Alfonso World Travel, Sport & Arts

The example of the Paralympics – a true inspiration for everyone

2012-09-05T15:06:00.000-07:00

The 2012 London Paralympic Games come to a close this coming Sunday and what an example they have set for people around the world. This amazing capacity and determination these athletes have to succeed goes beyond mere human ambition. It is much more than that.

The Olympic Rings... or are they not? It really all depends on how you look at things - everything is possible

Time and again, the stories behind each and everyone of these Super-Humans make your heart feel for them just as your admiration grows bigger and bigger for the tremendous display of strength, will and energy they all deliver.

It really is a big, fat and hard reality check for the vast majority of us who are lucky enough to be able to wake up every morning and simply roll out of bed without anything else to worry about than how busy will be the train to work or what will you have for lunch.

Those of you with a disabled relative in their families know well what I am talking about. And those who have also lost a close one way too early in their lives, know that very well too. How easily we take things for granted when others have it so difficult or, all of a sudden, life is taken away from us just like that.

It is true that we are going through some tough economic times around the world and many millions of people are struggling to make a living, let alone have any luxuries. But it isn’t less true that the vast majority of us should be very thankful for what we have.

I look at these Paralympians and they really have inspired me to be better with my life, to try a little harder, to go a little further and to live every day even more to the full. No obstacle will never again be too big, whether physical, mental or otherwise, there will always be a way around it.

And then I look at these multi millionaire professional footballers and other sportsmen (and some women) who only care about their bank accounts, or the affection they get from their teammates and I feel ashamed by them... I really do. I hope they too have been taking account of these Paralympics and will put things into perspective. For the gift they have of being able to make a successful living by playing sports, they also have a responsibility with present and future generations: with hard work, discipline, passion and determination, every one can make it. If you also have the talent and the physical and mental ability, do not waste it – make the most of it.

Every day counts, every step of the way, life can be great if we value what we have, not miss what we don’t have. To the Paralympians, BRAVO!

London 212 Review: Even the Weather has been excellent!

2012-08-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

So, this is it! In little over two weeks, the 2012 Olympic Games have come and gone. It went quick, if you asked me, and pretty much very smooth. Here’s my review on what caught my eye these Games, seen and experienced as a Spaniard who has lived in London for the past ten years:

1. The Weather: 8.5/10. I am Spanish, but because of my ten years living in this country there is one thing I can quickly talk about to break the ice. And fair played to it: Mr Weather during the past two weeks has been mostly fantastic. Not only in London but in the other venues across the country that have hosted Olympic events.

What a landmark to feature the Olympic Rings, and the sun is out yet again!

True that there has been the odd bit of rain and some days and evenings where it went below 20 degrees. But the fact that it hasn’t been too hot either has helped athletes perform at their best more times than not – including many new world records. We even have had some truly sunny days which have allowed for some great photos to be taken and really think ‘this is not too bad, at all’.

2. The atmosphere: 10/10. Having lived in London for ten years, I have seen the city prepare itself to embrace the Games step by step. Even though it unofficially boasts the title of ‘Capital of the World’ with its great diversity and international DNA, these past two to three weeks there has been this floating extra multinational feel to it.

More chances than ever before for cultural exchange, London 2012

The nations, united at London 2012

Wherever you have gone to, you could easily see people wearing with pride their national colours, with a general ‘feel good’ attitude and ease that really felt special. Whether sharing the tube with members of the Chinese Olympic team who were a little lost, high fiving fellow Spanish fans as we walked by, sharing a table at the Olympic Park with a Swedish family before a handball semi final or watching the basketball in the big screens next to some French fans, it really has been as diverse as I have ever experienced in London.

Members of the Chinese Olympic team, a little lost on the Victoria Line.
They had just won the men's race walk gold, mind

Colourful Blues fans before France's handball men's semi vs Croatia. Les French won.

Ah, and a BIG shout to all the Game Makers and volunteers, police and transport staff, cleaners and everyone else working around the clock to deliver this beast called Olympic Games: great work guys.

Game Makers take a moment to enjoy the beach volleyball - they have been great.

Police has been ever present yet one never felt a military-like status, like the media had scared us with. Well done.
And great shout to the troops, stepping up for the G4S fiasco.

3. The Olympic Park: 8/10. You might have missed my first review of these Games, which you can read here, so here’s a second review of the Park having been there a second time: with its great, spacious and green layout, it still missed some more ‘sporty’ atmosphere; like a big radio show from a stage somewhere which we could all hear through the loudspeakers system. Instead of that commercial music they played all along. We could see the BBC studios, but we couldn’t hear them. Wouldn’t it have been great if we had a couple of DJs going “and now, over to the Basketball arena where Argentina lead USA by ten points...” or something like “and over to the North Greenwich Arena where team China are closing in on another gold medal...”. Or just plug BBC Radio 5 live. Either way Rio 2016, take note if you may. Ah, and more screens to watch the action – not just the two huge ones but many more, smaller ones, scattered around the park.

Diving at the Olympic Park, with a decent zoom you could get good pics!

But otherwise the Park was the place to be in London the past two weeks, and by the looks of it many of us were lucky enough to enjoy it.

Fans and spectators enjoy the sun around the Olympic Park - the Velodrome stands out in the distance

4. The free events: 9/10. From the road cycling to the marathon swimming, the race walk or the ‘normal’ marathon. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have enjoyed watching some sort of Olympic event for free. The world didn’t end if you had not been lucky enough to get hold of tickets, there have been plenty of events to watch for free. And not just any events, with the road cycling and the marathon featuring most of the best current athletes in the planet, being able to watch them for free is just extraordinary. Ah, and there have been the BT sponsored free Live sites too, like Hyde Park, which was a great success with its five big screens and tons of activities going on around the park every day.

BT Live at Hyde Park - hundreds of thousands embraced the free-to-attend concept, loved it

5. The sights of London: 10/10. Seeing these world class athletes perform at some of the world’s most iconic landmarks, particularly in the centre of London, has been also a great experience. Every year London hosts already some great events (Wimbledon, the Marathon, the FA Cup Final) but seeing the Olympic cycling, the race walk, the triathlon and other events taking place on the very same streets and parks that many millions of us walk by every day it really is an honour. And considering the history of London itself, knowing that it won’t most likely happen again in my lifetime –for all the up and coming developing countries around the world bidding for them- it takes things to a whole new level.

Beach Volleyball just off the Prime Minister's pad - and that big wheel in the background

Olympic men's marathon swim at Hyde Park

Cameraman covering the marathon swim at Hyde Park .
Not sure about all those photos though, swimmers are IN the water.

6. Friends’ enthusiasm: 10/10. I have been working in the sports industry for the past ten years and I have been lucky enough to have made great friends along the way. It has been great to see how many of us working in the industry have embraced the Games these past two weeks. Mostly through Facebook and other social media, my news feeds were virtually covered in Olympics related stuff, and tens of pictures from my friends attending events here and there. And those not attending where sharing their pride and enthusiasm for this or that medal or performance. Truly fantastic.

7. The Games on TV: 9/10. Or actually I should say the Games on ‘any device’ because I watched Live and delayed action on TV as well as my laptop and my phone. The BBC have again raised the bar when it comes down to Live coverage. With 20+ Live HD channels available for free (i.e. I mean paid by the £145.50 a year License fee tax each of the 26 million households pay in the UK) and all the live and Video On Demand clips they have made available on their website, there really are no excuses not to have seen all the action happening these Games. If anything we needed more days! With all the official and unofficial social media offerings and Apps out there, these really have been the Digital games – not only to watch but to interact with. Twelve years ago few would have anticipated this boom; let’s see how do we ‘watch’ them twelve years from now!

OK, everyone is allowed a slip every now in a while - BBC coverage London 2012

8. The Opening Ceremony: 9/10. Here is a little secret: I was supposed to have performed at the Opening Ceremony (as a dancer of some sorts) after passing the two auditions earlier in February. But I couldn’t commit to the demanding schedule they sent through. It asked for you to attend 3-4 hrs rehearsals between three to five times a week for about twelve weeks before the Games, with only transport costs being reimbursed. With everything else going on in my life I had to decline this opportunity but having been involved in the very early stages, and knowing the number of rehearsals they put in, I have huge respect for the show they put together. It was a great musical all round, a fantastic tribute to all the shows we can see day, day out in the West End whether dramatic or fun, modern or old. The NHS bit might have been a little over the top but having been helping at the Great Ormond Street Hospital before I think that was a great touch.

9. The transport: 9/10. I used public transport to attend all events and in all that was six different days. Even though my very first trip to an event started with a familiar “we are sorry to announce that the O Eight Thirty Two South West Train to London Waterloo has been cancelled; we apologize for the delay this may cause to your journey”, everything else since has run smooth and without much trouble or particularly large crowds.

Plenty of bright signs to get around

Plenty of people at the Olympic Park - we made it!

At all stations there have always been more than enough volunteers to help me find my way. It was also boosted by the extra bright pink London 2012 signs pointing you right or left depending on what event you wanted to go.

10. The Sport: 9.5/10. Ah yes, this is about sport after all, isn’t it? I have been lucky enough to attend men’s basketball, handball, beach volleyball and marathon swimming, and women’s volleyball, diving and beach volleyball.

Men's handball semi final - relentless; nobody saw his foot was on the ground before releasing the ball, ooopss!

My pick definitely is women’s volleyball. I played the sport a few times in my teens, and have watched it on TV many times but actually attending live was great. I was even luckier to see both Brazil and the USA playing each other in the early rounds of the competitions, and they both ended up with the Gold and Silver medals in a great final (which I watched, recorded, on TV).

Brazil v USA in the first round - they both went on to play the Final

Brazil v USA first round - in the Final Brazil won 3-1

At the top of the medals table no surprise to see the USA. The nation that has made sport become a huge industry in its own right really embraces the Olympics like no other, though it relies heavily in Athletics and Swimming to pile up their medals (about 60% of those come from these two sports alone).

China has too embraced sport at the highest level and though there always are rumours about their tough training techniques and regimes, it is a fact that they have the most widespread list of medals across many disciplines.

The Chinese take over the Queen's house.

The Brits, my adopted country, have performed exceptionally well, more so considering there are only sixty million of them; I hope this carries forward in Games to come. And my beloved Spain: what a sight of the medal table after week one, with just a couple of medals. But week two has delivered yet again.

A Spanish race walker never gives up - vamoooos!!!

Mostly through team sports but with some fantastic individual performances too – and mostly by women too, like sailing, swimming, water polo or handball. Really well done girls (and guys), you have delivered despite all the cuts in funding and the horrible economic situation the country is going through. There is always hope.

Ok then, this is it. I am sure I have left many areas out, but since this is unofficial and all that, I can always write about those later. In any case, and despite the empty seats mostly in week one, it has been great to be part of the Greatest Show on Earth at least once in my lifetime; hopefully there will be more. Rio, hello.

The sun sets at the 2012 Olympic Games - THANK YOU, LONDON

Olympics Review: Beach Volleyball, where entertainment meets sport

2012-08-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

Probably the most well attended sport of the entire London 2012 Olympic Games, Beach Volleyball this summer has truly captured the imagination of people around the world. Here I give my thoughts on how it all has worked out:

1. ENTERTAINMENT: 9/10 – Above all it is about having FUN! Most spectators attending any sporting event, go there for the competition itself, for the performance of the athletes taking part and, of course, for the final result. Here that’s only half of the reason. People attending a beach volleyball match go because they are guaranteed to have a great time. Given the high demand of tickets for London, most people if not all of us had to buy tickets without knowing what they were going to watch. I bought mine just four weeks out and didn’t have a clue what I was going to watch. It didn’t matter. Between the constant music, the venue’s host, the cheerleaders... ah! And the game itself, there never really is a dull moment.

Olympics Beach Volleyball - in London

People are so willing to have a great time that they easily get carried away. So much that at some point in one of the matches I attended a massive conga of over 100 people set off and went on and on around the stadium – very, very funny.

The only downside is that there is so much going on off the court that at times, many, it is very easy to lose record of what is going on in the court and before you know it it may be set or match point!

2. LOCATION: 9/10 - A ‘beach’ in the heart of the city. Bang on in the centre of London, arguably the world’s capital, they have built this fantastic temporary 15,000 capacity stadium; off the house of the Prime Minister and a stone’s throw of Buckingham Palace too, in the background one sees the London Eye – Britain’s most visited touristic attraction every year (and it was supposed to be a temporary one too). All that means that from the beginning it was always going to be really appealing as it is really easily accessible for everyone going, with no less than five underground stations and a couple of train stations within relatively short walk distance.

The location of the London Olympics Beach Volleyball stadium provides fantastic views

And I am told this is exactly what they do when they play beach volleyball at the highest level around the world. They look for the best locations in the cities, so people are easily attracted to the events; as opposed to having to travel long distances outside of the city and get back later.

3. SEXYNESS: 8/10 – It is inevitable to refer here to one of the key ingredients for the re-invention of Volleyball within this beach environment: women playing while wearing bikinis. For the level of skill and dedication the athletes put into it, it is no surprise that 65% of those applying for tickets for the London 2012 Olympic Beach Volleyball were men; no other sport had such a one-sided male appeal. Admittedly, what’s not to like watching ultra-fit women throwing themselves into the sand with all those ultra-tight bikinis?

Now, there has been a slight problem: given this is London, temperatures tend to drop significantly once the sun sets in the horizon. Which in turns means the female players switch their bikinis for the equivalent of ‘beach volleyball burqas’ – overalls that keep them warm in the under 20s evening temperatures. I don’t need to tell you what happens next, but here is an idea...

Women's beach volleyball 'burqas' - not quite what people expect to see

Action is still as intense - just a little bit less of flesh in view

If you are a male reader I kind of can imagine what you are thinking. If you are a female reader you may understand men too, or feel slightly appalled by finding out that many men watch women’s beach volleyball for ‘not-quite-the-right’ reasons. Sorry, but it is what it is.

Ah, but there is hope - and there are too the cheerleaders. Not only all girls but there a couple of guys too, so everyone gets a bit of eye candy every now and then when there are long time outs and in between matches.

The official with one of the toughest jobs in the world

4. PERFORMANCE: 6.5/10 – I can appreciate players give everything they have to make each point as tough and competitive as possible. What happens though is that, compared to the ‘old’, indoors Volleyball it feels slower, less intense and less aggressive. For starters there are only two of them per team, as opposed to six, which easily means a lot more chances of scoring each time, or less chances of defending a ball.

Because they jump off sand and on their bare feet, they cannot simply replicate the height or speed of jump seen in normal volleyball, where a solid floor and proper trainers helps players gain speed and momentum, flying high up in the sky.

Good 'old' volleyball: jump higher, hit harder, move faster.
And there's so many of them, there's always something happening!

In addition, given there is just two of them, this leaves the door open for many drop shots (where the attacking player, instead of hitting the ball hard, simply gives it a soft touch and lets it drop behind the defending player). It is no easy skill that players do not over use, but it is seen a lot more than in normal volleyball.

They suspend themselves in the air - and then let the ball drop ever so softly on the sand.
Difficult skill, no doubt. Just not visually that compelling.

5. IT IS A ‘MIXED’ AFFAIR: 10/10 – Other than in tennis, I cannot think of another sport that has learnt so well to combine both the men’s and women’s versions at the same events. Ok maybe badminton, table-tennis, squash and swimming. Here a normal day of play alternates both men’s and women’s matches. And given the nature of the sport, even though men by nature are able to jump higher, hit harder and last longer, women’s matches are virtually as competitive and furious. Just like attending a high profile tennis event, you get to watch both men’s and women’s and at no point you feel you are being short-changed by the competition.

In summary: everyone attending a beach volleyball event will have a great time; you may not get to watch the most spectacular of sports yet you will go home feeling you had a fantastic time and got your money’s worth. I will be going back soon, no doubt. However they do not play ‘mixed’ Beach Volleyball like they do in tennis or badminton and that might well be an additional expansion the game -and the spectators- will welcome in the future...

Until next time, thank you for reading.

The London 2012 Olympic Park Experience, a 7.5/10

2012-07-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

In the first of a series of Olympics entries, today I cover what was my experience at the Olympic park last Sunday, from security to entertainment, from food to staff or venues and more:

Security Controls: 9/10 - Despite all the worries about the GS4 fiasco, having to call in at the eleventh hour thousands of troops to cope with security, this part of the experience is pretty much painless, quick and straight forward. Just like passing through the security controls at an airport, only that instead of a boarding pass you just need a ticket – ah, and there is no plane waiting for you, just great sporting action! You are allowed to bring in your own food and empty bottles of water to refill inside, which always helps to save money on drinks.

Entrance to the Olympic Park, with plenty of space and easy access

Olympic Park Layout: 8/10 - It is incredibly spacious and all is new and clean, plenty of plants and trees and walking areas, a little river and so on. Directions to venues are all clear with big signs; you can’t get lost but even if you do, there are plenty of stewards who can point you in the right direction.

The distance between one end and the other is about 20 min walk at leisure pace. It is good to keep this in mind if you are going to the Basketball or the Cycling from the (strategically located) Westfield shopping centre main entrance to the Park.

The Olympic Stadium and the eeerrr.., metal thing call the Orbit, from within the Olympic Park

One of the several super size maps to know where you are

Atmosphere outside the venues: 4.5/10 - This really disappointed me. Unlike many big sporting events where the loudspeakers system plays its own radio station, commentating on the events that are on, on what court and what time, who is winning, who is losing, with live commentary... Here they play commercial music. That’s it. I’ve got my iPod for that, thank you very much.

Having been to the likes of Wimbledon, Formula One, Moto GP and many more high profile events, where you walk around and can still hear what is going on, here you have no opportunity to know what’s going on around the park, or elsewhere for that matter. And this is not just any sporting event. It is the ‘greatest show on Earth’, right?

Well, if it is, I really want to know what’s going on, at all times. I want to be informed. I want to listen to it, to watch it; on small screens placed along the big walking areas – surely Panasonic has a few spare ones?

Well, they do: there are a couple of large screens in some green areas – duly sponsored by Panasonic and British Airways, mind- but they are really quiet and off the main walking sites.

Plenty of space, and colours!

And there is no entertainment, no streets entertainers to play jokes or games with the crowds. Surely from the 10,000+ cast members that took part in the mighty Opening Ceremony on the Friday, some would love to continue to entertain passers by at the Olympic Park or at other venues.

There is a floating great spirit, with so many colourful fans with their faces painted, wearing wigs and their national colours with pride, taking photos and so on. But it just feels all quite flat throughout.

I missed particularly not seeing the Games mascots –what are their names again?- wandering around and having their photos taken with the visitors. Don’t be fooled, this is not Disney World and it seems here the mascots only exist for merchandising sales or on telly.

Commercialization: 7.5/10 – They have found a fine balance between offering essential services that are needed (food, beverages) at reasonably acceptable prices and variety –it is not only McDonalds but there are other British or International food places- and those not-so-necessary products, as the BMW car dealer.

There is a large souvenir shop where you can get everything and anything a London 2012 logo can be placed on. I didn’t stop by as there are thousands of retailers across London where you can buy stuff. And if you are subscribed to the London 2012 newsletter, you are reminded regularly of the many products available too.

The Souvenir shop - an a vigilant eye, protecting us all

Loyal to the promise of no corporate branding at the events themselves, there are some places elsewhere where you see clearly the Visa, Samsung or Coca-Cola logos and products. But it is all quite reasonable given what they invest in this beast called Olympic Games. You cannot escape Visa since that’s the only card accepted when not paying in cash, mind.

I love the “treat corners”, fully branded and supplied with Cadbury’s products. Not a huge menu in offer but the mere concept is highly plausible.

Colour everywhere

Working Staff: 9.5/10 – There are plenty of stewards, so-called “Game Makers”, to help you with virtually any enquiry. From mobility issues to finding the right venue or service or once at the venue to locate your seat and so on. Everyone is really helpful and even when they don’t necessarily know the answer, they try to help or point you in the direction of someone who may.

Game Makers, they do make a difference working so hard - and they deserve a moment to relax

The army staff present is very discreet and other than for their clothing you can barely notice them. I saw more in proportion at the Earl’s Court venue on the Monday where I attended the women’s Volleyball; and again they were all really helpful.

Basketball arena: 8/10 – Being a temporary venue it can be tricky to make them feel like ‘proper’ venues. In this instance it definitely feels good from the start. The access to the seats is quite straightforward; maybe not so much if you are sitting at the very top of the rows, but the view is very good from every seat, no one can really complain. It is not rocket science and does the job nicely though there is nothing mind-blowing about it, simple as.

The Basketball Arena from the outside

The Basketball arena - view from my seat - yes I see the empty seats too, don't get me started...

Brazil's NBA player Nene flies to the hoop

The entertainment in between matches and at half times is visually good and the cheerleaders are very committed and display some decent tricks, whilst the 'venue host' is constantly engaging with the crowd and via the big screens.

Cheerleaders literally going upside down to please the crowd

Aquatics centre: 6.5/10 – Also a temporary structure when it comes to most of the seats, the climb up to the general admission seats is really a climb. Up the stairs for four floors outside the actual venue, then open the door to enter the middle level of the stands, turn a right and continue to walk up the stairs until you are sitting five rows off the top row, like I was. Despite the height, the view is reasonably good too. With the help of my camera zoom I was able to get a few good pictures and made it all more enjoyable.

View from up high

View with the zoom - one, two, three you move first!

It was a little too warm when I got there around 2.30pm and throughout, however just at the end, as if by act of magic some breeze started to come through from the outside and it helped cool things down a bit. It was raining cats and dogs too.

The shame though is, because of the roof layout inwards and downwards, from your seat you cannot see the opposite stand, which makes you feel it may be empty there.

Do not expect to be entertained by anything other than the actual competition though, because there is nothing really.

A Chinese fan celebrates the Gold medal

Earl’s Court arena (NOT AT THE OLYMPIC PARK), Volleyball: 6/10 – OK, this is a permanent venue used for multiple purposes during the year. It was built a few decades ago and you can tell. Access through security is fairly quick and sharp but once inside there really isn’t much to do other than go to your seat. The space between the entrance and the arena is like a big hangar with some stands selling food and drinks, some merchandising and toilets. It is poorly lit and you feel you rather be on your couch.

Earl's Court - home for Olympic Volleyball

Once you make it to the arena proper, the area of play and surroundings is all very modern-looking and colourful. The seats though at the upper tier have seen some events over the years. Being so old it means there are many pillars around and many seats have to be “killed” or not sold so not to miss the action, which is a shame. Once you are in a proper seat, the view is very good and no one is ever too far or too close.

View from the 2nd level Earls Court

The non-match entertainment consists of a host similar to the one in the Basketball arena, with young cheerleaders dancing along the perimeter of the court. The unexpected entertainment was to learn that USA mega star Kobe Bryant was present too, cheering for his fellow country women. But given the time and age we live in, one would expect a more compelling all round compelling experience at the venue. So that’s why I give it a 6 out of 10.

Olympic Volleyball action - relentless

Olympic Volleyball - never a dull moment!

Ok, after the spectacle on court I’ll give it an extra point. End of.

And this is it for now. Thank you for reading and stay tuned for more Olympic stories in the coming days!

PS One final comment, I can't help myself but seeing so many empty seats really is terrible. LOCOG please do.something.about.it.NOW!

Empty seats at the women's volleyball on the first Monday. Sad.

