- It'll be mid-winter, and I hear that it's bloody cold!
- The travel times between these three cities is significant, though we plan to take sleeper trains.
- I'm concerned about where, and how long, to stay in Xi'an. We're obviously going to visit the monumental tomb of Qin Shi Huang, but I gather that the city of Xi'an itself might be just a big concrete smokey disappointment.
Friday, February 2, 2007
Where to go in China?
Our plan is to spend three weeks in China, flying into Beijing and out of Shanghai, and going to Xi'an somewhere along the line. We're really looking forward to a week or so in both Beijing and Shanghai, but I have a few concerns:
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Where to go in Australia?
We've got some decisions to make about where we'll visit in Oz, and already we've adjusted our original plans (as they say a plan is worthless - it's the planning that counts). Let's start with the banale (and work our way up to tedious): Australia is BIG. In fact it's 7,682,300 sq km. Ireland by comparison has a surface area of 70,280 sq km. Getting the calculator out (I did say 'tedious') that makes Oz 109.3 times bigger than Ireland. And I still haven't been to Co. Offaly here in Ireland.
So we're not going to get to see every part. In fact we're not going to see most parts. But that's OK as a significant percentage of those 7.6 million square kilometers is probably about as interesting as Co. Offaly.
We'll spend 4 weeks in Sydney (either renting or house-swapping), and hopefully catch up with great friends from our time in Stuttgart, Garry and Ludi. This will be followed by 4 weeks weighing heavily on the hospitality of our friends Simon and Leah in Brisbane (who will hopefully get over the trauma and still be our friends at the end of it), and 4 weeks on the road North of Brisbane, probably to Cairns but perhaps even to Darwin (I had not idea he was still alive!). We hope to fly to Melbourne for a few day to see some Oz/Italian friends (Francesca and Jamie) living there - probably flying from Brisbane.
Simon in Brisbane used to live in Sydney and has given me a load of ideas about what to do and where to go in both of those cities.
If anyone reading this has any ideas about places that we absolutely must see in or around any of those cities, please do leave a comment.
So we're not going to get to see every part. In fact we're not going to see most parts. But that's OK as a significant percentage of those 7.6 million square kilometers is probably about as interesting as Co. Offaly.
We'll spend 4 weeks in Sydney (either renting or house-swapping), and hopefully catch up with great friends from our time in Stuttgart, Garry and Ludi. This will be followed by 4 weeks weighing heavily on the hospitality of our friends Simon and Leah in Brisbane (who will hopefully get over the trauma and still be our friends at the end of it), and 4 weeks on the road North of Brisbane, probably to Cairns but perhaps even to Darwin (I had not idea he was still alive!). We hope to fly to Melbourne for a few day to see some Oz/Italian friends (Francesca and Jamie) living there - probably flying from Brisbane.
Simon in Brisbane used to live in Sydney and has given me a load of ideas about what to do and where to go in both of those cities.
If anyone reading this has any ideas about places that we absolutely must see in or around any of those cities, please do leave a comment.
The Travel Instinct
We wanted kids, and now we want to travel. Pretty much everyone instinctively feels the need to do the former (and many of us obey that instinct), but only for some is the urge to travel strongly felt. When I heard guests on the recent RTE Radio1 conversation with two travelling mothers, I felt part of their tribe. I wonder whether the travel bug can be explained in Darwinian terms.
(I know that most people venture beyond their own borders these days, but there are differences between wanting to get out from underneath grey Irish skies for two weeks a year, and wanting to really see other parts of the world. Those with the latter in mind are most definitely in the minority. But as a sidebar, it's quite interesting to see that from an evolutionary point of view, despite the amount of time we've populated the northern latitudes, we've never taken to the cold and darkness.)
The problem is that while it might make sense for a population to support a bunch of curious explorers (who will find new resources and lands to cope with increasing populations), most evolutionary biologists don't believe that natural selection operates on groups - just individuals. And curiosity kills more than the cat: In theory, natural selection should have operated against these risk-takers.
But nonetheless the urge is there, and the reasons have got to be, in base, Darwinian. So here's my layman's take on how natural selection, operating on the individual, could create pressure in favour of exploration:
If a tribe is running out of resources and doomed to die out, the explorers are the ones who are most likely to survive by moving on and finding a new base that is likely to support the hunter-gatherer requirements. If they explore as a group of mixed sex, and establish a new settlement, then the genes for exploration are going to form the basis of the entire future tribe's genotype. In other words it'll have such a strong foothold in the population that even allowing for evolutionary pressure against exploration (curiosity killing the cat) it will survive in some percentage in the population. At least it will survive long enough so that when that new tribe finds that resources are running out, the remaining explorers in the population will be the ones to venture out and establish a new population. So to summarize, new populations were more likely to be spawned by adventurers.
If any of this is true, it's interesting to think about what the current state of affairs might be. There is no longer any hunter-gather activity, or spawning of new populations but then again exploration and travel is less likely to kill you. At least - I hope so!!?
(I know that most people venture beyond their own borders these days, but there are differences between wanting to get out from underneath grey Irish skies for two weeks a year, and wanting to really see other parts of the world. Those with the latter in mind are most definitely in the minority. But as a sidebar, it's quite interesting to see that from an evolutionary point of view, despite the amount of time we've populated the northern latitudes, we've never taken to the cold and darkness.)
