pictures

home tomorow night - yeah! pictures to follow buy I want to put them on Picassa and do a bit of basic editing and will then put the links to them on this blog for anyone who is interested. curious exercise this blog. long periods that I couldn't post and not sure what it read like. I have enjoyed this trip but don't know how interesting it was to anyone not on it.

tired and wired

so its 11:30 and I am just back at the hostel after seeing Wicked. shouldn't be tired but my roomate from last night got up at 6 and took an hour to get ready and leave at 7. twit should have got his shit together the night before and left quickly and quietly. just got back from Wicked which was very good and should go to bed as |I am tired but also wired so I am doing this first. took a tour today that included a boatride on the Thames to Greenwich. Johnny Depp is filing a new Pirates of the Caribean movie in Greenwich but the most we saw was lots of closed sets and a few actors in period british navy uniforms. however later when I was in teh Greenwish market (crafts, collectibles etc) I saw a guy who could have been Johnny Depp withot makeup or swagger but who knows. I stood astride the Prime Meridian of longitude with a foot in the western hemisphere and a foot in the eastern hemisphere. was going to cross the thames by walking a pedestrian tunnel under it but the lift was out of service. took a train to St pauls and walked along the embankment to the Parliament Buildings and Westminster abbey and then to the theater which was across from Victoria station. when the show got out around 10:30 I could have taken the tube or a buss back to the hostel but I wanted to suck up as much memory/atmosphere I could as I don't think I will go out tomorrow except maybe during the day. walked a couple of blocks back along Victoria street to the Thames and could see the London Eye - just a Ferris wheel but a really really big Ferris wheel. walked past Westminster Abbey, the houses of parliament and big ben and down Whitehall street to Traflgar square. then up Charing Cross road past thebars, restuarants and theaters getting out. getting to 11:00 on a Thursday but still lots and lots of people around. continued up Charing Cross Road which changed its name for no apparent reason to |Tottenham Court road and psat the Spearmint Rhino, a 'gentleman's club' and the two doormen look like members of the russian mafia. there is a young woman outside having a smoke. she pulls her jacket closed and before she does I can see she is wearing some kind of sexy uniform and must work in the club. she looks more like a tired single mom than a sex object.

Priscilla

saw the musical of Priscilla Queen of the Desert last night cause I wasn't sure what to see and it had wond awards. It was gaudy and colourful and tacky and spectacular and a lot of fun. Probably not a great musical but a lot of fun. I liked the theatre it was in too. Not a huge number of seats on the floor but three levels of balconies and each of the balconies had 3 or 4 rows of seats set fairly steeply above each other so everyone had very good sightlines. today I am off for a boatride on the Thames and a walking tour of Greenwich and then I see Wicked. tomorrow not much touristy stuff as I get ready for the flight home the next morning. the trip draws to a close.

meetings etc

this trip is winding down or I am. have a ticket for a musical tonite and Wicked tomorrow night and then Friday I am going to a museum and getting me ready for leaving Sat am. my flight, subject to confirmation, leaves sat 10:35 from Gatwick. I have to be out there 3 hours before flight and that means I will need to catch a train at 5:30 AM. much fun.
meet intersting people when hanging around. a brazilian guy who needed a place to sit at breakfast. he is in London a few days and then off to Iceland. Not sure why but he does have an interest in natural history. having some pasta arrabiata at an inexpensive cafe frequented by students and got talking to a couple of oung guys, one brit and one swiss about various things including law, economics etc etc. Going to se Priscilla Queen of the Desert tonite (the musical) which won lots of awards thsi year and should be fun.

henry iv and jack the ripper

so I walk over to the new globe theater and buy a cheap ticket and am a groundling. the globe theater recreates the original as well as they could and the seats are either wooden benches in the galleries or standing around the stage which is what it was in |Shakespeare's time. I opt for standing in front of the stage as being cheaper and closer to the action. I am a groundling. I get in line early and am right in front with my elbows on the stage and it is very very good as theater should be and I think as shakespeare shold be. afterwards I wander around and then go for a guided walk on the subject of Jack the Ripper and home to bed. Today not sure what I am doing.
Was shocked though by something totally uncivilized. wandering around the town of london area and came across a pay toilet set-up (50 p about $1 Cdn). Can't remember seeing one of those in a long long time.
Bikes Bikes Bikes - see people of all ages and both genders riding bikes around london. clothes range from full lycra to street and business clothes. was standing outside the tube station when someone emerged from the tube carrying a folding bike which he assembled in less than a minute and cycled off on.

