Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since 1898 when Spain lost it to the US during the Spanish-American war. Keeping this history in mind, one of the coolest things you'll see in Old Town San Juan (the capital) is the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, an ocean-facing 16th century fort with super-thick walls (as thick as 18 feet / 5.5 meters) and cannons for defence against seabourn attackers.

We also got our ATVs on in the rainforest, which was not very far at all from San Juan. Really most of the Island has rainforest-like topography so this is not too difficult to find.

We had rented a car which made moving around the Island all the easier, and we recommend doing this because it's relatively cheap, the roads and traffic are easily navigable and it affords you flexibility that is especially precious on short trips (4-5 days in our case).

A rental car was especially useful to make it to the famous bioluminescent lagoon which is in Fajardo, nearly 40 miles from San Juan. We kayaked in the lagoon which is full of dinoflagellates, tiny plankton that emit light when the water around them is disturbed. This meant the water around your kayak oar appeared to be full of glittering diamonds as you rowed through the lagoon. It also meant you could see fish swimming through the water even in pitch darkness! I'm a fisherman so when I saw these submarine comets flying all around our kayak, I was ready to fish! Alas, no rod rental facility was available so maybe next time. You could even tell the size of the fish based on the size of the underwater comet! Sigh! On another note, kayaking is hard! Definitely requiring better synchronization than canoeing.

All through the trip, we sampled pretty decent food at the more-hyped restaurants of San Juan and did alot of strolling. I brought fins and a snorkle so took in some snorkling, launching from the beach in front of our hotel. With the exception of a lone stingray, I didn't see anything exciting but at least there were fish. Puerto Rico receives strong and consistent Northeastery trade winds so I got my basic Kitesurfing certification over two days, issued by IKO. We also took a tour of the Bacardi factory.

US Virgin Islands

I went to the US Virgin Islands to get my American Sailing Association 101, 103 and 104 certifications that would enable me to bareboat charter a up to 50 foot yacht in coastal waters. We mainly sailed between St John, St Thomas and Culebra, Puerto Rico, learning all the required skills over 9 days on board a 46 foot Island Packet bermuda-rigged cutter, although we sailed it like a sloop, never using the staysail (second headsail).

I was at the helm for 14+ foot high waves which was quite a ride - enough to make me reconsider my aspirations to do an Atlantic crossing. But who knows? Maybe some day.

Thailand and Cambodia

Phuket - beachy stuff, scuba diving and underwater photography. I got to do my first wreck dive on the King Cruiser wreck. That's me jumping in the water below.


Fair warning. Lionfish may not let you use the restroom on King Cruiser!


Bangkok - Jarisara and Tsvetan's wedding, Wat-hopping and other touristy stuff.




Siem Riep - Fun times of Pub Street. I also walked into a Buddhist temple's attached dormitory and helped some young monks with their English homework.



Angkor Wat - A spectacular ruin of one of the largest pre-industrial cities in the world. That's me at the bottom of the first image.

Pacific Coast Highway (PCH)

This was a 10 day road trip along California's famous coastal highway in a convertible.

San Francisco - Met up with old Capital One friends, Tsvetan and Jarisara, for lunch, took my cousin Alizeh, a freshman at UC Berkeley, to dinner, and did some tourist stuff again.

Carmel - I love the vibe of this town, relaxed and happy, a great place for the low-key kind of Dolce Vita.

Hearst Castle - This may be the coolest building I've seen in the US. The beauty and opulence of this mega-mansion is something to behold and crown jewel for m was the pool, maybe the most iconic in the world.

Pismo Beach - Just a stopover, nothing special, although it was close to Pebble Beach, which was cool to see.

Los Angeles - LA is a fairly known quantity so not much to say. At Colleen's behest, we took a TMZ bus tour, which was the corny guilty-pleasure type fun you'd expect it to be. I also rode a mechanical bull for the first time and did miserably.

