Thursday, December 2, 2004

DJIBOUTI (2004)

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Djibouti: 31.11.2004

Arrived here at noon today, following a long aerial trail from Muscat to Dubai to Nairobi to Addis (hopping) to Djibouti.
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On the map of Africa, this miniscule country is as difficult to spot as Lesotho or Rwanda. It has a population of only 500,000, for God’s sake!

.A very small town, Djibouti. Native language is French. Apparently there are French troops numbering 25-30,000 stationed here. Number of US troops is 5,000 (official figure; actual should be higher). Their economy is almost fully dependent on the fact that following Eritrea’s altercation with Ethiopia, Djibouti has become the de-facto port from land-locked Ethiopia. That, plus a bit of business in salt.

Nonetheless, it is a very expensive place. For a 2-bedroom flat, the rent would be $2000 per month. We have checked into a 3-start hotel, ‘Residence of Europe’, and they are charging us $100 per day..
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.We were picked up at the airport quite literally in a ‘pick-up van’ by one of our customers. Food is a problem here, so our lunch was delivered to our rooms in ‘dabbas’ by the only Indian joint in town. Seven chapatis each plus rice, a dabba of baigan curry, a bowl of beans, a dabba of salad and a dabba of daal. We could eat only half of it!
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After a nap (here also they have a siesta break from 1.30-4.00 pm), we started out wheeling and dealing with customers. The commercial or business area is just a few square kilometres, totally walkable. Taxi would be required only to go out of town or to the port area. The place looks like a B-class town in India – small streets, empty parks acting as squares, buildings no higher than 4-stories. Only the Sheraton hotel (among hotels) boasts of a lift.

.In our course of work, we met people who speak English as well. Many people in Djibouti are from Ethiopia and Somalia and therefore have English-speaking roots. Since French is compulsorily taught in schools, they speak both languages quite well.

.In general, they area friendly and hospitable people, not given to extravagance or showing off. In fact a popular family vehicle to own seems to be a double-cabin pick-up truck! There are a few beggars but not many to speak of, given that this is the capital of quite a poor country. Not enough tourists, maybe ….

Djibouti: 1.12.2004

A working day here is pretty much a walking day, as the main business area can be crossed in 10 mins. The sun is quite warm (around 30-32 degC) compared to the 16-17 degC running in Nairobi and Addis. The ‘far-away’ customers whom we visited were a couple of kilometres away..
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.Tonight we went our for dinner with one of our customers Omar, his old flame Linda (also married now) and a common friend who was in the Djibouti army. Out of deference to us, they took us to ‘Le Santal’, an Indian/Chinese restaurant. The waiter there spent 10 mins over their order and then hearing that two of us were Indian vegetarian, simply said: "I know,” and went away.
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Although all the other three knew English, their internal conversations and jokes were all in French. Omar, while wiping tears of laughter from one joke, would start translating it for us, and then break out into fresh tears at the next joke. We ended up making intelligent guesses as to when to slap our thighs …..

.Food was good. After we wrapped up at 10.30 pm, a whispered French conversation took place and we were driven to a by-lane near our hotel and herded down to a basement, ‘Le Hermes’, a nightclub of repute in Djibouti. Now we could at last see some whites in town. The place was fully packed with young (and middle-aged) bodies, dressed in the height of fashion, though some of it was quite gaudy. I learnt gradually that this was also a pick-up joint and a lot of girls hanging around were there for commercial reasons. A few of the guys were in white shirts and grey shorts and were probably from the French Navy. Today being Wednesday, the crowd was thicker and the music louder.

.Tomorrow we check out at 9.00 am for going around the port area and then being dropped at the airport to catch the 12.30 pm flight to Nairobi.

Djibouti: 2.12.2004

A very impressive drive around the new port and Free Trade Zone coming up, under financing from Dubai Port Authorities. 

Apparently they are trying to bracket Salalah Port and also gain an entry path into Africa. Djiboutians are quite upbeat about this development.

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Tuesday, June 8, 2004

GERMANY - Munich (2004)

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Munich: 8.06.2004

Today we were travelling throughout and would be reaching Muscat tomorrow morning at 9.30 am.

.Since our flight to Vienna was at 1.00 pm, we had fitted in a couple of appointments starting at 8.30 am. We checked out at 8.00 am, grabbed our taxi and interpreter and were on the road.

.Munich was also a gift from God, but one which we knew about already. There was an 8-hour stopover at Munich and obviously, with our Schengen visa still valid, we would be able to go out and see the place.

.We were becoming quite expert at visiting a city in a couple of hours on the fly! We dumped our luggage in the cloakroom, caught a bus to the city centre and started looking around for City Hall, from where sightseeing buses are supposed to leave.

