Ultimate Travel Experience

“Then there was the bad weather” is the opening statement in Ernest Hemingway’s novel ‘A Moveable Feast’ about life in Paris in the twenties. I was in Paris in August 2003 and the weather was bad. However, it was not about the rain that Ernest Hemingway described in his novel. I experienced the worst heat wave in Europe while I was in Paris.

My journey to Paris started from London traveling on Eurostar. I chose the famous Eurostar to experience the high speed train journey from London to Paris. I was so disappointed when I heard the announcement through the public address system on the train that we should be expecting a delay in arrival due to the decrease in speed. There was a fear that the rail track will bend due to the heat wave that was sweeping across Europe. The train could only travel at 90 mph instead of the usual 150 mph.

Upon arriving at Paris train station, I looked for Paris map and got myself out from the station to check into the Paris hotel at District 1. This hotel was one of the many small Paris hotels that I could afford within District 1. The lift was so small that only two person and their luggage could go in. To my horror, this hotel did not have air conditioner in the room. Many hotels in Paris did not have air-conditioner because the weather has never been so hot before. I was hoping the weather would be cooler in the evening. Unfortunately, everyday was very hot . Each night, I had to take a shower before I sleep. The next morning, I would wake up by 6AM because I was already sweating on the bed. This routine continued on everyday until I left Paris.

The heat wave in Paris forced tourists like me had to change our travel itinerary to escape the extreme heat. Perhaps, I should say adapt to the extreme heat.

On the first evening, I went for Moulin Rouge ‘Femmes’ second show which ended close to midnight. When I walked out from the Moulin Rouge theater, I saw the billboard showing the temperature was 39 degrees Celsius. I have never experienced such hot weather in my life and this was midnight in Paris.

Strolling along Champs-Elysees was not as fun as I would expect. Champs-Elysees was almost empty. People were not strolling on Champs-Elysees because it was too hot. The road side cafés were empty. The cafés were empty. No one seemed to be keen to enjoy the best coffee in Paris. Ice cream parlors like Hagan Daaz were cashing in on the hot weather. Customers were queuing to buy ice cream to cool themselves. Many enterprising youths took the opportunities to make some money by selling cold mineral water by the roadside. Occasionally, I saw policemen chasing these people. However, these youths were saviors to tourists who were suffering in the hot summer.

On Seine River, the cruise boats had very few passengers. I did not take the Seine River cruise as the weather was simply too hot. With the sun light reflecting off the water in the river, the heat was simply unbearable.

Murphy Law struck at times like this. I wanted to visit Arc de Triomphe and was all ready to take the lift to the top. Unfortunately, the lift was under repair. I had to walk up the narrow stairway to the top. It was so hot inside the stairway. There were so few people on top of Arc de Triomphe due to the heat. People were standing under whatever shed they could find on top of Arc de Triomphe. I was amply rewarded with the magnificent view of Paris. The view was simply awesome. However, it was so hot and the sun was literally burning our skin.

Unfortunately, I spend this hot summer in Paris. Nevertheless, I will return to visit the Paris that is full of romance.

Tags: Europe · Sightseeing · Travelogue

I checked out from the hotel in Naples in the morning and drove to Pompeii. I planned to visit the famous ruins of Pompeii and drove on the famous scenic Amalfi Drive.

The volcano Mount Vesuvius erupted 2000 years ago and it completely destroyed and buried Pompeii. A few meters of ashes completely covered Pompeii until it was discovered in 1748. Since then, Pompeii has become a famous tourist attraction.

I spend the whole morning exploring Pompeii. It was amazing to see how a volcano eruption could cover a town completely. The excavation work is still on going. More historical things are being dug out from the ground. In the next few year, I am sure there will be more things to see.

After having lunch at Pompeii, I started my drive towards Positano and Sorrento. This is the direction for Amalfi Drive. The drive was one of the most interesting and scenic places that I have driven. Not only was this place nice, it was challenging. The road was build on the slope of the mountains. Navigating along the narrow road was a challenge itself.

Along the route, I could see Mount Vesuvius on my left and Isle of Capri in the Gulf of Naples on my right.  The road was so narrow. Driving southbound meant driving near to the edge of the cliff. The fear of dropping of the cliff was always there. Whenever there was a bus or a lorry at any bend, traffic from the opposite side of the road had to stop and reversed to make way for these vehicles to pass through.

The houses along the route were built on the steep mountain slopes.  This made the route nice and interesting. One of these towns is Positano. Seeing that Positano was such a nice and quaint town, I stopped over for tea. Positano is such a nice place that is was featured in the movie ‘Under The Tuscan Sun’ in 2004.

