Monday, November 22, 2004
Asia Photos
If you go to the link at the side for "My Webshots Pics" you can view pictures from my Asia trip.
Asia Trip
I left Toronto, Ontario on October 17th to for a trip to Laos and Vietnam. We left late evening around 9:00 PM for an over-night flight. All night flights are usually dreaded, and after flying all night we landed the next morning in Budapest, Hungary for a rest stop. Lonnie was the other pilot, and Jon Bell was the mechanic. After dinner at a nice restaurant (I tried local cuisine - goose liver) we hit the sack.
The next day we didn't do much. I walked around town for a bit and had a big lunch. It was brought out with a slab of meat on a hot stone, and you sliced it there and cooked it on the stone as you ate. It was great - each bite was fresh! Afterward I went and tried to catch some Z's for the next dreaded night flight. We left that night late so we could arrive at Luang Phabang, Laos at 7:30 in the morning.
When we arrived it was all fogged in with a fairly heavy cloud layer at around 600 feet. Since the airport is surrounded by mountains and the approach was a non-precision approach with very high minimums we could not see the runway with the EVS. We shot one approach and held for about 30 minutes to see if it would clear up and then tried again, but it was useless. By this time we needed to go to our alternate at the capital city of Laos (Vientiane) because we were running low on fuel and were also out of crew duty time. We were very tired and ready to get on the ground. While holding at Luang Phabang we talked to the agent to see if we could go to Thailand, which is what the pax would have preferred, but there was no way without the proper advance notice for permits. We ended up shooting an approach close to minimums and landing at Vientiane. They were not expecting us, but the agent had things arranged already, and it went pretty well. We got a bite to eat and crashed most of the day.
The next morning we didn't leave real early so the morning fog would be cleared and when we did get there it was very hazy the visibility was very poor, and there is no way we could have gotten in without EVS. The EVS saved our day this time, and that felt good after the disappointment of not getting in the day before with it.
We felt pretty good after sleeping (as good as one can feel with an 11 hour time change) and arranged to have a driver and van take us around to see some of the local sights. We visited several Buddhist temples and learned some things about the local culture. We also went to see a waterfall about a 45 minute drive away. When we returned we walked down the main street where a street market is set up each evening. There were a lot of wares and food for sale, including tourist items, but I did not buy anything. The town was not very large, but there were more tourists there than at Vientiane. I guess the temples brought more people. The hotel was quite meager (no TV, etc.), but was comfortable and had mosquito nets over the beds. It reminded me of some of the Africa hotels I used to stay at. I did listen to my shortwave radio for the news etc. and had some of the best papayas I have ever had. They were delicious. The restaurant was also very good. We had dinner with our handler.
The next morning we got up at 6:00AM to watch the procession of the monks. They have orange robes on and no shoes and walk in a line down the street each morning with pots in their robes, and as they approach and they see one has something to give them they open the lid and you deposit food for them. It is usually a ball of rice or some other food wrapped in a leaf. Before they arrive local women come around and try to sell things so you have something to give them. They all come in a line and walk around the streets collecting these things. This happens each day and that is how they get their food to live. If a family is too poor to raise a boy, they give him to the temples to be monks and then they will have food to eat etc. It was quite fascinating. When the first ones get their pots full they leave the lids closed and the ones behind get the offerings. When they get back they share all their things. In the evening when we went by the one temple we heard some monks chanting prayers - also quite interesting.
