James Sanders

The Mongolian Steppe

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:47:10 +0000

Before I went to Mongolia, I made the mistake of reading the Foreign & Commonwealth Office travel advice: "Mongolia is a country of extreme weather, from +35C in summer to –35C (and lower) in winter... There are doubts about the reliability and safety of some Mongolian registered aircraft... The standard of driving in Mongolia is poor; fatal accidents frequently occur... Due to the generally poor quality of medical facilities in Mongolia, British Embassy staff are not currently allowed to bring children... During the summer hunting season, there may be isolated cases of bubonic plague..." So that gave me confidence my trip would be hassle free. Mongolia gives new meaning to the word "desolate". Stretching across central Asia and the size of Western Europe, the country is home to 2.5m people and 35m cattle. The majority of the people are nomads, living in tents on the steppe, moving every time their cattle have consumed all the available grass in the vicinity of their home. I stayed overnight in a traditional ger tent, literally in the middle of nowhere - the only thing for miles in ever direction was steppe, nomads and cattle.

Driving Across Tibet

Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:26:53 +0000

I've finally arrived in Lhasa after 5 days travelling across the Himalayas. The first day we travelled by bus to the Nepal/China border and from there we travelled by Land Cruiser, along the 920km "Friendship Highway".

Inside Tibet, there are a lot of police check points, which slowed down the journey considerably. Unfortunately, having built a world class police state, not enough money was left over for basic infrastructure, so much of the journey was spent bumping along dirt tracks from police check point to police check point. The Tibetan plateau, at 3,500m (11,500ft), is as flat as a pancake and interspersed with rows of mountains that rise up a further 1,500m. We'd drive for an hour on a completely flat straight road, then go over a mountain pass and go back to another plain which would take another hour to cross. And the scenery is spectacular: lakes, mountains, sand dunes, scrubland, grassland, farmland, meadows, monasteries, nomads, villages, cities - much more variety than I expected. I've finally arrived in Lhasa, where I'll spend 2 days seeing various Buddhist sites, before taking the world's highest railway to Beijing.

Shivapuri Peak

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 19:28:53 +0000

I went on a hike today in Shivapuri ("Mountain of the god Shiva") National Park, just outside Kathmandu. With a Gurkha guide, I ascended 1.7km in 4 hours to the summit of Shivapuri Peak. About 2 hours into the hike, we stopped for tea at a Buddhist monastery, home to 100 nuns and 2 lucky monks. We saw a range of fauna in the national park, including pheasant, wild chickens, newts, snakes, lots of bugs, 2 leeches (which I found stuck to my hand) and a cave dwelling hermit. The park also has snow leopards, wild boar and black bears, but I didn't see any and thankfully they didn't see me either.

Bangalore to Kathmandu

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:21:27 +0000

After 3 days of travelling, I've finally arrived in Kathmandu. On the first train, from Bangalore to Delhi, I shared my cabin with 3 other people, a cockroach and a mouse, and that was in first class! Thankfully, on the next train, from Delhi to Gorakhpur, I had a compartment to myself. From there, I took a 3 hour bus through the paddy fields of Uttar Pradesh (see photo) to the India/Nepal border crossing at Sunauli, a rickshaw over the border and then an 8 hour bus ride to Kathmandu. I'm staying in Nepal until Saturday, to do some trekking, before heading off on a 5 day drive across the Himalayas.

Travel Plans

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:56:32 +0000

After seven weeks, my internship’s come to an end and I'm leaving Bangalore tomorrow. From here, I'm taking the overland route back to London, travelling north through India and Nepal, over the Himalayas and across the Tibetan plateau, before I head along the eastern part of the silk route to Beijing. I'll then cross the Gobi desert and Siberia, before crossing the Ural mountains and into Europe. The full journey will be around 9,000 miles. I expect the trip will take around 5 weeks, which means I should be back in London around mid-September.

