Please take some time to listen to the music I’ve been working on. You may find it here

People keep asking me if I had a good time. That’s a funny question! I’m often asked of my favorite place. It was more the people than the places, but some places were very special.

The most amazing experience of my life was motorbiking through northern Vietnam in the frontier region along the Chinese border. Nine days. No words work to describe it.

The places (all documented herein) that all tie for second (in the order I visited them)

Albufeira, Portugal
Vilnius, Lithuania
Melbourne, Australia

Thanks to everyone who checked up on me and who posted comments; it was wicked to get the support of friends and fellow travelers during the trip. Some places were deep and cold and it was tough at times. These were rare, but the correspondencs was golden!

For the record:

I never slept in the street.
I did beg a hotel to let me stay when my CC got cancelled.
Yes, they do eat dinner at 1 am in Madrid.
The pyramids aren’t all that.
Angkor Wat IS!
Yes, a massage in Thailand is about $3 for an hour. No, I never got one.
The people in Bali are so kind it’s ridiculous!
The best food (in the world) is in Thailand. No, you can’t get anything even close here!
Mexican food is better than Thai food. Oops!
$1 gets you three meals in Vietnam. If you finish all the food you’ll be so full that walking may be difficult.
For $20 extra, T-Mobile with give you an international Blackberry plan. It gives you internet access + email in nearly every major city in the world. It works and rocks!
This trip marked my 14th trip to Europe. I am dumbfounded. Why go east when Australia is SO AMAZING! My #1 recommendation is a trip to Oz. It’s closer than Europe and well worth it.
Everyone knows that no one voted for GW. (so who did?)
Everyone wonders why we elected Arnold.

The best thing you can do is go travel and meet people. It’s very difficult to make the first jump…sell possissions, rent homes, leave jobs…but it can be done. There is nothing like it I have ever experienced. A common misconception: travel is to see things…like monuments or museums or famous places. People want to know about how beautiful this place was or how cool it was to see that particular painting. I would say those things are about 10% of the magic of traveling. Missing a train in the freezing cold, there’s an experience. What do you do? Maybe the person at the ticket counter feels bad for you and offers a warm room somewhere. Maybe you end up taking a different train to a new destination you didn’t even know about. The point is, it’s the journey and the people along the way, hardly ever the destination. It’s a tired cliche, but one that people don’t pay enough attention to.
Going to Bali for 3 weeks? Have a hotel booked in advance for each night? Going with a tour? That’s not traveling. That’s a vacation (also a great animal and close relative to traveling). Getting to Bali and realizing that you’ll never find the hotel you had in mind and instead meeting a few people who were on your shuttle bus, donkey or camel (never a taxi!!!) from the airport…they have another place in mind and the next thing you know, you’re having a $2 dinner with four people you would not otherwise have met. One of the guys has been there before and brandishes a map, hastily pointing out the best surf spots in the area!
Or, you could be in the Hilton with the A/C on, watching Leno on an international channel.
Go travel! There are billions of people out there who would love to meet you.

…the places and the stories we told, they’ll be with me as I’m growing old.
-z

St Kilda Festival!  Having way too much fun.

Sunset…more of my antics

The next night, coordinated to get together with another friend of a friend in St Kilda, Spado.  We have had a great couple days and I’m seeing tons of the city.  Good times.
 Then, on Monday, took a tour of the Great Ocean Road, going south from Melbourne.  Lots of amazing coastline.  Koala bears in the trees and great people on the bus…save the driver!!!  He must have skipped the stabilization drugs that day.   He actually left four of us at one point and took the 20 others to the next site…ok, so we hitch-hiked to the next spot ourselves…as he passes us, coming back to look.  It was hilarious, or at least it really is now.  His name?  Boom Boom Eddie.  I kid not.

The crew at Loch Ard Gorge. Tenia, me, Eimear and Tony.   Gorgeous location.

Group antics…on our own, private tour!

Thanks for the pic, Tony!

Sunset from the gas station.

Still keen for the jump.

The reef-walk out to the break.  Amazing wave…but F A R out there.

Sunset north of the town.

How priceless is THIS!?

On the climb up one fo the first mountain passes.  The stoke was just tremendous!

Along the road. It always felt great to get the helmet off for a few minutes and survey the scenery.

One of those magical pictures.  This little girl had the best look on her face, years beyond her age, and the BG colors were perfect.  The well-known Sunday Market in Bac Ha, Vietnam.

The school children in Sin Ho.  I stopped to look at the map and they just swamped me!  The kid with the black shirt in the middle was hilarious.  I was chasing him up and down the road…he pointed out that I’d stepped in a monsterous pile of water buffalo poop when getting off my bike.  I was chasing him pretending like I was going to wipe it on his trousers.  We had a blast!!! :D  I don’t expect any of the kids had spoken with white people before.

Brandon and I.  Paunch and John.  ;)  Thanks, bud.  Here’s wishing you all the best the world has to offer!

A picture of the limestone walls along the best day of the trip…Brandon had left for Hanoi and I pressed on to make Meo Vac from Ha Giang.  About 18km from Meo Vac, this was the scenery.  Note teh road along the bottom of the picture.  It went like this for another 15km.  The view in the other direction was twice as breathtaking and the reason for the entire trip!  For real.

I putted out of the city and after about an hour (still on outskirts of Hanoi) stopped for lunch.  The young teenage girl working there was learning English and was very helpful.  On the road…no white people.  In fact I haven’t seen a white person since I was 10 minutes from my hostel.  Wow!

Made it a little further and stopped by a store that sold helmets.  I have them my open-face model for a beautiful closed-face one.  Infinitely better with noise and cold.  It’s REALLY chilly on the bike!  Have a monstrous down coat on.  Not enough.  Tomorrow fleece goes below.

It was starting to get dark as I ascended the huge mountain pass that acts as the gateway to Mai Chau.  The road up was steep and, in the dark, quite confusing.  Visibility gradually decreased until, near the top, it had dropped to no more than 100 feet in thick, thick fog.  At three or four places, the mountain to my left had slid onto the road, leaving just enough space for a single car.  The rubble had been beaten down by the traffic, but it was still quite rough.  Simple on the bike, but in the post-dusk light, difficult to identify early.  To my right, from what I could see, the cliff dropped into an infinite valley of pea soup.  It was haunting.  The sky was blue and black and gray and dead still.

Just over the pass and I could see Mai Chau in the distance; I had passed the fog, but was still high on the hill.  As I descended a kid on a scooter pulled up next to me on this winding, 8% downward grade, and handed me a business card.  The two of us rode strangely side by side into Mai Chau and through to the village of Lac, home of the White Thai people.  I was greeted by a wonderful woman who opened me a beer, cooked me dinner and showed me my $8 room!  Perfect, if strange! :). There’s a really weird poster of a Vietnamese couple on my wall.  ???
Went out to the town market after dark, for about an hour.  There were thousands of people there and we were the only two white people.  Really cool.  Live music on a huge stage (even if it was glorified karaoke!!) and food vendors and clothing…I bought a cheap watch to destroy on the journey.

This is by far one of the most amazing days on the trip…all five months.  I only hope I stay safe and continue to see such amazing sights and have all these feelings.

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Day 2: Mai Chau to Son La, 165 km.

Woke at 8 am.  Since I arrived in the dark, I hadn’t yet seen the surroundings.  There were stilted houses among the rice fields against the backdrop of cloud-tipped mountains.  In all directions! It was 9:30 before we took the road back north, backtracking only slightly before making it back onto route 6, the famous.  Immediately we were engulfed by thick fog.  We climbed and climbed.  We must have crossed two mountain passes, but it was impossible to are greater than 100 feet for the better part of 1 1/2 hours.  I was getting soaked, so I pulled under the lean of a house and was about to out my one-piece rain suit on when an old Viet woman came running out.   She was beckoning us to come in out of the cold.  Wow!  Great.  The house was small.  We sat on small plastic chairs on the clean but well-aged cement floor.  There was a fire pit in the center of the room.  There was no chimney.  But this was no problem as none of the wall boards were anything close to air-tight…by a matter of inches!  From what I noticed, there was no running water.  The kitchen consisted of a few assorted pots hung neatly in the corner of the room, next to a back door where the rooster, I’m guessing, lived.  I could hear him.  It was dark.  If there was electricity it wasn’t being used.  We were sitting, myself, Brandon, the home owner and her woman friend.  I changed and we fried our shoes by the fire, per the lady’s suggestion.  Later her kids (three) came in to see what was going on.  The lady poured got tea and I shared some sweet, nutty biscuits I’d bought the night before at the night market in Mai Chau.  The lady was so friendly and happy to have guests. I hope the way I describe her home doesn’t take anything away from the hominess.  It was modest.  In fact the poorest I’ve ever seen, but she was happy and close to her children.  It was so nice of her to open her doors to a couple wet travelers.  How many people in America would open the front door to a couple muddy, no, REALLY muddy, cold and wet travelers for some tea around the living room fire?  Ha ha, without even a chimney!  ;). We were grateful and said our goodbyes and it was back to the pass.  The weather had not let up.
When we left our bikes under the lady’s awning, we thought we were out of the rain.  Fact was, we were IN a giant rain cloud.  There was no escaping it.  It rained everywhere, even under shelter.  It was amazing!  Water everywhere.  We pushed on.  As fast as we could safely go, we pushed through the terrible visibility, blinking like mad to clear the eyes.  Eventually the cloud was behind us.
Reached the town of Moc Chau for lunch around noon.  Food was delicious; it’s getting better with each meal now!  The architecture is curious.  I’ll post pics.  The colors are just crazy.  Really.  They’ll use chalky blue, just a shade from fluorescent.  I can’t describe it better.  There were massive purples, sultry reds, tacky aquas…you name it, but gaudy is the rule!  The White Thai people are the predominant race living in these regions.  They make clothes and scarves and work mostly with very bright colors.  It’s quite special to be among these people.  It always brings a smile to see a woman with a giant, brightly colored hat or headdress walking down the street as I zoom by with a wave.

Today ended in Son La, just before dark.  Wow, it was a HUGE day of riding, with a few stops along the way.

Must have passed hundreds of animals: water buffalos, oxen (yes??), dogs (!!! So many) chickens with chicks, cats, and many others that I couldn’t identify.
The animals sometimes eat trash, even if it’s in the street.  No one looks twice when a giant water buffalo takes up 3/4 of one of the driving lane…for a half hour.
Walked and rode on a suspension bridge made of wooden planks.  Later did the same on a suspension bridge made entirely out of bamboo and thick wire!  It’s surreal!  Yes!
Met numerous people today.  We’d just stop near town or small village and people of all ages would run out to look at us, get in a picture or two or just to be a part of what was going on.  It’s shocking, but that’s really the truth.  The Vietnamese people are so friendly and kind.  The smiles we get riding by are priceless; I can picture at least 20 of them just from today.

Again, one of the best days of my life.
I hope I am safe again tomorrow.
Best,
Zank

Can hardly feel my neck…the weight of the helmet is wearing on me.  The chafing of the helmet padding on my cheeks, forehead and even nose is getting ridiculous. Loving it!

Today began with a 30 km ride before discovering a massive cave along the left side of the road.  We had to get up to it.  Found the access road and I rode in, solo.  It was so dark and spooky that I turned before 150 m.  The roof was 50 feet tall in places, and the tunnel was 20-30 feet wide throughout.  It appeared to be a natural cave, quite serpentine in shape that was finished by hand.  Eventually Brandon, who’d had a but of trouble climbing the steep path to the opening, made it and that was all the courage I needed to push through.  The whole tunnel was about 300 m long.  At the far end, the trail dropped steeply into a field with long bamboo and people were resting and preparing their massive flame torches for the passage to the other side, from where we’d come.  I lifted one of the loads carried by the tribe’s ladies.  I could hardly lift it to my shoulder.  I’d say it was a solid 60 lbs.  This woman in her 50’s was about to carry this pack of wood on her shoulder through the cave then down a very steep trail to town.  I watched in complete amazement as she began her descent at the other side.  One slip and she’d have fallen and tumbled for 50 meters down a steep dusty trail.  How these old ladies could carry these loads remains a mystery to me.  I will be forever humbled with this memory.
From the cave it was a normal road to the next town along the way for has and some lunch.
After lunch it was a beautiful ascent into the first of many passes.  On the way down, I got a flat tire: the rear!  So, I quickly befriended a local man who happened to have tire irons and an adjustable wrench and even a crate with which to prop up the bike.  I went to work removing the rear wheel (requiring the removal of the internal hub, drum brake, chain and spacers) and subsequently changing the tube to the good one I kept in my pack.  There was a crowd of people by the time we were done.  I have my camera to on of the teenagers standing around.  He enthusiastically took the camera and was walking around with it, taking pictures…or so I thought.  Turns out, he was just happy as could be to look at everyone in the LCD!  Ha ha!  When I realized TGI, I showed him how to click a few pictures…it was great, and he was so excited.  After about 30 minutes, I gave the house owner 50,000 dong and hit the road once again.

