Category: Travel

Jan Morris

22/11/2022

The story of how Jan Morris wrong-footed rival reporters, and scooped the story of Mount Everest being climbed for the first time, fascinated me when I was very young.

Jan - then still called James - had to descend from a high encampment, send runners with a scrap of paper to a local radio link, then trust that this message would be telegraphed from Katmandu to London.

It arrived on the eve of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation day, 1953.

The message was in code, actually reading : “Snow conditions bad. Advance base abandoned yesterday. Awaiting improvement. All well!”.

Deciphering the code gave the story exclusively to his newspaper, The Times. (Although in those days the front page only displayed advertisements, so the story was reduced to “Everest Conquered” in a small box in the top right corner!)

I was tickled pink to be introduced to Jan by my friend Paul Clements, who has now penned the authoritative biography you see at the top.

She was very gracious - the studied image of an English gentlewoman - and she adored the attention of folks attending her book launch that night.

Jan was a prolific author and traveller - a pioneer in many ways. Not least in having a gender-reassignment operation and transitioning from James to Jan - a long time before such things were part of any mainstream discussion, much less acceptance.

Paul has been a fan and friend to Jan for decades. He had access to volumes of her work, notes and correspondence - and has created a magisterial work.

It’s the fruit of nearly 40 years of engagement with his subject - and a seven-days a week writing schedule during the Covid lockdowns.

I doubt there’ll be anything better on Jan Morris…

It’s not an authorised biography as we define them - a son of Jan is the literary executor of her estate, and says there’ll be an official book in due course. It has been suggested that it will contain excerpts from Jan’s diaries. Which would be news to many : it’s been thought that Jan didn’t keep diaries! She probably didn’t waste writing-time and writing-material for a private diary. For her journals - look to her books.

Paul has always admired Jan’s life and her writing. But his book doesn’t flinch from telling uncomfortable truths about her. Jan was single-minded. Self-centred. A precious quote from one of her sons is “I was introduced to Jan Morris, but I didn’t know her.” Cold, eh?

Her daughter Suki wrote a heartfelt piece lamenting the lack of parental feeling from Jan.

And wondered frankly how her mother Elizabeth felt.

Paul remembers Elizabeth fondly too. On his visits to their home in Llanystumdwy, North Wales, she made marvellous “bara brith” fruit loaf and Welsh Cakes for tea. A kindly and welcoming woman.

Jan, as James Morris, second from left - greeting the conquerors of Everest.

Elizabeth stayed faithfully married to Jan Morris, and seems the sole source of love for their children.

While Jan broke free from James, Elizabeth lost James and gained a sister who called the shots.

I felt there was a sadness at that book launch at Daunts in London, where I chatted merrily to Jan.

By her side Elizabeth remained silent.
Silenced, perhaps.

You can order Paul’s book here : from the Publisher | from Amazon

Waiting for Jesus

24/12/2021

Here's a bit of fun for the holidays...

I still get a warm feeling getting through airport baggage reclaim and seeing someone with my name on a piece of card, waiting to whisk me off to the hotel. Mostly it’s just a warm feeling of relief - someone’s turned up, and I don’t have to hustle for a taxi. It’s nice when it happens.

And sometimes there’s a little warm laugh to be had too.
Keep an eye out for those chauffeurs' signs the next time you're able to travel - you might spot a treat.

Here are my favourite three picks : in reverse order.

This gentleman is waiting for a Mr G Best - at the George Best International Airport in Belfast.

I think it’s slowly dawning on him that it might be too late. The legendary footballer had been dead four years before I took this photo.

George Best was a generous man to many, and hugely loved in this, his hometown. But I must say I’m not so keen on associating a chronic alcoholic with the operation of flights carrying tens of thousands of people safely to their destinations.

But that's just how I feel!

This is childish of me...

There are plenty of people called Jesus in the world. And if you look closely, he’s clearly waiting for his friend Jesus Rosaryo.

