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Day 4
No power this morning. I open the back door to find the housekeeper waiting for us to wake up, and a chap painting the well, who sees me looking forlornly at the fusebox and says ‘power at ten’, which a big grin. Whether this is knowledge of power company schedules or simply blind faith, who knows. I guess we find out at 10 o’clock.
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Day 4
The night was hot, and I slept fitfully. Switched the fan off, then back on again. I was alternately feeling hot flushes and shivers, as the stream of air from the fan hit me in waves. Eventually I managed to manhandle the fan to point in a direction that made the air move, but not directly at me, and I managed to sleep.
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Day 4
location:Acle/Wroxham
summary:Fair wind for sail to Horning, so proceeded to Wroxham. Mudweighted overnight
trip:sailing03
day:4 -
Day 4
This morning we met our driver, Dimitri. This guy was definitely what we would call a ‘real’ Russian – he spoke no English, chain smoked and looked every bit a KGB agent, not that I have any idea what a KGB agent looks like. Today was to be spent mostly on the road in another very un-Russian vehicle, a Mercedes mini bus.
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Day 4
location:Cape Town
summary:Climbed Table Mountain, night market
ihave:Climbed to the summit of Table Mountain, South Africa
_wp_old_slug:04
trip:sa02
day:4 -
Day 4
Our second-class couchette could not have been more impressive given the class we were travelling. The carriage was brand new, with aircon that worked, sockets to plug in phones, pleasant staff, and even a questionnaire in German asking us to comment on the quality of the service, rating each part on a scale of 1 to 5.Berlin-Zoo station turned out to be rather disappointing, considering our train had come all the way from Holland and chosen this particular place to stop. No tourist information kiosks were obvious, but there was a guy waiting outside who delivered his pitch. We decided to go there – it was reasonably cheap, included breakfast, and the room was nice.
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Day 4
As instructed, I was in the lobby at 0600 for the canal tour. The bus didn’t arrive until 0715, which didn’t seem like a very good start, though apparently it was the travel agent’s error. I picked up a croissant for breakfast and got into the bus to find only one other occupant – a costa rican girl working as a marine biologist in Australia. When we arrived at the pier there were more people, so the boat was actually about two thirds full. It motored down the river to the lock gates at one of the entrances to Bangkok’s canal system. As we moved from the flowing waters of the river to the stagnant canals, I was hit by the smell, which I thought would have to be unbearable for the people who lived here. Fifteen minutes later I had forgotten about it – it’s amazing how quickly you can get used to your environment.
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Day 4
Leaving at 7am again, Basil and I go to his office, via the Lyons office (tea company), to strike a deal. At the office I download my email and find that although the internet connection is not good, I can get on ICQ, which is actually more than I can do at home. I spend the rest of the day at the office, observing proceedures and chatting to Pam and Joyce. At the end of the day Basil gives me a guided tour of the complex, and then we drive home. Dinner is take away pizza while watching “The House on Haunted Hill”.
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Day 4
Our accommodation is a ‘holiday village’ which translates roughly as a motel/hostel. The facilities are very good – we have a triple share apartment with en-suite bathroom, TV, fridge, kettle, and of course air conditioning. Everything you could need, really. I got 11 hours sleep and was pretty much over my jet-lag.