RUSSIA - Novosibirsk/Irkutsk/Krasnoyarsk/Kemerovo (2008)

Novosibirsk: 19.03.2008

7.30 pm local time, 5.30 pm Muscat time.
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This belt of Russia that we are covering now – Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk and Kemerovo – is neither east nor west Russia but bang in the middle. It was a long journey – 12.30 am departure from Muscat, 6.00 pm arrival here (local time) via Dubai and Moscow.

.In Russia March witnesses the death-throws of winter. Novosibirsk temperature is 0 degC to minus 5 degC. There is snow on the ground, there are flakes drifting down, but the ice has started melting and the roads are wet, muddy and slushy. All the cars are terribly dirty because I am sure liquid water is at a premium in sub-zero winter!
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.Although food was at odd hours (dinner at 4.30 am, lunch at 4.30 pm), food was not an issue this time (compared to the last time I travelled in this region), because (a) I am a non-vegetarian again, which makes a big difference to the available menu in Russia, believe me, and (b) since I am flying Business Class, the cuisine is upper European, low in oil and spice, therefore easy on the stomach. We are flying Aeroflot in most of the sectors and it is not bad at all.
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The city was founded in 1893 as the future site of the Trans-Siberian Railway bridge crossing the great Siberian river Ob and was known as Novonikolayevsk after Saint Nicholas. It also was the name of the Tsar ruling at that time Tsar Nicholas II. The bridge opened for traffic in the spring of 1897. Its importance further increased early in the 20th century with the completion of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, connecting Novosibirsk to Central Asia and the Caspian Sea.
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[For further details, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novosibirsk ]
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Novosibirsk has a population of around 2.5 million and seems quite a prosperous town with a large number of business visitors. We could get a booking only in Hotel Novosibirisk, a 4-star, but quoting a tariff of $250 for quite normal rooms!
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It was only in the evening that we could catch up on our morning ablutions, which was embellished by a long soak in a hot bath with a glass of vodka. Then we put on our togs again and prepared to go out for dinner.
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Out of my two colleagues, Arun and Ramesh, Ramesh is vegetarian and had been starved all day, but Novosibirsk offered no relief in terms of an Indian restaurant. The available leaflets all offered nightclubs where a peaceful meal was likely to be disturbed by a bunch of dancers posturing around our table. So we took a walk and found KFC right next door! However, in deference to Ramesh’s need for a ‘good veg meal’, we passed that up and entered an Italian joint that offered pizzas, spaghettis and pastas.
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We also ventured a post-prandial perambulation at minus 5 degC and wind that challenged the insulation our clothes quite strongly.

Novosibirsk: 20.03.2008

The day dawned bright and clear. I looked out of my window on the 23rd floor and saw a white world. It had snowed at night and the roads, pavements, esplanades, rooftops, cartops, treetops, were all bathed in white. Numerous black figures scurried about like insects and snow-shovels paraded back-and-forth like mowing maniacs. Satisfied with the state of affairs, I did my kriya, dressed up befittingly and went down for a continental breakfast, Russian style.......

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We met three important customers today. Russia is still severely restricted in terms of foreign exchange regulations, so corruption also exists, but Russians by and large deal straight. Nothing like Africans, or even Indians for that matter.

.The roads were full of slush from the melting snow, especially at the edges of the roads, which were waist-high banks of snow from the road-clearing activities. Temperature was minus 4 degC and cap and gloves were absolutely required. But the snow is really endearing. Especially in areas where it was undisturbed, like the roundabout circles, it looked like softy ice-cream laid out on pancakes!......

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We had a quick lunch at ‘New York Pizza’ where nobody spoke in English and the menus were in Russian, but by virtue of some forgotten pantomime skills, we got what we wanted. Dinner was at the hotel, preceded by a few pegs of vodka, where Arun gave me company.

Novosibirsk: 21.03.2008

Today was slightly warmer, at 3 degC, and we are getting used to it. Although it had not snowed afresh, the white layers are as solid as ever. We had to get into some by-lanes today and there the snow lay really thick and quiet.......

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In a snow-covered park with black-and-white juniper trees rising starkly from the ground, a boy was throwing snowballs for his dog. It was eerily beautiful, like watching a silent black-and-white film on TCM!

.We had lunch at ‘Makaroni’, an Italian-based upmarket place. The Russian populace is quite stylish, with a definite preference for black. And compared to Asians and Africans, quite straight in business dealings. Arun, who had dealt with African customers till now, was in a continuous state of pleasant surprise. Most of our Russian customers know passable English and Ramesh knows kindergarten Russian, so we managed without interpreters today.

Novosibirsk: 22.03.2008

This was our last day in Novosibirsk, with a flight to catch at 8.30 pm. We would reach Irkutsk at 12.30 am after a 2-hour flight (Irkutsk is 2 hours ahead in time).

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Apart from business visits, there is no particulate tourist spot in Novo. We saw the Theatre building and the Library, and we crossed the river Ob a few times while on our rounds. The sides of the river were frozen over with the central stretch having some running water.......

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But it was all made beautiful by the snowscapes. Although around 7 degC now, snow was everywhere and the parks in particular were really like dreamlands.
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We had lunch at New York Pizza once more, being a fast-serving place. Sergei the driver faithfully came in with us. We do not normally think of sharing our table at a restaurant with our driver, but he was a middle-aged dignified chap and not at all out of place.
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It’s a Saturday. Weekened has started and New York Pizza is full of youngsters and families. The Novo teenagers are a decent lot. Not loud, in dress or manner, quite unlike the punks and razmatazz that you’ll find in Moscow. “More tra-di-tion, “ said Sergei, who speaks slight English and is carrying a Russian-English booklet today in order to bid us goodbye properly!......

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Our customer Maxim had taken us to his shop today, which is located in a used-car sale yard. Don’t even think of an equivalent of the Wadi Kabir Friday car souq – 6000 cars standing here, at a pinch! The used cars that have arrived from Japan (the major source) are 3-5 years old and look brand new, carefully kept free of snow and ice by a battalion of brush-brandishing boys.
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We checked out at 6.30 pm, after watching the end of Terminator-2 on TV, very dully dubbed in Russian. The room TV had all Russian channels, else dubbed like this. Watched a bit of ‘Namak Halal’ , Russian-dubbed, till it became a strain hearing Amitabh speaking Rusiian in a querelous high-pitched voice!
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Airport security precedes check-in in Russia and I have to take off my boots every time. The security guards are mostly ladies, but their body-search is quite thorough!
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I was the only traveller in Business Class, which was not a surprise, being a weekend. They served a cold supper – shrimp, crab, salmon fillet, salami, bacon – all slow-cooked and with practically no oil.
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Irkutsk was minus 5 degC, but the bus ride was really really cold. We checked into the ‘Baikal Business Centre’, a hotel just 15 mins from the airport, thank God!

LINK TO ALBUM - NOVOSIBIRSK

Irkutsk: 23.03.2008

This is a Sunday and our morning program is visiting Lake Baikal.

.The lake is around one hour from Irkutsk and a favourite weekend spot for Irkutsians. Two of our customers, Pasha and Oleg, who themselves were close friends, came to the hotel to take us in Oleg’s Land Cruiser. Temperature was close to zero, with a slight wind, so packed a miniature of vodka, just in case......

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Baikal is as such a beautiful lake with greenery all around. In summer, there is boating and fishing. Travelling around its perimeter takes two days! Although end-March is supposed to be spring (we disagreed till we were told that winter temperatures here are around minus 40 degC!), Lake Baikal is still frozen right across! We could see people walking on it and a couple of cars were enjoying skidding around.
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We also walked down to and on top of the iced lake. At the shallow part of 3 metre depth, we could see right down to the lake bed through the solid ice that was green in colour and had crack patterns running down to the depths. It was really beautiful, like standing on green jelly. But the cold was harsh with us. All that ice was also psychologically benumbing, I’m sure! We had to take pics with our gloves on. As per Oleg, in another two weeks, we could not have gone on to the ice any more; it would have been dangerous. As it is, he refused to take the car onto it. The centre of the lake is 800 m deep.......

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We visited a set of stalls near the lake that sell fish, Baikal fish, cleaned and mounted on ‘seekhs’ (ie skewers) already, ready to be grilled. There were vendors grilling fish as well as meat and serving it with pulao out of a huge vessel. Looked very tempting.
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The river Angara flows out of Lake Baikal. We stood near the river and saw how the ice from the edge of the frozen lake was breaking away and flowing down the river. Unusual sights.....

