Travel Chapter 25- Japan 2

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Japan20091?feat=directlink


After a pleasant day at sea between Kobe and Yokohama, we arrived early in the morning into Tokyo Bay. This bay extends from Tokyo to the Pacific some 60 miles inland. It is a huge natural harbor and thus very protected. We were heading for a berth in the Yokohama port. Tokyo itself has a huge area and a population of 12 million people. As the city extends continuously to Yokahama, the greater Tokyo area has a population of around 35 million people or 25 percent of the total population of Japan.

After passing under the huge suspension bridge of Yokohama at around 7 am, we executed an elegant 360 degree turn before sliding smoothly into our position on the passenger dock of Yokohama. This is by far the most functional and beautiful passenger terminal we have seen on this trip. It is huge and can park 4 ships on the pier. The pier itself has a huge arrival and departure terminal with all the floors done beautifully in solid teak planking. Even the roof of this terminal can be accessed by persons awaiting the arrival of ships as the roof which has a lovely curve in it has been laid out with grass, teak floor and benches so that persons awaiting ships are almost at the level of passenger decks of the ships. The morning we came in there were some 100 persons there to greet us, This included a number of our own students who had made their way to Tokyo on their own the night before and were looking forward to getting on board for breakfast and showers. The port terminal had a wonderful boarding machine similar to what one sees at airports. This meant an easy transfer from the ship to the terminal by a sky walk.

After minimal formalities as we had never left Japanese territorial waters, we were cleared to head ashore. I had laid out three goals for the day in order to give the day a sense of adventure. First, I had an address in Tokyo to which we had to go to pick up my new American Express card, find some foreign language newspapers and magazines as we had 10 days ahead of us at sea and find a sim card for my phone.

So we came off the ship by 10 am and consulted with one of the nice ladies at the reception desk. She showed us where the Amex offices were and gave us instructions requiring getting on 3 different subway and rail lines to arrive at our destination. Armed with this information, we headed to the local subway station, figured out which tickets to buy to get to the Yokohama transfer station, changed subways and purchased new tickets. Got to the main Tokyo station, got new tickets and boarded the third line for our destination. Nowadays this is a little easier as they show the station signs not only in Japanese script but also in roman letters. After 75 minutes of travel, we arrived at our destination station. The problem was to find the address of Amex which we had been given. I was once again amazed at out little English is spoken in Japan. It took me 5 people before I found one who understood what I was looking for which I written on a sheet of paper and who knew in which direction to send us. Japanese street addresses read as follows: 3.56.49. I presume the numbering system means something and I hope one day someone will explain it to me. But at any rate, the numbers do not appear on the buildings so I am not sure how much use it is to anyone anyway. So we found the Amex offices and sure enough, within 10 minutes of our arrival and of my producing my credentials, a nice lady appeared with my new card and we were on our way.

I had reserved 3 tickets on the 1.40 pm Tokyo tour bus. We had to get to the World Trade Building which was on the other side of town. So we reboarded the metro system and headed to the assigned station. We got there in time for the bus which we boarded and off we went to visit Tokyo. The tour took us to the Imperial Palace of which we saw only the outside wall and then on to the Tokyo TV tower which is similar to the Eifel Tower in Paris and a little higher than the French one. The view of Tokyo from the observation deck showed a city which extends as far as the eye can see in every direction. It is quite amazing how the Japanese can keep a human element in such a large city but the little side streets are always clean and with flowers, trees are everywhere. We lucked out again as the Cherry blossoms were still in full bloom in this city. The tour visited the large Asakusa Kannon (built in 645) temple and dropped us off near the Ginza area. I asked the tour guide where we could have good sushi and he pointed to a little place just under the Japan Rail tracks headed into the Central Station. As it was only 5 pm we decided to walk to the Ginza street which is the main shopping street of Tokyo. It is a huge street lined with every trademark company stores from Rolex, to Gucci to Burberry and many more. We stopped in a sidewalk café and had a nice coffee while watching the population walk by. We then headed back to the sushi restaurant and sat down at the counter. A little belt goes around the counter with plates with different plates of sushi come by and one picks the ones one wants. Each type of sushi comes on different colored small plates. After the meal, the bill is prepared based on the number and color of the plates. We sat there and had a good meal. Emmett hat a great meal as he ate 15 different plates saying sushi was and is his favorite meal and he showed it that night!

We then headed back to the ship in Yokohama which took us a good 55 minutes on fast trains and Yokohama is considered a part of Tokyo. When we got back to the ship, the lights of Yokohama were in full force and were very beautiful. They love their lights in Asia.

The next morning we joined a ship organized trip to visit Mount Fuji and Hakone which are both about 50 miles south of Tokyo. The drive through the country certainly gave a different view of this country from what one sees in the big cities. It is a mountainous country in which only 13 % is arable and 73 % is mountainous. But the countryside is beautiful with high mountains and large valleys between them. We got to Mount Fuji which is about 2 hours from Tokyo along great highways but without views as there are sound barriers almost everywhere on Japanese freeways. But the drive up Mount Fuji to the fifth station at 3000 feet was really quite pleasant. The station had only opened a few weeks earlier and there were about 4 feet of snow still around. The views of this mountain are quite spectacular and more impressive than what one sees on postcards. The mountain is closed all year round except from July 1 to August 30th when the Japanese are allowed to climb the mountain. The views from station 5 into the valleys below were quite spectacular. We again lucked out with a clear sunny day so one could see the lakes which have formed from previous volcanoes around Mount Fuji. It looks very much like the Swiss alps albeit not quite as high. There is no skiing on the mountain which is considered sacred and is located in a national park.

After spending an hour we reboarded the bus and headed for Hakone which is locate on the range some 30 miles away from Mt Fuji. There we took a cable car which provided a further great view of Fuji as well as lake Ashi which itself is at about 1000 feet altitude. We all enjoyed the afternoon and after a short boat ride on the lake we headed back to the ship.

There the whole ship company had to disembark again and go through Japanese exit formalities which meant having our passports stamped by an emigration officer. This took an hour for most people and delayed our departure to 9pm. With 3 toots on the horn, we pulled away from the Yokohama pier and headed south out of the Tokyo Bay. As I do often, I stayed for well over an hour on the top deck watching our progress down the west shore of the Bay in a clear and full moon night. It was nice to be at sea again although it was the last we would see of Asia on this trip, we were now heading for home. We have 10 days at sea, including 2 Easters as we cross the date line. This will take us to Honolulu where we have 2 days before heading to our last port in Guatemala. Being at sea is nice and the sea routine settles back into place with classes and other activities. I will be working on my presentation to the student body scheduled for April 15th when I will be the morning speaker at Global Studies. I have been asked to talk about the World Bank, Japan and the Global crisis. All this in an hour presentation. I guess I will have to speak quickly to cover that much ground in the time available. More on that next time.
Cheers

Travel Chapter 24- Japan 2009 (1)

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Japan2009?feat=directlink

We sailed last night after two days in Kobe. The contrast between Japan and China is almost like coming from say South Africa to the UK. I had the distinct impression that China is a modern country being built but far from being modern. Yes, China has skyscrapers and subways but all of this is so new that it really has not yet fit into the real landscape of China. Japan is a modern society which has been modern for so long that it fits totally into the local scenery. Japan is as clean as a hospital, Japan has everything under control and under regulation, Japan is comfortable with the density of its cities, Japan is used to glitz and glanz. In China, many of the same things exist but they feel and look out of place with the rest of the country. China is a developing country which has built it glitz and glanz in the last 20 years while the rest of China seems stuck in the past. The Japanese are polite to the extreme; the Chinese are pushy to the extreme. People in China dump stuff in the street. In Japan, one could almost eat off the street. People in Japan speak in small voices; people in China are loud as everyone else is loud. In China the streets team with vendors pushing products on every passerby. In Japan, there are no street vendors, only shops with doors. In China, almost every building consists of sidewalk front little stores, shops, work areas with people crammed inside doing whatever they do for a living. In Japan, there are stores with doors, workshops in side streets and the cleanliness and order make Germany look like chaos…

But I still prefer China over Japan. Japan gives me the impression always that it is so developed there really is no where to go or to improve. It is a regimented society where everyone obeys the law and everybody is respectful to the extreme of the space of the next person. Japan’s society gives me the feeling that there is little room for people to be different and that conforming to the norms laid down by society is the proper way to move. China also has rules but they seem more like guidelines, suggestions or indications and everybody is pulling and shoving to achieve their own goals at any cost to their surroundings.