.The city was quite a distance from the airport (around 40 km) and the traffic heavy. The countryside was very beautiful. Miles and miles of green fields full of crop, with clusters of red-and-white houses belonging to the farmers. Seen from the air, the land is a collection of green rectangles that look like they have been combed!
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At the City Hall, just opposite the Metro Station where we were dropped, we could see two open-top double-decker buses standing. Departure time was just 5 mins away. By the time we settled down on top with our headphones and tuned in to the English commentary, we were off..
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.Munich is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and historically and culturally very rich. Full of beautiful old buildings – too many to absorb fully in the one-hour tour. We saw the walls and gates of the old Munich city and the headquarters of Gestapo, as well as the building where Axis conferences used to take place in WWII. Like the other cities that we saw, Munich is also very green with 2-3 big parks.......
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Beer is a favourite drink for Germans, so much so that there are two ‘Beer Gardens’ in Munich – open areas set in a park with lots of restaurants serving a large variety (apparently 39) of them, as well as food! There is a beer festival season as well. We celebrated our visit to the Beer City by having a draft beer during a quick lunch later on!

.The other notable fact from the commentary was the large number of festivals that the people here have conjured up. Except during the dark winter months, which are set aside for Christmas I suppose, there are 4-5 more festivals on cultural lines that draw tourists from the world over..
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.It was evident that summer had arrived. It was only 4.00 pm but most offices had closed already and people were out in the streets in summer dresses, enjoying the sunlight, that will continue shining till 9.00 pm. Bare bodied men in shorts were playing football in the parks while their wives lay sunbathing at the sidelines. People were generally in a happy mood, not willing to stay indoor at all. While on the bus, we saw a big fountain near one of the Old City gates, where people were generally standing around and getting wet, fully dressed.......
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We had a lunch of pasta at a pavement cafeteria and wandered around a bit, including a very big supermarket by the name ‘Kaufhoff’. Quite easy to pass time – watching people on the streets and sitting jostling each other cheerfully at open cafes was enough.......
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We caught the same bus back to the airport and spent a couple of hours in the lounge, completing our reports (real dedicated characters, we)
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Thus went the trip this time ……

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Monday, June 7, 2004

SLOVAKIA - Bratislava (2004)

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Bratislava: 5.06.2004

When we arrived yesterday at 5.00 pm and checked into Hotel Forum, we were already primed to hear the bad news, which was totally confirmed by the time it was 7.00 pm when we had a chance to share views and opinions with the receptionist. The Slovaks were VERY VERY SERIOUS about not working on Saturday mornings!

.This was totally unacceptable to us. If we were here, they jolly well had to work. The receptionist was first compassionate, then incensed, then resigned, then pleading as we continued unabated our request for an interpreter tomorrow morning bang at 9.00 am. Of course, the interpreter should be able to drive us around and charge us very little. “Could any of your friends oblige?” . After some eighteen “No”s (Rashid somehow has a hearing problem with the “No” sound), a nineteenth request today morning produced a guy with a red Corolla in tip-top condition and an English with a broken condition.......
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By the way, yesterday we had dinner at (hold your breath) Krishna, practically the only Indian restaurant in town. I tell you, Europeans give too much respect to limits set by other people. For example, it was 10.00 pm yesterday when we stood in front of the concierge and discovered this oasis, but the concierge would not even call up the place just because the ad in the paper said 11.00 – 22.00 hrs and it was already 10.00 pm! She was so indignant that we had to call another receptionist, who agreed to take up this daunting task of calling up Krishna, just in case they agreed to oblige us. We could make out that she was thoroughly uncomfortable about making such an ‘unreasonable’ request. She called up, listened and, smiling broadly at us, said that Krishna was reserved today for a private party and could at best manage a parcel, if we came right then. I told you Rashid sometimes develops hearing problems. He grabbed the phone and took off in Hindi and since we seemed to be practically starving for Krishna’s cooking, they agreed to serve us food, whatever the time!
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This was happening yesterday night, mind you, the same night we arrived from Vienna. We met the chef in the restaurant (from Delhi) and found the tail-end of the party still there (some Indian embassy official’s son’s party) and were seated in a corner table as personal friends of the chef! At the time, we still did not have an interpreter for next morning, and seeing a waiter speaking decent English, immediately tried to conscript him! Unfortunately, he was not free.

.We had come in at 10.30 pm for a quick meal and left finally at midnight. The last one hour was spent in a tête-à-tête with the owner, Sri Sanjay Rai from Gazipur, UP. They had lived earlier in Prague and now in Bratislava for 18 years and was (as told by Raju the chef) stinking rich! His main business was airline catering for the Birmingham flight that flew to Delhi via Bratislava 3 times a week. Recently, he became a Slovakian passport holder, because although “dil hai Hindustani”, the travel hassles for Indians in Europe were otherwise too much.

.He was quite up-to-date in all current affairs in India and found great pleasure in holding forth his opinions on various economic and political issues of India, past and present, regional and national, Congress or BJP (strong BJP critic) in a typical UP-style accent. A very interesting man to talk to. In fact, he must have found us to be very discerning listeners and scintillating conversationalists from Dubai, who held such interesting views, mainly because we had stuck to an occasional “Really!” and “Surely not!”. Great listeners always get a good reputation, although not necessarily a good night’s sleep!

