Dubai

A brief stop in Dubai. Typical business trip. Arrive at 11pm on Sunday. Meeting on Monday. Boozy dinner. Fly out at 2.30am. Get a glimpse of that, a taste of this, and an impression of the touristy ex-pat bits and away we go. We did stop at the window to listen to the muezzin's call for prayer (salat) that echoed from a local mosque's minaret across the city - a powerful and beautiful moment.

Not much time for pictures. But here's what could be managed.

I was SO grateful

Well, maybe not grateful that Christopher had kept me out until 3am the night before, but grateful I could celebrate a meal with Jess, Trond, Ben and Tim. Friends who make this London adventure much more bearable, champagne-soaked and immensely fun.

And now, my liver needs a rest.

Namaste!

I spent four days in Mumbai for a conference. The Grand Hyatt was luxury. I marvelled at the food, especially the dal which Shweta laughed was a common staple anyone in India could make. Drank martinis in the lounge bar with a glamorous Bombay crowd. Ate lobster and an unusual stuffed pancake in the Chinese restaurant. But it was a citadel and I knew not a genuine experience of Mumbai.

Images of Mumbai

So I spent a day in South Mumbai, mostly around Colaba. It was overwhelming. The people, the noise, the traffic, everything is shambolic chaos. It's tropically beautiful, green, colourful, bursting with life. People spill out of stalls into streets diving between cars and buses. The traffic is heartpoundingly aggressive. Ibrahim, my chauffeur was very brave. I only once or twice shrieked when we dove in between cars. Ibrahim, unnecessarily apologising for his excellent English, gave a running commentary of the city, and his life in it supporting his six siblings. Without him I would know almost nothing about what I saw, so I was very grateful.

The city is crumbling, tropical, beautiful and heartbreaking. There are so many people living on the street on mats, sleeping in cars or in built up slums. Makeshift shelters are strung over anything available. Families bathe on the streets. The poverty is distressing, humbling, challenging. I lasted five hours before it exhausted me. It reminded me to be grateful for so much we take for granted.

What did I manage to see? The Gateway of India. Marine Drive. The Taj hotel. The national museum. Jain Temple and the house where Mahatma Gandhi lived.

It's a vibrant place - the colour, the music, the commotion. I won't soon forget it. I hope I never will.

Testing

New domain host, new hosting server, new new new

Home

Is where my stuff is. And today my stuff is in London, with the routines and the complacencies and the discomforting familiarity. And a head fogged with jetlag and a body yearning for another time zone and the tastes for other cultures and sights.

So I'm back from Asia. From days in stunning Tokyo and steaming Singapore. I wanted to go for so long that I can't believe I've been but with the jetlagged brain I can't believe a lot of things at the moment. I'm confused and dazed and overwhelmed by trying to describe the experiences. From the instant camaradery with clients and colleagues thrust into social situations and shared travels to the things I wanted to file and remember and tell about what I learned.

It felt effortlessly brave to wander and do it all. Armed only with a handful of Japanese phrases and a camera. And perhaps more brave to jump in and join the social swirl of people I didn't know. Shy, painful, awkward but enjoying it nonetheless - the creating memories from extraordinarily imposed familiarity.

So I can't describe it. Not the contradiction of Tokyo - crowded, teeming and yet peaceful and calm. Or the equatorial heat of Singapore with its jungle green and gleaming new architecture. The postmodern consumer spectacle and the zen-ness of temples or colonial-ness of hotel verandahs. Maybe someday. But not today. The pictures crowd and fight for meaning and I'm too weakened to find the thoughts or the words.

The night before last we went to Roppongi (a 'slightly seedy, bar-packed' part of town) and sang karaoke in ridiculous costumes. Everyone got into it (the beer and sake helped) but none moreso than the japanese. It was wonderful to see how they threw themselves into having fun in karaoke. I wowed the crowd with a Sinatra song that I hadn't planned on singing, but have now apparently made legendary.

The nightlife here is crazy. We were out with the clients quite late (well, until sunrise) and I still managed to get to the workshop the next day in one piece and seemingly intelligent. I think this is going to be a great account to work on. We didn't go out the first night and got a lot of flack from them so we went barhopping after karaoke and got back to the hotel at 5am. So we know have a reputation of being the cool kids. Luckily, we were with the clients! The bars are usually quite small, but bright, colourful, with karaoke machines and video games that groups can play. It's all very sociable. And there's little
streetcrime here so people feel safe. It is a bit disconcerting, however, that the Japanese businessmen are so formal and polite during the day, and so carefree and drunk at night.

There are an estimated 400,000 vending machines in Tokyo. One for every 20 people. One can buy everything from a vending machine, including hot lunches, but be careful - they estimate that one in 10 would fall over in a 7.0 earthquake. The proliferation of gadgets, especially mobiles that do everything in amazing. People are starting to pay for goods and travel by swiping their mobiles making queues virtually disappear. Going shopping today, looking forward to the gadgetry.

Blogger has defaulted to Japanese, so who knows if this gets posted.

Last night I had a hamburger the size of my head. Not on purpose. We needed something to eat after G+Ts in the bar with the client but it was seriously the size of my head. So far Tokyo is amazing. So far, however, I've not left the hotel. We arrived yesterday at 2pm, went through our presentations had a nap, drinks, dinner and back to the room. It's grey and cloudy. The people are immensely polite. There is a beautiful women in the lobby in a kimono whose job, from what I can tell, is to wipe the keypad of the lift before you press any buttons. They are obsessive about cleaning, and it shows - everything is immaculate.

But I know I've not really experienced Japan yet. We're out and about today for a little bit so will get to see it then.