An Easy Day in Tehran, Jumping in a Gypsy Cab

I woke up uncharacteristically late, it is a Sunday after all, and I finally have absolutely nothing I need to do. On trips like these, that's a rare thing indeed, so I leisurely read the Tehran Times (lots of photos of Mr President grinning and accepting awards), and ate my feta cheese, kidney beans and fried eggs.

I returned to my room and knocked out a story about my day in the desert. It flowed so easily, faster than anything I've written in a long time. That's usually the mark of inspired writing...don't think, just write. It was like telling the story to a group of friends at a party, easy fun and quick.

I walked for miles down the busy main boulevard of North Tehran, and ended up going in a gigantic circle, trying to find the place where there are many cafes and shops but ending up in residential and office areas. So I doubled back and returned to a rotisserie chicken joint I had passed on my way down.

A little Afghan girl of about 6 came into the shop and tried to sell little booklets. Everyone turned her down, but I gave her some bread which she accepted heads down wordlessly. I was told that Afghans do the heavy lifting here in Iran, and I saw tent by a sidewalk reconstruction project. I was told that they sleep there, on the job, so they can send every rial back to their families.

I took my time devouring the chicken with lemon and basil, reading Tony Wheeler's wonderful account of his trip to Iran in 2006, and writing. On the way back, I did what Tehranians do, I hailed a gypsy cab and jumped in. These are regular cars with no signs that pull over when you're standing by the side of the road. I jumped into one, drove a few miles, then he ran out of gas so I left him to find another. All over the road policemen stood holding ticket pads, I think they were ticketing motorists who broke the new rules about odd/even license plate driving on alternate days.

I've been compiling how much things cost here. It's remarkably cheap...the cab I took cost about 60 cents. I bought a Cuban cigar in a swanky Habana shop in the hotel for $4. Dinner for two (without wine of course) sets you back $15. A big wide loaf of pita bread is 70 cents. Chai, which is what people everywhere but the US call tea costs $1.50 for a pot. A good hotel is $150 a night, and you can fly from Esfahan to Tehran for about $40.

WOW! Plenty of good reasons to consider Iran for your next inexpensive family vacation!

Tehran's Saad Abad and the Crown Jewels

Tehran has a population estimated at between 8 and 12 million, and sprawls out from the north, butted up against Damovan mountain with lots of snow and a cablecar to the top, spreading and growing every year far, far out.

I was told that North Tehran, where the shah once lived, is the richest area, and as you get lower and lower it gets poorer and poorer. The air too, gets worse down in South Tehran, and the traffic inches along except for the motorcycles who zip between sometimes against traffic.

We visited the Saad Abad, the complex that once was where the shah and his many relations lived in 18 buildings and palaces before the revolution in 1979 that began with Ayatollah Khomeini's triumphant return from France. Sycamore trees line the grounds, providing a leafy canopy and a river runs down the sloped area. It surprised me that so much of this wasn't destroyed by the angry revolutionaries, but intact is the princess phone used by the princesses and the shah's desk and even a billiard room to entertain the many people who used to wait to meet with the King.

We then set out through the crowded streets to a neighborhood of winding streets, cafes bakeries, kabob stands and vegetable sellers called Darakeh. Here we watched bakers knead dough and then throw it against the wall of a roaring fire inside a clay oven, bake it for a minute or so, then fish it out with a stick and toss it out for sale. The loaves were quickly picked up by passing customers, each one cost about 70 cents.

The Crown Jewels are another big attraction here in Tehran. We had to clear our pockets of cameras cellphones and anything else, before entering a vault to view the most spectacular collection of bejewelled crowns, a throne, a bed, a globe and various jewelry. The crown that Farah Shah used to wear alone had a thousand diamonds and emeralds as big as acorns. An alarm frequently sounded when the throngs of black-clad schoolgirls would push too close to the gem cases.

After the National Museum, where we saw some of the best carvings from Persepolis we visited a former army barracks that is now an arts center, complete with vegetarian cafe and exhibits from local artists. After a fill up on felafel, we were fortified for an hour-long session in traffic making our way back up to the north to our hotel.

Picnic Time at a Desert Fortress

The mosque in Aran, Iran, the complex dominates the dusty town, south of Qom the most holy city of Iran. We stopped at a caravansary, a fortress built 400 years ago to defend the camel caravans along this important trading route.

Iranians took the Friday holiday to picnic on the grounds, and this man offered me a puff from his hubbly bubbly as he enjoyed time in the sun.

A Day in the Desert: A Chance to Get Away

We left the hotel at five am yesterday, to meet a bus full of Tehranians and take an excursion out into the desert. The bus rolled through the light traffic of central Tehran and out into an exquisitely flat open road, unbroken by anything except distant hills, we were bound for the salt lake southeast of Tehran.

Because of the early hour, we were groggy, and relieved at about 8 am when we pulled into a roadside restaurant for breakfast. This meal is the hightlight of the cuisine here, it includes the salty feta cheese, bowls of steaming lentils, pita bread and a variety of egg dishes like fritatas. I didn't come here for the cuisine, but didn't realize that we'd have an identical meal every dinner, so the breakfasts have become favorites.

In the small city of Aran, the biggest building for miles around is the elaborate walled mosque compound, at night lit up in bright green. In front of the mosque is a graveyard, with upright plaques that memorialize the war dead from the Iran-Iraq war. We changed to an older beat-up bus for a 60 km ride over a desert road. A man leading a pack of camels crossed in front of the bus, and big trucks zoomed by, trailed by clouds of dust.

We got a chance to walk a salt lake and at the end of the trip we found ourselves at sunset sitting on high dunes, the sweep of the brown sand undulating, and the light perfect for photos. I sat with a young woman in the tourist business who said she wished that politics didn't interfere so often in people's lives. I could sense that she, like many of her contemporaries, are growing weary of life dictated by Mullahs based on ancient traditions. None of the young people I met care about politics, or listen to the Ayatollah's Friday night speeches. "We watch movies, read novels, drive around, but we don't care about them," they told me again and again.

I told her that since there are so many more young people here and the leadership is very old, things would inevitably change and loosen up. She can't imagine that, but seemed hopeful that someday no one will be telling her what to wear, how to live, and blocking Facebook and Myspace on Iran's internet.

Mobile Dance Party en route to Tehran

In Iran there are no dance clubs, but of course, Iranians love to dance. So on our way home from our day-long trip into the desert, they cranked up the funky Iranian dance musik and we took turns boogie-ing in the aisles as the bus rolled the long way back to Tehran.

The stories we heard about having a manteau (3/4 length tunic, required for women to wear) that was 1" too short and getting in big trouble with the authorities is heartbreaking.

These fun loving people want to have a good time and dance and swing their bodies like the rest of the world. In the desert, there are no minders or police to check them, so the scarves can fall off, the dancing begins and there's even a little hand-holding. And what's wrong with that?

Tehran's Raucus Thursday Night Drive Time

After our final dinner, complete with rollicking Iranian musicians, my tablemates and I decided to walk back to the hotel. It was a group who had bonded over conversation; three Portuguese tour operators and a smart Brit who handled PR for Jordan and Korean Air.

Loaded down with more gifts from our effusive hosts (this time a 16" long tray of nuts and fruits), we set out up the big busy North Tehran boulevard toward home. First we found a cafe with espresso, to satisfy my European friends.