One of the most famous products along the Amalfi Drive is ceramic. The local families took pride of their family designs and creations produced beautiful ceramics. These beautiful pieces of ceramic are used as decorative items as well as for dishes. I took the opportunity to walk around Positano to visit some of the ceramic shops and bought a few pieces as souvenirs.

From Positano, I continued driving to Sorrento when I put up a night. The next day, I took a ferry across the Gulf of Naples to Isle of Capri.

Tags: Driving · Europe · Travelogue

A travelogue contributed by a friend.

China’s State Ministry of Railway launched the Qinghai - Tibet railway trail operations on July 1, 2006. The first group of trains entering Tibet will be from Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou and Shanghai deployed by State Ministry of Railways. These specials trains are equipped with a plateau oxygen supply system to guarantee smooth operation and passengers’ safety in an extremely cold and anoxic environment.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway is the world’s highest railway. Some 960 kilometers of its tracks are located 4,000 meters above sea level and the highest point is 5,072 meters, at least 200 meters higher than the Peruvian railway in the Andes, which was formerly the world’s most elevated track.

Our group departed from Shanghai and started the 52 hours train journey. We left on Friday evening and arrived at Lhasa on Sunday night. It was a great journey passing through many provinces of China which provided great insights for people like me who is not aware of the various Chinese cultures.

Our journey started from Shanghai and proceeded towards west then north then west again. Major cities we passed by were Wuxi, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Xian, Lanzhou and Xining, which was the starting point of the new rail into Tibet, followed with the cities along this new railway. It’s not physically challenged because we opted for the soft bed. I think over-night train ride is a must experience because one can really enjoy great view passing through the China countryside. You can try similar thing other countries depending on one’s affordability. Of course, be prepared for hardship if you take a long train ride in China.

To kill time, we read books, played cards & mahjong on the train. This made our train journey interesting and not a slight hint of boredom. The mahjong was brought along by Petrus’ German colleague!

On Sunday, we were excited once our journey entered the new rail track starting from Xining heading towards Lhasa because it’s long waited for and the view was so different from our pass experience. The view was magnificent, mountain ranges, plateau, blue sky, icy land, wild animals etc. We were supposed to stay calm while enjoying those but we were shouting out with joy when we first saw the yak. And it was real yuks! When we saw them in Tibet, they were everywhere and they were smell like yuks! Urgggh

Earlier I mentioned about hardship in a train journey in China, it’s the hygiene issue. Imagine, there is no bathroom in the train. So, we could not take showers for the next 52 hours. And the train attendants didn’t clean the toilet on the second day onwards. Coupled with the bad habit of local Chinese, you can imagine how dirty the toilets can be. The train was compressed with oxygen when we were approaching Xining so we didn’t feel any difference in air pressure. It was just like airplane.

But I felt shortness of breath once I stepped out of the train. Our movement has to be slow, less talking (good, no fighting), less food, etc to conserve energy and not to stretch our lungs as the air was thin. There weather was still cold and we were told not to take bath on the first day to avoid catching cold and to consume lesser oxygen. We have to remind ourselves that every simple movement takes up oxygen. So, we limit our movement unless it was necessary.

Alas, I hadn’t bathe in the past 52 hours, so it wasn’t any big deal to wait for another 24 hours. It was a big mistake to shower & washed my hair on Monday night, plus other activities such as packing, watching TV etc and I suffered severe headache on that night and I was having sleepless night!

I felt real sick on the next day. Felt like asthmatic, felt severe shortness of breath, couldn’t move a lot, worst we have to leave Lhasa (its about 3500m height) to a higher city! Unfortunately, one of the teammate withdrew and left Tibet on Monday after suffering high blood pressure and high pulse rate. Since I have traveled so far to be in Lhasa, I decided to continue with the journey but to move on thinking I should be able to acclimatize later. Most of the time, I stayed in the car, reduced walking and rested early. I consumed all kinds of medicine as long as it was claimed to be good. Lucky me, I was a fresh person the next day

The highlight of the tour was reaching 5220m at the Mt Everest base camp (EBC). Wow! We were so thrilled when we saw the Mt Everest summit as it was so close. It was so near and yet so far. We could see snow flying off the slope of Mt Everest blown by strong wind. We spend the night at the Everest base camp and yet again, a new experience to us. We stayed in the native tent and they were friendly to us. They continued supplying us with warm water collected from spring nearby knowing that we were frozen. Temperature dropped to minus at night. Our clothing worn on that day has to be packed separately coz those were really smelly! We couldn’t visit their toilet because we couldn’t stand the sight of it. We decided to go for the natural toilet when it turned dark.

This was the only trip I lost weight and I won’t call it as a holiday but an adventurous trip. I achieved a new personal record to go on without bath for 4 days.

Tags: Asia · Train · Travel Tips · Travelogue