On my first winter in 2 years

After an unusually warm autumn, winter finally struck Moscow last week.  Whilst the UK and other parts of Northern Europe were engulfed in snow showers and plummeting temperatures of minus 6 I was enjoying a 15minute walk to some schools in temperatures ranging from minus 15 to minus twenty.  You know it’s cold when you are judging the temperature on how quickly your earphones and trousers freeze.  Yes, the gloves have come out, the hat is being worn and I am abandoning my Northern routes by wearing a coat; it is cold.  I never though that I would think that minus 10 was warm, but last week that was every new teachers thought.

For the last 6months of the 8months I was in Cambodia I waited and I prayed for the Russian winter I was expecting and now that it is here it is living up to expectations.  With one let down.

There is not enough snow.

Whilst Wolsingham, Newcastle and all other places in the UK have been getting record snow fall, snow depth in Moscow has barely reached 3inches.  It may stay for an incredible amount of time; the snow from last Saturday night has barely receded but there is still not enough of the stuff for my personal liking.

Anyway, here’s hoping and praying for some more snow and a long cold, but sunny, winter!

The pond by my house in October

And again taken on 4th December

Kids playing on the ice with the power station

chimney stack as a majestic backdrop

This weekend is only going to be about horses, isn't it?

At the beginning of November we had a long weekend with the Thursday and the Friday holiday days.  Needing a break from the rigours of teaching and to rest my weary body Ana proposed 2 nights sleeping on a train and one night sleeping on a friends couch; it seemed idyllic.  

The train left Moscow at 02:00 on Friday morning and arrived in at Saint Petersburg at 14:00 the same day.  The train itself was quite pleasant; clean, comfortable but incredibly, heartbreakingly slow.  The carriages were a mix of Thai and Chinese trains with 6 beds to every open compartment, but only two beds up in each case.  There was, as is standard on sleeper trains, hot water at the end of the carriage for noodles and a little tea and beer person if you needed to quench your thirst.  The same person also came round near the end of the journey to retrieve the bed linen.

The only qualm I had with the train, apart from the pace, was the heat.  It was stifling and very uncomfortable, but overall the experience was nice enough.

Arriving at Saint Petersburg we found the Metro station and bought the coins used instead of tickets.  These coins are similar to those found in slot machines the world over and are fairly easy to mistake for money and to lose.  The only other difference was that in some stations there were two sets of doors that acted as an anti-flooding device from the rivers above.  The metro trains, I can only presume, are the same ones from Moscow that just continue going when they leave the last Northern station in Moscow.  There was no discernable difference at all, same colours, same noise, same rollercoaster like feel when you stand up in them.

It was then a whistle-stop four hours of sight seeing until we met Ana’s friend.  In this time I was shown the main street in the city, the cathedral which is very similar to St Basil’s in Moscow but is a different colour (see below), some beautiful architecture, a Roman style church, the outside of the Hermitage museum, and another very big church.  Please forgive my ignorance but it was all very quick and I was very tired.

First word reads as "Shag"! oh the hilarity!

Pretty Buildings

Cathedral from the rear.

Hermitage at sunset.

And now a story for Nik; he knows why, there is no need for that anecdote here.  On a road bridge over one of St Perterburg’s rivers there are four horses positioned at every corner and on one of these horses you can find Napoleons face…but not where you would expect!  This is because his face is positioned, and rather hidden as it turns out, on of the horses genitalia. Yes Napoleon’s face is sat rather proudly upon a horses ball sack.  

One of the said horses

Said French General's face

The story goes that Napoleon stole the architect’s girlfriend.  The architect was somewhat perturbed by this and maybe after having one too many vodkas, decided to take his revenge by giving the wee emperor eternal mockery by Russian citizens, and now you lot.  

I can confirm that it was an odd experience checking out the undercarriage of several horses before stumbling upon the correct beast.

After this encounter we ventured off to meet Ana’s friend for a night of vodka fuelled drunkenness and then some more vodka.

Rear Window???

The next day may have started with a slight tingling in the head and minute fogginess around the eyes, but this may have been due to the snow that was falling outside giving the city a wintry beauty.

