2004 Around-the-World IV Itinerary via Star Alliance

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Jan. 5
London (LHR) to Toronto (YYZ) 3540 Miles
AC 0869 Lv. 8:55 Arr. 11:55
Toronto (YYZ) to Cancun (CUN) 1620 Miles
AC 0970 Lv. 13:40 Arr. 16:50
13 Hours 55 Minutes Total Travel Time
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Overland Cancun (CUN) to Merida (MID) 180 Miles
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Jan. 10
Merida (MID) to Mexico City (MEX) 620 Miles
MX 0612 Lv. 11:20 Arr. 13:15
Mexico City (MEX) to San Antonio (SAT) 698 Miles
MX 0832 Lv. 18:00 Arr. 20:00
8 Hours 40 Minutes Total Travel Time
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May 31
San Antonio (SAT) to Denver (DEN) 795 Miles
UA 0419 Lv. 18:00 Arr. 19:03 Seats 6C&6D
Denver (DEN) to Calgary (YYC) 899 Miles
UA 1063 Lv. 19:50 Arr. 22:16 Seats 7C&7D
5 Hours 16 Minutes Total Travel Time
May 31--Super 8 Motel-Airport 403-291-9888
http://calgary-ab-ca.hotels-x.net/Super-8-motel-calgary-airport.html
June 1&2--Banff Y Mountain Lodge 403-762-3560
http://ymountainlodge.com/
June 3--Lake Louise Canadian Alpine Center 403-522-2200 http://www.skitownresorts.com/lodgingad.cfm/ab13/115197.htm
June 4&5--Kelli's B&B, Jasper 780-852-4258
http://www.bbcanada.com/5347.html
June 6, 7, 8, & 9--Calgary City Center--Hosteling International 403-670-7580
http://www.hihostels.ca/hostels/Alberta/SouthernAlbertaRegion/HI-CalgaryCityCentre/Hostels/
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June 10
Calgary (YYC) to Vancouver (YVR) 426 Miles
AC 0185 Lv. 10:55 Arr. 11:23 Seats 18C&18D
1 Hour 26 Minutes Total Travel Time
June 10, 11, & 12--YWCA Hotel Vancouver 604-895-5830
http://www.ywcahotel.com/
June 13, 14, & 15--Douglass Hotel, Victoria 250-383-4157
http://www.hoteldouglas.com/
June 16--YWCA Hotel Vancouver 604-895-5830
http://www.ywcahotel.com/
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June 17
Vancouver (YVR) to Honolulu (HNL) 2708 Miles
AC 0041 Lv. 14:30 Arr. 17:25 Seats 21A&21C
5 Hours 50 Minutes Total Travel Time
June 17, 18, 19, & 20--Ocean Resort Hotel Waikiki 808-922-3861
http://www.oceanresort.com
Note: Hawaiian time is 5 hours behind U.S. Central Time/12 hours behind European Central Time on this date.
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June 21
Honolulu (HNL) to Tokyo (NRT) 3816 Miles
UA 0879 Lv. 9:40 Arr. 12:55 June 22 Seats 17A&17B
8 Hours 15 Minutes Total Travel Time
June 22, 23, 24, & 25--Hotel New Koyo, Tokyo (81) 03-3873-0343 (Dial 011 from U.S. for international access before dialing number; may have to drop the 0 before the first 3)
http://www.newkoyo.jp/index.html
Note: Japan time is 14 hours ahead of US Central Time/7 hours ahead of European Central Time on this date.
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June 26
Tokyo (NRT) to Seoul (ICN) 782 Miles
OZ 0105 Lv. 10:00 Arr. 12:30 Seats 14A&14B
2 Hours 30 Minutes Total Travel Time
June 26, 27, & 28--Ritz Hotel, Seoul (82) 02-764-0353 (Dial 011 from U.S. for international access before dialing number; may have to drop the 0 before the 2) http://motelritz.hihome.com/index-e.htm
Note: South Korea is 14 hours ahead of US Central Time/7 hours ahead of European Central Time on this date.
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June 29
Seoul (ICN) to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) 2214 Miles
OZ 0361 Lv. 19:50 Arr. 23:50 Seats 14A&14B
6 Hours 00 Minutes Total Travel Time
June 29, 30, July 1 & 2--An An Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) (84) 8-837-8087 (Dial 011 from the U.S. for international access before dialing the number) www.ananhotel.com
Note: Vietnam time is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Central Time/5 hours ahead of European Central Time on this date.
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Overland Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) to Hanoi (HAN) 707 Miles
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July 28
Hanoi (HAN) to Bangkok (BKK) 610 Miles
TG 0683 Lv. 10:40 Arr. 12:30 Seats 32A&32B
1 Hour 50 Minutes Total Travel Time
July 28, 29, 30, 31, Aug. 1 & 2--Mandarin Hotel, Bangkok (66) 2-238-0230 (Dial 011 from U.S. for international access before dialing number) http://www.hotelthailand.com/bangkok/mandarin/
Note: Thailand time is 12 hours ahead of U.S. Central Time/5 hours ahead of European Central Time on this date.
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Aug. 3
Arne Only--Note this is Night of Aug. 2!
Bangkok (BKK) to Copenhagen (CPH) 5353 Miles Arne
SK 0972 Lv. 00:20 Arr. 6:40 Seat 26G
11 Hours 20 Minutes Total Travel Time

Randell Only--Note this is Evening of Aug. 3!
Bangkok (BKK) to Mumbai (BOM) 1871 Miles Randell
TG 0317 Lv. 18:15 Arr. 22:20 Seat 32B
4 Hours 15 Minutes Total Travel Time
Aug. 3, 4, 5, & 6--Bentley's Hotel, Mumbai (91) 22 - 22841474 , 22841733 , 22882890 , 22823245 , 22823246, 22841733 or 22880442 (Dial 011 from U.S. for international access before dialing the number)
http://www.bentleyshotel.com/
Note: Mumbai time is 10 1/2 hours ahead of U.S. Central Time/3 1/2 hours ahead of Central European Time on this date.
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Sept. 4
Randell Only--Note this is Night of Sept. 3!
Mumbai (BOM) to Frankfurt (FRA) 4080 Miles Randell
LH 0757 Lv. 2:50 Arr. 7:55 Seat 30G
Frankfurt (FRA) to Vilnius (VNO) 770 Miles Randell
LH 3252 Lv. 9:25 Arr. 12:25
12 Hours 25 Minutes Total Travel Time

Arne Only
Copenhagen (CPH) to Vilnius (VNO) 502 Miles Arne
SK 0742 Lv. 10:00 Arr. 12:30
2 Hours 30 Minutes Total Travel Time
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Overland Vilnius (VNO) to Tallinn (TLL) 331 Miles
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Sept. 29
Tallinn (TLL) to Stockholm (ARN) 486 Miles
SK 0749 Lv. 13:45 Arr. 13:50
Stockholm (ARN) to Copenhagen (CPH) 339 Miles
SK 1405 Lv. 14:55 Arr. 16:05
3 Hours 20 Minutes Total Travel Time
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Jan. 5, 2005
Copenhagen (CPH) to London (LHR) 609 Miles
SK 0501 Lv. 6:45 Arr. 7:45 Seats 10D&10C
2 Hours 00 Minutes Total Travel Time
Connect to Flight for Around-the-World V Beginning Today

Tuesday, Sept. 9, ATW III Comes to Abrupt Halt

I knew the university e-mail system would be down until 2:00 p.m., so I spent most of the morning in my room reading and watching TV. I checked out at 11:30 and went nearby to eat kushari (mixed noodles, rice, garbanza beans, fried onions, and tomato sauce) for lunch. I walked around some, stopped at a park to read, and then went to the cybercafe at 1:45.

I updated my blog and looked at newspapers online while waiting to log onto e-mail at 2:00. When the time came, there was bad news. Arne is in the hospital. His ticket is being canceled to Vilnius, and he will remain hospitalized for a few days. Heàs having heart problems (very rapid pulse and high blood pressure) and may have had a light stroke. What horrible news. He is never sick.

I immediately went to the Lufthansa office in Alexandria. They told me that I can only change my itinerary at a United office. There isnàt one here or at the Cairo airport. There is one in downtown Cairo, but that would mean that I couldn't be there during office hours except tomorrow. I quickly realized my best bet is to take first part of my two-flight segments getting me to Vilnius (the flight to Frankfurt only) tonight and change my ticket at the United desk at the airport there. They told me that there are plenty of open seats on flights from Frankfurt to Copenhagen tomorrow morning.

Itàs horrible sitting here waiting and not being able to speed up the process. Itàs now almost 5:00 p.m. and time to start the journey. I'll collect my luggage and take the tram to the bus station. I have a 4 1/2-hour bus ride leaving at 6:30 for the Cairo airport.
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Well, it was a long trip to Cairo Airport, but I made it. Once we got to the airport, we stopped at a sign that said, "Domestic Departures." It was only after we pulled away that I saw that it was Terminal 2 and had another entrance for international flights. By the time I got the driver to stop, we were on the road past the terminal. But he stopped and let me get my bag. I walked back up the road to the terminal.

There are certain things in Egypt which work against tourists and are things which I will want to warn people about. The travel restrictions for going to Luxor and Aswan are one. Another I encountered tonight was the fact that Egyptian banks will only exchange back money that was gotten from their own bank as proven by a receipt. Fortunately, there was a Thomas Cook office in the airport, too, and they would make the exchange. But they would give only EUROs and not dollars. What a mess!

The flight to Frankfurt was 4 1/2 hours beginning at 1:55 a.m. I slept maybe 1 1/2 hours between when they served drinks after departure and when they served breakfast an hour before arrival. I was out of the plane and in the terminal about 5:00 a.m. I first checked to see if the United transfer desk was manned, but it wasn't at that hour. I had to go through customs anyway to get my luggage so that it could be rechecked after my flight changes were made. By the time I did that, it was 5:40 and the United ticketing desk in the departure hall was scheduled to open at 6:00. I was the first in line.

Changing the ticket wasn't as bad as I had thought it might be. It was much less of a hassle than it was when I had to change the ticket in Houston in June due to changes necessitated by canceled flights and changed schedules. By 6:20, I had paid the $75 fee to make the change and was on my way to check in for my newly scheduled flight from Frankfurt to Copenhagen.

