TRAVEL ADVENTURE JOURNAL
In All Fairness...
May 5, 2012
We spent a week in Russia. Frankly, I believe it's a tough place to live (for its citizens), and an especially tough place to visit (for tourists). But the question is, is it worth it? There are certainly easier and more beautiful places to tour - Italy immediately comes to mind - it is still the number one travel destination (understandably), but what we experienced in Russia, despite our baggage travails, was pretty darn amazing. I don't think I've ever seen anything remotely comparable to Russia's colorful cathedrals - St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, and the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood in Saint Petersburg. And the Hermitage Museum was easily the equal of the Louvre or the Prado!
So yes, it was worth it! But - I would never attempt to travel here on my own. The logistics are a major obstacle - simply getting a travel visa is a daunting challenge. Without the benefit of an experienced tour operator (such as Meyer Travel Group), Russia could easily become a nightmare! For example, I don't know how we would ever have retrieved our luggage without an experienced guide at our side.
I've always maintained that the most memorable events when traveling are those that occur unexpectedly. For example, stumbling across the Saint Petersburg May Day parade rehearsal by the Russian military was a genuine eye opener. I recall watching similar parades on television when Russia was the Soviet Union and the chills I got seeing row after row of marching troops followed by those enormous fearsome missiles!
Most importantly, we did not encounter censorship! That's not to say it doesn't exist - I don't really know for sure. BUT: We never had difficulty accessing the Internet anywhere - Google, Facebook... there was no indication that we were being blocked from accessing whatever we wanted. I don't want to sound naive, but compared to China, where Facebook was essentially unattainable and I couldn't even access my own website (yes, I know, I'm so subversive!), there seemed to be a lot of transparency and no one seemed to be looking over their shoulders!
I have several video clips of the military rehearsals... each is only about a minute long... so I'll be uploading them sequentially to YouTube then link them here. You can click here to see them - I'll be adding more later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ja2aXdjqF6E&feature=youtu.be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEhN3CM6RI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vljOIKYJdl0&feature=channel&list=UL
xx
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50ibTfn0TWQ&feature=channel&list=UL
The Russia Experience: Saga of the Lost Luggage
Editor's Note: The following post has not been edited. Please be advised that the author is blowing off steam and may not be totally rational!
Dateline: Saint Petersburg, Russia, April 12, 2012
At approximately 01:30 AM on April 12, 2012, seven days after departing California for Russia, the Roses located and claimed their missing checked luggage. Remarkably, the contents had not been ransacked and were totally intact.
There was, however, the issue of the unaccompanied baggage customs tax, courtesy of the Russian Federation, to the tune of four euro per kilogram which totaled just under 6000 Russian roubles, or approximately US $210.00 cash.
Fortunately our wonderful Russian guide, Elena Hodak, not only spent countless hours tracking down our stuff and arguing with the Russian authorities, but accompanied us to Saint Petersburg airport after midnight to negotiate the ransom for our illegally detained property! Elena... WE LOVE YOU!!
Honestly, I thought we would never see our stuff again.
Nyet, nyet, nyet... you must pay! That the airline lost our bags and caused them to surface, unaccompanied a week later, was totally lost on the Russian bureaucracy!
We'll be sending the bill to American Airlines, I guarantee it! They can also pay for the $30 taxi ride back to the hotel. I only wish I could send them an invoice for our aggravation!
One final thought: This has been one of the most frustrating travel experiences we've ever had. But, this is the true Russia experience!
Believe me, Russia has a long, long, long way to go before it will ever become a major western tourist destination.
Of course, a little perspective is in order: It was not much more than twenty years ago that the Soviet Union abandoned what was likely the most dysfunctional economic system in human history!
xx
Pieces of a Puzzle
April 4, 2012
So why have I written so little about this trip?
Truth is... I haven't had much to say!
The itinerary is somewhat of an amalgam -the first week in Russia touring Moscow and Saint Petersburg - and the second week in Tuscany, a homestay with several side trips into the local countryside.
I didn't organize this itinerary, at least not the details. While I did make the travel arrangements, i.e., getting to Moscow and Rome, my good friend Katie Meyer of Meyer Travel Group, has handled all of the Russia arrangements. Many thanks to Katie - she's got a ton of experience doing tours to Russia, even back when it was the Soviet Union.
The Italy itinerary was something of an afterthought and was arranged through G-Adventures out of Toronto.
I must add a note of explanation regarding week two: It's Spring Break in France and we had originally planned to spend this week touring with our daughter Katie. Until early February, Katie had been teaching in the small French town of Fameck, about 30 kilometers across the border from Luxembourg. But Katie left her job in early February and returned to the US after we'd booked our flight to Moscow via Luxembourg. ( If you don't follow Katie's blog you can read more about her adventures at http://www.kdrose.com/.)
So what do you do when you have a week in Luxembourg? (You're probably also wondering right now, where the heck is Luxembourg? Good question. This is hard to describe - best to look at a map - but briefly, it's a tiny country sandwiched along the northeast French border next to Germany.)
