PHOTOJOURNAL
March
21 - 27, 2001
Day 320, Wed. Mar. 21, 2001
– Yep, that’s correct. Today we
woke up on a brand new day and it is the same day as yesterday.
This isn’t Groundhog Day, it’s one of those weird mind-bending
quirks of modern jet travel when you can actually live the same calendar day
twice (incidentally, many people take advantage of this on special days like New
Years or birthdays so they can have two parties).
Yesterday, we left Fiji at 5:00 PM on the 21st, we flew east
for three hours, crossing the funky no-man’s land called the International
Date Line en route and arrived in Rarotonga at 10:00 PM on the 20th,
about 19 hours before we left. If
that doesn’t sound weird enough, we now live an entire extra day, having two
cracks at the 21st in case we didn’t get it right the first time
(where is Einstein and the theory of time warps when you need them?). The bad
news is we had to reset our watches and clocks, not to mention rewire our
brains; the good news is we had two wedding nights.
We had decided on Rarotonga for a number of reasons: it was on the main route from New Zealand to Los Angeles, we wanted a week to relax and unwind after the excitement of Fiji, all the travel literature says it is amazing (e.g. "what Tahiti was 20 years ago before being spoiled"), and it is a hell of a lot cheaper than Tahiti, which caters to the up-market vacationers. Rarotonga maintains unique ties to New Zealand for both Polynesians and European settlers: It was from here that the "great migration" by canoe departed for Aotearoa, taking the ancestors of today's Maoris; and the islands were administered by the British through New Zealand and still has a "semi-independent" relationship in which national defense and international relations are managed by New Zealand. The islands cover a huge area by Pacific standards, with the Northern group a 4-hour flight from the Southern Group. The whole group is named for Captain James Cook, but he never saw the largest island, Raro, which was spotted by the mutineers from the Bounty. It is very small country, like a Pacific backwater, with just 20,000 people throughout the chain. This is up from less than 2,000 in 1867 after Western diseases wiped out two thirds of the population. Like Fiji, these islands hold their share of pre-European cannibal stories - like the one about Atiuans only eating ugly women and sparing beautiful ones - accounting for the remarkable beauty of Atiuan women today. Due to lack of economic opportunity, there are now more Cook Islanders living abroad than in Cook itself. The economy is based on tourism, black pearls, fruits, and vegetables. There is such an abundance of food, that there are few skinny Islanders and it is said that when Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence was filmed here, it was impossible to find 500 people skinny enough to play prisoners of war, so they had to be flown in from New Zealand!
Last night on arrival we took a van to
the Rarotongan Beach Resort and checked into our beachfront room.
We
could hear the surf meters from our door, but we were too tired to go swimming.
We did admire the unbelievable night sky – with brilliant stars and the
brightest 
Milky
Way we’d seen in a while. Today,
we woke to the sound of horses in the surf outside.
Poor things- we hope they aren’t the ones to find out where the sea
urchins are. After the breakfast
overlooking the blue, yellow and red pool area – complete with waterfall and
leaning palms, Naomi lounged around the beach while I scuba dived.
She had a blast in the crystal clear waters and 
soft white sand and my dives were spectacular.
The visibility was great, the scenery superb and the life beautiful –
including lionfish, moray eels, scorpion fish, a turtle and huge tuna.
Afterward, we had a gorgeous sunset and watched an “Island Show” of
drummers and dancers after a buffet dinner. It was a regular Vegas floor
show, complete with costume changes and a Rarotongan John Belushi as
emcee. We were literally in the front row, nearest the stage, so we
got good looks at sweating guys and hip-swiveling women with strategically placed
grass skirts and coconuts. The
girls got a little 
bit
more attention from the audience as the flashes and video cameras
spun to action whenever they took the stage. We were worried that they
would come straight for us during the inevitable “audience participation”
portion of the evening, so when the lights came up, we acted busy talking and
stuffing cake in our faces (not a problem for us).
They picked some hapless (and perhaps even less graceful than us)
tourists to embarrass themselves. It
was pretty good, although clichéd honeymoon entertainment.
