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Ahhhh... Mali, land of my dreams; well that might be a little exaggeration but ever since I was a kid I always wanted to go to Timbuktu. And after I read Paul Bowles The Sheltering Sky I knew for sure I would travel to that city someday (even though I have a feeling it was set in Gao, not Timbuktu; just a guess). A few years ago Roland and I drove to the end of the road in Morocco, Mahamid, where there is nothing but flies and sand dunes and a guy and his son willing to take you out into the desert on camel. And a big blue sign that says something to the effect of "Timbuktu 52 days (by camel)." We decided to go with the guy and his son for a jaunt into the Sahara... but not all the way to Mali.

Today I finally arrived. Senegal does not prepare you at all-- except that they share a language (French) and a currency (CFA). The weather in Dakar was very pleasant, around 80 by day with a nice breeze off the ocean and high 60s/low 70s at night. Bamako isn't an inferno, but close enough. It's hot and dusty. And Dakar is almost like Europe in comparison. In Dakar you can't open your eyes without seeing at least one white face-- 25,000 Frenchmen live there and at least as many Lebanese Armenians. Here I haven't seen any white people since I arrived. I sat next to a French anthropologist on the 90 minute plane ride from Dakar and she told me there are about 2,000 French residents and the same number of Lebanese. I also ran into quite a few missionaries and missionary children on the plane and in the airport, including a huge guy and his huger wife and two huge children who are stationed way in the interior in a small town I had never heard of. He said he's from Iowa but he was born here-- his parents having been missionaries too-- and has lived here all his life, although goes back to Iowa every few years to visit.

So far-- and I know this is unrelated to everything else I'm about to experience in Mali-- the infrastructure is superb. The highway from the airport was excellent, far better than Dakar's in everyway, although where the Dakar 'burbs looked pretty well off and even glitzy, the Bamako 'burbs could have been almost anywhere in the Third World. I kept flashing back to Pakistan.

I'm staying at the Hotel Salam and OMG! It is really top of the line, not just top of the line for a dumpy place but really nice for anywhere. The hotel in Dakar, the Sokhamon, was small (31 rooms) and boutequey with a certain charm but hobbled with amateur management. This place is impeccable. I might add that the price for a single is CFA 90,000 but that I had made a reservation online and it was only CFA 50,000. It's hard to translate that into dollars because that exchange rate for the dollar is absurd and if you change your money into Euros and then buy CFA with Euros, the difference-- in your favor-- is a lot.

OK, I went to sleep after I wrote that last paragraph-- my Internet time having expired-- and today is... hot and dusty and humid. The hotel computers-- fancy as they look-- aren't working so I walked a mile or so to a market area and found an internet cafe which is in pretty good shape and cheaper than the hotel's (of course). The town is very spread out-- opposite of extremely compact Dakar. People here seem less outgoing and exuberent than in Senegal, where everyone was ready to party at any time. People seem more shy and stand-offish here. There are a plethora of "guides" who have overcome this. The hotel is still nice the morning after but below the spit and polish... well, I should temper my gushing enthusiasm a little-- although the food in their restaurant was excellent and there is wonderful Malian music in every public space.


UPDATE: ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE AFTER A FULL DAY

And what a day! A travel tip for this part of the world: be sure to print out your confirmed reservations for everything. None of the hotels or airlines have had records of my reservations. OK, that was today's travel tip.

What an amazing place Bamako is! Forget what I said about it reminding me of backwater Pakistan; that was just the fancy superficial sights! You can't imagine what this is like once you get out of the modern business/tourist ghetto. I keep imagining that Dogon country is going to be the most primtive place I've ever been to. The back allies of Bamako... well it makes Pakistan look like NYC!

But this place is the most pro-American place I've been to since Clinton was president. And it's more than just the predictable pictures of Obama everywhere. There are USA decals and stickers and flag symbols in taxis and all over the place. I saw more albinos than white people but there are a couple thousand French people living here. Still, it seems like it is the U.S. that has captured the imagination of the people. Feels good after years and years of everyone hating America everywhere cause the fucking rednecks, fascists and greedheads got Bush into office!

Anyway, I was all over town today. Taxis are cheap; anyplace in town costs either 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000; depending on a combination of distance, your bargaining skills and how willing you are to whore out some Obama stories. After a full day-- including the discovery of a fantastic Moroccan restaurant called La Rose des Sables, just down the street from the Chinese Embassy. One warning: "vegetarian" doesn't necessarily mean "no meat," only that there are vegetables in the dish.

