I'm Getting Good at This

Gentle Readers,

I'm getting pretty good at this whole spontaneity business. For the last three weeks I have anticipated leaving for Kenya tomorrow for safari and to see an old friend. However, as you may heave heard, recent elections have left the country on the brink of civil war and all travel to the country is highly discouraged. The airport is only open on and off, there are large blazes across the city of Nairobi, blackouts have become a common occurance, and all news media outlets have been shut down by the government. All of this has developed within the last day. I am receiving reports from both the embassy and staff from the African Wildlife Foundation (my former employer) headquarters regarding developments of the situation and it seems to be getting worse by the minute. As per the advice of my would-be warden at the embassy and all the staff at AWF, I have deferred my travels to Africa. I have canceled my flight and am in the midst of making other arrangements.

All of this happened within the span of about 6 hours, mind you.

Click here to read up on why I'm not going.
Or here.
Or here.

Currently, I am scheduled to leave for Innsbruck, Austria on the third to visit an old friend and possibly hit up skiing in the Alps. After that, though still in the initial sages of planning, I'll be heading to Dublin to see yet another dear friend and my old nanny. Yes, I had an Irish nanny. And no, I have no articles of winter clothing with me.

I'll keep y'all updated.

Peace

Independence

Gentle Readers,

I have now experienced two independence days while here. First was the UAE, and second, Bahrain. While in each respective country it was very interesting to observe displays of nationality. At first I was critical of the fierce nationalism having seen flags on cars, highways, buildings, and Christmas lights of the national colors everywhere.

It made me, however, think of the United states where such displays of national pride are an everyday occurance. How must the rest of the world view America's strong national pride when in our country, much less what she looks like 'round the fourth of July.

Whirlwind

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

I have just returned from a weekend in the Kingdom of Bahrain with Sara and Max. Its a small Island nation in the middle of the Arabian Gulf maybe 20 miles across. This little jaunt was, I consider, the pinnacle in my beginning to enjoy the thrill of extreme spontaneity. Thanks to a generous transportation agreement, we were able to decide where we wanted to go when we got to the airport so long as we gave our crew ample time to prepare for the journey. We decided upon Bahrain which was the original plan.

The "World" islands off the coast of Dubai as seen from above

Poor quality I know, but being in a moving vehicle at nighttime is not conducive to taking photographs, the new world trade center building in Bahrain will be self sufficient thanks to these wind turbines and photo voltaic cells lining the entire building.

We arrived around 630pm on Thursday and had a vehicle waiting for us which took us to a villa that had been made available for our stay. Per Sara's Uncle's suggestion, we went to a restaurant at the Ritz-Carleton called Trader Vic's. It was right on the beach and had amazing food. Naturally, I went for the duck breast again which has become my favorite meal. After the meal we went to a club called BJ's which was quite interesting. The music was a flashback to 1993, and while people complained about the music selection we all secretly enjoyed a trip to the past. I mean, who WOULDN'T enjoy a good dance to Jock Jams Volume II?

The living room of our house in Bahrain

Cars at the Saudi border. Which of these does not belong??

On the Causeway to Saudi

The next day, we drove around the to see what it had to offer and went for lunch and sheesha. The evening brought dinner at the Island's most exclusive lounge with Sara's Uncle. Again, amazing food and drinks. The Dom and Crystal was free flowing in that place.

Sara with her uncle, our gracious host Mohammad

Yesterday, Saturday, we did much of the same. We ended up at a yacht club and had the most amazing seafood meal of my life. Squid, oysters on the half shell, mussles, hamour, lobster, the whole works.

Saw this in a mall, and though it will only mean anything to three people, I couldn't pass it up.

At the yacht club. Our car and seafood restaurant on the left.

Bahrain, though it does not have much oil of its own is heartily supported by its close neighbor, Saudi Arabia. Since its Independence in 1971, Saudi has sent millions of gallons of oil to the nation free of charge in order to buy its support. It is widely known that this agreement was made by the Saudis so the Iranians could not do the same which would procure a militarily strategic location for the Iranians, with whom none of its Arab neighbors are comfortable with.

Saudi Supported Oil refinery

In a last hurrah at the airport, the Dom Perignon made another appearance before catching our plane.

In other news, today is also bringing unknowns. Holding true to the spirit of spontaneity, this afternoon I'll either be making my way to the country of Oman, or I might be taking off with Max for Azerbaijan for a week or so. We'll be making up our minds in a few hours I suppose.

Incredible?

*Click photos to enlarge

Gentle Readers,

This one may be long, just a heads-up.