Back in Irkutsk, we went for lunch at a typical Russian restaurant, ‘Bier Haus’ (meaning Beer House in German), pretty upmarket, with waitresses dressed in traditional costumes. Pasha ordered a ‘pitcher’ of vodka. I discovered that tradition demands that the host should keep topping up the glass as soon as it empties a little, so the trick is to drink very slowly. It’s neat vodka, mind you. I guess, in spite of the defensive measures, I must have drunk three large pegs..

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.Food was lavish. We had a seafood appetizer dish and a bacon appetizer dish. Ramesh, being veg, ordered garlic bread with cheese. Arun ordered his favourite Beef Stroganoff with rice, while I had veal with spinach and cranberry sauce (it was a solid but tasty piece of meat). Our Russian friends had a round of Russian salad (cabbage with meat) followed by mussels, mushrooms etc. Quite solid eaters. A dish of Russian mushrooms (big green pieces with cream) appeared as a vodka accompaniment, but the pungent taste was not to my liking.
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When we were dropped back at the hotel, we could only think of sleep. A three-hour shut-eye followed by kriya revived my energies and at 9.00 pm we went down for a “spot of dinner since we were not hungry”. I had a Ukrainian Borsch soup, full of healthy vegetables, the predominant one being beet, that I dutifully consumed, as well as chunks of meat that I dutifully ignored. An after-dinner walk in sub-zero, discussing many things like history and mythology, wound up the day.

Irkutsk: 24.03.2008

Spring IS here, since it has stopped snowing for the last 4-5 days and the snow on the ground is visibly reducing. At Irkutsk, the wind adds to the chill factor; otherwise the temperature is pleasant zero degC!
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Irkutsk has a population of around 700,000. Together with the twin city Angarsk (which is financed by a petroleum refinery and an aluminium mine) and one other city, this small region just about crosses 1 million. But Irkutsk is a very old city. In the early 19th century, many Russian artists, officers, and nobles were sent into exile to Siberia for their part in the Decembrist revolt against Tsar Nicholas I. Irkutsk became the major center of intellectual and social life for these exiles, and much of the city’s cultural heritage comes from them; many of their wooden houses, adorned with ornate, hand-carved decorations, survive today in stark contrast with the standard Soviet apartment blocks that surround them.

.[For more details, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irkutsk ]
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Being around 600 km from Ulan Bator (Mongolia), we see a number of Oriental faces. As per Oleg, our jovial customer, people in the north (former Tartar belt) are tall and strong and drink vodka while people from southern part of Russia are short and weak and drink beer!
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As in Novosibirsk, the people here seem quite clean-living. There may be a few night clubs and strip joints in Novo, but I could not see any signs here. Skin quality is very good and the people very handsome. And they love Irkutsk.
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Every time I have visited Russia or Ukraine, I have been amused by their total avoidance of colours in male attire. Black, black or brown is the theme. My maroon scarf, mostly half-hidden, used to stand out like a bunch of sunflowers at a funeral. Even ladies, as soon as they cross middle-age, seem to change gears to the more sombre shades. Style not dowdy at all, but colours are subdued.
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Our customer Pasha, a fairly big shot employing some 80 people, took us around his place and then treated us to lunch from his warehouse lunch-room. It was by far the best food I had had till now in Irkutsk. Salad, borsch soup, spaghetti with meatballs – very tasty and very soothing.
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I had visited Irkutsk earlier in 2003, but it had been just for a day and a hurricane visit. This time it was quite enjoyable and a totally new place for all intents and purposes.
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Russians are quite jolly and friendly and love to talk about families and babies. At the same time, they have a no-nonsense approach to business and in meetings they would get down to the point right away.

.Around 4.00 pm, when the day’s work was over, we trundled down to Karl Marx Street, which is the town centre (I believe Karl Marx street or Lenin Street is always the town centre at this part of the world!). After walking around a bit in the unrelenting sub-zero, we popped into ‘Bier Haus’ again for some warmth. This was the same restaurant where Pasha and Oleg had treated us to lunch on Sunday. Finding that a Screwdriver was cheaper than a coffee, we indulged in the national drink, together with cheese on garlic bread.......

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Our Russian friends told us that there were no Indians living in Irkutsk (nor in Novosibirsk). There are no Indian restaurants. We notice people on the street do a double-take when they see us, in spite of the fact that we are ensconced from head to foot in warm clothing. Something must not be looking right. In spite of that, more people than we expected speak some degree of English – it is an optional language in school.

.We had dinner at the hotel. While Arun struggled with a steak that was half-a-cow, I ordered a potato dish that was ‘alu-peyajer-tarkari', a la home, though difficult to have just like that without accompaniments.

Irkutsk: 25.03.2008

Our last working day at Irkutsk.
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The weather has improved and is in the range of Indian winters. The snow has practically melted away, the roads are dry and children are having ice-cream!

.We spent time today at the auto market that is full of auto retail shops. There is no point trying to compare these with auto retail shops in India. This market is set up like a trade fair complex, with shops instead of stalls, with uniform frontages and display panes, numbered in order. Everything labelled, arranged and displayed, the aisles spic-and-span, refreshments available in one stand, restaurants outside the complex. It is targetted at car owners, not so much the garage-mechanics, so the ambience is quite upmarket.

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The city is situated beside the Irkutsk river, which joins the Angara river right there. After lunch, we visited the city Angarsk, situated on the other side of river Angara, around 45 km from Irkutsk. It turned out to be a poor step-brother, with wide roads, prolific trams, and large colonies of LIG and MIG flat-blocks. The road to the city was nice, lined by bare cedar and green pine trees.
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Our flight to Krasnoyarsk is at an unearthly 2.30 am, so we will lose sleep quite heavily. Like seasoned travellers, we lay down for a 1.5 hour nap, but as expected, could not sleep a wink. The TV channels in Russian did not help pass the time.

LINK TO ALBUM - IRKUTSK

Krasnoyarsk: 26.03.2008

Our flight was tracing a path back from Irkutsk to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk being 2/3rd along the way. Since this was a much smaller plane (belonging to Utair, a local airline), it still took 2 hours.
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After a long time I was boarding a small propeller-driven plane, and after a long time I suffered from claustrophobia again. I felt hot, suffocated, itching at unreachable places through layers of clothing – even my feet were complaining at being ensconced in thick boots. So I took off my jacket, my sweater and scarf and packed them, solved a Russian crossword, walked up and down disturbing the air-hostess trying to serve food, finally went right to the back where there were a few empty seats and I psychologically felt less hemmed in. Finally borrowed a blanket and fell asleep.
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The disembarkation was very primitive and conducted at minus 8 degC at 4.40 am. The luggage was identified and unloaded right on the tarmac, which we lugged onto the bus. The bus promptly dropped us 50 metres from a taxi-stand and drove off! We dragged the luggage crunching over ice and shivering away to glory, not in a mood to negotiate much even when the taxi-driver asked for 1200 roubles ($50) for a drop to Hotel Yahont.
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We reached the hotel at 5.00 am and were told that our rooms would be ready at 6.00 am only! Till then, why didn’t we relax at the bar? Somehow, she then gave us one room and we snoozed on the sofas for one hour. This hotel is quite old and the rooms are actually suites, with a separate room housing sofas, writing table, TV and fridge. The panellings are old-fashioned, but the room-radiators are very effective.
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.Kransoyarsk is the largest city in the Siberian area. The Krasnoyarsk region with 3-4 towns is also quite old and the inhabitants quite middle-class and humble. These places are not tourist-friendly and there are no leaflets lying around detailing “10 things to know about Krasnoyarsk”, or a route map with old buildings marked. We passed an old bridge over Yenesei river that flows through the city and our taxi-driver pulled out a 10-rouble note to show it depicted there. When we passed an old church at the top of a hill, he pulled out the same note again and showed us the church also picturised. Krasnoyarsk region seems to have monopolised the 10-rouble note!
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.Daytime was not too cold at 8 degC. Our customer meetings went as planned and we had a roadside lunch of ‘shwarma’, made Russian style, that was quite good.

.After a full working day, we did not feel like going out for dinner, but had a quiet meal at our in-house restaurant, consisting of soup and some chicken.

.The rooms here are quite funny, with a lot of interference among the doors to the bedroom, sitting room and bathroom. Not a good set up really but then very few ‘international’ tourists like us land up at Krasnoyarsk!

LINK TO ALBUM - KRASNOYARSK

Kemerovo: 27.03.2008

We had half-a-day’s work at Kras, after which we had planned to leave for Kemerovo by car around 12.00 noon.
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The first realisation which struck us on waking up was that spring had definitely not arrived at Kras – because it was snowing! Not great fluffy balls but more like white powder blowing about in the air. The ground was white already though the roads had been kept clean. Temperature was around minus 2 degC, but we were more worried about whether this would hamper our road travel plans. Fortunately, the snowing remained mild and our Camry driver Valada did not seem much perturbed by the weather.