After we saw that we headed out to the airport and got ready for the flight. We flew the short hop to Hanoi, Vietnam today and went to our hotel (the Hilton) with our handler. He grew up in the US and has an amazing story. He was born in a helicopter, and his father was an officer for the south and was killed in the war. His mother worked for the US embassy and the last night they could go to get evacuated they didn't make it on the airplane. They were going to leave the next morning – the day the last flights left. They rode up on a motorcycle taxi (driver, his mother, brother, sister, and himself). His mother talked about trying to sneak back and find more family (his grandparents etc), and he told her not to leave. They were shooting people on sight after curfew, and but when he awoke he in the morning his mother was missing, along with his baby sister. He was 7 years old and was alone with his 6 year old brother. He showed us a scar on his leg where he got burned that night on the motorcycle. He was pushed with the crowd onto a military plane with his brother and shuffled through Guam and the Philippines, and finally ended up in California. The government found some relatives of his there and he and his brother were raised by that family. He thought his mother and sister were dead and his relatives told him to never trust another Vietnamese person and to never speak another work of Vietnamese. He completely lost the language and grew up in fear of the Viet Cong etc. and didn't trust anyone from Vietnam. In his last year at university he got a call from someone in Canada who said he knew about his mother etc. and Tony refused to call him back or talk to him - still terrified of who might be looking for him. The next morning at 4:00AM he got a call from a person that said she was his mother. It is quite emotional listening to him tell the story. There is a documentary written about it along with a few more similar stories which I do want to try to find. His mother had tried to get back the next morning and all the roads were blocked and they weren’t letting anybody through. She went through the re-education program they had and had a choice of clearing land mines or doing other road building etc. and some lived through it and others didn’t make it. She lived through it and later got a job in a travel agency, and whenever she found anybody that was going or coming from the US she told them she would not charge them anything if they looked for her children. She gave them all a name and a picture, and after 16 years she happened to find somebody that said – “I think I might know who he is”. He and his brother ended up moving back to Vietnam, but his brother only stayed one year and couldn't take it anymore. He got tired of the constant monitoring by the authorities and the questioning etc. His mother had told the authorities she only had one daughter because she was concerned for her sons safety if they knew she had sons in the US, so when they showed up at her house she had some explaining to do. Now the monitoring is not quite as bad he says, but he continues to be watched and they let him know he is monitored. Not long ago they asked him why he left the country 3 times last year - just to let him know they are watching him and know how often he was gone. He has since bought the company his mother worked for and now he has a business with about 30 employees doing travel services for tourists etc. His sister that was with his mother that night was also with him the whole time and works for the business. He has learned Vietnamese again and has been living in the country now for 12 years. He will never give up his US passport he says, but plans to stay with his family and make Vietnam his home. His brother comes to visit, but his mother and sister have never been to the US. He is a perfect agent for Air Routing. He knows the US culture and language as well as the Vietnamese. He is at home in both worlds. Anyway it is an amazing story. The other incredible thing is he seems to harbor no ill feelings. A truly incredible guy. He sees things differently then he did before now that he lives in Vietnam. Living somewhere will do that - make one realize how much was misunderstood before. Not that he agrees with it, just understands it better. Oh the horrors of all wars!!!!
Seeing the traffic in Hanoi was quite an n experience. We were astounded. The motorcycle handlebars were literally a few inches away from our van, and we were right on top of the ones in front. It appeared to be total chaos. There are 1.3 million motorbikes in Hanoi alone. For locals the maximum size is 100CC since that's all the police have. Mix the bicycles, the pedestrians, buses, vans, motorbikes, and other travel means and everything looks unorganized. There seemed to be no order - but somehow it worked. There was a method to the madness we later saw, but it sure was different than what we were used to. Horns were blaring all the time, but they didn't faze anyone - just a signal announcing someone was there. Everything moved en masse - nobody looked back or too far to the side - only straight ahead. You watched the guy in front did what you needed to not hit him. We stood and watched motorcycles come from a side street (whole families on them – the most I saw was 5 people on one 100CC motorbike) - and all the bikes came into the flow on the overcrowded street without ever looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic. They just pulled into the flow and the others gave them space. It was incredible. We would have pulled up and said "we'll never get out here". If you don't look you won't need to say that next time! The first time we followed Lowell (the MCC'er) into the traffic circle that was full of this mix and started walking directly across it we were pretty wide-eyed. This circle was about four lanes wide and was full of this moving mass of vehicles with horns blaring and movement everywhere, and we walked right through it to the other side. We just didn’t look back! By the time we left that was one of the more fun things to do. It amazed me every time. There were no traffic signals, and the crossroads worked the same way – people never stopped and just weaved through each other.
