheap food and being so close to 'real China' where migrant workers live and work. I hope those who are losing their homes are being compensated enough (they are usually not). Keep watching to find out how quick the buildings disappear and what will replace them... there could be a miracle and some green space might appear, but it is unlikely!

Last night, leaving a club (the 1st i have been to in Xi'an in 8 months, since I normally stick to restaurants and bars) that was (predictably) pretty crap, me and my friends started chatting to the kids who were selling roses on the street. We gathered they all live together and some guy is looking after them. They say they are surviving ok with money, food etc; but who knows how much they get for doing what they do. They don't live with their parents, anyway.

There is a big problem of children being kidnapped, or being bought from their parents, to work for 'paymasters', and then (sometimes) returned to their parents later. In this case, parents are often so poor (or do not want their kids) that they willingly give up their children (though often without knowing what will actually happen to them). We are not sure how these children are (abused or not etc); but they said their parents are still in their hometown, so it seems likely they were either sold by their parents or kidnapped. Neither is good. So sad, and not just a Developing country problem, but one that is closely related to poverty and gender issues.

It seems that having an (new) Australian flat-mate is going to cost me money and brain cells with the amount of alcohol she consumes and the impact it has on me. Oh dear, perfect preparation for the trip home and plenty of partying at Ian's (Uni flat-mate) wedding in a few weeks!

Work and Fun in Thailand -a tough life

A 4 day trip to Thailand has been great for recharging the batteries. Remembering how beautiful nature is (i seem to need this reminder on a monthly basis due to the urban sprawl and lack of nature in Chinese cities!) I spent a day on a slightly random island which houses a few thousand muslim Thais, who that night just happened to be celebrating the birth of Muhammed.

So what would have been an incredibly boring night on an island with about 2 local shops, no other tourists (although i met 2 friends there) and no alcohol (when all the other islands are full of alcohol, parties, people, music and so on) ended up as a cultural experience as my 2 egyptian friends were able to talk to one of the locals who has studied the Koran in Egypt and thus explain everything to us. Good luck to Fadi who will spend another 3 months on the island (working). Good job he has the satellite thing for internet access otherwise it would be a lonely few months -but hey, at least his Thai will have to improve!

I suppose the island was what i though Indonesia might be like. 1 day maybe i'll find out. The beach though was beautiful -especially since there was no one on it; and i had fun riding a scooter around the island checking out the local's way of life (economy is all fishing). Then the next day, catching 1 of the 2 boats that leave the island each day I headed to a bay/island full of backpackers and cafe/bars that were all wooden shacks and fit in perfectly. It was, as Echo had promised, the 'pretty people beach' since everyone headed over there for rock climbing. I only had a few hours for lunch, so i missed the partying and was not keen to embarrass myself in front of so many climbing experts who were talking in another language all together. But it was still worth going to see the 'pretty people' especially since the other beaches nearby were full of their fair share of 'non-pretty' people. In other words, the overweight 50 somethings who like to sunbathe topless and get so red they glow in the day-time!

Yesterday was a work day at a conference that went well; despite UNICEF over-running and using up some of my presentation time... grr, damn UN people. Never mind, I am sure my presentation was better than theirs! Today was going to be half-pool and half-palace visiting, but the palace just was not as important as the pool-ipod-sun combo which lasted until the sun went down. Who cares about big empty golden buildings anyway?

Thailand is an unusual country, with a very very strong buddhist population yet huge problems in prostitution, trafficking and drugs. They have a vibrant democracy with frequent protests and an open media, yet admire their King like a god and have military coups every 3 years, like clock work. They have wonderful wonderful food but are so thin; 1 huge city but almost no others... The country is so full of foreigners it is crazy: beach-tourists, backpacker-tourists, sex-tourists and more. I am not used to seeing so many white people! Having said I am not used to seeing so much sun. And I am sure I won't be seeing too much sun in the next couple of weeks either -Sand storm season is coming, yay!

chinese language

Over the last 10 days I had my first 2 guests stay over in the Xi'an apartment: now more prove of how bad Xi'an is. Actually I do get a bit carried away. Xi'an is not THAT bad. I am just spoiled having lived in such great cities as London, Manchester and Beijing most of my life. Maybe I am just feeling Xi'an is getting better since it has risen above 20 degrees (though still rarely much sun to be seen!).

Work has been busy and my chinese lessons have been really interesting with discussions about China's feudal system and power/control structure, constant invasions, role of religion and confucianism and how this might impact the future. Of course the level of language used was quite basic and a few english words were used here and again; but such intellectual conversations are the only way to stay awake at 7.30 am after 5 hours sleep (we actually went to a Bar 1 night!).

