robertrankin.org

Despite the ridiculous traffic in Saigon, I have decided that the best way to get around is on two wheels. (of course). My new two wheels are connected to a 1967 Vespa Super - 150cc. Check it out. Couple more pics on flickr.

Incidently, about 30 minutes after I snapped these pics this morning, I fell victim to the afore mentioned fucking stupid traffic. A girl on a bike clipped my front wheel, sending me over the bars and rolling into the street. Luckily no permanent damage to me and just a couple scratches on the bike.

Before the American-Vietnam war in the late 60’s & 70’s, Saigon was importing more Vespas & Lambrettas than any other city in Asia. Consequently, there are a lot of them still around. Several frends have set up businesses here restoring the old scoots and shipping them overseas. If anyone is interested, drop me a line.

This weekend, my company is refurbishing the office. The works… new carpet, new desks, new partitions, chairs, walls… Everything! Leading up to the this, they have offered all existing furniture to the staff at extremely low prices… like $10 for a desk, $6 for a chair, etc. The past few days have been like watching a clearance sale at a furniture store… and so far I’ve lost my chair, my shelf, half of my desk and my drawers.

In other news from Vietnam:

If you’ve lost a Boeing, we’ve found it.

And don’t even think about bringing your hamster in here.

Well.. after a year and a half.. I think I’m just about at the end of my tour leading career. So what’s next?

I do like my company, Travel Indochina, and I’m quite happy to spend some more time living here in Asia. So when an opportunity came up a few weeks ago to apply for a vacated management position, I jumped on the chance and sent in my CV.

An interview and a couple weeks later, and I’m about to face a new and exciting challenge. My new position will be International Product Delivery and Operations Manager. It’s essentially a customer service and operations management position. I (along with my staff of 6) will be looking after the reservations and operations for our business in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, India & China. I’ll liaise between our product managers and our suppliers (hotels & local operators) and our tour leaders to make sure our tours are delivered as well as they can be.

I’ll be based in Saigon, but still be required to travel around our destinations several times a year. As part of my “induction” to the new post, I’ll be heading down to Sydney, Australia to meet and train with the product managers and upper management. That trip will be in mid-April, I think, and last about a week.

I am a little melancholy about ending my career as a tour leader.. but in fact the last few months have been a real challenge for me. I think I’ve hit the tour leading wall!

Anyway, more activity on the blog and in my life in the coming days and weeks. Including the always pleasant task of finding an apartment! Realtors, here I come!

Hen gap lai.

Rob

Gettin’ dusty ’round here, eh?

Anyone still look here?

I have been chasing clients all around Indochina for the past 2 months. Had some great tours, and some hard ones. A good Christmas and better New Years. I have worked every day in January except for one, and will work every day in Feb except 2. Busy season.. but busy is good. Less time to think about how difficult it is to wake up in a different city every couple days!

Seventy something days ago, I turned 30. On that day, I quit smoking. I used the patch for a couple weeks and the gum for a couple weeks after that and now I don’t use anything. I thought the hardest part would craving a cigarette while drinking, but actually I have found that my trigger is stress. At least once every other day, I have an almost irresitable craving, due to stress created by the clients mentioned above. Ugh.

Have you heard about the crisis in Burma?

Burma is ruled by one of the worst military dictatorships in the world. This week Buddhist monks and nuns began marching and chanting prayers to call for democracy. The protests spread and hundreds of thousands of Burmese people joined in — they’ve been brutally attacked by the military regime, but still the protests are spreading.

I just signed a petition calling on Burma’s powerful ally China and the UN security council to step in and pressure Burma’s rulers to stop the killing. The petition has exploded to over 375,000 signatures in a few days and is being advertised in newspapers around the world, delivered to the UN secretary general, and broadcast to the Burmese people by radio. We’re trying to get to 1 million signatures this week, please sign below.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/tf.php?cl_tf_sign=1

Best,
Rob

Last week, I took my tour group on one of the fastest trains in the world, the Shanghai Maglev. At 430km/hr, it’s a new record for me. (Hey SNART, can we use this technology at Maxton?) Here’s a video and some pics.

