http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Dr--Jon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Dr Jon en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:50:48 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 00:50:48 +0000 The Devil's BackyardA couple of months ago I heard a University of Nevada political science professor being interviewed on NPR. He said that Washoe County where Reno is located could decide the presidential election in Nevada and that Nevada's five Electoral College votes could in turn decide the presidential election nationally.I owed a visit to my former sisterinlaw who lives in Reno and http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Nevada/Carson-City/blog-341975.html How many times has some amazing sight caused me to remark to the empty seat next to me My imagination sometimes fills the seat with the friend who would appreciate the particular sight most. I must admit that I have grown accustom to virtual companions. The thought of having an actual person filling the empty seat causes some hesitation. I am set in my ways as a traveler. I have lots of don'ts d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Nyon/blog-189892.html KONICHIWAAAAAAAThat's Pikachu a.k.a. The Cosmic Inferno screaming into a microphone. She's the guest singer of Acid Mothers Temple the reclusive Japanese psychedelic band that lives communally on the slopes of Mt Fuji. They look like monks and take their music and acid very seriously. Except Pikachu. She looks like Pris the berserk android from Blade Runner. The Pale refers to the tiny pa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Mayo/Westport/blog-310950.html RescuedThings were looking up for me. I had arrived in Dublin the night before. The cheapest sleeping arrangement I could findmdashat 50 per night was to share a long narrow room in a hostel with four girls my daughter's age. The bathroom was so tiny that it was necessary to step out of the shower to turn around. The next morning I left before the girls woke up so as to avoid any awkward mo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Ireland/County-Dublin/Dublin/blog-309048.html I don't often drink so much that I am hung over the next day. Last night was apparently an exception. When I get like this I always think of the description of Peter Fallow's hangover in Bonfire of the Vanities an egg yolk in his head exploded into millions of silvery minnows swimming towards his fleshThe occasion was a barbecue at the lake for the students. I got there an hour late because I tur http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-West/Lausanne/blog-305008.html This summer the Vaud School for Engineering and Business better known by its French acronym HEIG VD is hosting ten students from San Jose State ten from CSU Long Beach and ten from Arizona State. These students are joined by 30 Swiss students. For the next three weeks they will be taking intensive courses in subjects ranging from Bioinformatics to Internet Security. My course Artificial Soci http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Lombardy/Lake-Maggiore/blog-303355.html A good soldier recognizes the different sounds made by his enemy's weapons and reacts accordingly. So to have I come to recognize the different sounds made by vehicles approaching from behind as I sprint from doorway to doorway down the narrow streets of Sant' Angello. If it sounds like a truck the side view mirror will be at head level so I duck. If it sounds like a Smart Car I cover my crotch. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Campania/Naples/blog-299020.html US Borax shut down their mining operation in Ryan back in the 1920s. Since then it has been used as a backdrop in the opening scene of Spartacus and in a few episodes of Death Valley Days. Other than that Ryan has been a ghost town gradually succumbing to the baking Death Valley sun. Note Ryan is privately owned and visitation is highly restricted. There are NO scheduled public tours.However http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Death-Valley-National-Park/blog-263052.html The only surprise waiting for me in Colombo when I arrived was how routine it all seemed. Rukman's father Mahinda and his sister Kanchana were waiting for me as I cleared customs. On the way to their house Kanchana accidentally drove through an army checkpoint. I saw the sentry unsling his rifle and point it at us. The thought of a bullet whistling through the passenger compartment gave me a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Western-Province/Colombo/blog-248726.html In some places the waves were mysteriously selective. Two houses stand while the one between is gone. In other places entire neighborhoods have been erased. A wall stands here a kitchen sink over there a spiral staircase leads nowhere. And where have the former occupants gone In Sri Lanka alone 40000 stories ended terribly that day. In many cases even the people who might have been left behind http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Southern-Province/Galle/blog-248765.html I finished my lectures in Kandy including my public lecture which had to be rescheduled because no one showed up the first time. The only people who showed up the second time were students who were forced to come. Once upon a time something like that would have bothered me but now I just shrug it off. To compensate the director of the Institute arranged a little party for me at the faculty clu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Central-Province/Kandy/blog-248744.html The night after my last entry I slept under a tattered web of fevered dreams. A hot coal burned in my stomach and I shook convulsively. Fortunately I have been accepted as the fifth member of the Udugamma family weird uncle Jon from California. I stay with them when I'm in Kandy. Ananda the father received his MD from UC Davis. He now has me on a course of antibiotics. My fever is gone but I h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Central-Province/Kandy/blog-248743.html ColomboKandy Railroad Haiku Rattling through jungles Heads bouncing like souvenir dolls Lost in sad thoughtsI can feel the proximity of the jungle in Kandy. Monkeys scramble across my roof the bird calls that wake me in the morning sound like auditions for a Tarzan movie and there are columns of ants streaming across every wall. Even if Buddhists were allowed to use ant traps and th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Sri-Lanka/Central-Province/Kandy/blog-248736.html It would take many paragraphs to describe all of the emotions I was feeling as I sat in the San Francisco airport waiting for my flight to Tokyo last week. Ben moved out of the house a few weeks ago and Laura will move back to San Francisco this month so I will return to an empty house or worse the house will be sold while I'm gone and someone else will be living there. At least I will be leavin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Tokyo/blog-248718.html In early September I returned to Santa Cruz. The weekend before I traded my Benz in on a new Civic Coup. I figure what I'll lose in sex appeal I'll pick up in savings on operating expenses.I threw a birthdaywelcome home party for myself a week later. Still later in the month I visited Debra in Boise. She was kind enough to take me to the National Fast Draw Championships in Idaho City.October bega http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Santa-Cruz/blog-209621.html I should be back in my house in Santa Cruz this week. I've been couch surfing in San Francisco. Yesterday I caught the 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love in Speedway Meadow. Nostalgia is a strange sad drug. You can't help think about the people who were there then and are elsewhere now. You can travel the wide world and never see weirdness like this. I don't know maybe there's something like http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/San-Francisco/blog-198800.html Dalmatia CoastOur bus is clinging to the cliffs and Debra is asleep on my shoulder so I have to write between the curves and only moving my wrist. We are returning to Split after several nights in Dubrovnik Athens of Croatia Pearl of the Adriatic. Dubrovnik is located at the very tip of this crescentshaped country. The border with BosniaHerzegovina runs so close to the east that along one fiv http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Hungary/Central-Hungary/Budapest/blog-194445.html Playing house with Debra these past two weeks has triggered memories of my former identity as one of two. I am surprised by how distant these memories feel. Has my life really changed that much Am I now officially the single guy Of course I had to note the equal remoteness of my memories of my former wife. Life is strange.We've been to lots of concerts restaurants and parties. Despite the fu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Armenia/West/Yerevan/blog-190856.html I got rave reviews as a tour guide from the guys I took to Georgia a few weeks ago so this weekend Cyrus wanted me to take him. I can't imagine why. If Seinfeld was the show about nothing then my tours are the tours about nothing. I sit on Nino's balcony and read. Sometimes I sit in a cafe usually the same ones. I don't go to old churches I don't go to cultural events and I don't go anywhere http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Georgia/Tbilisi-District/Tbilisi/blog-179483.html For six miles a vein of the purest most perfect crystal runs under Nelson. Bubbles the matronly proprietor of Cannabis Culture spoke through a window connecting the shop to the cafe. She was explaining the healing powers that draw the broken and infirm to Nelson. Heads nodded as if the connection between the alleged vein and the alleged healing powers was obvious.In support of Bubble's assert http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Nelson/blog-189889.html