Hong Kong 1977
My first Far-East trip, in the 1970s, was to Taiwan, described in the post My first visit to Taiwan. On the way out, I had an overnight in Hong Kong and, of course, I decided to leave my hotel and walk downhill towards the waterfront, fascinated by all the shop houses still trading in late evening. It was only next morning that the more-experienced GEC staff I was travelling with pointed out that the area of Wan Chai, which had so fascinated me, was an area of rather ill-repute, not recommended for solo travellers at night.
A view of Hong Kong Harbour in 2004.
Thailand 1988
In connection with the GEC Train Despatcher Project in the 1980s my flights to Thailand arrived at Don Mueang Airport, Bangkok. This was years before the huge Suvarnabhumi Airport opened in 2006. On one trip, for some reason, rather than get an ordinary taxi to my hotel (I was booked into the Hilton at Nai Lert Park), I decided to go for the 'authentic experience' by travelling on a 'local taxi', uncomfortably sharing a small passenger van with a number of Thai people and baskets full of live hens. As we slowly criss-crossed the city through heavy traffic, dropping off each passenger at a different address, I wondered if I'd ever arrive at my hotel and my sense of unease was not helped as the driver seemed to have very little English. But eventually, despite my misgivings, I arrived safely at the Hilton.
Heavy traffic in Bangkok.
On a later trip to Bangkok, I managed to get completely lost exploring on foot in a rather down-market suburb in the north of the city. The streets became narrower and narrower and, after a few twists and turns, I realised that I was totally disorientated. I suddenly realised that the narrow way ahead appeared to be part of a dwelling rather than a footpath, so I decided to turn round and attempt to retrace my steps, but each alley looked the same. After a few minutes of panic (it was only supposed to be a short walk so I'd no money and no means of identification with me), I spotted a wider alley and managed to extricate myself from the tangle of streets.
Street scene in Bangkok
Hong Kong 2004
During this short trip, described here, one day I took a large ferry to one of the Outer Islands and was charmed by the contrast with frenetic Hong Kong. I was fascinated by the coming and going of small ferries between the islands which the locals appeared to use as we would a bus. Some of the smaller ferries didn't bother with mooring: they just came bow to the dock and used power to hold the craft in position for the few seconds it took for passengers to get off and on.
Small ferry between the islands, Hong Kong
I found the temptation to try this overwhelming, and boarded a ferry without knowing the destination, only finding out afterwards it was going to Lantau Island. I knew there were ferries from Lantau back to Hong Kong so I felt reassured and enjoyed a glorious late afternoon cruise.
Late afternoon cruise between the islands, Hong Kong 2004
We arrived at a small dock (parking parallel this time, but still without mooring) so I joined the few other passengers and disembarked. The ferry departed at high speed and the passengers who'd disembarked, knowing where they were going, quickly disappeared. I found myself alone on a barren dock with no indication of human habitation or any regular ferry services. Puzzled, I walked away from the quay along the only access road, looking for any clues. Eventually, I met somebody with enough English to understand my enquiry about ferries back to Hong Kong and he indicated vaguely that I should continue along the country road I was on. After half a mile or so, I spotted a small sign with a ferry symbol pointing right, so I continued with a little more confidence although the road still seemed very rural. I must have been on a 'back road' because suddenly, I burst upon a large modern ferry terminal, brightly lit, noisy and bustling with people. With relief, I purchased a ticket for the next high speed catamaran ferry back to Hong Kong.
Since that visit in 2004, the pace of development in Hong Kong has been frenetic with new roads linking to a number of the islands and multi-storey housing development everywhere. I don't think you could repeat my experience now.
Peru 2005
My Round The World Two trip in 2005 included a visit to Macchu Picchu in Peru. The initial official tour around the site on a rainy afternoon, crowded with Japanese tourists shephered by guides using bullhorns at maximum volume, was a slight disappointment. But, fortunately, I'd arranged to stay overnight at the Sanctuary Lodge Hotel just outside the ruined citadel and I discovered that hotel guests were re-admitted to the site in the evening. The rain had stopped so, armed with a torch from the hotel, I set off confidently for an evening exploring the now-deserted site in the dark and had a marvellous time. Only much later did I realise how easily I could have suffered a disastrous fall hundreds of metres to the Urubamba River below.
