Hamburg ist Schön

Hamburg - at least in late spring, is a lovely city. I had driven through some years ago, but had never spent any time in the city. I spent the last weekend in May there, and while I was on business, I did have some time to see some of the sights.

I took a train from Arnhem, Netherlands and the trip was about 5 hours each way. The weather was great, and the scenery across Germany was perfect. Lots of green farmland. It was a holiday weekend, and the train was packed - at first I had to sit on the floor in the bicycle compartment - but after a while a seat opened up and I read a book during the long trip.

I arrived in the early afternoon, and I took a cab to the hotel. I got to practice my German a bit (I had spoken for a bit with someone earlier when I ordered bratwurst for lunch) and it went generally OK. I had a bit of trouble checking in, though. I was speaking, and I thought the person checking me in asked if I had been there before. I shook my head "No", and she looked confused. What she was actually doing was welcoming me. As I tell people sometimes "Miss a verb here and a noun there, and pretty soon you don't know what the heck anyone is saying."

After checking in, I met up with my colleague Terry Kennon. We had a dinner engagement outside of the city, but we had some time so we took a stroll and had a look around. The architecture was quite impressive, but what really stood out is the amount of water in the city. There are lots of canals - I learned that there are more bridges than in Amsterdam and Venice put together - and also a couple of large artificial lakes.

We killed some time walking around, but when it was time for dinner we hopped in a cab. I gave the cab driver directions in German, and after a bit of back and forth he understood where we needed to go. We were headed outside of the city to an area called Nienstedten, overlooking the Elbe River. At one point I noticed that we were driving on the infamous Reeperbahn, although I didn't see any of the things the street is famous for.

We had a nice meal while watching the steady ship traffic on the Elbe. I got to practice my German a bit more, and we talked about energy, politics, peak oil, and the weather in Hamburg. Several of us had just come from the U.S. and were jet-lagged, so we finally called it an evening at about 10 p.m.

Several times in Europe I have run across pleasant surprises. The following day, Sunday the 31st, was such an occasion. Terry and I went out exploring again. I showed him how I use Google maps on my Blackberry for navigation. Without worrying about getting lost, we went exploring. We first walked along the artifical lakes (the Aussenalster and Binnenalster). The weather was great, and there were lots of people in and around the lakes. I was kicking myself for not having a camera.

There was a large area of green on the map, so we headed toward it. Turns out it it was a very large park, and right in the middle of it was the Hamburg Botanical Garden. It was really impressive. There were a number of rooms for tropical plants (very warm and humid), and one was full of thriving banana trees. I had never seen the blooms on banana trees before, but there were beautiful pink/purple blooms, along with tiny bananas on some of these trees. There was also an area for desert plants, and I have never seen so many cactuses in my life. There were all shapes and sizes, and they had some of the biggest aloe plants I had ever seen.

After enjoying that (free!) garden, we headed back toward the hotel. But we had another surprise. We thought we were going to walk along a traffic filled road all the way, but we spotted one of those car-free pedestrian areas that just happened to be a shortcut. Terry enjoyed that a lot and took some pictures. We were hungry, so we stopped at a little Italian place and had a meal outside. One funny thing was that most of the restaurants were preceded by "Hamburger." So I kept looking up and thinking I was looking at a hamburger joint.

After lunch, I walked back over to the central train station to catch my train back to Arnhem. One thing I have to remember in the future is that not all of those trains are air conditioned, and I spent a very hot Sunday afternoon coming back. I just about got dehydrated on the train. Next time I have to leave earlier in the day - or take plenty of water along with me.

Iceland and Greenland

I flew back from Amsterdam to Dallas on Friday, July 18th. I have to say, summer brings out the worst in people. I never saw so much line-jumping as took place when I was waiting to clear passport control, security, and then getting on the plane. Line-jumpers in each case, and at passport control, people were actually bypassing the line altogether for the security check and going straight to passport control. Security was a bit lax. I waited in line for 15 minutes only to have someone walk right to front of the line. When I was waiting for the security check, an elderly Chinese couple was carried by cart to the line, where they promptly walked right up to the front. They did the same when we got on the plane; walked right to the front. Must be the tourist season, as I haven't seen it like this before.

Anyway, that's a digression. Every time I fly back and forth to Europe, I always sit on the north side of the plane. The reason for that is that I love to get a glimpse of Greenland if we fly close enough, and the weather was clear. On 7/18/08, I flew back from Amsterdam to Dallas, and not only was Greenland quite visible, but for the first time I could clearly see Iceland from the plane. Mark James, another person traveling on the same flight was taking some pictures, and I asked him if he could send me some copies (I had left my camera in Europe). Below are the pictures from the window of the plane, and they are impressive. The display said we were at 34,000 feet, but it seemed that we were much lower than that.

Vestmannaeyjabær off the Southern Coast of Iceland.

Credit for all Photos to Mark James



Icebergs off the Eastern Coast of Greenland



The Eastern Coast of Greenland



The Southern Coast of Iceland

I spotted that town off of Iceland from the air, and looked it up. It is Vestmannaeyjabær. You can see some pictures of it from the ground here: http://www.world-geographics.com/europe/iceland/south-1755/3412095-vestmannaeyjabr.html

India Part II

Day 3, Sunday, March 16 - I woke up a few times during the night and smelled garbage coming in through the air conditioner vent. I guess this happened when the wind shifted and came in from Bombay. Twenty million people must create quite a garbage dump. I also woke up with my face itching, so I slapped it in case a mosquito was biting me. Sure enough, I woke up with a bloody – but hopefully malaria free – mosquito squashed to the side of my face.

We had a leisurely breakfast and talked about politics and energy. Breakfast, by the way, included some spicy things which I mostly avoided. One thing that was hard to get used to was that people were constantly jumping up and getting me food. Someone would ask if I had tried something, and when I said "No" they would jump up and get it for me.

We talked about their impressions of the West, and my impressions so far of India. I learned that most people in India view everyone in the West as being rich. I said that I suppose it is relative: They would be rich relative to them. It is the same as when I was a kid. Rich was anyone with more money than us.

The energy discussion revolved around jatropha and ethanol. Jatropha is very interesting, because the West has high hopes for the potential of jatropha to provide biofuel. The problem is - as was explained to me - that all of the fertile land is being used, and there are no roads or infrastructure to the marginal land. Everywhere we went, jatropha was like a myth: Everyone knew a little about it, but nobody had seen it or could tell us where to find it.

After lunch, Kapil and I took a walk down the road. Everywhere we went, there was trash beside the road. Waste management has got to be a challenge with that many people. As we were walking, we passed a number of those sacred Hindu cattle. They were really small, and I wanted to get a picture for perspective. Kapil got his camera out, and a cow came up to me expecting food. When she figured out I didn't have any, she hooked her horn under my Blackberry and flipped it into the road. Then she hit me in the arm with her horn. After considering a steer-wrestling move, I shooed her away. But there was a bull right behind her and he came in looking for food. I put out my arm to stop him from doing the same thing she had just done. Kapil snapped some pictures of this.

On the way back, Kapil pointed out some natural beehives that were just hanging off of buildings. There were numerous clusters just hanging in a semicircle formation. (I later retrieved my camera and took some pictures).

