Riel World Journeys

Visit the new "Travels in the Riel World"

2010-08-09T10:01:00.001-07:00

This blog is a collection of older posts, mostly from a round-the-world trip. To see my current blog and its collection of travel and cross-cultural articles, please go to www.rielworld.com. See you there!

Charmed by Uruguay

2006-11-22T15:45:00.000-08:00

After our travels through Patagonia, Argentina, Lisa and I ended our trip with a short stay in Uruguay. There is much more to see in Argentina, of course, but we were trying to do an inexpensive trip and we discovered a South American Air Pass that provided significantly discounted flight tickets -- except that we had to visit at least two countries. Since Montevideo, Uruguay, is only a 40-minute flight from Buenos Aires, we decided to finish up with a few days in Uruguay in order to be able to use the airpass.

Besides, when else would we visit Uruguay, right? Well, actually, we really enjoyed our time in Uruguay. Montevideo was a smaller, faded, but more relaxed version of Buenos Aires. The food and the wine were as good, if not better. And the people were very welcoming. Even the taxi drivers.

We also hopped on a public bus one day for a two-hour trip to Colonia, Uruguay, and fell in love with this small town by the water. The old part of this colonial city has narrow, cobblestoned streets and is overflowing with flowers and friendliness. Here are some photos from Colonia:

All in all, we were thrilled with our two-week jaunt into Argentina and Uruguay, and are looking forward to future explorations of South America.

Standing at the edge of the world

2006-11-20T15:37:00.000-08:00

Ushuaia, Argentina, bills itself as the southernmost city in the world. It is virtually an island within an island, as it sits at the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego, trapped between the Andes Mountains and the sea. The Pan-American highway ends (or begins) here, at the edge of the South American continent, just 600-700 miles from Antarctica. And if one were to set sail east or west in a boat from Ushuaia, you could travel all the way around the globe and not hit another piece of land until you returned to your starting point.

In fact, when we were on a plane to Ushuaia, the man sitting next to Lisa asked her, "Are you going to Antarctica?" (The city is the main port for Antarctic cruise ships.) Truly, there are not many places in the world where one would be asked that question.

Lisa and I arrived in Argentina when it was late springtime in the southern hemisphere. In Buenos Aires, the temperature was in the 80’s, flowers were blooming, and people walked the streets in shirtsleeves. In Ushuaia, it was a good 30 degrees cooler, with a chilly wind blowing down from newly fallen snow in the Andes.

Here is a picture of Ushuaia:

The writer Bruce Chatwin, whom I also quoted in the previous post, was here in the mid-1970’s, before tourism changed the local economy and before cruise ships began to leave regularly from here for Antarctica. This is how he described Ushuaia in his book, In Patagonia:

Mornings in Ushuaia began in flat calm. Across the Beagle Channel you saw the jagged outline of Hoste Island opposite and the Murray Narrows, leading down to the Horn archipelago. By mid-day the water was boiling and slavering and the far shore blocked by a wall of vapor.

On another day he wrote:

It was drizzling. Snow smears came down close to the shore. It was high summer. Behind the settlement the trees disappeared in the clouds.

While in Ushuaia, we visited Tierra del Fuego National Park and cruised the Beagle Channel. During our afternoon boat trip there, one of the more interesting stops was at an island inhabited by penguins. Here is a photo of three of them strolling along the beach.

As an interesting aside, the Beagle Channel was named for the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his famous voyage. The HMS Beagle came through here in the early 1800’s and the crew interacted with the local Yamana Indians before continuing on up the west coast of South America. Hence, this lonely settlement so far from the rest of the world played a bit part in Darwin’s observations that led to his theory of evolution.

Journeying through Patagonia

2006-11-16T15:18:00.000-08:00

Argentina is too large of a country to explore in one trip, unless you have a couple of months, and so we decided to focus our efforts this time on Patagonia. The first place we visited after Buenos Aires was the town of El Calafate and nearby Glacier National Park.

The Patagonian landscape is something to behold. Spectacular and stark, dramatic and barren, all at the same time. While traveling here, I’ve been reading Bruce Chatwin’s famous travel narrative, In Patagonia, which is a worthwhile companion for any trip to this part of the world. Here is one example of how Chatwin describes the region:

The Patagonian desert is not a desert of sand or gravel, but a low thicket of grey-leaved thorns which give off a bitter smell when crushed. Unlike the deserts of Arabia it has not produced any dramatic excess of the spirit, but it does have a place in the record of human experience. Charles Darwin found its negative qualities irresistible. In summing up The Voyage of the Beagle, he tried, unsuccessfully, to explain why, more than any of the wonders he had seen, these arid wastes had taken such firm possession of his mind.

While in El Calafate, we experienced some of what Chatwin wrote about. On the Patagonian steppe, the land stretches vacantly for miles and the wind howls. The solitary homes of the local farms are all protected from the wind by rows of planted trees. Otherwise, there is little vegetation aside from grass. It’s an apt landscape for the southernmost region of the world.

The most popular attractions here are the glaciers. One day, we visited the nearby Puerto Moreno Glacier:

And on a second day we took a boat trip to five other glaciers. This experience included having a picnic lunch on the shores of Bonelli Lake, where there are floating icebergs.

Argentina and Buenos Aires

2006-11-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

It had been more than a year since we returned from our round-the-world journey. It was time for a vacation and we had frequent flyer miles to spare, so we decided to explore a bit of South America. In conjunction with our trip, I decided to revive this blog, keeping the account of our 2005 travels and adding to it with posts and photos from our newest adventure.

With only two weeks available there wasn't time for any extensive journeying, but we were able to carve together a trip, mostly to Argentina, that included a week in Patagonia. First on the agenda was a stop in Buenos Aires.

The capital of Argentina is an entrancing city in many ways. With wide boulevards and cafes on many corners, the city is similar to some of the major cities of Europe. Argentines also love to eat, and the wine is excellent, so it seemed at times as if we'd stumbled into Italy or Spain by accident.

After an overnight flight from Arizona, we spent a couple of days just wandering the streets of Buenos Aires, admiring the architecture and the springtime flowers, enjoying the food, and of course taking in the tango shows. If there is one overriding symbol of the city, it has to be this sensual dance. There are tango shows everywhere, even on street corners and plazas.

Here are two tango dancers in a square in the San Telmo section of the city:

After Four Months, Home

2005-09-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

Once we got back in the U.S., Lisa spent two days in Boston, doing a whirlwind visit with friends, family, and old co-workers before heading to Tucson to prepare for a new job. I spent a few more days in the area, to spend more one-on-one time with my father, my sisters, and a few friends before making the move to Arizona.

Now we’re in Tucson, moving into a new home and beginning a new phase of our lives. The memories we’ve collected will be with us for a lifetime. The things we’ve learned, I’m sure, will unfold more gradually, as travel experiences always do, popping up in months and years to come to remind us of the remarkably diverse world we live in and the extraordinary opportunity that we’ve had to experience some of it.

Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to follow our journey through this blog. We wish you all happy, safe, and interesting travels in the future!

Relaxing in Paris

2005-09-20T17:32:00.000-07:00

The final stop on our trip was Paris, France. Paris and Singapore were the only two places we visited that we had been to before. Singapore was a break in the middle of our trip and a chance to spend time with an old friend. We chose Paris as the city in which to end our oddyssey because we wanted to finish someplace fun, someplace romantic, and because Lisa and I both have great memories of the city from a previous visit.

We based ourselves in a hotel near Rue Cler and the Eiffel Tower. Since we had previously seen many of the city’s tourist attractions, we didn’t stress over experiencing them all over again. We did make it for the first time to the Rodin sculpture museum (which was very worthwhile) and to Montmarte (which was more touristy and less interesting), but otherwise we simply spent time enjoying the city. We walked the streets, went to cafes, ate crepes and chocolate, relaxed among the flowers and sculptures of the Luxembourg Gardens, drank wine while sitting in the grass near the Eiffel Tower, and tried to contemplate the amazing journey we’d been on for the past four months.

Then we boarded a plane for Boston.

Here is Lisa enjoying the Luxembourg Gardens...

and Bob blogging from a cafe...

Moods of the Eiffel Tower

2005-09-20T16:44:00.000-07:00

The Eiffel Tower has many different looks, depending on your vantage point or the time of day. Here are some of the moods of the Eiffel Tower that we experienced while in Paris...