We stayed at the Hilton Opera Hanoi. They didn't want to call it the Hanoi Hilton. We did visit the Hanoi Hilton (old war prison), and saw the history of that facility. American POW's were kept there to keep the US from bombing downtown Hanoi, but most of the museum today is devoted to the time it was used by the French to house Vietnamese prisoners. It has a very gory history, and some old guillotines are still displayed. There was a small display of the US prisoners with pictures of John McCain etc. Talk about rewriting history. It never mentioned the civil war aspect of the conflict but talked about the unprovoked attacks of the US etc. and showed pictures about how well the POW’s were treated. From what I read - it was a real country club for the US soldiers. I 'm surprised they even wanted to leave at the end of the war. I asked our young guide if that was a realistic representation of how the US soldiers were treated and he assured me it was. That has been taught in the schools ever since. Later in talking with Tony he was telling us how that interpretation would have to be given by licensed guides. All guides need to be licensed and they are told what to say. Our guide was one of his employees – he has to hire licensed guides. This made me think again about the saying: “the first casualty of war is truth". We also saw other signs of the war, and visited an old B52 wreckage in an old stagnant pond in the middle of town. It used to be in the rice fields, but the city has since grown around it – but the wreckage is kept as a monument.
.
Sunday morning I went to the International Church that meets in a hotel in Hanoi. It was a neat experience. It was a combination Catholic/Lutheran/Orthodox/Mennonite church. It was the first time I read the litany for the service from the Apocrypha. It was an enjoyable service. After church I rode with Lowell on his motorbike to meet Lonnie and Jon and have lunch with them. I didn't want to impose on Lowell and Ruth Jantzi, but they got my email from Larry and Sherry Groff and emailed me. Ruth just had eye surgery a few days ago in Thailand and was resting, but we had a great time with Lowell. After lunch he took us to a village where they make ceramic pottery etc. for many centuries. It has been passed down for many generations and the whole village is noted for that. They are quite the artists. Lowell said he knows the person that Ten Thousand Villages buys their products from, and asked if we wanted to see if he was around. We went to his shop and found him. He has a nice shop and took us in for a drink of water and showed us around. There were people working there and we saw them hand painting vases (truly amazing), and making the pottery and putting it into the kiln. Then he took us to his local store and showed us around the old village - through the narrow alleys etc. We saw many small shops and people making pottery etc. He also took us to his house and showed it to us. He is the 18th generation that is doing this in his family. It was a very informative and rewarding afternoon. - being able to see the “real" story - not just the tourist side. Lowell enjoyed it too, since he had never had a tour and seen those things before.
That evening we went to see the water puppet show which Lonnie had heard about. He heard more about it from us afterwards - we gave him a hard time. I don't need to see that again.
We walked around the market streets on Monday and spent some time in the downtown area. They have an area where all the vendors do the same thing on each street. It was interesting. There will be a few streets with shoe shops – shop after shop that sell nothing but shoes. Another street will have welding shops, another cookware, and the list goes on. All the shops selling a specific product will be on the same street.
In the evening Tony (our agent) took us to a snake restaurant. That was some experience. They took a live King Cobra that he picked out and weighed it. It was hissing and upset and they took a knife and drained some of the venom - you could see it squirting on the floor. Then they sliced it behind the head and one person held the tail up and they drained all the blood into a container. They also took a turtle and slaughtered it in front of us and drained fluids from it. They put it into the pots and then we went up to the table and they started serving us a 10-course meal. They brought up the blood in mixed with some whiskey and another green colored alcohol mixed drink. I tasted it, but that is all I could stomach. Tony wouldn't tell us till the end what it was, but I suspected the green stuff was bile, and I found out I was right. It was turtle bile - pretty gross. The other stuff was the snake blood of course. They also brought up the snake heart on a platter, and it continued to beat on the table in front of us. I thought they were going to eat that raw, but they took it alway after 10 or 15 minutes.
After that they brought up 10 courses of snake and turtle meat. There were probably about 7 snake and 3 turtle dishes. They had meat made many different ways, some stews, spring roll type foods, and even snake bone ground up and served with seasoning. I ate everything and I was full when I left, but I probably won't need to do that another time. Some of it tasted pretty good. It tasted a bit like calamari and had a similar texture as calamari. It is considered a real delicacy in Vietnam. Before we went Lonnie (who is a pretty adventurous eater) was looking forward to it, but when he saw the preparation and we started with the blood etc he got pretty grossed out and hardly ate anything. The surprising thing is Jon was all grossed out before we ever went and said he is not going to eat anything, but when we got there he gorged himself with the food. It was an interesting twist.
Lonnie and I also wanted to try dog meat which is a real delicacy there, but we didn't get an opportunity before we left. Jon said he will not try it, but I think we could have talked him into it. They also eat cat.
