Creepy

The halls in my building are usually empty and quiet, so last week it was good to see someone else on my floor. I passed by a petite blond girl who was headed towards the garbage cans. Two days later as I was leaving, I noticed that this girl's door had been forced open and then newly repaired. In addition to that there was a notice from the Cook County Medical Examiner that sealed the door...

David St. Hubbins

The other day I was exiting Jane's building and opened the door for a man that I immediately recognized. Michael McKean, who has been in dozens of movies and shows and was on the SNL cast of 1994, is starring in a production called "Superior Donuts" at the Steppenwolf Theatre down the street.

International Travel without Basic English??

Technically, I am bilingual. And Spanish can be quite useful in the US and south thereof. Obviously it is always ideal to speak the local language while traveling and when I was making my way through Central America and Mexico, speaking Spanish made things much easier. As for across the pond, however, Spanish is going to be of very little use. Thankfully for me, English seems to be the universal go to language for international travelers. To communicate with people I have to depend on the sometimes very basic, but surprisingly common, English skills of the locals, as well as the recommendations of fellow travelers who do the same whatever their first language. The point being: I speak English. But what if I didn’t? How would I approach the prospect of going around the world?

Example: you’re from Sri Lanka, you speak absolutely no English, and you have the desire and the means to travel internationally. Awesome. But, without a basic knowledge of English, how will you manage? As it is, some countries around the world struggle to cater to the wealth of foreigners who speak English well. And forget the remote chance of meeting fellow countrymen as you go. Assume that no guidebooks have been published in your language, and consider that even if one is available, many things are going to become outdated in just a few years. Think about crucial information like transport details. How do you get to a foreign country and actually do what it takes to get around and make it worth it? You can try to get by on non-verbal communication, but this will be extremely challenging and many topics will prove too complicated. What if the one language you know isn’t even represented on the internet?

Surely traveling under these circumstances is possible- it would certainly make for a hell of an adventure. Maybe this whole idea underscores the importance of not only knowing a bit of English when going abroad, but more important, having the foresight and the respect of the country you’re visiting to learn a bit of the local language before heading out. I would love to talk to the incredibly resourceful guy who has actually done this, but I guess I'd have to find a way to communicate with him first.

Oh, How I Love Budget Accommodation, Let Me Count the Stains

Dirt Cheap (and not so) Hotel Rooms

When I arrived in Morocco I got the first taste of the kind of dumps I was going to experience during this trip. Thankfully, though, options since then have proven much better in every other country. In Morocco you can find a room for $5 if you want it and I definitely stayed in a few of these gems. There are no hostels, so it is harder to meet other travelers and rail the customs of the local culture. The rooms usually have sinks, but the showers and toilets/latrines are shared. The really funny thing about Morocco was that even when bathrooms facilities were shared, the rooms usually included a bidet in the corner. I’d like to talk to the guy that started that trend.

Spain had an abundance of hostels and these are almost always filled with young 20 somethings just out of school. The dorm rooms can sleep as many as 12 and each room shares a bathroom. If you look you can find locations with many conveniences like wi-fi, towels, meals and even in-house bars. Beds are much expensive than Morocco, though, with the currency change to Euros- $25 to $30.

In Greece the hostels were similar to Spain, if not a bit calmer. Wi-fi was nice to find and finding single beds instead of bunk beds was always a welcome surprise. They were more reasonable as well at $18-25.

The U.A.E. is where things changed a lot. I wasn't able to find any evidence of backpacker accommodation, or even a room for under $100 for that matter. Upon arrival in the airport, I found numerous help desks available for travelers looking to book a room, tour, ect. I mentioned the possibility of a $40-50 range room and the guy looked he was trying to keep from laughing. After speaking to some guys doing business in Dubai, I found out that these "help" desks are there to help those who are interested in the $300+ range. I ended up staying in 3* for $140 a night. Nice break from dirty rooms and dorms during the midpoint of the trip. There is one youth hostel on the edge of the city, but it was full of African merchants and proved to be a pretty rough place. In Dubai, because they house mostly foreigners, hotels were the place to party. I think my hotel had three disco techs, but I stayed on a high enough floor so that it wasn’t a problem for me.

Oman was much more reasonable than the U.A.E. I found a great place for something like $40 a night in Muscat right on the wharf next to the fish market. The huge yellow fin tuna were impressive and it was a great area.

India, unsurprisingly, was another really inexpensive place to find accommodation. Checking into my room in Mumbai was when I felt the tourniquet on the cash flow hemorrhage tighten. Like Morocco, India seemed totally void of hostels and dorm rooms. The rooms were about as cheap as the ones in Morocco, but a bit better on average. The most interesting thing here was that the bathrooms had no shower stall so that essentially the entire bathroom was the shower with the toilet and sink just kind of thrown in. Singles were uncommon and TVs seemed to be included no matter the region.