Saturday itself was spent drinking coffee and keeping out of the weather.  At some point after night fall we left the comfort of the flat to find a drinking and eating establishment and to mentally prepare for the journey home.  There was a small break when I was the shown the city by rooftop; there is nothing as bohemian as drinking gin from a bottle whilst sitting on a strangers rooftop just watching the twinkling of the lights below.

Vova and I not watching the world going by

And before I knew it we were back on the train, heading back to the city that I will never quite leave. And the week began again…

Busts of the Beatles...

...and a yellow submarine.

About to lose my second game of chess.

Moscow week one, posted in week 9

WOW MOSCOW! My initial disorientation is dissipating somewhat but the scale of the city appears to be similar to Beijing but with the windy twisty courtyards and smaller streets of London.

Travelling into the city by night from Domodedovo airport reminded of Bangkok; big 8 lane highways with the lights of advertising boards illuminating the roads (I also saw my first car crash!). When I arrived at the accommodation I was completely disorientated but thankfully I met my next door neighbour who explained which Metro station we were near and how to get into central: Thank you Minna!

The next day was a day of exploration; seeing The Red Square and The Cathedral, as well as getting lost up some random street which I’m still not sure which street it was. For those who know me I’ve been pretending to learn Russian since I got home from Cambodia and although I hadn’t learned many words I was able to learn most of the Cyrillic alphabet. This has to be the smartest thing I have done in a long time and if anyone is coming to Moscow I cannot recommend learning Cyrillic enough; it is invaluable!

The Metro system is relatively easy to use, as long as you know Cyrillic, and the trains are clean, quick and regular with the last train being at 01:00am. I have yet to properly explore the majestic palace like stations but I did manage to get lost in a station on Monday night where I experienced at least some of the grandeur of the central stations. Something that has surprised me is the genuine respect shown to older people riding the metro. People of all ages get up from seats and allow the aged to sit down even if it’s just for one stop. I can’t remember if this happened in China but I know that it rarely happens in London.

As for the school itself, well Monday was all about orientation, including being picked up from my room to be taken into school, thank you Anya. For me personally this was a bit of a waste of time because I had already found my way to the school on the Saturday but it was nice to get to know a local. The school I’m working for is a massive organisation comprising over 30 satellite schools spread throughout Moscow. There are four or five central schools and one central office which house most of the resources. The school where I am teaching at the minute is four metro stops north of my house but I will teaching in more schools as time progresses.

The area where I live is quite a quiet one. There appear to be no, or at least very few bars (although I haven’t had a good explore yet) but it is very near a park and an artificial water, pond , reservoir thing which will undoubtedly be very pretty in the winter. The weather itself is definitely cooler than home but not drastically so…yet! Apparently the weather has just taken a change to the colder and some people I’ve talked to think that by the end of this month it will be much colder.

A pond near the flat

I am very excited for a “good” winter!

Surprisingly I haven’t drunk any vodka yet but will endeavour to rectify that situation this weekend.

Cambodia Part bi

Okay. I’m going to be honest. I have no idea how to tell you about the seven months I spent in Cambodia. I could do it by places I visited. I could do it through time order. Both of these are quite sensible I think….but I was there for 7 months and I took no notes…crap.

Okay here goes.

I arrived in Cambodia on the night of the 10^th December 2009, after flying from London town to Bangkok on the 8^th, having a night in Bangkok (I never enjoy those) and then catching various buses and bikes to the border town of…where the Cambodian dust roads, stray dogs and general craziness were a welcome relief to clean, fresh cold air of home.

Partying on the streets of Bangkok

 Christmas tree in the hotel in Bangkok

The strangest motorway toilet I've ever been to...

The next day was another bus journey to Sihanoukville which was done on a surprisingly good road (see previous Cambodian blogs). Here I met my friend Grant who I’d met in Beijing in 2008 but who was now called Harry and who was living and teaching in Phnom Penh. I then spent the next week chilling out on a beach, watching the sun set while swimming in the sea, eating my fill in freshly caught sea food and indulging in the odd beachside massage.

And so, the standard was set for a very hard life in the next 7 months.

