Istanbul Part 2

The Inter-noise conference which I was attending in Istanbul went well and there were sessions for building acoustics or room acoustics everyday which was brilliant. In all, there were 1000 participants from 50 countries around the world. I never know who I will see at the conferences and therefore I am always pleased to see people that I know. There were several professors from DTU at the conference as well as people who I have met at prior conferences. Plus I had the chance to meet most of the people who are publishing in my area of research which is one of the main reasons to attend the conferences. I am always exhausted at the end of a day of listening to presentations and speaking with people during the coffee breaks because you have to be on the whole time. But it is certainly worth it for the chance to learn what other people are researching.

There is always a banquet at a conference and this year it was held at the Istanbul Archaeological Museum in the old town part of the city. We traveled to the old town by bus and entered the gates of the Topkapi Palace beyond which was a beautiful grass covered and tree lined courtyard. We walked along one of the stone walkways down to the museum and were greeted by about 100 tables ringed by chairs wrapped in cloth which was tied in a bow on the back.

We were told that the museum would remain open for twenty minutes so that we could have a private viewing and so we quickly entered the large, stone building. The award-winning museum has been undergoing renovation throughout the past decade, winning the Council of Europe’s Museum Award in 1993. The museum contains numerous works carved from stone including the very ornate Alexander the Great sarcophagus which was so named because it was believed to be the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great because he is featured prominently in several of the scenes carved into the sides of the sarcophagus. However, after the sarcophagus was named, it was found that the resident was not Alexander the Great but someone else. Nonetheless, it is an amazing piece of work. The museum also contains the first written peace treaty in the world, concluded after the Battle of Kadesh fought between Ramses II of Egypt and the Hittite king Muvatallish in the 13th century BC. The treaty itself is written on stone tablets. If you are ever in Istanbul, the museum is certainly worth a visit.

As we exited the museum, we were met by waiters with trays of drinks and tables spread out in the courtyard with hors d'oeuvre including the best green olives that I have ever tasted in my life. Seriously, they were amazing and I fear that they have absolutely ruined the now tasteless olives that I grew up with. During the dinner, entertainment was provided in the form of dances. The very first dance was performed by members of the Mevlevi Order.

The Mevlevi Order or the Mevleviye are a Sufi order founded by the followers of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi in 1273 in present-day Turkey. They are also known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their famous practice of whirling as a form of dhikr (remembrance of Allah). The ritual whirling of the dervishes is described as an act of love and a drama of faith. The whirling possesses a highly structured form within which the gentle turns become increasingly dynamic as the individual dervishes strive to achieve a state of trance. The music that accompanies the whirling from beginning to end ranges from somber to rhapsodical and its effect is intended to be mesmerizing. It is said that the chanting of poetry, rhythmic rotation, and incessant music create a synthesis which, according to the faithful, induces a feeling of soaring, of ecstasy, of mystical flight.

As the Whirling Dervishes were introduced, we were all asked to stop eating and talking out of respect for the dancers and then drums and flutes began to play their mesmerizing tune and the Whirling Dervishes who were dressed in white robes with long, cylindrical headpieces began to spin. At the start of the spinning, they had their arms folded across their chests, but soon they raised their arms so that their bodies were in the shape of a Y. They held this pose for the rest of the whirling. The whirling went on and on for quite a while as they shuffled their feet to keep themselves in motion. It was interesting to watch.



The morning after the conference ended, I arranged to meet my friend and colleague, Lars-Göran from Sweden at the Blue Mosque in the old town. It took me an hour to get to the old town via the funicular and tram, but it was an interesting way to travel rather than to take a taxi. The Blue Mosque with its domes, semidonmes and six slender minarets is one of the most recognizable landmarks of Istanbul. The mosque is so named for the blue tiles on many of the walls of the interior. The Blue Mosque was built by Sultan Ahmet I to placate Allah after humiliating defeats of wars with Persia. He ordered Architect Mehmet Pa?a to begin construction in 1609 and the whole complex was completed in 1616. Like many other mosques, it also comprises a tomb of the founder, a madrasah and a hospice. When the number of minarets at the Blue Mosque was revealed, the Sultan was criticized for presumption, since this was, at the time, the same number as at the mosque of the Ka'aba in Mecca. He overcame this problem by paying for a seventh minaret at the Mecca mosque.