San Diego - Nice city by the bay. Highlight here was a shore dive into the kelp forest off La Jolla. It was my first cold water dive so I was wearing a 7-9mm wetsuit with hood, gloves and shoes. The hood confused a playful seal (photo below) who initally though I was a giant awkward seal, but even after he figured out we weren't seals, he still hung out with with us for several minutes. But the oddest thing was being 40-50 feet under water and seeing birds swimming by you like rockets. Cormorants seem remarkably at home under water for a flying species, and the amazing thing is some Cormorants can dive to three times that depth!

Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, Cairns and Port Douglas

While Sydney and Melbourne were great cities, the highlighs of the trip for me were all experienced in Cairns and Port Douglas, namely:

- Eating kangaroo, crocodile and barramundi
- Diving and doing underwater photography on the Great Barrier Reef

- Catching a magnificent 92cm long Barramundi

- Driving the twisty road between Cairns and Port Douglas and back. Our Vauxhall hatchback may have not had much horsepower but it was lightweight, the wheels were close to the corners and it had a stick-shift, all of which added up to a ton of fun barreling into corners along this beautiful coastal road. To top it all, any time we turned off the road towards the ocean, we had a beautiful stretch of beach all to ourselves! Only problem being you couldn't go into the water because saltwater crocs were supposedly everywhere.

Sri Lanka

What a gem of a country Sri Lanka is! Natural beauty aside, it has the highest literacy rate in South Asia (92%), and breathtaking religious harmony (for the time being - knock on wood). More than once did I spy a Hindu or Buddhist temple sharing a wall with a church or a masjid. With the civil war over, tourists are flocking to the island - over 40% of the travellers I saw at the airport both when coming and going were caucasian tourists - and construction of new resorts is booming. Sri Lanka is beginning to cash its peace dividend and the checks are only going to get larger as the tourism infrastructure develops.

I was in Sri Lanka for work, facilitating a regional conference on grid interactive utility scale wind power for South Asia. Delegates from 8 countries as well as numerous turbine vendors, banks and engineering consultants attended. All in all it was a big success and several sizeable deals were struck.

However, that didn't leave much time to do tourism-type stuff. I basically was only able to see Columbo and Puttalam (because we toured a wind farm near there), both on the Western coast. In the future I'd like to go to Kandy and see both the Southern and Northern coasts.

When I went, the war against the LTTE had ended within the last year. Security was still very high. My car from the airport to the hotel was stopped at 4 seperate checkposts by what looked like military police. Even once inside Colombo, I saw far more armed uniformed men than I'm accustomed to.

Kabul, Afghanistan (Background)

Afghanistan is a strangely beautiful and haunting place. Much of its beauty comes from its barrenness and desolation, similar to Balochistan, where I spent a lot of time growing up. Standing in the wide open plains between mountain and desert, it is easy to feel at peace. You’ll also run into interesting and colorfully dressed characters everywhere, all with interesting stories, many of them very tragic. And yet they are quick to smile and laugh with you.

I hope these people get what they want, what they’ve always wanted, an Afghanistan where they can lead normal lives. Where they have food, water, healthcare, education, dignity and above all, peace. I hope the 2014 transition will be relatively peaceful but to be honest I'm a little bearish on that prediction.

 

I was in Kabul to work on Afghanistan's energy sector, primarily with the national electric utility. I found Kabul to be strikingly similar to Quetta, Pakistan. While my personal security detail didn't allow me alot of freedom of movement, I took advantage of every opportunity to talk to Afghans about their lives and get their opinions on the war. I had expected some negative treatment for being Pakistani but the opposite wound up happening, I received exceptionally warm treatment because of it. It turns out many Afghans feel Pakistan treated them very well when millions of their refugees streamed across the border during the war with the Soviets. Many received their educations in Pakistan and expressed feelings of gratitude towards a country that treated them like their own to the point they almost forgot they were refugees.

My compound was in the Shash Darak area near the main ISAF base. I went out to dinner to several of the well-known restaurants that cater to international workers like myself. Dinner often ran over $50 per person including one or two drinks, which initially surprised me. But then war profiteering often works out like that. America basically dropped a large container of money on Kabul when it invaded it and it shows. Suitcases of $100 bills make their way around the city in armoured Landcruisers like Dominos pizza deliveries. Guns, contracts, narcotics, political favors - they all have a price.

Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, CA

We went skiing at Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe. Being a novice to intermediate skier, I found the double black diamonds I was able to navigate with relative comfort on the East Coast only equate to easy blues here. Even the harder blues gave me a very hard time. I suppose that's why Squaw has twice hosted the Winter Olympics.

Yucatan, Mexico (November, 2009)

Mexico is at war with its drug cartels which are outfitted like modern armies and are ruthless to Tarantino movie levels.

However, of all the places in the world I've visited, just about the only one I'm willing to go back to at the drop of a hat is Cancun, not because I don't like any other place, but because I don't like going back to something I've already seen when there is so much out there I've yet to see and experience.

Cancun gets to be the exception because it combines exceptional service, I mean the hotel staff will bend over backwards for you with a smile, and a smorgasbord of activites on-site or very close. Things to see/do:

- Deep sea fishing - I've caught amberjack, barracuda, African pompano and sailfish here.
- Mayan ruins - Tulum is closest and its coastal setting is magnificent, but the big dog without a question is Chichen Itza, a new wonder of the modern world, first settled in 800AD. While not as exciting as Tikal in Guatemala, it's still very cool.
- Scuba diving and snorkeling - I've done some great drift dives here and seen great sealife up close.
- Sailing and kite surfing - Good winds = fun times. Our hotel allowed us to take their sailboats out free of charge whenever we wanted, so Colleen and I got to try our hands sailing Sunfish and Hobie Cats.
-  Supercars - There's a track in Cancun where I drove a Ferrari F430, Lamborghini Murcielago, Mercedes SLS and Lotus Elise. Shockingly the Elise was my favorite - no electronic meddling!
- Beautiful beaches, great food, great weather, and it's very easy to check out the resorts towns of Playa del Carmen and Cozumel as they are both nearby.

Dubai, UAE

Dubai is a city I visit almost every year, sometimes more than once a year, and I've been going there for over two decades. During this time, the city has gone from a place to go to buy electronics cheaply to a place where the word cheap seems out of place.

In any case, the rapid infrastructure development and successful capture of the high-end tourism market has been impressive to watch. For a while it appeared the global financial crisis would make Dubai topple like a house of cards, and I thought I sensed some in the Western press relishing it based on the tone of some of the articles. But after 2008-2010 and a small bailout by Abu Dhabi, it seems Dubai is going to be fine. It's probably stronger for the crisis because the excessive irrational exuberance of the old Dubai has been put in check because of it.

However, something new has emerged since 2012. It seems "black money" from Eastern Europe is increasingly coming to Dubai to be laundered. The size of the Eastern European contingent in the city has visibly grown, and I don't know if it's related, but I also saw prostitutes in virtually every hotel bar I visited, many of them Eastern European.

Charlottesville, Virginia

Home to UVA, Charlottesville is a large-ish college town surrounded by a multitude of smaller towns with their own personalities and good bed and breakfast options. Nearby Staunton boasts the world's only recreation of Shakespeare's indoor theatre, the Blackfriars Playhouse. Colleen and I have come here three times now, watching Titus Andronicus, Othello and Hamlet in that order. Staunton also hosts outdoor concerts, one of which we caught on our last visit, and features good dining options with an emphasis on organic and locally sourced foods.

Two other excursions we took near Charlottesville was watching a movie in a drive-in theatre, a first for me, and driving through Virginia Safari Park where we hand fed free-ranging camels, ostrich, llama, goats and deer as we drove through the 3-mile long safari park. The park also had a zoo-type section where the coolest animals were Bengal tigers, cheetahs, giraffe and several types of monkeys. Both experiences were thoroughly enjoyable, although an ostrich made a mess inside our car when it stuck its head through the window and tried to wrestle the animal food away from me with its beak. Ostrich necks aren't very strong but what they lack in torque, they make up for in speed. Those beaks strike fast! You've been warned!

