On the Road Again

In roughly a week our second son graduates from university, so of course SWMBO’d and I are on our way back east for the big event. As well, it is my brother’s birthday at about the same time so we decided to travel from Calgary to Toronto via Delaware – not the most direct route, but at least it offered the advantage of being about to buy the US subsidised gasoline along the way. So far at least, it has ranged between 12 ¢ and 25 ¢’s per litre cheaper on the south side of the border for premium fuel than it is in Calgary, which really does add up on a long trip !

We crossed the border near Estevan in Saskatchewan and the last 50 km or so of travel into Estevan defines ‘flat’ – I think the highest point of elevation is the rail way track which runs along the highway ! In stark contrast, the area south of Estevan has been churned up a lot due to open pit coal mining over many years leaving heaps of over burden, rubble and small ponds etc., seemingly with nature left on its own as far as reclamation is concerned. As you move across North Dakota into Minnesota and then to Wisconsin the flatness and openness gives way more and more to rolling terrain and trees. In fact the over whelming impression one gets as you drive east towards the coast is that the lands formerly cleared by settlers for farming etc., have largely been reclaimed by woodlands, so that by the time you have got to Pennsylvania it has the appearance of being little else but forest. And in that forest are a lot of elm trees which obviously are making a bit of a comeback ! In the eastern side of Pennsylvania and up into New York there are signs of what I assume is Dutch Elm disease, with dead elms standing ghostly white here and there, but even so there are still many mature elm trees that seem to be doing just fine which is nice to see.

Our arrival in Delaware was uneventful and we will leave for Canada today, with a detour in the Kingston area to do a bit of genealogy research.

Zurich

Well – I didn’t see any gnomes, but I was impressed by a few things.

• What looked like the same Swiss chocolate I can buy at Costco in Calgary is available duty free in the Zurich International Airport for twice what Costco charges !
• The doors at the entrance to the bathrooms are stainless steel, well over two metres high and nearly take two hands to pull open as they are really heavy – once inside the bathroom, you certainly do feel secure !
• They supply little glass boxes for people smoke inside of – the amount of air being pumped through these must be immense, as although they only measure about three or four metres square, even when packed with people furiously puffing away the air still appears clear inside and (from the outside) there is no visible haze. There are similar ones in the new airport in Bangkok (the one with the runways and aircraft parking aprons that are already falling apart even though it just opened ! ), but there the smoky air sort of spills out through the doorways like a low creeping fog. The one thing that is the same, is that it seems a bit comical having these people on display, peering back at you from inside their little glass boxes – it makes me glad that I quit smoking years ago as I wouldn’t like it at all, but then perhaps that’s the point.

I suppose I should also say that Zurich airport is almost brand new, and as such it is one of the most modern and efficient (from a traveller perspective) airports I’ve been to – on a par with KLIA in Kuala Lumpur, Schiphol in Amsterdam and the one in Vancouver and light years ahead of what you see at places like Washington, Seattle, Chicago, Calgary, Edmonton or San Francisco. The gate agents don’t snarl (at least they didn’t the day I went through there), the people assisting and giving directions by the transit trains were friendly and seem to speak just about any language directed at them. The transfer desk agent I dealt with was knowledgeable and friendly, dealt with my problem quickly (I’d missed a connection) and everything I looked at was in good repair. Of special note was that the same Schindler escalators that Calgary transit can’t keep running for more than a day at a time are everywhere, but unlike in Calgary they are working perfectly and have that nice energy saving feature where they speed up from a sleep mode when they sense people accessing them.

One thing they can’t fix is the punctuality of the airlines – my Malaysian Airlines flight left KL late and in spite of it being a 13 hour flight and it also being a nice new 777, was unable to gain back the time and so arrived late. This caused me to miss my connection – and of course my new connecting flight with KLM ran late also as it is winter so flights out of Schiphol are generally delayed as well. In spite of it all, I almost managed to be in The Hague in time for my first meeting – what scuppered me was that KLM managed to loose my luggage between the plane and the baggage carousel, and then to add insult to injury, the KLM agent decided to argue with me about it ! Just additional proof that you really need a good sense of humour if you are going to do much travelling !