VIETNAM: THE TRUTH BEHIND THE SMILES

2012-07-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

As some of you may remember, I visited Vietnam earlier this year. It was the first time I had been to that beautiful country. I was totally won over by its natural beauty and, most of all, by its people. How full of energy they are, always very kind and friendly, smiling and helpful.

You may remember too I shared that for all that kindness and energy, any time we tried to understand its political situation, they somehow started to forget their until-then well-spoken English. They would pretend not to understand, or give very confusing, short answers about who was in power and whether there were any elections at all, “you know,” I would explain to one of our guides, “when everyone goes on the same day and choose who will represent you in government?” They would shake their head or mumble something I couldn’t understand.

The Biggest Smile in Hoi An

Last weekend, I received a note from someone I met during my week in the country. To protect his identity and for the purpose of this entry, let’s call this person Peter, and let’s say he works in a bar by the beach.

Peter has been living in Vietnam for over a year. The couple of nights we talked about life in Vietnam he told me that people were genuinely brilliant, always so helpful. Whether it was with something that needed to be fixed in his apartment or a puncture on his scooter, he could always count with someone to give him a hand, “even my landlord would look after me if I got sick; while kids are really polite and so eager to learn new things, particularly from abroad. And they learn English so quickly too!”

We have kept in touch since and the other day he sent me a message telling me that “after 13 months I finally could talk about 'what everyone knows but nobody talks about'...”

“Really? Let’s hear it,” I replied.

“Basically complete ban on freedom of speech and protest, controlled by police in street clothes. If they hear anything about communism or multi-party it's an instant prison sentence and more than likely lose your job if you work for a national company (which are also corrupt and account for about 60% of the economy).”

As I was reading this I felt terrible. I knew there was something not right when we were there a few months back. People completely fluent in English would all of a sudden stumble on the words and expressions; they wouldn’t look into your eyes nor smile any more. From that to prison sentence or losing your job... that’s a whole different world.

They suffered decades of war. We saw it in the war museums and the Cu-Chi tunnels. War is a terrible thing and recovering from it is in itself a long, painful road.

WAR IS TERRIBLE - IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON. NOBODY WINS. WE ALL LOSE.

Whilst in Vietnam, we obviously saw one version of the story – but somehow, given the energy we saw in the streets, on the surface, you thought or believed that they hadn’t done too bad for themselves in such a short period of time.

“TV and newspapers are all screened or censored by the government, any web sources they can't control are blocked (including wordpress recently!).” Not only they cannot talk about it in the streets, they can see very little of it in the media. It gets worse:

“Social problems are also not acceptable discussions, basically any requests for change are banned or seen as dissenting... sex education is not offered in schools, nor do parents find it acceptable to discuss sex with their kids. Due to this, Vietnam has the highest teen abortion rate in Asia.”

I was really disappointed reading all this. All that energy, all that youth – it is a very young country. You see some elderly, and you can see in their faces what they have gone through in life, but mostly you see what is primarily a young country, below their 50s and many, many children, willing to move on, to grow, to develop. Those memories made me wonder if one day they will “revolt like in the Middle East recently.”

“Yeah maybe, but the corruption and fear is so high because of the military history, revolting the government here is a very taboo subject.”

“We talked about it for like an hour and he checked around him about every 2 mins, and whispered everything. He tells me most of the country agrees and people sometimes discuss in private” –there is hope I felt- “but they're really scared to in public because of the un-uniformed police and the consequences. It's seriously like living in George Orwell's 1984!"

1984, the great novel published in 1949 where the world is divided in just three totalitarian states and people’s lives are constantly monitored by the state; those tempting to go against the system, even thinking about it, would simply vanish and even their existence would be deleted from the history records.

Peter also shared his thoughts: “I had become quite upset with how women are treated here, the corruption, the sex industry (underage girls are basically paid as sex slaves, prolific prostitution etc)... what's upsetting is nobody seems to care. I couldn't understand why nobody was speaking out to help... they're just too scared to fight it and not just heartless.”

I know Vietnam is not the only country in the world where these things happen, but that doesn’t make it less relevant or worrying. I may have been spoiled for having been lucky enough to be born in a free country, Spain. Regardless of whether our democratically elected representatives are good at their jobs or not, I always have had the freedom to express myself in public or private.

I don’t think I can change how the system works in Vietnam, but by denouncing it here, in this public platform for the World to see, I pay tribute to my friend Peter who lives there and every day tries, in his own way, to improve the lives of many even if it’s just a little. And I pay tribute to that person he spoke to, who had the courage to share with a foreigner what really happens, even at risk of going to prison or losing their job.

A common sight in Saigon - people having their dinner on the street. They like to share their moments together.
In private some share things they can't do in public. Maybe they will, one day.

Feel free to share this note to your circle of friends, family or other people. It will never be too loud to help.

"They will rise, it's only a matter of when."

Do You Remember The Day That...? And The Power of Memories

2012-07-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

Today’s entry is inspired by two movies I watched recently, Source Code and Limitless, which are themselves inspired by the amazing power our human brain has, particularly our memory.

Do you remember that evening ten years ago you and two of your best friends stole an old mattress from a random tube station and took it home so no one had to sleep on the couch again and how you carried it on the train and all the way from the station up to the fourth four flat?

Or do you remember the day your dad called you and told you that your grandmother was no longer in our world and was resting in peace, and how you broke into tears, alone in your room on that cold Friday morning before going to work?

Well, I do. Particularly since those are two of the many snapshots I have clearly vivid in my memory. You go and pick two random moments in your memory, now. Whatever they may be, good or otherwise. What do you see? What do you remember? Isn’t it all crystal clear, vivid, can you not even smell the moment or feel the heat?

It may sound obvious but once we live a moment, it is with us forever, even if we never look for it again, it is always there somewhere, ready to come back to life again at any time. Whether voluntarily or not, our memory is the most powerful source of pleasure, or pain, we have.

It's great to remember a great meal, and the people you shared it with, where and why.
I am a big fan of food pictures precisely because of that!
This one was in Ibiza, August 2011, by the way. Playa Las Salinas, a great day out.

We all remember what we were doing on September 11^th when news broke about the attacks in New York. I was at home in Tenerife having lunch, it was sunny and nicely hot. You see? I didn’t even have to refer to the year, 2001, for you to know what I was talking about. Your memory knew exactly what I was referring to. However to be perfectly honest I don’t remember what I was doing on September 11^th 2000 or 2002, or not that easily – do you?

I am no doctor, though there are a few in my family whom I admire for their passion and dedication, but if I had to study the human body I think I would be most fascinated by the brain. Even though “it sits there, doing nothing”, as I heard someone say the other day on national television, the brain is such a powerful piece of machinery, with such control over the rest of our body, which really mesmerizes me. Our personality or character too are incredibly powerful in defining who we are and what we do, and for intangible they are too truly captivating.

A combination of the two –brain + persona- makes us choose red over white, words over 1,2,3,4 (numbers), right or L3FT, or none of the above. Interestingly, they decide as well when to recall this or that particular memory, even without asking you permission first, how dare they?! Like the moment you are on your way to the airport on an early Tuesday morning for a business trip, and just as you are about to board the plane you randomly remember the day in high school, twenty years before, when you decided not to take the bus home but to walk, to see if you could speak to that girl you really fancied who you knew always walked home too. “Excuse me sir, your boarding pass?” the attendant asks you. And so there you are handing in your boarding pass with a silly smile on your face. Then you remember the girl was only interested in talking and nothing ever happened. And you smile again as you walk through to the plane.

And as we grow older, it's great to be able to sit back and re-live in our heads all those great memories.
Thank you Life.

And that’s what makes living life to the full worth it. I am not the kind always thriving to do great or crazy things every day and I really enjoy having quiet days. Thing is, ‘having quiet days’ too can be great in its own right. And then I can remember them in the future. Like the day I watched that movie, Source Code, on a Saturday afternoon and it made me cry like no other movie has made me cry before. For its own reasons, for my own reasons, but it happened. A combination of powerful memories so strong and vivid overpowered my present and conscious self in a way I had not felt before, with a movie.

And even though there was nothing I could do to change my memories, or the reality that created those memories, I realized once again how powerful our brain can be.
And how wonderful it is to be able to wake up every day and start it all over again. Because there are great memories out there waiting for us.

Go and get them, now!

For that I cheer and say to the world, Thank You World.

WHY WE TALK ABOUT SPORT, or the weather.

2012-07-07T03:01:00.000-07:00

I overheard my landlord last Monday talking with the boiler engineer about Andy Murray’s run at Wimbledon this year. The engineer said: “he made it difficult for himself the other day, didn’t he?” Then last night, on a train to central London, I heard a father telling his son “Murray just lost the third set”, before putting a face.

The thing was that the engineer then added “I am not a sporty person, don’t really follow sport. But let’s hope he finally wins the thing”.

So, I wondered: why do we do it? Why do we talk about sport?

For your information: Andy Murray is Great Britain’s top ranked tennis player*, at number four... in the world. He is also the only one in the top 100. He has made it to the Wimbledon Final, which is played this Sunday. He is too the first male Brit* to do so in a looooooooong, long time, like many, many, maaaaaaaaany decades. It may sound surprising to many people but that’s the truth. Fact.

“Let’s hope he finally wins it,” he said.

As if the hopes of the entire nation*, 60+ million people, were on him. Poor guy, Murray –‘poor’ metaphorically speaking; he’s made already over £10 million in prize money alone in his otherwise brilliant tennis career to date- he has not only got to beat the other guys, he also has to win it for the country. And if he doesn’t, people will probably say “he is just not good enough.”

Wimbledon's Main Draw. 128 men and 128 women make it to the first round, then is carnage from there.
Only 1 of them wins.

Those of you who play or follow sports, whether competitively or for leisure, will surely know how bloody difficult is to be good at it. Only very few become professionals, and within those only a very few gifted ones make it to the very, very top, world-class level. Federer, Michael Schumacher, Michael Phelps, Jack Nicklaus, Usain Bolt, Jordan, the Williams sister, Merlene Ottey, Nadia Comaneci. A few dozens.

Andy Murray has been within the world’s best ten tennis players for a few years now. He has won many important tournaments, but not one of the so-called Grand Slams – he’s played a few finals but has never won one yet, not even come close; it’s tough, you know. By any stretch of the imagination that is already a fantastic career. Only a few dozens of players in the world, ever, have done that; out of billions of us, only a few have done so. Bloody brilliant that is. And yet many, many people in Britain* think he’s just not good enough.

Give the guy a break! That’s what I say. He may not be the most likeable character around, but he’s done bloody well for himself; and he is still in his mid 20s! The vast majority of us have never made over £1,000,000, probably not even £500,000. He’s done over £10 million already, many more to be made in the next few years. Hats off to that!

So, why do we talk about sport? Well, simply because it’s there.

Just like Mount Everest. Why people climb it? Because it’s there.

It’s there in the news, on the paper, on the radio, on telly, in the pub, at a ground or court down the road. It’s everywhere. It’s an important part of our lives. Many like me follow it daily and we actively participate in sport, we love it and can’t have enough. For others, like the engineer, is something to talk about - without really having a clue what they are talking about; sorry, fact.

We like to talk about it because it’s safe; there’s never going to be a right or wrong answer. And it will not change your life, nor change mine. We don’t put ourselves at risk by talking about it, yet we feel accomplished by giving our opinions about it. Talking about sports is a lot more gratifying than talking about politics, or the weather for that matter.

And why is it everywhere? For many reasons; let’s try to highlight the main ones:

1. It’s healthy: while many people are becoming more sedentary, another big portion of society is really active and wants to keep healthy for as long as possible. Playing sports, or exercising in general, is good for you, for your body and your mind. So we inform ourselves about it, what is good for you, what isn’t.

2. It’s fun! We don’t say “playing sports” for the sake of it. They are games, and we play them. We don’t eat sports, we don’t build or boil them. We play them and we interact and communicate with others. At some point someone will win, and someone will lose, but it makes us feel good just to play, to think of how to win, or how not to lose!

3. We consume it: we not only play it for fun, we follow those lucky enough who become professionals and play for our home town team, or for the biggest team in the world. Or are the top ranked golfers or tennis players or swimmers or racing drivers. It’s glamorous and aspirational, for many.

4. It’s big money: because of reasons 1, 2 and 3 above, it’s now become a HUGE industry moving BILLIONS of £, $ or € around the world. Either directly (e.g. when you buy a ticket to attend a match) or indirectly (e.g. you buy an adidas t-shirt for your son because Lionel Messi wears adidas).

5. It’s pride: like Spain winning last week the Euros, when over 1,000,000 people took it to the streets of Madrid to celebrate. Or Andy Murray reaching the Wimbledon Final*. Sport makes people feel proud about where they come from and about their heroes. Sport has become, to certain extent, an alternative to people fighting each other** and by my team beating your team, I am better than you. And the other way round. We don’t have to fight each other, we let Fernando Alonso beat Sebastian Vettel, or the other way round.

1,000,000+ people take it to the streets of Madrid to celebrate Spain's win last week

We could go on and on but these are just some of the reasons. They are by no means listed scientifically but you can get my point. In short, sport fills our lives in a way no other hobbies do. Music and Movies do to certain extent, but they do not have the competitive element of Sport. And that’s why we talk about sport, in a nutshell.

* People in Britain are proud of Andy Murray reaching the Final because he is British – it may sound obvious, I know. But, and here is the catch, he is Scottish after all. Many people in England, Wales or Northern Ireland cannot care less about him. Fact. But because he is “British”, many people get behind him. Come Sunday evening, and another defeat, and many people will go back to be simply “English”, or “Welsh” but not “British”. And will say “I told you so”. Fact.

England played Spain at Wembley last October - NOTE: it is England, not Great Britain.
One of those things unique about sport.

** Sadly, there are many wars being fought around the world still today. People kill each other for a piece of land or for no reason at all. That’s terrible. The day a game of football or a 100 metres race can decide that, we will all have won.

Wimbledon’s Middle Sunday – NO TENNIS!!!

2012-07-01T03:00:00.000-07:00

Today’s post was prompted last evening when I heard that a friend of a friend was planning to queue for tickets at Wimbledon from 06.00am today...

Any other day of the famous two-week tennis tournament that would have been a brave and most admirable commitment, no doubt. However today happens to be the “Middle Sunday” of Wimbledon, which means there is no tennis played, at all.

At The Championships a couple of years ago - I know, what a show off

It never stops amusing me how people can commit to attend sporting events around the world. It probably is only matched by music fans attending big concerts. Both sharing the fact that they are live performances and the added excitement of being within relative touching distance of their heroes and idols.

On a different level I think we have Star Trek or Star Wars or the Twilight Saga or Harry Potter fans waiting for their new movies or video games being released or premiered.

Somewhere else we have loads of iPhone and iPad fans too queueing overnight or for days. But these ones I still cannot get. How much better is your life going to be by getting your hands on that brand new phone or tablet or games console a week earlier than your next door neighbour? That I cannot understand, sorry.

Anyway, sorry I digressed there. Back to Wimbledon...

What is this Middle Sunday? Well, it means there is no play on this day. One would think that, given it is a Sunday it would be a great day for people to attend the tournament and make a big day out of it. However traditionally there has almost never been play on the middle Sunday at Wimbledon - the three only exceptions in the history of the event are listed in Wikipedia, and they'll probably have to do with the weather, I bet.

Why do they do it? Well it is not for the players to rest, no. Those brave ones remaining at this stage after three or four rounds of play are well used to the demands of long tournaments; and if not, they will have to. They do not need to rest per se. In fact, the rest day is for the grass. The players go and practice a little in the non-match courts, or go for a light round of golf, or go shopping in London, or take a spa day. Meanwhile the green stuff used as surface on those courts, almost unique to the international summer of tennis as a British trademark, is given something equivalent to a ‘spa day’ too. Yes, the grass needs to rest after six days of battering by over 200 of the world’s best tennis players, with already over a hundred and fifty matches of anything between one to five hours having been played on it; and there are also the exhibition matches played by former players, the juniors and the wheelchair tennis too. Plus sun, rain and wind too! So yes, the grass needs to breathe and recover, so the expert keepers work all day looking after it, trying to recover as much as possible for the second week of tennis madness starting the day after; magic stuff.

Really? You cannot be serious! If you asked me, I would say that this was probably necessary back in the day when the grass was not as strong as today, and did not receive the treatments it does today. Just look at pictures of Wimbledon in the 1970s or 80s and those of today and you can see the difference; and I am not only referring to John McEnroe’s hair style and tight shorts! However, considering the stronger grass used today, coped with the demands of modern day family life, I think they can move the ‘rest day’ to the Monday after, and play on the middle Sunday, so more people have the chance to attend without having to take a day off work, taking their little ones along too. It would also, probably, mean higher TV audiences around the world; and, incidentally, more revenues from match day for the All England Lawn Tennis Club from those expensive food, drink and merchandising stores. But the latter is probably not something that really worries them!

For a highly traditional and conservative tournament that has adapted itself very well to modern technologies, introducing the use of hawk-eye technology or building a see-through roof on Centre Court which can be ready within twenty minutes, it seems to me moving the rest day to the Monday would work quite well too. If they are seriously considering starting the tournament one week later so the players can rest more after Roland Garros and transition better from clay-court onto grass, why not move the rest day by one day and make it a full tennis weekend? Just a thought.

One extra challenge: This year, in addition, those very same courts will be hosting the Olympic Tennis Event... in just over two weeks after the Final is played next Sunday. Thankfully there will be fewer players, about half those of the Grand Slam, but still, one can only imagine the amount of work the keepers and gardeners will have in their hands between the two events. To those men and women, and to the grass itself, best of luck guys and remember, thankfully this doesn’t happen every year!

A different type of challenge altogether building the new Centre Court Roof; back in... April 2008!! Yes that is a big snowfall!

What do I do then? Well, there is no tennis but it is not the end of the world. As you may remember, one week ago I wrote about the Euros saying that Spain and Italy had a good chance to win the thing. Well, if you haven't heard and have no plans this evening yet the Final is today and those two are playing it. With all my heart I hope Spain wins, but even if we don’t, what a great generation of players we have had. To them I say “UN MILLON DE GRACIAS” for having made us dream so many times. And good luck Champions. VAMOOOOOSSSS!!!

Unas buenas JUDIAS CON CHORIZO para animar a la Roja - VAMOS!!!

SUMMER OF SPORTS - THE BEGINNERS GUIDE

2012-06-23T04:55:00.001-07:00

Today’s post opens a new editorial line in our blog. After reviewing thoroughly my adventures around South East Asia between March and April, it is time now to shift onto one of my biggest passions: the world of sport, and how that affects the lives of millions. In a light-hearted way, don’t you worry.

I will not try to be a so-called ‘pundit’, trying to provide an expert technical analysis on a particular game, a race or an event. No. For that you have other sources. These will be my views on how sporting events have, are having and will have an impact in many people’s lives.

For now I will focus on two main events this summer, the Euros and the Olympics.

1. EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS – AKA “THE EUROS”

I assume that, by now, you are aware that there is this football championship taking place in Poland and Ukraine. In the rare event that you are not, I can tell you that it is a BIG deal in world sport.

It is not as important as the financial troubles that all our so-called political leaders are trying to fix, but it is very important for a lot of people. Here is why:

What is it: The best national football teams in Europe are playing to decide which team, which country, is the best of them all.

We are now in what they call the ‘knock out stages’ and by 1^st

July we will know who the new best one is.

The current holders are Spain. From the remaining teams Germany are looking quite strong, as they always do, then Spain, France and Portugal have a good chance too; with England and Italy maybe a little less.

In short, all the big European countries are heavily involved.

But even if you have not heard any of this, you surely must have heard of Cristiano Ronaldo or his girlfriend, the top model Irina Something. He’s taking part in this tournament, and she is with him.
And Shakira, she is too. No, she is not playing, her boyfriend Gerard Pique of Spain is (and no, he is not a king, he plays for Spain). Basically everyone is involved.

Memories from watching the Euros 2008 in London

How BIG: Just so you picture how big a deal this tournament is, every game televised in Germany of their national team is being watched by over 20 million people. That is roughly one in every four Germans, and about 3 in every 4 people watching television in Germany at that time or 75%... And that is only Germany!! Then in the United Kingdom, the England team matches are watched by around 15 million people, which also is about one in every four Brits but only about 1 in 3 watching telly at that time. It is a similar picture across the continent. While the rest of the world also watches en mass.

Then you have all the other TV channels, websites, newspapers, online forums, betting homes, travel agents, hotels, restaurants, pubs, airlines, apparel companies, beer and soft drinks manufacturers, technology providers, sponsors, ticket and hospitality sellers (and re-sellers), public institutions, politicians, etc, etc, etc... following this three-week tournament to get an idea of how BIG it is.

The outcome of a single game can have huge implications for all those listed above, and many more. It generates billions of Euros of money for a lot of people and industries not only in Europe but around the world.

That is what I call BIG.

Why me: Whether you follow football or not, this tournament is affecting most people’s lives in more ways than they think, for example:

A guy, Antonio, watching the game alone, with family or friends, at home or in a pub has to arrange how, where to do so.

Antonio's girlfriend, wife, mum or sister, Jane, having to arrange their days based on the match schedule.

A taxi driver, Peter, taking Antonio to the pub, and taking later Jane to a friend’s house, Mary, for a DVD marathon of Desperate Housewives.

The pub bartender, Jurgen, serving the pints of beers for Antonio and his friends, or the friend of the wife, Julia, arranging snacks for the evening.

Jurgen deciding with the pub chef, Sven, the extra meals for the evening, or Julia going to the local supermarket ran by Mrs Mollie to buy the snacks and cakes.

The pub landlord, Tomas, ordering extra beer from local supplier, Ashton, for the weeks ahead, or Mrs Mollie ordering extra posh snacks for the weeks ahead from her supplier Yvonne.

You get the picture by now...

What next: Once the winner is decided, that country will go mad for a period that can vary between two years (like in Portugal or England) and one month (like in Germany; simply because they are so efficient they only allow distractions to last for that long before focusing on the next goal).

And in four years time we do it all over again. Fun!

Meantime: There is the World Cup in the summer of 2014 in Brazil. I know, nice, isn’t it?

This is like the Euros but with Brazil and Argentina, too and the rest of the world is also given a chance.

Spain also happens to be current holder. Which confirms that, as you must be guessing by now, our economic power is, indeed, inversely proportional to our football talent. Oh well, one of those things.

2. LONDON OLYMPIC GAMES – July 27 to August 12

Also this summer the Olympic Games take place. If the Euros are big, this is HUGE, really is.

What is it: This is like the Euros and the World Cup, put together, multiplied by 100 and squeezed together into a two-week sporting extravaganza, mostly in one city, with hundreds of daily world-class competitions covering lots of sports from athletics to swimming, from gymnastics to table tennis or hockey, and plenty of festivals and celebrations happening around them.

How BIG: In an effort to have a number in your head and as a rule of thumb, we can safely assume that the Olympic Games coming to London will have generated by the time they finish, directly of indirectly, a whooping £25+ billion worth of business - and that is just a very general estimation.
That is what I call HUGE in my world.
To put things into perspective, and according to Wikipedia, a global giant like The Walt Disney Company generates roughly the same amount of total revenue IN AN ENTIRE YEAR around the world. Apple Inc, who have brought us the iPhone and the iPad generate about just over double that; I mean we are talking about Apple, right?

It is the largest sporting event happening in the world, by all accounts:

10,000+ athletes taking part, roughly split 50/50 men and women.