Germany - Munich to Heidelberg

2005-09-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

Vienna was a place where all the stars seemed to line up for us. We had good weather most of the time, we found a number of culturally interesting activities to experience, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Munich, on the other hand, was our karmic payment for Vienna. For two days, it rained almost nonstop and the August temperatures actually dipped into the 50’s. We’d been hoping for a break from the 100 degree days of the Middle East, but this was ridiculous ;-) Not only that, but we arrived in Munich on a Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, nearly every shop in this Catholic city was closed. On Monday, nearly every museum was shuttered.

Oh, well. We’d had such an interesting trip to this point that we really couldn’t be upset. We cheered ourselves with a typically Munich cultural activity – a night in a beer garden, eating monstrous pretzels and heaping potato dishes, and drinking one-liter beers. It wasn’t Oktoberfest, but Bavarians don’t need an excuse to drink at their beloved beer gardens, so we joined right in...

After seeing a weather report that promised continued rain for several more days, we decided to leave Munich early and head to sunnier Heidelberg. A beautiful, charming city, Heidelberg was a nice place to wander and to see a different part of Germany as our tour wound down.

Here is a riverfront view of Heidelberg...

Cafes, Wine Taverns and Thermal Baths in Austria

2005-09-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

The next stop on our European journey was Vienna, Austria. This was our third country in central Europe, and yet as we moved from one of these places to the next, the connections between them were readily apparent. Sure, the languages were different and the cultures varied, but the train rides were relatively short, the architecture was similar, and the food was comparable. Prague, Krakow and Vienna, in fact, were all a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When you experience this up close, it makes sense why the Czechs and the Poles, in particular, chafed at their half-century of domination by the Soviet Union in the 20th century. This is truly the heart of Central Europe, rather than the Eastern Europe that many of grew up hearing about during the Cold War.

Lisa and I had an especially good time in Vienna. As in the rest of Europe, we didn’t have the unusual and distinctive encounters that we had in the non-Western world, but we still did our best to collect cultural experiences. We made some of the usual stops (the Hofburg Palace, the Cathedral, the Old Town), but we also tried to go beyond the typical tourist sites. Since Vienna is one of the birthplaces of the European café, we spent an afternoon in a Viennese coffeehouse. We also spent an evening in a wine tavern, drinking locally produced wine in a house that Beethoven once lived in. Another day, we spent several hours at a thermal bath, an experience that is particularly popular in central Europe.

Entering a local wine tavern in the Beethovenhaus...

On the way from Vienna to Munich, we spent a day in Salzburg, Austria. Nestled in the foothills of the Alps, the charmingly quaint home of Mozart and the Sound of Music is an interesting place to visit. The downside, though, is that it’s been discovered. And discovered and discovered. If you want to experience the Disney version of Austria, this is the place to go. I think it was more over-run by tourists than any other European city I’ve ever been to. Worthwhile to see, but we were glad that most of our time had been spent in Vienna.

Do, re, mi... one of Salzburg's Sound of Music sights...

Interesting Contrasts in Krakow, Poland

2005-08-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

From Prague, we took a train to Krakow, Poland, which (along with Prague) has one of the few Old Towns in Europe that was not destroyed by bombs during World War II. While a bit more subdued than Prague, Krakow is also a very pleasant place to wander for a few days.

Here are some tourists walking through Old Town Krakow...

What I perhaps found most interesting, though, is a bit of a spiritual dichotomy that exists in the city. For one, Krakow is the nearest city to Auschwitz, the home of the World War II era concentration camp. It’s a very somber experience to tour Auschwitz. The dormitories where prisoners were housed in inhumane conditions. The cremation rooms and gas chambers where the Nazis pursued their goal of exterminating an entire race of people. And, most shockingly, the displays of piles and piles of shoes and suitcases and hairbrushes and human hair, all of which once belonged to human beings who were murdered by the Nazis for no other reason than their ethnicity.

I say Krakow has a spiritual dichotomy, though, because there is also a strong sense of spirituality in this city that is only miles from Auschwitz. It is the city where Karol Wojtyla served as Archbishop before he passed into history as Pope John Paul II, and memories of the late Pope are everywhere in town. Not only that, but Krakow has the unusual distinction of being the site of one of the world’s seven chakras, or energy centers (at least according to Hindu beliefs), along with such places as Jerusalem, Rome and Mecca. It’s a strange pairing of the best and the worst of humanity, you might say, for Krakow has seen perhaps the most hideous evil and some of the most vital spirituality of the past century.

A view of Auschwitz...

First Stop in Europe - Prague

2005-08-16T16:59:00.000-07:00

After an overnight flight from Amman, Jordan, Lisa and I arrived in Prague to begin the final leg of our round-the-world journey. During our final three weeks on the road, our plan was to to make a loop of a few central European cities before ending the trip in Paris.

Our first reaction upon arriving in Prague was that it seemed so easy to travel in Europe. We landed at the airport, booked a room, took a bus, then a subway, and then finally walked a few blocks to our hotel – all without a single person talking to us, asking where we were from, or offering us a ride or a room or a good deal at their store. It was less exotic and exciting, to be sure, but after a few months of traveling in non-Western cultures, there was also a bit of relief at having our space back.

I was reminded, though, of a conversation I’d had with a young woman we’d met on a plane in India. She was from Bombay, but had spent the previous four years living in London. The hardest thing about living in the U.K., she told me, was that she had too much space and too little contact with other people. It felt uncomfortable to her to be left alone as much as she was in London. Lisa and I, of course, had the exact opposite reaction. It points out an interesting cultural difference between East and West – as Westerners, we tend to compartmentalize everything, including our space, while in the East there is much less of a concept of privacy or personal space.

As far as Prague itself, the city was amazing. I’d have to put it up there with Paris and Venice as being among the most beautiful cities in Europe. We especially loved the architecture of the Old Town, the sculptures and paintings and flowerboxes that seem to adorn every building. We toured Prague Castle, visited churches, wandered the streets, admired the view from the Charles Bridge, sat in the sunshine in the Old Town Square, sampled Czech beer and coffee, and spent an evening listening to a classical music concert in a centuries-old church. It was certainly a good city in which to be reintroduced to the West.

Here is a view of Prague Castle towering over the city...

And here is a corner of Prague's Old Town square...

The Ancient City of Petra

2005-08-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Since Egypt's Red Sea coast is very close to Jordan, it was hard to pass up a chance to visit the ancient city of Petra, so we arranged our itinerary to pass through Jordan and then fly to Europe out of Amman. The travel connections from Dahab to Petra seemed relatively straightforward - take a 10:30 am bus out of Dahab, catch an early afternoon fast ferry across the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba, be in Jordan by mid-afternoon, and then find a bus or other transport for the final two hour trip to Petra.

Well, if we've learned anything by now, it's that things aren't always what they seem. We soon discovered that this was destined to be another interesting travel day. First, Lisa and I arrived at the bus station at 10 am to find a variety of individuals telling us there was no bus that day and offering to sell us a minibus or taxi ride to the ferry. We'd seen enough of these scams by now to stick to our plans, and the bus did indeed show up, just a half-hour late. We made it to the ferry port at Nuweiba easily enough after that - except that no one seemed to be available to sell us a boat ticket. Eventually, a tourist policeman herded us and eight other travelers into the departure hall, where we had our passports stamped and were taken to the boat. There, we discovered that the fast ferry wasn't running on this day (for real) - and only the slow ferry was available, which meant a three-hour ride instead of a one-hour trip . Oh well. We were finally able to buy tickets on the ship and so we settled in at about 1 pm for the journey.

Actually, no. First we looked for seats, but saw that there were none available. We wandered the decks for a half-hour, stepping over entire families who were sleeping on the floor or crouched in the corners. We learned there were 900 passengers on the ship - Lisa and me, two other Americans, four Europeans, two Korean girls (we know - we met them all), and apparently 890 or so Egyptians, Jordanians and Saudis. Eventually, we managed to find a table in a self-service restaurant. And so we waited. And waited some more. The ferry didn't leave at 1 pm, as we were told, but at 3:30. And it wasn't a three-hour ride, but a four-and-a-half hour trip.

We met an older Danish couple on board who had done this ferry ride before. "It's just Egypt," they told us. "Everything runs a lot smoother in Jordan."

O.K., so instead of arriving in Aqaba, Jordan in mid-afternoon, we actually got there at 8 p.m. And by the time we got off the boat and through immigration, it was 8:45. All the buses to Petra were long since departed, so our only remaining choice was to negotiate a taxi ride. Surprisingly, this was the easiest part of our day. In about 30 seconds, we were able to book a ride at exactly the lowest price recommended by Lonely Planet. As we set off for the two-hour drive to Petra (or to Wadi Musa, the village nearest to Petra), our taxi driver joked with us.