First day in London or there's a man in my bed

So I go to the 1/2 price theater ticket booth and get a ticket for Warhorse (recommended by couple I met in Sahara and involving a horse and puppets - don't know anything else and haven't checked). book online a ticket to the Globe theatre for Tuesday afternoon. wander around london and then off to dinner and the play. It is incredable and unlike anything I have seen before. I have heard talk that Steven Speilberg is making a movie out of it.
walk back to the hostel and enter my room in the dark and go to bed and there is someone in it. some front deskscrew up and I take another bed. Have breakfast with him the next day and he is a scot leaving for Australia to live down there. while we are at breakfast a yound guy is looking for someone to site and he joins us. he is from New Jersey, living in Anchorage and working temporarily in Scotland but visting London. is in the oil industry and interesting. Off to the Globe and then a walking tour of some kind.

last day in Marrakech

our last day in Marrakech and I have no big plans. go to the artisans ensemble and look at some beautiful leather goods I can afford but don't need. Don't buy. mail a couple of post cards, go for a walk in the mid-day sun (mad dogs and englishmen go out in the mid day sun) and go out for a final meal with the group.

leaving morocco - get up at 6 for two cups of bad coffee before leaving for the airport. at airport I check in with airline, go through security, go through passport control, go through boarding and then sit in airpland being told that because of earlier delays we have missed our takeoff slot and are waiting for next slot. Ah the glamour of travel. get to Luton (london) and wait 1/2 hour for luggage and then take bus into city. it drops me off at Baker street tube station and I am trying to figure out how to get to St Pancras station across from my hostel when I realize I am a mile away and put my pack on and grab my bag and start walking. along the way I pass the Royal Acadamy of Music and notice a young chinese woman who is unlocking her bike. at the next cross walk she asks me where I have been explaning that she has seen the Canadian flag on my pack and is also from Canada (Burnaby). she is studying piano performance here and we walk and talk a few blocks until she turns off.

On to Marrakech

leavign tinehir and stop at a world heriatage site. it is a kasbah and a site where the trading caravans were guraded from. Our driver is good and that makes me very happy as we go over a mountain highway thatis far and away the most impressive I have seen or travelled. Huge exposure on tight narrow winding road. then get to Marrakech and the traffic is beyond description. all kinds of vehicles with no apparent rules exhibit the bigger vehicle has right of way. It kind of flows with individual drivers weaving in and out. Got to our Riad and settled and I took Verne and Liz and Phil out to the restauarant I found earlier on the square for dinner and a brief tour of the souks and square and to bed.

Brekkie - walk with Robbin to Museum and then I find my way back and over to Artisans |ensemble for some painless shopping. fixed prices and noone husseling me. I've seen the souks and and wandered through them but find them overwhelming. Was going to mail some stuff home but can't do that (for reason I don't understand) until the day after I leave. OK. Went with Hamman with group and found it interesting and enjoyable. steam bath and then a woman attendant puts savon noir on me front and back and then after further steaming rubs me all over with a coarse mitt visibly taking off skin. then a shower and relaxing with some mint tea. One more sleep and then off to London.

more morocco posts from london

tues sept 28 - long drive with a stop at a hotel for a moroccan pizza. meat & other stuff baked into a pizza shape. tasty. talking to young man there who said itgot to 45 - 50 degrees in summer. continued driving and entered beginning of Sahara desert. hard flat black gravelly area such as most of the Sahara is I understand. got to a hotel where we are to meet camels and were early and had time for a swim. wonderful and incredible. after swimming and lazing about got ready for the camels. camels came and we got on and rode them out on to the orange coloured dunes. camels on the flat and uphill aren't too bad to ride but going downhill is not so good. If I rode them much I would develop calluses in some new and interesting places. rode them out to a desert campsite about an 1 1/2 hour out. getting off was interesting. met an interesting couple from london who recommended a play in london called Warhorse. & 3 women from Australia. had a good dinner. after dark wandered away from the lights of the campsite for a piss. weird towander into the dark and see a group of camels resting there. defintely not what |I am used to. stars and milky way were incredable. lie outside watching the stars until i fell asleep. there was a young nomad girl from the nearby nomad camp selling some crafts. a hard bargainer. we ride back to the hotel and after breakfast take of. stop at a well exhibit where they try to sell us stuff we don't want for too much. stop at a fossil/mineral shop where they show us the process. lots of beuatiful stuff but we don't buy much. stop for lunch at the museum of the oases. good lunch and I enjoyed the museum. tried to buy the dvd of the exhibits but they are out. on to tinehir to stay at the Tomboktou hotel and access the internet next door. Manage to print off my Ryanair Boarding Pass which is good. can't access my email. oh well. On to Marrakech.