OK, maybe I was a little more interested in the Hula show than Naomi was.
*********
Day 321, Thur, Mar. 22, 2001
– Today we took a sea kayak out in the shallow reefs that fringe the 
island
and snorkeled from there. The fish
were beautiful – especially the funky-looking Picasso Triggerfish.
While Naomi shopped around
town, I went for another two scuba dives – much rougher seas than yesterday,
but good dives. Graham and Grant of
Pacific Divers were great. Sunset
cast a pink glow over the beach and surrounding trees.
We couldn’t find a nearby restaurant, so we were stuck at the hotel.
Good thing, because some tourists there told us that the Russian Mir
space station was due to crash down just 70 miles off the coast of Rarotonga.
What incredible luck – there must be a million square miles of Earth to
crash into and we happened to be where it is.
We all sat on the deck of
the restaurant scanning the skies - it was amazing, but a little cloudy compared
to yesterday. We saw a few mysterious flashes and
a slow-moving satellite, but no tell-tale fiery space junk hurtling across the
horizon. After a couple hours even the most interested of us gave in.
We went to the TV room and were disappointed to see that the 6-piece
wreckage made a spectacular showing outside Nadi in Fiji - pretty ironic as we
had just left there (and got married there) yesterday.
We hope no one’s trying to tell us something.
*******
Day 322, Fri, Mar. 23, 2001
– Today we called it quits on Rarotonga and took a 40-minute flight to the
small coral lagoon isle of Aitutaki – supposedly the most beautiful in the
pacific (where have we heard that before?).
We landed at a huge airstrip built by the US during the Pacific War.
We were a lot happier to visit here than William Bligh was, 17 days before his
crew turned on him. We
were met by the driver from Maina Sunset Motel and driven 15 minutes to the
hotel – a small, tidy joint down a dirt road on the muddy West side of the
Island. I was lucky to arrange a
dive while Naomi slept off a cold. The
dive master, a kid named Nathan with yellow dyed hair and tattoos, picked me up
in a truck with a body completely made of wood and painted yellow.
He said it was 
necessary
because metal rusts so quickly on the salty island.
The owners have a small side business in wooden vehicles now since other
islanders admired their work so much. The dive was over an hour in huge caverns
of dead coral with many fish. Everyone
I meet recently talks about “the good old days” when the coral was alive and
vibrantly colored – before global warming and “El Nino”.
We did find some interesting caves, some giant clams and a wrecked barge.
There were many crevices at just 5 meters, with tidal surge back and forth with
the tide – it was a lot of fun exploring – especially sticking our heads
inside a moray eel’s cave. We
would have done a second dive, but Nathan had to get to his volleyball game.
Friday is sports night on the island, with most people choosing
volleyball since rugby was banned a few years ago when one guy was killed and
another was paralyzed when their tacklers employed some American-style
head-spiking into the turf. After
the dive, we saw the village gathering around the volleyball courts, picnicking
on blankets in the shade. A broken
basketball hoop nailed to a coconut tree in a corner lot looked forlorn and
sadly neglected. Back at the hotel,
a short tropical rain pelted us in the pool just before sunset, making for a
gloomy sky but interesting pictures. We
were picked up for the weekly “Island Night” at 
Ralphies
– partly because it was supposed to be better than in Rarotonga and partly
because it was one of the only places in Aitutaki for dinner anyway.
The
food was great, but the restaurant was crowded and steamy and the show started too
late.
I got some air outside and joined a game with some kids.
It seemed easy – hitting a tennis ball back can forth over a line with
your shoe – but I got a sneaky feeling they kept changing the rules 
on
me. The show finally started and the drummers were great, but
some of the dancers were pretty young to be shaking their hips in revealing
costumes (one girl’s coconut bra was a miniscule replica of the woman’s next
to her). I think we know every taxi
driver on the island already, as the same guy took us back to the hotel.
*********
Day 323, Sat. Mar. 24, 2001
– Fitful night since Naomi is still suffering from mosquito attacks – too
bad we gave our mosquito net away already.
