The road trip is on..

Spent a wonderful day and night in the desert at Wadi Rum. The camera needed recharging but found the generator after dark, just in time to capture some of the frolicking at midnight at the oasis. Camels were by now, in bed!

Susan and Sheik Harb

Next day we headed off to the Dead Sea where I was covered in stinging mud, but ended up looking very much the same. Back to our favourite hotel and favourite concierge Osama, who told us about yet another great eating spot, Cafe@Books, in the university quarter. A funky place and a nice way to end our week in Jordan

And finally in New York. Great welcome from Donna and Daile after a long wait in immigration. This is the view of Manhattan from Donna's Brooklyn Terrace. Took Liz Cham and Nicholas' advice and just walked and looked and walked. And after a few days I was off to Miami for the road trip to Corpus Christi.

Right now I'm surrounded by Southern accents. I'm still in Florida - The lady in my GPS finally realised I might just obey her instructions if we went my way! and I realised it meant I could unclench my hands from the steering wheel and I would get to where I want to go! Crossed the Everglades day before yesterday and then travelled up the west coast (Burke's advice) over water via some fantastic bridges. Yesterday I arrived in Apalachicola.

Went across to St George's Island via this bridge. The view of the lighthouse is taken from the water's edge. Later I saw a postcard which read that you could only reach it by water. No need to even think what that's about!

Petra

Well, Petra which has been my main reason for coming to Jordan, has been fantastic. Arrived a couple of days ago and went to visit the site in the moonlight. There were candles in sand along the Siq until the Treasury where we were entertained with Bedouin harp and flute playing.

Yesterday we toured the site with another Australian woman who is from Melbourne. Really enjoyed her company. She and I both had something else in common - we both bought fabulous silver jewellery (oh and I bought some dates; wonder if US customs will let them in.) Thought you might like to see what I see when I wake up each morning here!

Sitting in bed, looking in the mirror at the Petra hills outside my window

Jude in Jordan

Daybreak over Amman

Day three in Jordan and the first thing that springs to mind is just how welcoming and pleasant the people of Jordan are. And the food is yummy - lots of lettuce, Laura! and of course tasty tomatoes, and cool cucumbers and oh my, the olives! Now you know just how good I'm feeling; inspired to alliterate.

So started a week-long tour yesterday - there's 3 of us - Susan and Lucy are from Hong Kong, although Lucy was raised in Manchester and is currently working in Zurich - her accent is like a lazy intro to the broad Bradfordese that's soon to hit my eardrums (better check they're in working order). Hey Lizzie - can't wait to see you Sunshine!

Speaking of eardrums, Susan goes regularly to Hyderabad, site of the infamous ear wax experience, to work. She's now living in San Francisco so has given me some good info for NYC. So I am enjoying their company. We also have a tour escort/driver, Mazen, who lived for 10 years in the US - he's really helpful with knowledge on Dead Sea mud baths and US visas. Can't wait for the Dead Sea.

Lucy, Susan and our Jerash guide Ahmed, at the theatre!

Yesterday we visited Jerash, which was part of my own plans pre-tour enquiry.

We also went to Umm Qais, overlooking the Sea of Galilee with the Golan Heights and Syria in the distance...

...and the Crusader Castle at Aljoun. Really enjoyed that.

Well off to more adventures; think it's going to get hotter as we head towards Desert Castles today; so far it's been coolish. And as I write about temperature and think of India, in one of those coincidences that make life such fun, an Indian tour group sitting in the hotel lounge nearby have just burst into kirtan mode and they're singing Kasey's favourite Sanskrit piece sung every day by the sisters at Brahma Vidya ashram.

Leaving India

I had the most marvellous late afternoon/early evening on my last night in Kolkata, at the RamaKrishna Mission. It was so peaceful, so spiritual, and there were many Indian people there, enjoying the grounds set beside the Hooghly River, as well as visiting the temple and shrines for Sri RamaKrishna, the Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda. Even my taxi driver was really happy to go there - it's about 10k on the other side of the Hooghly from the centre of Kolkata where I stay - and he asked me if he could wait for me!

This was the perfect ending to the yatra for me. It felt as though I was 'rediscovering' Vedanta after more than a month or two of wandering around Buddhism.