But by the time I took this photo at Stansted Airport, dozens of others had already snapped him, I swear.

And he was now ringing his passenger with a frustrated whine, saying “But I AM here - by the exit - and lots of people are taking photos of me!”

Now this is just brazen.

This is at Vientiane Airport, where law enforcement officers keep an urgent eye out for drugs traffickers journeying back and forth from the Golden Triangle. Although it's opiates and cannabis they normally look out for, to be honest.

Anyway, these guys just don't care for caution...
They even advertise where they deal.

- What a great residence!

If you're having a break around now - please enjoy - and have a great 2022!

China’s Childbirth Crisis

31/5/2021

I could have been talking to a young British, American or Aussie guy in the early 2000s, the things he said were so familiar to me : exactly the same aspirations - and frustrations. Just a couple of years ago this is what David, a Chinese producer, said to me…

“My folks have bought a house in Hainan (the equivalent of Florida or Hawaii, I’d say) and the property value doubled inside a year!” David was up to date on the per-square-metre real estate values across China and was breathless with incredulity. “Ordinary South City* apartments are beyond me now - $2,400 a month”.

“My folks have done well, but so well that I don’t think I can ever catch up!”
David was then about 28 years of age.

As it stands, millennials (folks born between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s) in China are twice as likely as Britons or Americans to own their own property. However, that’s a proportion likely to fall.

In the North of China*, Eric felt the same as David.

“We work so hard… Seem to get to an OK level… But then get stuck. It seems unfair sometimes. Pupils are pushed so hard - you cram and cram to get the best results… But where are the rewards?

“Seven million people pass their exams every year - the competition for the best schools is intense. And then it’s the same scramble for decent jobs. All your money goes on accommodation and paying back the University fees.” **

I think this is going to prove a big stumbling block for China’s newly announced policy of allowing parents to have three children per family. Up from two. And up from the One Child Policy which ended in 2016.

Even just marrying is an increasingly expensive business. Chinese families often still pay dowries - payments from groom to bride to prove their suitability and in token of her financial independence after marrying.

In Eric’s rural village, it had become customary to pay $12,000 to his sweetheart. He was lucky. In a neighbouring town the figure was $21,000. There’s supply and demand as a factor here too : China has an average of 114 men vying for the attention of every 100 women.

The cost of a marriage ceremony has gone up in recent years of course. There’s been something of an arms-race in the kind of spectacle that you put on for your children…

We saw the atrium of the Sheraton in Guilin filled with a stage set for one lucky couple. I’ve been involved in less impressive film award galas - or even Queen Elizabeth’s jubilees!

And you can’t walk along the Bund in Shanghai without bumping into photographers and film crews capturing the magic moment of matrimony - weeks before the event - accompanied by make-up artist and a lighting rig.

Watch out for the groom on the left in one of these snaps - he’s clearly had enough of his shoot outside the Chanel shop! Take a closer look, and there's a third couple just along the pavement from him...

As in many developed countries, youngsters are getting more interested in their personal lifestyles - they are getting less interested in having large families

Here’s a revealing quote seen on the social media service Weibo : “Don’t you know most young people already find it so exhausting to take care of themselves?”

Eric actually has two siblings.

He grew up in the countryside, where the authorities have traditionally been a bit more relaxed about enforcing the One Child Policy. Extra labour for farming was useful too.

And it may be that the gap widens between the urban young (in their expensive cities) and their country cousins.

A huge proportion of China’s young will view this idea of increasing family size as irrelevant to them. Unattractive even. Some are already thinking that population control which involves increasing the birth-rate looks a bit like a Ponzi/Pyramid-selling scheme.

And if it's a pyramid selling scheme, the pyramid is inverted. These charts show how the population of China has aged since the 1950s. There are now proportionally very many more elderly people relying on the labours of the youngest generations.

For those guys at the top to be comfortable, thousands have to join at the bottom, and work hard, passing up their wealth.