China has been great so far. There are loads of cheap hostels and single rooms are usually only around $10-12 when get you need a night to yourself. There are many backpackers here and the hostels always seem ready at the helm to take care of them. Incredibly, most places have their own tour operators, bars, and restaurants.

Final Leg

I've been in Beijing for 4 or 5 days now and have been really surprised how great it is here. I really needed some recovery time after being in India for almost a month and Beijing turned out to be a great place to find that. The people here seem to be so happy. They're incredibly friendly and very patient with the language barrier. Religion is not in your face constantly and it's not taboo to drink beer in public. Of course the food has been good also. Great duck. Yesterday I hiked along a 6 mile strch of an upper section of the Great Wall. Definitely one of the most amazing things I've ever done. Tonight I'm taking a train to Pingyao for a couple of days and then will continue on to Xian where the Terracotta Warriors stand. The train should be an experience in itself.

Homesick

I’ve been homesick for a number of days now and I can’t seem to shake it. India is an incredibly diverse country and different from the U.S. in almost every way imaginable and therefore has much to offer the visitor who is eager to stick around for a while and really soak it in. I am tired because what it has to offer is unrelenting on the senses almost every single moment. Unlike Morocco, India is not reserved about “bearing it’s soul”. I’m really glad that I came here for the experience, but it has really worn me down as a single traveler. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't come back on a shoestring budget. Moreover, I’ve been out of the U.S., off and on, for over 3 years now and I think after 3 and half weeks in India my cultural sensitivity is starting to wane. The most patience-draining things here include car horns and noise in general, ubiquitous filth and the ever confusing Indian head wobble- which can mean almost anything from yes to maybe to I don’t know. When I get a head wobble response to a very straight forward question I usually say, “so… yes?” Of course as an answer I will surely get another fun and entertaining head wobble equal to the first one.

I’m in the state of Punjab now witnessing the ways of the subculture of the Sikhs and going to see their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple. Next, I’m headed up to the home of the Dali Lama in Dharamsala. Should be a nice change of pace up in the foothills of the Himalayas. There’s no way I’ll make it to Tibet now with all the protests and police blockades, but hopefully the exile refuge of the Dali Lama will prove an interesting alternative. And it should definitely be a peaceful respite to the loud and relentless cities that I’ve known so far.

Tomorrow I’m taking a 3 hour train and then a 3 hour bus to Dharamsala. Turns out I’ll be able to stay there for 2 days. Then I’m taking a 16 hour train down to Corbett Tiger Reserve to get a glimpse of some nature/wildlife in India- which should be awesome.

The Dabawallahs

Everyday, these guys go to 200,000 suburban households and pick up hot meals prepared by mothers and wives and deliver them to office workers throughout Mumbai. With the grueling traffic and overflowing trains that most commuters face everyday, getting lunch delivered to your workspace from home has got to be a nice thing. The lunches are carried in cylindrical aluminum tins that stack on top of one another. And because many of the dabawallahs are illiterate, they use a sophisticated system of numbers and colors to indicate where the meal must be delivered. The really impressive aspect of their work is the level of efficiency that they attain. According to Forbes, only one tin in 6 million does not arrive safely to the correct son or husband.

Mumbai (Bombay)

In many ways Mumbai is a pretty typical metropolis- loud and filthy. With 17 million people is not small and being situated on an island (60% of which is reclaimed), it is very densely populated- something like 30,000 people per sq. km. Hundreds of refugees from the rural areas of the state come to Mumbai daily looking for a better life and it seems few find it. The level of poverty is mind-boggling. One third of the entire population lives on the streets and it is an incredible sight to behold. I, for one, have never seen so much poverty in one place. I saw some really sad things. It was jarring at first, but there is so much going on in the city as far as smells and noises and crazy traffic, that it is easy to divert your attention elsewhere and just keep walking. My second day I witnessed some unfortunate old guy get mowed over by a taxi in a busy street. People rushed in to help him, so I just turned around and tried not to let it affect me too much.

There isn’t much reason for a traveler to come here, but because this is where I entered the country, I hung out for a few days to get my bearings and arrange my train tickets before hitting the road again. There were a few fun things to see downtown, mostly stuff left over from the British Raj. The gothic architecture of the High Court and the University of Mumbai really stand out among the contemporary offices and apartments. And placed right in front of these two buildings is the Oval Maidan which is just a huge field where hundreds of Indians get together to play cricket everyday. It makes for a nice place to sit and hang out for a while.

Essentially what I took away from Mumbai was merely a set of general realizations about India- lots of people, lots of filth, and the fact that this was going to be a unique and really interesting experience.

