Like many of you, I will be ringing in the New Year at a party.  Only this party will be in Jaisalmer, India and it will mark the beginning of the winter 2011 Rickshaw Run.  The Rickshaw Run is a rally organized by The Adventurists.  It involves roughly 64 teams driving an auto-rickshaw across India over a period of roughly two weeks.  Yes, it is actually as insane as it sounds.

My good friend Darren told me about it and I signed up for this Run, wanting to have a real adventure and see India from a much different perspective.  And how.

Our team name is 3 Idiots Aram Se, combinging the huge Bollywood hit (3 Idiots) and also the Hindi term for 'in a leisurely way'.  You can track us on our blog or on twitter.  We will be taking off at 12 pm India time tomorrow.  Wish us luck – we'll need it!

PS – Any donations would be appreciated – To Water Aid if you're in the US or Frank Water if in the UK.

I travel often for both work and play.  I love it.  It can also be dreary and take a toll on the body but there are ways to cope.  Here’s what works for me:

• BYO: I almost never eat plane (or train) food.  It’s typically very processed, sits in the stomach and generally makes me feel awful.  Instead, I try to bring healthy-ish snacks with me to the airport (like nuts, chocolate, fruit).  At the airport, avoid the temptation of that burrito or sausage and opt for a salad or bowl of noodles instead – the Pret, Eat or Itsu locations at Heathrow provide decent options.
• Hydrate: On the plane, I try to drink lots of water and use lotion to keep the skin hydrated.  In terms of alcohol, I’ll usually have a glass of red with a meal and to help me sleep but rarely more than that.   
• Sweat it out: I’ve found working out to be one of the best ways to beat jetlag.  I can’t bear the monotony of gyms.  Instead, I try to find a yoga class in the city I’m visiting or, occasionally, see if I can line up a game of squash.  Barring that, walking or jogging is a great way to get exercise and see the city.
• Travel light & avoid cotton: Usually there’s no need to bring separate outfits for each day.  I can often get away with a pair of slacks and jeans or even just jeans for a trip.  I avoid cotton and opt instead for fast-drying synthetic clothing.
• Get stuck in: Sometimes there are unavoidable business trips where you're so busy in meetings and hotel rooms the whole time that it doesn’t matter where you are.  Otherwise, I try to build in some time to see even a bit of the place I'm in.  I once had just two hours of free time in Rome before having to leave for the airport and used it to walk around, grab a gelato and people-watch.  It was memorable and beat sitting around the airport.  I don’t worry about making it to museums or the standard tourist attractions – most of them are closed when I'd have free time anyway.  Instead, I try to walk or take public transportation to my meetings [N.B. this is much more easily done in Europe than North America or Asia].  It forces me to learn the city's geography and get a better feel for the place and people.
• Rest: I try to build in some downtime during my trips and, especially, when I get back, to give my body time to recover.  I don't always do this and have learned the consequences the hard way.

As many of you know, I spent the past few weeks in Australia.  It was a rewarding time in many
ways.  Aussies reminded me a lot of – whisper it softly – Americans: friendly,
positive, willing to lend a hand, sports fanatics.  Like Americans, and unlike Europeans, they are not
weighed down by the burden of history and so they tend to have a sunny disposition.

Australia
has an uncomfortable history with the indigenous peoples that the white
settlers displaced.  There are numerous
programs and initiatives, some controversial, to make amends.  But there remains a huge disparity between ‘white’
Australians and the Aboriginals in pretty much every category from income to
life expectancy.  Our guide told us that
the Aboriginals, who had lived in Australia for tens of thousands of
years and evolved genes to adapt to their environment, were bio-chemically not
well suited to consuming alcohol nor processed carbohydrates. So the level of
alcohol addiction and obesity is tragically high. 

