Lots of people and very bad weather

In what is often declared as the world's biggest single migration event, the returning home of tens of millions (over 200 million according to CNN) of chinese to spend chinese new year with their families is quite something.

It is, in truth, the only important day in the calendar for this non-religious population and for a month every school closes; for a week every office closes. It is so hard to get tickets on the thousands of trains (of which extra trains are laid on, with extra carriages) getting one is THE challenge of the year. Many make massive profits from selling tickets if they have friends working in stations or ticket agencies; employers that can help get such tickets become employer of choice. In some cases employers hire coaches for their employees (this helps ensure their migrant workers return after the holiday too) and in rare cases some have even chartered flights (although with the PR this generosity gets in the papers it is probably worth it!).

Since i was in Shanghai for the weekend, last night i was at Shanghai station -possibly the busiest in the country. It very mush resembled a football match since there were tens of thousands of people. But this year is special.

Shanghai is (like more than half of China) buried in a foot of snow meaning trains are all late (flights too) so there were many many ppl who, not wanting to miss their prized train, had no clue when the train was going but were carrying babies and their worldly goods around fighting to speak to the hundreds of police that blocked the entrance.

Despite my feet being run over 20 times by suitcases i got through to 1 such officer to be told the soft sleeper train i had (1st class basically as all other tickets are sold out) was going to be 4 hrs late. Frustrated but not too distraught i weighed up my options... what to do for 4 hours, what meetings to rearrange that i'd miss etc.

Then, aware of the sketchiness of the info i'd got and thinking a 1st class train to Beijing ought to be the least affected, i struggled to another officer manning the barrier only to receive a 'i'll find out' reply whilst looking at his mobile phone. 10 minutes later i asked a neighbouring officer who beckoned me through. In the end my train only left 4 minutes late...with me on it, but plenty of others not.

It was quite an experience because tensions were very high outside the station. Whenever someone was let in, over the barrier (literally) after shoving their ticket in an officer's face, everyone else surged forward not knowing why the other was let in..or what train was actually leaving. The lack of information, the weather, the occasion, the barrier, the huge mass of people (many with babies) and all the luggage made for a scary situation. It is one probably happening all across the country. I hope nothing too bad happens!

p.s. there are articles saying much of China has run out of power because of a lack of coal; that coal being exported has been turned around and ordered back to port and so on. It is a big problem. Coal mines have been closed down because of health and safety problems; it is very cold so more coal is needed as heating; the roads are closed making it hard to transport coal to the areas that need it. The weather has cost over 20 lives and 2 billion USD of damage SO FAR with worst weather predicted to come.

its cold. its time to pop home

Its minus something degrees and the it feels like it. There is snow outside; though it snows rarely, the snow does not go away. This year, the snow has not turned black like it usually does, adding to my belief that the pollution in Beijing is getting better, even though plenty of people disagree with me.

It is 2008 yet everyone is thinking about Chinese new year (6-7 feb) and especially about what to do or where to go. Its cold in most of China and heading to the South or to SE Asia is expensive, none-the-less, everyone finds their way. Even if that way is by pretending to be a japanese person to buy your tickets to/from japan (as some of my friends are doing), or if it means taking days off before and after the holiday to get cheaper flights. Anyway, this week train tickets became impossible to buy -and thus the holiday season must be upon us.

The ski season has been a good one. Nan Shan resort has doubled in size compared to last year, including a black run that is well worth the 1 hour drive from Beijing and 20 pounds cost (all included); Hou Hai is packed full of people ice skating/cycling/chairing, as are countless other frozen lakes. I've been skiing twice and ice skating twice. I also organised a Bachelor party last Saturday where plenty of Russians were surprised at the 15 chinese 22 yr olds (mostly women) who turned up at Treasure Island. Leon got 5 lap dances and i think that qualifies as a successful Bachelor party, even though the women were not naked!

We are supposed to be moving office soon, since I have been relegated to the conference table, for lack of space and other staff are moving to Beijing too; my flights home are booked (1st feb-2nd march) and plans are afoot to go to Netherlands, Manchester, Woking, Camden and various other places for either work or pleasure. Tonight i warmed up for returning to London with a fancy Western meal (Alameda -Brazilian restaurant with fantastic 2 course stake meals with wine for under 20 pounds) and organised my trip this weekend to Shanghai.