That flight was scheduled to depart at 8:20 and arrive in Copenhagen at 9:30, but we had an "anomoly" occur. Just as the pilot pulled back from the gate, a man about 3 rows in front of me got up and went up to the staff at the door and told them he wanted to get off the plane. The best I could understand is that he had flown from Cologne to Frankfurt to connect to the Copenhagen flight and was now telling them he wanted to go back to Cologne. The pilot pulled back to the gate and consulted with security. They first made everyone sitting within 3 rows of the man identify each piece of luggage in the overhead compartments in regards to whose each was. But security said that wouldn't be enough. We had to all take our belongings and exit the plane into the gangways while the staff made a thorough check of the plane. By the time we reboarded and took off, it was about 9:30. Everyone took it all in stride, but I hope they held that man for questioning for several hours before letting him go home!

Everything clicked from then onward. I only had about a 15 minute wait for a train from the airport to downtown. Then I had only a 1-minute wait for a train to the local station. I walked to Arne's building and the neighbor was home to loan me her key to get into the apartment. (I had sent my key with Arne, since I didn't want to carry it while traveling and since we were planning to meet before I would need the key anyway.) I left my luggage and headed for the hospital. The neighbor told me Arne had called and said he would be discharged at 2:00 p.m. I made good connections for the two buses I had to take and was at the hospital at 12:15. He was having lunch, and I joined him in the lounge where it was served from a cafeteria cart. He had not gotten the word that I was trying to change my ticket to come here rather than continuing to Vilnius, so he was greatly surprised to see me. We visited until he was free to leave a little bit after 1:00.

We hope to reschedule the visit to the Baltic States for sometime in the next few months. I will have to get a ticket for myself, since I have now lost the chance of using my ATW ticket for going there. If we can reschedule his ticket without losing it, I'll use frequent flyer points to get one just like the one Arne had. We just have to wait and see. He has to go back to the hospital regularly here for a while for them to do tests.

For those of you who know Arne and want to know what had been happening, here is a summary of what is known at the present time:

He has had lots of tests made within the last 2-3 weeks because he had a dizziness spell. They have done scans of all kinds and of the whole body. He went for another type of scan on Monday, and when they checked his blood pressure and pulse, they found that his heart was hitting 160 beats per minute. They immediately sent him to the emergency room and told him he would not be able to travel today to meet me in Vilnius. The doctors were able to stablize his heartbeat, and they used monitors on him for two days while he remained an in-patient. They have put him on two kinds of medicine--one for thinning the blood and one for helping maintain a regular heartbeat. When they did the tests on him yesterday, they said the results were perfect. He will keep taking the medication and go back for more follow-up tests tomorrow and at the end of October. When his heartbeat is completely back to normal, they may perform an electrical shock to the heart as a way of trying to get the heart back to working normally on its own. Arne says that he can tell that it is difficult to make his left hand do what he wants it to do at times and that his right foot feels like it has gone to sleep sometimes. They still have not been able to diagnose what the problem is with any certainty, but they think he may have had a slight stroke. And they know that his heart beat must be more regular.

Well, changing my ticket and coming to Copenhagen essentially ended my Around-the-World III trip. All that is left is the segment to London on Jan. 4. I will not be making further updates to the blog except in the case that Arne and I plan a trip for October or November. If that happens, I will send a group e-mail to notify people.

It is necessary for me to now begin planning ATW IV for next year. If you have any suggestions for routings or stops, please send me an e-mail: rdrum@falcon.tamucc.edu

Final Spending Update: I spent 15 days in Egypt (from Monday afternoon, Aug. 25, through Tuesday evening, Sept. 9) and spent $240.28 for an average of $16.02 per day. For the entire trip, I traveled 85 days and spent $1897.33 (not including the cost of my ticket or the money spent on dental work in Thailand) for a daily average of $22.32 and a monthly average of $669.60.

Monday, Sept. 8, Alexandria, Egypt (Cont.)

After spending 1 1/2 hours at the cybercafe, I went to find Tomaz and Dominika at their hotel. We visited as they finished breakfast. Then we made plans to meet at my hotel at 5:00 p.m.

I went back to the Alexandria Library to see the inside. It's a very nice design, although it is definitely an extravagant one--more like a theater or something than like a library. The floors cascade down several layers in coordination with the slanted roof. There are large open areas, and it's possible to scan almost the entire library from various spots. It's necessary to buy a ticket to enter which seems unusual. And although the money to build the library was given by foreigners, foreigners must pay more for entrance than Egyptians!!

I took my bus ticket to the Tourist Office for them to check it, and there was a problem. It was to Cairo only rather than to the Cairo airport. I had to return to the bus station to exchange it for the proper ticket.

I returned to the room and napped. Then I cleaned up before T & D arrived at 5:00. We went shopping in the souks (the narrow market streets), but we never found what we wanted which was huge printed panels of fabric in the style of Bedouin tent fabric. We enjoyed exploring, however, and visited with many people.

Eventually, we went to dinner and shared a number of plates--beans with tomato sauce, beans with hummus, mixed salad, potato salad, falafel, etc. It was all good. Afterwards, we went to a pastry shop and got pastries (a sticky one with almonds, a sticky one with coconut, and small filo-dough ones filled with sticky chopped nuts). We ate them at a park at the seaside as we visited.

Tuesday, Sept. 9, Alexandria, Egypt

Today is a waiting day. My bus leaves here for the Cairo airport at 6:30 p.m. I've been sitting in a park reading. I stopped for lunch, having a final helping of kushari, the dish with mixed pastas, rice, garbanza beans, and meat sauce. I'm now at the cybercafe for a final time. When I leave here, I will have about 3 more hours before I must catch the bus. The bus should arrive at the airport around 11:30 p.m. after a stop in downtown Cairo. My flight to Frankfurt with a transfer to a flight to Vilnius will depart at 1:55 a.m. I should arrive tomorrow in Vilnius at 12:30 p.m., and I will meet Arne there. He is arriving at 1:00 p.m. That will begin the final stage of my journy for this year--an overland trip through Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia--which will end on Sept. 30.

Monday, Sept. 8, Alexandria, Egypt

I slept more than I thought I would on the night bus. That's mainly because I was in the front row of seats and could lean forward to rest my arm and head on the half-wall between me and the exit steps. But the trip had its problems. The bus was falling apart. My seat back broke so that it rested on the legs of the woman behind me. All seats in the bus were occupied, so I couldn't move. I was willing just to lean forward for the rest of the trip, but she was insensed. (Women here have to live under horrible rules, but beyond that they are greatly spoiled--always allwed to go to the fronts of lines, treated like they are delicate and could break easily, bought with money for marriage, etc.). Even though it was only the weight of the seat back on her knees, she kept pushing it forward, repeatedly bumping me as if the problem were my fault. Finally, one of the bus drivers (there were 3 for this long trip) sitting beside me moved to the aisle floor so I could move to his seat and my former seat back could be leaned foward away from the woman.

The second big problem came when the bus door started falling apart. The seal wouldn't close tightly, so the pressure of the air against the bus on the outside blew the door open and ripped it loose from its main fitting. They got it closed again but still with a loose seal. That meant we had to decreas our speed the rest of the way.

We finally got here at 6:15 a.m. With a little trouble (because of language problems), I finally bought a ticket to Cairo for tomorrow night. I hope it will be a bus that will take me all the way to the airport, but I'm not sure. If not, I will get a taxi.

I couldn't check into the hotel so early in the morning, so I am sitting on the stops of the nearby mall that has an Internet cafe. I've been reading and writing, but the flies are driving me crazy. They bite, too. I hope they open soon. Then I will probably go try to find Tomaz and Dominika after I finish there.

Friday, Sept. 5, Great Sand Ocean, Egypt

I stayed in the room reading until 11:45, waiting for my tour that leaves at 3:00. I then took my luggage to Mohammed's hotel where he is storing it in his locked office until I get back tomorrow. He loaned me a towel for the tour.

I ate lentil soup for lunch. It was blended so that there were no whole lentils. It was made with red lentils, so the soup was a dark orange color. As with all meals, it was served with pita. I drank a locally-made beverage--a pineapple malt beverage that reminded me of the Mexican soda pops I've had before.

I stopped at a cybercafe. The ONE computer had a poor keyboard. The "shift," "return," and "a" keys all would stick and have to be hit hard. (So if you had trouble reading the previous blog entries, that's why.) I took only selected entries from my journal because of the problem typing and my limited time. I had only 41 minutes before the shop had to close for prayers at 1:30. I managed to update my site and to do a quick read of my e-mail.
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At 3:00 p.m., we headed to the desert in a jeep. I sat in the front seat with the two guides. In the back were Mattius from German, Yuko from Japan, and Tomaz and Dominika from Slovenia. We entered the Great Sand Ocean just outside of town heading southwest. In the distance to the northwest of us were stone mountains, but ahead of us was nothing except waves of sand which also formed peaks we went up and over. And occasionally, we went up the slow sloping side of a dune to its crest, paused to see how evertical the drop in front of us was, and then went down. All of us were amazed at how steeply we would come down the other side, but it never seemed to be as far as it looked when we were on top.

We made various tops on our tour. Twice we stopped at cold water lakes for swimming. Once we stopped at a hot spring for a dip. We stopped at a fossil area, too. Then we stopped on top of a very high dune to see the sunset.

The wind was increasing as the afternoon progressed. We would have camped on top of the high dune, but it was impossible with the blowing sand. Instead, we drove to a lower level on the edge of the Great Sand Ocean where there is a spring fed pool and a bedouin tent (a patchwork tent made from sewn together pieces of brightly patterned fabrics). We made a fire outside on the sand, and we placed carpets inside on the sand to creat our home for the night.

We had tea at the first lake where we swam. It was made using a metal teapot and a burner attached to a small spherical-shaped propane tank only about 20 cm (8 in.) in diameter. We ate dinner (vegetables with rice accompanied by tomato-cucumber salad and pita bread) inside the tent followed by tea again. Then we sat around the campfire as the air cooled and began to turn cold talking about various topics. Sinoosy, our driver and guide, sand songs and answered our questions about Siwa and Siwan life.

Finally, we retired to the tent where we slept on the carpets and covered ourselves with thick blankets. The latter were needed as it became cold during the night.