We took a boat cruise around the lagoon and several of the islands around
the rim. It really is as gorgeous
as they say. The water is just a
few feet 
deep
for hundreds of meters out to the fringing coral reef.
We could see the bottom easily and were surrounded by fish when we
snorkeled the clear water. Naomi jumped from the boat and nearly landed on top of a sea
turtle – one of her favorites. She
also spotted a real moray eel. Not
“real” meaning that the past ones were imaginary, but real in the sense that
this one was about 6 feet long! I
swam down to coax it out and Naomi screamed underwater when she saw the true
size of it. It was very
scary-looking although mostly harmless (unless you scare it by swimming up to it
or something - oops).
Our captain, Ke (aka “Captain
Wonderful” according to his hat), was wonderful – singing songs, playing
guitar, and telling us about the
islands and related legends. At
Tapeteaua (One Foot Island), he told us the legend of the man running from
trouble (from cannibals, naturally) with his son.
The man saved his son by hiding him in a coconut tree and walking back on
the kid’s footprints so he would not be tracked.
Ke
said, “we were eating each other before the Europeans arrived.
Now we don’t love the taste of
each other – we love each other.”
We walked a couple hundred yards out to a small sandbar in the middle of the
lagoon – it was like our own private island.
Ke also took us to a “honeymoon” island where sea birds nest and couples
plant coconut trees, and to the former leper colony island
that was used for the filming of the “Shipwrecked” TV program.
Those kids didn’t last the three months required, but Ke said he could last his
whole life. The whole trip was
beautiful – and we shared it with the miniature United Nations of New Zealand, England,
Australia, Germany, Italy, and Cook.
**********
Day 324, Sun, Mar, 25, 2001
– This morning we rented a moped from Mahe at the hotel, put on the cleanest
clothes we could muster and rode into town to the church.
It is the oldest in the Cook 
Islands as Aitutaki was the first foothold of the London Missionary Society.
The church sits in a green field near the harbor with a small cemetery,
and palm trees rustling in the breeze. The
villagers were arriving as we pulled up – women in their finest flowered hats,
men in their nicest collared shirts and kids as neat as they could be.
The church is famous for the spirited hymn singing every Sunday.
It was incredible – the bass line belted out from huge old guys in the
pew in front of us – the men stopping only briefly to wipe the sweat despite
the fans rotating above. We looked out the window to the palms outside and the
turquoise lagoon beyond.
We took the moped around the island,
stopped for lunch at Tapauna Café, got attacked by swarms 
of
mosquitoes at the famous stone maraes in the jungle, drove through a huge banyan
tree 
surrounding
the road, then stopped to look at the other side of the island.
The beach was overrun with little crabs with black bodies and one huge
red claw dominating their bodies. They
looked comically lopsided as if they shouldn’t be able to walk.
But they could, as they scampered when Naomi chased after them with a
little boy. He caught a couple for
boiling, but we didn’t see any of the famous huge coconut crabs that climb the
trees and chop down coconuts to eat the flesh inside.
We continued out past the long
airport runway and rented snorkeling gear at Samadee from
a Jimmy 
Buffett
look-alike. He’s from Oregon, but
“can’t afford not to” spend a few months each year in the islands because
he loves it and can live like a king here. We
parked the moped and snorkeled off the end of the runway (we can only imagine
what can be seen at the end of the runway at LAX in El Segundo). The coral was dead, but the fish were great, and it was fun
to navigate 
through
the rocks and channels in the shallow,
warm lagoon.
We saw plenty of Matu Rori sea cucumbers, which locals eat raw after squeezing
the spaghetti-like guts out like toothpaste. Seemed like sushi to me, but
Naomi assured me that it is nothing of the sort. After snorkeling, we checked out the neighboring resort – way over-priced for what you
get. We found some pretty good
shells at the beach then went back to the other side of the island for the sunset
reflecting off sparkling sand. We
had a delicious dinner of salmon and pasta at Crusher then rode back under the
stars and finished the last of the Fijian rum in the pool.
A very fitting last night to our adventure.
