"Travelnoids"

I’m just finishing up a great trip to the Canyonlands of West Texas and have a few observations I’d like to share and get comment on – Andy Rooney style :)

So why do hotels put the ice machines near the office instead of on each floor near the other vending machines? Really now – we are paying some outrageous amount of money plus some inflated amount of service tax to sleep in a mite-infested bed for a few hours and you need to police how much ice we take? Are the ice machines really so lame that if I take a bag of ice and 5 others take a bag of ice that the ice machine will no longer be fertile? What’s up with this tradition? Why do you make us feel like we are stealing something from you? Why not sell bags of ice at the front desk as a convenience if this is a problem vs making us spend more money on gas hunting down a bag of ice than the $2 bag of ice is worth?

Why do most of the gas stations in New Mexico make you come into the store to get your gas receipt? The obvious is that they want you to come in and buy some of their junk food. For those of us that eat healthy you aren’t going to make a sale either way – you are just going to piss us off because we have to wait in line to get a piece of paper for something we already bought from you. Since the gas stations are few and far between we are likely going to come into the store anyway to use the restroom so if we were going to buy some junk food, we are already parading down those aisles to find the relief station and are probably having to stare at the processed food while we wait for the person in front of us to finish bathing themselves or doing whatever it takes them forever to do in those “rest rooms”… One of the restrooms in TX had a sign on the door: "Women Only - the Mens room is outside." And once you were in the room it had a sign above the stool that said "You Are In The Ladies Room" - love to know the story behind this issue! Is it a translation problem?

What is your favorite travelnoid? Inquiring minds wanna know!

Denver-Houston-Moscow-Singapore-Bali

I'm finally digging out from being away from home for too long! A few rainy days in a row have given me the time to get a little more organized.

So let's start the Journey Around the World to Indonesia at the beginning.

It took me about 36 hours to get from Denver to Bali - lots of connections and layovers are inevitable when you fly on award travel tickets. But I'll literally end up flying around the world on this trip, so that's kind of cool.

Moscow was an interesting airport, but our layover was short. By the time we got off the plane, went through security and got the to gate it was time to get back on board. I had a minute or two to gawk at some of the Russian dolls in the duty free store but nothing caught my eye.

The curious thing about this entire trip is the security process. Even though you were already on a plane and had been through security in at least one airport, they made you go through x-ray/metal detector inspections again every time you got off a plane. This was quite annoying since most regulations do not allow you carry water (liquids), so it was a major hassle trying to stay hydrated on so many long flights.

Singapore Airport was amazing! It was the cleanest, friendliest airport I've ever been to. Orchid gardens, koi ponds, places to lay down and sleep, an upscale shopping mall, free movies and free internet service in all the terminals. I've included a few photos of the airport here.

I finally reached Bali late in the evening (two days after I left Denver), and had an hour drive to Putri Ayu Cottages, located in the artist community of Ubud. I'm glad we stayed in Ubud instead of in the tourist hotels in Denpasar, even though our hot water and A/C were not the most reliable. We had a beautiful room that overlooked the rice fields in the residential area.

Each morning we watched the ducks as they were set free from their cages to do their job in the rice paddies. Apparently they help clean out the bugs and such - it was quite an interesting show!

The next morning we visited the local market where the vendors expect you to bargain, and always had a "morning price" just for you, so they could make a sale that would lead to success the rest of the day! They would take your cash and slap it on the items in their shop for good luck! I made a few good deals but did not hand carry some unique plates that ended up getting broken in transit.

Our guide in Bali brought us Indonesian treats each morning to sample. My travel companion Elly loved every bite since she was born and raised in Indonesia. I was somewhat adventureous and tried a few of the goodies, but I tended to stay away from those that were flourescent in color! Here's a sample of sweets made from rice and other local foods.

I'm thinking about creating either a slide show on a DVD or downloadable book from some of my world-wide photo adventures. Let me know if you would be interested in buying a copy!

Time to edit more photos so I can work on the next post!

Happy Travels!

Jan

The Great Indonesian Adventure

Greetings from Singapore Airport!