10,000+ performers in the Opening Ceremony.

200+ countries represented.

25+ different sports, with many events within each sport.

8,500,000+ tickets for sale, with average prices varying from £20 to £200 – you make the numbers...

14,000,000+ meals served on site to all attending the events, including athletes, officials, spectators etc.

900+ Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.

And that is before we look at all the international coverage, or the Paralympics taking place later this summer, etc, etc, etc.

The Olympic rings welcome arrivals at St Pancras International Eurostar

Why me: Because we all like to dream. And to dream, if possible, that our team wins. As a spectator, this is the one time every four years where you follow table tennis, archery, diving, handball or wrestling with the same passion as you follow your football every week during the year, or Desperate Housewives for that matter.

Taking part is all that should really matter. But deep inside us, we know that what we want is to say that “our country has won another medal”. It feels good to know that and to say it and to share it, and to rub it off some of your friends too – yes you know it. Unemployment may be at an all time high, but hey at least "we've won a gold medal in archery".

Great thing being, IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A GOLD MEDAL. As long as it is a medal we are generally happy. Gold is definitely a bonus.

Now, that doesn’t happen many times in life generally speaking. When going for a job interview and they tell you “sorry but you came second best” or “I am afraid that was the last chocolate cake”.

Of course, in life like in sports, there are ways around issues and it is about getting over them what counts. There are more jobs, and more cakes. In sport the are more Games too.

In addition, your boyfriend, your husband or your dad will definitely be watching some or most of the Games at home, at work, in the pub or on his phone (or all of the above). It is like a lockout for two weeks where sport is all that matters to us – so why not try to join at times to spend some time together.

And hey, who knows, you may even get a medal too!

What next: We do it all over again in 2016, in Rio de Janeiro...

I KNOW!!!!! Brazil again!!!! How kind from them, eh?!?! Let’s get those bookings sorted!!!!

Meantime: It is back to reality for most of those 10,000+ athletes, and for most of us too. Table tennis or wrestling will not be as exciting again; we may keep an eye on the odd 100 metres race or a basketball world championship final. But in reality, we’ll go back to focus on our football, or formula one, or golf, tennis or rugby, or cricket. Or Desperate Housewives for that matter.

And of course there is also the tennis at Wimbledon, the European Athletics Championships, Formula One or Moto GP motor racing, the Tour de France cycling and many, many more taking place this summer... But we’ll take care of those in due course.

For now, sort out your agenda for the summer and enjoy!

SINGAPORE: Welcome to "Asia for Beginners" (Part 1 of 2)

2012-06-09T04:52:00.002-07:00

Today’s entry covers the first couple of days in Singapore. After a quick stopover at the beginning of this Asian trip back in March, this will also be the last stop before returning to Europe for me, staying four days. This is how things started:

Monday 16 April: Arrival to Singapore.

5:30pm: David and I have landed from Hong Kong and are now on a taxi to the place where we are staying for the week. It is the first time for David in Singapore and he is quickly impressed by how green and particularly clean and wide the roads are. I was only here for little more than 12 hours last time so I am taking everything as if it was the first time too.

Singapore ever so green, and modern, and clean

This week we will be staying at Andrew’s place. Andrew is a friend and former colleague of David who recently moved to Singapore with his wife. After Pableras “cosy” flat in Hong Kong, I am ready for anything nowadays – Gracias Pableras, crack!

As it turns out, Andrew lives in a formidable house in a quiet residential area somewhere North from the city centre (some 15 min by taxi). We are in fact allocated one room each, with en suite bathroom and everything. This, REALLY, was completely unexpected. To top it off, there’s even a small swimming pool ON THE TOP FLOOR of the house. This is what I mean by formidable. THANK YOU ANDREW (and David!).

This first evening however I am quickly feeling unwell without knowing why. With unpleasant and strong stomach pains starting to hit me more and more, I decide to stay in. Within a couple of hours I am crouched on my bed in pain, with cold sweat down my forehead and my stomach grabbing me from within. I can barely move.

It reminded me of the first time I had proper food poisoning; back in Madrid around 2002 or 2003 after watching a football match between Getafe and Tenerife (my home team being Tenerife; we lost 2-1, oh well). We had had what we thought had been a great seafood lunch with all the treats, lobster and all, at one of the capital’s nicest restaurants. We had lost the game, at least we could get ourselves a treat. Yeah, right.

Within 4 hours I was on the floor in my hotel room and could barely move; dad had already left back to Tenerife and I was flying to London the following day. It took me over 12 hours of agonizing fight between my system and whatever it was that had poisoned me to start feeling normal again. I have never felt like that ever, at all, either before or after; and I do not recommend it. But sorry, I am digressing, back to Singapore...

Somehow and almost as quickly as I had started to feel unwell I started to recover, all in the space of around 4 hours. I did not have any dinner, only water, but at least I didn’t have to suffer another 12hrs fight – phew. In all it meant my first evening in Singapore was rather quiet.

Tuesday 17 April: China Town, Buddha and Sky High (and rain).

Singapore seems to have its good piece of history, but I am not going to get into that; you know me: there is Wikipedia for that. However, for tourists like me (ie, who do not necessarily read everything about the place you are going to visit before travelling; particularly when you are visiting five countries in four weeks) it may be a little tricky to know where to start.

Andrew explained to us last night that almost EVERYTHING IS NEW. When I say “almost everything” I mean roads, buildings, hotels, sporting facilities, its harbour, bay; you get the picture... And when I mean “new” I mean it has been built anytime in the last 20 or less years.

To sum it up, there is a plus side and a down side:

PLUS SIDE: The good thing about it is that by all being modern, it seems like a very comfortable place to live or hang out. Everything is clean (sorry to repeat myself, but it really is spotless). The roads are quite wide, there are very few small streets, let alone them being as crazy as those in many a city in Southern Europe, (or Saigon for that matter) and there’s this ever present “green” feel to it all with so many plants and trees (actually not that many flowers on the other hand).

DOWN SIDE: On the other hand, it also has this feeling, on paper, that there is not an “absolute must-see” historic site where you have to go on your first day. [NB: and if there is one and you know about it, sorry I missed it; but let me know for next time].

David and I are debating where to head off first. Staying by the pool with a couple of beers is a tempting option too...

Very tempting to stay here day one - don't worry I see you tomorrow

... But since it is Day One we agree on making an effort, as in actually leaving the house and exploring the city.

1.00pm: We reach a junction opposite a taxi rank. Unlike Vietnam, traffic here is highly civilized, and there are virtually no scooters. Everyone complies with the lights as they should; zero risk of being hit by a car here even if you cross the street with your eyes closed (Mum, Dad, don’t worry, I didn’t attempt to do that) as long as you go by the pedestrian crossing when the green man lets you.

We head into the Old China Town the same way we could have gone to the Old Arab town.

It may sound contradictory that, after having spent five days in one of China’s most well known cities, the first place where we start here is another Chinese experience. But really, it felt like the most obvious thing to do on the day. Easy.

1.30pm: A mid-afternoon shower hits the area and we make our way to a very OLD shopping mall. Yes, you read right: it was older than 20 years, at least. It did not have any of the modern shopping centres bells and windows: it was old, cramped, mostly lit with artificial light. In a way, IT WAS NICE and cosy to bump into this place by accident.

After not having eaten in nearly 24 hours I was by now feeling proper hungry and challenged myself to some Pad Thai. Again I know, Thai food, in some old shopping mall in Singapore. It turned out to be great, and cheap (for Singapore standards).

Pig's organ - whatever they may be. All quite cheap anyway.

Pad Thai in this OLD shopping mall, no natural light, no glamour - same, same but different.

2.00pm: We make our way along China Town, while rain is still present. It is a combination of old-meets-new and while it has a feeling of the Chinese tradition, everything is mostly new, and clean, so it hasn’t really got this deep feeling of being that authentic. I mean China is clean too, I am sure, but also a little crazier I suppose.

Mid afternoon shower in China Town

Singapore China Town - this feeling old meets new

Artist playing soduku, Chinese rules

The owner is there, somewhere, look for her.

As we walk around I notice an Indian tailor shop, next to China town, with the three tailors taking it very easy. Happy day.

THE CONNOISSEUR OF ALL TAILORS - Ahi queda eso

3.00pm: We enter a Buddhist temple next to China Town. Thinking about it and statistically speaking, we have mostly been to Buddhist temples since we started this trip.

This one has its standard temple look and feel; and it is remarkably polished and shining. It is a four-five storey building and mass is underway in its main hall, at ground level.

Buddhist temple by China town

The presence of golden colours is a constant in Buddhism, and the attention to detail

Similarly to the mass we saw in Bangkok, everyone is singing and it makes for a special soundtrack as you are allowed to walk around and take pictures and videos.

Reading some of the information, we find out it was only built a few years ago. Ahaaa... Another ‘new’ building in Singapore, and the list keeps only growing. Overall is an interesting place to visit to learn a bit more about this religion, so popular this side of the world.

4.45pm: WARNING TAXIS ON THE STREET: As we leave the temple and decide where to go next, it takes us about half hour to find a free taxi, but we managed to do so. Even though there are plenty of taxis going everywhere, most of them seem to busy. It is funny (or frustrating, depends how you look at it) that they do not only say whether they are “Free” or “Hired” but they have all these messages from “End of Shift” to “Out of Service” or whatever else. They have also some smartphone app to hire them, but unless you have a local phone it doesn’t really work. Eventually we grab one from someone who has just left it free.

5.00pm: We are entering the Sky Park roof bar in this mighty famous Singapore complex. At the top of it there is this swimming pool, only for guests, and this bar we are at. We are wearing shorts and t-shirts, and are kindly warned that from 6.00pm only long trousers are allowed. The view is phenomenal, for once you are not looking up but down. After checking the drinks menu, and the price list, it is clear we would only stay here for an hour anyway as the prices are almost as high as the building itself.

Sky Park - high, high, high

View from Sky Park - and a cocktail

View from Sky Park - and a floating full size football pitch

Just as we are leaving, we look at the other side of the balcony and we can see this immense fleet of ships and boats, just outside of the Singapore port. We learn afterwards that the City-State has reinvented itself in recent years thanks to their port – no question they are busy.

A fleet of boats waiting outside the port - and a theme park of some sorts

Part of the Formula One track, and water.

8.00pm: We are heading for dinner to Club Street after Andrew’s recommendation. It is a relatively short street with quite a few international restaurants, including an English pub, which we duly avoid as a matter of principle. However after discovering most of them were full, we end up at an Italian place.

After checking the Menu I am not super excited and challenge the head waiter to see if they could prepare me a ‘Escalope Milanese’, which for me has always been a meat fillet (veal ideally, you know, but beef or pork can do too) pan-fried on breadcrumbs, with spaghetti pommodoro as a side (or tomatoes sauce). He is hesitant and needs to check with the head chef. Comes back five minutes later.

Waiter: ‘I am afraid the head chef doesn’t know what that is’.

Me: ‘Sorry?’

Waiter: ‘He doesn’t know what escalope Milanese is and cannot prepare it’

Me: ‘He doesn’t know what a escalope Milanese is? Wow, that’s a first’.

Waiter: ‘I am sorry, would you like something from the menu instead?’

Me: ‘I guess I have no choice then!’ and I settled for some other type of spaghetti, with no pan-fried meat of any sorts.

They turned out to be quite good, if only a little spicy for my taste (and my still recovering stomach), so credit to the chef.

The spaghetti - they tasted better than they look, promise.

After dinner we took it easy and had a quiet night. All in all an interesting first day in Singapore. After the craziness of places like Saigon or Bangkok, or the peace of Phu Quoc and Angkor Wat, Singapore sits somewhere in between, more towards the quieter side of things. Here is to the next couple of days.

HONG KONG: One Big Buddha, a Cable Car and a French Chinese dinner

2012-05-27T02:21:00.001-07:00

Sunday 15^th April: Cable cars, one Large Buddha and one final dinner. VIDEO INCLUDED.

Today is our last full day in Hong Kong, with the visit to the Big Buddha via cable cars and a final dinner reunion as highlights of the day, here is how things unfolded:

12.00pm: We are making our way through HK’s public transport system –tram, metro- to the Big Buddha, the second largest outdoors Buddha statue in the world at 34 metres tall. We will also be taking the cable cars route, which though are not the cheapest, provide great views; and a little bit of height.

As we reach the cable car station, it inevitably reminds me of the cable cars in the Alps, only that instead of skis and gloves I am wearing sandals and shorts. Ah, and there is no snow (in case you had not figured that out yet).

Cable car on our way to the Big Buddha - Cosy towers of flats, and some water; and no snow, booo

The views are stunning and, as well as the large towers of flats, we can see Hong Kong Airport. An unusual good view of an airport, which comes to show how much is going on everywhere in and around it, on that tiny piece of man-made land.

Hong Kong Airport from the cable car. "Flight XYZ123 landing granted, roger, roger"

12.45pm: We can now see the Big Buddha. And it is big. Sitting atop of a mountain and slightly looking down, it is quite an imposing image. I can’t help to think if they had built a few more around, on the other mountains nearby, the view would be really compelling – DISCLAIMER: I do not know how much costs or how long it takes to build one of these statues, but I am just saying; you read it here first.

The Big Buddha, 34 metres tall. And we are some distance away

As we walk from the station to the stairs to the Buddha, there are plenty of shops and food places. Pablo explains that this development is not more than a couple of years old, if that. ‘Oringinally’ –as our Siem Reap tour guide would have said- there was just the Buddha and little else.

Randomly, we bump into some guys jumping on some tricky little things – sorry, cannot describe them really- while club music plays on. You better watch on:

As we make our way to the staircase, the area becomes less commercial and more mystical, in a way, with some small temples nearby and joss sticks of all forms, shapes and sizes giving the atmosphere a special air.

Once you get closer, it all feels more mystical - and burning.

1.15pm: David and I start our walk up the stairs... Yes, you read well, MORE STAIRS. It was less than 48hrs ago that we had walked up and down more than 6,000 steps on a mighty trek and here we were again.

Thankfully, it was nothing as big as on Friday and surprisingly the legs are feeling quite up for it. A sign maybe that fitness is not so bad after all!

We had paid our HK$25 (about US$3) to get to enter the Buddha, and a free ice cream. However, once you get to the top, there isn’t really much to do or see. Inside the Buddha there are about three floors, with mostly long texts in Chinese (no English translation), some photos and/or memorabilia.

It is funny how we go back here to the concept of quality, the difference between what you expect and what you get. However in this instance, it is a tricky one because inside this Big Buddha, you do not really know what to expect and therefore it is difficult to know what you will get.

In my opinion, what you get is not much – but then again, you just have spent less than £2 to enter; so you cannot really complain that much. [NB: yes, you can read about things online beforehand for free these days to know what to expect, but I hadn’t.]

Mickey was trying to do a runner, but I didn't let him go far.

Somehow, however, you feel a little something different. It may be that you are, literally speaking, a little closer to the big guy up there –whoever and wherever that is. Or it may be that you just have walked up 500 steps to find this; or the grey clouded and slightly windy morning, which has a silent threat of rain and/or storm at any minute. But it feels different.

On our way back we stop to grab some food – and find what I called the ‘Chopsticks Heaven’.

Chopsticks heaven - and some colour

Hong Kong food menus - colourful and alive

The views on the cable car on our way back are, again, quite impressive. I feel like swimming any minute now.

"EVERYBODY listen to me - when I say "do not jump", I mean it. You understand???"

And up close you notice the density of the population here...

A larger-than-life chess board, sort of.

4.00pm: On the way back to Pablo’s flat, I can’t help but notice that we have a “friend” that is following us everywhere...

Big Brother is watching you...

Also, as we enter Pablo’s block of flats, we notice a sign on the lift... I did not know what to feel at the time, so I let you decide for yourselves!

The main thing is not "not to hurt anybody", no. The main thing is "not to commit a criminal offence".
IS THAT NOT CLEAR ENOUGH?!?!?!? Now, happy shooting.

5.00pm: Once back in town we get changed and head straight out for a couple of final beers by the Hong Kong bay, as well as for dinner with Steve and Carol and some other friends.

One final tram journey; you get it.

We make a stop at a trendy shopping centre. So trendy they even have our very own Spanish Jamón Serrano and a few other Spanish delicatessen...

Ese JAMONCITOOOOOOO OLE, OLE, OOOOOOOLEEEE!!!!

8.30pm: We meet Steve, Carol, Frances, Leanne, Macca, Vincent and JD for dinner at a kind of “Chinese Bristo” place – excuse my French. Steve and Carol take care of ordering food, and since Pablo, JD, David and I are present, Steve has no repairs in ordering food for like 20 people.

It turns out to be a delicious dinner with all sort of meaty, fishy and vegetables dishes – all very good and impossible for me to describe. But rest assured we didn’t leave anything. After dinner we have a couple of final drinks on the street in a busy area, particularly for being a Sunday night and we have a relatively early night.

One final walk around HK at night - a city that virtually never sleeps.

BYE BYE HONG KONG: It is a great way to end what have been some fantastic few days in this crazy, little city. Not only did I have the chance to spend some good time with Steve and Pableras again, we did many different things to the ‘typical holiday’ and it really feels like there was not a moment of pause. I got to meet some of Steve’s close friends too and, specially, it was great to see Frances again. Many great memories come with me from these few days in Hong Kong. And I cannot wait to be back again some time. THANK YOU STEVE, THANK YOU HONG KONG. SEE YOU SOON.

HONG KONG: A Great Wedding Celebration, Part Two

2012-05-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

Saturday 14^th April – A Great Hong Kong Wedding Celebration, Part Two

The last entry covered the hours before one of my best friend’s wedding in Hong Kong. I will try now to cover some of the great moments we shared once the Ceremony started.

3.00pm: We are all at the Shangrila Hotel, with all guests already seated in this beautifully dressed Wedding room:

- Steve, the groom, stands smiling and relaxed on his place.

- The groom’s wedding party, aka The Ushers, aka us, is all set in line, to his side – from shortest to tallest, and yes, I was the tallest one - sorry Rich.

- The five bridesmaids make their entrance, one by one walking the aisle, smiling and cute, as beautiful music is played, on their lovely and elegant dark purple dresses. They take their places to the left of where the bride will shortly be standing.

- Finally, Carol, the gorgeous bride on her beautiful wedding dress, enters the room and walks up the aisle with the cutest of smiles on her face; it is a moment of great joy and excitement - we can all feel it. She is also looking at his groom Steve, as she walks towards him. They are happy, they are excited, they are smiling with pride and emotion. After all these months, THIS IS IT.

As Carol makes her final steps and stands next to him they hold hands, briefly, and share a moment of delight and privacy with their eyes, a smile, a whisper, ‘we have arrived’ they seem to say to each other.

The Ceremony’s Master of Ceremonies takes charge, welcoming everyone present, and we are off...

To respect the privacy of such important moment in the lives of anyone, I will only share that it was a beautiful and modern ceremony yet it carried the formality and detail of the best Chinese tradition, with some very cute and personal moments.

Immediately afterwards we have a few and very welcomed glasses of a great and perfectly cold Champagne, to celebrate the happy union.

The newly weds Steve and Carol toast with everyone

4.15pm: The newly weds Steve and Carol, their closest relatives, the bridesmaids and the ushers stay at the hotel for photos. Meanwhile, the 80+ guests are driven by bus to the HK bay to board a traditional Chinese boat, for an hour long trip along the bay with drinks and canapés served on board. Everything is working like a Swiss watch, absolutely perfect.

6.30pm: We are at the 39^thfloor of the hotel and we do a bit of time travelling, in great style this time. This is the Shangrila’s Library room and it looks and feels like an old British-like library, with its dark brown-blueish leather seats and sofas, its floor-to-ceiling thick books ranks and golden ladders on the walls, its flowered carpet and dark green high and thick rounded marvel columns – with another fantastic view of Hong Kong from windows that are decorated with beautiful and light coloured flowers.

You would be excused to expect Winston Churchill would come around the corner, smoking one of his famous cigars any minute now. Instead, you got me:

My usual Saturday afternoon gym outfit.

As the guests get back from what they say was a really special boat trip, drinks are served and everyone mingles around – with some informal photos being taken too.

8.00pm: Everyone moves to the large dining room and take their seats on the great looking tables.

The Wedding cake and Table #1 of the beautifully dressed dining room at the Shangrila Hotel

Pableras and I have the honour to share the main table with Steve and Carol, Steve’s mum and sister as well as some of Carol’s bridesmaids.

One of the many beautiful moments shared with the newly weds

It was at this moment that I recalled the day Steve told me that he, finally, had proposed - and more importantly that Carol had accepted. It was one day in May 2011 and I was at Dublin airport, soon boarding back to London after a day of meetings. [NB: well, I am not sure it was exactly in May, but I was definitely at Dublin Airport; reason I don't remember exactly is that I went to Dublin pretty much every week between January and August 2011].

They were spending a week in France and I had been asking him all week: “have you proposed yet??? Have you proposed yet??? Come on mate, you cannot go to France and do all this romantic stuff and not propose, that’s just not right” to which he always responded stuff like “crazy talk mate, no plans yet”.

As it turned out, I was right and the conversation was more or less like this. First via blackberry messenger:

17.26: Alfonso: Here I am at Dublin airport yet again. Have you proposed yet???

17.38: Steve: Mate, we were at this place and blah blah blah [NB this is a literary licence I am taking to cut the long story short, but basically they had been to some romantic thing or the other with this or that glamour; all very beautiful, I have no doubt].

17.44: Alfonso: So????

17.45: Steve: What are you talking about??

17.45: Alfonso: Not answering my question...

17.50: Steve: Well, you will have to book a flight to Hong Kong for Easter next year, put it that way.

As soon as I read that I stopped and called him,

17.51: Alfonso: Enanooooooooo!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!... ‘king hellllllll!!!!.... Finally!!!!!!.... And she said yes and everything!!!!

Steve: hahaha thanks mate, you idiot.

Alfonso: Oh mate, I am really pleased for you both. It was about time!! All this stuff you were doing in France and I was thinking ‘she’s going to dump him if he hasn’t proposed by the time they board the flight back’.

Steve: no mate, that was always the plan. I couldn’t tell you before her though.

Alfonso: fair enough, but you know, she would have dumped you, I am pretty sure!

I briefly also spoke with Carol to congratulate her – and also to check if she knew was she was doing. Thankfully it seemed to me she perfectly knew what she was doing, phew.

That was then and this was now, almost a year later, or thereabout. I can only but wonder how many stories they must have gone through in the build up to this day, to this moment where they have finally done all the “wedding stuff” and it is their time to fully enjoy and celebrate with their family and friends. As I say, it was an honour to share the evening at their table. Carol, Steve: THANK YOU BOTH.

THE MEAL: As with the ushers’ lunch earlier in the day, the food throughout the dinner is of outstanding first class, accompanied by delicious white and red wines. Here are some examples which will speak for themselves:

That was SOME STEAK - thanks Pableras for your input in the selection stage!

One of the most amazingly mouthwatering chocolate mousses ever, fact. Hhhmmmmmmmm.

THE SPEECHES: Throughout the evening there are a number of very personal, emotional, funny and beautiful speeches shared with everyone.

Wedding Day Master of Ceremonies, Rich, hands the micro to Steve for his moment of glory - and what a moment that was- while Steve's sister Leanne stands next to him, to make sure he doesn't joke about her childhood years again.