Moonrise over the mountains viewed from Machu Picchu
The following morning, the sense of adventure still remained so I arose early to enjoy sunrise in the ruined city, with a few other 'early birds', then was inspired to take the hike to the top of Huayna Picchu (encouraged by the misplaced confidence of my guide from the previous day who'd commented "you'd have no trouble on Huayna Picchu"). Well, I made it to the top but found the steep section of steps terrifying. Fortunately, I didn't know at the time that section was called 'The Stairs of Death'.
Jan at the summit of Huayna Picchu, Machu Pitcchu
Egypt 2005
The last place I visited on the Round the World Two trip was Cairo and a day visiting the pyramids at Giza left me very impressed. I was staying at the Mena Park Hotel, near to the pyramid site, so the following morning I decided to walk to see how close I could get to the impressive monuments, prior to an arranged trip to Saqqara. The report for 11-Feb-2005 in my trip report explains:-
"A tout introduced me to a guide with excellent English who explained the pyramid site did not open until 8 am "But follow me". His claim to fame was a photo shoot in the desert for 'Cosmopolitan' plus friendship with 'Grateful Dead'. We walked through the village hard by the pyramids, through dirt streets thick with rubbish and past the evil-smelling horse and camel stables. Here we hired two small, willing horses for a fairly short ride to the boundary wall of the pyramid site (I should mention I've never been on a horse before in my life!). We stopped at a 12-foot stone wall. Using fairly insubstantial footholds he then shinned up this wall! As I followed, I thought "I wonder if this is altogether wise?" (This has been a recurrent thought throughout my various adventures. Hasn't stopped me, though). Near to the pyramids, there are the most amazing catacombs, with beautiful carvings. Various site security men came up to us and my guide paid them off, so it was all shake hands and exchange "Good morning". As you might imagine, there's quite a thriving black economy going on. We watched the mist rising and the sun come up. It was all quite good. But I explained I had to be back at my hotel for 8:30 am for the 'official' trip. We returned by climbing down the wall, passing lots of people entering the site from the village the same way, presumably for a day's work on the site as security men or supporting the tourist trade. Like India, Egypt never uses one man to do a job if five can do it. The horses were waiting, so we had an exhilarating gallop back to the stables where I said goodbye to my guide, poorer in purse but richer in experience. I was quite relieved not to be sold into white slavery and arrived back at my hotel breathless but in time for the very academic but interesting explanations of my professor guide."
"... we hired two small, willing horses ..." Giza, Eqypt
South Africa 2011
In 2011, I had a wonderful trip to St. Helena Island and Ascension Island. This all went well but, near the start of my trip on my arrival in Cape Town, I did have a 'I wonder if this is altogether wise?' moment. My blog post here records the experience:-
"Within a couple of minutes, both my bags arrived so it was on to the 'meet and greet' point. I wasn't quite sure from my itinerary whether I was being met or not. I thought not and, indeed, having scoured the displayed names decided I was on my own. There were a couple of touts displaying 'Taxi' signs so, too tired to wonder if this was an official arrangement, I spoke to one of them. He immediately directed me to a young fellow standing a little way back and, reaching agreement, we set off towards his car. Any doubts about how official this hire was were removed when, once we were outside the terminal building, my young man called to a group of people sitting around and one of them threw a bunch of car keys to him. So it was no surprise when we headed for the car park and a rather tatty saloon. You know the sort of thing - the rear window mechanism was clearly broken as the window was being held upright by a screwdriver used as a wedge. The words came back to me (as they often do on these jaunts) 'I wonder if this is altogether wise?'. I was miffed when, without discussion, the driver allowed two (fortunately respectable-looking) young ladies to climb aboard. There then followed a few minutes of pantomime whilst the young fellow struggled to extract a ticket from the nearby parking ticket machine. I was so amused at the obvious irritation of the young ladies at this delay that I couldn't be cross. Eventually our driver returned triumphantly with a ticket and we set off, with me registering a token protest about the uninvited passengers. After a few hundred yards, he pulled up at a filling station and the rear seat passenger got out. We carried on towards the city at a furious pace. I couldn't tell the speed because, as you would expect, the speedometer was broken. On the journey, the girl in the front seat fuelled the young driver with some sort of cooked snack she was carrying. We arrived safely at the Cape Grace Hotel and, clutching his fare money, the young driver took off at his accustomed high speed."