Further Morocco post

Sat Sept 25 - we hike over a mountain pass and down about 500 feet and up AND over another mtn pass. about 4,000 feet gained. we were to get up at 7 but i got up for a bathroom break at 6 and the light was so beautiful and the day so quiet I stayed up. took some pictures and enjoyed watching the camp and the village come to life. After we started to hike I went to take apicture and my camera informed me that my battery was dead. my spare battery was in myother pack. Oh well. As we were walking up the first pass we saw five camels coming up the way behind us. It was a Berber nomad with his camels. He walked with us for a while talking to Mo and then his way separated from ours. came down a long loose rocky slope from the second pass and on the way down I figured out a way to dry my clothes that would save energy and money. will start keeping an eye out for internet as I have to print off my Ryanair boarding pass. lots of time yet.
Sunday Sept. 26 packed up and started moving down the river valley. steady downhill & went through an amazing gorge and then thru a second amazing gorge. walked in the stream for 2-3 k ankle to knee deep. Much fun. Got separated before lunch and a few of us were going to wait for the others at an intersection at the beginning of a village.stopped at a store with a fridge and cold drinks for sale. Wonderful. |good day. tomorrow short day and the van and the gite.
Monday Sept 27 walked down rough road through Berber villages. as before women were beuatifully dressed to work in the fields. this morning we all contributed to a tip which will be divided among the guide, cook and muleteers. We stop at a 200 year old kasbah which is 4 stories high and houses a family of 20. we get a tour and have sweet mint tea in the courtyard. we buy water and it is cold. Yeah! the women who go back and forth wear beautiful dresses that all of the women in our group admire. we walk on skirting farmed fields and occasionally picking a ripe fig which taste amazingly better fresh than dried. we stop for lunch and our van comes and the trekking part of morocco is over. we pack the van and say goodbye to the guide, cook and muleteers. he van driver takes group pics of us all. they will take 3 days to walk back to their homes and we will take a couple of hours to drive to our hotel in the Dades gorge which is amazing and spectacular andlined with new hotels and restuarants. I shower and change my clothes for the first time since starting trekking. |Feels very good! Before goign down to dinner Brenda asks me whether we 'dress for dinner' I say no and start to figure out what she has in all her luggage. she is nice but without any background in backpacking or travel where she can't take her hairdryer. |Good dinner at beautiful hotel in wonderful location and soto bed.

morocco update from London

wed 9-22 1,000 m elevation gain and 700 m elevation loss down to our camp on a broad plateau that we share with other trekking groups and noads and their herds of goats. Overcast but very picturesque. tomorrow we go to the peak of M'Goun which involves a hike with an elevation gain of about 5,000 ft (1,650 m?) and the same amount of descent on the othedr side. We are going up to an elevation of 4,070 m. It works fine and I am glad not to have the nausea or headache I know that some people get at such altitudes. Liz 73) is a bit slow and I hang back to encourage and distract her and it all works well. Long relatively level ridge is the final approach and quite nice. We share the ridge with other trekkers, mainly French, but they all return the way they came and we descent to the M'Goun river valley several thousand feet below where we find camp, the muleteers and the members of our group who chose not to go up to the peak. Descent included lots of scree and was much fun. my repaired ankle has given me no problem at all. In camp we are just hanging about and chatting about travel arrangements among many other topics when someone says to me 'you heard about the labour problems that Air Transit is having didn't you?' Actually I didn't but that is quite a ways away and I am sure will sort itself out even if it invovles me coming home a different way than planned.
MonfRIDAY sEPT 24 A short day of 6 hours on the trail that ended up being 8 hours walking. all tired and thirsty. stopped at a tiny store in a very small village. bought water, fanta, cookies and apples. |Terry asked the price of a fancy dress. ratherthan telling her the price the shopkeeper put the dress on her with a fancy head scarf and proceeded to do her make up in a traditional Berber pattern and |Terry ended up buying the dress and head scarf (200 dirham about $25 canadian)she looked amazing and very different. she took the dress off as we walked through the village but still had the makeup on to the amusement and amazement of the women and children in the village. Women were working in the fields in fancy dresses and makeup? We got to camp and discussed alternative routes for the remainder of the trek. Original route had lots of walking in the river which people were looking forward to but Mo was concerned with rising water levels. We decided to take alternative route thatinvovled crossing two mountain passes and some walking in the river. Good decision I think.