"Look, our streets our clean and orderly. Not like in Egypt. Look, I'm stopping at a red light. Not like in Egypt. Hahaha."

Actually, I thought, he's right. Other than Singapore, this was the first time in two months we'd seen anything resembling orderly traffic. Interesting. Then, a half-hour later, the taxi driver even stopped at a roadside drink stand and bought us a cup of tea. For free. I was beginning to like Jordan. Two problem-free hours later, we were at our hotel.

Lisa and I spent the next two days exploring the ancient city of Petra, which was originally constructed two millennia ago by the Nabateans. Although not nearly as well known as the Egyptian Pyramids, Petra is still one of the more remarkable sights you're ever likely to see. The temples and tombs of this vanished city are cut right out of the rock walls of mountains.

Here is a photo of the Treasury, which is the most spectacular sight at Petra and is only reachable by a half-mile walk through a narrow gorge. Fans of the Indiana Jones movies might recognize this place, which was featured in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"...

Here is a view of the Treasury from above, reached after another 45-minute hike...

The sights of Petra are spread over a wide area, so Lisa and I did a lot of walking in the August heat during those two days. But it was well worth it. There is another structure similar to the Treasury (called the Monastery); countless tombs, from the spectacular to the mundane; a large amphitheater; a colonnaded street built in later centuries by the Romans, and various temples. Once again, we were left to gaze at the talents of people who preceded us by two or three thousand years, and to ponder the centuries-long emptiness of yet another ancient city.

Meanwhile, the time we spent in Wadi Musa was also notable, particularly because of the friendliness of the people. After three weeks of travel in Egypt and Jordan, we had yet to hear an anti-American sentiment and, in fact, most people we met were unusually welcoming. One night at a restaurant, two local men moved to a different table so that Lisa and I, as guests in town, could have the better seats. In Petra one day, we met a teenage boy who asked where we were from. When we told him, he said, "Ah, U.S.! U.S. is cool!" And another day, while hiking at Petra, I came across a Bedouin shepherd who offered a cup of tea from the pot he was boiling over an open fire.

When it was time to leave town, Lisa and I headed to the local bus station in order to find transport to Amman. The only problem, we learned, is that there was no schedule for buses from Wadi Musa to Amman. Sometimes a minibus was available, sometimes not. On this day, there was no bus. But we quickly found a service taxi (a shared ride in a private taxi) and so headed off on one more three-hour road trip, this time with a driver who spoke no English and an opthalmologist from Amman. Once again, though, both of them were incredibly friendly. When he dropped us off, the elderly taxi driver gave me a high-five. It was perfectly emblematic of many of the people we had met in this region.

But now this part of the trip was over. The journey was winding down, with just a few weeks left, and we were off to Europe. Next stop: Prague.

Chilling in Dahab

2005-08-09T15:25:00.000-07:00

Our final Egyptian stop was in Dahab, on the Red Sea coast. Once the van left us at our hotel, we were done with drivers and tour guides and were completely on our own again. Dahab was quite an interesting place to relax for a few days. The town was just a one-and-a-half hours away from where the terrorist attacks had taken place in Sharm El Sheikh, for one thing. Moreover, from the center of town we could look across the water and see the mountainous coast of Saudi Arabia, which turned a beautiful shade of pink in the sunset. Nevertheless, Dahab seemed a world away from, well, the world. It's a Bedouin village that has been overtaken by tourism but, for the moment at least, it’s still remarkably quaint and peaceful.

The days there were calm and relaxed. We could walk the entire length of the town in about 20 minutes. The waters of the Red Sea were a brilliant, shimmering blue. Lisa and I booked a $28 hotel room with a balcony that overlooked the sea. There were restaurants along the shore where visitors could sit on cushions and have a drink, watching the waves drift by for hours. Local Bedouins sold camel rides along the beach. The snorkeling and diving there is among the best in the world, with an unbelievable variety of colorful fish. The Egyptian people were friendly and sociable. We met a university student (Mohammed) who asked us to help him with his English and, in return, he talked to us about Egyptian culture and life. When he heard that Lisa had just had a birthday, he even showed up the next day with a gift for her.

Perhaps Dahab wasn’t the most obvious place to relax after the previous week’s events, but it was actually one of the more relaxing beach towns we’ve ever visited. We stayed there for five nights and could have easily spent twice as long there.

Experiencing a camel ride on the beach...

Mohammed, the university student who asked us to help him with his English...

Sunrise on Mt. Sinai

2005-08-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Once we decided that we were going to stay in Egypt, the next stop for us was St. Catherine. To get there, we took another overnight train out of Luxor. The next morning, we arrived in Cairo at 6:30 a.m. Then, with a bit of concern, we watched as other travelers left the station and were met by prearranged drivers, until finally we were the only passengers left standing on the platform. At that point, an armed guard came up and asked if we were waiting for a ride.

“Yes.”

“What nationality are you? English?” he asked.

I hesitated. “No, American,” I said.

“American?! Aye!” he nearly shouted.

“Welcome to our country,” chimed in a second person.

Suddenly, walkie talkies crackled to life. All we heard was a string of Arabic sentences, laced several times with the word “American.”

“Come,” the first officer said and motioned for us to follow him.

Well, we had little choice. We weren’t quite sure what was going on at first, but they merely escorted us to the front entrance of the train station. They politely asked for the name and number of our scheduled driver and then one of the soldiers went off to phone him. Then they waited with us until we were safely in the van and on our way. Once we realized what was happening, it didn't seem like such a bad thing to have our own security detail.

Shortly thereafter, we left Cairo, leaving behind a sea of brown buildings and drab, hazy skies. Then we drove for six hours, past Suez and into the Sinai, through a dry, empty desert landscape that became progressively more rugged and lunar-like. For a land that has very little vegatation, the Sinai is an important and strategic piece of land. It serves as a bridge between Asia and Africa and between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. In early afternoon, we arrived at St. Catherine, a small village whose claim to fame is that it’s located at the base of Mt. Sinai, the biblical mountain where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments from God. A popular activity is to hike the mountain in the predawn hours and watch the sun rise from atop Mt. Sinai.

That afternoon, Lisa and I went for a walk in town and, strangely, failed to run into a single other traveler. Hence, when we got up at 2 a.m. to head over to Mt. Sinai, we wondered if we were destined to be lone travelers hiking the trail in the dark, chasing the spirit of Moses. However, we soon discovered dozens of other people in the vicinity, including a large group of French travelers who had come on a tour bus in the night. From 2:45 to 5:15 a.m., then, we navigated our way by flashlight up a rocky path that climaxed in a steep set of several hundred steps cut into the rocks. Along the way, we were kept company by Bedouin tribespeople who hawked hot tea, cold coke and camel rides in the moonlight.

Finally, atop the rocky summit of Mt. Sinai, we sat down to rest our aching legs and await the dawn. The sky inched its way out of blackness, with a swatch of red-orange light peeking over the horizon and glowing steadily brighter for several minutes, until suddenly the sun made a dramatic appearance – an orb of fiery brilliance climbing above the mountainous peaks of the Sinai to a round of applause and gasps. There we were, atop Mt. Sinai at sunrise, and for a moment at least the specter of terrorism seemed far away.

Here is Lisa with other hikers, waiting for the sunrise atop Mt. Sinai...

the hike back down the mountain...

Terrorism in Egypt

2005-08-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

What is the proper reaction to a terrorist attack in a foreign country, when you just happen to be traveling in that country on the day the bombs explode? Should you leave immediately? Or, if you decide to stay, is it even possible to go on with your trip as if nothing happened?

Lisa and I, along with thousands of other travelers, were faced with those questions in the aftermath of the terrorist bombings at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. We were in a different city when the attacks happened and were not in any danger from those particular incidents, but it’s nevertheless an odd and unsettling feeling to know that the bombs were specifically targeted at a tourist resort in a country where we were tourists.

On the day of the bombings, we were in Luxor. That morning, after breakfast, we went out to meet the guide who would take us to Karnak Temple. When we saw Mohammed, though, he immediately said to us: “Did you see the news? There was a terrorist bombing during the night in Sharm El Sheikh. Three bombs. More than 60 people killed.”