********
Day 325,Mon, Mar. 26, 2001 – Filled up the moped with gas and returned it, waving to the locals as we drove by – some actually recognize us by now (it’s a nice feeling). As we had before, we are sad to leave small, peaceful islands (Zanzibar, Le Digue, Gilli Air). As we waited for the hotel van to take us to the airport, we laid on the bed under the ceiling fan and our minds drifted to what we wanted to eat first and what we had missed the most in the past 325 days:
Na: “Taco Bell”
Ja: “Tommy burgers”
Na: “Salami and pepperjack cheese…”
Ja: “Philadelphia cream cheese”
Na: “…on Triscuits.”
Ja: “In N’ Out Burgers”
Na: “California Pizza Kitchen Chopped Salad”
Ja: “CPK tequila lime chicken fettuccini”
Na: “Louise’s Trattoria”
Ja: “Chilli John’s”
Na: “Popcorn”
Ja: “Fat free ice cream”
Na: “Paco’s Tacos”
Ja: “Enrique’s”
Na: “Puffed corn”
Ja: “Hot chocolate chip cookies and ice cold milk”
Na: “Bagels”
Ja: “The omelets on Sunday morning at the farmer’s market’
Na: “My Car”
Ja: “My Bike”
Na: “Our Own Bed”
Ja: “The Jacuzzi”
Na: “Our own bath”
Ja: “The sauna”
Na: “Our balcony”
Ja: “Our fish”
Na: “Different clothes”
Ja: “Basketball”
Na: “Working out”
Ja: “Our Music!”
Na: “Family”
Ja: “Friends”
Ok, so it took us a while to get to the real important stuff. The point is, we got there and we’re really starting to get excited about coming home.
Mahe drove 
us
to the airport in her van. She says
she gets a lot of attention when she
drives because her license plate is “69” – the van is very popular for photos
with tourists. At the airport, we
saw the same 10 tourists we had seen all weekend.
We sat looking out over the grass landing strip, sad because this was the
last day of the trip. On the plane, we could see the changing colors of the water as the
light turquoise of the shallow lagoon gives way to the deep cobalt past the
protective reef around the island.
Back
in Rarotonga, 
we
had a whole day to spend before taking an overnight flight, so we stored our
bags and rented a jeep. 
We
drove all over the island, seeing some things we didn’t see the first
time – green volcanic mountains, rock formations, and waterfalls.
I think it’s going to take some time for me to get used to driving on
the right side again when we get home. We
snorkeled for a while, then shopped for souvenirs and gifts, checked internet to see who was winning 
Oscars
and NCAA basketball games, then collected souvenir money as we had from 29 other
countries. We love the cool $3 bills with a naked island maiden riding a shark. It was apparently inspired by the legend of a young girl
riding a shark to meet her lover on another island.
We think it was just some perverted designer in the treasury department,
but it’s still our favorite currency note of the trip.
We had our last seafood dinner after sunset and drove back to the
airport, leaving our jeep in the parking lot unlocked with the keys on the floor
as instructed (this would last about five minutes in L.A.). We retrieved our bags
from storage at the Fire Station, rearranged some things, then interviewed
the guys at the station. Sitting
outside the station was the guy who had been playing ukulele when we arrived:
"Family is the most important thing. In everything, the family comes first."
********
Day 326, Tues, Mar. 27, 2001 – Now it is sometime in the middle of the night, we are somewhere over the Pacific and according to the in-flight computer projection, we just crossed the equator. The flight was delayed an hour, and by the time dinner was finished, everyone was dead tired. Now they are all asleep and the only light in the economy cabin comes from my screen as I type this. Naomi’s head is tilted 90 degrees on her shoulder as she snoozes away. My wife. It seems so odd to write that, much less say it out loud. Some 36 years into this life and I am no longer a single man (or “bachelor” as the marriage license had indicated). Our lives are intertwined now in more ways than they ever had been before, and we will be much better for it.