A quick aside on Sihanoukville before moving North. I have already said in Cambodia Part Mui that I visited Sihanoukville for the first time in 2006. I stayed on what was then known as Weathertop Hill but is now known as Victory Hill. Back in 2006 there were very few people staying there and the beach that was almost private compared to the bigger beaches in the main part of town. The main street in Weathertop Hill was little more than a few bars, guesthouses and restaurants with the hill walk down to the beach completely empty.

Arriving there in 2009 for a few night time drinks and some games of pool it had completely changed. Building work has changed one street into many and bungalows and high rise hotels follow the track down to the beach. The main drag itself is now somewhat…girlyfied.

Travelling from Sihanouville to Phnom Penh was like being in a different country to the one I had seen in 2006. The land grabs that were beginning to take place then were everywhere with massive Korean and Chinese clothes factories being very prevalent on the road into Phnom Penh. Massive sections of roadside land had had walls built around them but no building work had yet taken place. What has happened to the farmers that once cultivated this land I can only guess at and I would hazard a guess that there payment for the land would not have been substantial.

There is probably a better place for a rant at Cambodian political ways and this perhaps not it.

I only went back to Sihanoukville once during my stay in Cambodia and that was for International New Year’s Eve.

There were three of us who went to Sihanoukville on New Year’s Eve; Harry and I had bought bus tickets previously having presumed that it would be busy. Our friend Barry had not. Getting to the bus “station” (little more than a side street next to the Post Office with a few private bus operators on it) Barry asked for a ticket. No, the bus was full. Okay, can I sit in aisle. No, today this would not be possible.

With 5minutes to go until the bus left Barry talked to the bus driver and said he would give him $7 if he could please get on the bus.

You pay the bus driver, but that corruption, and this Cambodia. Hahaha. Eight dollar okay?

And with that Barry got on the bus quick sharp before the people whose seat he had taken turned up, and with that, we were off.

Five hours later we arrived in Sihanoukville to meet Harry’s girlfriend and to attempt to find some accommodation. Everywhere was full. Shit. Having searched the main drags we made our way up the hill, to find a bungalow place with female Cambodian manager fuming that her clients were already late in turning up and she was delighted to check us in, take our money and head off to the beach to join the party. Leaving the bungalows our selves after showers and what have you we saw a taxi turn up with four rather annoyed people in it.

After a few beers in a few bars we made our way down to the beach for the New Year countdown and this is what we experienced.

And so, life stayed like this for three days before we made our way back to Phnom Penh to start work, and life, proper.

Belated musings...

Apologies for the lack of contact over the past couple of months, I promise to do better in the next couple.  Can you forgive me????

Retrospective Cambodia: Part Bii

A photoBlog of my brief 4 day visit to The Land of Wonder in 2008:

Poipet in all its glory: 2008

One of the main roads through Cambodia.  En route to Siem Reap.

Shooting range at Siem Reap.  Bit pointless if you ask me but some people like it.

Hotel balcony view in Siem Reap

Floating village on the Tonle Sap lake.  This photo was taken from a very low lying/sinking boat.

Temple kids surround our Tuk-Tuk.

The magnificent Angkor Wat

Boat racing during the water festival on The Tonle Sap river, Phnom Penh.

View of the light boats from a restaurant on Preah Sisowath Blvd, Phnom Penh.

Inside S-21; the infamous school that got turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime.

Classroom/torture chamber: S-21

That's all folks...

On India and The Commonwealth Games

I love sport and particularly athletics. It has been saddening for me watching the events taking place in Delhi over the past couple of days but, for me personally, completely expected.

Let me explain.

In August 2008 I set off on a gap four months which began in India and specifically, Delhi.  My travels in India were to last a month and would take me from Delhi south and across country to end in Chennai.  It was an interesting and difficult month, one which frustrated and left me flabbergasted at much that I saw.  Below I've looked at two issues that to do with The Commonwealth Games in Delhi but there is still a lot more to come out at some point.

Sport:

August 2008 was the month of the Beijing Olympics and in India I was able to see…none of it!  I tried, I mean I really tried, I really, really wanted to watch the 100metres (I was a sprinter at school) but I just couldn’t find any coverage.  Admittedly I wasn’t in the heart of the biggest cities but I was hardly in the middle of a shanty town either; more on that later.