The start:

The train:

The speed:

The cockpit:

Three months and no update. Any self-respecting blogger would be ashamed. Good thing I don’t have that holding me back..

Kidding.

Sorry folks. Been busy and just not in the mood to write.

I do have some cool pics coming up in the next couple days.. assuming I can’t get around the big red firewall China puts up around her Internet access. I can see flickr, but can’t see the photos, but I’m working on it.

I’ve just finished a great tour - 18 days in China. One of my best groups ever and I’m exhausted! I have 3 days off then start my last China tour of the season which is a family tour. I have 15 people and 8 of them are kids. Should be fun, I think.

I’m currently in Shanghai where the storm of the decade is apparently bearing down. Don’t see any ‘bearing’ just yet - but it sure does make good news…

Ok. Lastly, 5 things I’ll miss about China when I go back to Vietnam.
1. Yangshuo noodle soup
2. Shanghai soup dumplings
3. Beijing pancake
4. Sichuan hotpot
5. Ajisen noodles

Hmm. Those were all food. Here are some more

1. Extremely good roads
2. Awesome night-life
3. The feeling of living in the center of the world
4. Olympic fever
5. Seeing the helmsman, Chairman Mao, each time I open my wallet

Bye for now

Hi Friends,

Sorry for the delay, I have been on the road. I have just finished up the holy grail of tours - The Silk Road. It’s 19 days in China from Beijing in the east all the way to Kashgar in XinJiang Province in the west - that’s near the border of Kyrgyzstan & Tajikistan! What an awesome trip..

On the trip we spent time in 2 deserts, and 3 mountain ranges. Three overnight train trips and two internal flights. Transport included buses, boats, cable cars, rickshaws, donkey carts and camels. I had a great small group of Aussies, Canadians and an 84 year-old Kiwi. Despite it being my first time in the region, I was able to lead the group well, and in the end everyone was very happy including me.

XinJiang province feels like a completely different country from the the Eastern part of China. It’s officially called XinJiang Uyghur Automonous Region - Uyghur being the name of the dominant ethnic group in the province. The Uyghurs are Muslim, and look nothing like Chinese people. Physically they resemble Turks, with dark hair, dark skin, big western noses and sometimes light-ish colored eyes. Handsome people. They’ve been living there for thousands of years, and have been a part of China since the Han dynasty (200BC - 200AD). Not that they’re completely happy about it, of course.

Anywho, a good time. Now I’m on break, and going to America until July. Really looking forward to a break, and seeing my family and friends!

Loads of new pics in Flickr.

I’ve been attracted to Chinese paintings for a while now. My favorites are usually those of landscapes, bamboo or flowers depicted in as few strokes as possible. Last week I visited the very wonderful Shanghai Museum and saw the following flower and leaf series by Wu Changshuo.

My Job in China is different than in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. In Vietnam, we, as tour leaders have loads of support. My company’s main Asian office is there and if I have any problem’s I just call Queen Hang in the Saigon office and miraculously she fixes everything. I gave her that nickname because she is that good.

In China we, as tour leaders are on our own. We don’t have an office here and it’s expensive to call to Saigon. So we have to think on our feet. Our suppliers provide our local guides and transport, but not much else. In short, in China, we have to be proactive and manage everything. In Vietnam if we forget to do something, someone will catch us on it. In China, if we forget to do something, no one will catch it, and it usually means some very unhappy passengers!

The main difference though, is commission (shopping) stops! The local guides are so eager to push the group into a silk shop, or a pearl shop, or a wood carving shop, or an antique shop and so on, where they get anything from 10% - 40% commission! Sometimes it’s hard to actually find time for the touring itinerary with all the shopping stops! OK, it’s not that bad.. but it’s annoying.