.And now on to today. Our morning business foray was not too productive, as expected, since, practically speaking, the doorman had been left in charge of the offices and showrooms. We perforce had to give up by 12.00 noon and call it a day.
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After some internet work, we went for lunch into the Old Town, which is similar to the Old Towns we had seen in Tallinn and in Warsaw. In size, it would be similar to that of Tallinn. The same red-roofed houses, the same type of towers turned into museums, the central square with lots of food joints and performers and an air of general jollity in contrast to the silent and sombre cobbled alleyways, darkened by the eves almost touching overhead..
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.Before venturing forth, we had been asking the receptionist as to what to see in Bratislava and how to see it. Were there any group tours? “No”. Any city tour coaches? “No”. Any guides? “Yes, at $200 per hour”, or something ridiculous like that. How do we see the place? “Well, for the Old Town, you can take the train from St. Franciscan Square”. And along came a map, which wasn’t very helpful as we saw no traintracks near the Square. Anyway, we had our pizzas for lunch, wandered into Michael’s Tower and climbed up for a nice view. Then we decided to go looking for the mysterious ‘train’. After some cul-de-sacs, we hit the Square-with-an-air-of-jollity, emptied our pockets on souvenirs and stood staring at the ‘train’, which was one motorised cart pulling another! It was one of the silliest things for an adult to ride in. I bought a few key-chains to ride the shock.......
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Bratislava has a population of only 500,000. “Samall place, Slovakia”, as our new friend Sri Sanjay Rai was fond of saying. Apart from the Old Town, which is surrounded by the central business district, there is not much to the place. Nice and peaceful to live in, of course, with commuting easy and all amenities measuring up to European levels.
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Tonight, we again invaded Krishna, again after 10.00 pm, flustering our receptionist and doorman. Sri Sanjay Rai met us right at the ‘paying-the-bill’ stage and we got stuck for another half-an-hour.
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Tomorrow is a proper no-choice holiday. Wouldn’t have minded a working day, actually. Anyway, we’ll find some sightseeing to do, maybe out of town. Our hotel is singularly uninformed in such matters!

Bratislava: 6.06.2004

Sunday, Sunday ……
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We got up late, breakfasted and …… worked! Finished off some reports and mailed them to HO. I think the hotel staff is rather sympathetic about two business travellers stuck over the weekend, so they charged nothing for PC and internet use.

.We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant inside the Old Town. For spending the next couple of hours, we had a choice. We could either walk and climb up to the Bratislava castle overlooking the Old Town, or we could drive 30 km to a palace outside the city. We decided to walk up to the castle.

.We are both so unfit! Just a 20 min walk, slightly uphill, saw our legs and back aching. But the view of the city spread out below, the Danube flowing peacefully, carrying four bridges across, was enough to bring our breath back. There were two groups, one Chinese and one European, also doing the rounds. We did not go into the rooms which were now museums, but just wandered around the beautiful grounds, enjoying the panoramic view of the city. I once again wished I had brought my video camera..
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.The way out was through stairs that wound between small houses. Difficult, I’m sure, having to park 20 metres down! We emerged at the end of the Old Town and walked back through the crowds enjoying a sunny afternoon after a few days of gloom.
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Seeing the groups of tourists, we were discussing how easy it has now become for the EU members to travel to these 25 countries. In fact, when we had halted at the Austria-Slovakia border, we had seen one cyclist dismount and produce his passport from the thigh-pocket of his three-quarters for getting in! But at the final count, I don’t think I could actually settle down in any of these places. The feeling of belongingness, of ‘home’, is simply not there anywhere apart from India.

.We were quite tired, so took some rest in the evening in our rooms. Tomorrow is pretty critical workwise, as it is our last working day on this tour. Car and interpreter have been lined up 9.30 am onwards.

.We have a particular grouse in European places like this, in that all the restaurants close so EARLY! We are ready to go out for dinner only by 10.00 pm and by then, most restaurants were closed for the night. Tonight was no exception. Luckily, we were not particularly hungry and on the advice of the receptionist Susan (who will be our interpreter tomorrow), we repaired to a nearby fast-food (or ready-food) joint.

.The place actually had a lot of variety, from pizza to a lot of meaty-gravy preparations that could be taken with rice or bread. But veg was very weakly stocked and I ended up with one plateful of corn-and-carrots and another plate of roast potatoes. Both equally insipid!

Bratislava: 7.06.2004

Today would be a busy day for us. We had 7-8 visits lined up with the taxi and interpreter reporting at 9.30 am at a coffee shop close to the hotel.
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Susan, like Alex in Minsk, was the receptionist on night duty who decided to sacrifice sleep for a day in favour of a fistful of dollars. Hotel receptionists make very good interpreters as their English is very good and manner pleasant, leaving an overall good impression.
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We worked straight through to 3.00 pm and wrapped up early, firstly because Susan had to lay off and get ready for the night shift starting again at 6.00 pm, and also because we had run through the prospects for the day. We had arranged to meet two more prospects tomorrow morning before leaving for the airport at 11.00 am..
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.We finished our daily reporting in the next one hour. We have become sort of favoured guests here. Although we used the internet regularly, we were not charged a single kroner. Today the girl in the Business Centre was different and was trying to bill us at RO 3.000 per hour, but some strategic admiration from Rashid regarding her good English helped to change her mind.
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Talking of expense, toady’s interpretation and taxi cost us at the rate of 850 kroners (RO 9/-) per hour! Both insisted they were giving us whopping discounts, seeing that we were ‘pore old businesspeople’ from ‘pore old Dubai’, who had already wasted so much money staying in Bratislava over the weekend!
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As I said earlier, Brat is a small town. I think it became named a capital before it was properly ready. It is located on the western border, which is unusual for a capital and I am sure that the other big towns in middle and east Slovakia consider Brat to be a sycophant of Vienna, just 50 km away. Brat is also tied to the apron-strings of Prague in many ways, since we found that at least in business, many Brat companies were totally under the control of their mother companies in Prague.