We arose for the sunrise. There were tracks indicating that dogs, desert mice, and desert beetles had roamed around us during the night. Sinoosy prepared tea and heated pita for us to eat with creamed feta cheese and apricot jam for breakfast. Then he drove us back into town. It had been a good adventure with nice companions.

Saturday, Sept. 6, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

Mattius, Tomaz, and Dominika wanted to make another tour this afternoon and asked me to join them. First, we had a lunch sharing a baba ganoosh and each eating banana pancakes with honey.

Today, we went west of Siwa toward the nearby border with Libya. We went first to a great salt lake. The lake is a beautiful light blue, and the flat land around it is covered in thick layers of salt crystals so that it looks as if it has snowed.

Next we stopped at several sets of tombs that had been made into the sides of mountains. Some were Roman. Others were even older. Our last set were ones that Mattius had explored before but ones where the tour guides don't normally go. These had human bones, including skeletons scattered all around the area. Along with the bones were the remains of the fabric that had been wrapped around the mummies. In some cases, the fabric was still wrapped around the bones.

We passed bedouin villages, going to the end of the road. From there, it was desert the last 20 km (12 miles) to the border with Libya.

When we turned back, we made two stops. The first was at the gardens owned by Sinoosy's uncle. This was really a huge oasis plantation with fig, olive, pomegranite, and date trees, various herbs, fields for cattle feed, etc. We picked fresh dates off the tree and ate them. They were wonderful and juicy.

Our second stop on the return trip was at an exclusive ecological resort that costs $400 per day for a room. It's designed for movie and rock stars, high-level politicians, and wealthy businessmen who desire privacy for their vacation. It's actually a compound with four structures--one for administrative purposes and three with rooms and suites for clients. Each compound is isolated from the others by a date palm forrest and mountains. We couldn't see the completed ompounds because they were occupied, but we were allowed to explore one under construction which was finished except for interior work and landscaping. Each compound is built in local style--adobe with 2-3 floors, thick walls, and date palm trucks as wooden features. The one we saw had fantastic fviews of the salt lake, the palm forests, and a big mountain. It will be a plush place to stay, but because of the ecological emphasis there will be no electricity, no radio, no TV, no telephones, etc. It will be a place for quiet, EXPENSIVE relaxation.

In the evening, we all went out for dinner. I had shish tawook--chicken shish kebab in which the chicken pieces had been marinated in yogurt and spices before being charcoal broiled on spits with tomato, onion, and green pepper. It was served with French fries. Because flies were a problem in the palm garden of the restaurant where we ate, we switched to another restaurant where we shared banana pancakes with honey for dessert.

Sunday, Sept. 7, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

I've spent most of the moring relaxing in my room. I went out about 9:30 to see Dominika and Tomaz off on their bus trip to Alexandria. I bought my ticket for tonight, and I donated a book to the exchange shelf at the Tourist Office. Then I came back here, took some photos, and relaxed.

Sinoozy explained the Egyptian (or Siwan at least) system for names yesterday. Each child is given one name. Whether a boy or a girl, the father's given name is the child's middle name and the grandfather's given name is the third (or last) name. Sinoosy's father is Abosef and his grandbather is Dohman. Therefore, Sinoozy's full name is Sinoozy Abosef Dohman. Every sibling in his family has the middle and last names of Abosef Dohman. When he has children, each will have Sinoozy Abosef as his/her middle and last name.
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For lunch, I had couscous-chicken. Couscous is a North African dish made from cracked wheat that is cooked like rice. This was better than what I've had before, because they put a layer of suace over the top that added flavor. Then I read for a while in the park that is in the center of town. Then I took a nap in the shade there. As I was awaking, five boys 10-12 years old came to me. Their language was very limited in English, but it was obvious that they don't like America. They don't like George Bush or Sharon of Isreal either. One who is very animated made his eyes big and pretended at hitting me with a fish when I said I was from America. I wonder how many 10-12 year old boys in the U.S. would even be able to name the president or prime minister of two other countries? And these were obviously not the well educated boys. From their dress, they were all of the lower classes. An interesting side observation is that one is mute and one is an albino. The latter must have a terrible time here in the bright sun all year.

A man came across to visit (I think because he was worried that the boys were disturbing me). We talked about land prices, wedding traditions, etc. He translated everything at the boys' request, and they seemed interested in it all.

About 3:30 the man left and so did I. I walked east of town to Cleopatra Springs. On the way, I passed many homes. Each time I passed one with mothers and children outside, the mothers would quickly step inside and hurt the door. Women are NOT to be seen here.

Cleopatra Springs is a swimming spot. It's a cold water spring that has been lined with stone to form a circular pool. All throughout the pool, there are tiny bubbles coming from the spring to the surface. It's one of the most visited sites here with most people going there and back by donkey cart.

I arrived back in town t 6:30. I stopped by a restaurant for a lemon juice and mixed salad with cheese. I wasn't too hungry, so I decided not to order a big dish for dinner.

I read a while on the square, and when it got too dark there, I went back to the El-Kelany Hotel nd sat on the porch. I watched as they used a cherrypicker to repaint all the light standards back and gold. I also watched the people more. They are so nice and friendly and interesting here.

Wednesday, Sept. 3, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

I'm sitting on the bus waiting to leave for Siwa. What a mess! The seats are very close together, and people are coming on board with bags, drink containers, etc. There are assigned seats, but some choose "better" seats and then have to be forced to move when the ones with those seat numbers arrive. It's further complicated by the fact that so many Egyptians are large. I've been questioned twice, but i'm in my seat ( a "good" one) and I'm staying. I can see, and I can stretch my legs into the aisles. A nice, young man is my seatmate. He speaks English, but seems limited in his ability. He is not going all the way to Siwa; he is visiting another place with friends.
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The north coast of Egypt seems to be quickly developing. We passed many apartment complexes being constructed. Most looked like they are for package tourism. No one would want live in such isolcation. They are on beautiful stretches of the sea. The Mediteranean has that turquoise look it has around Greece.

We also passed the famous battleground where the decisive battle for North Africa was fought in WWII. There were signs for the cemetaries of the various nationalities--Germans, Italians, etc. It is really a desolate place. It must have been a horrible experience for all the soldiers.
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We finally turned south not far from the Lybian border. At first the desert was scattered with brushy plants. Soon, they were only next to the edge of the highway. Finally, there were no plants. The desert was a beige moonscape of crusty and loose sand with scattered rocks. Occasionally, camels could be seen wandering loose seemingly nowhere in particular. I saw a lake mirage that disappeared as we traveled further. A couple of times men wearing long robes with scarves wrapped around their heads asked to be let off the bus--again seemingly nowhere in particular. Sometimes a long house or maybe two could be seen in the far distance.
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Well, we arrived after 9 1/2 hours. The bus was imediately surrounded by about 10 boys with donkey carts wanting to take me to hotels. They even followed me, so I shook them by aiming toward a popular place and turning back when their carts wouldn't be able to turn around and follow.

Siwa is just like an oasis should be. It has 200 springs, lots of date palm trees, and old, old buildings. The original town was a walled fortress city on top of a hill. It reminds me of the Indian town west of Albuquerque on top of the mountain. It was built 900 years ago of adobe, abandoned 300 years ago, and has melted to ruins that are lighted at night. The present town is built on the flatland around the original hill. It has adobe houses that are melting, too, but people, apparently still live in them. It's a poor village. But it's fascinating, and the people are nice.

One of the main things to do here is swimming. There are both hot and cold water springs all over the area. So people go for hikes or hire boys to take them on donkey carts to take dips. There are also tours to the Great Sand Sea (which is the Sahara shown in films) and to sites of Roman antiquities in the area. There should be plenty for me to do for the 4-5 days. And the tourist office has a shelf for exchanging books, so when i finish my last book I'm presently reading (Plainsong by Kent Haruf) I can exhange it for another.

I'm sitting in the palm garden of the New Star Restaurant sipping a freshly-made limeaid. Ummm, it's good, and only 33 cents U.S. I dordered a local dish--beef shukshuka. It's a spicy ground meat mixture that is placed in the bottom of a small soufle dish. On top are placed two eggs and a sprinkling of herbs and vegetables. It is baked. Then it's served hot with pita bread on the side.

Thursday, Sept. 4, Siwa Oasis, Egypt

It didn't cool down as much as I expected in the night. Instead, it stayed rather warm. I found myself sweating where my body was against the bed and would turn for the ceiling fan to cool that part of me as another part warmed against the bed. Besides being in the desert, Siwa is 19 m (20 1/2 yds.) below sea level to increase the heat.

I went to the barber shop for a haircut. The barber had an apprentice who couldn't have been more than 13 years old. I had to lean my head for him to reach the top of it. He did the basic cut, then the barber finished it up taking care of the finer details. Both of them, for some reason, tried to force a part in the hair lower than is natural. When I got back to the room I had to wet the hair and part it again. Then I had to trim it a little because some hair they left long to force over the head was too long once it came down on the short side. But it's nice to add Egypt to the list of countries where I have gotten haircuts.
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I'm sitting on the main square looking up at the old walled city and thinking. It was abandoned before the USA was ever established. It was a destination for caravans 900 years ago. And yet, much of this town is little changed today, I imagine. Half the vehicles or more are donkey carts. The men probably wear the same dress as 900 years ago--long white kaftans, white turbans, and sandals. Women are almost unseen. It is only on carts that they are occasionally seen. Most of the women here wear a black veil that comes over their entire face, and they don't speak to strangers. The children are very friendly, although again, the girls are not seen except near their mothers. The boys, however, wander everywhere on their own.
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I had dinner at the Dunes Restaurant. Everything was bought (3 boys went out running and came back with bags) and cooked after I ordered. Due to the delay, they brought me a plate of freshly-picked dates to eat. They were dripping with syrupy juice and were so delicious! Finally my dinner came--babaganoosh (eggplant dip), and 1/4 roasted chicken, pita, and two lemon juices. It was delicious, as usual.

On the way back into town, I realized that this oasis is like a movie set. The ruins of the fortress on the hill, the square surrounded by adobe buildings, the men in their caftans and turbans, etc., all give the feeling of a movie set.

I bought a mango juice on the squre. It was thick with lumps of pulp. Ands then I talked to Mohammed, a nice young man of only 18 who owns a hotel, a food store, and a tour operation. I encountered him twice yesterday, and he was never pushy. I signed up for what I expect will be one of the highlights of my travels this year--an overnight trip in the desert. I will to to the Grand Sand Ocean in a 4x4, swim in both hot springs and cold springs, eat a meal cooked in the desert, sleep overnight on a carpet in the deserty, and see both the sunset and the sunrise from the desert. Oh, and there's no telling how many stars I will see!

