Delhi and Beyond

July 28 and I wait to see if my husband has to go back to India on business. If he goes, it will be soon and I won't go back to Delhi, India in the summer. Weather forecast currently is between 100 - 111 degrees F, with thunderstorms forecast. Hmmm, not my ideal weather - heat and humidity. It will only add to the odors, chaos, and filth in India. Not to mention public urinating, crap (yes, real crap) plus other debris in the streets that generate nasty smells and attract dogs, cows, rats, cats, whatever looking for something edible.

Both times I traveled to India were during the winter. The weather was still warm to hot, but it was dry. Both times I missed seeing the blue sky. Smoke filled the air (due to wood/dung burning for warmth and cooking and pollution) and when we landed at New Delhi International Airport around 2:00 AM, the air was opaque. I thought I landed in a war zone!

More about India later... so much to report on.

Shanghai - then and now.

Easter 2010. We spent the weekend in San Francisco - enjoying aspects of the City that we find delightful as well as some touristy things. It is not very often we see people at the vista point called Twin Peaks. If you come to SF, please don't miss that view. On a clear day you can see 360 degrees - but bring a jacket, even in the summer, as the ocean breezes are strong and chilly.

We had brunch at Roy's Hawaii Fusion restaurant - consistently good. Had lobster potstickers - killer good - could have had only those with a little salad and rice for brunch. Afterwards we went to the San Francisco Asian Museum to view the current Shanghai exhibit. http://www.asianart.org/. I traveled to Shanghai in 2009 and of course, the Shanghai of today isn't anything like it was 200 years ago or even like it was in the late 1980's when my husband used to travel there on business.

What I remember of Shanghai were the crowds of people (seemed like each one wanted to sell me something - very capitalistic those Communists I met), the constant construction, and the smog. As I viewed the exhibits today, the 1920's Shanghai appeared to be very exotic and brought back mental images of Bernando Bertolucci's 1987 file "The Last Emperor". Remember the scenes of the lovely Chinese women in white 1920's sheaths lounging after a tennis match, drinking martinis? Seemed like such a decadent life. Then the revolution arrived and life changed drastically for everyone.

When I studied for my Master's in East Asian Studies, the history of the Opium Wars and the Chinese relations with Western countries (circa 1850s) was the most intriguing. If you are unaware of this period of China's history - it explains a lot about where things went rather off between the East and the West.

Two Oslo, Norway airports and miles apart!!!

Yup - this is one of my booking goofs. But who knew there were two Oslo, Norway international airports? Here are the details (that I learned the hard way):

• Oslo Airport, Gardermoen, since 1998 the main airport serving Oslo
• Oslo Airport, Fornebu, the main airport from 1939 to 1998

OK - I missed the announcement about this "new" airport that opened in 1998, and we did travel there 11 years later in 2009 and maybe I did not research it well enough. Travel time between the two airports via bus - 2 hours. One hour from Fornebu to downtown Oslo, to pick up yet another bus to get to Gardermoen Airport. But both are considered Oslo International Airport.

Here is the problem. We were arriving into Oslo at 10:00 PM and I booked a hotel right next door to the airport - within walking distance. Great plan until we landed at the Fornebu Airport and then had to travel 2 hours to get to the Gardermoen airport - just to sleep!!! We arrived at 1:00 AM in time to get an aquavit and an open shrimp/cucumber sandwich. The rest of the Norway trip was great and we decided to fly out of Fornebu Airport because the cost of changing our outbound flight would have been ridiculous. You see - it costs money to be stupid!

We got on the bus and we explained that we had to make our way to the Garrmoen airport - he calmed said "Ah, wrong Oslo airport, eh?" The driver claims this happens regularly and mused that maybe Norway should do something about this naming problem. Ya think?

Later - highlights on the train ride between Oslo and Bergen and the wonderful low key cruise on a freighter up to North Cape, Norway. Great experiences and beautiful, beautiful scenery.

Philippines - first, and so far last time, I was robbed.