Hoping to respect the privacy of all of them I want to only specially recall that of Steve’s mum Frances, who stood up and took the micro from her daughter, Leanne.

As soon as she spoke I had goose bumps from head to toes. I cannot recall a time where such naturally simple yet immensely beautiful words, spoken proudly and most honestly from the bottom of her heart meant so much and could have this effect in other people’s hearts.

To me, considering everything that had happened in recent years, it was an unexpected yet extraordinary trip to the bottom of my heart where I realised, once again, what the important things in life really are, and who we should, above all, love and respect.

It is a truth repeated too often, that we don’t know what we have until we lose it. But I truly believe in making the most of things while we can; they don’t have to be amazing, one-in-a-lifetime 'things'; they can be everyday’s things, whatever, a smile, a whisper, giving a hand to someone, a chocolate cookie, whatever, as long as they work for you - as someone said before, and Woody Allen put on film, 'Whatever Works'.

But, most of all, why not try to being thankful for the good things that happen to you, cherish those moments with all your heart and don’t let tough moments bring you down for ever, adapt to them, learn from them and rather, why not try letting LIFE BE GREAT, every day.

For those words Frances, I thank you wholeheartedly.

As dinner came to a close and desserts were served, the groom’s wedding party closed the speeches for the day and, to top it off, we managed to get the entire room with 90+ guests standing on their feet and wishing loud “Long Live the Bride and the Groom” – all this is in the more Spanish way of

“VIVAN LOS NOVIOOOOS!!!! VIVAAAAN!!!!!"

"VIVAN LOS NOVIOOOOS!!! VIVAAAANNN!!!"

"VIVAAAAAN LOOOOOSSS NOVIOOOOOOOSSSS!!!! VIVAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!"

Past 11.30pm and until sometime between 2 and 5 am the following day: we partied, we danced, we sang, we drank (a little), we hugged; we laughed, we almost cried, we jumped, we fell, we crawled, we laughed again; we drank (a little more), we plugged our iPods once the hotel staff asked the DJ to leave (strange HK rules!), we crawled once more; we took taxis, some went home, some had McDonalds (yes, we did; what can I say), some went clubbing... and above all WE FELT ALIVE, YES WE DID.

It was a great day and night. One that we will all remember for years to come. Thank you Carol, Thank you Steve – you guys rock. See you soon wherever that is!

HONG KONG: A Wedding Day, Speeches, Fish & Chips, Preparations and Love. Part One.

2012-05-14T03:34:00.000-07:00

Today’s entry is Part One of the wedding day of one of my closest friends, Steve, to his lovely fiancé, and now wife, Carol. This was the original reason why I was travelling to Asia in the first place, which also prompted me to start this Blog, and therefore I feel this day deserves special treatment.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: If you have been to a wedding in Hong Kong, or anywhere else for that matter; if you have been "best man" or "bridesmaid" before, or will be soon; if you are married or will soon be - or if you have any stories or questions you want to share, we'd like to hear from you, WHAT DID YOU LIKE THE MOST, WHAT WAS MORE SCARY/FUN/CRAZY... Feel free to go to the bottom of this page and share with us. And A MILLION THANKS for reading, as always!

Saturday 14 April – Steve’s and Carol’s Hong Kong Wedding Day – Part One, Before the Ceremony.

From very early in the morning there was something special about the day ahead, and here is how it unfolded for me:

07.30am: I wake up and Pableras is already awake. He has been putting down to paper what he would like to say at the wedding. For months we have been debating over emails how many of us should speak at the wedding, and what to say.

To put things more into context, we are five ‘best men’ or ‘ushers’. It means Steve did not choose one and only best man, but a few of us – which in return means a big honour for all of us: Rich, Tobes, Dan, Pabs and me, also known as Fonz. All the other ushers were based in Hong Kong, while I was the only one living abroad. This was a challenge for me since I didn’t have opportunities to meet face-to-face with the other ushers except Pabs until the morning of the wedding, literally. To their great credit, they organized a fantastic stag-do for Steve, which although I was unable to attend I have in good understanding that it was truly epic.

If you have been a ‘best man’ or 'bridesmaid' before you may know what I am referring to. In my case, I have been honoured to have been asked to be one twice before this wedding and it always is as exciting as much as challenging. It is very easy to think that you know the groom/bride so well it will be easy to say things that people will like right away. Wrong. Then you realise it is your friend’s biggest personal day to date, and that of his partner too – as well as for the rest of their families. Some people are natural at speaking in public and with a glass of wine it is all much easier, some others dread it at the mere thought. When it is five of you the puzzle gets even more interesting. Thankfully, I think we managed to play it just right.

Back to Pabs flat: Pableras shares the draft of the words he has been putting together for Steve and Carol. From the moment he starts reading them I have goose bumps up and down my back, thinking how simple as much as beautiful is what he has come up with.

He has shared countless moments with Steve and Carol since day one – while I have only have the opportunity a handful of times. In addition, Pableras has one of the biggest hearts I have ever found and that has come out beautifully in this speech, from his heart.

He has not given a best man speech before and I am impressed he has come up with those beautiful lines, with the natural balance between being personal and ceremonial as well as a little funny but also intimate.

We give the speech a few tweaks here and there and write it down in the computer, so it is easier to read on the spot with the nerves and all.

With Rich becoming the Master of Ceremonies for the day and Dan also giving a speech, I focus on being the last one of the ushers to share a moment with everyone else. Pabs and I agree I should not to go for a speech but for a more interactive mini-show: it is their wedding and everyone present will want to also wish them well, so I write a little script to get everyone to wish them well, in typical Spanish way – more on this later.

11.15am: After collecting our James Bond-like tuxedos in central Hong Kong from Mr Yun, Pabs and I meet Rich and Dan to wrap up the speeches and what else we are going to be doing during the day, while we will meet Tobs later on.

We are meeting at Rich’s office near the Shangrila Hotel, where the wedding will take place. The office is on some 19^th or so floor overseeing part of the Hong Kong bay and some of its high end hotels – it is an impressive view with the green mountains, some of which we were trekking up and down yesterday, just behind them. What a great city of contrasts everywhere, at every opportunity.

HK towers, glamour ads, a pool, a mountain - CONTRASTS

HK architecture - never a dull moment

Rich will be the Master of Ceremonies (MC) during the day, which will mean telling the guests what is going to happen and when or where to go when. As the big rugby player he is, he is definitely suited to be telling people what to do and when, and people will just do it – which makes the other ushers’ lives a little easier. Sweet.

Dan shares with us his speech too. For the second time today I have goose bumps up and down my neck from the start. I have just met Rich and Dan for the first time in person, after months of emails, and it takes me no time to realise why Steve has also picked them as ushers. Rich is also taking the opportunity of being MC to add personal touches every time he has to address everyone. We come up with some really nice ideas and some good jokes too.

We have a feeling people will have a great day.

12.45pm: We meet Steve at the Five-Star Shangrila Hotel. He is looking great. Not only the tuxedo makes him look sharp, he actually, genuinely is looking great. Despite whatever nerves he may be going through, despite any last minute nightmares that we may not know of, he is as relaxed as if he was just a guest in someone else’s wedding.

Before having our ushers’ lunch, we get a sneak preview of the room where the Ceremony will take place. It is beautifully dressed in light cream colours. The variety of white roses is classy and romantic in equal measures, very personal to them. Like it.

The Ceremony room - beautifully dressed, and Rich

1.30pm: We are sitting around the table for lunch at the hotel’s cocktail bar and Tobes tells me how he met Steve years ago and how rubbish Steve was at rugby back then. The exchange more or less went like this:

Me: ‘And has his rugby improved at all?’

Tobes: ‘Not one bit, but he never gives up annoying the opposition’

Steve, always interrupting when people talk about him: ‘Yep, like the day you dropped me not even to the Reserves and I had to play for the opposition because they were short on players’

Rich: ‘Yes and you injured at least two of our team!’

Steve: ‘You see??? You see??? That’s what happens when you drop meeee’.

Some things never change.

Steve and Rich at our ushers lunch - it is going to be a great day

FOOD: being a 5 * Hotel you sometimes never know what to expect. It may be either over the top, or simply spot on.

This small difference goes back to the concept of "Quality", which I learned years ago to be the difference between what you expect, and what you get. For example:

If you book a five stars hotel in Vietnam and pay, say, $500 a night, you may be perfectly entitled to expect your room to be rather large, with amazingly comfortable beds and complete silence from the street, a great view from the window and a fantastic bath - as well as round-the-clock room service and first class facilities including spa, gym and a large swimming pool and/or a private beach. And the list can go on and on.

However, if when you arrive it turns out that the room is about 40 square metres, it has one noisy and worn out mattress, are facing a busy highway and a wall of bricks at the other end... Then you may be perfectly entitled to believe it really is not a hotel of "great quality".

On the other hand, if you are budget-travelling and book a hotel room for $50 a night in London, you probably expect it to be a small room, with a single bed, facing a wall, with only a shower dish but no bath, let alone room service.

However, if you get a 100 square metres room, two double beds, river views and a free bottle of champagne, you would most probably think it was a hotel of great quality.

In this instance it was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. We ordered some salads and some fish and chips. Yes, you read correctly, “fish and chips” in Hong Kong. I KNOW. It is not Brighton, is it? Thankfully, the historic British presence, when it comes down to Fish and Chips, is definitely a great legacy. And having access to extraordinary fish by being an island, these guys have really put some serious fish and chips together. And I mean SERIOUS.

FISH (& CHIPS) - TRULY OUTSTANDING

The batter is really light as well as crispy and tasty. Now the cod, and I mean, THE COD is bloody marvellous. It is so fresh and soft you would be forgiven to think it was just picked from the sea, literally. It melts in your mouth within seconds and the meat is simply outstanding. At every mouthful you want already the next, but not wanting to rush as it will come to an end at some point. And the chips, well, the chips are so moreish you have to fight back not to fill yourself with a few too many.

That was TRULY FAN.TAS.TIC.

simply AMAZING Ceasar Salad

Cufflinks: Since I had forgotten to bring my cufflinks from London I had asked Steve earlier that morning if I could borrow a pair from him – via WhatsApp messenger:

Me: Mate, big day today, really hope everything goes well.

Steve: Thanks mate.

Me: Now, can I borrow some cufflinks from you, didn’t bring them from London.

Steve: You muppet. I’ll see what I can do.

Out of the blue during lunch Steve presents each of us with some amazing silver cufflinks, to say thank you for being his ushers and from what we had done and were going to do on the day.

CORRECTION: No Steve, you do not have to thank us for that. On the contrary, we thank you for having given us the opportunity in the first place. And for the cufflinks, and the meal – God, that was really good.

2.30pm: I have now had the chance to see Carol, who is looking absolutely gorgeous. Not only is she a naturally beautiful girl, she has great style in everything she wears and on this big day she still manages to take things to a whole new level. GORGEOUS. The five bridesmaids are also looking beautiful with very smart and classy purple dresses.

I have also by now seen Frances, Steve’s mum, and his sister Leanne. They are both looking also great. It is not only the lovely outfits they are wearing or the classy and subtle makeup and hair styles. There is a special spark of happiness in their eyes for this big day, for what it means for Steve and for what it means for them too. It is an honour to be part of it all.

All guests start to arrive. There is a great mix of people from many countries. As with most of the weddings I have been to in recent years, for people of my generation this is completely normal.

Isn’t it great that nowadays one can have friends, good friends, literally from every corner of the planet? – and that in special occasions, such as this one, they all make the journey to be part of it and share this great day? I have been lucky enough to have been brought up in Spain –way before the current economic situation- and have also lived in Italy and England, whilst have too had the opportunity to travel for work to many countries around the world, as well as holidaying in many countries. During all these years I have met many great people and it is encouraging to see how almost everyone, nowadays, has the opportunity to do just that.

For that, if I may, I love globalization. And the likes of Social Media sites that allow you to be in contact with everyone you know at the touch of a click. Simples. Like it.

We are just a few minutes away from the start of the Ceremony. After months of preparations, this is what it all comes down to. A final check by everyone involved making sure everything is in place, guests have taken their seats, both families are in the front rows, the ushers take our place, the bridesmaids are all set for the Bride to make her entrance. One big deep breath and this is what this is all about. TO BE CONTINUED...

END OF PART ONE: I am finishing Part One here with a final check by some of the ushers - and I am leaving a Part Two for the Ceremony and the fun celebrations that followed afterwards.

Three of the ushers get the final check - Myself, Dan and Pabs

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HONG KONG: A mighty trek around Hong Kong. Loved it. VIDEOS INCLUDED!

2012-05-04T03:51:00.000-07:00

Friday 13 April – A MIGHTY TREK AROUND HONG KONG, LOVED IT - VIDEOS INCLUDED!

Today’s blog is mostly about a 2.5hr long trek we did outside of Hong Kong. It is something VERY different than the usual Hong Kong experience. I hope I have been able to capture the effort, sweat, the views and ultimate joy that came when we completed it...

11.00am: David and I are on the taxi to meet Steve, Claire and Avril to do this trek, “The Twin Peaks”. The driver has some sort of nervous tic and slaps himself on his right leg at every opportunity whilst shaking his head. After what we’ve seen this is perfectly normal – and at least he is not driving a scooter in Saigon.

‘It should be a nice trek’ I tell David. ‘Steve says it’ll be around an hour, all very nice and green’.

‘Sounds good to me’ responds David, who is also wearing his new trekking trainers.

11.15am: David and I meet Steve, Claire and Avril at the Shangrila hotel just as they are having their petit dejeneur (excuse my French). Thing is, this is the lobby of this 5 star hotel and we are all wearing shorts, trainers, gym tshirts and rucksacks – surrounded by executives in suits and all smart wealthy hotel guests; as I say, perfectly normal. At this point all of us but Steve believe ‘the twins’ means two peaks: one and two, the twins, easy. How wrong we were we only found out one way...

View of Hong Kong as we start our way up... to hell

11.45am: the taxi drops us somewhere East of HK and Steve goes:

‘Ok guys listen up, so this is what we are going to do [reminding me of the guide on that boat day in Vietnam a few weeks back, see blog entry 01 April]: we are going to go up this one hill, which should be easy no more than 15 minutes, we’ll take some photos. Then we’ll go down the hill and up another hill at the other side and that should be it’.

Easy enough. Sweet.

Liar.

11.55am: we are sort of half way up this first peak. It is a hot day, in its high 20s. It is humid too but thankfully, and crucially, it is cloudy but not threatening rain. All in all decent conditions. We are walking up these concrete steps that have been there for a while but look in good condition – surrounded by bushes and low trees of not more than 3-4 metres tall. It is all very green around us and it already seems incredible we were in a jungle of skyscrapers, towers and traffic just 15 minutes ago. That is nice.

12.05pm: we reach the peak of the first of the two hills of the day. It was about 25 minutes, it was not super difficult but since it is hot and humid, good sweat has broken across the board.

Sweat is just starting a we reach Peak 1. Great view around.

‘Right that was just the warm up’ says Steve, all relaxed ‘Now we are going down this hill, up that one, and then up another one’. Here is the moment on camera:

Hhhhmmmm... that doesn’t quite sound what we had agreed to – that is not what our Vietnam ‘listen everybody’ tour guide did either.

But well, it is all new for us, it is a Friday morning, we are not in an office; we can either go ahead, or go back and miss out. We go ahead. Still easy, ok it is three and not two hills – can handle that.

At the top of this first hill the view is all green and a number of hills around us. In the distance we can see some of Hong Kong towers, the sea, a big lake and more hills.

12.20pm: we have gone down one hill and are going up the second. Steve and Macca –both kind of fitness freaks, in a nice way- start to slowly break away and Avril, David and I drop a few metres back at a slightly more leisure pace. At one turn there is a great view as all we see is downhill and everything is super green. No people, no buildings, all green – and all downhill, yay!

All the view is green - and downhill, yay!

Mother Nature... GREAT to see you again.

12.45pm: we have completed a third peak and still feel strong and excited. It is definitely not our average Friday morning.

We have reached Peak 3 - Avril, Macca, Steve and I (David the photographer)

As we start going down we are all sweating big time and Steve and Macca are way ahead.

‘They are competing to see who gets there first’ says Avril.

‘Absolutely, always so competitive’ I agree. They can run as much as they want I will not be chasing them.

Steve and Macca off they go in this amazing place

David’s new trainers prove to be a little too new and he has some blisters which he is taking care of. I would not want to be in his situation right now.

David fixing his feet

Best thing is that the view really is impressive, everything so untouched and preserved; we can see water at both our right and left, a big water reserve, a beach in the distance.

And whilst all that is well and good, what we are really thinking is that ‘these are not twins... these are more like quadruplets’.

1.00pm: THIS IS IT.

Steve: ‘OK guys, now, we have done three warm up peaks. Here is when the real trek starts’ he announces, just as we stop at some junction at the bottom of the third hill of the day.

Junction before going right or left - Steve usually doesn't look that big, sorry pal.

‘If you are really tired, you can follow this 3-4km flat path around the next two peaks [aka “The Twins”] or you can go up with me. The first peak is 1,000 steps; actually some people have taken the effort to mark some of the steps as you go up to have some references, which makes it easier’ he explains, all cool and relaxed. ‘The second one is about a third of that, but the first one is the tricky one’.

Everyone looks at each other.

Hhhmmm.

Macca spots a sign that reads “1hr and 3/4 up”.

‘Don’t worry, I have done it in 17 minutes’ says Steve, proud. We didn’t know at the time that he was lying, blatantly.

David and Avril decide to go around the twins.

Macca decides to follow Steve, which really is no surprise to me.

We are here in that box in soft orange-pink. Basically the middle of nowhere.

I have been working out pretty much daily in the month before this trip, I think I am in a reasonable fit condition despite the beers and little exercise of the past two weeks. I take everything into account, being in Hong Kong, on a Friday morning, out in the middle of nowhere, with a good couple of mates, sweating like I’ve just had a shower of sweat and realising I have not done this before.

Crucially and more importantly, I cannot consider myself any less fit than Steve and I will not give him a chance to think that.

What the hell, LET’S DO THIS.

At this moment however you do not stop to make numbers. You do not stop to think it is 1,000 steps, one after another, which after around the 2,000 we’ve just done in the past three hills, is actually a lot – but that subtle message Steve has just delivered of ‘I have done it in 17 minutes’ helps you think ‘it will not be that tough if he’s done it that quick’.

A lie that helps is a sweet lie, in a way.

The following times are really a guess but I have scientifically worked out that it takes on average about one second per step. Excluding any unforeseen stops to rest, of which there will be many, it should be:

1 step x second = 60 steps per minute

60 steps per minute = 600 steps per ten minutes

1000 steps = 16.67 minutes approximately.

But as I said, you do not stop then to think about this when you start.

You do not go and say it is just under 20 minutes, easy.

You do not think you will need ten or more breaks.

You do not think you will lose Steve and Macca for most of it.

You do this a few weeks later, back home, when you look back and remember EVERY SINGLE BLOODY STEP

... and HOW GREAT IT WAS.

Circa 1.10pm: About 200 steps in Steve and Macca are starting to pull away. I AM SWEATING. A LOT. Here is a video so you can understand better what we were going through - excuse some of the language:

We see a sign reading “200”.’Ok this is a fifth of the distance, come on Alfonso!’ shouts Macca, all encouraging.

And a few steps up we see another sign “200”.

‘Huh?’

And another one.

‘Ok, if they don’t agree on the first 200 how are they going to by the time we reach 1,000...’ I ask myself.

Circa 1.17pm: Somewhere between 400 and 500 steps. Or anywhere below that mark. I am stopping again to take some breath. My heart pulse is fast, my breathing slow and deep. Macca is about 70 steps away and I can barely see her.

By the way, we have only seen two people all morning. It is Friday after all.

On the way up - steps and more steps, for the fourth time today

Circa 1.23pm: Somewhere between 500 and 700 steps. Some of them are really steep. You are surrounded by low trees, you can hear crickets and other noisy tiny insects but you cannot see them.

My breathing and heartbeat have stabilised by now but remain slow and fast respectively. The drops of sweat cover my forehead and fall all over my clothes like rain – my clothes are drenched in sweat, literally.

The uncertainty of what lies ahead, how far, how steep, how challenging... mixes up with the adrenaline and thrill of doing this trek in the middle of Hong Kong, in April, on a Friday morning...

... and I AM LOVING THIS MOMENT VERY MUCH. I FEEL 100% ALIVE.

And that is fantastic.

I can feel tired, I can feel heavy legs, I can feel the sweat down my neck, my arms or legs, I can hear my body saying ‘give me a break’ but my brain decides to ignore him because I CAN FEEL IT.

I have become two in one, my body, my brain; or even three, my soul, as I take all the scenery in. ‘I should this way more often’ I tell myself.

By now I have lost Steve and Macca and I am talking to myself.

I am cheering for myself ‘come on you lazy arse, get on with it you muppet’.

Circa 1.30pm: Somewhere between 700 and 800 steps. I can see Macca who says we have reached the 700 mark. She waits as I walk up and I cannot see the bloody number. I literally cannot see it. ‘It is in front of you, there!’ she tells me – and I can’t see it. All I can see are steps and more steps. There are some openings on the trees and the clouds have thinned, which means the slight direct sunlight feels really hot.

Circa 1.36pm: I do not know how long I have left. We have been on this trek for nearly two hours and I am pouring down with sweat like never before.

I have a feeling I must be close. I keep walking up, it is flattening down... and there we are.I can see both Macca and Steve at the top of the peak cheering for me.

‘YESSSSS!!! MADE IT!!! YESSSS!!! BLOODY HELL!!!! YESSSS!!!’

We all high five each other.

"Steve you are a great mate but I'll get you back later".... and smile!

‘Bloody hell! That was some walk!’ I shout excited for having completed it. ‘But mate, where the hell does the Twins thing come from?! You blatantly lied!!” I accuse Steve. ‘Just exactly what we need the day before your wedding!’

I was accusing him as much as thanking him. The feeling of accomplishment could not be any greater. The moments where you were on your own, really thinking ‘what the hell am I doing here’, ‘how much is left’, ‘where is the swimming pool’... are all left behind in an instant.

You have made it, you are there with your two friends who have just done the same thing. You feel great.

We take a short break of not more than a couple of minutes so that the legs do not relax too much and start our way down before going up the final hill of the day.

Circa 1.50pm: we are on the way up this final peak of the day. It is by no measures any easier than the previous one however knowing it is about a third of that should help.

Well, it didn’t really.

And, for the record, it wasn’t a third of that but more like about half of it. Thanks Steve, really. THANKS.

Final way up of the day - had its own moments

Circa 1.58pm: I have again lost Macca and Steve but I am ok. I am always comfortable in my own company so this is no different. Though this time it really is.

We have just gone up and down four great peaks and this is, really, the final one. In a way it feels like a good book that you don’t want to finish, or a good cake that only has a few mouthfuls left.

Yes, this has been tiring, painful and at times lonely. But it has also felt great. In a twisted way you do not want it to finish because you know finishing means it is back to the ‘real world’ out there with its concrete and traffic.

I am taking these final 500 steps very slowly, enjoying them as much as hating them. Your brain says ‘do it’ whilst your body says ‘get me home’ and you are the referee between the two. Your soul by now is up there somewhere having a time of his own.

Circa 2.06pm: We have reached the peak. And this really is the final peak of the day – a feeling which is a first all morning. All we have to do now is GO DOWN, YAY!!! No more way up, just down, down, down... BRING IT ON.

