Travel

Heading to New York from Prague

2005-08-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

I am at the Prague international airport a couple of hours before my flight to New York to visit Tianna.

Since I wrote last, I spent another night on the train -- Moscow to St. Petersburg. We caught the midnight train and arrived in St. P. at about 8:00 in the morning. After stowing our luggage at our hotel -- far from downtown -- we took a city tour. I don't think you really sleep on the train. The tour remains something of a blur. St. Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, St. Petersburg, Venice of the North.

Peter the Great started the city as a fort in a swamp in his war against the Swedes that lasted about 25 years. Russia needed a seaport, and St. Pete's is it. Peter the Great was heavily influenced by other European countries, especially Amsterdam. The city is remarkable for the sheer number of bridges (300) and size and number of Palaces. All seems on a grand scale in the downtown area.

Russian people (as a great generality) seem rather sober. With the weight of their history one begins to see why that might be. Elizabeth, Peter's daughter was an incredible spendthrift. She had a palace, the winter palace, built with 1000 rooms. She died before she could live in it. Peter's house had three rooms.... Catherine the Great had lots of lovers and favorites for whom she built palaces -- an especially nice one for the guy that helped her with a plot that ended in the death of her husband.

After the tour I slept for two hours and that night went to see Cossack dancers and traditional musicians. The group who debouched before us (matine) were the geriatric set. Average age, 75. We were the pre-geriatric set. Average age 60-65. All were, like us, tourists. But oh was it worth it. The dancing was unbelievable!!, the music great, three glasses of champagne and caviar at the break... One dancer spun low so fast that he was a blur and managed to stand at the end without falling over from dizziness. Five of us went, Sean, Diedre, Kay, Jo, and Janette. Four of the others went to see ballet. We went for lowbrow, they for highbrow.

The following morning we spent 2 !/2 hours in the Hermitage. The trip through the hermitage was a good metaphor for my trip around the world. Remembered glimpses of marvelous things, Rubens, Monet, Dore, Goya, a magnificent palace... but no real understanding of any one thing. Any painting deserved a couple of hours of looking and thinking. I have a sense that there are marvelous complex cultures and worlds out here but all I have is surficial impressions. I can read facts about them and I have had some stereotypes shattered, but still have so little understanding of the life of daily people anywhere along the way. It is like someone visiting the US and visiting Fisherman's Warf in SF, only seeing the historical downtown of Flagstaff, the south rim of the Grand Canyon, taking a train across the US without getting off except for 15 minute blocks at some stations, then visiting time square and leaving. How much would they know of America???

Still, it is a marvelous experience and adventure. I have spent two nights and one day in Prague. I wandered leisurely and aimlessly yesterday in the city center, en masse with mobs of tourists, but on my own. It was lovely just poking along. Climbing the tower of the olderst stone bridge in Europe started in 1413, taking a boat trip through some canals and onto the main river. Looking and taking pictures -- the typical tourist.

The outskirts of Prague where the airport is have some industry, lots of grey apt. blocks, wheat fields, gas stations... The center is totally oriented to retail and tourism.

St. Petersburg had a considerable amount of industry prior to Peristroika. Then, the industry was closed and unemployment was incredibly high. Now the economy is based primarily on tourism.

So, I did my best to help the various countries economies, have some sweet and brilliant moments to remeber. Know that traveling around the world is like the rest of life only condensed -- a lot of endurance and patience, moments of insight, lots of time with brains on autopilot, and instances of beauty and fun -- an occassional smile that makes what you are doing and simply existing seem incredibly rewarding.

Moscow

2005-08-02T08:32:00.000-07:00

OK. Today is the 2nd of August. At midnight we take off from Moscow to St. Petersburg on the overnight train. I have to leave the group a day early so will be taking off for Prague the afternoon of the fourth.

How to condense 72 hours on the trans siberian rr and two nights and much of three intense days in Moscow for you.

Say... "are we in Russia yet?" or, "are we still in Russia?"
What a totally amazing, huge, grand scale place is Russia and Moscow. I don't know what I was expecting, but whatever it may have been, everything surpassed expectations.

