Common Sense and Whiskey

Happy 2009

Here's how they brought in 2008 in Hong Kong. Happy 2009, from Common Sense and Whiskey and EarthPhotos.com!

(Photo from the China Gallery on EarthPhotos.com.)

Most Corrupt Border Crossing in Europe?

Misha Glenny, once central European correspondent for The Guardian and later a correspondent for the BBC, and author of The Balkans and The Fall of Yugoslavia, writes in his most recent book McMafia, that in the 1970's, "some eighty per cent of heroin destined for the western European market would cross into Bulgaria from Turkey at the Kapetan Andreevo border point and into the hands of the DS," Bulgaria's KGB. In return, Kaptegon, an indigenous Bulgarian amphetamine, flowed toward the Middle East.

How much has changed in thirty years? Take a look at a list of today's headlines from the web site Visit to Bulgaria:

- 8,3 kg heroin discovered in truck at Kapitan Andreevo Border checkpoint
- Heroin for over 7M leva seized at Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint
- EUR 200,000 detained at the border checkpoint Kapitan Andreevo
- 81kg of Heroin Seized at Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint
- Amphetamines caught at border with Turkey
- Bulgaria Government Allocates BGN 120 M for Highway Construction
- 40-50 times more Turkish trucks pass through Bulgaria than Bulgarian trucks through Turkey
- 20kg of heroin seized at Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint
- EUR 50,000 Seized At Bulgarian Border Check Point
- Bulgaria Border Police Captures Illegal Immigrants from Iraq, Palestine
- 2714 smuggling textile articles seized at Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint
- 2 Romanians Arrested at Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint in Attempt of Smuggling 1,300 Perfumes
- Five men arrested at Bulgarian border points for attempted people trafficking
- Alleged Drug Smuggler Case Continues after 15-hour First Hearing in Bulgaria
- 38,400 Ephedrine Pills Seized at Bulgarian Border
- 60 Kilos of Heroin Seized at Bulgarian Border
- Where to pass Bulgarian borders

(Photo is a screen grab from Wikimapia.org.)

See more photos in the Bulgaria Gallery and Turkey Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

New "Most Popular" Photo

There's a newly voted Most Popular photo on EarthPhotos.com. It's a skyline view of Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar. You'll see a photo similar to this in most guidebooks - because it's shot from where your guidebook author probably spent some time - the Hotel Carlton - formerly the Hilton Madagascar hotel.

Every visitor can rate every photo on EarthPhotos.com by mousing over the main photo on the page, which brings up "thumbs up" and "thumbs down" icons.

See more in EarthPhotos.com's Madagascar Gallery, view the most popular page, or browse photos from 92 countries via the EarthPhotos.com Countries page.

Save a Smile for Thailand

Amid continuing protests - from one side or the other - Thailand closes out a turbulent year with the government of new Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva chased from the Parliament to the Foreign Ministry to give his new government's policy speech yesterday.

Meanwhile the low grade insurgency grinds on in the south, where more than 3400 people have been killed since 2004.

Looks like the Thai people could use a hug. Or at least a smile.

This photo accompanies a story in the International Herald Tribune headlined "To lift motorists, smiley masks for Thai police."

(Photo credit: Sarot Meksophawannakul/Bangkok Post)

See more photos from Thailand in EarthPhotos.com's Thailand Gallery.

Bratislava Leaves Its Crown Behind. Bring Euros.

A mere 50-something minute train ride across the Danube from Vienna, Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia is billing itself as "Partyslava" for New Years Eve on its official tourism site. They say about a hundred thousand people filled the old squares last year, with one of every five a foreigner.

If you're heading to Bratislava for this year's New Years Eve Celebration, carry Euros. Slovakia trades in its old Crowns for shiny new Euros and joins the Euro zone this week, five years after joining the European Union.

This photo, from EarthPhotos.com, looks up from the narrow old town streets to the Bratislava Castle, high on a hill over town, and now home to the Slovak Parliament.

See more photos in EarthPhotos.com's new Slovakia Gallery.