Thing is, we are late for lunch with one of Steve’s friends. And we also do not know how Avril and David got on.

What do you do? The most obvious thing in the world: YOU RUN DOWNHILL.

Yes, you read correctly. We ran down all the way. Not only had we just gone up some 3,500 steps and down another 3,500 in the past two hours. We have another 1,000 steps down left and we are running them. Here is the clip - excuse the language:

ABSOLUTELY BLOODY BRILLIANT!!!

The scenery is more of the same, and as beautiful as the rest, but you see more and more buildings, hear more human noises and schools and road works and traffic...

Mother Nature, we leave you in peace. Thank you again.

Circa 2.20pm: We meet Avril and David at the base of the final peak. They are ok and enjoyed their walk too. Everyone is feeling great and cannot wait to get our hands on some cold drinks and some food.

It has been a FANTASTIC TREK. I am so pleased I went the 1,000 steps up and did that. I was always the last of us three but it was such a great effort. All those days in the gym, particularly doing the staircase machine, paid off despite not having done much in the last two weeks.

I am not thinking how my legs will feel tomorrow. I am incredibly delighted for having done this TODAY and enjoying every single drop of sweat that comes down my body. I FEEL ALIVE.

2.30pm: As we jump on a taxi to go for lunch, it becomes some sort of mini steam room but we don’t care. We are not walking anymore. Food and drinks are near. We can feel that too

We arrive to a small port where a typical Chinese festival is taking place with some dragons and big flags. It seems a welcome prepared for us as if they knew we where coming.

Dragon welcome party - for us!

I buy a new t-shirt for $3 as mine is completely and literally drenched in sweat – that will take some washing. My shorts are also completely drenched but they’ll survive.

Tshirt and trousers completely drenched in sweat - sweet.

I then spend some ten minutes stretching my legs and back by the waterfront. I am normally really bad at stretching but I can feel this is doing me good. As I stretch I look back at what we just did and some of the sensations I had at times. It was much longer journey on a personal level than what it actually was in distance. And I loved it.

Steve, thank you for that. It really was a great experience and I look forward to doing another one another day with you wherever it is.

The rest of the day was very quiet and relaxed, as you can imagine, preparing for the BIG WEDDING DAY ON SATURDAY. More on that in the next entry.

For now, it is all about feeling great and lucky to be healthy and able to do these things from time to time.

THANK YOU WORLD.

HONG KONG: Great Night, Great Contrasts, Steve and Family

2012-04-29T02:37:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 11 April – Bye bye BK, HELLO HONG KONG!!!

10.00am: I am by the hotel pool in a great sunny day. I skip the gym and we are leaving at midday for the three hour flight to Hong Kong. ‘It is 10.00am and I am sunbathing and in the pool, in Bangkok’, I say to myself again; ‘I should do this more often’ I conclude.

One final swim before Hong Kong - thank you Bangkok

Shortly afterwards we head to the airport and on our way I see a big billboard with Cristiano Ronaldo promoting some tyres, on a suit. Very different to Messi’s ad... just like their style of play, character and popularity. Oh well. As we get to the airport, there is one final big photo-tribute to the King. It is highly present in everyone's life here.

Even the King makes sure we leave the country - watchful eye

8.30pm: We are taking the airport train to central Hong Kong, which takes 20 minutes. It is my second time in HK after I visited Steve and Pabs three years ago.

Since I live in London, I find it very easy to feel comfortable in Hong Kong – the main differences for me being the density of the population here, with endless towers and towers of flats and more flats, as well as the very limited space it has and how well they maximise it; it is a little less clean too in some areas. At night the city and bay become a spectacle of multiple lights of all colours and at all heights.

Festival of lights, colours, traffic, high towers - HK at night

Skyscraper staircase to heaven, maybe

I am here to attend my friend Steve’s wedding with Carol on Saturday, where I am honoured to be part of the five groomsmen, or best men – or one the five closest friends he has.

Steve and I met in London in September 2003, when I moved in to a super tiny room –aka ‘the matchbox’- in his flat in Clapham Junction, which was all I could afford at the time. It probed to be one of the best decisions of my life to this date. Steve and I quickly became good mates and that friendship is still very, very healthy today even though he moved to HK in 2005, less than two years after we met.

For months I have been emailing with the other groomsmen, Rich, Dan, Tobs and Pableras, but I only know Pabs from before, so it is great to finally get to meet the other guys too. If they are so close to Steve they must be great guys – or at least as great as I am, because I am great, Pabs is great... we all are, surely, if we have been able to put up with Steve's terrible jokes all these years.

David has not been to HK before so he is also excited to be here and will have time to explore the city on his own whilst I attend some of the wedding activities.

10.00pm: After dropping the bags at Pabs’ mansion on the West side of HK island, we get changed and meet Steve, Carol, his sister Leanne (who flew in from Canada with their Mum) and a couple of other of his friends in the Luang-Kwai-Foon area (forgive my spelling, I am still working on my Cantonese) at the Solas bar.

A first drink with Steve (middle) - Alan Thor back is on the right

It is a popular night spot with several trendy bars with a good mix of expats, locals and some tourists. They are all next to each other so it is very convenient.

I saw Steve briefly for an hour, between 5 and 6 am, back in Singapore at the beginning of this Asian trip; so it is nice to actually see him properly now, looking casual and relaxed, with his very beautiful and lovely fiancé, Carol.

He goes off in his usual trash-talking Spanish-sounding loud words 'Que pasa capulloooo!?!?!?!?!' and we laugh loud again; we've taught him well.

He has by now recovered from his injured arm from that Singapore night – and no, in case you were worried it wasn’t broken, he was just being a lightweight at the time.

11.30pm: We make a move to a more bar-club nearby where we decide to get a couple of bottles of vodka. We also get mixers and a few Red Bulls, phew. In addition, when you order lemonade here they do not just give you Sprite or 7Up, they give you proper, fresh, just made lemonade. That is the type of service we are talking about.

Thursday 12 April – The night before, old meets new meets newer and a great dinner

12.30am: It has not taken us too long to be dancing around. Everyone is in GREAT SPIRITS and we feel that ‘tonight is gonna be a good night... tonight is gonna be a good night....’

The Bolt strikes in Hong Kong

2.30am: And we have literally taken over one of the reserved tables, some of us are dancing on the couches. YES, IT IS ONE OF THOSE NIGHTS. And it is great fun... By the end of it well past 4am we all leave at different times and ways with the feeling that it really was a good night. It was great.

9.00am: Works on the street started around 8.00am. They are LOUD, very – added to the ‘morning-after-the-night-before’ feeling it all makes it more intense.

We are at the 17^th floor in Pabs tower of flats. It is one flat per floor – and they are about 40 square metres, or I may be wrong and they may be bigger – they are cosy in any case.

View from Pabs 17th floor flat - towers, towers, towers

Food vendor - one of many

1.30pm: Pabs, Alan and I meet Steve to go and hire our tuxedos for the wedding.

Alan actually only has to make some adjustments to his brand new trousers as his tailor got them wrong. To clarify, his tailor is in Singapore and has not met him for over two years. In this time Alan has become Thor, with muscles everywhere so he does not really fit in those trousers as they are. “Easy job” says the grey haired, pony-tailed tailor.

Pabs and I arrange our tuxedos - I get carried away and order three tailor made shirts I will be unable to collect before I leave as they will be finalised in a week’s time. I hope they are good.

6.00pm: It is an afternoon at leisure walking around this incredibly lively city, taking pictures here and there –particularly of the fully covered trams in ads of all major and local brands- and getting lost a number of times.

HK trams brought to life

The right spirit, right there

J'Adiore her

A rare moment of peace and green

Old and new constantly meet everywhere, at every corner.

Back streets - contrasts right, centre and left

Constant renovation, repairs or building from scratch - there is never a dull moment in HK.

Street works - not even the funny little man makes them any quieter

I also spot a big ad with the Angry Birds and the local transport, some sort of discount – they seem to be everywhere.

E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.

When I get younger I want my school bus to be like that

New meets newer and time travelling is forwards, not backwards.

Modern meets ultra-modern C3PO where are you?

Glass, height, roads, green, towers - HK

8.00pm: Pabs and I arrive at the same time at the Old Bank of China building where Steve has kindly invited us for dinner with his mum Frances, his sister Leanne, his always colourful cousin Vincent, lovely Carol and Claire, aka Ultra-Fit Macca- and Avril –both friends of Steve from London who I have met before. Alan arrives later on.

We have a drink at the rooftop terrace, next to the HSBC Headquarters, designed by British architect Sir Norman Foster and to the New Bank of China building.

It is a very pleasant evening and the view is great, with the waterfront not far away and the constant cocktail of high towers, skyscrapers and lights of all colours everywhere.

This is a members’ only club, and the joining fee alone is north of US$20,000 (plus monthly fees, plus the actual cost of food and drinks and service – in other words, not my usual hang about place).

Fortunately one of Steve’s clients has let him use his membership for the night. It is decorated to the highest standards with an array of great paintings of both Western, Asian and Chinese artists, very high end wooden floors and very nicely finished walls with touches of green and white, with red light bulbs. It is something I have never seen before. There is a Mao and Whitney Houston painting that calls my attention – contrast, art, colour, both symbols.

Mao - Whitney - Smiles - with love

We then pass to a private dining room just for us, where four or five waiters and waitresses will look after us all night.

Dinner. Dinner is... fan-tas-tic.

Or I should say FAN-TAS-TIC.

It is a Chinese degustation menu of eight or nine dishes. With a great variety of ingredients, tastes, flavours, spices and styles it really is a pleasure.

But the main standout element of the night is seeing Frances sitting around the table and clearly enjoying the evening - it is GREAT TO SEE HER HERE for the wedding.

Steve's mum Frances, so great to see her, and sister Leanne

Not only is she a lovely lady, she is very funny, very modern and engages in conversation with you so naturally you feel you have known her for years - 'I hope you keep dancing Alfonso'. In addition to all of that, she truly is a super mum and it is an honour to be sharing this evening with her too.

It is a very enjoyable dinner all round and, to top it off, today is Carol’s birthday – Steve has arranged with the service to bring a few cakes and a candle for her, while we all wish her Happy Birthday.

Carol's birthday Chinese cakes surprise - What a great week for you guys!

After dinner we go for a couple of quiet beers in the hotel the wedding will take place on Saturday, the five star hotel Shangrila. The first round we are served with true silver glasses, which not only help the beer be colder, it also makes the whole experience even cooler. Just like us all, great. We call it a day soon as tomorrow, Friday, we have The Twin Peaks to climb...

What another great day that was - bring on the rest of the week.

BANGKOK 2 DAY STOP: Royal Family, Taxi rides, colourful views, Buddhas and a little man

2012-04-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Monday 9 April – Hello Bangkok: night markets, a Royal funeral and a taxi driver

6.00pm: On the road to our boutique hotel in Bangkok and I see a number of big ads for Chang beer with Manchester United and Chelsea players, also of the Red Bull Formula One team; a beer promoting an energy drink of a different company, who would have thought it. They are the biggest ads one can see, on billboards, on buildings and hotels; and I mean BIG.

It is my first time in this famously crazy city and I am not sure what is going to happen or what is out there to see – no, I haven’t done my homework.

9.00pm: We head out for dinner and find a local busy Night Market. Food is not too expensive and I try some chicken meatballs.

Street food on the go - cheap and tasty

We also quickly notice some bars and pubs are shut. It is a Monday night but, come on, this is Bangkok – I say to myself. As we talk to a waitress in a pub we find out that today took place the Funeral ceremony of the sister of the King. It was a big deal, and I mean BIG. So big that many businesses have closed down as a sign of respect, and others whilst open do not serve alcohol.

No alcohol tonight - respect

She passed away back in July, last year. It took them eight months to prepare the funeral... So here I am, having mixed feelings: on the one hand, I am disappointed that on my first of the two nights in Bangkok it seems we are not going to be able to party, not even a little. On the other hand, I also feel disappointed for having missed the funeral ceremony, as from what we can now see on TV news reports, it was a massive ceremony of the highest of profiles.

11.00pm: David has headed back to the hotel as he is feeling unwell but I feel I want to explore some of the city. After googleing some places I jump on a cab and ask him to take me to Nana Plaza, famous for its nightlife. Same scenario: all shut, it looks like a lock down.

11.30pm: A young taxi driver – I will call him Seb (as in Sebastian Loeb, the 8-time world rally champion)- asks me if I want to go a private club.

I do not hesitate and say yes. On his pink coloured taxi –they are pink, yellow, blue, red, orange... all colours- with a rally car steering wheel off we go to this place.

I have no idea of where we are going but we are going through some big avenues and he is speeding happily at over 60mph or 100km/h. ‘Yes, this is more like it’ – I say to myself- ‘bring it on’.

We arrive to an unbranded place where the doorman, wearing a full black suit, nods to Seb and we get in easily. The door opens and after a second door with some purple light on, we enter a bar of about 60 square metres – like the posh ones in London, tiny. There are men and girls, with no dancing on stage, and jazz-house music sounds from the speakers. I look at Seb and nod at him. We sit around a high table and order two beers. It doesn’t take long until a girl comes round to talk to us. Seb explains to me that I have to get a drink to the girl, which I do. She is just chatty and friendly.

After a few minutes talking chit chat, I am thinking this is going nowhere and as I look around the place really is going nowhere tonight.

I ask Seb if he knows other places with a bit more of atmosphere and he does not hesitate. We jump on his pink cab and off we go to another bar somewhere else.

BK traffic at night - meeeeentaaaaaaaalllll

I am more excited about the driving and the speeds we are doing on avenues and highways than actually going to another bar.

Given the funeral is present in everyone’s mind from here on in the script is more or less as follows:

1. Arrive to next bar.

2. Get in, I take a look, there is not much on.

3. I tell Seb to try somewhere else.

4. Off we go, speeding away – yay!

0. 10min later.

1. Arrive to next bar.

2. Get in, I take a look, there is not much on.

3. I tell Seb to try somewhere else.

4. Off we go, speeding away – yay!

0. 10min later...

He takes me to about five or six different bars all over Bangkok and I give him an ultimatum that I really am looking for a party. He promises to deliver.

But he doesn’t and I ask him to take me to my hotel – at least he tried and I really enjoyed the ride. Surprisingly he does not want to charge me anything for the ride but only what I feel I want; so I give him 200 Bhat (US$6.50).

Tuesday 10 April – Switchinternet, Gym, Pool, Tuk-tuk, Thai Massage

12.30am: Seb drops me by the night market not far away from our hotel. Some of the bars that were shut when we were here for dinner are now open. I enter a few of them and have a couple of beers. If they are not dancing tonight I wonder how things look on nights where there is no mourning. I head back to the hotel after a while and think that was a good night all in all – I even got a Swiss watch “made in Switchinternet” for USD10. Note it should read “Switzerland”; it must be a typo, surely.

11.00am: I have a good workout at the hotel’s gym. David comes later too. The view of Bangkok’s skyscrapers around us and, more importantly, the hotel’s 20 metres pool in this gloriously sunny day is quite encouraging.

I was not expecting any sunbathing and swimming here and I take the opportunity with open arms. I love it.

I mean, I am sooooo stressed right now - really. I am... not.

2.00pm: We head off to see the Sleeping Buddha, a mighty golden statue of 50 metres long and up to 5 or 6 metres high: it is ENORMOUS. Famous are his toes too where you can take a photo that catches all of him. Marvellous – good thing they are not smelly either.

Sleeping Buddha - nobody has dared waking him up in years.

We walk around the temple and in the main site Buddhists monks are praying. It is a row of about 10 of them, sat on a long podium in a long row side by side. The first one nearest to the entrance is pulling a light white cord, which is held by all of them up to the one nearest to the sitting Buddha at the back end of the hall.

Monks praying - calm, peace, religion, tradition.

Visitors are allowed to sit down, pray or take pictures. It is the first time I have ever seen Buddhist monks praying, and the singing is quite interesting to me.

Sleeping Dog - nobody has dared waking him up in hours

Back outside it is quite a hot afternoon and we walk around the site and take some more photos. They definitely have their resources to be able to put this place for pray together, in the centre of Bangkok, next to the Royal Palace.

We learn the Palace is shut today all day as part of the two-day mourning. Unlike yesterday night, we are not going to find exceptions to this rule.

3.00pm: A chatty tuk-tuk driver takes us around to a number of sightseeing places for the agreed fee equivalent of US$5. He is quite friendly and tells us that ‘today tuk-tuks no pay petrol, is free, so tuk-tuk very cheap for you!’, which is always a bonus we think, and he smiles broadly.

I'll have the third from left... No, the other left. Thanks

As we visit the Golden Bell, the lucky Buddha and some other places we also have a random stop at a tailor shop:

‘Yes you go there so I can get free petrol, you don’t have buy anything!” and smiles again.

We enter the tailor shop – we are wearing our usual cargo shorts, tshirts, trainers, rucksack and shades, clearly NOT the typical outfit you wear when you are going to buy a suit or a shirt, let alone tailor made. But we play along and are walked through to a small office where the sales attendant shows us some Armani, Calvin Klein and other famous labels men’s suits books.

“This is a bit random” I say to David while pretending to be browsing. He does a good job at browsing and even engages with the fellow about some of the suits and the price.

After about 3-4 long minutes of ‘get-me-out-of-here’ feeling, we agree to move on and David confirms to the guy:

“Actually we are not going to buy anything, we leave tomorrow, but thanks”.

We tell the tuk-tuk driver that we didn’t buy anything –just in case he had not guessed- and he smiles again broadly.

As we set off somewhere else, I take note that tuk-tuks here are SUPER powered – a whole different level to those in Vietnam and Cambodia. They are like go-karts but bigger, and we easily reach speeds of 40-50 mph or 70-80 km/h; I think I’d love to drive one for a test.

Super powered Tuk tuk - they can fly, almost

The city is full of flags of Thailand of the Royal Family, both on streets and public buildings as well as on flats, balconies and shops and bars. There are many posters of the king, and of his sister, in what seems both a combination of public affection for the King and a display of official support.

It is a scorching afternoon and as the traffic starts to build up we are dropped at our final stop: a pier off the main waterfront where we agree a tour of the old canal and back to the main canal for about US$15. It turns out to be a good deal we think.

5.00pm: We are on the long boat, just for us two, navigating through the old canal, and the old Bangkok. It is clearly not Venice, or the floating islands in Vietnam, but it is a good spectacle of houses on stilts, some temples, some schools and healthy traffic of tourists boats and local trading boats.

It is not Venice - but it's got its own edge

As we get back to the main canal we see another HUGE white cloud in the distance. It looks particularly big just as the sun starts to set and the white starts to give way to yellows and oranges and reds – just like the one a couple of days ago in Cambodia. Mother Nature.

Mother Nature - good to see you again.

We see a number of high towers and some skyscrapers whilst the broad river has a good number of tourists boats up and down; similar to the Thames in London in a way, minus the Houses of Parliament, or the Big Ben. Or the London Eye. Or Tower Bridge. As I say, practically identical.

Canary Wharf, with an Eastern touch, sort of

6.15pm: Walking on the pier we’ve just been dropped off at, in front of a high tower of about 60 floors which seems completely abandoned. As we head towards the main traffic road, it is a combination of the Vietnam chaos but with very few motorbikes and more cars and buses – all very colourful, pink, blue, yellow, orange taxis, long red or yellow buses, white or green or black cars- just as on the pathways there are many food places and other vendors.

We take the sky-train – Bangkok’s overground, ultra air-conditioned, ultra-cool and ultra-cold urban rail system- and head towards the main central park in the city.

I notice a funny poster ad of the Angry Birds, promoting some sort of local discount with Visa. They really have done well, those birds...

Angry Birds make you a discount

I see another adidas ad with Lionel Messi, from FC Barcelona and Argentina. Global icon he is – I have not seen one of Cristiano Ronaldo yet.

At the central park there is a public aerobics class where about 200 people are taking part. In no time I have dropped my rucksack and join the lot trying to catch up on the easy steps.

Aerobics - Bangkok - Me - Them - Loved it!

I am clearly the tallest guy around and some of the ladies taking part smile or laugh. Who would have thought I would be doing aerobics in a park in the middle of Bangkok – madness. I hang out for about five minutes just as the sweat breaks off and we continue our walk. That was fun.

A couple sit on a bench just off the park’s lake, and in the distance we see some the financial area skyscrapers, while some small rowing boats float on the lake. It is almost dark and it is a lovely view and a quiet moment of peace in this crazily alive city.

7.00pm: We stop at a street food place. Surprisingly none of the eight or so restaurants serve pad-thai. I mean, we are in Thailand’s capital, and they do not serve pad-thai – we move on.

We arrive at a couple of big and modern shopping malls, north side of the sky train; on the left there are plenty of busy streets and small local markets. As I am taking a short clip, I don’t notice there is a step and a fountain... where my foot goes deep until my knee – you muppet; good thing I didn’t drop my phone too.

We opt for one the malls to have dinner and choose a sushi type of place where we can eat all we want for about US$10. We eat. A lot.

9.00pm: It is our second, and final night in Bangkok. We are feeling tired and sleepy and I opt for a Thai massage in a place near the hotel. For about US$8 I get a full one-hour massage. It is a short little man who is going to virtually torture me for the following 60 minutes.

Here you take the massage wearing a cotton loose t-shirt and loose trousers.

As I lay on my belly on a hard mattress the little man starts to walk up and down my legs and my back, then massaging with his hands pressing hard as in a deep tissue massage.

The pressure becomes pain but you know it is doing good for you, or that’s what you tell yourself. So you just stay laid, not moving, breathing deep and trying to enjoy it – but you can’t... so you just close your eyes and get over it. He then takes me upwards and starts turning my back from one side to another like I did not know I could do.

Crack.

‘Ouch, that was good’ I compliment him – and it was, in a way.

I then am passed to a long comfy chair where he starts a foot massage. Next to me lies a man, probably in his late forties, also having a foot massage. He is also snoring of pleasure. As the little man starts working my legs I understand why but cannot fall asleep. It makes for compelling viewing as I didn’t know I could feel this pressure on my legs.

By the end of it I am so relaxed and tired that I head back straight to the hotel for a good night sleep. A great day in BK.

Cambodia Final 3 days: Mother Nature, Young Kids and a Shark

2012-04-19T18:27:00.001-07:00

Friday 6 April – Relaxed day on the beach

6.00pm: The sun starts to set in spectacular fashion, again, with just a few small clouds in the sky. I spot a big rock on the beach where I sit alone with my beer and phone (to take some smartphontos), to enjoy this gift of a sunset as it deserves.

It is truly beautiful, the blue turning yellow, turning orange, turning red, turning purple; the clouds turning yellow, turning orange and blue and red. The fishermen starting their daily journey in the horizon, boat after boat, men after men. One, two, three... twenty, thirty, forty.

The post-sunset rays

While small wave after small wave arrives to the shore for one last sleep, a tiny, light-green crab of no more 1-2 cm size seems to dance with the waves as it avoids getting wet with their constant arrival to the end of their journey, one after another.

There is a bit of a breeze and I really am taking this moment all in, feeling relaxed, calmed, peaceful... and thankful.

THANK YOU WORLD.

The sun seems to be just a few metres above the sea in the horizon, with a light blue sky above it and a yellow and orange belly underneath. I focus on its reflection on the sand just as the waves go back into sea.

I realise at this moment I used to take sunsets for granted when I was growing up back home, in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain).

