Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jog!

To India, to India, to get some new clothes,
Home again, home again, jiggety-joes.

To Arabia and Turkey, to find me a job,
Home again, home again, jiggety-jog.

Well, about 17,400 miles flown, and over 46 hours in the air on my big adventure. I visited 11 countries, 10 of which were first time visits. I interacted with elephants, monkeys, camels and a falcon. I traveled by plane, train (regular & small gauge), bus (local, intercity & double decker), metro, cab, rickshaw, boat (Dhow cruise), foot and elevator. (Does 143 floors make it a vehicle?)

Here is a map of all the places that I have been, to date. A total of 24 countries on 5 continents - can't wait to add more (and to explore more fully, some of the countries that I have only had a taste of).

I am now having Skype interviews for positions in Malta, Bogota Columbia, Ethiopia and Istanbul. I turned one down for Dubai. I'd welcome a position elsewhere in the UAE or in Oman or Qatar, but not Dubai, it's just too big, busy, and rushed.

Can't wait to start my next adventure in the summer. Think Mediterranean!

Icelandic Horses

A really quick stopover in Reykjavik on the way home. I booked an evening tour at an Icelandic Horse Theatre performance. It was really good, they portrayed the history of the breed and the many roles these horses have in Icelandic culture. We then were able to meet a couple of the riders and get up close and personal with some of the horses in the stables. They are beautiful creatures with the most amazingly calm & friendly temperaments.

They also demonstrated the different horse gaits including the 5th gate (fast pace) which is unique to only this breed. Wow, they are fast!

Another lovely hotel room, this one on the 5th floor, with a rounded corner and windows all along the wall! The next morningI had a late breakfast, a bowl of soup at a lovely cafe across the street where I picked up supper for on the plane. Then off to the airport for the final leg of my epic journey.

Two for the Price of One - Denmark & Sweden.

The hotel angels are watching out for me, another great location! I'm right in old Copenhagen, 1/2 block from the harbour, 3 blocks from a canal and a Hop On/Off bus stop, with numerous cafes & restaurants within a 5-10 min walk. The sightseeing bus here has limited routes and reduced hours during winter but it still gave a good overview. The afternoon I arrived I just settled in, walked around the area & had one of Denmark's famous open-face sandwiches. These are my kind of sandwich - lots of topping / filling with a small slice of a hearty (rye?) bread underneath.

The next day was my tour day, saw the mermaid statue (underwhelming), the old fort, Tivoli (said to be Walt Disney's inspiration for Disneyland) and many other sights. Love the old European architecture. Another smorrebrod (sandwich) for lunch and fabulous (but very expensive) sushi dinner at a restaurant right next door to my hotel.

The following day, I went to Sweden for lunch! Molmo is just a 1/2 hour train ride from Copenhagen. I wandered around the town centre, found a large park, a few canals and a few squares. Had a lovely lunch, wandered some more, bought a semla (puff pastry filled with whipped cream) to bring back to the hotel for later, and returned on an afternoon train. With another supper in the neighbourhood it makes for a lovely day.

As I got ready to head to the airport, I realized what had been lacking the last 2 days, I missed hearing the call to prayer from the mosques, I had used them to give me a sense of time during the day since I haven't worn a watch for a couple of years. Here in Copenhagen, I have had to pull out my phone to find out the time.

Cheers to Istanbul!

I arrived at the airport on the Asian side of Istanbul early in the morning and it was almost a 90 min drive into Cheers hostel in the old city. They made me welcome, gave me breakfast, and were able to have my room ready by 11am. After a nap, I wandered around the maze of little streets by the Hagia Sophia & the Blue Mosque for a bit. Then back to Cheers for dinner. They do a grilled dinner (chicken wings & beef kebab) once a week for a reasonable price. About a dozen of us participated and it was fun getting to know a few of the others.

I took the Hop on Hop off bus part way around the route and then got a taxi to a plus size clothing chain that I had found online. Woo Hoo! The store I went to happened to be their outlet store! I bought a coat, slacks & a shirt for just over 300 lira ($150 Cad). I then got a cab to Taksim Square (another Big Bus stop) and tried to find one of the English schools that I have been corresponding with, without success. After lunch, I continued the tour to the Egyptian Spice Bazaar - way too crowded on a Saturday afternoon! So, back up to Sultanahmet (the old city, formerly called Constantinople).

For dinner, I went to a restaurant that was having a Whirling Dervish Ceremony. It was amazing! I actually felt uncomfortable finishing my dinner since it was so obviously a form of worship. There was a real sense of awe, power & prayer in the ceremony / performance!

Sunday was a brighter day so I got on the tour again to do the portion that I had missed which included going over the bridge to the Asian side of town. Boy, the wind coming down the Bosphorus from the Black Sea was cold! This time I got off at a different spot and walked to Galata Tower. Because there was a long lineup, I didn't go up the tower but I had a lovely lunch on the plaza before walking down the hill.