I was anxious to move on, but we found that all of the others were taking a siesta. That is common in India as in Mexico: During the heat of the day people take a nap. So Kapil and I spent some time outside discussing the future of our company, and about our personal expectations. Once Kapil left me, and the four-year-old son of one of Kapil's friends came out and started talking to me. I just kept smiling and nodding. He had a toy that he was showing me. I finally took a picture of him, and showed it to him. Then he really started cutting up.

We finally hit the road much later than planned. We were again cutting across rural India. I finally got accustomed to "the look." We were passing very close by people (and there were people everywhere) and I was on the side of the car closest to them. Someone would see me in the car, look away for a second, and then their head would snap back around to take a second, longer look. After a while, I started waving at people. Some even waved back.

The crowds were just something else. The population density of India is probably the highest of any country in the world. All night long, the crowds alongside the road were like crowds streaming out of a concert. I once caught myself asking "I wonder what happened" as I watched a huge crowd gathered in a town. Turns out nothing had happened; it was just a big crowd of people. I told Kapil that if I saw that in the U.S., it is almost certain that there has been an accident.

I saw some pretty interesting things as we drove along. I again saw four people on a motorcycle, and I told Kapil "I still haven't seen five." He pointed in front of us, and said "Look there. There's five." A second later: "No, six!" About 3 seconds later, both of us at the same time "Seven!" There were seven people piled on to a motorcycle. I snapped a picture as they drove by, but didn't get all of them.

We passed a building once that said "Fellowship Pentecostal Church." Another time, we passed a very run down building that announced "Computer Training Lessons." There were loads of barbershops in these little towns. They, like other shops, were just tiny buildings all joined together with no observable door. (I never did see any place for women to get their hair cut). I finally realized what this all reminded me of: The world's largest flea market. That's the only thing I can relate to that is similar in the West. And it struck me that this may be why all of the Indians I know seem to be such good businessmen: They grew up bargaining and doing business every day in these shops.

We finally got into our hotel late, after stopping of to meet the parents of one of Kapil's friends. It was my first time inside a house in India. Anyway, after checking into the hotel, I was anxious to get caught up on e-mails and writing. Neither my telephone nor Internet was working. It probably took them a couple of hours to get it fixed, but in the meantime I started working on this essay. I finally got to bed at 2 a.m.

Day 4, Monday, March 17 - Ah, St. Patricks Day. You wouldn't have guessed that. As soon as the sun started coming into the room, I got up. I checked the time; it was 2 a.m. Netherlands time. I had been trying to keep to Netherlands time since I have to fly back to the U.S. at the end of the week, but I am not doing a very good job of it.

I went down for breakfast, and against my better judgment had bacon. I had only had meat one other time since being in the country, so I decided to have just a tiny bit of bacon. Of course I was thinking about trichinosis as I was eating it. I also had a fruit called chikko. I had never heard of this fruit, but it was really delicious.

We had a business meeting in another town, so we were picked up. We again had a driver. I was told that it was very cheap to hire a car and driver, and after the chaos I observed on the road, I would never recommend that an American try to drive in India.

As we were driving, I finally saw an elephant standing in a town. Besides the elephant, there was again the overwhelming poverty everywhere you looked. I am not sure a Westerner can understand this without seeing it. We have poverty. We have homelessness. But we don't have anything like this. You can see it on the TV, but I think you tune it out. When you see mile after mile of it here, there is no tuning it out. At least not for me.

The crowds were as they had been everywhere else. I asked Kapil about the colorful garments of the women; whether they had any specific significance. He said no, that it just depended on their mood. But that is something that stands out: The women dress in very bright and vibrant colors. (I got my picture taken with a couple of them to show an example).

The horn honking continued. You apparently honk your horn as a warning to others. And horns are honked constantly. It has a different connotation in the West, where if someone was constantly honking at you they would probably get flipped off. Here, it is as normal as a turn signal (although turn signals were not at all normal).

Besides people, cows, and buffalo, there were also dogs everywhere. There were no breeds you would recognize; they all just looked like strays. Also, I noticed that for all of the motorcycles on the roads, almost nobody anywhere wore a helmet.

I noticed an apparent swastika on a truck on the highway. I knew that there was some Hindu symbol that looked like that, so I asked. Kapil pointed out to me that it is different than the swastika in that the lines point the opposite direction, and it predates the Nazi usage by a long, long time.

We finally got to our meeting at a fabrication shop. Again with the handshaking. I excused myself as quickly as possible to wash my hands. (As I already pointed out, this habit of mine is not limited to India; I always wash my hands as soon as I can after shaking hands). I was asked whether I wanted coffee, and I said "Yes, that would be nice." Apparently, they didn't have any coffee, because it was about an hour before it actually arrived. I presume they sent someone down the street for my coffee, which of course I wouldn't have had them do had I known.

We toured the fab shop, and I commented to Kapil that ConocoPhillips, for instance, wouldn't do business here unless a number of safety policies were implemented. There was hot work and metal work going on, but nobody was wearing safety goggles. There were kids milling about the shop. I saw frayed and bare electrical cords attached to welding machines. There was metal sticking out with sharp edges. You had to keep very alert to avoid getting hurt. And the noise was horrible. Of course, no earplugs in sight. I had to wonder about their injury statistics.

We finally concluded our meeting, and began a seven-hour drive to our next stop. As we were leaving, I noticed the familiar site of people lying in the shade outside hovels. I saw a woman picking (presumably) lice out of a young girl's hair. The youngest kids weren't wearing clothes at all. I thought about the gulf here between rich and poor. I bet that it is larger here than at any other place in the world. You have billionaires, and then millions living in horrible conditions.

Although I was really tired, I wasn't able to nap. I drifted off once for about 5 minutes, but then woke back up, afraid I would miss something. It struck me that I would be at the family farm in Oklahoma in only 5 days, as I had a return trip to the U.S. planned. That seemed a million miles away; it literally seemed like I was thinking about flying to a different planet.

As we drove, I quizzed Kapil about Indian society. He told me that life expectancy, even for educated people, lags the West. This surprised me, considering that he also told me that 70% or so of the country are vegetarians. He had told me that India is self-sufficient in food; I think this is only possible because of their diet. If they had a meat-heavy diet as we do in the West, I think the population density is too high to be self-sufficient. Then again, there are a lot of Hindu cattle wandering about.

I asked him some questions about the caste system, and he told me some of the history. We passed a migrant camp, and I posed the following question: "If a little girl is born in that camp, and she is the next Einstein, will she ever realize her destiny?" He said "Probably not, because there is no means. There isn't anything that would legally prevent her from it, but practically speaking it would be very hard."

I also noted that despite the poor conditions of many, the health of the people seemed to be quite good. I didn't see any blind or handicapped people. He said that's because the infrastructure isn't equipped to deal with them; that life for them is very hard. He said they exist, but are locked out of normal society.

I made a few more observations about the traffic. Trucks and buses just meander back and forth across the lines. The roads seem to be shared equally by all modes of transportation, but you better pay attention as you are expected to get out of the way when someone honks. I also noticed that there were no tour buses at all. Maybe there are in the big cities, but where we were, I never saw one.