Our conversation in the cafe ran the gamut, from women to divorce and living situations, to how terribly the US immigration treats them when they come to the US. And these are upstanding businessmen, so I can't do any more beefing about the rigamarole of getting my Iranian visa. It flowed and once again I revelled in my element...new friends, interesting conversation, a cool setting somewhere a little exotic.

The Tehran traffic, of course, was bumper to bumper, but there was a raucus, frenetic energy, it was Thursday night here, (their Saturday) and packed Paycans and Peugeots drove merrily down the street, music blasting, young Iranians packed in yelling and carrying on. We'd pass them on the sidewalk and they'd yell "THANK YOU!!" or "HELLO!!" throwing the few English words they knew at us. I counted nosejob bandage number eight, and saw a car that was packed with seven young women, including a woman driver, which surprised me. But this is north Tehran, where these youth are the future, and they push the border of their strict rules to the limit.

Young men careened down the sidewalk on motorbikes, weaving in and out of traffic, yelling and joking, and we saw three different scenes of men examining eachother's cars after fender benders amidst the exuberant and slow flow of traffic. Iranian rap music joyously blasted from a dozen different stereos. The cars inched ahead, families as well as young people were streaming into a park...it was 12:15 am. Subsidized gas and no dancing, clubs or booze means a whole lotta driving, if you can call this inching forward driving.

At one point a large crowd of men gathered beneath an underpass, waving wildly at my camera, and gesturing to come over. One of us, an intrepid young Portuguese agent named Tiago came to shoot their photo. They were all gathered around a little stove brewing water for tea.

After our hour-long walk, I've got a few hours here to sleep before I meet my guides at 5 am for my trip to the desert. I will be tired, but I'll bring a pillow for the 3-hour ride.

The Faces of Iran: No, I'm Not at All Afraid

Here are some of the people I was supposed to be afraid of when I departed for my trip to Iran. Again and again, these earnest, fun and sincere people asked me what I thought about the reality of being here versus the myths and propoganda that is published day after day about this country.

"People think we ride camels, and that we live in a desert like Saudi Arabia," said one of these wonderful young women, who work for an Iranian tour company.

Despite my optimistic attitude and constant comments about their friendliness and the safety here, it's a uphill climb to promote tourism from the US. I had an interview with the President of the Iranian Tour Operators Association, Ebrahim Pourfaraj, who told me that only 500 Americans visited Iran last year. That's a staggeringly small number, considering how big this land is and how much there is to see. Another gentleman approached me at the meeting with warm smile. He was Saeed, the owner of Iran Doostal Tours, who I met in Malaysia two years ago and told that I wanted to come here. 'See, I told you I'd get you here," he said with a laugh.

He confirmed that this trip has been a miracle because of the way Iran's government handled the visas. Being able to get a visa in the airport on arrival is unheard of, especially for Americans. You can't really blame them considering that many Iranians I met said they had to travel to Dubai or Turkey as many as two times just to get an interview to try for a visa to come to the US.

I really hope that with our new president, we can put this silliness behind us, and allow free travel between our two countries. After all, in "Tehrangeles" there are nearly two million Iranians, but with the hassle, few make the trip back to their homeland. I will try my best to be an advocate to change these policies, because the world and especially Americans, would love it here if they only came.

Every Country is Different, That's What Makes it Fun

I love the little differences between countries, that's what makes each one special. A few things here that are funny are that the soda cans have those pop off tops we used to collect and string together when we were little kids. Inexplicably, some sodas and the fake beer that they offer here have the normal can openers, but most sodas force you to throw away that little piece of aluminum every time.

There are never men's urinals here. So you go to a men's room and there are 10 doors. You have to wait until one opens. Often there is no paper, merely a feeble little dryer that barely washes your hands. At the first day of the conference I went to a men's room that was full of men in furious scrubbing mode...washing their feet, their faces and their necks. It was time to pray, and nobody here wants to pray dirty. There is also a hose with hot and cold inside each of the men's room stalls so you can use it instead of toilet paper.

We flew every day so far, hopping to Kish Island, Shiraz, Esfhan, and back to Tehran. Security is relaxed, after you throw the bags onto the x-ray before you enter the airport, after that it is totally lax. Nobody worries about what's in your carryon or tries to take away your bottle of water.

Coffee here....nearly always Nescafe, except in that great little coffeeshop in Esfahan. The bus drivers have little tea cup holders and sugar cube dispensers right up near the dashboard. We drank cups and cups of the tea, which is served with roughly shaped balls of sugar.

Glimmering Palaces and Giant Squares of Esfahan

Today I saw the most glorious manmade buildings I've ever laid eyes on. The city of Esfahan is famous for gorgeous mosques, miles of parks, ornate bridges, grand palaces and the most impressive is Naghsh-e-Jahan Square the world's second largest to Beijing's Tieneman Square. It's the heart of the city and a popular picnicing and strolling area.

The top of every shop has the teardrop shape, and at one end there is this immense double minareted mosque with a blue dome, and then on the other a smaller and even lovelier mosque with a similar blue dome. You go inside and look up close. Two inches of tile turns out to be made up of 14 separate tiny pieces of colored tile. Then think that this thing is 30 or 40 meters high and this tilework is over the entire wall and ceiling. Mind blowing!

We stood inside the giant Imam's mosque and as you spoke your voice bounced off the double layered tiled high ceiling and was easily audible outside 100 yards away. This is how the imams of the olden days were able to speak to huge crowds without any microphones. Then we visited the Chehel Sotun , or 40 columns palace, built in 1608, that was once the place where the royalty entertained guests with wine women and song. Paintings depicted in realistic detail the life of the royalty and the many visitors they entertained.

This is similar to the lavish history we hear when we visit Italian cathedrals, but the names are all different. The names have eluded us, like Darius and Cyrus, who ruled Persia and conquered other lands. Alexander the Great spent a lot of time here too, and the ones the people here fought with the most were the Turks and the Uzbeks.

Driving down a major boulevard and it's all a leafy center strip with no cars. While the traffic is still insane, the gardens are everywhere, right now in the back of my hotel I am looking out into a courtyard with those same teardrop openings in a square court, surrounding a lovely garden with pools and walkways.

At the Naghsh Square there is a bazaar, a rabbit warren of shops selling carpets, candy and knicknacks and mounds of spices. I bought some dates, and some small packets of saffron, for shockingly low prices. I barely spent the rest of the $60 I had changed, things were just that cheap. Even better, we were with an Iranian man who haggled with all of the vendors in that 'sweet accent' of the Esfahanis to get us even lower prices.

At one point two writers became friends with two young Iranians, and as they passed one of the ubiquitous photos of Khomeini, which line every public wall, she said "he is bad, I don't like him." Heresy in the Islamic Republic of Iran, but like the headscarves that fall down low and the form fitting mid-length jacket (instead of the loose black robe) that about half the woman wear, it shows that things are loosening up, despite the protests of the mullahs.

At the Arashk Cafe, My Rials Are No Good

When I heard there was a place that sold lattes right down the street from the Armenian church in Esfahan, I hightailed it right over. And when Elham and his sister heard that I owned a cafe in the US, well that made it a day to celebrate!

They refused my 20,000 rials for the latte, and instead put me on the phone with his wife, who excitedly told me to send this photo to them.

The farsi word for coffee is Arashk, which is the name of their little cafe here. They are just a few of the many wonderfully friendly Iranians we've met here who are so eager to share their tastes, sounds, smells, and lattes with any visiting Americans.