I keep meaning to write more about these conversations, I will 1 day. I also keep meaning to write a bit more about the Chinese language -which I'll summarise incredibly briefly now. Chinese writing system has changed very little over 5,000 years, though the way words are pronounced varies: and there are at least 4 distinct 'languages' which are intelligible from each other. There are few rules. Most words can be nouns as well as verbs; no real fancy tenses to worry about or anything else that french, german and latin (my other experiences with languages) have. Characters are either pictographic or an addition of 2 parts of a character stuck together. Some examples are 'fu' -happiness which is a person, a mouth, a field and clothes (this person is pretty content) or 'hao' -good, which is a woman and a son. Some cool words include the word for pet which has 2 characters. 1 for animal and 1 made up of a dragon underneath a roof. This week I also learn what you get when you combine the character for movement and the character for strength: motivation (i.e. the ability to make someone move).

Just a taster, but you can see that it is a very interesting language to learn, with stories behind most characters and reasons for them being what they are. Unfortunately it is not always easy to work these out unless previously told, and the characters can be spoken in any of 4 tones (which totally alters the meaning).; plus the Chinese often shorten words (e.g. If -Ru Guo, but often just said and written as Ru), speak ridiculously fast in different accents, use lots of idioms ... and so on. Anyway my chinese is slowly getting better. Another couple of years should do it.

Now for some good news: Flights are booked back home for 26th April (staying possibly up to 6 weeks for work and pleasure), I played football tonight in Beijing and in 1 day's time I will be in 35 degree heat on a beach in Thailand.

Western delights

A few busy days later and I am back in Beijing. Let me introduce a typical Beijing trip:

Thursday morning, arrive in Beijing on overnight train. Get to office by 8.30am. Boss takes me out to lunch at the 'First kosher restaurant in Beijing' -not too impressed. Consumption of Western food: Steak sandwich with fries/salad

Thursday evening, head to a trendy bar in a hotel where the British Chamber of Commerce have a monthly networking event to meet new and old people. Grab some Chinese pancake and Peperami equivalent on way to a friend's apartment.

Friday morning, 10am, head to the Bookworm (a western style cafe/restaurant/library) for a 2 hour meeting/coffee. Consumption of Western drink: 2 Mochas.

Friday lunch, still in the Bookworm have 'business related' lunch with a friend before going back to the office to work. Consumption of western food: Steak sandwich with fries/salad

Friday evening, meet a friend for a couple of beers and go to Hot Pot (Every one sits around a pot of boiling water and puts uncooked food in and then eat -yummy and very sociable). End the night in Latinos (Latin Club).

Saturday, go for lunch at GrandMa's Kitchen (American style place). Consumption of western food: Grandma's Skillet (sort of like a fry-up) and Chocolate cake.

Saturday evening, go for dinner at Purple Haze (Thai restaurant). Consumption of non-chinese food: Red Chicken pineapple curry. Consumption of western drink: Long Island Ice Tea.

End the night at Brown's pub for St. Patrick's Day drinking Carlsberg. We get bored and buy 'Monty Python's the holy grail' for 1 pound (expensive, good quality DVD) head back to watch it and eat Ice Cream. Movie dies after an hour. So much for the expensive good quality DVD! Will buy cheap ones next time, that are of same quality.

Sunday, flat mate cooks salad and sandwich style lunch. Dinner is planned at another restaurant. Back to Xi'an on 7pm train tomorrow.

Coming to Beijing is expensive. None of the drinks (including beer) were less than 2 pounds; most up to 3 pounds. Food starting at 3-4 pounds. Yikes. The previous 3 days in Xi'an cost me 6 pounds in total, for 3 dinners and 3 lunches!

Chinese food is great: there is so much choice and variation, but it is certainly nice to eat Western again. But it is not a financially sustainable lifestyle... less time in Beijing (especially with today's awful pollution) in the future I think!

a weekend in xi'an

Possibly only the 3rd weekend in Xi'an since i moved here in August -I am quite proud of that actually! The reason is that it is still pretty cold, so no point traveling and I decided to clean my apartment for the first time properly, since i moved in (I have only spent about 14 nights here in 2 months) in preparation for the arrival of a flat mate soon.