Each sunset has its own story, its own life, its own part of drama, love, passion... and its inevitable same end, day after day. And for me, they are at their best when we see them over the sea.

David, Pabs and Christa, who we have met today and is Italian-Canadian, join me on the rock and we cannot take enough pictures of the sun. We are all loving this moment very much.

Once the sun has gone, the show continues as we can clearly see huge, wide and long rays of light in the sky, now with very few clouds. A visual combination of clouds and islands breaks the sky and the effect is stunning.

Mother Nature, you are great.

9.00pm: Christa joins us for dinner by the Serendipity beach. Some young street vendor girls come round to chat to her. They know her from a few days now and act like they are best friends:

Girl, looks under 10: I need your help.

Christa: what’s happened?

Girl: I need you to write “I don’t like you anymore”, she asks, a little upset.

Christa: What? Why do you need me to write that?, responds surprised.

Girl: It is my boyfriend... I don’t like him anymore, responds the girl really disappointed.

Christa: What boyfriend? You are too young to have a boyfriend!

Girl: He is not good any more. And... where is your friend?.

Christa: My friend?? You mean my cousin?? You like him, didn’t you!

The girl smiles first and laughs later.

Christa: He is having dinner somewhere else tonight.

Girl: really?? Why he not here? I want to see him – she says all serious and excited.

Christa, who seems to be handling the situation very well says in a motherly tone: And why are you not in bed at this time eh? You little cute thing... You’d go to bed.

Girl: No, no... –she says in a low voice and changes topic- Can you write that for my boyfriend?

Christa writes something on the girl’s hand and off she goes to show it to her boyfriend. Who the boyfriend in particular was or how much of a boyfriend was it is unknown... But for a very young girl she seems to have lived a lot already – I wonder where she will be in ten years time.

11.30pm: We are at JJs dance floor and it is going off. Mostly tourists around, it is quite hot and humid, sweating a lot. The staff is also international and one of the bartender girls is from England. She came for a couple of weeks and has been here for six months. She doesn’t really know how much longer she will stay, it is an easy life without too many responsibilities “and I get free booze every night”. Noted.

They have some sort of party going on and we get painted in glowing green, pink and orange colours. After a few more cocktails and rocket-fuelled buckets, we manage to lose each other at some point and head back at different times.

Saturday 7 April – Paint, wi-fi and beach

5.00pm: We are by the hotel beach recovering from the night before. The paint does not go despite showers and swims and we still have live traces over our faces and bodies. “It went a bit wild” I seem to recall saying.

After ordering a couple of beers, David gives one of the quotes of the trip so far: “Hhhmmm... The wi-fi goes very slow in here...” says more for himself than for everyone and a touch disappointed.

Now, to picture this, “here” means: by the beach in Cambodia, at 28C, under a couple of nice coconut palm trees, while the very smartly dressed waiter is bringing three cold draft beers to our small table. Behind us there is a little pond, lake with some lake-type plants and flowers, with the nearest building about 50 metres away...

Pabs can’t help himself and adds on “What?! Yes, you are right... Wi-fi goes very slow here... it is crap!” and we all laugh loud.

7.00pm: It is another amazing sunset – I am running out of adjectives- and the light blueish green clouds are beautiful. On a scale of 1 to 10, it is probably a 8.5 as the one the day before was more like a 9. Still, you can’t get enough of it.

One final sunset by the beach... Not too bad.

9.00pm: At a guesthouse pub watching a Premier League football game on a big screen. I notice how some of the guests are on their laptops and iPads typing away – wifi does not go that slow in here... One is watching some video on her iPhone with her headphones plugged. Thank you Steve Jobs.

11.00pm: We are at one of the three bars, and Christa and her auntie have joined us for a few drinks. Turns out to be a great night with some crazy moments, including a massive downpour as a storm finally came our way. It is wild and wet and free. It is Cambodia after all.

Sunday 8 April – Caves, bats and a shark, alive.

11.00am: We say our goodbyes to Pabs, who is leaving for his early flight to Hong Kong tomorrow while David and I hire a taxi for the day. It has been great to see Pableras again and we will catch up in a few days in Hong Kong for the much anticipated Steve and Carol’s wedding.

A little road trip is ahead for us and it turns out to be a great day. Fortunately our driver, Sandar, speaks very good English and is very chatty and polite – like everyone else we have met in Cambodia. He moved here from the South four years ago, leaving his family farm behind. Working part time as a driver and waiter places him in a much better position than staying at the farm.

He also has a three years old daughter and his wife does not work. He has big responsibilities.

Unlike Sankar, our great tour guide in Siem Reap, Sandar did not have to raise any money to marry his wife. It all comes down to each village’s traditions he tells us.

As we drive down to the Kampot area, the road starts to show some of its potholes and lack of regular maintenance and we go sometimes from right to left to right, even at crawling speed. “In the wet season it is a lot worse as you only see the water and then BUM! Big pothole under water” Sandar tells us.

I notice again several volleyball nets as we drive along. It is common with Vietnam and “it is very popular in Cambodia; people don’t have space for football pitch”. It is not beach volleyball, but it is about having fun and playing sports.

12.00pm: Off the road we see the usual landscape of Cambodia, which is very much like the one in Vietnam: humble huts, trees and plants, groceries vendors, kids and people hanging around. Easy life, probably.

I also notice my eyesight is a lot better than in London. I have not been staring to a computer screen for 10+ hours a day, nor watching 2+ hours of TV, in a few weeks and it really makes a difference to your eyes. It is good. Easy life, surely.

1.00pm: We stop at Kampot Market. Whilst similar to most of the other markets we have visited, this one has the peculiarity that its plastic roofs are not particularly high. As in, with my 1.93m, my head is way above and I have to constantly be hunching forward and right to left to right to avoid hitting whatever is on my way.

I am too tall, or am I?

At the same time I feel a different buzz about this place. It is super crowded, busy and loud; it has that combination of smells from fresh to not-so-fresh and noises and people hanging about. Yet it has something a little special. We stop at a sugar cane fresh juice place and get two fresh juices. The machine squeezes the canes in a matter of seconds and, poured over a glass with ice, to me it tastes great. I love my sweet stuff and it’s like tea, without the tea, and a touch of cane with lots of sugar (it may seem obvious, I know).

Local market - local people

The town itself is quite worn out and there’re very few signs that it is moving forward with run down buildings and poor streets and roads. But it is a crazy little place.

2.00pm: We reach the Kampot Caves, which have been there thousands of years - I will not go on about their history but feel free to go on the internet to find out what they are.

A group of five or six young children greets us happily and with great English. The oldest one is 15 and quite tall for the average. His nickname is Justin Bieber, huh?... Another one is called Nam, nicknamed Michael and is 11. There are a few younger girls whose nicknames vary from Vanessa to Jennifer, or something like that. We walk through some rice fields as the caves are about 500 metres away. The kids, as usual, make us the 3 Famous Questions and throw some Spanish words in between like “muchas gracias” or “vamos”. They are good fun.

From left to right: Justin, Sandar, David, Nam and Vanessa

We go up the 200 steps staircase with the kids playing jokes about this and that. As we go up we have a chance to look around and see the rice fields and farms extending for miles, always a flat landscape with some palm trees here and there.

We reach the main entrance to the caves and we are about ten metres above the base and some ten under its great natural ceiling. A combination of stalactites and stalagmites fuse with stones of multiple colours, from white to yellow to cream or dark green.

Main Entrance to the cave from the inside - old man on the right

Our mini-tour guides point to many shapes and figures on the stones:

‘You see, and elephant there’, says Justin.

‘And a butterfly there’ points Nam.

There is also a man-made temple of dark orange stone colour, apparently built around the year 600 or so. It is very tiny, of no more than two metres high by two metres wide. As I enter half my body to look inside it, one of the girls jumps out of the dark inside shouting ‘BOOOOOOO!!!!!’ and manages to scare the hell out of me, while laughing and running away.

‘I will get you back!’ I shout at her as everyone laughs loud, including Sandar who has joined us too.

We look around and some of the kids climb up some of the walls, disappear for ten, twenty or thirty seconds and then appear somewhere else a few metres away. They seem to know the place even with their eyes closed.

An older man who was sitting at the entrance joins us as we decide to go through the caves.

‘It is only ten minutes sir!’ Justin tells us. ‘It is all dark and there are bats. It is fun, you will be ok!’

I am seriously questioning whether I want to do this – I remember my cousin, and I tell to myself he is looking after me from up there somewhere, and decide I will do it for him.

I am not 15 or 11 and I am not 1.50 metres, like these kids... Hmmm...

‘What the hell, this is what we came for’ I tell Justin, without really knowing where were we getting ourselves into. David and Sandar join too.

Off we go and I switch on my little twelve year old in me, the same one that climbed the Siem Reap temples. ‘This could be fun’ I tell myself, reassuringly.

As we drop the first stone and it is pitch black inside, I light up my mobile phone lantern, and so does David. Now, that would be easy if it wasn’t because we had to constantly up and down stones, rocks and small alleyways, and thanks to my height I am feeling a little too big for some of the spaces – it is not the Cuchi tunnels from Vietnam but it is all raw, dark and exciting at the same time.

Justin voluntarily offers to hold the phone for me and the rest of the kids go around us pointing where we should be putting our hands and feet.

‘Hand there Sir... very good. Now foot there, see? There... very good. Easy!’

We have now been walking inside the caves for a few minutes and if it wasn’t for the phones lights it would be completely dark. It is not cold but the air is different. The kids point the phones’ lights to the ceiling and we can see bats flying around at about 10-15 metres above us– we are disturbing their nap time. It is a beautiful view, even though we cannot see much of it, as I stop for a moment to think that this has been here for thousands of years.

THANK YOU WORLD.

The girl from the tiny temple continues to play along and manages to scare me a couple of more times – one as a snake grabbing my feet ‘ssssshhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!’ which I shake off and almost slip while she laughs loud again, as does everyone else.

I am sweating, a lot. It is a combination of the exercise and movements we are making with the adrenaline of doing this and the uncertainty of what is ahead. If we didn’t have the children around, we would have never made it, no doubt. There is a little pond where water from rain remains steady. They tell us there are crocodiles there – we do not want to find out for real as we continue along, thank you very much.

The end of the caves is near and we start to see some natural light, as well as the roots of some of the old trees at the top of the caves. We grab them to go from one stone to the other, over the water – we are not Tarzan but it is fun too. It is good to see that we can also adapt to the environment when we have to, and not the other way round.

After what have been some of the longest 10-15 minutes of my life, we are definitely at the end of the caves. I am completely drenched in sweat, from head to toes, and so are David and Sandar. The older man who was at the entrance has been with us all along but has said nothing. I thank him too for having come with us and there is no need for words.

As we get back to the car, we give the kids a few dollas and they are more than grateful. It was a great little experience and I am glad we did it.

WE MADE IT! Now get me some water!

3.30pm: We stop at a small fish market on our way to the small beach town of Kep.

It is buzzing with small boats bringing fresh fish and women immediately taking it and cooking for sale or eating. We catch on camera the moment they bring a small young shark, still completely alive. The woman, wearing the usual outfit and simple gloves, puts it for a minute on a small cage as she grabs it from the tail. She then grabs it and... 1, 2, 3 and 4 hard slams of the shark’s head on the ground knock it out partially. She deposits it on the cage again and we can see it is still breathing, but not really moving, as Sandar picks it up with some excitement.

From live to cooked in a few minutes - c'est la vie!

‘I have never seen a shark alive’ he confesses.

She comes back and takes it towards the boiling pots where they have crabs, lobsters and all sort of seafood; on her way she bangs hard the shark’s head once again, PUM!, now against a pillar. Now it must be dead.

Within a minute or two she has cleared one of the big pots, makes sure the water is boiling hot and off it goes the shark inside. She leaves it there for another minute or so only and when she picks it up it is completely hard rock, bleeding by the mouth and lungs. Now it definitely is 100% dead.

4.00pm: We have stopped by the small beach of Kep and Sandar surprises us with a great picnic he cooked from 5.00am this morning. We have some salad, fried rice with egg and a lovely barracuda fish cooked with the most delicious of sauces – a bit of ginger, a bit of pepper and many other spices which, if I was a cook, I would be able to decipher; but I am not one, so you will have just to guess.

“So, Sandar, I can tell you. You are not only a driver, but you have showed us around very well, speak really good English and, to top it off, are also a great cook! I am impressed!” I tell him, while he modestly smiles and says “thanks, thanks, it is ok you know”.

“No, seriously, have you not thought about being a tour guide? You would do very well” I tell him.

“Oh nooo, no tour guide. It is very difficult” he responds.

“Why is it?”

“Oh it is very expensive, and I would have to go to Phnom Pem for three months” he explains, assumingly, “and I have my family”.

“Oh really? I didn’t know” I say, feeling slightly sorry for him. “I am sure you would do a very good tour guide. I hope you can do it one day if you want to”.

On the beach, a group of ten to fifteen children of young age play with rubber tyres. It is the school holiday as they prepare to celebrate the Cambodian New Year between 13-14-15 of April, and they love it.

In the background, tens of people doze on the hammocks under cover. It is some sight.

ZZZzzzzzZZzZZZ zzZZZZ zzzzzzZzzZzzzzZZZZ.....

6.00pm: On our way back to the hotel, I become fascinated by one big white cloud in the distance. It is not big, it is HUUUUGE.

Something is brewing...

As the sun starts to set and by virtue of Mother Nature, it looks as if the cloud is a super-slow motion explosion of whiteness suspended up in the air, less than 5-7 km away, with its centre turning orange and yellow, just like if it was the sun itself captured inside the cloud and wanting to escape. It also changes shape and form as we continue to drive. I am in total awe of it.

And the storm will be HUGE

7.30pm: We are reaching the hotel, it is now night and the white cloud has become a massive storm. The lightning is extraordinary and a massive succession of one after another is an incredible spectacle. It is miles away and we can barely hear the thunder as we stop and get out of the car to enjoy it for a few minutes. Unfortunately my phone camera does not take good pictures at dark so you will just have to imagine it.

As we get to the hotel I go on the swimming pool to enjoy the show while having a very refreshing beer. It is an outstanding display and I am enjoying it very much; comparable to watching the fireplace at home in the winter while having a glass of wine, or a Gin & Tonic :)

9.30pm: It is our final and quiet night in Cambodia before flying tomorrow to Bangkok. I look back at the past ten days and I remember:

- The Siem Reap Temples

- The memories of the War

- The green colour of the humble country

- The simple lives and friendly people, with their smiles and ‘one dolla’ deals

- The stunning sunsets and glorious storms

- A couple of crazy nights, with their buckets and dance floors

It has been a great, eye opening trip. Alongside Vietnam, it is very different from what we call developed countries, and yet there is something special which developed countries do not have.

THANK YOU CAMBODIA,

YOU HAVE BEEN GREAT TO US

AND I WISH YOU CAN CONTINUE

TO GROW YOUR COUNTRY

WITH THE BIG HEART AND KINDNESS

YOUR PEOPLE HAS.

Cambodia: Sihanoukville - a great young man, a Japanese couple and a storm 4-5 April

2012-04-15T19:54:00.001-07:00

Wednesday 4 April – Sihanoukville coast, beach holidays start

5.00pm: We are at the Independence Hotel beach; with a stunning sunset unfolding in front of us we have a couple of beers too. The hotel has a history of its own as it was used as both hospital and as a prison during the war. It proudly displays a photo of Jackie Kennedy, who stayed in 1967. It is also isolated from the main beach and busy area of Serendipity, which means we have to take tuk-tuks to go and get there, for $5 – crazy prices for Cambodia. It is not a backpackers hotel but more a 4 *, which at $75 a night for a twin room including breakfast, great facilities and a private beach, is really not that expensive, and we are in for five nights.

Beers at Independence Beach

8.00pm: We are at the Serendipity beach having dinner at one of the many restaurants. They are all next to each other and have plenty of very comfortable wooden low chairs on the sand, just metres away from the water, with clear skies and a gentle temperature. They must have a non-written pact of no competition when all offer great barbecue meals for $3. The fresh seafood certainly looks amazing.

There are also many street sellers, mostly children under the age of around 15. They are part of the landscape and all of them are always very friendly, funny and polite. They may insist once or twice after you say ‘no thanks’, or ‘maybe later’ but they get it and move on. Some say “ok, later yes, you buy from me, yes?” They always ask at least the same three things:

1. Where are you from?

2. What is your name?

3. How long are you here for?

They tend to struggle when I answer question number 2... “A... fons?” “Afono?” “A... sorry, can you repeat?”

In that regard I am used to it as it is the same situation anywhere in the world where a latin language is not their first language!

10.00pm: After dinner we go for a walk along the beach. It does not take us too long to learn that there are basically two main bars and one bar-club, where mostly tourists hang out, drink and eventually take it to the dance floor. We are no exception and after a couple of cocktails we are moving our hips on the dance floor at JJs. There are also fire displays by local young men: they fire up these metre long sticks at both ends and do all these tricks and moves, throwing them up in the air, spinning like mad and catching them before landing. Great skill.

We try the other two places, both are busy, loud and pretty ok – western style all three of them, as music is now global. Somehow we lose each other and head back to the hotel at different times.

Thursday 5 April – A great young man and beach pedicure and manicure, for $4.

1.30pm: Pabs and I take a tuk-tuk into Serendipity beach – there is no point trying to negotiate the $5 fee with the driver as it is a set price. We can lose that battle and walk for about 1hr, or pay it and be there in 10min. After sweating last night’s drinks in the gym earlier, I feel great and look forward to a great day on the beach. David is nursing his headache in the room, quietly.

2.00pm: I have some of the freshest grilled shrimps I have ever had. 4 x $1 and I would have paid more. The cook woman has the most unassuming of portable cooking kits and sits in the shade of a palm tree. Like all women she is wearing long sleeve shirt and long trousers, with a typical hat on. They protect themselves from the sun very much. The shrimps are out of this world too. So fresh, juicy, with a touch of salt and lemon. Love them.

2.15pm: We meet a young seller boy as we walk down the beach, sells bracelets he makes himself. He turns out to be a great young man and here is our exchange:

He starts following us and talking friendly, not selling us stuff or anything, with the usual 3 questions. I then ask him:

“So, what is your favourite football team?”

“Liverpool” he responds.

“Oooh, great team. It’s my team too... but this year so-so, eh?”

“Yes, this year not so good”

We keep walking and he chats with Pableras too.

“What is your favourite colour?” he asks me.

“Red” I respond.

“Ok, I will make you a red bracelet for free, no money”

“Oh you don’t have to”

“Ok, ok, no problem” he responds like it is no big deal.

In less than about 5 minutes he comes round with a nice little red bracelet.

“Wow, that was quick! Brilliant!”

As we continue strolling down the beach we settle at one of the food places on the sand, a couple of metres away from the water. Yung, that’s the boy’s name, is still with us and by now he is like our mini-guide too, he gets the waiter to come round, he tells us his stories and where tourists come from. He is now all of 11 years old and started learning English only two years ago, and speaks fluently, but he modestly say “Oh no I don’t speak very well yet”.

Yung, a great young man and a bright life ahead, I hope

I agree to buy him a dedicated bracelet with some letters in it.

“How much for three letters” I ask.

“Three letters?... That is normally 6 dolla, but for you 5 dolla”

I respond, shocked: “5 dollaaaa??? Are you serious?! Yung I thought we were friends!!”

“Yes we are! 5 dolla is a good price” and smiles.

“Ok, a good price.... I give you 2 dolla. How about that?” I counteroffer.

“Oooohh 2 dolla... No, no, no.... 2 dolla is not good” he responds in this serious, deep voice almost offended.

“Hhhmmm... ok, then... 2 dolla 50 cent” I offer, smiling.

“No, no, no.... Normally 5 dolla but we play a game, if you win it is 4 dolla. If I win it is 5 dolla”. I agree, no doubt he is giving me a good chance and I am sure I can beat him – big mistake.

We play paper, scissors, rock... and he not only beats me, he wins every single round and laughs loud.

I accept defeat, agree to the 5 dolla and we shake hands. He gets on with great skill to make this two colour bracelet and Pabs and I have some food.

I engage in conversation with one of the many manicure and pedicure women walking the beach. She is friends with Yung too – who couldn’t be friends with him- and I negotiate for pedicure and manicure while she sits down next to my sunbed. She is covered from head to toes with their usual light and colourful clothing and the typical hat.

“Manicure pedicure... 8 dolla” she says.

“Are you crazy????, 8 dolla?!?! You broke my heart!” I respond copying the pity face the beach seller in Hoi An had put on me.

“Ok, ok, you give me a numbe” she responds, expectantly.

“Easy, 2 dolla. 1 for hands, 1 for feet”

“Oh noooo, no, no, nooo! 2 dolla no good… You got ten finger and ten toe, see? 1, 2, 3... So 7 dolla good price. You got 1, 2 hands and 1, 2 feet (she says as she points at them)”

“OK, easy then! 4 dolla! 1 dolla for this hand, 1 dolla for this other hand, and 1 dolla for each foot. Good deal for you!” I say smiling, trying to convince her.

She stops for a moment and thinks, hesitantly. Then mumbles something in Cambodian to Yung who is laughing while doing the bracelet.

“Ok, ok, 4 dolla... but we play a game and if I win is 5 dolla” she counters.

“A game?? Aaahh I know what game... I think I’ll pass!”

“Oh no, no... you play, you win, 4 dolla, easy” and she smiles.

“OK, let’s play!”

Four rounds later I have lost again. I manage to draw one round, but otherwise it was never going to be my day.

“OK, OK, I say... 5 dolla it is then!” And she laughs.

While all this exchange is happening, it is a glorious afternoon and we can feel the sun as well as lovely breeze. More sellers pop buy offering good deals.

Pablo, while I was losing at the game, agrees to have manicure and pedicure, done by TWO women at the same time for just 4 DOLLA. And he didn’t even have to play the game! I couldn’t believe this so I turn around to Sang [I think that was her name] who is already doing my toes:

“Two at the same time... 4 dolla?!?!”

“Yes, you were 4 dolla too. But you lost game”, and smiles. I smile too. She had given me a chance.

I give up negotiating a discount and by now Yung is finalizing his bracelet. It looks really good and I ask him about school.

“Yes I go to school in the afternoon. I have to leave at 4. In the day I do this and then go to school, and then home with family”. He is a good boy.

Once he finishes the bracelet he offers to make me a second one at special price:

“OK, I give you 5 dolla” I offer.

“No, no... 5 dolla too bad. See? Normally 3 letters 6 dolla. I already did 4 dolla but you lost game. So two is 8 dolla”.

“Yung...” I say looking at him really serious, “come on man, give me a break. I make you good offer: 6 dolla”

“Hhhmmm.... 6 dolla. We play again. If you win 6 dolla, if not, then 7 dolla”

I am scared to death to play him again but cannot say no. I lose again, easily. 7 dolla it is and I am delighted to pay that.

By now Sang is really making a mess of my toes. I have almost lost one toe nail and she is chopping nails here and there like there is no end. I say to myself it is only my toes.

“Sang... this is not good Sang, this is not good... I am not impressed” I say, half serious, half joking.

“Oooohhh no problem sir, no problem. It is ok, it is OOOOOOKAAYYYY”.

I give up and she finishes shortly afterwards with my toes, almost literally.

We are reaching 4 pm and Yung has to go home to school. He has been truly a great young man and I tip him a couple of extra dolla. I hope he left thinking he had had a good day and I really wish him all the best in life. I have a feeling he will do very well.