I laugh when I read the well-intentioned emails I got saying, 'stay safe' and 'be careful.' I think I'm safer here than in many US cities, since Iranians only want to take care of you and know more about you...and maybe sell you a few carpets too!

In Esfahan, Gorgeous Bridges Are a Main Attraction

I woke up very early this morning, hours before my early wake-up call, and walked through a garden behind our hotel in Shiraz. I wanted to see the street, and meet some people before our massive convoy of 130 travel agents and tourism officials left for the airport. I walked down the deserted side street until I rounded a corner. A man waited on the street, like many I've seen, he was hoping to hail down one of the thousands of renegade taxis run by people with day jobs looking for some extra cash.

Then I continued down the street to find a line of men, many of whom were holding pots in their hands. I have decided that the Shoul method of being very friendly and asking people's ok to shoot is how to get better photos, so I dove right in, asking then shooting them as they stood in line. They were waiting for a few scoops from a five-foot wide steaming caldron of what looked like gelatinous chicken flavored rice. Each man waited in line for his scoop, then they proceeded next door for a helping of very well boiled chicken on top. They laughed as I shot their photos, and then two men held up a big stack of pita bread, beckoning me to come over and sample what they were offering for breakfast. I scooped a few dollops and shot some more photos, this is the traditional breakfast.

We flew to Esfhan, the second largest city in Iran, and the most beautiful. The city starts with a 10-kilometer park by the river, where we saw people picnicking and enjoying the sunny day. Outside on the highway, we passed what looked like small round castles with two layers in the fields, which were bordered by brick enclosures. "Pigeon houses," explained our guide, "they collect the droppings to fertilize their fields."

Esfahan also has the most beautiful bridges I've ever seen. One has 33 arches, another built in the 17th century once had a palace at the middle. Both no longer allow cars to pass over them, so they're wonderfully full of dawdling pedestrians and couples out to get some sun. We visited an Armenian church and gasp, saw many images of Christ on the walls, and across the street met a family that runs a coffee shop. They were impressed that I too am a cafe owner, and refused to charge me for my latte.

This afternoon we'll see the famous mosques of this city and more of the sites that make this Iran's largest tourist draw. As we toured one of the bridges, we were approached by some young women, they told one of us that they too aren't wild about their president. We were happy to assure them that they're not the only ones, but things are changing fast.

You Are American? Ohh, That's Great. Welcome!!

Where to begin? With the most important thing about Iran. It is this daily encounter, repeated endlessly. You meet someone's eyes. They look at you, at your nametag. "You are American?"
Yes you say. "Great, great, welcome, welcome to Iran!" This steadfast enthusiasm for American people is what makes this country so wonderful, and this has made our trip so far a pleasure.

Yes, said one guy in the bus, the outside of the former US embassy is emblazoned with signs saying "Death To America" and there are other hateful signs you read in Tehran. But whoever wrote them didn't represent these people, who smile so warmly and embrace you with welcome. I was trying to figure out what my plan was since my trip goes a few days longer than the formal itin. No worries, of course, I have a legion of concerned Iranians, working hard to find me a tour, to find me a hotel, to take care of me in every way. It's unlike anything I've seen in all of these years of overseas travel. A sparkling fun exhuberance to meet me.

I am rushing to write this in Shiraz, where we just left the tomb of Hafez, Iran's legendary and greatest poet. It is hushed there, despite the traffic, and pools line the grounds and the tomb is beneath a gorgeous blue tiled dome. A guide recited a poem of his, a lyrical symphony of images formed by the right words. He raised his hand in the air, and even that small snippet, about how the earth, the mountains and the oceans don't want to be responsible for man, so the poet says he will, is strikingly beautiful.

Earlier we saw Persepolis, among the greatest ancient treasures in existance, spread out over a vast open spot, and saw incredibly detailed carvings that depicted the dozens of different lands that were brought to the nation by Darius the Great. It's so much more than I can describe, but to anyone who said I should be afraid, or anyone who ever thought they wouldn't want to come here, God you are missing a lot!

I'm In Iran, Visa in Hand, Ready to Report

It was a long, long night, as I arrived at Tehran's Khomeini airport at about 3 am and spent a few hours wrestling with various levels of authority to try and finish the visa business that I started last week. In the end, after fumbling with a fingerprint machine, the friendly cop released our passports and inside, voila! was the aforementioned and hard to get visa. And the guy I was with never paid a dime, but mine cost $125 mailed earlier to their embassy.

We drove the empty highway, hurtling along straddling two lanes, and reached this big hotel, where I would bed down for a mere three hours. Now I'm up, it's time to go to the big tourism event, and I am surrounded by tour operators and men from Europe in suits. I find one journalist, Paul Rogers, who knows old Kentski. At last a familiar face, another journalist.

Before I left I reread Rick Steve's and Tony Wheeler's takes on this misunderstood land. They both agreed that no place they've been is more welcoming and more full of people who want to say hello, and talk, and learn about America. Steves also prepared me for the lack of men's urinals, (squat only, or cabin) and that the rial trades for about 10,000 per dollar. So with my mere $60 exchanged, I'm ready for any little expenses.

Well, gotta run catch the big coach for a flight to Kish Island.

For the First Time in 40 Years, Electricity Use Drops

I read today in the WSJ that utilities in the US have been jolted by a drop in power use, and it has dire implications for the future of alternative energy. That's on top of massive problems getting financing that has put many solar and wind projects on hold. The utilities that have to pay for them are facing a dearth of ways to raise the money...and amidst layoffs and shutdowns have moved them to back burners.

The biggest wind project in the US, to be built in the Mohave desert, is just one of these exciting ideas that Obama is pushing big time to be shunted aside for the unglamourous reason...no funds.

The utilities have seen demand for electricity rise every year about 1-2 percent, and so we've heard big warnings about how much we need new power plants. But with recession now upon us, giants like Xcel energy in Minneapolis saw a decline of 3 %. "it's first time in 40 years I've seen a decline in sales to homes," said Dick Kelly, the company's CEO. Duke Energy's doing even worse, a 7.2% drop in home electricity sales. So building these new nuclear and clean coal plants, along with the solar and wind projects, are going to be much harder to justify.

She Wears a Special Tracksuit Each Time She Flies

I checked the weather, first outside on the thermometer here at Cindy's house in Holyoke. Just barely 20 degrees...then I saw that in Tehran it's a balmy 63. So I guess there's no need to bring that silk long underwear that helped out so well during our trip to Northern England.

A few years ago, I met a woman in Copenhagen who wears the same track suit and brings a stuffed dog on the plane. She says the keeps the doggie in her lap and uses it as a pillow, and the the tracksuit makes her feel comfortable on the plane. She squeezes the doggie if she gets irritated with the flight crew or by delays. She said she has a packed suitcase that she keeps ready, and always brings the same clothes, traveling clothes, on her trips.

She's gone on to great fame and fortune by sharing the details of her sex life in a book, which include a steamy sanctioned relationship with another woman inside her open marriage. After the fifth email I got about this I emailed her asking if she didn't feel a little embarrassed by sharing so much about her sex life with the world. But the same, maybe, could be said of me, I tell perhaps too many details about my life here, except the sex part. Shoul named her the 'broken China doll' a name that seemed to fit her well.