I saw it first hand in
the town of Alice Springs. Having spent a lot of time in India,
I’ve seen a lot of poverty and disparity between classes.  But this felt different.  Watching the ‘white’ tourists and residents going about their business with destitute
Aboriginals loitering on the streets half-heartedly trying to sell artwork to
tourists.  Maybe it’s because this used
to be ‘their land’, which has now been colonized.  I sensed a feeling of resentment and
helplessness on the one hand, and, on the other hand, guilt from tourists
and residents.  I asked some Aussies about the issues involved land they replied it’s out of mind for most Aussies, that they hardly see Aboriginals,
who are rarely integrated in the cities, where most Aussies live. Sound familiar? It’s a complicated and, ultimately, tragic
issue that Americans have also struggled with.

Australia is a vast place.  It’s the size of the
continental US but with about a tenth of the population mostly living near the
coasts.  The distances involved are
epic.  There are cattle stations the size
of Belgium.  The Royal Flying Doctors provides medical service by
air but imagine the challenge of servicing a region the size of Europe but without the infrastructure.  Then there’s the famous School of the Air, whose
students would listen to courses broadcast over the radio instead of traveling
to school.  They now do much of this over
the internet and use modern technology to give these kids a feeling of being
part of a class, even though their classmates may be hundreds of miles away.

Like Brits and Yanks, Aussies have their own lingo and love
nicknames, preferably of the two syllable variety, ending with an “ee”
sound.  Let me explain:  Tasmania
becomes “Tazzie”, an ice chest or Eskimo becomes “Eskie”, trooper van –
troopie…you get the idea. 

One surprise was how expensive Australia can be.  The Aussie dollar has been strong relative to
the Pound and US Dollar.  Australia has had a boom in recent years due to
its natural resources, mostly minerals but also gas, that have tended to feed China’s
appetite, and this is reflected in a robust employment market and strong
currency.  Paperback novels priced from
AUS$24.95 (about $20)…not cheap! AUS$2.50 (a little over than $2) for a Twix
bar…whaa?! 

Like America,
Australia
is blessed with stunning landscapes and natural beauty.  This is the place to do an epic road
trip.  In fact, we met some French
tourists doing exactly that (though the $1000 car they’d bought for the trip
needed some work). On a side note, Germans and French were, by far, the most common
tourists I saw.   It was great to see Sydney,
the red desert centre and some of Queensland
but one could easily spend a year touring around Australia,
including Tasmania,
like the German backpacker I met.  Sigh.  Too many places, too little time.  Story of my life.  But I hope to get back to Oz someday soon.

I concluded my Oz
trip
with a week in Northern Queensland.  The first two days were spent getting my PADI
diving certification on the Great Barrier Reef,
a world heritage site and, apparently, the only one visible from space.  I stayed in Port Douglas, a planned, soulless
town catering to upper middle class tourist wanting a spot of sun and
watersport by the Reef.  The Open Water
diver certification entails 2 days of classroom and confined dives and then 2
days in open water.  I’d completed the
classroom bit in freezing London
several months prior and so signed up for the 2-day course to finish it up.

It was not an auspicious beginning.  First, our instructor was generally nervy all
morning, which made everyone else anxious. 
Then I started to get queasy as our catamaran was powering out to the
Reef.  I’d gone for the natural,
ginger-based seasickness tablets instead of those produced by our beloved
pharmaceutical companies.  Downing a
couple slices of carrot cake for breakfast, washed down with black tea, didn’t
help either.  So there we were, getting
briefed on the upcoming dive by our jumpy, hard-ass instructor, sailing the
choppy Coral Sea, and there I was hurling my
brekkie into copious amounts of barf bags, which a member of the crew would
promptly take away.  They’ve done that
before.  Many times. 

The first dive was a disaster.  The key to diving is controlling one’s
buoyancy and not one of us was able to do that. 
Needless to say, we got a stern talking-to.  To be fair, we needed a kick in the
pants.  In the event, the next dives went
smoother as did the following day and we all got certified, seeing some amazing
creatures while doing so.  The coral reef
is like an underground metropolis with high-rises here, by-ways there and its
denizens bustling about.  There were all
kinds of sea-life to see but the highlights were a reef shark, harmless to
humans but looking menacing nonetheless, and a sea turtle, gliding gracefully along
without a care in the world.

