Lake of Ingenuity and Serenity

The next day, we head out to Inle Lake. Inle Lake where we see many wondrous sights is a prominent highlight of the world trip. There is no place on earth like it. Life on the lake is dramatic, spell-binding and extraordinary. If you are going to Burma, you should not miss Inle Lake. After a two hour drive by van, we get on something like what we natives in South Carolina call a 'john boat' (though this one is much longer than ours) for an hour boat ride to our hotel. What is amazing about our hotel is that it literally sits on stilts on the lake. Imagine being at least a half an hour from land in the middle of a huge lake. It turns out that we are staying in charming bungalows where one winds around navigating bridges and planked walkways to get to a room. Upon arriving, we are greeted by a merry band of assorted musical instruments and smiling faces.











On the way to our hotel, we stop to watch men fish with unusual baskets, using their legs to elegantly navigate the boat. This method of fishing and rowing is unique to Inle Lake. There is something peaceful and harmonious to this way of life - the quiet and gentle movement of the single paddle, the simplicity of the wood carved boats and the charitable and serene method of netting the fish. Unfortunately these are fragile rituals and traditions as already there are thundering motorboats zipping around in the background.



Also unique to the lake are the floating gardens that grow tomatoes, beans, melons, cauliflower, cabbage, and cucumbers. The farmers use simple wood boats to maneuver around and tend the rows of vegetables. To feed the gardens, underwater plants are harvested to fertilize their produce. Inle Lake produce is known throughout the region and highly sought after. The lake people are renowned for being very clever in how they use natural resources to literally live on top of the lake.



Boat taxis take residents from one point on the lake to another. Guess it's not so easy to visit next door unless you go for a swim! Many women use umbrellas to shade themselves from the sun. Whenever we stop off to go to a market or a temple, it is astounding the number of boats lashed together to keep them from floating away. Sometimes, it is necessary to walk on a sea of boats just to get to shore. All forms of commerce and transportation of goods is performed on the lake.













During our stay on the lake, there is so much to see and absorb. We enjoy motoring around floating gardens and villages on the lake, seeing homes made out of woven rattan with rush roofs, temples with ornate carvings and metal work and buildings with all sort of gizmos like water tanks and satellite dishes attached to them, children playing and waving, families farming and commerce taking place left and right.






















Because cameras are largely unavailable, we love taking pictures of people and showing them their beautiful pictures to admire and laugh at their amazing selves.













We are inspired by the hardworking and fascinating people of the lake with their variety of garments, enchanting smiles and their standout head dresses. Beautiful towels were used on many of the head dresses. Also if you notice, it looks like many of the people have on a white makeup. This is thanakha, a tradition which is thousands of years old. This distinctive Burmese practice uses ground up bark from the thanakha tree. It is said that the makeup cleanses the skin, prevents body odors in the heat and acts as a sun screen. People are very imaginative in the shapes they put on their face with this creamy paste. Men, women and children wear this.













The loads that people carry and the fascinating methods in which they carry them are impressive and imaginative.













Can you believe they make scarves from stems of lotus leaves? Actually that sounds romantic, like something made from butterfly wings or cobwebs. From each stem only about 2 or 3 strands are taken to make the threads. Imagine how long it takes to make one scarf that feels just like linen.













At Indein we hike to a beautiful temple with pagodas made of limestone in various stages of deterioration. To renovate them makes them too stark, but to not renovate means they will soon be gone. Such is the dilemma we see all over Burma.













Cheroot cigarettes and chewing quid are very popular and we see many vendors rolling new cigarettes or wrapping the quid. The quid and cigarettes are made of the areca nut, betel leaf, and a mineral lime paste wrapped in a cordia leaf. The betel stains their mouth and teeth red and both the areca nut and the betel leaf are stimulants and addictive. The stains also rot their teeth - Burmese smiles are unique. One belief is that the smoke hides the human scent and prevents malaria carrying mosquitoes from biting. Notice in the photos how many people are smoking.






We happen upon unusual items at the market like devices used to measure opium, baskets, hats, brooms, toys, unusual fruits, herbs (Ms. Aye Mar buys Edith some herbs and medicinal powders to help cure a cold), dried fish, fresh fish like tilapia - a fish which has taken over the local snakehead fish. The United States is not the only country to make drastic environmental mistakes.













We meet a group of Pao women who have walked four hours from their village of Loimaw to sell their vegetables and are on their way back home - another 4 hour hike. They are so happy and friendly, asking us to visit their village. Maybe next time!













The long neck Paduang women are from the Karen tribe. This area of the country cannot be visited by tourists as the Karens are still fighting for their freedom - the guides, of course, do not tell you this, but the 'giraffe' women come down for the tourists. The women wear rings on their neck for beauty. They start at a very young age and rings are slowly added until they have about 18 rings of brass or silver around their neck - over 15 lbs. There are also rings around their legs from their ankles to the bottom of their knees.








At the Temple of Phaung Daw only men are allowed to add gold leaf to to the Buddha statute. This is not a buddhist rule, but rather a government rule. So much gold leaf has been added that the Buddha looks like a gold blob or snowman. Edith and Carol buy some gold leaf for Rick to add much to his chagrin.


Nampan market is where many vendors bring their boats along side our boat to sell us goods. This seems to be a popular market as it is very crowded with many vendors and buyers.













At the Nga Phe Kyaung temple, the monks train cats to jump through a hoop on command. You can actually watch the cats on You Tube http://www.vagabonding.com/gallery/archives/000046.html. In addition, we see the collection of Buddhas and the priests who live there.













Each day the market changes to a different location - this was done originally so that the governors could collect taxes from their people. Market is a family affair - buying food and incidentals, visiting with friends, children playing and eating, men discussing affairs of the state.


See you next in Bagan (formerly known as Pagan)! Also please thank Holly for the wonderful photos. She took many of the ones on this post!!

Amongst the Hill Tribes

After separate adventures in South Africa and Laos, Carol, Edith and Rick meet in Bangkok to begin our SE Asia journey. Holly Hook, a friend of Carol's from Beaufort, SC, joins us for this leg of our world voyage. What fun! Our next stop is Burma or as the military junta call it, Myanmar. As a country now under military rule, we had many questions and concerns about going to this country, but decided it was someplace we all wanted to see.

Notes on Thailand: any interest in silver jewelry or clothes, this is the place. Negotiate heavily and buy silver by weight. Excellent quality, plenty of variety and the weight is good. Silk is gorgeous - most anything can be tailored while there. Bring a sample outfit or picture and in a day/two you can have it made.

Another note of interest is how the Thai love their king. 2006 was his 79th birthday and 60th Anniversary of his reign - longest reigning monarch in the world. Everywhere people wore yellow t-shirts, honoring their king. Why yellow - the king was born on Monday and of course, you know the color of Monday is yellow. When you ask people about their king, you hear how the king cares and the many projects he initiated to help hill tribes and farmers, to save the environment and to educate all. His philosophy - people must do for themselves so he provides the means and education to help themselves. Yellow is Thailand's new black.

Now onto Burma! After standing in a long customs line, we are met by our guide, Ms. Aye Aye, who whisks us off to our hotel . We thought customs might be difficult or there would be a $300 entrance fee, but no questions or collections - just a look-see at our passports. There is a limit of bringing $3000 into the country. You must use currency - credit cards are not accepted most places. Bring small currency as you don't want kyats. $3000 in small denominations is a load to carry. At the hotel, we get our first glimpse of the oppression that the military junta imposes - limited internet access, no email access, no global news.

After a night's rest, off we fly to Heho (in the Shan state) where we are met by another guide, Ms. Aye Mar. We soon determine that Ms. Aye Aye is our government guide for the entire trip in Burma and when we arrive in a new town, we are met by a local guide. Our ultimate destination is Kalaw (a 2-hour drive from Heho) - a former British Colonial outpost considered to be a retreat from the sweltering heat and humidity of the lowlands. Here we are hiking the countryside to a few hill tribe villages. Along the way to Kalaw, we take a side track off to a cattle market, attended by Pao and Shan people. These people are beautiful with delightful, but shy smiles. They travel great distances to both sell their products such as vegetables, chickens and pigs and buy their necessities such as tobacco, rice and fortune telling at the market. It is amazing how many people can pile into and on top of a funny looking truck - no hood, just the engine or even tractors.













Burma has more than 135 ethnic groups, the largest as follows - all with different traditions, customs and dress.

• BURMAN: A Buddhist group, also known as Myanmar, which accounts for two-thirds of the country's 54 million people. They live in most parts of the country, except for remote border regions.
• KAREN: Tribal people who practice Buddhism, Christianity or a mix of both. They have fought for more autonomy for more than 60 years in a mountainous region bordering Thailand. Estimates of their population range from 3.5 million to 7 million, with about 400,000 more in Thailand.
• SHAN: Buddhists ethnically related to Thais who live mostly in Shan state next to Thailand. Estimated to number 5 million or more, but like the Karen, their last official census was 70 years ago.
• ARAKAN: Also called Rakhine, they are predominantly Buddhist people who live in hilly country in western Burma and number between 2.5 million and 4 million.
• MON: Buddhists who once ruled kingdoms in the southern region bordering Thailand. They number more than 2 million in Burma and nearly 100,000 in Thailand.
• KACHIN: Mostly Christian tribal people numbering more than 1.2 million. They live mostly in northern Burma, but also in China and India.
• CHIN: Mostly Christian people of various tribes. More than 1 million strong, they speak different dialects and live in Chin state bordering India or in India itself.
• ROHINGYA: Muslim group in northern Rakhine state. Many have fled across the border to Bangladesh and by sea to Thailand. (source: Associated Press)

Along the way to Kalaw, our van breaks down at a small market, but luckily we can push start it. Upon arriving, Kalaw is very primitive and we are told that there are 3 army bases in the area. We figure these are to fight the rebels in the north, though we are not told this. We are staying at Pinehill Resort which used to be a British military station. After checking in, we climb up to see the view above the town and take in the colonical houses and the barracks where George Orwell stayed while stationed here. It is said that George Orwell's 1984 was really a prediction of what has happened in Burma with the miliary junta controlling everything. Many here consider him a prophet. The four of us stay in a two room bungalow. Since we are in the mountains and it is the cooler time of the year for the whole country, it is cold and the only way to warm up is to take a hot shower since there is no real heat in the rooms. Dinner is at a Nepali restaurant and everyone loves the Nepali tea, especially since it's hot.