There were great celebrations for the Indian athletes that won medals, especially the gold medal winner, but he is the exception not a rule.  His father built him a shooting range in the family grounds to help him practice, hardly a legacy for future Indians. 

A legacy of sport in India needs to be massive grass roots exposure.  Education does come first but sport (alongside art) can be, and should be, a big part of that.  I had a similar conversation on a train between Mysore and Chennai with an Indian man.  He argued that education should be a primary focus and that children should not be distracted by sport. I said that some of the smartest people I know were also incredibly good athletes and that in U.S.A they use sport as a way of educating those less fortunate through the college sports scholarship program. 

If the youth of a country are being disencouraged from sport what is the point of an international multi-event games being held in the country?

Construction and Organisation, or lack there of:

Bureaucracy in India has reached new highs of ridiculousness.   Forms have to be filled in to complete almost every action and heaven forbid if that form is completed incorrectly, that’s a new form, and if you don’t have the right official document to accompany the correct form that will be a new appointment with a new form and so it continues.  Accompany this with “the world’s largest democracy” and a country that has over 300 major democratic parties (The U.S.A has 2 major parties, the U.K 3) and it is easy to understand that things can ground to a halt pretty quickly. 

There is another major problem that may prohibit progress in construction works: backshish.  No Nik, not what Puff, that amazing magic dragon likes but, what makes India work.  You can call it tipping if you want, you can call bribery if you want but, what it is does do is make things work a whole lot easier and, more importantly, a whole lot quicker.

With a lack of backshish but a lot form filling out going on India has created its own time zone: IndiaTime.  Here, anything is possible; a train can leave 2 hours late and arrive 30minutes early, time can just drag on. And on. And on. And…

It is my, very humble, opinion, that there needed to be one figure who could hold everything in the construction of the Commonwealth Games together.  That however, was never going to happen. 

What now appears to be complete disorganisation of The Games I fear is systematic of the whole country.  In late 2008 Britain gave over 500million pounds in charitable donations to fight poverty and inequality, The Games are estimated to cost 2billion pounds.  India has a higher rate of poverty than sub-Saharan Africa, 400million people live under the UN’s decreed poverty level and yet it has a space program.  I can’t believe alone in spotting these blatant, horrible contrasts.

By winning the privilege to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games India should not have tried to compete with Beijing to create a showcase event, to create a magnificent world image.  Imagine what a world image would be created if a country managed to significantly reduce its poverty rate, or, made huge efforts to prevent insect borne diseases instead of making holes in the middle of its capital city so that they can be filled with water perfect for mosquito breeding and then create one of the worst dengue fever epidemics seen in the city.  All in the name of world image through sport.

Do I believe that India should have got the games? No

Do I believe that India should spend its peoples taxes on fighting poverty and not trying to create a great global image? Yes

Tell me what you think

Retrospective Cambodia: Part Mui

I first arrived in Cambodia as a, relatively, wet behind the ears 19 year old as part of a two month backpack around South East Asia. After having had my senses and sweat glands punished by three days in Bangkok I had acquired the a Cambodian visa and an exuberantly overpriced bus ticket from Bangkok to Siem Reap via the Poipet border crossing.  I should add that the person that financially screwed me on that first day in Bangkok taught me a well learned monetary lesson; don't trust no one in transport at face value.

I have never liked Bangkok and I guess I never will.

Poipet was, and still is, hub of smuggling in South East Asia.  Everything, from timber sadly to children, is reputed to go through this town on the way to who knows where.  My first experience was of being dumped off a "luxury" coach onto an minivan and then from a four lane motorway onto a dirt strip in what appeared to be the middle of a market. mmmmh.  The crossing itself from Thailand was then a no man's land, where street urchin children piled up rubbish next to the bridge you walked across  and then begged not for money but for a bottle of water.  This all happened under the shadows of the giant casinos set up for rich Thai business men who cannot gamble in their own country.  It was hot, it was humid, it was harrowing, it was going to get worse.

Poipet 06/2006

At that time it was my experience that Cambodia had three tarmacked roads.  They were between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh to the Vietnamese journey.  It is 8hours between Poipet and Siem Reap on an old rickety bus, traveling on dirt roads without any air conditioning.  You have two choices for the journey; open the windows and be slightly cooler but get covered in red Cambodian dust, or, keep the window closed and become unnecessarily hot and dehydrated.  These are you 2 choices for EIGHT hours!