Many Chinese youngsters question whether they can afford - or want - to be a part of it.

A note on Chinese/Western names.

Eric and David are not the names they were born with, but they chose them, to make it easier for contact with Westerners. It may also be a way of preserving a certain reserve, I think. At their different schools both David and Eric were shown a whiteboard full of Anglo-Saxon names by their teacher one day, and they were asked to pick one. Simple as that.

Eric McCormack

“I chose Eric because Erics looked kinda cool in US TV shows...

"But I think it’s the name of really old men in England, is that right?”, asked Eric.

Eric Sykes

We were forced to admit that indeed, Eric is best known as the first name of an veteran comic actor who played (very well) a rather feckless man.
Eric the Younger was a little crestfallen!

* I'm not mentioning the home towns of David and Eric, one in the South West, and one in the North West, in order to avoid embarrassing them.

** University fees are about the European continental level - $700 a term.

Fact Finding Flaws

21/2/2021

Now that the Laos’ vast dam-building programme is coming close to Thailand’s border, the government in Bangkok has suddenly broken its diplomatic silence over a two billion dollar project at Sanakham - claiming it has been sent false data over the environmental impact of the barrage.

Laos is a landlocked country, with comparatively little to export to its richer neighbours - but earns hundreds of millions from selling renewable electricity, cross-border. Its ambition is to be the “battery of South East Asia” - building 100 hydro-electric dams across the mighty Mekong River (shown left) by 2030.

Thailand would do well to be worried - especially after the collapse of another massive edifice called the Saddle Dam D - which caused widespread destruction and killed scores of people, a couple of years ago.

(photo : Free Malaysia Today)

You can't fail to notice the scale of dam building and other construction in Laos. Villages have been cleared and flooded. Chinese expertise is evident right across the country.

I’ve written before about the over-exploitation of the Mekong and its tributaries. And about the impact of development on the environment and culture of Laos.

But, in Vientiane, sitting alongside some NGO officials in the business of protecting ancient monuments, other thoughts occur…

They were working out how to quantify the relative importance of various Buddhist temples and other special sites : those of which lie along the pathway of new building zones or in the catchment areas of proposed reservoirs.

(Photos : Carsten & Julia Runge)

The experts came up with a simple model… Devise a scale, 1-5, describing how significant a monument is. Then multiply that by the footfall of visitors to the local area generally. You end up with a figure which suggests which temples should be fought for, and which could, maybe, be flooded.

Rough and ready, eh?

But in the absolute absence of other data, and under pressure of time, it’s the best they could come up with. And tells us how imperfect the attempt to be scientific can be.

The conclusions of scientists are most of the time perfectly honest, but can have been established on less than solid ground at the outset... The result of a best guess. An abundance of caution. Or a philosophy or mindset.

Back in 1995, the International Obesity Task Force decided to change its advice as to what an optimum Body Mass Index should be. They lowered the upper limit of the ideal range, shifting millions of people into the obese category. Did that cause folks to worry about their weight and get healthier? Or discourage them altogether?

And right now, of course, just when we would like science to be certain, we sometimes feel adrift, or even misled. In essence, the difference between rival models for the growth of Covid-19 is one group playing it safe just a wee bit more than another group. But the projections can end up vastly divergent.

And last week I heard an anecdote from Shailesh Gavankar, who heads the Artificial Intelligence group at Morgan Stanley.

He described a team of AI-using data miners reporting to him that, in their studies, there was a huge correlation between impressive job titles and big profitable companies. He had to gently point out to them it did not mean that impressive job titles give rise to big profits - just that big successful firms have lots of positions to fill, many of them happen to have impressive job titles!

In an era when Big Data is promising to reveal so many secrets which will lead to breakthroughs in research, development, scholarship, production and profit, it would be worthwhile bearing in mind that a lot will still depend on human interpretation at the end point, and on what data you chose - right at the beginning.