We're up early the next morning to begin an 8 hour trek to several Pao and Palung villages. Soon we meet Palaung people on their way back from a wedding in the village of Ywathitikan which is one of the villages we are visiting. They have their formal clothes on and the women have rings around their waists which signify they are married. We pass tea, mustard, rape, corn and dry rice fields. All are replacement crops for opium poppies - at least that's what we are told. Much of the land is deforested for this purpose - it is amazing how they cultivate on the steep hills. We pass a number of oxcarts with Brahma cows or water buffalo pulling them. Along the trail, we meet a group of young monk acolytes. Holly gives them some balloons and they have a blast - what a smart and easy gift to bring.














Once we arrive at Ywathitikan, we hear more about the wedding from the villagers, see lots of children and meet a woman chopping wood who invites us in her home. It is a long house on stilts. She tells us that she has 7 children, two of whom are sitting by the fire. The room has no real furniture except a special mat for guests and a fire which sits in the middle of the room for cooking and heating tea. After leaving, we see a girl shucking rice using a mill which she operates by pushing her foot up and down. Edith tries it and it sure looks easier than it is.

We visit a couple more villages, have lunch and then take a treacherous hike back around the lake's slippery banks. The lake is very low in water. After questioning why, we are told that the several Army personnel blew up the damn with dynamite while fishing just for fun. This happened over a year ago and no attempts are being made to fix it. The day before we saw many people carrying water on their backs from wells about town. It's amazing the power the military has and their disregard for the people.

The evening is very cold and this night, there is no hot water for showers. The hotel brings us metal hot water bottles to put in bed for our feet. Interesting approach to staying warm!

Sabaidee - Listening to the Rice Grow

ONLY EDITH & RICK
After our respite in South Africa, Edith & Rick head off for Laos via Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand. Carol is staying in South Africa to spend quality time with Bailey. This leg of the trip turned out to be the only problem on the Round the World Frequent Flyer ticket program. Get this - since we originally made reservations to go to Hanoi, the only way to change these reservations was to go to Hanoi via Bangkok and then make new reservations back to Bangkok. Delta said there were no remaining frequent flyer tickets from Amsterdam to Bangkok and we had to keep the reservations we had. It turns out it would take us about 48 hours to go from Cape Town to Bangkok. Ridiculous, huh???!! The airline said we could not get off the plane on our first stop in Bangkok. If we did, all remaining reservations on the rest of the trip would be cancelled!?!?!?! Not a good thing for sure!!

That being the case, we decide sitting on airplanes for two days would not be well spent days so we got another frequent flier ticket through Singapore Airlines (outside of our Round the World ticket) which took us from Cape Town to Singapore to Bangkok in a total of about 16 hours. Go figure?!?! Of course, flying Singapore Airlines is pure torture since many people consider Singapore Airlines to be one of the best airlines in the world.

We spend one day in Bangkok before heading to Chiang Rai. We fly into the new Bangkok Airport which has only been open for one month. It is quite nice and during our various layovers, we find the shopping and restaurants to be fantastic. We stay at the Peninsula Hotel - our first time! Last time in Bangkok, we stayed at the Oriental Hotel. The two hotels are about the same quality, though we do find the service much better at the Peninsula. The only slight downside is that it is on the wrong side of the river for all the action, but the hotel provides a nice water shuttle. The pool is very nice with cozy cabanas (left pic), lots of exotic drinks and a great view of the river. We have a very romantic dinner in their outdoors Thai Thipara restaurant as shown on the right.

Now along the way, we have sent home many of our purchases, extra clothes and things we find that we don't need. We each only have one small roller board for carry-on and one small bag for our toiletries and medicine since we are not sure other countries have the same liquid restriction in the cabin as the U.S. It turns out for our entire trip, only the U.S. has liquid restrictions. Since we're going to be on a boat in Laos, we take only one roller board and one small bag for the two of us - it is amazing how little you really need to travel. We leave our other suitcases at the Peninsula to pickup on our way to Myanmar. This works out nicely both in terms of less luggage and less clothes - boy, do we hate those clothes now!

The next day we're met in Chiang Rai by our guide for a short tour of Chiang Rai. We visit Wat Phra Kaeo which is where the Emerald Buddha was first discovered in the year 1434, when a bolt of lightning struck a pagoda, revealing a small and seemingly insignificant stucco Buddha image. After many years, the plaster began to crumble away, revealing a beautiful green jade image beneath. When the King of Chiang Mai heard of the discovery, he sent an army of elephants to take the image. The elephant carrying the treasure refused to take the route back to Chiang Mai, instead heading south towards Lampang. The Emerald Buddha is now in Bangkok where thousands of Buddhists pay their respects to the fabled image since several miracles have been associated with the good fortune Buddha.

We take a longtail boat ride down the Kok River where there are restaurants with individual hut like rooms on the banks of the river where people eat, fish (if you catch something - the restaurant cleans and cooks it) and also sleep. We're told that many couples come and stay overnight or people have big parties in these huts that last for days. Interesting concept since everything is visible from the river. No hanky panky here!


Before going to our hotel, we visit a small market. What is interesting are the number of insects for sale as food. We see four kinds of insect dishes, all northern delicacies: rot duan, a bamboo caterpillar; meng muan, a woodborer; mang dah, giant water bugs (looks a lot like big Palmetto bugs) and ging gong, a type of cricket. The Thai also eat silk worms and fried scorpions, a delicacy we tried on an earlier trip to China. Having missed the photo shot of the giant water bugs, I run back to take a picture, only to find that they have sold all of this well liked delicacy.

We spend the night about 1.5 hours outside of Chiang Rai, in a small town right on the Golden Triangle. This is where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand all meet via the confluence of the Mekong and the Sop Ruak River. It is also called the Golden Triangle because this area was the major opium growing region for SE Asia. Of course, the Wild, Wild, EAST no longer exists, though many say this is still 'gold' in them thar hills.


After a very quiet night and a great hour-long foot massage, we take off to catch our boat to Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos. Upon arriving at the 'dock', after clearing customs, we find that we have to take a small long tail boat over the other side of the Mekong river before boarding the big boat which is going to take us down the river. Thank goodness, we have little luggage as the small long tail is shared by the locals! After exchanging some money (10,000 kip to $1) and getting our visas for Laos in a little shack on the river, we join about 20 people for the overnight trip down the river.

The boat trip is uneventful and peaceful. The river is relatively untouched with lots of jungle and a few hill tribe villages. There are a number of house boats on the river where people live. As for Rick's re-entry from the Vietnam War, this is one of the toughest for him as there is little change and many reminders. During the war, he actually traveled the Mekong many times.



We stop at one village which has just been discovered in recent years. The village is Gon Dturn where the Yao tribe lives and the women specialize in weaving. They grow and spin their own cotton which must be grown in the hills about a mile up from the river and their homes to avoid the moist climate. The weavings are quite beautiful, an array of wonderous color. The housing is interesting - built on stilts with walls of woven bamboo. Some walls were simply a flat piece of woven bamboo standing on end in a circle - quite simple, but beautiful.


For the evening, we are staying at Luang Say Lodge, a lodge run by the boating company. Since the river is so low, it is quite a trek up to the lodge. Luckily we have porters to take our bags up. The individual cabins are quite nice and arranged so that everyone has a great view of the river. The only negative thing is that our room does not have hot water and it is actually quite cool at night. Much to Rick's dismay, we end up trudging in our bathrobes to another room for the shower, but at least it's hot.

After breakfast the next morning, we strike out on the boat again, stopping at another village. Here we're amazed that in the middle of nowhere, they're selling goods from China. The Chinese can reach anywhere!! Edith is so glad that she bought some weaving the day before as it seems there are no authentic local weavings at this village. We do see how they make rice whiskey and several people buy a bottle to enjoy. The only buildings with color in both villages were the Buddhist temple and the monks' quarters. On the door of one of the buildings the following was written - Welcome to Room In Love. Wonder what that is?!

Later in the morning we see working elephants on the river moving and helping with the logging at a saw mill. This is one of the only countries in the world where they still use elephants to work.

We meet interesting people on the boat. One couple, Pascal and Yolanda Kiener live in Spain, but are from Switzerland. They retired to Spain and really like to travel a lot. Kathy and Terry Gamble are from Ottawa and are on their way to visit their son living in SE Asia. Rick and Francis are a young couple from Switzerland and have been touring SE Asia non-stop since Nov '05. Their blog is http://www.webbased.ch/. Roger and Jane Elliott are a father and daughter team from Great Britain. Jane is a retired foreign diplomat who was in Hong Kong during the turnover and her father, Roger, is a physics professor at Oxford who had been at Berkeley during the atomic bomb heyday and had worked at a number of nuclear plants in the Western world. In fact, Roger once worked in the same town in Ottawa where Kathy and Terry live. What a small world!

Near the end of our boat ride, we stop at the Pak Ou Caves - caves containing thousands of Buddha. The caves were originally dedicated to the spirits of the river and were converted into Buddhist temples in the 15th century. On the Laos New Year, the king of Luang Prabang would visit and perform the washing ceremony where the Buddhas were washed in a highly decorated vessel in the shape of a water dragon (naga). The last king of Luang Prabang was deposed in 1975 after the communist revolution. We climb many many steps to see both caves and on the way down, Kathy hurts her knee. What a bad break when you're on vacation!