The highlight of the day though was a trip to the studio where Mali's greatest muscian, Bassekou is recording his follow-up LP. This guy is great and what an amazing band he's put together. I'll do a post on that once I can upload some pics and music and after I see the live concert tomorrow night.

Well, I have to admit that the only tiger shark I actually saw was one a local fisherman caught off the pier-- and it was about 18" long, maybe two feet. He used it to try to scare children before throwing it back in. I'll get to my tiger shark adventure in a moment. I had come to St. Simons, an island off the south Georgia coast, for a conference. As is my habit, I arrived a day early so I could get the lay of the land. I'm glad I did. It's a beautiful, sleepy resorty kind of place; very quiet and relaxing.

I flew from L.A. on Delta, a crappy airline that had just come out of bankruptcy that day and insisted we all applaud and drink some champagne. I did neither. There was a layover in Atlanta before I got a plane to Jacksonville, Florida's cozy little airport-- which boasts free internet, something I tried using several times coming and going... to no avail. (I had only been to Jacksonville once before, a stopover on a Greyhound when I was 13 years old and lost my virginity among some huge tires to an older woman; she must have been 17 or 18 and seemed to know what to do. I certainly didn't.) Nothing like that happened at the airport. Instead my friends picked me up and drove me north over a series of causeways to lovely St. Simons. We drove straight to a random restaurant, Mullet Bay. It blew.

Southern food isn't exactly my cup of tea, as Ken pointed out at DWT after I called him from the island to complain about Mullet Bay. Everything was fried and a deadly serious homage to cholesterol. Even at the estate, where the food was more... contemporary, our hostess had to intervene forcefully with the purist staff about serving collard greens without the ham hocks for the two dozen vegetarians in the crowd.

I stayed at the SeaPalms Resort, far from the beach, kind of in the middle of nowhere unless you're there for the golfing. It was OK, although internet connectivity isn't one of the amenities that works well; expensive but non-fuctional. The room was... roomy and quiet, so I won't complain. The breakfast buffet was... generous-- if life threatening.

I was excited to go kayaking. And I didn't let the fact that I ignored instructions to bring a bathing suit stop me. Fortunately I had the presence of mind to leave my cell phone, wallet and valuables back at the hotel. The beach was gorgeous-- and filled with eye candy-- and the water is warm, far warmer than the Pacific, even warmer than my pool! I soon learned that ocean kayaking isn't like white water kayaking (which I've done before). I think what threw me was when the kayak renter casually mentioned not to go out over the sandbar because, he claimed, it was the "biggest tiger shark breeding ground off the East Coast." My immediate thought was to go back to the hotel and read my book. But I was with 3 friends and they didn't take any notice at all. My second thought was to wonder if anyone had told the breeding tiger sharks to stay near their end of the sand bar.


That's what I was thinking, about 3 minutes into the adventure when I was hit by a 6 inch wave mid-ship; you're supposed to keep your nose pointed into the waves. I must have lost my balance because the next thing I knew I was man overboard. Do you think I panicked? I don't know what scares me more-- sharks or alligators, but when I saw several fins in the water I almost fainted. But that was over in 30 seconds when I realized it was a pod of dolphins. I convinced myself dolphins protect people from tiger sharks. My friend Matt, who fell in about half an hour later, went one further: dolphins eat tiger sharks. I never did check that out... but the dolphins did seem to stay between us and the ominous sandbar; maybe they hoped we were bait. Or maybe it's a spiritual thing; I hope so. I never eat canned tuna.

I didn't get bitten and the rest of the weekend was nice and peaceful, although there are alligators in the pond of the estate. I wound up in a party of two golf carts driving around the shore looking for them. Never did see any.


UPDATE: SOME PEOPLE GO OUT LOOKING FOR SHARKS, GREAT WHITES TOO!

The Sunday NY Times has a travel story about people who don't inadvertently fall off plastic kayaks in a shark breeding ground like I did but who go out looking for them-- like I would never do. And Great Whites at that! It's beyond belief that people get in the water-- voluntarily-- with sharks. Even though only 50 or 60 people are attacked by sharks a year, I walk around my swimming pool every single morning to make sure there are no sharks (or alligators) in it before jumping in to do my laps. It's an indoor pool.

