Date: 2009-01-31 11:34 Subject: three days in Paris Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

Finally getting round to posting pics of Paris, whittled down from several to just one dozen:

The city's most famous landmark, which, unfortunately I neither ascended nor took night photos of. Opposite it on the Champ de Mars was the Ecole Militaire, the backdrop to people strolling about, sunning themselves on the grass, eating ice cream and generally having unmilitary fun.

Since I had only 3 full days there, much of the city was seen from atop a sightseeing bus (same company as the red-topped one returning from the obligatory roundabout the Arc de Triomphe), the better for tourists to lean out dangerously over the tops to get a closer shot.

Another must-see was the Louvre, where tourist hordes swarmed in to see the lady with the mystic smile practically as soon as the doors opened. The two famous belles dames sans pièces, the Winged Victory of Samothrace and the Venus de Milo, being in relatively open spaces at the tops of staircases, had the virtue of being much more accessible (to photo-taking). Personally I much preferred this painting (whose title, alas, I neglected to record).

The bus made multiple trips over the Seine, passing over several bridges (overlooked by Haussman-era houses) to get to various landmarks within a limited time. Two of its three routes passed by Notre-Dame de Paris, of which the external carvings and stained-glass windows impressed me the most.

Other frequently-visited-sites included the Place de la Concorde (which, going by the photos, I must have passed at least six times in two days), les Invalides, and recurrent views of the Academie Francaise, Place Vendome, Opera etc, various Quartiers, musées, and the Moulin Rouge and Sacré-Coeur basilica (neither of which I visited, despite living on the outskirts of Montmartre).

I'd have liked to spend more time in Paris, but not in autumn. Perhaps Paris in the springtime...

Date: 2008-09-22 17:25 Subject: the grandeur that was Rome Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

(Still unable to find pictures of the museum that Castel Sant'Angelo has become, alas, except for a shot of the castle and bridge across the Tiber of the same name.)

Visited the Musei Vaticani and Sistine Chapel the next day, which was a Sunday - hence the crush of tourists which eventually necessitated simply following arrows marked "Capella Sistino/Sistine Chapel" (I suppose non-readers of English or Italian would just join the surging crowds, or use pattern recognition) to the money Michaelangelo's masterpiece. As no photos of mine would ever be able to convey its majesty, there are none. The ushers urging those gawkers pilgrims who had not squeezed themselves onto benches at the sides of the Chapel (the better to contemplate the ceiling) to move towards the exit were not conducive to prolonged admiration or picture-taking, either.

After lunch, got back on the sightseeing bus and alighted at the Colosseum. After loitering a while in the relative shade provided by trees near the Arch of Constantine next to it, paid 11 Euros for admission to the Colosseum and adjoining Palatine hill, on which the formerly-palatial imperial residences are situated. The marble which used to cover the Flavian Palace and Augustus' house (splendid mosaics long-removed from the ceilings which were moulded to fit them) was used for St Peter's basilica, leaving the remnants of the buildings not much more than brick, in a reversal of its builder's boast. Some of the sites were identifiable (e.g. the peristyle), but without a guide I have no idea what this is.

Descending the Palatine, I came to the remains of the Forum Romanum at the hottest time of day. The Arch of Severus at the western end of the Forum was almost as well-preserved as Constantine's at the other end. Some intact pagan structures were converted into churches, such as that of Antoninus and Faustina, while the Curia and other buildings such as the Temples of Saturn and Vesta are known only from ruins of columns and walls. One temple which still receives offerings (as evidenced by fresh bouquets and political messages) is that of Julius Caesar, though the actual site of his assassination, Pompey's Theatre, is some distance away.

Left the Forum at about 5 pm for the Colosseum, which retains much of the original architecture; viewing platforms built where the arena and lowest bleachers would have been, affording tourists a view of the tunnels and cells that held combatants and victims. In the 1700s, Pope Benedict XIV erected crucifixes around the arena where Christians were thrown to the lions; on the day I visited, the only cat in the tunnels was a deceased (possibly diseased) one that might have fallen from the uneven pillars of the hypogeum.

It was still light when I left - although the Colosseum is spectacular when lit-up at night, it had been a long day. Managed a shot of the Circus Maximus from the bus, last glimpse of that side of the Palatine Hill.

Date: 2008-09-21 21:33 Subject: urbi et orbi Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

This September the 44th Meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) was held in Rome. I was fortunate to be sponsored to attend by a pharmaceutical company.

Having booked a conference-affiliated hotel near the Vatican, I started seeing Rome from within the walls of the walled city .

I arrived in Rome on a Saturday afternoon (6-hour time difference) after a 12-hour overnight flight (with transit in Paris), and promptly fell asleep. Woke up just in time to catch the bus to St Peter's Square in the evening and meet the other sponsored attendees for dinner just outside the walls, in a mildly overpriced touristy restaurant.