First, 72 hours on the train. Janette, Jo, Kay and I got into a sort of rhythm of packing and unpacking and moving in and out of the compartment we were all sharing. The first full day was a bit tough but things got easier as we progressed on and on and on through Siberia. One of our main anticipatory activities was scanning the schedule to see when we might get off the train for a 10 or 15 minute break. I used these breaks striding the length of the platform to get my legs moving; buying an egg from a babushka; seeing another one eating from a garbage bin; watching: provadnitsa's on different trains standing or sitting in the doorways of their carriages; the other passengers buying ice cream and meat or cabbage pies; little kids running; vendors sliding under trains to get to another one; rr workers making music as they check the wheels with a hammer for cracks. First they shine a light and then tap with the hammer. The breaks on the platforms were like recess. At one point we saw a train with cars going to North Korea. Other trains were headed to Vladivostok.

We had a party with champagne in the dining car when we crossed from Asia to Europe in the Ural mountains -- or hills as the case may be.

We played toss the pig, scrabble, and read. We kept trying for the best sunset shot, or for a water tower or the train as we rounded a curve. I wanted to capture the little wooden villages we kept passing, or the hay stacked in a field, or people swimming in the rivers. From a moving train photography is a challenge and most things are memories which are probably best anyway.

There are a lot of trees ..... and then there are more trees and fireweed and other wildflowers and villages, industrial areas and, and, and.... the trees were genuine taiga vegetation, larch, yellow pine, spruce, birch and in some areas poplars.

We passed Ekaterinburg (sp?) where the remains of Nicholas and Alexandra and ALL the children were found down a shaft in 1987. We read about Gullags in the guide book. Learned more about how long the white Russians held out against the Red Russians... and that nuclear waste is being reprocessed not far from Ekaterinsburg.

I can't say I was terribly sad to leave the train on arrival in Moscow :) Our hotel which will be demolished in January is right next to Red Square and the Kremlin. It is the second largest in the world with 3000 rooms and beds for 5000 people. Once it is gone, there will be no three star accomodations in the center of Moscow. Hey, we are a part of history.

St. Basil was built by Ivan the Terrible and looks unreal, over the top, disneyeque at first. Then it simply becomes a part of the overwhelmingly beautiful Red Square. Red in Russia has a double meaning, beautiful and the color. Red square was called red square long before the revolution and while the Kremlin walls were still white. The Kremlin was a city within a city and was established in the 12th century, when the walls were indeed protection. It is a roughly triangular area with the Moscow River flowing by one side and another river, now underground flowed on the other two sides. There was a draw bridge leading into it and 20 towers. When the walls were no longer protection due to change in weapons, the walls were left to deteriorate. When the white wore off, it was discovered the walls were build of red brick and so they have been red ever since.

Red Square is massive with St. Basil at one end, a now museum at the other, the Kremlin wall with the entrance for Putin on one side and the GUM an incredible edifice that looks like a RR station in France but is a huge mall like affair on the other side.

Moscow's initial impression to me and several others in our group was how like Paris it is. That is because of the massive scale, the river, and bridges. It is unique, however, and the differences as strong or stronger than the similarities.

Yesterday we took a city tour, saw the nunnery where the czars and noblemen who were tired of their current wives or unweddable daughters sent them. It is still an active nunnery and the life of a nun extremely hard. We saw the famous apartment building where all the inhabitants were killed... purged... their servants were KGB. Now the apartments are shi shi and much in demand as they have a great view of the river and are "downtown". We also saw a huge ski jump, the university building, parks, Putin whiz by with his security on the major road that was closed off so he could get to the Kremlin, and.......

After the tour by Kira, Monty took those of us interested on a tour of the metro. It is incredibly efficient, you never have to wait more than a couple of minutes for another train. It was started in the 30s, and, stories say that Lenin? dropped bombs around Moscow to see how deeply the ground was affected and then built the lines below that point. The elevator down makes you wondering just where you are headed.. At the lowest level, there are monuments, statues, mosaics, stained glass all honoring the "heros" of Russia -- e.g. athletes, farmers, workers, and so on. The stations are incredible. Supposedly, one of the reasons that Communism caught on so well in Russia was because the culture emphasized "harmony" or the health or well-being of the community over the individual. Even now, the Russian people have a hard time having a hero of the people. Yuri Gargarin probably came closest.

