TRAVEL SURPRISES

We recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong and China and, as always, our travels were sprinkled with surprises. In addition to exploring the Great Wall, enjoying a delicious variety of regional food, marveling at the Terra Cotta Soldiers, Tianenmen Square, the Summer Palace, the Li and Yangtze rivers, and all the natural and architectural and historic sites, we constantly encountered the unexpected.

HALLOWEEN Trick or Treat...In both Hong Kong and China, 

we found evidence of Halloween celebrations. 

A street market in Hong Kong offered scary pastries and 

vendors in costume. When we arrived at our hotel in Xi'an, China, 

it was Halloween night. Costumed staff greeted us 

with light-up skull pins left over from a celebration. 

Uniforms, backpacks, phones and vigilant teachers.

FIELD TRIPS  are the same everywhere in the world, it seems. Our first day in Beijing, we visited Tianenman Square and found ourselves touring behind a school field trip. The students' bright blue uniforms made them easy to spot. Ten-year-old chatter and antics are universal!

Muslim Quarter Market

GULLIN LADIES

Outside Gullin, we visited a 350-year-old

house where two widowed sisters-in-law 

lived. Their children had built them a

new home, but they preferred to live

here, in what was originally a general's

home. They proudly showed us their

possessions, including a coffin!

ANOTHER XI'AN SURPRISE
Our second day in Xian we visited the

Muslim Quarter of that city, which is on the eastern edge of the Silk Road. We learned that there has been a sizable Muslim population in that region for over 1000 years, a result of the Silk Road trade route.

Widow proudly displays her coffin made by a son.

THREE GORGES DAM
Wherever we went, people wanted their photo taken with our group's redhead or with our tallest white-haired Gweilo. At the Three Gorges Dam park, several "redheads" got in the act.

At the Three Gorges Dam, a group shot of redheads!

                          Shanghai Book Store's Children's Book Section

               SHANGHAI DOUBLE SURPRISE

Like a giant Barnes and Noble, the Shanghai
Book Store is seven stories of every
imaginable book genre, plus games
and puzzles, stationery and cards, and, of
course, a Starbucks. While we sipped our
latte and herbal tea, we enjoyed Christmas
music. So there we were in Shanghai listening to
Feliz Navidad. Surprise!

We had trouble finding the store and
stopped at a police station for help.
No one there spoke English but we
were able to convey what we were looking for
and a police woman walked us to the corner
and pointed down the street. Surprise!

TRAVEL SIGNS

A friend of mine recently returned from a trip to England and was sharing some photos from the trip. Many of them were signs she'd seen along the way, and we teased her about her choice of significant photo ops.

I've rethought that. After my trip to the Outer Banks to launch WHISPER ISLAND, I looked over my photos and found that I'd captured several pics of signs that had caught my attention. They all seem to capture the spirit and ambience of the place where I shot them.

Ocracoke is a small island, but the main road gets lots of traffic.
This sign reminds folks to be extra careful as they pass through.

Lunch at water's edge at the Jolly Roger in Ocracoke was fun--until the storm set in. Maybe the pirate on the sign knew something that we didn't.

In case you didn't get the message, this gull made sure you kept your casting low.

Parents at the Gulf Coast Cafe get fair warning to mind their kids.

This sign by the front door of our little cottage-by-the-ocean says it all!

Serendipity

I've always a great respect for the phenomenon of serendipity. When things happen in a coincidental way, connecting two things or ideas, it's mystical to me.

Recently on a trip to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, Peter and I drove to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. We'd wanted to see that lake and its gorgeous turquoise waters. We'd heard that the beach was beautiful.

The Shipwreck Museum there is devoted to the history of the many wrecks that occur along that stretch of coast, the most famous being the Edmund Fitzgerald. It was interesting to see the bits (some of the giant bits) and pieces of ships that didn't make it to their destination. After touring the museum and viewing a film about the Fitzgerald's sad end and the memorial built in honor of the captain and crew, we strolled over to the replica of a Life Saving Station, where I took some photos of the equipment and gear used by the original Life Savers.

Great stuff for background for the historical novel I'm working on. It's about a young girl in 1913 who wants to be a Life Saver like her father and brother. At that time, only males could do that work.