In China there are illegal tour guides, illegal bike taxis, illegal sellers of illegal fakes, illegal restaurants, illegal prostitutes and illegal all sorts of things and nobody does anything about it. In Japan, there is nothing illegal and if there were it would be stopped immediately.

China is still a developing country. It has amazing infrastructures but huge areas of poverty and destitution. China has a very rich upper class followed by a thin middle class with the vast majority of the population poor and outside the real economy. Japan, on the other hand, has a thin class of rich persons, followed by a huge middle class and very few really destitute persons. At times in Japan, I imagine I am seeing China 50 years from now if it is able to continue developing at the current rate. Japan is a highly developed country and such a level of development requires a high level of social organization given the density of its population. Given that only a small percentage of Japan’s area is habitable, the already high population density (327 per square km vs. China 119 and US 27) makes real population density extreme.
So there we arrived in Kobe, a city of 1.5 million persons with an infrastructure to die for. The passenger terminal was by far the best so far without the glanz of the shopping centre in the Hong Kong terminal. The big negative was the bureaucratic procedures involved in arriving in Japan. First the night before, the whole ship company, 1000 persons had to have their temperature taken by the ship’s medical team. Each person’s temperature was recorded and each person was then issued with a numbered quarantine card. The morning we arrived in Kobe, at 8 am, the whole ship company had to have their temperature taken again, this time by the Japanese authorities. We were then told to wait until called to go through Japanese immigration and custom procedures. This took well over 4 hours until the last persons were through this painstaking procedure which consisted of picking up one’s passport and forms already completed. Standing in line to eventually step up to some Japanese authority that required one to put each index finger in a reader and then the picture was taken. Then, without any luggage we had to go through an other screen of a customs officer who dutifully looked into the passport and at us and waived us through. As we were not going ashore immediately, we just turned around with out passports and went back on the ship. From them on we were free to come and go off and on the ship with whatever goods we would have wanted. Silly controls which do not control always amuse me. I think in fact the Japanese were doing this all to show their US visitors that they too can jack people around. Bearing in mind the way the US now handles arriving visitors almost as criminals: requiring visas which must be obtained before arriving and only after personal appearances at a US consulate, fingerprints on arrival, picture on arrival and potentially secondary treatment at immigration which can take several hours, I think the Japanese were doing a tit for tat.

By 1pm, after lunch on the ship, we walked out of the ship and onto the subway station which was 3 minutes from the ship. We had decided to jump the bus which made a tour of the city. It ran from the Sannomiya station where the metro ended. We found the bus and boarded a rather small bus which was full of tourists already. We had the pleasure of sitting on this fine bus listening to some Japanese girl babblings away in Japanese about something. Too bad they have not yet adopted the technology which one finds in some countries where the tour conversation is taped and available in several languages.

We decided to jump off the bus at the stop which leads to the bottom of the Kobe Ropeway, which in reality is a cable car rising some 3000 feet above the city. As often happens on these visits, we ran into a number of people from the ship who were also doing the same ride. In a very modern gondola for 6 we went up this rather steep mountain which is part of a chain running at the west of Kobe and through a good part of Japan. Kobe sits at the foot of this chain. On the top of the mountain, the view of Kobe was quite spectacular. Once more we were lucky with the weather and the view down on Kobe was very beautiful.

We then headed down to the city by cable car. When we got to the bottom, Emmett headed off back to the metro with Joan Knecht, our ship nurse. Brigitte and I then decided to walk back to the metro center as it was still light. It was quite a change to walk down a sidewalk which was not half used by people selling food, watches, pens, knives and many other things and not being approached by people offering their services or goods as is usually the case in the middle republic. We stopped in at a Japanese coffee and pastry shop where we had a small piece of cake and a cup of coffee. The bill came to the equivalent of US$12 but whose counting???

I then set on my tasks of finding a Japanese sim card for my phone and some foreign newspapers. All the way back to the center of town we stopped in at places where either or both of these things are available in most countries: hotels, telephone shops, convenience stores, drugstores. All to no avail. Sim cards do not seem available for purchase here according to the ten people I consulted. Not a large sample for such a large population but significant as two worked in shops selling phones. As far as I can tell so far they come with the phones as is the case in North America but I will continue to investigate. As for foreign newspapers, they are apparently just as rare. I finally found some later that evening when I returned alone to town after diner and went through a local department store. I was looking for an insulated coffee mug with a plunger as I am getting desperate because of the bad coffee on board the ship. I finally found an insulated cup but I was not willing to pay US$ 79 for the one cup so I settled on some filters with which I will make coffee I purchased in Vietnam. I found a book store on the 6 floor of this building and went wild buying an Economist magazine for US$11 and a financial times newspaper for 6 bucks. Well, it is only money…

While there I went to my favorite part of any store which is the electronics section. I can report that most electronics in Japan cost 2 to 3 times what they cost back in the US. I priced the flat screen TV and Sony blue ray DVD player we had bought about 5 months ago and they both cost almost 3 times what we paid in Virginia! I guess the locals support the industry so we can get our electronics cheaper.

The next day we went off on a ship organized trip in 2 large busses to Kyoto to visit the amazing temples of this city. Early on I realized that Brigitte and I had already done this tour back in 2004 but it was still fun to see these beautiful buildings. We were also blessed as exactly this week, the cherry and other blossoms are in their full glory. This is a huge event in Japan and is quite spectacular to see, as you can see from the pictures posted to the website.

When we got to the last site, Brigitte and I were templed out and slid out of the group and headed to a quiet restaurant looking out on a bubbling fountain. There we had a nice cup of copy and enjoyed the simplicity of Japanese interior decorating. It reminds me very much of the design one finds in Finland. Simple but beautiful using wood and stone and large open views of natural settings.

We got back to the ship in time for dinner. As it had been a long strenuous day, we decided to stay on board as the ship was leaving at 11pm that evening. The ship headed out at 11pm and we stood up forward on the 7th deck as it was a warm clear evening. Despite the late hour, Captain Jeremy insisted on sounding 3 long and loud toots on the horn as we moved out of the huge empty harbor of Kobe on our way to Yokahama, 450 miles away were we will arrive tomorrow morning.

This one day at sea is the first real cruise time we have had on the voyage. No classes, no meetings, no mandatory anything. As most people opted to stay on land and make their way to Tokyo or elsewhere on their own, there were only 250 people on board. It was a quiet day to read and catch up with work and play. Many students are at the end of their travel budgets so cannot really afford any expensive traveling with overnights and food at the costs in Japan. For us, it was a restful day without plans and without having to jump in and out a bus to view some wonderful relic of the past. That is strenuous work when it goes on for several hours. Tourism is not for the week. Beside the knowledge overflow which happens from the continuous talk of some local guide. It is all part of one’s education, but sometimes it is a little much.

