Beware of pirates!

ROUTE

For those of you who haven't gone through all of these blogs, I wanted to give my initial route: London, Amsterdam, Munich, Prague then who knows where. What I'm expecting is: London (spend lots of $), Amsterdam (drugs and hookers), Munich (practice my German, see old stomping grounds), Prague (famous for dentists when I get there).




SILVER SELLING

Well, due to a very clever idea by TJ, I managed to sell my 2 OZ of silver that I'd found in my stuff. I have no idea where the hell it came from. Silver goes for (at the time of this writing) $35 per ounce. I sold it to a jeweler.



More fun than a stainless steel cock ring.



LIBYA

"Gadhafi...is now sending text messages to his supporters. He has promised 500 Libyan dinars (€287, or $396) to every family that supports him. People are standing in line to be paid their money. This is apparently the only idea the billionaire dictator still has: to buy back his control of Libya."



THOUGHT OF THE DAY

"Who discovered we could get milk from cows and what did he think he was doing at the time?" - Billy Connolly.



GREECE

A good article on Greece Pete pointed out.



GEORGIA

I came across an interesting article on Georgia (not the state, the country) in an unexpected place. I find it interesting that the foreign teachers make $300 per month - and that's double the local teachers... After reading the teacher (who got dismissed from the program) blog entry, I was thinking 'meh'. That lady has some challenges I don't. Although racism is something that should be part of the past, being black still puts you at a significant disadvantage in many countries for some reason. No, I am not planning on being a teacher over there - though if I end up doing it for a few months it wouldn't be a horrible shock to me.



DARK TOURISM

Found an article of interest to Pete. Given that I'm going to be spending money pretty fast (bad BPS, bad) no, I have no personal interest in this at this time. It might be something to do 'next time'. I did like the term 'dark tourism' I found in the article. That seems to be the term for things like concentration camps, etc.



INDIA

Talking to a couple of nice guys in the ole coffee shop about India. It doesn't seem there are any major land mines, culturally, for me. I realize in America I may (to some people) fall under the category of 'opinionated asshole'. I can't deny it. However, when I go to other countries, I like better to ask questions. I don't pretend to know everything about everything to do with a culture that I've never been to before. I realize that does take me out of the category of 'typical American tourist'. Sorry. Anyway, I was talking to to guys about India. They are from there so I figure they know what they're talking about. They told me some of the customs and such. Interesting things I gathered:

No toilet paper. Any time you get cultures that don't have toilet paper lying around, you get the cultural thing of 'wash your ass with your left hand'. Naturally, this means 'don't eat finger food with your dirty assed left hand'. They have it in many of the Arabic cultures and, apparently, in India as well.

Shoes in homes. I was cautioned about this. Unlike many American's, I do tend to notice giant piles of shoes just inside the door. If you see a giant pile of shoes, chances are good that taking off your own and adding them (temporarily) to the pile is probably a good thing.

Men holding hands. Ran into this one in Korea. When I was 18 and seeing it for the first time I thought that Korea must have a huge gay population. This is not the case. In that culture, as in India's, it doesn't mean anything. You're just 'holding hands'. Apparently it was only recently that homosexuality was decriminalized in India. I'm guessing homosexuals doing anything conspicuously so will probably get (at least) some verbal abuse. However, you can hold hands in public if you can't restrain yourselves.

No personal space. Again, ran into this one in Egypt. If you take both of your arms and extend them in front of your body then touch the tips of your fingers together, this (in America) is your personal space. Other penises entering within this space are not welcomed. Yours may growl at it. In Egypt, you could literally be belly to belly talking to someone. Combine this up with the problem of $100 being 'a lot of money' and pickpocketing and this is a possible issue in India. So, no personal space.

Conservative. Being invaded by conservative, prudish Brits seemed to have wiped a lot of the Kama Sutra type thinking out of the country. I regard this as a huge cultural loss for the Indians. Since the Brits got Indian cuisine, this puts them as the winner in this particular match.

Getting sucked in. This was by far the weirdest thing I was briefed on. Apparently, a lot of people become 'Indiaphiles'. People who begin to love India and all things Indian more than the natives. There are lots of investment bankers from New York city who go to India and get their head zapped. Things like meditation, culture shock, the Indian love of family and such create some sort of weird brain chemistry that just fucks these people up to where they stay forever for the cheap lodging/food/religion. I told Vighnesh that I was already insane so I wasn't at all worried about being driven insane by that kind of stuff.

Melting people. In the south, it gets over forty degrees Celsius. With over 100% humidity. For those still stuck in the archic system, that's over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Fucking hot. Avoid in the summer time or die of heat stroke hot. Northern India is not so hot in the summer.

Pale skin. People always want what they can't have and so pale skin is considered more attractive. Since I am very pale from a healthy computer glow and have so much skin, I will be like a big luminescent god there.

Holy cows. Cows not in India are not anyone's ancestor so it's OK to eat them. Interesting. Also, cow tipping and playing with the holy cows is NOT OK.

I find this kind of thing interesting.

I would like to thank Ankit and Vighnesh for taking the time to tell me a little about India.

WHERE AM I?

Well, shit in a bag and punch it! I just don't know where I am right now. Fortunately a lot of other people don't seem to either. Hopefully, this trend will continue so that our future president won't be able to wage war on other people.




LIBYA

Well, it looks like they're going nuts there as well. Being that I am a greedy, selfish person I'm hoping that it gets cleaned up so I can travel through it between Tunisia and Egypt. Don't know if that will happen or how long it will take it to get ready for tourists. Well, at least not all of the violence there seems to be the USA's fault.



WHO READS THIS CRAP?

Apparently, lots of people. Here's a list of the various countries that I've got hits from thus far: Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela. Freaky.