Non-refundable tickets are at stake - I guess we could throw them away and start over! HA! For those who know me it's LOL time!
With such a narrow timeframe, finding something interesting to fill in the time turned out to be a major challenge, even for me. (Believe me when I tell you that it's hard to justify much more than a day in Luxembourg!) And it's so early in the travel season - snow is still on the ground in many of the northern climes - our options are very limited. I skimmed though several possibilities but none fit into our now-empty schedule.
But the Tuscany homestay does fit. Exactly. Meet in Rome on April 15, return to Luxembourg April 21, fly home on April 22. As scheduled.
So there you have it!
It ends up fitting together like pieces of a puzzle.
xx
Moscow!! ... St. Petersburg!! Soon!
http://meyertravelgroup.com/group_tours/russia_april_2012.pdf
... and Tuscany too!!
http://www.gadventures.com/trips/southern-tuscany-local-living/EIST/2012/itinerary/
I can't wait!
Touchdown!
posted by Carol
November 23, 2011
Hanoi -- halfway round the world to get here.
An 18 hour 45 minute flight. Little sleep. Touchdown in Hong Kong with a two hour layover. We five made it, the Roses and I!
A walk out on the streets in the dizzying chaos: motorbikes with heeled ladies, buses, cars, taxis, pedestrians. Traffic flowing in all directions: motorbikes on the sidewalks and in the street, vendors with stick-stick carriers balancing their fruits. Book vendors and fresh-fried donut holes and huge soup pots abrew. Shop doors are open with foodstuffs laid out or closed with air conditioning to cool fine fashions. Toots and horns beeping everywhere as traffic spins off in all directions. Electrical wires converge in spider web clumps overhead and attached to building facades continuously. Tourists are tall and blonde and stand out against the locals. Ordered chaos. It works! No one flattened during our walk. Why not? Let's try again. At the ATM one hundred dollars equals 2,100,000 dong. A bottle of water for 35 cents.
Let's see... what's next?
Kien, our driver who works at Thao's hotel, picks us up for an hour long ride, threading continuously around motorbikes, buses, trucks and pedestrians... the entire trip spent agape in the back seat! Only one slight mishap... to a motorbike. Why not more?
We arrive at Thao's parent's house, remove shoes, don slippers, and drink honey-flower tea while seated on the emperor's couch - gloriously carved red hardwood furniture, with American TV playing nearby. Large straw mats laid on the floor and the hot pots begin. Soup made to order with squid, huge shrimp, beef, chicken, mushrooms, spinach of sorts, rice noodles, and homemade rice wine made specially for the occasion... and Thao's friend Trang, with a friendly smile, keeping the little bowls full. Two cooks cooking... men and women at opposite ends. House tour upstairs... four floors with a surprise Buddhist altar atop. Plumbing ready on the top floor for the next generation. Exhaustions reigns.
One day down!
xx
THE SOUTHEAST ASIA TOUR
October 14, 2011
Teresa has never been to Southeast Asia.
She made the mistake of mentioning this last month!
So you can imagine my reaction. So predictable...
I thought about all the great adventures I've had with Christopher and Katie in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam - trekking in Chiang Mai, the wedding in Luang Prabang, the junk in Halong Bay...
So I put together a "must-see" list and came to the conclusion that we'd need at least six weeks to cover it all!
But after a bit of reality testing, I reluctantly cut back on the list to something that could be doable in about three weeks! Well, twenty-four days if you count travel time and crossing the international dateline!
So here's what I've put together:
We'll fly to Hanoi from San Francisco via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific Airlines (http://www.cathaypacific.com/). We'll take the Hanoi city tour first then make two side trips, one to Halong Bay (http://sinhcafetravel.com.vn/) and the other to Sapa to explore the hill-tribe region up north. (http://www.vietlandexplore.com/)
We'll then fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) via budget airline Jetstar (http://www.jetstar.com/vn/en/home), and check out the Reunification Palace, where the former South Vietnamese government operated, then board the L'Amant Riverboat (http://www.lamant-cruises.com/) for a Mekong River cruise to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, stopping at towns along the way.
From Phnom Penh it's a five hour bus ride to Siem Riep, the gateway to the ancient temples of Angkor Wat.
Two short flights on Bangkok Airways (http://www.bangkokair.com/) will get us to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, where we'll join a trekking tour (http://www.allchiangmaitours.com/trekking) to visit several Thai villages, while sleeping in grass huts, riding elephants and rafting down the river.
Our last stop is Bangkok, a one hour flight south from Chiang Mai, where we'll explore the many temples scattered throughout Banglamphu, plus Chinatown, the Royal Palace and Khao San Road
We'll be joined by both our sons - both seasoned travelers: Christopher is already a pro when it comes to handling Vietnam - he even speaks a bit of the language, but for Brandon it'll be a novelty - not quite as challenging as India!
Our good friend Carol, an artist who lives in South Lake Tahoe, has also agreed to join us - this should make for some very interesting observations - she so often sees things from such a different perspective.
And it all starts on November 20th !
TURKEY AND GREECE!