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Friday, June 4, 2004

AUSTRIA - Vienna (2004)



Vienna: 4.06.2004

Yesterday was pure work -- nothing interesting.

And today was one long day, and very nice too.

.Sometimes things work out in funny ways. Rashid knew that Vienna was just an hour’s drive from Brat and had thought we can hop across on the Sunday we had at Brat. Actually, in retrospect, we could not have done that as our visa for Slovakia was only single-entry! Travelling through Vienna was the only way we could have seen Vienna!
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We had woken at 2.30 am to catch our 5.30 am flight to Vienna (No way we would have risked missing it). Reached Wien (the German name for Vienna) at 6.30 am. Even the tourist information counters were closed. Talking to taxi-drivers and studying the displayed sight-seeing info, we could make out that city sight-seeing tours would be leaving from the Opera House at city centre 9.30 am onwards.

.First, we dumped our luggage in the cloakroom. Second, we had a quick breakfast. Third, we caught a bus to city centre and walked for half-an-hour to the Opera House.

.We had been disappointed with the weather when we had landed as it was cloudy and the ground was thoroughly wet. But then it HAD stopped raining and enabled us to go around in peace, for which we finally became grateful.

.The bus dropped us at the city centre and we started looking for the Opera House. Nothing like a walk to get a feel of a city. Old and new architecture next to each other. Wide roads. Electric buses and trams (just love trams!). Lots of trees. Suddenly one small forest by the side of the road. A small lane on the central median for cyclists. People shaking sleep from their eyes at 9.00 am while walking briskly to office. Peak office times but thin crowds. Unlike Warsaw, people don’t walk much. They would rather take a bus, tram or underground. Whenever we asked for directions to the Opera House, we were encouraged to take the underground Red Line. “You want to WALK?” they’d ask and find real difficulty in giving walking directions. “Please walk for two stops”’ they’d say, “and turn right.”.
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At the Opera House, where a few guys were peddling city tour tickets on an empty sidewalk, we chose a tour that combined a few city visits with a cruise on the Danube. That, we thought, would be a better experience than seeing some historical buildings.

.We saw a fair bit of the city while driving through (couldn’t take many pics on the run, though). Narrow roads; cobbled streets; tram and bus brushing each other; cafes setting out tables and chairs; small cars; heavy traffic. Why heavy traffic? Because next week Thursday is a holiday (today is the preceding Friday). So? So a lot of people have taken the WEEK OFF! And are going out of town. So? So heavy preparatory shopping on Friday! I tell you, the Europeans are really serious about their leisure!

.On the inland part of the tour, we first went to see some buildings designed by a known architect and conceptual designer named Hundertwasser. His houses and streets had the hallmark of colourful walls, uneven shapes (he loved spirals and called straight lines “the devil’s tools”) and even trees on the roof! One such famed house (a low-cost housing actually, with people living there) was shown to us. Looked like a house out of a nursery rhyme! He had also designed a ‘garbage incinerating plants’ which is purple and gold and slanted windows, with a gold sphere set in the middle of a tall chimney! Quite freaky. He died four years ago, but not before designing a boat as well, on which later cruised on the Danube. Luckily no trees on the roof of that boat!.
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We went up a hill to see a panoramic view of the city, which was quite dim because of the weather. But though unfit for panoramic views, the weather was perfect for a climb up the hills of the northern woodlands, which we negotiated in order to reach the point. Lush, lush green; single-lane winding road, cobbled, going up; fog here and there; smell of conifers; air like ice cream; too beautiful for words. The Vienna Woods locality is three times the size of Vienna and in summer like now and in autumn when all the colours bloom, they are a favourite outing spot for family and for groups.......
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The hill we went up was originally quite far away from the original Vienna and was vineyard territory. There was small village (which we passed through) called Grinzing that specialised in wine-growing and pressing. In the midst of expanding urban Vienna, these village houses have not been disturbed and are quaint anachronisms in the midst of vehicle showrooms and opulent garden-houses.
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These garden-houses are generally a second property of those living in apartments in Vienna, a weekend getaway place where they can grow some vegetables in peace.

.We came down the hill, past a couple of dimmer panoramic views, listening to Strauss’s “Vienna Woods”. Talking of Strauss, there are at least 20 ‘Beethoven Houses’ in Vienna, because apparently in the 35 years that he spent in the city, he changed houses 60 times!! One of his declared houses adjoin one in which Albert Einstein used to live, which was pointed out to us while going up the hill.