We spent most of the day making our way through Gir Forest National Park. There were signs indicating all kinds of wildlife. From Wikipedia:

The count of 2,375 distinct fauna species of Gir includes about 38 species of mammals, around 300 species of birds, 37 species of reptiles and more than 2,000 species of insects. The carnivores group mainly comprises Asiatic lions, Leopards, Jungle cat, Hyenas, Jackals, Mongoose, Civet cats, and Ratels. Desert cats and Rusty-spotted cats exist but are rarely seen.

There were no towns, and finally the people had thinned out, but Kapil told me that there were still tribes in the jungle. At one point we stopped high in the mountains and had a spectacular panoramic view. It was very hazy though. There were a couple of women there also enjoying the view, and Kapil asked them if I could take a picture with them to show some traditional Indian dress. They giggled, but agreed.

We eventually arrived back in another town. Just when I didn't think I could possibly be more isolated from Western culture, I saw a guy walking down the street wearing a Dallas Cowboys t-shirt. And right after that, a pig darted out in front of us, and we managed to graze him.

We finally arrived very late to our destination in Shirdi, which was home to a very famous Hindu holy man: Sai Baba of Shirdi. There is a Hindu temple - Saibaba Temple - there dedicated to him that hosts 10 million visitors a year. Kapil said we were probably the only ones in the hotel not on a religious pilgrimage, but he did plan to take me to the temple the next day.

Day 5, Tuesday, March 18 - I woke up trying to remember where I was as my Blackberry was going off. I jumped up and got ready (the power went off for a few minute while I was getting ready) and Kapil and I had a quick breakfast. We were supposed to be taken at 9 to a sugarcane factory that produces sugar, ethanol, and several other industrial chemicals from the ethanol (acetic acid, ethyl acetate, etc.) The guy we were meeting still hadn't shown up at 9:30, so we called. He said "10 more minutes." That's something I have noticed – 10 minutes is never really 10 minutes. Time is pretty casual here. Every day our schedule slipped. It always took longer to do something than we thought.

I am going to skip over most of the factory tour, and cover it in a separate post. Just some general observations. On the way to the plant, we saw migrant workers out harvesting sugarcane by hand. It seems to me that it wouldn't be very hard to mechanize that process. It looks like brutally hot work, but then the alternative for some may be starvation.

We started the day with the Office Superintendent of the facility. We had gotten into the habit of asking everyone we ran into about jatropha. Again, same response as all of the others: They knew of jatropha, but didn't know anyone who was growing it.

As we were waiting, someone brought in drinks for us. I had been looking to Kapil to advise me of what to eat or drink, but this was hot so I drank it. It had a really odd smell, and a very sweet taste. It also was very quick to form a skin on top. I drank it, and as soon as we were alone I asked "What did I just drink?" It was coffee with buffalo milk and locally produced sugar. The buffalo milk was responsible for the odd smell.

A few notes on our plant tour. Safety is not treated at the same level as in the West. We were walking around burning hot furnaces and distillation columns, and nobody was wearing any kind of protective equipment. Once we were standing underneath a platform where people were working about 40 feet above us. None of us had a hard hat on.

Following the tour, we were taken to a room that looked like it might host a city council. There were a lot of hushed tones, and I wasn't sure what was going on. Finally, in came a local political leader. He was created with great deference. Kapil told me he was equivalent to a state senator, and that this was typical Indian hierarchical customs. He also said that some of these political guys were really nasty, but he said this guy seemed to be really nice. One odd thing is that he kept shaking his head "No" when he was agreeing. Kapil said this is normal Indian body language. I found it hard to get used to. The Indian people also seemed to have trouble with my name. Like many others, he referred to me as "Mr. Robert."

They had a welcoming ceremony for us, and I got treated to a flower necklace and a red dot of paint on my forehead. Pictures were taken, but I think I will keep those to myself. I felt very awkward during the whole thing; not quite sure what to do. This is another reason I am not a politician - I don't like ceremony too much.

Following the tour and lunch, we went to the temple. We got VIP treatment: We were taken to the front of an hours long line to pay respects to a Hindu god. I heard them call out "VIP" several times. I will keep the details private, but I did feel bad about jumping in front of all of those people. I got a number of curious stares, and a number of very cold stares. Imagine that you have been standing in line at the Vatican for three hours to see the Sistine Chapel, and in comes a foreigner who is whisked right to the front of the line.

I have a feeling we did run into one of those "nasty" politicians that Kapil was telling me about. A man came in with an entourage, and someone in my group was very deferential and stepped forward to shake his hand. The man literally rolled his eyes and acted like a pompous jerk.

We finally finished up, and began a very long drive across the mountains to our next destination. This time, we had no seat belts, and our driver was the most reckless one yet. Kapil kept telling him to take it easy, but he assured Kapil that he does this all the time. Kapil told him that it was possible that someone else might make a mistake. But the guy continued to drive recklessly. I kept visualizing the headline "...Killed in a Car Crash in India."

The trip was long, but largely uneventful. We came across a wind farm in a desolate location. That was the first wind farm we had seen. We stopped once at a road side vendor and had fresh coconut milk. They chop the coconut open, insert a straw, and you drink the milk. It is different than the coconut milk Westerners are used to. The coconuts we usually eat have had most of the liquid evaporate through the shell and leave behind what we consider the meat. But in fresh coconuts, that meat is dissolved in the liquid and you drink it. It is supposed to be really healthy. It was quite good.

We saw a lot of farmers carrying sugar cane behind cattle-driven wagons. Another time we came upon a sign that said "Weak Bridge Ahead." Now why do you want to go and say something like that? The drive was dusty, and I felt covered wtih grime. Once we got to the outskirts of our destination - Bombay - traffic slowed and it took us forever to work our way across the city. But we finally got to our hotel at about 10 p.m., and I started catching up on e-mails.

Day 6, Wednesday, March 19 - I had stayed up until 2 a.m. writing, and had intended to sleep late. Again, I was up with sun. I am going to drop from exhaustion soon. But tonight I fly home (to Amsterdam, anyway), so I can get a little rest on the flight.

Another morning, another meeting. Another person who doesn't know anything about jatropha. The man we were meeting with, who is involved in biofuels and the import/export business was very skeptical of the whole ethanol scene, saying that it is a political farce. He said that India has far too many people to count on ethanol as much of a solution, and that they could not do what Brazil had done. He also brought up the water usage issue; suggesting that it will take too much fresh water, and this is in short supply. Very interesting perspective from the tropics, where sugarcane is abundant.

When we left the meeting, we walked out onto the street. There was a family (mother, grandmother, and two small children) on the sidewalk, where they were apparently living. I reached in my pocket for money, but then remembered the warning that I had been given. Besides that, they weren't actually asking for money. I wasn't sure how they might respond. But it is tough for me to see children in that condition.

We were going to have a bit of free time to walk around down town, so we headed across town. At one point, a guy came up and tried selling us a book that is banned in India: The Polyester Prince. It is about the guy who started Reliance Energy. It was apparently not very flattering, and the Reliance lobby was strong enough to get the book banned. But we already had a copy in the car, so Kapil held it up and showed the guy.

We also observed something that I hadn't seen since I arrived: Violence. It seems odd that in a city of 20 million, I never saw anyone fighting. But we did see a car accident, and one guy trying to drag another out of the car.