Tomorrow we hit Tokyo. As my credit card had to be cancelled because someone used it fraudulently, I need to find the American Express office which will be the challenge of the day. Get from the ship to Yokahama and then to Tokyo and to the Amex office. It is kind of like a game. I will report more on this in the next chapter.
Cheers from calm see off Japan where we are cruising along at a slow pace of 11 knots.

Travel Chapter 23- China

Pictures of this trip can be seen at the address below. There are a lot of pictures but they are part of our memory of these days.

http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/China2009?feat=directlink

We are now two days away from China and I am going to try and report on our 5 days in China. To start, I must say that I was overwhelmed by what we saw in China on this trip. It had been 5 years since our last trip and the progress noted back then has continued at the usual Chinese breakneck speed. The country is putting masses of resources into building up its own infrastructure and in bringing the country into the 21rst century. New roads, new buildings, new airports, new trains are seen everywhere. One sees now where much of the money earned by China is going. Masses of resources are being expended to ensure the country becomes a long term player in the world. With its own internal market so large, China will be able to compete on the international market for as long as it remains a stable country.

This stability is the one area where I am concerned. It is quite obvious that China is able to do what it is doing because it has a very strong central government which is making the hard decisions. It does not need to consult with the people, with groups or with anyone. What the party decides is done. What the party decides is good for the country is done. The planning and execution of the works one sees throughout China are the result of the power wielded by the Communist Party in Beijing. Works which would take years obtaining the necessary approvals in western democracies are done immediately a decision by the party is made. The build-up of China is only 15 to 20 years old yet the country is on par and exceeds the infrastructures we have in many of our countries. Everything is new in China. Whole airplane fleets are the latest models, airports are built not to meet needs of a decade ago, but to meet the needs of decades in the future. Road systems are in place long before their carrying capacity has been met. Trains run at high speeds all over most of the country on rails which have been laid in recent years. The pollution of Beijing which was legendary has almost be legislated away by means such as moving polluting industries away from the city and banning motorcycles totally from the city. The last time we were in Beijing, traffic and pollution were so bad due to exhausts from millions of motor bikes one could hardly breathe, let alone cross a street with first writing one’s last will. Most of the taxis in Beijing today run on electric motors and there are many hundred thousand of them no long polluting the air. As a result of the Olympics, Beijing has learnt how to improve its quality of air and has put that in place by decree. This is perhaps a weakness in the eyes of some, but from a practical point of view the country is benefiting now and will benefit from the current efforts for many years in the future.

China is so large that we outsiders cannot really grasp its extent. It is not a county as we define it; China is rather a continent which has been unified by force and decree. This is what holds it together. A decree in the late 50’s stated that the national language would be Chinese as spoken in Beijing, which is known in the west as Mandarin. This decree flew in the face of existing languages but was forced on all Chinese people. Bear in mind that in China there are hundreds of dialects or regionalects so that there really is nor has there ever been a Chinese language. The people in Shanghai speak Shanghaiese, those in the south speak Cantonese and neither group understands the other. With decree forcing the Mandarin speak on everybody, one now has 2 generations of Chinese who have been taught and who can speak Mandarin. They still speak their regionalects but they also speak and understand Mandarin. This has unified the country in a big way. Only a powerful central government could enact and enforce this kind of legislation. It has worked to allow all regions to understand each other. This kind of change not only requires a powerful central government but one who has the staying power to ensure that the efforts continue for several generations so that the common language becomes radicated in everyone’s mind.

The worry I have after the few days in China is whether the central government is now isolating itself too much from the people. There is cynicism abounding in China about the central government much of it driven by the obvious abuse of power the politicians show the people. Big fat black limousines circulate with sirens blaring through the traffic, politicians block off huge areas which are forbidden to the people, and corruption of politicians is rampant which then spills down to lower level officials. One effect of this is that there is very little respect for the Party and even more concerning is the inability of the Party to recruit young people. Today I understand that only 1 to 2% of the population belongs to the Party. What will happen when the old folk who run the party die off? Where is the next generation who will continue? One has to worry that this could cause a breakdown in power and a loss of the ability to make the hard and fast decisions China still needs to progress fully into the 21rst century.

But enough on that; let me record what we did and saw during our 5 great days in this fascinating country, or continent to be more precise.

We arrived right on schedule in Kowloon on the morning of March 29th which gave us a few hours before we headed to the airport for our flight to Xi’an. The ship was again parked right beside the Star ferry terminal so as soon as we were cleared we got off the ship and headed through the amazing shopping mall which makes up the passenger terminal on Kowloon. We jumped on the ferry so that Emmett could get a quick view of Hong Kong which is across the water from Kowloon. We had time to amble the streets for an hour or two and even though it was Sunday morning, the stores and shops were all open for business. The people were in the streets and life was open for business.

We then got back on the ferry and returned to our ship to pick up our knapsacks as we were to meet our driver in front of the Marco Polo hotel which is in the same shopping complex. Sure enough, there was Wilson awaiting us at the appointed time and place and we headed out to the new airport of Hong Kong. What is amazing about this airport besides being the most convenient airport in the world is the fact that the entire infrastructure is in place to move people to and from the airport. There is a brand new road system with double decked bridges going from Hong Kong to the airport, there is a high speed train connection the airport to the city and there is a myriad of busses and taxis also available to make the trip of some 35 miles in roughly 40 minutes at most times of day. Once at the airport, we checked in and proceed to go through emigration as one needs to leave the special area of Hong Kong to travel to the mainland. The procedure is the same as leaving for any foreign country and is part of the undertaking of the Chinese government to provide the Hong Kong area with a special status for 50 years from the take back from the UK in the 90’s. We then had a leisurely 20 minute walk to arrive at out gate for the flight to Xi’an. The flight itself was a little over 2 hours with wonderful service of a meal in a brand new airbus 320. On arrival in Xi’an one first goes through a machine which measures one’s temperature as the Chinese are very worried of a new outbreak of Sars. The measurement is done very subtly and most people do not even notice the little machine through which one walks while an infrared light reads the temperature to an agent seated in the booth.

In the airport we met Nichole, one of our fellow travelers who was traveling on her own in China. We found our guide and driver and they agreed to take Nichole to her hotel and to help her book the train to Beijing for her. We checked into our hotel which was a state-owned hotel. I found out a few days later that the agency with which I had done all the bookings was also state-owned. It seems the government has not privatized everything in China.

That evening I went for a long walk around our hotel. It was fun as it was the first time I had been able to use the Chinese I had been studying for the 18 prior to this trip. Not being of a shy nature, I went into to stores seeking more conversation than to buy anything. I started putting meaningful sentences together and I was quite pleased how I was progressing.

The next morning our guide and driver were waiting for us at the hotel and we headed to the Terra Cotta museum. This is an enormous site where excavations of the warriors has now been stopped. Just the size of the building which has been constructed over the dig is impressive as you can see from the pictures on the website. The actual size of this site is hard to fathom without actually going there.

After lunch at a state-owned restaurant which typically consists of a market offering the great assortment of Chinese made products, I spied a North face parka. It was obviously a knock-off given the price I paid but it does give an indication of how lax the Chinese authorities are on blatant Trademark violations. There are so many people who earn their keep making and selling fakes that the government cannot crackdown on them. So rather than cracking down, they sell them in the government shops. Emmett tried his new North face jacket and was quite proud of his new acquisition. You can see him wearing it almost continuously in the pictures of this section.