********
So we return home - some 11 months and 30 countries later, having completed what we anticipated would be the longest, most amazing pre-honeymoon in history . We may not have achieved as much as we originally planned with One World Foundation, but we have gotten to know ourselves (and our world) much more intimately. Most things we like (or at least they were not surprises), but some things still trouble us – the imperfections that make us human. We saw them in every country – amongst the most beautiful sites in the world, the human fear, hatred, ignorance and material deprivation – the mere survival that takes the place of “living” in many places – places that represent the sad vast majority of our human family. Will the apathetic continue to turn a blind eye? We met many who didn’t want that to happen. We talked to hundreds of people, collecting opinions, but some observations are truer when left unsaid – the playful banter in the marketplace, women smiling with enormous loads on their heads, old guys without a care in the world other than their next toss of baci ball, drunks sleeping in the streets, men quietly herding cattle, kids laughing at the simplest of things made into toys – a piece of string, a rock, their shoes. These things we hope to remember – and impress upon anyone willing to listen: We are all in this together, the past is prologue, we need to start working on solutions together, and care about what happens in our world. After all, “we have not inherited this world from our parents, we are borrowing it from our children”.
********
By the time Naomi woke up, we were
descending towards LAX and 
watching
the screen with 
the
miniature airplane plot our course. As
we approach the familiar brown cloud of smog over home, we hold hands and touch
down. Entering the terminal is a surreal experience after so long – the
“Welcome to Los Angeles” sign, the English language, the old familiar
customs agent routine. Naomi’s
mom met us at the airport with flowers and a balloon and gave us a ride home to
Santa Monica. It was weird driving
out, but the sight of convertibles, Mexican restaurants, cell phones, hundreds
of billboards, enormous SUVs and In N’ Out Burger made 
us realize we were
home. The traffic on Lincoln
Boulevard was bad but it’s only going to 
get
worse when that ridiculous Playa Vista project is finished.
Our house was like a time warp. Chad
had taken good care of it, but we found ourselves going “oh yeah, we had this
furniture, and these plants, and these fish, etc."
We made a mess of it in very short order with luggage, boxes shipped back, mail,
etc. We had a lot of things before, and shipped back many more things – mostly
gifts and souvenirs we need to go through and give away.
They are reminders - triggers that set off explosions of memories – but
still just things. They don’t
mean nearly as much as the memories we have inside.
********
Post-Script, April 28, 2001 -
Well, we've been here for a month already - 
enough time
re-acquaint
ourselves
with our home town, see some friends and family, and start in on 94 hours of
video and 90 rolls of film. Our town is familiar - there's still too
many people here, the Dodgers still lose pretty while the Lakers win ugly, cell
phones are still stuck to most ears, the beach bike path is still crowded with
interesting folks, and Venice Beach is still the best freak show in the
world. Welcome home.
****
A few days ago we sent the following email to our extended friends and family a month after being home, getting our bearings, and letting it all sink in:
Hi Everybody,
Well, we've been back home for nearly a month already and after unpacking
suitcases and packages sent from everywhere, developing film, reading
a year's worth of mail and moving into our house again, we've finally got a
chance to catch our breath. Sorry we haven't got back to everyone who has called
or emailed, so we've summarized the most popular asked questions - sort of like
those annoying FAQ pages of websites (although we hope more useful)
**How Does It Feel?
Kind of weird. Sometimes it feels like we we've been gone for a lifetime (like
when we forgot phone numbers and which plants we had at home), and sometimes it
seems like we left yesterday (like when we talk to friends or drive our cars)
**So, What was the best part?
We are still digesting the entire experience - and as we look at photos, video,
gifts and souvenirs we still find ourselves reliving parts of the journey
("Oh yeah, remember when we bought this from that Bedouin in a cave in
Petra?"). But the highlights would probably be:
1. The safaris in Africa (thanks for the suggestions Susan). We really can't
explain the feeling of being in the bush with the animals - standing in their
living room rather than looking through the bars of a cage at the zoo, living
another day just because an elephant decided not to stomp you or the lions
coming through camp did not enter your tent.
2. Seeing some of the most amazing structures ever built - the massive pyramids
of Egypt, the intricate temples of Angkor Wat, the golden walled old city of
Jerusalem, the colorful and elaborate Indian and Nepalese temples (thanks
Grace), the red rock palaces cut from the cliffs of Petra, the sculpted terraced
rice fields of Bali and Vietnam, the beautiful mosques and palaces of Istanbul,
the churches and cathedrals of Europe – especially Moscow, Rome, and Leon, and
the incomparable translucent Taj Mahal.