The problem is that while it might make sense for a population to support a bunch of curious explorers (who will find new resources and lands to cope with increasing populations), most evolutionary biologists don't believe that natural selection operates on groups - just individuals. And curiosity kills more than the cat: In theory, natural selection should have operated against these risk-takers.
But nonetheless the urge is there, and the reasons have got to be, in base, Darwinian. So here's my layman's take on how natural selection, operating on the individual, could create pressure in favour of exploration:
If a tribe is running out of resources and doomed to die out, the explorers are the ones who are most likely to survive by moving on and finding a new base that is likely to support the hunter-gatherer requirements. If they explore as a group of mixed sex, and establish a new settlement, then the genes for exploration are going to form the basis of the entire future tribe's genotype. In other words it'll have such a strong foothold in the population that even allowing for evolutionary pressure against exploration (curiosity killing the cat) it will survive in some percentage in the population. At least it will survive long enough so that when that new tribe finds that resources are running out, the remaining explorers in the population will be the ones to venture out and establish a new population. So to summarize, new populations were more likely to be spawned by adventurers.
If any of this is true, it's interesting to think about what the current state of affairs might be. There is no longer any hunter-gather activity, or spawning of new populations but then again exploration and travel is less likely to kill you. At least - I hope so!!?
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Slow Travel
On a similar theme to the Overland to Oz posting, I came across this interesting article on Slow Travel.
This is one of the really hard things about living on a small island on the edge of civilization. You're not going anywhere easily without boarding a plane. I really love travelling by train and if we were based in the UK the channel tunnel would certainly be the way to go for me. According to some, the train is about to make a big comeback. I hope tunnelling technology is too! How far are we away from Wales?
This is one of the really hard things about living on a small island on the edge of civilization. You're not going anywhere easily without boarding a plane. I really love travelling by train and if we were based in the UK the channel tunnel would certainly be the way to go for me. According to some, the train is about to make a big comeback. I hope tunnelling technology is too! How far are we away from Wales?
Insurance says my kids are too young. Oh and I'm too old.
I've started to look around at Irish travel insurance options, before we buy the tickets so that cancellation of same is covered. I've looked as VHI, AIB, AA, ETravelInsure, USIT, JustCover, and GetCover so far. There are many more out there and I'll keep trying. But the problem is that they all offer the same thing! The prices do vary of course, but there isn't a single product out there that covers what I'm looking for.
If I want to cover the family, then I can only stay away for maximum 90 days at a time (what happens after that? Do we suddenly transform at the end of the third month into a bunch of walking insurance liabilities?)
If I want a long-stay, then the kids have a lot of growing up to do. They have to become over 18 in most cases. There is even one policy that excludes all but 18-35 year olds. Oh my god - I'm separated from the kids by the yawning abyss of an entire insurance category!!!!
I noticed that AIB's url includes the words travel-cover.inabox. Small enough box there lads. And very boxy as well.
Now I know that right policy is out there, but based on the fact that we don't seem to fit into anybody's box (ahem) I'm expecting absurd premia. We shall see. Is this another example of the small Irish insurance market doing exactly what they want?
I'll be back.
If I want to cover the family, then I can only stay away for maximum 90 days at a time (what happens after that? Do we suddenly transform at the end of the third month into a bunch of walking insurance liabilities?)
If I want a long-stay, then the kids have a lot of growing up to do. They have to become over 18 in most cases. There is even one policy that excludes all but 18-35 year olds. Oh my god - I'm separated from the kids by the yawning abyss of an entire insurance category!!!!
I noticed that AIB's url includes the words travel-cover.inabox. Small enough box there lads. And very boxy as well.
Now I know that right policy is out there, but based on the fact that we don't seem to fit into anybody's box (ahem) I'm expecting absurd premia. We shall see. Is this another example of the small Irish insurance market doing exactly what they want?
I'll be back.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Oh the Irony!
I forgot to mention in my last post about something that cropped up during out conversation with the principal of the school. If I'm going to support Nina and Sara's Irish language education while we're away, I'm going to have to hit the books myself.
So basically I've been breaking my arse trying to learn Chinese over the last year or more, and Letizia has been studying Spanish. And it turns out that in order to leave Ireland and travel around the world I'm going to have to learn Irish all over again!!
Ah well - maybe I was only waiting for an excuse. Aoife - if you're out there: Heeeeelp!!!!
So basically I've been breaking my arse trying to learn Chinese over the last year or more, and Letizia has been studying Spanish. And it turns out that in order to leave Ireland and travel around the world I'm going to have to learn Irish all over again!!
Ah well - maybe I was only waiting for an excuse. Aoife - if you're out there: Heeeeelp!!!!
Taking the Kids out of School
My wife and I met the new principal of my daughters' school to inform them of our plans. Any concerns that we had about being met with an inflexible, bureaucratic response were immediately removed. "Can I come too?" was her first reaction to our description of our travel plans. She was very enthusiastic about our idea, and full of advice on how to best manage the girls' education, and very keen on our idea of the girls staying in touch with their classes by blogging.
To cap it all, we really knew we were doing the right thing when we heard the principal telling us that the girls would be learning a whole lot more out there on the road than they would in the classroom!
Of course I walked myself into the job of putting together the school's new website! :-)
To cap it all, we really knew we were doing the right thing when we heard the principal telling us that the girls would be learning a whole lot more out there on the road than they would in the classroom!
Of course I walked myself into the job of putting together the school's new website! :-)
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