Scott's Case Files

Terror In Mumbai

I just got done watching a news clip, telling of mass terror attacks in Mumbai, India.  78 people killed and around 200 wounded by gunmen attacking places frequented by tourists.  The Taj was one of them - a high class hotel that I passed on my way "home" daily and on the way to the Gateway to India along the water.  As if that wasn't shocking enough, a note along the top of the clip reported that there was an attack at Leopold's Cafe.  Leopold's.

If any of you have read my travel blogs on my past trips, you'll know that Leopold's was possibly my most constant hang-out in Mumbai - my safe haven from touts and the poverty-stricken world outside that had traumatized me so when I arrived there.  It had been in business for over a century and was a favorite of tourists from all countries.

And now it's the site of a terror attack where people died on its floors.  Floors that I'd walked upon my share of occasions.  It was a small place - just a corner cafe, really.  It sounds strange when I say it out loud, but the terror attacks have never hit so close to home for me.  Even the 9/11 attack seemed impersonal - I'd been to New York once when I was maybe four and never since.  It was almost a different world there.  I remember Mumbai well and will never forget my experiences there.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not playing "it could have been me" scenarios in my mind.  More images in my mind of blood where I once sat, waiters who smiled at me possibly dead, and knowing that Leopold's days of being a tourist haven are over as long as the memory of that blood lives.  So not "it could have been me" - it's "why the place that I knew?"

Travel Plans For 2009

Looking back over some older posts, I see that I pretty much lived up to my 2008 travel plans.

I rode to Winnipeg and had a great time there.  I have to admit (to my shame) that I had no few preconceptions about Canadians, most of which were shattered and laid to waste before me.  Canada remains one of the two places to which I would emigrate should the US get any deeper in crap like the Patriot Act.

I made it down to New Orleans for Tales of the Cocktail, though I didn't ride due to my injury and flood worries.  What an incredible time.  I can't remember the last time I partied so hard for so long and remembered every moment of it all.  It certainly put a bulk of my time as a sailor to shame!

The Burning Man remains on my list for some year to come.  It goes on the "someday" page.

This year, I've already started researching Morocco.  Whether you realize that they're Moroccan cities or not, you've heard of them: Rabat, Casablanca, Tangier, Marrakech for example.

Did you know that Morocco was the very first country to recognize the Independence of the United States from England?  There's even a museum in Tangier to commemorate it.

From World War I until after WWII Morocco was an International Zone.  Basically, the victors of the World Wars established Morocco as a nation without a nation - complete extraterritoriality under international law.  It was a unique time and several artists of the time traveled there for the experience.  William S. Borroughs, Tennessee Williams, and Henri Matisse to name a few.

Morocco is an Arabic speaking nation, so I'll be taking some lessons before the travel date comes.  I'm thinking Rosetta Stone will be a good start.

For those of you looking up everything on Morocco, you'll find that there is a terror alert there.  There was a bombing aimed at Westerners in Marrakech.  I'll have to look that up online, but I believe that this is the only "terror" activity of note.  From what I've read, though the country may be predominantly Islamic (99%), it has a history of tolerance.  I'm not worried.

So I'm looking forward to this and hope that I meet this coming year's travel goal.  Wish me luck!

Tales of the Cocktail 2008

Tales of the Cocktail (TotC) 2008 - what an adventure!  I have been remiss in posting lately but am looking to remedy that, starting with a quick post on my New Orleans adventure.  I went to the TotC mostly to meet fellow Wormwood Society members, enjoy absinthe and other cocktails, party, and to explore the French Quarter.  All of these things were accomplished and then some.

Last year represented the first time in nearly a century that an authentic absinthe was available for legal sale in the United States.  This year there are just about a half-dozen with more on the horizon.  The absinthes that were represented at TotC are: La Fee, Lucid, Pernod, and Marteau.  The Lucid is made by the same company (Jade Liqueurs) that produces my very favorite absinthe - Absinthe Edouard, a spectacular verte.  Absinthe Marteau is a relatively new absinthe that is produced by the founder of the Wormwood Society- Gwydion Stone.  His creation is aimed at being the best absinthe to use in making the various absinthe cocktails, the flavors and aromas enhanced to bring to the table everything that absinthe is for the cocktail in question.  Reviewers have said that it is just as delicious when sampled in the more traditional manner and I completely agree with them.