At Home but At Large

10/10/2020

Being forced to work at home isn’t so very strange, I must say.

It’s been eight years since I commuted regularly from my house to a newsroom. Instead I’ve been forced to turn a temporary home or hotel room into a workspace too.

Sometimes those venues have been very pleasant…

Here are some snaps of my favourite Home Offices. But bear in mind : I’m not sharing photos of the ones which were complete dumps!

Needless to say, technology has kept me working, and in touch, all around the world.

But what we’re all doing now is on a whole different scale. And in some parts of the world it simply would not have been possible, not easily, until Covid-19 hit.

For example : in much of the Middle East, especially Gulf Cooperation Council members, tools like Zoom simply weren’t allowed. I was reminded of that by Abhineet Singh, who manages the wealth of an important family in Muscat, Oman.

We chatted after a live interview via MS Teams which wouldn’t have been possible months before - delighted to meet each other, and delighted not to have to get on an aircraft to do so!

But he and I also lamented not being able to do any real face-to-face, in-the-flesh, in-person gatherings that grease the wheels of business in a way that staring quizzically at a laptop screen can’t replace.

“Virtual meetings might work for an initial introduction - and for maintaining an established relationship for a time. But in between, you really need to spent three to six months developing a rapport with any new business partner. You need to see their neighbourhood and their body language”, says Abhineet.

I think he’s dead right.

I’ve heard at so many conferences how new partnerships have foundered, when folks have got together and discovered a gap between a slick online presentation, and their behaviour in-person.

But I think we’ve got another two years of dealing with virus mutation and vaccination programmes, before we can even begin to think about how business travel and/or virtual conferencing evolves.

As far as travel is concerned, I’m horrified by experiences I hear like Tabby Kinder’s. She’s been appointed the Financial Times’ new Asia Financial Correspondent.

On arrival at her new base in Hong Kong she knew she’d be in a hotel room for two week’s (expensive) quarantine. Just a couple of days before leaving, they changed the rules - now it’s three weeks in ‘captivity’.

A lot is being invested in making online experiences more like the real world. Virtual Reality for sales summits is patchy but getting better. There’ll be huge desire in the conference/events industry to get the one to two trillion dollar industry back on its feet.

Yet, businesses are enjoying not spending money on covering absence, travel and accommodation costs for wandering staff. And pre-Covid too, I spent most prep time with businessfolk on the old fashioned telephone - they had little appetite for logging in and sitting up.

It’s early days, I fear, so get comfortable wherever you are.

Virus-Prone Tourism

19/4/2020

Concern about excessive mass tourism is not new…

The framed poster on the left dates from around 1931 and was made for the Paris Colonial Exhibition. You can see it now in the lobby of the Grand Hotel d’Angkor in Siem Reap, near the home of the Angkor Wat temple complex.

But nearly a hundred years ago the advert was suppressed, with French colonial authorities worried that it could encourage too many more visitors.

Today, you can choose to believe that the (between one and two million) people visiting these apparently everlasting, but actually fragile temples is too much, and is destructive. Or that it’s constructive and not enough. The Cambodian government was hoping for 20 million Chinese visitors alone to the country this year - which will never now come to pass.

Working with NGOs locally doesn’t make the choice between these views much easier.

Five years on from our last stint here, conditions seem improved for locals - the result of cash coming in from these tourist sites and glitzy Siem Reap.

Folks in nearby districts are better fed, better dressed and there are almost no children out of school, begging. Cambodians are a large proportion of the tourists here too, which was not the case before.

In the last five years, as well, a new generation has entered the work-force - and they seem more forward looking and positive than their parents. The older generations saw the very worst of human behaviour - with civil-war related violence as recent as twenty years ago. That said, one bar worker told us she yearned for the return of the (to most people, murderous) Khmer Rouge. She says that Siem Reap has turned into a place where people worship money, and where corruption thrives.