So now I'm off to spend some time with Islam. I decided to book a tour for the week I'm in Jordan. After Myanmar, I just didn't feel up to decision-making and organising myself, aside from my body not being in the best of shape right now. I slid down the steps of the hotel during the cyclone and hurt my back and seem to have strained my stomach muscles somewhat. So this should make my travels easy and relaxing.

Cannot wait to spend some time under a desert sky, visiting Petra and Desert Castles and bedouin camps.

Back in Kolkata

Everyday the toll from Nagris rises. This morning, it is reported that it may well rise to 100,000. Just heard from Mai that Siam left Myanmar and arrived back in Bangkok last night, so that is a small piece of good news.

It's so heartening to have heard from a few of you that you would like to go and assist in Myanmar. Impractical as that is proving to be, I hope you will think about going in the future.

As Andrea said, sleepingonherturntable no doubt, now I've kissed the (filthy) soil of India again... (her words), I'm back in my love/hate state. It's Rabindranath Tagore's birthday today. What a lovely time to be here with plays, poetry and book readings happening all over this most literary of Indian cities.

Made it to the Kali temple at Kalighat yesterday and am now a bit more settled with everything being just as it should be

...the temple priests demanded rupees and more rupees, showing me the foreigner donation booklets with very large traveller donations (in different handwriting to signatures!) to convince me I should at least match it. Needless to say, although trapped into a largish donation, it was at least affordable. A good thing it was too that the goat sacrifices are in the morning and I was there for late afternoon...

......the person on the bus who I initially admired for sitting in chin mudra in amongst the bus crowd, was I soon discovered, merely picking his nose and flicking it in a very creatively spiritual way!

.. and the men I keep thinking are very 'holy' who walk towards me clapping to 'ward off' my foreign presence, are really just flattening their chewing tobacco as they walk!

Aaaahhh India! Jordan here I come!

After Nagris

Dear Family and friends...I managed to leave Myanmar yesterday - Siam is still there trying to get back upcountry. Although we had heard a rumour by Sunday in Yangon, about the devastation in the delta region, it was very shocking to hear when I arrived in Kolkata last night, that there are more than 10,000 deaths.

Yangon was in the path of Nagris throughout Friday night. From about 3am I watched it through the lull then the second wave which hit about 6am. We were very safe in The Strand, but many people have lost their roofs and homes, there is no electricity, no water, no telephones.. There are trees uprooted everywhere - Siam's Myanmar-based colleague Max, has an Australian housemate Chris who is an engineer. He tells me the enormous number of trees that have fallen destroying buildings, bringing down power lines and blocking roads all over Yangon, is due to their shallow root system which is a result of the high water table.

So little information is passed on to the people - we heard the Minister for Tourism (a general) was due to fly in to Yangon yesterday so there was confidence a generator would be connected to supply electricity for the airport to reopen on Monday. We were fortunate to have CNN in the hotel which provided updates throughout Thursday and Friday on the path and the intensity of the cyclone, but how could the people of Myanmar prepare for it when there was no information before, nor assistance after, to clear their homes, their roads and reconnect utilities.

By Sunday, diesel had risen from 5000 Kyat to 7000. We managed to get the last from this roadside stand for Max and Chris' generator -
- by the time I headed for the airport the next morning, petrol costs had forced the price of the taxi ride from 7000 Kyat to 30,000.

Who will really help the people of Myanmar? I read in The International Herald Tribune on Friday that a human rights organisation was issuing criticism of the ubiquitous Footscray guide book publisher for publishing a guide to Myanmar (c2005!! is the most recent that I know of). ..Meanwhile the ordinary people are already paying an enormous price for boycotts and sanctions. They would be so happy for you to come to Myanmar, even if it's just so they know they are not forgotten... Why do we make the people suffer. And just in case we forget about our own glass house.. the photo above is taken from our hotel window of the Australian embassy right next door. By Saturday afternoon, as you can see if you look closely, the cats were back on their tin roof, but not a dickie bird from Embassy staff up until the time I left on Monday, to offer assistance or even just contact through the hotel, to Australian citizens.

To the Friday night hotel staff who just kept on working for 36, 48 hours; to the staff who lost everything in the cyclone, who had homeless families and ill relatives to look after, and who walked miles to get to work because there was no other way to get there, these are the people of Myanmar.
I am so glad I met you.