3. The incredible natural beauty of the world - the crystal waters of Fiji and
Seychelles (thanks Tony and Marina),), the stark mysterious deserts of Jordan,
the living coral reefs of the pacific and Indian Oceans (thanks Paul and Mary)
the beautiful majestic peaks of the Himalayas, the exotic palms, ferns, flowers,
and fruits of the tropics, and the pristine glaciers and fjords of New Zealand.
4. The wonderful people we met along the way - friendly, sharing, giving, and
always curious. Showing us the world from their view - like the Russian
professor, the Turkish rug merchant, the Bulgarian politician, the Romanian
gypsy boy wearing sweatpants from my school, the Italian fisherman, the Cambodian
amputee, the Israeli architect, the Palestinian shop owner, the Indian doctor,
the Laotian monk, Nepalese sherpas, the Vietnamese rickshaw driver, the Thai
pensioner, and our incredible Kenyan safari guides. And kids everywhere –
laughing, playing and unfortunately working. The laugh of a child is the same in
any language. We also met some fun and interesting non-locals and there are
plenty of crazy travelers out there seeing the world (and you know who you are).
**Wow, we’re jealous - you guys must have spent a fortune.
Not really – not as much as you’d expect, anyway. Living expenses are very
low outside the developed world. We ate cheap, going local and avoiding the
wine-and-dine business traveler routine. We were very fortunate to have
thousands of hotel and airline bonus points to use to get free travel and
accommodation. Without points, we stayed at some pretty cheap hotels and
guesthouses (e.g. $5 in India, $10 in Nepal, etc.). The rest came from savings
we built over the past few years. We realize we are very fortunate to have the
savings (and health and time) to make such a journey - which is why we wanted to
spread our good fortune while we were traveling (and no, Gary, it was not some
elaborate scheme to get a tax write-off or deduction). The bottom line is many people
could do it if they really wanted to and did some planning (especially you guys
at Warner Bros Studio Stores with some time on your hands in the near future).
**How did you guys stay healthy?
Two words – bottled water. This appears to be the growth industry of the new
millennium. From the depths of the Jordanian desert to the heights of the
Himalayas, we were never far from an enterprising local vendor of nature's
finest. We didn’t even need our fancy REI water filter, which we sent back
home the first chance we got. Another key word is “luck”. We fully expected
to get “Delhi Belly” or “Bali Belly” or several other more colorful
illnesses, but fortune was on our side.
**Top ten things we missed the most during the trip (thanks to David
Letterman)
10. Things that work the way they are supposed to - 24/7 convenience of anything
we need (the 7-eleven mentality) and post office, bank, and customer service
that doesn't take hours
9. Easy, unlimited local phone calls and internet access (with no per-minute
charges!)
8. Sitting on the balcony reading the Sunday newspaper listening to Van Morrison
(Jamie)
7. Driving our own cars - especially with the tops down
6. Shopping (Naomi) and playing basketball (Jamie)
5. Our music - whenever we want it, as loud as we want it
4. Seeing American movies and television - especially Simpsons, South Park,
Friends, Frasier, Saturday Night Live, A&E, Discovery, Dave, Jay, ESPN
Classic and of course E! Entertainment (by the way, what is all this
Survivor/Boot Camp/Mole/Temptation Island crap that invaded while we were gone?)
3. Home-cooked food, real Mexican food (even that nasty familiar taco bell
variety) and real burgers (with apologies to our vegetarian and Indian friends)
2. Our own bed and our own bathtub - full of hot water
1. Easy contact with our families and friends. There were several births,
weddings, and other occasions we would have loved to celebrate.
**Top ten things we missed the least while we were away:
10. Prices of goods/services in the west. It's been difficult finding $2 meals
in LA since we've been back.
9. Bubble gum pop and gangsta rap (although we never could escape Britney Spears
and Tupac Shakur anywhere in the world)
8. Typical American news reports of school shootings, child abuse and other
violence.