Long, long ago I lived in Japan and each August due to Obon (festival of the dead) the country basically stops functioning. Japan during August is unbearably humid. Leather items grow the richest, greenest mold you will ever see. Rigorous cleaning and putting all your personal belongings in the sunshine is the only remedy to this mold invasion. But what do human beings do to escape? They leave the country!!! And that is what my girlfriend, Debbie, and I did for 10 days. And off we went to inexpensive (compared to Tokyo) Philippines.

Immediately upon arriving at the Manila Airport (now known as the Ninoy Aquino International Airport) we had cultural shock. Japan runs so efficiently, everyone seems to hustle about with such purpose. In the Philippines it was a 180 degrees shift to people just "hanging out" and watching. We never did figure out what people were waiting for...But we assumed it was nefarious.

Off into the night we sped towards the Manila Hotel - the most beautiful (well, in 1980 it was - maybe that has changed) hotel in all of the Philippines. It also was where General MacArthur used as his headquarters during World War II, or was it the Korean War? A picture says a thousand words so check out the photo of the entrance to the lobby!

We had journeyed from humid confined Tokyo to tropical (albeit hot and humid) Manila. We checked into our room, basically tossed our bags into the room and rushed downstairs to listen and dance to the most incredible band we had heard in a long, long time. We stayed late and ended up having breakfast at 4:00 AM with couple of people we met at the bar. Came back to our room and collapsed.

Next morning we went to check out and voila! discovered that we had been robbed. Not everything, but most of our traveler's checks, cash; but not jewelry, passports, or cameras. Clearly this was an inside job because we had just arrived. We reported the theft and hotel security told us that we were lying and just did not arrive in the Philippines with enough cash. The rest of the day was sitting in a police station (with lots of people just hanging out - were they on the payroll?) all day filling out paperwork so we could get our money back from those stolen traveler's checks (the paperwork was still in Japan, so we weren't going to get that cash for the 10 day trip.)

We had some cash, a few traveler's checks, and one credit card and this was how we were going to travel for the next 9 days in the Philippines. On a tight, tight budget. So we took things like the gaudy jeepney (photo above) which cost about 4 pesos per ride. Our thrills did not end with the robbery (and we did eventually recover financially from the theft) but at one point on the trip we thought we would be murdered. But that is for another posting.

Journey of Motherhood

After 25 years I think I am still suffering from postpartum depression.

Maine - but where are the moose?

We loved Maine. We went for 10 days in May 2009. Not the warmest time of the year to visit Maine, but the crowds were zero. The weather was overcast, but not terribly cold - light jackets and we were fine.

We discovered East Coast fish and especially loved haddock. Apparently the haddock story is a success story, because a few decades ago haddock was pretty much fished out in those waters. But they are back and it is wonderful - light texture and wonderful flavor.

We stayed near Rockport, which is famous for its lobster festival in August (or is it July?). But we enjoyed lobster, clams, Maine shrimp, oysters, crab, etc. etc. We ate fish/seafood twice a day, every day!

We flew into Portland, but that might not have been the closest airport to Rockport. We drove for hours to get to Rockport and decided to just chill and enjoy the drive. Perhaps we should have gone into Augusta (which by the way is a very depressing capital city/town). We did make it to Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, which has its lovely spots, but it isn't Yosemite.

The other thing that was a huge surprise is the excellent local beer - a nice variety of good beer. Shipyard, Sebago, Stone Coast, Atlantic Brewing are just a few.

The biggest disappointments is that we were too early to get fresh wild Maine blueberries and we did not see any moose. In fact we see more wild life around our house in Fremont, CA than we saw in Maine. Well, the solution? We need to go in the summer and go farther North towards Canada. Hey, haddock is worth a second trip to Maine.

Haiti

Today I volunteered at the Red Cross Bay Area (redcrossbayarea.org) to answer phones and accept donations to help in the Haiti Relief Fund. I was glad to get a number of calls from people wanting to verify that the texting program to donate $10.00 was legitimate. It is. For those of you who might want to donate $10.00, here are the details:

You can text “HAITI” to 90999 to donate $10 to American Red Cross relief for Haiti.