From Mumbai I took the train east to the caves of Allora and then up to an isolated little town called Orchha. Since then I’ve been through Khajuraho and Varanasi. Before I leave on the 1^st of April, I’d like to get up to the Himalayan foothills and hopefully to a wildlife reserve to see a little Indian nature.

I was able to upload a few photos from India. Please feel free to check them out at: www.kodakgallery.com/douglegrand

Dubai

I feel as though I’ve been fairly tight lipped blog-wise during my trip up until now and while it’s not been for a lack of internet access or even inspiration, there are always a number of factors that can take priority, at the end of a day, over sitting down and logging an entry here and there. That said, as I am about to begin the second and most probably the more culturally interesting half of my journey through India (26 days) and China (31 days), I believe the real adventure has only just begun…
Upon arrival in Dubai, I was not at all sure what I should expect to find. With all the buzz about the insane levels of growth and development (the tax-free port being the fulcrum for the enormous expansion) I was really looking forward to seeing it for myself. An illustration of Dubai’s more ostentatious building plans can be seen in an email forward that has been circling around lately (www.sensiblyeclectic.com/news/index.php?/archives/6007-And-now-we-know-where-the-3gallon-goes....html). And amid the crazy accounts the BBC has broadcasted over the last year detailing the hard line, zero-tolerance policy of U.A.E. customs officials, I was a bit on edge about the over–the-counter meds I was carrying. Probably the most outlandish example being the case of a British national having a poppy seed muffin at London Heathrow just before his flight to Dubai and being detained for the possession of 3 poppy seeds that were found on his jacket. The man was convicted and sentenced to 4 years in prison. Moral of the story, be very aware of the laws and regulations of a country to which you’re traveling and how strictly they’re enforcing those laws.
After passing through airport security “undetected”, I went to my 3 star hotel as there are no budget accommodation options in Dubai other than the youth hostel and it was fully booked. It was a nice excuse to stay in a room with a TV and AC and not have to pop in the ‘ole earplugs when someone stumbles into the dorm room from the bar at 3 am. After walking around and getting my bearings I realized that I felt very relaxed, but very lucid at the same time. It was a good feeling.
Businesses in Dubai really cater to their clientele and by treating every visitor like a VIP, it seems people are much more likely to spend like a VIP. The shopping scene in Dubai, with its many modern malls and more traditional souks, is immense. Surprisingly, it is not oil that is fueling the economy so voraciously. Knowing that their reserves will not last forever, the oil in the country only accounts for 6% of GDP and by 2010, with the billions in foreign investment and massive economic boom, is proposed to be only 1%.
While I was there all I really did was walk around for a couple of days and soak in the atmosphere of the city. The massive creek makes for great place to kick back and enjoy the views. Walking down the beach to the west you’ll find the 7-star Burj al-Arab hotel. It is designed to resemble the sail of a traditional boat and is built on its own manmade island that juts into the surf. The Burj Dubai building is the really tall and slender skyscraper in the photos. It may already be the tallest building in the world, but as they are still constructing upward, no one really knows yet. They don’t want to challenge competitors with measurement numbers.
Without a fat bank account and a car, it’s difficult to experience everything in Dubai. With all the shopping, horse and camel races and the indoor ski mountain, you kind of feel like you’ve left without doing much when you’re on a tight budget. But being able to see the city first hand and get to know the culture of the UAE a little bit was definitely an awesome experience.

Coming Full Circle

After busing through the south of Morocco and spending a few days in Marrakech, which proved very taxing on the senses, I stopped to relax and do nothing for a day in the southern coastal town of Ouarzazate. This was a good place to walk around in the sea breeze and check out the old ramparts that surround the port. Scattered around the fortifications remained many of the old canons that dated back to the 18th century and were made in Madrid and Barcelona, although I'm not positive the Spanish occupied the area during that time. Best of all was the fresh-caught seafood at the docks. Being one of Morocco's biggest fishing ports, Ouarzazate has been able to attract a respectable amount of tourism with its' rows of fish-grilling shacks located right next to the dock. This stuff couldn't get any fresher as the men bring the early morning's catch straight from the nets to the big ice-filled trays that stand next to the grills and tables. If it hadn't been cleaned yet, it was still moving. You pick out your prey, negotiate a price and chow.
After recouping in Ouarzazate I decided that I needed a change of pace and culture. And while Morocco turned out to be a very interesting experience that I really did enjoy, I realized at that point I had an opportunity to spend more time in Spain than I expected. It seemed like the right move. I took a bus all the way up the Atlantic coast, through Casablanca, to Tangier. After making ferry arrangements I went to the port and crossed the Straight of Gibraltar the next morning.