At the conference in Hollywood earlier in the week, it was Twitter that was the star of the show, with the participating bloggers posting these 140 character blips about what they thought of the speakers. It is quite addicting, as I found out, and flattering to think that 90 people are following me and reading all of these little blurbs about what I'm doing right now.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Welcomes Me

I've got a whopping 18 hours of so before I get back into an aluminum tube for an extended stay in the air tomorrow night. I never sleep well onboard, despite the piles of gadgets I get sent to try out. One blow up tubular pillow extends up the shoulder, and looked ridiculous, not effective as a sleep aid. I flight attendant mocked me as she passed by on the US Air flight to Manchester.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven to be frustrating...already three writers have bailed out of the trip, after confusion over the visa and the process of getting it was bumming people out. I dutifully fedxed my passport and $125 to the Pakistan embassy, where the Íranian Interests Section' is located. Then they called, telling me I didn't get the visa from them, and that I'd get it in the Tehran airport. Oh well. I have the passport, so I'm ready to roll.

The last minute announcement of this trip didn't make some people happy. My daughter and Cindy, both a little bummed that old Max ain't gonna be around for the next 12 days. It's nice to be missed, and spending Thanksgiving in Shiraz instead of drinking Syrah sounds like a great time to me. Still, there's a very mixed bag of reactions to my latest intinerary.

But when I tell anyone whose a traveler, their eyes light up. They get why I'm willing to sit on that plane for 15 hours, and spend 10 days in a country where booze is illegal over a hoilday. Because Iran's history, richness, beauty that goes back so many centuries, and it's a traveler's destination. It's exotic and different, and far away, and will be a great video subject.

I have been reading Ín the Rose Garden of the Martyrs' by Christopher de Bellaigue, who writes about life there. He has a laconic style, sort of drifting in and out of these horrific scenes like during the Iran/Iraq war, and the slow process of converting a once Western-styled nation back into fundamentalism with such strict rules.

I'm sure one of the funnest parts will be to see how Iranians delight in rebelling, and testing the status quo. That's a theme in all of the books I've read about Iran so far.

Today I got a call from a reporter named Tom from Bloomberg News. He's going to include me in an article about heating oil price contracts, since he saw the piece on MassLive about it. I gave him some good quotes, about how next year I'm buying it by the tank, and then got him to promise me a mention of GoNOMAD.

AOL Travel Brands the Hell Out of Their Party

My final morning in Hollywood found me out on the terrace, yakking into my cellphone about business and the opportunities which presented themselves out here at this remarkable show. Last night I attended the final party of the show, AOL's Moonlight Bash, where a swish nightclub was transformed into a fury of advertising messages for the big internet company's new iteration called Platform A. The bartenders wore shirts with the PA logo, the napkins bore the message, cards strewn about the bar lauded the vast reach and power of the AOL brand. Giant balls pulsed with the message, no opportunity to sell was left undone.

On the dance floor there were giant screens extolling AOL's dominance, as owners of The Number One Travel Site in the World (by pageviews) Mapquest. I met a very thin and pretty woman who worked in New York who heads up a team of eight managers who sell this vast collection of eyeballs, again she said it was the largest audience on the web today. I asked her if this was the right place for them, since all the messages seemed aimed at big advertisers and we were mostly web geeks. "Many of our clients and partners are here, so yes, " she answered.

As the music blared, I got a chance for a few final conversations with these travel web people whom I admire and am sometimes envious of. Ken Leeder runs RealTravel.com a site that publishes user-generated travel content and is located between Google and Facebook in Northern California. He said that at one time it was so cheap to use Indian developers that you could have two guys do the same thing and if one got it wrong, well, you have the other's work to use. But now the cost is much higher, and the good developers are job hopping, so there is about a 200 percent turnover rate. That makes it tough because the same people never finish the jobs.

I have big aspirations for GoNOMAD...and coming out here makes me both inspired and daunted by the tasks ahead. I look forward to seeing where we are in November 2009 when I come to the next Phocuswright show in Orlando. Stay tuned!

Sitting by the Pool, She Told Me About Iran

We had lunch in the brilliant blinding Hollywood sunshine, on the roof next to an empty glistening pool. I sat next to a couple who worked for Phocuswright, and the conversation got around to my trip on Saturday to Iran. She said that in 1978 she was an exchange student, and that she lived in Tehran. She had fond memories of the country. "They have the most wonderful fruit there," she said, "and there are Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants all over the city. They don't eat beef or pork, so chicken and lamb are really big there."

She talked about the tension that was so palpable during the time of the Shah's visit to America and how fearful it became, almost overnight, to be an American. Once when she was walking downtown, an acquaintance pulled her into an alley and shook his finger, warning her in Farsi that she was not safe any more, that walking around as an American was no longer an option. She had to spend the next two weeks as a virtual prisoner, staying inside until she could get a flight home.

This hotel overlooks Hollywood's hills and is right next door to the Kodak Theater where they hold the Oscars each year. Once again Phocuswright has impressed me with the level of speakers and the fact that so many top players come here and make this a regular part of their November calendar. People walk around staring at nametags, and I do the same, striking up quick conversations and cutting right to the chase--just the way I like it.

The president of Expedia had a great quote about our business....that travel is a right, not a luxury...and that people deserve to travel and still will. It feels great being a part of the world's most vital industry, and this conference makes us all feel proud.

Pamela Knows How to Throw a Good Party

What is a conference without a few high-class parties? True to Phocuswright form, last night I made my way up to the 20th floor to a party thrown by Pamela Johnston, who runs PJ Public relations in New York City. The job of an effective PR company, of course, is to make her clients look good and to draw buzz, flattery and attention to those clients. Pamela is an attractive blond with steely eyes who is savvy and at the same time, warm and inviting. She and her VP wore matching aqua blue dresses from Phoebe couture. She cracked me up when someone handed me a 'cigarette' and told me to light it up and pass it around.

The party was held in a swish penthouse apartment with wrap-around floor to ceiling windows that showed the panorama of Hollywood's glitter all around us. In the distance spotlights waved back and forth, shooting their distinctive pillars of light up into the sky. At the door we were crossed off the list, and more than a few people were turned away. I asked Pamela how she decided to create this list of about 100 people, from the more than 1100 conference attendees. "I just used my gut, no real method or system," she told me. I was glad to be on the list.

There were delicate little appetizers and artfully made tiny desserts, and servers in black made their way around the room with little green martinis. I settled into a fascinating conversation with the very unassuming Rich Beattie, online executive editor of Travel and Leisure's website. I skillfully contained my exuberance at meeting him, he and I knew a few editors in common, and it was a pleasure talking shop while we sipped chardonnay.

Then a big tall guy in the ad business bounded toward the door, saying that he wanted to find some women. He said he was going to a country music bar on Hollywood Boulevard, and invited me to come along. It was after midnight, and I had set up a breakfast meeting, so I declined.

This morning I saw him and asked how the bar was, and whether he met any hot women. "Actually, they threw me out," he said sheepishly.

Snackable Video Clips Make Trip Television Cool

Trip Television is one of the brightest stars of the Travel Innovator's summit, since I truly believe that the next big step in travel content has to be video. I think that once people have seen video they will no longer be content to simply read words or view photos.

The co-founder of the company, Kulin Strimbu, presented today, her concept is that their unique patented player will present 'snack sized' chunks of video, between 7-10 seconds, to entice viewers and keep their interest. Then when the viewer clicks on one of these tasty snacks, it flips to a 1 minute version. Then the player randomizes the content, so that if the same viewer comes back again, he'll see different slices of video.