We then went to old Arbaht street and did the tourist, shopping thing and drag tailed home about 10:00 -- at least I couldn't last past that.

Today we spent hours in the Kremlin looking at cathedrals and the museum in the armory. In the museum we saw Peter the Great's boots (he was about 6 foot 4 but had really small feet so had shoes inside of some big boots he made), Coronation dresses, crowns, bibles with covers covered in precious jewels, a horses ornament with 999 diamonds, faberge eggs, coaches that look straight from Cinderella.

We were supposed to go into St. Basil's, but we were all dragging tail by the time we got out of the museum. Red Square was closed because today is celebrating / honoring soldiers and paratroopers. Apparently last year there was a lot of problems with drunk ex-servicemen all over the city, so they decided to try to confine all the whoopla to the square. I,m not sure how well they were succeeding. There were guys passed out with their heads on the table and a great deal of good cheer apparently going on.

Gotta sign off. Just a fashion observation. The young women wear pretty skimpy clothes and stilleto heels and many are super thin. Fashion is really important here. We all look loke something the cat dragged in. The men have some pretty funny shoes with about 2 to 3 inches extra at the toes and the "cool" look for elegance appears to be beige loose suits remniscent of the 80s. Many people just wear jazzed up casual.

Sunburned in Siberia

2005-07-26T23:25:00.000-07:00

I honestly have no idea what day it is. All I know is that tomorrow afternoon we are getting on the train again (four days this time) and heading for Moscow. So this will be my last blog for a while. I'll try to catch up a bit on the big whole in the center of my writings -- e.g. time from arrival in Beijing until Irkutsk.

Irkutsk is a tremendously interesting city. Buildings range from old wooden houses to huge victorian buildings to typical square grey communist architecture. This morning we went on a three hour walking tour of the city and ended up in a museum showing some of the history of the place. We got kicked out of one of the Russian Orthodox churches because we were wearing shorts. I had put a scarf on my head and shoulders and hadn't thought much about my knees. Alex said it was strange but priest will tolerate the shortest of mini skirts (because they are skirts) but not short trouser (not traditional). We saw the outside of the church "Christ the Savior" - which had a tall bell tower. The purpose of the bell tower was practical and not related to western influence. for the early churches you needed to have a lookout for enemy and for fire...I guess the bells could be warning bells.

The old wooden homes, made of larch are from pre- 1878. That year there was a great fire that they couldn't stop for five days. After that the governor of the province or city decreed that homes and buildings would be made of brick. Many of the old wooden homes are still occupied, mostly by old people who have no motivation to leave the city center. Apparently life in the homes is difficult. There is no problem with them having electricity, but there is no plumbing. In areas with wooden buildings there is a communal pump where people from the houses have to go to get their water. Because there is a lot of ground water here, water table 3 to 5 meters below the surface, there originally were cellars in the homes and no foundations -- e.g. stone. So in many you will see the windows at knee level due to subsidence. In some instances the entire first floor is below ground.

There is a lot of repairing of roads and building sewer lines along Karl Marx street. There is still a statue of Lenin pointing to the cities central square. Last year a statue of Czar Nicolar the II was rebuild near the river. He decreed the transSiberian RR be built. His son saw it completed in, I believe 1908. The headquarters for TSRR east is here in Irkutsk and is probably the most impressive building next to the government building.

The Bruic people (sp) practiced Shamanism and their clothes and bead work is incredibly similar to much Native American clothing, tools, and work. There was a cool hanging cradle, like a car seat in the museum. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, lake Baikal was a barrier for the Bruik tribes or people. Those on the western side were influenced by Cossacks and those on the Eastern side by Mongolians. The ones to the east are Bhuddists, those to the west are Russian Orthodox. Still, apparently the Russian orthodox priests were more interested in numbers than actual converts. So they would report baptising a hundred today, a hundred the next day and so on, while largely turning a blind eye to shamanism...so there is still some practiced today or intermixed with parts of religion.

Another group, closely related to Eskimos, only has about 800 people left living the old ways and keeping the reindeer herds. The young people are leaving for the cities and for univeristy.