That evening Lowell came to our hotel and dropped off a gift (coffee mugs made by our village host for the MCC 50-year celebration), and I talked with him a while. He really seemed to enjoy doing something with us, and I really enjoyed the experiences I had with him. We went to bed early for the long flight back the next day.
We left for home on the morning of the 26th and flew over most of the same countries we did going east. (Myanmar, India, Russia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, some other “stans”, plus about 8 more). Surprisingly the worst communication during the whole trip seemed to be over Afghanistan - what's up wit h that. We thought they would have good equipment installed. We had to use meters for altitudes for some of the countries and some had maximum altitudes which used more fuel and made us have to go slower than we wanted to. Because of that plus the headwinds we had to fly at Mach .80 the entire leg. We flew over 12.5 hours before we landed at Copenhagen, Denmark. Communication was a challenge in several countries, and we had to relay through other aircraft several times.
After landing at Copenhagen we put the airplane to bed as quickly as possible and went to the Marriott hotel for a rest. We got up the next morning to leave on another 10 hour leg and flew to Nassau, Bahamas where we got off and another crew took over. We had a passenger to pickup and then they were headed for San Diego. It would have been closer to go to San Diego around the other side of the world, but they wanted to stop at Nassau to pick someone up so we came back west. I would have liked to continue on from Asia and fly around the world instead of coming back the way we came. The new crew took the aircraft and we rode the Falcon back to Sarasota. We were all very tired and slept on the way to Sarasota. I got a room that night since it was it was too late to catch a flight home and then left for home the next morning. I was very tired when I got to the hotel.
It was a very good trip, and I especially enjoyed it since I was never in Asia before.
The next day we didn't do much. I walked around town for a bit and had a big lunch. It was brought out with a slab of meat on a hot stone, and you sliced it there and cooked it on the stone as you ate. It was great - each bite was fresh! Afterward I went and tried to catch some Z's for the next dreaded night flight. We left that night late so we could arrive at Luang Phabang, Laos at 7:30 in the morning.
When we arrived it was all fogged in with a fairly heavy cloud layer at around 600 feet. Since the airport is surrounded by mountains and the approach was a non-precision approach with very high minimums we could not see the runway with the EVS. We shot one approach and held for about 30 minutes to see if it would clear up and then tried again, but it was useless. By this time we needed to go to our alternate at the capital city of Laos (Vientiane) because we were running low on fuel and were also out of crew duty time. We were very tired and ready to get on the ground. While holding at Luang Phabang we talked to the agent to see if we could go to Thailand, which is what the pax would have preferred, but there was no way without the proper advance notice for permits. We ended up shooting an approach close to minimums and landing at Vientiane. They were not expecting us, but the agent had things arranged already, and it went pretty well. We got a bite to eat and crashed most of the day.
The next morning we didn't leave real early so the morning fog would be cleared and when we did get there it was very hazy the visibility was very poor, and there is no way we could have gotten in without EVS. The EVS saved our day this time, and that felt good after the disappointment of not getting in the day before with it.
We felt pretty good after sleeping (as good as one can feel with an 11 hour time change) and arranged to have a driver and van take us around to see some of the local sights. We visited several Buddhist temples and learned some things about the local culture. We also went to see a waterfall about a 45 minute drive away. When we returned we walked down the main street where a street market is set up each evening. There were a lot of wares and food for sale, including tourist items, but I did not buy anything. The town was not very large, but there were more tourists there than at Vientiane. I guess the temples brought more people. The hotel was quite meager (no TV, etc.), but was comfortable and had mosquito nets over the beds. It reminded me of some of the Africa hotels I used to stay at. I did listen to my shortwave radio for the news etc. and had some of the best papayas I have ever had. They were delicious. The restaurant was also very good. We had dinner with our handler.
The next morning we got up at 6:00AM to watch the procession of the monks. They have orange robes on and no shoes and walk in a line down the street each morning with pots in their robes, and as they approach and they see one has something to give them they open the lid and you deposit food for them. It is usually a ball of rice or some other food wrapped in a leaf. Before they arrive local women come around and try to sell things so you have something to give them. They all come in a line and walk around the streets collecting these things. This happens each day and that is how they get their food to live. If a family is too poor to raise a boy, they give him to the temples to be monks and then they will have food to eat etc. It was quite fascinating. When the first ones get their pots full they leave the lids closed and the ones behind get the offerings. When they get back they share all their things. In the evening when we went by the one temple we heard some monks chanting prayers - also quite interesting.