We stopped for a few minutes at the beach. As soon as we got out, a little girl came up and started begging. Kapil said "Watch your wallet." I told him that I already had my hand on it. He said "Your skin color attracts them." Then another woman said something to Kapil, and he agreed. I asked what she said, and he told me "If you give, more will come." I snapped a couple of pictures of her; I thought that might scare her off. And it did at first, but she came right back.

From there, we went down town and saw the Gateway of India. We walked around a little, took a few pictures, and then it was souvenir time. I thoroughly hate shopping, but I figured I better pick up a few things. So we went in a government-operated shop, and I bought a few items. It was the most inefficient operation you ever saw. You took your goods to the counter, and someone wrote up a ticket. Then you took your ticket downstairs, and they stamped it and you took it to the pay window. After paying, you took it to a 4th counter where they "delivered" it to you. It was really something else. Kapil said it was basically just a government jobs program.

We walked around the outdoor shops, but I felt really insecure. I had my laptop with me, and I was afraid of someone picking my pocket in those crowds. I was constantly turning my head to make sure nobody was right behind me, but there was always someone right behind me.

After we finished walking around, we stopped in a café and had a drink. Kapil asked me if I was feeling adventurous. He asked me if I wanted to ride the train. We were going to have dinner at his parents' house, and he said we would save an hour going by train. "Besides", he said, "I want you to have the full Indian experience."

So we flagged down a cab to take us to the central train station. I was just in awe of how lively that city is. Imagine New York City, only bigger and with no traffic rules at all. I was looking at some things on the street to the right while we were stuck in traffic. After a bit, I looked out my window, and almost jumped out of me skin. There was a beggar right there in my face. She was reaching in and touching me. I don't like to be touched, so I rolled the window up.

When we got to the train station, Kapil said "Watch your bags." That's what I was afraid of. We hopped out and ran a gauntlet through some incredible crowds. My head felt like it was on a swivel – looking forward to keep up with him, and behind to make sure nobody was dipping hands into my bags.

There was a long line for train tickets, and Kapil walked right to the front. I asked about that, and he said "First Class ticket purchases go to the front of the line." He then told me that a 1st Class ticket was about 3 bucks, and a 2nd Class was about 20 cents. He said that at least with 1st Class, we would probably get a seat.

He was wrong. We packed into that car like cattle. People were jumping on and off when the train was still moving, and people were hanging out both doors while the train was running. I had people pressed up against me all around. It was crowded – not London Tube crowded, but India crowded: Bodies packed tightly, intense heat, and everyone sweating. It was standing room only, and it took us an hour to get to our destination. At one point, Kapil took my photo. Everyone on the train – all Indians – suddenly started staring at me as if something was horribly wrong.

After we hopped out, I got to experience an auto-rickshaw. I had seen them everywhere, but hadn't been in one. We hopped in one to take us the final distance to Kapils' parents. Those things are pretty good transportation options. They have very small (I think 150 cc) engines, and most (maybe all?) run on compressed natural gas. The fuel efficiency is enormous. They are really built for only 3 passengers or so, but I saw 8 packed in one once. (Later someone told me that he saw 13 packed into one).

We had a nice meal with Kapil's parents. This was only the 2nd Indian home I had been in, but this time we got to have a long visit. Kapil's father was 2 years old when they were banished from Pakistan. I have read about the journey; they were packed tightly into trains and banished. Kapil's father gave me a book to read called Vedic Culture. Kapil's mother made this crispy bread – almost like a crisp tortilla, that I had really grown fond of. Kapil said it is made from lentils, but you would swear it was pork rinds.

It's a good thing we took the train, because it wasn't long before it was time to head to the airport. Kapil drove me; it was the first time I had seen him drive in India. I have ridden with him in Holland, but the traffic in Bombay is just something else. In fact, as we were driving, the absurdity of the situation hit me, and I said "This is just the craziest thing I have ever seen. People don't drive within the lines; 3 cars will straddle 2 lanes of traffic, cars move over randomly without signaling or looking back – it's chaos." He agreed, "Yes, it is chaos." I said that I can't really describe this as traffic, because that implies just a lot of cars on the road. Here, you have that – but then you also have everyone just doing their own thing. I will say this, if I haven't already: Nothing I ever seen again on the road will surprise me. If I see a monkey driving a motorcycle, it won't even be one of the stranger things I saw.

We eventually arrived at the airport around 11 p.m., and I said my goodbyes, as Kapil is flying back a few days later. I thanked him for keeping me out of trouble while I was there. I never got sick, and always enjoyed what I ate. Plus, we got to do a little business on top of everything.

Day 7, Thursday, March 20 - Security at the airport was the most stringent I have ever seen. And the guy who frisked me seemed to be enjoying it a little too much. His hands lingered a bit and gave me the creeps. I popped out my laptop and tried to catch up a bit, but pretty soon we boarded the plane for our 1:40 a.m. flight back to Amsterdam.

I mostly tried to sleep on the way back, but a couple of interesting things happened. Again, someone occupied the bathroom for about half an hour. I said to myself "I bet it's an Indian man." Sure enough, it was. What the heck are they doing in there for so long?

The guy sitting next to me was British, but working in India. He told me some stories. In fact, we had some similar experiences. I told him that I kept seeing mutton on the menus, and finally noted that I hadn't seen any sheep in the country. I was told that mutton is goat (which I saw plenty of). He said "At least you found out before you ate it. I didn't find out until I commented that my mutton tasted strange." He also said that nothing he will ever seen again would surprise him after being in India. I told him that I felt the same way. We talked about the way that Indians never seem to have to stop for a restroom. I was in a car with several for 7-hour stretches on 2 different occasions, and they never had to stop. That was good, because I never saw many restrooms. I don't know how they manage.

But, despite getting almost no sleep, I have arrived back in the Netherlands. I am finishing this up on the train from Amsterdam to Arnhem. In just a little over 24 hours, I will be back, headed for my first trip to the U.S. since last June. I will be house-hunting in Dallas with my wife, who I haven't seen in 7 weeks, so I expect my writing to continue to be limited for a bit longer. I will try to knock out some things while traveling tomorrow.

India Part I

Part I covers my first 2 days in India; Part II covers the other 5 days.


Some Local Color


Bombay Slums


Local Transportation


A Bombay Doorman

Updated: March 20 - Back in the Netherlands; I have updated and broken this up into 2 parts.

Updated: March 19 - It's going to need some editing and clean up, but I will do that later (and add some pictures).

Update: March 18 - I have been without Internet for 2 days, and just got to a hotel in Bombay. (I have been on the road for 20 hours in the past 4 days). It's 10 p.m., and I have 52 e-mails to answer. I will try to update this tonight, as I have been working on it offline.

Today I spent my entire morning in a sugarcane ethanol plant. I really went over those bagasse boilers. In fact, I am still covered with bagasse as the entire factory had bagasse dust in the air. I have also been in search of jatropha. I am finding that it is like Bigfoot: Everyone has heard about it, nobody has seen it. More later.

The following summarizes a business trip I took to India with my colleague (and native of India) Kapil Girotra. Fortunately, he could tell me what not to eat and drink, and he safely steered me through the intricacies of Indian culture.

