Lisbon visit

Portugal was a second country I visited in mainland Europe. As I was here for a business purpose, I didn’t get chance to visit any other parts of Portugal apart from its main city and capital Lisbon and its surroundings. Lisbon is located on the coast of Atlantic Ocean where river Tagus flows into the ocean. Although it was almost end of November, the weather wasn’t very cold as compared to the UK and apart from 1-2 days of light rain or shower, my 7 days worth of time went good.

My hotel was located in middle of historic old town and commercial district. Hence, it was very convenient for me to go to my work place and sightseeing in the evening and in weekend. From my hotel to the company, the journey was about 15-20 minutes ride by Taxi. And, that was the most weird and shocking part of my daily activity. And, the reason was Taxi drivers. Unlike other rich European countries, Taxi fares were very cheap and I found that most of the Taxi drivers are from poor financial background. And, there was a language issue as well with my conversation with drivers. Hence, each trip to and from company had different experience with drivers’ behaviours, towards me and in general, as well. Later I found out that it was due to shorter trips. As this was very short trip between company and hotel, the average fare I paid was around 5 Euros. And, most of the drivers didn’t like that et al. But by law are required to take these short journeys, they weren’t happy.

  
Lisbon’s old city has a quite a few historic buildings. Most of them were built after 1755 as major earthquake in that year demolished most of the city. New city was built afterwards and due to visionary thoughts from then equivalent to Prime Minister, Marquis of Pombal built the city with larger space between buildings and hence you will find very wide roads and good size pavements, which are very unlikely to see in any other larger city in whole Europe. Portuguese are very proud of the achievements of Vasco de Gama and they have honoured him with creating a fantastic Vasco de Gama sports centre near the coast. In the nutshell, Lisbon is a city with modern architect, nice coastline, cheaper than other European cities and also a great place for shopping.

Visit to North Wales

Recently I visited northern Wales with my friends. I have been to Wales before but those visits were mainly concentrated near southern part. It is a very small country in size but has plenty of varieties in landscapes. While southern Wales has plenty of forests with almost flat countryside, northern part has one of the longest mountain range in Britain and has highest mountain peak in Wales called Snowdon. Our visit was mainly around this mountain region and near the shore of Irish Sea.

Although Wales is incorporated into England since 1500s, it has kept its separate identity from rest of the UK with unique culture including its own language, food, customs, music etc. Welsh language still has significance in local people’s life and it is also one of two official languages in Wales, another being English, of course. It has population of around three million.

Best way to visit northern Wales is by car as public transport is limited. Weather was nice during our visit with few showers here and there and that made landscape look better with light warm Sun light bouncing from water particles. We were surprised by number of sheep we saw in farms and I think there are more sheep in Wales than humans. When you first enter into mountain area, you will notice water stream flowing from mountains, uncountable sheep on grassy lands and vast area with roughly no human presents. If you admire of nature and like mountain walk, I think Wales could be one of the best places to visit.

Cameroon Visit (Final part)

It has been more than a week since I have been here. Due to long daylight hours, it feels that I have been here for ages. It is amazing that how we adopt new routine, new culture, new food and the new way of life so quickly. Apart from food choice, I didn’t have any major problem here. Because my colleagues are with me here, I have overcome of language problem with they are helping in French/English translation.

Work pattern is very similar here to the one I have seen in India, normally its 6-days a week for employed person. I met few professional people and worked with them in project work, and found that they work very long hours daily and everyday they finish their work between 8-9pm. It is because work progress is relatively slow when you compare it to the work done in the UK and hence it takes long time to finish any technical project. As our project was within government agency, it was even worst for us because they tend to work in different (African) pattern and that is very unlikely than European pattern.