We stopped now and again to snap a photo of the scenery.  People went bananas!  The tribes her are so friendly.  They love to wave as I ride by.  And the smiles are enough to bring tears.  These people work so hard on some vicious terrain, but when I come zooming by and wave, it’s like none of that matters to them.  The smiles are priceless.  These people in NW Vietnam are gorgeous and so welcoming.  Anytime we stop we’re surrounded by people with questions and smiles.  Sometimes it’s enough just to touch a white person and run away…telling of the accomplishment.  This invariably brought more people out, when it was established that we didn’t bite!

-waves, smile and good energy?  About 500!  Each one was so special to see.
-animals: at least 20 different types.  Lots of pigs today…and water buffalo…always!  They’re in the road all the time.  It’s going to be weird to drive down the street without animals in it.
-rice terraces: saw so many today, both from level view and from high stop a mountain pass.  Some green, some brown, waiting for next season.
-saw a small forest fire, about two miles away on a nearby mountain.  Diameter appeared to be about 100 meters.
-about four water crossings.  Nothing deeper than one foot.
-one, beautiful waterfall.
-saw some Black Thai people.

Again, one amazing day.  Dropping into Mai Chau from a huge mountain pass was a shot of adrenaline, especially as the sun set and backlit the mountains.  Lots of pictures!  My photo antics pushed the drive into the dark hours by a touch.
Found a great hotel.  Staying in a stilted house.  If I look, I can are through the boards to the next room.  Cool!  Who cares, right!?

One of the best days of my life.  Unforgettable -if blurry!!!

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Day 4: Lai Chau (Tam Duong) to Lai Chau (Tam Duong)???, 120 km.

For some reason, the town I started in changed its name with the town I ended in.  It did so after my maps were printed.  Just imagine the sign-language argument I got into with the girl at the hotel.  She nearly had me believing that I’d just driven an eight-hour loop!  More at the end…

Woke up at 6:30 am and took the bread and jam to go.  Picked up a new tube for the rear tire, I’d need it later in the day, and filled up on gas before taking to the road for the climb…and climb…to Sin Ho, the fabled mountain town and surreal destination.
The sky was gray, but with spots of brightness and the air was clear and not foggy.  We had high hopes for the day as yesterday have us some welcomed patches of sun.  For the first 50 km we rods along the beautiful Nam Na river.  Next,  we climbed to a fork in the road and after chasing down Brandon who’d taken the wrong fork, got ourselves on the right road.  About 1 km up the road there was a 50 m stretch of construction.  We had to nearly walk our bikes around the machinery and people working.  This would repeat itself at least 10 times for major road blocks and another 50 for minor road work.  At one point we required the guy in the massive tractor to flatten a path for us, as the bank made by the road crew blocked our way!  That’s the Vietnamese equivalent of rolling out the red carpet and we couldn’t have been more appreciative to the 14-year old running the thing
For the most part there was little in the way of “large machinery”.  To lay the foundation for the pavement to be applied later, women and men sat alongside the road and broke the granite stones by hand in order to place them flatly.  It must take them a week to lay 20 meters of flat stone.
As we motored or struggled by, all we got were smiles and waves and the occasional cheer.  We weren’t ruining their work, we were a welcomed diversion.  This was hard for me to believe, but no one showed anything but kindness to us as we blasted through work zone after work zone.  Watching women in their tribal garb bashing stones and wrestling meter-long rocks was enough to leave me speechless.
The climb led to a cloud-covered mountain peak, and just before Sin Ho, the view down was breathtaking.  It was the highest peak yet and I’d say at least 2000 m.  Picture Colorado with intense jungle, banana plants and tribal Vietnamese, Thai and H’mong people everywhere!  The drop-offs along the downhill side of the road provided views of nightmarish intensity.  One slip in that direction and the fall could be as much as 1000 feet.  Not quite straight down, but the angle was so steep, thinking of stopping would be preposterous.  I tried not to look except when I stopped.
Just before town, we saw a house being built and a good 25 villagers working on it.  The night before, I’d mentioned to Brandon over dinner that it might be interesting to stop and try to help them built one of their typical homes.  He pulled over first and proclaimed it our mission. Before he could even remove his helmet he had grabbed a saw and was making a plank from a tree.  The pictures are hilarious.  In the end we were more of a distraction than anything else, but I think there was mutual appreciation for all involved.  We took lots of pictures and the young and old alike marveled at the images on the screen.  It was an unforgettable moment and pulled-off entirely by Brandon’s ability to make things happen.  This guy makes friends faster than a Minsk climbs mountains!

Sin Ho was enveloped in a dense fog.  Approaching, the visibility was as low as 50 feet for quite some time.
I’d read that the tribes in Sin Ho were less than friendly to outsiders.  Really?
As we neared town, we could see more and more people. I stopped along the road to remove my video camera to film the drive through. I’d just passed some children and thought I have myself enough space…but 50 m wasn’t enough!  There they came…running and screaming!  The commotion was too much for the school children at the nearby school.  Within moments I was swamped!  With my video camera out, I spun the screen around and let the children are what they look like on TV.  They laughed and screamed and pointed and jumped up and down.  This lasted for about 20 minutes.  We literally emptied an entire school!  Ha ha!  What beautiful children.  The pictures say a lot.  These children are so special, and so happy.  A few knew ‘hello’ and when it was repeated to them was enough to cause them happy-spasms in all.  What a mind-blowing experience.
We had a great lunch in Sin Ho and found everyone to be beyond friendly.  Great!
We descended from the summit town and eventually found clear skies.  The decent was amazing; where the climb have views of pines and a more alpine setting, the back side of the mountain was Vietnamese jungle at its best.  The mostly-dirt road was slick and required care to maneuver.  At the bottom were more villages, but they were sparse.  I got a flat rear tire.  Again!
I stopped outside a house along the road, realizing my rear tire was low, and made a hissing sound while frantically pointing at my rear tire.  That’s international dummy sign-language for “do you have a tire pump?” The girl comes out of her house with one, but it has no nozzle at the end.  Huh?  She comes over and shows me the trick.  She finds a tiny rock on the ground and puts it inside the tire valve stem.  Then she places a cloth over the stem.  Then she forces the pump tube over the rag.  The rationale is simple, but I wouldn’t have thought of it quickly;  the tube forces the rag down when it’s forced over the valve stem.  This forces the rock Dorn into the valve, allowing air to flow from the pump, through the rag, and into the tire.  Genius!

I was taking it easy (ish) on my tire when it blew out going around a corner!  I almost lost it, but made it to the side of the road.  No houses in sight this time!  I ended up running with the bike pulling itself for about three miles before my hissing noise and crazy pointing landed me at the home of a cave-guide.  He helped me change the tube and I was of after a quick tea.
Whew.
Well, the push to Sa Pa would have to wait until tomorrow.
I made it to Mai Chau (the same town I left from!!!!??) and stopped to buy a tube.  The guy selling the tube convinced me that the town we were heading for for the night was the one I was standing in!  Problem.  Brandon already rode ahead.  But where?  There’s nowhere to spend the night between here and Sa Pa.  I rode after him but the road forked and I never saw him again.  It’s 4 hours later and no word from him.  He’s ok, I’m sure…but where?
So I go to the recommended hotel and check in.  I tell them that they’re in a city different than what they think!  Then I show them on the map.  They point to where I was this morning and say “there, there”.  Well, if I’m THERE, then I made a full loop!  No way, it’s just not possible.  After a really nice girl and I jumped up and down for about 20 minutes I realized that the names of the two towns were swapped!!  What are the chances?  She was nice about it and we both got a good laugh.
More tomorrow….but where’s Brandon???

Woke up in whatever town I stayed in last night!  I headed solo to Sa Pa.  Along the way, I passed the town that Brandon must have stayed in.  I stopped and asked if they’d seen an American on a motorbike…all sign language.  Sure enough, the girl showed me his reg card.  He was only a half hour ahead.
About 20 minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw his jacket.  So I U-turned.  He was at a school and had all the kids out in front, teaching them the ‘head, shoulders, knees and toes song.  Awesome!  After a quick detour to fix his clutch and for me to out my ridiculously small rain suit on, we were off to cross the massive and mysterious pass to Sa Pa.
I stopped about half way up to take some pictures and make a quick video.  My bike never started again, and Brandon had already left for the summit.  I got picked up by a massive truck.  We lifted the heavy bike with my bag on the back, up and into the truck.  He took me to the beginning of Sa Pa town through some of the worst mid I’ve seen on this trip.  I can’t believe I didn’t get to ride it!
The guy strapped my bike into the truck in a miserable fashion.  Half of the plastic housing that holds my headlight in place was trashed.  My left blinker, trashed.  The kick stand, bent to heck.  My fault for not tying the bike myself.
The worst part, though, is that I had a flat tire as soon as I got going on the bike to look for a hotel.  That’s three in as many days.  This is a big problem.  It’s not easy to change the rear tube, especially in the cold.  So I called the guy in Hanoi who rented me the bike and had him talk to a local repair guy.  Hopefully it will be an issue of the past…
Funniest part…when the repairman pulled the tune out of my tire, it was severed through, radially.  In other words, it was like a donut cut by a knife.  I’ve never even heard of a tube failing in that way.  Unbelievable.
Worse still…I went to take a picture of it and my camera wouldn’t open…the most expensive part of the terrible decision I made to hoist my bike about 4 1/2 feet into the bed of that truck.

Still, the scenery before the breakdown was some of the most beautiful I could imagine!  Today was priceless.
Staying in Sa Pa in a hotel with beautiful mountain views…of course, we can’t see anything as the fog is intense…but I can feel it’s there!

Sa Pa is a huge tourist town.  Unfortunately, the H’mong people have come to this region to beg for money and to sell their goods or hash or pot.  I really wish I hadn’t seen the ugly side.  I was amazed at how well the tribes had been preserved and how well the people were adept at getting by with what little they had.  I never heard one word from someone in a hill tribe.  Now they’re using the same few English phrases that people learn to get money from tourists.  It was the same lingo in Egypt.  Sad.

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Day 6: Sa Pa to Bac Ha, 75 km.

Another short travel day.  The hotel in Sa Pa, along with the whole town, lost electricity in the morning so my laundry was stuck in limbo.  At 11:30 it was finally done and near noon we struck out for our next stop, Bac Ha.  About 15 km down the mountain I had another blow-out.  I was dangerously close to going off the cliff this time.  That’s it.  No more of this tire business!
In Lao Cai (a big border city with China) I called Hung in Hanoi and arranged to have him pay for the new rear tire I surely needed.  So, after having to ride a good 20 km on a flat rear tire a remedy was in motion.  We stopped briefly on a bridge so I could answer the phone and right there, at my feet was a whole heroin kit complete with 4 or 5 needles.  Wow!  It was a prime location for another Zank Homeless shot.  It’s quite sad, however; Vietnam is well known for having a skyrocketing AIDS rate.  From the posters I’ve seen along the way, dirty needles play a big part in this.
We ate lunch while my bike was fixed and it was off to Bac Ha.  The road was beautiful for the second half, during the beautiful climb up to the city.  It turns out that there is a magnificent market here tomorrow, so we’ll get another late start and have a 3/4 day of riding.  Heading north and east.  The best is yet to come.  It’s hard to believe.  The sights so far have been so amazing.
No sooner had we left the Sa Pa town center, people began to wave and smile at us in the manner we were used to.  It felt really good to get out of the tourist center.  Back at it….
Tomorrow will be the first in five with no flat tire!