Day 1, Friday, March 14, 2008 – The flight to India was pretty interesting, because we flew over a lot of countries that I have never flown over. We flew over Northern Iraq, and directly over Teheran in Iran. I got to watch a couple of movies that I hadn't seen: No Country for Old Men and American Gangster. It was a Northwest flight, and they have a new video on demand system. You can control when your movies stop and start, and you can rewind if you like.

While the movies were good, the restroom situation was something else. I got up to visit the restroom, and the first one I came to had masking tape across the door. OK, that one is out of order. I come to the next one, and there is a long line. The woman at the front of the line is an American, and she tells me she has been standing there for 15 minutes. There are two restrooms, and it is at least another 10 minutes before one door opens, and out steps an older Indian man. She looked at the line, and said "Bet you thought it would be a woman. So did I."

So, the line started moving faster, but nobody ever came out of the other restroom. After half an hour, someone said "They must be dead." I was actually starting to wonder if something was wrong. There were two or three people in more desperate need than me, so I let them hop to the front of the line. Finally, after about 10 more minutes – close to 40 minutes total, the other door finally opened and out stepped another Indian man. I asked someone if there was some kind of Indian religious custom that one would do in a restroom. I was told that there wasn't.

As lunch was being served, I started hearing "We are out of chicken, is vegetarian OK?" I didn't like the sound of that. But since I didn't have any choice – and was very hungry, I had the vegetarian meal. Interestingly enough, while I am not remotely a vegetarian, that marked 3 vegetarian meals in a row for me. (And it would be another 2 before I had about 2 ounces of chicken on a small pizza). But this food – paneer - was really good. I am starting to learn that about Indian vegetarian food. In India, it is really spicy and good. In the U.S., it is a difficult concept to accept. But if all vegetarian food was like Indian food, I wouldn't have any problem being a vegetarian.

As we entered Indian air space, I started looking for lights on the ground. It was dark, so I expected to see little village lights everywhere. I didn't see any. In fact, it was very dark over the northern part of India. I suppose that's because it is so mountainous there, and there isn't a high population density, or electricity isn't common. As we headed south over India, we came out over the Arabian Sea. There were a number of oil platforms there. I will have to check and see how much of oil production India has.

As we began to descend, the captain announced that they would be spraying us with insecticide as required by the Indian government. That was something new, but in a few minutes I started smelling it. For the longest, I couldn't see the lights of Bombay. It is a huge city – 20 million people – so I thought I would see lights for many miles away. But we were pretty close before the lights actually started to appear. As we landed, I noticed that it looked incredibly foggy. Kapil told me that this was smog.

Getting through the airport was an interesting experience. First off, there were a lot of mosquitoes in the airport. All kidding aside, India has malaria, and I know a guy who caught it there. So when I see a mosquito here, I take it more seriously than I do when seeing a mosquito in the U.S. After we got our luggage and were proceeding out, the guys working currency exchange and other airport services were calling out to us to solicit business. I had never had that happen in an airport. And once we made it outside, it was like a carnival. So many people, despite it being midnight. There was so much activity, it really felt like a carnival encircling a football stadium. That's exactly the feeling I had when I came out.

Kapil's wife met us, and they drove me over to my hotel. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was like any Western hotel. But before I went to bed, I stared out my window at the lights of Bombay. 20 million people. I wondered how many terrible things were taking place out there. How many would die tonight of hunger in this country?

Day 2, Saturday, March 15 - I got my answer as soon as I woke up. There was an unspeakable crime in Dehli the night before involving a nine-year-old boy. This is something that bothers me about large populations: In a very large population center, the likelihood that really horrible things are happening at any particular moment is high.

My Blackberry was ringing and woke me at 5:20 Netherlands time (I had the alarm set for 5:30). That was 10:00 a.m. Bombay time. India is offset by half an hour from other time zones instead of an even hour. I was told that the reason for that is that the country should really be in 2 time zones, but the government just decided to split the difference across the country.

Since it was 10:00, I had to jump up and get ready as I had a business meeting at 11. I took a quick glance at a newspaper article that said to avoid typhoid by avoiding soft ice creams. I will file that one away. I met Kapil and he had a cab waiting for us. I didn't have time to get breakfast, so I grabbed a donut and some fruit and we took off. I noticed as we were putting my bags in the trunk, that there was a propane tank in the trunk for fueling the cab.

We got stuck at a stop light, and just as I was biting into my donut, a girl of about eight came up and starting pecking on the window. I looked at Kapil, and asked "Does she want the donut, or money?" He said "both." I said "She can have my donut." He said "I know this is hard on you, but don't. The car will be covered up if you do." Someone else had warned me about this as well: They had handed some money to a beggar outside of a car window, and the car was immediately so covered up they couldn't move. The cab driver reached his hand out and shoved her away, but the situation bothered me.

As we drove, I saw some slums to the side of the road. I have never seen poverty like that before. In some cases, it looked like people had pitched tents on top of a garbage dump. I saw an old woman squatted down over a trash heap, looking for something useful (or food). Really terrible.

The traffic was very chaotic. There were auto-rickshaws, motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians everywhere. Some of the vehicles were even going the wrong way down the street. (I saw a lot of this while I was there). The driver honked his horn about every 10 seconds for some reason. We turned in front of cars, we cut people off, and it seemed to me like we took a lot of risks. But there are apparently some rules lurking in what appears to be chaos, because I didn't see many accidents.

The engineering house we were trying to locate was well off the beaten path. We drove down a number of what looked like very narrow alleyways crowded with people. A number of times we had to ask someone for directions, and every time they were happy to help us. In a lot of big cities, you wouldn't have seen such a level of cooperation. But what I am finding here is that despite the crowded conditions, people are still very polite and helpful.

We finally found the engineering house, and it was tucked back in a location that didn't look like it belonged. It was next door to a DHL office. These offices seemed so out of place. Then, just as I was experiencing sensory overload from all of the sights and sounds, I noticed that outside the engineering house was a mimosa tree just like we used to have at home in Oklahoma.

We went in and shook hands with the guys in the office. I am pretty careful with germs, so I have worked out a system if I think I can't wash my hands regularly. I shake hands, open doors, etc. with my right hand only. I eat with my left hand, which I don't use for anything else.

The meeting went well, but I had a hard time concentrating. First off, again I couldn't help but notice the mosquitoes in the room. I have a hard enough time concentrating when there are mosquitoes indoors in the U.S., but they don't carry malaria. My mind also kept wandering back to what all I had seen on the drive over from the hotel. The contrasts were amazing. There was a cluster of very expensive hotels, and just a few blocks away was the worst poverty I have ever seen. We saw a guy pulling a hand cart and talking on a cell phone. Houses in the slums had satellite dishes on top of them. A number of times we walked down hallways of buildings that looked to be 100 years old and decrepit, and then stepped into one of the most modern offices you have ever seen.

At the engineering house, I started to get some curious stares that would become much more common as we traveled out of Bombay. I asked the general manager at the engineering house if they got many Americans in here. He said "No, I can't say that we do. Why do you ask?" I told him because of the curious way people were looking at me. They wouldn't do it too openly, but as he was showing us around, I noticed the looks. I once turned and looked behind me and saw almost the whole office looking at me.