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Qin dynasty summer palace. Like all ancient objects, this one has undergone a major rehab in recent years in preparation for the Olympics. We had a quick look and then noticed that there was a gondola lift to the top of the mountain. As this was not on our program we had to pay for it but it was worth it. It was particularly fun as our guide Qing had never been on such a machine. She was scared stiff to ride on it but convinced her to come along. Like a good trooper she came and enjoyed the trip very much.

That evening we were booked on a sleeper train (Soft bed) from Xi’an to Beijing. After yet another Chinese meal we were escorted by Qing to the train station. It was teeming with people and it was a good thing we had her with us to guide us through the mass of people. We got to the soft sleeper waiting lounge where she left us. She had been an excellent guide and we thanked her appropriately. The waiting room was quiet and we sat there until our train was called. In a reasonably orderly fashion we went to our platform, found our car and boarded the train. We then found our compartment and settled into the very clean and well appointed cabin. We had the two lower sleepers and Emm had one of the uppers. The second upper was taken by some lady who Emmett thought was from Tibet. She never said a word during the whole time. After a bit of reading we all settled down for a good sleep after a full day of visits.

The next morning after an 11 hour ride on a fast train having covered over a 1000 miles, we awoke in Beijing to be greeted on the platform by Ting, our Beijing guide. She showed us the way out of the Beijing soft sleeper station which was not at all chaotic as had been the station in Xi’an We boarded our bus and headed for a Chinese breakfast as laid out in our program. As there was no toilet in the restaurant we decided to go next door to a McDonald to have a coffee and to use the loo. We found the toilet to be a standing toilet, not a sit-down one. Although the standing toilet is probably more sanitary it does take a bit of training.

We then headed off to visit Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City which lies behind the square. It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and sun albeit a bit nippy. We walked through this huge square which carries the sad memory of the massacre of protesters back in 1989. It was not an event the Chinese like remembering and the collective memory has been suppressed by the authorities. But those who do remember it still do not forgive the authorities for their action. Not only were several thousand killed, many more witnessed the brutality of that day and even more had friends or relatives who were victims of the near panic of the authorities who had never witnessed the fury of the Chinese people. It scared the authorities to such a point that it was the beginning of the opening of the economy as we now see it. They said, ok, we will open the economy but we will control the politics. It diffused the anger to a point and has led to the economic boom China saw until recently. It remains to be seen if the downturn now going on does not have terrible consequence again.

We walked all the way through the forbidden city which is almost 2 kms long going from one building to the next in a very well maintained series of buildings. Much work had been done to spruce up this palace in the run-up to the Olympics. It is quite amazing how much effort the communist government puts into showing off these relics of the past. I presume it is because it legitimizes their own regime by showing themselves as the continuation or as the improvement over the past. The extent of this palace is astounding not for the height of buildings but for the number of them spread over this 2 mile long and one half mile wide collection of temples, housing etc..

After another state owned restaurant we headed out to visit the summer palace which again is a huge complex of buildings all in pristine condition.

After a long day, we headed home to our hotel to check in and to have dinner. We had invited a friend of our son Nicolas to dinner. Nick had asked us to meet with Brian Watling who is a Canadian based in Beijing. Nick sits on the board of one of Brian’s companies involved in power generation using wind turbines. Brian joined us at a close-by hotpot restaurant and we benefitted from his insights into China where he has lived for the last several years.

Early the next morning we were off to see the Great Wall of China, which the Chinese call the Long Wall. One has to drive about an hour and half out of Beijing including a substantial amount of hill climbing to arrive at the foot of a gondola which takes one to the top. I opted to go for the gondola as it does save considerable energy compared to hoofing it to the wall. Once on the wall we spent over 2 hours as it was again a beautiful day and Emmett could not get enough of it. I walked with him part of the way and then sent him off on his own with instructions to turn around when he was starting to feel tired. He did return somewhat out of breath about 40 minutes later. Brigitte and our guide stayed at the top and awaited our return. It is still a very impressive visit to see the extent of this construction.

In the afternoon we visited an other palace. We then headed to visit my Chinese language school. I had been working with Echineselearning for over a year. This virtual school employs some 60 teachers and does all its teaching using Skype or MSN which are free internet communication tools. A brilliant idea developed by its founder Fred Rao. For me it was quite a visit as I had never seen any of my teachers in real life and had only seen their faces. We arrived at the school and my teacher, Hao Jie came out to the street to receive us and show us back to the school premises. I think we caused quite a stir in the school as I had been taught by many of the teachers whenever Hao Jie was not available so I, Wang Da Wei, was well known to many of the teachers. The CEO of the company came out and greeted us and we had an interesting chat. I told him that I intended to come back to Beijing in October to take a 4 to 5 week intensive course at Echineselearning. Fred was quite interested in the idea and offered to help me find some quarters I could use while in Beijing. Hoa Jie was quite sweet and had brought presents for Brigitte and me. We also had brought her presents for her and her baby which is due later in the year.

After parting our ways from the school, we had a early dinner and we then went straight to the station as we were taking the night train again, this time to Shanghai which is 1900kms to the south. Again, the train proved to be clean and comfortable. The train was a high speed train which can reach 390 kms per hour (over 200 mph) on specially laid tracks which allow these high speeds. During the night the train changed speeds quite often which would indicate that the new track is still not completely in place.

We arrived in Shanghai again after an 11 hour trip and found our Shanghai guide, Tao waiting on the platform. After a breakfast, we headed to our ship to deposit our bags but found that a large group of students had arrived just before us and a long line of people were waiting to board the ship. So we headed back out to visit the Bund area of the city. This is the area where the foreigners lived. It was a concession rung from the Chinese following the opium wars. There is still resentment amongst some Chinese that the authorities at the time gave away these rights to foreigners. This was run as a separate enclave where Chinese law did not prevail and Chinese were not allowed to live unless authorized. The Bund still has most of the main buildings as neither the Chinese nor the Japanese wanted to incite the fury of the foreigners by bombing these buildings. Across from the Bund, on the other side of the river there stand a collection of the most modern skyscrapers in the world, except perhaps in Dubai. These buildings are not only huge but they are beautifully designed. They stand today in what were rice fields 15 years ago. This city is no doubt the showcase city of China and the Chinese are very proud of this.

In the afternoon, we spent time visiting the shopping area of old Shanghai as well as the adjoining Lu gardens. It was a pleasant way to end our stay in China. We went back to this area after lunch again to get a Starbucks coffee and found that the place was teeming with police. When we asked what this was all about we were told that Musharaf, the former president of Pakistan was finishing lunch in the restaurant and was about to come out. So Emmett and I took a strategic position to observe Mr. Musharaf. Sure enough, he came out of the restaurant but instead of heading straight to the street and awaiting limos, he decided to work the crowd which had assembled. He went from side to side talking to people. The Chinese police did not enjoy this as they tried to steer him along. As he approach the end of the passage to his car, he turned towards Emmett and approached him. He asked Emmett where he was from to which Emmett stated “Canada”. Very good said Musharaf and proceeded to get in his car. Why the Chinese were giving him the royal treatment as was after all the deposed head of Pakistan is not clear. Perhaps they had debts to pay to him. Emmett was thrilled.

