Travels

Easter in Shanghai

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Photo credit www.shanghaisolutions.com
Photo credit http://www.shanghaisolutions.com

And so it was to Shanghai last Thursday for the Easter weekend.

I am not sure when it was ever the sensible option to plan a stag weekend in Nha Trang back-to-back with a football tournament in Shanghai, allowing me just four days in between of relative calm?

Perhaps it’s best sometimes not to over think these things and, instead, just embrace them.

Am typing this in bed on Sunday, back in Vietnam (although in Hanoi, in fact, with work for the next three days) after being upgraded earlier this afternoon at Shanghai airport by Vietnam Airlines, who I would typically focus my frustrations on due to their often sub-optimal service but today, however, I was close to falling in love with them as they expertly whisked me back in business class, me having successfully competed (unscathed) in this year’s Vikings Cup football tournament, with my local team, Saigon Raiders FC. Continue reading →

Short and sweet

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Hello.  Now where was I?  On the verge of heading to India about a month ago, I seem to recall…

Well, India, Delhi, the Holi Festival, and the workshop I was running all went off well. Delhi is thriving, the weather was sublime, the food delicious and, as you’ll see from the photo below, I managed to pull off a mean impersonation of some kind of overweight commando at the end of an afternoon of celebrating the first day of Spring, in true Hindu style. Memorable stuff.

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On next to the UK, for some long days of meetings, but intersected thankfully by short snippets of quality time with friends and family.

Some of which took place in pubs and involved pints (I miss pints).

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There was even time whilst I was in London for some swapping of school day photographs on a night out with mates from the Merchant Taylors’ years, circa. 1985-1993.

One I can’t help but post being of our fly-by-night sixth form band, Orange Bud. Watch out music seekers, it’s not too late for a 40 year birthday reunion in 2015.

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And the past week has been back in Saigon, hosting the delightful Hellewell family, over from the UK shires.  Kathryn, James, Leo and Sam collectively took to the heat, humidity and cold beers over here with ease, and provided some wonderful times together (crammed in to my apartment as the seven of us all were!)

So “local” were the Hellewells, that they can now tick off ‘riding Vintage Vespa bikes in the Mekong Delta with the kids’ from their bucket list.

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Tomorrow I am off to celebrate a friend’s wedding up in Nha Trang on a stag weekend, over Easter I’ll be playing in a football tournament in Shanghai, and I’ll be up to Hanoi and across to Bangkok for work after that. On the cards for May currently is Beirut and the Philippines (both work) and planning out Martha’s 3rd Birthday party (very much in the ‘play’ category).

Happy Easter to you all and, next time, I promise some more words and less bullet points.

Chocs away!

A Year

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The airport terminal is much unchanged from last year.
A steady shuffle of outbound feet,
Perfume branding and plastic menus,
Whilst sloth-like carcasses form
Of weary traveller and uniformed worker
Draped unconventionally on armchair, table top and floor. Continue reading →

When in Cambodia…

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Always time for a quick cuppa in Cambodia
Always time for a quick cuppa in Cambodia

I have popped my Siam Reap cherry.

By which I am not inferring some kind of South East Asian euphemism, I simply mean: I finally have been – copious photographic evidence below to attest to the fact – to Angkor Wat.

Our parents have visited Angkor Wat.  Our visiting friends, too.  All the backpackers that shuffle their blackened feet and crusty vests across this spectacular chunk of the world, have been to Angkor Wat (it’s only $20 for a day’s entrance, to boot) and, without exception, every ex-pat I have met these past two and a half years in Saigon has been about four or five times.

I’ll confess early-doors, I am not the most accomplished and well researched of tourists, even when it comes to seminal, life enhancing trips such as this one. Continue reading →

City Voyeur

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I’ve just run and walked a full marathon round arguably the most spectacular of US cities – it’s capital, Washington DC – in preparation for spending the next two days holed up in windowless meeting rooms, discussing all things CARE-like.

It has been a special day of being fixed in a warm and relaxing groove of a place which, since I was last here twenty five years ago, is at ease with itself – even if the political power-makers may not always be, inside Capitol Hill during weekday hours.

Today, however, is a Saturday, and a Saturday drenched in sunshine.  It felt like DC, and its politics, reveled in taking a celebratory day off as a result. Continue reading →

Migrating towards a better future

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Many of you reading this post would likely say that you enjoy travelling overseas.  For individual reasons, there are those of us who are not always satisfied keeping within our own country borders, held back from roaming around new places, discovering new things.

As an Englishman living in Vietnam, there have been times when the systems have felt against me here in Saigon (the acquisition of Martha’s birth certificate a particular low point).  There are days when you want to close your eyes and re-open them back amongst more familiar surrounds and comforts.

At the same time, the benefits on offer to my family living over here are significant, and there are so many things I cherish about my day-to-day.  I am lucky: I have a good job; access to credit and to purchasing power; access to information; the ability to set up a bank account in a matter of minutes; a driving licence; a work permit.  All of which give me a sense of security and belonging here.

Several years ago, CARE launched a project in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, exploring ways in which we could support Nepali migrants who were forced to travel, live and work in India and Bangladesh.

The project is called EMPHASIS, and perhaps unwittingly, for anyone in the UK reading this who has ever bought a National Lottery ticket, you yourselves may have helped contribute to the work of EMPHASIS, as the initiative was funded by the Big Lottery Fund – http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk – which uses some proceeds from UK Lottery ticket sales to invest in overseas programmes.

Last year I was in Kathmandu, Nepal, working with colleagues there on extending this project, and last week I got to visit one of the EMPHASIS Community Centres in outer Delhi, and in doing so got to meet an incredible group of people…

<a Continue reading →

Indian Summer

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Pink Cup Cakes Rule OK
Pink Cup Cakes Rule OK

Last Thursday, Martha turned two years old and we threw her a party in our apartment.

More photos of this will follow in a separate post (as I am now in India for a week) but suffice to say, as is the form on such occasions, whilst the kids had a blast and generally partied hard, the adults stepped up too, and ensured our “Come from 3:30pm to 5:30pm” invitation instructions were completely ignored!

When I awoke in the girls’ bedroom at midnight, having passed out reading them a bedtime story, and I walked around the wasteland of the apartment, complete with sticky floors and toys strewn EVERYWHERE, I knew that I had a long day ahead of me.  By 8am, the place was ship-shape again, my bags were packed for this trip, and I was headed to the airport, via the school and a coffee shop. Continue reading →

Choosing to be active

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I have been in Dhaka this weekend, speaking at a conference about sustainable development in South Asia.  Sunday morning’s national papers in Bangladesh carried articles about the event, but also featured news about a tragic incident which took place in the city on Saturday evening.

Whilst conference delegates were stretching their legs between the day’s final session and the evening buffet dinner, a fire broke out in a garment factory in Ashulia, on the outskirts of Dhaka.  Reports currently offer figures of 120+ factory workers who perished in the blaze, and many people are still unaccounted for.

Another story about a factory fire in Asia.  This time it was Bangladesh, most recently it was one in a factory in Pakistan which made international news.

We are familiar with the “sweat-shop” issues raised so publically in the 1990’s, in terms of the disturbing conditions to which factory workers across Asia can be subject.  Many organisations since then, including CARE, have addressed the often hugely complex issues associated with the manufacture of items such as garments and electronics, and have successully run development programmes on factory floors, with factory owners, and in conjunction with the global buyers who sit at the top of the chain. Continue reading →