"Where is everybody?"

This post is another that stems from a coincidence. I have been quietly reading my way through the excellent trilogy Remembrance of Earth's Past by Liu Cixin and had reached the final volume The Dark Forest when I also chanced to read an article in the Economist entitled Where is everybody?.

Both of these publications deal with the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been underway in one form or another for a long time and has, as yet, been unsuccessful. Along side SETI we also have METI (Messaging to Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence). While there has been some disquiet about our unintended broadcasting by virtue of electronic communications intended for others humans leaking out into the wider universe we have not stopped broadcasting to the far flung, unintended potential audience. At a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015, Active SETI (METI) was discussed and questioned whether transmitting a message to potentially intelligent extraterrestrials elsewhere in the Cosmos was a wise.

The Economist article summarises the Fermi Paradox and then briefly discusses an assessment of our progress with SETI in the search by a trio of astronomers at Pennsylvania State University. In a few words, our progress amounts to... not much.

The fictional trilogy on the other hand is more focused on METI and how a lone researcher send a powerful message out into the Cosmos and gets a response, I will not spoil your pleasure should you care to read it for yourself. There are extraterrestrial intelligences out there but they may be quiet for a reason.

Also in 2015 a statement was released, signed by many in the SETI community, advocating that a "worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent". I would agree with this position but honestly do not know whether I would be in favour of any such message or not.

"Overtourism"

A new word, overtourism, has started to show up in the travel lexicon. The meaning of the term seems to be pretty self descriptive but has been used in subtly different ways, the proposed definition in the Collins Dictionary is short and pretty good but I prefer the wordier definition used by Responsible Travel.

While in Southern Thailand earlier this year I came across an example of overtourism. We were travelling from Bangkok to Singapore and one our stopping points along the route was Ao Nang, a town on the Andaman coast. Several of our travel companions took the opportunity to visit some of the nearby islands either by kayak or farther away by boat. Without exception everyone who went out to the islands encountered such a mass of tourists that the journeys were considered dismal failures. The problems were not simply the numbers of tourists but the behaviour of a non-trivial minority was sufficient for some to abandon the visit and head back early.

Ko Liao from the sand bar, Ao Nang.

So my earlier experiential claim is not really true, I was fortunate that my wife was unwell for a couple of days and didn't feel up to the required boat travel to get to the islands she really wanted to see. Instead I suggested that we walk north-west along the coast to Nopparat Thara Beach. It would seem that most tourists head off to the famous islands that feature in the must see lists or are not prepared to walk a few kilometers. We enjoyed our walk and found that there were very few people at Nopparat Thara Beach, at low tide you could just walk across to a number of small islands. Just off the beach you can find memorials commemorating those who died in the tsunami on December 26th 2004.

While this modest little beach will hopefully never make on to one of the numerous Places to See Before You Die lists or Top [nnn] Beaches, I would rather spend my time here than at any of the cool places on these lists. To be fair this fascination with lists is not a new phenomenon and I guess this is something else we have to thank the ancient Greeks for since they are the ones credited with compiling The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

I may return to this topic at a later date, I have been able to visit some famous sites and avoid the crowds but do I want to share how to do it …

The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks.

I've just completed reading The Hydrogen Sonata by Iain M. Banks.

This book is one of The Culture series and centres on an aspect which has appeared in other novels but only explored in detail in this one, the notion of subliming. Like other novels in the series reading them is not an effortless exercise, there are many complex characters with difficult names engaged in a number of threads which eventually weave a compelling story. Along the way the notion of subliming is explained and provides some sort of alternative view to that provided by many religions.

The background to the novel is the final days of the Gzilt civilisation before they are scheduled to sublime and some ancient intrigue as well as the actions of actions civilisations who want to exploit what is left after sublimation.

While reading the novel I realised that this would be the last new science fiction novel by Iain that I would read since it is the last one that he wrote.

I've read all his science fiction novels and a couple of his other mainstream fiction novels (as Iain Banks). I met him once at the Cheltenham Literary Festival and was wryly amused at his response to someone who questioned why he wasted his considerable talents writing science fiction.

I knew that he was a contemporary of mine but it was only when he died of cancer earlier this year that I realised that he was born in the same year. Got me thinking…

Back to Europe

The fifth, and final, part of this summer's travels has begun. I'm sitting in seat 1L of an Airbus 330 on Finnair flight 52 from Beijing to Helsinki drinking a very pleasant glass of San Polo Brunello di Montalcino 2005 and looking out the window at the Gobi desert below and thinking how different it looks from 12,000m.

Over the next eight hours I will retrace most of the 12,000km outward journey that took me eight weeks. The real difference between the outward and return legs of the journey isn't the speed, it is the experiences along the way.

