Moving on

I'm in what used to be the Sheraton hotel in Dhaka after arriving around midnight last night (the hotel has been taken over since I last stayed here and is now called the Ruposhi Bangla). I flew Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur and on to Dhaka with Malaysia Airlines yesterday. The first time I came to Asia it was for a couple of days stop-over in Kuala Lumpur around ten or eleven years ago on the way to Australia for a holiday. I fell in love with Asia instantly. The heat, the humidity, the noise, the food; even the air smelt exotic to me. It might sound trite but it was life-changing in a way. It's a real shame that when you depart an airplane now more often than not you walk straight into an air-conditioned corridor. I miss walking down the steps and onto the hot tarmac! 

China was okay. The exhibition went well and the hotel I stayed in was great. The only problem I had apart from the usual language barrier was feeling isolated and lonely. It was particularly difficult this time because Stef had her operation on Tuesday and so began her recovery while I was away. I'll never forget waiting for a text from her dad to say she was alright and out of the operating theatre. I was wandering around the hotel wondering what to do with myself for what seemed like hour after hour

Blogger and YouTube are blocked in China which added to the sense of isolation but I did manage to get to the gym three times in five days. I checked out the gym here after breakfast and it looks good. There's a sauna, which I thought was ironic. It's 30degrees plus outside, the hotel air-con seems to be set to 17degrees all over the building but if you want you can get a sauna!