Why should you be concerned with a small volcano on a tiny island nation so far away? Because sometime in the future it could affect your quality of life. Volcanic activity has always been a precursor to large eruptions under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland. In 1783 an eruption killed a fifth of the population by famine, and created severe climate disruptions across Europe. Even today, a large ash-producing eruption could cause rapid, if temporary, climate changes in the northern hemisphere. Geologic evidence points to many past events in human history.

My wife Claire and I rode mountain bikes across the center of Iceland one spring. We found ourselves surrounded by a stunning landscape of green meadows dotted with sheep and horses, sod covered homesteads, snow-capped mountains against cobalt blue skies, an omnipresent northern ocean, crystal rivers and thundering white waterfalls. In fact, the island nation is so full of extremes, we found the landscape  slightly unsettling. Everywhere we saw evidence of the violence that created Iceland. Gray volcanic rock, collapsed lava tubes, and active steam vents cuddle up against villages of brightly painted homes.

Iceland is a magical place for more than just its landscape. Possibly because of the harshly beautiful landscape, Icelanders believe a variety of wee beings share their magic island: elves, fairies, dwarfs, mountain spirits, hidden people, gnomes, and lovelings. Most modern Icelanders scoff at the beliefs, and yet many still believe in these beings. In recent years, local authorities relocated at least one road  because of unnatural events ultimately blamed on the wee people.

Iceland is part of the Mid Atlantic Ridge, an area where Earth’s crust rises above sea level, continually ripping apart as the tectonic plates slide on the molten mantle. In one photo we took, Claire is straddling the North American plate and the Euro-Asian plate. (See photo below)Iceland is splitting apart slowly and consistently – and yet the people thrive. From its small population of less than 300,000, Iceland has produced many internationally acclaimed writers, painters and musicians. Could the belief in wee people have something to do with their creativity? Go ask a gnome. After all, Iceland is a place of magic.

All this volcanic activity so close to the surface has been a blessing and curse to Icelanders since its earliest settlements. Steam from vents warms homes, produces electricity, and draws tourists during the short summer. Where there is steam, there is fire and water. With lots of precipitation and a location barely kissing the Arctic Circle, Iceland is a unique land with its unusual combination of fire, ice, and rumbling rivers.

Iceland has the third, fourth, and fifth largest ice sheets on Earth – quite a distinction for such a small island nation. Rivers are harnessed for electricity to smelt aluminum as thundering waterfalls carry the rain and glacier melt to the sea. Aluminum ore arrives from all over the world, coming to this small island because of access to cheap hydro-electric power. In recent years, the aluminum smelting industry has been a major contributor to Iceland’s economy, overtaking commercial fishing, an industry in trouble because of increasing competition in the North Atlantic fishery.

The harnessing of rivers has become a contentious issue with Icelanders. While they like the economic benefits, they aren’t so sure about the environmental consequences. They’re also afraid of the consequences to the unmatched purity of their gene pool due to an influx of foreign smelter workers into their island country.

We met a young Icelander, a ranger assigned to a national park in the far north. She is pure Icelandic, lovely and pleasant. She studies opera in Europe, and works summers to pay for her education. We asked about her lineage, and how she could trace her heredity to early settlements of Iceland by the Norse. For years, scientists have used Iceland as a place to study the genetic makeup of humans because the line goes back to the 9th century. These isolated genes were halfway between continents and located far into the inhospitable north. There was little to gain for others in conquering this small island, so Icelanders were left to fight among themselves, and then write epic stories about the battles.

With new gene sequencing methods, it won’t matter much to science if the Icelandic pool  loses its purity, but it’s still important to the people of Iceland. I wouldn’t call it racism in this case, but more akin to their cultural pride. There might be a change in attitude if pure Icelanders begin to intermarry with foreign workers brought in to do the backbreaking and isolated work at the smelters. The social contract within Icelandic culture has many subtleties not easily assimilated or even understood by outsiders. That, of course, is part of the charm of Iceland and its people.

For the well-prepared visitor who arrives properly clothed for wind, rain and snow, bringing along a reasonable amount of cash, Iceland will be a very special treat. Travelers looking for just a bit of adventure, exciting landscapes, and a rather different culture, will find what they are looking for. What they find certainly won’t disappoint them.