Luang Prabang is one of the jewels of Indochina. Sitting at the confluence of the Mekong and Khan River surrounded by mountains, this ancient royal once-capital city is a wonderful, beautiful fusion of crumbling colonial and traditional Laotian architecture. The people are beautiful, happy and generous, especially the children. Highlights for us include:

• Night market - the goods are mostly from China, but it's great fun to walk among all the vendors from different parts of the country with their traditional dress, lovely faces and wonderful smiles. Many are hill tribe people - there are a total of over 40 ethnic groups in Laos. Rows and rows of vendors, their displays are quite lovely with all the bright colors of the fabrics and twinkling fairy lights strung about.

• 5am Alms - the Buddhist priests march in procession for their daily food from the locals in exchange for good karma. Even though we are barely awake,it is a beautiful sight seeing all the orange robes and baskets en mass - a virtual sea of orange as far as the eye can see. Children from the small villages come with their own baskets to get leftovers from the monks to feed their families and village. Many people are on their knees to give offerings. It is not polite to look directly in the eyes of the monks so most heads are bowed. People usually give rice, but our guide recommends we offer ramen soup. The priests are delighted! We only wish that we had more.



• Ban Xangkhong - a weaving village where you watch the women weave and see all the lovely silk and cotton scarves, shirts and skirts (phaa sin - traditional wrap arounds). Edith is fascinated with supplementary weaving where additional warp or weft threads are introduced apart from the threads already on the loom. This form of weaving is very complicated and time consuming. It takes hours for just inches of supplementary weaving to be made. We try to get further explanation of the process, but alas, no English spoken here. Even our guide cannot translate for us.

• Learning about and buying old weavings. We bought two pieces - one done by the grandmother and another by the mother of the shopkeeper. The design of each piece is unique and the symbolism has special meaning to the weaver, depending on what is happening in their lives and what they are looking for. Examples of the many symbols are the Naga - water dragons which appear in Lao mythology as powerful rulers over water and a symbol of fertility; the Garuda - a sun-bird and the opposite of Naga. In the Lao dualistic view, everything must have an opposite for stable balance in the world. Also as a heavenly being, it wanders between human and heavenly worlds; the Elephant - a guardian of travellers and a symbol of wisdom, strength and nobility and the imperial crest of the former Lao kingdom; the Rajasiha - a mythic mixture of lion, dragon and bird which protects from natural catastrophes and accidents and is the king of the animals.



• Just walking the streets, seeing kids playing boce ball; the tuk-tuks carrying passengers to and fro, visiting various shops to see crafts unique to Laos, such as silversmiths, wonderful paper making, basket making, beautiful embroidery, seeing and listening to the monks chant; chilling out with coffee, tea and beer in the many coffeehouses.
  


• Going to the amazing waterfalls of Kwang Xi - besides having wonderful cascades of water, there were pools where you can swim. Even though it is about a 1 hour drive, it turns out to be well worth it. The color of the water is one of the most beautiful blues we have ever seen and absolutely impossible to capture on film. Many people also swim in the cold pools formed by the falls.



• Climbing the 328 steps to the top of Mt. Phousi to watch the sunset and see the rivers and all the sights below.




• Visiting the temples and other tourist sites. It was interesting to see a Buddhist temple and an animist temple (pictures of the spirits on the right) on the same temple grounds. About 60% of the population is Buddhist and the remainder are animist who believe in earth spirits. The Laoists believe that if you do good, then good things will come to you and if you do evil, then evil will occur. Many people try to gain 'merits' in this life by practicing Buddhism and many of the young males become a monk to gain 'merits' for their families. Upon their desire to marry, they take leave as a monk, but may return when they reach their senior years.

Since Kathy hurt her knee, walking is difficult for her so Terry and she spend much of their days in Luang Prabang in our van to see the sights. We were sad that Kathy's knee was painful, but enjoyed the opportunity to spend more time with them.

So why do we call this posting 'Sabaidee - Listening to the Rice Grow'. Sabaidee is 'hello' in Lao. In colonial times, the French had a saying about Indo-China - 'The Vietnamese plant rice; the Cambodians watch it grow; the Lao listen to it grow.’ The Lao people are very mellow and laid back. As we travel through SE Asia, we find this to be an apt saying.

Split Company

Upon leaving Kenya, we went in different directions. Carol headed for Johannesburg where she met up with Bailey, her husband and Alecia, her friend from Rwanda. Rick and Edith continued to Cape Town where they spent 3 days in Cape Town and 2 days in the wine country before heading to Laos for one week. Carol spent 2 days in Johannesburg, a week at Alecia's beach house in Port Alfred and then headed for the wine country and Cape Town. We'll each tell you about our separate trips.

EDITH AND RICK
Edith and Rick stayed at "An African Villa" which is a guest house in Cape Town. It is probably one of the best inns that we have ever stayed in. It is made up of three town houses with all the amenities you need. One of the owners, Louis Nel, was so friendly and helpful during the entire time we were there. The room was spacious, bright and had a lovely decor. Each morning, the staff would fix us a great made-to-order English breakfast on their gorgeous terrace or lovely dining room depending on the weather and off we would go. The first morning, we wandered around the city on our own. Since the guesthouse is centrally located in the City Bowl (named this because Cape Town sits in a bowl completely surrounded by mountains), we walked to see all the sights including Green Market and the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront. It was actually great to be able to get out on our own, never get lost and enjoy all the city had to offer. Cape Town is quite a lovely city with oceans, mountains and great views everywhere.

One thing that Louis provided for the room which we had never encountered before and thought was a great service - individual phone cards. We had to call back to the U.S. several times because the credit card company was concerned about all the different countries we charged in (even though we had called before leaving on our trip and informed the company of each country we would be visiting - highly recommend you do this if you are going on a long, multi-country trip). Anyway these cards were practically as cheap as they are in the U.S. and we were calling from Africa - great innovation for inns. The other service that was quite nice were two computers in the family room which guests could use. We almost never had to wait to use the computer. It was the only inn on the whole trip that provided this amenity and as we have said before, access to computers was very limited on the whole trip - KUDOS to An African Villa.

On this trip, Edith became quite taken with trade beads and so in Cape Town, she went on a successful hunt for these beads. Trade beads are actually European beads (Venice, Holland, Bohemia) which date back to the late 15th century when Portuguese trading ships arrived on the coast of West Africa to exploit resources such as gold, slaves, ivory, and palm oil. Beads were a major source of currency exchanged for people and products. Over four centuries, millions of beads were traded with Africa, and by the nineteenth century, European bead makers were producing a wide variety of designs (millefiori, chevrons, striped melons, feather, and eye beads) specifically for African trade.


The next day, Edith and Rick got a great guide, Tania of Discovery Tours, to show us the sights of the peninsula of Cape Town. Luckily for us the day was very clear and we saw beautiful views of Hout Bay, beaches with wonderful thatched houses, Cape Point where we saw a whole family of ostriches and Boulder Beach where the African penguins have their home. The penguins were so cute because they were molting and looked all puffed up. Did you know that when they are molting, they cannot enter the water as they have lost all the waterproofing so they fatten up before molting period and mate during this period? They mate for life and take turns incubating their eggs and feeding their young - a mini March of the Penguins.



At Cape of Good Hope, we took the funicular up to the top of the point and
walked down. The view was quite beautiful and of course, it was very windy. We learned that just recently they discovered that the Indian and Atlantic Oceans do not meet here as always thought, but the meeting point is actually a couple of miles across False Bay. Also the first light house on the Cape never worked because there was always fog to block the light so they ended up building another one that was lower, therefore avoiding the fog. At the Cape Point, you might see a number of animals like baboons (the one in the photo above is carrying a small one under her belly), antelope, zebra and eland. Among the eight species of antelope found in Cape Point is the rarest antelope in all of Africa. . It is called the bontebok and at the turn of the 20th century, they were on the verge of extinction with only 81 surviving. As an inspiration to conservationist, they have made a remarkable comeback and now there are over 2000 in all of Africa.


Toward the end of this terrific day, we visited Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. Sitting with the gorgeous backdrop of Table Mountain, the collection of protea and other flowers is unbelievable. The Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest, most diverse and richest of the world's six floral kingdoms. Over 9600 species of plants are found on the Cape Peninsula, 70% are endemic (occur nowhere else) to this floral kingdom. At you can tell from the pictures, Edith and Rick loved the many different species of protea.



In addition, we learned what townships are in South Africa. Our guide kept talking about townships and we unknowingly thought that all she meant was a small town, but then she explained to us about townships. This is where someone can build temporary shelter on government land and if they stay there for more than 24 hrs, they are allowed to stay permanently. Townships are quickly formed and shacks and all sorts of temporary shelter spring up. Many of these people come looking for work and as soon as one comes, then relatives and others follow. If you have land next to the township, the value of your property can quickly drop. We are sorry that we did not take the time to visit these places. We were surprised that based on all the news we have read, we did not catch this distinction.

The next day, we rented a car and drove to Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands. It is an enchanting region with rolling mountains, gorgeous vineyards, olive groves and lavender farms. In addition, it boasts some of the best restaurants in the world. Settled by the Dutch, the architecture is quite picturesque and all the inns are charming. We stayed at La Petite Ferme which has only 4 stunning cottages with fireplaces and individual lap pools. The day we arrived, they were having a wedding on the grounds and they could not get the groom out of our room, but it was okay because we had an absolutely spectacular lunch there, overlooking the vineyards and beautiful mountains. The whole time we were in Franschoek, we ate like kings and slept and played like royalty. It was a great way to rest up before beginning our Southeast Asian tour.

CAROL AND BAILEY

After a couple of days living it up at a posh resort in Johannesburg called the Westcliff, Carol, Bailey and Alecia headed to Port Alfred, which is a small, lovely Indian Ocean beach town. Alecia's beach house is located in the hills overlooking the ocean. It is wonderfully situated with a 180 degree, panoramic view of the Indian Ocean and coastline. Carol and Bailey were amazed by the long stretches of undeveloped coastline - absolutely gorgeous. We also particularly enjoyed having cocktails in the Jacuzzi and watching the whales cavorting just offshore. Alecia has a cadre of friends in Port Alfred and Carol and Bailey had a marvelous time meeting them and getting to know the area. We reluctantly tore ourselves away, because we had reservations in the wine country and flights booked out of Cape Town.