Cruising Toward Asuncion

From the eventual book, Common Sense and Whiskey:

Walter warned that we might lose our film if we took pictures of the border, but eating chicken interested the border police much more than we did. There was an advantage to traveling on the New Years Day holiday. We were the only people trying to get in and Walter was ecstatic, because it usually can take an hour or two there, but this only took about three minutes.

Disappointing, predictable Cuidad del Este, Paraguay’s East City, squatted in the sun, poor and dusty and ramshackle, low buildings crumbling in lumps along the highway, traffic lights out and money changers in leather money belts glowering on the side of the road. Walter stopped, didn’t like the rate, then did a deal at the Esso for fifty Argentina pesos worth of Guarani.

Walter was a big man. He had to open the Peugeot’s door and stick his leg out to get the money in his pocket. I thought it was unlikely he could spend that much today unless it was for gas.

In Cuidad del Este you long to be out in the country again. A John Deere heavy equipment store, red dirt, no landscape and litter. You’d think there was a competition to see how foul they could make the roadside. Men with guns sat on stools. On the other side of town they’d torn up the road and didn’t appear to be planning to fix it.

Violence Against Foreigners in China?

Nowadays, reports of resurgent Russian nationalism are old news. At the risk of hurting the feelings of the Chinese people, it appears that violence against foreigners in China may be on the rise as well.

We'll be in China in the summertime. As recently as fifteen or so years ago, you pretty much had to enter and exit via Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. This time, we'll enter, via Incheon, at the provincial capital of Chengdu, travel to Xinjiang in the northwest and exit over the Torugart Pass, to Kyrgyzstan.

In seven previous visits, we've never felt threatened because of our "foreign-ness" in any way. To the contrary, particularly in rural areas, our "foreign-ness" is as often as not the cause of amusement, interest and sometimes everybody stands together and poses for a round of photos.

Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province in China's southwest. You might stop through on your way to tourist sites like the newly branded "Shangri-La," Dali and Lake Erhai, Leaping Tiger Gorge and the fabulous rice terraces near Yuanyang.

We thought of Kunming, China's "Spring City," as a little like the city we lived in for years, Atlanta - that is, a provincial capital where you can get anything done a traveler might need, one with some cultural attractions, plenty of dining and diversions, safe, easy to spend a little time in, and, compared to China's mega-cities, maybe just the least bit dull.

Then came the bus bombings in Kunming last July, which killed three. Now comes this post on the blog Lost Laowai, about violence against foreigners in Kunming.

(Photo of Kunming from the China Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. See lots more photos from all over China there.)

Revisiting the Mid-air Collision over Brazil

Just to briefly recap the subject of a post last week, in September, 2006, a U.S. air charter company called ExcelAire was to take delivery of a brand new Legacy 600 business jet, bought from Brazil's Embraer. The delivery from Brazil to the U.S. would be carried out via an overnight stop in Manaus, in the Amazon jungle.

Out over the jungle, the Legacy clipped a wing of Brazilian budget carrier Gol's flight 1907, which plunged to the jungle floor, killing all 154 on board. The Legacy, meanwhile, struggled to land at a military airfield. The Legacy's American pilots were detained and eventually allowed back to the U.S. They will face trail in Brazil sometime in 2009.

Controversy swirling around the incident is substantial. The NTSB issued a report. Brazil's Aviation Authority CENIPA has its own report. And most recently, author William Langewiesche has written a lengthy article about the crash in the latest Vanity Fair magazine.

Joe Sharkey was aboard the Legacy jet. His biography, on his website, reads in part, "Joe Sharkey writes for major national and international publications. He has been a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal and a columnist for the New York Times. On Sept. 29, 2006, he was one of seven people on a business jet who survived a mid-air collision with a 737 over the Amazon."

Sharkey, writing on his blog High Anxiety, calls Langewiesche's article "a fatuous description" and "journalistically disgraceful." He promises more comment later and we're watching for that.

