East Greenland

September 1, 2015

Hello my friends,

The ice sheet on Greenland is second only to the ice sheet at the Antarctic.

Here in late summer, wildflowers abound.  Yet, I have seen little or no agriculture.  The mountains are black or covered with ice and snow.  The fjords are filled with icebergs that have broken free of the ancient glaciers.

My next adventure is in Iceland.  There I anticipate sheep and horses grazing in lush pastures.

So here's the question: "Why is the continental-country of ice called Greenland?

Why is the more temperate locale called Iceland?

 I wish you safe and colorful travels, 

Jan

Bangkok

Thailand

December 20, 2015

Sunday

Clear and Cool

OMG!  OMB!  Oy vey!

Plinio’s legs are “sore.”  Howard “blew out” his ankle.  Jan has a painful left hip and aching thighs.  Even with his walking stick, Jan can barely limp out of his apartment today to buy breakfast.

Here’s the story:

Last August, I met Plinio on my trip to Svalbard.  Plinio, from Trieste, Italy is also a “traveler.”  Plinio is visiting Thailand this month before heading up to Harbin, China. (-25C)

Last Friday, I met Howard here in Bangkok.  Howard hails from Montreal, Canada.  We “connected” immediately.  After Bangkok, Howard will travel to Cambodia, Vietnam and Bali, Indonesia.

I organized the group and we decided to hire a car and driver and head out west to Kanchanaburi Province for three days.

Dubai

United Arab Emirates

April 3, 2016

Dear Friends,

“Tall!” 

In a word, that is how I would describe Dubai: “Tall, very tall!”

Apartment blocks, apartment clusters, office buildings, hotels, even the minarets of the mosques are all very tall.

Dubai boasts the tallest building in the world - the Burj Khalifa.  Piercing the skyline, the spike of a structure stands at 829.8m or 2722 ft. 

Set on a man-made island and shaped like the sail of a dhow, the traditional ship of Arabia, the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel stands at 321m or 1053 ft.  Burj Al Arab is only (!) the third tallest hotel in the world.   The other two?  JW Marriott Marquis and Rose Rayhaan?  Why also in Dubai, of course.

Sharjah

United Arab Emirates

April 4, 2016

Dear Friends,

I am guessing there are about one hundred and fifty shops.  Have you ever seen so much gold jewelry in one place?   

The elaborate pieces on display in the Sharjah Gold Souk seem fit only for the wife of an Emir or a Sheik!  Considering my bank balance and my current marital status, I smiled at the merchants, took my photos and walked on.

Al Ain Zoo

Al Ain

Abu Dhabi

United Arab Emirates

April 19, 2016

Howdy,

Many, many years ago, my wife at the time, the late Alice Dawn and I took a road trip from New York to San Francisco.  We visited her younger sister, the late Carolyn Dawn and her family.  On the way, we stopped in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Alice was a proficient horsewoman so we decided to take a two-hour early evening ride into the Grand Tetons.  Towards the end of our tour, in the deepening shadows of the majestic and inspiring mountains, I spotted a shy and apprehensive four-legged creature off in the distance. 

I proclaimed with excitement, “There’s a deer!”   Riding along side of me, our guide, calmly and with the taciturn air of a native of the mountains, responded, “That’s not a deer, son. That’s an elk!” 

Opps.

Xi’an

Shaanxi Province

China

August 28, 2016

Shocked! 

I am shocked as I ride from the airport to the city. 

On both sides of the modern highway, clusters of recently-constructed apartment buildings provide the only scenery. 

Each cluster contains twenty high-rise towers.

Each tower is forty floors high and each floor contains sixteen apartments.  

I estimate there are one hundred of these clusters between the airport and the city!