A rainy morning in Beijing

It’s the talk of the day around here: business travelers stranded around the world due to the eruption of a volcano.  By the end of the week, I expect that I’ll be able to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull easily as my own name.

I’m currently stuck in Beijing – I’d planned to be here until Thursday, but my entire team is stuck in Switzerland, so I’ve had to cancel most of my planned agenda.  I’ll still travel onwards to Dalian in two days to make a short courtesy visit to the team there, then hopefully I’ll be able to catch a plane back to Europe at the end of the week.  Everyone is taking things in their stride and being as flexible as possible; meanwhile, our local counterparts are being very gracious and accommodating under the circumstances.

I was in Taiwan last week, and the rest of the team are struggling to get home.  They’ve made it as far as Bangkok (normally not a bad place to be stuck, but with the escalation of the red shirt protests and the threat of a counter-protest by the yellow shirts, and the ever-present threat of rising tensions & violence, I’m not sure it’s a great place to be right now).  One of my colleagues didn’t possess a visa for Thailand and was unable to clear immigration, so spent two days sleeping in the airport before finally catching a flight to Athens.  From there, he’ll catch a ferry to Italy, then make his way to Switzerland using a combination of trains, busses, and rental cars.  And he’ll have quite a story to tell at the end of the day.

Beijing is cold and wet, not exactly an ideal place to be stuck.  Around me at the hotel, all the talk is the same: when can we go home?  We’re all in the same boat…