It’s always shocking to hear news of any such attack. Even when we are not in London or Madrid or Bali or New York, it’s impossible to not be moved by the tragedy and appalled by the senselessness of the violence. But not only were Lisa and I in Egypt when this happened, we also happened to be on our way to the Sinai peninsula the very next day. In fact, as recently as four days earlier we’d been debating whether to go to Sharm El Sheikh or Dahab, two contrasting tourist towns on the Red Sea coast.

So there we were, standing alongside the Nile River, about to visit Karnak, the greatest temple complex of ancient Egypt, and our guide was telling us there had been a terrorist attack during the night in another region of the country. We looked around at the street and the river. Nothing seemed any different. If we hadn’t been told this news, it would have appeared like any other day. But we had heard the news, and that changed everything.

“It is very tragic,” said Mohammed, “but you should go on with the tour. There is more security here today, it will be very safe. It would be sad to miss Karnak. You should focus on the moment.”

We decided to listen to him and so for the next few hours we toured Karnak Temple. As the morning wore on, though, and the desert sun grew more intense overhead, Mohammed opened up a bit and grew more introspective.

“This is not a war against the West,” he said to us, “this is a war against humankind. These are the worst kind of Muslims who do these acts. They are using their religion for bad aims. In Egypt, we believe in a tolerant Islam. I don’t know what kind of people can do this, to kill people like this!”

At another moment, he swept his arm around. “Look at all of these boats on the river. They may all be empty soon, if tourists don’t come to Egypt. And these merchants, and taxi drivers and restaurants. So many people rely on tourism to make a living. It is sad.”

“Do you think there may be another attack,” asked Lisa. “Are you afraid? Is it dangerous?

“Ah, what is dangerous?” whispered Mohammed. “You can have danger in your home or crossing the street. You must live your life, I think.”

That is the very question we had to ask ourselves, of course. And soon. What is dangerous? There had been a terrorist attack aimed at tourists. Was it safe to remain in Egypt, or was it crazy? Should we live our lives, or should we flee? News reports later indicated that perhaps half the tourists in Egypt did leave in the day or two after the bombings. But a sizeable number also chose to remain in the country. Some of them just assumed there wouldn’t be a second attack; others refused to give in to the terror (like the woman we met on the train later that evening who said, “I don’t like to be bullied by terrorists”); and some were just hardened to terrorism in general after a string of attacks in all parts of the world (“where you can consider yourself safe now, anyway?” was a question that we heard often in the days ahead).

As Lisa and I discussed the situation, we knew that our options were limited a bit by the fact that we weren’t scheduled to fly out of Cairo. Our plans were to go to the Sinai, then travel overland to Jordan and finally fly out of Amman. We of course always had the option of spending money to purchase a new ticket, but it was less easy to change our existing itinerary. We naturally wanted to be smart and safe, but we also knew by now that there had been a second attempt to terrorize London and so we couldn’t be certain anymore that we’d be safer in Europe than in Egypt. Actually, the only thing we knew for sure was that certainty was out the window.

In the end, after much discussion, we decided to stay. I’d like to say that it was a heroic decision, that we wanted to live our lives and not be bullied, and, yes, we certainly carried some of that sentiment inside. But we still would have put our safety first had we felt seriously threatened. There was no single reason for our decision, but rather a web of interconnected reasons. For one, we didn’t feel unsafe among the Egyptians, who had been friendly and welcoming to us. We knew there was always the threat of another attack, but we also knew the odds were no better here than somewhere in Europe or the U.S. And we had checked into various transport options and realized it was actually easier for us to go forward with our itinerary than to go back and try to change our plans. So we stayed in Egypt.

We were far from alone in this decision. There were many other tourists around, although the numbers had dropped significantly and the businesspeople who relied on the tourist trade were despairing. In their anguish, however, some of them opened up and spoke with us in a way that they might never have otherwise.

“Foolish people, those terrorists!” said one merchant to us. “Why kill? Why? It is crazy!”

“You are Christian, I am Muslim,” said another person. “But we both have blood, we are both human beings. This is not Islam, to kill like this.”

To be honest, it was easy for Lisa and me to feel a bit self conscious when we first heard the news about the bombings. After all, we are citizens of a country that has enraged many Muslims with its policies, particularly the decision to go to war in Iraq. It would be easy, we thought, for the Egyptians to be furious with America and Americans. But that is not what we discovered.

“Look,” said one person, “it is true that we don’t like Bush. Or Cheney. Or maybe Condoleeza or Rumsfeld. And we don’t like decision to go to war in Iraq. But American people we like. People are not government. We know there is a difference.”

“We like American people,” was a constant refrain from individuals with whom we spoke. “Americans are very welcome in our country.”

In the end, we were safe and were glad that we stayed in Egypt. We had some great experiences during the following week-and-a-half and had some conversations with locals that might not have been possible under normal circumstances. It’s a small gift, but we’ll take it. As Mohammed told us in Luxor, we need to focus on the moment and live our life. That may have been the best lesson from our entire trip.

Ancient Egyptian Temples Along the Nile

2005-08-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

Egypt has such an incredible wealth of history, temples and ruins. Many of these historic sites are located along the Nile River, either in or close to the city of Luxor (the ancient city of Thebes). In order to see some of these ruins, Lisa and I booked a three-night Nile River cruise that went from Aswan to Luxor. For this part of our trip, we organized everything through a tour agent, the only time in our round-the-world journey that we hadn't made all the arrangements independently. The package deal included a driver, our rail transportation, the boat trip, and an Egyptologist guide for four days, for not much more money than it would have cost us to book it all in sections.

In order to join the Nile cruise, we first had to take an overnight train from Cairo down to Aswan, where we boarded the boat. The train was pretty nice, better than the ones we had used in either Vietnam or India. Once in Aswan, we spent some time touring local sights, including the Temple of Philae, and were able to take a felucca ride (sailboat) on the Nile. We spent the next three nights on board the boat, stopping along the way to see the Temples of Edfu and Kom Ombo. It was a nice way to not only visit these temples, but also to experience the Nile. When you see the villages along the river, and notice how the belt of green farmland by the water contrasts with the dry desert landscape beyond, it is easy to appreciate how the Nile River truly is the heart of Egypt.

The final two days of our tour were spent in Luxor, where the most magnificent ancient monuments are located. These include the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, and the Karnak and Luxor temples, among other sites. It's a bit mind-boggling to contemplate the achievements of the ancient Egyptians in building all of these temples and tombs. Many of them are at least a thousand years older even than the ruins of classical Greece, and the size and detail of some of the monuments is astounding.

Here is a partial view of the front wall of the Temple of Edfu. Can you see Lisa in the pink shirt down in front?

And here is a painting that is thousands of years old on a wall at Karnak Temple. Notice the hieroglyphics in the upper part of the painting...

How big are the Pyramids?

2005-08-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

In case you're wondering how big the Pyramids really are, this might give you some idea...

Pyramids at twilight

2005-08-09T11:11:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo of the Pyramids as the sun is setting...

Cairo and the Pyramids

2005-08-07T12:41:00.000-07:00

After Singapore, Lisa and I flew to Egypt to begin exploring a completely different part of the world. We had spent some time in Turkey three years ago, but still had no idea what to expect in the three weeks we were planning to spend traveling through Egypt and Jordan. It turned out to be quite an interesting experience, as this region has some of the most amazing historical treasures on the planet, along with some of the friendliest people we've met anywhere.

Our Egyptian journey began in Cairo. We decided to treat ourselves a bit, to make up for all of the budget traveling we'd been doing. Also, it was low season in Egypt (100 degree daily temperatures don't exactly attract lots of tourists), and we found a deal at Le Meridien Pyramids that was more than 60% off the rack rate. So we settled into the first really nice hotel of our trip, one that had a pool overlooking the Pyramids.

The most interesting aspect of our stay at Le Meridien might actually have been the mix of people that we saw. We'd sit by the pool and watch European women stroll by in string bikinis, right alongside Arab women who were covered from head to toe in black. Many of these women had children and Lisa remarked how interesting it was that half of these kids thought it was perfectly normal to not even see their mother's face in public, while the other half thought it was perfectly normal to see most of their mother's body exposed. Meanwhile, a small band played a varied and unusual mixture of songs by the bar ("Hotel California"), and in the background the 4,500 year old Pyramids loomed over the entire scene. It was a curious mingling of cultures and centuries.

Of course, we did tear ourselves away from the pool in order to explore Cairo and the Pyramids. Often described as the world's oldest tourist attraction, the Pyramids somehow manage to live up to their hype. Amazingly, they were in place 2,500 years before Christ, which is even further removed from that biblical age then we are today. Standing in front of these ancient monuments, it's difficult to imagine how people 45 centuries ago managed to pile these immense blocks one on top of the other and to do it with such precision.