Practically everyone asked me how I was handling the heat. I mean, it was hot and all, but Texas heat and humidity in the summer gets worse than what I was experiencing. What I grew up with in Oklahoma in the summer (without air conditioning) was worse. In fact, if I closed my eyes (and blocked out the smells and sounds), I could have easily been back in Oklahoma during the summer. But they told me that it gets hotter than this; it's still only March. But the heat didn't bother me; I rarely broke a sweat.

After the meeting, we were taken out back where there was a fabrication shop. It seemed like there were heaps of trash everywhere. Every time the wind changed, I could smell sewage and/or garbage. I got some really curious stares as we walked around back. There were some women sitting around doing something with rope, and then some men were pouring cement. But they all stopped and looked at me as if they had just seen Bigfoot.

Kapil and I went back to the hotel. His wife and mother-in-law were meeting us there for drinks. But we got there first, so we took a walk. It's amazing how quickly the scene changed when we walked away from that hotel. The poverty hits you in the face immediately. I asked Kapil what happens to someone in the slums who has a medical emergency. He said "If you have money, you survive. If not, you don't." I had this horrible vision in my mind of a mother trying to cope with a life-threatening illness from a child, and not being able to do anything about it.

One guy followed us up the street in his auto-rickshaw, wanting us to take a ride with him. But we kept walking. I saw something black in the road that was smashed flat. Kapil told me it was a rat. I saw a buffalo in the road, and a woman walking a monkey. Frequently I saw people urinating in public. (Kapil said that there really aren't a lot of public bathrooms here; I started limiting my liquid intake for that reason).

Cows were everywhere, and there were no fences. I asked Kapil if people frequently hit cows. He jokingly told me that the cows didn't have anything to worry about, because people go to hell for running over cows. I said that in the U.S., if someone hits a cow, the landowner will have a legal problem for not keeping the cows in the fence. But I only saw one dead cow while we were driving around.

We walked back to the hotel, and I met Kapil's mother-in-law. She was a very nice lady; kept telling me I had to come stay with her. I told her I would like that. We visited for a while as we waited for some more of Kapil's friends, who were going to take us north, out of Bombay and into a rural area.

We finally met up with the others, and we headed out of Bombay. It took us a long time to get out of the city, and the sights and sounds were almost too much to absorb. I kept looking out the window, muttering to myself "What the heck was that?" Or, "Did I just see four people on that motorcycle?"

We had a driver who was hired to take us to our destination. I sat up front and tried talking to him, but he didn't speak English. I kept seeing things that were just unbelievable in my experience, so I was constantly snapping pictures. Eventually, we started to get out into some rural areas. Kapil said that those villages in general were self-sufficient; they grow their own food and walk each day to the community well to get their water. I saw a number of women carrying wood, water, and food on their heads.

A lot of the area reminded me of pictures of Africa: Thatched huts and brush fences were very common. And the people – there were people everywhere. At any point in time, there was a constant stream of people walking on the road. A number of times I saw very young children running across 4 lanes of traffic. I wondered – do those parents love their kids so much less than me to risk their lives? Or are they so desperate that they have no choice? Or do they not appreciate the risk?

Traffic was chaotic. There are apparently no rules on the road. There is no such thing as a no passing zone. When the road went down to 2 lanes, we passed people on curves, we passed them on blind hills, we passed people who were in the process of passing someone else – we even passed when someone else was coming. The rule seemed to be – if you can see me, you should be able to get out of my way.

We got to the place we were staying – Khanvel Resort - and unloaded. Again, I was the only Westerner in sight, but I thought I finally saw another one pull up. He had light skin and white hair. Turned out he was an albino Indian. I figured that out when I heard him speaking Indian, and I asked Kapil. He said that the man had a pigment problem. But I would have never thought about the possibility had I not witnessed it. Turns out that there are Indians with much lighter skin than I have.

The mosquitoes were pretty bad, so they came along about dusk and sprayed DDT all over the place. It hung in the air for a long time. I wondered whether all of the food there has DDT residues. Or is it only in animal tissues that it builds up?

I went into my room, and there were many, many mosquitoes inside. But the walls were light-colored, and I committed a mosquito genocide that the mosquitoes will talk about for generations. There were bodies everywhere – all over the floor, on the wall, on the curtains. I killed at least 100 in my room alone. But I knew I couldn't kill them all. So I assumed that I would be bitten during the night. There were also spiders in the room. I realized that I didn't know the first thing about the spiders here. If I was bitten, would I die a slow and horrible death? No idea. So I killed them all just to be safe.

After the mass mosquito murder, we all went down for dinner. The talk turned to the man-eating leopards in the area. Hmm. Have to remember not to answer my door if I hear something outside. It also hit me that India has cobras, so I asked about that. After giving it some thought, it was decided that there were none in this area. I would have felt a lot better if the answer had been an immediate "No."

I went back to my room earlier than the rest to start writing. I turned on the TV out of curiosity, and saw the Friday night variety shows – Indian style. I found a lot of humor in them. So much singing and dancing, but I couldn't make sense out of any of it. Then, as I was searching through the channels, I ran across SpongeBob. Reminds me of the first time I turned on a radio in Germany to hear some German music. Snoop Doggy Dog was what I got.

The Trossachs and the Highlands

Outside Spean Bridge, Scotland

This is an account of a trip that I took with my in-laws through central Scotland.

Day 1 - September 10, 2007: My two older kids have week-long school trips this week, so this seemed like a good time to take a mini-trip through Scotland. Accompanying me on the trip were my wife, her parents, and my 5-year old. We started the trip by heading out of Aberdeen down the Royal Deeside trail. Our first stop was at Crathie Church, which is where The Royal Family has attended since Queen Victoria's days when they are in residence at nearby Balmoral Castle.

Because my father-in-law has had several heart attacks, I inquired at the visitor's center about driving up the hill to the church. They informed me that this was fine if there was a physical reason for needing to do so. So we drove up and parked in the back. I played outside with my son while the others went in and checked out the church. After a few minutes, a tour bus pulled up, so we left. But we had to drive by the parade of tourists as they walked up the hill, and some of them glared, certainly wondering why we were able to drive to the church.

The Royal Family was in residence at Balmoral, so we weren't able to visit it. We did pull off to the side of the road (where a sign said "No Parking") and snapped a couple of distant pictures of the castle.

We headed on to Braemar, which is a place we had stayed when we visited Scotland in 2000. Braemar is a very neat, if touristy village where the Highland Games take place. We wandered around Braemar for a bit and had lunch there. From there we had intended to go to Rob Roy country, but while I studied the map over lunch, it looked like it would be a more efficient use of our time to go straight to Stirling and then work our way back through Rob Roy country. So, I got on the phone and started trying to book a room. No luck. I was told that the university students were coming back that week, and everything in town was booked. Still, I decided to risk it and push on to Stirling.

So, we turned south into some very rugged country split by a narrow road. I can remember taking this route once before, and although the scenery is spectacular, the drive is unnerving. For some reason, Scottish roads often have curbs appearing on the inside lane when you encounter a curve. In that case, if a big truck is coming, you are really squeezed in on both sides. Go to far to one side, and hit the curb; too far to the other, and hit the truck. And these roads are very narrow. I clenched the steering wheel tightly numerous times, bracing for impact as a truck or RV passed me.