Where to start…
No flat tire!!!!!!
Woke up at 5:45 am.  Intent was to hit Meo Vac and return in one day WITH the requisite permit from the police station…read: SCAM!  Got to police station at 6:50 after finding out that it opens at 7 am  turns out that only a guide can buy a permit.  Huh?  Ok, how much is a guide?  So a sleazy guy rides up on a scooter with pictures of naked girls on his has tank.  Perfect!  He wants $35/day with a two-day min.  Yeah, sure!  That’s about what an average Vietnamese person makes in three weeks.  No way.  So I go with Brandon back to the hotel bec we realized that it was only a dream that we could make it to Meo Vac and back in one day.  After packing up and assessing the hassle-factor, Brandon decided to abort and head back to Hanoi.  I could hardly blame him.
At the hotel I met up with a couple Canadian girls I’d met the night before at dinner and spoke with their guide.  He was friends with the guide who’d initially approached me, but knew no one else.  He did tell me that, as long as I didn’t stop and LOOK for the police I wouldn’t have any trouble.  Cool.
So I go to the permit place and beg for help…no luck.  I go to the only semi-major hotel in town and, after about 10 minutes of sign language, manage to convey to the girls that I need a guide.  They call the first guy.  Ha ha.  He must be the only guy in town.  So, we began the negotiation process.  Ok, it’s looking ok.
He tells me it’s $20 for the permit and he needs $30/day.  Ok.  We go to the permit place.  He asks for $20 and wants to go in alone. Ha ha.  Sure.  I’m stupid!  I just started traveling yesterday…the day after I won the lottery!
So I go in and find a very nice girl who spoke good English.  She tells me the guide must pay $10.  So I tell this to the guide.  He goes into a new mode.  Now he’s upset (bec I caught him lying) and trying to turn it to my problem.  Well, he knows he’s the only guide in town.  Finally we renegotiate and get on to the shop where his bike is being fixed.  It’s there that he tells me that he has to wait a while before his bike is fixed.  I look, and it’s in pieces on the shop floor. Sure.   Have all day.  He also tells me that he has to carry a policeman nearly the whole way.  What?!  I tell him that I’m going for gas and pay him half.  Give me the permit and I’ll pay the second half if he shows in Meo Vac.  But I tell him not to even bother; just take my $ and stay home.  I don’t want a guide anyway.  I’ve been having a great time asking directions from random people along the road
I leave him with the cop at the mechanic.  I wouldn’t see him until much after dinner and dark.  Unfortunately.
The first part of the drive was a drop.  Then the road climbed a bit. Eventually, the road climbed and climbed.  The last 22 km of the trip were sureal.  This is as good as any scenery I have seen in my life. Certainly I was beside myself.  I filmed a lot of the decent into Meo Vac.  The canyon I drove into was towering tall.  Rocks had slid down from high above, leaving massive craters in the road.  Many rocks had just fallen and were still in the middle of the road.  The sight of these rocks was terrifying. At any moment another cluster of rocks could drop.  I couldn’t believe that kids were able to travel here on their own.
As scenery goes, this ride was the highlight of the trip around the world.  Period.
After this slow 22 km, I decided to get back to Hanoi as soon as possible.  Maybe two days.
In Meo Vac, I went out searching for dinner.  I am definitely the only white person in town.  In fact, the hotel I’m staying in isn’t even labeled as a hotel!  I had to ask a local to point one out to me.  I was standing right in front of it.  On the way from the hotel to dinner I walked past a group of boys kicking a “kick-chicken”.  That’s what I call this thing that consists of a weight with feathers coming out of one end.  They kick it in a circle.  I’d never tried it, but when I walked by it came my way.  I kicked at it and actually made good contact.  An hour later I was still there playing!  Then dinner.  Forgot walet at hotel.  With sing language, I explained this had headed back to get my wallet.
After paying, I walked back to hotel.  There was “my guide”.  He’d just gotten in and it was well after dark…and he wanted the rest of his $.  I gave it to him. He left and took the permit to the police to prove he’d been there. He insisted that I won’t be able to leave town without him.  Sure.  Hopefully I won’t see him again.  ;)
I went searching for the karaoke bar I’d seen on the way into town…and on the way, I got called into a scotter repair station. Some of the kids I was playing kick-chicken with we’re having dinner. I came into the shop and took off my shoes.  They were eating and drinking moonshine out of a beer bottle poured into shot glasses.  I sat with them and told sign language stories for a couple hours.  It was a great time.  We drank this rice-vodka and laughed and carried on.  They were so cool.  Just normal kids.
I motivated everyone to get to the karaoke bar.  Classic!  They did some Vietnamese songs and I did some Toad and some Barry Manilo and G. Michael!  Ha ha. It was a great night.  I was showing them a few breakdancing moves.  A couple of the kids were really good at it.
Came back to hotel about 10:30.

One of the best days ever.  Didn’t speak much English at all after about 9:30 am.  These people are so amazing, even with the language barrier.  Overall, I am impressed by the Vietnamese people I’ve met.  The kids tonight had a world-map and were pointing and making bombing sounds.  That was a little awkward, but they played it down.  I don’t feel like anyone holds a grudge about the war here, even with the presence of the older generation.
Today was again, on of the best days of travel and of my life!
I whole heartedly recommend this motorbike trip!!!
Next few days guide me toward Hanoi.
Safely!!!!
Best,
-Zank

Day 9…my birthday: Meo Vac  to Hanoi, 375km!!!

Left the camera off for most of the day.  This one was to sit as a memory.
It was MASSIVE.  375 km worth and 12 hours!!!  The roads were insane.  I got well off the beaten path.  Must have crossed no fewer than eight bamboo bridges, paying about 12 1/2 cents apiece.  Rode like I was on fire.  Really put the Yamaha through its paces…jumping over big ruts and riding through rocky streams.  At one point, found a huge dead-end in the form of a mountain-wall cul-de-sac.  A local village man hopped on the back of the bike and helped me back out for about 30 km (that’s about an hour!)  I was dead lost.  It was magnificant.  Unequivocally the best day of riding for me.  Up on tall ridges with monsterous ruts, powering through the hills along paths where hill tribes were assembling for the day’s market.  The men shouted encouragement and the kids just pointed.  The vistas vanished at my sides as I kept an eagle-eye on the road ahead and broke the 40 km/hr average barrier, then 50!
Luckily, as the road turned to pavement, I got behind an ambulance and guided me at nearly a 65 km/hr average straight into Hanoi!!!  It was dark and I was tired and we were hauling as$! Hair on FIRE!!!
The best road trip.  Ever.

Thank you everyone in Vietnam and especially the beautiful people in the mountains of the Northwest.  You are inspirational.

Leaving tomorrow, if all goes well today procuring various things I need. I’ll be riding with a spare tire and some tools for working on the bike, should it break down. I’ll have a single change of clothes and, of course, the camera gear.

Massive vistas from towering mountain passes. Mud slides. Mechanical failures. Days and days alone. It’s all coming.

Right now, all limbs and faculties are working. I just hope that when I come back to Hanoi I can say the same. I’ll be as safe as I can be! This is IT!!!

I’ll post if it’s available to me, but likely I’ll just post a massive one on return.
Best,
-Z

There was a lot to see and hear during this tour. It avoided the gory (there’s plenty of it here and doesn’t require searching!).

I found it intreasting that I came for the tunnels at Vinh Moc, but they were hardly the most impressive part of the day. Maybe the crater from a bomb dropped by the US just outside the tunnel entrance was more impressive. Maybe the fighter plane captured by the N Vietnamese and after only six days of trial-and-error training used against the south, including the US troops. Maybe it was the look on our guides face when he smiled after telling us about life during and amidst the war.

On to Hanoi.

Where the Cambodians were sagacious, the Vietnamese are both quick to get it and equally hilarious! Everyone’s up for a joke; when I’d nearly cartwheel on one of the ridiculous HCMC curbs there was always someone to point and give an understanding laugh. It was really refreshing. I spent two days meeting lots of Vietnamese and really enjoying the interactions.

Food? Good, not great here. I’m still Thai-spoiled. Fresh is an understatement, and that’s a real plus.

Yesterday, 17 Jan, took the Lonely Planet recommended walking tour. My second such endeavour of this, now five month old trip’ and really enjoyed myself. HCMC has a ton to see and food is never far away.

Visited HCMC museum. Saw some of the Vietnamese war exhibits. These are the mild ones and I was a wreck…so I made a note to skip the War Crimes museum and etc. The re-unification Palace was a great stop. For just under $1 I took a guided tour. Lots of amazing moments transpired in some of those rooms. The highlight was definitely the basement with the war-planning rooms with their original typewriters and rotary phones and secret staircase.

On a bus now. Going to Pnom
Pen (sp?), the capital. I’m sitting 3 feet from the only speaker on this stinky bus. It’s blasting the audio from the Cambodian comedy show that’s playing at the front of the bus. This is entertainment and presumably makes the trip go by faster. So, while I search for earplugs, everyone’s laughing and enjoying the show. I always get the screaming baby on flights and seem to now also attract the brain-meltingly loud speaker on bus trips. As I pray for a massive electrical disturbance that knocks out the DVD system, the guy two seats in front of me sounds like he’s about to bark himself to death. I’m actually legitamately concerned.
But the road is paved, the bus has A/C and after 30 minutes I found the button to recline my seat back from its 90 degree angle.

At the end of my stay, the sandwich lady grabs a meat clever and starts mauling a coconut. When she’s done cutting through the thick, fibrous outside and making a hole to the inside, she grabs a plastic bag and flips the coconut up-side down into the little baggie. She handed it to the mom of the child who had been screaming. The mom tied the bag, tossed a straw in it and that was that! Tons of things are served in plastic bags. There’s absolutely nothing wrong or even weird about drinking from a plastic bag, but it sure looks funny at first.

I’m back in the bus. The driver turned the music back up. I went catatonic earlier and asked him to turn it down before I pulled all my hair out. I give myself about another hour before I’m just a drooling vegetable. It’s Cambodian karaoke. I guess it’s cool to follow along as though you were singing, but you’re not.

================================

I met some children at the highest point in Angkor Wat. I was teaching them the art of Temple Jumping! This guy caught on quickly!!  Mom offers encouragement.  Sister watches on.

Then the kid just launches one.  What a rocket.  Righ over the onlooker.  SWEET, this kid was a natural.

Getting here:
-Wake-up call: 4 am.
-Taxi to bus 5 am.  (I took 3 1/2 minutes to get ready!  What was the lady at the reception thinking at 4 am?!!!
-bus takes 3 hours to get to border.  The usual bus for tourists takes 6 hours.  I got lucky with an inside tip.
-got off bus and eventually found the line to leave Thailand
-wait in line to get visa for Cambodia.

The Cambodian visa is an elusive creature; the visa guys try to overcharge everyone.  The police are in on it too.  Throughout this trip, a quick mention of police gets things moving along quickly in the right direction.  That’s largely because the appearance of a country to tourists as a whole is usually quite important.  This is not the case in Cambodia.  Come.  Go.  They just couldn’t care much less.  Eventually with the third request to an officer I got my visa and was off on the back of an open truck.  250 meters later, got passport stamped.  100 meters later took a bus to the taxi/bus station…or dirt lot, really that’s what it was.  The bus takes 6 hours + and would leave in 2 1/2 hours.  The taxi was $5 more, but left right away.
So, I piled in with three friends I made in line and we were off.  This 162 km dirt road cannot be described.  Instead, some facts:

-vehicle of choice is a Toyota Carola sedan.  Jacked up about 5 inches.
-we had 2 flats.
-pot holes?  It’s not like that.  It’s so much worse.  A pot hole would be a smooth part in comparison to what we were driving over.  At times I thought the car would disappear.

Entrance to Cambodia.  Visa station just out of picture to right.

Typically overloaded truck.

Main temple of Angkor Wat in BG.

View from Angkor Wat temple back to entrance gate.

Hanging 10 off the top of Angkor Wat.

Looking outside window in Angkor Wat perimeter structure.

In Banyon Temple.  I believe there are over 200 of the faces seen in BG.  My favorite of the 15+ I visited in three days.

Another temple.  The roots of some of these ingrown trees were breathtaking.  There were 50 people standing in awe just outside the frame of this pic.

Another temple.  My favorite travel pic in quite some time.

One of the statues built into a temple.

Another temple.  More of the intricate stone work.

Workers climbing up a crane tower.  Why?  I had no idea.

Another temple.  The view directly up from the center out the top of the tower.  This is one of the more “organized” openings.  Some looked ready to collapse at any moment.

A boy searches for something in the mud pit.  They did this all over Cambodia.  Just what the harvest from these man-made pits I don’t know.

A girl sits high up on a temple and reads as the sun sets.  I rested at many of these temples in a similar way.  This picture really captures the mood of many of us at this point in the day when legs are tired and escape from the many sales pitches is so very welcome.

That same temple from the ground level.  Sun is setting.  Dusk made the temples so much more special.  It would be quite something to visit each one at this time of day, a task that would certainly require more than a month here.

Another temple.  My antics.  The view from here was worth it.

Mtn biking was a great way to see the temples.  Even on a BEAST like this one

“Hey Mistah!”  Ten postkahd, one dollah!”  EVERYWHERE you go….

The last sign of a great day…

So, it’s been officially > five weeks since I last slept in a dorm room. SE Asia is so inexpensive, it’s just not necessary to keep the cost down that low.

While back in Bangkok, made plans to meet up with the two Aussies from Phuket. Went down to Koh San Road and shared a drink, out of a bucket…a french guy and his wife walked by. We’d originally met on Ko Sai island while snorkeling…such a tiny place, and there they were, two days later. It was hilarious. We we’re then seven and as a group made our way to the revered petrol station for the next bucket. The pictures from the menus at the petrol station were hilarious to read and this time I got pictures…will post.

Managed to wrestle a Vietnamese visa out of the nice people at the Vietnamese Embasy.
“Nice”. Yeah, like how the people at the DMV are “nice”. Sort of like, I wonder who would win a fight to the death, me or those three behind the counter holding my visa until 4 pm for no reason and laughing at me for wanting it earlier, or at all, “nice”. Anyway, I now have a visa good for one month past 16 Jan. Got the malaria prophylaxis pils. Bring on those little blood-sucking death-bugs of the far north!

On a bus now from Bangkok to the Cambodian border on my way to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I decided last night to do it today. That still has to be one of the oddest feelings, unique to travelers (or pre-depressive lottery winners), just picking a place within striking distance and going there as soon as possible. Cambodia? Sure. It’s bizarre. It would be like waking up in San Diego and saying Yosemite… then thumbing through a guide book for the route and getting on a bus two hours later with little or no idea what’s in store.
It’s brilliant.