It no longer feels strange to go to Shanghai for the weekend, as Shanghai feels so close; yet whilst booking flights to Rotterdam and possibly Prague or Berlin, I felt so excited to be going to these exciting places. Though i have been there before, and each is only a 1-2 hr flight away from london and cheaper to get to than Shanghai, they feel like different countries...different languages, cultures and people in each.

I can see why Europe is so attractive and how easy it is to get bored traveling in China. It takes so long and costs to much to see something that is not really that exciting or that different. I can see why Australians love the UK after spending 5 hours flying across their own country without anything changing at all! Europe is a special place and I really enjoyed my trip to Belgium 2 years ago. This time it will be good to not just drink more beer and eat more chocolate but to get back in touch with the concept of diversity, multiculturalism etc along with the issues of terrorism, immigration, politics, war and so many other concepts that are just barely existing in China. There are too many other issues; though some are constant here and in Europe: Climate Change being, possibly, the most pressing one.

For those in China, see you in 6 weeks; for those in the UK, see you in 2 weeks. For the rest of you, come visit!

The Philippines

In a country full of churches, it was only apt that on a rather unpleasant ferry ride, our neighbour was a Jehova's witness. As much as i would have loved to debate with him, especially after he started sprouting about the next world (have you given up on this world already?), it was much easier to feign disinterest and attempt to sleep. The in-ferry movie service included a short intro about God keeping us safe, hinting as to the importance of religion in the country.

Though it does not compare to Thailand, where almost the entire population is rather devoutly Buddhist, Thailand is strongly Catholic... and this has had a dramatic impact on the country's population which is soaring...still. In 2000, Manilla even effectively banned the use of contraception! Although the Mayor who implemented that has now finished his term, many public officials, including the new Mayor and the President still prefer to promote natural fmaily planning methods that are acceptable to the Church. You wouldn't catch the Buddhists doing that in Thailand, where the birth rate is almost half what it is in the Philippines. It is a real shame, but it undeniably will ensure the country remains poor for a long time to come... and might get poorer if it is unable to feed, house etc. its population!

Anyway, after the diving and the beaches it was time for.. more diving, more beaches and some pool time as well as making use of the deserted island roads to cruise around on a scooter, check out the island and the villages and, whilst relaxing at the rather up-market resort, enjoy the restaurant and the bar. It seemed plenty of other Brits had the same idea as us -spending 10 days in 5 pound huts and then a couple of days in 25 pound hotels :)

We will definitely go back because of the friendly people, the laid back atmosphere, the beautiful scenery, the mixture of things to do there, the convenience of transportation and language, the low prices, the great weather..... the list goes on. In return i am expecting something from the Philippine Tourism Board!

Happy New Year to you all. It is THE year, 2008. The most important year in 5,000 years of Chinese history. And if you do not know why, you must be living your life on a remote island in the Philippines -but, no doubt, you will soon find out!

With the fishies

We made it to Kookoo's nest. From Nuts Huts it took a 15 min boat ride, 45 minute Jeepney ride, 2 hour boat ride, 1 hour bus ride, 45 minutes on a motorbike and a 10 minute walk down 108 steps. It was worth it.

A private little cove with a beach, 4 cottages, a small restaurant that the owners and the staff serve up fantastic food on, a little jetty for the motor boat and... 2 fantastic owners: Nickie and Jamie. A sense of humour was not all they had... Jamie even certified me as a PADI Scuba Diver. So finally, 10 years after starting to dive in the UK, i have a qualification. Though, don't go there expecting a party -just expect to relax with wonderful weather all year around (they have their own micro-climate as they are often sheltered from the winds/rain).

I have to say, having dived/snorkeled in Israel, France, China, Turkey, Thailand and elsewhere (not least in the English Channel!), the Philippines is one of the best places to find great coral and fantastic fish so accessibly. Kookoo's nest has their own house reef and is the perfect place to dive. Nearby is Apo island where i dived with Turtles that were almost as big as me and all kinds of fishy creatures.

I even have the 'i dived Apo' t-shirt to prove it!

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.