We boarded our ship and at 8pm we slipped our moorings and headed down the river towards the sea. The city was lit up like I have never seen a city and really looked wonderful. I stayed on deck for over an hour and all along both banks of the river were ships and moorings and factories and more ships. It was a fitting end to our visit to China. I left with a little better understanding of this country and look forward to coming back to learn more.
Cheers

Travel Chapter 22- Vietnam

Pictures of this chapter can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Vietnam2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOT1vuP__r6uNw&feat=directlink

As we sail away from 5 days of Vietnam I cannot but be impressed again by how this small country has been able to pull itself into the 21 century in such a short time. After the end of the years of the American War in 1975 which had destroyed so much, Vietnam 30 years later has become a success story almost without precedent. Despite or some would say because of the Communist government, the private sector has flourished and Vietnam has become a major exporter of many products. It is the second largest exporter of coffee sending 1 million tons a year around the world. It is competitive and is now even competing with China to attract foreign investment.

We arrived in Saigon after a lovely trip up the Saigon River which takes about 2 hours as Saigon, or now called Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is about 50 miles inland. It is an impressive trip as from the ship one sees farming on both sides of this huge river where rice, shrimp and other products are being farmed. The port of Saigon extends along one bank of the river for miles. Huge numbers of ships float up and down this river carrying the imports and exports of this industrialized city and region. The weather was hot and humid as usual. The place is so efficient that we picked up 2 immigration officers in Thailand who did all the paper work for our passports while at sea. This meant that we were cleared to go ashore as soon as we were tied up. This time our ship was given a birth almost down town and the ship had set up a shuttle bus to take us to downtown which was very convenient and avoided the need to deal with taxi drivers and motorized tuck tucks and bicycles and motorcycle drivers who always congregate at the port gates in all cities.

We opted to go to visit the Cu Chi tunnels which are about an hour out of Saigon. We hired a taxi to take us there and back. The tunnel system is how the Vietcong hid from the French first and later from the American troops. The Cu Chi system was one of the most elaborate and allowed the Viet Cong to come out of the tunnels, attack and then disappear without trace. The American troops knew little about the system and built one of their biggest bases in South Vietnam almost on top of this system. The system was huge with place for thousands of troops, hospitals, weapons factories and meeting halls. It is too bad that the presentation one now sees shows only a small remnant of what once was very much larger system. In these modern times, one could really produce a wonderful virtual reality presentation with computer developed images of what the tunnels once were. In addition to the tunnels, the Vietcong had made many rather gruesome traps into which soldiers fell in holes with spikes and other lethal killing equipment.

The Vietnamese show off this system with considerable pride and tourists come in droves to see them. They do give a sense of the dedication of the Vietnamese to fight against what they considered invaders and of the difficulty foreign troops fully equipped would have had to seek and destroy an enemy which was largely unseen. What is particularly impressive to me each time I visit this country is how well the Vietnamese have but this bad chapter behind them and have gotten on with developing their country. They do not dwell on this period in time which they refer to as the American war. They consider they won and they have moved beyond recriminations and self-examination.

We returned in the afternoon to Saigon and I headed to the main market while Brigitte and Emmett headed to the local department store. I was in search of an extra trunk which will be needed to move the loot we have already and will continue to collect. Although we always promise not to buy a lot of “stuff” it all adds up. No doubt it will still be a tight squeeze when packing day happens. I also needed a sim card and a new phone as both my phone and my MP3 were lost or stolen from by bag somewhere between Bangkok and Siem Riep in Cambodia. They were not very valuable except that my MP3 had all my music and my Chinese language courses. Although I did not know it, I also needed a pair of knock off Ray ban sunglasses which a street vendor offered me for US$10. When I told him I already had a pair of sunglasses he was unphazed and continue to offer his glasses. In order to get rid of him, I offered him $3 which he immediately accepted…

I bought the new trunk, a Samsonite roll on at a cost of $30 and got a new phone and a local sim card for another $40. So I rolled my new trunk back to the Rex hotel wearing my new phone and my new Ray ban sunglasses. The ship shuttle arrived and we all returned back to the ship in time for dinner. It was great to get back on the cool ship after the very hot day out and about.

The next day we were up at 0400 to get to the airport to catch a flight to Ha Noi. This time we travelled on a ship organized trip with some 45 others. I had hoped to set up a trip on our own but the trip offered by the ship ended up being a better deal. After a smooth flight of 2 hours north we arrived in Ha Noi. We immediately boarded busses and headed east to Ha Long Bay which is about a 3 hour drive. It is an interesting drive as one sees the countryside with it endless rice paddies and small towns. We stopped on the way to visit a local market and a store where handicapped persons were selling their production of jewelry, embroidered silk and the usual array of tourist souvenirs. We arrived in Ha Long around noon and had the afternoon to amble around the huge tourist market there. It always surprises me that tourist markets all over the world all seem to be supplied by the same wholesalers. They all sell the same gadgets and carvings and most of it is of poor quality.

The next morning we board two junks for our 4 hour ship ride through the waters of Ha Long Bay. I took extensive pictures of the place as can be seen in the pictures as I find it to be a most magical place to which I love returning and to which I will return again. The pictures describe this bay better than words and I recommend you look at them to get a sense of the beauty and tranquility one experiences on these waters. We were served a wonderful lunch on board and we got back to the shore around noon in time to reboard the busses to head back to Ha Noi. After checking into our hotel, I ambled along the streets searching for English or other language newspaper. Despite walking for more than an hour, nothing was to be found. This reflects the difference between Ha Noi and Saigon, between the North and the South of Vietnam, even today. Han Noi lives cut off from the world and is the administrative capital of the country. Saigon is open to the world and is the industrial motor of Vietnam.

That evening after an other Vietnamese dinner we went to watch the water puppet show which is a traditional Vietnamese folklore presentation. The puppeteers are behind a bamboo curtain and control the puppets which are on long poles under water. It is really quite ingenious. I did suffer through the presentation as the distance between the rows of seats was about 6 inches less than I needed. I survived by almost kneeling through the whole presentation with my circulation almost cut off. What one all does for the arts…

The next morning we went off to visit the sights of Ha Noi: the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the first university of Vietnam and a few other sights. As we headed to lunch, it started to rain so we decided to have lunch at the City View restaurant which is on the 5th floor of a building downtown near the lake. It was a great vantage point to watch the traffic feeding in from 5 different directions. There seem to be no laws but in fact the law is that you do not try and jockey for position, everybody has the right of way if they are ahead of the other person. The traffic works almost like a zipper does and the flow is constant with everybody making their way around everybody else. Most of the traffic is motor bikes and scooters and it works. It rained for almost 3 hours so we took a long lunch at a table outside and watched the world from our vantage point. Eventually, the rain stopped so we paid and set off slowly making our way back to the meeting point to pick up the bus for the airport. Our amble took us through a huge market selling everything from meat through vegetables to clothing and other dry goods. In these countries, I am always impressed how many people are selling. It seems that the majority of the people are selling but not that many are buying. As one walks the streets of these cities, it is wall to wall stores one beside the other. I do not understand how this works but it does. I have to presume that sellers must find enough buyers but I wonder how they make enough money to survive.

We met up with our bus and headed out to the airport. After a smooth check-in through a modern airport we had an hour before our flight. Here I once again attempted to find a foreign language newspaper but again found none on sale. Our flight boarded and we left on time arriving back in Saigon at around 9pm. We were back on the ship by 10.