The drive-in theatre experience made a convert out of me. Car seats are far more comfortable than theatre seats. I doubt I'll ever see a cinema with reclining, heated, ventilated seats with adjustable lumbar. The audio also exceeded my expectations. The theatre tells you what radio frequency to tune in to and you get audio through your car stereo, 13 speakers for two people in our case, which sounded quite nice. If you get a chance to see a movie at a drive-in theatre, jump at it. We saw "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" and ducked out before "Captain America" started because it was getting late and also because it hadn't received good reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

Savannah, GA + Charleston & Hilton Head, SC

We drove down from DC and spent a week between these three scenic cities. I have to say each of these three cities was pretty cool in its own right. Savannah was the most impressive with all its history and character. Charleston had much of the same but was larger and more modern. Hilton Head wound up offering some fun fishing (we caught 6 sharks), reasonably-priced golf on great courses, and good shopping.

We toured a number of historic houses, took long walks on the beach on Hilton Head, visited America's oldest standing plantation house, toured the Navy aircraft carrier in Charleston and thoroughly enjoyed the delicious Southern cuisine throughout the trip.

Given that we drove down from Washington (~7 hour trip each way), it wound up being a very reasonably-priced vacation.

Hawaii

We went to the big island of Hawaii for a little over a week in December, 2008. The weather was fantastic. I got to snorkel up close with a large Manta Ray, touch a green sea turtle, relax on some unbelievably beautiful and deep beaches (Hapuna Beach and Mauna Kea), charter a boat to hit all the top snorkeling spots around the Island, play some golf, go to a luau and check out some volcanoes. All in all, a nice trip. I got in some nice photography too.

Now for the bad - Hawaii is f**king expensive! Sure, it's beautiful and everything but seriously, its a long-ass and expensive flight followed by being stuck on islands where everything is super-expensive.

If you ask me, hit up Cancun instead (as we did in Nov, 2009). The service is better, its half the price, and half the flight.

Photos from our month-long Western Europe trip...

...can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sephiac/sets/

The end!

Highlights:

Pompeii - The city is so well preserved, you can actually see and feel how the people there lived 2,000 years ago.

Venice - Gondola rides really are very romantic if cliche and touristy.

Monte Carlo Masters - We got to see the World #1, #2 and #4 play on clay.

Granada - The town parties late, the Al Hambra is magnificent and the General Life gardens (pronounced "Henerale Leefay") are serene and beautiful.


Learnings:

Europe is F-ing expensive

There are more churches in old European cities than there are shopping malls in Dubai

Lock your checked in luggage

Sometimes you have to pay for using a toilet, even in Europe

Everyone in Europe drives a manual transmission

Almost everyone drives a hatchback

Almost everyone speaks some English and is eager to use it, even in Paris (this is new)

Italian and Spanish are remarkably similar languages

The French discovered a lot of things

When travel blogging, it is best to write an entry every day, otherwise you forget things

Tour groups are not for us, although maybe we'll like them more when we get older

Paris is not a clean city

The Piano was born in Florence

Dante's Divine Comedy was the first book to be written in Italian

The Catholic church has a long history of corruption and hypocricy

Venice stole the body of a "Saint" to compete with the influence of Rome

Venice used to be a vast empire and its downfall was the discovery of a new trade route when Christopher Columbus landed in America

Prostitution is out in the open in Europe


(I will add to this list as I remember more things)

London

An oddity! Great weather in London. Street musicians were out, playing by the pubs and restaurants and there were more people out than normal for a Saturday afternoon. I stayed with my cousins on Edgeware road and went to Picadilly Circus with my friend Ziggy and cousin Ali for 3 hours of billiards, air hockey and bowling (I got 5 strikes in a row, one short of my best). My aunt made my favourite Pakistani dish that night for dinner. The next morning, I played with my niece and nephew before catching the Heathrow Express out to the airport and making my way back home.

Paris

Upon further examination, it turns out my cell phone and USB thumb drive were also stolen along with my Swiss army knife and cologne. Still not a huge deal and lesson learned. You can and should lock your checked in luggage outside the US.

We spent 6 days in Paris in all. Since I am writing this blog entry at the end of the trip, I'll just mention the highlights. The science/technology museum (I can't remember the French name) they have there is very interesting and interactive. I spent half a day roaming about it and inspecting the earliest iterations of inventions and technology that have impacted science and how we live today.