It has now been three days since my return to the UAE from India. Max and I went to Britain's former crown jewel for six days over the UAE's independence holiday weekend. We visited Saad in his hometown of Bhopal who was there for holiday as well.

Grand Mosque in Bhopal. Supposedly one of the five largest mosques in Asia.

While Saad's family's house is in the nicest neighborhood of town, a look across the valley makes sure you don't forget where you are.

I will preface by saying that we were no where near tourist India, we were in INDIA India and did none of one's normal tourist activities. In the words of a good friend, "If you want to see the Taj Mahal, google image it."

There are 9 lakes in Bhopal

We flew into Nagpur, a large industrial city in the center of the country. As we disembarked the plane at 330am, Max and I gave each other an unwary glance as we realized what we had just gotten ourselves into. The international airport can accommodate one airplane at a time and passengers must walk 500 yards to the terminal as the tarmac is in such disrepair, planes cannot pull any closer. There was a roof over only half of the airport, wires both strewn about the floor, and hanging from concrete pylons above ones head. In the airport, we managed to bypass both passport and customs control (unbeknown to us as no one but the security officers guarding the entrance of the parking lot were wearing uniforms, everyone else was plain clothed.) without any problem until we reached the parking lot and had a handful of AK-47s pointed at us, which seemed to be a recurring theme of the trip, but those are stories for another time...

Even outside of the riot scenes, we were the subject of many disgruntled people as our 4x4s were vastly outnumbered by motorbikes on the narrow streets of the city.

Saad and me.

We made our way to the train station via tuk-tuk (those three wheeler taxis you see everywhere on national geographic). The train station was an eye-opening sight to say the least. The train ride was a 7 hour trip, though we did have beds which made it reasonable. We arrived around 1130 and were greeted at the airport by Saad and his cousin marking the beginning of our stay being as much as a local we could be (which was, however, difficult being the only two white people in a city of 1.4 million).

Rather than pay for electricity, many residents attach their own wires to municipal utilities without permission.

Some 1500 year old temple:

Most of our days consisted of driving around in jeeps, lounging around town, racing motorcycles through the streets, and fearing for our lives.

Bhopal night scene. My motorcycle was the red one on the left.

Thanks to the Brits, India drives on the "wrong side of the road." Or in our case, not on the road at all.

As you may or may not know, Bhopal is the location of the worst industrial disaster in history. A white administered Union Carbide chemical plant in the city caught ablaze at midnight some 20 years ago killing nearly 5000 people instantly while exposing nearly 500,000 to the 40 tons of methyl isosyanate (a chemial compound widely used in the production of pesticides, rubber, and plastic) that had leaked from the plant, leaving coming generations with severe health issues. Union Carbide hardily neglected their responsibility to aid those in Bhopal and there is still widespread resentment related to the issue. We happened to be in the city during the anniversary of the event and saw widespread protests.

One of the many riots we encountered. In the background you can see some effigies of white people are being wheeled down the street to where they will be burned.

One day, we drove around a corner into the middle of one of these riots. It was common to see rioters burning effigies of white people, we had many stones thrown at our 4x4, a good number of burning torches were brandished in our direction, and if I knew Hindi I'm certain I would of been highly offended or taken aback by what I heard. But hey, ignorance is bliss, I guess. All in all, we feared for our safety quite a bit but made it back from the trip physically unscathed.

Random lady in a dry riverbed near a bridge.

Our train back to Nagpur had many problems with the emergency air brakes which would randomly engage, bringing the train to a grinding halt about every hour. Here, the dining car throws scraps out the windows to monkeys.

While sometimes a nuisance, it afforded the opportunity to get out and walk around.

Unless of course you happen to stop on the middle of a bridge...

Max and I returned to Nagpur on the evening of our last day in order to catch our 4am flight the next morning. We made a whilwind tour of Nagpur night life, which didn't take long as we spent most of our time back where we started, Shisha Place on the second floor of the Skyline Hotel. We were literally the only people in the club (I use the term generously) and ended up making good friends with the bartenders and management.

The Nagpur airport was, again, quite an experience as I was forced to surrender about 750 dollars worth of personal property to AK-47 wielding customs officials who would not otherwise let us out of the country.

All in all, the trip was quite the experience. I will not say I did not enjoy myself, but it wasn't exactly the little getaway any of us were expecting. I do find solace in the fact that I came away from the trip with many many stories, most of which will be highly inappropriate to share until my nieces and nephews (sorry, Jon) or grandchildren are my age now.

P.S. Sorry for the small number of photos, but I was forced to erase the vast majority of my memory card for the amusement of our favorite customs officials. Good times...