In the meantime, let’s hope that Iceland’s fire stays beneath its ice.

For more pictures and facts about Iceland, go to this page at Bob and Claire Rogers’ website.

This is a question Claire and I get from Americans when they hear of our tandem bicycle travels in third-world countries and our perseverance in spite of difficult conditions. Of course, there is no answer to such a pejorative question. By using the phrase “possess you” they are saying they think us possessed – maybe even crazy. Perhaps we are. Crazy – but also fulfilled.

Many JOO readers visited our New Bohemians website between early September and late December of 2009. We hope you enjoyed the journals, photos, and videos you found there, and we hope you learned something about Asia.

Just in case you joined us in the middle, I’ll give you a snapshot of our journey, and what inspired us to pick our difficult route.

The first part of our plan was to ride our tandem bicycle across the mountains of historic Tibet and into Yunnan province, to the mythical and literal land of Shangri-la. The concept of seeking out Shangri-la the hard way, on a tandem bicycle, came from ongoing motivations:

• To see our World from a unique perspective, at a speed that allows for contemplation of its many mysteries.
• To challenge ourselves against the unknown, find adventure, excitement, and fulfillment doing what we love.
• To represent a side of America foreigners seldom see on TV: wholesome, optimistic, open and caring, with a physical work ethic like their own.
• To share with diverse peoples our joy in life. From Urumchi to Winnemucca, from Alice Springs to Baku, the love for a spouse and shared labor is universally appealing.
• To gather material for our magazine writing, Just One Opinion, and NewBohemians.net.

This is not our first such adventure. Our tandem bicycle, somewhat inappropriately named Zippy, has carried us 40,000 plus miles (nearly 1.6 times around the world) over the last few years. “In Search of Shangri-la” was our second tandem journey in Asia, our first being our Silk Road Crossing from Beijing to Istanbul. Despite the difficulties of that trip – language, political unrest, route location, illness, and food – we wanted to go back.

We chose the most mountainous route possible to Shangri-la, over the steep fingers of the east end of the Himalayas. This turned out to be almost too much for this not-so-young-anymore tandem team, but by cooperation, tenacity, and thanks to a lot of help from friends we made along the way, we prevailed. There was the Tibetan family who took us in when a snowy night overhauled us. Later, a road crew shared their space and dinner with us as high winds, sleet, and our own exhaustion threatened our ability to go on.

After descending into Yunnan, China we found the literal Shangri-la, and were somewhat disappointed by its touristy reality. On the other hand, it did have a certain charm, sheltered us for three days, and provided better food to help us continue our trip. Did we actually find the mythical Shangri-la? Read on:

The “Shangri-la” most of us know is the mythical place of perfect happiness. The word and the concept were invented by the British author James Hilton in 1933. He described a Utopian kingdom where people lived to healthy old age, content and happy beyond the understanding of most Westerners. His “Shangri-la” was located in the mountains of northern Yunnan Province and western Sichuan Province where the Tibetans and most of the other fifty-three minorities of China live. It is a spectacularly beautiful part of the world, from the plateaus and barren gorges of Tibetan Sichuan, to the botanical paradise of the mountains of Yunnan.

Unfortunately, life is not always easy for the people living there. The terrain is brutally steep, the rivers violent, the winters high-altitude harsh, and the ethnic majority Han population of China is not always kind to them. Some residents are stoic and others are happy – not too different than those of us from the West – but their happiness quotient is very high considering the challenges they face in their daily life.

Further along in our journey we found the people who would be most like the mythical Shangri-la people – and in a most unlikely place.

Laos has been the whipping boy for Southeast Asia for much of its ancient history. In recent history it has been misused by its neighbors and colonial powers alike. During the “American War” (as southeast Asians call the Vietnam War), more total tonnage of bombs was dropped on Laos than by all sides during World War II. Even now, hundreds of people are killed and maimed every year by unexploded anti-personnel ordinance dropped over 40 years ago.

We felt the fear they live with every day when we were lost for two days in an area not cleared by bomb disposal crews. They go to work in their rice paddies or hunt in the jungle each day, knowing there may be a “bombie” out there with their name on it. And yet they bear no grudge against the Americans who salted their land with death.