I had expected to have to queue to enter the mosque, but we were able to join the other tourists passing the long line of sinks on the side of the mosque to arrive at a side door. The sinks or ablution fountains are for people who are getting prepared to pray in the mosque. Before praying, one should wash his/her face, arms, neck and feet as well as their mouth and nose. Signs near the side entrance to the mosque noted that women were to cover their bare heads, arms and legs and everyone was to remove their shoes. Shawls were provided if needed and plastic bags were available so that you could easily carry your shoes with you. As you approached the door, your feet welcomed a very thick carpet which was over the entire floor of the mosque.

The mosque is nearly a square and covered with a dome that is 24m in diameter and 43m high. The dome is supported by four colossal columns which are 5m in diameter. These "elephant feet" consist of multiple convex marble grooves at their base, while the upper half is painted, separated from the base by an inscriptive band with gilded words. The mosque has 260 windows which let the sunlight diffuse into the building and today are assisted by chandeliers. At its lower levels and at every pier, the interior of the mosque is lined with more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles. At the upper levels, the walls are painted.

A three foot high gate which ran the length of the mosque separated the tourists from the area where prayers were said. On the far end was a staircase which led up to the minber, or pulpit, where the Imam stands when he is delivering his sermon at the time of noon prayer on Fridays or on holy days. However, the priest never climbs to the very top as a respect to Prophet Muhammed.

The Blue Mosque is open to visitors outside of prayer times. The prayers occur five times a day and the times rotate according to the sun’s position.

After leaving the Blue Mosque, I bid farewell to Lars-Göran who had to go to the airport to catch his flight home and I went over to see the Aya Sofia which is next door to the Blue Mosque. The Aya Sofia is not as ornate as the Blue Mosque, but it is important to remember that it predates the Blue Mosque by 1000 years and is a marvel of engineering.

The Aya Sofia or “Church of Divine Wisdom” was constructed between 532 and 537 by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian as a monument to Christianity and the rise of the eastern Roman empire. It was the patriarchal church of the Patriarch of Constantinople and the religious focus point of the Orthodox Byzantine Empire for nearly 1000 years. The Aya Sofia remained for centuries the biggest church in the world only being surpassed by the church of St Peter in Rome several centuries later. The dome of Aya Sofia is a spectacular feat of architecture especially considering the limited building methods that were available at the time of construction. The massive dome was designed to give the visitor an impression of the greatness of God and until it was completed, no one was sure that it could actually stand. Only the best materials were used for building the Aya Sofia, including marble walls and flooring and gold wall and ceiling decorations. More than ten thousand people were employed during this construction.

Unfortunately, Istanbul is located on a fault line. Earthquakes in 553 and 557 caused cracks in the main dome and the eastern half-dome to appear. The main dome collapsed completely during an earthquake on 7 May 558. The emperor ordered an immediate restoration. This time, the architect used lighter materials and elevated the dome by 6.25 meters, thus giving the building its current interior height of 55.60 meters.

In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and Sultan Mehmed II ordered the building to be converted into a mosque. The items of Christian worship were removed, and many of the mosaics were eventually plastered over. Islamic features were added over the course of its history under the Ottomans.

Christans claimed that the Aya Sofia was rightfully a church and Muslims claimed that it was a mosque. To end the fighting, the first Turkish President and founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, cleverly transformed the building into a museum. The carpets were removed and the marble floor decorations appeared for the first time in centuries, while the white plaster covering the mosaics was painstakingly removed by expert restorers. The massive church has undergone other renovations over time and even today, the dome was filled with scaffolding as the latest renovation is being completed.