Both Carol and Bailey loved the wine country. We stayed at Le Franschhoek Hotel, located in the hills just outside the town of Franschhoek, about an hour or so outside of Cape Town. The Hotel was associated with a culinary school and Bailey rated the food staff there (he should know as his company's name is FoodStaff) as the best and most personable service of anywhere on the trip. The food was terrific as well - but it was absolutely out of this world at Le Petite Ferme. Edith and Rick had been thoughtful enough to make reservations for us, because they had such a great meal there themselves. Carol and Bailey ate there on Thanksgiving Day and it was a meal to remember.



Carol and Bailey stayed in a comfortable suite in a small hotel in the heart of Cape Town - the Adderley Hotel . The hotel had only been open a couple of weeks and the staff and management were wonderfully gracious and welcoming. While in Cape Town, Bailey and Carol walked the city, seeing all the sights such as Greenmarket Square which is home to a fantastic flea market, the Victoria and Albert Waterfront which much like the Baltimore Waterfront and the Two Oceans Aquarium with punk like penquins, funky orange billed oystercatchers, kelp forests and many fish from the two oceans.

The hotel restaurant, the Bowl, was on the second floor with huge arching windows and balcony overlooking Aderley Street - which is one of the main thoroughfares in the old part of Cape Town. As a result, Carol and Bailey were perfectly situated for the Christmas parade and street party on Adderley street which kicked off when the mayor of Cape Town flipped the switch on the city's Christmas decorations. We had dinner on the balcony overlooking the party and got caught up in the festivities. It reminded us of a family-oriented Mardi Gras.












After Carol flew out of Cape Town to meet Rick, Edith and long-time friend Holly Hook in Bangkok, Bailey stayed on for a few days to check out the Western Cape and South African fishing. The weather was wild and he caught no fish, but had a good time and came back with salty stories.

Back to the 17th Century

After all our safaris, we headed for Lamu which is an island off the eastern coast of Kenya, on the Indian Ocean. Our plan was comfort and relaxation in a very laid back atmosphere. Once again, we hopscotched our way across the Maasai Mara. After a few flights on the safari shuttle we knew that punctuality was a pipe dream. However, we weren't worried since our reservations had ample time between the flights from Nairobi to Lamu.
Little did we know that the safari company had changed our connection to an earlier flight. Upon arriving in Nairobi, the airlines told us that we had missed our flight and there would be another flight just for us within a few minutes. We were a bit dubious but sure enough, within an hour, a 4 seater Cessna 310 whipped around in front of the terminal. We looked at each other, shrugged and picked up our backpacks. By this time we figured we had taken most every form of transportation imagineable. Rick and Carol loved it, but Edith's stomach was roiling after the storm ridden trip. It was only afterwards that Rick said he was a bit alarmed and concerned when the pilot had no choice but to fly us straight through a hail storm. Considering that we took 22 flights with all their numerous connections, amazingly this flight and the 'bird in the engine' flight from Nairobi to Rwanda were the only snafus we encountered on the entire world trip.

What a change Lamu was! After landing on the teeny tiny airstrip at Lamu, we walked straight to a dock and boarded a dhow (wooden sailboat of ancient Lamu design) which had been sent by the Hotel Peponi to pick us up . We did feel special, but actually it was the only option. Lamu is accessible only by boat and once you get there, the only means of transportation is by dhow, donkey or on foot. There are no cars. The islanders use donkeys to transport goods around the island and you have to wait until low tide to walk to town or the length of the island.


The islanders are largely Islamic and little has changed since it was settled 500 years ago by the Swahili, Turks and Arabs as a port of call. In the 14th century, Lamu was established as a Swahili trading post and became an important landmark on the Northern sea trade route, exporting timber, ivory, amber, spices and slaves. Originating from the intermarriage of Arab and African people, the new culture, Swahili, came from the Arabic word sahil for coast. Lamu is considered one of the great centers of Swahili culture. The traditional Islamic dress in Lamu is the kanzu (robe) and kofia (embroidered hat) for men and full length bui bui for women, both ideal for staying cool in the heat.



If not in traditional Islamic clothes, men and women wear skirts called kikoys and khangas which are beautiful square cloths tied around the waist, though the print on the men's kikoys are stripes or plaids and the women's have more varieties. The kikoy is a bright, usually striped, cloth with knotted tassles along each hem. The khanga is larger, more elaborately patterned and traditionally emblazoned with a Swahili proverb offering a pearl of conventional wisdom.. They also secure them differently. Of course, we bought some and were shown how to wear them - now if only we can remember when we get back.

The architecture of the old Lamu town is very beautiful with buildings made out of coral stone (dug from the earth, not the ocean) and mangrove timber. The doors and windows are elaborately carved wood with ancient designs and inside are courtyards and rooms with exquisite plaster niches of various shapes. The streets are very small, many have only enough room for two donkeys to pass. In fact Rick said this is a town where you can never look up because you are on constant watch not to step in donkey doo. In town there are still two daily markets - vegetables and meat and the town closes down from 12-4 for lunch and siesta so you need to get your shopping in early. One can definitely get lost among the labyrinth of stone streets so we hired a guide for our first day in Lamu and did the town before walking back to the hotel. Everyone on the island is quite friendly and easy going.

On our first evening in Lamu, we met James Christian and Kerry Glen, a couple who conducts private tours and safaris in Africa. They were leading a great group of Harvard classmates on a tour through Kenya and had just finished a 4 day sail on a dhow. It was quite interesting talking to them as we learned a little about their life in Kenya and their company. James grew up in Boston, but his mother is from Kenya. He and his wife Kerry have settled outside of Nairobi. They told us the story of how they helped one of their employees get a cow so that he could get married. Subsequently they were asked to attend the circumcision ceremony - both male and female. Of course only males can attend a male circumcision and vice versa. James and Kerry tried to stay at the back of the room, but as guests, they were asked to come to the front. No pain numbing medication is used and the child can show no emotion or their family is ostracized and must move from the village. As someone who is from 12 to 15 years of age, can you imagine?! See their website at www.karisia.com. It might be an interesting way to go on safari by camel or cruise the Kenyan coast on a dhow.

The heat in Lamu was unbelievable. Since there is hardly any electricity (everything runs off of small diesel generators), there is no air conditioning so we were either taking showers about 3 times a day or enjoying frequent dips in the pool. The mosquitos were quite bad at night since there was no glass in the windows. Nets were provided on the beds and we used them. We now understand the thinking behind the kikoy - it is much cooler than a pair of pants. The Peponi is a lovely hotel in Shela, about a forty minute walk from Old Town. It sits right on the Indian Ocean and seems to be the local night spot on the island. Everyone knows everyone else there, and it is peaceful and crime-free because they are all one extended family - or about 10 families. Everywhere we went the locals wlecomed us and offered to take us on tour or boat rides - in fact, they would often join us on our walks and show us the shortest way around the island or even sit with us at dinner if we showed the slightest encouragement. Many of the young men were quite taken with Carol and would call for her outside her room asking her to go windsailing or on a sunset cruise.

One afternoon, Carol met two great guys from Sidney, Australia. It turned out that Trent and Tony had rented a home from Princess Caroline - yes, we said Princess Caroline, the Princess Caroline. We ended up taking a tour of the house Trent and Tony were staying in and two other houses that belonged to Princess Caroline. They were all elegantly simple, quite beautiful and particularly reasonably priced during the off season. So if you are thinking of going to Lamu - it's a great option.


One evening we took a dhow to see the sunset. Carol had met Ahmed and he offered to take us on a cruise on his boat. He had bought his boat about 2 years ago and was working very hard with his brother to help support his mother and siblings. The sunset was quite beautiful and peaceful. Carol even steered the boat as we went around the end of the island. A great way to start the evening and to cool off as the breezes picked up on the ocean.

Food on Lamu was great. We thoroughly enjoyed the meals at the Peponi, especially all the fresh seafood. One evening we tried something different - we had a Swahili dinner on a rooftop in the open air sitting on mats. It was quite romantic and primitive with all the stars and black night and the Swahili food was absolutely delicious.

We also had a great time shopping. Edith found some necklaces made of old trade beads and Carol bought several beaded necklaces and some wonderful earrings. We also bought the cutest beaded sandals. Gallery Baraka was our favorite place!

Also we called Jony Waite to ask her to have lunch with us, but alas she was on holiday in Nairobe. Edith would have really loved meeting her especially since reading about her loves and life being that Edith is half Japanese and Jony has such an affinity with Japan - kindred spirits. Next time!

After our wonderful respite in Lamu (highly recommended for those who love laid back vacations in an exotic place), we headed back to Nairobi before departing to South Africa. We spent one day exploring Nairobi. Here we did some last minute shopping and got a few tourist stops. Carol was dying to go to the Karen Blixen house - you know, the author of "Out of Africa". The story is based largely on her life where she married a cousin who was a baron and moved to Nairobi to start a coffee plantation. She was largely unsuccessful as the environment was not suited for coffee trees, but ended up falling in love with a pilot. Her husband was unfaithful from the start since it was a marriage of convenience and she divorced him. Of course, like the book, her love dies in an airplane crash. However in real life, Blixen did a lot to help the Kenyan people with medicine and schools and is highly revered in Nairobi. She wrote 9 novels under various pen names such as Isak Denisen and was quite an independent woman of her time.

Also we visited the Rothchild Giraffe Center where we saw the endangered Rothchild giraffes. This center rescues the giraffes and returns them to the wild when possible. First we had our pictures taken with Charlie, the warthog. Carol and Edith were quite taken with warthogs on our safari. They kneel on the ground when feeding, are so cute as babies and run through the grasslands mostly hidden except for their tails which stick straight up when they are running. It is quite funny to see this lone tail moving across the tall grass plains. However, the one thing about Charlie is that all the females reject him because he is too fat and heavy to mate with them. So much for good living and getting all the treats from the tourists. The giraffes were quite funny. Six year old Bettye was rescued from Uganda after Idi Amin issued orders to his troops to use giraffes as target practice. Bettye shows no signs of trauma and is quite the ham. We fed Bettye and Kelly and were even kissed by them. What a way to end our trip in Nairobi!