.The bus unloaded us at the jetty where our Hundertwasser boat was waiting. It was a 2-level floating restaurant. It looked like that, I’m sure, to the goras at least, because as soon as they were aboard, they attacked the tables, grabbed the menus and started ordering beer and wine and finger chips and caviar and what not! No enjoying the breeze, or the sights, or the waves slapping the hull. We went to the back rail, accompanied by a few goras with cameras, who did not seem too happy to be shouldering this camera-wielding responsibility instead of being under cover where the tinkle of glasses were threatening to drown the heavy throb of diesel engines.
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.This was Danube proper, not too blue, in fact distinctly muddy. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it. We passed churches and important-looking buildings like the Millenium Tower, the Unesco building, the ‘garbage burner’ again from close by, and so on. After a while, we left the Danube proper and entered the Danube Canal through a lock.

.The Danube Canal was originally a tributary of the Danube and it used to regularly flood its banks, like an incontinent child. The city authorities, after heavy soul-searching, decided to make the distributary into a controlled canal, and drop its water-level by around 4 metres. They managed this by introducing two lock gates at the mouth of the canal, in order to maintain the level-difference while allowing launches to pass through.
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We were finally released near St. Stephen’s Square, a huge church. We promptly ate a pizza, to start with. Then we walked down to the metro-station to catch a 16-min non-stop train to the airport (cost 9 Euro). The metro station is like a supermarket by itself! The train departure space has check-in counters (hand baggage only) for Austrian Airlines. Too good!.
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..At the airport, we enquired with the Bratislava bus counter and learnt that we had only 15 mins to wait! We collected our bags and waited for the bus. After the European Union, there is no visa requirement for EU-member citizens, although they have to carry their passport. So life is good for Slovaks! There was a Pakistani businessman (around 50) with a Slovak girl (around 25) who he introduced to us as his wife. She was going back to Bratislava while he was returning to Pakistan. The nature of the marriage seemed strange. A Bangladeshi luggage-handler who had sort of adopted us explained that such ‘wives’ were quite common here. “As Bahrain is to Saudi’” he quoth. “so is Bratislava to Vienna.”

.In one hour flat we were in Bratislava. Even the stamping of our passports took hardly any time. Road travel is actually quite easy in these European and semi-European parts. Very convenient.
.So ended our Vienna visit, a gift from God.

Wednesday, June 2, 2004

BELARUS - Minsk (2004)



Minsk: 1.06.2004

This was a very peaceful journey (one hour flight) at a very peaceful time (11.15 am).
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Minsk, at first exposure, was cooler than Warsaw the way we had left it. Our customer Mr Boris had come to meet us at the airport and took us down a 40 km drive to Hotel Minsk at the centre of the city.

.Minsk is a 2 million city (Belarus country has a pop of 10 million), which is the same as Warsaw. But Minsk is far less crowded, with wider roads, less traffic and if possible, ever greater greenery! On the airport route, more than half the rolling meadows were actually covered with small yellow flowers – they looked wonderful, alternating yellow and green stretches. Forests of conifer trees lined the road, sometimes close by, sometimes beyond the fields, and the scent of juniper was in the air.
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After the business discussions were concluded at around 6.30 pm, Boris took us for a round of the city. The city had been very badly damaged by German invasion in WWII, but unlike Poland, they had not been able to restore historical buildings again. So most of the architecture is new and a few old buildings stand here and there, reminders of a history that has been written over..
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.Belarus (“White Russia” in Russian) has perhaps remained the most ‘Russian’ of the CIS countries. Although independent for long, the current President’s pro-Russia stand has ensured that Belarus remains in a trade deficit with Russia, dependent on Russia’s electricity and gas. While other CIS countries have relaxed their bureaucratic procedures, Belarus’s governmental procedures have remained as unfriendly as ever, preventing industrial development. Boris was lamenting that to achieve whatever growth he wanted, it would take him twice as long as in any European city!
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Meanwhile, he loved Minsk as a place. So did we. Wide open spaces, green parks, low traffic, electric trams and buses, cool but stylish people – a nice capital city. Very few people speak English; Russian is the official language here.
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We treated Boris to dinner and wanted to eat some Belarusian dishes. The restaurant, a very old one, called the ‘Rekovsky Brewer’, was originally a brewery and a pub and is now a very well-decorated restaurant. I had eggplants ‘au gratin’ with tomatoes and potato pancakes as garnish – excellent!.
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.Cost of living is reasonable here. Boris’s family of four, without extravagances like eating out etc, needs $250 per month in expenses. He said that 1994, however, he used to need only $50!

.Today my family is leaving for India by themselves. First time such a thing is happening, thanks to the delayed tour schedule. Feels odd, but seems to be under control.