The Lao we met are happy, well nourished, and live a rich family and village life. Laos has one of the few Communist governments left in the world, but it seems to have little influence on the lives of the people.

Is Laos Shangri-la? As we worked our way up a Lao mountain, we met a German with a story to tell. He was bicycle touring nine years ago when he became ill with food poisoning in Laos. While recovering, he met his future wife, and they now have two children. He runs his father-in-law’s pig farm, and has become Lao in every way except for his race. I asked if he would ever return to Germany. “Never!” was his answer. He has found his Shangri-la.

After eight months of bicycle touring in Asia over the last few years, the continent has again left me staggered. Just as I think I have the real Asia nailed, I find myself blindsided by the reality, the vitality, the sheer size and complexity of the continent.

Some will say I should just stay home and absorb the opinions of the talking heads, those government and politically motivated experts – most who have never set foot in Asia outside the capitals. I don’t believe that accepting observations from someone riding in the back seat of a Mercedes with darkened windows – never stopping, but just driving past the toiling masses – necessarily offers a true picture of that great continent.

Westerners have always misunderstood the Asian ethos, and underestimated the tenacity of the people. We need to get past stereotypes and open our eyes. Those of us living in the West will be competing with Asians and need to understand their hopes and desires, allowing us to work with them in mutual respect and to our mutual benefit.

Both Claire and I will be writing about Asia for a long time, for Just One Opinion and on our own website. If you would like to read our stories and see our photos and videos during our “In Search of Shangri-la” journey, follow the link to NewBohemians.net.

Editor’s Note: Chi Newman is a frequent contributor to Just One Opinion. She is our expert on all things Asian, especially Chinese food and culture, because she was born and raised there. Chi wrote this article for her own website at Chi-Newman.com and offered to let us publish it here. I bet you’ll have a craving for Chinese food that will last for days!

Its been several months since I contributed an article to my website and here at Just One Opinion. I’ve been really busy lately, but I felt like writing and sharing some of my Chinese recipes with you. These are not banquet dishes, these are family dishes.

In China, family dishes are called “shia fan,” which literally means dishes that make the rice go down. For common people this type of food can be quite inexpensive, but the ingredients are cooked with so much flavor by the adding of hot peppers, garlic, ginger and onions, that sometimes these “shia fan” dishes taste better than banquet dishes.

You do not need a big piece of meat. One chicken breast, a few shrimp, a pork chop or small piece of steak would be enough to feed a whole family. To these ingredients we add a little bit of this and a little of that – ingredients that are already in your refrigerator. You might have half a green pepper or red pepper, a carrot, some celery sticks, green onions – or some nuts like cashews, almonds or peanuts. Include ginger, garlic, hot pepper sauce, or flakes. Add these to the meat you have to make a very healthy and flavorful meal that will feed the whole family. Chinese hosts always serve rice on the side.

Once you know the art of stir frying, you can always find some things to make a beautiful dish. The actual cooking time is very short, but the preparation and cutting can take time. You’ll need many little bowls to keep each ingredient separate. Marinate the meat in the sauce you will have prepared, but each vegetable should be stir fried separately to retain its color and consistency.

Even in cooking we never forget to practice the “Yin-Yang” philosophy. There is never a Chinese dish that is all white or all dark. There are always contrasting colors and textures in keeping with our philosophy of balance and opposites.

CHICKEN AND CASHEWS

2 chicken breasts, cut into squares

2 egg whites, unbeaten
2 Tbs.of good white wine
1 1/2 Tbs cornstarch
Mix the above ingredients, and toss into the chicken breasts, let stand

2 slices of ginger, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
3 cloves crushed garlic

1 cup of cashews, or peanuts
1/2 green pepper (cut into squares)
1/2 red pepper (cut into squares)
5 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water till soft. Squeeze dry and cut into squares. (Any kind of fresh mushrooms can be used.)
2 stalks of celery, cut into cubes
Oil (preferably vegetable or peanut oil for frying)

SAUCE

1 1/2 Tbs red wine
1 1/2 Tbsp ketchup (for color)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
3 Tbsps soy sauce
1 Tbsp Hosing sauce (can be bought at any supermarket)
2 Tbsps of hot red pepper sauce (can be bought at any supermarket) I like the Sambal Oilek (ground fresh chili paste, it is made in the USA) (optional)

1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water

Cut chicken breast into squares and mix with unbeaten egg whites, wine and cornstarch. Let stand.
Heat enough oil to fry nuts, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry green pepper, red pepper and celery till cooked but still crisp, season and remove to bowl. Heat oil to fry mushrooms, season and remove.