Well, with great exaggeration, there’s something of a Year Zero moment right now as a result of Covid-19.

Tourism in Siem Reap had fallen by 25% in February. Now the flow has run very shallow indeed.

Back in January, over the course of just one week, we saw all Chinese holidaymakers disappear from the streets of Chiang Mai in Thailand. Business owner Peter described guides who were leasing fleets of tourist minibuses for $2000 a month - with nothing now coming in to pay for them.

My last big spring conference turned out to be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was rather disquietening, looking out at an audience of delegates to see half of them wearing masks - and the other half looking worried. Not the best way to encourage openness and dialogue!

By March, Western tourists followed the Chinese, Japanese and Korean examples - we saw the streets quieten pleasantly in Ubud, the cultural capital of Bali - and then get a little too quiet.

The break in Bali turned into something longer, as Vietnam was closed to outsiders, and our last gigs disappeared as a result. Remaining on that lovely island instead was appealing…

Local doctors said were no cases of the virus there at all. In fact, we heard of 900 Chinese people who were stuck in their hotels in Bali - told by their government to stay in place.

But as flights began to disappear, places began to shut down, and with the prospect of a "second wave" of Covid-19 in humid SE Asia increased, we repatriated ahead of schedule.

We booked, but were not allowed to board, one flight (our midpoint, Malaysia, closed its airports).

We stood in the queue you can see here for nine hours, and thankfully secured an alternative.

(The image of that queue appeared in British newspapers subsequently, five times as long!)

Two days later, after weeks of having our temperatures taken at airports and hotels in Bangkok, KL, Siem Reap and Bali we arrived somewhat relieved at London Heathrow.

- Where there was no testing at all.

Our final flight, closer to our European work, was on an Airbus A320 : capacity 200 plus. We were outnumbered by the aircrew.

While we were in Siem Reap, one day, we got up far too early to see any temples at Angkor. It was pitch dark, and the authorities have now closed the complex to visitors until 7:30am. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We were able to sit quietly and watch a small community of Buddhist monks worshipping nearby.

We considered how prayers had been said there for centuries. And how fortunes had changed during that time; how a vast civilisation had disappeared, due to changes in political power, and climate change.

About three weeks ago, the Hindu island of Bali was due to celebrate Nyepi - one of the very oldest rituals celebrated by human beings.

Our chum Kadek described part of this ceremony of renewal to us : “Imagine all the sins we have committed through the year end up in a cauldron. This day we will take that cauldron and scrub it out.

"The virus will not touch us.”

I truly pray that turns out to be correct. The people of South East Asia stand to lose what they have gained economically in recent decades. Strip away the clamour of air conditioning units, TVs, mobile devices, scooters, sports vehicles and new concrete housing…

...You’ll find the majority live very close to the edge.

India's Missing Workers

23/5/2019

Amidst the vibrant colours and overwhelming bustle, there are two images that stand out when you wander around the North West of India - the Hindu heartland of the country. One is the photograph of an alternately grinning or pensive Narendra Modi, claiming credit for a new bridge, road or giant statue.

They were there long before the general election posters went up. They will stay up for a while to come, as the PM claims a landslide victory.

The other image is very masculine. It’s actually an image of absence… The apparent rarity of women in public life - and by that I don’t mean politics, but in jobs that have any kind of public interface. At times it seems that every scrap of work is being done by men. Police officers, bus drivers, cafe owners, taxi drivers, tailors, shop keepers, receptionists, waiters, cabin crew, cooks, ticket sellers, telephonists, stall holders, clothes washers…

Southern Indians suggest to us “it’s a Northern thing”; but beyond that : it’s dangerous to place much reliance on observations made during a scant month between conferences.

However, statistics back up the idea that, in India, women are disappearing from the work place.

Sources differ, but it looks like female participation in the workforce has declined from nearly 50% in the 1990s, to just above 30% now.