Irkutsk had two big boom times. One when gold was discovered at Baikal. The gold only lasted about 5 years but brought people from all over the world. Irkutsk was/is a wealthy city and was the capital of eastern Siberia. The second boom was when the RR reached Irkutsk. We are on the direct tea trading route to Europe here. The Silk trading route goes through Kazakistan, Turjikistan and so on. That is the next trip that our group leader Monty is leading. Wish I was going on that one too even though I am suffereing from total overload of information and new sights.

Last night we went to a beer garden and I ended up with fried potatoes and two bottles of water. I gave up after a couple of hours and wandered back to the hotel via the Angara River. It is light until about 11 and people are out strolling on the promanade and doing whatever people do in cities -- the full range. Tonight we are having champagne and wine before dinner on floor five. Monty is going to throw a party for us on the train as we cross from asia to europe. Think I'd better buy some booze so I can contribute to the general inebriation on the long train journey.... for others, of course.

At the garden last night there were two singers taking turns. The man played a keyboard (sometimes) and sang. At other times the keyboard played itself and he sang. When he had supper break a young woman -- maybe 17 with a fantastic voice (rich alto) sang, with music from a cd in the back. She had long bleached blond hair and graceful hand gestures. That was probably the most realistic "cultural" show we have had so far.

OK. Fill in time --
Mongolia.

I loved Mongolia!!!! It was so fantastic to leave the dirty grey skies of northern China and end up in the land of blue skies. We spent one night in Ulaanbaatar where we saw the most magnificent cultural show. I may have already talked about it, but the stringed instruments were trapezoidal and one size was similar in tone to a viola and another larger trapezoidal one similar to a base. The violin sounding instrument had a small barrel shape, an excessively long neck, and, I believe, only two strings. There was also an instrument similar to a clarinet or oboe or saxiphone that was curved, and drums. The musicians were incredible. There was "orchestra" music, solos with singers 4 women and 3 men soloists, dancing, and unbelievable acrobatics. I heard throat singing for the first time. I thought someone was playing a flute or whistling a thrednody along with the main melody, but both tones were coming from the man at the same time. The thing that did disturb me was the acrobatic/contortionist number with really young skinny children. I can't imagine it can be good at all for their bones or joints or general health.

The next day we went to a tourist camp in a national park and stayed in gers for two nights. That may have been my favorite part yet. The land was rolling grassland with some tries at the hill tops and some impressive rock formations. The gers are incredibly comfortable and sensible. They can be put up in one hour and dismantled in 1 1/2 hour. The young people at the camp were working there on their school holidays, probably college holidays. We were only a little over an hour from UB the capital of Mongolia and where over half the population live.

At the camp we climbed on rocks, rested, ate, visited with a herd of goats, took pictures of cows wandering toward our camp. Some brave souls went on horseback rides. Sean, from Australia apparently got some magnificent bruises on his bum and wan't anxious to sit down the next day. He and Kay road to a monastary in the adjoining valley. I had ridden a camel on the way to the camp so was quite satisfied to have one of my long time wishes fulfilled :) Tina of Mongolia.....

We visited a Nomad family the second morning. The man and woman (Grandpa and Grandma) had marvelous faces. He had lived in Ulaanbaatar since he was about 20, had lived in an apartment, been a policeman for ten years then a truck driver. When he retired, he decided to go back to the life of his childhood. A couple of his sons and daughters have also decided to live the Nomad lifestyle. We asked how he got everything to his winter camp, and he responded -- by car. They had a refrigerator in their ger which they use in their winter quarters. I think they have a special deal with some of the tour groups, sell them mutton and rent out their horses. The grandchildren were out there on school, summer, holiday.,

The last night we were there, we had real Mongolian BBQ. Jack arranged it. Our driver and one other guy took a huge pot that looked like a milk can and put some broth, hunks of sheep, hot rocks from the fire, chuncks of meat, hot rocks and so on and then some broth until it was full. They put the lid on and rolled it downslope to mix things up, then set the can on the circular open hole on the wood stove outside. Was that sheep ever tender and delicious!! I made a pig of myself. We were given the hot rocks from the pot to toss from hand to had (like playing hot potato) and they were hot. It is supposed to be very healthful and good for circulation.

The landscape made me feel like I'd come home and the experience brought our group much more closely together.