Back to my manicure, Sang is slightly cautious after my toes mess... I keep checking on her but when I think she’s doing ok I feel a sudden pain in one of my fingers. She just has cut too much nail. It almost cut my skin but it didn’t however I am staring at about half a nail in my right index finger.

“Sang!!! What happened?!?!”

“Ooohh... so sorry!!! So soooorryyy!!!” she says clearly disappointed.

“I mean... Did you want to chop my finger too?!”

“Oooohh... so sorry!!! It won’t happen again, sorry!”

I wasn’t really THAT upset by it all, after all I was paying 5 dolla (and Pablo 4, hum) and I moved on and told her to carry on “no problem, it is ok, it will grow back, one day!” and I smiled.

Cutting a long story short, she managed to almost cut another two fingers and I was just thankful she didn’t. Pablo on the other (two) hand(s), was looking sharp and all happy. Probably one of the most expensive “dollas” I ever spent, but it was kind of fun – kind of.

6.00pm: Sunset and Japanese couple. Back at the hotel beach watching the spectacular sunset. In the horizon you can see some of the small islands off the coast, there are some nice clouds in the sky which start turning orange, red, blue and even green. You see also the daily parade of fishing boats that go out at this time, every day, to catch shrimp at night, or was it squid, huh?.

It is like a fleet of boats and I count over fifty. They all have similar shape and go from my right across the sun and on to the left, somewhere a few km away from the coast. It is the fishermen life, and they love it.

Beautiful sunset and fleet of fishermen boats

A Japanese couple is also watching the sunset and taking pictures. As I walk back to the hotel I ask them if they want me to take a photo of them and they say yes. It is a good camera, like a Canon or a Nikon. I am no photographer but I like to try taking pictures that tell a story, not only capture the moment. As I look through the camera I see a beautiful story: they are sitting facing the sea and the sun, with their heads turned to the camera, she is nearer to the camera and he is to her left. I see a couple in love, with this stunning background, with a deep, real happiness.

The picture looks amazing, the light is perfect and I want to take more photos. I ask them if I can take a couple more. They smile and, with very little English, say yes.

I play with the zoom in and out, move myself to the side so they are not in the middle of the frame but on one corner. Click. I ask them to look forward, to the sun; the light on their faces is really nice, they only smile a little. Click. She says something to him, smiling, like I am a professional or something, as I direct them to look here or there. I smile. I open the zoom, he puts his arm around her [at this point I am thinking he may be thinking I am just taking pictures of her] while she is relaxed and he is proud. Click.

I could stay there for a while but I don’t want to interrupt their moment any more. It was fun taking those pictures. I make a mental note about investing in a proper camera – there are so many stories to tell out there, every day, any time, anywhere.

9.00pm: we are having dinner at a Cambodian-Swiss restaurant in Victory Hill. It is very quiet around here however the food is very good. There are some old men in some of the places nearby sitting with young local women, there are no young couples and very few female customers. It does not take much to know what they are discussing. I am no judge to decide whether that is right, wrong or something else, however it is what it is. It is also the birthday of the restaurant’s owner girlfriend and we get free cake and sing happy birthday. The place has been running for over 40 years and it is something of a must visit.

11.00pm: the lightweights duo of Pabs and Dave do not feel like going for a drink so I am left on my own as I leave them in the hotel. As I am on the tuk tuk to the Golden Lions area, there is a magnificient storm in the distance. The lightning is outstanding and I can catch a few of them clearly. It is as fascinating and scary as powerful and raw. This is mother nature, I remind myself, and we have very little say. I have a couple of drinks by the beach, talk to some tourists and head back to sleep just after midnight. WHAT A GREAT DAY THAT WAS.

PHOTOS: Cambodia Siem Reap Angkor Wat Temple

2012-04-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

It is so spectacular that I have decided just to have one page on this temple alone.

Click on them to see larger size, and enjoy!

Kids doze outside of Angkor Wat's protecting lake. I want too.

Newly weds having their pictures taken. IT WAS 09.30 AM!

Protecting walls outside, 1,000 years old

Angkor Wat Temple from about 300 metres away

Lovely cycle ride alongside my local temple

Angkor Wat Temple - we are getting closer

We are entering the walls of the temple

One of the MANY walls with stories on the stone

Follow the line please

Now you see me, now you don't

Everyone smiles here, and I wonder why certain parts are darker...

Respect

A picture, within a picture

Library on one of the East or West sides

Palm trees cannot compete here

Stone and Green

Inspiration

View from the centre all the way to the entrance

Now you see me, now you don't

They look after their Bhudas

VERY STEEP stairs... and these are new ones, the original ones are in between the new ones!

I wish that was my view from my window every morning

Golden colours are present in many ways

We felt a lot of respect for the place

One of the many countries supporting the restoration of the temple, well done Germany!

In 1881 someone left his mark. A bit of a shame, or is it?

Thousands of stories on those walls

Great visit, I almost felt closer to heaven

A big forest surrounds the temple

A small temple just down the road....

.... and its monkeys!

DO NOT DISTURB

If you need to know more details about this UNESCO Heritage site, feel free to go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

Saludos!

Cambodia 30 March to 3 April: Siem Reap Temples to Happy Pizza

2012-04-08T07:14:00.001-07:00

Friday 30 March: Welcome to Siem Reap

7.00pm: It has been a lazy afternoon after arriving to Siem Reap, in the north of Cambodia. The thermometer showed 35+ degrees at the airport. Visa and passport control is smooth and if you don’t have a passport picture at hand they charge you an extra 1USD and that sorts it. Total USD21 to get in the country. It is sunny, with no wind and feels sticky. Sweet. David and I head off into the old town, apparently Siem Reap has a decent nightlife. Let’s find out.

9.00pm: We are having dinner on one of the street food places near the appropriately named Pub Street - Pub Street is about 100 metres long with pubs and restaurants at both sides, crucially there is little or no traffic here and pedestrians can cross the street at leisure, kind of; heaven. Street food prices vary between the ultra low USD1.00 for one fried rice with vegetables and chicken, pork or beef, to a budget killer USD1.50 for something similar. As I say, madness. Drinks are also one or two bucks, enough said. We are also sweating, A LOT, and David tells me some people are staring at my eating skills – yes, I was hungry. It all comes in at under USD9. Love it.

10.00pm: We walk around this busy part of town and there are plenty of restaurants, bars and pubs. There are two louder clubs, opposite to each other, and there are two other pubs showing live an English Premier League football match on these large screens – they show the Premier League every day, all day, any time, any where. There are some crazy young kids dancing in between the clubs, tourists love them, and they have the moves – very funny, although one cannot escape the reason why these kids are on the street at this time at night, with no adults supervising them, night after night. We have a few drinks at various spots, all fun and lively but head back at a reasonable time.

Saturday 31 March – Siem Reap Temples Day

10.00am: We arrive to Angkor Wat, the site of the biggest temples in Cambodia. Temples are a big deal here, or at least they were when they were built but for different reasons. Our great tour guide, Uy Sankar, is not only very knowledgeable, takes us around the quieter sides, but he is very funny too and just a few years younger than us; he makes for a very enjoyable visit.

Angkur Wat Temple - the biggest one, simply magnifcient.

Temples were built between the year 950 to 1,185. On average they took around 20-30 years to be finished. That depended on the king in charge and war. It is estimated some 200,000 workers built the main temple of Angkor Wat. Buddhism and Hinduism dominated temples and fought each other for centuries... But for anything else in the history of the temples, please go to Wikipedia, google or just jump on a plane and come over. You will love it.

Back to what we saw: a wedding couple is having their pictures taken in their beautiful white outfits and golden umbrellas, to protect from the sun. It is a another hot morning, some kids doze on the walls of this magnificent monument. There are many tourists, as you would expect, so Sankar takes us around one side, which is lovely quiet and incredibly beautiful.

12.00pm: It is difficult to take a boring picture here. THIS IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND INSPIRING. From the little towers, to the paintings and works on the stone. So many little details, so much history. IT IS TIME TRAVELLING in real life. The place is so huge we spend about two hours here and you know you can stay all day. This is a Buddhist temple, so it all is about going up, closer to heaven. It is very vertical and we have to climb up the steep steps every now and then, fun!

1.00pm: We are looking for Angelina Jolie or Lara Croft, Harrison Ford or Indian Jones. One of them will do. This means we are at the temple where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider. What is so special about this place? It is not only the architecture, the ruins or the colour of the stone. It is also Mother Nature. How trees grow everywhere, literally anywhere... Their roots are so strong they break stones easily and expand everywhere, even grow up hugging first and strangling to death later other trees. There are trees of 100, 200 or 300 years life. Some have fallen recently and broken some more stones. It is a delicate balance between restoring history and leaving history follow its own natural path. This place is simply stunning, it is also Hindu place, so it is more about being horizontal and many small towers – around 32 spread on the ground.

3.00pm: At a new temple we learn that the Chinese Prime Minister, or someone as important, will be visiting the temples tomorrow. So they have gotten rid off the street sellers and built some tents for some speeches, particularly some last minute work is going on at one where the Chinese government has helped restore.

I notice how there are many countries helping restoring the heritage including China, India, Germany or Czech Republic. We all live in the same world after all.

4.00pm: I climb one last temple where local kids are really fast. I tell myself I used to be able to that at their age and it is fun. Here I am climbing this temple of 1,000 or more years old, just like a kid, but a little slower. We also see free, wild monkeys hanging around like they own the place – and who says they don’t. They are so relaxed and calmed you have a feeling they have been here for centuries.

7.30pm: At a hotel near ours to attend an Apsara Dancing show – this is a typical Cambodian dance. In addition to the amazingly beautiful and elaborated outfits, the actual dance is highly skilled. To me it seems like a combination of yoga, on those heavy outfits, with acting and some smiles. We also have a large buffet dinner and I make the most of it with about six different plates.

Outside there is a huge storm unfolding, water and lightning all in serious amounts – but life doesn’t stop here for that, not at all. It lasts less than two hours.

10.00pm: Pub Street, hello: First night proper out in Siem Reap. We have a drink at the Red Piano pub, famous for Angelina Jolie hanging out there when she was filming. It is an ok place but maybe they need to move on from the AJ tagline. Some of the other bars and pubs are a lot nicer. You can hear the louder bars in the distance.

11.00pm: We meet two English girls who live here teaching English to young children at an NGO school. They have been in the country since Boxing Day (26 December) and love it.

Sunday 1^st April – Siem Reap night and more Temples

01.00am: We are on the dancing podiums of one the loud bars. We have had a couple of buckets too. A “bucket” is basically a large container where they throw in the cocktail you have asked, in large quantities. One drink is USD2.50, a bucket is USD10.00. And they prepare them well... It is also an excuse to celebrate David’s birthday, which is on Tuesday. We party for another couple of hours.

10.00am: Sankar is ready to take us for our long day. We are not THAT ready, but as I learnt years ago “ONCE A PROFESSIONAL, ALWAYS A PROFESSIONAL”. So we just get on with it. We have thousands of years of history to discover today. We can sleep another time, or not.

11.00am: There are two main types of homes off the road and they are all are very humble.

Ones are mostly made of metal, tin, plastic and some wood. They are more huts than anything else. Some have also satellite TV, huh? This is a shared sight with Vietnam. The other ones are built on stilts, for the wet season when there is regular flooding. I wonder how do the first ones deal with flooding that time of the year.

Although there some elderly people, most population is under 30 years of age. You can see kids everywhere, free animals everywhere. And it is all green and a bumpy road.

1.30pm: We stop at a small Anti Landmine Museum. It is run by a former soldier, aged today 36. Among the many atrocities of the Civil war, the landmines have left scares for life in the people, in the country and in their culture... We mustn’t forget. But it seems we do in other parts of the world as weapons have been brought from Russia or the USA, and other countries. He tells the story of how he had to shoot, to kill, his uncle a few times from far away, as they were both fighting on different sides... He missed, on purpose, and told his fellow soldiers his sight that day was blurry – he was the best sniper of his squad. Thankfully, his uncle escaped that day and only many years later his nephew told him the story.

WAR, STUPID WARS.

2.00pm: We stop at a local village to take some pictures. It is quite a nice village, with most buildings built on stilts. Now in the dry season people just hang out under their homes in hammocks and on tables.

A few kids spot us and come to sell us their souvenirs...

“One dollar (they say ‘dolla’) sir! One dolla!”

I am getting used to this. It is sad in a way, as kids shouldn’t have to work at these young ages. At the same time, I cannot change that. But I can try to help a little bit. I engage with some of them, try to be difficult offering very little money and asking for many things, to see how they react.

Most are quite sharp and creative. Some are in a different class, they are natural traders, but also great sales people. You forget their age and try to get the best deal. They want to sell you something, a bracelet, a flute, a necklace but what they really want is at least that ONE DOLLA that will make their day a better one. Some give up early, some do not. They are younger than 10 and have been working for years now. I buy two flutes and five bracelets, and received many big smiles in return.

Sankar tells us he did that too as a kid, always trying to help his family. He worked as a little boy every day and then share the money with his family. He then completed his university studies in business and married within two years of college. He also explains how he had to raise an incredible USD5,000 to pay to his fiancé family, before being able to marry her. They have now been married for two years. Kids will follow, one day, he tells me with a cheeky smile.

4.00pm: Floating village: we are on a small boat to visit the famous floating village where over 5,000 people live, or was it families? Either way those are a lot of families. The small, brown water canal takes down to the big lake in about 20 minutes. Life on this canal is busy, with many small, long boats up and down the stream constantly. There are big posts along the way on the dry land, about 6-7 metres high, and we are about 3-4 metres below those posts. Sankar tells us that at the peak of the wet season those posts are covered about more than half, with water.

As we enter the lake this endless aggregation of floating houses and buildings span all over the lake. They have everything they need. From schools to minimarkets, from bars to churches or even a sports centre. I mean EVERYTHING. There are thousands of these floating buildings and life goes around them like in any other village in this part of the world. Interestingly, Sankar tells us that most of them are Vietnamese, but I fail to remember what do they do in the wet season, sorry.

We stop at one of the bars and see some young crocodiles in small wooden cages, of about 1.2 to 1.5 metres long. They sell them when they grow a little more, as you do.

6.00pm: We are back in town and I go for a walk. There is a night market which opens later on, Pub Street is its usual self, including the louder bars. It is a lovely evening and I manage to get lost a few times, before admitting defeat and taking a $1 tuk-tuk to take me to the hotel; it was just around the corner, you muppet.

10.00pm: Watching a Tottenham Hotspur game in one of the loud bars. After two drinks, we feel it is our last night in Siem Reap and get a $5 bucket of some sorts of cocktail. What the hell, why not. About four hours later I am back at the hotel, I think.

Monday 2April – Road trip Siem Reap to Phnom Pem and meet Pablo!

12.00pm: After a slow start to the day for reasons difficult to remember now, we are on our way to Phnom Pem (PP), capital of Cambodia. We are told it should be a 4.5 to 5 hours journey. We will also meet Pablo, aka Pableras or Pabs, a Spanish friend of mine who has been living in Hong Kong for five years now.

1.00pm: One hour in and this IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING. It is like a long straight road down to PP, just the two lines and the shoulder, sort of. It is also a very busy road. Our driver speeds at around 60 mph or 100 km/hr. On an old bumpy road with push bikes, tuk-tuks, motor bikes, cars, buses, trucks, cows, buffalos, chickens, pigs and people going up and down, right, centre or left. I lose count of the times I really come close to screaming or telling him to slow down, while he also smiles when I get tense. But, somehow, NOTHING BAD HAPPENS. Despite our speed, the old road, the ridiculous traffic or the driver handling two mobile phones at the same time at times, we just go along the way. It must be our lucky day.

4.00pm: After a brief stop to have some food we start to find more traffic as we get nearer to PP. The scenery is a combination of green, palm trees, huts off the road, rice fields and small towns. There are also big work roads that go on for more than 20 kilometres. The country is going forward, but I wonder how they will manage to get all this done one day.

6.30pm: We finally arrive to the hotel, safely, in one piece, thank you very much. Not quite the 5 hours but more like 6.5. I wonder how much the bus must actually take when they say it is just 6 hours. And there he is, Pableras, by the hotel pool bar with a couple of beers waiting for us. He has been in PP for two days already and, as the born natural survivor he is, he has been out and about discovering the non touristy parts of town. At first sight PP reminds me of Saigon but with a little less traffic, and crossing the street does not seem as crazy.

8.00pm: The Pink Elephant and its Happy Pizzas. For those of you who may not know, Happy Pizza does what it says, it makes you happy in a good spirited way; it must be the seasoning. It tastes marvellous too, which always helps. I strongly recommend trying this place, just the one small pizza and not the two medium ones we had, if you ever happen to be in PP. Having Pabs around also makes you happy as he comes up with some crazy little stories of what he has been up to in PP, including riding a push bike in the middle of the road, genius. All in all, we have a very happy dinner and an early night as we want to discover the city tomorrow.

Tuesday 3 April – Phnom Pem tour, dull.

12.00pm: My head is still happy from last night though maybe happy is not exactly how it feels. The day starts a little slow, thankfully I am not the only one. Pabs has arranged for a dedicated tuk-tuk driver for all day to take us around. The driver also happens to run an NGO looking after orphan children and seems like a good man. We visit a couple of the civil war related sites which confirm, once again, that WARS ARE STUPID. I will not enter into the detail but you should spend five minutes on it. We also visit the curiously named Russian Market. It looks like the Spanish “Ensaladilla Rusa” and we don’t really know why it is called Russian, but there you go. To me, it is another market.

There really is not much to see in PP otherwise, which is disappointing. I did not know what to expect, but considering it was a ghost town for more than three years during the war – as in they literally destroyed the city and no one lived there- the place really is not a tourist friendly city. They have more important things to deal with for now.

11.00pm: We have an early night and get ready to travel to Sihanoukville on the south coast, it is beach time.

PHOTOS: Vietnam North to South 24-30 March

2012-04-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

Cities, People, Life, Food, Sun and Fun

You may have read the stories in my previous entry, here are some pictures to help illustrate them!! Click on them to see larger size too. Hasta luego!

Saigon traffic... Scooters EVERYWHERE. Now, you cross first; no, you go...


Madness, madness, madness


Coconut juice outside the Saigon main market - I think I paid tourist rate, like VND50,000 (or USD2).

Amazing home made soup for USD1 in local market - with a kick of chilli too.


Presidential palace at night

Street noodles soup after partying until 5am


Cu Chi tunnels - 200km long... Height about 0.70 metres - you get the picture...

Destroyed US tank 1970 - woman tourist (caught at the top) is not included

Tapioca (left) tastes like sweet potato, minus the sweetness - peanuts with salt and suger - and tea. Their diet for 10 years

US tanks in War Remembrance museum - this is only one side of the story

US jet in War Remembrance museum

Architecture is not a priority in this city after 30 years of war - People hanging out in squares and parks in the evenings

From Paris to Berlin... From Paris to Saigon

Typical street food place - they specialize in one dish, come early evening until all is sold. Marvelous.

The Opera house - some clear French heritage, Oui

Carrying and Balancing Skills Downtown Champion March 2012 - made it safely to the other side of the street. without looking.

Hotel in Phu Quoc - great resort

Beer by hotel beach

One spectacular sunset - one of many

Plenty of great fresh seafood in the Night Market

Great dinner - USD10, all included. Bargain!

My left eye said NO THANKS!

Showing us how they take the pearls out of the oysters - bloody simple, and cruel if you ask me!

From oyster to pearl jewel in five easy steps, kind of

From 50,000 to 5,000,000 Vietnam Dong. I will never understand why, oh well.

Sao Beach in Phu Quoc

Sao Beach, as in the postcards

Roads are half started, most of them

Keeping the fish cool in the old fishermen village

Sea horses.... then they dry them out... and the rest if history. Didn't try them!

Old Fishermen town

Women work the paper rice at the port

Port life - universal

Floating fishing house, as you do.

Gorgeous Nature - shame corals were not too pretty, I think

Sea hedgehog (or whatever they are called) - with peanuts. Interesting texture...

Lisa with David, and a pineapple slice.

Yes, its windy!

Back at port after a great day in the sea

Somehow it all looks super fresh afterwards... But not on the spot!

One last swim in Vietnam

One last SPECTACULAR sunset in Vietnam

Our very own private Beach Party - crazy and fun night

Noodles soup at Saigon Aiport. LOVED IT.

Vietnam north to south - 24 to 30 March

2012-04-01T21:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday 24 March – Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh City
(pictures to follow soon, wi-fi goes veeeeery slow here, hope you enjoy it for now!)

11.30am: we head off to the airport and have a lovely soup while waiting to board. It is amazing how something so simple can taste so good. I also order local iced coffee. It is amazing how something so simple can taste so... differently. And so strong. It is caffeine straight into your system; I take only two sips.

02.30pm: welcome to the madness of Saigon traffic. There are scooters EVERYWHERE. It is literally mental. Our taxi makes its way to the hotel in the centre of town and all I can see is a river of scooters from right to left, left to right, up and down.

04.30pm: we set off to discover the city on foot. First challenge: to cross the street. It is similar to go across a slope on a busy piste in the middle of the Alps on a Saturday morning. Only that here it is faster and more dangerous. And people come both ways. The trick is to walk head on straight into it, walking at a steady and slow pace, do not hesitate, do not run, just walk and see what’s coming. They will see you and avoid you naturally. And it simply does. Beautiful. It is amazing how something so simple can be so exciting.

6.00pm: we have a lovely soup in a small place in the local market. They have small stools where you sit and eat it as people walk around you. Markets are markets everywhere: the combination of smells, noise, people, stock and heat is universal.

7.00pm: David reckons he’ll go to bed before midnight, to make the most of Sunday.

9.00pm: we have been looking for a bar for a while and find a karaoke one near the hotel. It is a good venue. Unfortunately the singing is not particularly good. It seems we picked the night where all the hopeless perform. I think I may try too as I would not do too bad in comparison. But I don’t. The bar has wi-fi –every pub in Vietnam so far has free wi-fi- and we look for other pubs to head to.

10.00pm: at another pub we meet a Dutch guy, Kai, 22, who is doing an internship in Saigon. He is with a couple of English expats too. We jump on the back of their scooters and they take us to a nice, trendy club. THIS IS MORE LIKE IT.

11.45pm: Police arrive and the lights go up, but no-one leaves. We hang out. Kai explains to us that this happens very often. After half hour we go somewhere else. In a private booth, three police officers discuss paperwork with the club’s manager. We are told they are discussing the compensation.

Sunday 25 March – Ho Chi Minh City

01.30am: THIS IS MORE LIKE IT. We are at the famous ‘Apocalypse Now’ club. It looks as good as any club in London, New York or Rio as far as I can tell. “And I was going to be in bed by midnight!” remembers David. Tom, the young English expat, 20, is all good heart and very funny, making these flamenco-like moves in my honour. I set off clapping. Tonight is gonna be a good night...

03.30am: We are in this big club somewhere else. The expats have left us. We dance with the locals, they are funny. I am a little too tal for them, they just laugh, a lot. My best Chris Brown moves are definitely nailing it, or so I say to myself.

05.00am: We are having a noodles soup opposite the club. The noodles are not so good. But we are hungry. A man with five teeth comes round and offers his services, including any substance or woman we may fancy. Another woman is also having her soup. She gets on a taxi with a friend and wait for us. We are confused and tell her ‘no thanks’, they leave.