The Aya Sofia was quite busy when I visited and the stairways leading to the second floor were stiflingly hot. However, I was rewarded with great views of the city and of the Blue Mosque through the windows. Touts were all around the entrance and many people wanted to take me to see some sort of cistern that I am sure was next to a carpet store / antique store / postcard shop. I declined.

On Saturday evening, I had the privilege of attending a wedding celebration which was held on a boat cruising the Bosporus. The wedding was between my friends Claus who is Danish and Emine who is Turkish. I knew Claus from DTU and I had met Emine at the Inter-Noise conference in Rio de Janeiro two years prior. The actual marriage ceremony had taken place in Denmark a year before but they wanted to have a second celebration in Turkey for their Turkish friends and family, many of who could not get visas to Denmark. The timing of the conference was not coincidental because both Claus and Emine are acousticians and knew that a lot of people would be in town for the conference.

In the invitation which had been sent out, the guests had been given two locations for pickup by the boat, one on the Asian side and one on the European side. I opted to take the funicular to the dock and so left plenty of time for the trip, just in case something went wrong because I did not want to miss the boat. I was so punctual in fact, that I was an hour early. I knew that I was in the right place because I saw other wedding parties boarding boats, but it was a relief once other guests who I recognized began to show up a half an hour after I arrived. A short time later, the bride and groom arrived shortly after that in their wedding dress and tuxedo. Claus’s family from Denmark had come as well as a lot of Emine’s classmates from Aalborg University where she had gone to school in Denmark.

Once the boat arrived, everyone boarded and there were drinks and hors d'oeuvres on the top deck as we set sail. After a while, everyone was invited downstairs to where dinner was to be served. There wasn’t actually a wedding ceremony as one had already occurred which was disappointing because that would have been really interesting. But, the dinner was a lot of fun. I was at a table with a professor from DTU and his partner as well as several women who were friends of Emine from high school and a friend from Istanbul. Dinner was a buffet and included lots of food and lots of sticky desserts. Afterwards there was dancing to Turkish music as the boat moved up and down the river until it was time to go. Most people got off on the European side and after goodbyes, I head off in a taxi with a few of Emine’s friends to Taksim square where they were going out for the evening. I was invited to go out with them and in hindsight, it probably would have been fun, but my mind was on packing for my flight in the morning and I didn’t want to be out in the rain in my suit for long since it would soon be stuffed into the bottom of my backpack for a few weeks.

The next morning, I had my last breakfast at the hotel and met my ride to the airport which had been arranged through the conference. The Istanbul airport was large and busy and had a security checkpoint as soon as you entered the door for people and bags which I haven’t decided is a comforting or worrisome thing. I had a Leatherman in the bag that I was going to check and when security saw it, they asked to make sure that I would check the bag. Once I told them that I would check it, everything was fine. I was a bit surprised by this and was pleased that Lufthansa had a second security checkpoint at the gate. I had a bit of trouble at check in because my carryon was too heavy. This was the first time that I had my carry on weighed and I was in trouble because I was carrying both my laptop and my SLR with its heavy lens in the same bag. But, it worked itself out and later that afternoon I arrived in Frankfurt, Germany.

The following were referenced for information about the Blue Mosque
Guide Istanbul
Wikipedia

Istanbul

Ankara is the capitol of Turkey, but Istanbul is seen by many as the cultural heart of Turkey. Originally called Byzantium when it was founded in 660 BC, the city straddles two continents, Europe and Asia with the narrow body of water called the Bosphorus lying between them. In AD 330, the city was renamed Constantinople by Constantine the Great, who made it the capital of the Byzantine Empire. The history of the city includes being sacked by the Crusaders in 1204 and being captured by the Turks in 1453. In 1930, the name of the city was changed to Istanbul. Today Istanbul with its skyline studded with domes and minarets, is home to 14+ million of the 68 million people living in Turkey.

That Istanbul is a crossroads is shown in the way that its inhabitants dress. Men were generally dressed in long pants and a button down shirt, but women’s dress ranged quite widely. One would see women dressed in western clothes next to women wearing headscarves or burqas. One of the people at the conference told me that he had met a couple wearing western clothing and flashy jewelry and he was surprised to learn that they were visitors from Iran. He also told me that he had been up to the pool on the roof of his hotel and was surprised to see women in bathing suits that must have been sold by the centimeter, they were so small.