Farewell Thailand and:
Bye pad thai. I will miss you dearly. May we meet again…in my kitchen!
Bye $5 Rolexes and Breitlings and Ray Bans and, well, just about anything’s $5 in Bangkok if you look long/hard enough.
Bye $2, one-hour taxi rides.
Bye street food!! (the best, for real)

Made it to the bus station in Pattaya. The guy there points down the road and says to wait (somewhere) over there for the bus. Sure. Love to! Turns out the bus (only 4/day) was just about to leave. Sweet. Bus to truck to ferry to truck to hotel. Best accomodation yet in Thailand…and, of course, the cost scaled accordingly. Stayed at Saffron on the Sea. And it was awesome. Best food here in Thailand…by far. I have a couple recipes I was able to talk out of one of the cooks, Matt. I’ll post pics of the recipes: pad thai and papaya salad, two huge thai staples.

Days on Ko Chang were mellow. Scootered around the island. Kayaked. Took a 1/2 day snorkel trip to nearby Koh Wai island. It was poor to just barely fair. The island was beautiful, but the howling night winds killed the underwater visibility. This was the perfect excuse for me to spend the day nearly maiming myself jumping the pier railing into the shallow, fish-filled water.
It sure made for good pictures.

Last night got sick from the pork in the pad thai the night before…that’s four times on this trip. Fine today. It was just a small one…not the type that takes my legs from me for 3 days and hurts for the better part of seven!

Some of the island roads were crazy. During a trip CW and nearly around the island, went up some hills so steep that the front wheel of the (pink) scooter was just hovering over the rocks. It was a blast and surely a small-scale primer for the Vietnam trip to come.
Bought a Vietnam guide book and am preparing plans for that monster….

In Bangkok now.
Hanoi on 15th.
-Best, z

—-

I bought this toothpaste. It’s Colgate. It tastes like mint…a good thing. It also, however tastes like some weird grass. It’s not lemon grass, my first guess. It tastes like I just grabbed a half-chewed handful of pasture-grass out of the mouth of a milk cow and threw it on my toothbrush. It’s absolutely terrible, but at least it’s not spicy!

—-

Hi, I made a reservation. I’m just calling to confirm and say that I’m on the way.

-oh. You have a reservation?

Yes.

-when do you want a room?

Well, I made a reservation for tonight and tomorrow.

Click

-hi, how can I help you?

Ah, yes, I have a reservation for tonight.

-you want room tonight?

I’m on the bus. Z-A-N-K.

-ok, what dates?

Tonight and tomorrow.

-Check in on six?

Yes. You have my reservation?

-where are you calling from?

I’m on the bus. I have no idea where I am. There’s a good chance I got on the wrong bus anyway.

-From six to seven?

Yes. So, you have the reservation?

-how many nights?

Um, two. How much is the room?

-[some amount]

Oh. That’s 300 baht more than the girl told me yesterday.

-whats your name.

Huh?

-where are you?

CLICK.

…..that happens daily! I’m developing skills that I may never need again, but there coming along none the less.

In the afternoon watched a movie under a hut and ate some pad thai (duh!). Worst pt yet…I think the lady was British! Ha.

Sitting on the bank of a creek right now. Just went for a post-nap swim complete with a rope swing and a good visit to the hard, rocky bottom. No broken bones, but some good bruising and a bit of blood.

The Aussie guys with Aly.  Notice all the illuminated hot-air balloons in the background; some are just about to take off and the other are cluttering the dark sky.
Back on the streets, people were lighting giant strips of firecrackers (some up to 10,000 long!). The idea was to unroll the strip as quickly as possible while people passed close by, so as not to draw too much attention to the miniature BOMBS.  Then light the fuse and watch people jump out of their skins.  It worked!  We’d be walking along and a machine gun would start going off at our feet.  Soon a big circle would clear where the strip was laid until the bangs were done and the procession would continue normally, if not a bit more leery than before.
These guys would never fully get the whole roll laid out and when the explosions reached the clump there was a HUGE bang.  It was really fun running around trying not to get our toes blown off!  Really

One of the top new years ever!

Me, the two Aussies and Aly.

This terrible picture was taken when I picked up a real police helmet from the scooter-backet of his official police scooter.   It HAD to be done.  I’m not in jail, so I guess it was ok…not my general rule of conduct

What would a new years be without a homelessZank photo?  That stuff on my face is from getting mauled by silly-string at the festivities.  Ha ha.  Please ignore the man-pris.  I think I was doing some wading before the pic was taken.

Day trips from Phuket:
Nai Harn (or Han, depending on the map) beach- a tranquile, open beach with lots of reclining beach chairs for rent and a a relaxing atmosphere.  Apparently there’s good surf there, but not that day.

Patong (must be Thai for CHAOS) beach-for new years with two Aussies from the hostel.
Kata beach-got a free ride from a local.  Sweet.  Had an evening swim…sunset…some reading…dinner…does it get any better?  …more on New Years post…
Island trip from the hostel near Wat Chalong to the Royal Phuket Marina (about 25 km, 3 hrs!) and from there took a long boat to Ko Yao Noi island.  The island was fair, but refreshingly incrowded.  We had a coconut drink at a great viewpoint off the eastern coast looking out to scattered islands stretching straight towards the sky.

Here’s the view…amazing!!!

That night, came home and met up with the two Aussies from new years and went to Cobra pier.  We played guitar for a while and eventually jumped into Chalong Bay, doing flips, exchanging stories and having another unforgettable time.  The water housing for my mini digital camera has been a huge asset.
Really good pics of that night…

Playing some songs before the swim…

This type of notice can be found all over.  I don’t see anything about flipping off municipal piers

Took a few day trips to the local islands/beaches including Ao Nang beach, Railay beach, Chicken (it looks just like a chicken!) and Poda islands.  It all sounds much more impressive than it was, but the water was warm, mildly clear and there were many caves and interesting coastline features to explore.

 
Going DEEP…

 
White-boy crossing the distance between Railay and the nearby island.  Carrying my bag above my head to keep the video camera dry…

Going inside a cave…

 
At Railay beach there are wild monkeys living along the path connecting two long beaches.  It was really cool to get within inches of these tame monkeys.  We saw four adolescents and a mother.
Ate pad thai right off the bow of a longboat at Railay beach!  :)

The long-boat driver.  Note the rock overhang in background…we drove right under it.

Aly and I take a taxi ride…the camera’s view is from front looking out the back of the mini-truck-style taxi thing.

Ko Samui is a aquare-ish island shaped like Portugal & Spain. I stayed on the north coast in Hat Mae Nam with clear views of the island Ko Pha-Ngan to the north.
It was quite windy for the four days on the island and so while it was beautiful, the water was never clear enough to snorkle.
Days were spent scootering around the island and visiting waterfalls and finding amazing food for very little $.
The main beach, Hat Chweng, was bananas with people and clubs and tourist stores everywhere.

All the stores/stands sell Diesel, Ray Ban and everet other brand like I’ve never seen. Want a Rolex? $3. Want some sued trunks? $10. Want the latest jeans from any label? $10-20. It’s ridiculous and everywhere. How about some pad thai for lunch and a Gucci watch? No problem!
Aly’ from SD, has been here on this leg of the trip and We’ve been having a blast seeing all of this.
Christmas was really mellow. The Thai people don’t celebrate Christmas so it’s not a big deal here. Refreshingly so. We went out for dinner with a pair of German girls from the bungalo next-door and had a great time. We sat at a table about 3 metres from the water and small, lapping waves. No windows, just open sky and water and far-off lights of Ko Pha-Ngen.

Today, 26 Dec, it’s off to Krabi, a great jump-off place to reach many of the famous and most beautiful beaches that were hit by the tsunami, two years ago this month.

Everything’s going very well, with some comedic adventures sprinkled in…
-my WAMU visa card, the one that has been cancelled FIVE times by “fraud prevention”, has become demagnetized. I’m still too upset to comment on this one. Please send money and the name of a REAL bank!!!! My phone bill to them alone could sustain a Thai island for months.
-I left my mini-guitar in the first bus today. Got out and realized 20 seconds later what I’d done. White-boy was hailing-ass down the middle of the street after the bus waving arms wildly…I actually passed a couple of mopeds as I weaved in and out of the moving traffic Caught the bus no problem. Everyone got a good laugh.
-although not offensively loud, (or maybe my tolerence is high) they’re playing Thai music now on this bus and the karaoke monitor is showing the words. They’re SERIOUS about it here. It’s glorious.
-a few minutes ago I pulled something hard out of the bite of rice-cake I was chewing. It was a metal staple. I’m having a difficult time with this one. It’s much worse mentally than the rock I pulled from my mouth last week while munching a good plate of pad thai; I really chewed that staple good! My mouth tastes like chewed metal now.

This is THE tourist shot.

I’m about 175 meters up in this picture…Ha ha!

Me and Mohamad, my taxi driver with the Giza pyramids in the background.

(with our up-side-down glasses on!)

the cool guy I originally met on this trip, in Portugal.  I’ll be here for 7 days to visit and explore the area.  Staying on a great island called Lamma.  It’s such a bizarre place.  There’s a huge expat community here and those who aren’t speak perfect English.  It seems that everyone knows everyone else here.  I’ve met quite a few people so far and am really loving it.  Today is my second day, and already I have friends to greet in the streets.  There are no cars allowed here, so the “streets” are nothing more than pedestrian walkways.

Well, now, back in Bangkok and at the same tired hotel… ;)  Soon to the islands…

I was under the weather for my first few days in Hong Kong.  Good for some R&R.  James started work (at Chick on the Run, none the less!) the day after I arrived, so I was on my own.  I explored the island of Lamma and, when I felt better, went for a run from our town to the next town up, near the peak.  James’s girlfirend Pam suggested we gather a crew and go for a hike up the main peak on Lamma.  It was a great idea and we made the round-trip in about 5 hours!  Good, steep, rugged climbing.  Very overgrown and steep.  Brush was occasionally overhead for 20 meters at a time.

Spent some time in Hong Kong city.  The ferry ride from Lamma was about 30 minutes and then transport in the town was quite simple.  The shopping is insane.  They have electronics that we’ll likely never have in the US…and this matters to ME!! ;)  I bought a simple picture storage-device/ viewer.  Now I don’t have to worry about my memory cards filling up…

Took a tram to the top of Hong Kong island for the spectacular views found there.  Amazing architecture.  Everything’s so clean…the lines, the streets, everything.  I had set my timer to 2 seconds and was just spinning around to the camera in this shot. 

At night after James would get off work, we would go to one of the pubs on the island.  It wasn’t inexpensive, either.  Prices were just below those in the US, save anything electronic.  Food could be found cheap, but often it was not.
one particular evening, we got a whole crew together for dinner…picture…

Easy, quick Train ride to Aswan.  Easily found the nice hotel room.  They had folded a towel into a cobra snake and left that on the bed.  Apparently, someone thought this was a good idea.  I looked under the bed like 50 times making sure the cloth snake didn’t have any cold-blooded friends…

The markets in Aswan were more of the same…impossible to walk by without endless hastling.
First day in Aswan…the most impressive part of Egypt..the Karnak Temple.  Amazing pillars there.  A forest of 158 pillars, so tall and mighty greeted me just 100 metres into the temple and proved the most impressive part of the whole trip, as far as sights went.

I spent the second day exploring the west bank of the Nile and the toumbs found there, then rode a Camel over to a nearby monestary and an unfinished obelinsk.  The camel was real unhappy, so I just walked most of the way.  I felt like I was in one of those movies where the actors are stranded out in the middle of nowhere and the sand-combed dunes extend as far as sight allows.  It was beautiful.

The overnight train was easy and, on my last half-day in Cairo, wandered around a couple churches and markets I’d wanted to see…well, not really, but people told me not to miss them!  ;)  so, after begging a hotel manager to allow me to store my bag and guitar for a day…I was off on foot.  I’m still surprised I didn’t get hit by a car or that I wasn’t in a car accident.  Driving there is an art.  Truly.

Left Egypt, en route to Bangkok, Thailand.

Spent the morning at the Temples of Karnak.  The columns at hypostyle hall were enough to reduce me to a giggling child.

They were so tall.  And there were 158 of them, all in one area.  I just started laughing as I looked up at their height.  There are no descriptive words, so maybe a quote written about Karnak is apt,
By Amelia Edwards:

**
It is a place that has been much written about and often painted; but of which no writing and no art can convey more than a dwarfed and pallid impression…The scale is too vast; the effect too tremendous; the sense of one’s own dumbness, and littleness, and incapacity, too complete and crushing.
**

Met a group of school children there today.  All about 10. They wanted to take a picture with me so I could go home and show everyone what the Egyptian children look like.  I was ready to engage in some sort of mass adoption.  Beautiful children!

A woman just walked by the café where I’m having lunch.  She had a massive bag balanced on her head.  Walking.  There’s another with a huge pan of something.  Balanced.

Just crunched into the Egyptian bread (like a cross between naan and pita) than came with lunch.  It’s not supposed to crunch…that’s the sand…baked in…let’s you know it’s made here and not like Wonder Egyption Bread or something!!!  It kinda brings a smile.