After we saw that we headed out to the airport and got ready for the flight. We flew the short hop to Hanoi, Vietnam today and went to our hotel (the Hilton) with our handler. He grew up in the US and has an amazing story. He was born in a helicopter, and his father was an officer for the south and was killed in the war. His mother worked for the US embassy and the last night they could go to get evacuated they didn't make it on the airplane. They were going to leave the next morning – the day the last flights left. They rode up on a motorcycle taxi (driver, his mother, brother, sister, and himself). His mother talked about trying to sneak back and find more family (his grandparents etc), and he told her not to leave. They were shooting people on sight after curfew, and but when he awoke he in the morning his mother was missing, along with his baby sister. He was 7 years old and was alone with his 6 year old brother. He showed us a scar on his leg where he got burned that night on the motorcycle. He was pushed with the crowd onto a military plane with his brother and shuffled through Guam and the Philippines, and finally ended up in California. The government found some relatives of his there and he and his brother were raised by that family. He thought his mother and sister were dead and his relatives told him to never trust another Vietnamese person and to never speak another work of Vietnamese. He completely lost the language and grew up in fear of the Viet Cong etc. and didn't trust anyone from Vietnam. In his last year at university he got a call from someone in Canada who said he knew about his mother etc. and Tony refused to call him back or talk to him - still terrified of who might be looking for him. The next morning at 4:00AM he got a call from a person that said she was his mother. It is quite emotional listening to him tell the story. There is a documentary written about it along with a few more similar stories which I do want to try to find. His mother had tried to get back the next morning and all the roads were blocked and they weren’t letting anybody through. She went through the re-education program they had and had a choice of clearing land mines or doing other road building etc. and some lived through it and others didn’t make it. She lived through it and later got a job in a travel agency, and whenever she found anybody that was going or coming from the US she told them she would not charge them anything if they looked for her children. She gave them all a name and a picture, and after 16 years she happened to find somebody that said – “I think I might know who he is”. He and his brother ended up moving back to Vietnam, but his brother only stayed one year and couldn't take it anymore. He got tired of the constant monitoring by the authorities and the questioning etc. His mother had told the authorities she only had one daughter because she was concerned for her sons safety if they knew she had sons in the US, so when they showed up at her house she had some explaining to do. Now the monitoring is not quite as bad he says, but he continues to be watched and they let him know he is monitored. Not long ago they asked him why he left the country 3 times last year - just to let him know they are watching him and know how often he was gone. He has since bought the company his mother worked for and now he has a business with about 30 employees doing travel services for tourists etc. His sister that was with his mother that night was also with him the whole time and works for the business. He has learned Vietnamese again and has been living in the country now for 12 years. He will never give up his US passport he says, but plans to stay with his family and make Vietnam his home. His brother comes to visit, but his mother and sister have never been to the US. He is a perfect agent for Air Routing. He knows the US culture and language as well as the Vietnamese. He is at home in both worlds. Anyway it is an amazing story. The other incredible thing is he seems to harbor no ill feelings. A truly incredible guy. He sees things differently then he did before now that he lives in Vietnam. Living somewhere will do that - make one realize how much was misunderstood before. Not that he agrees with it, just understands it better. Oh the horrors of all wars!!!!
Seeing the traffic in Hanoi was quite an n experience. We were astounded. The motorcycle handlebars were literally a few inches away from our van, and we were right on top of the ones in front. It appeared to be total chaos. There are 1.3 million motorbikes in Hanoi alone. For locals the maximum size is 100CC since that's all the police have. Mix the bicycles, the pedestrians, buses, vans, motorbikes, and other travel means and everything looks unorganized. There seemed to be no order - but somehow it worked. There was a method to the madness we later saw, but it sure was different than what we were used to. Horns were blaring all the time, but they didn't faze anyone - just a signal announcing someone was there. Everything moved en masse - nobody looked back or too far to the side - only straight ahead. You watched the guy in front did what you needed to not hit him. We stood and watched motorcycles come from a side street (whole families on them – the most I saw was 5 people on one 100CC motorbike) - and all the bikes came into the flow on the overcrowded street without ever looking in the direction of the oncoming traffic. They just pulled into the flow and the others gave them space. It was incredible. We would have pulled up and said "we'll never get out here". If you don't look you won't need to say that next time! The first time we followed Lowell (the MCC'er) into the traffic circle that was full of this mix and started walking directly across it we were pretty wide-eyed. This circle was about four lanes wide and was full of this moving mass of vehicles with horns blaring and movement everywhere, and we walked right through it to the other side. We just didn’t look back! By the time we left that was one of the more fun things to do. It amazed me every time. There were no traffic signals, and the crossroads worked the same way – people never stopped and just weaved through each other.