We obviously can't know what really happened in the skies over Brazil. Both Langewiesche, through his research, and Sharkey, through his experience, know far more than the rest of us who weren't there. But just a word about Langewiesche: CS&W wrote back in July that a then current Vanity Fair article by Langewiesche (about China in the run up to the Olympics) was "petty, sarcastic and, well, mean."

We pointed out in that post that the early Langewiesche wrote with tremendous grace. His 1997 Sahara Unveiled, for example, a story about his trek across the desert, astounded me at the time for its ability to paint continuously fresh, new portraits, page after page, of a landscape that must not have changed that much day after day.

Sort of recalls the difference between Robert Kaplan then and now. Kaplan's earlier Balkan Ghosts (his third book, first published in 1993) was a fascinating primer on the region, earnestly and honestly reported.  By contrast, in a recent post at the Atlantic magazine, Kaplan shared this gem of a prediction: "Burma may be edging towards a transition away from its aging, implacable dictator, Than Shwe."

On the other hand, it may not.

Safe to say, I think, that neither man writes with the exuberance, wonder and maybe just that little bit of naivety they used to.

When Sharkey has more to say about the 2006 mid-air collision, we'll link to it.

Specialty Travel Planning Forecasts & Lists

Climb an active volcano? Chase a cyclone? Photograph the northern lights? All you need to pick your destination is right here.

Night Sky Photography

The Alaska Climate Research Center (webcam here - expect dark) of the Geophysics Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers a handy resource for this time of year, an aurora forecast customizable for where you live (or plan to visit).

(Photo at right from the aurora forecaster).

While we're in the sky, try Space Weather, Earth & Sky Tonight and a page of several sets of data, like eclipses and transits of Venus and Mercury, from the U.S. Navy.

Specialty Lists Back on Earth

Not a forecast, exactly, but the U.S.G.S. keeps an extensive list of the latest earthquakes in the world. The Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii keeps track of tropical cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons at Tropical Storms Worldwide. The University of Wisconsin - Madison keeps track of the world's most active volcanoes on Volcano Watch, updated every half hour, with photos.

Still deciding on a destination? World Climate will give you basic information by city name. Weatherbase claims weather records and averages from 16,439 cities worldwide. And before you take off, check the Global Incident Map, which tracks global acts of terrorism and other suspicious events.

Finally, for gorgeous satellite photography from all over the planet, see NOAA's Ocean Explorer Galleries, and it's hard to beat NASA's Earth Observatory and its photography archives.

Samuel Huntington, 1927 - 2008

News of Samuel Huntington's death on Christmas Eve on Martha's Vineyard came just today, but that news has already brought forth what is, to me, a remarkable amount of "good riddance" comments on The New York Times website.

For me at least, Harvard professor Huntington's 1996 Clash of Civilizations, breaking the world into a different framework based on its ancient civilizations rather than on nation states, offered a wider, alternative way of framing the world we're living in now, a decade on.

Friday Photo Quiz #8

Can you name this capital city from this photo of its skyline? When we first visited, ten years ago, we wrote:

"By the end of a business day, starting about knee high, _________ is light blue. Knee high because that’s the level of automobile exhaust pipes. From there the haze extends with a vengeance through breathing-level and dissipates somewhere at the tops of the buildings.

In the dusk we couldn’t be sure but _________ didn’t seem so big - either the lights of the city didn’t extend to the horizon, or pollution winked them out."

Take a guess and see the answer after the jump.

World Air Traffic Simulation

 
Another one of those world flight simulations from the Zurich School of Engineering. This one shows world air traffic activity over a 24 hour day. See it in Quicktime or Windows Media.

Economic Gloom, Doom and Bad Weather. Ah, But It Could Be Much, Much Worse.

Today's weather forecast for Yakutsk, Siberia.

(Screen grab from Weather.com)

For photos from Russia, see the Russia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

On Bargaining

In buying a carved boxwood mask at the Marrakech souk, I followed what I’ve come to understand are the established bargaining rules: Offer about half of what you’re willing to settle for and the vendor will offer roughly twice his final price.