We spent an entire afternoon wandering among the Pyramids and the Sphinx, and then went back in the evening for a sound and light show. Although we also spent some time touring the city of Cairo and the Egyptian Museum, the Pyramids were without a doubt the highlight of our visit to the Egyptian capital.

Here is a photo of Lisa in front of the Sphinx and one of the Pyramids...

A Break in Singapore

2005-07-17T11:00:00.000-07:00

The first time I was ever in Singapore, a few years ago, it was also my first-ever stop in Asia. My reaction at the time was that the city was almost too perfect. Everything was incredibly clean and modern. There were Western restaurants and bookstores and coffee shops. I remarked at the time that it seemed as if the city were being run by Disney. It was impressive enough, to be sure, but where was the passion, I wanted to know? Where was Asia?

This time, Lisa and I stopped off in Singapore after traveling through Vietnam, Cambodia and India back-to-back-to-back, and this time I had an utterly different feeling for this city-state at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula. We quickly realized that the taxi drivers used meters and didn't try to bargain with us, there were no touts following us down the sidewalk and imploring us to buy from them, and we could brush our teeth with water from the sink. Suddenly, I was in love with Singapore!

Seriously, Singapore is a unique stopover in Asia. If you're visiting this part of the world for the first time, the city provides an easy introduction to Asian culture. Or, if you're coming from South or Southeast Asia, Singapore provides a nice break from the stresses of travel.

Our visit was even better because we were able to stay with our friend Rick Von Feldt. Rick has been in Singapore for more than five years now, working in Human Resources for an American corporation. He's a good friend, we've had great talks over the years, and it's always nice to catch up with him. He gave Lisa and me the run of his house while we were in town, and we spent a number of days catching up on errands and emails, doing laundry, and hanging out with Rick in the evenings. We even managed to see "War of the Worlds" at a local cinema.

Here are Rick and Bob toasting with a glass of wine on our last evening in Singapore, before Lisa and I resumed our travel adventures in Egypt...

Delhi, Agra and the Taj Mahal

2005-07-14T01:05:00.000-07:00

From Ladakh, we returned to mainstream India and traveled back to Delhi, the national capital. There aren’t very many tourist attractions in Delhi, it’s more of a city for diplomats and businesspeople. But Delhi is one of the main gateways into and out of the country and it has good proximity to Agra, which is the home of the Taj Mahal and hence India’s prime tourist destination.

From Delhi, we arranged transportation to Agra. There, we saw the ruins of Fatehpur Sikri, once the capital of India’s Mughal Empire, as well as the impressive Agra Fort. But the main attraction is the Taj Mahal, which really is as impressive as you imagine it to be. The odd part is that Agra is an unattractive city and, like Varanasi, is populated by all sorts of unusual characters. So it’s a bit of a chore to actually get to the Taj Mahal, but once you're inside the complex the touts are gone, the lawn is manicured, and everything is clean and bright. It’s an oasis of peace amidst the chaos of India. The building itself is larger than I’d imagined, while the symmetry and details of the architecture are perhaps even more striking than in the photos.

Here is the must-have picture for all visitors to Agra:

Monk and Prayer Flags

2005-07-14T01:03:00.000-07:00

A photo of a monk and prayer flags outside a Buddhist monastery, high on a hill in Ladakh, with the Himalayas in the background...

Ladakh - A Visit to Himalayan India

2005-07-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

After a fair bit of time traveling through the heat and humidity of South and Southeast Asia, we longed for a respite from the weather. We also wanted to see a different part of India, and so we headed to the Himalayas, and to Ladakh. This region of India shares a border with Tibet and much of the local population is Tibetan Buddhist. It was an amazing flight into Ladakh - our plane sliced through a range of snow-capped Himalayan peaks as it descended into Leh, the region’s main city.

This was an opportunity to experience some of India’s considerable diversity, since the culture was nothing like what we had seen in other parts of the country. Oh, cows and donkeys still roamed the streets and the hotels all experienced daily power outages, but otherwise you’d be hard pressed to know that you were still in India. The colorful saris on the women were gone, replaced by shawls and long dresses. The local restaurants advertised Tibetan fare. The city was ringed by mountains. Here was the view from the terrace of our hotel (a $28 room):

We enjoyed the cooler air and even the chance to put on a sweatshirt in the early mornings or evenings. Of course, at more than 13,000 feet the air is also considerably thinner, which made walking up hills and stairs a chore. But the thing to do in Ladakh is to explore local Buddhist monasteries (gompas), which are seemingly all perched high above local villages. So we spent a lot of time walking slowly up hills. ;-) But the views from the gompas are incredible and were worth the effort.

One morning, we arose before sunrise in order to catch a ride to the Thiskey gompa in a nearby village, where the monks allow outsiders to observe their morning puja. There, we sat on the cold stone floor of their prayer room, as the sun rose slowly in the sky above the Himalayan peaks, and watched as the monks chanted, played music, prayed, and greeted the day.

Varanasi, Part II - The City's Bizarre Bazaar

2005-07-09T03:07:00.000-07:00

If Varanasi were all about the Ganges and spirituality, it would be a can’t miss city. But there is another, less attractive side to Varanasi, as well. It’s a rough, dirty city, populated by all sorts of charlatans. Again, it’s the paradox that pervades all of India. Spirituality and depravity exist, even thrive, side by side. They are two aspects of the same reality.

Above is a photo of a typical street scene. Here is just a bit of the fun we ran into in this unusual city (some of this is common throughout the country and not unique to Varanasi, but this was still all experienced in the same city and on the same morning):

- We walk along the sacred river to the stench of urine, feces and raw sewage. Just feet away, people bathe and meditate, lost in their faith and oblivious to the pollution and the grime.

- We wander streets that are an animated maze of cars, buses, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, people, cows, goats, donkeys, dogs, fresh produce, weeks-old garbage, men bathing, children playing, men urinating, dogs defecating.

- A man holding a snake in his hands appears out of the shadows and asks us for money.

- A beggar with gangrene hands waves black fingers in our faces.

- A seemingly affable man befriends us as we walk, asks where we are from, smiles broadly and reaches out to shake my hand. I return the gesture and then he decides not to let go. His grip is strong and now he wants to sell me a massage. No? Well, then, maybe a shave. I have to forcibly remove myself from his grasp.

- Another man walks by and accuses me of taking photos of women on their way to a cremation. I know that cremation photos are taboo, but we are nowhere near a burning ghat and I have only taken a picture of Lisa. He threatens to call the police and have me thrown in jail. He screams and attracts attention, then demands a donation. Lisa laughs and so he threatens to throw her in the river.

- We are followed everywhere by anyone who wants money or has something to sell. Cyclo drivers, postcard children, touts for local businesses, beggars. There is no zone of privacy here. No getting away from the incessant pestering of touts and beggars.

I can go on, but that gives you an idea. I love Varanasi and I hate Varanasi. I want to know more, and understand more, and yet I never want to see the place again. It’s India to the absolute extreme.

Early morning light on the Ganges

2005-07-09T02:59:00.000-07:00

Here is another photo from Varanasi - a glimpse of the early morning light on the Ganges...

Varanasi, Part I - The Spirituality

2005-07-09T02:48:00.000-07:00

When we left Calcutta, Lisa and I took an all-day train to Varanasi. This is one of the most spiritul cities in India and a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Buddhists.

For Buddhists, there is Sarnath, a small town about 30-minutes away. This is where the Buddha gave his first-ever sermon. We went there one afternoon and visited the stupa that marks the site in Deer Park where the Buddha is believed to have first expounded his beliefs to disciples.

The real attraction of Varanasi, however, is for Hindus, for it is here that millions of people come to bathe in the sacred Ganges River, or to die and then be cremated on the banks of the river.

A remarkable experience is to take a sunrise boat trip on the Ganges. When we arrived at the river at 5 a.m. we had many offers from boat owners to take us on a one-hour trip. The first view of the Ganges at that hour is stunning. As we emerged from the narrow streets of the old town onto the ghats (steps) that led to the river, the sight of the sun rising over the silvery-orange water was spine-tingling. The morning haze is just lifting at that hour and there is an otherworldy glow to the whole scene.