Heat 6 Tbsp oil till very hot, add ginger, green onions, garlic, till very hot and fragrant, add chicken till it turns white, then add the premixed sauce. Stir till completely mixed. Add the cornstarch and water to chicken to thicken. Now add vegetables and nuts to blend. Remove immediately to platter. Serve with white rice on the side.

Note: This dish has all the ingredients to make a healthy meal. You can exchange the vegetables to broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, or any other vegetables. Remember to keep the vegetables crisp and colorful in contrast with the dark meat. Also note how inexpensive it is to serve a whole meal that is not only healthy but delicious with just a few things you have at home.

HOT AND SOUR SOUP

This is an exciting soup full of contrasting flavors and texture, and a perfect example of the Yin-Yang that I talked about. It ranges from soft bean curd to chewy bamboo shoots. The pork blends well with the smoky shitake mushrooms, and the hot and sour taste is perfect for a cold winter day.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes:
5 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 Tbsps soya sauce
5 pre-soaked Chinese shitake mushrooms sliced, or any other mushroom of your choice
1/2 cup of bamboo shoots sliced into strips
1 cup pork sliced into thin strips

Add:
2 cakes of firm bean curd cut into cubes (well drained)
2 Tbsps fresh ground pepper
3 Tbsps rice vinegar, or any vinegar of your choice
3 Tbsps cornstarch mixed with some water to thicken

When soup comes to a full boil add 3 beaten eggs slowly to the broth. To serve add a few drops of sesame oil in each bowl for flavor and sprinkle some chopped coriander leaves.

SWEET AND SOUR PORK

A
1 lb. loin of pork
1 Tbsps sherry or red wine
2 Tbsps soya sauce
1 1/2 Tbsps cornstarch
Enough oil for deep frying

B
1 big yellow onion, cut into squares
1 big carrot, quartered
Enough oil to fry carrot and onion till cooked.
1 medium size can pineapple chunks, drained.

C
6 Tbsps sugar
4 Tbsps soya sauce
1 Tbsp red wine
2 Tbsps vinegar
4 Tbsps catsup
2 tsps pickle relish
a few drops of Tabasco sauce

1 Tbsp of cornstarch, mixed with 1/2 cup water.

Cut pork into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Mix well with A ingredients, except oil. Heat oil till very hot, and fry till golden brown. Turn out on a plate.

Heat about 4 Tbsps oil and stir fry carrots and onions till cooked. Add pineapple and remove to plate

Mix C ingredients in a large pot, except for the cornstarch. Add A and B ingredients. Let it come to a boil, add cornstarch mixture to thicken, remove immediately and serve.

CUCUMBER SALAD

6 pickling cucumbers, or 3 English cucumbers (unpeeled, or peeled if you wish)
3 slices of ginger, cut into thin strips
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
2 green onions, cut into small pieces
Mix well and add enough salt to coat. Cover and let stand for an hour or so. Drain well and wash with cold water. Pat dry completely.

Mix above ingredients and place in a serving bowl.

SAUCE

2 Tbsps soya sauce
2 Tbsps rice vinegar (or any vinegar of your choice)
2 Tbsps toasted sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp hot pepper sauce.
1 Tbsps white sesame seeds

Mix above ingredients, and pour over cucumbers. Mix well and place in refrigerator. Serve with the above dishes.

I hope you enjoy these dishes and if you have problems, contact me through my website.

Love, Chi

Be sure to check their website for their personal holiday greeting video. They’ll share some of their experiences that they’ve had along the way along with their personal feelings about the people and places they’ve visited.

Bob also shares some news on their plans for the near future and for next year. I’m already getting excited for them.

As the Senior Editor of Just One Opinion, I’d just like to let them know how much we’ve enjoyed following along and keeping updated on the progress of their long bicycling trip. I personally am amazed and totally in awe of their accomplishments – and their personal strength of character and courage to take on such an adventure.