Monday, Sept. 1, Alexandria, Egypt

It wsa a lazy day for me. I was out of the room late and spent the rest of the morning at the Internet cafe.

I caught a streetcar planning to go to the end of the line and walk further to see Montazah Palace. I never made it to the palace. I explored the local neighborhood and ate lunch in a kushari place (macaroni, spaghetti, rice, lentils, onions, tomato sauce, chili sauce). The people who owned the place were so excited to have me eat there. And a huge bowl cost only 33 cents U.S.!

From there, I stopped at a pastry shop and got a box of pastries for the same price as lunch. I got 4 pieces of the honey-soaked shredded weat roll, two coconut macaroons, two nut-filled pastries, and three pieces of coconut candy.

I went to the nearby beaches for the rest of the afternoon and had lots of fun visiting with local people. Everyone I encountered who could speak a little English wanted to talk. I guess I talked to 12-15 different people. An intersting observation was that the beaches had carpeted side areas of Islamics to say their prayers.

I was hungry for a shawarma sandwich and went out looking for a place selling them this evening. I never found one. It's easier to find a shawarma place in Copenhagen than it is here! I just returned to the hotel and ate some of my pastries.

Tuesday, Sept. 2, Alexandria, Egypt

I went to the new Alexandria Library this morning. It's really a nice building. Located on the waterfront drive, it consists of several parts. The main library is built mostly below ground with a circular roof that is slanted so that it projects from from the ground like a rising sun. A huge, suspended sphere holds a planetarium. Various exernal walls, but mainly a curved one coming up vertically from the lower part of the roof have letters from every known alphabet in the world carved into them.

I met 3 young men (one of them stopped me) on the way to the library. They are here for two days as tourists from their village. They had been to the library yesterday. They invited me to share their breakfast, but I declined and left for the library.

I took a street car to see the citadel next. It's a small, excuisitely reconstructed fortress located where the Alexandria Lighthouse, one of the ancient wonders of the world, stood. It's constructed of white limestone which really reflects the sun and looks nice with the sea in the background.

Walking back, I passed through various markets--two blocks of furniture manufacturers, a block of car upholsterers, 2-3 blocks of fabric shops, two blocks of gold shops, etc. Like businesses always seem to cluster together. I finally found a shawarma shop and had a sandwich for lunch.

Note: I am taking the bus tomorrow to Siwa Oasis. It's a long trip. And there is supposedly only one Internet place there that is slow and expensive. So I may not be online as frequently as I have been for the next few days.

Sunday, Aug. 31, Alexandria, Egypt

It feels so strange today. It's Sunday, but it is like a Monday. Everyone is out and everything is open. The weekend in Islamic countries is Friday and Saturday rather than Saturday and Sunday.

When I looked out of my room this morning I could see lots of soldiers lining the waterfront street. Since then, I've been told it is because President Mubarek will be here today. He is coming to inaugerate a new National Museum. He must also be going to the Greco-Roman Museum. I was there to see their exhibits this morning, and it, too, had soldiers everywhere, and they were brining in fresh flower arrangements and finishing a new interior paint job. The exhibits at the G-R seem to have been robbed to help furnish the new museum, some rooms were totally vacant, and cases and spaces were empty in others; I really don't think there was enough there to justify their admission price.

One thing I hate about visiting Egypt is their obsession with making money off cameras. Everywhere you visit there is a camera fee. It can be as much as 5 times the cost of admission. If you don't pay it, you have to check your camera and then go back to get it. These places all use x-ray machines for bags, but NOT for security purposes; they use them to see if you have lied about having a camera. It seems to be planned on the idea that people will either pay the fee or buy postcards assuring extra money for the facility. Of course, I do neither. And I wouldn't use my camera inside the museums anyway. The only "good" thing about the process is that they don't seem to expect a tip or payment for checking the camera. I haven't offered one either!
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I walked to Green Plaza which was recommended by the tourist office as a place with lots of nice, small eating places. It's further out than they indicated. It's actually past the plaza welcoming drivers to the city. It's a shoping complex attached to a Hilton Hotel. I ate there, but I wasn't impressed.

While there, I went to a pharmacy. I think I have a urinary tract infection. They gave me two medicines to take--Zithromax by Pfizer (an antibiotic) and Uricol by Pharma (a urinary antiseptic, antispasmodic, and for urinary lithiasis). I paid only 50 E. pounds (about $8.50 U.S.). With prices like that, foreign countries are the place to be sick if medicine is all that is needed for a cure!
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By the time I got back to the hotel, even though I took a streetcr 3/4 of the way, I was exhausted. I tried reading and feel asleep.

I'm at a restaurant now. I tried the Internet cafe, but the only computer available had one of those "split" keyboards with the keys angled apart. I'm such a fast typist on a regular keyboard that I found one of those things frustrating. So after reading my e-mail, I left without writing anything.

I found another Internet cafe, but their system was down temporarily. I decided it wasn't important to be on-line more for the day and went to a nearby restaurant recommended by my guidebook. I had a pizza, hoping it would be like ones in Greece and Turkey. One problem here is that no pork is used in food products because of Islamic restrictions. Another is that they don't use wood-fired ovens. So the pizza was okay but not great. It had roast beef, onion, green peppers, black olives and cheese. Rather than using a tomato sauce, I was brought two packets of ketchup! I didn't use them.

Alexandria really feels Mediteranean. The sun is bright, the sea is always nearby (since it is built as a long, thin city near the coast), there are Roman ruins, etc. I'm surprised it isn't a more popular holiday resort, especially considering how cheap things are here compared to European countries on the Mediteranian.

Friday, Aug. 29, Cairo, Egypt

Fridays in Egypt are like Sundays in the West. It's the day for religious services, so it starts quietly. It only comes alive in the lte afternoon and only to a limited extent then.

For some reason the water was off to my bathroom this morning. By the time they checked it out and I used the communal bath down the hall, it was 10:00 a.m. I had planned to go to the pyramids during the morning, but I postponed it until the afternoon. Instead, I walked across the Nile to see the opera house which is Islamic in design--okay, but nothing spectacular to see from outside. Then I went to an Internet cafe and returned to the room to read and rest.

At 1:30 pm., I left the room to go to the pyramids. I went to the nerest local bus station (behind the Egyptian Museum). I had to deal with a local man who wanted to ride with me (said he was going home to Giza) and arrange for me to have either a horse or camel ride to all the sights but who left the bus (after asking for money) when he realized I wasn't going to let him make money off me at the pyramids. (I gave him 1 pound for helping me get on the right bus.) The bus went all the wy to within about 4 blocks of the entrance.

My rection was probably like many others': The pyramids and the Sphinx seemed so familiar from photos, film, and TV that it was like re-visiting them. They also seemed quite small. The poor Sphinx is greatly eroded. But it's still impressive as are the pyramids, especially considering the accuracy they achieved in constructing them so large at that time.

It was HOT there. It's all desert sand around them. There is no shade. And the sand reflects the sun to make it much hotter than being in town. My black shoulder bag as hot to the touch. And my liquid crystal display on my watch became black and unreadable even though it was inside the bag and not directly in the sunshine. I took 1.5 l (1 1/2 qts.) of water with me and needed it. Then I stopped at a gas station convenience store and bought a 1.5 l Diet Coke and drank half of it on my way back into town.

The bus I caught back terminated before crossing the Nile. I decided to walk from there. My route took me by Cairo University, a very impressive campus although it is closed to the general public and has to be seen through iron fencing. I also went by the zoo and the botanical gardens.

As soon as I crossed the Nile, I went to a restaurant for dinner. It was filled with local families, so I could watch how they eat. They order lots of plates of food and eat family-style from them. Even just two people would order 4 kinds of salads, 2-3 kinds of meat, rice, etc. I had their mixed grill with baba ganoonj (their spelling). The latter is a dip made from garbanza beans, ground sesame seeds, eggplant, and seasonings. It's eten with pita bread. The mixed grill included a lamb chop, a tough piece of another kind of meat, a filet of pidgeon, and three spicy meat balls grilled on a spit. Surprisingly, the pidgeon was the best. It's skin was crispy, and the layer of fat between the skin and the meat was very flavorful.

Spellings in Western letters are interesting here. The "ganoonj" I mentioned above was different from what I've seen before, and the same menu said that their soft drinks are sold in "kanz." Apparently, it's a hobby of travelers here to collect such examples.

Note: So far, I am spending less per day ($16.54 per day for the first 5 days) than anywhere else on my trip. My hotel in Cairo is part of the reason. With a/c, private bath, and hot water, it's a real bargain at $10.04 U.S. per night.

Saturday, Aug. 30, Alexandria, Egypt

The train trip was fast and rather cool (good a/c). But I face a problem now that I am here. The government ruled two days ago that tourists can no longer go from Alexandria to Luxor or Aswan. They must go to Cairo and take one of the 3 trains per day from there that tourists are allowed to ride. Those trains are booked up for the next two days. So I'm trying to decide whether to go the long, uncomfortable route via bus (through Cairo and over near Sinai to avoid no-go areas for tourists) or to just skip seeing Luxor and Aswan. Right now I'm leaning toward the latter, since it will be miserably hot down there anyway. I'll think about it.

The route from Cairo to here was through farmland. There were mainly fields of corn and cotton, but I also saw cabbages, rice, and other crops. There are cnals and channels everywhere to direct the wtaer to the fields. And these also serve as bathing spots for the local people.

Alexandria has fresh air. And my hotel room has a balcony with a sea view, TV, hot water, etc., for less than $9 U.S. per night.

Thursday, Aug. 28, Cairo, Egypt

I tried to go to the Islamic Museum this morning, but it is closed for restoration. I continued toward the Citadel. I refused to pay 12 pounds for the Hassan Mosque, but I paid to see the Citadel, the largest fortress in the Islamic world and the seat of Egyptian government and power for centuries until modern times. I was mostly disappointed. It has a decent mosque, a nice smaller mosque, a police museum, a military museum, and a palace musem. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

I skirted the Cities of the Dead as I left the Citadel. They are two parts of town that were cemetaries with some hug, elegant mausoleums that have been occupied by squatters who have built 2-3 story adobe slums on the open areas. So now it is a comglomeration of homes, shops, and graves!