Tails from the Wild

We are so sorry it has been such a long time since posting - in fact, Carol is now home and we have had quite a few people inquiring if we are okay. We had no idea it would be so difficult to find a computer or what little time we had to put together the postings. We decided that we will continue to post until we get the entire trip on the blog. That way we will have a short tale and diary for ourselves and others who might be interested. We will send out an email each time we post. Hopefully we will complete it shortly.

After making new friends, learning so much about the country and having loads of fun in Rwanda, we headed for Kenya. Upon arriving in Nairobi, much to our surprise, we found that we had a 6.5 hour drive down a bumpy rutted road to Samburu. This is not what we were told, but what could we do? At least we stopped for lunch. Our driver joked that the jouncing was a Kenyan massage, but as Carol said, the ride was not her idea of fun even if we did cross the equator on the way and take pictures of the sign.




Upon arriving at the entrance to Samburu Park, we were still over 20 kilometers to the lodge, so we went on a mini safari drive. Here the terrain is lush and green with lots of small brush and acaccia trees with small hills. It is difficut to see animals from afar. Maasai Mara is quite different in that it is a grass plain which is very flat and you can see animals for miles. One of the first animals we saw in Samburu were two lions in mating season. The male was so exhausted. For you men, we heard that they mate for about a week, mating about every half hour. Guess that's why they call lions "king of the jungle."


We stayed at the Samburu Intrepid which is a luxurious tented lodge. The tents, if you can call them that, have four poster beds, writing desks and en-suite bathrooms with stone floors, double sinks and hot showers. Well, they do have zipper doors and canvas walls. This was definitely camping in style. Of course, when reception said "Don't worry about the gun shots. They are only to scare off elephants in the camp!" - we felt we really were in the wild.



For those of you who have never done a safari, the routine is to get up at dark o'hundred and game drive for a couple of hours. Of course we got a soft hello wakeup call at the tent accompanied with coffee and tea - this kind of wakeup call is terrific. After the drive, you come back for breakfast and then do some sort of activity until about 4pm when you go on another drive for a couple of hours. The drives were great. We saw all of the big 5 (lion, elephant, leopard and buffalo) with the exception of the rhinoceros which is not in the park.











In addition, we saw cheetahs with their catch, a confrontation between elephants, buffalos, zebras (Carol's favorite), male giraffes and male elephants each fighting for dominance in their herd, elephants backing down our jeep just cause we're in their way, baby elephants only 6 weeks old, blue ball monkeys (monkeys in heat - now you know why that term), antelopes, baboons and many other animals.


Another wonderful thing that we did was to visit the Samburu Maasai village where the Samburu people take you on a tour. The Turkanas from Northern Kenya were also living in their village because of the strife in Sudan. Upon arriving, we were greeted by the chief and as recommended by our friend, Alecia, we presented the chief with a gift - a new watch. He was so excited and telling everyone that we had others like the chief's son admiring the watches we were wearing and saying how they would also like one. Here on the left is the guide who took us through the village. Here he is with one of his wives. Because he had enough cows, he is allowed to have more than one wife - 12 cows for every wife.

As the Samburu took us on tour, we learned much about how they live. Both sexes get circumcised when they are teenagers. Boys get married at 30, but only if they have 12 cows to support their family. Girls can get married anytime after puberty and wear beautiful beaded rings - some had 30-50 rings - around their neck. They showed us how to make fire so now we are ready to compete on 'Survivor'.




Their huts are made from cow dung and branches and must be rebuilt every year - only women do the building as shown in the picture to the left. Men are responsible for the cattle and goats, protecting them from lions and other such predators. We bought power sticks which allow the elders to speak when in council tribe meetings and Carol and Edith danced with the women of the tribe. It was all a fantastic adventure.　



After Samburu, we headed for Maasai Mara by plane - this time travelling by plane - in an amazing aerial hopscotch. We changed planes once and made 4 stops - the shortest distance being a 3 minute flight! It was like being on an air-borne pogo stick. Upon arriving, we were met by Anthony Kigara who was our guide on the Mara. He was a fantastic guide with 28 years experience.

His delight was to find the animals and situations before any other guide so we had awesome sights of some very special occurrences in the wild, including a lioness killing a wildebeest, a cheetah with 3 of the cutest cubs and the infamous, elusive rhinoceros - we saw a pregnant mom with one calf. He also made sure we saw ostrich (with two chicks less than 24 hours old).　We really enjoyed staying at the Mara Serena Lodge which has individual hut-like rooms with bright and imaginative decor. We understand that the artist Jony Waite did the wonderful graphics and art which adorn the hotel and she lives in Lamu, our next destination - who knows maybe we can have lunch or drinks.


The lioness/wildebeest kill was amazing to witness. Anthony, our guide spotted the lion eyeing the injured wildebeest. On earlier game drives, we had seen lions watching potential prey, but had not seen an actual kill. We have heard since then that it is rare. Anthony had witnessed less than 20 in his 28 years of guiding. Luckily for us, it seemed that whatever we asked Anthony to show us, he was always able to provide it even when he said it was an elusive opportunity.

Because the wildebeest was injured, it was no longer able to stay with the herd, limping on its disabled leg. The lioness was hidden in the grass, waiting for the right moment to attack. Once she made a run for the wildebeest, it was amazing how quickly it occurred. The lioness went straight for the jugular and the wildebeest didn't fight back - it all was over in a couple of minutes. Quite quickly , another lioness and five cubs joined to share in the kill. The cubs were so funny because they knew it was dinner, but had not a clue of how to get to the meat. All they did was tumble and somersault all over the wildebeest. It was visceral and quite entertaining to see the cubs' glee and excitement over what their mom had gotten for them. We actually got a video of the kill and the cubs in their happiness and merrymaking.

Again we visited another Maasai tribe where the chief gave Rick a bracelet made by his wife - we found this tribe much more outgoing. Guess they have more exposure to tourists and it showed in little ways throughout our tour. There are differences between the two tribes like the Mara Maasai build homes which last for 15 years instead of just 1 and the homes have some decoration - the chief's has a diamond design. You only need 10 cows instead of 12 to get married and the women do not wear the same bright rings around their neck.















Masaii Mara women performed their dance which was different from the Samburu and Carol joined in the fun. We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit. By the end, the chief was leading Carol around, showing her their best crafts and we were having to hurry out because we stayed so long and the men had to bring the livestock back into the village for protection from the predators before nightfall. The last morning on the Mara, we had breakfast in the wild by the hippos' favorite riverside spot and where two warthogs hung out with us, hoping for the leftovers. We highly recommend safaris - they are quite exciting and life inspiring!!

Gorillas Galore

We're sorry that we have not responded to emails or posted as often as we'd like, but it is harder and more expensive to get access to the internet than we thought it would be. Silly us! Don't know why we thought it would be easy when in many places we barely have electricity;)

After leaving Turkey and all our adventures, we flew to Kigali, Rwanda via Nairobi. Our mission - to see the mountain gorillas and visit with a friend, Dr. Alecia Lilly who is the Vice President of the Africa programs for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI). We got to see the gorillas, but missed our friend Alecia as she had to fly back to the U.S. to help her mother. Enroute to Rwanda, we end up with an unplanned stopover in Burundi because our airplane hit a flock of birds and one got sucked into the engine. We waited in the airport for only about 2 hours before heading onto Rwanda. That was a close call! They told us initially they might have to fly a new airplane in if the engine was damaged.

Well, the trek to see the mountain gorillas was absolutely fantastic. Due to an overbooking of the apartment that we reserved at the Gorilla's Nest in Ruhengeri, the management accomodated us by putting us in Jack Hanna's house - his personal house. It is an elegantly simple stone house with spacious rooms opening onto wide verandas overlooking the sloping lawns and sweeping views of the mist covered mountains. We heard that Jack Hanna had been in Ruhengeri only a couple of weeks before us. If you go to his website, you will see in his travel journal that he was in fact recently in Rwanda - http://www.jackhanna.com/travel.html. Photos of celebrities like Bill Gates visiting Jack and his family were all about his house. Of course, we signed the guest book like all the other celebrities, one page after Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Later we would know how great it was to take a hot shower and enjoy a hot drink and popcorn in front of the Hanna fireplace after our long hike to see the gorillas.


The following morning upon arriving in Ruhengeri, we went to see the gorillas. At our guide's recommendation, we chose to hike to see the Susa group. It is the largest group, and especially rewarding as there are twin baby gorillas and a newborn, but like most of the best, it required the hardest work as it was the furthest away. We trekked up the mountain in rain for 3.5 hours with a guide and two guards with guns. It was very muddy, slippery and rocky, but everyone made it fine. This was just in case we encountered poachers. Our experienced guide, Felix Semivumbi, was very informative and helpful. We also had in our group, David Peterson who is an American going around the world by motorcycle. He is one and a half years into his 4 year round the world trip. By comparison, we are travel neophytes.

About 1.5 hours after we entered the forest perimeter, our guide told us to stay quiet because the gorillas were near. We rounded a bend in the trail and we suddenly see a silverback sitting in the brush less than 15 feet from us. It was awe-inspiring to be so close. Felix called this silverback the slow one (like Ethel) because it lags behind the group. We walked a bit further and came upon the Susa group - all 37 strong - grooming, resting and playing in a clearing enjoying the sun that had broken through. The guides and trackers told us we were very lucky to see the entire group of 38 together and to be able to photograph them in the open and in the light. We were impressed with how loving the huge silverback males were with the baby gorillas and the intelligence and personality in their facial expressions; some were close enough that they could practically reach out and touch us.