The "home base" of TotC was the Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street in the French Quarter.  I'd decided to stay in the less pricey Holiday Inn just a block away, which suited me just fine.  The Hotel Monteleone is a truly elegant place.  I opened my first night of exploration with a sazerac followed by a couple of rum drinks (who's name escapes me, but were very good) before it was time to head back to the hotel to lay my head down in preparation for the next day's activities, when TotC started in earnest.  The rest of my time was a whirlwind of adventure.  I met several outstanding characters from the Wormwood Society and that alone made my trip.  It definitely wouldn't have been the same trip without Lars, Hiram, Mrs. Hiram, Shabba, The Doctor, and The Freida (real names (almost all) withheld to protect the wanton!

As a note, the sazerac is presently made with Herbsaint (an absinthe substitute) in addition to the rye whiskey, Peychaud's Bitters, and simple syrup.  In the days to come, absinthe may yet retake its rightful place as an ingredient in this cocktail that has been named the official cocktail of New Orleans.

Oh, and click HERE to check out my pictures from TotC on Flickr!

Winnipeg: Day 7 & 8

I'm really late with this post - so much so that I'm already on my next adventure.  So now to catch up...

I'd decided that I'd seen all that I'd come to see and met all those that I'd wanted to meet, so it was time to head home.  I figured that it would also be nice to have an extra day to recover from the trip before I had to go to work.  So off I went.  The weather for Friday was sketchy, as it was for the weekend, but I had to get going sometime.

I packed up my bike, checked and double-checked my belongings, and sat astride my steel steed ready to face the challenges of the day.  I noticed that my alarm system hadn't turned itself off, which was strange.  My security system (in addition to the various locks on the bike) is a fob that has to be near the bike before the ignition will unlock.  And it was, indeed, in range being that it was in my jacket's pocket as always.  So I figured that I just had to put the bike back on the jiffy-stand (that's a motorcycle's kick-stand - some motorcycle terminology for you there) and get the fob closer or something.  Well, as I was putting it down I forgot that I'd already put the jiffy-stand up.  I'm not positive what follows, exactly, but the weight of the bike with the position of my left leg contorted me even as I fought instinctively not to allow the bike itself to hit the ground.  I succeeded in not letting it drop, but I heard a strange sound coming from my leg as it fell.  I managed to get off, get the bike upright and back on its stand, and try a few steps.  I only hoped that I hadn't broken or torn anything that would require a hospital in Canada.  I didn't even know how such a thing would work, given my insurance.

I took my few steps and found that it only hurt when I tried to walk.  I basically couldn't take more than about a quarter of a stride with my left leg, so I walked with a severe and painful limp.  I could feel myself in mild shock as I walked around, trying to breathe normally.  I found, however, that I could ride without any pain or discomfort of any kind, so I decided that I'd ride and worry about what I'd done to myself once I was back home.

After a quick stop for some souvenirs, I started my ride.

I did pretty well with the rain through North Dakota and Minnesota - either hard but short-lasting rain or long periods of light rain or drizzles.  Then I crossed into Wisconsin...

Winnipeg: Day 6

The sixth day of my vacation was spent on my own personal walking tour. I decided that I'd do a big loop and try to take more pictures than I have been. I'm just not good at taking pictures. By this I mean that I don't take many of them. I'm also not a professional photographer, so even with my cool camera not every picture turns out the way that I'd hoped.

I started off with the Manitoba Museum. It's a nice place with several sections and I decided to try them all.

