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.

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.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..

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.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.

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.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.
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.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..

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.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..

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.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..

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.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..

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.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.

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.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.

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.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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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.

LINK TO DJIBOUTI ALBUM

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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 ……

LINK TO MUNICH ALBUM

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