.We had ordered packed lunch from the hotel and left at 12.30 pm, expecting to cover the 650 km distance in around 7 hours. There was snowfall for the first 150 km or so, after which it cleared up, though the landscape remained blissfully white. It was quite thrilling to see trees covered in snow and the rolling plains stretching away so smoothly, broken by lines of bare patchwork cedar trees and the occasional shrubs. One almost expected to see a troop of wolves run out of the trees and go plodding through the snow. We stopped at intervals to take pictures but always ended up dissatisfied with the limitations of photographs.

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.During a coffee break, we stopped at a village and hunted out a café. The villages are very quaint. All are old with very peculiar colour schemes in the houses, with window-frames bright blue or bright yellow while the walls remained a dingy brown wood finish. Even the café-cum-bar was inside a huge enclosed building with a massive iron door and you had to climb up some musty flights of stairs to reach a big hall set up with a bar at one end and the tables arranged against a wall. Our request for only ‘chai’ was received with some suspicion by a massive matron and with amusement by the two young girls looking after the bar. When I came back from a visit to the toilet, I found that ‘chai’ had been served at break-neck speed and the two girls were now standing in the middle of the hall, holding bits of paper and reciting dialogues with expression and flourish. Apparently our patronage had disturbed the rehearsal process of an amateur play!..

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The sun set majestically while we were driving westward from Kras to Kemerovo, giving us a few nice sequences of sunlight shuttering through the forests of dry trees as they marched past us at 100 kmph. We finally entered Kemerovo at 8.00 pm and it took us another hour or so to find the hotel, which was sort of ‘beside the river, beneath the trees’, an out-of-town picturesque hotel in a pine forest situated beside the river. It should be a nice sight in the morning, but for tonight we satisfied ourselves with a very good dinner at the in-house restaurant.

Kemerovo: 28.03.2008

Morning was clear and not so cold, probably 5 degC. The snow still lay thick by the roadsides near the hotel, the snow-clearing machines having just shoved them to the side of the road, at some places leaving a six-foot high bank. There is a river that passes nearby, named Tom (so obviously there is a small town named Tomsk just beside it), but it is not visible from the hotel. We did cross it a couple of times later. Still iced over.......

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Kemerovo is a small town, with a population of 550,000. It is a popular winter resort for Russians, with miles of heavy forests and well-maintained ski-slopes. A couple of our customers bemoaned the fact that we were leaving tomorrow, else a skiing trip was in the offing! We promised to stay longer next time.
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Like all Russian cities, Kemerovo also has wide roads and chunky buildings, although signs of modern architecture are more evident here than in bigger cities like Novosibirsk. It has perhaps the best educational atmosphere in the Sibir region, housing three Universities. We spent some time at the feet of Pushkin’s statue standing in a square near one of the Universities. Electric trams and buses are abundant and the supermarkets, although very non-descript façade-wise, are really huge inside, well-stocked and full of both Russian and foreign products..

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.Although the people here do complain of high prices, the prices are comparable to India. Petrol costs 22 roubles per litre (around $1/-) – about the same as India. However, the standards of dress, whether driven by weather or by style, surely eat into their pockets. The average Russian is quite a friendly person and they are always thrilled when we utter some words in Russian, pronunciation no bar. Some charges seem slightly on the higher side though. Our hotel, 10 km away from the city, apparently a getaway place, costs 4800 roubles ($220/-) per night and an all-day taxi charges $20 per hour.

.We had lunch at an Italian restaurant ‘The Sacramento’. Thanks to Ramesh, who is veg and finds Italian menu a better fit, we have used up our quota of Italian food for the next year or so!

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.We came back to the hotel at 6.00 pm, took a walk photographing pine trees and begged off from a customer who was determined to take us out to dinner and ply us with vodka.
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Incidentally, I had bought a bottle of Smirnoff Black Label vodka at Dubai duty-free when starting the tour and even as I am writing this line, I am drinking the last sip of the last peg. What fantastic planning!

.Dinner at the restaurant in the hotel was a boisterous scene. Today being Friday, it was the beginning of the weekend. Apart from couples, there were two big families gathered for dinner. With a guy and a gal belting out popular Russian numbers, the diners practically trooped out for every song and back to their table again at the end of it! There was no dance floor to speak of but that did not deter the young blimps and old couples. It was nice watching them have fun – there was a fierce determination to it. To the old, this freedom has perhaps come quite late in their lives and the young of Kemerovo perhaps have very few joints where they can go by themselves and enjoy. Anyway, the revelry was quite energising and a fitting finale to our trip.

.We leave tomorrow morning for a flight to Moscow at 9.00 am and will reach Muscat via Doha at midnight. This was a good trip overall, having had a brief glimpse of snowbound Siberia without having gone through the rigours of minus 40 degC, which is what this region goes through in the depths of winter.

LINK TO ALBUM - KEMEROVO

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TURKEY - Istanbul/Ankara (2006)

Istanbul: 10.02.2006

Transiting via Amman, we landed at Istanbul at around 2.00 pm. From the plane we could see that it was drizzling and there were patches of snow on the ground. Temperature was 7 degC, which is what we expected anyway. But we wished that it had continued snowing and not changed over to rain a couple of days ago.
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Situated at the western edge of Turkey, part of Istanbul is in the European continent and part of it in the Asian continent, the Bosphorus channel separating the two. The city is a heady mixture of old and new, East and West. While driving to the hotel, huge mosques rose out of the drizzle while modern shopping plazas were thronged by trendy crowds. There is no Arabic here – Turkish, Kurdish, English only. A bit of French is also understood.
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In spite of the rain and the chill, we donned our winter gear, borrowed two biggish umbrellas from the concierge (with ‘Hilton’ written across them – walking ads!) and popped into the Indian Consulate a short walk away. The lady clerk could not help much and we could meet the Consul only in the lift as he was rushing down to end his day and start the weekend!......

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We spent some time in the auto market, hunted down an Indian restaurant and wrapped up our day nicely. We have been promised sunshine in two days, which would make it Sunday and ideal sightseeing weather.

Istanbul: 11.02.2006

This morning was brighter — cloudy but no rain. It even snowed lightly for a few minutes. No wind to speak of, though the day temperature was 5-7 degC.
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This was a Saturday, a half-day for businessmen and consequently for us as well.
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Istanbul has lots of narrow one-way streets, as the city has grown in on itself. Like there is a section of Amman called the Old City, with old walls still in place and three of the sevem gates still standing, Istanbul was also a fortified city and the walls are still visible in long stretches.
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The city has a long history dating from 1000 BC, through the Byzantine era, with the Romans taking over from 200 AD onwards. Emperor Constantine renamed it Constantinople and it became the capital of the Roman empire in 330 AD. The city went through various attacks and Golden Ages till it was finally conquered by the Turks in 1453 and the Ottoman empire ruled it for the next 400 years. It gained its heavy Muslim flavour only then.
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Istanbul always held a romantic image for most Europeans, as the ‘Gateway to the Orient’. Even now, looking at the city’s hybrid nature, we can understand how interesting the middle eastern muslim culture would have appeared to them. To us, it seems like a middle easterm muslim city that has received a dollop of westen influence! The city receives tourists from all over Europe. Therefore, English is not necessarily the most popular language.
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Today we visited two interesting market-places. One was a sort of weekly fair (or ‘haat’) that keeps on shifting location. It happened to be near our hotel today. Stretching over a kilometre, the main lane having stalls covered by tarpaulin, the vendors were selling vegetables (extremely fresh) to household articles to clothing — you name it! Probably all the ladies of Istanbul were there and a great hubbab was the net result. Not very cheap, like all prices in Istanbul, but some items in textile and leather were reasonably priced.......

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We also went to the centre of old Istanbul by bus where the main mosques and the Grand Bazaar are located. The Grand Bazaar is another place like Al Hammadiya in Amman, mainly for tourists and said to have 3000 shops! Closing time is a good time for bargaining and sellers reduced prices with a lot of lamentation as they were anxious to start their weekend.......

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Dinner was at ‘Dubb’, an Indian restaurant in the same area (lunch had been at Pizza Hut, after a decent gap) and we caught a bus back again to the terminus near our hotel. People here are quite friendly and helpful, though short on English. They are quite at home with high-tech lifestyles like coded cards for buses etc, just as in European cities.