A while later, as our long, thin rowboat silently plied the sacred waters, we watched as hundreds of people bathed, prayed, meditated and did yoga along the Ganges. Others, meanwhile, were engaged in more secular activities – fishing, or washing clothes - but the great majority of people were on the river for spiritual purposes. Here are some of the early morning bathers...

Some of the ghats are specially designated for cremations, and as we made our trip down the river we saw a body wrapped in a red robe lying atop a simple wooden funeral pyre, watched over by family members. On the return journey, we saw a flame and a plume of smoke rising from the spot where the body had recently been.

Praying, bathing, and dying. In Varanasi, the rituals of life are conducted out in the open, for all to see.

Calcutta - An Introduction to India

2005-07-09T02:28:00.000-07:00

“You’ll love India.” “You’ll hate it.” “India is only for advanced travelers.” “India is a breeze – it’s not as bad as people make it out to be.”

We’d heard it all. And it’s all true. India is everything that you’ve ever heard, good and bad. It may not be an easy place to travel, but if you really want to learn about the world then at some point you have to tackle India.

The country is enormous and is teeming with people, history and sights, so unless you’re able to devote an inordinate amount of time there is no way to see anything more than a fraction of this diverse land. We chose to begin in Calcutta because we had a friend there. Sue Shultz is an UWP alum who now works for the Foreign Service. I hadn’t seen her for a number of years, and so it was a lot of fun to catch up, to talk about travel and about India, and to hear some of what she’s been doing in the past several years, first in Turkey, then Kenya, and now as Public Affairs Officer for the consulate in Calcutta and as Director of the American Center there. Here we are with Sue one evening...

Sue hosted us for four nights and it was through her (and through her driver Peter) that we received our introduction to India. When Sue worked on weekdays, Peter drove us around to some of the city’s sights. The Victoria Memorial, the Marble Palace, the Howrah Bridge and more.

But Calcutta isn’t really about tourist attractions. It’s a about impressions. One of our strongest impressions came during a too brief visit to the Mother Teresa home. There are dozens of these homes throughout India, catering to countless numbers of orphaned, malnourished and handicapped children. We played with some children in the orphanage and were struck by how much they smiled, but at the same time how much they seemed to crave affection, to be touched and held.

The nuns who work at these homes are making a dent, but only a dent, in the city’s poverty problem. The poverty is crushing - it’s as stifling and overwhelming as the summer humidity. Almost every building and street in Calcutta, it seems, is crumbling and dusty and in need of repair. Throughout the city, thousands of people sleep on sidewalks, bathe in the street, and urinate on the sidewalks. There are heaps of garbage piled wherever there is space, being picked at by dogs and birds, or being shoveled onto trucks in a desperate attempt to keep the streets somewhat clean and free of disease.

And yet…as Sue noted, the Bengali people of Eastern India go to great efforts to educate their children. It is a very literate population and there are many bookstores. One afternoon, we went into a sparkling shopping mall where wealthy and midddle class Indians were dressed fashionably, shopping at Benetton and Levis, eating ice cream at Baskin Robbins, and going to Hollywood and Bollywood movies.

There are a lot of talented, educated people in India and there is a thriving middle class. But these people also live in the midst of overpowering poverty, a crumbling infrastructure, and piles of garbage. It’s all part of the Indian paradox, which we became quite familiar with during our time in the country.

The Journey to India

2005-07-07T00:58:00.000-07:00

Some travel days are just more interesting than others.

When it was time to leave Cambodia, we needed to go from Siem Reap to Bangkok in order to catch a night flight to Calcutta, India. So we had a choice - $170 per person for a flight or $11 per person for a bus. We’d just spent money to fly out of Vietnam and didn’t want to pay $340 for just a one-hour flight, so we chose the $22 option. Naturally, it would cost us in other ways…

We were put on a minibus leaving Siem Reap (very comfortable and air conditioned, we were told), with the promise that we’d take a bigger bus from the border on to Bangkok. The minibus had 22 seats, including fold-down seats that filled the aisles. One of these seats was broken, so our capacity was actually 21. Of course, we had 22 passengers. And luggage, which was piled in whatever empty space remained.

The 22nd passenger, one of the bus company employees, actually sat on top of a pile of luggage. This was the view from our seats…

O.K., so we had little leg room and there was no easy way to exit in case of emergency. But we had seats, and so as we set off down a paved road out of Siem Reap, it seemed that we could handle it for a few hours. Soon, however, we turned onto a dirt road. A bone-jarring, jaw-shaking, please God make it stop kind of dirt road - which we had to endure for three-and-a-half hours.

After finally making it back to a paved road, the driver immediately stopped, opened the windows and turned off the air conditioning. Well, they told us the bus had a/c, but no one ever promised it would be on for the entire ride ;-) There was more traffic here, which meant fumes pouring in through the windows. Which is a really pleasant aroma when mixed with the smell of dust and sweat. Sometime in here, Lisa saw an advertisement on the side of the road for flights to Bangkok. “Oh...a plane,” she sighed.

After leaving Siem Reap at 7:45 a.m., we finally made it to the border at Poipet at 1:30 p.m. We then lugged our bags about one-half mile, through the Cambodian and Thai immigration windows, and then to a café on the other side of the border, where we were told the next bus would pick us up in about 20 minutes. More than an hour later, someone pointed us in the direction of a flatbed truck.

You’re kidding me, right?

No, no, they said. Only 10 minutes to where bus is.

So we all loaded onto benches on the back of this truck, with luggage piled at our feet, and set off once more.

“I’m sure this will be a good story one day,” I sighed.

Ten minutes later, they dropped us off again. And it was true – a real, 45-seat bus awaited us. Comfortable, cloth seats. Leg room. A toilet. Air conditioning. And when we began driving to Bangkok, we noticed that the roads were paved and smooth! We all practically jumped for joy. What a difference - we knew that Cambodia was mired decades behind Thailand in development terms, but it’s amazing how stark that contrast can appear when you cross the border by land.

The travel day itself was far from over, but everything else was a relative breeze. Four hours later, we were in Bangkok. We didn’t even care anymore that we were dropped off in a different location than what we were originally told. We dragged our luggage through the humid streets of nighttime Bangkok for a while, then finally hailed a taxi to take us to the airport, where we changed clothes and had some dinner before our 11:40 pm flight. We were on our way to Calcutta, India.

Angkor Wat

2005-07-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

The most picturesque view of Angkor Wat...

Temples of Angkor in Cambodia

2005-07-06T23:48:00.000-07:00

The temples of Angkor in Cambodia are remarkable. The world knows about Angkor Wat, but this is merely the largest and best preserved temple. In fact, there are more than 300 temples in the region around Siem Reap, most of them 800 to 900 years old, dating to the heyday of the Khmer Empire.

Lisa and I hired a guide for one of our days at the temples, and then spent additional time exploring the area on our own. Each of the temples is unique in its own way, but the most astonishing feature is the interplay between nature and man. After the temples were abandoned centuries ago, some of them were overtaken by the jungle. Today, as you wander the area, you see numerous huge, old trees with a tangled network of roots intertwined with marble pillars and sculptures that are nearly a millennium old.

Interestingly, these trees have been responsible for destroying the temples on the one hand, pushing out walls and breaking columns in half, but at the same time the trunks and roots now serve as support for these same structures, which would collapse without the weight-bearing help of the trees. Here is a picture of how the trees have overtaken some of the temples…

Angkor Wat is not one of the temples that is defined by this bond to nature, but it really is an architectural wonder. It was built in the early 1100’s, and even today is one of the largest religious structures in the world. There is a causeway that leads from the road across an old moat and up to the main building, which is an impressive sight. There is a pond of water in the front, and that is where the most famous photos are taken from.

When we were there, though, I couldn’t help but wonder what sometimes happens to great civilizations. When the temple was constructed, Angkor (the city) had about one million residents and the Khmer Empire was dominant in Southeast Asia. Yet today Cambodia is a poor and developing country. Most travelers we’ve spoken to in Asia have either loved Cambodia because the people are so friendly and welcoming, or have disliked traveling there because the poverty and begging is equally obvious and inescapable. So where did that great ancient civilization go to? How did it disappear? As we wonder, we can at least be thankful that the civilization left a legacy, in the form of the temples of Angkor.

Spending Riels in Cambodia

2005-07-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

I slept a lot for a couple of days in Saigon, and we spent some time catching up on journals and emails, so the extra time in Vietnam wasn’t such a bad thing. The downside is that we ended up canceling out visit to Phnom Penh and missed a chance to see more of Cambodia. But the main attraction in the country is Angkor Wat, so after deciding to skip southern Cambodia, we simply booked a one-hour flight direct from Saigon to Siem Reap.