Got up early the next day to visit the basilica proper. For some reason (divine intervention, a colleague said, but more likely lighting and lack of photographic skill due to awe-induced hand tremors), photos of the Pieta and other statuary within chapels did not come out too well. However, did manage to obtain some shots of the nave and interior of the dome (can barely make out, in Latin, "You are Peter and on this rock I shall build..."). Also of this - would be grateful to anyone who can identify.

After that, proceeded to follow a group of conference delegates (identifiable by their identical complimentary satchels) to Castel Sant'Angelo down the road, originally Hadrian's (arguably more famous for his Wall) mausoleum, later a fortress and prison (with wolf's-mouth-shaped underground windows, used extensively by the Borgias, among others), and now a museum. The interior shots of which seem to have mysteriously disappeared; perhaps they are on the phone camera. St Peter's and the city across the Tiber are visible from the former guard-towers.

Since it was Sunday, the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel were closed. Had to make a pilgrimage to a different sort of shrine anyway, to justify my presence in Rome.

Date: 2008-06-12 23:14 Subject: 南城新事 Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

Nanjing is an ancient city with a long history, cycles of prosperity and disaster accompanying changes of name and reign all the way from Fu Chai, Qin Shihuang (who attempted to consolidate his rule by destroying the elemental harmony of the river and city;his plan didn't work) to Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty (who simply destroyed the city), Li Yu (a better poet than ruler), Zhu Yuanzhang (the most capable, and naturally the most ruthless of all the monarchs who established their city here), to the Kuomintang (with its two almost diametrically opposed great men Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek), and culminating in the entry of the Japanese Imperial Army at the end of 1937.

All government-licenced tour guides in Nanjing are required to be university graduates. The young woman born and bred here, who met us just after dinner and accompanied us for the next two days, expanded on the histories and deeds of most of these men (and sundry lesser figures) at every opportunity in between the places marked on our itinerary, and explained the things and places that we were about to see/were currently touring/not going to be able to visit with equal erudition and enthusiasm. By the time the bus reached the hotel I regretted not bringing some form, any form, of recording device.

For some reason, SA Tours did not see fit to arrange for our group to visit many places here, and I did not think it appropriate to take photos in the one place that, in my humble and guarded opinion, every Chinese person should visit in Nanjing, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. However, we did see less sombre sights, like the City Wall built by the first Ming emperor, which is still in pretty good shape after 600 years of war (partly attributable to the practice of randomly selecting sections to have axes smashed against them at intervals during construction;if the bricks shattered, the manufacturer whose name was stamped on them would lose his contract and his head), the Fu Zi Miao area (a temple to Confucius, now sitting in the middle of a trendy and lively shopping street) at night, and the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, more a triumph of human labour than mechanical engineering.

Having assumed that many of the visitors on this "Jiangnan tour" had seen the sights of Shanghai before, the tour company had emphasised the "free-and-easy" (= shopping and eating, even for those of us who might have been inclined otherwise) aspects of the last two days of the package, and hence almost the only group activity was a cruise down the Huangpu River to take in the Shanghai Bund by night and the Oriental Pearl Television Tower(which we had ascended just before the boat-ride).

The camera chose to be mutinous on the next day, just in time for the Museum, and so no photos of the MagLev train that took us to the airport for our flight home either. But perhaps that only made me want to remember more of what I saw in the galleries, to impress on my mind what I couldn't capture more permanently. And perhaps, at some later date, I might get to spend another night in new Shanghai.

Date: 2008-06-10 23:33 Subject: 一江春水向东流... Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

...though to be strictly accurate our bus travelled in a more-or-less counterclockwise fashion from Hangzhou to Wuxi, with spring weather getting increasingly warmer as we approached Nanjing (where temperatures almost reached 30 degrees on account of it being surrounded by mountains on 3 sides with the river on the fourth reflecting back the trapped heat), and thence southeast to Shanghai.

Our guide in Wuxi, a witty but down-to-earth Ms Shi (as in Xi, though her opposite in most aspects), answered all questions ranging from "Were the Wu-Yue wars fought over encroachment on mulberry-farming i.e. silk-cultivating areas (as the Suzhou guide claimed at the silk factory) or for possession of Lake Tai's strategic and material advantages?" to "Where can I get mobile phone batteries?", shepherded all fifty-two of us with minimal fuss and maximal efficiency, and managed to inform and entertain in equal and good-humoured measure.

Even though Wuxi has a long and extremely interesting history literally from the mountains to the sea Lake Tai, the first place we were brought to was the Three Kingdoms TV City, where practically all major mainland period dramas (and many overseas ones) were filmed since it was built in 1994 for said production, of which cheesy but enjoyable highlights included reviewing preparations for war on Lake Tai on ships named after Three Kingdoms personages, and climbing the steps of the Great Palace of Wu for an audience in the throne-room while visitors had photos taken of themselves perched on the imperial seat.

