Here I am, at Schiphol Airport, embarking on a trip that I have planned and looked forward to for 3 years. How I have developed this interest in the Silk Road, I do not know. Perhaps I was fascinated by the international trade and businesses that were booming in the region over a thousand years ago, in the hope of learning the successes of this region and gaining some inspiration on the resourcefulness of the tradesmen in overcoming the cultural differences and environmental difficulties.
Didn't sleep too well last night. Perhaps I was excited about the trip, or perhaps it was the uncertainty of everything. The planning of this trip was a bit like a difficult birth - first all the changes in the departure dates (originally I wanted to leave on 5 September, but then a week's delay, and then another delay bringing it to 19 September 2003), then the prices changes, and eventually got a longer tour with a group of people from the other side of the world. The process of getting all the visas, resulting in me picking up the passport and tickets only yesterday. Then I also had to decide what to take in terms of clothing - needed to pack the whole wardrobe to cope with the punishing heat in Turpan as well as the bitter cold up on Torugart Pass.
Surprisingly the excitement of the trip didn't really kick in until yesterday. Life has been hectic in 2003 - so much work in the first half of the year. My original plan of working till end of August and then taking it easy didn't work out - so much work up to two days ago that I hardly had time to read up about the holiday. Not that I am complaining. And it's a comforting thought that when I return there will be working waiting for me.
After
a whole morning of debating whether I should take my minidisc player and a
second pair of trainers (decided to leave both at home, a decision that I
might come to regret in the next 30 days!), I left home at 11.50am. The drive
to Heathrow was relatively painless. A quick hug and farewell from Russell,
I entered Heathrow Terminal 4 and checked in at the KLM desk. Relatively painless
except the check-in staff couldn't understand why I haven't got a return ticket
out of China and why I had to fly out of Tashkent back to London - so I had
to dig out the itinerary from the bottom of my bag, and explained the tour
- yes, you can exit China on land too!
Wandering round Heathrow was getting so boring these days - I spent a bit of money on the essentials - alarm, water, pen and a pack of playing cards. Two hours of waiting went pretty quickly though.
Plane took off at 3.07pm and on take-off I could see the Terminal 5 construction site - how they will address the traffic issue I really don't know - I can see traffic in hell coming to the M25.
After a short 45 minutes hop across the English Channel, the plane touched
down at Schipol. If they had modelled other airports on Schiphol, air travel
would be much more pleasureable. 
Decided
I couldn't resist the temptation of the tarte au sucre at Chez Paul, nor the
salmon sushi at the sushi bar, so ended up eating a whole sugar tart before
munching on 7 pieces of sushi. Now my tummy is happy.
6.45pm local time and here I am sitting at a cafe sipping lemon tea and writing this first day of my travel diary. The China Southern Airlines flight to Beijing will leave at 8pm and so maybe I should go and explore a bit more of this wonderful airport!
©2001-2007 AlbertChau.com. All rights reserved.
Silk Road 2003 - Day 1