I spent the afternoon in the room. I napped for about 1 1/2 hours reaching a very deep level of sleep. Then I began a new book, The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter.

For dinner, I tried kushari, a popular Egyptian dish that combines macaroni, spaghetti, rice, lentils, garbanza beans, and onions. There is a tomato sauce to be poured over it and then stirred in. And there is a chili sauce to add for spiciness. It was quite tasty. Then, on the way back to the hotel, I got an ice cream cone--a dip of mango and one of raspberry. Ummm--and only 25 cents U.S.!

One thing I like about Cairo is the way that apartment buildings are. They remind me of the ones I recall from 1950s films about France and Italy. There is a caged elevator that goes up between the turns of the central stairwell. The hallways are dingy and the walls are stained, although the floors may be marble. The doors to the apartments are double ones that are fancy with carved wood and glass panes that are shaped nicely. It's easy to imagine that, just like in those old movies, one could go from that gloomy hallway into a beautiful, elegantly furnished apartment with double doors leading to a balcony. There are buildings like that all over town. My hotel is on the 5th floor of such a building.

Wednesday, Aug. 27, Cairo, Egypt (Continued)

For my afternoon tour, I headed to Roda Island, a large island in the Nile River. First, I went to Manial Palace, a walled garden compound with multiple palaces and a mosque of Prince Mohammed Ali, the son of King Farouk. I found the various living quarters to be fascinating. They have very intricate carved window coverings, stained glass windows, tiled walls, parquet floors, detailed ceilings, etc. It would be a very comfortable place to live in Cairo!

From there, I walked to the southern tip of the island to see the "Nilometer." Unfortunately, it's in a barricaded compound, so I had to see it only from a distance. It's really a flood gage. It was used each year to measure the highest level of the Nile, and that would determine the level of taxes for the coming year. Too far on either side of the optimum level would indicate either drought or floods and would require lower taxes.

I walked along the Nile and entered Coptic Cairo, the center of the Christian community. It's actually located near where Moses was found among the reeds on the banks of the Nile. By then, it was 5:00 p.m., so it was too late to see the Coptic Museum or any of the churches. I took the metro from there back to Downtown where my hotel is.

For dinner, I ate a delicious chicken kebab sandwich which was very garlicy. I met a very nice family while there. I had been looking at the posted menu to try to decide what to order and asked a lady who was doing the same what she would recommend. She told me it is a new place and that she didn't know either. We both ordered, and while I waited for my food, she, her husband, and her son were near me. We began to visit again. I sat with them and ate when my food came. Then they said they were going to an English film and asked if I would like to join them. I walked with them to the theater, but the film they expected to see was no longer showing there. There were only Egyptian films. So I told them good-bye and headed back to my hotel while they went to see a film.

Tuesday, Aug. 26, Cairo, Egypt (Continued)

What a day I've had. It's been fascinating. It's like seeing a National Geographic pictoral series live. Cairo is truly an impressive city. There is SO MUCH to see. I now realize I could easily spend 7-8 days just here in the city. And I've learned today that it's only nearest the tourist sites where there are hassles. Thank goodness.

Here are various notes about today:

1. There are monumental buildings everywhere. From art deco hotels to 1800s apartment buildings to mosques and fortresses handreds of years old, there are grand buildings to see all over the city.
2. I like the detailed Islamic geometric patterns that are incorporated into buildings via stone carvings, wooden trim and shutters, iron grillwork, etc.
3. The play of the sun on the buildings is beautiful due to the shapes and patterns built into the designs.
4. There are coffee and tea shops everywhere with men smoking waterpipes and drinking.
5. I heard the women doing their high-pitched, excited-sounding trilling with their tongues.
6. I wandered through the tight alleyways of the Islamic market area of the city where deliveries are made by donkey cart.
7. I had nice visits with several men including one at the tourist office, one who owns a papyrus shop, one who is in the military, etc.
8. I saw a woman walking down the street with a big metal pot balanced on her head without the aid of a coil to steady it like they use in India.
9. I was given dates to eat by two men who were snacking near where I stopped to check my map, and the dates were wonderfully soft. Even the outer skin was soft.

I walked over big sections of Cairo and am tired tonight. I went out briefly to get a shawarma sandwich for dinner. It was delicious with high quality red meat (no telling what animal, though). The streets were jammed with shoppers. Many were having ice cream cones, but the lines were so long I decided to skip dessert.

Wednesday, Aug. 27, Cairo, Egypt

I'm sitting in the Grand Hall (just past the Atrium) of the Egyptian Museum. I've read about this museum many times, and now I am here. It's not a very large museum, but it is filled like a warehouse with antiquities from ancient times. I've now toured the whole museum twice. First, I followed my guidebook to read about the highlights. Then I went through agian looking at everything in general. I had seen similar items at museums in New York, London, Berlin, Copenhagen, and elsewhere, and I had seen the King Tut touring exhibit about 25 years ago in the U.S. So there wasn't much that was really different from what I've seen before, but it's fascinating to see what is here. One thing I hadn't seen were the pyramid-shaped capstones from pyramids. And, of course, there were many more items in the Tut exhibit than had traveled to the U.S. I find it interesting that the Tut exhibits are included in the general admission price, but they charge extra for the Mummy Rooms--twice the general admission price. I actually skipped the mummies, since my guidebook said that many people write to tell them it is a rip-off and not worth the price. I've seen plenty of mummies before.

Monday, Aug. 25, Frankfurt, Germany

Spending Update: I was in India from Sunday afternoon, Aug. 10, through Monday morning, Aug. 25, for a total of 15 days. I spent $274.21 for an average of $18.28 per day. For the entire trip, I have spent $1657.05 (not including dental expenses of $89.87) over 70 days for averages of $23.67 per day and $710.10 per month.

I can tell I am in Europe. The smell of cigarette smokers permeates the whole terminal although it is supposedly smoke-free with smoking allowed only in areas at the ends of the concourses. Even in India, air terminals are totally non-smoking today. I can't recall now, but this may be the first airport on my whole trip that allows indoor smoking. It's definitely the stinkiest airport I've had to spend a few hours in.

Luck hasn't been with me since I began the trip. For the flight from Mumbai to Frankfurt I got the aisle seat I had reserved, but it turned out to be the Row From Hell! Neither of the other two passengers had flown before, so they didn't know any of the procedures. That wasn't a problem. The problems were:

1. The woman in the window seat left 4 times over a 7-hour flight to go to the toilet.

2. The young man in the middle seat (next to me) was the one who really made the trip bad. His problems:

a. He, too, got up 3 times to go to the toilet.
b. He was hyperactive, moving and bumping me constantly through the entire night.
c. He had "flying elbows." He couldn't do anything (operate a seat belt, eat, adjust his position on his seat, etc.) without his elbows going out across the adjoining seats and hitting me and the lady.
d. He had a stiff leather jacket he kept in his lap. With every movement, the air or collar of the jacket would press or move against me.
e. Worst of all, he had a terrible cold and was coughing and sneezing all night. I'll be lucky if I don't become sick because of sitting near him.

I ended up with a 4-5 hour wait for my flight to Cairo. It wasn't planned that way. When I checked in last night, Lufthansa somehow (for what reason?) switched me from Flight 590 at 10:35 a.m. to Flight 582 at 1:30 p.m. When I discovered it this morning here in Frankfurt, they tried to use the excuse that all people on my originally scheduled flight (#626 which was eliminated after I booked my ticket) had been switched to Flight 582, but that's not true. My updated itinerary I typed for myself shows that I had been changed to Flight 590 (the one at 10:30) and assigned Seat 21H. (That's also what shows here on my Blog under the itinerary that has been published since before I left on my trip.) So Lufthansa made a change that was not in my favor, and they won't admit it!

I had to Call Cairo to inform them at the hotel, because they are providing free pickup at the airport. Lufthansa gave me access to a phone, but the agent sent with me didn't know how to make a long distance call. I had to figure out (based on knowledge of phones in general and Danish procedures) to dial 9 for an outside line and then dial 00 for international access. The line was busy over about 5 tries, and the agent didn't want to wait longer; she wanted to shift me to the long line at the Transfer Desk. Again, that would have been to Lufthansa's advantage and not to mine. I insistedon trying one more time and got through. I'm NOT having fond thoughts about Lufthansa!!!

So I have a 4-5 hour wait for my flight to Cairo and will not leave until almost the time that I should have arrived there. I exchanged some old Marks for Euros, but I had to do it through Travelex, a commercial company, since there are no banks inside the customs area in the terminal. That meant that I had to pay about $9 U.S. to exchange the equivalent of $37 worth of currency. Everything today seems to be going wrong.

While writing this, CNN has reported that there have been two explosions in Mumbai. How exciting, since I was there less than 12 hours ago. Of course, I wouldn't have been near either explosion even if I had still been in Mumbai.

Cairo, Egypt

I made it here. The plane was late, and it was 8:45 p.m. before I got to the hotel. It's been a long, exhausting trip during which I finished Mistry's latest novel I was reading and read several newspapers and magazines.

So far, Cairo is impressive. It is clean and organized compared to India. There are beautiful buildings with many having exterior lighting. The highways and streets are well paved with curbs and sidewalks, etc. It's much nicer than I expected.

My hotel is about what I expected. It's a lot, I think, for the price. It's a basic room with twin beds and yellow stucco walls. It has an a/c, and I have my own bath with hot water. There's no view, but my room is to the back and quiet except for the a/c which hums loudly. Downtown Cairo is just outside the building. Best of all, the room is clean and the bed is comfortable. It's time for me to get some sleep.

Tuesday, Aug. 26, Cairo, Egypt

Wow, the air is dry here. I noticed it immediately as we drove from the airport. Then as I went to bed, I had a nosebleed. Instead of using my Chapstick only when I brush my teeth, I'm using it about every hour.

As we flew in, everything was brown--the earth and all the buildings. Inside the city, however, it's not that evident. There are trees and there is color to the buildings. It's going to be interesting exploring it all.

So far, I have only wandered within a few blocks of my hotel this morning. I need to get a map so I can plan a proper itinerary for exploring the city. But it is still early and many businesses are not open yet. I've been impressed with what I have seen, however. Cairo is filled with very nice buildings. The city is majestic. It's going to be HOT, too. It was very warm last night at 9:00 p.m., and it is barely comfortable this morning at 9:00 a.m.