So our thumbs up to Bob and Claire Rogers! Good going! You’ve made us all proud to be Americans and to have had you representing us to our Asian cousins.

Bob and Claire’s website, NewBohemians.net, along with some of their most recent adventures, can be reached from the links found in the right sidebar. Be sure to check out all of their past adventures and photo galleries as well. Your visit will be well worth your time.

We all know about New York City. It’s in front of us in the media every day. It’s a part of commercials, morning shows, nightly news, entertainment stars, sports stars, magazine ads, and sadly, 9/11. We know New York as the center of everything… it’s the so-called “Greatest City in the World.” I had only been there once before. That was twenty years ago, and my memory of it was fuzzy good.

If you spend just four nights in New York City now, like my wife and I and a couple who are our close friends did on a boondoggle trip weekend before last, you come away with the feeling that you have seen a great deal of what is good and important in America. This time, I also saw a little of what is not.

We approached the Newark airport at almost five-thirty in the afternoon on Thursday. It was dark, and Manhattan Island looked like a sparkling wonderland across the Hudson River in the distance.

Flying from Alaska to New York is no small journey, but we were drawn there by an unexpected connection. A family friend, the daughter-in-law of our traveling companions, had been selected to dance in the chorus line of the Rockettes this year in their annual Christmas Show at Radio City Music Hall. Blair Chenoweth Robinson, who was Miss Alaska in 2005 and Miss Alaska USA in 2007, is a professional dancer and proud product of the 49th State. She had just landed the biggest gig of her life.

My wife and I and our friends have all lived in Alaska for forty years…and we can’t see Russia from our houses. We are not wide-eyed backwoods people, and in fact are frequent and experienced travelers. I was wide-eyed the first time I visited Manhattan, but this time I experienced real life on this crowded island with millions of other people.

Making the “Ugly” Fun -- The Theme from our Apartment

Our arrival began with a thud. Beware of vacation rentals by owners!

On one of the busiest weekends of the year, we were unable to find a decent hotel room for under four hundred dollars a night per couple. We didn’t realize we were planning our trip on a “tree lighting” and “shopping” weekend in Manhattan.

Using the internet, we found a vacation rental by an owner for a three bedroom, two bathroom apartment on West 47th Street -- right in the heart of the Theater District in Manhattan -- for a little over four hundred dollars a night.  The internet pictures looked fine -- certainly not luxurious, but fine.  The fact that they wanted seventeen-hundred dollars in cash or a cashier’s check up front should have told us something.

Renting an apartment in New York City…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT54OxWsWw8

Arriving at our “home away from home,” we discovered that it was in a less than shiny part of West 47th Street.  As we climbed up the narrow, poorly lit, rickety stairway (no elevator here!) in the ancient building, we were hit with the overwhelming smell of marijuana. I looked up the stairwell as far as I could see, and thanked the gods that our apartment was on the second floor.

Reality began to set in when we opened the door. One of the first things I noticed was the tiny refrigerator leaning against the wall. As we explored the place, we discovered that the promised third bedroom (which we actually didn’t need) was just an alcove with a bed stuffed into it that filled the entire space. I pity the next renter who actually needs a third bedroom.

The bathrooms were a special adventure. The bathtubs and sinks in both bathrooms did not have drain plugs in them. Our tub featured big rusted spots and bugs that crawled out of the drain in the night. There was a big hole in the wall next to it. I jokingly told my wife that the mice and rats used that hole to come out at night. She calmly replied that no self-respecting mouse or rat would live in the place.

The bathtub in the other bathroom would not drain, so our traveling companions had to use our bathtub for two days…the time it took to get someone to come by and unplug the drain.

When I entered the street-side bedroom that my wife and I were to use (our traveling companions outran us), I discovered that our bed was a mattress and box springs sitting on the floor. The nice internet picture of the bed showed it sitting on a frame. A cheap broken window shade was lying on the floor. When I tried to close the flimsy shear over that window, the thing fell on my head.

The ad described the apartment as being fully furnished with three queen sized beds. In fact, we had only one small garbage can, one garbage sack, and no cloth or paper towels in the kitchen. The TV only received a few local channels, and the “Internet hookup” never worked. There was no heat control in the place. It was unseasonably warm our first night, so we ran the in-window air conditioning unit all night to combat the heat coming into our bedroom. The next three nights were very cold, so we had to pack towels and pillows in the gaps around the two window air conditioning units to keep the cold air out.