At the top of Trip Television's player is a slip and slide bar that shows stills of some of the frames. The player runs high definition video, so it's crisp, yet loads fast. One of the best things about their service is that it costs a hotel, attraction or tour operator just $250 a month to have the player on their site and that covers all of the bandwidth costs.

Twitter Has Eclipsed the Blog as the Hot Thing Here

Twitter is definitely replacing the blog as the key application that people are interested in at the PhoCusWright show. During our session, the big screen showed a live feed of all of the twitter comments made during that session and during other sessions. It was real time feedback, comments made by the minute, and all of the posts were less than 140 characters.

Yet we gleaned a lot about the zeitgeist of the meeting, it gave us all a sense of what people were thinking, and while the blogs are also useful, they are longer and take more time to read, so we can't enjoy those as quickly as we can the tweets.

Eric Hiss, a writer friend who came to the show today and started his own travel site called Wandermelon, made a good point during the blogger's session...that it's all a part and it's all important...the short tweets, the Facebook pages, the blogs, and the websites. They all add up, in different ways, to mixing together forming the media landscape in 2008.

Phones Are the Future of the Web

WCities is a perfect travel website to adopt a mobile platform, as they focus on detailed destination guides to major US cities. Now I am listening to Fraser Campbell talk about how he provides content to many sites like Yahoo, AOL and others. We do the same thing at GoNOMAD but I still feel we can do it better and do it over a mobile phone platform.

Socialight is a company that collects travel content from partners like the NY Times, Travel Channel, and TimeOut and then people comment and share the info. On mobile phones now, there are three levels of use...SMS messages, mobile or truncated web, and the fullblown web that you see on an iphone. Gotta get in touch with this guy.

Then we heard from a very savvy guy who works with major telcos providing the products that run on their phones. The company is called Networks in Motion, and they've raced ahead with growth, now they have offices in China, Europe and Southern California.

The products range from personal navigation on phones to search functions and platforms that send out messages. Again and again I am sensing what Google realized a few years ago. Phones are the future of the web.

A Blogger's Summit: Is There Money In This?

I'm sitting in a room at the Renaissance hotel in Hollywood, it's a session on blogging, led by a woman from Singapore named Siew Hoon Yeoh who writes a blog there and who told us about the Burmese blogger who went to jail and other horror stories. There is a distinguished panel at the table up front--a man from London is speaking now, next to him is a writer from USA Today, and also up there are other big-time travel bloggers.

One point the Londoner made is how wild it once was to be publishing blogs that link off the newspapers own site to their competitor's sites. But now its accepted. Alicia Whalen owns a company called A Coupla Chicks, she does blogging for her company to promote their travel marketing efforts.

For some reason, I am unable to open Twitter that would allow me to post my minute-to-minute thoughts. Maybe there are too many people on twitter at the same time in here. A man named Stephen Joyce, the founder of Rezgo.com did get a chance to get on Twitter, and now he's speaking about using it on his phone. Frustrating to me that I can't put in my two cents on Twitter now.

The moderator asked people to raise their hands if they made a living from their blogs. The USA Today guy sort of sheepishly admitted that yes, he did, and I nodded over at Jen Leo, who writes a blog for the LA Times (she didn't seem to want to admit it) and then a guy behind me piped up with a much more powerful reason...he said he didn't make a living off his blog but it gave him a powerful resume that had landed him a great job with Orbitz in Australia. It isn't a living but it sure helps us do better in many of our careers, like a constantly updated resume of sorts.

Taking the Subway to Get a Visa

The first three rows of the vast convention center stage is devoted to bloggers and media. They sit with their laptops pecking out messages on Twitter, commenting on the innovators who one after another got their ten minutes to pitch the crowd on the worthiness of their travel website.

I kicked myself for leaving my laptop at the hotel and not being able to join them; so far the only thing I can do with my little itouch is check email and write truncated replies.

I had to leave the proceedings yesterday to take a subway to downtown LA and send the Iranian government a check for $124 and my passport to get my visa. I never knew that they had a subway in LA, but it was sparkling clean and full of riders. I got out at the stop at Hollywood and Vine and the ceiling of the station was covered with film reels with mellow lighting.

On the way back I decided to take a bus, and inside, they had a television playing 'transit TV' with an anchor woman and commercials. Outside on Hollywood Boulevard we passed by porn shops and tour operators who take people to see the houses of the stars and sell a large inventory of fake Oscars and Hollywood tee-shirts.

Innovators Gather and Wow the Crowd in Hollywood

The opening speaker this morning, Philip C. Wolf, put our industry in perspective with this daunting statistic: Eight percent of the entire world's workforce has something to do with travel and tourism. Wow! With this heady stat about our relevance, we launched into this morning's parade of innovators, a group of a three dozen CEOs of companies who have developed new technologies and ways of using the web to enhance the traveler's experience.

At first they kind of glaze over, so many silly names like 'Cadabra,' 'Escapia' and 'Innovata' which sound a little like car models. But after I heard many of these pitches a few of them really stood out as useful, ingenious, and destined to make a lot of money for their founders.

One that many of my colleagues agreed was going big is a site called Tripit.com. The idea is simple: you email all of the confirmation emails you get from airlines, hotels and airport shuttles and this program puts them all together on a web platform so that you have all of that info on one place--your phone or your computer--and don't need the ubiquitous folder full of papers.

The site goes further, allowing you to add in restaurant reservations, directions using Google maps, photos, notes and comments and with ability to put it all on a Blackberry or iPhone, it's just very useful and so easy to share with family and colleagues who want to know when you're coming.

Another start-up that caught my eye was Travelmuse, where travelers can share the elements of a trip to work together on line and create the itinerary. You can pull articles from other websites into the mix, and share a bunch of different pieces of information such as photos reviews and articles. They also have a widget that allows content sites like GoNOMAD to have readers add the link to the article they're reading to their TravelMuse itinerary in progress.

After lunch another site that stood out is called Yapta. This site enables travelers to get emails about expiring frequent flyer miles and price reductions, so that they can squeeze every last mile out of the vast trillions of unused miles that languish in people's accounts. You can get a refund if your fare goes down, just by signing up at their site.

At the Magic Castle, These Little Touches Add Up

Isn't it the little things that often make the difference? For me it's been a combination of goodness since I checked in last night to the Magic Castle hotel here in Hollywood.

First the honest-to-goodnessly friendly guy at the counter upgraded me to a suite for my $155 a night price. Then I walk by the heated pool and up into the room, where a bottle of Chardonnay awaited, with the signatures of all the people who work at the front desk wishing me a good stay.

I amble down the hall and into my bedroom, and there is a little sign on the bed. It said 'here is tomorrow's weather forecast, with a checkmark next to the box 'see you at the pool' and a few chocolates. It's going to be 82 here, but drat, I didn't bring any trunks.

I boot up my laptop, yes, free wifi with no password. I turn on the TV, and none of the crap you usually have to wade through to get to the cable channels...just about 75 of 'em ready for me. So far Suze Van Allen's recommendation that I stay here has been an excellent piece of advice. I look forward to making this my home for the next four days as I experience the show and meet the people I've come out here to see.

A Chance to Hobnob With Travel's Biggest Players

This afternoon I fly to Hollywood California, and at about 7:30 tonight I should be checking in to the Magic Castle Hotel, a block away from the event venue the Renaissance convention center. I'm going to attend my second PhoCusWright travel conference, where the leaders of today's biggest on-line travel businesses meet to talk about the industry.

