November 30 to December 2nd --- Reykjavik Iceland A bit of a delay in preparing this blog; once we reach Iceland I took a break in updating the blog, probably because we were close to home and once home Wow was there ever a lot of things that demanded immediate attention. Anyway back to Iceland; the first thing that registered was how far north Iceland is. The sun rose between 10 an 10:30 a.m. and did a low arc on the horizon to set around 3 p.m. One of the things that registered with me and I could never get a [View Full Entry]

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November 27 - 28-29 --- Prague Czech Republic What a change hot weather for the past 3 weeks and we arrive in Prague to snow on the ground. Oh well just helping to acclimatize us for our eventual return to Toronto. Our hotel is Prague Marriott; very nice and close walking to almost everything. Prague is an intriguing city made for walking, which is such a treat after Egypt where the peddlers can give their brethren in India a run for their money in being aggressive. When we were departing from the Taj Mahal in Agra I was slightly ahead of [View Full Entry]

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November 25 - 26 - 27 --- Luxor - Cairo Egypt Our hotel in Luxor is the Sonesta St. George. I had originally hoped to post my blog entries for Kenya from Luxor, but unfortunately the internet server was down. Luxor was the capital of Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdom periods. For those more familiar with some of the ancient Greek names the city was called Thebes by the Greeks. The largest temple in the world was created here, the Temple of Karnak, dedicated to Amun-Ra” the sun god”. his wife Mut and their son Khonsu “the moon god”. [View Full Entry]

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November 24th - Visit to a Samburu Village What a contrast in only a couple of days. Dubai is over-the-top for being modern, new and very visible shows of luxury. The Samburu and Isiolo tribes are nomadic, and ion terms of life style remain much as they would have hundreds of years ago. A person’s wealth is measured in the number of goats or cattle they own. Our guide in the village was the son of his father’s 4th wife and it was unthinkable to him that any man of his tribe would have less than two wifes. The chief currently [View Full Entry]

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November 22 - 23 - 24 --- Shaba National Reserve A little uncertainty in our arrival in Nairobi Kenya -- if you have a group of 80 people you are bound to have moments when someone’s brain leaves their body. Such was the case when we were leaving Dubai. Because we were going directly to a game reserve we were told to only take our carry-on bags and that our larger suitcases would remain on plane until we got to Egypt. Well one woman packed her passport in her large suitcase. The result was that the suitcases which had been picked [View Full Entry]

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November 19th - Dubai Well we finally arrived in Dubai, I say finally since Indian beauracry did its best to delay us. The airport in Agra has 2 classifications for non-military aircraft, charter and commercial. Indian charter flights fly based on visibility while commercial flights have superior instruments and trained crews. Our plane a 757, a 200 seat plane and is the largest commercial plane to fly into Agra in the past year, but because it was chartered by Travel Guild it was classified as a chartered plane and therefore subjected to visibility restrictions. There is smog 24 hours a [View Full Entry]

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November 19th - Dubai Well we finally arrived in Dubai, I say finally since Indian beauracry did its best to delay us. The airport in Agra has 2 classifications for non-military aircraft, charter and commercial. Indian charter flights fly based on visibility while commercial flights have superior instruments and trained crews. Our plane a 757, a 200 seat plane and is the largest commercial plane to fly into Agra in the past year, but because it was chartered by Travel Guild it was classified as a chartered plane and therefore subjected to visibility restrictions. There is smog 24 hours a [View Full Entry]

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November 18th - Taj Mahal Last night we had dinner at a nearby hotel with entertainment. I didn’t mind the music in Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Cambodia but there is a little bit too much drumming for my taste with the Indian music we have experienced to date. This morning we were off to the Taj Mahal with the busses leaving at 8 am to give us an early start. The busses stopped about a mile from the Taj and we preceded the rest of the way in horse drawn carts. So far we have seen numerous cows wandering about [View Full Entry]

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November 17th - Agra India Fortunately we were able to fly directly into an air-force base in Agra and avoid over a 2 hour bus ride that we would have had to endure had we landed in Calcutta. Last nights blog was definitely a horse race. In Siem Reap the only internet connection in the hotel was in the business centre, combine this with few computers and only one external connection if you had your own computer and a bunch of Westerners who all wanted access and you have a bottle neck. Last night when I published my last blog it [View Full Entry]

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November 14 - 15 -16 - Angkor Wat First let me say how lucky we are to be born and live in North America. This was evident when we were in Hong Kong, driven home in Vietnam and totally obvious now in Cambodia. As we approached Siem Reap the residue of the most recent typhoon was to be seen in the flooded fields as we approached the airport. If we thought Saigon was hot and humid we found out how wrong we were when we exited the plane only a 40 minute flight from Saigon. The original plan was to go [View Full Entry]

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