Istanbul: 12.02.2006

Today is Sunday, so we woke leisurely at 8.30 am. The first thing that struck my eyes was the bright sunlight and I cheered up immediately. However, during breakfast, our waiter said: “No rain today, only snow!” He was perfectly right. Soon there were flecks of snow in the air, but the fine drizzle also continued. The temperature had dropped to 1 degC!
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We went out by 11.30 am with a new aquaintance, Mr Anis, an old man, a Pakistani industrialist from Lahore. We had met him casually yesterday. A very enterprising person with tractor and motorcycle plants in Pakistan. Close friend of Nawaz Sherif. He was regaling us with a lot of stories as we walked down to Taksim Square around a kilimetre away to catch our bus to old Istanbul. Mr Anis went his own way.......

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It was quite cold today and waiting for a bus in mild rain and snow was a new experience! The local Turks did not seem to be bothered much. We were also determined not to be deterred by anything today! Our bus finally arrived and carried us southward across the Golden Horn channel to the Old City at the southern tip of Istanbul (same place where we went yesterday evening). We snapped photos of the famous Blue Mosque (or Sulaimanie Mosque as it is also called), the Haggia Sophia Museum and the Hippodrome with its obelisks. We did not enter any of the places, including the Topkapi Palace that we also visited.......

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After a lunch at the same Indian restaurant ‘Dubb’, we boarded a tram for the ferry point Imenum. These trams are not like the ones we see in Cal. The tram-stops are barricaded and tickets are barcoded, with announcements like in the Metro. Nice.......

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The ferry for crossing the Bosphorus was also a biggish affair, capable of carrying some 20 cars as well, and a covered deck with a coffee counter for passengers. Very very chilly in the open, with cries of sea-gulls adding to the cold somehow.
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On the Asian side, we wanted to see the Beylerbeyi Palace, up north where the big bridge crosses the Bosphorus. The road went climbing up and the snow gradually thickened till we found the roadsides quite white.Unfortunately, the Palace had closed early, being a Sunday, so we caught another bus to a smaller ferry-point, crossed over by a smaller ferry and caught another bus to Taksim Square, where we had started from.
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It was only 5.30 pm, though dark. We went investigating around the square and found the main shopping road, which was THE main road 100 years ago as well, lined with shops selling mostly wearable and eatable stuff, a thoroughly consumerist road if there ever was one. There were no cars allowed on this wide paved road, thronging with people shopping, window-shopping, or simply out to enjoy a little fresh night air!
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We returned around 8.00 pm and had dinner in our rooms.

Ankara: 13.02.2006

In the morning we were on the streets of Istanbul, working away as usual. Snow had fallen at night and the ground was whiter. However, it was not raining and that was a big relief.
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We had wrapped up the day by 3.00 pm and attacked Pizza Hut for lunch, my stomach cringing now at the continuous onslaught of cheese. I also realised that though the cold (minus 2 degC) prevented sweat, we were losing moisture all the time through breath to the crisp cold air and not drinking enough water to compensate.
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While we were in Pizza Hut, it started snowing in bigger flakes and we sat there enjoying the sight. People here were not concerned about it at all.

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We reached the airport early and were kindly put on to an earlier flight (6.00 pm) to Ankara, so that we landed by 7.30 pm. Ankara was WHITE. Though the road from the airport to the city was dark, from our high seats in the bus we could see fields of untouched snow.
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The Ankara Hilton was a smaller affair than the Istanbul Hilton and when we stepped out of our taxi and walked the small distance to the reception, the minus 5 degC could be felt in our bones. We had a light dinner in our rooms and slept off.

Ankara: 14.02.2006

The morning view from our rooms was really fantastic — roofs covered with snow, snow falling off tree-branches and neat black paths swept clean through lawns and inside driveways. When we went out after breakfast, the snow-shovels had already been in operation and all roads were clear. Still, it was fun to see parked cars laden with snow and with icicles dripping.......

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The Industrial Area that we were going to was quite far, so we cabbed it to the Metro station and caught a train underground. As pro and chic as any European city. We had to walk around a lot for prospecting. Though it was neither raining nor snowing, it was still cold enough to make my fingers ache inside my gloves. Thank God for our boots. Manihar bought his pair in Damascus just before we flew to Istanbul.
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Warm clothes are available here in plenty, of course. I bought a muffler today, to save my throat. Lot of woollen stuff comes from India.

.We do meet interesting people on these trips. One of the prospects who did not speak English called friend to interpret. Later we learnt that he was a guide, who takes people hunting in the mountains. He has been to Pakistan also a few times for hunting, he said!
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Our check-out was slated for 4.00 pm and our return flight to Istanbul for 9.00 pm. No time for lunch as we wanted to visit a couple of sights. How quickly energy gets consumed in this cold! Our breakfast had been burnt away in a couple of hours and we had to buy some biscuits and juice to keep going. In fact I was seriously considering stopping my sugar medicines for the time being! I needed all the sugar I could get.
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We visited the Ankara Castle (or Citadel) and walked around the ice-covered slippery lanes inside. People live there. We were guided to the highest point by a couple of sure-footed children. Groups of Japanese tourists were also going around. They have cold winters in Japan too, so this may be okay for them.......

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After checkout, we thought we’ll go to the airport and try for an earlier flight (there’s one every hour). We stopped at Ataturk’s mausoleum on the way to take some snaps. However, the airline reported that all flights were full up to the one we were supposed to travel in , so we waited out 3 hours at the airport.
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It was snowing in Istanbul when we landed — big fluffy flakes!

Istanbul: 15.02.2006

This was our last day in Istanbul and the last day of our tour as well — just as we were getting used to the cold and had learnt the best way to brush off snow from our clothes!
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We had a couple of meetings in the morning and the snow today was quite ‘satisfactory’. Bigger flakes that made my black coat flecked and spattered white in no time. Even after our business was over, we did not feel like sitting in the hotel waiting for departure time of flights but went for a walk in the snow, to a short cable-car ride that was plying close to the hotel.......

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My flight was to Muscat, with a change at Amman, leaving at 4.00 pm. Manihar had a direct flight to Dubai. So I checked out earlier by myself. Given that there was only one hour gap in Amman, I had an anxious moment when I found that my flight was delayed by 50 mins. However, it somehow ‘made up’ and created a half-hour gap! I reached home at 2.30 am, all fresh.

LINK TO TURKEY ALBUM

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SYRIA - Damascus/ Aleppo/Lattakia (2006)

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Damascus: 6.02.2006

This is said to be the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world, with a population of around 6 million (Syria is 17 million).
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All the people here, whether Jordanians or Syrians, look practically European. English is a commonly spoken language, less so in Syria, though. However, these countries are not conservative and the veil is positively absent. Women are trendily dressed and black leather seems to be favoured equally by both men and women.......

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We were at work till around 5.00 pm, when business closes for the day. It was not very cold – around 14-15 degC. Our customer said that he will pick us up at 8.00 pm and take us to two places – (i) on a hilltop with a good night view of Damascus and (ii) to a 1000-year old Hamam for a Turkish bath!
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We first went to a huge souq called Al Hammadiya to pass some time. It was practically a replica of Khan-el-Khalili in Cairo minus the eating places. We ended up buying some things for home, including some warm stuff for Turkey, which was running at 0 degC!......

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We went with our customer to the hill-top, which is quite a popular view-point with cafes perched on the edge. We spent around an hour in one of the cafes, enjoying the view and having tit-bits (fouls, nuts etc) and swapping jokes with our Syrian friend. He has lived in places like Ghana and Angola and his experiences were both serious as well as hilarious.

.We politely declined the offer of the Turkish bath, saving it for Turkey. Anyway, being massaged by muscular Syrians was an uncomfortable notion ….
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I found that Syrians were much more bureaucratic people than Jordanians, with complex governmental procedures. This was, in fact, a ‘taxing’ city, which used to levy taxes on the trade merchants and caravans ceaselessly passing this way. However, Damascus seemed big and well-developed and prosperous. Korean cars have flooded the streets and I could see Chinese makes as well.

.We’ll see later whether we can see a bit of the Old City. As of now, we are scheduled to travel to Aleppo tomorrow evening, spending the night there.

Aleppo: 7.02.2006

We had left Damascus by ‘Pullman’, which a coach type bus, popular here for long-distance travel, as the roads are good. We first disembarked at Hama (or ‘Homos’ as they call it locally) to visit a customer and spent an hour with him. We again boarded a Pullman around 7.00 pm and reached Aleppo by 9.00 pm. Hama is around 200 km north of Damascus (called ‘Miska’ locally) and Aleppo (called ‘Halab’ locally) is another 150 km..

Aleppo is the second-biggest town in Syria. It occupies a strategic trading point midway between the Mediterranean Sea and the Euphrates. Initially, Aleppo was built on a small group of hills surrounding the prominent hill where the castle is erected. The small river Quwēq runs through the city.