The next morning we decided that we would not do any serious tourism. Emm was still a little under the weather and opted to have a quiet day on the ship. B and I headed into to town on the shuttle bus after lunch. We walked down to the central market for her to see it. The temperature was well into the 90’s and the market was stifling hot so we spent only a short time there. We headed back to the area of the Rex hotel as B wanted to find some silk sleeping bag liners she had seen at the big department store earlier. I then headed up to a book store to find a book for Emmett on Ho Chi Minh who is his current hero. B headed back to the ship on the next shuttle. I followed after buying a book on Uncle Ho and a foreign newspaper available at several street corners. I then got off the bus near the ship and headed back to a store just outside the port gates to buy some shirts for Emm. He loves Lacoste shirts and I found this place selling them for very little, knock-off’s no doubt but they look alright. I still had $15 of Vietnam dong in my pocket so I decided to get myself a watch. I picked out a red and black Rolex and asked the price. The girl said it would be $55. I told her I only had 300 dong left ($15) and she agreed. I am once again the owner of a fake Rolex. The market for fake brand name products is rampant in Asia in general, and in Vietnam in particular. It is a market which employs millions in these countries, particularly China and the authorities are reluctant to shut them down despite the reputational costs involved. I always marvel how they can make watches for $10 or 15 and still make profit.

So we all boarded the ship that night by 8pm. The ship then spent the night in port and left at 0600 hours as the transit down the river is best done in daylight given the traffic and the fishing boats on the water. It is a beautiful ride down and worth an early morning rising which we did not manage to do.

So here we are at 250 miles from Hong Kong where we arrive in the morning. These short days between ports do not really give one enough time to transit mentally from country to the next. In this leg, we had two days at sea. I was fairly busy as the Economics professor asked me to speak to all 3 of his classes. I gave me presentation on the World Bank which was useful as very few of the students had ever heard of the World Bank before.

Tomorrow we fly from Hong Kong to Xian then by train to Beijing and then after 2 days by train to Shanghai. The ship will move from Hong Kong to Shanghai where we will meet it after our China tour. More on that when we get back.

All is well with us. We passed the mandatory fever test which all passengers had to take to satisfy Chinese entry requirements, so we are good to go.
Cheers

Travel Chapter 21 Thailand and Cambodia bis

Thinking about what I wrote yesterday in the previous chapter, I realize that it was factual with little personal input so I am adding a few anecdotes and thoughts to complete the picture

The infrastructure of Thailand

Coming straight from India to Thailand was a major shock. It is clear that Thailand has done everything that India has not done in the last 20 years. As opposed to India where roads date back to the time of the Britishers, poverty levels are everywhere to see; Thailand has obviously made the hard decisions and invested in its own future. Highways are as modern as anywhere in Europe or North America, Ports and airports, planes, busses, taxis, sewerage systems all have been updated and run smoothly. I am still very upset with India for not having made these investments and now finds itself almost overwhelmed and will probably never be able to catch up anymore. I find this totally irresponsible of the Government officials of the last 40 or 50 years. The cost of not having their infrastructure up to international standards will make India increasingly less able to compete on the international market precisely when its population is about to exceed that of China.

The temple of Angkor Wot and other Cambodian temples

The amazing Angkor Wot temple is a UNESCO world heritage site. The beauty of this temple is still visible despite the years of rot and ruin under which it lay for 400 years. Someone calculated that Angkor (meaning big in Khmer) is so large that it required more stones to build it than the pyramids in Egypt. Not only is it huge, but in the general area of this temple there are dozens of other strewn over the landscape. The dimensions vary but each is a huge work of art in its own right. Why Indians would have built so many temples is not clear but those who believe they built these temples base their view on the fact that the Indians were the only ones who had the technology to build such immense works at that time.
While we were waiting for our guide at our hotel in Siem Riep, I was introduced to an elderly Cambodian guide of about 70 years who spoke fluent French. We had a nice conversation and he informed me that he had worked with the French in discovering and clearing away the jungle from Angkor Wot. Interesting as we met in Xian China with the old farmer who first discovered the Terra Cotta warriors when were last there.

Chance meeting in Siem Riep

During the course of our visits of temples in Siem Riep we went into a nice restaurant down-town to have lunch. I went into bathroom and washed my hands. Five minutes later, I heard a loud voice of a man asking whether someone had left their sunglasses in the men’s’ bathroom. He held up the glasses and I recognized not only my glasses but a former colleague from the World Bank with whom I had worked some 20 years earlier. He was a South American and he also recognized me. In a very loud voice he said across the restaurant in Spanish: Alex, what are you doing her? We greeted each other like long lost brothers. He was on a consulting contract in Cambodia for 3 weeks. Small world.

Rice boat restaurants in Bangkok

On our last evening in Bangkok we were the guest of the wife of Ton de Wilde, a good friend from my time in Amsterdam. Ton was stuck in Jakarta but had insisted we dine with his Thai wife. We met that night on an old rice boat which was 70 years old. These boats were used to transport rice down the river. Many now served as floating restaurants.
Bangkok is beautifully lit up along the river at night so these boats float by the wonderful temples and building in a show which makes the city look so much nicer at night. There are huge dinner boats which are larger than the ones on the Seine in Paris.

Our boat was managed by a retired Irishman who had opted to run the restaurant after too many years as an international consultant. He was adamant that it had been the right decision but was very upset with the current political upheaval going on in Thailand currently. According to him tourism has dropped drastically in Thailand as a result of riots in the streets, the blocking of the airport back in December and the continuing bickering going on between parties supported by the King and others supported by the peasants. It is tragic for a country where tourism is a major source of revenue and where the season is bracketed by the end and beginning of the rainy seasons.

Enough for now.
Cheers

Travel Chapter 20-- Thailand and Cambodia

Pictures for this chapter can be seen at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Bangkok2009?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/Cambodia2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHjy_DClcaeLw&feat=directlink


We arrived in Thailand on March 15 at 0800 hours at the newly completed port of Laem Chabang which is 80 miles south of the city of Bangkok. This port is reputed to be the 20th largest port in the world. It is huge and is very modern port which is clean and amazingly clean. The water is so clean in this port that the ship continued to make water as opposed to the port of Chennai where everything was so dirty our ship looked gray when we left.

I had developed a full package for 5 days in Thailand with a local travel agent. I had ordered a driver to pick us up at 11am and sure enough our driver Yai was at the foot of the ship awaiting us at the appointed time. Not only was he there but he brought with him a Thai sim card for my phone as I had asked the local travel agent the day before by email.

We boarded the minibus Yai was driving and headed towards Bangkok. The road out of this new port led to the national highway. In fact, the highway was quite amazing. It is a six lane highway with lots of fast moving traffic. I asked the driver to stop to get so we could buy some water. After a few miles he pulled off the superhighway to a rest stop where we jumped out and could hardly believe our eyes. There in front of us was a long row of stores including a Starbucks; a Kentucky fried Chicken place and a 711… I was like being back in North America except better as one does not find such a selection of stores at any road stops like this one. We had a coffee in Starbucks, read an English language newspaper and then stocked up with some travel food at the 711. We then continued our trip to Bangkok on about 50 miles of an 8 lane elevated highway which was better than many of the highways in North America.

We arrived at the hotel the agency had reserved for us which was 10 minutes from the brand new Bangkok airport. Given the traffic and distance I had decided that to make an 8am flight, we would be better off overnighting near the airport. I asked our driver to wait for us and he then drove us downtown to a place we could board one of the famous Bangkok river boats. These boats are about 25 feet long, very narrow and have high bows. You can see pictures of them in the album. They are equipped with huge engines taken usually from pickups. The propellers are mounted on 10 feet shafts and the whole machinery and shaft can be manipulated to steer the boat by the driver who sits at the back of the boat. The boats can reach very high speeds and race up and down the rivers and canals of Bangkok. We booked ourselves a 40 minute boat tour and enjoyed the sites and scenery along these canals.