There's a planetarium at which I caught the show "Are we alone?" referring to the possibility of intelligent life on other planets. The general scientific consensus was "probably not," which was a change from the theories of the odds that I remember reading about and watching on documentaries. The idea was that with all of the stars out there and then take the probable percentage of those that had planets, then the probable percentage of those planets that could support life, then the percentage of those planets that could support life that did, then the percentage of those planets that did support life that then supported intelligent life. Given the billions and billions of stars (thank you, Sagan) odds were very good that there was other intelligent life out there. The more recent hypotheses are that there are so many factors that are required to not only have life on a planet at all, but to protect the planet long enough to develop intelligent life that odds are that we're all there is. We'll have to see how that one goes.

The science section turned out to be very much like the one at the museum back in Milwaukee - lots of hands-on experiments mostly aimed at kids and young adults. Still fun to play around.

The natural history portion was very nice. It focused, not surprisingly, mostly on the various aboriginal populations of Manitoba and the early fur trade. Both of these topics are pretty new to me and definitely not covered at my own home town's museum, so this was definitely worth my while. Did you know that the fur companies themselves minted their own coins? I did not know this. There was also a large exhibit on the Métis, which I found intriguing. When fur-traders (specifically the French) came through the area and had children with the local aboriginal population, their children were called Métis. The intriguing thing is that these Métis were able to band together and form their very own culture. I had no idea that such a thing happened. From what I know of the US frontier, any such child would be labeled a half-breed and the only culture they would then have to pick one culture or the other and certainly didn't band together to form their own. The Métis, it seems, took the best of both worlds and made it their own and formed their own communities. You learn something new every day.

Winnipeg: Day 5

Day 5 was all about enjoying the weather and people-watching.

I also made it to The Forks to take the boat tour. It was a relatively interesting half-hour, but not fantastic. I was surprised to find out how much flooding of the river was actually EXPECTED every year. I'd taken some pictures which show some of the riverwalk's walkways under water and figured that must not be right and due to the same flooding which was affecting the midwest. According to the water line that the tour was shown the spring level goes even higher than that as a norm.

After my walk, Lukas gave me a call and said that he and his girlfriend were eating with some friends at a local spot called Cousins (no relation to the US sub-sandwich franchise). I decided to actually ride my motorcycle over there and had a great time conversing with no few people and eating a veggie burger.

I finished off the night by picking up 1984 from Lukas' bookshelves and giving that a go. This was one of the classic novels that I just never got around to reading. I'll have to buy a copy when I get home so that I can actually finish it!

Winnipeg: Day 4

Day four of my vacation was all about relaxation. I slept in late after the celebration, got some breakfast (well lunch, really), and said good-bye to the hostel and brought my stuff over to Lukas' place. Lukas was particularly busy, so Todd (the other surfer staying with him) and me decided to explore and hopefully find the local jazz festival that was going on.

We couldn't find any jazz festival, but food and beer were easy to come by. Todd lives in Quebec, so it was interesting to hear about the Quebec secession movement and just in general how the Quebequois treated others. It is interesting to hear the many ways in which they believe that they are more French than the actual French. I still don't quite get the movement, though. If they did manage to secede from Canada, the US would probably just roll in and they'd be speaking English whether they liked it or not... :P

A generally quiet day, but a good one.

Winnipeg: Day 3

My third day on vacation had me back at the Forks exploring some other parts of it. I ate a good meal and checked out their prairie grass gardens and the bridge that goes from the north bank to the center of the actual fork. On the bridge, the entire way across is lined with large wolf statues that various local artists had painted. I actually happened to be there as one of the artists was doing her work and had a nice, if brief, conversation with her. Very nice lady and very talented. Pictures of her amazing work to come!

After the Forks, I spent some relaxation time at the hostel. The guy who ran the place, Bill, had to step out and asked if I could make sure nobody played with matches while he was gone. So basically just hang out and make sure that nothing bad happened, but I wasn't expected to sign in new guests or anything that couldn't be done from a lounging position on one of the day-room's couches. No problem. And for my lounging efforts I was treated to a beer - Sleeman's Honey Brown Lager. Excellent localish stuff. Highly recommended by The Scott!

