Tourist, Travel Notes

As you can see from photo I'm taking it easy in fantastic location. The Pacific Northwest is surley the summer ideal and I am enjoying it while I contemplate my travels. Here are a few random memories.

The light in various places: filtered through the cloth roofs over the shops in the marketplace in Marrakech, a mile high sky at the equator with the clouds enveloping Mount Kenya, then at sea level sky near the equator in Hawaii, the long twilight sky on the south island in New Zealand, the smog of Delhi,  and at all the stops along the way I marveled at the daylight, and the night skys. In Sorrento, Australia the power for the entire town went out on a clear warm night. Ah, marvelous view of milky way and the southern cross. Then of course the eire light during the solar eclipse seen from the Great Barrier Reef.

When foreign visitors tour the Taj Mahal we pay quite a bit more admission and enter through a separate gate, which is fine. But when you actually enter the masoleum they stand in a long line while I was ushered in skipping ahead of all the Indian visitors. That was very awkward feeling. But my most ackward experience was in the Albert Hall Museum in Jaipur, India which was full of school groups, around 8-9 years old. I was viewed as a freak there, an old white woman on her own. There were lots of stares and giggles. I apparently was even scarier when I tried to talk to them.

The drivers on Australian Greyhound buses carry their own tool boxes. There are vast territories without service and they must be able to do repairs on the run. Each time there is a change of drivers they gather up their paper work and personal toolbox, some very large/heavy.

The trolley stops in front of the Honolulu Museum of Art, the driver rings the bell, the guide talks into little microphone, a row of tourists turn and lean to right as if correographed as they take their pictures. The bell rings and as quickly as you read this the trolley moves on.

Man on public bus speaking loudly on cell, complaining about how crowded and slow it is. Meanwhile driver is trying to tell him he's blocking the back door from closing so we can't move.

Lessons in patience. Waiting here, waiting there. Travel is a lot of waiting. Waiting in airports and on planes, waiting in bus stations, bus stops and on buses, waiting in restaurants. I think I'm learning this lesson. One needs to be patient to enjoy travel; slow down and see all the wonders of this immense world. Just looking at the sky helps me be patient.

Not having an actual home is complicated. I'm using both my sisters for mailing addresses,  but when I meet someone and am asked where I'm from I don't have an easy answer. Honolulu is last residence, but only four months doesn't really count. I guess I feel more like saying "the United States" as I would when traveling.