Shanghai

I was recently in Shanghai attending a conference, and again I was impressed about the sheer scale of construction and change that is evident in any of the places I’ve been in China. I would not pretend do be an expert about China having only been to Beijing a few times, within about a 200 KM radius from Hong Kong in the Guangdong area, plus this most recent visit to Shanghai, but it seems that no matter where you look you see a tangle of cranes nestled amidst the high rise apartments and office towers for as far as the eye can see. As is normal also sadly, there is ever present the smog which tends to blur the view, but it is still impressive none the less. I took this photo to the left from my hotel room window at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Shanghai looking north. I was using a new smart phone that I was testing from Dopod which we were thinking of deploying. Frankly if you want to take photos, either get yourself a camera or another brand of phone as while this particular device sports a 1.3 megapixel lens, the picture quality and resolution are pretty poor when compared to other similar devices available.

The real high point of the visit for me was the Maglev train which runs between the Shanghai Pudong International Airport, and the south east part of the city. This is a real technology showcase and well worth seeing. While there are other maglev test tracks in service around the world, the one in China is the only one in commercial service – it is a short ride of 30 KM each way, but can hit speeds of 400+ KM per hour making it a very fast short ride of about 7 minutes !! During the evening it runs a bit slower and during my trip the top speed displayed in the passenger car was about 301 KM per hour – still nothing to sneeze at ! The train itself is very sleek, and I was surprised to find myself pretty much alone on it which is a rarity is a place as populous as this. The tracks are two concrete pads about 10 inches wide and one thing I noticed was that the seams between each section of track were not perfectly aligned, which meant the ride itself was not as smooth as I’d expected – not as smooth for example as the French TGV (which can also do about 300 KM per hour).

It will be interesting to see whether the current maglev is expended beyond it current usage – its beautiful, but its total lack of compatibility with any existing rail systems, plus the fact that conventional high speed rail can very nearly match the speed of the maglev will likely make it a tough sell.

Thailand and other Travels

Hello again ! We are sitting in the Tokyo Narita airport lounge operated by the good folks of ANA airlines. They are part of the Star Alliance that includes Air Canada, and we are on an AC flight leaving here bound for Vancouver. Since arriving back in Canada I have had the dubious pleasure of again flying Air Canada and I regret to say that they are no longer the premier class act that they were back in 2000 when we moved to The Netherlands. On this trip, we flew Thai Airlines a couple of times and they were fantastic – the food, the service level, the attentiveness of the cabin attendants etc. are all better than what good old AC offers these days. In comparison, on my last trip, AC lost my luggage, and this next flight is going to be late leaving by 2 hours. Its a shame – they are now worse than KLM !

Thailand was very nice – we stayed at the Marriott Resort in Phuket which is a time share and hotel combination on the west coast and at the north end of Phuket island. Its a lovely place, with multiple swimming pools, pure white sand beaches, very well appointed rooms and suites, and very friendly staff. While there, in addition to doing a bit of shopping we managed to take a few day trips to see the local sights, including one by motor boat to a small cluster of islands about 100 KM off shore called the Similans where we did some snorkling and walking in the surf. Very pleasant. We were visited there by a friend of mine from high school who was in Thailand on business and had a couple of free days before returning to Toronto. We had a great dinner, a few glasses of wine and talked about old times and people from high school we were still in touch with. Evenings like that can risk becoming like a line from the Springsteen song “Glory Days”, but at the same time it is nice to hear about how folks are doing and the various life experiences they have had over the past 35+ years. It was a great evening.

On the return trip, we stopped here in Japan just to take a quick look around as Donna had not been here before. From the Hilton Narita, it is about an hour’s trip into downtown Tokyo via the JR train line leaving Narita airport. Great service, and a reasonable price (about $30 per person each way). From the Tokyo train station, it is just a short walk to the Imperial Palace gardens, and from there down into some shopping and restaurant areas south of the station. As might be expected on a Saturday night, the area was packed with people. On a previous trip here I had one heck of a time getting about, due to my lack of Japanese and the general lack of any English on the street and rail station signs, but this time around it was much, much easier. In those cases when we couldn’t figure something out, we had no trouble finding someone who could help – if you get the chance to visit, I recommend it.

The weather in Calgary is certainly colder than what we have enjoyed the past couple of weeks – Phuket was in the upper 20’s to mid 30’s (C) and at home its hovering around the zero mark. I suppose we will manage !

Philadelphia

Just sitting in the airport waiting for the flight to be called. Had an interesting few days here in Philadelphia at a conference and workshop and also had a short walk around the downtown core. The visit got off to a poor start as first the taxi from the airport delivered me to the wrong Hyatt hotel (right chain – just wrong hotel) which was frustrating as I had given the driver a copy of the address etc.. To add insult to injury I tore my jacket on something as I got out of the car which was a potential problem as Thursday night was supposed to be a jacket and tie dinner at some posh resturant or other. Once I finally did get to the correct hotel I was able to get the jacket repaired and in the end it was not a probem at all.