To put together our Turkey itinerary, Teresa and I have been working closely with the most amazing person -- she is Katie Meyer and she is the owner of the Meyer Travel Group: http://www.meyertravelgroup.com/. Teresa met Katie through her work and was immediately impressed by her enthusiasm and vast fund of travel-related knowledge. Katie designs tours which she personally arranges and leads utilizing her many contacts throughout Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
Although I usually plan my own travel adventures, when Katie offered to help us put together this trip, the chance to tap into her experience and know-how was irresistible. She was able to recommend the best hotels in the most convenient locations, at extremely affordable prices. She also urged us to take the opportunity to add time in Athens and the Greek islands, and after much consideration, we have included an additional week in Greece!
We will be flying on Delta Airlines from San Francisco, departing July 10th, with a flight change at New York's JFK then nonstop to Istanbul. From California, the only nonstop flight to Istanbul is on Turkish Airlines from Los Angeles. I would have preferred this flight, but since this is the height of the travel season I found it impossible to get a reasonably priced flight, and had to settle for the single stop in New York.
We'll be in Istanbul for four nights which should give us plenty of time to see the main sights, including the Grand Bazaar, St. Sophia's cathedral, the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Palace, the Hippodrome, and a ferry ride on the Bosphorus Strait, with extra time for just wandering and exploring the city.
To save time we are flying to Izmir - I'm not a fan of long bus rides, and Turkey has several budget airlines, including Pegasus http://www.flypgs.com/ and Sun Express http://www.sunexpress.com/ which offer exceptionally inexpensive flights within Turkey.
As arranged by Katie Meyer, we will tour the archaeological ruins of Ephesus with local archaeological expert Cingiz Itchen, who has been excavating there for more than 40 years. The following day we will explore the seaside resort and port at Bodrum before boarding a gulat for a four day sailing cruise on the Aegean, stopping at Çökertme, the Seven Islands and Tusla Bay: http://www.barbarosyachting.com/cabin_charters_turkey.asp .
From Karacasögðüt we will head to Pamukkale, and the next day we will explore Pamukkale, Hieropolis, and Aphrodisias before returning to Izmir. From Izmir we will fly to Cappadocia to view the bizarre rock formations, fairy chimneys and surreal landscapes, then visit the underground city of Kaymakli .
From Cappadocia we fly to Athens via Istanbul and spend the night at the port of Piraeus, boarding the cruise ship Louis Majesty the next morning, for a four night cruise of the Greek Islands, including Mykonos, Patmos, Rhodes, Crete and Santorini: http://www.louiscruises.com/
Our final three days will be spent sightseeing in Athens, staying close to the Acropolis at Tony's Hotel: http://www.hoteltony.gr/. (Yes, there really is a Tony and I spoke with him!) TripAdvisor rates Tony's at #7 of more than 300 Athens hotels, but you have to make your reservations the old-fashioned way!
I'm hoping that the political situation in Athens settles down by the time we get there! Suffice it to say we'll be keeping our distance from any angry mobs!!
We fly back to the U.S. on August 2nd and should be home the next day.
As our adventure progresses I'll post updates as often as I can , so check back here after July 10th!
Here are a few links to videos of our Morocco adventure:
A Musical Ensemble in Midelt
October 7, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWddv0kXkzo
The Sahara Desert Caravan
October 8, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH0QmVkC9-s
Lunch in the Desert
October 9, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjHF2xKV20Y
Riding a Mule in Aroumd
October 12, 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq6jZ2HP_pI
The Call to Prayer in the Marrakech Medina
October 17, 2010
The Sahara Desert crew!
TRAVEL IS THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE
Foreign travel is my passion. Because a journey abroad is inherently and often dramatically unpredictable, I look upon it as the ultimate adventure.
The roster of distant lands that I have yet to discover seems inexhaustible and the potential for adventure is limitless. And because each one of us is the ultimate variable, every journey becomes unique. What you experience depends on what you are looking for and what you are willing to try.
The purpose of this website is to share with others my thoughts and insights about travel, my experiences, and my future plans. Since I have never done an on-line journal before, I really don't know if I will have the patience and persistence to regularly write something that others might want to read about.
ABOUT ME
My name is Scott Rose, and I live in Northern California with my wife and favorite traveling companion, Teresa. We have three adult children in their twenties who are also my traveling companions at different times. Time and again, it is through their eyes that I rediscover the world from different and newly exciting perspectives.
My love for travel began in September 1977 when I spend eight months roaming around Europe in a beat-up Volkswagen bus that I bought for $700 in the parking lot across from American Express in Amsterdam. I covered a lot of ground during that extended road trip, living on the beach at Vai, wandering the medina in Fez, exploring the ruins at Pozzuoli and eventually returning home on Freddie Laker's Skytrain.
It was this extended journey that first led me to appreciate travel as a phenomenon that opens our eyes to the world, and eliminates our instinctive parochialism by educating us about the values of the many societies and cultures with whom we share the planet.
It is my hope that by sharing my experiences, I can inspire others to discover the adventure and acquire the insight that travel can offer.
