Common Sense and Whiskey

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Burma, Chapter Six

Here is Chapter Six of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We'll publish each chapter over the course of the summer (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book direct from EarthPhotos Publishing, or at Amazon.com. Photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Burma Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

Aye Chan Zin, a 22 year old competitive bicycle racer, once raced from Rangoon to Mandalay and back. He fell and lost both incisors to gold teeth.

"Road very bad out there," he grinned, goldly.

Aye Chan ("EEE-Chan,") was a kid of relative privilege, a third-year vet school student with parents with government jobs. His dad was Chinese, a doctor working in Burma on a leprosy project. His mom was a philosophy teacher at Yangon University. A family album he kept in the car was chock full of smiling brothers and sisters.

He had his Dad’s tan Toyota with tinted windows. We hired him as our driver, and on Tuesday the seventh of February or, as The New Light of Myanmar newspaper called it, the eighth waxing of Tabodwe, 1356 ME, we set out for a drive into the country.

First on Chan’s tour of Rangoon hotspots, “That's military headquarters.”

Did the leadership live there?

"Not live just work."

There was the parliament building far across a lawn. It was not possible to visit the parliament building. You can tour the White House, the Kremlin, the Great Hall of the People, but not the Myanmar parliament. Up next came Myanmar Television and Radio, and then, "ice factory."

Guides have their peculiarities. A man we once hired in Beijing forever wanted to try out his English.

"That is tree. Tree?" Zhong from Beijing would ask.

Here in Burma, Chan was factory infatuated. Before the end of the day we saw: ice factory, milk factory, brick factory ("you want to take picture?"), rice factory and garment factory.

Friday Photo Quiz #122: Where in the World?

The view from an observation tower high above this country's largest city, though not its political capital. Can you name the country? The city? The answer is below the fold.

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

Humanitarian Aid to Somalia

How in the world do you explain this?

Maximizing Your International Travel Dollar

This post bears repeating, because it's a couple of years old so new readers of CS&W probably haven't seen it, it's still as true as ever, and because travel dollars are dearer than ever.

As we wrote in Don't Let "Experts" Tell You Where to Go This Summer,

There are 192 U.N. member states. Kosovo, Taiwan and Vatican City aren’t U.N. members, so add them. Add South Sudan, to be born as the world’s newest country on 9 July. That’s 196 countries, and there are dozens and dozens of territories (Greenland is Danish, Tahiti is French, Aruba is Dutch and so on) and odd bits and specks of land all over the globe. There are plenty of places to choose from....

Keep an open mind. Do your online research. Pick a spot and just go. Buy a ticket, get on the plane, and go see what it’s like. Our world is a great big, sprawling pageant of color and chaos and diversity, and you should go out there and see it."

But use your travel dollars wisely. Now, a reprise from 2009:

•••••

Our mailbox is laden with expensive glossy catalogs from high end travel providers. Mountain Travel Sobek, “Celebrating 40 Years of Adventure Travel,” sends a very nicely done 204 page 2009 catalog offering, for a couple of examples:

12 days in Namibia for $7795 per person, starting and ending in Windhoek, including internal airfare and the company of others (price offered is for four or five people). Including Clara and Herb from Cleveland, your close proximity partners for nearly two weeks of Land Rover trips and box lunches, whom you’ll meet on arrival, this epic journey departs from Windhoek twice each year, on Mountain Travel Sobek’s schedule.

Or how about 13 nights in the Republic of Georgia from $3695 (again, not just you, but from 4 – 12 people)? This one starts in Tibilisi, twice a year, again on Mountain Travel Sobek’s schedule.

Not to fault Mountain Travel Sobek. This is what they do. You’ve seen the Perillo Tours ads for travel to Italy? Same thing. You’re buying it? They’re selling it.

So don’t buy it. Do your research and hire local people. They not only have local knowledge, but they’re also often quoting in local money, and the money you spend with them stays local.

My wife Mirja and I flew into Windhoek, for example, by ourselves, and spent a bare fraction of that group price. And it was simple:

Who in the world knows anything about Abkhazia?

Quick, where is it?

No, it's not a mythical land like Phaic Tan or Molvania. Abkhazia is a silver of Georgia along the Black Sea, bordering Russia. I have a soft spot for these little forgotten slivers of land, although now that Kosovo has gotten some international recognition, I can't think of any others besides Trans-Dnestria, which lies between Romania and Moldova (Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan don't count, since neither makes pretensions to independence). Here's that story you missed about Abkhazia.

Friday Photo Quiz #121: Where in the World?

 

This is the main waterway in the huge capital of a country which has recently elected its first female Prime Minister.

Can you name the city? The country? The answer is below.

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

Guatemala Shoeshine - Wednesday HDR

This week's photo is from a May, 2010 visit to Guatemala. This shoe shine man sits on the main square in Antigua, Guatemala. Click the photo for a much bigger version.