Last night, walking along main drag here in town, was invited into a place where the Egyptian bread is made.  Very cool!  For a small tip, the guys working there let me try the hot bread and take a look at the whole process from the giant mixer to the conveyor belt oven where these guys turned out maybe a hundred pieces per minute.
…..

Luxor 3:
Took a sunset felucca ride last night along the Nile.  It was ok, but there was hardly any wind so the boat made no headway against the current. In an hour we’d gone only about 30 meters upstream.  And after haggling with 563,242 other boat captains before getting a ride I really didn’t want it at all.  The badgering here is unprecidented anywhere I have ever been.  If you’re outside, anywhere, you can expect to have al least two people talking at you, or yelling if you don’t respond.  ”No, thank you”, quickly became my first Arabic phrase!

Then, after a nap, I took a nice walk around the central Luxor Monument.  I heard a band playing and walked up to the window and was quickly beconed in.  They were filming a music show for TV. I listened for a while and when the last song was over, met the guys in the band who let me play a rababa, which is the instrument that gives Egyptian music its unique sound and atmosphere.  I love it, but couldn’t do much useful on the rababa.  It was a great experience off the well worn tourist path.
This morning (01 DEC) off to Aswan, a three-hour train ride south.  Tomorrow night, it’s an overnight trip back to Cairo…then a LONG flight to Bangkok.

Hiked all around the West Bank’s Valley of the Kings.  Amazing.  More taxis and donkeys and camels…

View from the top of the Valley of the Kings!  Lunch break!  I challenged a local guide who just wouldn’t leave me alone to a race to the top…these guys just don’t give up.  It’s simply amazing.  He declined…then gave me a guilt trip for free.

 
Can’t remember where this was…but it was my favorite spot…will update name.

I just can’t find myself in the picture among the hieroglyphs…

-population, bearing 20,000,000
-dinner first night here, $0.95. Was stuffed afterwards.
-the Egyptions…among the nicest people on the face of the earth.
-learned how to make paper today from a sacred egyption reed.
-taxis. Well, there are no road rules here…some examples: no lanes exist. Traffic goes BOTH ways around any rotary. Seatbelts? J-walking is a necessary artform…and you’d better be good, FAST.
-horns, they go all the time. I was mildly annoyed…The cab driver called the incessant horns “music” and suddenly…I understood; it’s how they communicate…and it’s art. They drive nearly as much with ears as eyes.
-ran a 4:30 lap around the second largest pyramid of Giza.
-smog is so thick, breaths are shallow and short, by necessity. Visibility is never > 1 mi.
-everyone has a service to sell you and to the Egyptions, “no” is an unequivocal “maybe”.
-i took the time to learn all the Egyption numbers. o7V is 567, believe it or not!
-written Arabic flows beautifully!
-buildings are constructed from the (finished) ground floor up. When the early floors are done, renters move in as the builders (most of the time) keep building higher.
-i have seen goats grazing in giant trash/rock/dirt pits between buildings. 80 m x 100 m.
-in similar spaces I have seen soccer goals set and the trash pushed to massive sideline piles.

 
The “Sound and Lights” show, my first night in Cairo.  A   L O N G taxi ride to get there.

My Taxi!  Peugeot 504 (i think)

Possibly my favorite picture of the trip.  Just to the left of his chin, barely visible, the barrel of his automatic weapon creeps out of the window.  Scary as hell!  This was the locomotive car of the overnight train to Luxor.  They’re there to make us all feel safer.  Hmmm.

4 days here, then on to Cairo on Monday…and 7 days later to Bangkok!

Picking one day on which to be thankful seems silly to me for the first time. I’ve been waking up lately in full appreciation of how lucky I am for what it is that I’m doing and that my arms and legs work and I’m capable of this trek. It’s been amazing so far, and I already miss the places and people that/who made this trip what it’s already been!
Thanks to everyone who’s
Been there along the way.

I wish you all a happy Turkey Day!
-Zank

Possibly my favorite picture of the trip.  THis double mirrow was somewhere along the city streets of Zagreb.

Went for a hike in Croatia’s biggest of eight national parks.  Waterfalls everywhere.  THis is at the end of the hike where the boat dropped me off.  Five hours of bus riding…1.5 hours of hiking!

Saturday, didn’t do much. Mostly stayed at the hostel, but did manage to have lunch with a friend of James’s from our stay in Portugal. Sat night, we stayed in the hostel and played music and talked…great times with great people.

Sunday evening, we all went to the same bath again…this time with the water housing for my camera. We had a blast. The bath has a sauna, a snow machine, a cold!!! pool a hot pool, a medium temp hot pool with a whirlpool in the middle…and more and more. This place is HUGE.

L to R: Fraser, Mark, Wong, Will, Me, Dan, Rosanne.
We came out rubberized and looking for some live music…so back to the hostel and then back to downtown to a pub that 10 minutes prior had had live music….but there WAS NFL football playing!
From there to another spot just down the block until about 4 am. Monday morning was my time to leave, but there were plans in place to visit a field/park of old Soviet monuments that had previously been placed around Budapest. There was Stalin staring at us from high at the entrance. Seven of us spent a couple hours climbing up these things and jumping off them and just generally having a good time. These pictures are hilarious and great at the same time.

Monday night, the seven of us plus a couple more made dinner for eachother and Fraser rented a couple movies for a mellow movie night. After dinner, we all went into one of the larger dorm rooms and filmed a video for a song I’d just written. Motivated by a suggestion from Dan, we got the whole hostel in this one room and used a rough recording to lip sync the words and dance/jump around. It was a great time and everyone was so cool about doing it. Can’t wait to edit the footage together! Thanks to everyone who participated…you guys are awesome!

This hostel was unlike any place I think I have ever stayed. I think it was like what a commune must be like. So many people extended their stay after arriving and sampling the atmosphere. People there ware always coming together to do things or just sit around and talk. People were so generous. I traded my green jacket and red gloves for a new (read different) cost and sweet Russian leather hat! It would be easy to stay there for a month or more. As they told me when I arrived, the place just sucks you in. The experience of this sort of living was tremendous, if markedly different than all others I have had on this trip. I can’t say I got much of a feel for the Hungarian people as I might have, but I wouldn’t have traded the friendships.

I slept through most of a really good movie and now am on the train in Slovenia after just passing Zagreb, Croatia. It’s much more mountainous here. Just beautiful. About an hour from Ljubljana…say that name three times fast OR slow!

Last night had a drink in a crazy pub…I think the name was death…but can´t be sure…there were glass encased skeletons everywhere…even the acquarium had fish skeletons “swimming” around.  To get to the bathroom, I had to push a fake bookshelf that was really a door…how cool is that?

Updated the Nida, Lithuania posting with pictures…worth a look.
best,

-Z

Bored…this is from Nida, Lithuania.  There was this quarter-sized reflective wall hanging thinggy.  It took a while to get the camera to focus then I hit pay-dirt.  Ahhh.
An older pictures…from my hostel room in Krakow…had a 4-bunk room to myself.  Played a lot of guitar in front of that window.

Apparently, in Budapest, it is possible for every person to litter the sidewalk twice a year with whatever trash he/she pleases…this is an opportunity for scavengers of all types and a few homeless pictures…ha ha

 TV anyone?

 
Another random homeless shot…please send money…not for a hotel, but for a CHANGE OF CLOTHES!!!!  Notice same jacket/pants combo…it’s getting old!  Only 9 days left before tropics…
        
some sight-seeing…
 

Dan (a true musical genius, if the look on his face doesn’t give it away) and I.

Adam plays the mini…

Card game…the before-going-out antics!

the group from the Backpackers’ Hostel.  Great group of guys/girls

The after-going-out antics…I’m the one with the hat (that someone else found in a trash pile then told me later) on.  I think there are about 5 people in the phone booth invisible to the camera…Dan is in upper right…squished! The Swedish guy in the front looked like that for about the whole night.

The bars and nightlife here are great.  The town has a very young, lively vibe, despite the antiquity.  Visited the old Jewish quarter today. Going to the salt mines tomorrow.

I’ve already mapped out all the good pastry shops…getting FATTER every day!!! mmmmmmmmm!

Me and Erica…on the crazy party boat…

“my” pier in Stockholm on the island where I stayed in the prison.  The sunsets were sensational.

Dancing in Stockholm…no comment.

Some friends in Stockholm.  Temi (Ayo’s brother) in bottom right…

Erica, Elizabeth and I on the boat in Stockholm…i can almost hear them playing “Eye of the Tiger” in the background…

 
Half the crew from the evening…notice the “art”  ha ha!  Bushi…or Baltimore on my left…I don’t think he even has a real name…eh, Bushi?  ;)
From there, back to the first place for a little more “atmosphere”. Then…there’s a tradition in Łódź. It goes like this: before the evening gets really going, everyone buys a bottle of vodka and heads to the central gas station to sit on the cement wall and drink vodka. I thought they must be kidding, but sure enough, we come walking around the corner and the wall is just littered with the night’s empty bottles…these people drink vodka like it’s beer. Really.
So, in about 2 degree weather we sit and, between the three of us, finish off the bottle of polish vodka called Absolvent. I think it’s a Polish word meaning grappa…which is an Italian word meaning that which tastes rather bad and makes for a vicious headache the next day!

After the bottle of rubbing alcohol is done, we go back to the first bar to meet many of Marcelina’s friends. This girl, it turns out, is like the unofficial mayor of Łódź and knows just about everyone, everywhere we go. So, I make a ton of friends and the night was terrific.

Me with bottle of “death” and Damian holding the cups…

Hilarious…Marcelina…met in Albufeira, Portugal.  …it’s a little COLDER now!  Notice gas station in background…

Sat. Woke up early and went for some lunch with Marcelina and her brother Maciek (pronounced like “magic”). Saw the old city a very small amount and took a good tourist photo or two. Visited a funky, independent movie theater called Lemon (only, in Polish)..definitely something 99% of tourists would miss alltogether. Very cool place.

Sat. night started at my new residence, Maciek’s house. We learned that the state between New Hampshire and New York is called “vermin”….with a polIsh accent… Ha ha. Played some guitar and of course, there was the vodka again. Everyone sang along to a song or two…even in Poland where I was told that no one appreciates live music! Ahem.

Luckily, we skipped the gas station tradition and went straight to a small club called Coffees and Toffees for some dancing. By the end of the night, I’m pretty sure I knew 20 people. It was like being out at home, where it’s impossible to walk from one end of the bar to the other without stopping 15 times to say hello to people. It was great…then out into the rain for a taxi…
Spent the night at Maciek’s house and went this morning for breakfas…perogies!!! so good!

They took me to the train station…again, parting is such sweet sorrow.

Was a great weekend with amazing people everywhere I looked. Marcelina and Maciek were too kind and really gave me one of the best couple of days I could imagine in this small-ish, industrial town. Endless thanks to them for their kindness and generosity!

In true E European style, the city is well-labeled, but it’s still a but more difficult that other places to find one’s way…the walk to my hostel was one of the longest, and most serpentine! Once there, checked into a giant, nearly deserted, Russian-style building. The decor? Compession-formed particle board. Unpainted. I have my own bathroom. I can’t remember the last time that happened…
The place is actually quite close to the city center, but for the first days I would spend nearly 30 mins trying to get there! It’s now an eight-min walk.

My first night (felt more like three!), went out to find a vegetarian restaurant recommended in my travel book. Finally find the entrance which was really nothing more that a big hole in the ground. So, with low expectations, I went for it. How cool can it be…a bunch of weird Lithuanian vegetarians?! The restaurant was really a bar with damn good food and an excellent live-music venue. This dungeon had doors that led out from the main bar area to various eating/drinking/listening rooms. I got a table in the back with three goth girls. They were classic and spoke good (enough) English. The one in all black was explaining to me how when she met the other girl sitting across from her (dressed in all white), they had made a deal to always wear only that one color. She assured me that her entire closet contained nothing but black clothes. I took her word for it! I took an amazing picture of the three. Will post…
The band playing was one of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and certainly the best on this trip. I asked, but no CD, no web site.

From there, walked aroung in circles trying to find the next thing to do. Wound up at a really cool 2-level bar that was like an old ranch house with steep wooden stairs leading up to the second floor and a small dance floor. The music was, well, terrible. It’s not that I’m not down with Paris Hilton or that Wang Chung song, or She Bangs! She Bangs! or AC/DC…but how do they expect people to dance to that mix?

At 5 am, they kicked everyone out into the -6 C morning. A friend, Sandra, I had been dancing with wasn’t any more tired than I was and gave me a full guided tour of the city until 7 am…It was sureal! The snow was coming down in a constant white blanket as the morning sun made the sky just so subtly, deep orange. We were amidst castles and old fortresses and state buildings with massive columns…and everything was white! The lamps that illuminate the taller buildings stood out like cartoon spotlights as the snow lit their paths through the air. We stopped for a while in near white-out conditions to push snow off some of the tiles in front of the Vilnius Cathedral…looking for this special translucent one. When I found it, we brushed away all the snow and she told me the tradition of standing on the tile and spinning three times while making a wish, which will subsequently come true…
The last few days trump nearly every beautiful alpine experience I can ever remember, save one or two. It’s shocking! Have pictures…one great one of is walking, and trying, with both our mouths open, to catch snow flakes…..