That women can choose whether or not to wear a headscarf is due to the secular government of Turkey. The constitution of Turkey asserts that the country is a secular and democratic republic, deriving its sovereignty from the people. Although an overwhelming majority of the population, at least nominally, adheres to Islam, the state neither has an official religion nor promotes any, and it actively monitors ("active neutrality") the area between the religions. All of which is why when Abdullah Gül became the 11th president of Turkey on August 28, 2007 there was strong and highly vocal opposition from ardent supporters of secularism in Turkey. Central to the controversy, were concerns that Gül has an Islamist agenda based on views that Gül expressed earlier in his political career. Furthermore, the president’s wife wears a headscarf, which is seen by some as a symbol of political Islam. The army, which has long regarded itself as the guardian of the country's secular constitution, voiced its opposition to Gül’s candidacy during the election process and there were street protests in Istanbul and Ankara leading up to the election.

The parts of the city which I visited were modern and the streets were wide and tree lined. Even the back streets were tree lined. The buildings around Taskim Square where I haunted were mostly four story tall, light colored buildings. The bottom floor of the buildings were mostly shops including cafes, restaurants and electronics stores. The sidewalks on both sides of the street were often busy with people. On the back streets near my hotel, the sidewalk was separated from the road by metal pylons attached to the brick of the sidewalk. However, I saw people loosening these and moving them in order to park the cars on the sidewalk. There were touts on the streets who were more annoying than anything. I was asked several times where I was from and if I would like to see their antique / carpet / souvenir store. The touts were mostly around my hotel and in the old town.

There were a lot of cars on the street, especially at night when the city seemed more alive than during the day. The traffic was more orderly than in China, for example, but not nearly as orderly as New Zealand. There were, however many more people concerned with directing traffic. My hotel was located up a series of small, one way street and I saw men standing at the corners, directing the large busses and the cars one way or another. It seemed that was their job because the men were always there directing traffic.

The public transportation in the city included busses and a subway as well as trams on the European side that rumbled down the street. From Taskim square there was also an underground funicular which only had two stops. I didn’t realize this the first time that I took it and wound up going down then up before going back down. Not such a great ride for 1.20 ($1 US), but it saved me a trip up and down the hill. Only some of the trams cross Golden Bay which divides the European side and none of the trams or trains connect the European and Asian sides. To get across, one must take a ferry or cross over the Bosporus via one of the two bridges. A subway tunnel and a third bridge are planned, but the government does not want to announce its proposed location out of fear that the property values in the area will skyrocket.

The weather was definitely warm when I was there at the end of August, but not terribly so. However, walking up the street when the sun was high in the sky was no fun in a dark, wool suit. I spent most of my time in the city in the Taskim Square area which is the financial center of the city. Radiating off from Taskim Square was a pedestrian mall lined with hip restaurants, cafes and bars where both men and women crowded the streets. The later the hour, the more crowded the pedestrian mall became. However, several people who ventured out of the tourist areas told me that they only saw men on the streets.

My hotel in Taskim had been chosen from a list of hotels on the conference website. I chose one that was about ten minute walk from the conference and certainly not the most expensive on the list. I chose well because a number of other people from the conference were also at the hotel and so it was nice to be around people that I knew. Hotels in Turkey are rated with stars and my hotel was a four star. However, everyone agreed that the hotel would not be four stars elsewhere in the world because the rooms were just ok and exceedingly dark. It was suggested that the number of stars may be an indication of the service offered rather than the quality of the hotel room because the service was very good. Bellboys were all around and I never had a problem communicating or when I needed to get my magnetic key car magnetized again. Breakfast was included and was fantastic. The extensive buffet included about a half dozen olives, both black and green. I have never tasted olives like the ones that I had in Istanbul. There was also an entire shelf of cheese. Most appeared to be variations on feta cheese with some being really creamy. There were also dried dates, apricots and other fruit, a entire honeycomb from which you could break off pieces to get honey and lots of different breads. Breakfast was a treat.