We intended a peaceful weekend at Lake Atitlan, but a few hours after our arrival Volcan Pacaya erupted, closing the airport, then we were hit by tropical storm Agatha and had to flee first Lake Atitlan then Guatemala, where the airport remained closed, for a ride home from El Salvador.

Here's what happened: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. There are photos of the experience in the Guatemala Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

And here are three hundred-odd photos in the HDR Gallery.

"had no idea what they stole"

Having traveled this route, I'd have to say this is mildly alarming.

Romanian train platform.

Have You EVer Flown One of These Airlines?

Don't.

Here is the banned-airlines list maintained by the European Union to identify airlines that have severe problems. Looks like we've only had the pleasure of flying one - Air Madagascar - winningly known as Mad Air, back in 1995. The list is pertinent (thanks to JoeSharkey.com) because of the recent crash of an airline on the list outside Kisangani, Congo.

Our flight was from Mauritius to Antananarivo, Madagascar's capital, back in 1995. Best I remember, it was just fine. It was a big ol' 747 which, lore had it, was in service except when the President's wife took it to Paris to go shopping.

There's a chapter on Madagascar in my new book, and we'll have that chapter here on the blog later this summer. For now, check out these photos from Madagascar on the Common Sense and Whiskey Companion, and these on EarthPhotos.com.

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - The Trans-Siberian Railroad, Chapter Five

 

Here is Chapter Five of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We'll publish each chapter over the course of the summer (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book direct from EarthPhotos Publishing, or at Amazon.com. Photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Russia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

5 THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY

If you don't speak Russian and if you decode Cyrillic gingerly, one letter at a time, it’s not completely effortless to come up with bottled water in Ekaterinburg, but it is possible, and I bought six litres.

The kiosk, alongside a tram stop, was just big enough to be a walk-in affair, not big enough for four, let alone our steamy tensome.  The boys in front  argued over what beer and candy to order one each of. I motioned for six bottles way up high on a shelf  and all kinds of consternation rippled through the mottled impatience behind me.

In a few hours Mirja and I would be climbing aboard the Trans-Siberian railroad to Ulan Bataar, Mongolia.  We’d be a week en route, so we needed all kinds of stuff.

As soon as I had all those bottles, though, I calculated we could get everything else at the train station.  Six litres of water is heavy.

Today was Labor Day in the U.S. On the edge of Siberia, autumn held full sway. E-kat's denizens plodded by cold and damp in an insistent, heavy shower. A lot of the older folks wore long coats. All day the rain beset.

•••••

Every account of coming upon the Ural mountains speaks of disappointment, and for good reason. The dividing line between Europe and Asia is just hills, really, and Ekaterinburg nestles just beyond their eastern slopes.

The Atrium Palace Hotel Ekaterinburg looked so nice on the internet that we mused back home that it had to be either German or mafia owned. Well, it wasn’t German. It was E-kat’s only “5-star,” with glass elevators and snuggly, fluffy Scandinavian bedding and BBC World on TV.

Still, it had its Russian characteristics: There was the hourly rate, Rule #2: “If you stay for less than six hours, you are charged for twelve hour accommodation.” And Rule #7: “The guests who troubled a lot before can not be allowed to stay at the hotel.” Hard to know if the guys in track suits grouped around the lobby drinking coffee were part of the problem or there to enforce the solution.

Atlanta Radio Interview This Morning

 

Thanks very much to Steve Goss and WABE, the Atlanta NPR affiliate, for this morning's interview about travel, and Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. They've posted the interview to their features page (listen here) and at One on One with Steve Goss. 

Buy Neptune a Beer Day

Today, "The planet Neptune completes its first full orbit since its discovery on Sept. 23, 1846. Neptune, which was discovered when astronomers calculated that the anomalies in the other planets’ orbits must be caused by a then-unknown eighth planet, takes more than 164 years to circle the sun," says Samuel Arbeson.

Sweden: Sort of Like an Ax in the Head

Mentioned Sweden on Common Sense and Whiskey the other day. Here's an article from last month called When Sweden Rules the World, which might be worth your time.

It calls this Baltic-Scandinavian-Nordic land

"... this anomalous, oblong nation of 9 million, wedged as comfortably as an axe into Europe’s forehead."

But it's a really positive look at the Swedish character. Really.

Photo is the harbor and Strandvagen, downtown Stockholm, from EarthPhotos.com.

Hands

Reworked HDR photo from several years back. This lady is from a hill tribe near Sa Pa, Vietnam, up by the border with China. We met her outside her village. Click the photo to make it much bigger. More from Vietnam.

South Sudan Born Today

It's fun to have a new country in the world. It just somehow seems like progress.

Despite all the challenges ahead, welcome, Republic of South Sudan, to the community of nations as of today, your new Independence Day.

Want to be the first intrepid traveler you know to visit? Here are a few (there are only a few) travel planning resources, including the very few airlines and hotels and two articles (1, 2) about plans for future South Sudan safaris.