Joshua Hammer writes about his shark safari off the coast of Dyer Island, South Africa. Peter Benchley's Jaws had gotten to him, just like to the rest of us. "In the last 15 years, 'cage diving' has gone commercial. Thousands of tourists a year are now squeezing into wet suits and plunging into shark-infested waters off Australia and South Africa for an intimate look at the predators, which grow as long as 25 feet, can weigh more than a ton, and live between 30 and 50 years." Joshua was there in February, the height of tourist season but human tourists, not the peripatetic shark tourists (who come in late summer to munch down the Cape fur seal pups).

Already three people had given up and clambered out of the cold water and back onto the boat, named Shark Team, but I wasn’t ready to call it quits. I rubbed my hands together, and absent-mindedly wrapped my fingers around the front bars of the cage, prompting a warning from Grant Tuckett, our guide on this morning-long expedition, that I risked having them bitten off. Then, Mike Ledley, another crew member aboard the Shark Team, shouted out: “Shark! Get ready!”

I took a gulp of air and dropped below the surface, 12 pounds of lead weights strapped around my wet suit to counter my natural buoyancy. Feet wedged at the bottom of the cage, I pressed my mask against a face-wide aperture between the bars and waited for a monster to swim into view. The visibility in the water, which was thick with sand and algae blooms, was less than three feet. On the deck, the crew dragged ropes tied with fresh bait-- shark liver, chunks of yellowfin tuna-- around the boat, trying to lure the great white into proximity. “Here he comes,” Mr. Ledley yelled.

The name of this place always messed me up, in large part because it has nothing to do with Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck, which is what comes to mind first. But what is also puzzling is the fact that it is Japanese...or at least, they serve Japanese beef, and hence the name. And it's a bit ironic that they would name a restaurant "Fat Cow" in a building whose tenants are mostly medical professionals.

Either way, I needed to be in the neighborhood later, so I figured that this would be a chance for me to finally give it a try (1 Orchard Boulevard #01-01, 6735-0308). I grabbed their namesake donburi, which was fine, even if the truffle aroma was rather cliched. Paying a whopping S$39 (US$31) for that bowl wasn't my idea of fun either; for that kind of money, I'd rather go to Yazawa. But I'd eat here again if someone else paid. :)

The news is flowing in quickly already this moring with ExWeb already reporting in on Everest and the ongoing summit bids.

It seems that David Tait has already topped out and is now making his way down the mountain into Nepal. You'll recall that Tait is attempting the first ever double traverse, and it looksl ike he's closing in on the first half of that endeavor. He started on the North side, reached the summit around 1:30 AM and then began his descent down the South side. He is climbing with Phurba Sherpa of the HiMex team.

Not far behind him was six members of the the SummitClimb team and Ken Noguchi of the environmental team. SummitClimb reached the top around 7 AM Nepal time, with Noguchi about an hour behind. Reports from the summit have six other climbers, four foreigners and two sherpas, reaching the summit between 9 and 9:30 AM.

These are no doubt the first of many summits over the next few days It's going to be very busy on the highest peak on the planet, as all indications are that a short weather window will open up today and tomorrow. Winds are expected to die down some, allowing teams to make their final push to the top.

As always, be sure to watch MountEverest.net, along with The Adventurist and of course Alan Arnette's excellent Everst 2007 page for updates and summit reports. I'm sure they're all going to be very busy the next 24-48 hours.

Congrats to the teams who summitted already, now get down safe. You're only half-way home. And in the case of David Tait, you're only a quarter of the way home. Great work so far, and I'm pulling for you on the second leg of that traverse.


Update: MountEverest.net has posted another update with news that David Tait and Phurba Sherpa have reached C2 on the South side of Everest, which is good news, as it means they are likely to now be able to stop and take a well deserved rest before proceeding further down the mountain.

There are also reports that over 50 people have summitted on the North side today alone, including a large contingent from the Indian Army. It looks like they are taking advantage of this weather window from the North, while word is that on the South side, the weather isn't quite as good, but teams are moving up to get into position for when the winds die down today as well. Expect a large number of summits from the south later today and into tomorrow.

Update 2: The Discovery Channel Everest 2007 blog is reporting that David and Phurba topped out at 6:10 AM this morning and not 1:30 AM as has been reported elsewhere. Discovery is there filming another season of Everest: Beyond The Limit and are once more climbing with the HiMex team, who is handling all the logistics for David Tait.