After the diving, I drove the hour or so into the Daintree coastal
area.  The Daintree rainforest is another
world heritage site, and the oldest rainforest on earth, estimated to be
roughly 130 million years old.  It’s
particularly beautiful with the mountains that flow directly into the
sea. 

This was my time to chill out and I
did just that.

There are several beaches along the coast but I was pointed
to one off the tourist trail that mostly locals use.  It was heaven.  The first day I went, there were, at most 5
or 6 others on the whole stretch.  My
last visit was best: Friday afternoon at high tide with literally no one else
on the beach save for a heron shopping for dinner.

It was great getting closer to nature: waking up to birdsong
each morning and spotting bush turkeys and bandicoots, the more-elusive
cassowaries, a couple of (dreaded) feral pigs, a snake and the cute, treefrog
in the bathroom, all reminded me how much I’ve missed mother nature.

I did a little bush walking as well but nothing too strenuous.  Mick of Noah
Valley Mountain treks is a true mountain man and takes people on treks
showing them the flora and fauna of the place, with a stop at a waterfall and
swimming hole – it’s a great way to spend half a day.  Even better was the creek a short walk from
my B&B, Prema
Shanti.  Wading into the refreshing
water with just the birds providing company was one of the more magical
experiences of my trip.

The Daintree area is a curious place: while it’s only 1 hour from
Port Douglas and 2 hours from Cairns,
the Daintree coastal area is curiously disconnected.  There are few reliable spots to get mobile
reception and many people don’t have internet. 
One person I met only this year got onto email and the Web.  It was boggling to hear but there’s a touch
of ‘We don’t do internet’ defiance to it. 
Queensland
is the Texas of Australia – it marches to a different drummer and is known to
lean right and, as an Aussie told me, ‘it’s where our rednecks are’.  As one example, I was told that the state
refuses to follow daylight savings time like the rest of Oz as it would affect
their cattle (this despite the tourist cities along its coast in favor of it).  The Daintree is a good place to spend 3 or 4 days.  More than that and it can feel claustrophobic
as there’s just one main road between the rainforest and ocean.  

“What have I gotten myself into?” and “5 more nights of
this?!” were my first thoughts as I woke, shivering, from my fitful sleep.  I was curled in a fetal position trying to
retain what little heat I could in my swag. 
A swag is camping bed of sorts. 
Unroll, unzip, insert sleeping bag and you have an instant bed.  It’s standard issue when in the Aussie
outdoors. 

We’d just completed day 1 on the Larapinta Trail*.  The temperature was dropping as we rolled
into our campsite but I decided to sleep under the stars in the swag.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.
Especially after the “Good on ya!” I got from Emily, our ‘Aussie-girl-next-door’-type
guide.  Also, my camping skills are crap
and I didn’t want to face the prospect of erecting my own tent at dusk whilst
no doubt being revealed to be the sorry sooky city slicker that I am.

The Larapinta Trail follows the West MacDonnell mountain
range from the town of Alice Springs to Mount Sonder,
some 225 km away, and is based on paths and ‘song lines’ of the Aboriginal
people that have lived here for thousands of years.  This is the desert heart of Australia, the
“Red Centre” as they call it for that is the predominant color of the
landscape.  The trail takes about 14 days
end-to-end, but I’d chosen the 7-day
‘highlights’ version offered by World Expeditions.  Opened in 2002 and getting more popular by
the year, we still only saw a handful of others on the trail on any given day,
despite it being high season to boot. 