Finally left vilnius Monday morning on a (slow!) bus to Warsaw, Poland.

Man, this is the best!!!! Really the best. All of it, even the sweet sorrow of leaving such a beautiful city to memories.

///////////
Dear Zank,
Thank You for the message and I hereby confirm your reservation in a fisherman’s house in  NIDA:
///////////

My picnic table…
 
The place is sweet. It’s a 5 (house with shared kitchen and I’m the only one. Just steps to the gulf of the Coronian Spit.
Was still so weak that I crashed in bed. Woke this morning to? SNOW!! It covered everything…I thought! I was like Calvin, racing to get my coat and gloves and get into it. The thing to do is to hike out onto the famous dunes that dorm the spit and separate the gulf from the Baltic Sea. I thought there might be some icy surf today.

Hiked all around. The views were nice, not exceptional…but the snow was magical! From the top, of the famous dune, I could see the Baltic surf blowing in and roaring to the shore. About 30 mins later, I was on the sand watching the big wind-generated rollers come in. The water was surprisingly warm; I’d say about 50 F.

Town of Nida in background and down, below the dune I´m standing on.

Patches of sun traded with a few cloudy moments and no snow until the walk home when it turned dark…then predictably WHITE! It’s nearly 11 pm and it’s been snowing since 3 pm. It’s the perfect weight snow and not too windy, so absolutely surface has at least 3 in of fresh powder. It looks as magical as I’ve ever seen. It’s always rare to have all the trees covered and fence tops and any other, however thin, surface covered.

Throwing snow…

Having a drink at the only open pub/restaurant open in the winter. Speaking German, bec it’s better than English for most people here. Lol!

I leave by bus in the morning for Vilnius, the capital. Monday to Poland.

…woke up this morning (Friday) to the same snow-covered landscape I wandered home through last night. It’s as beautiful a non-mountainous winter setting as I’ve ever seen, even after 18 winters in northeast America.

The house was another thing…the heater decided to RESET itself…woke to the strange feeling of ice forming on the top of my head. I kept dreaming about finding and putting on my hat. It was 57.2 F inside. Ha! I was frozen there before the heater shut off.
Bus driver is giving me an ulcer, pulling fishtails in the face of massive oncoming snow plows, blasting glam-rock through this oversized death-toaster. He’s not a day under 65.
Traveling

That night went out with all the other hostelers to the Jack Daniels bar…had orato spaghetti and a Jack/coke.

Feeling weird now.
By midnight, I was really getting it and, long story short, wound up getting vicious food-poisoning. No idea from what. No sleep before 6:30 am. Then only a couple hours. Pain was so complete that I couldn’t walk the entire next day. Canceled plans to do outer-city exploring. The people at the hostel could not have been nicer. Watched movies and the like for the whole next day. Perfect.
Note on this place: it’s really close to a bobsled track. Open to the public! Pulls five G’s apparently. No way, esp after being so sick. Also, there are caves and castles worth exploring. And, you can go shoot Soviet AK-47’s if that’s your thing. Classic. Welcome to E Euro!

Strong enough to barely tote the pack, finally left a day later. Still no food yet.
Made the bus to Nida, Lithuania.

These donkeys are following me EVERYWHERE

The local vendors and patrons…near HUGE trainstation emporium…H U G E!

Posting links to the pictures here at the top…

Running along the paths.  Amazing.  Green, brisk temps.

It’s cold here in Stockholm.  Like not icy cold, but just nippy or something.  If it were windy and/or raining, it would be ridiculously cold.  So today was spent exploring the city center and all it has to offer.  Here are a few pictures taken at sunset…note the new sweater!

Got a great guide book and am looking forward to going far north in as soon as a few days.   The arctic circle isn’t too far away and it seems like the place to be.  Some great views to see and exploring/hiking to be done.   Maybe a stopover at the famous Ice Hotel!  I think they start building/sculpting it in October.

Check this thing out!
http://www.icehotel.com/

Found out about a 10k run race this Sunday….might be fun…

Andre and Z.  Then, Aly with the greeeeeeen dress, giving dance lessons…!

Arrived in Munich a bit after noon on Monday, the last day of Oktoberfest. Called Judi, the girl I met in Barcelona, and arranged to meet later.
Went to the festival with Andre in liederhosen, his wife in the typical German wonen’s equivalent, Martin and his girlfriend. This thing is huge! So much bigger than I remember it from 11 years ago when last I was there. There are rides and games as far as the eye can see and food and beer tents and people wearing the craziest outfits. Too many men in leather shorts for me, but that’s cool….

We met another of Andre’s friends at one of the giant tents and managed to lie or bribe or something I couldn’t understand to get our way into the tent. The place was packed and apparently you can’t just walk in without knowing someone, especially on the last night.

When attacked by gaping-mouthed Oktoberfesters in white, use middle finger under arm pit to effectively remove the threat!  Who the!?  What the!!?

Once inside, we found a place to stand and spent about 30 minutes trying to talk one of the beer maids, read Hulk Hogans, to give us a few beers…and it was on! An hour later and we’re singing traditional Bavarian drinking songs and carrying on with the rest of the idiots in typical fashion. It’s amazing how all the words just come back like I sing them every night before bed. Or something like that.

After standing there eating 2-foot round pretzels and getting hip-checked in all directions 85 times as Helga and her beer-maid cohorts made their fly-by’s, growling and carrying 15 beers in each hand, we left the tent to meet up with Judi, Astrid and their friends at another tent.
We were too late for the last round and so stayed until they kicked is out…around 11 pm. Judi kindly let me stay at her house, just a short walk from the festival so a bunch of us went there and stayed up half the night talking, taking ridiculous pictures and carrying on.

 
Waffles with cream and cherries…a Bavarian treat.  Notice the drool…LOL.

Judi the German, me.

 
Astrid, in true form!

The next day, it was off to an old castle in Göttingen for the German version of the wedding reception with family from Andre’s mom’s and dad’s side. We ate and drank for about 5 hours in the dungeon of this castle.

Now it’s off to Stockholm, the place it seemed I would never reach. I have made five changes to my original plan and ticket to go there on the 23rd of September directly from Barcelona. Now, finally, it’s off to the cold. No jacket. No umbrella. One long-sleeve shirt with any warmth whatsoever. It’s time to get some local clothing for the cold weather. Maybe I’ll actually look like I fit in…for a HUGE change!

John, Aine, Avery and me at the best restaurant in the world….Ranchos!!!
John, are you possessed in this one?

No one described this island to me and I’m thankful for that. No words can do it justice. The cliffs are so much taller than I’d expected. The whole place is magical.

Kristen and I rented a quad and explored the island with the wind in our hair and big smiles. I’m pretty sure, judging from the horns and flury of passers, that we rented the slowest quad on the island.

We watched the sunset on the north-west most point of the island on our second night. Just us and about 2000 other tourists! It’s a famous spot for watching the sunset. It’s just not as spectacular without the san Diego smog to really amplify the oranges and pinks!

Our second day, we took the donkey (read, DUNG) trail down the 500+ steps down to the ferry to the volcano that sits off the west coast of Santorini.

Atop the rim of the crater.

About to BELLY FLOP really badly!

With a mud-hawk from the mud in the volcanic hot prings.

The days were spent doing various activities. The first day, I rant for a run and explored the western tip of the island. The next day, Kristen took a spa afternoon. I walked a couple miles away and played guitar for nearly 5 hours as the sun set over the small mountain to my back and lit the hillside where our hotel was situated. I found a dilapidated cement pier and played for the fish in the clear green water. It was a magical place and very secluded. 100 meters from the pure was an incredible beach, only about 50 meters long. We would swim there as our last bit of fun on Ios.

The third day, before catching a 4:30 pm super-jet boat to Santorini, we rented a scooter and headed out to a nearly detached bluff at the farthest west point of Ios. Kristen and I hiked out to the very end, about a 40-minute hike with all the stops we made. We were surrounded by green water for 300 degrees at all times. It was an amazing hike with a small climb and a couple small false summits. It was Kristen’s first hike ever and one of my favorites. The end of the bluff allowed us hiking access to the water. We found a rocky, rocky beach and took turns wearing my shoes while swimming. It was truly a magical little cove. We have lots of pictures and I’ll post some soon.

Kristin on the way out to the point and swimming in the clear water at the amazing swim-hole at the point.

The return hike was only 15 minutes. It was off to the aforementioned beach for a quick swim in the calmer water and off to Santorini.

The verdict: much apart from the party scene for which Ios has gained notoriety is the peaceful serenity of the place and its complete affordability. This was an island full of magical spots that can be reached by hiking and exploring. These rugged parts are not to be missed when going to Ios.

Finally, Kristen gets in at 11 pm with no bags so we walk into town for some dinner and possibly to go out. Only the former happened, and would be the last we would see of the town of mykonos or any of the bars for that matter.

Got up the next morning and rented a scooter for me and a 4-wheeler for her…good times. We went all over that island and eventually wound up at Elias -sp?- beach. Laying there near the water was liken to standing in front of a stucco-removing sandblaster and asking if “this one goes to eleven”. It was very windy, and every so often a gust would come up and….BLAM…sand in places I didn’t even know existed yet!
Back to the hotel. Janis had asked me to play some guitar around sunset and so with a small crowd of international travelers and Janis I played and sang and we frank some great wine. The sun set and we finished a few bottles of wine. Considering it a special time, Janis brought out a bottle of wine made by his friend from grapes that grow right there at the hotel. Great stuff and soon everyone went for the pre-evening nap…a great Spanish tradition I’m embracing fully over here. Janis invited KrIsten and me to a party somewhere on the other side of the island.

We jump into his Omiros van and we’re off. We get lost like four times but alas arrived…deep into the Mykonos hilly interior. I’m pretty sure Kristen thought we were going to be abducted and so was a little concerned in the back seat. All was fine, and we were warmly welcomed at the party. Come to find out that Janis is very well known and respected on the island; he’s even running for public office. The party was great. Everyone was a Mykonos local. I’m pretty sure it was a party for a baptism. There was this DJ, Hans, who spun the best stuff I’d heard in years. He couldn’t have been a day under 60. I’ll have to post a pic soon.
Over the DJ, there was a parsschutte strung rather taughtly. It was blowing and flapping in the incessant Mykonos wind. Great scene, great people and an experience that I’m so grateful for. Mykonos is known as a party island and we had an experience that was just the opposite of the typical. No clubs, no 8€ drinks…but a great time with locals and homemade food and insane music.

We got home at around 2:30 am and argued about going into town until we fell asleep. Perfect.

Today, Sun, 17 SEP, went exploring on the scooters towards Panorma, on the north, or windward, shore. Found some great beaches, but amazingly, found the rocky, quite rugged, north shore. Picture the home of the cartoon character with the brush-helmet who kept talking about his X-14 space modulator…it was barren and windy and lonely, yet perfectly preserved in its ruggedness. The rocks were damn sharp, but we managed to avoid flats and it was a perfect exploratory end to the Mykonos portion of the trip.

I almost flipped my scotter at 40 mph coasting down this massive hill. The hill ended abruptly, the bike’s front wheel hit it and the shock bottomed out violently, and the bike bucked me so hard my feet rose above the seat in response. I never let go and pulled it. Idiot American on a scooter!

Now on Ios.
Ran (of course) to catch the ferry from Mykonos, bec Janis and I were exchanging music on my MP3 player - I’m loaded with greek goods now. I’ll be sure to pass on any gems I discover in there.

Ios is beautiful. The view from our deck (this is starting to be an unbelievable trend) is breathtaking. There are several island peaks on the near-horizon that merge together in the distance just over the vanishing pool…the floors everywhere are made of cool, translucent marble. This is unequivocally one of the nicest places I’ve stayed in my life. My part is €37/night.

Still having the time of my life. The weather is perfect. The sky is blue and clear. The water is warm and swimable and finally the winds have calmed.

So I leave the hotel. Of course, now that I’m finally dry it’s pouring rain. Cats and dogs. I run with my pack about 200 meters and I’m in the train station. Soaked head to toe. Pockets, shoes…everything. …could really use that towel right now!

On the plane now. I’ve discovered where the regular napkins went. (recall my post on the “glossy napkins”). They out them all in my Olympic Airielines bathroom. Yeah, it works like this. You use the restroom, wash your hands, go to dry them off, and perfect; dinner napkins. You know the kind that dissolve into a thousand soggy pieces upon first contact with water? Facial tissue would work better. In fact it did.

In Greece now…hoping that my bag is here to join me…this time. Love the islands here…getting excited!

 My favorite city in the world.  Went to the Vatican City today and just generally took in the city.  Amazing every time I’m here. 

Tomorrow it’s off to Greece!!! Scooters and Breezers and beaches and…

z

Me at the Trevy fountain, embracing the tradition of tossing a coin over my shoulder for a wish…it was raining heavily that night….about 1 am.