During our four hour shift our team of five people accepted and processed over $4000.00 in donations. The amounts varied between $10.00 to $1000.00. We also answered questions, gave suggestions and yes, verified that the Red Cross is behind the above texting program. Keep in mind the American Red Cross does not accept food, clothing, water, or medicine, as they purchase those immediate items they need. The International Red Cross has people on site in Haiti.

If you are interested in learning about ways to donate time and tangible goods other, I recommend http://www.interaction.org/ to learn about the more than 160 humanitarian organizations represented at the website.

Since I am a regular volunteer for the Red Cross Bay Area team, I will be back manning the phones next week.

Benefactor of random kindness - Christ Church, New Zealand

Thanksgiving 2006 - New Zealand and Tahiti

We loved New Zealand. I was (am) ready to move there. Any place that has more sheep than people is my kind of place. This was a trip with two major locations - first stop: New Zealand for 10 days and next, a stop over in Tahiti for a few days.

The New Zealand trip was driving through the North Island, crossing over via ferry to the South Island, and flying back from Christ Church to Auckland to catch our flight to Tahiti. About a week before we left for New Zealand, I booked our inter island flight to catch the Air Tahiti Nui flight to Papeete, Tahiti.

We arrived at the Christ Church Airport along with a large group of people. We were in plenty of time for our 9:00 flight, checked our luggage, got our boarding passes, and settled down to wait to board. When I checked the gate posting, I noticed there wasn't a flight for 9:10 AM. I checked and found our boarding passes were for PM and not AM. I rechecked my schedule and damn!!! I made a huge booking mistake. I booked us for a PM and not AM flight. This was bad, very bad. And it was going to get worse.

We needed to get to Auckland (domestic) to catch our international flight to Tahiti which departed at 2:30 PM.

I returned to the ticket counter and explained I needed to change my flights and found out that all of New Zealand was in a tissy because U2 was holding a weekend concert in Auckland. Every flight was booked, in fact overbooked. We were pretty much screwed. The entire journey to Tahiti depended on that connection - if we missed it, we would not be able to have our 4 days there.

I started to talk to every carrier that flew out of Christ Church to either Auckland or Tahiti. About one hour later we came up with one possible solution flying first class to Tahiti to the tune of $5000.00 PER TICKET. The trip to Tahiti was already paid for and it was either spend more money to enjoy it, or just kiss the trip off (along with all the prepaid arrangements). My plan was to ask for a discount on the first class tickets. I approached the Air New Zealand counter again to plead my case.

The Air New Zealand counter had a change of staff by this time and I approached the guy with my spiel. I humbly started, "This is not Air New Zealand's fault, it is entirely my own mistake, but..." I did not even get to the part about negotiating a discount for first class tickets. The staff member asked for my flight schedule and disappeared. After about 10 minutes he came back and that is when truly a miracle happened. He handed us two boarding passes for the next flight out of Christ Church to Auckland. I called Air Tahiti Nui and explained that we had a very tight connection (going from domestic to international terminals, which is a totally different building), get our boarding passes, get through security, pay airport tax, and get on the flight. We did not even expect that our luggage would be on the same flight - it was that crazy of a connection.

The flight to Auckland is a blur, we ran from the domestic to the international terminals and fortunately Air Tahiti Nui reopened the counter to give us our boarding passes and had an escort ready to speed us through the security, pay for the airport tax, etc. And of course the departing gate was the last one in the airport.

I collapsed in my seat (we were the last ones to board) and finally, finally started to breathe normally. My mistake nearly cost us, at most, $10,000.00 and at least we might have lost our $5000.00 we had paid in advance for the Tahiti trip. But the miracle was that some kind person figured out a way to get us past all those U2 fans and get on our 2:30 PM flight (which of course was on time that day). I like Bono and his lads, but I really LOVE that guy with Air New Zealand!

Oh, we had a great time in both countries. And our luggage did get on our plane to Tahiti. Amazing!

St. Maartin - the rest of the story

Before moving to other airports and travel experiences, we have to finish St. Maartin.

There is a very popular bar on the beach called "Sunset Beach Bar" - yes, the sunsets are lovely, but really the location is ideal for watching planes landing at the St. Maartin airport at sunset. The photo above may appear to have been photo-shopped, but it isn't (I did not take this photo and pulled it down from the web - it wasn't with a copyright, so I think I am OK. BTW - our photos were too dark to post here.) The beach and the runway are truly this close.