Siem Reap, made famous by Angelina Jolie/Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, is the oasis in the desert.  You reach it at night and can feel and hear the bus gliding onto tarmac.  The lights of the giant hotels light up the streets and you feel as if you've discovered the world again.  In 2006 though the gap between poor and rich was probably worse than it is now. It was a city being built rather than a finished product; I attempted to use the only ATM in the country but it didn't accept my card.


Angkor Wat's construction began in 900AD and finished two centuries later when the city was abandoned.  Almost 1000 years later it is helping to build Siem Reap town again.  Of the thee ancient sites I've visited; The Great Wall, The Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat, Angkor still remains my favourite.  It is huge for starters but it is the feeling of discovery you get walking round that makes it what it is (just ignore the mass groups of Japanese and Korean tourists).  It feels like you are walking around a site that was lost to the jungle and only now, when you turn the corner is it being seen for the first time in centuries.  There are problems though.  That it is such a significant tourist pull means that there is an unequal amount of beggars, more often than not children, selling you cheap tat or asking for the obligatory $1. This can be a) irritating b) draining c) emotionally difficult.  My advice is have a laugh with them, ignore them, don't buy anything and don't promise to buy anything.  However if you can suppress all of the above emotions Angkor Wat is, quite simply, magnificent.

Angkor Wat (south entrance)

Phnom Penh from 2006 is a strange beast to remember because like most tourists who visit the city I never got under its skin but somehow really enjoyed myself.  There were visits to the Killing Fields an area outside the city where mass graves were, barely, dug for the people killed under the Khmer Rouge.  They are still trying to find everyone who was killed there and when you walk over the paths around the pits rags and bones can be seen under the dirt; it is a truly distressing and depressing place.  There was also a visit to S-21 which is the school that was converted into a prison during the Khmer Rouge reign.  Here up to 30,000 Cambodians were imprisoned and sent to their deaths and the school museum is kept in the same way today as it was then; you can famously still see the blood on the floors of some of the torture cells.

Sihanoukville is Cambodia's beach side resort.  At the time there was building work going on a plenty and certain areas of notoriety today weren't so back then.  It was, and still is, a friendly place much out of keeping in some ways to the rest of the country where time can feel to go backwards when you're sat on the beach eating lobster and drinking 50cent beers.  Life is hard sometimes...

Intermission

Right, after rereading my virginal blog i realise that there is more to this lark than simply placing one thought in front of the other and hoping that they read well in words.  The people who i think do a great job with their blogs can be seen on the right hand side of the page, as can Nik's.

For Nik, you're welcome.

One other thing that i am debating is how do i write my I? is it a lower case i or an upper case I....This is irrelevant and i/I do apologise but it will bother me for a long time

I'm going to be doing a few postings on Cambodia in the next few days and I assure you that they may be interesting.

Worried musings....

As this is my first post I am obviously concerned; will it be interesting, will my grammar be correct (it's my job after all), will I end up talking about nothing in particular? oh.  Okay, time to crack on.

Hopefully this is going to be my last week in the UK after i returned from Cambodia at the end of June.  It's been fun but I do miss the craziness of a city, a different culture and as much as thought I missed British weather I now seems that I don't; bring on the winter!  Things that I have enjoyed though include; going to the cinema.  There is nothing like seeing a GOOD movie on a big screen and Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs The World and even Piranha 3D have reminded me how much a love the medium; support your local cinema!  One other thought on film though would be NO MORE 3D!!! That is all.

Being in the countryside is a blessing and the pollution free air has been much welcome.  After being in Indian and Chinese smog at the back end of 2008 I bought some walking boots and hit the hills.  This summer the Old Man and I wen to the Lake District in North West England and had a great time walking on the crags, drinking the local ales and stroking Bassets.

View from Great Crag

What else has been good whilst i have been home....ah yes! FOOD!  I think I've eaten rice twice since being home and the free availability of potatoes and dumplings has been highly satisfying.  Other favourites include lasagne and roast dinners.  Booze has of course played its part but I think I'll leave that for another post.

Seeing family and friends hasn't been bad either.

Right I'm off to the pub.