.We had enquired with our customer for a good hotel in Aleppo and he had recommended Hotel Baron’s in Baron Street. His idea of ‘good’ varied from ours, since, as we alighted from the cab, we were quite non-plussed by the ‘bhoot-bangla’ look of the place. It turned out to be the oldest hotel in Aleppo, built in 1811, and had been practically the only building in town for some time! The counter-clerk (owner?) was also pretty ancient and next morning we were hard put to get a hotel bill! Having said that, however, the rooms were heated by hot-water radiators, the bathroom was half as big as the bedroom and the TV (21”) had cable. Manihar stayed in the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ room and I in the ‘Agatha Christie’ room, as these personages had graced the chambers at one time.

.Aleppo was colder than Damascus and it was almost 11.00 pm when we went out for a walk and found a nearby falafel sandwich centre who made bumper sandwiches for us.

Lattakia: 8.02.2006

We had only half-a-day’s work in Aleppo and had originally planned to return to Damascus this evening and spend one more day there. However, our work in Damascus was already over and we had heard of the nearby port city of Lattakia, from where goods came into Syria; so we decided to travel there instead and spend the night. The route was also supposed to be scenic and it was a seaside town
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On the way to the train station, we passed Aleppo’s Citadel and collected some knick-knacks from a nearby soup.......

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We boarded the chair-car at 3.30 pm and reached Lattakia at 8.00 pm. It was a pleasant journey, though slow. But the weather was so murky that it turned dark before we passed the scenic hilly stretches.
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We stayed the night at the Meridien, right on the beach, which was closed for the winter. A pre-dinner walk along the beach-side showed up a rough sea, whipped up by cold and gusty winds, shoving the clouds across a dark sky. Nobody would even dream of swimming out here in such weather!......

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Had a soothing dinner in the room of lentil soup, pasta and french fries.

Damascus: 9.02.2006

At Lattakia, the wind worked itself up to a gale last night, howling away outside the windows. In the morning, there was a burst of hail and the verandah was full of sparkling cubes.
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As we had breakfast, the rain gradually stopped and the clouds seemed less black. There was even a splash of sunshine for a little while.
.We check out by 10.30 am, did a round of the business districts and boarded a Pullman for Damascus, that left at 11.30 am and reached at 4.00 pm, with a 30 min break in between.
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Luckily, neither Manihar nor I are very finicky about food. Mostly our lunches would be pretty loose affairs — fafafel sandwich if we were lucky, or just chips and chocolate like today.

.The bus journey was a nice scenic one. The route travels south along the coast till it hits the border of Lebanon, then cuts east across the mountains to Hama on the Damascus-Aleppo highway, then south again to Damascus.
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The mountains were full of melting snow and the brown-and-white patchwork grounds that we were driving through looked beautiful. How I wished we could have stopped for a minute!.

......

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We collected our suitcases from the Sheraton (we had travelled to Hama-Aleppo-Lattakia with only small bags) and checked into Meridien instead, just for variety. Went out for a long walk to loosen our limbs. The rain was a fine mist and it was below 10 degC. We had an early dinner at the only Indian restaurant in town — the Taj Mahal, as expected! Food was good, after all the irregular grub.

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We returned along a well-known shopping street, the Sara Shallan, and did some window-shopping. Manihar ended up by buying a pair of boots that seemed built to tackle the snows of Turkey.
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Tomorrow we leave for Istanbul via Amman.

LINK TO SYRIA ALBUM

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JORDAN - Amman/Petra/Aqaba (2006)

Amman: 1.02.2006

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This is the first time I am travelling to Middle Eastern countries – Jordan, Syria and Turkey (UAE is practically home). Mind you, the people of Jordan etc do not think of themselves as proper Arabs – more European, so to speak. They are all very fair and stylish and lot of them speak very good English, giving a valid gora effect overall.

.I spent last night on a couch in the Emirates Business Lounge, awaiting my 8.30 am connection to Amman, for which Manihar joined me at Dubai. The internet had predicted pretty cold weather – max 10 degC, min 0 degC. So I had bought a short woollen coat and a turtle-neck sweater at Muscat, and having packed it along with gloves and cap in a separate hand-baggage, which I decided not to let out of my possession come what may, I felt that I was adequately prepared. In fact, when we landed in Amman at 9.30 am, it was 7 degC, but quickly climbed to 12 degC.

.2 million out of Jordan’s 5 million population lives in Amman. It is a sprawling city, built on mountainous terrain, therefore full of climbing streets and sudden turning slopes. The traffic was heavy, but good-natured, the shops and arcades very Indian-ish. The people are friendly and most of them speak passable English. Mani speaks fluent Arabic anyway.
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As the day was already half-spent, we worked straight through to 5.30 pm, which is closing time in winter months here, meeting people and surveying the market. The temperature dropped quickly after sundown, hitting 8 degC by 6.00 pm. We went straight for dinner at an Indian restaurant and repaired to our hotel, a bit tired as it was the first day.

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Four Seasons, where we were staying, was a very nice hotel. The rooms have DVD players as well and a choice of free movies at the reception. I chose “National Treasure” (Nicholas Cage) which I’ll try to watch after I write my journal entry for the day. Don’t think I’ll finish it – it’s 9.00 pm already.

Amman: 2.02.2006

Today started cloudy. And windy. And raindrops now and then. Though temperature was around 14 degC, it turned distinctly chilly. Our work ran from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm, after which we called it off and went for lunch at Pizza Hut. The beginning of our meal was slightly spoiled because our order of feta cheese and spinach rolls came to be served as barbecued chicken rolls and we were halfway through our meal before we realised it! The waiter, finding spinach short, had ‘upgraded’ us, expecting feverish thanks, but was faced with Manihar’s indignation instead!

.We visited upmarket Amman, ie the downtown area, and went to a shopping mall. Jordanians dress quite fashionably and well, and the branded shops did have one or two customers, unlike Muscat. The food court was roaring, with no place to sit. They did not allow photography inside, the twits!......

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In all public places, including our hotel, checking and body-searches are quite common. Gun-toting military police are also seen in good numbers.
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We changed our stay plans slightly. Since we also had to visit the town of Aqaba down south (350 km) and the historic hidden city of Petra was on the way, we decided to check out of here tomorrow, go to Petra and stay there (being Friday) and continue to Aqaba next morning, work there and return to Amman at night.

Petra: 3.02.2006

Today was a sightseeing day, although our business purpose was served to the extent that in travelling to Petra, we covered more than half the distance to the southern city of Aqaba, where we have to meet customers tomorrow.

.Morning at Amman was tremendously foggy and very chilly. Ahmed, our driver, promised that Petra would be clearer and warmer. Amman being a hilly area, we were being subject to hilly weather.

.On the way to Petra, we took a diversion to the town of Kerak, which was a fully fortified city at one time, with the fortress at the top looking over rolling plains on three sides. The views were magnificent. The fort itself is quite primitive compared to, say, the citadel that we had seen in Alexandria. However, the position is very good, the city limits bounded by deep river gorges.

......

.We reached Petra city (small hilly town, actually) around 2.00 pm. Since the hidden ancient city location closes at 5.00 pm, we straightaway went in, skipping lunch and delaying the check-in till we finished. We engaged a guide as well, as the history was a little fuzzy for us.

.The ancient city of Petra (not the currently inhabited part) actually resides inside a vast area surrounded by hills and limestone cliffs. The formal approach is along a 1.2 kilometre gorge, around 10-20 metres wide at the base and 40 metres high, along which people, horses, carriages, whatever had to travel along to reach the hidden city. It was built up between the 2nd century BC and the 5th century AD, mainly by the Nabataeans, a very gifted Arab tribe originally from north-west Arabia, who had their fingers on all the trade routes going through the region. Caravan control and management seemed to be their specialty. Later on, around 100 AD, the city was captured by the Romans.

.The approach is truly amazing. It was originally a natural gorge along which water used to flow, which the Nabataeans dried out, paved and made into their approach road. In fact, as we emerge from the final crack in the cliff, the Treasury building looms large right in front..

......

.The rock formations are diverse and the variety of colours and designs in the rock really great. They had dug water channels all along the walls for feeding the city. During the Roman siege, the Romans simply stopped these channels and the city fell.

.To see Petra’s architecture fully, it would take at least two days, as the places inside the area are far apart. It seemed that most of the dwellings were cave-like and were quite simplistic, with poor natural lighting. Tombs were many, both inside the city area as well as outside the gorge.

......

.The rose-red stones and dust lend Petra its typical colour. In the sunlight, the buildings and pillars look positively pink!