Our contact, “Mo,” didn’t really seem to care about anything. Of the many things we asked for help with, the only one he repaired was the plugged bathtub…after two days.

By the way -- the Internet listing for this place claims that the monthly rent is $5995!

So, how did we deal with it? We bought a six-pack of good beer, a couple of bottles of good wine, a bottle of good scotch…and laughed our way through it all! The reality was that we were all so tired by the time we got back every night that we could have slept on the floor. However, taking a shower in the light of day…that was a different story.

If this is an example of how the slumlords I have always heard about do their business (and the neighborhood looked like it has hundreds, if not thousands, of places like ours), I can understand how they get rich at other people’s expense. As I lamented to our friends, one good cleaning woman and a handyman with a six-foot ladder and two hundred dollars worth of supplies could turn it into a decent place in a couple hours.

Having been inundated with the glamor of New York for years, I found myself unprepared for its underside. There were piles of garbage everywhere off of the main streets. Thousands of dogs (or maybe hundreds of thousands of dogs?) were peeing on the only place they could -- the sidewalks. We had to endure the odors of the dirty, crumbling neighborhoods located just a few short blocks from the high-profile, high-fashion areas we see featured in the media every day. For us this was a rude awakening about the other side of New York. I realize that all large cities have their seamy sides, and I know this was not even the worst of what we could have seen in New York -- but it was still surprising to me.

It all got better. In spite of our rough start, I did not intend for this article to be a put-down of New York City. It really is one of the most fascinating cities in the world.

The Food

Manhattan assaults the senses in many ways, and the attack began the first night when our beautiful Rockette hostess took us on a culinary excursion. It began at a funky little restaurant tucked into a small, narrow space in an old building -- like many other New York restaurants. It was loud, glitzy, and fun -- and the food was great. It was also a good place for me to condition myself to the eclectic mix of people we would see over the next four days. There just aren’t that many places in Anchorage, Alaska where you’ll see two men sitting in a booth, holding hands, and looking dreamily into each other’s eyes. That is not a social comment -- it’s just a fact.

On Friday, we hiked from the Financial District to Katz Delicatessen in the Lower East Side for a late lunch. Opened in 1888, and advertised as the oldest and best deli in New York, it lived up to its billing. It is also the place where Meg Ryan did her famous faked orgasm in the movie, “When Harry Met Sally” (I’ll have what she’s having!) Diners packed the place at two o’clock in the afternoon. The line of people in line to pay their bill wound to the back of the large dining area. Our rewards for being patient (and our rapidly growing recognition of the push-your-way-in New York mentality) were five-inch tall hot pastrami sandwiches too big for one person to eat.

We followed that lunch with a wonderful dinner that night at Carmine’s in the Theater District -- a big, noisy, happy, family friendly Italian restaurant. That was probably the best of the several great meals we had. Running a close second the next night was “Brazil Brazil,” a restaurant we stumbled into out of a cold rain as we searched for a dinner spot near our apartment.

Ah, Sunday! Sunday…football and big screens, dozens of them. While the women took the subway to Wall Street to visit another high achieving beautiful young woman friend from Alaska, the men hit the ESPN Zone. The Bloody Mary’s were great, every football game being played was available somewhere in the building, and the crowd was raucous -- particularly when the one o’clock games started and the guy running the control room went to the bathroom and left bowling on the main screen. We couldn’t help but laugh as the bartender stood in front of us yelling, “Football, football,” at the empty control room.

The Entertainment

Saturday was our day to see the matinée performance of the Rockettes Radio City Christmas Spectacular. It truly was spectacular, and, like all the rest of the Rockettes, our girl was flawless. The show begins with a wonderful 3D trip on the back of Santa’s Sled, and continues to feature amazing digital special effects using one of the largest floating LCD screens in the US. An actual motorized, double-decker bus with the Rockettes on it, travels throughout the city, displayed on the huge screen in amazing detail. I loved the history and precision of the “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers.”  Everything is entertaining, and the Rockettes are beautiful and precise.