Initially the name of the hotel didn’t register as being anything special – the Park Hyatt Philadelphia at the Bellevue is a lovely old (old of course is relative in the US – it was built in 1904) grand hotel with lots of marble, wood, stained glass windows, ornate features and trim plus creaky old elevators. It is very well preserved with reasonably priced TMobile wireless WiFi coverage in all the rooms, which are in very good shape and lovingly decorated – over all the place is a delight ! But there was just something about the place that nagged at the back of my mind, and finally yesterday someone sitting beside me let the cat out of the bag ! Its probably the most famous hotel in Philly – formerly called the Bellevue-Strafford and since renamed – where some 300 retired servicemen were infected, of whom 29 actually died in the first recorded instance of Legionnaires Disease back in 1976 !! I’ll be honest and admit that had I known the history, I might have been tempted to stay elsewhere, but you have to assume that after a problem like that it most probably has the cleanest and most sanitary heating and cooling system in the world and so must be perfectly safe.

I’ll be back in soggy Holland tomorrow and other than a slight cough and mild fever I feel fine

Troy (and Istanbul !)

Since a very young age, I have wanted to visit the site of the city of Troy made famous in Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. I can’t recall where I first read about it – possibly in the How and Why Wonder book series from the early 60’s (my favourite was number 5001 on Dinosaurs). On our previous visit to Istanbul in March of 2005, my wife and I focused on the old quarter, Galata, Levant and managed to visit the major attractions as well as hired a taxi to take a visit along the north side of the city to see the remains of the original fortifications that even today are truly impressive. These massive stone and brick walls were originally constructed in 412 AD (!) and spanned 6.5 KM between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. For a good over view of the history of the city, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istanbul , and also check out a few of the photos I took which can be seen at http://www.sandyfamily.com/2005/Istanbul/album.html.

Just before New Year’s, I saw a really cheap fare for travelling from Amsterdam to Istanbul, and decided to take the plunge to see Troy! We arrived at Ataturk airport this past Monday, and stayed at the very nice Empire Hotel, which is a member of the Best Western hotel chain and right at the foot of the Topkapi Palace. The hotel is within easy walking distance of the major things to be seen in the old quarter, has very helpful staff, nice rooms and reasonable prices. Recommended.

While this was our second visit to Istanbul, it was the first for my son, so we spent a day in the city checking out a few of the bigger sites – for me the first place to start in Istanbul is the Hagia Sophia which truly has to be seen to be believed. Originally built in 537 AD under the direction of the Christian Roman Emperor Justinian, it has been pretty much in continuous service since then – till 1453 as a church, as a mosque till 1934 and since then as a museum. While the dome is slightly smaller than that of the Pantheon in Rome, it is still today listed as being the fourth largest cathedral in the world – pretty good for something almost 1,470 years old !. A must see. As well we also checked out the Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern and then the Grand Bazaar followed by the Spice Bazaar.

On Wednesday we travelled to Troy – and it needs to be said that unless you are really interested in these sorts of things, to the casual viewer, it at first looks to be just a pile of broken rubble. Making sense of it either requires a guide or some advance reading. It is also worth mentioning that to get there from Istanbul is about 4.5 hours by car over bad roads, and to top it off we had a really bad driver (really poor driving skills, no English, worse attitude), although the vehicle itself was quite comfortable. A few phones calls to the hotel to find someone who spoke the language got him somewhat sorted out, but it made for a long day and should not have been required.
For me, the most striking thing about the Troy site was how compact it was – I’d guess not much more than a soccer pitch in area located on a very pronounced hill which drops away steeply to the north and west sides to the plains below. The surrounding area is quite level with the area to the south and further east developing into rolling hills. The sea is easily visible not very far off to the north and west. Standing on top of the ruins, and with a bit of imagination, one can easily visualise how it must have looked at the time of the Trojan War as described by Homer which is assumed to have been about 1193 BC or roughly 3200 years ago. Of course, as a location Troy was destroyed and then rebuilt many times over and the original settlement is thought to have been established about 3000 BC and occupied more or less continuously through till about 500 AD or so. As a result, there are many Troy’s to be excavated – currently thought to number 9 all together, but with many sub-categories. It should keep archaeologists busy for decades . For additional detail about Troy and the excavations ongoing at the site, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy .

For me, the visit was the perfect birthday present.

Rotterdam

I arrived back safely in The Netherlands from Malaysia the other day – not totally without incident. Standing by the luggage carousel there are possibly only three ‘bad’ things that can happen: your luggage never shows up, your luggage does show up, but the case or zipper has broken and all your goods and unmentionables arrive scattered about the down ramp on display for all to see, or your luggage arrives and you find it has been broken into by persons unknown and your goods have been pawed through by faceless strangers who have thoughtfully closed up the luggage again, but with everything inside in a jumble. I’d mention that although you may have a priority sticker or tag on the luggage, if flying with most airlines and KLM in particular, you can be assured that your bag will be treated in the most democratic fashion and the Priority tag the counter agent so carefully attaches actually doesn’t mean a thing – just be thankful if it arrives at all ! Some years ago when I often flew with Air Canada, they actually had a separate luggage belt for priority tagged luggage in some of the Canadian airports – I’d be surprised if they still did this given all the cost cutting and dropping of service level they have been doing to try and save money but am prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Getting back the arrival yesterday, what had happened was the third bad thing – my luggage had been broken into, the case damaged and the zipper broken by people or person unknown. When they do this to you in the USA, the staff working for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at least generally has the courtesy to put in a little note saying what they did and why, and also who to complain to if your valuables are missing. They have a web site at http://www.tsa.gov/public/that has all sorts of information. Till very recently, you were advised to not lock your bags at all when travelling to the USA as they would cut the locks off, but recently luggage manufacturers have managed to get agreement on special locks, that TSA baggage screeners have a key for which allows you once again to have at least a small sense of security when travelling – at least to and from the USA.

As I do travel to the USA, I had dutifully bought a few of these locks and think they are a great idea – I’ve uploaded a photo which should be around here somewhere. They are clearly marked with a red diamond on the side, and on the bottom is the TSA key code required to open them. The thing I hadn’t thought of was that outside the USA, these clever locks and the simplicity they offer for legal luggage searchers hadn’t quite made it onto the radar of non-USA security staff. I really have no idea if my luggage was ‘legitimately’ broken into in KLIA before being loaded onto the plane, or quickly checked over for possible valuables by a luggage handler here in The Netherlands as no note was left inside. While the most valuable thing in the luggage was my laundry and that was still all there, it was more than a bit annoying.

The KLM baggage claims person was very understanding and dutifully took down all the information, which he then printed out for me to do something with myself – once again, I’m struck by how little value there is in being a frequent flyer as really it’s becoming a self service

Kuala Lumpur

I’m just finishing up a four day trip to Malaysia, and am getting ready to pack and head for the airport. This is the fourth time here this year and again I stayed at the Marriott Putrajaya (see http://www.marriottputrajaya.com ), mainly because it is very close to where I work when I visit. The staff are very friendly, the service is very good and generally the rooms are very nice (although see the note further down the page). The slight down side is that it is some distance outside of Kuala Lumpur itself, so in the evening it is not generally all that convenient to head into town. Interestingly, evenings during the week here in the hotel usually are very quiet. In fact last night was really quiet – picture an area suitable for two or three hundred people almost totally empty (I could only see one person sitting at the bar), but the band hired for the evening was just playing away as if the place was packed, and sounding pretty good as well ! Finally – the only caution I’d offer to people planning to book here (or probably elsewhere in the area as well given the humid climate) is to check your room for mould – twice I’ve checked into a room and found mould growing on the ceiling around the air-conditioning vent or elsewhere in the room – this time the wall covering was hanging off the wall by the desk in the room, and a section of the wall was green with fuzz ! There is never any debate about being able to change rooms or get things cleaned up – its just something to be aware of.

While in KL during the daytime, there is lots to see and do, plenty of shopping and really great places to eat, but inevitably you will be drawn to the Petronas Towers which were were featured in the film ‘Entrapment’ and are genuinely spectacular as they dominate the skyline of the city. See this link for some detail on the building – photos do not do it justice, you really do need to actually see it. From the sky bridge joining the two towers, and if the weather cooperates, the view is really good and its well worth a visit – you’ll be glad you did. The other tall attraction is the Menara Kuala Lumpur, which is very similar in appearance to Toronto’s CN tower, and which also offers great views of KL, as well as dining (the world’s highest McDonalds !) and gifts etc. – more detail can be found at http://www.kiat.net/malaysia/KL/kltower.html. The city is an interesting mix of Asian and European architecture – and at this time of year there are even Christmas decorations, advertisements and shopping sales which seems a bit out of place considering its a predominantly Islamic country, but is consistent with the fairly relaxed and tolerant style you encounter.