Last year, India was placed 130 out of 189 countries, when measured for women's participation in the workforce. And in a leaked report at the start of this year, 27.2% of young urban women are reported to be looking for work, while in the countryside it’s 13.6%.

Indeed, it was in the countryside we saw larger numbers of woman at work - breaking stones to repair roads, or tending crops.

The hope was that India’s tremendous economic growth, and improved education system (many girls are leaving state-provided secondary schools for the first time) would lead to women boosting the workforce both in numbers and in skills.

Why that hasn’t quite happened is an enormous puzzle to researchers.

They suggest there might be two main reasons…

One is that increased wealth means that families can afford their womenfolk to remain at home. The second is that woman are opting to stay in education longer, and will emerge into the workforce eventually. A qualification to that last argument is the finding that while college graduates and the un-educated do get jobs, those in the middle - the new high school leavers - are less likely, in comparison.

When he started his first term as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi made the rash promise to produce around 15 million jobs a year - that’s roughly the number of school leavers that India has annually.

This spring we learned that India’s overall unemployment rate climbed to its highest since the 1970s, actually worsening since he initially took office in 2014.

A woman dispenses water, from behind a cage

"The faith placed in our alliance is humbling and gives us strength to work even harder to fulfil people's aspirations”, says Mr Modi, today.

Well, the PM would be wise not to repeat his jobs promise and, among other things, look at how workplaces can be made more attractive for women.

A Filthy Outlook for People and Prosperity

19/3/2019

The streets of too many Asian cities resemble locations for dystopian sci-fi movies these days : scarce traffic and shuttered businesses…
...The air thick with a grey-yellow fug… The few pedestrians rendered inhuman looking behind surgical masks.

A week ago we fled Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand because we spent too much of the day trapped inside our room, and too much time coughing. You can see the alerts we responded to, here… Heat maps from Beijing to Bangalore showing fierce temperatures, and Air Quality Index readings off the scale.

There are different ways of measuring AQI - but one of the most used has a range running from 0 to 500.

Below 50 is fine. From 50 - 100 indicates you should start to pay attention.

Above that you begin to reduce the amount of time you spend outside, put on a mask - and then stop any kind of normal activity that could raise your rate of respiration.

We were lucky enough to be able to flee to the coast when the index reached 250. Now a leading academic has called on the government to call a state of emergency - because it’s reached 500 out of 500 in Chiang Mai.

Of course it’s not just Thailand’s problem. It’s that time of year in Asia when increasing temperatures, forest fires and the burning off of old crops is creating a vast soup of smog across the region. There’s still enough thick cool winter air above all this to put a cap on it - in the process known as temperature inversion - and seal all the deadliness below.

Balloons rising into cold air, Bagan, Myanmar

It’s often easier to blame others for your predicament. Asia has imported some of the heavy industry abandoned by the West. Singapore will complain about illegal logging in Indonesia, only to find Singaporean companies are involved. The authorities in Delhi will blame stubble burners in the Punjab and Haryana for burning 35 million tons of crop waste. Thai farmers will insist a neighbour set their land alight, not them, honest.

Meanwhile the now constant causes of pollution associated with greater wealth remain : Traffic - and the move to bigger and more polluting vehicles. Urbanisation - and green spaces being built upon.

There are the normal and ancient practices too, like simply using wood for cooking fires.

“A man from San Fransisco asked us why we use charcoal to cook with…” said our outraged friend Noi in Luang Prabang, Laos last month. “Why don’t we use gas instead?”

A silly suggestion - gas may be cleaner, but the supply chain to get bottled gas into Laos is much longer than a trip to the nearby forest.

According to the World Health Organisation, three billion people worldwide use open fires or very basic stoves for cooking and heating.

The cities I’m referring to resemble vast barbecues at meal times; there’s no need for a clock to tell you it’s time to eat...

...Your stomach will be rumbling as the smell of cooking meat creeps in under the door.