The blog says that David and Phurba set out from C4 at 11PM last night in an attempt to stay ahead of what is believed to be more than 60 climbers going for the summit today and tomorrow. When they reached the top, they radioed back to ABC and made some Sat Phone calls, before changing out their oxygen tanks and proceeding down the South Col route, where contact was lost, but the team was kept well informed by other teams on the South side radioing them with progress reports.

Thanks for the info on this Carl!

The Washington Post has created a new webpage entitled Exploring Antarctica with lots of nice information, including some cool audio and video files to help you get a feel for what's it's like way down under.

There is some nice photography here, and the site is very interactive, offering up all kinds of information on the Antarctic continent. There is even a live chat room area to discuss Antarctic topics with "experts". Couple that with interesting facts, features on how to get there, and even a slideshow on Mt. Erebus, the souther-most active volcano.

Very cool stuff. Some of those images would make great desktop images for my computer (some are available for download), including a few that look like the Wampa ice cave from The Empire Strikes Back. Thanks goes to Daniel for this one.

I really wasn't hungry when I ordered this (101 Thomson Road #B1-06, 6354-3858). But I just wanted a quick taste to see if it would be worth coming back for. The good thing was that bread was lighter than I thought it would be, and the taste was decently rich from the pâté too. But it was also greasier than I thought it would be, and they didn't load it up with enough cilantro and chili peppers in my opinion. I guess I'm still left thinking of Lee's Sandwiches (or even Giò Chả Đức Hương) from back home instead. In the meanwhile, my favorite bánh mì shop in Singapore is still Sandwich Saigon.

ExWeb has posted updates on both Everest itself and the Himalaya in general today as the climbing season continues.

Over on Everest, it seems that the Khumbu Icefall continues to be a source of irritation with traffic jams reported in the area, which is the most deadly section of the mountain. At least on the South Side. There are also reports that Base Camp on the North Side is a bit tense, with Discovery Channel in the area once more to film a follow-up to their Everest: Beyond The Limit series. David Tait notes that everyone is trying to get to know one another, but that the flim crew is a bit of an irritation. You'll recall that Tait intends to complete a "double traverese" of Everest, by going up the North face, then descending on the South, and after resting a week or so, reversing the process and returning to the North.

Other teams report that Camp 2 has been established with the first climbers reaching that mark, while others are wandering in the Western Cwm. Tim Warren says he's "knackered", or too tired to put one foot in front of the other at the moment, something I'm all too familiar with of late, while other teams are fighting flu and symptoms of altitude sickness.

New from the other Himalayan climbs in the area is filtering in as well. Over on Annapurna, camps are being established and routes created, but they're not so busy to where they can't work in a few golf lessons. On Dhaulagiri, the story is much the same, with the Italians establishing Camp 2, despite bitter cold and high winds, and more teams still getting eastablished on the mountain. The same story is filtering in from Cho Oyu, Shisha Pangma, and others.

Yes, I've finally refreshed the masthead and design; I've been meaning to retire this old one for a long time. Not only has the United logo long since changed, but who the heck still uses terms like "moblog" and "cameraphone"? The mobile version of the template wasn't very pretty either. Admittedly, the new masthead wasn't exactly the way that I had envisioned it, but I suppose that it will work for now. (And yes, the United lounge's Bloody Mary totally hit the spot after those hot dogs in Denver.)

I was also eager to finally get away from the British spelling of the word "travelling." See, I used to subscribe to Business Traveller magazine, which in Asia is published out of Hong Kong, and hence uses British English. Seeing two L's on the cover of each month's issue must have entered my head through osmosis, and somehow I subconsciously used the same spelling when creating the name of this blog many years ago. But I use American English when I write, so I'm finally aligning it now for consistency's sake.

Every time I pass through PasarBella, I want to stop at this stall (200 Turf Club Road Stall 37). After all, how could one resist all those delicious-looking cuts of pork? Tonight, I had a minute to snag a few bites before heading to dinner, and I'm glad that I did. Now, it wasn't anything that I'd come running back for right away, but those cuts of crackling were tasty nonetheless.

I had pretty high hopes for this place (833 Bukit Timah Road #01-06, 6519-6894), as it looked to be an extension of a brand from Japan (and no, I don't think this place had anything to do with the similarly named Hibiki at the Singapore Flyer). I was hoping that the quality was going to be as good as Shirokane Tori-Tama, so I came here tonight to find out.