Food was something that was not at all a problem to find in Istanbul and I was sure to visit Saray Muhallebicisi, which translated means "Rosewater Pudding Palace". The name comes from a popular treat enjoyed during Ottoman times. I had been advised to visit the shop to try the baklavas which were absolutely sinful. They were just dripping in syrup to the point where they were simply uber sweet. There were other sweet shops on the streets as well selling sweets such as Turkish Delight from display cases.

There were sit down restaurants, but of course there were also Donner stores where you could buy kebabs. Typically, there would be a large cylindrically shaped piece of processed meat, about two feet high, spinning on a pole in front of a heater. If there were two pieces of meat, one was lamb and the other chicken. Some of these restaurants had tables inside or on the sidewalk. Others were takeaway. If you ordered one of the Donner, the man standing by the rotating pieces of meat would sharpen his long knife before proceeding to shave off several of pieces of meat for you. The meat was put inside a loaf of bread cut in half in addition to lettuce, hot peppers and maybe a pickle.

Many of the restaurants that I saw doing a bustling lunch trade had the food displayed on the widow. You just went in and indicated what you would like to have and it was rung up per item. My friend, Lars-Göran and I went to one of these for lunch and it was a great experience. We indicated what we wanted and were told to pick up a plastic container of water to drink and rolls form a bin. The restaurant was small, but we had arrived at a good time and got seats at one of the few tables inside the restaurant. The place was bustling and we shared the four person table with others and they came and went. I had chosen two of the items from the counter and I was really full when we returned to the conference.

One popular chain restaurant that I saw was several stories tall and always busting. On the first floor was a counter and behind the glass were all sorts of breads. One favorite was a flakey bread stuffed with meat or cheese or olives. There were also really good cakes. The chocolate cake that I had there was one of the best that I have had. You could also get coffee and I first opted for the Turkish coffee. I didn’t realize when I ordered that I would have to specify how much sugar that I wanted and at the staff’s prompting, I went for medium. What you receive is a espresso glass that is half full of coffee grounds. The coffee is really strong and sweet and is good, but you get too little for my tastes. After the first time, I went with regular espresso. Tea is served in clear, curvy glasses that are about four inches tall.

One of my favorite meals that I had on my own was at a hole in the wall near my hotel. I had seen that the restaurant was always bustling and so one night when I saw that there was a table free outside, I decided to give it a go. I entered and the owner shook my hand and gave me a menu. I decided that the mixed grill looked good and turned to go back outside, but the table was snatched by arriving customers. Instead I grabbed an inside table that was on a landing at the back so that I could see everything that was going on in the restaurant. The owner then brought me a big basket of bread which I had just seen him cut up for me. Fortunately, I got a brand new loaf because I saw that any bread leftover on tables after customers left was reissued to other customers. While the bread was being served, the man at the front behind the counter on the side of the restaurant was busy on the grill. A few minutes later, the waiter appeared with a plate full of grilled chicken, beef, rice and an assortment of grilled vegetables including hot peppers. A sealed cup of water also appeared. The meal was really good and fun because I could watch everyone else. As I finished up, the busy waiter appeared and swept off the cleared plate and my remaining bread and brought me a glass of strong, black tea. The whole meal cost 12 Lira ($10 US) and was really good.

I had little problem communicating with people during my stay. I am hesitant to ask people to speak English to me in a foreign country and when in doubt, I try to communicate by gestures. This usually works, especially if I can point to the food that I want. When I once got a Donner, when the waiter appeared, I pointed to the meat that I wanted and indicated one. He then showed me the bread and the vegetables and asked “ok?” to which I nodded yes. However, a lot of the people that I interfaced with could speak some English and would do so. In fact, I probably could have conducted the entire transaction in English if I had started it that way. The only time that I really needed to be able to understand 100% of what was being said was when I was trying to figure out the trams. I would say the name of where I was going and conductors would point me in the correct direction and so I managed.

ilkopedia, Lonely Planet Turkey and the BBC website were all referenced for this blog.