Asia’s got the biggest problem moving towards greener alternatives to fossil fuels, simply because it’s got the largest proportion of humanity in one place. But obviously this is an issue with no borders… For example, Britain’s homes and businesses rely heavily on gas for heating and cooking. 80% of homes use gas, and gas is responsible for a third of Britain’s carbon emissions.

The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem suggests that to replace this consumption with electricity provision would mean a tripling of the size of the power network within the next 25 years. That’s if green commitments are to be met, and if the electricity actually comes from green sources.

There is progress, of course. Last year I wrote about China’s efforts to reduce pollution, at least in its city centres, and as a result, Beijing no longer has the world’s dirtiest skies. It gained 50 more ‘clean air’ days in 2018 - you could breathe fearlessly for 226 days in the year.

Contrast that with Delhi, where you could only breathe easily on 113 days.

It leads to headlines like one in eight deaths in all India being due to pollution. That’s 1.25 million killed last year. 80% of Indians are exposed to unacceptable levels of pollutants.

India is trying - but it’s finding it harder to push through reforms because it would require concerted action by competing administrations and political entities. Again, it’s easier to blame someone else rather than start with small reforms at home. And so many people are in love with the newly affordable things that also pollute. Big cars and air conditioning especially.

Sometimes I think that petrol isn’t expensive enough. Here’s a shot of a typical scene in Luang Prabang - not the richest place in the world.

The driver of the pick up truck has left her engine on for eleven minutes, to keep the air con working inside, as she unloads.

The nearer truck has no air con, presumably - the driver’s got his arm out of the window. But he too is reluctant to turn the engine off during a delivery. He’s there for seven minutes. Is it really that much effort to turn a key, every now and again?

The cures are as much about addressing individual citizen’s habits as much as grand projects by government. Before stubble (waste crop) burning was banned in Britain, I remember setting fire each St David’s Day (the first of March) to our bit of the mountain in our West Wales home. It was to get rid of the bracken, and enrich the soil, we were told - but it was mostly ancient practice. The banning of slash and burn was opposed heavily. But it’s accepted now.

The air where we’ve been living may be deadly for another three months, apparently. Our chum Liu has been told not to be outside for a single moment if she possibly can - she’s expecting her first baby.

Children must stay indoors too.

Schools and universities may be shut down again. Businesses will close for days. The restaurants and cafes that serve them will have no customers.

How can that be good for an economy?

Or a people?

Smart Growth

25/11/2018

Sometime around now, India is surpassing the UK in terms of GDP. It can depend on how you measure it, really, but it’s certainly a milestone.

You can see how China looked forward to their winning that race a while ago - in this poster at the Propaganda Museum in Shanghai.

Now it’s India’s turn.

And perhaps it’ll be the smartphone which will provide a big push across the finishing line. From a slower start, Indians are going crazy for smartphones and phablets. And, as we've seen elsewhere, trade and education gets a big push, when people are more connected...

The mobile phone company Reliance has had a big hand in this - giving away handsets free for a year, and selling 40GB bundles of data for just $7 a month. That’s about 80 times what I get from my British mobile provider, by the way, for about half the price.

Jai Rupani is watching this trend for the Dinesh Hinduja Family Office - and he says that 80 percent of Indians will have smartphones by 2020 - a doubling in number over just four years. Jai looks after the luxury property company Gokaldas Lifestyle too, which is another bellwether of increasing economic activity in India.

He says smartphone technology is potentially a game changer for all Indians…

Signs of the Times

15/9/2018

Sometimes you can read big changes from small things.

Like these two vehicle registration plates in Mandalay, the biggest city in the middle of Myanmar.

The one on the left belongs to a scooter which can never cross the border - because no outsider will be able to read its Burmese script. A couple of years ago, number plates here started looking like the one on the right - a mix of Latin characters and Hindi-Arabic numerals - Western-style. The car to which it belongs can be driven on roads from Beijing to Bali.

