Forget “jet lag” – I think travel shock is more accurate. Aside from the sleep deprivation component to international travel, there are also mental and emotional side effects that aren’t often discussed. For example, it hit me yesterday when walking the dog around the block in the cold (for here) air. Merely 18 hours before I had been walking in the cold, in Tiananmen Square and through the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Somehow my brain and body hadn’t caught up to the vast repositioning that had occurred and I felt extremely grouchy and uneasy as a result. Just a couple of days before that, I was having a dinner engagement in Bangalore at the Leela Palace, temperature, around 70 F (21 C) before getting on an airplane that took me to Singapore where the temperature was around 81 F (27 C) for a few hours. Then off to Beijing where the temperature was hovering around 32 F (0 C.) Throw in the different languages, food, prevailing culture, the need to be able to think clearly and make decisions and you get some sort of debt built up across the physical, emotional, and mental components of the body.

I’ve always been somewhat effected, but perhaps as I age it’s becoming more pronounced. It’s certainly a disconcerting side-effect of fast travel times. The best advice I have for managing it is to drink more water than you think you need, the moment the door to the aircraft closes, start thinking and living in the time of the location where you will arrive, if it’s an “overnight” flight, then prepare to sleep as best you can on the airplane. Keep mood altering substances (caffiene, alcohol) to a minimum. And synchronize your food intake to the local time at your destination. In this way I’ve found I can manage the changes reasonably well.

The best travel accessories you can have are noise cancelation headphones (like Bose Quiet Comfort,) a neck pillow (I like the inflatable models, easier to pack in a brief case,) high-quality eye shades (soft, thick natural fiber works best as it breathes but still blocks the light,) and some sort of sound device like an iPod with relaxing sounds/music pre-loaded. Even in a coach seat, it’s possible to find a way to relax reasonably well. At your destination, get as much sunlight as possible, this seems to have an effect on your adjustment. The drugs (melatonin et al) have never done a thing for me, though your mileage may vary.

In any case, it’s nice to be home again.

Hot travel tip: When you’re in a city that you don’t know and you can’t read or speak the language, make sure your taxi driver knows where he’s going BEFORE you step in the car. In this case, I though I had it covered because I had the name, address, and a map of the destination that I showed to both the hotel concierge and the taxi driver and got affirmation that the taxi dude knew where he was going. In retrospect, I don’t think either of them understood the question meaning we had no assurance of reaching our destination in a timely manner.

Thus a colleague and I hopped into the taxi enroute to our office here in Beijing. 34 kilometers, 68 yuan, and an hour and twenty minutes later, we made it to the office. That’s only because one of our software engineers was able to direct the clueless taxi driver to the right place. Later it was indicated to me that the driver may have been playing stupid to up the fare. Could be, it started to get a little hairy there for awhile because my Mandarin language skills aren’t up to the challenge of navigation…

In any case, it’s been a good world-wide trip and I’m anxious to return back to home and hearth.

I’ve written about it before, but you really have to experience it to get a flavor for it. This morning there were statistics in the newspaper about how vehicle ownership has grown and it’s effect on traffic in the city. Since 1998, the number of vehicles has tripled from 1.2M to over 3.6M today.

Meanwhile, the average speed of traffic in the city has dropped from 12.5mph (20 kph) to 5mph (8 kph.) On another dimension, as the roads have become more crowded, they have also become more deadly. In 2001, there were 703 fatalities on Bangalore streets; the number through November, 2008 is 925.

The close proximity of vehicles, the mix (large trucks, passenger vehicles, buses, auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, and random animals) make it a constantly changing landscape in which to drive. The horns are constantly in use and traffic controls are only moderately effective and obeyed.

The city recognizes it is grinding to a halt and is working to build a new train system, rehabilitate the roads, redesign intersections, and provide a more effective bus system. All good initiatives and all in desperate need. In the future, I see a booming business in helicopter transport as it’s the only reliable way to get out of the traffic….

Here’s a video of the traffic moving along well – in fact, much more smoothly than I have seen this visit. The animals seem to be missing from this footage…

One of my favorite quotes is: “Philosophy consists of questions that can’t be answered. Religion consists of answers that can’t be questioned.” This faux motivation poster made me laugh thinking that there needs to be some modification about Google having the answer to any question that’s asked.

An interesting report from the local news station over the atheist sign in the state capitol along side the nativity scene. While the report is professional, there are some interesting “key” words used like extremist. Perhaps the good people of Washington should examine the policy to have religious symbols displayed in public buildings in the first place. Without the nativity scene, there would be no need to offend people’s sensibilities by speaking the truth.

Having formerly lived in Olympia, this is pretty entertaining to watch. It’s a real mix of views from the ultra-conservative to the ultra-liberal all mashed together closely. Glad to see that freedom of speech is alive and well in Puget Sound.