I feel oddly relaxed but I shouldn't be surprised since aeroplanes are a familiar environment. I have spent thousands of hours travelling millions of miles in them over the last three decades.

Today will be a long day, I was up at 05:30 (Beijing time) and will not finally stop until I've met up with my wife at Stockholm's Arlanda airport and arrived at our hotel which should be about 22 hours of travel time.

I should pace myself but I think I will also sample the Château Malescasse with my lunch…

Beijing, 2013

My first, and only, visit to China was a short one. When planning this years trip I was presented with the problem of how to get from Ulaanbatar at the end of my Mongolian leg back to Europe. The options were pretty limited:

• a flight via Moscow, not very appealing especially if it involved Aeroflot
• a flight via Istanbul, very appealing but only if my final destination was to be London
• several options via Beijing, not ideal since I would fly the first leg in the wrong direction

However, when looking at the Beijing alternative I discovered that a 72 hour visa free option to visit was introduced this year to encourage passengers transferring at Beijing Capital International Airport to visit the city. Beijing has never been on my list of places to visit but the possibility of visiting for a short period while transferring airlines looked like too good an opportunity to pass up. So, a flight via Beijing is what I decided to do.

I was a little apprehensive about being an early user of the scheme and things did not get off to a good start in Ulaanbatar. When I arrived at the airport to check in for the China Air leg into Beijing my not having a China visa caused my passport, e-tickets for the inbound and outbound flights and hotel booking to disappear for quite a while. After what what seemed likes ages but was in reality only about 20 minutes the documents all came back to the checkin desk and I was allowed to proceed.

In Beijing the procedure was painless, the queue for 72 hour visa free immigration was very short and I was through in a couple of minutes.

I needed to get some local currency but the rates at the airport were terrible plus they charged 60Yuan commission. With what now seemed like prescient foresight I was able to use some of the Yaun I had accepted as a shared taxi payment from someone who had spent all their Mongolian Tigrit.

25Yuan bought me a ticket on the airport express into town another 2Yuan a metro ticket.

From China, 2013

Once again I was having trouble finding my hotel and in desperation stopped at a small eatery -- Little Yunan -- to ask for some help. I was in luck, a couple of patrons looked at my hotel details and while one phoned the hotel for details the other looked it up on their phone. Sorted! I was only a couple of hundred metres away from it. The couple, Coco and Luke invited me to sit while they sorted this out for me and then invited my to have a beer with them which I gracefully accepted. We talked, drank beer, they shared a huge bowl of spicy crayfish, more beer more talk. Three hours later I left for my hotel and they wouldn't let me buy a single drink. If Beijing ever needs any goodwill ambassadors, try Coco and Luke!

My stopover allowed me two days in Beijing. On the first day I started off easy with a leisurely breakfast in my hotel, a wide selection of Chinese food with the addition of fried eggs and a mystery meat. A visit to the bank introduced me to a bureaucratic paper system which eventually resulted in me having enough cash to last me for my visit.

My hotel, The Beijing Shatan Hotel, is very conveniently located less that 500m north of the Forbidden City so decide to strike while the iron is hot and set off for the Forbidden City. The North gate turns out to be the exit, while walking to the entrance at the south gate a thunderstorm breaks. I shelter for a while along the way and set off again when the rain abates. However, the rain soon restarts and by the time it get to the south entrance it is chucking it down again and there are thousands, and thousands of umbrellas with people attached waiting to enter.

I do not like crowds, and I'm not too fond of rain either, so decided to give a visit to the Forbidden City a miss and return at opening the following day.

On the south side of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square, a vast area surrounded on all four sides by grand buildings. It too is packed with umbrellas! I give in and slowly wend my way back through The Exquisite Park, a long narrow park that runs runs north /south and which just happens to pass Little Yunan where I stop for a late lunch and a beer.

From China, 2013

My next outing is in better weather and I head for Jingshan Park which is on the north side of the Forbidden City. This is an atractive park in its own right but the hill also affords great views of the Forbidden City to the south as well as views to the north. This time I walk around with a New Zealand couple who are only in town for 24 hours and we get an unobstructed view of the south gate entrance 'cos it is closed.

The crowds have got to me and I spend the rest of my time mooching around quieter areas, eating and drink at small establishments and finally getting my shaggy mop of hair cut before meeting Lyyn in two days time.

The exit procedure at Beijing Capital International Airport is as simple as the entry procedure.

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Okay, so this is a pretty brief review of a major world capital city, but it is brief because I cannot say I liked the city very much. I'm glad that I only devoted 2 days of my life to visiting it. The highlight of the visit was meeting Coco and Luke.