Connections are being enhanced right across this great continent.

The bridge over the Irrawaddy

Inspiring decor, in a Yangon restaurant

It’s one of the small changes being encouraged by membership of the economic block ASEAN - which is mentioned increasingly by ordinary folks here, in much the same way as the EU is back in Europe.

And as with the European Union - especially in its early days - road building is often a concrete measure of the “presence” of ASEAN.

Otherwise the organisation is frequently accused of being a talking shop, of slowness and extravagance. I remember seeing a vast new immigration centre on the border between Thailand and Laos - with only pitted earthen roads leading to and from it.

It was to remain that way for a long time, too.

The government of Myanmar is already alive to the fact that its road network needs improving : to make it easier for its citizens, boost business efficiency, encourage tourism and promote security. So the upgraded road from Mandalay to Yangon (via the new capital Naypyidaw) takes 8 hours by car now, down from 12 recently.

That 600 km (370 mile) journey still takes 15 hours by train! The track dates from the days of British control. It’s narrow gauge. And described like “the journey of life” by Kyaw Kyaw, a guide we met in Mandalay.

“When the train starts, it’s with a big shove, then a swinging motion from side to side which rocks you to sleep like a baby. Then it gathers pace, and like a teenager, it rushes forwards with leaps and screams. Years then seem to pass before eventually it staggers like an old person, to a shuddering halt!”

China is spending vast sums improving rail connections in the wider region, but it is roads which will offer the most immediate benefit for inhabitants.

There are, of course, unforeseen consequences from most development, and that’s true of an improved 60km road built by sinewy men and women on the way from Bagan to the shrine at Mount Popa, for example.

The old road was always a place for gossip and exchange each day - as farmers would leave their adjoining fields and seek the shade of the trees at the edge of the road, when the local bus was due to pass. They’d hang around to hail a friend for a chat, or make a swap.

Now as you bowl along, you see an almost eerie sight : every 100 metres, almost precisely, will be a rangy figure standing, perhaps fluttering hands out towards the traffic, seeking alms from the larger number of travellers along this route.

Fellow residents shake their heads in sadness at the begging, as they drive swiftly by.

The vehicles travelling these routes are getting more expensive. Gleaming saloons for the tourists. 4x4s or SUVs for the local wealthy. Scooters for everybody. But wise folks tell you to choose carefully…

“Don’t buy a scooter from China. They look great.
But they break down quick...

"We say ‘Dao Say : Dao So’ - Chinese Machine : One Day.”
(Phonetic spelling)

The “Chinese Water Buffalo” is still esteemed though.

It’s ugly and very, very loud - more like a generator mated uncomfortably onto a truck body.

But it does the job - from tilling, tugging and threshing to transport.

A lot of odd fellows will be sharing Myanmar’s new roads for a while.
From water buffalo (real and mechanical) to limousines. And both left- and right- hand drive cars, too…

Burma changed over to driving on the right hand side of the road in 1970. The dictators in charge wanted to cozy up to their allies in China and Laos across the border. Despite its other neighbours India, Bangladesh and Thailand driving on the left. And also despite the fact that most vehicles came from Japan, where they also drive on the left.

With a reduction in sanctions, left-hand-drive vehicles (for driving on the right - are you keeping up!?) are now appearing. But drivers of new cars face a problem. Most ticket booths still expect you to be sitting in the right front seat - so it’s a stretch for you now, to hand over your change at the car park!

And just to add to cross-border confusion, Myanmar is one of only a handful of countries in the world to use miles (instead of kilometres) and gallons (instead of litres).

This piece has been as meandering as a goat track, but I’ll finish as I began, with scooters.

There’s a place that no scooter can go in Myanmar. Yangon (the old capital, Rangoon) has banned them from its centre. They’re viewed as a lawless nuisance, not obeying traffic regulations or adhering to lane discipline. And annoying all those nice new car drivers too.

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon

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