London

out lining up plays to attend and wandering around. it is relaxing to spend time in a city where people speak the same language, have no interest in you and you don't have to fund off hustlers. going for lunch and then will complete the Morocco entries. Beautiful stuff in Morocco for relatively little but I am proud of myself in that I bought little. There were these beuatiful leather bags in 'carry on' size which I looked at. they cost 550 dirham which is about $65 and would have cost several times that in Canada and were beautiful but of course I have absolutley no need of one and walked away. suppressed my urge to acquire. off for some cheap pasta.

london briefly

booked a ticket in the globe last night and off shortly to the 1/2 price ticket booth to see what I am gonig to tonight. London for all its traffic and hustle bustle seems so much quieter and more orderly than Marrakech. cooler as well of course. Morocco update will resume later this afternoon. Hope all are well in Canada and I will likely be back in a few days (likely as I hear my carrier Air transat has some labour issues)

minor catch up from London

Hello

a minor catch up today as I am tired from travelling from Marrakech and need some food and a shower and ... It is so different here from Marrakech - the people, the heat, the noise, the traffic etc. I took the bus in from Luton airport to Baker street underground station and was trying to figure out the tube conection to St Pancras where I was going and realized I was just outside of Madame Tussaud's and only about a mile from my hostel so I just walked. This keyboard is so easy compared to the keyboard in Marrakech. that one was based on a french keyboard with letters in different places and had arabic characters as well so that some of the 'letter' keys had 4 possible functions! Going to get myself sorted out a bit tonight and start thinking of what I want to do here. When I was walking over from Baker Street station/Madam |Tussaud's I walked by the Royal Acadamy of Music. There was a young chines woman unlocking her bike who I passed and who catching up to me at a crosswalk asked where I was from. She saw the maple leaf on my pack and was herself from Burnaby and studying piano and performance at the Royal Academy.

Anyway now I go back to Morocco to catch up with where I left off. the fi9rst time I went to the Medina (old city - world heritage site) I was at the internet cafe and met Carla and Mohammed both from england and ended up going with them for coffee on the edge of the square for a oouple of hours of conversation and the best people watching I have ever experienced! Mohammed a moderate and thoughtful muslim originally from Sierra Leone. went down a long narrow alley with shops on both sides and scooters going thru and found laundry. haven't taken any pictures of the square or the soukks as they are too long, caried, colourful, rich etc to be captured with pictures.|Got hassled/hussled by a guy who was going to show me an auction. I reacted slowly and got pulled through many shops before getting back to square. I gave him change from pocket. He wanted more which I didn't give. Lesson -- DON'T GO WITH HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! Unpleasant experience.
Next Day - met group. seem nice. Packed stuff that I am not taking in my pack each day trekking in a small sports bag that willl be given to the muleteers to take to our camp each day. drove over a mountainour terrain in a small van until reaching our accommodations for the night in Happy Valley. Our guide 'Mo' for Mohammed is from here. he took us for a small walk around the village so we meet him and him us. Bought a scarf which I understand may be very useful. I was concerned about the froup and me but this seems like it should be a good group with a good guide.
Next Day - leave the next day at first light after a light but good breakfast for a s short day walk to a high camp defintely in the mountains. Mules arrive a bit after us with considerable supplies. We don't travel light. - Yesterday Mo explained to Liz that in Morocco he could have 4 wives, one chines, one canadian etc. It dawned on her that he was kidding her and she exclaimed 'bullshit! He was dumbstruck in surprise but got her back when he let her explain to him what cookies were. more to come but shower and food needed now!