I'm almost to my final destination. Left home two days ago and I have one more 4 hour layover until I make it to Bali. I've been from Den to Houston to Moscow to Singapore so far .... enough flying and hanging out in airports already :)

I'm on a free internet terminal at the airport that only gives you 15 mins before it logs you out so this will be short.

I'll try to blog along the way. Highlights of the trip include the following Indonesia Islands: Bali, Flores, Komodo, Rinca, Java, Borneo and Peucang Island. First stop is Ubud, Bali where we will indulge in some shopping in one of the best artist towns on the island. Next stop will be to fly to Flores Island and take a boat to Rinca & Komodo Islands to see the Komodo Dragons. We will sleep out under the milky way and the southern cross on a traditional fishing boat. (Hope we don't get eaten alive by dragons or mosquitos)!

Check out wikipedia or just google these places for more info!

Have a superb summer all!

CJ

The Spirit of Adventure

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski
Pench Tiger Reserve, India

What does "adventure" mean to you? Stepping out of your box, out of your house, trying something new? Taking the leap (out of a plane), eating raw fish (sushi can be so interesting!)?

I thought India was a wild place (mostly the accommodations at the Pushkar Camel Fair and the fact that we were tiger bait in the open jeeps...), but as we try to finalize our Indonesia trip I see that there really are some pretty wild places left in this world.

Wilderness means a lot of different things to everyone. Some want to be the only person to step on a particular piece of land in a place far far away. Some want the peace and quiet of a cabin in the woods or perhaps a lounge chair on a lake or a bivouac on a cliff side or ... what is your definition of "Wild"?

I've ridden a few elephants on my travels but this was definitely the first time I've had to climb a ladder to mount my ride into the peaceful grasslands of the tiger. In India the choice is a few steps here and there off your jeep or - in this case off a steel ladder. In Nepal, we had a man-made platform to jump on board. Does this seem unnatural? I know all you horse riders are thinking ... what's the problem? I can't tell you how many hands an elephant is vs a horse - but it's a ton more than a human could leap and I'm not sure all of us are that comfortable getting on a typical horse either!

The whole point behind the adventure is to just go with the flow.... you don't worry about the ladder slipping or the elephant moving or whatever. You "just do it" - to quote a familiar motivational slogan... The experiences we had with the tigers in their environment cannot be described in the written word. When you are used to seeing tigers pacing back and forth in man-made cages in a zoo you are comforted by the joy they express in their own territory. They are at peace with their surroundings, yet doing their job of protecting their territory.

Are there things that prevent you from expressing yourself because you are in a place you don't want to be? A "caged tiger" so to speak? If so, what will you do to move forward?

I took a class today on "Conquering Clutter," as I have a basement full of stuff that was moved from the rest of my house to the basement after a remodel - kind of a 'purgatory' or holding place. Things that I wasn't ready to part with, that have some "perceived" value that need to move on. What does it take to remove the clutter from our lives to open the doors to experience the new adventure that lies ahead?

My basement will be a project in and of itself but tonight I learned of a number of cool ways to declutter my life. Here is a simple task that could relieve a lot of your clutter-stress! If you are receiving way more catalogs than you desire and you have an interest in saving a few trees check out this website: https://www.catalogchoice.org/

Happy Trails!

King Penguin or New Zealand Fruit?

We all had a great chuckle on our Antarctica journey when Photographer Rod Planck did a slide show on penguins and his lead-in shot was a close up of a kiwi fruit. The next shot was one of these guys.

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

Do you see any resemblance?

Your journey to Antarctica - the "Great White South" will be one of your wildest dreams - it was for me anyway. Save up your money and do the whole circuit. Do not miss South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. They not only make the travel across the open ocean more pleasant but the photo opportunities are endless. And the moderate temperatures will blow your mind! Oh, and the 1/2 million pairs of King Penguins on one island might stir your interest a bit as well!!

I chose to celebrate the "Real" Millennium rollover from 2000-2001 on a boat in the southern oceans. Cheeseman's Ecology Tours offered the best tour at the time and I enjoyed every moment and almost everyone on the tour. We had a few interesting travelers to contend with, but don't we always :) The boat held over 100 passengers which is a much larger crowd than I tend to like to travel with, but the antics of the Russian crew and the entertaining staff were worth the lines for the zodiacs to shore.