If you do want to spend time in Kuala Lumpur (and I highly recommend it), and if you also elect to commute from an outlying hotel then you are possibly in for some excitement – the traffic can be quite heavy going into the city, and it seems everyone thinks they are in a formula one race with some really questionable lane position, high speeds and debatable overtaking ! Of course, the Petronas Malaysian F1 Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) is held here every year just south of KL so possibly that explains it – people are just practicing ! For more info on the Grand Prix see www.malaysiangp.com.my. I think the hotel web site claims that its about 30 minutes into the city from the hotel, but early in the evening the traffic is often quite heavy, and when returning from the city frequently the drivers get lost trying to find the hotel at night, so I’ve yet to make the trip in much less than 45 minutes and sometimes longer.

One of my own more memorable taxi rides was on a trip back to the hotel from the city – it was only after we’d negotiated down the price and got in, that I realised that at one time the car must have been in an accident on the passenger side and the doors had been replaced, but the frame and floor pan not straightened. This was obvious as from the outside all looked well, but once in the car with the door closed and the driver barrelling down the highway, I became very aware of the one to two inch gap between the inside of the door and the edge of the floor pan, together with the fact I had to hold the door closed as we careened along the highway at 100+KM, getting lost in the dark – but it was a very good price and we did get back to the hotel in one piece !

Brussels

I attended a Microsoft workshop in Brussels last week, at a place called the ‘Concert Noble’ which was built in 1873 and is a grand old building near to the centre of town. For some background on the property and a description please see this link. While showing its age, and starting to possibly look a little bit down at heel, the Concert Noble none the less retains a sense of its former grandeur with beautiful inlaid wood floors, high vaulted ceilings with lots of filigree in the corners, the tops of the walls and over the high big double doorways. To get there, I travelled down to Brussels from Rotterdam on the NS train service (the regular train rather than the high speed link), which takes about 1 ¾ hours for the trip each way, and took me right to the central train station in Brussels. Compared to other European train stations, this is not an impressive building to look at (check out the ceiling in the central section of the Amsterdam central station if you want to see something impressive), but it is conveniently located to the main attractions in central Brussels. Having got there, I was a bit disappointed to find there is no tourist information available at all in the station, but the taxi rank was easy to find.

The workshop was held to showcase an announcement by Microsoft of the opening of an ‘innovations’ centre in Brussels, and as such several members of the EU parliament were in attendance as it also provided an opportunity to discuss the level of success within the EU at meeting their agreed commitments on spend levels for basic and applied research. Normally it seems that with politicians the availability of microphones, video and still photographers is usually a bad thing, as it is like giving candy to already hyperactive children! In this instance, with the possible exception of the representative from Ireland, most of the speakers successfully kept to the allotted times for their speeches. In truth there were two people who did stand out, and were worth hearing: Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, and current UN special envoy was crisp and to the point, and also the discussion moderator (Ann Mettler) similarly was quite focused. You can read more about her at http://www.lisboncouncil.net .

Generally it can be said the member states of the EU are not meeting their agreed spending targets for research and this is probably not an isolated issue. As an example, and speaking as an outsider, I would have thought the introduction of the Euro and its benefits was a no-brainer, but its interesting to see recent surveys that call this into question and where only 53% of respondents indicate they are comfortable using the Euro after 4 years. See http://europa.eu.int/comm/public_opinion/flash/fl175_en.pdf . None the less, I admit that I continue to be struck by how amazing a place the EU already is and how much more amazing it could be if they continue to be successful in their political journey. Sitting in that hall was another of those times where the incredibly diverse nature of the EU shone through – it may seem a trite example, but if I were to close my eyes for a moment, it was like spinning the dial on a radio with different stations popping into tune, each playing different music. On my right was a group of Germans, behind me several Italians, a few seats over some French, in front a few Dutch, of course there were many Belgians plus English and Irish, and further away just out of earshot were other nationalities whose speech I couldn’t identify. All of these folks meeting in a room to discuss a shared challenge (although I suspect many of the press were there for the free sandwiches and champagne when it was over !). It will be interesting to see if the EU states can continue to be successful in balancing their national imperatives with their shared interests. Time will tell I suppose.