Steve Dow

Saturday. London - Tokyo Frankly the suburbs of Tokyo looked a bit chaotic and bleak as we sped through them into the city on the Narita Airport express train. Miles and miles of low rise housing were crammed together on a flat plain and covered by a network of wires. We saw very few brick or stone buildings which, to our eyes, gave the vast swathes of housing a rather temporary look. Of course the area is prone to earthquakes so the buildings, or at least the older ones, were not going to be big, heavy structures. There are very few trees to break up the harsh view, I suspect they were removed to fit more houses in. This crowded scene was repeated around Japan because although the population of Japan is twice that of the ... read more

Syria Saturday It was not a good start to the trip. In fact it was without doubt the worst ever. Things were a bit fraught, anyway because my mother-in-law was in hospital with a broken pelvis and my wife, understandably, didn't know if she could leave her. So there was an air of uncertainty as I packed the suitcases. Then, as I lifted the a suitcase using a hand held weighing scale, the scale broke and 17kg of hard plastic suitcase fell directly onto my toe. My first thought was that my poor toe was broken and that I would have to go to casualty and therefore miss the flight. My second thought was 'Ow. That really hurts' and my third thought was 'am I going to faint'. I didn’t faint and after 15 minutes of ... read more

Indochina Discovery Thursday With the fires of financial turmoil burning furiously, fanned by a hysterical press, it was good time to escape to the other side of the world. We flew with Malaysian Airlines who, I had discovered, are one of the top rated airlines in the world. And they were very good, but even their high rating could not improve the indifferent food. Adding lots of salt and closing your eyes when eating helps, I find. I have come to the conclusion that the road between the airport and the city it serves is no indicator of what the country will be like. And the more dictatorial and centralised the government the starker the difference. In China the road very often was beautifully manicured, flowers everywhere and no potholes. Its all about giving a good ... read more

China Thursday 18 October I had many preconceptions about China. I had been to another communist country, USSR, in 1976 and memories of that grim unhappy place were still with me. The buildings were grey and austere and matched the people as they trudged through the snow after the few sad items in the few sad shops. I knew China would be different but I wasn't prepared for how different. Shanghai airport is only 5 years old and very very big. As we got off the bus which had brought us from the plane it stretched for what seemed like a mile each side of me. This was very impressive and inside it was bright clean and airy. I had expected something rather older, dirtier and greyer. My first preconception immediately washed away. The benefit of ... read more