It's an incredible gathering because everyone is here. The CEOs of Travelocity, Trip Advisor, Expedia, Google Travel and dozens of other well-known websites are here in the flesh. One of the things I work very hard at is making personal connections with my business partners. Flying out to California is a great way for us to solidify our contacts with people like Chris Shaver of Booking Wiz, Mika and Sean of Bootsnall, and the principals of car rental, booking, travel ad networks and others.

Some people are happy to simply connect over email and put up links. I like to push it further, meeting and talking with the people, finding out how the most successful affiliates do it, and trying to maximize my commission rates and my opportunities. You get this by knowing the players, and pushing to be a bigger part of their business.

I will be participating in a 'bloggers summit' where we all gather around a table with our laptops in front of us keeping a minute-by-minute record. There will be a glitzy party hosted by Google, I'm sure where I'll get to ask questions of the people behind Ad words. I'll report on the findings every day, right here, and maybe I'll get to do a little sightseeing on Hollywood Boulevard too.

What Does It Take To Be Great?

Malcolm Gladwell looks like somebody wearing a big funny wig, with hair that shoots up all around and the serious demeanor of a scholar. The New Yorker writer is out with a new book that if anything like the first two, (The Tipping Point and Blink) should sell well and generate lots of talk. This time the book is called Outliers.

The new book follows his pattern of discerning factors that shape how people and trends develop in our society. This time it's about the serendipity that leads some people to greatness. He doesn't take away from them, but illuminates some of the causes besides innate genius that make people super successful.

Take the Beatles. The iconic band is a great example of one of Gladwell's maxims: The difference between a professional and a talented amateur is 10,000 hours of practice. The Beatles had already performed more than 1200 live shows by the time they made it big in 1964. That's more performances than many bands play in a career!

Bill Gates, another oft-cited genius, had this going for him: His Seattle area private school had a rummage sale and installed a computer terminal hooked up to a mainframe in downtown Seattle in 1968. Gates and his pals were drawn to this magic machine and developed a knowledge and love for it at a very early age. I remember in my private school in Princeton, we too had computers back in the early '70s. They were made by Digital and only the truly nerdy kids hung out in that room.

Then Gladwell cites another fascinating example: The birthdates of young hockey players. Since youth hockey leagues in Canada form teams based on age, they group kids born in January with kids born in December of the same year. So the kids with the age advantage are a little bigger and more advanced. This encourages more coaching, and more chances to be picked for elite leagues.

A final example is between two scientists, Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, and the equally brilliant Christopher Langan. But the former grew up in a wealthy NY neighborhood, instead of rural Montana. His early-age learning and 'practical intelligence' gave him the ability to talk his way into a job at the Manhattan project pushed him far in life, while Langan never got as far.

Meeting New Friends on Barstools in 'Hamp

Last night I sat at a bar and learned quite a bit from a new friend. I had arranged to meet my usual Friday night cohorts at the Brewery, in Noho's bustling downtown. Shoul and Joe were there and Kevin Downey, the cave photographer. Then we were joined by Jim Neill, who runs the publicity for Iron Horse Entertainment. A Beatles tribute band that was playing the Calvin that night was down a Lennon. "We got a call, the guy who plays John had a bad strep throat, so they had to send a stand-in for the character." Later that night we listened to the band doing a pretty good rendition of 'Tax Man' as we stood outside the theatre.

Neal told us about one of his favorite bands, the short-lived Jeff Buckley, who died at age 27, just like his dad did. Buckley drowned in the Mississippi river, and left a legacy of greatness. Joe and Jim agreed that his live shows were transcendent, as if it was a magic force on stage, mesmerizing.

Jim and I talked about blogging, and the serendipity of meeting people you have met only through the words on eachother's blogs. Jim's blog tells a lot of the fascinating inside stories about the Iron Horse and the other Northampton venues, like a recent post where a dad sent in his daughter's music and confidently expected to just arrange a performance there. He thoughtfully explained to dad that it wasn't as easy as setting up a dentist's appointment to play the 'Horse, but took the time to listen to the child's music, and commented,

"She's confessing feelings. The ones she has. She's not making stuff up. She's reporting, playing with words and images a bit too, seeing the wind, the sun spinning, and her rhymes are creative "the teacher's boring, I can't ignore him." In the end she didn't get the gig, (yet) but he gave her some good advice and who knows, she just might end up making it big.

The Vernacular of a Dismal Economy

I'm becoming all too familiar with the vernacular of today's amazingly dire economic realities, as written in the pages of the WSJ. Many businesses seem to be 'stung' by the tough retail climate, and 'struggling to cope' or deciding to 'unwind or unravel' the deals they made in the 'good old days.'

One report about Best Buy's dismal fourth-quarter forecast said that 'even stronger retailers are on their knees in this economy.' Brad Anderson, Best Buy's CEO said that 'rapid, seismic changes in consumer behavior have created the most difficult climate we've ever seen.' That's the second time I have heard that term 'seismic.'

Turning the page, I read another bell weather bad new story. This was about Maersk, the huge Danish shipping company, and the world's biggest container shipper and owner. There is an index that tracks the rates companies charge to ship dry containers between more than 40 routes worldwide, called the Baltic Dry Index. This year it's fallen more than 90% since May.

But Maersk has other options, those too are in peril. They own an oil services firm, and you'd think that would be good. But oil prices, from their high of $142 a barrel, are now below $60. So the gains they might have seen in shipping from the lower cost of fuel is offset by the losses they're taking in the oil business.

Voters Demand Better High Speed Rail and Subways

I sat this morning in my kitchen while we waited for the men to arrive to work on the new bathroom. I had a chance to see a positive story in the WSJ, about how voters said yes across the US to Mass Transit projects of all stripes. That's good news, and means that in the decades ahead, we will have better trains, light rail and subways.

One official of the Siemens company, that makes train equipment for light rail and high speed rail, said the rail renaissance will continue to grow, and that they have $300 million in new rail projects coming up.

More than 70% of the major transportation funding measures on ballots were approved, which is about double the rate at which intiatives are usually passed. In California, they're building a high-speed rail line and expanding mass-transit in Seattle.

Though these projects take decades to complete, all of this is good news that someday the US might come closer to the rest of the world and have alternatives to driving alone in our cars.

Caribbean Beaches Shrink as Thieves Steal Sand

Caribbean round grains, favored in creating smooth surfaces for plastering and finishing, are being hauled away by the truckload late at night. On some islands, towns and ecologically sensitive areas get exposed to tidal surges and rough seas.Among the hardest hit is Grenada, where officials are building a $1.2 million seawall to protect the 131-square-mile island. Large-scale sand thefts have exposed north-coast towns to rough seas.

In Puerto Rico, thieves once mined the dunes in the northern coastal town of Isabela, said Ernesto Diaz of the Department of Natural Resources. Now they are stealing the beaches of the tiny island of Vieques - 52 square miles where the US military only recently halted its controversial bombing practice.

Large-scale sand thefts have exposed north-coast towns to rough seas, said Joseph Gilbert, the minister of works and environment. About 706,000 cubic feet of sand were taken from private property beaches in the northwest of Jamaica in late July.
Source: http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2008/11/02/sand_thieves_shrink_caribbean_beaches/; find article here.

Finally, Pirates Get What They Deserve in Somalia

Score one for the good guys: I read today on Times Online about the Royal Navy's first shootout on the high seas in living memory. Pirates off the coast of Somalia were trying to hijack a cargo ship, and made a bonehead move. They opened fire on one of her Majesty's warships, full of heavily armed Royal Marines.

