HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

Well, Honolulu remains beautiful.  A couple of photos from where I sit composing this posting.

There have been good trips and bad.  Since I retired a quarter century ago, the 50 or so I've taken have all been good to great.  However, I've been thinking about all my travels, and a few did not go right. Some particularly worried me.  For the next few Tuesday nostalgia days, I'll focus on the worst ones.  There was danger in Papua New Guinea, concern that I might not be able to leave China, an incident at Machu Picchu, Peru, the weirdness of Cairo, Egypt and scare in Delhi, India.  These experiences were sufficient so that I can't imagine my ever returning to those countries.

The first I'll report on occurred in 2010.  This was a global journey, and here is how it started.

Today, I begin my journey. I will visit Seoul, Hanoi and other parts of Vietnam, Cambodia, Chiang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand, New Delhi, Barcelona, Munich, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, London, DC, New York City, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. I will keep you informed. This the view from the First Class Lounge at Narita (I'm on a Star Alliance Around the World Package):

Buried in the middle is New Delhi, which began with India Sucks...*

• 
  This was my posting on 7February2010, the first full day I spent in India.
• Perhaps, I should not have used that title.  It was too provocative, and, in my mind, led to the happenstance that scared me, coming later.
• This posting has so far drawn 73 comments, the most, by far, of all my 6754 articles.  Go to the end and read them.  Most are downright funny.
• From this posting, a quote:  I’m having a Highland Park scotch, see (in a manner of speaking, for the atmosphere is reminiscent of Los Angeles, circa 1958) India Gate from my room and am cranking out this blog.  The room came with a complimentary bottle of Bordeaux, but I’ll save that for another day.  Yes, the Meridien is an oasis.
• At this point, my blog had been existing for almost two years, and it is interesting to note that the total number of visitors to my site for that period was only 23,700, from 132 countries.
• Today, this blog site is up to 221 countries and 3.8 million visitors.
• 
  The following day, my posting said:

Let's forget yesterday. I'm appalled that I said "India Sucks." 

Today, though, was not much different, but my attitude has re-adjusted and returned to my normal self. To begin, can you believe there are 82 HD channels, and at the time of the Super Bowl, there were 6 soccer matches, 2 rugby, 2 badminton, 1 tennis, 1 golf, 1 auto racing, 3 cricket and, on ESPN, a SEC gymnastics competition. NO SUPER BOWL in Delhi. Anyway, I couldn't have caught all of it as at 6:15AM I was picked up for my Taj Mahal encounter, the primary reason why I'm on this trip.

• The van ride from Delhi to Agra for the Taj Mahal and Red Fort tours, and return to Delhi, was scarily memorable:

The most exciting part was the ride back to Delhi, all 6 hours of it. This was the equivalent of the road through hell. They say that just at the moment of a catastrophe, time slows, like, say, your car meeting another head-on at 60 miles per hour. To survive in this traffic, the driver needs to be intrepid, no, make that, reckless. He needs to fearlessly pass cars and toot his horn as much as possible. Time virtually stopped for me at least a dozen times today.

• 
  Alive and well, the Meridien had a hotel car that took me to the airport for free.  For some reason, Lufthansa upgraded me to First Class.  Passed through customs with ease and was in the Lufthansa airport lounge when a uniformed officer arrived to inform me that he was there to take me for a luggage check.

I imagined all sorts of worse case scenarios.  Maybe someone had somehow snuck in a pound of heroin or a bomb into my baggage.  We passed through one security gate, where they stamped my BP.  At this point another uniformed officer with a rifle accompanied us.  We went through two more security areas, where they again stamped the BP, into the bowels of the airport.  Then I thought, oh no, my “India Sucks” blog really pissed off someone and they were going to execute me. However, Cambodia, maybe, but certainly not India.  We made it to where bags accumulate, and there was my suitcase. It occurred to me then, what if they never found me before the plane left. This suitcase would never have made it to Barcelona.

They asked me to open it.  At this point, I sort of realized the problem.  TSA has a key to my type of luggage, but they don’t in India.  As I was opening the bag, I was asked if I had a lighter in there.  I said, yes, and found it in the bag with my cigars.  He huddled with two others and they talked for several minutes.  Then they went up to a higher official for several minutes more of animated discussion. I thought, with these histrionics, for sure, another $100 would be necessary. But I would go no higher.  Then I saw one of them use a device to evacuate the lighter of the fluid.  They gave me back my lighter, I closed the suitcase, they all smiled, so did I, and I left the area, accompanied by my two guards, mildly embarrassed for my unkind thoughts.  I had to re-pass through the three security tables, where they again stamped my BP.  By the time this was all over, my BP was totally unrecognizable.  I was returned to the lounge, where I fixed myself a stiff Bloody Mary, except with gin, as there was no vodka.

• 
  The crisis was over, and the flight from Delhi to Munich was fabulous.  I had the best to drink with three meals.  You can read the full details, but the second serving was caviar with traditional garnishes.  There was a special chilled Smirnoff vodka and a lot more.

• Well, actually, the worse was not over.  We landed in Munich to a whiteout.

I made it into the Senator Lounge passing through a mob outside. Most flights out had been cancelled, and the line to re-process was at least 200, if not 300, yards long. This was not single file, it was about 5 people wide and not moving at all. Amazingly enough, Lufthansa had the foresight to re-book me on a later Barcelona flight, and this one was to leave in two hours.

• 
  Unfortunately, the snowstorm worsened, and the plane did not leave until midnight, five hours late. But this was one of the few flights allowed to depart. Two hours later I landed in Barcelona. In fact, my two bags were the first to appear. Again, just a step before freedom, was asked to have my bags x-rayed in a side room. The setting was perfect. I was the only passenger, they saw a computer in my luggage, and they essentially asked the same question as in India. Theirs was, how many computers do you have in this suitcase. I said one. Is that all? Yes (although I could have added, I have another one in the other bag). He kind of shook his head and I thought, okay, how much? Well, he said okay and helped me place my luggage onto the cart and waved goodbye to me. My relief was overwhelming. Spain's Corruption Perception Index is 6.1, compared to the now #1, New Zealand, at 9.4, and the U.S. up to 7.5, versus India, still at 3.4. The rest of my stops will be in countries with a CPI higher than the USA.
• That's it.  What a day.

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