My jaw dropped when I arrived though, as the wait staff was clad in kimonos; to me, that was a sign of a restaurant overcompensating for something. And when I took my first bite of food, I was disappointed to find the negima a tad on the dry side, while the kawa was not as crisp as I would have liked either. It almost seemed like something that I might get at Tori-Q (oh no!). The service was fast, but almost too much: they annoyingly brought out nearly all of my food at the same time.

Fortunately, the rest of what I had was better, and ultimately I was still satisfied with my meal. Indeed, one of the best things about this place was the miso, which I guess is what this brand is really known for (you can buy jars of it there). I won't make another run to Bukit Timah just for this, but if I lived in the area I suppose it would be a (relatively) cheap place for a quick bite.

We've seen some amazing timelapse videos over the past few years, each one more beautiful than the last. But it'll be tough to top this one, which was shot aboard the International Space Station. As you can imagine, that means some amazing images of our world as seen from orbit. It is as spectacular as it sounds.

The World Outside My Window - Time-Lapses of Earth from the ISS from David Peterson on Vimeo.

This was the first thing that we had to get after getting off of the the plane in Seoul today: fresh sea urchin from Noryangjin, which fortunately is open late into the night. But the ones that we got above were quite a letdown. I don't know if it was because it was out of season (only one other fishmonger was selling them), but there really wasn't much richness in these, and in some cases they were downright bitter.



We had much better luck with some clams that they stewed into a deliciously clear soup as well as some grilled prawns. Thankfully Google Translate was so awesome that it helped us ask the fishmongers for the variety with the best head fat. But in the process, it also made us appreciate places like the Naked Finn, which effectively curate all of the different varieties of prawns to get you the tastiest ones.



BTW, does anyone know what the heck these things are? We bought one out of sheer curiosity, which they cut up for us and served raw. It kinda tasted like one might think it would: chewy with some inedible parts, but also surprisingly briny enough to still be kinda fun. I won't go out of my way for it again, but apparently these things *were* in season this time.

So this bakery is supposed to be all the rage in Taipei right now, with lines supposedly pouring out of the place on weekends (88 Yanchang Road B2, 6636-5888 #1902). Why? Apparently the guy won some global baking competition in France or something. Unfortunately, when I tried his signature bread, I didn't like it, in part because I don't like the walnuts that he used in there, but also since it wasn't as crusty as I would have liked.

In that sense, there was a mentaiko baguette that I liked better, but it wasn't anything that I'd wait in line for. Indeed, I also got a butter-topped muffin thing that was soft and sweet, making it not that different from what you might find at other bread shops around Asia. Well, at least I got a good chuckle from the "he milk" that was listed as an ingredient in that muffin.

Awhile back, climbers Alex Honnold and Cedar Wright came up with the idea of summiting all 15 of California's 14,000-foot (4267 meter) peaks in a single go using just their bikes and feet as modes of transportation. The result was not what they expected, as what seemed like a rather simple expedition turned into a complete "Sufferfest." The boys are sharing their story in a series of videos for EpicTV, with part one available below.

The shape of that bread may look a bit weird in that photo above, but I guess that was just because I shot it at a weird angle. Basically, it was a "small" version of bánh mì that this shop offered, perhaps analagous to Subway's 6-inch versus footlongs.

Anyway, this was from a new shop that we noticed on our way out of TK Noodle, so we picked one up on our way out to give it a try. And yes, I liked it. Normally I'm not a fan of softer and sweeter bread, but somehow this one worked, perhaps because they buttered up the exterior. I could have inhaled this thing in the blink of an eye.

So yes, in fact I'm inclined to come here rather than Lee's Sandwiches, even if the latter is the more traditional one. BTW, it was only when I looked it up just now did I realize that these guys are a bit of a chain across California. Well, now there's another outlet in San Jose (1020 Story Road #C, 993-8001).

Airplanes and Bush just never were a good mix. First he was a disaster as a disgruntled, mostly AWOL semi-member of the Texas Air National Guard. Even worse-- for America-- Bush's pig-headedness about paying attention to President Clinton and his outgoing administration's dire warnings regarding the dangers posed by Al Qaeda were contributory to the catastrophe of 9-11. And now Bush is setting up an airline catastrophe that could be even worse! Even Bush's rubber-stamp congress can nip this one in the bud.

Right in line with the Bush Regime's seething hatred for working men and women exercising their rights to collective bargaining, as of last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has broken off contract talks with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) that would have saved taxpayers, $1.4 BILLION over the next five years.