Then, once we got to Cambodia, I had my first experience spending Riels. Yes, the Cambodian currency is called the Riel. So if you go to Cambodia, you too can spend my last name. Here is a picture of a 1000 Riel bill...

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

2005-07-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

It began with a sore throat. Then the throat pain got excruciating, to the point where I could barely swallow without wanting to scream. Then I got mouth sores and blisters. Not one or two, but 8 or 10. And then I woke up one morning with a rash all over my chest, stomach and back, and a mild fever. Uhh, this can’t be good, I thought.

These symptoms worsened the day before a scheduled bus trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, so we decided to put off the trip and stay in Saigon and Vietnam a few extra days. Then we went to a local health clinic that was staffed by Western doctors. A French doctor examined me and drew some blood, then diagnosed me with “hand, foot and mouth disease.” It sounded scary, but she said it was a common virus in Southeast Asia.

“It’s viral, so there’s nothing I can give you for it. The worst of the symptoms will pass after four or five days,” she said.

“So, this isn’t like the hoof and mouth disease we hear about?”

“No, nothing of the sort. Just rest. You'll be fine.”

We later looked up the disease on the CDC website, and everything we read matched what she told us. And the symptoms did indeed subside after a few more days.

Well, for a while, I at least thought it was a unique part of the traveling experience, that I had contracted a Southeast Asian virus. But then we met Steve, a traveler from Britain, who reported that he’d once been diagnosed with the very same thing at home in the U.K. So, really, all that happened is that I got sick in Vietnam. But with an exotic sounding virus, at least.

War and Peace in Saigon

2005-06-17T21:21:00.000-07:00

Our final stop in Vietnam was in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. We also traveled there by bus - this one an overnight ride that arrived at 6 a.m. Not exactly luxurious, but when you're traveling for several months those $6 bus fares help stretch your budget considerably.

Saigon is a bigger, brasher version of Hanoi. There is an obvious cultural different between the North and South regions of Vietnam, which we could see as we traveled down the length of the country. The North is a more traditional, conservative culture when compared to the South. Saigon, you might say, is the New York of Vietnam - it's busier, it's more commercial, and the people are more direct.

Saigon is also a good place to learn more about the Vietnam War. It's not always pleasant, but it is interesting. One afternoon, we visited the War Remnants Museum. Apparently, it used to be called the Museum of American and Chinese War Crimes, but the name was toned down for the benefit of tourists. In addition to the basic displays of tanks and planes, there are numerous grisly pictures of victims of the war - dead soldiers, villagers being shot, people being thrown out of helicopters, and the deformed victims of the Agent Orange defoliation efforts. It's a one-sided display of the Vietnam War, for sure, but it certainly drives home the point that war is hell, no matter the cause. Very strange to be an American at that museum - especially when an armless victim of the war tries to sell you postcards and asks the question that all touts ask in this country, "Where you from?" How do you even answer?

Remarkably, though, there doesn't seem to be any animosity against the U.S. for the war, at least among the people we met. A large percentage of the Vietnamese population is under 30-years-old, so they have no memory of the war and they simply want to move forward rather than reflect on the past. People were quite friendly to us and not a single person ever expressed anything negative about America. Quite the opposite, in fact - most people were excited to meet foreigners in general, and Americans in particular.

Also while in Saigon, we took a half-day tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. These tunnels were dug in the jungle and used by Vietnamese soldiers during the war as a place to live and hide, and as a staging ground for attacks. They are pretty ingeniously designed and camouflaged. Here is a picture of a Vietnamese slipping into one of the tunnel entrances...

We had the chance to crawl through the tunnels for about 30 yards - the entrance was widened for Western tourists and we had to crouch or crawl through the dark passages. Very claustrophobic and we were happy to get back above ground.

On a less militaristic note -before leaving Saigon, we also spent time with some new Australian friends, Peter and Barbara Storey. We initially met them on the Halong Bay boat. Then, quite by accident, we ran into them almost a week later having drinks along the beach in Nha Trang. Even more remarkably, we then bumped into them on a street corner in Saigon - quite a feat in a city of several million people, since our hotels were a taxi ride away from each other. It's not uncommon to run into the same travelers here and there, since people frequent the same sites. But after all that serendipity, we had to have at least one planned meeting and so we met for dinner and drinks before leaving the country. Next stop for us - Cambodia.

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Lisa buying jewelry on the beach...

Nha Trang

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Leaving Hoi An, we stayed on the budget travel circuit and booked a $6, eight-hour bus ride to Nha Trang. It was billed as an air-conditioned, hop-on hop-off tourist bus. But since we were the only Westerners who booked a ticket for that day, the ride turned into a hop-on hop-off minibus for locals. And so we set off in a 24-seater with torn seats and sporadic air-conditioning, and spent the day in the company of Vietnamese who spoke no English. Our dismay dissipated quickly, however, when we passed a bus for those locals who couldn't afford even the $6 fare - the vehicle looked as if it were held together with duct tape, all the seats were filled and passengers were standing in the aisles, there were a dozen bikes tied to the roof, and everyone was seeking relief from the stifling humidity by fanning themselves through open windows. Suddenly, it seemed as if we were traveling in comparative luxury.

Once we arrived in Nha Trang, we found a $12 hotel room with air conditioning and satellite tv just one block from the beach. Then we hooked up with Elliott, who teaches English in Vietnam and is my sister Patty's brother-in-law. We spent several pleasant days in the town, which was a relaxing place to hang out. Lisa managed to get in a half-day dive, we hung out by the beach, and we also enjoyed going out several times for dinner and drinks with Elliott and his girlfriend...

Cooking in Hoi An

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Lisa and Bob with San, the animated 20-year-old Hoi An woman who taught a cooking class and gave us a ride to our hotel on a motorbike...

Hoi An

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After two peaceful days cruising Halong Bay, it was back into the bedlam of travel. We booked a 14-hour, overnight train ride that took us to the smaller town of Hoi An, a fishing village in central Vietnam that has ended up on the tourist circuit.

The journey wasn’t all that bad. O.K., so the train was noisy, the food was pretty bad (sticky white rice with lukewarm, scary-looking green vegetables for lunch), and the beds weren’t all that clean (we discovered in the morning that they simply re-folded and re-used the sheets), but we were at least prepared with our own sleeping liners and snacks. And we got some sleep. Moreover, the early morning views of rural Vietnam were priceless – people were up early in the morning, plowing the fields with oxen, wading through rice paddies, and pedaling bicycles on red-dirt roads or along the narrow lanes that separate the rice fields.

We found Hoi An to be an agreeable place to hang out for a few days. The town was a bit more touristy yet much more laid back than Hanoi. We spent time walking around the streets, shopping and taking pictures. Here is a photo from the local produce market...

Our highlight for Hoi An, though, came on the second day in town, when we took a cooking class at one of the restaurants that overlooks the riverfront. For just $4 we were able to select any three items on the menu and learn how to cook them. So we made (and ate) shrimp spring rolls, sour soup with pineapple and shrimp, and fish fillets sauteed in ginger and onion. We’ll see whether we can actually repeat the results back home. ;-)

Actually, an even better part of the experience was getting to know the instructor a bit. She was a 20-year-old Vietnamese woman (San) who spoke pretty good English. Her personality was infectious, and she was always laughing or even singing. We went back to the same restaurant for dinner and talked with her until the restaurant was closed. We were even more impressed by her personality when she told us that she worked from 8 am to 10 pm, seven days a week. And her wages for a 98-hour week? About $30 for the month, some of which she sent home to help support her family. As Lisa said, it kind of changes your perspective when you feel overworked and underpaid.

When the evening was over, she offered us a ride back to our hotel on her motorbike. We had initially vowed to stay off these things in Vietnam, as we had seen how the traffic patterns worked and the fact that no one ever wore a helmet. But she was so excited about giving us a ride that it was hard to turn her down. And it was only a mile or so to the hotel. So Lisa got on the back of San’s bike, and I got on a bike with another restaurant employee, and off we went - speeding through the streets of Southeast Asia without a helmet. Obviously, it was perfectly fine and we were back at our hotel safe and sound in no time, plotting the next stop on our Vietnamese journey.

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Another view of Halong Bay

Halong Bay

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While we were in Hanoi, we booked a two-day, one-night visit to Halong Bay, which is a World Heritage site off the northeastern coast of Vietnam, about a three-hour drive from Hanoi. The trip included an overnight stay on a boat.