Alecia arranged for us to have dinner after our hike with the one of the gorilla researchers, a lovely Italian woman named Veronica Vecellio who agreed we were indeed lucky to have seen all the gorillas together, particularly in the open and unobstructed. Veronica is studying a group that has 65 individuals and 4 silverbacks. This is very unusual; mountain gorillas are typically dominated and led by a single male silverback. DFGFI has been studying and observing the gorillas in this park for over 12 years to determine why the large groups in this park can support multiple silverbacks. We encourage those of you who are interested in conservation, wildlife or helping the deserving people of Rwanda, to give to DFGFI. They are working hard to ensure the continuation of the gorillas as well as helping the Rwandans understand the importance of the gorillas. The Fund also sponsors several projects designed to help Rwandans rebuild and recover from the genocide in 1994.

The next day we went to see the Golden Monkeys. Again we had to trek up to see them in the bamboo section of the forest. Felix was our guide again and we were lucky because he actually was the first person to ever habituate the Golden Monkeys. It rained the entire time going up, but luckily it was not a long distance. They were quite playful and eating lots of bamboo. In the afternoon after cleaning all the mud off of us and our clothes, we started back to Kigali. It is a wonderful drive seeing the landscape and people of Rwanda. We found everyone very helpful, and gracious. We were struck by their ready, beautiful smiles. David Peterson told us the people are "the warm heart of Africa" - and that is what we saw as well. We heard that it is not uncommon for someone to visit another 45 kilometers away by simply walking there.

Carol took several pictures of the people working in the fields and Edith was struck by how much they looked like prints that Hutty did of workers in the potato fields and this was what these people in the photos were doing. Those of you who know Hutty see if you agree!




In Kigali, we stayed at the Dian Fossey office which is also the house of our friend, Alecia. Here everyone (Mika, Vene and Odele) treated us as honored guests. We are hugely grateful for their hospitality. We visited the Antoinette Project, sponsored by Dian Fossey Foundation, which provides help to the widows of the genocide by teaching them different skills such as sewing or hairdressing which will enable them support themselves and their children. In addition they provide preschool education to about 125 students of which 60 are solely supported by the project. Next year they hope to start primary school for the graduating students. We also visited Amani which sells crafts made by widows and orphans.

A moving experience for us was to visit the Genocide Museum. It powerfully communicated the horror of the genocide and the events that unfolded throughout Rwanda. As we traveled in Rwanda, many pointed out the mass graves all over the country. Everyone in Rwanda is working hard to unite all people and make sure that this never happens again. In fact their saying is Genocide - Never Again. When you experience the museum and its horrors, you are even more amazed at the remarkable recovery achieved so far. You can see that the Rwandans have worked diligently and progressively in the short twelve years since the genocide happened.

It seems that all the people in Rwanda know how to carry things using their head instead of their hands. We asked our guide to teach us, but he exclaimed that we would have to start as children to be able to carry something like that. Oh, well! We tried!



Our eternal thanks to Alecia, Mika, Vene and Odele for making our visit to Rwanda so special. Who knows, we may come again to visit!!!

Fairy Chimneys, Hamams and Whirling Dervishes

Upon completing our fabulous week on the gulet, we all headed for Antalya to catch our next flight to the Cappadocia area of Turkey. Only 5 of the 10 who had enjoyed the gulet were going on to Cappadocia. Bailey, Ed, Gina, Dan and Christine went on to Istanbul for a couple of days before heading back home. Nancye Starnes of Charleston joined us in Urgup, our first stop in Cappadocia and added a lot of fun to that leg of the trip.



The Cappadocia region of Turkey is magical with its weird Martian-like rock formations (called Fairy Chimneys by the Turks) and caves where people carved out homes and churches to escape from raids or religious persecution. This area was part of the birthplace of Christianity and the churches have elaborate paintings telling the history and stories of Christianity. There are also underground cities where they had most everything from water systems to wineries to multiple stories of housing as well as elaborate booby traps to protect them from intruders. However, some of the passages from room to room or house to house are very narrow as you can tell from the picture of Nancye going through the tunnels. The ancient Silk Road winds through Cappadocia and we visited a keravanseray or inn used by traders and camel caravans that traveled its route. All was amazing to see and learn.

Our hotel in the village of Urgup, is actually built into the side of the Cappadocian cliffs. Our rooms were formerly part of the old caves; they were both spacious and cozy and had an elegant austerity with beautiful niches and shelves carved into the white washed walls. It was quite luxurious - not like any caves we've ever seen. All the rooms were different and everyone loved it.


On our first day in Cappadocia, one of the many things that we did was to visit a cave home where people still live. There we chatted and shared some molasses that the homeowner had made. We also bought traditional mittens and socks made by the women. Everyone was cleaning for the Bayram, the 3-day holiday at the end of Ramadan where Muslims fast for about one month. During Bayram, they have parties and dinners with their families and friends. From what we understand, it is somewhat like Thanksgiving where it is very family oriented and a time for giving thanks and love to all. Also it was fascinating to see them vacuuming a cave house.

While in Urgup, the women decided to visit a hamam or Turkish bath. The one in Urgup was about 150 years old and was quite traditional. Turks quite often use the hamams to both relax and bathe themselves. In these days, many people go - as we did - not only for the sauna and bath, but also for the wonderful scrub and massage treatment. Remember that in Cappadocia, many people still live in cave houses and have no plumbing. The day had been a very busy one at the hamam because many Turks had gone to bathe in preparation for Bayram.

None of us had ever been to a hamam so we sure did not know what to expect except that we would get a massage and a bath. Carol, Betsey, Nancye and Edith went. None of the men wanted to go which was probably good since there was only one room for bathing. Upon entering the hamam, we noticed that there were no women present. We took comfort in the fact that the male attendant did not seem surprised to see women coming in. He gave us each what looked like a gingham dishtowel and pointed us to dressing rooms and told us to take off our jewelry, completely undress, and wrap ourselves in the cloths.

Clad in the oversized dishtowels we were led into the hamam, a huge room with a big octagonal marble slab in the middle of it and open rooms in each corner with marble sinks. We were directed to shower or bathe ourselves using the marble sinks, then to go in the sauna for ten minutes and then lie on the octagonal heated marble lab in the middle of the hamam until they came to get us. The hamam was quite hot and we stayed in the steamy sauna for as long as we could take it. We then emerged and flopped down onto the heated slab and gazed up at the little round windows in the domed roof of the hamam which were blue and gold with the colors of the late afternoon sky, wondering what was next. After about 15 minutes on the slab, two men wrapped in the same oversized dish towels called for two of us. What a big surprise! We did not realize that men were part of the bathing experience.

Carol and Betsey were the first guinea pigs. Nancye and Edith, meanwhile, were left lying on the marble slab listening with growing curiosity to the sounds of water splashing and muffled voices while their imaginations ran wild. After about 30 minutes Betsey and Carol returned to the hamam for a final shower and Nancye and Edith were called into the "treatment room" (for lack of a better word) with the men. The room was bare of any furniture except for two marble benches about the size of a twin bed; one high and one low. On the high one, you lie down, are covered with suds and massaged on every part of your body that is not wrapped in the dishtowel. On the low one, you sit down and are scrubbed pink with a loofah mitten. One man is responsible for massaging and the other is responsible for scrubbing. We switch off when each man is finished. We all agreed that even as children we had never had such a wonderful bath!

Another new experience in Cappadocia was seeing the Whirling Dervish. They perform in a 13th century kervansaray which was an inn on the Silk Road. Trade across Turkey in medieval Seljuk times was dependent on camel caravans (kervan, anglicized as caravan), which stopped by night in these inns known as kervansaray, literally 'caravan palaces'. These buildings provided accommodation and other amenities for the merchants and stabling for their animals. A tiny pavilion mosque known as a köşk mescit, was situated in the center of the courtyard and the ceremony was performed there. It was quite beautiful and spiritual in this setting. We are told that as the Dervishes twirl, they go into a trance which takes them from worldly desires, allowing their souls to open and lost in their thoughts of God. Their dance is very graceful in both their feet and hand movements and the flowing white dress billows out as they twirl and the cone-like hat adds to the mystery of the twirling.

After Cappadocia, we flew to Istanbul, a city with a distinctive mixture of history and sophistication. There David Hughes, Nancye's boyfriend joined us from Great Britain and added a real liveliness to the group. Here is a great picture of him sniffing different instant coffees which were presented when we asked for coffee at Korfez, one of the nicest restaurants in Istanbul. As we soon found out, we had to ask for Turkish coffee to get real coffee. We never knew there were so many types of instant coffee.

In addition to seeing sights such as the Blue Mosque, Aya Sofya, the Hippodrome where chariot races were performed and the beautiful and romantic underground Basilica Cistern which supplied water for Romans, we took the ferry down the crowded and vital Bosphorus and saw the Ottoman Military Band. Of course, the women had to test out the haman and shop at the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market.




Rick was on an endless quest to find Istanbul's best rice pudding while Carol loved the Attaturk banners and Turkish flags flying all over the city in celebration of Republic Day - which is like Turkey's July Fourth - and marks the founding of Turkey's secular form of government and also honors Mustafa Kemal Attaturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. And despite the endless hawking and negotiating by and with the rug merchants, no one in our group came away with a rug. We definitely learned that we were not good at the ancient art of negotiating - we only had a couple of weeks to learn. However, we have heard rumors that the earlier group did leave with a rug or two or three and we'd love to know how they did.

While in Istanbul, Edith and Rick had a great visit with their friends, Gurcan and Dogucan and even met Gurcan's girlfriend, Guler. We got to experience the real kebab at the well-known Hamdi restaurant.
The kebab had to have been at least 3 feet long and was absolutely delicious. We also learned the proper way to eat kebabs which is much like eating soft tacos where you pile lots of condiments and meat on a thin bread and roll it up. We tried the blood red turnip juice which Edith loved and the liquor, Raki, which she definitely did not like. We all are going to miss the Turkish food when we leave.