The next day we rose early for a tour of the Li Garden (as in Fan), built fairly recently but named for that very enterprising person, who settled incognito in the state-formerly-known-as-Wu with Xi Shi in tow after his departure from Yue, and earned the gratitude of locals by revitalizing the economy to the extent of being declared the patron saint (Tao Zhugong, to which there was an altar in the Garden) of businessmen.

There was a Xi Shi lake on the grounds (of course), but it was rather unremarkable; IMHO this was a more pleasantly designed association. Stones from Lake Tai (distinguished by their multiple channels hollowed out by the river) were prominently used in the construction of the Garden in antique fashion, though the effect was slightly marred by ubiquitous high-rises in the background.

Old and new world co-exist perfectly in Nanjing and Shanghai, though, as the next part will hopefully show.

Date: 2008-06-09 23:50 Subject: 下有苏杭 Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

Some weeks ago, I was browsing the travel pages of the classifieds for a tour that would coincide with a leave slot in May; an advertisement of a 9-day package for 'Jiangnan' (which apparently encompasses the Shanghai Municipality, the southern part of Jiangsu Province, the southern part of Anhui Province, the northern part of Jiangxi Province, and the northern part of Zhejiang Province) caught the eye. Thankfully the organisers had wisely limited themselves to Suzhou, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, and Shanghai.

So I left on the 24th and arrived in Shanghai on the 25th where before you could say "Bund, Shanghai Bund", all fifty-two of us were loaded onto a bus and sped to Suzhou for the first leg of the trip. With one day essentially spent flying and two (highlighted in bright pink capitals) FREE-AND-EASY DAYS (lunch and dinner not provided) in Shanghai at the end of the tour, several historical sites (which for me were a considerable incentive, though not presumably for the target customer of SA Tours) e.g. Tiger Hill in Suzhou had to be omitted by necessity. But there are some places that we managed to visit.

Lingering Garden (留园), a pleasure garden in Suzhou beautifully designed and lavishly laid out over decades by the only people who could afford the best viz. corrupt court officials.

The ancient city gate (Pan 盘 Men门) that Wu Zixu built 2500 years ago, partly hidden by the shrubbery behind the first wall. Our tour group didn't see the rest of it because that would have entailed storming the bridge over the river Hong by behemoth bus buying admission tickets.

The Beisi Pagoda is visible behind the children's playground outer wall.

Next, we travelled to Wuzhen(乌镇), an old-fashioned water-town, preserved for tourists posterity to show the ingenuity and perseverance of the inhabitants who made the canals of Suzhou their home for centuries.

Our guide, an affable and highly garrulous native of Hangzhou, had hoped for good weather for a cruise on the West Lake in his native place, but alas!the weather was humid, misty, hot (33 deg C) and threatened rain at several points. Still, fair views of the lake and of Leifeng Pagoda where Madam White Snake was held captive.

Though a package tour in China is never complete without a visit to a tea tourist trap house/shop, was pleasantly surprised to be taken to a picturesque tea-farm, the Mei Family Village(梅家村), among tea-plantations in the hills where Longjing tea is grown.

After some more tourist traps and gardens, sorry, local specialty places of interest and World Heritage Sites, we proceeded to Wuxi, where we saw the ancient palace of Wu and Fan Li. But more on that later.

Date: 2008-03-25 00:18 Subject: the roads of Shu are worth the trip Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

( 蜀道美 )

Date: 2007-09-13 22:03 Subject: summertime is nearly over Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

Was in Hokkaido recently when PM Abe defied calls for his resignation after the Upper House elections. Reminded by recent events to post some photos from that trip:

( scenery )


( shopping )


( and stuffing one's face )

Date: 2007-06-23 23:40 Subject: pictures, not from the exhibition Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

I was in Toronto recently for an Endocrine Society Meeting, spending an average of 12 hours daily indoors. Did manage to go on a city tour by bus before the actual convention started, and attended the semi-compulsory dinner (complete with live band) thereafter.

( Outside and inside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre )

( And on to Niagara Falls, just a 2-hour drive away )

( 2-day stopover in London on way back, during which the weather defied forecasts of rain, though mist obscured the view from the Eye )

And back to the regularly scheduled reality check, i.e. work tomorrow.

Date: 2007-04-02 22:10 Subject: travels with a donkey Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

Joseph Rock was sent to Yunnan Province in China in 1922 to write articles for National Geographic about the place, its people and plants, and ended up spending 27 years in and around it.
I was there for an 8-day package tour in March 2007.
There is, of course, no way to capture the wonder of his writings that inspired the novel about that mythic utopia of Shangri-La, but I hope a few photos taken by a tourist from buses, trails and stairs may convey some impression of the Lost Horizon that has only recently found a world outside its own.

( momentary glimpses of the eternal )

attempts at description over each picture

Date: 2006-12-10 02:03 Subject: The shooting of Cape buffalo is a difficult matter... Security: Public Tags: rl, travel

( ...but it is always an interesting holiday game. )

EDIT: photos added this morning (was writing at 2 am and only managed to wrestle camera into submission later)