The spice bazaar was much more manageable today, still busy but not like sardines in a tin like yesterday. After a lovely dinner and a walk back through Arasta Bazaar and past the Blue Mosque & Hagia Sophia lit up at night I visited a bit back at Cheers before heading back to my room to pack.

I really like Istanbul and the climate is moderate (not as scary as summer in the desert), I am looking forward to my 3 Skype job interviews for Istanbul when I return home.

A Work in Progress - Doha.

Wow, Doha is changing very rapidly. Ten or so years ago it was a city of 700, 000, now it has almost 2 million people, and 80% are expats from other countries! It is growing in a very modern way, like Dubai, but without the extremes of biggest, tallest, fastest, farthest, etc. Qatar has the most progressive altitude of all the Arabian countries when it comes to women's rights and equality, championed by the current sultan's mother (the former sultan's wife). Women have a number of positions in government and make the Same salary as their male colleagues. I like Doha, it isn't as beautiful as Muscat, and there is a lot of fine sand dust in the air, but it has more amenities without going overboard like Dubai.

I did okay with my hotel choice. It was older but perfectly adequate and very inexpensive for Doha. It's best feature is the location: right in with all the suqs and only a 3 block walk to the biggest, oldest one, Waqif Suq, and one of the main tour bus stops! So after a brief rest to post my Muscat blog entry, I walked over to buy a ticket for the bus for tomorrow. The girl at the booth said I Could start using it today since it was now about 3pm, and still use it all of tomorrow as well. So off I went.

I figured I'd ride one direction stopping for dinner somewhere and then ride it back after dark to get a night view of the downtown buildings. Not near as many as Dubai but some are quite pretty, I especially like the ones that combine traditional & modern features.

Katara Cultural Village is a large cluster of buildings that are part of and around a large 5000 seat amphitheatre that faces out over a huge plaza and the sea / gulf (I have heard it called both). They have cafes & fine dining, artisan studios, a theatre (live performances), a couple of mosques, anything to do with culture in anyway.

This is where I had supper: Turkish pizza at an Ottoman restaurant with uphostered armchairs at the tables. Yummm, it was so good that I came back for dinner (at lunchtime) the next day at the seafood restaurant. That was also amazing! As you walk in the restaurant there is a fresh fish & seafood market in front of you. Once seated, I was brought a basket with bread and a basket with raw veggies (carrot sticks, mini cucumbers, 2 green chilies, a tomato, etc.) and a small amount of 3 dips. I ordered an appy from the menu, then went up to the market to pick my proteins, method of cooking & side(s). I had a piece of local whitefish, hammour, steamed, and 3 jumbo prawns, grilled with seafood rice. That and the veggie basket were more than enough.

I finished the tour, taking in the sights and sounds. Then relaxed in the hotel lobby until time to go to the airport. my flight wasn't until 3am. Fortunately the flight was far from full SO most of as had 3 seats across and could lie down to rest/sleep.

I Could Live Here - Muscat

Sitting on the plane, watching the luggage being loaded below me, it's so reassuring to see your own bag go up the conveyor to the hold. I leave Muscat having thoroughly enjoyed my short visit to this city. Comparing Muscat to Dubai is like comparing Edmonton to Toronto or maybe New York. Smaller, calmer, spread out vs. up, yet still a big city with plenty to see and do. Muscat requires that all buildings be in the traditional style and colours (even McDonalds) and that they be no taller than 8 floors. The tallest structure is the airport control tower.

There is a varied landscape here and they do have a rainy season (especially in the south of Oman) and therefore have a greater variety of naturally occurring plants than in Dubai. There are plenty of rocky hills in and around Muscat and even large mountains in the interior, some peaks are 3000m or more!

I had a lovely hotel suite, away from the city centre but only 300m from the beach with a nice coffee shop across from the water. The intersection that my hotel stood on was like a small town plaza with another coffee shop & other shops on one adjacent corner and a man who makes fresh flatbread to order (including filled flatbreads) on the other. Yummm!

Muscat has many unique buildings: the opera house, clock tower, old city gates, national museum and, in the centre, the interactive children's science centre "are below.

Old Muscat has the Sultan's palace on a concealed harbour, mountains forming 3 sidesby extending out from the land mass and then parallel to it leaving an opening just on one end of the bay, Al Mirani Fort is near the open end of the harbour.

Mutrah Contains the port area, the old suq and also has a fort built into the rocks. The rocky hills separate the many sections of this city and contribute to the reason it is so spread out.

Pearls and Sand - Dubai 2

I enjoyed my 2nd day in Dubai even more than my first. my hotel is in Diera, the side of Dubai that is east of the 'creek' which provides the port activities for Dubai. The west side is Bur Dubai. The city tour goes up the west side and back down the east. I got off at the 'old souk' area for some shopping where I bought a few things for me and for others.