Then I received a phone call from Lukas that he, his girlfriend, his girlfriend's sister, and another Couch Surfer were doing some celebrating and wanted to know if I'd like to join them. Sure, why not - good chance to get to know my CS contact. It turned out that Lukas' girlfriend had just gotten into a school that she had been trying to get into for a while, hence the celebration. The night that followed was filled with Canadian history lessons, sharing of stories, drinking brandy and wine, and a hookah. I don't smoke, so I'm normally not a hookah kind of guy but I figured why not. It actually was interesting, though definitely not something that I would make a habit of. It was a good night and I'm glad that I went.

Winnipeg: Day 2

Waking up, after allowing myself to sleep in for a bit, I immediately checked out and got back on the road. I gassed up, got some breakfast at a greasy spoon, and made my way northward from Fargo on Highway 29 (pretty sure that was it).

Once outside the city, it seems that the North Dakota speed limit is 75 (so 80). It meant for a speedy trip, but some of their roadway is not meant for a motorcycle going at 80mph. By this I mean that the small bridges that cross over ravines and such they note a "bump." Normally these aren't bad but on one I actually got some air and lost my footing on my right peg. I recovered but remembered to slow down and hold on tighter when I came to these bridges.

Another incident happened when I was running low on gas. I saw an exit that said that it had gas, but when I got off the sign there said that the town that had the gas was 10 miles off the freeway. So I opted to trudge onwards to the next gas stop. That didn't work out so well. I was getting VERY low and came to the next gas stop - just two miles off of the freeway. I made my way to it, stopped the bike, got off, took off my gear, and noticed at that point that they were closed on Sunday (Winnipeg: Day 2 is Sunday for those of you not keeping up). So now I'm horribly low and I just wasted a total of four miles of gas. Next gas stop is 20 miles. I had options to either stay at this place until Monday or ride on. So I rode on. I have emergency assistance, but it's something that I'd hoped to never actually have to use. Be that as it may, I rode on and just as I'm having hope for making it I come to a long construction zone. Speed limit 40 with all the cars ahead of me taking it extra slow so as not to hit those orange construction barrels. Now, out of 6th gear my bike gets city driving milage so basically I used every curse in the book for my luck and how this construction may have screwed me out of actually making it to the next gas station under power. I couldn't believe my crappy luck. Even as I would see every new sign telling me the milage to the stop I really had little hope of making it. Add onto that, the stop put me just 5 miles short of the Canadian border. I felt that I was doomed to fail this close to reaching one of my goals...

Winnipeg: Day 1

I figure that I'll do this day by day even though I'm ahead a bit (this is in actuality day 3, which proves that I survived the ride up here).

My journey starts out with me packing my things into the saddlebags of my Harley.  The weather did not look fantastic - storm clouds were everywhere.  But I was determined that I would ride unless the rain turned truly torrential.  So off I went.

I got rained on only slightly as I was leaving my neck of the woods, then things thankfully cleared up.  I had decided that I would take it easy on this ride and just take my time as opposed to my usual rushing for the finish line.  It was only as I was far enough on the road where I wasn't going to turn back that I realized that a note that you write to yourself is only useful if you remember to read it.  I had managed to forget my sneakers and toiletry articles.  Someday I'll get a handle on that reminder thing...

True to my word I took my time and stopped at just about every other rest stop to move around and make sure that my legs still worked correctly.  I even took a few pictures (that I'll have to post at a later date).  That's progress!

I was in Minnesota when the sky turned dark again.  It actually looked like I'd dodge it, but as it turns out the twists and turns of the freeway put me right through the middle of it all.  I think there was some small hail mixed in with the rain and every hit felt like needles jabbing into me.  Maybe I'll put on my rain suit next time...okay, probably not.

I got through this when I saw the sign that told me that Fargo was 150 miles off.  As that was directly on my route I decided my goal would be to Fargo that day.  So that's what...600 miles give or take.

I checked into what I thought would be a cheap night at a Motel 6.  Not cheap - pretty standard.  I ended up treating myself to dinner and a movie (I'm my own best date!) before turning in for the night to heal up a little from the ride itself.  600 miles of wind and bugs pounding on you takes its toll.

But a price that I gladly pay!