Back to day 1: I’d forgotten how cold it gets in the desert,
that there can often be a morning frost that would make me and my swag damp and
cold.  But the stars, the stars!  Frigid desert nights tend to mean clear
skies.  And so it was that night: The Southern
Cross, bright, shining Venus, satellites racing across the sky, the milk of the
Milky Way, and the clearest, biggest full moon I’ve ever seen, all making for a
visual feast.  I was able to snap a
picture of the moon rising above the lavender sky before ‘rugging up’ – Aussie
for ‘bundling up’.  There I was, going
for broke, layering clothes on like there was no tomorrow.  And still I was cold.  Meanwhile Emily and the other guides went
about cooking up a curry dinner in their shorts.  Unlike them, I told myself, I have tropical
blood in me.

Ours was a group of 8 (3 others joined us for the first 3
days) mostly from Australia
with a couple of (giggling) German girls and myself.  The guides were Aussies from Emily, the
chipper new recruit, to Tim, a veteran of a guide at the age of 25, to the
grizzled Simon, who guides when he’s not on mining sites helping with
operations.  It was a ‘supported’ trip,
meaning one of the guides would drive a trailer with provisions and camping
equipment, so that we only had to carry a day-pack while walking.  The other two guides would accompany us on
the trail but carry a massive pack with lunch, extra water and a bevy of other
provisions.  And still we struggled to
keep up with Em, the leader of the pack.

The rest of the trip was, at once, timeless and a blur.  We covered about 100 km in the 7 days with a
typical day involving a 7 am wake-up call for brekkie, hitting the trail
between 8-8:30, stopping for lunch between 12 – 1, getting into camp around 4
with dinner served from 6:30ish and lights typically out well before 10. 

 This land is
ancient beyond imagination.  Millions
upon millions of years ago, the center of Australia used to be a sea – we
spotted many ‘ripple’ rocks fossilized with the motion of the ancient
waters.  There were also mountains here
to rival the still-young Himalayas.  These mountains have been on the wane and the
ranges, according to the Aboriginals, resemble caterpillars making their way
across the desert.   They’re right.  

The hills are striated with the different layers of rock
built up over the eons, compressed by such great force from the earth’s
movements that they are at near-right-angles to their horizontal starting
point.  The Larapinta trail encompasses
the hills and ridges that make up the range, but also dips into the desert
floor, and traverses numerous gaps, gorges, chasms and creeks.  One highlight was swimming in the icy
waterhole Ellery Creek after a hot day on the trail. 

My favorite part of the trek was also the most
personal.  After climbing onto a sacred
ridge known as ‘Eagle landing’ to the Aboriginals, we were given some time to
be by ourselves.  I meandered.  I meditated. 
I got the iPod out to provide a soundtrack.  I wasn’t sure about introducing music but was
moved to tears listening to Mozart’s Serenade in B Flat while taking it all in
- the caterpillar ridges on either side, the desert floor below, Mt Sonder in
the distance. 

It all brought home how insignificant we really are.  On the timescales of these rocks, mankind is
a mere blip, a rounding error.  All my
pressing life questions – ‘who am I?’, ‘what am I doing here?’ ‘should I or
shouldn’t I…?’, ‘will Cesc head to Barcelona?’
‘dare I do one more day in these boxers ?’ – seemed laughably trivial.  How very liberating to realize we are all
just stardust!

I was surprised at the varied terrain and flora we
saw, from red desert to scrub brush to eucalypt and ghost gum trees along the
river.

There were plenty of fauna as well.  We spotted dingo paw prints and spoor but the
dingo was proving to be elusive.  I tried
to console myself with the wildlife we’d already seen: wild kangaroos and
wallabies, lizards and a dragon.  And all
manner of beautiful birds –sennifex pigeons doing their little dance, kites and
eagles gliding on thermals, zebra finches and flocks of green parrots buzzing
about, a lone heron wading in the creek. 
But I ached to see a dingo…

At any rate, my body got used to the rhythm of the trail and
the rigors of camp life.  I learned how
to pitch a tent.  Sort of.  I still flailed and needed help from
sympathetic campers.  But I was definitely
getting less crap at it.  The part I most
looked forward to was the campfire. 
There’s something about gathering ‘round a fire that must be hard-wired
into us humans from time immemorial. 
Also, it’s fricking cold at night and fires are warm.  The dinners helped too and I had a hard time
picking a fave: roo & chicken bbq skewers vs Dutch-oven lamb roast but the
osso buco gets the nod; all washed down with a cheeky glass of red courtesy of
three very wise fellow campers. Who knew the Larapinta Trail was BYO?!  They obviously did.