Minsk: 2.06.2004

Our usual search for an interpreter ended with the hotel receptionist who was on night duty. He became free at 8.00 am and was immediately on duty in our room, calling up potential customers. Young chap of 25 or so, good-looking, speaks perfect drawling English. He was in Leicester in England for a couple of years as hotel receptionist, including a stint at an Indian restaurant called ‘Kaboolese’, or some such peculiar name (“Maybe a Bangladeshi word”, said Alex). Anyway, he was a very apt and enthusiastic addition to our team, pitching in with his battered Mercedeze. If we though Gregory’s Merc in Warsaw was old, we had another think coming! This one, unwashed, of unsound body (making lot of sound), rear suspensions gone, belching smoke, would have been an insult to an Ambassador! “Trifle old”, said Alex, without a hint of apology. “Plan to buy a Civic; a Celica is too expensive ….”. He was very sentimental that we stood him lunch at the ‘Taj’, the only Indian restaurant in town. The smell of chicken tikka, of which he had a bowlful, brought tears to his eyes – reminded of him of his England days..
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.Morning, before leaving the hotel at 11.00 am, we had a hiccup. It’s amazing how these things happen! On 4th, we were supposed to go to Bratislava via SVO (Moscow airport). We gave the tickets to the hotel travel agent and she calmly informed us that we needed ‘transit visa’ at SVO as a change of terminal was involved and we would be passing over Russian soil!

.All our market-visit plans went out of the rear window as we quickly rattled to the Russian embassy. There was a big queue waiting. After waiting for more than an hour, the embassy closed its gates at 1.00 pm. “Show’s over for today, folks! Tomorrow again, please ….”. So we went off for a well-deserved lunch at the Taj and Alex’s chicken tikka.

.In the meanwhile, we had out our home office on the job to find an alternative route. They came back with a super proposition. Fly to Vienna on 4th dawn (5.30 am), then travel to Bratislava by road or rail – just 50 km. This would give us a chance to see a bit of Vienna also. [Whatever happens, happens for the ____]
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We finished work by 6.00 pm. Wonderful. Could fiddle at the business centre for some time, relax for an hour and go for dinner at the Taj. The chef, a Delhiite, came up to meet us and was very happy to have Indian guests in whose food he could, at long last, be able to add some spices! “Idhar ka log bahut pheeka khate hain”, he lamented. “Aapke liye chatpata banataa hoon!”. But in spite of his best efforts, it was still not spicy! Maybe he has simply forgotten how.......
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Tomorrow we can afford to start work at 9.00 am, as Alex has already bought some Auto magazine at home and is sitting at a table circling ads of spares shops…..

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Monday, May 31, 2004

POLAND - Warsaw (2004)

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Warsaw: 27.05.2004

We (Rashid and I) arrived at Warsaw yesterday at 11.30 pm.

.As usual, my day had started 12 hours earlier, leaving Muscat at 11.00 am, flying via Dubai and Munich to Warsaw. The Dubai-Munich leg was 6-1/2 hours long. The Munich-Warsaw flight was on a small jet meant perhaps for midgets, owned by Lot, the official Polish carrier.
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We were staying at the Intercon located at the Centrum, or town centre. Both the location and the hotel were very good, except that a bottle of water in the room costs RO 3.500! Polish people seemed very friendly and courteous, by and large. Today we went around our business, meeting prospective clients.......
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The morning started with a couple of hitches, as usual. My Warsaw-Minsk flight on 1.6.04 was still waitlisted and as per Lot, there was no chance of confirmation! We made a parallel booking for 2/6 and hoped for the best.
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Secondly, we normally employ interpreters in such places. They charge $10-15 per hour and are usually with us 6-7 hours a day. Here the going rate was $35-40 per hour! We ended up employing an English-speaking taxi-driver on an hourly basis. Poor fellow didn’t know our evil designs and only when he kept on being dragged into offices for ‘small help’ did he realise that he was doubling as an interpreter without pay!
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The history of Warsaw needs no introduction, famous as it has become for being the centre for the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany.
.Warsaw has a population of around 2 million, the next largest town Krakau around 1 million and Poland as a whole 40 million. It has joined the European Union on 1st of May and the common man seemed quite apprehensive that overall prices would go up! However, economically they had been gearing up for the last one year to join the EU and so, they aver, the shocks will be less.
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Warsaw, in terms of architecture, is as old as the hills, though in construction material not more than 60 years. In WWII, the city was practically razed to the ground! The Poles went through the City Plan once again, raised funds worldwide and rebuilt the city as an exact replica of what it used to be. Today, not a trace remains of the devastating damage, and the architectural and cultural heritage has been maintained. Hats off to these guys!.
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.Warsaw, surprisingly, is a very clean and a very green city. Not the manicured green-ness of mowed lawns, but that of trees growing and shrubs popping up all over the place and grass varying from one-inch to one-foot high. Lots of small open parks between roads. It was raining slightly during the morning and the smell of wet Polish earth carried no less pleasure!
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The roads are not very wide and peak-time traffic congestions exist. In another 4-5 years, Warsaw will face difficulties. Public transport like trams and buses are quite heavily used.
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This is the beginning of the summer season and the days are already long. Sun sets around 8.30 pm. Around 7.00 pm, we went to see the Old Town, which is a bit of Warsaw that has been preserved in the old old style, with stone and red-tile houses and fortified walls, ramparts and towers still remaining. [Quite like the Old Town in Tallinn, but bigger]. It is a general time-pass place for the Poles and a ‘must visit’ place for the tourists. Nikolai II’s palace that had been utterly destroyed in the war stands tall again. There are musicians playing for money in the alleys, and the central square is laid out with open-air restaurants. Today was too windy and chilly (around 4-5 degC) for people to eat outdoors, but we could imagine it noisy and active with the enthusiasm of young Poles..
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.They are a friendly lot, the Poles. The typical European snootiness, especially towards brown-skins, has not crept in. The hotel staff are so loud in their “May I help you saar?” routine that a couple of times I almost bit my tongue!
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We walked back from the Old Town to the hotel, which would have been an enjoyable experience were it not so COLD. If summer is like this, what about winter here? Before going out for dinner to ‘The Indian Curry House’, we pulled on inner thermal wear in order to be really comfortable. Although the concierge assured us that it was just 15 mins “walking distance”, we insisted that a taxi be summoned.