Friday Photo Quiz #120: Where in the World?

A maritime nation of nine million, here is this country's largest city and capital. Can you name the city? The country? The answer is below.

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

Hoi An, Vietnam Morning Market - Wednesday HDR

Colorful, and one of the top 100 most popular on EarthPhotos.com, this is from the morning market at Hoi An, Vietnam. Click it for the full treatment.

Ten Top Adventure Travel Books

See what you think of my list of ten top adventure travel books on Amazon.

Common Sense and Whiskey, the Book - Bhutan, Chapter Four

Here is Chapter Four of Common Sense and Whiskey, the book. We'll publish each chapter over the course of the summer (Track down previous chapters here). You can order the entire book direct from EarthPhotos Publishing, or at Amazon.com. Photos and additional commentary are available at A Common Sense and Whiskey Companion. And here's the Bhutan Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.

4 BHUTAN

Only about thirty of us were flying to Bhutan, so the back of the plane held cargo: a couple of computers strapped to the seats, a boom box, a crock pot, several unmarked boxes, a quilt. And in the back seat a flight attendant drank in sleep - I mean, she snored. She, Mirja and one more were the only women.

The river Brahmaputra wound out toward the Ganges near Dhaka. Sunlight glinted and skipped across tens of thousands of acres of flooded rice paddies, miles and miles north of the Bay of Bengal. Sometimes the clouds lifted over northern Burma and Bangladesh.

Four hundred miles north of Rangoon a bend in the river ate half a town. It was July 4th. Americans celebrated independence while South Asia grappled with the monsoon.

When time came to drop through the clouds into Bhutan, the pilot announced, "We will maneuver the aircraft in the valley. This is a little different from large commercial aircraft. It is standard procedure. You will see the houses and trees a little closer than you are used to. The scenery is beautiful. Please enjoy the ride."

He just picked a hole in the clouds and dove through. He did a 180 into the Paro valley. The automatic sensors called out, "too low," and for the record he kept repeating, "acknowledge, override," into the cockpit recorder.

This was George, bluff, barrel-chested, a real dude with a wide gray mustache, and one of just fourteen people ever to fly for Royal Bhutan Airlines, aka Druk Air. We said we'd buy him a beer if we saw him in town and he told us he'd drink it.

The only airport in Bhutan is in Paro, an old west one-horse town spread three hundred feet, and no more, across the valley floor, hardly movin' in the midday sun. Uniformed Indian soldiers lolled about drinking "Thums Up" brand cola.

•••••

Phruba and Jigme, our guide and driver for the week, gathered us up for the trip to Thimpu, the capital and main city. Irrigated rice grew just about before your eyes, and every river was a tumult.

We crept and powered around corners (all week) in a Toyota Yokohama van. Jigme and Phruba both wore traditional skirt-like wraps called ghos, a lot like Burmese longyis (chapter six). Phruba’s legs stuck out below the knee. All week long he sat in the passenger seat, the picture of Buddhism, calm, legs hairy and hands clasped.

Tall and 28, he used to play basketball with the young King.

"We would stay outside and pick teams," Phruba told us. "When he was in a good mood the King would invite us in to play. When he was in a bad mood he would play with his bodyguards. He is very good at the three point shot."

Being taller than the King sets up a sensitive question: Does one shoot over the King’s head? Yes. The King's bodyguards are some of the biggest men in the country, Phruba said, so he reckoned the King was used to it.

•••••

"Phruba, is the King married?" Mirja wanted to know.

"Yes, he has four Queens" Phruba replied, and seeing an eyebrow cock, he tried to put that right by adding what must have seemed the obvious: "But they are all sisters."

Three Quick Tools to Help Decide on Your Next Travel Destination

If you've read Common Sense and Whiskey - the book, you've read these quotes:

Robert Louis Stevenson: “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”

Colin Thubron said just about the same thing: “You go because you are still young and crave excitement, the crunch of your boots in the dust; you go because you are old and need to understand something before it’s too late. You go to see what will happen.”

I think they’re both right. You just pick a spot and go.

Here are a couple of tools I use to start the process of deciding where to go:

I like Hipmunk for initial checks of air routes, because it's quick, streamlined and easy. (For air route  junkies, there's also AirlineRoute.net.) For example, you don't have to click a button to tell Hipmunk if your flight is one way or round trip. If you don't enter a return date, it figures it out. Smart. Here's my review.

If you search for "(your destination) airport," there's usually a Wikipedia result that will tell you the flights to and from a place. Here's an example of what you can learn from Wikipedia about who flies where from Ashgabat airport.

TripAdvisor. It makes me crazy that they try to keep you on their site and don't link to the hotels they describe. That's nuts. But they've got reviews of hotels in some pretty obscure places.

And check the travel planning resources in the sidebar here on CS&W.