The on-board lectures by noted photographers, geologists, ornithologists, whale researchers, artists, the list goes on - was a truly educational experience. The time on shore to witness the behaviors of the penguins, seals, birds coming in for a landing, etc. was exceptional. Especially the frisky sea lion pups who stood their ground, trying to keep us out of their territory. The photo ops were limitless.

Everyone thinks Antarctica is this god-awful, cold, deserted place. It is not - it is the true icon of the little bit of isolated wilderness left on our great planet. It is one of the crispest, clearest, most refreshingly beautiful places I have ever visited. Even the scientific research stations are a humbling place to visit. Imagine living there through the -100 degree winters!

Luckily we visited in the summer (Dec-Jan) and I dressed in layers, just as I would for a day of skiing in the Colorado high country and felt just fine. The only time I was ever really cold was during a zodiac ride through a bay of "bergy bits" - but that was just for a few hours and my rubber boots were not insulated enough to keep my toes from freezing. But the experience was surreal and worth every nippy toe! The ship itself was actually almost too warm most of the time.

By the way - that cute little kiwi fruit king penguin chick shown earlier goes through a fairly complicated stage of losing his/her feathers .... the feathers they shed line the beaches of the islands they inhabit. The goofy results of shedding are sometimes worth a chuckle or two ...

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

But the king penguin chick eventually turns out to be not too bad looking and worthy of a mate!

Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

What more would you like to hear/see about Antarctica?

Stay warm!

Antarctic-jan

In Search of Rock Art

Happy Fall Everyone!

The cooler temps (and snow in Colorado's high country), mean it is time for us humans to get out in the canyons in search of Rock Art, while the bears are busy snacking on food to last them through the winter. One of my favorite past times is exploring the varnished canyon walls for signs that our ancestors left behind.

If you have never heard of Rock Art, I have a lot of information to share with you. Since I have been spending most of my free time working on the Colorado Rock Art Association (CRAA) Fall newsletter and volunteering as the President, I found it would be easier to blog about Rock Art than Antarctica tonight, so this is a stalling tactic to keep you all interested!
[9 Mile Canyon Bear Paw - Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski]

Petroglyphs (rock engravings) can be defined as pecked or incised images on rock, whereas pictographs (rock or cave paintings) are images painted (with natural pigments) on rock. There are numerous styles of rock art defined in publications based on the specific area in which they are located. Many avocational archaeologists, academians and authors have attempted to interpret what these images might describe, but all information is left up to the reader's curiosity to "believe" or "challenge" since we have little written knowledge on the subject. Search Amazon.com or your favorite library catalog for the plethora of books on rock art around the world.

Colorado has a number of interesting rock art sites throughout the state and you can find more out about CO rock art by visiting www.coloradorockart.org. Be sure to check out the September newsletter and let me know what you think. The annual CRAA meeting will be in LaJunta, CO. next May and promises to be a great time to learn more about our endangered treasures.

Utah, our neighbor to the West has a plentiful collection of rock art sites - many that are open to the public, such as Nine Mile Canyon near Price, UT. It is an outstanding gallery of the best artists from our past, and is in danger of being lost due to oil and gas drilling, that continues to increase in the canyon. The 9 Mile Canyon Coalition is a team of concerned enthusiasts trying to save the gems in this area and they have spent a great deal of effort getting 9 Mile Canyon on America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places list.

The Utah Rock Art Research Association is holding their annual symposium in Moab, UT. October 5-8th. The symposium is a great place to learn about the latest research in petroglyphs and pictographs, attend a workshop, or participate in field trips that visit these stories on stone. See www.utahrockart.org for more information.

I have written an article with more detail about Rock Art Resources which can be found on pages 7-11 of the URARA February 2007 newsletter.
[9 Mile Canyon Owl - Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski]

Happy Trails!

What Would You Do? Where Would Your Dreams Take You?

If you had all the resources you needed (money, time, food, etc...) what would you do if you had 24 hours left in your life? 1 month? 1 quarter of a year? 1 year?

Are you living the life you want to live? What's holding you back?

How can you take one simple step today to move toward your dreams?

I challenge you to take that simple step!

Himalayan Mtns, Nepal - Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

Traveling is all about stepping outside your box - it is not difficult and the rewards are plentiful!