On the way back, we went to a war memorial for the Mongolian soldiers who died in WWII. Apparently, the Russians did most of the fighting for them. There is a new part of the city being built. One part China Town with huge houses for wealthy Chinese, and Japan town which will eventually house 40,000 Japanese families. I asked Jack how he felt about the Japanese coming to live there and he seemed pretty indifferent. When asked about the Chinese, he simply said, "We don't like Chinese!" In the NP there was a new golf course that had just been build by Koreans. The Nomad G'pa thought it was stupid, saw no sense in it and said it was affecting water availability.

With such a small population in Mongolia, I fear that they are going to be swallowed up by Japanese, Korean, and Chinese cultures in the near future. That would be a shame as Jack displayed the stongest sense of national pride I have seen in a long time.

Interestingly, 2/3 of the population of UB are women. I am curious about what has caused such a huge imbalance between the sexes. Spike heels and pointy toed shoes are quite the rage in Mongolia and here.

Here in Siberia there are many very very tight pants on both men and women and skimpy see through tops. We are hopelessly fashion challenged.

In Beijing
Beijing was such a grim, grey place. We went to the great wall and saw it dimly through the veil of grey. Incredibly impressive nonetheless. Women farmers would pick a tourist and follow that person up the steps, fanning and making friends, saying "slowly", "be careful". Mine was a really nice woman, much nicer than some of the others. She had a sense of humor, and when I said good bye, she said "Goodbye No". When I said "Goodbye Yes" she and the other women laughed. I of course ended up buying post cards from her, but was happy to do so. We were in the bus about 8 hours getting to and back from the more remote section of wall we went to.

The next day we went to Tianneman square, the temple of heaven, the Forbidden City, and the silk market. All were overwhelming. The Forbidden City was by far my favorite place in Beijing. Has to be seen and experienced to be believed -- and I only saw a minute portion of it!

Gotta sign off. More from Moscow.

The following day

Irkutsk

2005-07-26T00:33:00.000-07:00

Hi,

I think last time I wrote I had only made it to Beijing where I joined the Sundowner's tour. As might be expected from the name, the majority of the group are Australian, a Welsh couple, a girl from England working in Hong Kong, and our leader Monty who has three passports, England, New Zealand, and USA. He's traveling as a Kiwi this trip.

We just got back in Irkutsk after a home stay in a little village on Lake Baikal. We arrived in Siberia two days ago after spending from 3 AM to 4:20 PM crossing the Mongolian, then Russian border. Much of that time was sans toilets, something of an exercise in patience and control :)

When arrived in Irkutsk yesterday morning about 8:00 AM and used hotel fascilities and changed dollars to ruples (28 ruples to $1) before loading on a bus and heading for Lake Baikal. For most of the journey we drove along the Angara river and through tiaga forest (birch, larch, white and yellow pine). Lovely and fresh. Arrived in the village (name coming later) on Lake Baikal at about 11:00 AM, got settled into our apartments for the homestay and then went for lunch at a little restaurant across from the Lake. While waiting for food some ofus went across to add years to our lives by dipping into Lake Baikal. I had this flash of headlines, tourist hit by car while seeking longevity in Lake Baikal. Of course, that didn't happen. I should have at least another 15 years as I waded in and put my hands in. 5 years for hands, 10 for feet. Had I really wanted longevity I would have jumped in for a whole 25 years. Given the water temp is 10 celsius, the thought didn't appeal.

After lunch (fish) we went to the limnological museum and saw fresh water seals, polecats, stuffed lynx, and special fish like sturgeon and fresh water salmon. The lake was formed when to plateaus separated about 25 million years ago. There are something like 2500 endemic species, and the lake is the deepest in the world over a mile deep and holds 20% of the world's fresh water. It is 600 + km long and up to 80 km wide -- on average, 55 km wide. It is shaped like a bannana. They have at least one big earth quake a year and ones under 4.5 don't even make the newspaper, as there is some sort of seismic activity about every day.

A story Alex told us that the indigenous people told of the lake and the Angara River that flows past Irkutsk is as follows. Baikal is an old man that had 300 sons (the rivers that flow into the lake) and one headstrong daughter (angara) who fell in love with the ???? river -- largest one in Russia. He forbad her to go to the other river, but she ran away and is still running away to join the big river.