The marines shot and killed three pirates before boarding the fishing dhow and found a handful of terrified pirates. It was full of guns. The marines had circled the renegade dhow before the pirates took a few shots at them, unleashing the fury of the better armed marines. This is a far cry from the last time the Royal Navy encountered a boatful of armed men. That time they were encircled by Iranian Revolutionary guards, and 15 troops were taken hostage for almost two weeks. But now, it's maximum robustness on the high seas, says the navy.

Piracy is one of the problems I think about a lot. It seems to me that anyone who dares to attack a ship should be shot, and the patience that the French showed a few months ago amazed me. I would go in with guns blazing, or use that device that was in the news last year, on top of the cruise ship. It emits a piercing loud noise, so loud that anyone within earshot will hightail it as fast as they can to get out of the noise blast.

Why don't the navies use the sonic blaster to keep the pirates at bay?

Radio Networks Face Debt Limits and Pain

Whenever I read the WSJ, it's so full of terrible news, it's almost hard to continue on with my life. How bad can it get? Bad, really bad. A few days ago I read dire reports about radio networks. One analyst said it was the perfect storm...highly leveraged companies in a business that wasn't growing. One big radio network, Entercom, has seen its stock slide nearly 90%.

The problem is that radio station groups went on a big buying spree over the past few years, merging, buying, mixing and making big networks and thus, taking on big debt. The sales to debt ratio is what's monitored by their creditors, and some of the big guys are right on the edge, where they may default. The biggest radio advertisers are cutting back, like GM, Verizon and others. So the biggest radio networks are facing huge, never-before-seen revenue shortfalls. Many are adding syndicated programs like Ryan Seacrest's to save money...others have converted FM stations into talk formats, simulcasting the AM onto the clearer FM signal.

In the face of this bad news, I ran into a jovial radio ad sales guy at the cafe, who said business has never been better. That they were having boom times up in Greenfield. Who knows what will happen!? We still read the Recorder's house ads claiming that 70% of the residents read the newspaper there. Wow that sounds optimistic, but I do often wonder when we'll feel this pain that everybody reads about and talks about on TV. I don't want to feel it, but I think it's gotta be heading our way, in some form or another.

The Trials and Tribulations of the Cafe

The cafe requires such a range of different talents. Like last night when I had to empty out the grease trap, and saw six month's worth of gunk there waiting for me to remove it. Egads that's awful! That's one job I don't want to do from now on.

I had another adventure as I went down to the basement today with my retired electrician Dave. We were checking to see if we could move up to a much bigger style of coffeemaker that requires a big 220 plug to operate. These big machines brew a few gallons at a time, and this would be much better at the cafe, since we sell so many cups we constantly have to be brewing. We poked amidst the cobwebs at our motley electric panel, some of it with old-style fuses.

But after analyzing the lines and the amount of juice we're already using, he said that the new device can't exceed 20 amps. Then we found out this one puts out 22-25 amps. Dóh! So we're outta luck, and can't bring in that improvement at this location.

A Weekend Bursting with Socializing and Fun

It's going to be a tough week, with my bathroom being renovated, but happily, it was a great weekend. We were out all three nights, first to the Voo in Turners Falls, then to pal Shelley Rotner's get together at her spacious studio in Florence's Arts and Industry Building. The crowd was nearly all children's book authors, plus a few other people we met including Kevin Downey, a world-renowned cave photographer. I had heard a lot about him from Shoul.

Kevin took me to his own studio down the hall where he has huge machines designed to photograph products plus an array of other devices to print huge color photos. I told him about the cave I visited while Sam and I were in England, called White Scar Cave. "I slept in that cave," he told me. It was fun to get a chance to introduce my new friend Shelley (who I met during my trip to the Alps in September) to Cindy and to listen to the stories of all of these authors, editors and shooters. Later that night I popped into Dave Caputo's Scorpion Bowl party, which featured music in the basement and a roaring fire outside. He's got the best music in Holyoke, right there in his 'roots'ellar.'

My pals Jackie and Mark were there, and I got a chance to meet one of my favorite bloggers, Peter who writes Rambling Van Dog, a blog about Holyoke. Blogging is such an intimate affair, you feel like you know people even though you've never met. He said kind words to me as we stood by the fire, and it was really a pleasure to get to actually meet him in person. We seem to attend many of the same social events, and we both blog about them too!

We finished the weekend with another Circolo Italiano meeting, and the speaker presented a program about an intricate re-enactment of a famous World War II battle that takes place every few years in the mountains of Tuscany. We brought along our pal Ed Valerio, who is joining the club, and once again with the delicious food and fascinating topics, it was a lot of fun.

The Signs I've Been Begging For Are Up

These signs have been an objective of mine since November 2007. That's when we had our first meeting and I pitched the pair of politicians Rosenberg and Kulik that we needed something to direct people to our little town center.

I am happy to see them up and installed today, four of these signs two on each major road that passes by...Rte 116 and Route 5 & 10. Mass Highway changed the wording from my original 'Restaurants, WiFi, Town Center,' but they'll do.

Progress takes time, and it's nice to see this finally done.

I'd Rather Die Than Ride These Coasters

Last night while we were waiting for Cindy to arrive to go up to the Voo in resurgent Turners Falls, a television program on the Travel Channel caught our attention. Francisco and I looked aghast as the show, called "Extreme Terror Rides," described North America's most fearsome 'fun' rides and took the cameras along for the ride.

The degree of horror got worse as the show wound on. First we saw a ride at King's Island in Ohio that had riders strapped in, facing backward and on their backs as they climbed up and up. Then when they've reached a staggeringly high height, it turns them over so the rest of the ride is done hanging upside down, zooming around curves and up more terrifying heights. Oh God, we both agreed, there isn't enough to pay me to even go on that once.

But it got worse when they took us up to Alberta Canada, inside the continent's largest indoor mall. Here they have a ride called Galaxyland that seems almost innocent, a regular coaster, but that achieves a speed of 65 mph as they plummet straight down from the rafters to the basement. They hit something like 4 g forces as they go around tight corners.

As if there couldn't be anything worse...it was on to New Jersey's Six Flags, in the Pine Barrens. Here, rising from the ground, was the Kingda Ka, what looked from a distance like an upside down tuning fork. Oh, no, it can't. Yes the freakin' tram goes all of the way up, 456 feet, straight up, and then bends at the top to crash straight back down. At this point I was nervous just watching it on TV. Ugh, why, why would anyone pay to be so terrified?

A Treasure Trove of Little Drives

Kent and I were up very early yesterday, to drive into Manhattan and attend our annual visit with the heads of 35 European tourism groups. It was the usual meet and greet, kiss on the cheek, speed-dating kind of affair, where you have 15 minutes to talk to each country, hotel group or attraction about why you think you'd like to write about them.

Since GoNOMAD was founded in 2000, the internet stone-age, we are considered a high-value target. We have also worked very hard to produce story after story, so no one in the room had ever been burned by us. That gives us an easy familiarity with all of the boards, and led to the gifting of many of those little data drives that are so handy, and which come full of photos and text about destinations. I think I've got at least six of 'em and I love it, you just can't own enough of these little treasures.

It was like halloween for adults as the drives piled up in our bags. So far the trips that seem the most likely are to Portugal's Algarve, to the Czech Republic's Monrovia region, and maybe a return to the wilds of Hungary. France, we hope will also continue on our travel schedule for 2009.