After our tour we found ourselves at one of the most elegant hotels of Bangkok so we went in to see it and to buy a newspaper. There, on that Sunday afternoon, we found the hotel was hosting its regular Sunday High Tea, from 4 to 6 pm. On the dance floor of the hotel some 40 Thai couples all dressed with jackets and ties were dancing waltzes and fox trots and other classic old dances. It was a scene straight out of the early 20th century England or even Shanghai.

We then called Yai to come to pick us up at some small market we had visited. Yai took us back to our little hotel called the Floral Shir Resort. It was not much of a resort but we did get a good night's sleep. We got up early to be able to get to the airport by around 8am.

The new airport is huge and amazingly efficient. Our 50 minute flight to Siem Riep in Cambodia went smoothly. Although it was a short flight the Bangkok Air crew managed to serve a substantial breakfast with wonderful coffee.

We arrived in Siem Riep airport which is a very nice small jewel of an airport. It is built in Cambodian style with a red roof and only one story. We were processed quickly through the visa line after paying our US$ 20 fee and a driver was waiting for us outside. He introduced himself as Johnny but he told us his Cambodian name was Kim. So he was Kim for our time with him. We were driven to our beautiful hotel Prince d’Ankor where we checked into our large triple room. The hotel structure and decoratative walls was made mostly of local wood with a wonderful swimming pool into which Emmett and I dove into to escape the noon day heat of around 35 degrees Celsius.

In the afternoon we were taken to see some of the sights of the town. We had some extra time so we decided to visit the recently built National Museum. It is a great museum which gives a wonderful history of the Khmer empires. In fact, the history of this country is a sad one as the country has been overrun by many different nations and much of the land has been taken away over the centuries. A large portion of now South Vietnam was formerly Cambodian, Laos was a part of Cambodia and Thailand acquired tracts of the country. The French controlled country for decades, the Vietnamese overran the country and then the Khmer Rouge regime which killed over 1 million people, or about 30% of the population.

Despite this harsh history, the Cambodians are now optimistic and proud of their country.

The next day we went early to visit Angkor Wat and Ankor Thom and Bayon which are huge temples built in the 12th century. It is not totally clear who built them as they were abandoned in the 15th century and lost until 1850 when a French archeological group rediscovered them. By this time, written records were lost and the jungle had taken over the sites. Today some believe they were actually built by Indian traders who spent the rainy season months in Cambodia before going home. They are Hindu in their construction and look very much like what one sees in India, in the Tamil area. Some maintain that they could only have been built by Indians who had the technology to cut the stone and lift the large stones to the heights of the temple steeples. But they are clearly now part of the Khmer history.

We drove out about 50kms to the Women’s temple which is a lovely temple done in red sandstone. It also gave us a chance to visit the flat and rich countryside. As the rainy season had not yet started the fields were dry awaiting the rains and the rice planting which is extensive here.

That evening we went for dinner which included Aspara dancing which is a type of dancing inspired by Indian dancing. I was fascinated at the hand gestures and you can see my fascination from the many pictures I show in the albums I mention above.

The next evening we flew back to Bangkok and checked into the 4 Wing Hotel. We had extended our stay to spend the next day in Bangkok with the wife of a good friend of ours, Ton de Wilde. His wife Dang and a lady friend of hers Anonn spent the whole day with us and invited us for an other ride on a canal boat. In the evening we dined with both these lovely Thai ladies on a loveley floating restaurant which in fact was an old converted rice boat which cruised up the river. Bangkok at night is very beautifully lit up.

The next morning we headed back to our ship with our driver to Laem Chabang. It was nice to be back on board. We are now cruising slowly to Vietnam and will arrive there in 36 hours for an other 5 day visit on which I will report next time.
Cheers
March 20, 2009

Travel Chapter 19 India

I am writing this piece after we have been at sea for 4 days traveling out of Chennai. During this period, I realized what a great advantage it is to do this traveling by ship rather than by air.

One does not have to pack up trunks, get taxis, take planes which may be late and then repeat the process at the other end. On a ship, one goes ashore with what is needed for the days ahead and leaves all other things on the ship. On this trip, we are all 3 using backpacks which are easy to pack and carry.

But the real advantage of traveling by ship is that we have a lot of time between countries we visit. This gives us time to reflect on the experiences, the impressions and the first reactions collected in these countries. It gives one time to sit and discuss with other travelers about what one has seen, heard, smelled and felt. Jumping from country to country is dangerous in any case but a ship provides a period to absorb and to reflect on what one has seen. These days between ports allow the traveler time to sort out a lot of experiences and sort out the facts from the fantasy and to order the experiences in memory.

Now to our travels during our stay in India. You can see pictures of this visit at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akeyserlingk/India2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCOibrM7FwpX_owE&feat=directlink.

We arrived in Chennai right on schedule at 8am. Indian authorities required that each of us complete 4 different forms: 1 form for arrival, 1 for departure, 1 for customs and one for landing pass. Amazing amount of paper but that was just the beginning. Although in most ports, the authorities do their review of passports as soon as we arrive and clear the boat within an hour, the Indian authorities needed well over 3 hours to clear the ship. We were then required to carry a shore pass as well as a customs form when we went ashore.

Anticipating this long delay, I had ordered a taxi for 11am to take us to Pondicherry. I went out ahead of the others to find the taxi on the pier but could not find our driver. I wanted to get my cell phone activated. In India, in order to get a cell phone one must go to an authorized store armed with passport, a copy of proof of residence and money to pay. Then one fills out forms required by government. The phone is activated but it takes 3 days to have full use of the phone pending government review of the documents submitted. If the documents clear, the cell phone is then given the full range of services.

But I did not have time or the inclination to go through this elaborate procedure. I enquired from the ship agent how I could get an Indian cell phone card. He said that I would find people willing to sell me a sim card. So when I got to the end of the pier where several taxi drivers were waiting, I enquired who had sim cards and a man stepped up, pulled out a stack of cards. He offered me one saying it would cost US$20. I then took the sim card and inserted it into my phone. Sure enough it worked although it only had the equivalent of US$ 10 on the card. My man then checked that the card was active by phoning my phone on the number provided on the card. I then paid him and I was immediately in business. I was hardly on land for more than 5 minutes and I had already broken two government regulations. I had acquired a cell phone without doing all the paperwork and I had paid for it in for currency. I am told that the paperwork is required for security reasons but if the cards can be obtained as easily as I had just done, I wonder why the Indian authorities go to such trouble. This was but the beginning of my exposure to Indian government regulations.

Armed with my new cell phone I rang the cell phone number of my driver that I had been given by the hotel in Pondicherry. I reached him but could not understand a word he was saying. So I turned to one of the guides who were waiting for the students who were going on tours and asked him to speak to my man. After a few moments, it became clear that my driver had not been allowed into the port area and that we would have to walk to the gate to meet him. We could have taken one of the taxis but they wanted $3 just to drive us the 1 mile to the gate.

For some unknown reason, the Indian authorities required all the passengers to walk or take a rickshaw to the main gate which meant walking on the main port road which was not only filthy with coal and other dust but dangerous as it was the main road in and out of the port with trucks barreling along at breakneck speed. On a previous voyage, we had been permitted to exit the port through a gate just in front of the ship but Government regulation now required the long march. When we finally got to the gate, it became clear that the real reason for this was that the rickshaw and taxi drivers were paying of the guards at the gate to have access to the port to then be able to rip us off. Thus the bribing going on in front of us was also being paid by us. A wonderful picture of corruption in operation with 700 foreign tourists as witnesses.