Day 6 was fast approaching. 
Time to climb Mt.
Sonder.  This meant a 3 am wake-up call so that we
could walk the 8 km up in time for sunrise. 
Having climbed Mt.
Kilimanjaro and Toubkal,
I was confident and, it must be said, a bit cocky.  Sonder promptly put me in my place ten
minutes into the walk when, as we were crossing a creek, I lost my footing and
plonked my foot into the water.  A wet
left foot was sufficient warning and the rest of the climb thankfully went
without incident.  We were rewarded with
beautiful panoramic views of the area with the sun streaming through the
clouds.  It sprinkled a little on the
descent and, as we drove away, a rainbow appeared.

Having done Mt Sonder on day 6, day 7 was somewhat of a
victory lap with one last walk to take in a beautiful valley.  We came upon a creek and I was sunning myself
by a rock when I heard a commotion with the German girls frantically waving and
calling me over.  “Rags, there’s a
dingo!”  Sure enough, there she was.  A beaut at that.  Last walk of the last day, the elusive dingo
appears.  I thanked the wildlife gods.  

The wildlife luck continued on the drive back to Alice Springs when we passed a herd of wild horses grazing
on the plain. 

Thanks to the World Expeditions guides for their fearless
leadership and culinary skills; and to my fellow campers for their company and
tolerating my crap camping skills.  It
was a trip I’ll always remember: tiring yet invigorating, a reminder of Mother nature’s
might and beauty and of one’s own insignificance in comparison, and yet
life-affirming because of it. 

*More pix can be found here.

The big topic in London and most of Europe has been the volcanic eruption in Iceland that has disrupted air travel since last Thursday, wreaking havoc for thousands of travelers and costing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost productivity.  As many of you know, I travel frequently and was lucky to have been in London when it happened.  Yes, my weekend travel had to be postponed but no big deal all things considered.  I can't imagine how miserable it must be for 'volcano refugees' as they're calling themselves, and hope they're finding places to stay and keeping their spirits up.  The experience reminds me a bit of the 2003 Blackout in NYC, which was completely surreal in a post-apocalyptic way. 

Still, all of this has shown another side of globalization: we so take air travel and its attendant benefits (package delivery, imported items) for granted and having that taken away shows just how much we rely on it. 

I spent a couple of days in Oman last week on the tail-end of my first trip to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.  The Sultanate of Oman is very different from its richer neighbors – no tall buildings, most cars are modest Japanese makes and ostentation is frowned upon.  Most Omanis practice the moderate Ibadhi form of Islam, distinct from Sunni and Shia, and have a long history from the Sumerians to the Portuguese occupation and they did a bit of colonizing themselves along the East African coast, notably Zanzibar (and you can still see Zanzibaris around).  The country is ruled by Sultan Qaboos bin Said who is revered throughout.  He has been using their oil money to invest in other industries, notably tourism.

Oman doesn't feature as a major tourist destinations, which is why it's a hidden gem.  Clean, safe with a chilled out vibe: there was none of the traffic or chaos of Morocco or Egypt, nor the hordes of tourists.  We hardly heard a car horn during our stay.  The people were warm and friendly.  We walked a couple of souks with nary a hawker or tout in sight and hardly got solicited by the (mostly indian) shopkeepers.  