We stayed at the Hilton Opera Hanoi. They didn't want to call it the Hanoi Hilton. We did visit the Hanoi Hilton (old war prison), and saw the history of that facility. American POW's were kept there to keep the US from bombing downtown Hanoi, but most of the museum today is devoted to the time it was used by the French to house Vietnamese prisoners. It has a very gory history, and some old guillotines are still displayed. There was a small display of the US prisoners with pictures of John McCain etc. Talk about rewriting history. It never mentioned the civil war aspect of the conflict but talked about the unprovoked attacks of the US etc. and showed pictures about how well the POW’s were treated. From what I read - it was a real country club for the US soldiers. I 'm surprised they even wanted to leave at the end of the war. I asked our young guide if that was a realistic representation of how the US soldiers were treated and he assured me it was. That has been taught in the schools ever since. Later in talking with Tony he was telling us how that interpretation would have to be given by licensed guides. All guides need to be licensed and they are told what to say. Our guide was one of his employees – he has to hire licensed guides. This made me think again about the saying: “the first casualty of war is truth". We also saw other signs of the war, and visited an old B52 wreckage in an old stagnant pond in the middle of town. It used to be in the rice fields, but the city has since grown around it – but the wreckage is kept as a monument.
.
Sunday morning I went to the International Church that meets in a hotel in Hanoi. It was a neat experience. It was a combination Catholic/Lutheran/Orthodox/Mennonite church. It was the first time I read the litany for the service from the Apocrypha. It was an enjoyable service. After church I rode with Lowell on his motorbike to meet Lonnie and Jon and have lunch with them. I didn't want to impose on Lowell and Ruth Jantzi, but they got my email from Larry and Sherry Groff and emailed me. Ruth just had eye surgery a few days ago in Thailand and was resting, but we had a great time with Lowell. After lunch he took us to a village where they make ceramic pottery etc. for many centuries. It has been passed down for many generations and the whole village is noted for that. They are quite the artists. Lowell said he knows the person that Ten Thousand Villages buys their products from, and asked if we wanted to see if he was around. We went to his shop and found him. He has a nice shop and took us in for a drink of water and showed us around. There were people working there and we saw them hand painting vases (truly amazing), and making the pottery and putting it into the kiln. Then he took us to his local store and showed us around the old village - through the narrow alleys etc. We saw many small shops and people making pottery etc. He also took us to his house and showed it to us. He is the 18th generation that is doing this in his family. It was a very informative and rewarding afternoon. - being able to see the “real" story - not just the tourist side. Lowell enjoyed it too, since he had never had a tour and seen those things before.
That evening we went to see the water puppet show which Lonnie had heard about. He heard more about it from us afterwards - we gave him a hard time. I don't need to see that again.
We walked around the market streets on Monday and spent some time in the downtown area. They have an area where all the vendors do the same thing on each street. It was interesting. There will be a few streets with shoe shops – shop after shop that sell nothing but shoes. Another street will have welding shops, another cookware, and the list goes on. All the shops selling a specific product will be on the same street.
In the evening Tony (our agent) took us to a snake restaurant. That was some experience. They took a live King Cobra that he picked out and weighed it. It was hissing and upset and they took a knife and drained some of the venom - you could see it squirting on the floor. Then they sliced it behind the head and one person held the tail up and they drained all the blood into a container. They also took a turtle and slaughtered it in front of us and drained fluids from it. They put it into the pots and then we went up to the table and they started serving us a 10-course meal. They brought up the blood in mixed with some whiskey and another green colored alcohol mixed drink. I tasted it, but that is all I could stomach. Tony wouldn't tell us till the end what it was, but I suspected the green stuff was bile, and I found out I was right. It was turtle bile - pretty gross. The other stuff was the snake blood of course. They also brought up the snake heart on a platter, and it continued to beat on the table in front of us. I thought they were going to eat that raw, but they took it alway after 10 or 15 minutes.