Rajkumar

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 10:45:16 +0000

About a year ago, Rajkumar, the most famous film star in Karnataka, the region Bangalore is in, died of natural causes. In an outpouring of regional grief, the local people rioted, which led to the death of 8 people, burning of over 100 vehicles and trashing of local offices (see BBC News article). Microsoft's office in Bangalore is a modern glass building, located 2 blocks from Rajkumar's home. This made it a prime target for the rioters, and every window up to the third floor (i.e. within rock throwing distance of the street) was broken. Anyway, Rajkumar's fans decided to stage a repeat protest (read "riot") today in Bangalore. When I arrived at work this morning, the whole Microsoft building was covered in blue netting, like a large sack pulled down over the whole building. Thankfully the protest has now been cancelled, as the governor of Karnataka is out of town, so the fans are going to stage a mass fast instead. Which means I can spend the day at work without worrying about rocks flying through the windows.

Acute Gastroenteritis

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:26:46 +0000

On Friday, I became very sick and ended up spending the weekend in bed. The doctor visited me on Saturday and Sunday, before admitting me to hospital on Monday, where I was diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis. Indian hospitals are quite an experience: nurses don't speak English, random injections without explanation, nothing (except thankfully the needles) was clean and air bubbles entering the drip tubes every time they changed the saline and antibiotics. The doctors though were great and, after 3 days, I've finally come home. One of the great things about being home again is the ability to sleep. Like everywhere else in India, the hospital employs far too many people and they all seemed to visit my room regularly. During my last night, I was woken up by 3 nurses, 2 sisters, 5 doctors, 2 cleaners (one for the floor, one for the bathroom), 2 catering people, a man in military uniform with lots of medals (never figured out who he was but he popped into my room every 12 hours) and a patient who was lost. This excludes those who came in and didn't wake me. I'm looking forward to a weekend of rest before returning to work on Monday.

Indian School of Business

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 20:02:40 +0000

While I'm in India, I'm spending two weeks on an exchange programme with the Indian School of Business (ISB), which is the leading business school in India. Set up in 2001 in collaboration with Kellogg, Wharton and the London Business School, ISB is an English language university in Hyderabad, the heart of India’s software community. The facilities at ISB are phenomenal. Although the school has significant downsides, being located in the middle of nowhere an hour drive from Hyderabad's town centre, the range of sports, social and academic facilities are first rate, leaving little doubt that in a short period of time, ISB will join the league of world class business schools in the global rankings.

Sivaji

Sat, 07 Jul 2007 19:58:42 +0000

I went to my first Indian film this week. It's called Sivaji and is a cross between comedy, action, musical and love story. The film was in Tamil, with no subtitles, but that didn't matter as the storyline was rather basic, which is lucky as few people in this part of India speak Tamil anyway. It's kind of like watching an opera - you know what's going on but don't understand a word. The main actor, Rajinikanth, is a 57 year old grandfather who looks and acts like Borat. The women in go seriously wild for him and, strangely, the men go even wilder.

Microsoft Research

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 23:36:28 +0000

I'm now in India, where I'll be spending 6 weeks undertaking my dissertation with Microsoft's research lab. The lab is very much like a university research department, just without teaching. The academics work on a range of basic and applied research, mostly whatever interests them, some of which might one day be commercialised. The office is great - lots of very smart people working on cutting-edge innovations. I'll be working in the Technology for Emerging Markets group, which, as the name suggests, researches the technological needs and aspirations of people in emerging-market countries, particularly those for whom access to computing technologies remains largely out of reach. Much of the work here is social-science based, in fields as diverse as economics, anthropology and ethnography. My work will involve analysing the commercial viability of a recent innovation that aims to significantly lower the cost of computing in emerging markets. Seeing the poverty in India on a daily basis brings home the significant positive social impact this product will have if/when it comes to market.