Fes

Fes seemed to me to be the quintessential Moroccan city. While Marrakech attracts more tourism, Fes is the oldest imperial city and has always been the religious and cultural epicenter. Typical of the imperial cities, there three general areas of the city- the new town (French built), the Jewish quarter (Mullah) and the old town, or fortified medina. The medina is what makes Fes the authentic experience that it is. It's the largest living Islamic medieval city in the world. And while there is a certain amount of tourism, for the most part people live and work within the ancient city walls in much the same way as they have for centuries. For an outsider the medina is a huge labyrinth and at every turn the path ahead looks exactly the same. So you have to go into it planning on being lost and bewildered before you find your way out. The first day that I went, I focused on trying not to veer off the main alley, just to get a feeling for the whole scene. It's an onslaught on the senses. Sounds and smells and sights coming from all directions. Most people are working their daily lives; guiding donkey carts or doing their craft in their workshops. But everyone else is aggressively trying to get your attention. In the bazaars and souks, the shopkeepers want to sell you their wares (they always say, "Just to look, no to buy!") and the restaurants and cafes want you to sit and eat or at least take a cup of mint tea (commonly known as Moroccan whiskey).
Other than just walking around and checking things out, there are a number of sites to see within the medina walls. The Koranic universities, or medersas, are really interesting. Most were built during medieval times and the more ornate ones have very elaborate tile work and woodcarving. There are numerous mosques as well, although in Morocco non-believers are not welcome. While the religious sites are impressive, I enjoyed seeing the tanneries. Moroccans have been tanning leather in the same way for centuries and are known for a soft goat leather made for binding books.
The worst part of the medina experience, and indeed much of Morocco, are the faux or unofficial guides. Law enforcement has cracked down on this practice recently, but it is still very present. These hustlers are shameless in their pursuit of your obligatory "tip". They always pose as "students" or "friends" who are eager to show you whatever you want to see. And if you're not sure, they will happily provide numerous suggestions until something sounds interesting. The annoying part of these encounters is that they don't take no for an answer. You can politely decline their assistance and many times they will still follow you around trying to talk you into letting them guide you somewhere. At times, for the really persistent ones, it was easier to just tip them a few dirham to move on to someone else. I do feel for these guys, though, as they are just trying to get by. And while a third of Morocco's population is under fifteen and unemployment is soaring, getting by is becoming increasingly more difficult.
Hanging out in Fes is an experience to say the least. Its intensity makes it very difficult to sit idly by and observe Moroccan life. I doubt many tourists that are just passing through get a good grasp on the intricacies of the people. The culture does not seem to reveal it's soul easily, and with the combination of sensory overload and culture shock, it can be hard to see the Moroccan forest through it's trees.

Getting Started

I arrived in Casablanca just after midnight on the 5th of January and just after the airport train, that makes the 35 km trip into the city, had stopped running for the evening. Taking a cab to town, I got a room and began to sleep of the jetlag and reset my body clock. Casablanca holds very little for the visitor who has come looking to experience the traditional or cultural aspects of Morocco and has very few attractions. It is Morocco’s commercial center and seems very much like a large, modern European city.
I got out of town as soon as I felt rested and boarded a train to Meknes, one of the four imperial cities. In stark contrast to “Casa”, Meknes is a small and more relaxed city that continues to maintain a great deal of its colonial atmosphere. Most of the other travelers I’ve spoken with had not planned to include Meknes in their itineraries, preferring instead to go on to Fes. I had read, however, that Meknes could provide a more easy going introduction to the medina, and traditional Moroccan life in general, compared to the very lively and intense experience that can be found in Fes.
Volubilis is the primary reason I decided to stop and spend the night in Meknes. One of the Roman Empire’s farthest and most remote outposts, it is Morocco’s best preserved archaeological site. The Romans occupied this area just north of Meknes from about 40 to 280AD and in doing so, allowed Claudius to say he had penetrated the Atlas Mountains. The site’s points of interest include a capital, triumphant arch, baths and a basilica. It was also a key location for "The Last Temptation of Christ". What I appreciated most were the mosaics.
To Moroccans Meknes is known for one figure more than any other. The Sultan Moulay Ismail ruled from 1672 to 1727 and Meknes was the location of his imperial complex. A direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, a pedigree that the current monarchy shares, he ruled in this period that was to be Morocco’s last golden age. Building Morocco’s strongest ever army, Moulay Ismail began a military campaign that would eventually bring all of present-day Morocco under his control by pushing back the Berber tribes to the south and relieving the British and Spanish of their territories in the north. It is the building achievements of Moulay Ismail that are of interest in this small imperial city. His architectural achievements include the cities’ palaces, gardens, and stables located below the winding medina. And his palace quarters are introduced by the country’s grandest gateway, Bab el- Mansour, which is framed by huge marble columns plundered from Volubilis.
From Meknes I took a bus about an hour east to Fes…

I should have my pictures online in 24 hours at www.kodakgallery.com/douglegrand