Guarding the Throne
I started to entitle this posting, Bathrooms I Have Known, but that is more explicit than I intend, also it was the projected title of a book of my good friend, Ted R., who traveled the world as I did, and had suffered the use of foreign facilities in more remote locations that I. Unfortunately, Ted is no longer with us, but I’m sure he would have appreciated my efforts. As I’ve traveled around both the civilized and not so civilized world for the last forty years or so, I have seem them all. Bathrooms, johns, WC’s, toilettes, banos, toiletten, crappers, comfort facilities, or whatever they may be called in your part of the world and in your vernacular....You Don’t Go to Cuba for the Food
It isn’t food. I’ve now had three major meals here, not including breakfasts, which is, I realize, a small sample. But never one to shy away from making premature judgements, I’m ready to judge. I’m pretty sure they have no idea how to cook in Cuba. Maybe it’s the commies, perhaps it’s the years the rooskies were here, but either they never knew how to cook, or, if they did, they’ve forgotten. Granted, we’ve been eating at all the high end places, such as they are. These are the ones that get great ratings in TripAdvisor where people try to prove how smart they are about hotels and restaurants. The odd thing is all of the restaurants look great. They...
Wisdom of the Ages
Patsy, our travel agent, says we have a black cloud over us when it comes to DFW and American Airlines, but it only happens when S. is with me. This time the mechanical bug bit our aircraft, and we had to wait for another. It was only a two hour delay which didn’t actually matter much to us as we planned to overnight in Miami, but the one hundred or so other fellow travelers who were making connections in Miami got the shaft. We finally landed and after the world’s longest runway taxi we disembarked only to be confronted with the world’s longest terminal walk. It was a least six miles I promise you. Unfortunately, it took half the walk schlepping one...Beautiful Bali
As you know from Part One of this posting, I was in Singapore for business (read that all expenses paid) and thought to double my pleasure by hooking on to the end of my Singapore sojourn a side trip to Bali. Why Bali? Well, it’s in the neighborhood, so to speak, and I’d never been there, and everyone wants to go to Bali don’t they? It’s an easy and short flight from Singapore to Denpasar (you knew, didn’t you, that Denpasar is the capital of Bali). It’s a semi-chaotic medium sized metro area that only hints of the real pleasures and treasures to be found further afield. I had deliberately chosen Ubud, in the central highlands of Bali, as my home base so I...