Sitting at the train station in Pompei, waiting to go back to Sorrento where Jill and I will catch a train to Rome and George is going back to Positano.

Pompei was a lot bigger than I had thought. The ancient city was covered in lava on Aug 24th 79 AD mount Vesuvius (sp) erupted. The lava covered everything, even burying people alive. Some of the figures have been uncovered and can be seen in some of the displays.
There were two (that we saw) large ampitheaters towards the edge of Pompei. They were equipped with modern sound systems and stage lighting. Could only imaging playing music there.

Rome tonight….pizzas, bruscettas and the Trevy(sp) Fountain!

The weather here is perfect. We had a wonderfull, if brief, thunderstorm last night in Positano, but the days have been sunny, warm and perfect for shorts and a T.

….thanks to everyone who’s leaving comments and sending email…I really enjoy getting the correspondence, advice and insight!

-Z

To quote the DK guide:

Known for decades as a smart playground for the wealthy, famous and decadent, postiano is an astonishingly vertical town in shades of pink and other faded pastels. Only one street snakes its way down and up…the rest are stairs.

That’s really the truth. The town is built right into the cliff here along the Amalfi coast. The stairs are a workout no matte where you want to go.

I dropped by the deli where I bought all my food the last time I stayed here and the lady slowly remembered me from last year. She happily sold me supplies for making bruscetta, some mozzerella (Jill says that’s how to spell it), some local figs and wine..and a watermellon Breezer.

Me in front of the deli after hours.  Steps are EVERYWHERE in Positano

Our first night we all went out to dinner at a roadside café above town with full views of the sea and town below. My favorite restaurant from the last trip here.
The second night Jill and I cooked for George and ‘Ofa. Jill made roasted fennel, tomatoes, beans and garlic. I made bruscetta and pasta sauce. We started eating at 1 am and finished at 4:30…just a few hours later, after a nightcap of lemoncello, George and I were the only ones awake to watch the morning sun rise and gently illuminate the soft colors of the town…

The days here are are spent leisurely enjoying the small-town atmosphere and sweeping sea views from our huge, grassy deck. We did some kayaking and visited a grotto and jumped off some of the rocks into the warm, salty water.

Jill kayaks like a maniac…she called it her 30-foot radius of danger…the region inside of which, you were sure to collide with her at crazy velocity. Call her the spinner…you could turn back to look at her and she could be facing any direction at all…paddling frantically to get back to the right direction…

I spent all of today on the deck playing guitar and eating amazing cheese, bread and drinking wine…there is something so special about the little town; a magic that surrounds it.

If someone has the time to find a link of a picture of the town, please post it as a comment.
All the best!!!!

-having the time of my life…still.

I called from the train station and reserved a hotel room at a place that was recommended by a place that was full. MY FIRST BARCELONA MISTAKE…

The train boogied along at like 90 mph. It was an easy metro transfer to get to the center avenue, Las Rambles. I had one night solo before George was to come, and figured that the center of it all would be the spot to be for one night. Peter and Ayo couldn’t find anything else either and booked a room at the same place. How could we have known?

So, I show up an hour earlier at the hotel. I’m standing 50 feet from the front door in the busiest pedestrian walkway I’ve ever seen. I call the hotel and the guy sounds like my differential equations professor and is equally incomprehensible. We spoke for about 5 minutes and during that time, with a thick Indian accent, he referred to the street the hotel is on as three or four different streets while I frantically scoured my map…as quickly as he could make up an English word, I would trace my finger in panic motions across the map, foolishly believing I was looking for something that actually existed.

So I hang up the phone and walk 15 paces to the hotel. The nice man has my name as Dank, and even though 75% of my name is correct and I have a credit card of the correct last four digits…all that is just too much of a coincidence for this man. I clearly am an imposter. So began the interrogation.

What’s your room #
-i forgot

Hmmm. How much are you paying?
-i don’t know. When I agreed, it was an amount that I could afford, so I didn’t make more of a note of it than that.

[snickering obnoxiously] so you don’t keep track of how much € you spend?
-are you my mom?

Anyway, using some rather advanced sign language, I cheched into my room. I’m not sure how to describe the smell, so I won’t. I pulled the sheets back to reveal the furry hairball that was my bed. The pillow was in the same condition, and upon further scrutinization, I found a ball of ear wax with a hair in it. So I leave and go out for some dinner. Obviously, the room is for storing my pack while I stay up all night and wait until the next night to sleep. Peter and Ayo agree when they checked in and so began the evening. I grabben my camera and wallet and hit the town…only one of those possessions would be with me at the end of the night.

After a few Irish car bombs! we made our way to a local club right on Las Ramblas with a few girls who joined us for the ICB’s. Good club. Little bit of dancing, and we left around 5 when they closed down. So the 6 of us go back 400 meters to our hotel and I run up and get my guitar and we sit on the avenue and play and sing and lots of people stop to listen and enjoy it. It gets worse.

Here is a picture at that moment>>>

So, I get up to pee behind a bush. I leave my guitar. This woman walks up to me and pulls a tit out of her shirt and asks me if I want some of that. So I’m trying to find a nice way to tell her that I’m not interested when she takes 3 quick steps and grabs onto the thing in my right hand…you know. I’m shocked and tell at her to get the hell away from me and so she leaves. I finish my business and, with a different expression, walk back to my friends. I reach for my camera. The one with the FULL memory card. Yeah, it’s gone. We ran all around and she was no where to be found. Great.

So, we went back up to our rooms and changed and Peter and I went for a great run, per his suggestion. We went out to the beach and back. Come to find out that he was a high school all-American lacrosse player. By now it’s near 10 am and time to get on to finding a hotel room we can sleep in.

Peter, Ayo and I went to the beach for the day. Later that day, George got into town.

Enter George-great friend from LA, and Jill, recent acquanitence from work.

We all met at the Opera bar for some sangria and to formulate a plan for the evening. A couple Sweedish girls came with peter and Ayo and Jill was with her friend Amber.

Went out that night and danced until all hours…On the way out of the beach-front disco, met a few girls from Germany…Astrid (the fire-diving stunt woman), Judi (the pop-and-locker) and Tina(? Shit, is that her name?).
We dance at the next bar until the sun came up. We all had to force George off the D-floor.

Next day was consumed mostly with sleep. We made our way into a huge Dept store in the center of town. We bought a few things. My Spanish is really coming along well. People are so happy to let me struggle through it. This is much different than anywhere I’ve ever been. Usu, people are just as happy to practice their English, but in Spain, and especially Barcelona, most people will work with you. I learned a ton and really got a lot better! Doing the day-to-day there was really a blast.

That night, we met the Germans for a buffet dinner. My next mistake in Barcelona! The dinner was great…on the way DOWN!!!

Here is a picture at the buffet>>>

So, after dinner we go to a couple clubs and dance until the sun comes up…again. Had to beg the doorman to let me in with rips in my pants. It’s just like home…standing there in front of a 300 lb gorilla trying to convince him that 3 girls should outweigh 2 rips in my pants. Spanish must be getting better, ’cause we eventually made it in. We danced until the lights came on and the blister on my left foot from new shoes was the size of a small walnut.

At home, I got about 30 minutes of sleep and at 9:30 had a nice return visit from that all-you-can-eat meal. Probably some meat in there somewhere……

Get a call that morning from Ayo…scooter crash! Just a fender-bender. He regrouped and scootered up above town and explored the hillside above town. George and I relaxed that day and eventually found our way to the beach for an evening sangria.

The next day, we made our way out of town to Montserrat. We climbed way up to an abandoned house built into the high hillside. The place was amazing. There was graffiti everywhere. Old refrigerators, metal parts, debri. The scene was incredible. George shot some priceless video of the scene. Hopefully I can post some pictures I took with the video camera. To get to where we were exploring, we had to take two trains and a cable-driven train than went seemingly straight up the side of a cliff! It reminded me of the cog railway that takes people up mount Washington in Vermont.

That night, we took a nap and agreed not to go out too late…ha.

We met a group of people at a supermarket and made our way to The Black Sheep, aka, The HOT bar. It must have been 95 degrees in that place. So George and I agreed that we couldn’t stay and left everyone and went searching for a new place…never found one, so se went back in to say goodbye and go home…so 3 hours later we’re playing foosball and yelling and having a great time. German girls can’t play foosball worth a damn! ;). I had a great conversation with a woman from Peru yelling Spanish across a table in a that loud bar for about 45 min. At 4 am -cause we weren’t going out late that night-we grabbed a taxi home…

It was really the end of the Spanish leg of the trip but marked a special point for me; I’ve wanted for at least 10 years to be able to spend time in Spain and learn to communicate in Spanish and gain a better understanding of how the day-to-day works there. I value that experience immensely. My Spanish is still terrible, but it improved and I could definitely see myself getting better.

We woke up and made our way to the produce/meat market in town for some food supplies for Italy. Jill met us near noon and it was on to the airport…

Next stop…Positano, Italy…bring on paradise!

Showered and went out to get some food in Madrid. Made my way down to La Latina district. Got a little lost and wound up in the ghetto, but made it out alive. Went to The Retrobar for tapas (average, but good) and a drink, tinto de verano, red wine and soda water. So good. Just sort of hung out there like the weird guy who speaks terrible Spanish and is a little intimidated by the whole experience…this is a frequent phase for me. Some guy kept coming out and telling something into a mehaphone right next to me. Yeah, then everyone would jeer. I bet if I’d understood Spanish slang, at 500 dB, it would have had the same effect on me. Great place.
Wondered the streets for a while. Nightlife seemed nuts. Went back to the wonderful hotel for my nights torture.

First thing Sat, moved to new hotel. Of course. Finally got laundry done…and folded for me. Sweet! It was sure to happen once on this trip.
Went to The Prado museum. Took the English audio tour. Never done that before; type the # of the painting and a voice comes on and tells you about the piece. That was ok. There was a phenomenal piece there that was awe inspiring to see in person: Las meninas by Diego Velázquez, painted in 1656. It stands at least 15 feet tall. Later will post a pic.
Went back at least 5 times to look again and again. The most amazing painting I’ve ever seen.

Went to Chueca region for dinner/drinks. Cool region, if completely gay at night.
Eventually wandered into a Mexican (well, it was an attempt at authenticity) bar. Met about 5 people and we stayed there and talked and drank until they closed the place sometime after 2 am…with all of is in it. We must have stayed until 3, then all walked across town to Sol for some dancing. Some of the pictures on this walk are hilarious….coming soon.
In the crew were some girls from Switzerland and two guys from NYC, Peter and a guy with a first name so difficult that even he can’t spell it!
We stayed out and danced until past 7. Hilarious pictures coming…
I left to walk home and hit breakfast at 8 am. For some reason, a fish (from canned tuna) and onion (I hate onions) omelet sounded like a good call. Those first few bites were tough to endure. Sleep by 9…and the streets were still crawling with people. Unbelievable. Do these people work, or is the siesta just that effective?

Sun. Went to The Thyssen museum. Instead of the audio tour, I fired up the new Gomez album on the MP3 player. Prefect! Saw another piece that absolutely blew my mind. It was: Despedida by Max Beckmann. Just an incredible. From arm’s length it’s hard to even make out a human face, never mind an expression, but at 15 feet the expressions on the central character’s face in unmistakable. How in the world do some artists do that so well? This painting gave me chills. Perhaps a new favorite. I absolutely loved it.

***Update***

—
Thanks to Scott for this link…
http://coleccionctb.museothyssen.org/coleccionctb/upload/obra324/museo_thyssen_p_CTB.1996.42.jpg

I hope it works for everyone…and I hope you all like it.
—

Met up with Peter and E-O. In the park. We had a beer at a small outdoor cafe and I played guitar while some girls danced and we all had a great time. Priceless.

From the cafe we could hear drums…the kind coming from a drum circle…we walked over to this huge monument and there were at least 35 drummers gapperung away. E-O danced. The experience was amazing, and the last thing we’d expected that Sun night.

From there, out to Tapas in Chueca again. Had some drink in a green bottle. It was really popular: kept seeing them go by. I’m convinced was cleaning fluid. Maybe Simple Green mixed with windex. Luckily, the aftertaste, be it entirely debilitating, was quite temporary.

From there, back to Sol, but it was dead.

Made plans to meet and go to Barcelona together…
On a speedy train…5 hrs…
More from Barcelona!

Hopefully pictures coming soon; they’re getting really funny.