.We have put up at the Crown Plaza. Finished our pizza dinner by 7.00 pm and trudged back, quite fagged out.

Aqaba: 4.02.2006

Today I woke at 4.00 am (6.00 am in Muscat) and wished Panna ‘happy anniversary’.
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First view out of the window was the mountains of Petra as the sunlight slowly climbed down from the peaks.

.We took off after breakfast to the port city of Aqaba, on the coast of the Red Sea. A medium-sizes relaxed city of around 100,000 inhabitants. Our work was over in the morning, so we spent some time at the waterfront and looked upon the city of Eilat (Israel) across the Gulf of Aqaba.
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.[For those of you who have seen the classic “Lawrence of Arabia”, Aqaba was the strategically important port town that Lawrence attacked after crossing the uncrossable desert and routed the Ottoman forces.]

.After lunch, we went sightseeing to a natural reserve called Wadi Rum, around 30 km from Aqaba. It is a truly wonderful place, declared as a natural preserve. A tremendously wide wadi bordered by high limestone cliffs weathered for ages into intricate patterns. Our 17.5 year old driver packed us into a mud-spattered 4-wheel drive and took off full-speed across the bouncy grounds, smooth pink dunes and sometimes across rocky slopes. The views were simply fantastic and photos were grossly inadequate.......

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Lawrence had made Wadi Rum also his playground. This was his headquarter during the time he was coordinating the Arab Revolt during WWI. In fact we were shown a dilapidated brick shelter which goes by the name of ‘Lawrence’s house’.

.Two days ago, it had rained in Wadi Rum like it had never rained for 15 years. Deep gullies had formed where there was soft soil. Yet there was hardly any trace of moisture today.

.While returning, we picked up a Canadian couple whose Jeep had run out of petrol! On introduction, we learnt that the man had “just finished starting off a couple of telecom companies” and the lady was an architect. Nice people. We stood together in Wadi Rum and watched the sunset.
......

.We reached Amman around 9.00 pm and checked into the Royal Palace hotel this time.

Amman: 5.02.2006

After lunch, we were scheduled to travel to Damascus by road, but we were at a loose end in the morning as all the meetings in Amman were over. So we decided to visit the Dead Sea, which is a half-hour drive from Amman.

.Said to be the lowest sea-level in this part of the world, the Dead Sea is tremendously salty and heavy. Manihar had visited earlier, but I definitely looked forward to the ‘fffloating sensation”.

.The coastal drive to the sea was also picturesque, hugging the mountains. Standing on the beach, we could see Israel on the other side. We changed and waded into the water over very sharp and scratchy salt deposits that looked like corals. A single scratch would burn for a long time. Floating was quite nice (though the water felt very chilly to start with). Half the body practically remains out of the water..

......

.The beach also has deposits of black volcanic mud (like I had seen in Kamchatka), which we rubbed all over ourselves and waited in the sun for it to dry – sort of like a pack treatment. In fact it is said to have therapeutic properties. Then we washed it off by another dip in the sea.

.Our driver Ahmed volunteered to take us to some hot springs 10 km away. There was even a hot waterfall that served to give a hot massage to our neck and back as we stood under it. The pools were also steaming hot and very relaxing. The surroundings were not cleanly maintained, though..

......

.We drove back to the hotel, checked out and had lunch – you guessed it, Pizza Hut! I swear I would not be able to eat Pizza for a month or so!

.We said goodbye to a customer and got dropped to the Amman-Damascus taxi stand. Leaving at 5.00 pm, we reached Damascus by 8.30 pm, which was quite a decent hour. We checked into Sheraton, but we could make out that the standards in Syria were not as high as those in Jordan.

.We had dinner at the hotel of hummus, mutable, falafel and bread – heavenly!

LINK TO JORDAN ALBUM

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JAPAN - Nagoya/Kyoto (2005)

Nagoya: 13.06.2005

Nagoya is 350 km south-west of Tokyo and is primarily an industrial port city. TMC’s main plant is located here.
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We landed at 7.30 am after a far better flight and better sleep. It is easy to make out how systematic and efficient the country is even at immigration, customs and baggage claim. The whole process would have taken less than 10 mins!
.Our tour guide was waiting outside and it took us some time to change money. We pushed off in a bus at 8.45 am. As our hotel rooms would not be ready till 1.00 pm, we were about to do some sight-seeing in Nagoya first.
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The weather was cooler than at Muscat, but still a bit too sunny for comfortable sight-seeing. The airport is around 40-min drive from the city. Our guide Ms Kiku gave some commentary on the city history and layout, which we dozed through.
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Our Hotel Westin is located beside two tourist attractions, the Noh Theatre and the Nagoya Castle. The Noh, or musical drama, is performed in a 63-seater theatre. The stage, made of cypress wood, is very beautiful and quite fragrant.......

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The Nagoya Castle is a veritable fort, the house of the Nagoya lords, three of whom also became emperors. The castle has now been converted into a museum housing the castle’s history as well as examples of medieval clothing, armour etc. The castle-roof is also mounted with two huge golden fishes (18 carat). Apparently their forms are borrowed from the Indian ‘makara’. Because of the Expo running in the city, they have been brought down and kept as exhibits. They can even be touched for a fee and great good fortune invited..

......

.We were slightly tight on time as Kiku had booked an Indian restaurant 'Akbar' on our request at 11.30 am, which we reached on the dot. Naan, aloo-bhaji and daal had never tasted so delicious! Kiku gave us lots of advice as to how to reach this place. The Japanese by nature seem to be very helpful people and will go out of their way to ensure that you get what you want.
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After checking in at 1.00 pm, we simply went to our rooms and flopped into bed. At 4.20 pm, Raj, Ram and I wandered out for a while, and then caught a cab when we found that even after holding a map, we seemed to be lost in the small suburb-type streets with little traffic! Raj wanted some “active place”, so we cabbed to the JR main station (our lunch joint was close to this) and explored the underground shopping malls. Pastries, for example, were RO 5/- each. We changed tactics and entered a huge building full of electronic and computer goodies. All latest models, but prices were at least 1.5 times higher than the Gulf. Our place is still the cheapest one for branded stuff.......

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TMC was hosting a dinner for us in the Westin Hotel itself, from 7.00-9.00 pm. Four men and a lady from the Part Dept played host. General Manager level but very informal, including play-acting to demonstrate a point. We finished drinks and dinner by 7.45 pm and even our hosts were slightly taken aback, as they were planning for a long relaxed evening. “You all must be really tired,” they said and shooed us out of the hall.

.Tomorrow we are going to see the World Expo fair that is being held in Nagoya now. Will be a long and interesting day.

Nagoya: 14.06.2005

The word ‘Japan’ evokes a mental image of neatness, efficiency and discipline. It is fully justified; a fact I could feel not only in our casual wanderings in the city, but also during today’s visit to Expo 2005.
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‘The 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan’, or Expo as it is briefly called, is a 6-month affair stretching from March 25 to September 25, 2005. Their target is 15 million visitors. Currently, they are receiving 20-30,000 visitors a day, which makes it way above the target. 99% of the visitors seem to be from Japan itself. Foreigners like us are extremely rare.
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In spite of this heavy traffic, their system of managing queues, moving along people and the prior planning for people-management are of a very high order. Of course, the visitors also fully co-operate, with no murmur about the long waits that sometimes happen when the ushers are creating space for comfort. Even a small example of a man standing beside the last man holding a placard saying “End of queue here” is a small detail that helps new arrivals. Hi-Tech checks like hand-held ticket scanners are also used, but they are a minor aspect in the mammoth organisational exercise. High efficiency with smiling strictness seems to be the Japanese style.
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A TMC bus ferried us to the venue, arriving around 9.30 am. Simply getting in (including airport-level security-checks) consumed around an hour. The entry tickets were already with us, together with tickets to the three ‘shows’ – at Toyota, Hitachi and the Japan Rail pavilions.......

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The shows were very good. There were huge queues for getting in, but, courtesy Toyota, we could avoid the queues. Toyota pavilion presented a Robot Band, i.e. robots playing musical instruments. TMC also presented their futuristic single-user cars through a dance presentation.
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The highlight of the Hitachi show was the interactive wildlife session. Seated with virtual-vision glasses and a hand sensor, we were right in the middle of a forest with rhinos charging into our seats (the seat jerks realistically) and crocs biting our head off (our head crunches realistically) and a giraffe snorting into our face (air-jets from our glasses hit our faces). It was very very interesting.......

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The Japan Rail pavilion featured a 3-D film about the new MagLev (magnetic levitation) trains that can achieve speeds exceeding 400 km per hour. The wheels of the train lift off the rails and the total lack of friction enables it to achieve very high speeds..

......