Hong Kong

Only hours before I was to go to the airport to catch my flight to Auckland and then to Hong Kong, I received an unwanted call from Air New Zealand. The customer service representative explained that the plane that I would be flying on that evening had experienced mechanical trouble and although the flight would still go, they were replacing the original aircraft with a smaller one. The customer service representative painted a picture of hundreds of people now needing to be rerouted because there weren’t enough seats on the smaller aircraft for everyone and I was one of those lucky people. I responded that I really didn’t want to be rerouted because I wanted the time in Hong Kong, and although they still would not put me on the original flight, the routed me through Shanghai and then on a Chinese Airline to Hong Kong. However, my travel agent told me a different story when I contacted her. She told me that there were only a few people being bumped and that I should get to the airport early to see if I could get onto the original flight.

I arrived at the airport early, but anyone who has checked in for an international flight on Air New Zealand in Christchurch can vouch that quick is not a word that one would use to describe the agents that check people into international flights. I waited for a while and when I did get to the desk, I tried to get on the original flight. The agent walked me over to ticketing to see what could be done, but to no avail, I was going to Shanghai and would arrive in Hong Kong with only a few hours to spare before my next flight. (I have made my peace with Air New Zealand since then, but it was really disappointing at the time.) The agent was very nice and she even offered me access to the lounge to make up for the problems which I appreciated. I must say, if you ever get the chance to go to the lounge in Christchurch, definitely do it. It was a really nice series of rooms made with wood and stone materials. There were scrumptious pastries, small snacks, coffee and lots of wine for the customers to help themselves to during their stay. In the rush to get to the airport, I had forgotten to eat dinner, so I was very happy with the spread.

My flight to Shanghai departed at 11PM and I arrived in at 8AM. I have never shown up in China without a visa before and never expected to do so, but it wasn’t an issue since I was only staying in the airport. When I reached the immigration officer, I was asked to wait to one side until I was collected by another officer who issued me a transit visa. Unfortunately, I was only in Shanghai for four hours, so I didn’t have time to take the Maglev train into the city which would have been a treat. Instead, I checked in for my China Eastern flight and discovered that although Air New Zealand has put a hold on the seat for my flight, they had failed to give China Eastern the billing code or something like that and so my reservation had been canceled. Unless something could be done, I would be stuck in Shanghai without a flight. Fortunately, China Eastern got me on the plane which was otherwise fully booked. Unfortunately, China Eastern put a new luggage tag on my bag that was only to Munich, not to Istanbul, something that would later haunt me. So, after just a whistle stop in Shanghai, I was off to Hong Kong.

The last time that I was in Hong Kong was seven years ago when I broke my ankle while teaching in Yantai, China. WorldTeach, the organization through which I was teaching, flew me down to Hong Kong to see a specialist because I was getting mixed diagnosis in Yantai. My visit at that time was only for a few days and being on crutches had reduced my mobility a bit. This trip unfortunately would be even shorter, but so I was just hoping to eat some dim sum, to look at the architecture in Hong Kong, to take the ferry to Kowloon and then to wander the streets until it was time to go. However, due to the stop in Shanghai, I did not arrive in the city center until close to 3PM.

To get from the airport, I took the Airport Express train which makes the trip from the airport to the city center in only 24 minutes. In addition to the main line, there is now also a spur to serve Hong Kong Disneyland which opened in 2005. The special, Disney themed cars can carry up to 10,000 people per hour. Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest of the five kingdoms and the resort was built with many settings following the rules of Feng Shui. However, the park is expected to expand over the next fifteen years to reduce the complaints of overcrowding.