As one of my colleagues was a local born, I had few chances to meet native Cameroonians and see their way of life. One thing I noticed here was that these people have adopted a few elements of French traditions into their lives. You will see African culture and its mentality in people’s mind, but few things they are still doing as French do. Unfortunately, because of this mixture of traditions, I see that society as a whole is confused for the future prospects and direction. There are many projects in progress for infrastructure developments which taking place all around Douala city; people are driving new Mercedes Benz and Lexus everywhere; internet and mobile phones are common among the people who can afford these, etc but still, you feel that there are so many things need to done here. It looks like that government has adopted few things from developed countries without understanding local etiquette and need of people, and hence, I think that’s why there is a tension in the atmosphere between different communities of people because of this western adaptation. There is no point of authorities to help mobile companies to provide iPhone to minority of rich people community while majority of people don’t have access to daily water and electricity supply.

The situation is very worst here than in rural India as gap between poor and rich is very wide here. Recent progress and prosperity in India has happened because of rise of middle-class families and their demands. Practically, no middle-class exists here in Cameroon, not even in the cities; someone is either poor or rich. Apart from two major cities, everything else is undeveloped and even basic facilities do not exists for people living outside Douala and Yaoundé. This is not because that lands are not fertile or they do not have enough natural resources, it is because minority of people handles the way country is going and they have interests in their own money and not much in country’s growth. I hope that those who are well educated and those who can understand their country better than any foreigners, will try to overcome basic problems in order to guide Cameroon to the better prosperity.

Cameroon visit (Part 1)

This is my first trip to Cameroon and to African continent. Let me give you brief information about Cameroon. It is former French and British colony and its independent came in 1960-61. It is one of the prosperous countries in Western Africa and Yaoundé and Douala are major cities. My visit is in Douala with some chance of visiting Yaoundé in the second week of my stay. I am staying in Akwa area, near the seashore of Atlantic Ocean.

Main difficulty I had so far is a language. Being a former French part, main language is French and only 30% of city populous speaks English. My hotel is located just near seashore. As Douala being a major port in Cameroon, it wasn’t surprising to sea large ships and containers from my room’s window. Weather so far is mild and I guess its typical equatorial weather with good amount of humidity in the atmosphere. Traditional French food is available and as long as you don’t mess up with waiters, there are good chances of getting delicious food within an hour once you place an order. Vegetarian dishes are also available although choices are very few for that.

One thing you will notice in Douala is number of 4x4 cars around. I think there are more SUVs in Douala than in London city. There are two reasons for this, first is that roads in the city and outskirts are not in good conditions and second reason is that people who got money they would like to show their richness by driving big cars.

Looking from space

My colleague and me were talking about my next trip to India. Suddenly, he told me that instead of spending money in small trips to India and other countries, why not I should do saving and plan a big trip for the future. The above-mentioned big trip is really big. It’s not like a world tour or going on top of Himalayas. What if I can save enough money in next 2-3 decades and have sufficient fund to go outside of our atmosphere for 10 minutes and see earth from space?

It has been said that we should go and see different places in order to widen our knowledge and turn imagination of other lands in reality. We often see documentaries about mountains, sea life, polar landscapes, earth from space, etc and often the sceneries in those films are mesmerizing. If those sceneries can have last long effect on us then what will happen if we are able to see those things on the spot? I think that that will be an experience which we cannot forget for a whole life.

Going further on this imagination, what if I have enough money in the future to afford space visit and see our lovely planet from sky? I think it will be something amazing and those who have done this are amongst the luckiest people on earth. Just imaging it makes me wonder about the earth, the beauty of our oceans, marvellous landscapes we have on continents, etc. I think if someone will be able to do this, it will change his/her perception about life, about earth and about the nature.

Scientists are saying that if current technology progress will be continued for next couple of decades, it will be possible for general public to visit moon. I would like to think that this is true and I will be able to travel to the moon before I die. But when I imagine myself standing on the surface of moon and looking back to the earth, I think my first thought will be that how small as a human we are. Although we have built skyscrapers, we have built pyramids, we are the builders of gigantic dams on rivers, etc still we are a tiny compared to the universe and we are nothing but a dot against nature’s other creations.