Never knowingly taking the shorter route

Ok, so the last month has been interesting.  We did two trips.  Firstly around the diocese here.  We spent three days visiting the various parishes and seeing how building work and so on was going.  We were camping out in churches and getting food as we went along in the villages, but on the last night we were unable to find anywhere serving food so one of the massai we had with us went to the nearby settlements and bought a goat, which we then proceeded to slaughter and cook on an open fire.  This was all done with quite some efficiency.  I can’t imagine many vicars in England managing to skin a goat quite so easily.

The next trip we went on was to Morogoro.  This was mainly to pick up some more volunteers and do some msungu food shopping, but we took the opportunity to go to mikume national park (as Andrew convinced me to do).  This was really cool, and we saw lions and elephants really close, and giraffe and zebra and monkeys and hippos and so on.

The downsides, I guess, have been that I still feel at a loose end here, mainly waiting till I go to Dubai and see my family and then England to see all my friends.  Also our housemaid stole money off us, one of the guys here got arrested for not having his work permit on him (though he has one - its just highlighting how I cannot stay without a visa to me).

But, all in all I’m doing ok.  Slightly dispondant but ok.

I will be going to a Massai village tomorrow evening and staying over there for the night then going to a Massai celebration the next day.  Then some time over the next couple of days I’ll be heading to Dar, then flying to Dubai on Friday afternoon, then flying back to England the following Friday.  In less than two weeks I’ll be back in England.  Still not sure what sorts of jobs I’ll be looking for or whatever.  So I guess we wait and see what happens next.

So, no joy on the visa front.  The possibilities that I had haven’t worked out and, while I could scrape around for something to do somewhere or go travelling again or something I don’t really feel like it now, so I’m going to come back to England and then re-assess.  I’ll be getting back on 28th March and working things out from there.  I’m not aiming to rush back into work, especially as I really don’t know what I want to do, so I’ll probably just bum around staying on friends floors and at my parents and stuff for a month or so (consider this notice).

So, has this all been a waste of time?  Has it been a mistake?  Hmm, I’d say no.  I had a really good time travelling, met loads of nice people, had lots of interesting experiences, and since I got here I’ve met nice people and seen a side of Africa few people get to see, so I’d say its been a good experience.  There have, obviously, been negatives, though.  I’ve not been able to do the work I was promised, and that’s really got me down.  I think I’ve learned a lot.  I am more suspicious of development work now, I wonder if it can ever be sustainable and I have learned that there needs to me a lot of organisation behind work such as this.  I have a big bunch of questions in my head that I will ask if I do this again.  And will I do it again?  Maybe.  I am not decided.  I think if I did I would do it with a bigger organisation and with a better idea of what sort of support I might get and a more concrete job description - but I’m certainly not put off totally by things.

What’s the future hold, then?  As I say I’ll be thinking about this from now on and I’ll try not to rush into anything in England.  Maybe I’ll try and get a job I really enjoy in England (what, I cannot say).  And if not one that pays a lot in London, then use that money to do something nicer that pays less at some later date.  Maybe I’ll do neither of these, I really don’t know.  Suggestions welcome.

Ok, so I’ve spent just over a week in Hong Kong. In this week I’ve spent quite a bit of time in Kowloon park, reading and thinking about whats gone before and planning whats about to happen. I’ve also been to Cheung Chau island - that has no cars and brilliant seafood, Lantau to see a giant buddah, I’ve spent time shopping, getting visas and meeting people.

Probably the most surprising thing I’ve done this week is go on the roof of the building I’m staying in - Chung King Mansions. The building itself is a sprawling mess of former apartments, now turned into low-rent hostels and hotels. There are 4 sections to it, each with 17 floors. The other night, one of the peopl in my hoste, who seems to have been here forever, showed us how to get on the roof. So we did. We sat, at one point, with our feet dangling off the edge of the roof, with Nathan Road (the main road in Kowloon) 17 floors beneath us, looking at the now pretty quiet road and being able to see right from the harbour, right up into the actual main land where the street ends and turns off. It was an amazing view. It was so late that there was no traffic on the road or in the harbour, and everything was eerily still. We then went down to the harbour and looked at the still water. Something you never see in the day, ever.

So, yea, I’ve been having a brilliant time, though I guess the thing that’ll stick with me the longest isn’t in any guidebook. Incidentally, there is a film containing Chung King Mansions (though it was a 15 years ago and isn’t quite as ropey as it was) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109424/ - Chung King Express. I’m going to have to watch it one day and see what its like.

So, what’s next?  Well, I’ve got my Vietnamese visa and I’ve booked trains as far as the border, so I’m leaving about midday tomorrow.  Hopefully I’ll be in Hanoi, Vietnam the following evening.  But that does depend on me being able to work out how to get across the border.  Should be OK, though.

I’ve been thinking about this trip.  The time I’ve spent in Hong Kong, because its been a lot longer than elsewhere, has enabled me to get to grips with the place in a way that I haven’t really managed so far on this trip.  However, I’m aiming to get to Egypt by the first of December, which only gives me about 11 weeks to do a minimum of 7 countries, so I’ve realy got to aim for a week and a half in each, so I’m going to try and limit the number of places I visit in each country and I’m going to accept that I’m only going to get a snippet of each of them.  Its a shame, I would like to spend a bit more time in each place, but I guess its just not possible.  Though, I will get that experience in Tanzania, I guess, so that offsets it a lot.

Anyway, have to sign off now, next update from Vietnam (hopefully).

Thought people might like to know my itinerary, at least as far as it is planned. To be honest this is also for my own planning - I need to have a definitive where I am when written down.

(See http://www.seat61.com/Russia.htm#St%20Petersburg)

Sunday 19th August - traveling:

• 18:47 from Waterloo to Brussels. Gets in at 22:07.
• 23:41 to Berlin. Gets in 8:11 on Monday.

Monday 20th August - day in Berlin.

Tuesday 21st, Wednesday 22nd August - traveling:

• 15:24 from to St Petersburg. Gets in 6:18 on Thursday

Thursday 23rd to Tuesday 28th August - time in St Petersburg then Moscow

• Train from St Petersburg to Moscow - probably get an overnight train, taking about 8 hours - book it in St Petersburg

Tuesday 28th August to Monday 3rd September - traveling:

• Leave Moscow at 21:35 on the Tuesday, get in to Beijing at 14:04 on Monday

Monday 3rd to Sunday 9th September - Beijing and Hong Kong.

• Get train to Xian when traveling between the two.

Sunday 9th September - Emily flies home

• May stay a couple more days in Hong Kong, or go back into China for a few days - then heading to Vietnam on the train.

So after that its all to play for, I’ll make it up as I go along.  The next step will probably involve Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, then its off through India, Pakistan, Iran and so on.