During my prior visit, I had found a fantastic dim sum restaurant that was multi-floored and each floor was bustling with people. Waiters would wander though the restaurant with carts of wooden baskets of dim sum with different treats inside and you would simply indicate that you wanted a basket to have it added to the pile on your table. Each basket held three or four dim sum, depending on what was wrapped inside. I had wanted to return to the same restaurant and although I had an inclination as to where it was located I was so hungry by the time that I arrived that I decided to go to a restaurant near the train station that the guide book had highly recommended. The dim sum in the restaurant I chose was unbelievable, but I had arrived mid afternoon just as the bustle was ending and so at one point I was the only one in the restaurant. And this restaurant had its patrons order off a menu rather than a cart, so it was not as much fun as the time before, but still good.

After breakfast / lunch, I walked along one of the many overhead walkways that connect the buildings in Hong Kong till I arrived at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSHC) headquarters which opened in 1986 after seven years of construction. The building was designed by Lord Norman Foster and was based upon the principles of Feng Shui as are many of the buildings in Hong Kong. According to Feng Shui, the old Government House should be accessible in a straight line by foot from the main point of arrival on the island, the ferry terminal, but the location of the HSHC building would interrupt this line. To prevent this violation of Feng Shui, the entire HSHC building was designed to be raised off the ground and supported on eight groups of giant pillars so that people can walk under the building. One can stand under the building and look up through the glass floors through the large atrium that occupies the first three floors.

Because the area under the building is protected from the strong afternoon sun, it has become a very popular meeting place for the Filipino house cleaners on Sunday, their day off. When I arrived on Sunday afternoon, there were people sitting on blankets or mats which covered every available square centimeter of the shade with the exception of clearings where people could walk. People chatted, ate, had their hair done and generally enjoyed their day off.

From the HSHC building, I wandered over to the tram going up to Mt Victoria which offers fantastic views of Hong Kong and Kowloon on nice days, but was met by a huge queue. The last time that I was in the city, I was able to walk right up to the tram to get on, but that was a rainy weekday. I would have really liked to have gotten views of the city from the peak, but my short schedule prevented it and I would have to be content with my photos from before.

I made my way down to the Star Ferry which has been described as one of the “greatest ferry rides in the world” by the Rough Guides because it offers great views of both Hong Kong and Kowloon as it makes the seven minute journey across the very polluted harbor. Once on the Kowloon side, I went over to the observation decks on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront where crowds were taking photographs of the Hong Kong skyline. Every night on which there is good weather, at 8PM, there is an orchestrated light and laser show featured on buildings on both sides of Victoria Harbor. The show is called Symphony of Lights and is put on by the Hong Kong Tourism Board and has been declared by Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest, permanent light show. Unfortunately, I had a geocache to find and then I would need to be making my way to the airport and so I didn’t get to see the show.

I stopped by the tourist information office to inquire about the station for the train to the airport and learned that there was a free shuttle to the station from a nearby hotel. Free shuttle? I was on it. The woman in the office marked on a map where the station was located and I set off in search of a quick bite to eat. Fortunately, I decided to pursue the station stop first because it turned out to be impossible to find. I was on the correct street and I actually saw the shuttle twice, but I could not find the stop. I walked all over looking for the stop with my heavy backpack on my back and fear of arriving at the airport late on my mind, but to no avail. I broke down and started to inquire in the various hotels nearby as to where the station was as the time that I had planned to catch the shuttle drew near and then passed. In a panic because I do not like showing up to the airport late, I decided to cross back to Hong Kong where I knew the location of the train station. I was walking along one street when I just happened to spot a sign for the bus I wanted. The sign was inside the parking garage of one of the hotels which clearly explained why I had not seen it before. I allowed ten minutes for the shuttle to arrive before I ran out and grabbed a cab, but it came and I made it to the train station.

The airport train is really well setup because as soon as I entered the station, I was directed to a check in counter for the various airlines. I went up to the Lufthansa counter to check in and fortunately inquired about the destination of my checked bag which was still at the airport. As I feared, the bag was only going to Munich, not to Istanbul. The woman behind the counter was very nice and called baggage to ask if they could find my bag and to put a new baggage ticket on it to make sure that it went to Istanbul. I waited for about 20 minutes after which I received confirmation that my bag was found and I hopped onto the train.