Alex is our guide here, very informative and interesting. About 45, big blond with deep voice.
After the museum we went to a souvinir market and then on an hour boat ride on the lake. A group of us then went up to the tired looking, nearly empty hotel on the hill and sat around overlooking the lake and driking beer or coke.

At about supper time we went to our respective apartments, our lady, Galena, a big Russian lady who was born in the village there and has worked at the museum 40 years fixed a marvelous dinner of fish, potatoes, fresh lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes she grew herself and much tea. The morning we visited with her in bits ofEnglish, bits of Russian, and sign language. We laughed and had a good time. She has two children - a son who works in tourism in the village and a daughter going to law school in Irkutsk. Her husband is either poliza or military??, is 67 and lives mostly in Irkutsk, for which she seems pleased :) She is a year older than I am and didn't have her children until she was 35.

We went into the old part of the village on the way out and visited the church of St. Nicholas, Greek Orthodox and built about 350 years ago. St. Nicholas is the st. for travelers here. We thn stopped at a wood museum on the way here. When they dammed the Angara for hydroelectric power they saved some of the old wooden buildings and madea fascinating open air architectural museum. One of the really neat things was a huge slide that they used to line with frozen cowhides and go zooming down in winter for fun.

The Cossacks settled this area in 1661. The settlement was similar to that in the US but less genocide. Most of the indigenous people were baptised and intermarried with and absorbed into the Russian culture -- per Alex. As a result there is less of a distinct indigenous culture. However, some of the examples of homes were like permanent gers, made of logs.

More later.....

Uulan Baatar, Mongolia

2005-07-20T05:36:00.000-07:00

Hi,

A lot has happened since I created my first blog. We flew to Jinghong in Xishingbanna in the Yunan Province. If you want a really informative discussion of what we saw and where we went, please see Alan Lew's bog at http://alanalew.blogspot.com. Alan was great and kept track of what we did and saw everyday. All I can give you here is impressions. Especially since I don't have my journal with me and don't remember the city names.

Impressions of Jinghong. A very modern, growing city. Totally different from what I saw in the Guandong Province ten years ago. One lady, originally from China and who lived through the cultural revolution, said that the government is putting on a shining face for the west. Building big projects, working on infrastructure, developing tourism, westernizing. The large cities are where the money is going. She said that the gov didn't care that people in villages in the western provinces can't send their children to school and have very very hard lives.

Still we had an enjoyable conference. Informative, great mix of people from at least 8 different nations -- probably more. We did the tourist things, Saw Dai villages, water festivals, ate huge meals, bought lots of souvenirs -- the whole nine yards. After the conference 31 of us went on a fantastic field trip. Our first night was spent in Myanmar in a "Ghost City" where, because China won't let it's citizens cross at present and gamble, five huge casinos were closed. I didn't like the feel of that city at all, but it was interesting. All the buddhas and such are pretty much from 1993 to 1997 and largely for tourism.

The next day was fantastic. We traveled through the countryside -- a two or three hour drive on a road that was only completed last year. Previously it was an all day car ride or two day truck ride.... ten years ago, a week's journey. We saw many small Shan villages -- the people are the same as Dai only in a different country. Beautiful rice fields and a lot of hard, hard work. The women are the farmers and earn the money. The men take care of the home and kids and their fighting cocks and gamble the money their wives earn. We also stopped briefly in a Aikida??? village -- a hill tribe. There was bone grinding poverty there. The lucky people and powerful people get the lowlands.

That night our hotel was the former Shan king's palace.... Beautiful pagoda nearby with monks chanting in the evening. We went to a pagoda on a hilltop. I bought two finches and with Alan's help with their bamboo cage, freed them. They shot from the small hole, whirred past my ear and flew off toward the mountains and the evening thunderclouds.

We made it to a border city the next day and shopped and shopped and then shopped some more. We had trouble getting out of Myanmar the following day because we were the first international tour group to go in one part of the border and out the other. We finally got out about 5 PM and so arrived in the new tour leader's home town in the mountains of northern Thailand when it was dark. We had a meal and then walked in the rain to a couple of tea shops and tea sorting and drying shed. The village is comprised of Chinese who settled there about 60 years ago when the communists took over China. The people now make a good living growing tea (agri-tourism). It was a bit unclear what they had been growing.....

