Norway dispatch 2

4 days  into our Scandinavian sojourn and the weather has broken. Today I drove 350 km north-west bfrom Oslo to Flam, an extremely expensive and, today, somewhat bedraggled resort on a branch of the Great fjord. And even though it is over 100 km inland, it is nonetheless visited daily by huge cruise ships that journey in with draughts of up to 1000 fathoms.

The drive here has been stunning, climbing up through vast glacial valleys adorned with lace-like waterfalls that plummet from above the clouds. Many tunnels have to be transited, some as long as 5 km, and some are not even lighted, causing panic when I entered one still wearing my sunglasses! On Tuesday we drive to visit an 8th century stave church made entirely of oak and ash- but the journey requires us to negotiate the longest road tunnel in the world- over 24 km. let's hope it is at least properly lighted.

Now we are ensconced in our hotel room (to my dismay, shy of a television) we find ourselves as Caucasians outnumbered by orientals: Chinese, Japanese, South Koreans and Singaporeans in the main, who appear less inhibited by the exhorbitant price of everything that characterises Norway today. Where do Norwegians take their holidays? Somewhere where their krona stretches a little further, I imagine. As for the far-easterners, I wouldn't mind so much, but they seem very cold and never, ever make eye contact. I suppose it's a cultural thing, but now I'm in the minority it feels a bit weird. But this is how the world has changed. There are over a billion people in the Far East with the financial clout to travel the world in style, and they're out there doing it, right now. So wherever you are, there'll be a coach party of Chinese there before you. Get used to it.