On the way to Stirling, we passed through Dunblane, site of the school shooting that haunts me more than any other. Sixteen 5 and 6-year olds plus one teacher were gunned down in class. My son is 5, and I have tried to imagine a 5-year old having to cope with something like that. I have to admit that many nights as I tried to fall asleep, the memory of this shooting crept in and made it impossible for me to sleep. It is simply incomprehensible to me.

We pulled into Stirling, with me still trying to work out a plan for the rest of the afternoon. It was about 4, and I wanted to go to Stirling Castle, one of the best ones in Scotland, and then onto the Wallace Monument. We saw the Wallace Monument from a distance, but we decided to go explore the castle first.

Stirling Castle is very cool. It is set up on a hill overlooking Stirling, and is one of the most impressive castles in Scotland. My wife decided to go on the audio tour, my in-laws went on a guided tour, and I went on the 5-year old tour. What that meant was that I went and did whatever my son wanted to do. He has wanted to visit a castle for a long time, and this one had lots to explore. He dragged me all over the place, exploring every room. It was hard for me to really get an appreciation for the various rooms and gardens of the castle, but it was worth it.

On my mind the whole time was the fact that we still didn't have a place to stay for the night. I called a couple more places, but no luck. We could have gone to the tourist information place after the castle visit, and they could probably find something for us, but I thought our chances were better if we just went over and visited the Wallace Monument, and then pushed on to Callander, our next stop 15 miles away.

We all wandered around the castle - in 3 separate groups - for a little over an hour. We all met back up near the front and decided to run over to the Wallace Monument. When we arrived, the visitor's center had closed, so we snapped a few pictures in front of the Mel Gibson - err - William Wallace statue (looks just like Mel Gibson). Pretty soon, a bus pulled up, and the driver said he was taking one more trip to the top. He said he would take us up, but we had to walk back down. We all agreed, and he hauled us up the hill to the monument.

There is quite a view from the monument, and you can look out over where The Battle of Stirling Bridge was fought by William Wallace and his troops. We didn't get to go inside the monument, as it was closed, but the big attraction there anyway is climbing to the top. Given my father-in-law's heart condition, we weren't going to be doing that anyway. So we wandered around for a bit, walked back down the hill, and headed for Callendar, and hopefully a good bed and breakfast.

We recently bought a navigation system, so I typed in Callendar and off we went. The system is pretty reliable, although once it tried to send me down a one-way street, and another time down a bike path. This time it tried to send me through the middle of the college campus, but I went around it instead. Twenty minutes later, we were on the outskirts of Callendar, stopping at one B&B after another. We stopped at one place after another with no luck. I also got some very unfriendly looks; once when I pulled into a guy's driveway (the B&B was next door, and I thought it was their driveway), and once when I was pulling out of a blind driveway, and a guy walking a dog stepped in front of us. Callendar was seeming a bit less friendly than the last time we were here, and suddenly a lot more touristy to me.

We finally found a place that could accomodate all of us. It was called Abbotsford Lodge, and was run by a very friendly fellow. When he asked where we were from, I told him "Aberdeen. Can't you tell from our accents?" Anyway, he set us up, and also told us that a good Italian place had opened up down the road. That was good, because the guide book we were using said there weren't any good restaurants in Callendar. But we took his advice, and had a very nice meal at Ciro's. I can say that Callendar has at least one good restaurant.

Day 2 - September 11: Hmm. 9/11. I didn't realize that until I had been up for a while. I had thought about it when I was planning the trip, but it had slipped my mind after the busy day yesterday. I hope it's a quiet day.

After we had the traditional Scottish breakfast, we checked out and headed downtown. We needed to stop at the grocery store first and get supplies, because we probably wouldn't be near a restaurant at lunch time. As we were shopping, my cell phone started ringing. This is odd, because hardly anyone has the number. But my two older kids were on a week long trip, and I was concerned that something may have happened. The number said "Private", but because I was concerned about the kids, I answered. It was a headhunter, asking me if I would be willing to leave my company. The oil industry has a terrible manpower shortage in the North Sea, so these kinds of phone calls are very common. I explained that I was on an expat assignment with my employer, and that they sponsored my work visa. "Oh, that's not a problem", she told me. "This other employer can buy that visa." I had always wondered about that. Not sure if she had that correct, but that's interesting if true.

So, I got off the phone, and continued shopping. Five minutes later, the phone rings again. Headhunter again. She tells me that she has confirmed the visa situation. She wants my CV. I told her I would think about it. Back to shopping. This time, it goes 10 minutes before she called back and asked if I might be interested in this other company. I told her I was on vacation, and we could talk about it some other time. I turned my phone off.

So, we finished shopping, and then made our way to the Rob Roy Visitor's Centre. Couldn't find a parking place. This is another thing that drives me crazy when traveling around Europe - you can't ever find parking. (The first thing that drives me crazy is that you can't ever find bathrooms). We eventually did find a spot where you could park for 30 minutes, which meant we couldn't stay in there long. We all went inside, and they informed us that they had removed the most interesting exhibit. It was a display of Rob Roy sitting around a fire and talking about his troubles. Apparently there were some who disagreed with the politics of what he was saying; I had read that in a book. Maybe that's the reason they pulled the plug on the exhibit.

I wanted to keep an eye on the car, so I bought a pair of little plastic swords, and my son and I stayed outside and had sword fights while the others spent time in the visitor's center. People walking by got quite a kick out of our sword fight; a number of people stopped and took pictures or video of us. One guy walked by and said "Go for the shins."

While we were out there, I saw a couple of instances of one other thing that drives me a bit crazy. Circling the visitor's center was a very narrow road, with parking in the back. While we were out there sword-fighting, two cars driven by elderly men just stopped and parked in the road. They completely blocked the road, and started to go into a store. They almost made it into the store when a large truck tried to turn down the road that they were blocking. It couldn't turn in, so he just stopped, blocked traffic, and sat there. He was glaring at the men, and it finally hit them that they had completely blocked the road. They moved, but it wasn't 10 minutes before someone else came along and did the same thing.

A Scottish Highland

On the way out of town, we stopped at the Trossachs Woollen Mill to pick up some souvenirs. I spent most of the time outside, where they had Hamish - a Scottish Highland bull - on display. These are really unique looking animals. As my father-in-law said, they look like they have bangs. I took some pictures with my son while the others shopped, and when they all came out we were on our way.

At Loch Lubnaig

Our plan was to drive all the way to Rob Roy's gravesite, but we barely made it out of town before we came across a spectacular lake. The lake was Loch Lubnaig, and the scenery around it reminded me of something from Yellowstone National Park. We pulled off at a parking area, and walked around the lake some and took pictures. We saw a tiny mole - probably only about 2 inches long - sniffing around a rock. I tried to get down and take a picture, but it didn't turn out very well.

We finished there, and pushed on to Balquhidder, which is where Rob Roy is buried. The road down to his gravesite is very narrow and winding. I would hate to drive that every day. In fact, we almost saw a wreck on that road after we stopped. Someone stopped in the road, and someone else came flying around the corner. I thought there was going to be a fight, because the car that almost hit the second one stopped in the road for a long time. (They were lucky someone didn't come around the corner and hit them).