We did the Eiffel tower old school, by taking the stairs as far as they go, all the way to the second level from where we watched the tower do its "sparkly" thing.

We took a boat cruise up and down the Seine.

We took in a Paris Cabaret. The one we saw was LIDO, which I thoroughly enjoyed even though most of the acts and the dancing overall were disappointing. Vegas shows are of a higher calibre both in terms of imagination and execution, although there were a few "oooh" and "aaah" moments in LIDO. These included a dancing horse, two ice skaters on an elevating ice rink, an acrobatics act and a bottle of champagne to make everything else more enjoyable. The constant barrage of feather adorned frontal nudity may have also helped.

We took a day trip to Versailles which although massive was not as peaceful and calming to walk through as the Al Hambra in Spain.

We visited my aunt and uncle in Paris for dinner one night.

We took in the Louvre, the Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame cathedral, Saint-Sulpice church, Parc de la Ciutadella Barcelona (where we sailed toy sailboats in the pond) and other Paris stuff. Since we had 6 days, we didn't feel rushed and did a lot of casual walking around the city, especially in the 7th. We were all art museumed out after Italy so we only visited the Louvre, and that too out of a sense of obligation. I never thought much of the Venus de Milo or the Mona Lisa and seeing them in person didn't change that. However, there was lots of art that did move me as well as ancient Persian and Babylonian artefacts that were spectacular.

Our hotel was the Renaissance Trocadero in the 16th. Although very central (we could see the Eiffel Tower from our balcony) it was also very expensive and boy did we feel it. I've been told the 16th is the most expensive area of Paris which is already an expensive city. As it turns out, the only time in my life I've ever had McDonalds for all three meals in one day was in Paris. Even that didn't wind up being cheap. We spent $60+ that day on McDonalds for only two people!

I left Paris for London via Eurostar while Colleen flew out to DC directly from Charles de Gaulle.

Granada

Our trip is winding down with 6 days in Paris remaining once we leave Spain. In truth, we´ve started feeling travel fatigue and hard. Intially, we were planning on seeing Granada, Cordoba and Seville in our 3 days in Andalucia. After seeing the Al Hambra on the first day, we decided to stay put in Granada for all 3 days, maybe partially because walking up to the Al Hambra from the city and seeing all of this expansive collection of gardens and buildings left us exhausted.

Turns out Granada is big on the backpackers´circuit and has a very vibrant nightlife that doesn´t quit until close to daybreak. I´m starting to feel my age, unable to carry on partying with the mostly college students I ran into here. The city itself is very charming, especially with the spectacular weather. The South of Spain in like heaven after some pretty cold weather at times in Italy and France.

Barcelona

We ran all over Barcelona yesterday, taking in the harbour, La Rambla, the Gothic Quarter, the Sagrada Familia, the Gaudi museum and many Gaudi buildings along the way. We had great weather and loved the open areas and many public squares in the city. It was especially nice hiking to the highest point in Parc Guell and looking down at the sunwashed city below. Tomorrow its off to Granada and the Al Hambra!

Tennis / Monaco / Lost Bag

The big thing we did in Monte Carlo was go to the Monte Carlo Masters. We watched 2nd and 3rd round matches between the likes of Davydenko, Federer, Nadal, Ancic and Gasquet. The center court stadium was not large so we weren't far from the action and our seats were at the net (We paid a hefty premium to the scalpers to get these tix at the last minute). The highlight for me was watching #1 Federer come to within 2 points of losing to ~#140 Hidalgo but then fighting from 1-5 down in the final set to win it in the tiebreak.

We walked around Monaco which has already done most of the setting up for the famous grand prix in May. We saw lots of exotic cars roaming the streets but were otherwise not too impressed by the city. We didn't have enough time to see the casinos though. We had to make it back to Nice for our flight to Barcelona (which is where we are now).

My lost bag finally made it back to me after taking a detour to 2 cities in Tunisia. My swiss army knife that I've had for ~14 years and a cologne were missing. Not a big deal but I filed a claim with the airline and filled out a report with the Nice airport police.