It was wonderful to read the dozens of replies I got after sending out word of my trip to Iran later this month. People were positive, not full of fear, and had some interesting comments to say about this most interesting trip. Travelers who I saw at the show were universal in their shared desire to join me, others like my dad gasped long sighs, expressing dismay.

Paul's Beloved Bennie Has Passed Away

A sad note this morning, in an eloquent email sent out by my pal Joe O'Rourke. My cousin Paul's beloved black lab Bennie was struck and killed by a car last night, and later buried in Paul's yard, with the help of Paul's friends Bill and Joe.

Bennie has been affixed to Paul's hip since he was born about seven years ago. He was a sweet black lab with a playful streak, whose life improved markedly when Paul adopted our dog Ruby. The two dogs, one a big hunk of black, the other a smaller, spritely tan, would accompany Paul every where and were a big part of his universe. They brought much joy to his life, the job of dogs, and why they are so beloved by humans everwhere.

Like people, dogs become so familiar and such a part of our lives that to lose one suddenly is hard. I remember well the day I got a call that my little Beagle puppy George had died on the road, I put my head down on my desk at the newspaper and wept.

Goodbye Bennie, and Paul, I feel for ya. Sad news indeed.

I've Been Invited to Iran

Ahm-ma-dina-jad. Ahm-ma-dine-ijad. I used to say this over and over again, walking through Cindy's house. Ahm-ma-dina-jad, I wanted to learn how to say it. I better get it right, because I just got invited to visit Iran later this month.

I have always wanted to see Persia, see the famous land of poets, and see the city of Shiraz. I Our tour will include the International Tour Operators Convention, to be convened in Tehran to showcase the country's tourism opportunities. I am going with a large group of journalists organized by Thomas Steinmetz, the man in Hawaii who publishes eTurboNews.com

We will be staying in '5 star hotels', and the invite reads

We hope you will discover the hidden potential of Iran's Tourism industry, its rich culture and diverse nature. We invite you to a country with a long history and rich cultural heritage.'

I am sending Kentski to Ireland for the culinary trip I was going to take, glad that he can go and cook in my stead. Iran. Wow, it is both exciting and a little scary. But hey, I bet people there will be gracious and interested, and much more friendly than I can imagine sitting here.

Obama's Speech Brings a Tear, He's That Good

It's an exhuberant day, one that will be remembered for many decades. Watching Obama's speech last night, I have to admit to welling up with tears, his eloquence again and again amazes and inspires me. The best part was when he reached out to those 'who didn't vote for me or don't agree with me, I want to be your president too.' I have always admired the way he asks for intensive feedback from those who disagree, and always wants to know every point of view in the room. That's a leader, that's somebody who is willing to listen...what a far cry from what we have today in George Bush.

It's a breakneck pace from now on, we'll hear who Obama will have as chief of staff, and who he's mulling about for the important positions. Thank God we don't have to worry about Phil Grahm getting back into the cabinet, or listening to the stupidity and empty rhetoric of Sarah Palin.

Tomorrow I'll buzz down to New York City and meet with 35 tourism officials from all over Europe. It will be fun to check in with many of them whom I've met over the years and hang out with my pal Kent and many of the other writers who contribute to GoNOMAD.

Time with Sam Was a Week-long Treat

It feels excellent to be back in the cafe after a week away. With Donna's strong leadership, no one is looking to me to find out what to do next, she has all of our cafe staff understanding what their jobs are, and in my absence, everything flowed smoothly. That's a nice change from the last time I went away, and all hell broke loose.

I am still thinking about how nice it was to have a whole week to spend in England with Sam, my son who lives two hours away and whom I have always felt was kind of hard to get to know. After a certain age, kids become adults and live their own lives, separate and often far way from parents. I know that in my own case, growing up and moving out and far away from my parents and sisters was good for me, but I lost that easy familiarity that comes with being nearby, as I have with my daughter Kate, who lives at my house. There have been more times than I can count when I wished that I lived in the same town as my parents, seeing them every six months just isn't enough.

So this was a real treat...there was time to ask questions, share laughs, and show Sam the world that I've grown accustomed to. It's the world where there is an itinerary for every day, tour guides are eager to lead you, and where we are treated well because we offer exposure far and wide to the people who are hosting us. Once when we were at the Old Trafford Stadium, the guy at the desk didn't know who we were, and gasp, asked us to pay the 28 pounds to get the tour.

It only took a little bit of asking for us to get his supervisor over, who waved us in, and once again showed that the press still has clout and people in the know want to let us into wherever we want to go. No need to fork over the pounds if you're press, I told him, and I thanked my lucky stars that this is my lot in life.

Manchester Mulls a Congestion Tax

We're up at 6:45 am this morning, after a night of hearing about how enthusiastic these Brits are to see Obama win the prize. In the Independent, a headline dramatically intoned "Is this troubled nation ready for change?" Troubled? huh? I thought I'd reserve this moniker for Congo or Mozambique. Indeed, there is not a pundit here who isn't weighing in on how important our election is to everyone here in Britain.

Today will be a long day, composed of mostly waiting and some flying too. We're waiting for coffee and continental here in the Mal Maison, a chic British chain that features dark lobbies and an overall coolness reminiscent of Virgin's marketing.

One idea that's coming up for vote here is a congestion tax. This is what they've done in London, charging motorists for entering the city center during rush hour. Posters on the tramway say that "9 out of 10 people won't pay the tax" because they'll travel off-peak or because for other reason they'll be exempt. I asked one bloke at the Crown and Anchor pub what he thought about it. "I don't have a car, so I don't really care," he said. I am sure there is an opposition of car commuters who'll fight this upcoming vote, but this group hasn't been able to put up posters every ten feet on the subway, so we never heard from them.

At the Top of Malham Cove, Yorkshire Dales

Visiting the Pubs of Manchester, England

We tried hard to see a musician I've enjoyed who is from Manchester, but we did not succeed. We saw a poster for Mr. Scruff, who plays underground house style music. We followed the advice on his website and made our way to his cafe, called "The Cup," a few blocks over from the hotel. They were closed, but a man there told us how to get to the club, called The Music Box, and said the show started at 10 pm.

We had some Chinese food and then stopped by a few pubs. At each stop we sampled Manchester's fine cask conditioned ales, smooth and creamy with a nice head of very small bubbles and deep flavor. One secret we learned from Mark Reid is that these are all relatively low alcohol brews. Timothy Taylors, a favorite, has just 4.1 percent, some have about 3.8. That's a far cry from the 6+ proofs of most beers for sale in the US.

This also explains why so many Brits get into trouble when they go on holiday in Spain...they are used to being able to slog down five or six of these low-alc brews and then are hit by the 6 percenters and get way, way too drunk.

Many of the streets we walked down were empty, as if we were in the wrong part of town. Others were full of revelers, many gaggles of women out on the town celebrating 'hen' or female stag parties. We passed a group of men who were with women with striking blond hair and even more striking short white skirts. Perhaps they were working girls, we weren't sure.

After we visited a pub full of celebrating karaokers, warbling into mikes, we found a less crowded pub, which like the other featured bright overhead lights. Ugh, hate that. But we hoped that we could find this Music Box, and walked miles and miles in vain. No, it wasn't going to happen. I'll just have to settle for my fav Mr. Scruff on CD or on Pandora.