Air traffic controllers (ATCs), for those who don’t follow aviation, are the folks who guide planes the second they leave the gate to your destination.  Their job is one of the most stressful in the world yet they remain dedicated and hardworking public servants. They’ve been negotiating with the FAA since September 2005.  According to FAA Administrator and Bush-appointed crony Marion Blakey, the FAA wants a “fair” contract that would save taxpayers money.  What part of $1.4 billion in savings Ms Blakey and Bush don't get no one quite understands.

If that’s not bad enough, here’s something else I didn’t realize. So the FAA broke off contract talks and submitted a contract to Congress. If Congress doesn’t act within 60 calendar days-- and we know how lazy and unwilling to put in an honest week's work these people have been for the last 5 years-- the FAA gets to impose their contract on NATCA-- take it or leave it.

So in other words, these dedicated controllers are forced to take whatever the FAA gives them (and, from what I'm hearing from my sources, it's a steaming pile of crap). To make matters worse, the FAA’s version actually penalizes veteran controllers for staying-– creating a situation where it makes more financial sense for eligible controllers to retire than to stay in their vital jobs. By end of 2007, 1 in 4 controllers-– over 4,000-- could retire – and the problem would increase for the next five years by which time over 40% of current controllers will actually be penalized for staying in their jobs.  

BTW, it takes 3-5 years to train an air traffic controller. Unlike most jobs where you can fill the spot immediately with someone new, ATCs take months (and sometimes a year) to learn new positions.  The aviation system is already experiencing a staffing crisis which you can read more about here. Although it may not have dawned on this particular incompetent Bush crony with a fancy job, penalizing veteran controllers if they come to work certainly won’t help the situation. 

I hope this is all getting you as pissed off as I am. That's because, like I said, this could be nipped in the bud. If you go to this site it'll help you contact your congresscritters and tell them to get off their duffs s-- BEFORE this turns into another Bush disaster.

Remember, these are the professionals who landed almost 4,500 airplanes within a matter of minutes on September 11th. And they're the same people who lost their homes and belongings during Hurricane Katrina, Rita, and Wilma but stayed at work to make sure others were lifted to safety – they are heroes. Don’t we owe it to them? Or is it just Bush playing President on Air Force One that deserves a safe flying experience? John Carr, NATCA's president has a cool blog you might want to check out-- entertaining and informative.

MountEverest.net has posted more information on Conrad Anker's attempt to climb Everest using gear similar to that used by George Mallory and and Sandy Irvine back in 1924.

It seems the team has arrived in BC and are acclimatizing now. They arrived late by typcial climbing standards, but it was part of their plan, as they wil wait for all the other commercial teams to make their summit pushes first. Because the team is filming the climb for a documentary film, they will wait until all the other teams are down before taking their shot at the top. The film is suppose to be set in 1924, and they didn't want to run the risk of catching anyone else on camera. Of course, waiting so late in the season leaves little room for error should the weather turn bad, or they fail to successfully top out.

As if climbing in vintage gear wasn't enough, they'll be climbing the Second Step without the use of the ladders that are in place there. Mallory and Irvine didn't have a ladder, so neither will Anker and his co-star, British climber Leo Houlding. They'll be attempting to climb the route that Mallory had intended when he set out for his fateful Everest climb. The goal of course, is to prove that Mallory could have made the summit.

The article also notes that this isn't the first time a climb like this has been made. A spanish team did the same thing back in 2000 as part of a documentary series for Spanish television. That team didn't make the summit, but did get back down in one piece.

It should be fun to watch the climb unfold and I'd love to see the documentary when it's finished. You can find out more on the expeditions official website.

MountEverest.net is reporting that Denis Urubko has summitted Dhaulagiri but gave up on his attempt at the speed record in order to assist another climber down the mountain.

Denis set off from BC on Monday Night at 10 PM to try to set a new speed record, but on his way up the mountain, he ran into Boris Korshunov, a 72 year-old climber, who was struggling to climb, and was caught below C3 when night fell. Alone and without a tent, Boris was in touble, and Denis decided he had to help him. So, he gave up his summit bid long enough to help the older climber down to 7100m where he could continue on his own.

After that, Denis turned back up the mountain, where he reached the summit yesterday. He didn't get the speed record he was looking for, but he did get something that you can't every quantify, the respect of his peers on the climbing community. Denis has established a track record for helping other climbers in trouble, even at the expense of his own climbing goals, and following the David Sharp incident last year, you can't help but salute him for his efforts.