After that they brought up 10 courses of snake and turtle meat. There were probably about 7 snake and 3 turtle dishes. They had meat made many different ways, some stews, spring roll type foods, and even snake bone ground up and served with seasoning. I ate everything and I was full when I left, but I probably won't need to do that another time. Some of it tasted pretty good. It tasted a bit like calamari and had a similar texture as calamari. It is considered a real delicacy in Vietnam. Before we went Lonnie (who is a pretty adventurous eater) was looking forward to it, but when he saw the preparation and we started with the blood etc he got pretty grossed out and hardly ate anything. The surprising thing is Jon was all grossed out before we ever went and said he is not going to eat anything, but when we got there he gorged himself with the food. It was an interesting twist.
Lonnie and I also wanted to try dog meat which is a real delicacy there, but we didn't get an opportunity before we left. Jon said he will not try it, but I think we could have talked him into it. They also eat cat.
That evening Lowell came to our hotel and dropped off a gift (coffee mugs made by our village host for the MCC 50-year celebration), and I talked with him a while. He really seemed to enjoy doing something with us, and I really enjoyed the experiences I had with him. We went to bed early for the long flight back the next day.
We left for home on the morning of the 26th and flew over most of the same countries we did going east. (Myanmar, India, Russia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, some other “stans”, plus about 8 more). Surprisingly the worst communication during the whole trip seemed to be over Afghanistan - what's up wit h that. We thought they would have good equipment installed. We had to use meters for altitudes for some of the countries and some had maximum altitudes which used more fuel and made us have to go slower than we wanted to. Because of that plus the headwinds we had to fly at Mach .80 the entire leg. We flew over 12.5 hours before we landed at Copenhagen, Denmark. Communication was a challenge in several countries, and we had to relay through other aircraft several times.
After landing at Copenhagen we put the airplane to bed as quickly as possible and went to the Marriott hotel for a rest. We got up the next morning to leave on another 10 hour leg and flew to Nassau, Bahamas where we got off and another crew took over. We had a passenger to pickup and then they were headed for San Diego. It would have been closer to go to San Diego around the other side of the world, but they wanted to stop at Nassau to pick someone up so we came back west. I would have liked to continue on from Asia and fly around the world instead of coming back the way we came. The new crew took the aircraft and we rode the Falcon back to Sarasota. We were all very tired and slept on the way to Sarasota. I got a room that night since it was it was too late to catch a flight home and then left for home the next morning. I was very tired when I got to the hotel.
It was a very good trip, and I especially enjoyed it since I was never in Asia before.
Paris, London Trip
I left from Toronto, Ontario for Paris France on Septemeber 24th and stayed there until September 3oth when we flew to London. I did not do a lot in Paris, even though I went into downtown on the subway several times for dinner or lunch. I also took a tour around town one day. In London I did go see the Duxford Aviation Museum which was interesting. We then flew back to Canada on October 3rd.
Hurricane Ivan - Cayman Islands
I spent the time from 13th September to 19th September ferrying supplies to the Cayman Islands devastated by Hurricane Ivan. We took in load after load of water, medince, generators, food and other supplies. On the return trips we brought people out that were wanting to get off the island. They were taken to Nassau, Bahamas or Houston, Texas. Some of the people we first took to Nassau had to be moved out later because of Jeanne (another hurricane) approaching. We were one of the first aircraft into the Cayman Islands after the hurricane and the devestation was incredible, even though for some reason it was not mentioned in the news very much.
It was also rewarding bringing in Kentucky Fried chicken, cold fruit and drinks and other food that was welcomed by the airport workers. There were tears flowing at times when they received the food. The helpfulness of the staff for unloading freight etc. was amazing.
It was also rewarding bringing in Kentucky Fried chicken, cold fruit and drinks and other food that was welcomed by the airport workers. There were tears flowing at times when they received the food. The helpfulness of the staff for unloading freight etc. was amazing.
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