Being my second time in Hong Kong, I knew to look after the immigration form that I was issued upon arrival because I needed it to leave the country. Once I was through security, I had to get to my gate. Hong Kong is a really big airport with 80 gates in a row. I had forgotten this fact and I really had to walk quickly to finally get to my gate as my plane was boarding. The flight to Munich would be an overnight flight and I would have a few hour layover before taking my next flight to Istanbul the next morning.

Inter-Noise 2007

The very long delay since I last wrote about my travels has been due to being quite busy with my research. Unfortunately, I have not had the time to write about the travels that I made in April with Jess in New Zealand, let alone random happenings in Christchurch. The obscene number of hours that I was spending in the lab or in the library with my laptop (I found that the law school library is a great place to hide so no one can find me) were triggered by preparations for Inter-Noise, the international noise and vibration conference that I have been attending for the past few years.

Unlike past years, this year I would be submitting a paper to be delivered at the conference. However, a delay in obtaining the equipment and parts that I needed for my research left me with few choices for what to write. The paper was due on June 1 and although I did scratch up enough information to submit a paper, I was not happy with it and so wanted to be able to really do something in time for the presentation of my work in August. The presentation does not have to be exactly like the paper and so I wanted to be able to present some new work, especially since the top people in the world from my field would be at the conference. I was trying to prove a new idea and I needed a lot of experimental data to back up my claim. Most of the measurements had to be made at night or over the weekend when the building in which I work is quiet. I was trying to measure small variations in vibration and so even little things like someone walking up the nearby flight of stairs or turning on a machine would force me to repeat measurements. However, despite my precautions, all of the data that I accumulated turned out to be riddled with measurement uncertainty. The brand new measurement equipment that the department had purchased from one of the best acoustics companies turned out to be bad.

I painstakingly detailed the problems and after a lot of correspondence with the company that made the equipment, they finally agreed that there had been problems during production and has since refunded the cost of the equipment. I feel good that I got blood from a stone, but that does little to make up for all the data which was lost. So, for the presentation that was to be delivered, I had to spend a lot of time in the lab to redo enough of the experiments to back up what I would be saying. Fortunately, the week before I was due to leave, things began to work and I pulled together a presentation to deliver. Whew.

On 25 August, I left Christchurch on what would literally be a trip around the world. The conference itself was to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. The travel from Christchurch would require a long stopover in Hong Kong which I planned to take advantage of by exploring the city for a day. After the conclusion of the conference, I would stay in Istanbul for an extra day to attend a wedding to which I had been invited. Then off to Western Europe to visit friends and colleagues in six countries before beginning my trip west, including stops in the US and Canada. In all, the journey that I am about to describe covered eleven countries on four continents over a period of five weeks. There would be sixteen flights including three over 11 hours long and dozens of hours on trains including a night train. I am extremely lucky to be able to have made the trip, to have the time, to have an adviser who was keen to have me take a holiday and to have funding available to cover the transportation expenses.

What I noticed during the trip was that going to a new country no longer phases me like it used to do. While waiting for a train in France, I realized that I was excited to visit friends and to go out exploring, I wasn’t nervous or excited to be travelling in yet another country. I still love the exploring and the adventure in the travel, but the highs and lows which can be very high and very low when you are in a foreign place are smoothing out. I still have really good and really bad experiences, but I take them more in stride. In a way, that in itself is cool because it means that I have become so seasoned that I can go to Hong Kong, Istanbul or Frankfurt and make my way without problem. But, on the other hand, the adrenaline and nervousness during my early days of travel which could be annoying when they interfered with my ability to function or to adapt will also be missed.

I also found that the hop across the Atlantic from Europe to the US which used to feel like a long flight is just a few hours in a plane. After making the hop from LA to New Zealand or New Zealand to Shanghai, Europe seems very close geographically to the US.

This was also the first time that I had travelled so heavy. I was carrying my laptop and SLR on my back in addition to my suit and nice clothes for the conference and then more comfortable clothes for the rest of the trip. Never do I want to travel that much with that much stuff again!