Yesterday I let some of my old friends know about this blog. The first person to get back to me was Gary from up in Vermont. "Maybe you should get a job," he thoughtfully opined. "Writing dense panegyrics about hotels and travel companions puts you squarely in the crosshairs of those struggling to eek out an existence on dogfood and the dried spittle of Republicans." Oh dear! I can't say I hadn't thought the very same thing... and often (though not from the point of view of "crosshairs"). When I thought about starting this travel blog, I realized it wasn't especially for backpackers-- nor even for someone like who I was when I started my travels in the 60s. Nor, for that matter, is it written for people who don't even like travel. Of course anyone is welcome to read it and get whatever they can out of it-- be my guest. But when I started traveling I was hitchhiking, panhandling and sleeping on floors. Now I'm a retired businessman with the resources to travel more comfortably. I plan to write about my experiences in Afghanistan and Nepal when I was penniless but if hearing about good restaurants while eeking out an existence on Republican spittle and wrestling bowzer for the marrow bones, upsets you, stick to the guidebooks from the Lonely Planet.

The first time I saw-- fell in love with-- Madrid, I couldn't afford to even think about a fancy hotel. My girlfriend and I slept in my van, parked on a quiet residential street. The funky accommodations didn't hamper our love affair with the Prado or our admiration for the sophisticated joie de vivre of Madrilènes-- and Madrid has culinary treasures at all price points. Later, the fate or luck Woody Allen examines so insightfully in his great new film,MATCH POINT, found me as president of a large company with regional offices in places like Bombay, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Paris, Milan, Hamburg and... Madrid. If you've been following this blog at all, I'm sure you can guess my reaction when I figured out how these offices and my self-directed expense account could interact.

So, for the last couple decades, visits to Madrid have been headquartered at hotels like the Ritz, the Villa Magna and The Palace, lovely and over the top luxury spots that start at around $600/night. (The Palace, a Westin property, is more flexible than the other two.) These days I don't have an expense account and if I decide to spend that kind of money on a place to rest my weary head, you can be sure that it will be for value that is indisputable (like for Sevilla's Hotel Alfonso XIII, where we did stay on this trip). For Madrid, I found I could be perfectly comfortable now a notch (or two) down the foodchain at the well-situated, slightly over-rated, but reasonably-priced Villa Real on the Plaza de Las Cortes.

Actually I made some internet reservations way in advance and got a great deal, $140 for a double. The service was great and the free computer in the lobby was fast so I asked if I could stay 3 weeks later on my way back from Morocco. Sure-- and for 140, but for 140 Euros, about 20% more. Grrrr... Still, I was thoroughly familiar with the neighborhood and it's very close to La Boitika (Calle Amor de Dios 3), the vegetarian restaurant I was looking forward to eating at again, and about 3 minutes walk from the Prado. La Boitika is cheaper than Republican spittle and a lot more delicious-- and healthy. I had learned my lesson that the immensely expensive and immensely rich haute cuisine joints Madrid so revels in need to be taken in extreme moderation-- like once a trip... and that once had already passed. Probably the best restaurant we had eaten in was El Amparo, a very creative Basque restaurant that made us realize that people in Spain eat dinners too late for us-- and that the food tends to be way too heavy and that henceforth we would have our main meal at lunch and go for the tapas at night.

The tomb at Labbacallee near Glanworth in Co. Cork is Ireland's largest example of a wedge tomb, with a chamber that measures nearly 14m long. Wedge tombs are the most common of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and are most commonly found in the western half of the country. The name 'wedge tomb' simply refers to the simple wedge shape, as the height and width of the monument decreases from the front to the rear. Wedge tombs are the last of Ireland's megalithic tombs, and usually date to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age periods.

Labbacallee was excavated by Harold Leask and Liam Price in 1934. They found that the burial chamber was divided into two parts, a long gallery (see the header photo) and a small box like feature at the eastern end. This eastern feature contained cremated remains, and an unburned but headless skeleton of an adult female. The skull was found in the gallery next to the skeletons of an adult male and child. The remains of these three individuals were radiocarbon dated, the results revealed that they appeared to have been interred separately between 2456–1776 BC.

Folklore has always helped to protect some of Ireland's ancient sites. At Labbacallee, local legend tells the story that long ago four men went during the night to dig for gold that they believed to be buried inside the tomb at Labbacallee. As soon as they started to dig, a strange cat with fire erupting from its tail appeared, the men were terrified and dazzled by the blinding light coming from the tail of this hellish cat and they panicked, running across the fields fleeing for their lives, and in their confusion fell into the nearby River Funshion. One of the men drowned, but the others lived to pass on the warning not to disturb the ancient dead at Labbacallee!