The next day we hung out at the golden triangle...again majorly touristy, visted an opium house (museum of course) and then took a ferry across the Mekong to a village in Laos -- where again we shopped. It was apparently our duty to boost the local economy wherever we went. I liked that village, much less developed. The people were selling things, but the kids were riding their bikes and playing in the center. We ended up coming back across the river in a magnificent rainstorm. Felt great because it cooled things down.

The last day of our tour we got up at 5:15 AM and took a new (fast)??? boat to China up the Mekong River. It had been raining quite a bit in the north and so the river was more turbulent than expected. I found a good spot on top the boat where I could lean back against an air vent and steady myself with my feet on the ladder and side railing. I spent as much time as possible above board, got some great pictures and simply enjoyed the heat and coolness of the wind, the on and off rain and watching for villages cleared out of the rainforest. There were some marvelous narrows with jagged rocks and almost rapids. At one point our tour leader made us come inside after the boat had done a rather intense wobble. Guess he didn't want to have to fish us out of the river. However we were back up there in time to catch the sundown.

Unfortunately the sunset meant we had to stop at the village where we'd seen the water festival 5 or 6 days earlier and wait for customs to come from Jinghong to check our bags. We were "helped" down a plank onto a cement landing, herded up to the top of the landing and our bags were taken off the boat. When the officials finally arrived and looked us over in the spot lights, they only checked two bags and let us go. We'd already been stopped at the China border, had a red lazer beam pointed at our foreheads (checking our temperature?) and had our hand luggage checked -- mine two times.

The group were wonderful and interesting and lively.

The next day Mei Lin and 5 other people from our field trip were all on the same flight to Ching Mai and then transfere to Beijing. With them it was a breeze -- no worries.

Gotta stop now. More later..

Thailand 7/4/05

2005-07-04T00:57:00.000-07:00

Flying is a sort of limbo to be endured and results in a multi-hour fugue state. I was so excited when about to leave Phoenix, I think I told everyone from clerks to passengers "I'm going around the world. Really". My excitement had dimmed by two in the morning when the plane left from LA and dropped even further on the 14 hour flight to Hong Kong. Perhaps trying to work on my paper may have been a factor.

Cathay Pacific Airlines is wonderful. You actually get service. Hong Kong International is amazing -- has cyberworld for kids and a play area with little stationary chairs facing a TV -- hummmm. Light airy, civilized, with huge windows through which you can see the sky scrapers in one direction and the magnificent mountains in the other. I talked with two men headed for H...... In India. Missionaries but lovely and friendly and interesting. Both from Texas taking time off from work. One a black lawyer with a sense of humor, the other a counseling student.

Arrived at the Raddison crumbled and disheveled. A giantess from the other side of the tracks among beautifully dressed beautiful Thai people. They were very kind. I went to my room and almost immediately took off for the little shops on the other side of the highway where "real people" shopped and had lunch. I ran across 6 lanes of traffic. Not bad :)

Met Alan, Mabel and the kids a couple of hours later and they helped me stay awake till after dinner to combat jet lag.

Yesterday we went on a half day tour . The Grand Palace. Incredible. Klongs riding in a James Bond boat, my favorite part of the tour. And the temple of the dawn. After a short break we went to the weekend market. Road the subway there and were overwhelmed with choices, people, new sights and, and, and.

We went our separate ways for supper. I went to the hotel "cafe" and was seated by the window where I entertained myself by watching the wild activity (literally) of the staff parking the evening guests' cars. One of the waiters, from the North talked with me a while. He misses home -- 12 hours by train, but feels his future is here and has a dream of some day buying a house.

I walked around the block through alleys last night, watched people and a stray dog and two skinny children and 5 or 6 men who were drinking after their outside eating place had closed. Back to the hotel lobby to listen to a violinist, bass, and pianisty play "You are my love" from "Gone with the Wind".

I am in my third day here and thoroughly enjoying myself. Ate dragon eyes and Rambutan as well as three or four small bananas and am about to eat part of a custard apple. Went to the Grand Palace, Temple of the Dawn, and Weekend market yesterday as well as taking a James Bond boat along the canals. I love boat rides. Today we went to a floating market about 80 Km outside of Bangkok. Tomorrow we head for Jinghong.