Antarctica is all about wide open spaces, wilderness, no-mans land. Do you feel that in your everyday life? Do you want to?

Imagine the life of a penguin - can you? The photos I will share with you in the coming days will hopefully ignite a bit of playfulness... do you remember how to play?

The time is now! Please share your stories!

Stay Tuned for Antarctica!

Chinstrap Penguin - Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

Sorry for the lag in postings but the vote took awhile to settle out and of course you all chose the trip that was all shot on slide film vs. digital so it will take awhile to scan the good stuff.

The other challenge is that my home laptop will not let me log into the blog to post things - it goes into an infinite loop of google trying to log me in and blogspot trying to get google to respond to my login. I've seen from other folks in the help forums that Firefox has a bug (or google - one of the two) so now I need to upgrade my IE software as it isn't working on the version I currently have installed. This adventure has led to a larger project of cleaning off my hard drive because as we all know, upgrades require elephant sized spaces on your hard drives. That, and the fact that I never delete things is making this a bit of a challenge :)

But, I promise to get a story with photos online sometime in the near future! I've cataloged my 2003-2005 digital photos so I only have a few years left to complete... I also need to figure out how to do a slide show of photos vs. static photos on the right hand side. Any blog expert help is welcome so please leave a comment if you know how to incorporate a slide show in a posting!

Happy Fall and hope you are all out shooting away. I'm off to India in November with grand hopes of great shots of Bengal Tigers and their cubs. Wish me luck on the 13.5 hour train ride to the tiger camp!!

Collabjan

Climbing Colorado's 14ers

View from the Top Of Grays Peak, CO - Copyright 2007 Jan Gorski

One of the favorite pastimes of hikers in Colorado is to "bag a 14er" or two. Colorado (or "Gods country" as my uncle Alex called it) is blessed with over 54 peaks that reach 14,000' or higher and reaching the top of these peaks are coveted by many trekkers. Although I've hiked up 27 of them to date, I stopped 'bagging peaks' quite a few years ago when they became too popular. I enjoy the peacefulness of the wilderness, not a stream of people clamoring up a peak to check it off a list. Getting up at 'o-dark hundred' was another obstacle. But a young Air Force major in my office (my customer) was interested in climbing a 14er before she "PCS'd" out of Colorado, so being an avid hiker, I willingly obliged to help her gain a little altitude before she moved on in her career.

A team of eight hardy souls met in the pre-dawn darkness on August 17th, 2007 to climb Gray's Peak. We all managed to set our alarms and get to the meeting point in time to carpool to the trailhead, which some say can be reached by a normal passenger car. None of us would recommend you take a passenger car up Stevens Gulch road but - we did see a Toyota Corolla up there so I guess if you are a really good driver and don't worry about potentially losing parts of the bottom of your car you can go for it.

We were on the trail by 7:20am and the parking lot was almost full (on a Friday). One poor soul on our team was not feeling well this day so she bailed out as we all pumped up our lungs on the hearty ascent. The rest of the gang made it to the top in record time - thanks to the runners in the group who kept us trucking at high speed despite the lack of oxygen.

We watched the weather with a keen eye during most of the hike, since we started the morning out with lots of clouds (not a good thing for climbing at higher altitudes) - but we managed to skirt the t-storms and reached Grays Peak (14,270' - 9th highest) at 10:15am. Since the black cloud over Torreys Peak - a nearby 14er (14, 267' - 11th highest) had flown on by, I recommended to the gang that they head on over so they could bag two peaks in the same day. Those of us who live in CO know that the weather can change in minutes so we all watched the building storms and were ready to bolt on down the mountain at a moments notice.

The gang of six headed over to Torreys (I had climbed both peaks many times in the past so I stayed behind on the top of the world, to be entertained by a group of guys from MD who were figuring out how to open their bottles of Corona to celebrate their feat). I offered them my knife which worked well as a bottle opener ;) After a nice break and a few photos I headed down the trail to check on our teammate who was under the weather.

Grays & Torreys are the best warm up hikes, in my humble opinion - to train for the myriad of other peaks in CO. The trailhead is close to Denver and the hike is beautiful whether you make it to the top or not.

For more info check out www.14ers.org

Happy Trails!