 
The tomb is quite easy to find, from Glanworth simply head south on the R512 and take the first left after the church. The site is about 2km down this road. It will be on your left hand side behind a small stone wall. There is room to pull in off the road in front of the monument. There are a number of other great sites to see nearby, including lovely Glanworth itself with its Castle and Friary, and nearby you can also find the wonderful Bridgetown Priory.

I hope you enjoy this blog, we're trying to cover as many sites as we can across Ireland. If anyone has any suggestions about sites you'd like us to cover please do leave us a comment. If you enjoy information and images of Irish heritage sites then do follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ If you'd like to support us then please consider downloading an audioguide to one of Ireland's wonderful heritage sites. They are packed with original music and sound effects and are a great way of experiencing the story of Ireland. They only cost €1.99 and are fun whether you are at the site, or listening from the comfort of your own home. If you enjoy stories of the turbulent medieval period in Ireland try our guide to Viking and Medieval Dublin, visit us at www.abartaaudioguides.com for free previews and to download your free audioguide to the Rock of Dunamase  or the free audioguide to the wonderful heritage town of Kells in County Meath
All photographs © Neil Jackman / abartaaudioguides.com

 

Gates of India on the right, Taj Mahal Hotel on the left

The first time I was in Mumbai, then called Bombay, was 1970 and I was so happy to be in India after driving for months and months and months across a far less hospitable western and central Asia. I was on my way to Goa in my trusty VW van. I only stayed in a hotel once in the whole 2 years I was on the Indian subcontinent and it was at the very end of the trip. In Bombay I slept in my van right at the Gates of India in the shadow of a hotel I came to stay at many times years later, the Taj, sight of some of the worst of today's violence. It usually gets rated as Mumbai's most luxurious and prestigious hotel. Last time I was there Roland was taking a shower when there was a power blackout. There was no electricity, of course, and something very odd happened. The water in the shower turned to sewage. [A similar thing, although it was thankfully a sink and not a shower and there was no contact, happened to me at New Orleans' best hotel, the Windsor Court, but they gave me a coupon for two free nights to assuage their embarrassment. The Taj knew no embarrassment and we were forced to walk up and down countless flights of stairs several times.]

Today Islamic terrorists dealt a severe blow to India's tourism industry by attacking the Taj, the Oberoi and several other top of the line tourist spots, killing an unspecified number of people-- looks like over 100-- and holding others hostage. The situation is still fluid as I write. Americans and Brits were especially sought out among the hostages and then shot.

Simone Moro has done an interview with MountEverest.net about his recent experiene on Broad Peak in which he attempted a Winter summit. You may recall, the team arrived early and had a great deal of success in establishing Base Camp and setting fixed ropes. They even managed to establish their high camps before the bad weather set in, forcing them off the mountain. What followed were weeks of blizzards, high winds, and extreme cold, preventing them from making a summit push. Despite all that, a weather window did open eventually, but the climbers found that Camp 4 had been buried and were forced to turn back as that window slammed shut quickly.

Simone says he learned a number of lessons on the climb however, such as logistically planning ahead to send cargo and heavy equipment before the team arrives to make sure that there are no issues with vital gear. Part of the teams gear was delayed in transit and caused some headaches early on. He also said that had they stayed on the mountain, he still wouldn't have made the summit. Once the weather turned bad, it stayed that way.

However, he also says that he'll definitely go back. He isn't finished with Broad Peak, and he loves the solitude of Winter in those mountains. Perhaps next year we'll be following another Winter attempt. Very insightful read.

Over the past week or so, we've all been astounded by the news and details of Ueli Steck's solo summit of Annapurna along the South Face. You've no doubt heard me and others use a host of superlatives in an attempt to convey just how impressive this climb is. But to truly get a sense of what Ueli accomplished you'll want to watch the video below. It is a 55-minute long documentary from 1970 that tells the tale of the first ascent of the mountain along this route. The team that accomplished this feat is filled with climbing legends from the U.K., including Sir Chris Bonington, Dougal Haston, Don Whilians and more. The film is a real slice of mountaineering history and well worth your time if you have an  hour to kill. It'll give you an appreciation of what this team accomplished and provide more insight into what Ueli faced as well.