Travel Letters

Dali: The Old Town

Posted May 30, 2014 by Jan
China: Yunnan

                         “Can I Go Home Now?” 

Dali

Yunnan Province

China

May 30, 2014

Dear Fellow Travelers,

Traveling in China can be so frustrating!   I think I’ll go home.

After a four and a half hour bus ride from Kunming to Dali New Town, and after a taxi driver refused to take me to my hotel near the Old City,  and  after a thirty minute bone-shaking, jaw-jarring, teeth-shattering ride in the Chinese answer to the Thai Tuk Tuk,

and after waiting more than half an hour for someone from the hotel to pick me up because the Tuk Tuk driver dropped me off at the wrong gate of the city, and after taking a taxi from the South Gate of the Old City to the West Gate,

and  after checking in at the Jade Emu Guest House that looked like a good hotel on the Internet but was just a notch above a youth hostel, and after all of the above being transacted with a variety of people with whom Icannot communicate,

I ask you, “Can I go home now?” 

Trees

Posted May 12, 2025 by Jan
Namibia

 

Bangkok

Thailand

May 12, 2025

Hello,

To prepare for my trip to southern Africa last year, I read several comments posted by previous travelers. Most are positive regarding the accommodations and the staff at the safari lodges.   Everyone is delighted to view the wildlife and the scenery.

But to this day I remember one comment from an unhappy traveler on a game drive: “We drove through the bush for three and a half hours and all we saw were trees!”

Bad luck. (It’s not like you can pick up the phone and ask the giraffes to wander over for a visit.)

I had lots of good luck with wildlife.   

But you know?  I also loved the trees!   Common or exotic.  Alive or dead.  I love the trees.  

Eastern Ethiopia - Mountains, Markets, Meals

Posted May 2, 2011 by Jan
Ethiopia

                               

Harar - Mountains, Markets and Meals

In the mountains east of Hara, I satisfy my craving for oddities of geology.  The Babille Valley is indicated on the map of Ethiopia as the Valley of Marvels.  The “marvels” are tall rock formations that the elements have sculpted into mind-blowing shapes. 

In Harar I wander through the ancient city to find homes with pastel walls.  At the gates to the walled city I find chaotic markets.

Meals?  Here is the blurb for the Fresh Touch Restaurant in Harar:

“Reasonable prices, a tasty selection of national and international dishes, a leafy courtyard, and a dedicated pizza oven.  The cold drinks are cold and the bittersweet aroma of roasting coffee wafting from the garden stove had us salivating like a hyena.”*

I order a national dish - the spicy goat stew.  I can’t remember when I have had a better goat stew.  So I return for luncheon the next day.

The Nizwa Souk: Oman

Posted January 17, 2015 by Jan
Oman

Nizwa  (pop 84, 600)

Oman

January 16, 2015

 

At the Nizwa Souk this morning, sellers are selling families.  Buyers are buying families. 

Mothers and their children are white; others are brown or black. The seller leads his family group around a paddock while the buyers sit in a clutch, discuss the offerings, observe the quality of the merchandise and make a decision. 

Baku and the Caspian Sea

Posted November 3, 2012 by Jan
Azerbaijan

Baku

Azerbaijan

November 3, 2012

Sunny and Mild 

Dear Friends and Lovers of the Sea,

Joy!  Unrestrained joy!

Joy!  Unexpected, giddy joy!  

I am filled with joy as I walk alongside the Caspian Sea. 

Who can explain it?

The Caspian Sea.  So exotic.  So distant.  So inaccessible. Yet, here I am.

Across the sea to the east lies the brooding Turkmenistan and enormous Kazakhstan. To the north looms Mother Russia.  To the south, the impenetrable Islamic Republic of Iran.  But here, as I gaze on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, I don’t know why, but I am so happy to be here.

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