I also played football at one of the local universities with a bunch of Uighurs (from Xinjiang, in north-west China) which meant i could not understand a word (their language is more like Turkish than Chinese) -but they were pretty good and it was fun. So now i have played football 4 times since the summer -hopefully i can play more often in xi'an if i am ever 'stuck' here again at a weekend. It feels good to run around lots :)

Xinjiang is a place i want to go to more than Tibet. It has been in and out of Chinese rule for 2 millennium and always 'fighting' the invaders, including nowadays. Though there is much less resistance since a) punishment is severe, b) the economic growth and c) more than half the people there are not Uighurs at all. Some argue the Chinese were forcefully moving people there to make it more Han (and certainly none of the government jobs there go to the locals) but the several Han people I have met from Xinjiang all fled there during the famine of the 1960s, since XinJiang is vast and mostly empty full of good-ish land. I suppose it still happens a lot nowadays in Africa -entire families are forced to abandon their homes and flee to somewhere else because of a simple lack of food!

The last 2 weeks were ok, since the Chunjie trip. Despite having to adjust to the cold weather (although over zero), the early starts (still waking up at 6.30 for Chinese lessons) and spending my days in an office work has been ok, I have been back to Beijing (in time for the end of Chinese New Year, which is another occasion for World War to break out) and I only fell asleep in the office for a few minutes on International Women's Day. Not a political statement, on my behalf, just the office was so quiet and dull with all the women getting a half day extra holiday!

I wonder what all our women did on that half day -probably just get extra time to clean the house or prepare dinner, which is kind of ironic isn't it? I also wonder why most countries barely give a damn about such a day. Well, there were some interesting (depressing) statistics in the UK papers, so maybe people do notice. Unfortunately it seems that most people use the occasion to 'thank women for all the hard work they do', rather than actually try to fight to increase the rights and position that women are in. Much easier to thank someone than try to help them :-)

Macau photos

Church, Casinos, Fishing Village and the remains (only the front is left) of St Peter's Church

Hong Kong photos

Rice fields in rural Hong Kong, Beach on Lamma Island, Neon advertising signs in Kowloon and an arty picture of Central, Hong Kong Island

Guizhou and Hunan Photos

Bridge in Fenghuang lit up at night, Fenghuang houses by the river, Zhang Jia Jie peaks in the snow, Dad eating dinner with a local family in the countryside

Sichuan photos

Mum and me with the pandas, Pearl Waterfall at Jiu Zhai Gou, Horse Riding in the Tibetan hills and a gorgeous lake in Jiu Zhai Gou

how many people live in your house?

Quanzhou is not a place many people have heard off but several hundred years ago (back when China was responsible for more than 40% of World GDP and much of the World's trade along the land/sea silk road) it was famous as one of the biggest ports in the World. There were even 6 Mosques for the Arabic residents/traders. Today there are plenty of temples and 1 mosque left standing; though not much else.

It is now, though 1 of the many ports in China at the forefront of exporting goods to the rest of the World. In fact the area of east and south-east china is full of cities that come to specialise in certain products. 1 city makes something ridiculous like 95% of the world's plastic lighters; another makes shoes; another makes ceramics; another makes stone statues... most of them don't just sell out of China but of course to the huge market inside of China too -and every finished product requires many more people working to create the components too.

After Quanzhou I headed into the mountains to an area now inhabited by the Hakka People, who lost many battles against the Han Chinese a thousand or so years ago and were forced into the mountains. Their language is (as is typical of China) as different to Mandarin Chinese as Italian is to English though their writing is mostly the same. What makes the area attractive to tourists is that the Hakka people built their homes out of mud, straw and so on and in square and circular shapes for protection. Typically the 'Tu Lou" (Earth Buildings) are 3-4 stories with the ground level being for cooking, the next level for storage and the next couple for accommodation. The bottom 2 levels had no windows whatsoever, and there was only 1 entrance into these massive structures (with walls around 2m thick).

Of course many of them are still standing (i saw one almost 900 years old), and what makes the area so interesting is that they are all still inhabited and new buildings are still created in the same style (though with some mod-cons, like taps a long with the well). Visiting the Tu lou (and there are thosuands in the area; most villages are full of them) is a glimpse into a way of life little changed for a thousand years -and still ongoing. The only real changes are that many of the young people migrate to the cities to work, so most of the tu lou are half-empty and motorbikes are the method of transportation of choice.

The people are extremely kind with several families offering me in for tea and feeding me -making it hard to leave politely. Each Tu lou houses several families with the biggest holding 2-300 rooms: around 1,000 inhabitants! Quite a sight -and great if all the families get on well; though i am not sure if i can handle the closeness of these kinds of communities (brought up, as i was, in a house of just 5 people and a couple of pets). Actually the most annoying thing from staying in these tulou was not the lack of toilets inside, the hardness of the beds or the smell from the animals downstairs (though these might be too much if i was staying more than just a night or two!), but the damn cockrells that never shut up and could be heard through the open windows!