I will let the pictures tell the story [View Full Entry]

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Vegetarian meals and Bollywood movies on the flight - we must be going to India. Delhi Back home, parks have a swing set. In Delhi they have tombs / mausoleums built during Sikandar Lodi period 1489 - 1517, and buildings such as the old Bara-Gumbad Mosque (arabic script borders) They provide a nice atmosphere for people to sleep and hang their laundry, couples, myna birds, hawks, and bag ladies. A relaxing train ride later we arrived in Dehra Dun. Miles of rice and corn fields and people, always people. English is widely spoken here, between us foreigners and between people [View Full Entry]

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Down the causeway to Saudi Arabia Middle East » Bahrain By rickmoore May 16th 2007 David Moore Bahrain is an archipelago of some 36 islands with a good efficient airport where women can actually drive (and show their hair) just a few km across the causeway from Saudi Arabia. But like Saudi, people come from all over the world to work. Saudis come here as well - but to shop and party - making the c [View Full Entry]

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All of my friends who had been there before were jealous, and they knew what a pleasure it is to visit Israel. And when the passangers started clapping when the airplane landed I understood what they were talking about - welcome to beautiful Isreal. The airport was Clean and bright, the nice immigration lady asked me if I wanted my passport stamped (no thanks) and the smell of orange trees greeted me as I stepped outside. It was a bit disconcerting that the taxi driver had no idea where my hotel was, but a quick call to his buddy for [View Full Entry]

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What could be a better way of escaping the winter snow than a trip to Argentina? I did not realize just how big Argentina really is - and since it is spread out north to south, you can pretty much pick your climate. First stop was BA, busy streets, clean sidewalks - the atmosphere is Europe, only cheaper. McDonalds is promently featured at the Plaza de Mayo but everywhere else are sidewalk cafe's with sandwiches, pizza, and steak. The Recoleta area cafe's and restaurants are packed at night, and the cemetery is well worth a visit during the day. Generals, baronessas, [View Full Entry]

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It has been more than 20 years since I first visited Thailand, and our focus has changed from shops that sell diapers to those that sell trendy clothes, but the first thing we still do when we roll into a new town is to find a good noodle shop. Don't laugh, but Bangkok looks cleaner, the sidewalks are in better shape and you can buy a decent cup of coffee for twice the price of a bowl of noodles. There seem to be fewer tuk tuks, but there are more building cranes. Movie theatres have huge assigned reclining seats, street vendors [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Almaty (formerly Alma-Ata, formerly the capital of Kazakhstan) which is in the foothills of the Tian Shan Mountains, to transit through both Astana and Semey (Semipalatinsk) on the way to Kurchatov. Bright new airports in Almaty and Astana contrast with the old soviet style airport in Semey. On the Antonov turboprop into Semey, I was seated beside a young Kazakh boy who proudly showed me how to lower the chairback tray (I must be younger than I look) At Semey, the ground crew wore no ear muffs, and at times there were white caps on the waves in [View Full Entry]

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Approaching Dubai by air at night, you are struck by the extent of the street lights illuminating roads with no traffic. I had previously been to Dubai several times, but never got out of the plane as I did not think that there was much to see - I was wrong. Dubai must have more interesting and impressive buildings than any other city, but apart from all of the shiny steel and glass, it still has the old souks and the boats that deliver the goods to them. During the heat of the day, the souks are closed so Dubai has [View Full Entry]

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The passangers from the Air France A340 crammed into the small terminal to wait for the baggage. To make matters worse, there were two conveyor belts, and you could not see both at the same time. There were a lot of soldiers on that flight, and a lot of camoflaged duffel bags unloaded from the plane. The night we arrived was the World Cup final. In Arta, we watched the game on the huge tv screen with a thousand or more people from the village. They ran around and cheered for both the French and the Italians. I sat on a [View Full Entry]

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From the airplane flying into Ahwaz, it looked like there was nothing in the dry plain below. Although it was 47 deg C in the plains there was still snow in the hills. Once on the ground, you see there is life in the Zagros Mountains. During the day there is the heat and dust. Oil pipe lines crisscross the country and run along the side of the road to form a kind of a maze. Getting anywhere takes a while on the bumpy mountain roads, but how could travelling be any better than listening to the Tragically Hip or Matt [View Full Entry]

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