July 21, 2015
The Kingdom of Denmark
Copenhagen, the capital city
A lovely city …
A bright city …
A colorful city …
A walkable city …
A modern city …
A traditional city …
And yet, a city where anything goes?
15 August – 20 August 2015
Excursions:
Khiva
Uzbekistan
June 5, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Today's vocabulary word is the Persian word "pharsakh". (The word sounds suspiciously like the Hebrew "parashah" - the weekly portion of the Bible that is read in synagogue every Saturday.)
A pharsakh (pronounced farshach) is a unit of distance about 5km or about 3 miles. A Genghis Khan messenger on horseback, with stops, could travel 50 pharsakh - 250km (150 miles) in one day across the sands of the Kara Kum (Black Sands) Desert. A camel caravan can travel 160 kilometers (96 miles).
The distance from Bukhara to Khiva, my next stop on the Great Silk Road, is 470 kilometers (282 miles). It would take the messenger three days; the caravan five days. On a proper highway, my driver and I do it in about six hours, with stops.
Who can resist the stops? Under a cloudless sky, with a charm of its own, the flat, bleak, scrub-mottled desert is interspersed with herds of goats, a yurt camp or two, and endless tracts of cotton plants. Finally, a long, narrow reservoir that feeds the cotton - a major commodity in this part of the world
Agriculture and human settlement go back four, perhaps six millennia in this area. Legend has it that Khiva was founded by Noah's son, Shem. By the 8th Century, Khiva was a trading post. In 1592, Khiva became the capital of Khorezem. The history of Khiva goes on with conquests by the Persians and later the Russians. Fortunately, the old city is preserved in its entirety. *
Udon Thani
Udon Thani Province
Thailand
January 2, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
“Mr. Jan, where you go cown dow?” A Thai friend asked me this question just after Christmas. I was stumped. I was puzzled. It took me a few minutes to unravel the mystery.
Bangkok
Thailand
26 March 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
March has been my own mad month - of visits and visitors: Ngoc Vi and Thao My; Moon and Kevin; Mai and Mark; Luisa and Dolly; DeeDee and Richard.
Ngoc Vi came to Thailand on a four-day tour with her daughter Thao My. They live near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
I met Ngoc Vi seven years ago near the cathedral in HCMC (Saigon). After a brief chat, she invited me to her sister's wedding the next day.
Ngoc Vi is a specialist in agricultural productivity. She has worked as a consultant to Vietnamese farmers. This year she left her job and is enrolled as a full-time student. She expects to earn a Master's degree in Business Administration.
Thao My is an energetic, talkative, irrepressible four-year-old girl. Her goal was to ride an elephant here in Thailand. She did just that, all alone, according to her mother, at an elephant park south of Bangkok.
Bangkok
Thailand
March 29, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
My upcoming departure for the Horn of Africa reminds me of Haile Selassie and Abebe Bikile and the dramatic events and the enduring personalities of the 1960's.
Who among us can ever forget the sounds and images from late November, 1963: the gunshots in Dallas, the bloodied dress, Walter Cronkite's tears, the murder of the murderer (?), Chopin's music, a boy's salute to the flag covering the coffin of his father, the rider-less horse?
Do you remember the funeral procession of John Kennedy - heads of state in a solemn march? Le Président de la République française, Charles de Gaulle at 6'5" (1.96 m) walking beside and towering over the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie at 5'1¾" (1.58 m).
De Gaulle died in his bed in 1970. But Selassie?
The opening sequence of the film "Marathon Man" features the archive footage of a graceful young athlete, on a summer evening in 1960, effortlessly running the 42km (26 mi) Olympic marathon, gliding past the Coliseum and along the darkened, torch lit avenues of Rome, sprinting toward the finish line at the Arch of Constantine. Abebe Bikile became the first black African to win a gold medal at an Olympics event.