06.00am: We finally call it a day. We have a tour guide booked for 10.00am to go to Cu-Chi tunnels.

12.00pm: After sleeping for most of the 90min ride, we arrive to the tunnels. The scenery is like in the movies, green and wild. We can hear gunfire in the background. Mr Boa, our tour guide, shows us around. I try to fit into one of the hidden entries to the tunnels. It is a very, very small hole in the ground. I can only fit up until my shoulders and there is no way I can physically get in fully. The tunnels span more than 200 km.

01.00pm: We complete a 50 metres tunnel walk in a few minutes. It is not claustrophobic, if you don’t think about it. The local officer walks very fast through it. We follow more sitting on our backside than lunged forward as he does. It is hot too. You can just imagine what was like just forty years before, when they were fighting.

01.15pm: We have had a bit of the food the guerrilla had: tapioca, peanuts and tea. It is not very exciting. They ate only that, morning, day and night for more than ten years.

01.30pm: We fire five bullets each on a AK-47. It is a mighty fire arm. And the noise is incredible. I am rubbish at hitting the target, but the adrenaline rush is surprising. People fire these things to kill or hurt one another. One simple bullet and it is over. I ask myself: why do we invent these things? Why do we need them? We later find out, there were at least more than 25,000,000,000 bullets fired during the Indochina Wars.

03.00pm: Back in town we decide to visit the War Remembrance Museum. There is always three sides to a story: one side, the other side, and the truth. We enter the museum knowing this is only one side of the story. However there some universal truths about the brutalities of a war, the long term consequences on health and about the most horrible behaviours of the human kind, whoever they fight for, whatever they fight for. Why do we need these things?

05.00pm: We walk to the hotel. People hang out on the streets, on the little parks. There are lots of street food places where the chef has a few big pots and small bowls with ingredients and people sit around having their food in peace. For all the madness of the traffic, people are very quiet. We haven’t heard many loud laughs or loud shouting. It is all relaxed, in a way.

11:30pm: After a nice dinner I feel like walking back to the hotel while David takes a taxi. The same market where we had soup the day before is still busy, people buying, people selling. There is a lot of trading. It is a nice walk to the hotel and my body is finally adapting to the local time. What a week that was.

Monday 26 March – Saigon to Phu Quoc

09.45am: I go for a cardio workout at the very basic hotel gym. Views of the city are nice too. Saigon has been very good to us and it’s time to see something else.

12.45pm: As I walk through the Saigon airport departures terminal, once past the security control, I find a mini supermarket. Nothing out of the ordinary if it wasn’t because they sell frozen food... I mean, FROZEN FOOD AT THE AIRPORT for you to carry on the plane??? That has must surely to be a first! I decide I will pass on it, thanks.

2.00pm: We arrive to the Long Beach hotel in Phu Quoc and it really looks something special, with all these little bungalows and wooden work. Great choice. I wonder how much would they charge for a hotel like this in the Mediterranean.

5.30pm: We have a few beers by the hotel beach, which is just a small section of the 22km-long beach called “Long Beach” – original name too. It is beautiful, peaceful and calm. I can like this place, pretty easily. There are also very few guests in the hotel.

8.30pm: Spraying anti-mosquitoes before going for dinner over my arms I manage to get some into my left eye, but it only reacts a little later. While we are at dinner it really burns, my eye has popped as if I had been in a fight and it is not fun. Thankfully lots of water over it and a GREAT DINNER at the Night Market for just the equivalent of £10 (for the 2 of us) makes a difference. It can be very cheap to live in this country.

10.30pm: We walk around town looking for a bar to have a drink. We find two. One empty and the other one emptier. We settle for the emptier one. This is going to be a quiet week. Have a few cocktails and call it a day around midnight. David is glad because he wants to be up early to go talk to the Divers centre.

Tuesday 27 March – Around Phu Quoc

09.15am: I wake up after a great night sleep. Cannot miss breakfast, whatever they have in store. David is still asleep.

1.30pm: After a couple of hours on the hotel beach we set off to discover the south of the island with a hired driver. Four hours, for £18 or USD25 in total, and two bottles of water. In London a taxi from Piccadilly Circus to Wimbledon costs me £30 or more. You know what I mean.

First stop is a pearl factory: we see how they take the pearls out of the oysters, interesting yet so simple. We can see hundreds of pearl-jewellery. I cannot yet really see the real value in them but for some reason women love them. It is one of those things that differentiate men from women, we like watches, women like pearls, and diamonds, sort of. Yet one can appreciate they have something intriguing about them. Fascinating too is the price range from 500,000 Vietnam Dong (about £15) to 150,000,000 VD (£4,500) for two very similar necklaces.

2.30pm: We arrive to the lovely and quietly impressive Sao Beach, in the south tip of the island. It is simply beautiful. Other than an eight-room eco friendly hotel, there is not much built. Water is crystal clear and the white sand is so thin it is almost ticklish. Unfortunately the bar we sat at loves loud Vietnamese dance, hardcore music. It gives it a different touch I think. A walk along the beach reveals a truly gorgeous beach. So simple, so good.

4.00pm: The roads this side of the island are mostly half-started. It seems they have big plans to build some sort of highway, but there are very few workers and machinery and equipment seems abandoned at times. It makes for fun 4x4 driving though. Coincidentally we see only a handful of scooters and motorbikes around. We also see how many families and villages are basically built with huts, made of covers and metal, but not particularly solid. I wonder how they must be in the wet season.

4.30pm: We visit an old fishermen village. It is a great combination of chaos, food, trade, energy, peace and old and young generations. There are road works, there are building works, there are kids coming out of school, and bikes of course up and down. There are tens of boats and houses living just off the sea. Time seems to have frozen in some parts. And people are lovely and smiley. You can smell the fish too. They keep it cool in these pots with water, from crabs to fish or squid and sea horses. We see too they eat dried sea horses. We do not try them.

5.30pm: Walking up the famous water falls in the middle of the island we cannot see much water falling. It is the dry season after all, but this jungle-like trek is quite fun. And humid, and sweaty. It reminds me of some parks back home, minus the humidity. I love it. Is this were Rambo hung out back in the day?

6.00pm: Back at the hotel I go for a manicure and pedicure. It is not as good as it has been in other places, which disappoints me, but it is still ok. If only all problems were like this.

9.00pm: We have dinner back in the Night Market. We choose a different spot and again it is all outstanding. It is a little pricier than yesterday, we also had crab and a couple more beers: it goes up to £15 for the two of us. Madness.

11.30pm: Back at the hotel after a nice relaxed evening.

Wednesday 28 March – around Phu Quoc, and our beach party

12.00pm: I arrive to the hotel beach while David left early in the morning for his day diving north off the island. The sun is out and it is hot, which always is anyway. I am ready for relaxing day on the beach, as I have not had a “lazy” day yet in these holidays.

4.00pm: I go for a 45 minutes full body massage on the beach, just a couple of metres from the water, for an astonishing £2.50. This is so good it cannot be real. BUT IT IS.

7.00pm: David and I have been making the most of the “happy hour” at the hotel’s beach bar and we feel like having some more beers, dinner can wait. The day diving was so-so as there was not much visibility apparently, but still is good to discover that side of the island. Whilst another outstanding sunset takes place in the background a woman is video conferencing on his mobile phone with someone in what seems is Japanese language. Global world, hello. Ten years ago that was simply not possible, let’s see where we are in another ten.

8.00pm: We continue at the bar, or more like we have taken temporary possession of the bar. We have talked to the daily band of one lead guitarist, Mr Dyung, and three singers, Abee, Camila and Vanessa – or something like that, sorry I cannot remember all the names. They are all from the Philippines and have been contracted for two years to perform every night, except Sundays if it is not busy, for 4 hours. They are paid USD500 a month, which is a very good salary for Vietnam. The audience the first night was about eight people, including us two for an hour or so, pretty much the same story the night before. And I assume pretty much every night now that it is the end of the high season.

8.30pm: We start to request songs and more songs. From Lady Gaga to Michael Jackson, from Rihanna to Adelle or Madonna. They cannot quite deliver the notes, but I cannot fault their enthusiasm. Their dance choreographies are fun too. The scene includes David and I dancing on the sand in front of the stage. Two couples and one single man having dinner. Noone else.

9.30pm: Two German girls from the resort next door who were walking on the beach join us. We have now a full private party going on. Our attempts to mirror their choreographies will not win us any dancing awards, but we don’t care, they love it and laugh; this is our beach and we love it.

11.00pm: It is the end of the performance from the Philippines Golden Four – I cannot remember their band name but that will do just fine. They have sung virtually everything we requested, apart from sometimes when they put strange faces with requests for David Guetta or Chris Brown tunes. We try to plug our iPods and iPhones to the sound system, but fail miserably. The hotel staff is starting to close the bar and we order a few more beers.

Thursday 29 March – Around Phu Quoc, snorkling and more

12.35am: Swimming in the sea at this time is always special. If you are in a stunning beach, by your hotel, after a private party for four, staring at a starred sky with very little artificial light contamination... then it is something at another level altogether. That was some evening.

08.35am: We join a group of tourists for a day boat trip including three stops to go snorkling and one at Sao Beach. They also throw in an unannounced stop at a pearl shop... Dude, you cannot get enough of the things. They love it.

10.30am: We arrive to the port of Phu Quoc. It is being redeveloped and in the next two years it will become an international port, tells us our tour guide, provided they are able to make all this chaos come together at some point. There are cranes, trucks, workers, fishermen, fishing boats, fish loads, women working the fish everywhere. There is also noise, fish smell, heat, bikes. It is ALIVE.

His English is limited but the tour guide is a lovely chap in his early 20s who always starts his indications by saying “Everybody...”

Example: “Everybody, listen. Now we will arrive to the port. It is very important, very important, that you follow me. You have to follow me to the right boat. Because it is very easy, very easy, to go to wrong boat. Everybody understand? Ok, follow me”

11.45am: We arrive to the first stop for snorkling of the day. A beautiful small island somewhere south off the main island.

“Everybody listen to me. We arrive to first stop for snorkling. Now I am going to give you your equipment. It is very important, very important, that you look after it well. It is very expensive to replace so be careful. This is the first coral stop. It is very beautiful. You have forty five minutes, four five”

I have not seen corals live before so I am quite excited about it. However it turns out to be not as exciting as I thought it would. It seems to me most of the coral is dead or worn over. I cannot see any bright red, pink, yellow or green corals the like you see on the BBC or National Geographic documentaries. It is mostly a general dark orange-yellow aggregation of many shapes and surfaces. It seems these shores have seen their better years a while ago. It is a shame.

Thankfully though there are still fish, plenty of them. Of many shapes and colours, playing between them, picking on each other. Not always the big one wins. It is very funny; and it makes you realise how much live there is under water.

We are 3/4s of water in this planet. We only can live on 1/4 of the surface of the Earth and we are nowhere near to have presence on every corner of land. And look at what we are doing to the planet. Where do we stop? And, more importantly, will we stop?

1.00pm: “Everybody this is the second stop for snorkling. You have thirty minutes, half hour, thirty minutes, half hour”

This is pretty similar to the first one. I focus more on the fish than the coral. I have given up finding stunning corals. Fish are fun and crazy. There is one in particular who seems to want to play with me – that, or he/she is protecting something. I guess I will never find out.

1.30pm: We are having lunch, all 20 of us, around the table in the lower level of the boat. We try some local shell food thing, which is interesting, a bit like a sponge – minus the Fairy. The rest of the meal is good enough. I remind myself I have only paid USD17 for a full day including transport, equipment, boat, food and sightseeing along these islands. That is not too bad in my experience.

One of the guys is with his wife, children and parents-in-law. He is English and runs a school in Saigon. They moved three years ago and love it. Children on this side of the world are so respectful and polite, willing to learn and study. Western children should learn from them.

3.45pm: After one final stop on the water, we arrive by bus to Sao Beach, which remains as spectacular as two days before. We wonder whether it will be the same in five years time. We are enjoying ourselves the moment so much that we decide to skip the bus back and stay on the beach until the sunset. On the boat we have met Lisa, a world traveller, currently living and teaching English in a small town south of Saigon. She stays with us on the beach and tells us some of her stories in Vietnam. We also see the two German girls we met the night before. It is a small island after all.

6.00pm: The sunset is again spectacular. It is our last sunset in Vietnam and I cannot have too much of it. The local kids play on the beach with jet skis they hire to tourists during the day. Or play with a football, or run around chasing each other, and laughing loud. In that aspect, they are more similar to Western children when it comes to play. There is still hope.

7.15pm: We are back at the hotel after a taxi ride. It was the first dark night ride and the roads are at times even scarier. But the driver never hesitated once. Life in the villages we drive through at night is quieter, but everyone has the TV on. Hut, friends, and satellite TV. Simple life, like it.

9.00pm: We join our favourite Golden Four on the beach. We don’t have as much energy as the night before but we will have a good time.

10.00pm: We are dancing again after a decent dinner. Lisa and the two German girls have joined too. A German father and son also join us. We are having fun. One last night in Vietnam, dancing to live music, on the beach, with a starred sky... It cannot get much better than this.

11.00pm: It is the end the show but it is “David’s Cube” show time. It is a mental game David has mastered over the years which implies visualizing a number of objects that he tells you, and based on that, he will tell you things about your personality, your friends and even love life. It is a great game and everyone loves it. I played it once already and despite knowing what was coming I still pictured the same things again in pretty much the same shape, colours, size and positions. The human mind can be an amazing machine.

It turns out most of us gave, more or less, very popular answers and descriptions. Elmar and his father however both came up with two things Mr Cube had not heard before, which is interesting. We are all different after all.

Everyone has a good time with the game and we order the final round of beers.

Friday 30 March – Bye bye Vietnam, hello Cambodia

12.30am: The Germans are gone and the three of us sit on a sun bed by the water with a final couple of beers. It is a great ending to what has been a fantastic week in Vietnam. I knew very little of the country until now, and I leave with a great sense of respect for their people, their will and their commitment to succeed upon adversity. I will remember their smiles, their motorbikes and their organised chaos apart from the natural beauty of the place.

In the very few occasions that we tried to talk about politics with the locals, invisible clouds came up and their English become less confident. It is not for us to judge what happens in reality.

As far as I can see, this country is going forward. Despite the obvious poverty we see of people living in this simple and volatile huts off the roads, the dirt everywhere or the lack of proper roads, it seems people get on with life everyday with excitement and passion. It may not be as sophisticated and big as developed economies, but they have the same 24 hours of each day and they live them to the full. I hope they can protect their natural resources and continue smiling every day.

07.35am: We jump on the shuttle bus to the airport. The roads are already busy with traffic. Food places are open and people are having their breakfasts or just hanging around, some are taking naps too - madness. It is 32 degrees too and it will be another hot day in Phuo Quoc. We will not know what is going to be like, but we have a pretty good idea. And if I am right, it will be another great day in the little island. Cheers to that.

12.30pm: I am having some outstanding noodles at Saigon Airport. These ones are a Singapore recipe and for all I know they are delicious. So simple, so good. We board shortly to Cambodia, to Siem Reap. Ten days in that country await, let’s see what they have. For now though THANK YOU VERY MUCH VIETNAM, GOOD LUCK AND KEEP IN TOUCH.

18-23 March: London - New York - London - Singapore - Hoi An - Vietnam (in 5 days)

2012-03-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is the summary of my recent London - New York - London - Singapore - Hoi An trek, which I did between 18 and 23 of March. More daily recaps will follow shortly. Please bear with me if the writing is a bit patchy at times. I hope it can get better as time goes by. And if you have any comments, please share!

New York to Asia 18-22 March – notes, thoughts and stories

New York time: GMT-4hrs

London time until 24 March: GMT

London time from 25 March: GMT+1hr

Vietnam and Cambodia time: GMT+7hrs

Singapore time: GMT+8hrs

Sunday 18 March – London and New York

12.00pm: flight London to New York for meetings Monday 19^th.

8.30pm: great burger and fries dinner in NY with a friend in south Manhattan. The meat was just outstanding. Three large HD screens show NCAA March Madness.

11.30pm: bed time, big day tomorrow.

Monday 19 March – New York

5.00am: awake, can’t sleep, try to.

6.00am: awake, can’t sleep, try to.

7.00am: I am out of the door to see NY wake up on a Monday morning. Clear skies, the sun comes out slowly. I grab a coffee at Starbucks by the Empire State Building.

New York around Times Square at 8am

8.00am: I continue my walk down to Times Square, where they are shooting Good Morning America. Apparently a famous girl-band is the guests. Tens of teens scream, constantly. Their mums scream at the host. I don’t know her name but she is a tall, slim afro-american and very confident woman.

9.00am: I get a sneaky peak of Central Park. It has been a dry winter apparently and are no signs of spring blossoming any time soon. The sun is higher. The traffic volume too.

10.00am: I do some stretching in my hotel room to take some of the stress out. The hour goes by slowly.

11.00am: I am off for my day of meetings in a slick suit and tie, or so I think.

12.15pm: I am having lunch with one of the people I am meeting. I am also staring at a giant chicken avocado sandwich, with fries. Approximately two litres of coca-cola, with ice, is brought by the very attentive waiter in the space of 30 minutes.

12.45pm: we finish lunch, tip accordingly and continue.

2.45pm: I have finished my 5 meetings. I think it went well. My brain is running on reserve though, jet-lag is hitting home too.

3.15pm: After wandering for a bit I settle at a low key Starbucks to sit back and gather my thoughts.

New York life, right there

6.45pm: I do some more wandering around, admire the life and energy of this city and take a taxi to the airport for my 10pm flight back to London.

New York taxi view from inside, special

Tuesday 20 March - London

5.15pm: I wake up on my couch after a 3 hour siesta. I don’t know where I am but make some coffee and head off to the gym, I need a run. Do a 45 min cardio session. I sweat, a lot. I feel alive again.

Wednesday 21 March - London

07.30am: I catch up on my Portuguese lessons for 90min. With YouTube and an Assimil language course, I feel I can learn the language properly in a couple of months. Muito bom.

10.00am: Off to the gym. Last big 60 min weight session before Asia. I push my self and do 65 min. Marvellous.

9.00pm: at Heathrow T3 about to board the Airbus 380 to Singapore. It is my first time in this mammoth of an aeroplane. It is so big I ask myself ‘can this really fly?’ I find out later that it definitely can.

Thursday 22 March - Singapore

7.00pm: I am walking in awe through the Singapore Airport arrivals terminal. I ask myself ‘why is that in Europe we like to make airports so small when we have even more space than here?’. It is a great piece of long-term planning.

8.00pm: I set off from my hotel to discover the city.

8.30pm: I am lost. I ask a European looking couple how can I get to the city centre. “Basically you came the wrong way. Go back to your hotel and walk by the river”. Aha... that right should have been a left.

9.00pm: I am back at the hotel, find the river. Now we are talking. And sweating, a lot. I settle for a nice looking bar by the river. They do not have Singapore beer. They do not have Singapore food. I give in and order Asahi beer and a mini burger, and chicken wings. Not my proudest dinner.

Asahi beer in Singapore - cool bar too, poor food!

10.30pm: I walk along the river to digest the dinner. Lovely nightlife. And plenty of restaurants, with local food. I am amazed as how modern and clean is everything. It is humid too.

Singapore by night

Friday 23 March – Singapore and Vietnam

12.30am: I switch off my phone and try to sleep. Got a 7.55am flight to Vietnam. Wi-fi hasn't been working at all so I cannot instant message with friends and family for free.

3.30am: I am wide awake. Body clock is all over the place and it would not listen to me. I turn my phone’s 3G connection on. Among several WhatsApp messages there is one from my mate Steve. I am attending his wedding in Hong Kong in three weeks time. He wrote to me at 12.35am that he was in some club. In Singapore.

3.35am: I text him back to check the status.

3.42am: ‘I got my arm broken by a very aggressive bouncer’. I laugh out loud. Some things never change.

4.40am: After debating by text whether to meet or not I jump on a taxi to go to his hotel. I need to see his arm. And I’d also like to see him too. I am honoured to be one of the ushers at his wedding and have not seen him in more than two years. Four days ago it was also his epic stag do which I could not attend, there were several 'casualties' too. We speak quite regularly, mostly usual nonsense trash talk, but he is one of those friends you know you can always count with, any time, any day, for whatever that may be. I am lucky enough to have a few of those.

4.54am: After asking the taxi driver to get me to Steve’s hotel as quickly as possible I agree with him to pick me up at 5.45am to go the airport. He seems confused but says yes.

4.57am: I am outside Steve’s room. In his usual loud, exaggerated Spanish-like accent he shouts some Spanish-sounding words, which I cannot understand. It is good to see him. I enter his suite-like room and get lost between the living room and the two bed room, two bathrooms. I spent £100 in a really not spectacular hotel for a room I barely spent any time in when I could have crashed with him. Schoolboy error. We curse each other for not having coordinated better but still it is great that we actually have met.

4.59am: we start catching up. I laugh so loud at one of his stories that I am crying. I am actually crying and hyper ventilating. The things you have to do some times.

5.50am: After a great chat, I am good to my common sense and make a move to get that taxi. I have a 7.55am flight to Hoi An in Vietnam. If I hadn’t checked in my luggage from London all the way to Vietnam it could have been a different story. Steve has a day of meetings ahead. I wish him luck with that.

6.30am: the taxi driver drops me off at the airport. He has been telling me funny stories about women in Vietnam. I am not sure what to make of that, but he was laughing all the time. I laughed too.

7.30am: we are boarding the flight. I got lost twice in the airport, good thing I had time. It is such a big airport.

9.00am: I am trying to sleep on the plane. I can’t. My body clock really has its own life nowadays. I realise I have had aeroplane meals at least one a day for the past five days. Singapore Airlines was the best. Virgin Atlantic the most forgettable. I am landing shortly in my fourth country, also third continent, in the past five days and I am not even working. I am loving this moment. Very much.

11.30am: I take the taxi to the hotel. Roads are decent enough. There are scooters everywhere, and they go fast. Particularly at the roundabouts. There has just been an accident a scooter lies still under a van, at a roundabout. There is no driver, and no blood either – hopefully they are ok.

12.00pm: I meet David, my travel companion for the next month, at the hotel and head off into the old town. The city of Hoi An gives you immediately that feeling that you have travelled back in time. There is a floating peace about the place. Most buildings are yellow, the locals smile at you, and it is all calm and relaxed.

Hoi An old town

There are bikes EVERYWHERE

3.30pm: I have an outstanding cheese cake at a cafe overlooking the river. The French left good cooking tradition in the country. We continue walking around. It is a beautiful lovely town.

They carry it all day, and the smile too

Peace and Calm in Hoi An

Hoi An river - plenty of life

5.30pm: We are on the beach and I just wake up from a short but immensely gratifying snooze. The beach goes on for miles, simple and beautiful. We meet the girl with the biggest smile of Hoi An, she also wants to sell us souvenirs. After a lot of haggling and bargaining, I agree to buy a few items for something like 10 US Dollars. I may adopt two of her selling lines: “you’ve broken my heart” (when I counter-offered at 60% from her first quote) and “buy another one! Lucky number three!”

Biggest Smile in Hoi An

10.30pm: We go for a few drinks and meet people from Australia, Germany, France and Norway. Locals do not go out, not at least where tourists go. Locals take you around though and we discover a few bars around town. It is a decent night out.