Someone has to work
15 August….There might be this lingering notion based on the entries of this blog that all Julie and I do from our base in Bangkok is travel around. And it’s true, we cram in a lot of interesting excursions or trips whenever we get half a chance. But one of us also commutes to the office, deals with customers, worries about budgets and goes on business trips. And business trips can be a story in themselves.
There have been a number of interesting trips done this year which deserve special mention, including a customer event Julie and I attended in Jodhpur India which was covered in a previous blog, https://www.ourpangaea.net/?p=1681.
In May I spoke at a customer’s global conference in Abu Dhabi, an amazing city and the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The conference was at the stunning Fairmont Bab Al Bahr Hotel, just across the river from the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque (which can fit 40,000 worshipers at a time).
As part of the team building activity (you gotta love these team building activities) we went out to their Formula One race track, a technological marvel in itself plunked in the middle of the brown desert, and raced large fast go karts around a special track. The air temperature was 40 degrees Centigrade (104 Fahrenheit) but the asphalt temperature on the track was an amazing 58 degrees Centigrade (136 F) and I can’t even tell you what it was inside the special suit and helmet they gave us. But we looked cool and drove fast.
Also in May I spoke at another customer event in Amsterdam, one of the most unique and interesting cities in the world. I’ve always enjoyed Amsterdam because it has many special features not seen in other cities around the world, much like Venice with its canals, Sydney with its harbour or San Francisco with its hills.
But for me the added bonus is that our niece Tess has been living there for quite a few years as a dancer with the Dutch Ballet. We are all immensely proud of Tess but unfortunately don’t get to see her much so my visit had extra punch. Plus, falling smack in the middle of the Small World category, Tess’s older brother Tom was in town visiting her as part of her 21st birthday celebrations. We all caught up for a fun night of food and drink and it was absolutely huge to see both of them.
On a much less spectacular note, I made my first visit to South Korea in June as part of our company’s launch into that new market. My week in Seoul gave me some time to explore the sights and make some first impressions on this major city which might not be on everyone’s tourist map.
Seoul has many characteristics of Tokyo or other major Japanese cities. It is immaculately clean, everything runs superbly, customer service is high, people are embarrassingly polite and helpful. The department stores, hotels and restaurants are all on a par with New York, London or Paris (well, the food looks a bit different….). So you might say the place has great hardware.
But in my short visit there I couldn’t get a feel for the history or culture or the buzz of their society. I visited a couple of palaces – the Changdeokgung and Deoksugung – which were mainly rebuilt creations that were interesting but somewhat soulless. I also went to Samcheong-dong Bukchon which is a section of town said to retain the life style and culture of ancient Korea but really only showed a couple of passing glimpses at anything original or authentic.
All of this said with one exception. Food in Korea is unique, it is different in the style and tastes and manner, and this extends to their favourite drinks (and drinking habits!). Each evening we went into some of the nearby local shopping streets and crowded around tables crammed with a number of special delicacies, made easier to order and eat with the help of our Korean colleagues. The most regularly served Korean food is kimchi, which comes in unlimited forms but usually is something like fermented cabbage (an acquired taste). Rice and noodles played a big role but most meals involved cooking our own meat and vegies on a hot plate in the middle of the table.
But no trip to Korea is complete until you try the various unique drinks. There are a couple of good local beers but they also have a large range of rice wines and the overwhelming favourite of all self-respecting Koreans – Soju. Soju is a clear sweet distilled spirit, drunk from small glasses in big gulps repeatedly. Get onto it.
One of my ‘must do’ events each year is the global conference of a large Australian travel company and this year they chose Singapore as their destination. Now Singapore has a reputation for being slightly boring, and to be honest that’s been a fair rap for many years, but the Singaporeans are industrious and the government continues to invest in or support major infrastructure projects, including the construction of two world class casinos, the only night time Formula One race, a new fantastic botanical garden, new cultural centres and upgrades to Sentosa Island which is their nearby tourist holiday offering with beaches and children’s attractions. We had the great fortune of staying at the magnificent Marina Bay Sands Hotel, part of one of the two huge casino complexes. The hotel resembles towering cricket stumps overlooking the city complete with cricket bails across the top and a huge overhanging section which defies engineering logic. This is definitely the face of the new Singapore and in addition to the business end of the trip we also got to enjoy these new city features.I have been going to Bombay frequently these days, and as I say about India as a destination, you need to go a few times to fully appreciate this complex and chaotic city of 18 million. In August I was back again and extended the trip to the southern state of Goa for another customer event (we have a lot of global customers!). Julie and I had been to Goa before and wrote about it in an earlier blog – https://www.ourpangaea.net/?p=120. But that was in May at the end of their tourist season, this trip was in August, right in the middle of their monsoon season and absolutely the wrong time to visit if you want to enjoy the amazing sights and sounds of this special state of India.
Goa was a colonial outpost of Portugal for centuries (remember Vasco de Gama?), during which time it built many churches, passed on their language to the locals and emphasised education and gender equality much more than in other Indian states. It was only handed over to India in 1962 and still contains an interesting European feel to the place. It is also blessed with beautiful beaches, stunning inland scenery and unique culinary treats (go to heaven after the fish curry).
So there wasn’t much time or sunshine to see the local sights this time but a quick trip to Old Goa makes any short list plus another visit was in order to the local market in downtown Paniji, the capital of Goa. Note to self, when planning a holiday to southern India, especially its west coast which includes Goa, make sure you don’t come in the monsoon. I saw a few tourists who forgot this important rule and spent most of their holiday gazing out their hotel window at the relentless volume of rain washing away their big plans.
So yes, someone has to work, and there is absolutely no fun in loneliness of facing yet another hotel room or catching midnight flights or living out of a small suite case. But occasionally there is some upside to it all and the good experiences always seems to outweigh the unspoken drudgery of travel. As it should be.