Warsaw: 28.05.2004

Today we went to prospect for a customer in the town of Lodz, pronounced “Woozh”, for whatever reason! Rashid and the driver argued for a full minute before realising that the location was the same. This trip gave us an opportunity to see the Polish countryside, which is beautiful. Rolling green fields, red-and-white houses, black-and-white cows (also rolling) – quite soothing. We passed through a few small townlets, which seemed to be a bunch of houses occupied by retired people..
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.Organisations here, however small, take themselves very seriously in terms of structure and work styles. Whoever we visited were perhaps 1/10-th of our size, but sported a President, two Vice-Presidents, different hierarchies of Managers, and everyone saying in a puzzled manner: “I don’t recollect having this appointment, but since you are here ….” Even if they are twiddling their thumbs the whole day, the visitor should be seen only with an appointment. It’s the style, and a courtesy expected from the visitor. We barged in everywhere without appointments and were lucky enough to get English-speaking people, except the last one where only the President spoke English and he declined to see gatecrashers like us, saying he was a little busy. So our day ended at 4.00 pm.
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Today we had lunch at ‘The Maharaja’ which, compared to Curry House, was lower on the décor front but higher on the tastiness front. Quick service too.
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This hotel has internet connectivity through TV with a remote keyboard. Costs money of course; but this time we avoided going to the Business Centre for e-mailing. Costs around RO 8/- for 24 hours.
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Yesterday, when we were scooting from customer to customer on the outskirts of the town, with no time to come back for a proper meal, we popped into a supermarket ‘Auchan’ to buy some stuff we could eat on the go. Huge place. After having picked up some chocolate and chips, we recollected the rates in the hotel and stocked up on some more eatables, water and beer (for Rashid). Prices seemed to be at par with Muscat. We also located a small food-counter and finished lunch there itself, with a lot of dumb-charade on my part explaining that I wanted no chicken (“Aaaah!”), no meat (“Ooooh!) and no fish (“La-la-la!) in my lunch. Seeing her totally at a loss, I located a tubful of macaroni and suggested she could give me that, which she did, with a lot of sympathy, like with an operation patient on a liquid diet.

.A prospective customer met us in the evening, who had helped us to get the visas quickly. We did not do any sightseeing today, but just went to the Indian Curry House and dined simply and lightly off Chicken 65, Mulligatawny soup, PapadPindi Chana, Alu Palak, Garlic Naan and Rumali Roti!

Warsaw: 29.05.2004

Saturday, and it was obvious that the weekend had started. The roads were half-empty and so was the breakfast room in the hotel. We still determinedly visited a customer to be told that the manager was off for the weekend. Beaten by the system, we returned to the hotel and booked a city tour of 3 hours starting at 2.00 pm.
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We had Polish dishes for lunch, for a change. Rashid went for fish, while I ordered a dish that turned out to be a sort of veg momo, with stuffing of potatoes, cabbage and cheese. Very bland, both of them!
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The city tour was quite nice and covered three main areas: (a) the Lazienki (pronounced “Wojenki”) Parks, (b) the Jewish ghetto area, (c) The Old Town (which we had already seen once).
.The Lazienki Park (which means “Baths”) is indeed a beautiful place, occupying around 8 hectares. Not much of flowers, but lush green meadows and footpaths crowded by bordering evergreens. The park also holds the summer palace of the last king of Poland (King Poniatowski 1764-95), which was also known as ‘Palace on the Water’, as it is on an island in the river. Although the park is located in an area the Germans occupied and lived in, thus protecting it from total destruction, most of the palace was still heavily damaged and what we saw were faithfully reproduced replicas!......
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Warsaw has had such a violent history. At the start of WWII, Warsaw had a population of 1.3 million. In WWII, around 400,000 Polish Jews and 400,000 others lost their lives. The balance half-a-million were deported to Germany to act as slave labour and, practically speaking, in the course of German occupation, Warsaw became a un-lived-in city. Hitler had given orders to demolish Warsaw totally and the German military achieved 85% reduction-to-rubble, before the Soviet army appeared as ‘liberators’ and imposed Communist rule. As per the guide, even the Soviets caused a lot of loss to Polish culture as the country manors, which were custodians of a number of cultural artifacts, were labelled as housing “class enemies” and converted to warehouses or, at best, schools and offices.

