The World Traveller

The great Georgian country side.

It’s fall here in southern California and I was dreaming I was on a road trip somewhere in the Republic of Georgia.  Riding in a Lada, I had stopped off on the roadside to enjoy the spectacular view and eat some nice hot Khachapuri bread…

North Shore Haliewa Shrimp Shack

Go figure. I HAD NO IDEA how beautiful Hawaii was. Probably one of my best vacations ever. Perhaps that was because it was a family holiday and not a trip I organized for a group of rather eccentric travelers. So, no responsibility or liability – just pure unadulterated pleasure!!! We stayed in a quaint two-bedroom house on the windward side of Oahu, near Waimea Beach. It was absolutely heavenly. Hiking, ATV riding, horseback riding, swimming, kayaking, snorkeling, boogie boarding, rode in a submarine, climbed up Diamond Head, went to a luau and much much more! The website we rented the house through was http://vrbo.com (Vacation Rentals by Owner) and we can all highly recommend! I definitely had my reservations about 7 people inhabiting a 2-bedroom house for a week – sight unseen! Turned out that it was the PERFECT size. It was great to have the owners check in with us from time to time to make sure all was well. But, probably the best aspect of renting the house was being able to drive into and out of the madness of Honolulu and Waikiki when we wanted to – back to the safe refuge of the north shore. This year a week in Oahu; next year a week in Maui!!!!

On a Dubai Safari with Yemeni Driver

Back from Arabia and glad to be home! Egypt is such a favorite country, but after traveling there over 7 times already – this is my last trip there for awhile. It would have been great to have taken the opportunity to travel in the remote western Oasis areas, but it was not in the cards this time. It was great to see the many friends I have accumulated there over the years, but it is finally time to leave well-enough alone and focus other adventures for awhile.

Visiting Dubai was interesting, but it is still very much a City in its infancy. It will take some time before it’s soul develops any character. It was rather astounding to visit the small and meager National Museum which featured a video focusing 100% on the future. Although there is diversity in the brands when it comes to the shopping malls, there are certainly no bargains for our poor weak dollar! I was able to get out and do a desert safari with a Yemeni driver and some Kazak tourists which was really fun. Anyway, everyone has different travel objectives and my interests have always been culture oriented. In a city with 80% foreign residents, it was just not my bag….

Leaving for Egypt tomorrow, which is Thanksgiving Day. Lots to do in the meantime. Had to expedite the renewal of my passport which cost me some $$. Now I have an empty book as opposed to one that is filled with VISA’s from the off-the-beaten track destinations I used to frequent with my groups. The old passport represents evidence of a life well-traveled. The new passport is a second chance at another beginning. It just occurs to me that the first VISA in my old passport was to Egypt! They say there are no coincidences in life…..

Photo of me at the alabastor Mosque of Mohammed Ali in the Citadel back in 1995.

I was trying to remember the first time I was aware I was traveling. While going through old photos of me as a child, I found a photo of myself frowning at a campfire. My sister Liz was poking a stick into the fire as my oldest sister Genie and my brother Arthur look on. That picture was probably taken at Paradise Hideaway in the Cleveland National Forest. We had a camper trailer when I was growing up and my father used to drive the family up there for two weeks to beat the 110 degree summer heat in the Imperial Valley where I was born. Although I can not remember that moment in time, I do somehow remember the green squeeze bottle and smell of Prell gel shampoo – which we only used when camping. Another memory I recall vaguely is attending 4-H camp for a week for several summers with my sister Liz. Not long ago, Liz and I happened to be up in the Cleveland National forest, near Julian and we decided to try to find the camp. To our disappointment, the camp is now a Religious retreat center. The only original cabin left standing was the one Liz stayed in. In hindsight, sometimes it is better to remember things as they were and not try to re-create a feeling you had in real time. That is probably also true of relationships with ex-boyfriends.

Since that time, I have trodden roads less traveled. I have raced an Arabian against a nomadic Bedouin in the Sinai Desert of Egypt. I have trodden on an Al-tekke horse along the same road as Alexander the Great to his famous city of Nissa in Uzbekistan. Another time, I rode a horse up into the jungle near Mt. Popa in Myanmar (formally Burma). I have tried every form of transportation available that would make traveling in a third world country more bearable. Helicopters, chartered boats to cruise up the Irrawaddy, Mekong and Nile, bullock carts, trains, planes, hot air balloons and even hiking with my own two feet.

I am compulsive when it comes to travel. It is my passion. People travel for many reasons. Some are interested in scholarly pursuits; some have interest in physical challenges. There are those whose objectives simply are to check off countries on a list. There is commerce, religious and also humanitarian endeavors that drive people into travel situations. For whatever reasons we travel, once we take that first jump – we can never be the same. For me personally, the sense of movement and cross-cultural exchange between others has become a rather eccentric obsessive behavior. So much so eventually I turned this behavior into a full-time business.

But life inevitably has a life of its own. Perhaps it is to show us that we are not invincible nor need to be “in charge” of everything around us. Sure, it is easier for us to wear blinders and ignore the lessons that continually rain down upon us. But, like it or not, in time some of those lessons eventually soak through. Whatever the lesson may be, the message is ultimately always the same: Pay attention to the moments as they are all that really matter.