Ancient Lands and Azure Seas

Our last two fun-filled days in Portugal were spent in Lisbon. We stayed at the Bairro Alto Hotel, a fabulous small hotel overlooking the Tagus river, located at the cross section of the Bairro Alto and Chiado areas of old Lisbon. On our first night in Lisbon, Antonio Portugal - a Lisbon lawyer and business associate of Carol's - took us to dinner at a wonderful restaurant where we had to-die-for chocolate mousse. Antonio told us where to hear the best fado music – ancient melancholy music of the Portuguese sailors and their lovers. We took his suggestion and wıth dinner, heard fado in a medieval building in the Alfama district that survived the 1755 earthquake. Joined by a Houston couple, Susan McRee and Jeff Bell, whom we met at the Bairro Alto, they added greatly to all our merriment.

Next we headed for Turkey, the cross roads of civilization, interesting people and land of ancient ruins, azure seas - and fantastic shopping. En route, David and Betsey McKearnan from Stockbridge, MA and Ed and Gina Kozek from Charleston, SC joined us. As many of you know, we have various people joining us in different parts of the trip.

Our first stop was Kayseri where we stayed in a beautiful setting just above the harbor which sits on the Aegean sea. Here our purpose was to experience the awe inspiring ruins of Ephesus. We had the great fortune to have Cengiz Icten, the head archeologist of the Turkish team for 40 years, share his insights and discoveries with us. His passion for Ephesus was obvious and as we walked through the sites, many of his former students and workers came up to warmly greet and hug him – he is quite the popular guy. As we have traveled through Turkey, many of us are learning just how much history there is in this wonderful country. . .

On the way to Bodrum, we stopped at Didyma and visited the Temple of Apollo where emperors came to see the oracles to get a peek into the future. In Bodrum, Christine and Dan Gill from Alexandria, VA joined us. Bodrum is a beautiful seaside town on the Aegean where many Europeans come to vacation. Here we happened upon a parade for the opening of the Bodrum Sailing Cup and an exciting performance of acrobatic whirling and tumbling dancers from the Caucasus area of Turkey.

We boarded the Batuhan, a gorgeous 100 foot wooden sailing yacht (gulet in Turkish) in Marmaris. Ten of us stayed on the boat for six days, cruising from Marmaris to Demre. The captain and crew were personable, fun and worked extremely hard to give us spectacular service. As Patricia, our travel agent for this leg of the trip promised us, Erden, our captain, was definitely eye candy and had a great sense of humor. Among our many adventures, we thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful Aegean and Mediterranean seas, visiting incredible ruins such as tombs carved into mountains, theaters where gladiators fought, and villages that have remained as they were centuries ago. In addition, we have a few other stories.

On the first evening on the boat, we were all out on deck admiring the beautiful stars and the Milky Way which many of us have not seen in a long time due to the light pollution back home. We did not yet know the boat and as Gina was looking up at the night sky, she missed a step on the boat and down she went twisting her foot. She hurt her foot badly and still we do not really know if she broke it as she has been able to get around. It seems that the blacker and more bruised it gets, the better it feels to her. She has been a great sport about it and did not let it get in the way of her good time.

Another adventure occurred in Dalyan where we went by flat bottom boat to see the extraordinary tombs scattered high in the mountain cliffs. Doing it by thıs type of boat is the only way to see the tombs, which are carved into the cliffs and have marvelous castle-like facades . We had an amazing day cruising through the wetlands which reminded many of us of the Charleston Low Country except for the huge mountains in the background. As we motored there, we noted the tide was dropping, but the boat seemed to get through easily.

Returning to our sail boat, however, was a different matter. We soon discovered our guide did not know the river and we got grounded. He kept gunning the engine and got us even more grounded. Then he asked all of us to stand on one side. Still we were grounded. Soon a boat came by and we yelled for it. But to our dismay, it continued in the opposıte direction. So we started to run from one side of the boat to the other, trying to rock it off the sandbar. Still we were stuck. What we soon realızed was that the boat we thought had abandoned us actually had gone around the sandbar avoiding low ground to come rescue us. After a few tugs and us rocking the boat again, we were finally off the sandbar. The captain of the rescue boat then told our rookie driver how to get safely out of the bay and into deep water, and we got back to the beautiful Batuhan without further incident.

Another boating adventure occurred the next day when we cruised into Gocek. This was the first real town we had encountered and all went exploring. It had been raining off and on and the captain told us that a storm was approaching, but not to worry because we would go to a safe cove for protection. After an evening of shopping and a little partying, Carol and Edith were working on the blog and others were in bed when all of a sudden, a huge gale wind came and blew the big canvas bimini off of the aftdeck. The captain bolted out of his cabin and began barking orders to the crew and calling for them to cast the lines. The wind and rain continued to get stronger, lightning began to crack and the waves frothed - even at the dock. The docked boats began to buck like wild broncs and others in the harbor pulled loose from their moorings in the wind and chop. Boaters began running around their boats in a panic. Captain Erden remained cool and collected and calmly picked his way across the bay to safety with boats crisscrossing in our path within feet of the Batuhan's bow - it was a wild ride indeed! We reached the cove and were safely secured by about 2am.

It was a wild couple of hours for everyone (except Rick and Dan - who unbelievably slept through the whole thing). In fact, the next morning Dan thought we were teasing him when we told him about the excitement. Christine came up with an appealing Turkish tradition. She said according to Turkish custom since the captain saved our lifes, we were obligated to run off with him - all of the women agreed.

Stay tuned! We have no idea what other adventures await us!!

Lucy and Ethel – On the Lam in Portugal

Diego, our host, took us to see the magnificent view from windswept Cabo da Roca (Rock Cape) - the lighthouse marking the westernmost point in Europe. He told us about the hike from Cabo da Roca to beautiful Praia Adraga (Dragon Beach), a trail that winds through a coastal park, up and down hills overlooking the ocean - reminiscent of the craggy Oregon coast. One look at the gorgeous scene and Carol and Edith (aka Lucy and Ethel) felt the age-old pull of the sea. Lacking a boat, we decided to hike the trail, unaware that we would soon be on another comic adventure in being lost.

Assuming one finds the trail and stays on it, the hike is supposed to take no more than an hour to an hour and a half on the outside. We confidently tell Bailey and Rick that we will be at the square in the village above Praia Adraga in two hours, and ask them to meet us there for a drink and give us a ride back up the steep road to Penedo.

We see a sign indicating that the trail begins in 2.2 km but are immediately distracted by a cute little old Portuguese man who Lucy knows will look great in a photo framed by the sheer rocks and turquoise sea. So she follows him down the trail to a lookout point over the Atlantic, trying not to look like the papparazzi of authentic Portuguese people she is becoming. Ethel follows slowly because she is wearing Keen sandals which are essentially fancy flip flops. Lucy is slightly better off as her Tevas are at least strapped on.

After reaching the lookout point and gazing out at the sea, the cute old Portuguese man turns back. At this point Lucy and Ethel realize the path is getting more narrow and steeper. Undaunted - and dazzled by the glorious vistas - we forge ahead until Ethel is clutching with her fingernails the foliage growing on the cliff while trying to balance her flip flop-shod feet on the rocks. Ethel finally protests and we backtrack the 150 foot precipice looking for better footing. As we scan the horizon, there appears to be a hundred paths, all probably made by very small animals. Yet fortune smiles and soon we are on another path which seems to be broad and traveled. Again we see gorgeous beaches and hilltop lookout points. At last the right trail! Suddenly it becomes evident this trail is also a mirage . . . . the path inexplicably dribbles to nothingness. We make 5 valiant attempts to bushwack our way over hill and dale through the brush directly towards Praia Adraga. Each time our delicate tootsies are defeated by the brush and each time we flipflop our way backwards in another attempt to find the real trail - only to stare across endless scrub-covered hills.

We are now two hours into an one hour hike and the sun is beginning to drop lower on the horizon. Ethel bemoans leaving the bottled water in the car and wonders out loud how we'll find our way in the dark. We stumble onto a path that looks more promising . . . Eureka - it turns into a real dirt road! But alas, a few more bends and it too dwindles into a rut. As Lucy and Ethel trudge on, scratched and thirsty, the underbrush on either side of the path grows higher and virtually impenetrable. Around the next bend we are brought up short in our tracks by . . . civilization.

A gate stretches completely across the trail, blocking our way. A sign is posted on it. Even with our cave man Portuguese we can tell that it warns ominously DO NOT ENTER! ELECTRİC SURVEİLLANCE. İNTRUDERS WİLL BE DETECTED! Knowing the answer, Lucy turns to Ethel and says "Well, you wanna go over the gate or around it?" Ethel stares at the huge, menacing looking house. The property is a fenced compound situated on a ridge which crosses a deep valley. She then scans the bog, briars and ditches along the outside of the compound fence. Ethel sighs resolutely and hikes her leg over the fence, cocking her ear for the sound of a growling dog. Lucy, momentarily forgetting her legal training, cries out "Wait! Let me get a picture of you with your leg hiked over the Securitas sign." Recognizing the folly of creating such evidence, Lucy pocketed her camera and quickly followed Ethel over the fence.

Ethel and Lucy scramble across the fields behind the house in a crouching crab-style run which we imagine to be Seal-like. We make our way across the ridge only to find another fence - this one with barbwire topping. Looking over her shoulder and fearing electronic detection, Ethel jumps onto the fence and climbs over but snags her flip flop and falls on the other side, cutting her hand in the process. The daring duo trudge on, considering the possibility that bears will be attracted by the smell of Ethel's blood.

Soon thereafter we find a good path marked with the white slash we had been told to look for in Cabo da Roca. The path leads us out onto a road to Praia Adraga. We are over an hour and a half late for our appointment with the boys but the road to the village square is uphill and Praia Adraga and a beachside bar - is downhill. Ethel says to Lucy "Wanna hike up to the village square or down to Adraga?" "Silly girl" said Lucy as she swung onto the road down to Adraga Beach. If the boys do not find us, we can call a taxi from the beach.


Ten minutes later we find the bar, a cold drink and Jorge, the very cute Portuguese owner (both Lucy and Ethel have noticed the large percentage of attractive men in Portugal) of the bar/restaurant. Jorge, a former EMT, expertly cleans and bandages Ethel's hand and she instantly feels better and not just because of the bandage. Shortly thereafter, Rick and Bailey find us and another great adventure ends well even if our hosts may later see our pictures on wanted posters across town when the owners look at their hidden cameras.