Muscat

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:25:02 +0000

On the way out to India, I stopped over in Muscat for 24 hours. That’s not long to explore a country with such diverse scenery but certainly long enough to explore the capital city. Oman has developed a tourist industry in recent years but it’s mostly based around high-end resort style hotels, so the centre of Muscat has few tourists and fewer tourist attractions. The town centre was typical for a Gulf state: modern infrastructure, friendly but conservative people and good food.

Leaving Cambridge

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:19:28 +0000

One of the downsides of studying a one-year accelerated MBA programme is that the time passes astoundingly quickly. It doesn’t seem long ago when I arrived in Cambridge, yet I'm now packing my bags and leaving. The last two weeks here have felt like a marathon, with 4 assignments, formal dinners, balls and moving back to London. The last year in Cambridge has been a fantastic experience, yet, because of the pace of studies, there seem to be many things unique to Cambridge that I still haven't experienced, such as Sunday mass at King's College Chapel and midnight punting on the Cam. These just add to the reasons to revisit Cambridge again in the coming years. All that's left of my MBA programme is to complete a dissertation over the summer. I'm going to be undertaking a summer internship at Microsoft Research, India, which will form the basis of my dissertation, looking at the potential for commercialising one of their recent innovations. This should be a great end to a fantastic year.

May Balls

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 01:40:49 +0000

As the academic year draws to a close, Cambridge moves into festive mode. Most of the colleges run black-tie "May Balls", during the third week of June, which traditionally go on until the sun rises. The first ball I went to was at Emmanuel College. Partly designed by Christopher Wren and dating back to 1584, Emmanuel is one of the wealthier colleges and this showed in the extravagance of the ball: unlimited alcohol, cabaret shows, bouncy castles, fireworks, dance tents and themed actors wandering the crowds. I also made it to the Wolfson College ball, a slightly smaller event (being a graduate college out of town) but nonetheless equally good. Nearly the whole MBA programme turned up, making this effectively the final MBA party of the year. On my last night in town I attended a "feast" at Magdalene College, one of Cambridge's smaller, and more quaint, colleges. Dressed in black tie and eating by candlelight in a 200 year old oak dining room, this was a fitting end to an extraordinary year.

Marrakesh

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 18:55:15 +0000

I've just got back from a short weekend trip to Marrakesh with some course mates. With George (South Africa), Jae Hak (South Korea), Karen (United States), Leslie (Hong Kong), Ricardo (Chile), Javier (Venezuela) and his fiancé Karelin (Venezuela), it was a bit like a United Nations field trip. This is a short video of what we got up to:

Jalal Talabani

Fri, 11 May 2007 18:58:28 +0000

Jalal Talabani, the President of Iraq, came to speak at the Cambridge Union this afternoon. Security for the talk was tight, with name checks prior to the event, metal detectors, x-ray machines and body searches on entering the building, random bag searches inside the building and an assortment of police, Special Branch, armed Iraqi guards and snipers atop St. John's Chapel.

Much of his talk was a personal biography, focusing on his early political career and communist activities. This pre-prepared amuse bouche, which deviated little from his Wikipedia profile, was followed by a much more insightful hour-long question & answer session. Jalal Talabani is an intelligent and affable man. His down to earth style contrasted with the combative and grandiose nature of Ahmed Chalabi, who spoke here last October. During his talk, he made a number of jokes, including one about George Bush and another about sex. He is a careful politician and avoided comment on controversial issues. Responding to a question likening China's occupation of Tibet with Saddam Hussein's occupation of Kurdistan: "I am against all forms of occupation". When asked about last summer's war between Israel and Lebanon: "I am against all forms of violence". In both cases, he resolutely refused to comment on the countries concerned. Equally, he refused to be drawn on Iraq's relations with any of her neighbours. However, he was happy to speak at length about issues he felt important directly to Iraq. Asked whether Iraq is getting enough financial support from the US, he replied: "From the United States, yes, but we are not getting enough support from our brothers, Arab countries". When asked when US and UK forces should leave Iraq, he responded "I think in one or two years we will be able to recruit our own army forces and say goodbye to our friends".