I forgot that this is Tuesday, and it's within the hours that university e-mail is unavailable, so I cannot read my mail. I'll have to get on the computer later or wait until tomorrow to see what people have written.

Sunday, Aug. 24, Mumbai, India

Today is my last day in India. I am spending it at the hotel and the area around my hotel (which is near the airport). I will fly out tonight for Cairo (via Frankfurt). I should be in Cairo about noon tomorrow and will be picked up by a driver from my hotel there.

It will be interesting seeing how irritating the situation is for tourists in Egypt. They have a long history of learning how to hassle us. I am, therefore, going with no definite plans that I feel must be fulfilled. I am reading about all the possible sites and deciding where I would like to go and what I would like to do. But I will not put up with too many hassles. I don't have to see certain temples and/or towns if doing some becomes more trouble than it is worth.

I AM looking forward to the food in Egypt, though. After a month of Indian-style food in both Sri Lanka and India, I'm ready for a change. I will enjoy some hummus, falaffel, shish kebab, shawarma, etc. UMMMM! I'm sure I will have bad breath from my first meal through the last while I am there!!

Friday, Aug. 22, Gokarna, India (Continued)

It's 3:15 p.m., and I am sitting at Gokarna Road Railway Station. I have 3 hours to wait for my train.

I stayed in town until about 1:45. I went to the Internet cafe for an hour. Then I stopped for a spicy omelette and tea. I wandered through town, and a business owner invited me to sit and visit. I was there for half an hour when Lionel showed up coming back from a trip to the beach. I went with him while he had lunch. I had a lime soda. He had a newspaper with him, so we read it.

When he left for his room, I wandered again. There is a huge rectangular-shaped reservoir with concrete steps surrounding it where people go to bathe and to do their laundry. I went there and watched while slowly walking around it. There were many people both bathing and washing clothes.

After that, I decided to start walking toward the station. I had nothing better to do, and there was no rush to get there. I was definitely a person of interest as I walked through the countryside and small villages. And walking gave me a chance to see everything and everyone better. I was concerned when it became cloudy and began sprinkling, but it passed quickly and the sun came out again. I had covered about 6 of the 10 km (3 1/2 of the 6 miles) to the station when a van stopped and one of the men in it offered me a ride. It was 4 men about my age who were obviously professionals, so I accepted. They had been here for a temple celebration. They told me I should visit their city of Bijapur the next time I am in India.
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A man came and sat beside me on the train platform and began talking to me. He had RED teeth, stained from chewing betal nuts. He was educated and could read and write English. But his teeth were so horrible looking that it was difficult to turn toward him and have a conversation.

There are two dogs also on the platform. As I ate some peanuts they came near. I feel sorry for them. I know the are hungry. But they just quietly looked at me eat. I can't imagine peanuts being a food that dogs would appreciate.
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The train arrived over 1 1/2 hours late. It was dark, and the power went off at the station just before the train came in. It was a quick scramble in the dark to get onto the train. Fortunately, they have car markers on the platform and I knew where to be standing for getting on the right car.

I have an upper birth in a car with 3 tiers. I hate climbing into and out of the upper birth. But it's an air conditioned car which means there are bedding items--two sheets, a blanket, and a pillow. Furthermore, the movement of the train feels rather smooth. I hope I can sleep.

Saturday, Aug. 23, Mumbai, India

The monsoon rains caught up with me today. Mumbai is flooded! I feel trapped in my hotel room.

I slept VERY well on the train last night. I had my luggage locked to the metal brackets attached to the seats, so I didn't have to worry about anyone taking it. Furthermore, the ride was smooth with gentle starts and stops. My upper birth rocked just enough to be perfect. The only problem was the light snorring of two men nearby.

It was a SLOW train. It was already 1 1/2 hours late when it got to Gokarna. By the time we got here, we were 6 hours late.

I had already decided to stay at an airport hotel rather than try to go into town. A man in my compartment was coming to the airport, too. We shared a taxi and the expense.

They agreed to let me stay at the hotel until 5:00 p.m. tomorrow without extra charges. That's fine. My flight won't be until after midnight, but I would rather stay in the hotel with the TV and the privacy as long as possible. There are shops and restaurants nearby, but if it continues to rain hard while I am here, I can easily stay in the room and eat at the hotel restaurant.

Mumbai is like most big third-world cities. We passed lots of tent towns and shacks built of sheet metal and other scrounged items. It brought back memories of the neighborhood where the tailors in A Fine Balance lived when they first arrived in Bombay. And the traffic is atrocious. Lights stay red for long periods of time so that it becomes a go-a-little-bit-then-wait-a-whole-lot process that is repeated over and over. It's made me wonder if I ever want to really see this city or not. It is just so big and congested. We'll see....

Thursday, Aug. 21, Gokarna, India

Gokarna was recommended as a destination by Joe and Philly, the couple I met last year in Laos and traveled with through northern Thailand. I can see why they liked it. Thank goodness, the rain has stopped and this looks like a clear day for the beach.
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Last night was a bad night. Lionel and I checked into rooms quickly yesterday because it was raining. On closer inspection, my room was not very clean. It looked as if the sheets were clean, but the pillow cases were not. I went to bed without a pillow. Then by 1:00 a.m. I was awake fighting bus. I killed at least 10 mosquitos, two fleas, some ants, and a couple of long, skinny bugs. I put my travel sheet (like a sleeping bag made of cotton) on the bed and climbed into it. I inserted by book into the pillow compartment to use as a pillow. I still got up a couple of more times to deal with mosquitos.

This morning Leonel came to my room to see if I wanted breakfast. We went to a local eating place and had pani with sambal. Pani are light puffy fried breads similar to soapapillas in Mexico. Sambal consists of marinated onions in a spicy sauce. We had a glass of milk tea afterwards.

When we finished, we went to the nearby Gokarna International Hotel. They had a clean room with cable TV, a balcony, and a telephone for 150 rupees--50 rupees less than I paid for the fleabag last night. So I checked in and moved my luggage later. Lionel took his luggage and stored it there while he considered whether he wanted to stay in a room on the beach or get a room at the hotel. He'll probably stay at the beach.

The weather today is unstable. It was sunny all morning, but there are clouds around now. We were able to walk to the beach with no rain. I have a feeling it will come later, however. I hope I can manage to walk back without being in the rain again today. I want my sandals to stay dry. Yesterday, when they were wet, they stuck to my heel and rubbed a blister on one side.
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We spent about 5 hours at the beach. Rain never came. I left about 3:00 p.m. after we had gone swimming. Leonil came back later. He came to my room around 6:00 p.m., and we had drinks on the balcony and visited. Later, we went to a restaurant for dinner. I had the vegie thali plate and shared a fruit salad with him.

Friday, Aug. 22, Gokarna, India

I'm waiting for my train tonight around 6:30 p.m. I tried to get the hotel to let me stay in my room until 4:00 p.m., but they wanted me to pay for another whole night. They had said I must check out at 8:30, since I checked in at 8:30 yesterday. I offered to pay 50 rupees (1/3 of a night's stay for 1/3 of a 24-hour period), but they wouldn't accept it even though there is no demand for the room. Therefore, I'm sitting in my lobby. I've been reading in my book (Rohinton Mistry's Family Matters). Later, I'll go to an Internet cafe and will eat lunch somewhere. The day will slowly pass. It's just awkward having to deal with my luggage. I refuse to pay the hotel to store it; I don't want to help them earn more money when they wouldn't help me. Fortunately, the morning has turned out to be sunny although there was a dire forecast on BBC. If it doesn't rain, it will me much easier for me just to pull my suitcase with me as I go places to pass the time.

Tuesday, Aug. 19, Mangalore, India (Continued)

What a surprise. As I was walking down the street to the Internet cafe, a man approached me and asked what country I'm from. He was testing me. I looked at him and said, "We've met before!" He said, "Yes, you're a doctor at a university." I had met him and his wife in Kollum about 8 days ago. They had been there visiting her family. But they live here where they have a small neighborhood restaurant about 15 km (9 miles) out of town. I needed to get to the Internet cafe and then eat, and he had to meet his father and get back to the restaurant. But what an experience--being recognized in India by someone I know in a town I've never visited before and only about 1 1/2 hours after I had arrived!

Wednesday, Aug. 20, Gokarna, India

I've noticed that the exotic aspect of traveling in places like India, Thailand, etc., has mostly worn off for me. As I ride the buses and go from community to community it seems so normal to me now. I know it is something that was bound to happy; Europe lost its exotic feel 20 years ago or so. What it means is that I'm beginning to feel at home almost anywhere.
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I'm sitting at a cafe on Om Beach in Gokarna. It's a beautiful, isolated place that is actually about 4 km (2 1/2 miles) out of town across a landscape of volcanic rock covered in brush and trees. I walked here with Leonil from France and Constantine from Germany. The cafe is the social center for the beach which is popular with hippies and backpackers.

Leonil and I met on the bus this morning. He was also coming from Mangalore to here. We began visiting when we changed to the second bus we had to take for the trip. We arrived in town with it raining and went in search of a place to stay. We checked into a guesthouse very near to the bus station. Then we started walking to the beaching. Leonil knew the way, because he visited here two years ago. We passed a fairly dirty beach. Then at the end of the next beach, there was a temple with a bathing pool where men were taking their bath. We climbed steps from there to cross the volcanic mountain to the next beach. When we got to it, the rain was so hard that we stopped at a place we saw where there were about 5 local men who invited us inside for shelter.

The men were all very poor. One was wearing only a g-string. The others were wearing dirty wrap-around skirts called longe or shorts. They are employees, I guess, of the guesthouse that was attached to where we were. We ordered tea which they brought to us and we drank. While there, Constantine came up with his backpack. That's when we first connected with him. He was on his way to Om Beach also, where he had reservations to stay at the guesthouse there called Nameste. He bought tea and some hashish, then we all set out across another volcanic area to Om Beach.

The guesthouse at Om Beach has a very nice covered outdoor restaurant. We sat there and ate and drank for over an hour. I had banana pancakes and Leonil had lemon pancakes. We finally left a little after 6:00 p.m., because we knew it would be getting dark and it would take us almost an hour to hike back into town.