There is no good way to truly describe how beautiful Halong Bay is. There are thousands of islands and sheer cliffs of limestone rising out of the water. It almost appears to be a forest of trees and stone growing out of the sea. And it is so quiet and tranquil. There were times when we could hear nothing but the lapping of water against the boat and the cry of nearby birds.

Here is a picture of Halong Bay. The wooden boats in the foreground are typical of the boat we were on for two days.

The first day,we left Hanoi at 8 a.m. and were on the boat and setting off by noon. We cruised the bay for a while, and then we stopped at a place called ‘Surprise Cave’ – it’s a huge cave in the middle of one of the limestone islands. There were stalagmites and stalactites galore, and all sorts of beautiful colors and shades of light inside. Later in the afternoon, we stopped at another island, where there was a steep climb up 480 steps or so to a pagoda and a viewing area. From there, the boat docked further out in the bay and we were able to jump off the side and go swimming in the sea. We were there as the sun set in a stunning blend of purples and oranges. Then we had dinner and sat out on the deck in the early evening with a bottle of wine.

Quite a nice experience. It was one of the highlights of our travels in Vietnam.

Hanoi, Vietnam

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After leaving Australia, we arrived in Hanoi in late morning on Friday, June 3. This was our first visit to Asia in three years, so there was just a bit of trepidation as our plane descended into Hanoi. This was Vietnam, after all. It wasn’t all that long ago that soldiers were fighting and dying there, and it’s only been a decade since the U.S. and Vietnam normalized relations again. What we've found here, though, are very friendly people.

We’d booked a hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi and so, after checking into our room, we ventured into Vietnam for the first time. The very first impression we had was of the heat. It was June and we knew it would be hot, but we fully weren’t prepared for the extent of the humidity. As soon as we walked outside, we were enveloped in moisture. It just clung to us, and at the end of the day it seemed as if every part of our body was sticky with sweat and humidity.

The second immediate impression was of the noise. Particularly the traffic noise, coming from the incessant honking of horns by motorbikes, taxis and buses. Drivers honk to tell others to get out of the way, they honk when they approach an intersection, and they honk as a warning to anyone who might not see them coming. They do this because vehicles rarely stop moving. The traffic in Hanoi, and throughout Vietnam, is quite incredible, especially since you have to fight every instinct you have about the proper way to cross a street.

In Vietnam, you see, you have to walk into oncoming traffic. Your mother’s voice may ring in your ears the whole way, saying “don’t ever walk into the street if there is traffic coming,” and yet that is what you have to do -- step off the sidewalk and straight into the teeth of 50 or more motorbikes that are heading straight towards you with no intention of stopping. There are few stop lights and the movement of traffic is constant, so there is really no other way to get to the other side.

What the locals do is to walk out a few steps, giving the oncoming traffic a little bit of distance to see you and to maneuver around you. Then you walk a few more steps, and a few more, until you are in the middle of the street and there are motorbikes and even a few taxis whizzing by on both sides. There is absolutely no turning back, and even to stop and hesitate can cause a disruption to the flow of traffic. There is a rhythm to the movement of vehicles and pedestrians, which the Vietnamese innately understand but which foreigners can easily disrupt. The trick, we’ve been told, is to keep moving slowly and just trust that the traffic will find ways to maneuver around you. So, far it’s worked.

This is a typical traffic scene in Hanoi. It's certainly a unique experience to cross a street by stepping in front of these motorbikes and letting them weave their way around you...

During our time in Hanoi, we spent quite a bit of time just wandering around and soaking in the atmosphere. But among other things, we also:

- Went to the Water Puppet theater, where we watched a one-hour performance. Water puppetry is a specialty of north Vietnam. The pupeteers stand in waist-deep water behind a bamboo screen and maneuver puppets on long poles. The ‘stage’ is actually a pool of water, on which the puppets perform.

- Visit the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. Very similar to the experience of seeing Mao’s preserved body in Beijing. The body of ‘Uncle Ho’ is preserved and displayed in a huge mausoleum. We were there on a Saturday morning, and thousands of Vietnamese were lined up to file past the body. We left our bags and cameras at a holding area and stood in line for 45 minutes, dripping wet in the humidity, before finally entering the air conditioned mausoleum and getting a glimpse of the body, bathed in light and encased in glass.

Opera House at sunset

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and another picture...

Opera House at sunset

Lisa in front of the Harbour Bridge

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Here is another picture from Sydney...

Lisa in front of the Harbour Bridge ...

The Journey Begins in Australia

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Well, after a month of traveling, it's long past time to start putting some trip updates online, so here goes...

AUSTRALIA

Our international trip began in mid-May in Australia. We focused most of our efforts on two Australian destinations - the northeast coast near Cairns and then Sydney.

Although we initially had a goal of seeing more of the country, we scaled back our efforts for a couple of reasons. One, Australia was getting ready for winter when we arrived and so we'd earlier decided to stick to the warmer regions of the country, which ruled out such southern cities as Melbourne and Adelaide. Second, and most importantly, we were pretty tired after some long days and short nights spent packing up our house in Boston, then driving cross-country, and finally getting little sleep during the few days that we were in Tucson. So it seemed sensible to not overdue it at the start of our journey, especially with some harder travel ahead of us in Asia.

But the Australian experience that we did have was interesting and enjoyable. After a 31-hour trip from Tucson to Cairns, including an unexpected 7-hour layover in the Sydney airport due to a mechanical issue with the plane, we based ourselves in the small town of Palm Cove, one of the jumping-off points for trips to the Great Barrier Reef. We gave ourselves a week to rest and recharge. It’s funny, though, how our minds and bodies work – after being so busy for so long, it was difficult to relax at first. We found ourselves waking up at 6 a.m., tired but unable to shut down our minds.

Of course, maybe we were waking up early each morning just thinking about all the things that could kill us on those Australian beaches. I’ve never before been on a beach that warned people to beware of sharks, crocodiles AND deadly jellyfish. It was near the end of ‘stinger’ season in northeast Australia – for several months of each year the waters are inhabited by dangerous jellyfish, some of which merely inflict painful stings and others that can cause death fairly quickly. The first aid instructions posted along the shore reminded rescuers to ‘restrain’ the victim (because the pain is so bad) and then to ‘assess consciousness.’ Interestingly, halfway through our week there we were told that stinger season was over and that it was safe to go back in the water – but be sure to notify a lifeguard if you were stung by a stray jellyfish that still happened to be around. Hmmm. You know, suddenly the cold waters of the north Atlantic didn’t seem so uninviting.

Seriously, though, it wasn’t all that bad. The beach was gorgeous, and how often do we really swim in the ocean, after all? We were in the end able to spend some time relaxing and reading, and went for some walks on the beach. The down time was good for our bodies.

The thing to do in this part of Australia, as you might guess, is to explore the Great Barrier Reef, which we did. What I never realized before is that this marine park is actually numerous reefs that stretch over an area of water the size of the United Kingdom. We booked boat trips to the outer reefs, which are more than an hour offshore and on the edge of the continental shelf. Lisa got in some dives and I did some snorkeling (we were assured there were no jellyfish in this area!). The reefs and the fish were truly amazing. So many different colors and shapes and textures. It’s astounding to experience this entire other universe below the surface of the oceans.

From Cairns, we flew down to Sydney, which we found to be a great city. It’s similar to Boston in some ways, but with a much bigger and nicer waterfront. We stayed in the suburb of Glebe, just a 10-minute walk from Darling Harbour near the city center. It was a sort of bohemian place, with lots of ethnic restaurants, new age bookstores and the like.

We spent a day exploring the area around the Sydney Opera House, which is a truly unique building that sits on a small peninsula of land by the harbor. Shadowing the Opera House is the Sydney Harbour Bridge, where we climbed up the pylon lookout for quite a nice view over Sydney and the bay area. We also explored various city neighborhoods and spent an afternoon at the Aquarium, which has to be one of the best in the world. On another day, we took the ferry to Manly, a northern suburb of Sydney that offers a wonderful view of Sydney and its harbour area.

Here is the obligatory Kodak photo moment from Sydney ...

Bob and Lisa in front of the Sydney Opera House

There is certainly a lot more that we’d like to explore in Australia, so I suppose we’ll have to just plan another trip there some day in order to catch some of the cities and sights that we missed this time. We are glad that we got a taste of the country, though (and now we can also say we’ve been to six continents), but this trip was even more about experiencing other, more different parts of the world. And that began in our next stop – Vietnam.