We also went by the old town area and a heritage village. Dubai started out as a pearl fishing village 3000 years ago. The UAE has only existed for about 40 years and if you look past the glitz and glamour there are the strong roots of an Islamic port town. Transportation of goods to other countries is still done by Dhow. When we drove down the creekside in Diera past the gold and spice souks we could see all the Dhows docked against the bank being manually loaded with appliances, electronics, etc. and in the background were the huge cruise ships visiting the port. What a contrast!

I had a great Chicken biryani at a creekside cafe full of workers on their lunch break while I waited for my Dhow Cruise. I enjoyed an hour seeing the port from the water.

The next day I took the morning off to read, check e-mail and blog. Then headed over to the pick up point for my sunset desert tour in time to stop for a light lunch and people watching.

The bus took us about 40 min out of town to a desert camp / restaurant where we could briefly ride a camel, interact with a falcon, get a henna design and then watch the sunset. This was included with my 2 day Big Bus pass, but I also opted to stay for the dinner & entertainment, as did 4 others. I had an enjoyable time with Anusha and Aaron at the table next to me.

I love making new friends. The dinner was fabulous, the entertainment was good especially the man who played a guitar-like instrument, the fire dancer and a man who spun around and made designs with large metal plates (almost like our native hoop dancers) and the atmosphere couldn't have been better. A wonderful way to wrap up my visit.

A Monument to Consumerism and Excess - Dubai 1

I don't think I could live in Dubai. Although this emirate has much culture and history (which I will tell about in my next post), it is too much for me: too busy, too crowded, too focussed on shopping, too focussed on being the biggest, tallest, longest, first, and greatest. Don't get me wrong, I certainly enjoyed seeing and experiencing these things, but I'm ready to move on.

I used the Big Bus Hop-on, Hop- off Tours as my main mode of transportation and information on the local sights. It was a convenient and reasonably priced way to get the most out of a few days. I started by touring the beach and marina areas, stopping for lunch in the marina area of highrise apartments, restaurants and shops along winding waterways.

We drove out onto Jumeirah Palm Island, a palm tree and crescent shaped island that is 5km long and 5km wide and is apparently the 2nd man made structure that is visible from the moon. Surrounding the palm tree, the crescent shaped landmass acts as a breakwater and has the famous Atlantis resort. The crescent portion of the island is accessed by an underwater tunnel from the top of the trunk. Of course, there are at least 2 malls and they are building another massive one at the base of the trunk.

That evening, I went up the Burj Kahlifa just befor sunset. I splurged on the premium ticket (only 25% more) to get to be part of a smaller group that goes 1st to the 148th floor for 30 min and then down to the 125th where there is no time limit. On the 148th floor there was 360° observation decks, 1 portion outside, and a centre lounge area where we were served dainty sweets and coffee / tea / juice, Avoiding the lines and not having to struggle for viewing space was well worth the extra cost. I was overwhelmed just dealing with the crowds in the mall it is a part of, trying to get from the main entrance to the Burj. I couldn't believe the difference between how the 'tall' buildings looked from the 125th and the 148th floors.

The next day, after doing the city tour, I took the night tour which revisited some of these places after sunset and ended with a laser light show.

Home Away From Home - Chennai (Madras)

Both times that I have been here, Samathy & Mukundan have made me feel welcome and part of the family. I have enjoyed some rest days where I was able to read, relax and write my blog, Some light activity days with shopping, the beach or some local sights, as well as our trip to the mountains.

Indian roads are crazy! Both city streets and highways are populated with busses (local and intercity), 4-wheelers (trucks and cars), 3-wheelers ("auto's" or auto-rikshaws, aka ''tuk-tuks" in other Asian countries or "pulmonias" in Mexico), 2-wheelers (motorbikes & scooters), bicycles and carts drawn by a bicycle, ox or horse! Grande Prairie traffic is calm in comparison.

Another big difference here is the lack of social infrastructure beyond the bare necessities. Roads are paved but do not have shoulders or sidewalks (there are some sidewalks in the center of the big cities), this means that the gap between the pavement and the private properties is a "no man's land" of dirt, a ditch, and / or stray garbage, as is any undeveloped land. The privately owned properties, however, although typically lacking aesthetics that do not also have function, are well tended with the basic necessities. There is a only basic social welfare for those without income and little infrastructure when it comes to public safety (no sidewalks or street lighting in most places), health or other fiscal support programs.

The people here (as elsewhere) are great! I'm getting used to being stared at, as a solo Caucasian in many areas and neighbourhoods that are not touristed by foreigners. When I say "hi" to the kids, they all ask where I'm from and practice a few English greetings. Even adults that I have talked to on our bus tours all want a picture taken with me. I've never been so popular (or more likely just odd!).

