Where the hell am I and what can I eat?

This is Paul reporting from the skies. Well not from the skies as such, that's very dangerous and very illegal. Just imagine if I accidentally connected to a wifi network and started flying the plane from seat 43a, I can't drive a car let alone a plane.

This will be uploaded at the first available wifi connection, however at this very moment I am typing this whilst sat on a rather bumpy flight somewhere between Hong Kong and Hangzhou in China.

Foods come round, lovely Bob at our travel agents hasn't booked me a vegetarian meal, to be fair it wouldn't have made much difference, the Chinese don't get us "veggies". In fact I went out for lunch today with my jersey supplier but unfortunately upon checking with my designer (who tested all the food before I tucked in for fear of rogue piece of pork, beef or monkey) there was very little I could eat - no bother, the company was nice and the Chinese tea kept flowing, it has however, left me quite hungry.

Thinking about it, a lot of places that I go to don't get my "fussy eating habits". In Turkey, when I explain I don't eat meat or fish the chain of events goes something like this...1) look of disgust, 2) look of confusion, 3) a rather loud, almost scolding question..."WHY?", followed by them ordering me minced chicken as it isn't a meat? (circa 4th work trip to Turkey, followed by week off sick...nice). Even closer to home, In Paris, you can order a lovely bottle of wine with your Big Mac but ask for a Bean burger? Death stare.

So here I am eating two bread rolls heading to the big C. I've never been to China before, I'm rather excited. We're staying in a lovely hotel near the West Lake, which is supposedly very beautiful. I've been told by at least two people that we must go out on a boat...yeah right, as if we'll have time to do that, hopefully I can at least see it from my hotel room, will post a pic if I can.

I'm imagining China to be very similar to Hong Kong, just prettier? I guess that's a bit of a generalisation, China is massive after all and I'm told that different regions are very very different from each other. I guess it's the same anywhere Kent, London, Liverpool, Hull, Grimsby.

I must admit I don't actually know what part Hangzhou is actually in? In fact I hardly ever know where I am. My friends always joke that my geography knowledge (or lack of) is ridiculous. I must agree. I bought my self a blow up globe from Muji (a japanese brand, the capital of Japan being Tokyo) and have just downloaded the iPad google earth app so hoping to educate myself. I blame the education system, as interesting as volcanoes are, it would be more useful, and less embarrassing to know where places are in the world.

So as I finish my roll and round up this here blog entry I ask myself the question...Hangzhou, a Kent or a Grimsby?

- Posted (with love) from my gorgeous iPad.

Location:The sky.