Some tips and pix from the trip:

• Muscat is one of the sleepiest capital cities I've been to.  While it has its history, most of the buildings are new or refurbished giving it a bit of an ersatz feel.  There isn't a whole lot to see so a day is plenty.  The souk was also pretty disappointing.  Since we had such a short trip, we used it as a base and stayed at the 'cheap and cheerful' Nomad B&B, which worked well.  It cost 45 rials (about $110), which isn't cheap for a B&B but for Muscat it was good value.  Other things like food and taxis are fairly reasonable, however.
• Oman has spectacular scenery.  We did a day excursion first visiting the old capital town of Nizwa and seeing its livestock market and then headed into the mountains for some 4×4 driving around Wadi Tanuf.  We had Salim, our trusty guide/driver, take us around although many people rent their own 4×4 and do it themselves.  Camping is popular and I'd have loved to spend more time there doing that.  We didn't have time to make it to the desert (Wahiba Sands) but that ought to also be part of the itinerary.  Conde Nast Traveler has a couple of articles that can be used to plan itineraries.
• Do yourselves a favor and hire Salim to take you around Muscat or on excursions.  A jolly, burly Omani who picked up English on his own, he is a character and made our trip.  He was full of stories and jokes, many of which had great build-up but no punch line, probably as a result of something being lost in translation from the Arabic.  But his incredible delivery followed by no punchline made it all the funnier.  I will always remember his story about the elephant and the mouse.  Best way to reach him is on his mobile, +96899141441, and tell him "Big boss & little boss" referred you (being marginally taller than Rafat, he named me big boss).  A whole day excursion in a 4×4 cost about 100 rials ($250) while half day drives in the saloon car are much cheaper.  We had him drive us to Dubai (3.5 – 5 hours depending on traffic & the border controls), which cost just 60 rials. 
• Watersports and activities are also popular.  We went dolphin watching and snorkeling along the spectacular coast around Muscat, but Oman also has fishing, diving and kiteboarding.      

While a couple days wasn't nearly enough to properly see Oman, I'm glad I went and would definitely go back.

The first ever Abu Dhabi Media Summit was held this past week at the impressive Yas Hotel, which will be the site of the Grand Prix later this year.  The track literally goes around and 'through' the hotel so it should be quite a show for guests.  At any rate, it was my first trip to the region and an informative one.  I first went to Dubai and then on to the Summit:

• Dubai is a grand 'if you build it, they will come bet'.  It doesn't have the oil of its neighboring Emirati states and so it decided to fashion itself as the commercial/financia/media center of the region.  Last year's crisis obviously took a lot of the wind out of Dubai's sails but the show goes in.  It was as expected from that I've read and heard:  a growing but soulless city offering lots of professional opportunities.  Many of the people I met tried to rationalize either their time in Dubai or else were a bit on the defensive when asked about the crisis.  But it is a melting pot (literally in the summer!), with people from all over the world living and working there.
• Dubai is known to go over the top on many things and buildings is no exception.  The Burj Khalifa skyscraper, is truly magnificent.  As many publications have noted, by changing the building's name in Sheikh Khalifa's honor, Abu Dhabi reminded Dubai just where it's bread is buttered, after bailing it out last year.
  There is also a metro with beautifully-architected stations but no one seems to use it much.
• The Abu Dhabi Media Company have ambitions to become a real player on the world media stage.  With speakers such as Rupert Murdoch and Eric Schmidt and the high caliber of attendees, it is well on its way.
• Digital media is still in a relatively early stage in the region – for instance, there aren't any credible remnant ad networks.  Proper broadband connectivity at affordable prices is only a few years old, and that is mainly in the Emirates as opposed to other Gulf or Middle Eastern countries.
• Middle Eastern business norms involve establishing and respecting hierarchy whereas Western and especially Internet business culture tends to be egalitarian.  This proved a sometimes jarring juxtaposition.
• Having speakers and attendees from China and India – two rapidly emerging internet powers – made lots of sense and bodes well for the ADMS.
• While people recognize that it's early days for the region, there is a sense of possibility given the wealth and demographics. 

Thanks to the ADMS organizers for their hospitality; I look forward to hearing how things develop with both the ADMS and the Middle East tech/new media scene.