Lost and Found in the Old World

Found. . . a generous Portuguese spirit named Pedro Rodrigues on the flight from Paris to Lisbon. Although tired from the flights, we quickly recognized we had been given the gift all travelers hope for - a friend who knows the country. Pedro has a warm heart and an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Portugal. He regaled us on the flight with details of the revolutions, earthquakes, crusades, kings and art of the country. By the end of the flight Pedro had generously offered to be our personal guide through Sintra. We quickly accepted, with gratitude and excitement.

Found. . . a wonderful house and welcoming hosts - for 10 glorious days in Sintra. The quinta, Portuguese for compound or estate, is on the top of a steep hill bordered by an ancient forest. We have spectacular views of castles, palaces, villages, beaches & the sea from the stone terraces surrounding the house. In this private retreat, we feel like we're in our own little world. Our hosts Diego and Lynn are world travelers themselves and could not be more entertaining, generous and gracious. We have found them to be kindred spirits.


Lost. . . ourselves. . . many, many times. The supposed 30 minute trip from the Lisbon airport took 4 hours. By now we are getting the hang of the serpentine cobblestone roads and the obscure landmarks. A time-lapse video of us going round and round and doing figure eights through Sintra with all of us talking at once and pointing in different directions would be hilarious. Poor Rick having to deal with narrow roads, fast Portuguese drivers and three back seat "know it not at alls"!

Lost and Finally Found. . . our friend, Ed Szaniawski, who flew in from Toronto, Canada to spend just two days with us before heading on to meetings in Lisbo. Through some sort of snafu, he arrived at the quinta while we were out and could not get into the grounds. We missed him by minutes, and the problem was complicated by the fact that Diego's cell phone was down at the very time he arrived. Exhausted from the flight, Ed went back to Lisbon with the driver. Meanwhile, we sent emails across the globe trying to find him. We finally did and toasted each other repeatedly to celebrate as in the photo depicting one such moment. (Ed's personal challenge to us is to sample as many brands of Tequila as possible throughout our travels; we tried at least three in just one day with him.) Needless to say, we enjoyed his company immensely.

We are getting the hang of the good life in Portugal . . . lazy mornings, long lunches, unrushed sightseeing. We are eating & drinking perhaps too well. Portugal is famous for its seafood and we have done our best to try as many of the local specialties as possible. .. Acorda de Gambra is their version of shrimp and grits - downright delicious and oh so fattening. Another delectable specialty famous in Sintra is Queijadas - tiny cupcake-like cheese pastries.


Pedro spent a day with us, guiding us through castles, palaces and museums and treated us to a fabulous lunch at a famous beer house in Lisbon, the Cervizeria di Trinidade. We spent another day just walking the narrow winding streets in our tiny village and eating with the locals. We've visited the beaches and small towns nearby.

Diego and Lynn have been very gracious - they took us to lunch at a wonderful seaside restaurant in Cascais and on another day Lynn delighted us with a fabulous home-cooked meal - treating us to more Portuguese specialties as well as great company and conversation. We're all in agreement that our time in Portugal has been the perfect start to our world tour!

Almost There

Well, five days before the big trip. We can't believe it is upon us. We are packed and have done all that we can think of to prepare for the trip. Things like:

• Get shots and medicine to take on the trip.
• Make all reservations and plans in advance. Boy, was that a lot of work, but hopefully it will cut down on what we have to do on the trip
• All of the major flights are through frequent flier - we chose to use Delta and their alliance. It is only 210,000 miles per person for six stops going business class
• Arranged for all our bills to be paid while we are gone
• Gotten a friend to house and dog sit while we are gone
• Packed one suitcase each for carry-on and one suitcase to check with all the liquids that we need. It is unbelievable what our medicine kitty looks like and how fast a suitcase can fill up
• Gotten an MVP to download pictures as we take them in different countries and also to have listen to Japanese lessons and music. Things like this are beginning to tax Edith's technology knowledge in terms of all that is available. Also we hope to learn more Japanese so that when we get there, we will be able to communicate in Japanese with our relatives
• Tried to do some preparation in case disasters like hurricanes happen while we are gone.

In fact, we can't wait to get on the airplane because once we've boarded, we have done all that we can. No more preparation - it is what it is.

Our first stop is Sintra, Portugal. We have rented a villa which you can see in the pictures. Bailey, Carol's husband is joining us for this part of the trip and other friends of Carol will also be coming.

It is supposed to be a very beautiful part of the country - an historical town near the coast of Lisbon, it was a favorite retreat of kings. The coastline is dramatic, the forests are thick and lucious and the streets are lined with cobblestone. Hope it lives up to its reputation. We expect good eating from the markets, great weather and good company - just in time to chill out from all the preparations for this voyage.

During our 10 days there, we have rented a car and will see some of the countryside. We are thinking about visiting a number of small towns like Calas de Rainya, Alcobaca, Batalha, Setubal, Evora. Of course, we hope to partake in the great port wine and seafood for which Portugal is well-known. At the end of our trip, we are going to spend two days in Lisbon so look for stories and pictures next week.

Dealing with Passports and Visas

Boy, we never dreamed that getting passports and visas would be so time consuming and expensive. We decided that we would begin to deal with these in advance and are we glad that we did.

In talking with one of our travel agents, we decided that on a trip to Washington DC to meet with a visa service company. First thing he asked was what countries are you traveling to and when are you going. The itinerary is very important because how countries deal with visas differ from country to country

• Some countries' visas are effective from date of issue. Others are effective from date of travel
• Effective time period of visas are limited - some as short as 30 days
• Some visas take 2-3 days to process while others take 2-3 weeks to process
• And all applications for visas require that you give up your passport for the period of time the visa is being processed
• Plus the number of photos you need vary according to country

The effective time period is important because depending on the length of your round the world trip, you could be gone on your trip before you can apply for your visa without it expiring before you visit the country and guess what - you need your passport to travel!

So this is what we have done so far. Met with Travel Document Systems only because they were recommended by our travel agent. Going there is not necessary, but was very helpful. You can find the information online, usually at visa service company websites or at the embassy website. Travel Document Systems provided us the following

• A list of the countries we are visiting which require visas
• Application forms for each of those countries
• Photos requirements for each
• Other information required for that country's application such as self addressed stamped envelope, your itinerary, copies of application. We are choosing to use FedEx where we have an account. Applying for an account is simple and saves on estimating and obtaining stamps. Also allows you to track the package once it leaves the consulate/embassy
• Number of days required to process application. Some countries will expedite application if you pay an extra fee. It was recommended we do this so that your passport is gone for as little time as possible to allow for processing of other visas
• Effective period of the visa
• Need for multi-entry visas (this is important when you are traveling in a region and will start and leave from one country)
• Fees associated with visa application for specific country

We learned that we should apply for a second passport. This allows us to use a passport while we travel and leave another in the U.S. to apply for visas in countries that have very limited effective time periods. The visa service can apply for the visa and send the visa to you. We have someone joining us later in the trip so they can bring the visas to us.

To apply for a second passport, you need the following. I am assuming you already have the first passport

• Complete Form #82 from the State Department. You can complete it online at http://travel.state.gov/passport/forms/ds82/ds82_843.html
• Write a letter explaining why you need a second passport.
• A copy of your itinerary from the airlines/travel agent
• An expired passport
• 2 passport pictures
• Check for $67 made out to the U.S. Department of State (fee as of 5/20/06)
• If you want to expedite the passport process, an additional $60 plus overnight delivery costs (both ways is strongly suggested). Multiple passport applications can be mailed together, but the return of passports must be separate mailings. Expediting still takes about two weeks to process according to their website. Otherwise, it takes about 6 weeks to process the application

Take all of this to a post office that processes passports - not all of them do as we quickly found out. You cannot do this through the mail. The post office must verify the application and you have to sign some paperwork. They will require you to show valid government id like your driver's license - can't use your expired passport. There will also be a fee for processing the passport at the post office if you can believe that. In total it cost us over $350 for two of us to get the second passport.

That being out of the way, we are now starting the visa process. We decided to process as many of the visas ourselves. We found that visa service companies charge anywhere from $45 to $75 per application per person. With 9 countries needing visas, that is very expensive. We'll let you know how it goes.

And So It Begins.....

As many of you know, Rick and Edith are embarking on a Round the World trip. As part of the experience, we are creating a blog to recount some of our adventures and forays. We will try to post something weekly, but of course that will be totally dependent on computer access. We are excited to see what will be available and what will transpire......

A great friend of ours, Carol, will also be on the entire trip with us. We have traveled with her in the past - trekking to Bhutan and Nepal, with a little side trip to Thailand. In fact, Carol was the inspiration for this journey. Her firm has a sabbatical policy where employees can take a 3 month sabbatical - how great is that!! So when her turn came up, we got a call about an earlier discussion on the round the world frequent flier reward. Well, guess what, it's happening!*!*!*!*!*!*



Over the next few months, we are going to record some of the preparations for the trip. Perhaps something for others as they prepare the same. Would love to hear what others have learned.

This blog and advance preparation is no brain spark - our godchild, Rachel, did the same thing when she and Dan, her husband, took their 14-month excursion in a camper on the back of their pickup truck. They cruised through Mexico, the U.S. and Canada. underagedrvers.blogspot.com - don't expect our photos to be anywhere as good as hers. In fact, we reserve the right to edit them upon return to photoshop access.

Just a little preview of our trip. As of now, we are going to 11 countries:

• Portugal
• Turkey
• Rwanda
• Kenya
• Tanzania
• South Africa
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
• Myanmar
• Laos
• Japan

Various friends will join us along the way. We are renting a house in Portugal and have chartered a gulet in Turkey to go around the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. We expect safaris in Kenya as well as seeing the silver back gorillas in Rwanda. Some lazy time will be had along the way with a few beach stops. Trekking and trains are expected in Southeast Asia. And the piece de resistance will be spending Christmas and New Year's with Edith's relatives in Japan. Please stay tuned as our adventure continues.