 

Here's the serendipity part: On our way to the car, I spotted a gift shop and took a quick spin through it. On my way out, I spied a glittery object on a display table. A second look showed the glitter to be a replica of the medals used by the surfmen on their nightly patrols to meet their counterpart from the neighboring station. I'd read about these, but it was a thrill to actually see one--and to be able to buy it and bring it home for inspiration! It now hangs over my laptop.

As Peter often says, it doesn't take much to make me happy!

Getting around in the Mideast

One of the more unique aspects of our trip to the Mideast was the many and varied modes of transportation. We flew there, of course, on Etihad, the Abu Dhabi airline. Long flight with fairly good leg room, good food and movies, and attentive flight attendants. From Dubai to Cairo, we flew Emirates, Dubai's airline, equally comfortable and accommodating. Then Egypt Air to Luxor--an okay flight. From Luxor to Aswan, we rode the train in a first-class car. Not so first-class by US standards, but apparently much better than second- or third-. One morning at 3:00, we rode in a convoy of trucks and vans from Aswan to tour the temples at Abu Simbel near the Sudan border. (more about that later).

All along the way, we rode cabs, horse carts, and an assortment of boats. Here's a gallery of modes we rode and some we didn't:

Horse cart in Petra--even more harrowing than the front seat of a Cairo taxi,

this ride was a true bone rattler. Much less enchanting than it looks!

After the horse cart and watching others climb on and off

camels, we decided to forego the experience and photograph

these all-purpose animals instead.

After a morning spent touring prehistoric petroglyphs in the hills outside Aswan, we were treated to some Nubian music and dance on a felucca ride back down the Nile to Aswan. We found ourselves on many different boats this trip--A dhow trip along the Gulf to the Oman coast; the ferry across the Nile in Luxor; and the abra that runs back and forth across Creek Dubai.

I was still recovering from the rattling horse cart and declined to ride a donkey the next day, but Peter rode one to the highest point in Petra and got some terrific photos--and I got a lovely necklace that he bought from a Bedouin woman up there.

This is a produce truck in Jordan and no, we didn't ride in one, but I enjoyed the decorations that the drivers used to identify their vehicle. The designs seemed to be made with a combination of plastic or metal magnetic pieces that gave each truck a unique design.

We rented a car in Jordan, so we did have the experience of exploring the countryside at our own pace with an expert driver--Gerry--and an excellent navigator--Kara. We also rode the rapid transit train in Dubai and a tram in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

So there you have it. Our trip went beyond Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It also involved animals and water craft.

Off the Beaten Track

This morning I had coffee with a friend who'd just gotten back from a cruise. He mentioned that when their ship docked, passengers were advised to stay on the main street of the city. They were warned that stepping off onto a side street might be dangerous and they couldn't be responsible for what might happen. The main street was lined with upscale stores similar, or in some cases identical, to the stores US passengers had left back home.

My friend ignored the advice and turned onto a side street where he saw the reality of life in this third world country. He could look into doorways and see families at work, children at play...life going on among the poor of the city. What he saw was real and at the same time so far removed from life on the main street that the two paths seemed to be in different countries.

It is curious to me why one would take the time and trouble--and spend the money--to travel to another country and stay on the "safe" main street. I think main streets are much the same, no matter where one finds them. It's the side streets that offer a glimpse into the culture of another country. Side streets offer authentic restaurants and the richness of everyday life expressed in the native language and customs of a country.

It seems to me that in life, as in travel, the greatest rewards come from stepping off the main strip to see what's waiting down a side street. The determination to stay "safe" can lead to missed opportunities to experience other people and their culture.

TO SNOW OR NOT TO SNOW...

We leave on a month-long trip overseas in a week, and we've taken to compulsive viewing of any electronic weather report we can find. We're both puzzled at this behavior. Normally we take the weather as it comes, but this winter has been tricky. Three weeks in December, wintry storms paralyzed our area just in time for Christmas, then New Year's, then Twelfth Night. My brother who lives in the DC area was scheduled to visit Kansas City this week but couldn't get out of DC because of multiple feet of snow. He planned to reschedule for next week, but the area is currently being hammered with another foot or so.

We're scheduled to leave JFK next Wednesday night. Will New York be snowed in? Mayor Blomberg has apparently just warned off anyone thinking of driving into the city. Will sun and warm breezes melt things sufficiently for us to take off for Abu Dhabi? Who knows? Will watching the weather channel help? Absolutely not. Will we discontinue our slavish watching of said channel? Again, absolutely not. Will said watching change anything? Again and once again, absolutely not.