.What is, however, amazing is the reconstruction and restoration carried out throughout Warsaw. Apparently, most of Warsaw now stands a couple of metres taller, as it has been built upon the rubble and ruin of the earlier constructions. The reconstruction is still not over and buildings are still in queue awaiting resources and funds.

.We visited the Jewish Ghetto districts where all the Polish Jews had been restricted to stay. A memorial stands in the middle of the area. Some photographs displayed there show the rubble that the ghetto was reduced to by the Germans before they left. “More absolute destruction than Hiroshima!” said our guide. Looking at the district now, full of rolling lawns and modern flats, one could not imagine the misery that had pervaded the area at one time. The guide recommended the film “The Pianist” to all, to get a better idea of the ghetto life that the Polish Jews went through. The subsequent era of Stalin’s rule was not comfortable for Christians either. Between Hitler and Stalin, they destroyed 22 of the 23 churches!
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.We visited the Old Town once again and boy, was the place crowded today! The guide gave some history of the place – in fact, the whole town has been demolished and reconstructed (It is now an UN Heritage site). Ironically, the red bricks used of reconstructing the church and other structures in the Old Town came from bricks from demolished houses in Berlin, which had that particular red-coloured bricks!

.There was a children’s show going on. There are a few beggars in Warsaw but those in the Old Town do it in style! One had dressed up as a “Metal Man” and stood like a statue. One had clothed himself in a black dress and hood as “Death”. Some groups were playing traditional Polish instruments – one wind instrument that sounded like a moose with a sore throat, and a drum that looked like a big toadstool! In the main square, a violinist, wired to an amp with a mike hanging from this throat, was soulfully playing away..
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.The Old Town has a large number and variety of eating joints, both indoor and outdoor. We had dinner at ‘Maharaja Thai’, in search of Chinese or Thai food. Fairly good cooking, with big servings that we could not quite do justice to.

.Incidentally, wherever we went today, be it Lazienki Park or the Old Town, we found weddings taking place. Bouquets in every hand, but the faces somehow did not hold smiles, except the bride and groom, who were anyway blissfully unaware of all undercurrents.
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Tomorrow being Sunday, we are at a loose end. For a brief while we had seriously considered a day trip to Krakow (former capital of Poland) and Auschwitz (famous Jew-extermination centre). But both the expense ($350) and the time requirement (14-16 hours) dissuaded us. We’ll probably regret this decision later.

.For once we had dinner at the hotel itself, at ‘The Hemisphere’, the continental cuisine. I had black bean soup (heavy and tasteless) and risotto (which tasted like paella without the non-veg). Somehow the Indian palate is always disappointed and scandalised by cooking without any trace of spices!

Warsaw: 30.05.2004

Sunday. Got up at 9.30 am. Small compensation for not going to Krakow/ Auschwitz.
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Morning went by in lazing around. Writing reports. Fixing an interpreter for tomorrow. Making copies of Yellow Pages. All boring stuff …..
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After a late lunch at the Maharaja (where who we thought was a young Indian girl turned out to be Nepali and the chef’s wife), we proceeded to see Wilanow’s Palace, which had been recommended by the hotel staff as THE place to spend a couple of hours in. This area (Wilanow) is just outside Warsaw proper and has escaped major Nazi damage. It is almost a provincial cultural centre and has been patronised by a number of barons and the like. In fact it was much more impressive than the King’s summer palace at Lazienski Park. Like Victoria Memorial in Kolkata, Wilanow’s Palace was full of paintings, so much so that in some rooms walls seemed to be redundant! Disappointingly for us, 99% were portraits of Polish noblemen and cultural doyens. There were some other collections like vases, swords etc. The décor of the rooms and the variety of furniture was quite fantastic..
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.The park is also beautiful, with manicured hedges and landscaped flower-beds. Many couples and families had come to enjoy a sunny Sunday afternoon. We wandered around for a while, enjoying the cool breeze, and took a bus-ride back to the hotel.
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Buses were like those in Helsinki, fairly spic-and-span. We were one of the rare ones who bought tickets; others seemed to be on passes. Public transport – bus, tram and subway – are all heavily used by the citizens.

Warsaw: 31.05.2004

This morning our office woke me at 6.30 am (8.30 am their time) with the good news that my ticket to Minsk has been confirmed for 1/6, which meant Rashid and I could travel together as planned.
.Today we travelled throughout Warsaw in the course of work. We experienced the major downside of Warsaw which was traffic congestion between 3.00-6.00 pm, when people start going home from work. On certain roads, progress was like 100 metres in 20 mins! We had conscripted our interpreter’s car and he was today doubling as taxi-driver (last few days, we had forced taxi-drivers to act as interpreters!). Poor fellow was utterly exhausted when we returned after some seven hours of driving around. It was the first time I rode in such an ancient Mercedes, whose doors did not close properly and whose AC did not work. Incidentally, today was quite hot; after a couple of hours our coats were off.......

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We had our last dinner at ‘Indian Curry House’ and bid the waiters, waitresses and the two Indian chefs there sentimental farewells! However, they turned out to be thorough professionals and gave no discount on the final bill!

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