New York to Asia 18-22 March – notes, thoughts and stories
New York time: GMT-4hrs
London
time until 24 March: GMT
London time from 25 March: GMT+1hr
Vietnam and Cambodia time: GMT+7hrs
Singapore
time: GMT+8hrs
Sunday 18 March – London
and New York
12.00pm: flight London to New York for meetings Monday
19th.
8.30pm: great burger and fries dinner in NY with a friend in
south Manhattan. The meat was just outstanding. Three large HD screens show
NCAA March Madness.
11.30pm: bed time, big day tomorrow.
Monday 19 March – New
York
5.00am: awake, can’t sleep, try to.
6.00am: awake, can’t sleep, try to.
7.00am: I am out of the door to see NY wake up on a Monday
morning. Clear skies, the sun comes out slowly. I grab a coffee at Starbucks by
the Empire State Building.
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| New York around Times Square at 8am |
8.00am: I continue my walk down to Times Square, where they
are shooting Good Morning America. Apparently a famous girl-band is the guests.
Tens of teens scream, constantly. Their mums scream at the host. I don’t know
her name but she is a tall, slim afro-american and very confident woman.
9.00am: I get a sneaky peak of Central Park. It has been a
dry winter apparently and are no signs of spring blossoming any time soon. The
sun is higher. The traffic volume too.
10.00am: I do some stretching in my hotel room to
take some of the stress out. The hour goes by slowly.
11.00am: I am off for my day of meetings in a slick suit
and tie, or so I think.
12.15pm: I am having lunch with one of the people I am meeting. I am also staring at a giant chicken avocado sandwich, with
fries. Approximately two litres of coca-cola, with ice, is brought by the very
attentive waiter in the space of 30 minutes.
12.45pm: we finish lunch, tip accordingly and continue.
2.45pm: I have finished my 5 meetings. I think it went well. My brain is running on reserve though, jet-lag is hitting home too.
3.15pm: After wandering for a bit I settle at a low key
Starbucks to sit back and gather my thoughts.
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| New York life, right there |
6.45pm: I do some more wandering around, admire the life and energy of this city and take a taxi to the airport for my 10pm flight back to London.
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| New York taxi view from inside, special |
Tuesday 20 March -
London
5.15pm: I wake up on my couch after a 3 hour siesta. I don’t
know where I am but make some coffee and head off to the gym, I need a run. Do
a 45 min cardio session. I sweat, a lot. I feel alive again.
Wednesday 21 March -
London
07.30am: I catch up on my Portuguese lessons for 90min. With
YouTube and an Assimil language course, I feel I can learn the language
properly in a couple of months. Muito bom.
10.00am: Off to the gym. Last big 60 min weight session
before Asia. I push my self and do 65 min. Marvellous.
Thursday 22 March -
Singapore
7.00pm: I am walking in awe through the Singapore Airport arrivals
terminal. I ask myself ‘why is that in Europe we like to make airports so small
when we have even more space than here?’. It is a great piece of long-term
planning.
8.00pm: I set off from my hotel to discover the city.
8.30pm: I am lost. I ask a European looking couple how can I
get to the city centre. “Basically you came the wrong way. Go back to your
hotel and walk by the river”. Aha... that right should have been a left.
9.00pm: I am back at the hotel, find the river. Now we are
talking. And sweating, a lot. I settle for a nice looking bar by the river.
They do not have Singapore beer. They do not have Singapore food. I give in and
order Asahi beer and a mini burger, and chicken wings. Not my proudest dinner.
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| Asahi beer in Singapore - cool bar too, poor food! |
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| Singapore by night |
12.30am: I switch off my phone and try to sleep. Got a
7.55am flight to Vietnam. Wi-fi hasn't been working at all so I cannot instant
message with friends and family for free.
3.30am: I am wide awake. Body clock is all over the place
and it would not listen to me. I turn my phone’s 3G connection on. Among several
WhatsApp messages there is one from my mate Steve. I am attending his wedding
in Hong Kong in three weeks time. He wrote to me at 12.35am that he was in some
club. In Singapore.
3.35am: I text him back to check the status.
3.42am: ‘I got my arm broken by a very aggressive bouncer’.
I laugh out loud. Some things never change.
4.40am: After debating by text whether to meet or not I jump
on a taxi to go to his hotel. I need to see his arm. And I’d also like to see
him too. I am honoured to be one of the ushers at his wedding and have not
seen him in more than two years. Four days ago it was also his epic stag do
which I could not attend, there were several 'casualties' too. We speak quite regularly,
mostly usual nonsense trash talk, but he is one of those friends you know you
can always count with, any time, any day, for whatever that may be. I am lucky
enough to have a few of those.
4.54am: After asking the taxi driver to get me to Steve’s
hotel as quickly as possible I agree with him to pick me up at 5.45am to go the
airport. He seems confused but says yes.
4.57am: I am outside Steve’s room. In his usual loud, exaggerated Spanish-like accent he shouts some Spanish-sounding words, which I
cannot understand. It is good to see him. I
enter his suite-like room and get lost between the living room and the two bed
room, two bathrooms. I spent £100 in a really not spectacular hotel for a room I barely spent any
time in when I could have crashed with him. Schoolboy error. We curse each
other for not having coordinated better but still it is great that we actually
have met.
4.59am: we start catching up. I
laugh so loud at one of his stories that I am crying. I am actually crying and
hyper ventilating. The things you have to do some times.
5.50am: After a great chat, I am good to my
common sense and make a move to get that taxi. I have a 7.55am flight to Hoi An in Vietnam. If I hadn’t checked in my luggage from London all the way to Vietnam
it could have been a different story. Steve has a day of meetings ahead. I wish him luck with that.
6.30am: the taxi driver drops me off at the airport. He has been telling me funny stories about women in Vietnam. I am
not sure what to make of that, but he was laughing all the time. I laughed too.
7.30am: we are boarding the flight. I got lost twice in the
airport, good thing I had time. It is such a big airport.
9.00am: I am trying to sleep on the plane. I can’t. My body
clock really has its own life nowadays. I realise I have had aeroplane meals at
least one a day for the past five days. Singapore Airlines was the best. Virgin
Atlantic the most forgettable. I am landing shortly in my fourth country, also
third continent, in the past five days and I am not even working. I am loving
this moment. Very much.
11.30am: I take the taxi to the hotel. Roads are decent
enough. There are scooters everywhere, and they go fast. Particularly at the
roundabouts. There has just been an accident a scooter lies still under a van,
at a roundabout. There is no driver, and no blood either – hopefully they are
ok.
12.00pm: I meet David, my travel companion for the next month, at the hotel and
head off into the old town. The city of Hoi An gives you immediately that
feeling that you have travelled back in time. There is a floating peace about
the place. Most buildings are yellow, the locals smile at you, and it is all
calm and relaxed.
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| Hoi An old town |
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| There are bikes EVERYWHERE |
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| They carry it all day, and the smile too |
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| Peace and Calm in Hoi An |
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| Hoi An river - plenty of life |
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| Biggest Smile in Hoi An |
10.30pm: We go for a few drinks and meet people from
Australia, Germany, France and Norway. Locals do not go out, not at least where
tourists go. Locals take you around though and we discover a few bars around town. It is a decent night out.