(note on typos: this is all done via blackberry and it’s so easy to miss things… combine that with a propensity to misspell nearly everything I write…)
-Z

Lines:
Lines here form in exactly the same manner in which they do in the USA. But that’s where it ends. Let’s say you’re next in line and your standing 3 feet from the back of the person currently at the window. Well that’s your first mistake. See, that distance means that you’re not really in line. You might as well be orbiting Mars. People look at that distance as an opportunity to form another line perpendicular to yours and much much closer to the person currently at the window. Then, when that person moves, even slightly, the person who started the new line to your left elbows the person at the window out of the way guaranteeing 2 things: 1 you’re never going to be next and 2 that person IS.
A similar thing works when boarding busses; if the line to get in looks too long, just start a new line right at the door of the bus that runs perpendicular to the first line. That way, if you’re 1st in the new line, you’re a lock on at worst, 2nd in the bus…never mind that “idiot” (usu ME) standing at the end of the original line awaiting his/her turn.
I tried this new-line trick today…and it worked like a charm…no dirty looks, no scowls, just call me Mr 2nd on the bus. I probably looked local!
I still can’t get used to hugging the person in line in front of me from behind in hopes of preventing an 80-year-old, 3-foot-zero lady from jacking my spot when I’m about to miss the last train/bus to some place having a one-night-only festival, and she’s buying a ticket for next week to the next town over, but probably won’t go anyway…yet it about happens to me everywhere I wait in line.

Glossy napkins!
Now what’s up with this? The napkins here are made with some sort of glossy paper. It works really well as a face-food-mover. Like if there’s a bit of food on your cheek and you use one of these glossy things, you can be assured the food is gone from the cheek, but you can also guarantee it’t equally distributed over the rest of your face and that there is absolutely none of it on the napkin. It’s like wiping your face with the cover of one of those Daniel Steel novels.

Phone:
When you really need to get something done, T-Mobile has got the worst cust service…makes even Sprint look good!

Backpack:
This thing is too heavy. No one needs 2 pairs of pants! And 4 T-shirts? Who wears that many shirts? 12 pairs of socks? For real, they’re cleaner after a long hike than the rest of me most of the time… ;). Soap…should have brought this; some hotels don’t have it.

Misconceptions:
1. I would have washed my clothes since the last time I did it about a week before leaving SD - Aug 10th.
2. It wouldn’t be a full time job planning where to stay and what to see and when.
3. George, who’s meeting me in Barcelona, would have called to let me know if/when he’s coming before leaving for Paris yesterday.
4. Trains would be the way to travel…buses have proven faster and cheaper, thusfar.

The audio tour of the fortress is a must-buy at 3€.

The extent to which there has been Muslim influence here is unimaginable. There seem to be more falafel stands than tapas places.

This town is young and fun and gets a strong rating from me.

Wed. was consumed with finding someone to give me a Flamenco guitat lesson in this, the Flamenco capital. So, in 115+ degree weather I lit out looking for a music store. One thing, no one here speaks English out of desire. They’d rather you struggle than demonstrate to you how much better their English is than your Spanish. That’s great, it makes learning the language that much easier. So, armed with fists full of sign language, I approached a music store…the guy there was very nice as he told me that two days of Flamenco lessons would be about as useful as wet socks and that no one would even waste the time to sit down in front of me. Then when he was done, he sent me another couple blocks away to the Flamenco Keller. Perfect. Went there. Scheduled a lesson for that night at 5:30 and again this morning at 9 am.

Both lessons went very well, even if the were taught 100% in Spanish. Lito was the instructor’s name and he couldn’t have been nicer. The first day - 1.5 hrs each - was spent focused on the Flamenco technique and the second morning on the progressions and various forms. Great overview, but at the and I can’t say I could play much of anything. The technique is so difficult and fast and there are new forms and permutations of chords that will take some practice to get used to. Time. Such a beautiful art. I fully recommend this to anyone with guitar aspirations or abilities.

  Me with Lito and our cutout dancer.

By wed night I had come down with a full-blown cold from all the A/C and no doubt all the cigarette smoke. Sneezes all night and no going out…
I wandered back to the hotel and stopped into a place for tapas. It was a packed spot that looked like a locals hang-out. I’ll post a picture of their address from their napkin, but this was the best food I’ve eaten in 10 years. Unbelievably good tapas. 13€ for a selection of 3 with an olive plate and a bread basket and 3 beers (sm). This is a have-to visit spot..right off the river, and just south of the cathedral.

Here’s the address.   …the BEST!!!

The Flamence show that night was in a small 10 m square room with pillars and ivy surrounding the room. It was a guitarist, a singer and a dancer. The guitar playing was amazing and the rhythm tapped out by the girl’s dancing feet was dizzying in it’s speed and complexity. She could get really quiet with the tapping but still maintain the furious tempo…must be extremely difficult.

Left Sevilla Thurs midday for Granada. Another bus ride…Lenny will be proud!

 Here’s what I look like, all loaded up and ready to go…

The trip to Spain from Albufeira has been a hot one. It’s 37 C here and humid today. Only the ghetto-train went to the border…you know, the one with no A/C that stops at every single station along the way while the sun roasts the big rusty metal toaster of a train like it’s an oven.

There is no information anywhere about how to get to Spain from the final train station in Portugal. Trick is to hike in the baking sun about 1 km to the ferry station, take the ferry 15 minutes across the river, then walk another mile to the bus station in Spain. No signs describe any of this, yet it seems like people must do it all the time. I was part of a 5-person group that managed to make the trek without getting too lost.
The Let’s Go book was useless for tips on doing this.

2.5 hrs to Seville!
……….

Sun night…the show went well at Al’Face. Great acoustics in the room made it even easier. Played about 15 songs, split over 2 sets. Very nice people there. The pictures and video shot by James came out well. Will be posted soon.
After the show, we went with some friends to the Kareoke bar downtown. Good times…of course, true to form, pulled out a little George Michael. Hilarious! Pics are classic. Later, walking around and running into familiar faces kept is out until about 5 am, and of course sleeping wasn’t an option until about 8 am! Up at 4:30 pm. That’s about the time I’d been used to at home in CA, with the time change, so it’s not as extreme as it sounds.

Yesterday - Monday - entertained the idea of continuing the journey to Sevilla, but it was not to be, and we booked another night at our ocean-view place. By then we’d discovered how to get up to the 5th-floor terrace with full sweeping views of the town and ocean. Sunset up there was amazing…pics coming.

Last night, played another, shorter set at Al’Face. Good, but not quite as good as the night before. Met a few more people and went to the amazing Caipirinha bar for the best I’ve ever had. It takes so long to make each one that the wait could be > 30 minutes.
Called it an early night and went to bed by 2:30.

More soon…and pictures!

Mojitos!!! 

Sitting on the cliffs above albufeire having a strawberry crepe looking down at the beach. They rent out water bicycles with slides. People pack on these things and sit out off the shore for hours sliding and diving into the water. Looks like a blast…might have to get into that today. Yesterday slept until 4:30 pm…today up at 9 am. Up until 6 am both nights. Go figure. Jetlag still in full effect. Playing an acoustic show tonight at a local pub…that didn’t take long…should be rusty as ever but should be fun at the same time.
Must get some sun today…the whiteness is overwhelming.
More in the afternoon…

Here´s the view at sunset from our 5th floor balcony!
Yessss!

learning Dutch!

James borrowing sunglasses…

Night on the balcony

Our favorite waitress…who´s that IDIOT with the closed eyes!?
 
Me and James

What happens when a guy goes to the bathroom and girls grab the camera…!

 
My first one of these in years…great stuff!

The train to Albufeira.  With the addition of a Portuguese phone card, I had made arrangements for an ocean-view cottage and a pick up at the train station.  Once there, I met James, a cook and traveller who had left Canada to come here to do a sailboat delivery back to north-eastern Canada.  He was looking for a place, and I had booked something outside my budget, so it was perfect.  We´ve been doing the day to day here, which consists of going to the beach in the afternoons, going for a swim then getting into town in the evenings for the chaos that is Albufeira night-life.  The town at night reminds me entirely of Mykonos, Greece.   Narrow alleyways twist through the pedestrian part of the town and connect the main square to lots of shops-bars-restaurants and eventually lead to the ªtunnelª to the beach.
The sangria here is amazing and everyone makes it fresh when ordered.  People in general are friendly.  The people-watching is a good 9 out of 10, especially in the later hours. I´m likely the whitest person on the continent!
James, Jessica, me.

Maria Bethania: romantica

It’s a greatest hits album, apparently. Reminds me a bit of Bebel Gilberto.
So chill!

Got into town and eventually found a nice hotel up the hill from the center of the old town. It’s an old spanish-style villa from another time. The window in my room opens like shutters do, and yes, it even has shutters on the inside to keep the morning light out.
From the hotel it’s a decent hike up to the two sites well worth seeing. They are: The Pena Palace and The Moorish Castle. They are a hilly, 20-min walk from each other, but the sights along the way make it worth it. There are a series of lakes between the two that make for picturesque hiking, complete with horse-drawn carriages and swans and geese. It was windy as could be at the top, so it was a good day to avoid the beaches. The pictures should be more telling, but at present it’s impossible to post them.
The Moorish Castle had a wall on the north side resembling a shortened version of the Great Wall of China. Beautiful and quite rugged. The path along parts of it was only about 18 inches wide with 30 foot drops to one side. In america there certainly would have been ropes and danger signs and the like. It’s nice that they let you figure all that out on your own here…I guess as long as no one falls off the edge!

More tomorrow from the train to the southern coast…reserved a room for there nights in … Well I can’t remember and am too tired to reach over and grab the book

Bon noite!

It’s off today to Sintra. I’ve managed to miss my train stop already but using a combination of sign language and raw detectable frustration I was able to get some help with directions. I’m on this damn train right now. Bec of the lost bag and my lost mind, it looks like I’m going to miss the opportunity to get to Lagos today. I’m going to yet to spend the night in Sintra and make a go at it tomorrow. I think. There’s a lighthouse at the most south-west point of Portugal that is supposed to have the greatest sunsets. It’s a 6km run from Lagos. Perfect.

Last night and yesterday were spent in Lisbon. I checked into a €45 hotel and went out adventuring. Being without a camera was difficult. Nothing really outstanding to report, but that’s what I’d heard of Lisbon. Climbed a tower this morning. Good city views but nothing spectacular. The weather has been near perfect and cool enough at night to obviate the need for A/C. Last night was the first full 9 hrs of sleep in about 10 straight weeks, even with the non-stop stream of dreams about packing and selling my car and getting immunizations and all the other little things that needed attention before leaving…must have been all the Indian food before bed!

More from Sintra…

Yesterday was a long, very intense day in NYC. The morning started with me sitting in on a prostate removal operation performed by Rob. He asked me to film the procedure. It was just amazing. The whole thing was done by robot, controlled by Rob from the other side of the room. The footage is more difficult to watch than the procedure was as it occurred. What an incredibly powerful experience.

Something terrible then happened. I checked my email after about 3 hrs in the OR. A very good friend, Cathy jumped to her death from the Coronado bridge at about 2 am San Diego time. She was a constant friend and will be missed dearly. This is not the place for further discussion of that terrible event so I will continue, but now more sadly and with loving thoughts of a person who’s friendship I valued immensely.

I took the subway to ground zero (at the former World Trade Tower site) and walked to the “Bodies” exhibit. It was a collection of anatomical sections taken from human subjects soon after death and preserved for observation. It was quite expensive (esp. for a jobless/homeless person). I managed to talk my way into a discount and met a girl, Nufar, in line to share the discount with. This charming girl from Isreal walked through the exhibit with me and we ended up spending the afternoon and evening wandering about SOHO. I learned so many things about a country I will likeky never get to see.
We went to Mamouns (see recommendations in prev entry) for four falafels and sat down to devour them in Washington Square Park, just a one-block walk. Rob met us there and it was off to some various cafés for more food and the best corn on the cob ever at Havannas.

Later, met up with Kristen and Rachel and, of course, went back to Mamouns for the last falafel of the trip….

Barely made it to the plane this pm. Of course I got secondary screening; no one likes my one-way ticket!

Thanks to Rob and Manny for being great hosts.

I’m now on the plane to Lisbon. More to come as the international adventure begins!!!

There will be lots of over-land travel included in the overall itinerary; broken down and more specifically, this is:  

Leg 1:
7 days in Portugal, traveling along the Atlantic coast going around to get into southern Spain near Sep 1st.  Then, it’s north through Sevilla to Madrid for a week or more, then on to Barcelona for the second week when I leave for Stockholm.

Leg 2:
67 days spent traveling/exploring the eastern-European countries while racing impending winter from the north and enjoying the fall going south until I eventually end up in Croatia to leave for Cairo.

Leg 3:
3 days in Cairo, then it’s on to Bangkok.  From here, I am planning roughly another 60 days exploring places like Vietnam, Thailand, Bali, Java, the list goes on.

Leg 4:
No itinerary or tickets purchased for this leg as of yet.  The distant plan is to spend New Years somewhere in Thailand and leave near the end of Jan for Australia.  After 15 days in Australia, it’s on to New Zealand for roughly another 15 days.  Then it’s on to island hop around the South Pacific…Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti.  Then finally, in March, head on to Hilo, Hawaii to visit family, then on to San Diego!
 

]]> http://journal.zankmusic.com/2006/07/27/itinerary/feed/ http://journal.zankmusic.com/2006/07/24/going-away-party/ http://journal.zankmusic.com/2006/07/24/going-away-party/#comments Mon, 24 Jul 2006 21:25:59 +0000 zankbennett http://journal.zankmusic.com/2006/07/24/going-away-party/ Thanks to everyone for making this such a special night…can you find yourself in the picture?

 

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