So after the long march through the dirtiest port I have ever seen, in the noon day sun, we finally got to the gate 7 where we were allowed to exit after a close scrutiny by the guards at the gate seeking to find errors which would allow them to hassle out students. Nice welcome. We found our driver Ravi waiting there for us with a sign with our name. We got into his car and his first question was whether we wanted Air Conditioning or not. With temperature at 95 and the air filthy dirty with pollution, that was not a difficult question to answer. I know that this would ad $6 to our trip cost but well worthwhile for the 3 hour drive. I had agreed to the fare in advance with the hotel which quoted $40 for the trip.

We then headed out into the traffic of Chennai. I had the dubious honor of sitting in the seat beside the driver. This gave me a prime view of the chaos of traffic with which I never really got comfortable. Traffic in India is like no where in the world. I had been away from Indian traffic for several years and had forgotten how terrible it is. The only saving grace is that cars cannot go very fast anyway and road rage is an unknown thing in this county. Cars zig zag through mazes of motorized 3 wheel rickshaws, motorcycles, cows, trucks, buses while everybody is hooting their horns and mutually cutting each other off. It is the most amazing scene to watch except that one is so white knuckled that the experience is somewhat strenuous as one is constantly pressing ones foot to the floor or grabbing the “holy shit” handle above the door… Indians make maximum use of the small road space and there is nothing wasted. But traffic moves constantly, albeit at a snail pace. We stopped on the way out and visited the church of St Thomas who had come to India as the first missionary of the Christian faith. He lived many years in India and wrote and epistle which was not accepted into the New Testament. Apparently, mainly because he advocated that man really did not need a church to communicate with god. This of course did not sit well with church authorities and it was the beginning of what became know as the Gnostic believers. Many consider Thomas was influenced in his thinking by the various religions he encountered on his arrival in India. He is very much seen as an Indian saint and his Church in Chennai is considered a very holy place where his remains are said to be buried In fact, in the area we visited there are many Christian churches to be seen today and a good percentage of the population is still Christian. According to his gospels, he is seen as the father of the Gnostic belief which holds that no one needs a church for relations with God. This is the reason his gospel was not included in the New Testament.

We then drove on out about 30 miles south of Chennai when we started in at the Fisherman’s Cove hotel where we had stayed on our last trip to India. There we went for a walk on the beautiful beach and then had a lovely mean of the best Indian food. We then carried on to Pondicherry which is about 130 kms from Chennai. The road we traveled was a two lane highway with the usual collection of modes of transport including bikes, taxis, trucks, cows and an assortment of sheep and goats. Despite all this, traffic does move albeit slowly.

We arrived at hotel, the Coloniale Heritage at around 4 pm. It was a converted old French house with 6 rooms. We got the biggest room which had a high ceiling, air conditioning and even a little garden off the room. The manager of the hotel was a French woman married to an Indian. We dropped our things in our room and Emmett did the same in his room. We then headed out to the walkway along the coastline. It was a beautiful wide walkway with lots of people enjoying the afternoon sundown. It was clean and houses were well painted. The whole area of Pondicherry is called the white sector. I am not sure that is because the houses are white or because the quarter was reserved for the French living there. Interestingly, the official language of Pondicherry is reported as French and the street names are not only in French but are written on blue signs as they do in France today.

Nick and Milena arrived an hour after us. They had flown into Chennai from Delhi and driven down to Pondicherry also by taxi. It was a fun reunion as we had seen them last in Nassau, Bahamas when we first left. Emmett was quite pleased to see his parents and had many stories to tell.

We had a fun family diner that night and turned in early to our respective rooms in the hotel. The next morning we had arranged for a three bench taxi to take us out to visit Aurorville which is a kind of ashram con peace community set up in the 1960’s. It is also a tourist attraction. There are many Europeans who joined the sect and took up residence there. They are the last remnants of a community which was supposed to reach 50,000 persons and today has only 2000 residence. So one sees many elderly white persons pedaling bicycles around the city. The place has an enormous ball set in a garden which has the diameter of about 8 stories. In order to enter, one must make reservations several days in advance. It was an interesting visit but somewhat frustrating as one feels excluded by the sect.

That afternoon I went to a little hotel down the street which had an internet café. I was told that I had to register before I could use the internet. I asked why, and got the usual answer:”Government regulation”… I struck up a conversation with the hotel owner who told me that he had finished the hotel 18 months ago but he had only received permission to have enough power to run 3 rooms. I asked why and was told:” Government regulation”..

That evening we met up with George and Maggi Thomas . He is the professor of Linguistics on the ship and both Emmett and I take courses from him, although different subjects. They were staying also at the same hotel.

The next day, Brigitte and I headed back to Chennai with our driver. Emmett stayed with his parents to do some sightseeing at Bahamalipuram which we had seen on our previous trip. It was also good for Emm to have a couple of days with his parents.

We returned to the ship after 2 days away and found our ship to be totally dirty from standing 2 days in the dirty harbor of Chennai. It is so dirty that one does not even see seagulls who no doubt cannot deal with the coal dust and polluted air. Our ship is white and blue but in Chennai it became grey. Every railing and floor was cruddy with black soot.

The next morning we went from the ship to the hotel where Nick and Milena were staying for breakfast with our Indian computer guy , Tumul Sharan. He had come in overnight from Bangalore to meet with us. Tumul is the person with whom I developed the family website:
www.keyerlingk.info
He now is the one who administers the website. It was a fun lunch as we had not seen Tumul in 5 years and it was a good occasion for Nick to meet him. Nick and Milena were off at 11am heading to Delhi and Montreal. The 3 of us with Tumul headed off to a local shopping mall where we ambled around and I bought a very nice silk shirt. We had lunch with Tumul and then returned to the ship and Tumul went off to visit a friend in town.

We had hoped to have Nick and Milena visit the ship. The ship had given the necessary approvals and sent it to the Indian authorities who refused to give them permission to enter the port. When I asked why I was told:”Government regulations” This time I was really ticked off with Indian Government regulations. I pressed them to tell me why and I was told it was because Nick and Milena had Tourist visas. Of course, they had tourist visas as they were tourists. When I continued to question the logic as all 800 of the passengers of this ship had tourist visas and came and went into the port, I was again told: “Government regulations” I gave up and continue to believe that India is choking itself because of a plethora of Government Regulations.

Prior to the departure of the ship, I had a conversation with the local ship agent who was about to leave the ship. I said I was very upset that the Indian authorities had required our ship passengers to exit the dirty port of Chennai after walking almost a mile to the main gate rather than a gate in front of where the ship was tied up. Not only is the port the dirtiest I have ever seen, it also the most dangerous one as passengers must walk the distance to the main gate or take one of the taxis or rickshaws which were standing at the foot of the ship. Each one of these had bribed the guards at the gate to get into the port and we were paying these bribes each time we used the any one of them. I said the impression left with our students was that not only did corruption exist but that it was blatant. I really felt that this was a shame for India to project this view of the country. I told him that in my opinion, the only reason the authorities had required that our students had to go the whole mile to the main gate was that the guards wished to collect bribes from those drivers who came to the ship. I strongly suggested that next time if this ship decides to come to Chennai he should lay on a bus to take passengers from the ship out to a local shopping center from which they could continue on their own. He said he would discuss it.

Even our Captain and the program director got caught up in the mess. They had gone to dinner together and when they returned the guards at the gate did not want to let them return. Eventually they were allowed in but obviously they were looking for bribes but picked the wrong persons.

So we left India. The impressions are there. One day I would like to return to India but this time I would like to visit the northern part of this huge continent.
Cheers