TV SHOW REVIEW

"Long Way Down". Jamas had told me about this show existing, so I checked it out. Two guys on motorcycles make their way south through Africa. It was OK but not as good as 'Long Way Round' but I'm not really sure what was lacking. I think one interesting thing in this show was that Ewan McGregor's wife decided she wanted to go on a part of this extremely arduous biking through Africa. She wanted 'just a little taste' of what her husband was doing. This despite the fact that she had never been on a motorcycle before. I think she was with them for like a week out of the three month trip. I noticed that it seemed to be the bit of arsenic that poisons babies milk. It seemed to really upset Charley Boorman and put a bit of a wedge in the 'buddy film' type of thing. Boorman attempted to make it a bit lighthearted and all of that but it was obvious (well to some of us) that it really upset him. I can see where Mrs. McGregor was coming from but after seeing what it did to the series, it made me want to say "Get yer own series ya selfish bitch!". Seriously though, it probably would be nifty if the McGregor family was to go on a different bike tour as a family - don't mess with a winning interesting dynamic. Looking at the IMDB scores, the majority of people liked the second show series (down as opposed to round) less well than the first. I wonder if they also blame Mrs. McGregor?

40 Days To Go

Forty days to go!



MORE DEAD HOOKERS

Well, actually, live ones. After reading another blog, a buddy of mine sent me this link for a bit more on where sex is. Sex tourism is a big, big industry!

For those asking me, no, I will not be taking photos in the racy places. Reason - whores come out and break your camera. A lot of them are not wanting to be part of my blog (or the internet as a whole) for some damned reason. It could be that they are 'part timing' it - they are also wives, daughters, married, etc. So, they're not thrilled about having their pictures taken. "What's mommy doing in her bathing suit?" Awkward.



STANDBY

Another perfectly good plan ruined by evil airlines. I am so bored that I called up the airline and asked them "How does standby work? I have a ticket for the end of March. If I was to show up ...er... tomorrow and wait, could I get a flight?

They said no.

Standby flights are (now) only for the day you were going to fly out on anyway. And they charge you an extra $50 for the pleasure of getting to fly slightly earlier.

Boy, that sucks. I am old enough to remember the 'good old days' when you could just show up and loiter about the airport hoping for a dirt cheap flight. No more.

So, in desperation (I am really going ape shit with boredom) I checked on flights to Morocco. A bit over a grand. Gack! It is appearing I am stuck in this dead town until my regularly scheduled flight outta here. Yes, I can spend another $800 to get to Spain, but not thrilled about that cost.

My plan was to go somewhere else and hang out till the 'group meet up' day got closer then go to London. But money is keeping me from that. Sucks. I'm probably going to have to suck it up for another month. If was was wealthy, I'd ditch the states tonight.



BISCUIT

There I was, floating an air biscuit while meeting the Queen telling her I was just waiting for my mail order bride. When suddenly, I had a shart. <<< What the hell was I thinking about here? Left this in because it shows clear signs of mental instability. If I ever get convicted of a crime and need to plead insanity, consider this kind of crap that I'm laying my groundwork early.



PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Women have it much rougher than men on public transportation. If they don't want anyone to sit in the seat they have next to them, they have to put stuff on it. Men just grin and pat the seat next to them.



PONDERINGS

I wonder about these things, too.



LIBYA

Well, it looks as though Libya is starting to have riots of their own. Apparently the 'president elect for life and you get shot if you don't love that' is able to draw upon money and use that to throw at the problems. Plus, he has a much smaller population than Egypt. This makes it easier to control. I'm not sure if him being over thrown would be a good thing or bad thing to me. Remember that any time someone gets over thrown, they can always be replaced with someone worse. Although Libya wasn't anywhere near the top of the 'places Logan is planning on traveling, it is another one I will be watching with interest.



IRAN

Well, in my wanderings to the coffee shop that is my social outlet I met a couple nice folks from Iran. I had asked what language they were guessing, thought Farsi, said Hebrew. I am fail. Anyway, we got to talking. They were pretty excited about their country and even volunteered to send me some tourist information about it. Unfortunately, Iran has three major things working against it.

1. The only way to get a 'tourist visa' is to a) be with an established tour group and b) the tour group has to submit their entire itinerary in advance and you actually have to be where it says you will be. This isn't fitting in too well with my plans on how I'm wanting to do tourist stuff - I want flexibility. If something is dull, I want the ability to move on quickly - if something is interesting, I want to stay for a week or two checking it out.

2. They seem to be experiencing the same 'Arabic uprising' (so to speak though theirs is called the 'Green Movement'. So, pretty much it's looking like another 'big riot waiting to happen' - or has been happening.

3. Although the people might like Americans, I'm not seeing a lot of reason for the Iranian government to be overly friendly to us.

If those two were any indication of the rest of their country, the folks are friendly and interesting. Hum. Looking at it the other way, if people in different countries think I am an indication of America, they may wage war on us. Probably not good. I did warn them if they read my blog they might think I was completely insane. People who don't know me well may think I am pandering to the lowest common denominator. People who do know me well say "No, he is the lowest common denominator."

They seemed interesting. I hope their government 'loosens up' after the current rebellion gets done - I'd like to see the country and meet the people. They've got a lot of history in there too. In the past, I've been to an Arabic country and would like to go to more. I hope things get resolved...



AIRLINES

I was telling someone that since airline tickets one way are actually more expensive than round trip that I suspected the people who actually price the airline tickets are suffering from some sort of OCD. They like to make sure they put everyone back where they got them from in the first place.



GAMING

One of the things mentioned to me is that I will have to build up new routines once I start traveling. My current routines (in addition to being now unbearably boring) are going to be changing wildly once I start to travel. Heck, they're already starting to change now.