In between is the art of the bargain - the elaborate feints and changes of the subject, the mock woundedness of the proprietor’s pride at the offensively low offer, the mock sheer impossibility that I could ever pay the first price. The diversionary inspection of some other item, the several threats to leave.

In this case we even went down the street together to another shop as a diversionary tactic so that we could each establish closer positions when we returned to our negotiation.

As it was, it came out about right: I opened at 500 dirhams, he at 2000 and I left with the mask for 1050. Okay, so he won the important psychological contest, but it was only fifty cents, and I like to think it was more important to him than it was to me.

- From the eventual book Common Sense and Whiskey, by Bill Murray.

(Photo from the EarthPhotos.com Morocco Gallery.)

Dutch Man Fulfills Dream of Water Skiing Across St Mark's Square

So says the headline in the Times of London.

Italy's had a bit of a rough time with the weather. A week ago a tourist was swept to his death after he fell into the rain-swollen Tiber River in Rome. A boy was buried by snow in the northern province of Sondrio. Islands off the coast of Sicily have become inaccessible in heavy rain.

Three weeks ago, wind and rain barrelling up the Adriatic Sea caused the deepest flood in Venice in 22 years, and the fourth worst since 1872.

Again from the Times of London: "the water rose to just over 5ft above sea level, the highest acqua alta since the 5ft 2in (1.6m) of 1986. The tide monitoring centre gave warning that the levels could yet reach a 30-year high.The water reached 6ft 4in above sea level in 1966, causing devastation to homes, shops and historic monuments and artworks."

At first, Massimo Cacciari, the Mayor of Venice, advised tourists “Anyone thinking of coming should think again.” Soon enough, though, Venetian hoteliers were offering "flood discounts" - and ""free use of rubber boots to walk during the high water."

There is great photo coverage of the Venice floods on Boston.com.

(This photo from the EarthPhotos.com Italy Gallery.)

July 2009: Delta Air Lines to Six Continents

The announcement by Delta Air Lines of new service to Sydney means that, from July 2009,  Delta will be "the first US carrier to operate service to all continents for the first time since the demise of PanAm," points out  Airline Route Updates.

Moscow at Night

There's an enjoyable, extensive set of photos of Moscow at night on English Russia by photographer Chistroprudov Dimitri, who also keeps an online journal.

Again in 2008, Moscow topped the list of the world's most expensive cities - for the third year in a row. A cup of coffee in a cafe, the BBC says, costs $10.40. The cheapest city on the list, incidentally, was Asuncion, Paraguay, which is a story for another time.

This photo, of the iconic St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, is from the Russia Gallery on EarthPhotos.com.

Langewiesche on the Mid-air Collision over Brazil

It's been out there for at least a couple of weeks, but I've just discovered William Langewiesche's lengthy article about the mid-air collision between an executive jet and a 737 over the Amazon rainforest that killed over 150 in September, 2006. It's in the January Vanity Fair.

Let's all read it then meet back here. You might also consider another pilot's view on the Cranky Flier.

Macau Milestone

Nine years ago yesterday Portugal transferred sovereignty of Macau to China, Following the British handover of Hong Kong by a little over two years.

Under "one country, two systems" Macau maintains its own legal system, police force, monetary system, customs policy, immigration policy, and delegates to international organisations and events until 2049.

And casinos. Macau maintains lots and lots of casinos - 28 in fact. It's the only place in China where casinos are legal. Games include blackjack, baccarat, roulette, boule, sic bo, fan-tan, keno and slot machines (Extra credit if you have any idea what sic bo is). The world's biggest casino, the Venetian, is there. And there's horse racing, greyhound racing, betting on sporting events and lotteries.

Gaming revenue is forecast at $14 billion this year, a gain by nearly a third on 2007, despite the recent economic troubles.

(Photo of Macau skyline from the China Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Friday Photo Quiz #7

A woman draws water from a roadside well in the arid countryside of this mostly rural, mountainous land. The road leads directly to the capital city. Can you name the city? The country?

The answer after the jump.

And a good weekend to you from Common Sense and Whiskey and EarthPhotos.com.