The rain continues tonight. But we got a glimpse of the town. It reminds me of the villages I visited in the Himalayas two years ago. I am looking forward to seeing more of it during the next two days that I will be here.

I'm running out of time and it's getting late, so I will tell more about the village tomorrow.

Tuesday, Aug. 19, Mangalore, India

Anyone who likes amusement park rides needs to take a bus through the hills and/or mountains of India while sitting in the front row looking out the front window. It's actually more exciting than any ride I've ever taken. The twisting and turning was so fast and so frequent that even my stomach became queezy, and a ride has never done that to me. Some people actually leaned their heads out the windows to throw up. The excitement is increased by the on-coming traffic and constant efforts to pass the vehicle ahead with no idea of what's coming around the nearing curve. Several times today on the 7 1/2-hour trip from Mysore to Mangalore we had near-misses (near-hits?) that made me flinch. I looked around after one of the occurrences, and a man who had been watching me laughed. I don't know how they manage it, but many buses a day cover the same route in the same way without having an accident. And there are tens of thousands of similar trips throughout India each day. It's just amazing how seldom there is an accident.

There's really nothing to see in Mangalore. I'm just here to spend the night and catch another bus tomorrow morning for Gokarna, my last stop in India (other than one night and day near the airport in Mumbai this weekend). It's 6:00 p.m., and I haven't eaten yet today, so I need to end this and find a restaurant that my guidebook recommends here.

Sunday, Aug. 17 (Cont.), Mysore, India

I went to Mysore Palace around 6:40 to wait for the lighting ceremony that occurs every Sunday night. While waiting, I visited with two young men. Then the gates opened and we entered. A military band was seated in the central area of the palace and we observers were kept about 50 m (50 yds.) back. At 7:00, the band began playing Indian music and 50,000 lightbulbs burst on. They outlined the main palace and the gates. It was beautiful. It was like Tivoli, but this is a real palace and much bigger than the lighted buildings at Tivoli. I'll tour the inside tomorrow.

Bought some candies on the way home. I got two balls of coconut and other ingredients and two pieces of milk sugar candy.

Monday, Aug. 18, Mysore, India

I toured Mysore Palace after washing some shorts in the room. The palace is truly nice and magnificent. It's as well restored and maintained as European palaces. It is very lavish with two rooms having stained glass canopy roofs, several doors being covered in silver, other doors being made of inlaid mother-of-pearl, the floors being of marble, etc. I had a bit of distraction, however. A group of engineering students wanted to visit with me, so I had to be careful to look at the features of the palace while talking. It was nice to visit the palace, since I remember studying about it in social studies sometime around the 5th grade. There are a couple of gimmicks that I didn't like. First, rather than saying "No Photos," they require you to deposit your camera and pay for doing so. Then they do the same thing with the shoes. Another negative aspect was that I couldn't look at the lavishness of the palace without thinking about how poor the people are in general and how unfair it is that one family had so much through being royalty and taxing the poor.

From the palace, I went to a museum in another palace. It was really a hodgepodge of various old items, but it's one of the bigger attractions beyond the palace.

I walked past the university campus on my way to the train station. I took a photo of the College of Education building which is a twin-towered colonial structure.

Getting a train ticket in Inida is an experience. I ran the gauntlet, though, and now I have my place reserved for getting to Mumbai in time for making my flight next weekend. Frist, I had to line up at the Inquiry Counter to get information about the train. Then I had to complete a reservation form. Next, I had to cue in the purchasing room. Fortunately, it's made easier here by having a moving-seat cue. You sit in the last row and, as people in the front go to the window, everyone moves forward, snaking through the rows to the front. Seats are needed, because the wait is generally 30-45 minutes. Anyway, I will catch a train in Gokarna on Friday night and arrive in Mumbai Saturdy morning. I'll be in a 3-tier air conditioned sleeper car. I don't report to the airport in Mumbai until Sunday night, so there is time to still get there if the train runs into a problem.

I've been writing this at a restaurant where I've had murg chicken--pieces of chicken in a very dark red sauce with bell pepper and herbs. It was spicy and delicious. It was too much food, however. I skipped the cucumber and onion salad and ate only one of the papadums they served. As usual, I had fresh lime soda with the meal. Here, they brought the lime juice and the simple syrup in small bowls with spoons and the soda in the bottle so that I could nix my own drink. I have to remember to make these at home. The restaurant, like many here, had a doorman dressed in a fancy cream and gold colored uniform and turban.

Sunday, Aug. 17, Mysore, India

I'm spending the morning at the Mysore Zoo. It's only a short walk from the center of town and is a nice zoo. It's very clean and well maintained. It's not nearly as crowded as the zoo in Colombo was, so it's more of a pleasant visit. Some observations:

1. It was funny to be looking at types of monkeys in cages and to turn around and see local monkeys sitting on the open ground.
2. A zookeeper just walked by escorting a baby elephant around the grounds. I guess it was done both as a treat for the visitors and as part of the training for the elephant. I enjoyed seeing it.
3. There is a group of American teenagers here. My guess is that theya re 16-17 years old. They are noticeable for being very loud compared to the Indians and for acting rather immaturely by doing things like making roaring sounds at the tigers.
4. A nice professional couple approached me and visited. They are from Kerala, but they live in Bangalore for their work in high-tech areas. They gave me suggestions for my travels and explained a foot item (idly) I had seen on menus and was curious about.

I'm running out of time in India. My flight to Cairo is next Sunday Night/Monday Morning. So I've had to figure out what to do for my final days. The problem in planning is that I must consider train schedules to Mumbai (Bombay). I've decided to go back across the mountains to Mangalore, because trains from this side take much longer to get to Mumbai and don't run every day. From Mangalore, I can work my way up the coast until Friday or Saturday and then get a train to Mumbai and go straight to the airport. Tomorrow, I will go to the train station here to get info on trains and scheduled arrivals in Mumbai. I've already bought a bus ticket to Mangalore on the coast for Tuesday morning.

I had spinach with paneer for lunch. Paneer is the cheesy, tofu-like product. I had it with nan and two fresh lime sodas. The spinach mixture was nice and spicy.

Various Notes:

1. It's more bothersome to be a tourist here in Mysore than where I've already been this trip. Everyone wants you to buy postcards or flutes or old coins, or something. The couple I met at the zoo says that they, too, face the same problem, so it's not just the Westerners who have to deal with it. In fact, I saw a man who sells flipflops (thong sandals) pestering an old Indian man who walked by barefooted to buy a pair. I'd hate to have to put up with this everyday!!
2. In several cities I've visited, I've seen elaborate geometric chalk drawings in white (and sometimes accented in rust) on the pavement in front of doorways to homes. I wonder what these are? My guess is that it's a way to ward off evil and to promote good fortune. Each home tends to have its own unique pattern. It may be tied to a particular religion.
3. Yesterday, I encountered the same street urchin three different times. The third time, we talked. I asked why he wasn't in school. He said that he doesn't go to school--that he works. It's obvious he's very intelligent. And he can speak English, German, French, and Italian along with more than one Indian language. This boy, 12-13 years old, will work all his life and never make much of himself. If his intelligence, charm, and enthusiasm could only be channeled into an educational program, there's no telling what he might accomplish.

I still haven't toured Mysore Palace. I'm waiting until tomorrow morning when it should be less crowded. But I am going to the palace grounds tonight to see the lighting ceremony that takes place only once a week on Sundays and on public holidays. The palace is outlined with 50,000 light bulbs that will be turned on for one hour. It starts in 70 minutes from now.

Friday, Aug. 15, Cochin, India (Continued)

The South Korean lady told me a sad story about a woman from Spain she met. The woman had been offerred chocolates to eat by some Indians. They were drugged and made her pass out. She slept for hours and, when she awoke, was missing her passport, traveler's checks, cash, etc. She had no money for doing anything, so the South Korean lady bought her a train ticket to Delhi so she could go to her embassy for help and gave her money for food. How horrible it must have been for the lady. I was told she had cried for 4 days before the South Korean met her.
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I walked to the bus station with it sprinkling. I arrived early, because I wanted to go before it got dark. Fortunately, there were few seats sold (due to being Independence Day, according to the man at the ticket office). That meant I got a seat with no one beside me. I was disappointed, however, that they had no special place for my luggage. I had to put it on the floor in front of the empty seat beside me.

Saturday, Aug. 16, Mysore, India

It was a long and tiresome bus ride inland to Mysore. We had to cross a ridge of mountains high enough that it is covered with tea plantations. What made it so bad was the roadway--a one-lane, pock-marked, rough road with many one-lane bridges and lots of tight turns. The bus' suspension was already damaged from many trips over this road, so it was a bumpy ride. Often we had to stop for others to pass, and several times we had to back up to an area wide enough for someone to pass.

My luck of having two seats didn't last for the whole trip. We continued to pick up passengers during the night, so I eventually had to share my extra seat. That made it much more difficult to sleep.

Early morning on the bus finally turned into an enjoyable experience. A man left the bus across the aisle from me, and the remaining man there invited me to move over and visit with him. He was a policeman going to Bangalore for a class, and he was with three other men--two more policemen in the seats behind us, and a friend of theirs who is an engineer with a home in Bangalore where they will all stay. They were young men (26-32 years old) with a delightful relationship among them. The engineer is the comic of the group, and the one I sat with was their favorite to tease. The other two were a little shy, but still participated fully in our discussions. The cops were all handsome and married (one love marriage and two arranged marriages) with children, while the joker is still single. They were so excited about their trip. Beyond going to classes, they have plans to go out drinking (non-alcoholic beverages only, they said) and dancing at a disco (only with each other--not with women). If I had been going to Bangalore, I'm sure I would have been invited to join them.

I arrived in Mysore at 7:30 a.n. and said good-bye to my policement with a promise to consider visiting their town of Munnar on my next trip to India and to write them from America. Then I faced the problem of Mysore being a major tourist center. The touts were everywhere. I shook all but one. With him, it didn't even work when I suggested, "How about I pay you 10 rupees to leave me alone." He walked with me to a hotel I wanted to see. Then I went with him to one he wanted me to see. When I rejected his and said I was going to walk to two more hotels and preferred to be alone, he finally gave up. I went back to the first hotel and checked in. My room, however, wasn't ready, so I went exploring and to one of the tourist offices.