.There were innumerable food conveniences in the huge area (around 400 acres). We had been generously given 10 coupons of 500 Yen each (5000 Yen = 50 dollars). That’s quite a lot of money. However food is not cheap in Japan. We had a veg thali lunch with juice at a Sri Lankan food joint and it cost 1500 Yen. We blew a similar amount on a dinner of veg pizza slices and chips. For people eating non-veg the choice was very wide, with approved restaurants ranging from Asian to European. But most of our guys played safe and stuck to Indian or Sri Lankan!
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We also enjoyed a ride across the area in Toyota’s new development, viz Intelligent Multimode Transport System (or IMTS) vehicles. Three driverless buses followed each other at a steady speed along a bounded road..

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.The theme of Expo is futuristic and focussed on the environment. Most of the big corporate pavilions, led by Toyota, were highlighting this aspect in their pavilion design and presentations.

Nagoya: 15.06.2005

Today dawned cloudy. Yesterday it had been warm during the day; however, once the sun set, it had turned very pleasant.
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We were visiting the Toyota Commemorative Museum, one of the warehouses and a Toyota distributor ‘Gifu Kyohan’ (‘Gifu’ being the place and ‘Kyohan’ meaning distributor).
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Timeliness is a major God to the Japanese. Assembly at 9.20, departure at 9.30, reaching at 9.45, Director’s address at 9.50 (5 mins walking time to the auditorium) etc were followed to the letter. Even when going around a facility, if they felt they were getting delayed by too many questions, they would politely say: “We have a schedule. Questions later please …”. Toyota in fact is an epitome of timeliness and order..Toyota Commemorative Museum is the history of automobiles as well as that of Toyota themselves, displaying right from the start of the Toyoda family (please note difference in spelling) with weaving mills to the current 8.5 billion dollar automotive company. Full of video and working models, it needs a full day to do it justice.......

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The facility visits were also very good. Extremely clean and full of visual control tools. Very busy but silent, and no haste. They also have very high respect for the job that they do, however small it may seem. We had seen it at the Expo venue too – attendants repeating some instruction kept on doing the same with a smile and bows without a change in pace all throughout.

.We travelled through a bit of rural (or rather, suburban) Japan. The space between roads and houses is totally taken up by paddy cultivation. Space is at high premium, be it for living, parking, cultivating, and even dying I’m told!......

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We were again taken out for dinner by TMC, to an Indian restaurant called ‘Maharaja’. Three tables had been booked for the 20 guests and 7 hosts. TMC is quite particular about load-balancing and at such evenings, they would ensure that some female staff members also attended. Tonight there were four young girls, who were imparted various branches of Indian knowledge with full vigour, varying from yoga to astrology to pickles to sarees to how to bring up children! I was at the ‘serious drinkers’ table where five people finished off two bottles of scotch, and no idle chit-chat, thank you. Food was very Indian and very good.
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However, our appetites are not always met so aptly whenever TMC arranges the lunch at some convenient restaurant or cafeteria, especially for vegetarians. Today’s lunch was corn-soup (good), salad (okay), boiled vegetables (well….), tofu paneer and some jelly topped with some cream (unbelievably tasteless and uneatable) and desserts of fruit and cake (good). Everything was presented beautifully, though. Our Muslim colleagues were troubled by lack of halal meat and were sticking to fish, till the Maharaja dinner, who had been told in advance about the halal issue and took care (at least they said so!). The luncheon cafeteria staff at TMC was very careful and did not even serve ice-cream to the veggies since it contained egg. We sat there licking our lips!

Nagoya: 16.06.2005

While still on the subject of lunches, we had another lunch organised by TMC at a hotel near their plant (which is around 1one hour from Nagoya city). It was a beautiful resort hotel, full of green lawns, lakes, water sports etc. The chef, in grave doubt when faced with all the variety of veg, halal etc, made everything veg. So we had onion soup (great), salad (okay, but the cherry-sized tomatoes were a novelty and very nice), egg-pant au-gratin (okay, but very solid), with rice (how to combine this?!). Some people ordered extra curd and managed.

......

.Today we visited the Toyota Exhibition Centre in Toyota City, which is an hour away from Nagoya. All the latest and current models as well as prototypes were displayed and were described in detail by an English-speaking guide, supported by videos. Toyota’s set-ups and presentations are to be seen to be believed! We saw the latest hybrid cars like Prius (gasoline + electricity), which is already being marketed, The Fuel Cell car (hydrogen + electricity), which is sold very selectively as it is still very costly, and the N-Fine (fully Fuel Cells), which is still in the future.

......

.We also paid a visit to their Tsutsumi Plant that manufactures Camry and Prius among others. Their assembly plant and spot-welding plants are open to guided tours by Toyota PRO personnel. They have built special overhead walkways inside the factory for just this purpose and have fixed spots where PA systems are installed for the guide to explain the surrounding operations. Total method in their madness! Their body-welding line in particular, with eight robotic arms working on a car every 30 secs, is really impressive.
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There was also a post-lunch classroom session on Toyota’s method of manufacturing and the quality systems that they practice.
.If we consider what we absorbed during yesterday and today, it may seem that Toyota is giving away too much information to competitors, who may also be visiting. But Toyota’s attitude seems to be: “Let them try!”. Their core philosophies, long-term vision, continuous improvements, short lead-times, manufacturing flexibilities, very fast product design, extensive product testing, are not things that can be copied from a displayed car or from a brief lecture on how a hybrid vehicle works. It has taken them 70 years to be an innovative production leader. In their own words, their strength is their work culture – and that cannot be copied.
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We have not seen other factories in Japan, but the Toyota factory is spotlessly clean. No sweepers in sight, though. Everyone maintains his own workplace. Nagoya and Japan in general are very clean places. No rubbish is visible. I do not know why people rave about Muscat and Singapore – they should see Nagoya. Somehow, the Japanese culture of work and living appeals to me very strongly: planned and standardised, but full of improvements. People follow rules, question them when they are not appropriate, but wait for them to change without breaking them.

.Tonight TMC hosted our farewell dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Food is such a funny affair here. Well, we climbed two stories up a spiral staircase (with conjectures as to who will roll down this spiral after bouts of scotch and as to whether imbibing a ‘screwdriver’ will neutralise this spiral motion!) and jostled into a small room converted to a banquet hall, with chairs along the sides. Four senior Toyota managers were already there as we arrived bang on time at 7.30 pm..

We kept on chatting while standing around, feeling a little awkward at neither being asked to sit, nor being offered drinks, in which case standing is okay. Murali and I decided that after seeing last dinner’s alcohol bill, they would have decided to put us on the wagon! Food started appearing and our hearts sank. Ice appeared on the tables and our spirits rose. Water and glasses appeared beside the ice-buckets and our hearts sank again. Juices also appeared and we gave up. But while serving, just audible over the growing murmur of discontent, the waiter said: “Have juice pliss, if no beer….”. And then beer appeared.
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In the meanwhile, since we had indicated that 8-9 people were vegetarians, they had made 20 veg spring rolls, which actually everyone had and it finished half-way through; so some people did not get and grumbled in Hindi. Such situations are very stressful for the Japanese. They did not even have raw materials for making more. Was the chicken halal? No answer. What is this ‘tile’ fish? Is it cleaned? Not sure. The prawns finished in record time, again upsetting the chef. They wanted a levelled production load (‘heijunka’), the secret of their just-in-time production system. One veg guy requested for fried rice, which was not on the menu. It was produced very quickly, but had egg and chunks of chicken in it, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the other people.

.After dinner, they served sake, which was a hit. But a person asking for sake was given water and another’s partially full sake glass was forcibly removed from his plate and replenished with a fresh glass of water and ice, deep bow accompanying. Finally, at 9.00 pm, after some 15 group photographs in different cameras, we closed with a vote of thanks to all the TMC staff for the personalised care and attention rendered to us all.

Kyoto: 17.06.2005

Today’s highlight was our visit to Kyoto, erstwhile capital of Japan in medieval times. Kyoto is 135 km from Nagoya, which the Bullet Train covered in 35 mins flat, at an average speed of around 220 kmph. The train actually looks like a bullet, with the front end slightly distorted like the beak of a platypus, and is gleaming white in colour. The interior is midway between a KLM flight and Shatabdi express. Fittings are very high-class. The speed does not signify anything in a closed cabin with excellent suspension, but it was a first-time thrill. The experimental Maglev train, as mentioned earlier, will be twice as fast.......

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Kyoto is a small and cute town, but technically and infrastructurally as advanced as the rest of this unique country. It has, however, preserved a lot of old houses, palaces, forts and shrines and the old-world atmosphere remains. When going around the sights, we could see groups of children from junior school to senior school parading around with their teachers. Field trips to Kyoto are part of their school syllabus.