Anyway, we spent quite a bit of time at the church and cemetery. We took pictures of the grave marker and the remains of the old church. The "new" church, built in 1855, happened to be open. I don't recall that this was the case the last time. So, we opened the door and went inside and had a look around. It amazes me that people don't vandalize or steal things from the church. I think if this was a church in a remote area of the U.S., and it was always left unlocked, it would just be a matter of time before someone vandalized it.

We took some walks down a trail behind the church. The path leads to a waterfall in the woods, so we went down and took some pictures. There are some really old-looking ruins down that path, but no explanation of what they are. We probably spent an hour puttering around the area before heading for our next destination, which would take us through some spectacular scenery.

We were headed to Fort William, and this would take us through Glen Coe. Personally, I think the scenery through Glen Coe is the most spectacular in Scotland. The first time we drove through, we thought it looked like Montana. There are huge green mountains, waterfalls, heather on the hills, and deer wandering around. Some of the scenes from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban were filmed there. We stopped several times as we drove through and took a lot of pictures. Once we took some close-ups of some red deer stags with very impressive racks. Another time we snapped some pictures of a very impressive waterfall.

Once we passed through the valley, we stopped at the Glencoe Visitor Centre and looked at the exhibits. Apparently the area was formed as a result of a massive volcanic eruption. There was quite a lot to see at the visitor's center, including some panaromic outdoor views of the glen.

We left there and pushed on into Fort William. We drove to the visitor's center there to book a room for a night. They couldn't find anything suitable in Fort William, but located something that sounded pretty good in the next town, Spean Bridge.

We wandered around downtown Fort William for a while. It was really different than I remembered it from before. There is a pedestrian walkway down town with lots of businesses, but it seemed reallly run down. The last time I was there, it had seemed really charming. We went into a little fish and chips place and had a bite. They actually charged a pound more per meal if you ate it in the restaurant. I got the fish and chips, and my in-laws, thinking I knew that this would be good, had some as well. In fact, I almost always find the fish and chips in the UK to be pretty awful, but I keep getting it in the hope of finding some place that serves it at least as well as Long John Silver's in the U.S. It was bad, as it normally is. I told my in-laws that I could have warned them; that I was just gambling on it maybe being good.

After eating, we headed on down the road to our Bed and Breakfast at Spean Bridge, about 10 miles down the road. It ended up being out in the country in a very beautiful setting. The B&B was called Coinachan Guest House, and we were met at the door by a 15-year old American girl. She told us that her mother was Scottish, but that she had grown up in Virginia. She had been back in Scotland for several years, and she was just starting to pick up a bit of the accent (she was not happy to hear that). Her mother had run into town on an errand, but she arrived within the hour and introduced herself. She told me that she was an environmental consultant, and I told her that we might have a lot to talk about.

The guest house was directly across the street from the Commando Memorial, dedicated to commandos who trained in that area during WWII. There was also a great view of Ben Nevis, although it spent most of the time in the clouds. The hills all around were covered with heather, and all of this combined to make for a really neat setting. To top it all off, the owners had a very friendly Rough Collie (the same breed as Lassie) which they let us play with the entire time we were there. Needless to say, I highly recommend this B&B.

We spent a lot of time outside playing with Max, the collie. There was a ball that he liked to run and catch, and he would bring it back all covered with slobber. It wasn't long before I was covered with long hair and dog slobber. We walked up a hill right on the property, and threw the ball down the hill and let Max bring it back up. After about 4 runs down the hill, he brought the ball back, dropped it at my feet, and then peed on it! I wasn't sure if he had done this on purpose, so I picked the ball up (gingerly) and tossed it back down the hill. He looked up at me with a look like "I am not touching that", and that was all of our ball tossing.

The owner stayed up late visiting with the women, but I turned in early with my son as I had a long drive the next day. There were skylights in the room, and I left the shades on them open so I could see the stars (when the clouds weren't covering them up).

Day 3 - September 12: This was to be our last day on the road, and the main item on the agenda today was Loch Ness. We had a Scottish breakfast with a twist. Instead of having sausage with my scrambled eggs, I had smoked salmon. Delicious. We packed the car and said our goodbyes, but then modified our plans slightly. The owner had told us about a nearby walk through the forest that someone had decorated up in a fairy theme. She said that when she first heard about it, she thought it would be pretty corny. But she said after she went and saw it, it was well worth the trip.

We had a bit of a tough time finding it, but we finally found what we thought was the right location. We had been told that it was about 10 minutes into the woods, and that most people failed to walk far enough. We would know we were on the right path when we saw a partially submerged barge in the lake next to the trail. After about 5 minutes, we spotted the barge (which my son wanted to investigate) so we knew we were on the right path.

The walk itself was very cool. The forest was very dark in places, and lush green everywhere. As far as my son was concerned, we were just taking a walk in the forest. We walked for probably 15 minutes before we came across the first signs of it. It was at a very dark portion of the forest, and it looked like something right out of a fairy tale. The place was decorated up as a home for gnomes and fairies. My son was just bewildered (and excited). He must have asked "What's happening?" 50 times.

In the Fairy Forest

I was a bit concerned about the in-laws, who had stayed in the car. I told them we wouldn't be long, but this thing was further into the forest than we thought, and it was also a lot more substantial than we had realized. Someone had invested thousands of hours (and dollars) into decorating the pathway.

Finally, after about an hour we returned to the car. It had been well worth the loss of time, but we had a long drive in front of us and we needed to get on the road. So, we got in the car and headed toward Loch Ness.

We were only 20 miles away, and I thought we would be there in 20 minutes. But after only about 5 miles, we got behind a pair of trucks transporting some huge pieces of equipment that basically took up 2 lanes of traffic. It was also moving about 15 miles an hour, but had to frequently stop and clear the road ahead of them. The funny thing was that a BMW had passed me at very high speed just after we left Spean Bridge, but ended up right in front of me when we encountered the trucks.

We debated what they were hauling. It appeared to be some pieces of pipe that were around 10 feet in diameter. I thought it looked like parts of a vessel or distillation column. One thing for sure; there was no getting around them, and there was no place for them to pull over and let traffic around. It looked like we were just going to drive the next 15 miles at 15 miles an hour.

My son started to get car sick. That had been a theme during much of the trip. With the winding roads, and all of the stops and starts, several in the group spent part of the trip feeling car sick.

The trucks finally turned off toward a different destination, and traffic could flow freely again. But we had spent a full hour behind them, and had moved about 10 miles. After just a few more minutes, we started seeing Loch Ness over on the right. Loch Ness is a very long lake, and the road winds along right nest to it. We stopped at one point and took some pictures of Urquhart Castle, overlooking the lake. We pulled into Drumnadrochit at lunchtime, and stopped at the Drumnadrochit Hotel, which is also next to a visitor's center. My son and I played on the same plaster Nessie model that I had played on with my other two kids seven years earlier. There were 3 Chinese tourists there watching us, and one asked if he could take our picture as we played.

I was finally able to drag my son off of Nessie, and we went and had some lunch in the hotel. Following lunch, we pushed off for Inverness, which was on the way before returning to Aberdeen. We had a long, but pretty uneventful drive back to Aberdeen. We passed through a lot of mountainous country, but we were all pretty traveled out at that point. I think we were all glad to finally arrive back in Aberdeen.