Mysore is famous for its palaces. One, Mysore Palace, is so special and se well restored that it is something like the Versailles (sp?) of India. It's an unbelievably beautiful place just across the road from my hotel. My room looks toward it, but trees obscure the view. Instead of touring it immediately, I've decided to wait. I may even wait until Monday morning, since it is known for being crowded on weekends. In the meantime, there are other things I can do here.

It's now late afternoon. I had a 3-hour nap after my room was ready at 11:30. Then I cleaned up and went to dinner at 4:00 at a nearby restaurant. I had chicken tikka masala, garlic naan, and fresh lime soda. It was a nice restaurant, and I went there because my guidebook highly recommended the chicken tikka. It lived up to what the guidebook said. It was creamy and spicy and delicious. But the restaurant was apparently closing around 4:30. Lights started going off, and they brought me my bill while I was still eating. I didn't appreciate that and left with a bad impression of the place. I also left without leaving any extra tip beyond what they had already included as a service charge.

As I left the restaurant, there was a procession going down the street. It is part of a temple festival they are having. There were a couple of bands, several floats, and an elephant with fancy dress. Some were shooting firecrackers as the procession continued, so there was lots of excitement. My "broken" camera worked for two photos, but then I had to change to the new camera.

Thursday, Aug. 14, Cochin, India (Continued)

Fort Cochin is huge. The map doesn't do it justice. Many streets are left off and what looked like short distances were actually long ones. I walked several kilometers during the day trying to see the sites that I described in my previous entry and that I saw afterwards.

I ran into Florence, the young lady who was catching the same train from Trivandrum the other day, in the Fort. She had just arrived here and showed me her photos from her visit to Varkala, the beach resort that I decided to skip.

I ate dinner, my only meal of the day, after returning via ferry to Ernakulam, the mainland portion of Cochin. I had nan paneer butter masala. Paneer is a cheese that is somewhat like tofu. It was in a creamy curry sauce. They served it with two big pieces of nan bread. I ordered a lime drink, but they made fresh orange juice instead. It was a good dinner, but would have been better with lime juice.

Friday, Aug. 15, Cochin, India

There have been showers off and on all morning and afternoon. It's the first genuinely rainy day of my entire trip. I've been very fortunate with the weather. Being monsson season, there could have been much more rain.

I need to go to Mysore from here, but it's impossible to do it easily. There is no direct train. By train, I would have to go to Bangalore (about a 15 hour trip) and then backtrack another 3 hours to Mysore. By bus, it takes 10-13 hours according to timing. (Traffic slows down during the daytime.) The buses leave about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours starting around 2:30 in the afternoon with the last one leaving at 7:45 p.m. The 7:45 bus takes less time and arrives at a decent hour--6:00 a.m. The earlier buses take longer and arrive at bad times in the night or early morning. There were only stand-by tickets available for the train, so that helped me decide to take the bus. I will be in Seat 18 for 10 hours tonight traveling from Cochin to Mysore. I dread the trip. I just have to get it behind me!

Today is Independence Day for India. As I returned to the hotel from my outing to buy a ticket to Mysore, I passed a stadium with bands, soldiers, scouts, policemen, etc., streaming out. There had been a celebration that I missed. It's too bad I didn't know about it in advance!

I took two books that I have finished to a bookstore today to trade. (Actually, it was a book I had read and another that I quit reading. I found my last book boring, gave it 1 star out of a possible 5, and was happy to get rid of it!) I paid 145 ruppees in addition to trading in the books to get the newest book by Rohinton Mistry entitled Family Matters. He's the India author of A Fine Balance which I read and enjoyed last year. I'm looking forward to reading this new book while I am still here in India.

On the way to the Fort, I met a nice young lady from South Korea. She and I visited and then toured around the Fort area for a while. It was an unusual encounter, because of the language situation. I could understand everything she said, and she spoke quite well. She, however, could not understand me. That is the opposite of how it usually is.

I must go now. The cybercafe is closing.

Thursday, Aug. 14, Backwaters of Kerala, India

It rained all night. The skies are still cloudy and there is the sound of drops dripping from trees and the edge of the roof. There are nice bird sounds, too. Otherwise, it is quiet as I sit here on my balcony.

Although this place is nice, I feel it's over-priced for the level of facilities. I plan, therefore, to leave today. I will skip Alappuzha (where my fellow boat riders stayed last night), since there seems to be no special reason to stop there other than to begin or end a backwater tour. Instead, I'll try to catch a bus or train to Cochin (Kochi), one of South India's most interesting (and I hope enjoyable to visit without hassles) towns.
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Cochin, India

I'm sitting in Jew Town, a section of Fort Cochin. Across Synagogue Street from me is SWASTIK Spices. And further down the street is Swastic Oil Cooperative with swastikas all over the front of the building. You would think people would be more sensitive. Do you think they see it as a joke?

I got here by taking a canoe, then a tuk tuk, then a bus, and finally the ferry. Cochin is a city in several parts (penninsulas, islands, and mainland). My hotel is on the mainland, and I must take the ferry to to back. I've just visited Mattancherry Palace here in Fort Cochin which is famous for it's murals. They are very old paintings of Hindu gods and goddesses (with veluptuous, topless figures). I'm waiting now for the synagogue to open. After that, I will explore the "business" section of the Fort before taking the ferry back to my side of town.
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The synagogue was interesting. It was built in 1568. It's a very bright, open building with wonderful hand-painted blue tiles on the floor, nice carvings, lots of hanging lanterns, etc. The Jews came here at that time and established a community. The local leader named one of them as a king for his people and community. Eventually, their town was burned by the Moors and the Portuguese, and they moved to Cochin and built the neighborhood called Jew Town. The information at the synagogue says there are still 60-70 Jews in Cochin and about 5000 in India.

Wednesday, Aug. 13, Backwaters of Kerala, India

I'm on a boat traveling the backwater region of Kerala on an 8-hour trip northward. I've been surprised by how developed it is along the waterways so far. There is one house after another, whereas I had expected remote jungle with occasional villages. It's not the city though. Local people are traveling by dugout canoes. And there are homemade crane-like constructions at the water's edge that allow them to lower nets for fishing and then raise them again. There are lights on the crane to attract the fish when the nets are lowered. It's a peaceful journey even if it's more developed along the shore than I expected.

We're passing an area now of houses built of woven palm fronds. They are really just shacks. Some have plastic sheeting thrown over the roofs to keep them dry. Each also has a woven palm frond toilet built out over the water so that the waste floats away when it falls.

I've met an American! There aren't many of us over here. He's an anthropology student from the University of Chicago and is of Indian descent (but born and raised in Miami) named Alpin. He's been working in Delhi on a project in which he tries to learn the details of all sides in a controversy related to alleged pollution of drinking water in a village caused by a Coca Cola bottling plant. He's a nice boy, but seems a little naive. His family must have money; he's wearing Alfred Dunhill sandals and expensive looking cargo shorts, and he said he prefers hotels to staying in guesthouses.

We've passed a couple of local househoats. They can be hired for a tour with living accommodations and meals cooked on board for about $125-150 U.jS. per day. The housing compartments of the boats are made of woven rattan and have curved roofs and arched windows with their own curved roof coverings.

The American student asked our boat people about the cost of renting a regular house on the waterway. They told him he could get monthly rentals for about 500 rupees a day (abut $11). This would be an interesting place to come and relax for a month or so. But I'm not sure if that price includes an outhouse over the water or not!

We stopped for lunch at a place operated by the tour company. They served us on banana leaves. It was a typical rice and curry selection. Considering the tour company was operating it, I was surprised at how cheap it was--25 rupees plus whatever extras were ordered (meat, fish, pineapple, etc.). I had the vegetarian selection and pineapple for a price of 35 rupees (about 75 cents U.S.).

Later, we stopped in a village where we had tea and snacks. I had a fried batter-dipp-ed banana and a piece of "sweet cake," a plain dough somewhat like pound cake.
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Well, I am out in the sticks. I asked the boat to drop me off at Green Palace Health Resort. It's in a remote area on the backwater canals. I have an upstairs room with a balcony facing the canal and the sunset beyond it. As I sit here at my table with checkered tablecloth, I can see fishermen in two dugout canoes pulling in their nets. And I hear jungle sounds of birds and other critters in the distance. Someone, probably another guest, is swinging and reading in the hammock that is trung between two coconut palsm at the edge of the water. It's still about an hour before the end of the boat trip. Tomorrow, I can either take a bus to town or I can catch the same boat around 5:00 p.m. to complete the journey.

Well, my "broken" camera was working all day today, so I used it for my photos. I got scenic shots, but I was hesitant to take photos of people. Like any remote river area, I saw people bathing, brushing their teeth, washing clothes, washing dishes, cleaning fish, etc. The entrire trip has been like living a National Geographic adventure. I wish everyone I know could have shared the experience.
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I went out on the lawn to watch the sunet. It was so peaceful and beautiful. While out, the Hindu temple across the river played beautiful music. And as the sun finished setting a rain cloud moved in.

They have tiger prawns in the water here, and they fish for them at night. I watched one man as he searched for them. He uses a long stick to push the water hyacinths to the side. Then he shines a strong flashlight into the water. If he sees one, he sticks it. Sometimes he drops a tablet of some kind to see if it attracts them. The owner told me that others use nets or bows and arrows. Tiger prawns are about the size of lobsters!

It's 8:30 and the government just cut off the electricity for the next 30 minutes. I'm now writing by candle light. They have had a shortage of rainfall lately in Kerala which means that the lakes that are used to power generators for electricity are low. They don't want to use nuclear energy in this area, so they have had to cut power to save on water usage. Every part of the grid loses power for 30 minutes per day. When our power comes back on at 9:00, the power will go off on the other side of the waterway for 30 minutes.
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I had a very nice evening visiting with the owners and eating a meal they suggested (fish curry, fried dal [thick lentil mixture], spicy potato mixture, and chipati [somewhat like flour tortillas]). It was especially intersting speaking with the wife when her husband wasn't around. Although she has a happy attitude toward life, there seems to be an underlying sense of resignation. Her marriage was arranged, and she prefers her home village to this isolated one. She accepts it as the way the culture is and has always been for her mother, her grandmother, etc. I can't help but think she feels trapped to some extent. And although I've read that love often grows between partners in arranged marriages, I haven't observed any closeness between her and her husband. They operate more like business associates running this place with her in charge of the physical facility and him in charge of the financial and public relations aspects.