Cantonistan. Loud and independent minded. The T15 was an express to be remembered. It was clean, in good condition, and each cabin had internal airline style toilets. I watched with awe as outer Peking and the countryside slipped by under a blue sky. I had never seen a blue sky this close to the industrial heartland and of course it had to happen on the day we left. The train hammered along at just under 100miles per hour. We ate a light dinner in the good restaurant and then slept early. I woke early as the train clattered around the [View Full Entry]

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PEKING CAPITAL CITY Captain Riyadh put us firmly down onto China. Once he had made contact with the runway at Peking, we began what I call "the Qatar airways roll out". Always long, always quiet, and nearly always with no reverse thrust. We had been on the A330 for over 9 hours. I had slept for five and watched master and commander for the last two. The whole experience had, as usual for Qatar Airways, been utterly painless. We were back in China after a break of three months. With the exception of Olympian fever, or should I say fervour, nothing [View Full Entry]

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This last post about our journey through Sinkiang attracted many comments. Some of them were from Chinese people, some from Uygurs and some were from foreigners. I was surprised by how many comments this attracted, I was also surprised by how many of the comments might have been deemed offensive. I didn’t take offence, but I did think that some form of explanation might not go amiss. My blog is a form of diary, it chronicles my experiences and those of the people that I travel with. This goes out to all of my friends and some people who share an [View Full Entry]

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Captain Riyadh put us firmly down onto China. Once he had made contact with the runway at Peking, we began what I call "the qatar airways roll out". Always long, always quiet, and nearly always with no reverse thrust. We had been on the A330 for over 9 hours. I had slept for five and watched master and commander for the last two. The whole experience had, as usual for Qatar Airways, been utterly painless. We are back in China after a break of three months. With the exception of the Olympian fever, nothing has changed. China is a morass of [View Full Entry]

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The T62. An Insight by Farhat Jah. Every night the Tibetans would meet in an elevated square and dance in a large choreographed circular fashion to loud music. We could not work out whether this was practice for a festival in June, or whether this was a normal facet of life in Zhondian. In any event, the townsfolk seemed to enjoy their dancing enormously. Young women in jeans would dance next to city slickers in skirts, boots and stylish coats, next to old men in sports jackets and trilby’s. Every night we would gravitate to the square to watch the routine. [View Full Entry]

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We walked across the bridge into China and I marvelled that people could still walk into a protected country in 2008. I do not count crossing Europe¡¯s non borders where customs officers have become a rarity and the fences have been taken down. This was the People¡¯s Republic of China. The largest Communist country in the world, with a controlled economy and a state that ¡°likes to make sure that things go smoothly¡±. This is as far as I will go at this stage, not because I am typing this up in High Yunnan on the boundaries of Tibet, but because [View Full Entry]

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(Roof Top Room Elizabeth Hotel Hanoi North Vietnam. The re-unification express was immediately re-named the re-fornication express by me for our video production “good god there is a wog on the train”.(outraged people please note that I am the wog). Our Spaniards are interesting enough and the night passes with some conversation and lots of sleep. It soon becomes apparent that the reunification express is the star attraction of Vietnam. Travelling by train in the daytime is the way to travel in this long and strange country. The Vietnamese have a patent inability to build b [View Full Entry]

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Hotel Ten Xian Hoi Ann Central Vietnam I am writing these notes on the first real desk that I have come across on our travel. Our room is large, cool airy and has french windows that are thrown wide open. Hence the airiness. It overlooks a deep green paddy field,; this being Vietnam, I can not tell whether it is a faux paddy field or a working one. The test, one suspects is to note whether a water buffalo comes along at some stage, chewing things, or pulling a plough. We are in the middle of Vietnam, halfway through the country [View Full Entry]

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We left the Okay Guesthouse a little late. Our hosts had organised a river ticket for a slightly overpriced ferry ticket to Chau Doc and the Socialist republic of Vietnam. The ferry turned out to be a 30 foot fibreglass boat with an inboard yanmar diesel engine, a Vietnamese Captain and a cool box half full of cokes and beer. We all climbed on board and Capt "Nguyen" started the engine. After offering us beer, he stuck his earphones in, tuned to radio Hanoi and we chugged down the river at a respectable 15knots. The Mekong was brown and the banks [View Full Entry]

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Angkor Wat. What a disaster, and yet how good for Cambodia. Angkor wat is full of foreign tourists. The heat is intense. The humidity fills up the courtyards like fog. You sweat, you drink, you stop sweating, you worry. The rains are coming, but they have not come. You have to record what you see but the sweat runs into your eyes, you keep shooting, frame after frame, teh Nikon motor drive whirring and whining as your eyes fog over. You drink more, you enter another courtyard. The Japanese barge you out of the way while taking their “special photo”. You [View Full Entry]

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