If you still think the photo is a mock up - please check out YouTube for videos of airplanes landing or just Google St. Maarten airport landings - many travelers have posted some great photos and videos.

The photo of the two Kir Royales (top photo) were taken at nearby (to the airplane landings) restaurant at sunset. What is and how to make Kir Royale? - one part creme de cassis and five parts champagne. I travel coach so I can drink wonderful concoctions like Kir Royale. Cheers!

Why am I blogging?

I kicked off this BLOG by jumping right into the Saba and St. Maarten island stories from our travels, but I did not explain why I am doing the BLOG. I have been fortunate to travel to many parts of the world. Most of it has been in association with business travel, but recently it has been personal travel.

Why do I travel? Because I agree with Benjamin Disraeli that Travel teaches tolerance. When I travel to new places I invest time to study the history, current events, cuisine, and language before we embark on our journey. I do not want to be a visitor of this world just ticking off the cool places to go. I want to experience and understand as best as possible the host country I am visiting. It is common for me to continue my research even when I return home through additional reading and cooking the cuisine.

To save money I book my own arrangements but have made some mistakes along the way. We have been really lucky to recover from these errors. In fact sometimes the oops situations have been the most positive and memorable parts of our journeys. I hope it might be valuable to other travelers to learn of our little surprises along the way. Traveling through various countries via airports, I have my favorites and some that have ahhh shocked me. Example: arriving at the New Delhi airport in India at 2:30 AM we learned that the luggage handlers might (and did) decide to go home without unloading all the luggage. Hmmm, that was annoying. After traveling from San Francisco via Dubai for about 24 hours we now had to deal with luggage issues in a smoke filled airport (more about the "smoke filled" issues in future postings about India).

Being aware of the negative carbon impact we make with air travel I do other things to try to compensate. I want to share ideas about recycling, free cycling, and repurposing items to prevent our landfills with perfectly usable items. An excellent URL to calculate your carbon footprint is at http://www.conservation.org/act/live_green/carboncalc/Pages/default.aspx?gclid=CJ3N3pKli58CFSgtawodhjs1Zw. Check it out and learn. I will share some of my actions to save our planet along with this BLOG and hope you, dear reader, will contribute to these ideas, too.

Saba Airport - Thrill of a life time

I love to travel.

I have traveled first class. And I have traveled business class, but usually a large multinational company has paid the fare. For my personal travel, I go coach. Not that I like the smaller seats, the awful meals, and smelly seats, I just would rather spend my money on things that I value more - such as opera tickets, champagne, and spontaneous side trips.

While vacationing in St. Maarten in the Caribbean last Thanksgiving (2008), my husband and I quickly tired of dodging pot holes and construction cranes on the island and opted to go off to the small island of Saba. Saba is known for having the highest point in the Netherlands Antilles (and The Kingdom of The Netherlands). Mount Scenery is 2,828 feet above sea level and we figured the view of the Caribbean from that vantage point would be incredible.

The quick flight to Saba was only about 10 minutes, but the real thrill was the landing strip (see above photo). We came to find out that the Saba airport has the shortest commercial runway in the world. Yikes!

Mount Scenery - Saba Island

Climbing 2,828 feet does not sound too tough. The ascending stairs are uneven and no rhythm could be set. It was walk, walk, step, step, walk, step, walk, walk, walk, walk, step --- I like rhythm and it unsettled me to climb these crazy steps. Oh, did I mention the foggy drizzle added to the challenge? But I was determined to see the Caribbean from Mount Scenery.

Typically it takes people about 2 hours to climb to the top, but it took us 3.5 hours because I am also wee bit chubby. I did not care. I made it. And the trip was worth it. The top view (top photo) is the reward of our efforts.

Returning to St. Maarten via the Saba Airport was equally thrilling (that short air strip) - albeit with a 4 hour delay. Next time we will stay on Saba and skip St. Maarten all together. St. Maarten is too commercial and crowded for our taste.