7. Anything related to OJ Simpson, Monica Lewinsky, The Royal Family, Jerry
Springer or Wrestling shows.
6. Doing our own cooking and cleaning
5. Diet/workout/investment/real estate/psychic infomercials.
4. LA traffic and drivers who are not only incompetent, but rude and armed
3 Doing our own cleaning, laundry, and shopping.
2. The material, phony plastic aspects of our home town
1. The daily 9-9 grind of a regular job. It’s amazing the things that pop into
your head when it is free from work-related stress.
**So, What did you really learn anyway?
Well, aside from the more serious, “most important thing in life” that we
asked hundreds of people along the way and put in the website, we learned some
valuable travel tips:
1. Whatever you think you need, pack it all, then laugh at yourself and leave
half behind. There really are two types of travelers – those who pack light,
and those who wish they did.
2. Always reconfirm flights, times and directions, and opening times with more
than one source. We were given incorrect information by well-meaning people more
times than we care to admit. (“Sure, there is a bus coming
soon”)
3. If something is too good to be true – it usually isn’t – like that
cheap hotel with all the amenities in Agra, the no-cover bar in Bangkok, the
“express” bus in Vietnam, and anytime someone says the price is “as you
wish” in India.
4. Develop a more global sense of the importance and meaning of time. The rest
of the world does not move on US-based concepts of “time is money” and the
sooner this is accepted, the happier you will be as a traveler. Also remember
the US is the only major country that still insists on the standard (and
ridiculous) 10 days of vacation per year.
5. Always confirm the price and destination before getting into a taxi,
rickshaw, moto, donkey, elephant or camel. You don’t want to be on/inside any
of these and get into a fight with the driver.
6. Treat everyone you meet with politeness and respect. Sometimes a smile gets
surprising results – especially when other travelers are being stereotypically
“ugly Americans”. Always make an effort at the local language – especially
“hello”, “please” and “thank you”. “Where is the nearest
toilet?” is also quite useful.
7. However, being nice does not mean trusting everyone you meet, as there are
plenty of scam artists preying on naïve travelers. Always be aware of security
issues - keep your bags within sight, preferable within touch. Don’t let a
“porter” run off with them or a taxi driver close the trunk on them while
someone else is in the driver’s seat. Always use a security pouch but don't
put all your eggs in one basket. Always take a cable lock on a train – especially in sleeper cars and in India where there is no door and
people come in and out of your cabin with disturbing regularity. And try not to
pass out when using the drop-toilets prevalent in most of the world.
8. Never check into a hotel room sight unseen – and check that the water is
actually hot, the bed is free of critters, walls are free of lizards and
spiders, and the air conditioning is not just a rusty old tetanus-infused
electric fan.
9. Always try to hang out with the locals – restaurants, shops, bars, sporting
events. You learn a lot more about a country if you make an effort to meet on
their turf, not just the tourist traps – like the small park in Budapest, the
cross-town rugby match in New Zealand, the fish market in Zanzibar, the drinking
circle in Bali, and the muddy soccer field in Kenya.
10.Above all, pay attention and enjoy. Away from home, every moment is a new
experience and a chance to learn something about the world – something
you’ve never seen, heard, smelt, tasted or felt before. Watch instead of see,
listen instead of hear, and really live every day. Listen to local music and try
the local food (except the obvious like Cambodian cockroaches and Balinese pig
entrails). We had no idea we liked so many kinds of Indian food and that Fijian
kava has a much better effect than taste.
**So what’s Next?
This is probably the hardest question to answer because we haven’t decided
yet. We will stay in Santa Monica for now and work on the West Side. Naomi will
probably work in the entertainment industry and Jamie will continue in the
non-profit mode for awhile - with One World Foundation and other organizations.
Thanks again for all the kind words and support. You don’t know how nice it is
to get a friendly email when you’re a stranger in a strange land. And by the
way, the website now includes Nepal, Thailand and some
Cambodia if you’re interested. We'll keep you posted on future enhancements.
All the best,
Naomi and Jamie
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