The tour guide rattled off a stretch of medieval history. However, what could be made out clearly is that there had been a tussle between the Emperor and the Shogun (samurai general) and for a period of 750 years, the Shogun had gained ascendancy, keeping the Emperor only as a figurehead. In the last 250 years ending with WWII, the Emperor again gained mastery. After the war, emperorship has remained only in name and the Premier runs the country.

We started off with the Golden Pavilion, where one of the Shoguns had led his retired life (at the age of 37). The lake there holds a beautiful temple, plated with gold leaves and topped by a golden phoenix. The gardens are also very peaceful and there is a remote tea-house where the Shogun would slake his thirst.

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[Facts: The Shogun Yoshimitsu was the third Shogun of the Ashikaga dynasty and abdicated his throne in 1094. The temple is called Rokuon-ji temple.]

With followed this with a visit to the Nijo Castle, which is right inside the city. Earlier, castles used to be atop a hill for better defence, but as the warlords gradually became more involved in local administrative affairs, the castles came down to the plains and the towns grew around them, although they were still well-fortified by strong walls and moats.The Nijo Castle was built in the beginning of the 17th century by Ieyusu Tokugawa, the founder of the Tokugawa (3rd) Shogunate. There was also a five-story inner castle that was struck by lightening and burned down, never to be rebuilt. However, the outer gardens and palaces survived and were used by the Shogun for living and holding court.......

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With a large number of big rooms, the palace is a single-story wooden (cypress) structure. All the chamber floors have simple tatami mats and are practically devoid of furniture. In reality also, the simplicity of the Shogun’s life was quite extreme. In some of the main chambers, like the receiving room and the living room, models of human figures have been placed to reproduce the seating arrangement of various officials etc. The walls carry very old drawings, in some places restored, and the outer walls are wooden lattice-work fitted with rice-paper for good lighting.A unique feature of the Nijo Castle is the Uguisu-Bari or Nightingale Floor. From the entrance to the Ninomaru Palace to the Grand Chambers, the floor-boards are designed to squeak, so that no one can unknowingly creep up to the Shogun! There are metallic clamps and nails fitted beneath each floor-board and with twenty of us walking along, the musical squeaks and tweets sounded like a forest full of nightingales!

We had been picking up things here and there at souvenir shops, but lunch was organised on the top floor of a 3-story handicraft centre. As expected, there was some serious shopping done. I am sure the Japanese had never before been faced with so much collective bargaining! Their ‘Fixed price’ notices drew no respect from us at all.

We followed up lunch with a visit to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the original religion of the Japanese, being nothing but nature-worship, with no human embodiments. But sometimes the shrine may carry an object of reverence, like a mirror or a sword. Even the people who have later adopted Buddhism as a religion still maintain their Shinto history and their houses may display dual shrines. As our guide said: “Japanese are 50% Buddhists and 100% Shintos!” Their religion is basically reflected in their rites and ceremonies. A new year, or a new infant may be celebrated by a visit to a Shinto shrine, whereas a death rite may be as per Buddhist rituals.

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The Heian Shrine was a very old Shinto shrine, with a mirror in the centre. The guide showed us how the ‘shrine entity’ is greeted – by two bows, two claps, then a bow with a namaskaar. Then a coin is thrown into a grate. This temple also has beautiful gardens. Most of the Japanese gardens are not the corporate landscaped variety, but more of the ‘nature walk’ type, with narrow lanes winding along quite thick foliage.

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Our next stop at the Hakusa Sonsou Enclave, which also holds a small museum of a famous painter called Hashimoto, was quite memorable as we were scheduled to partake in a Japanese ‘tea ceremony’. We took off our shoes and entered the tea room, located in a thatched hut. In deference to our Western upbringing, tables and chairs had been arranged, else it would have been ‘vajrasan’ for all of us. Our ‘tea hostess’ was traditionally dresses in a purple kimono, with appropriate facial make-up. Tea ceremony starts by partaking of some dry and wet sweets already served on the plates while the hostess prepared the green tea. The tea is made by mixing finely-ground unfermented tea-leaves in warm water and serving in small bowls. The tea leaves are not, therefore, filtered out, but drunk in the powdered form..

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The steps of the ceremony are as follows:

1. The hostess stands before you with a tea bowl and bows. You also bow.

2. The hostess places the bowl in front of you and bows, retiring. You bow again.

3. In case it is an attendant who has served the tea and the hostess is sitting at her table, you bow to her as well.

4. You also bow to the person sitting next to you who has not yet got his tea. This is to ask permission to start drinking before him.

5. If it is a decorated bowl, there may be a small face on the edge nearest you. Lift the bowl on to your left palm and with your right hand, rotate the bowl so that the face points away.

6. Drink the tea in 2-3 swigs (it is usually just warm, not hot). The last sip should be a proper SLURP, with an audible noise. This is a sign of appreciation.

7. Set the bowl down, tilt it away from you, rotate it slightly this way and that way and admire the workmanship and design.

8. Wipe the place where your lips have touched, with your fingers.

9. Rotate the bowl again so that the wiped place is away from you.

10. Bow and smile at the tea hostess.

We came away suitably impressed. They apparently charge quite a lot for these demonstrations (around $25 per head). People wondered whether masala tea in a dhaba can be marketed as successfully …..

We also visited a Buddhist shrine called the Kiyomizu Temple. Set atop a small hill (which we had to climb) it overlooks a panoramic view of Kyoto city. There are two unique features of the temple. Firstly, devotees believed that there was some merit in jumping down a 12 metre height in front of the main temple. If they survived, their wishes would be granted. Survival rate was 85%. Secondly, on a less violent note, there are three fountains spurting water side-by-side, signifying health, intelligence and wealth, which are recommended to be drunk..

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It seems to be a common practice to attach names and significance to natural events and make scenarios out of them. Brings fun into their lives, I guess.

After just a ‘little more’ shopping, we caught the Bullet Train back to Nagoya, detraining at 7.10 pm, on the dot. We wandered for some time at the station complex, Raj and I, finally completing our dinner at a nearby restaurant and returning to the hotel.

Our stay in Japan is practically over. Tomorrow morning we leave for KL, reaching in the evening. The morning day after we fly to Dubai and then Muscat, again reaching in the evening.

It was a very educative visit. The Japanese, surely, are a different people....

LINK TO JAPAN ALBUM

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MALAYASIA - Kuala Lumpur (2005)

Kuala Lumpur: 12.06.2005

This time it is an official tour with a difference. Twenty of us are travelling to Toyota Motor Corporation’s main plant at Nagoya, Japan, at their invitation. We shall be in Nagoya for 5 days, one of which will be spent in also visiting Kyoto, the earlier capital of Japan.
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We are transiting through Kuala Lumpur, as we are flying by Malayasian Airlines. We left Muscat yesterday at 3.30 pm, flew to Dubai and caught an overnight flight to KL, landing here at 8.00 am local time, which is 4 hours ahead of Muscat. It was almost 10 hours flying, with a stop at Karachi. The airline staff were not very keen to give us a good time either and kept talking throughout the night, kept the lights on and avoided switching on the AC when the plane was on the tarmac at Karachi. Not too much sleep..

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.For me, KL was being revisited too soon – we were here on holiday last summer. However, this time the hotel we stayed in, ‘Equatorial Bangi’, was a resort-type hotel with beautiful grounds. We relaxed till lunch and did a bit of sight-seeing again in four cars. One gain for me was that I could go up the KL Tower for a city view, one that we had missed last time. The tower is 420 metres high, but the observation deck was at 270 metres. Still, high enough.......

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Travelling in a group is fun, but also brings its own hitches, like chronic late-latifs who hold everybody up. A couple of chronic cases have already been identified and are being given pep-talks by the others to ensure that they tow the line when in Japan, as Japanese are sticklers for time.
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This time I was not carrying my video camera, only the still one, as it is difficult to handle both. As it is, all our guys are not shooting with their own cameras, as they themselves want to be in the picture! A fair amount of round-robin going on at each photo-able point.
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Apparently, it is raining every day at 4.00 pm, and today was no exception. We had just completed our brief sight-seeing and were about to go shopping. Some people went to Chinatown, but we (Murli, Raj, Ram and I) went to ‘Lot 10’. This was not a good choice as it was mostly branded stuff and had only one shop with T-shirts etc.
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Our flight to Nagoya was at 11.45 pm, but the bus dropped us at the airport a bit early – at 9.00 pm. So we checked in, which took some 40 mins, and pottered around in the duty-free till boarding.

LINK TO MALAYASIA ALBUM

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