Flying to Europe from the East coast is so easy! Flight time is less than six hours, and it can be a direct flight; no long layovers wasting time walking through airports just waiting for the second or third flight to board. One stop when you're at the airport and that's it. Much less stress, and the likelihood of seeing your luggage again is infinitely increased. This must be part of the reason why more people from our part of the world don't visit Asia, or Africa, or China. Long air travel can be nerve-wracking. But going from BOS to DUB was simple, even somewhat enjoyable. My flight left Saturday night and arrived in Dublin early-ish this morning. I even slept a bit on the plane, always a pleasant surprise. My seatmates were quite peacefully friendly; ... read more

It is already our last day in Samarkand. I was hoping to step into a desert scene, complete with camel caravans, colorfully wrapped traders, and a bustling marketplace. We found two out of three. Mostly what Samarkand is today is a large and vibrantly modern city. The population in these cities in Uzbekistan is slowly growing; as it was in Turkmenistan, new construction is everywhere. So many cars, fine restaurants, young students, beautiful city parks with fresh green grass and flowering trees can be seen, but also old blocklike USSR buildings dot the streets; all this is Samarkand today. But one can also see domes, mosques, tombs, mausoleums and minarets in Samarkand; it is an ancient city that, like Bukhara, was totally destroyed by Genghis Khan in the 13th century, and rebuilt to become the capital ... read more

Riding six hours in a new bullet train from Khiva to near Bukhara was an experience. The cars were new, the wide and comfortable assigned seats were new, but the bathroom in car #2 was as smelly as any poorly kept outhouse. Our tour director, Anait, cleverly circumvented part of the potential problem of boredom leading to complaints by offering us "morning coffee": paper coffee cups filled with vodka and juice, heavy on the vodka. It certainly mellowed people, and predictably led to many of us falling asleep for a long morning's nap. Still, a few of us were ready to deboard much earlier than the train trip's end. Watching the desert as we rode along was the first time I felt we were in Silk Road countries; that train route truly follows the Great Silk ... read more

It is pouring outside this morning, but we are in the rainforest, so even though this part of La Fortuna in Costa Rica is fairly heavily built up because of its being close to Arenal Volcano National Park, we are still in the rainforest and can expect such drenching rains. While we have stayed in many luxurious and beautiful lodges and hotels on this trip so far, this lodge is not my favorite; the rooms are dark and very cold, and in my first room, tucked back underneath the upper level rooms, my windows didn't even open, adding to the oppressive feeling of being enclosed in a cold tomb. Hearing my dismay while I stood in the open doorway trying to let some warm air and light come in, Esteban, our very young but most excellent ... read more

Today is the day after Thanksgiving. We taught Dennis, our program director, about this US holiday, and he thought it was good to have a special day for offering a general thanks, but to whom? For what, exactly? People from India do not understand what Thanksgiving means for most, or many, Americans, but then we do not understand many of their holidays either. One thoughtless woman toasted, "Happy turkey day!" which demeans this lovely holiday completely. Gratitude should be the main theme, the focus of this day. This is our second day on the Spice Luxury Cruises houseboats. There are three boats reserved for our group: the Tamarind, the Pepper, and the Fennel. The boats are all built similarly, made of bamboo, and all have thatched roofs. The Tamarind has four rooms, the Pepper has two, ... read more