Cape Town, showing ship repair yard with Cape Grace Hotel left background
Tristan da Cunha 2016
Perhaps I'm a little more cautious now but in 2016 stubborness induced me to undertake an (organised) climb during the marathon voyage from Argentina to South Africa, visiting the Falklands, South Georgia and Tristan da Cunha (you can find all my posts on this journey here). The Zodiac landing on Nightingale Island involved a perhaps ill-advised scramble up a muddy gulley. My post describing that visit here comments:-
"When my turn for the Zodiac ride came, I discovered that the landing place was a small, protected cove where we stepped out directly onto the rock. A short length of carpet had been placed on the slipperly rock and there were willing hands to help passengers ashore. There was very little space on the rock so the climb started almost immediately. It was perhaps fortunate that I was unable to assess the problems of ascending the muddy gulley before commencing the climb. We were told only grasp green tussock grass for support (brown might give way) and make use of the rope lying alongside the route. On the more vertiginous stretches, expedition team members or our Tristanian guides were positioned to help but I found it a tough scramble and was relieved to arrive at fairly level ground."Following this climb, I found my right knee joint was painful. After the trip, my doctor diagnosed "a bad sprain, it will improve" but I'm afraid it hasn't.
The Zodiac landing place, Nightingale Island, Tristan da Cunha Group
China 2001
But, on my first visit to China in 2001, I had no premonition about a brush with Beijing police which could have had very unfortunate consequences. The beginning of that trip is described in the post here. After a fascinating tour, I found myself back in a comfortable, European-style hotel with just a couple of hours before transport was booked to take me to the airport for the long trip home. Wanting to make use of every minute, I decided to take a walk in the city, escaping the tourist areas.
I reached a quiet, residential area of modest housing arranged Chinese-style, where a series of gateways facing the street each led to a courtyard with a row of simple houses on either side. Whilst contemplating this architectural arrangement, I took a couple of pictures from the street when a harsh, Chinese voice rang out and I turned to see what I assumed was a very young policeman approaching. He was wearing an immaculate grey uniform and flat cap, with a very obvious sidearm carried in a leather holster. He didn't seem pleased but as he had no English and I had no Chinese so I only surmised that he objected to my taking pictures, although the scene seemed perfectly innocuous to me and, earlier in the trip, I'd taken similar pictures. However, I made a big show of turning the camera off and restoring it to its case, to indicate I'd refrain from photography. By this time, a second very young man had arrived, this time in an immaculate khaki uniform and flat cap, with a similar sidearm in a holster. They seemed emboldened now there were two of them and certainly I felt more intimidated. They roughly took the camera from me and carefully examined it. The Canon EOS I was using at the time used 35mm cassette film and, as they worked out how to open the back, it was clear they intended to expose the film and destroy the images. They returned the open camera to me , with the roll of film dangling from the camera body, leaving me to re-assemble it. I was annoyed, but tried hard not to show it, expecting this to be the end of it. But now, by sign language, they indicated the I should accompany them to some unspecified location where my motives could be properly explored and I really started to panic as I realised that, in less than an hour, I was due to be whisked to the airport and home. I tried to explain to them the problems going with them would create for me. I've no idea how much they understood but they both seemed very young and inexperienced and clearly not quite certain of their best plan. Perhaps my desperation got through to them but, eventually, they waved me away and walked off. It was all I could do not to run all the way back to the hotel.
There's a post script: I'd forgotten, and my adversaries clearly didn't know, the way in which the EOS film camera worked. When you put a new 35mm cassette in, the camera first wound all the unexposed fim onto the take-up spool and, as each exposure was made, it was wound back into the cassette. The law officers had exposed the unused film to daylight but, in failing to pull the film back out of the cassette, had not destroyed the pictures I'd already taken, except for some damage to the very last picture which is shown below.
Beijing street scene (note damage to negative)