The beach at Chennai is fabulous! We went for a short period on two of our "around town" days, it is the 2nd largest beach in the world. It is very wide and 13 km long! We also visited the lighthouse and a couple of temples.

I do love Chennai, and Sumathy & Mukunden are becoming like brother & sister to me. I definitely do not want to wait another 7 years until my next visit, maybe only 2? I need to visit the west coast next, Mumbai & Goa, and I am hoping that they will join me.

Busses, Trains and Automobiles: Part 2 - Valparai

Arriving in Coimbatore by bus, we dropped off our luggage at the friend 's apartment where we will be staying and made our way to Mukundan's sister's home to visit his family. They were all so welcoming, we were fed, we visited between a couple of homes and had a good afternoon / evening.

The next morning we set forth in a hired taxi, heading south into another set of mountains. The first stop was at some gardens built around one of the outflows of a large dam. Beautiful scenery, that is used in Indian movies. I had bought some sweets for us to share later in the day, when we had breakfast, and when we stopped at Monkey Falls I wasn't particularly diligent about closing the car window since Sumathy and the driver would be staying there while Ragu, Mukundan & I walked to the falls, Well, didn't a monkey just come right out of the trees to the car, reach in the window and grab my package of Burfi right off the front dash! Cheeky Monkey!

Up the mountain sides with us, 40 hairpin turns this time. There is a small viewpoint about halfway up, with an amazing view back over the lake to the gardens that we had just visited. Once we got up over the first mountains, we were again in tea plantation territory. Those bushes make interesting patterns on the hillsides. We visited a temple high in the hills and then drove down into the valley, through the town of Valparai to another large dam. The water levels are quite low right now so there was an interesting canyon rather than a large lake to see there.

We went to another temple and had a late lunch / early supper (Lupper?) on our way back to Coimbatore.

The next day we had a nice lazy start, went back out to visit the family for lunch and then caught the train back to Chennai.

Train travel in India is the way to go! You get airline (international NOT domestic!) type service: a large water bottle initially, a newspaper & a snack, and later, a full meal. A late night, but it sure was nice to be back in my own (temporary) bed.

Busses, Trains and Automobiles: Part 1 - Nilgiri Mountains

Well, after a couple of quiet days in Chennai (laundry, shopping, took fabric to the tailors), we ventured forth on the night train to Mettupalayam. We had sleeping berths reserved in an air conditioned car, triple bunks facing each other on one side of the main aisle, with a double bunk along the wall on the other side.

Once the train got under way at llpm, we all retreated to our bunks due to the early arrival time (5:30 am in Coimbatore, and 6:30 in Mettupalayam). We had a quick but tasty breakfastt at the station , and then proceeded up the mountains to Ooty.

It was a beautiful drive, with amazing vistas, on a crazy narrow road with no shoulders, tight corners, and plenty of traffic (oncoming & overtaking with only inches to spare!).

After checking in at our hotel and freshening up, we joined a small bus tour of Ooty & nearby Coonoor. We stopped at the 'Thread Garden' (amazing handiwork with embroidery thread!), the lake & boating docks, and some amazing viewpoints before reaching Wellington Cantonment (permanent military station) which now houses the Defence Services Staff College for all three branches of the Indian military.

Nearby is a beautiful park, botanical gardens and then the lush tea estates around Coonoor and throughout the Ketty Valley. We saw monkeys often by the road, and some jungle bison wandering in among the tea bushes. I also got to try Some great street food: American sweet corn with butter & masala (spice blend) and banana slice coated in dal & fried.

The clouds had started rolling in while we were on the tea plantation so when we reached our last stop at the highest point in the Nilgiris, we were unable to see the amazing vista that was below us. I could see the tops of Some of the neighbouring hills and could just imagine looking back over Coonoor & Ooty below.

The next day we hired a taxi to take us to some sights north of Ooty. We first stopped at a couple of viewing areas that have been used in Indian movies and then at Pykara Falls (water levels are very low right now). We then drove down 36 hairpin bends into the valley containing the Mudumalai (big/old hills) Wildlife Sanctuary.

After lunch, we hired a jeep & driver to take us into the reserve. Since it was mid afternoon we did not expect to see any of the 73 tigers but we did see 1 wild elephant, some mongooses (not mongeese!), peacocks, 2 more types of monkeys, and lots of spotted deer, as well as plenty of beautiful flora that was new to me.

After that, it was back up the mountain side to our hotel.

The next day, we took the miniature train (they call it the 'Toy Train') from Ooty back to Coonoor and then a local bus to Coimbatore.

Both the Toy Train (as 1 of 3 Mountain Railways of India) and the Nilgiri Mountains (as part of the Western Ghats) are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.