2009 Rockettes: “Parade of the Wooden Soldiers”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Utq-vTQhhI0

After the show, Alaska’s only Rockette treated us to a backstage tour, and we got to pet one of the two camels that were part of the lead-in to the Nativity Scene.

On Sunday, we had tickets for Jersey Boys at the August Wilson Theater, which features the lives and music of The Four Seasons and their star lead singer, Frankie Valli. For me, it was a trip back in time. The music was wonderful and the performers were outstanding. The show was surprisingly adult as it took us through their meteoric rise out of obscurity in New Jersey, their clumsy fall, and their eventual recovery, all accompanied by their hit songs. If you like great music, and if you had a pulse in the 1960’s, you would love this.

The Sights

Ground Zero was on my radar screen from the first day we decided to make this trip. As they say, there are a few events that will live in our memories forever…J.F.K’s assassination, the Challenger disaster, and 9/11 for me.

I also felt drawn to visit the World Trade Center site because my wife and I had gone to the top of the Twin Towers to have a drink and take in the view the first time we visited New York. As I walked around the construction area for the new Freedom Tower, I couldn’t help trying to imagine the hysteria, the fear, the grief, the shock and the heroism that had taken place there. I remembered how 9/11 changed the world forever.

We dressed for the weather with warm coats, gloves and umbrellas. From our apartment on West 47th Street, we walked or rode the subway everywhere.  Even though the streets and the subway were incredibly crowded, we always felt safe and confident. There are policemen at every corner, a tainted legacy of 9/11.

Pre-Christmas in New York City is a special time. On our last night we visited Rockefeller Center to see The Tree and took a carriage ride in Central Park. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to see everything. Maybe we’ll go back…and just pay the price for a hotel room.

Wrapped in plastic as carefully as though it were an original, the book I wanted had a full color cover, plasticized, just like an original, but something was fishy. The photo quality was poor and the alignment skewed. A medallion featuring the Kiriyama 1999 Pacific Rim Book Prize was flat and fuzzy. I rattled the loose spine, flipping through the unevenly trimmed pages. The tilted text, a blurry slate gray, lay flat against a too white field, cratered with distracting stray pockmarks. The photocopied pages irritated my skin like a million little paper cuts and lacked the warm eggshell color and texture of a real book. Leaves squeaked rather than rustled.

I was revolted; why would anyone want to even hold this book, much less read it? It didn’t even smell like a book. It was as annoying as scratchy Muzak or fuzzy red and gold wallpaper.

Bob’s patience wore thin as we rounded the block, combing shop after shop, looking for an original of the book I wanted. Again and again, I left the shopkeeper looking confused after they went to the trouble to dig out the title I asked for. Flipping through the flaky pages, I left, crestfallen, time after time.

The irony was the book was Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam, by Andrew X. Pham. Pham, a Vietnamese American, returned to the country of his birth, only to find it far astray from his own culture. He’s been carefully explaining to me, page by page, why I found Vietnam so maddening: aggressive vendors, raucous drunks, deafening horns, and unshakable beggars. Like Pham, I wanted to like Vietnam and felt guilty for not being able to, after all, I was born here too. There must be something I can bond with. I appreciate his honesty. I appreciate having found a genuine volume.

Asian sentiment lacks an appreciation for original work, for intellectual property or the concept of copyright. Everyone in Asia seems to work so hard that it doesn’t seem to matter that your occupation is simply to make copies of something. Same-same.

Pirated books and tapes in Saigon…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=167RNHVTYMw

I wondered at my visceral reaction to the fakes. Was I feeling sorry for the unrewarded authors? I was upset that the vendors expected me to take part in their farce and willingly accept an inferior product. Maybe my puzzling behavior will set the knock-off vendors to consider what the big deal is.

A high percentage of these anti-personnel cluster bombs, or “bombies,” failed to explode on impact. Many still lie today just below the surface, ready for a water buffalo or a farmer to step on the wrong spot -- or for an innocent blow by a hoe or spade. They sit and wait for a young boy to find one and then try to prove his bravery by playing with the deadly toy.

During the many years of bombing, thousands died or were maimed by unexploded ordnance, bombies and larger bombs. The local residents gave up and abandoned their water buffalo and their bomb riddled rice paddies and fled. After they begged for surcease in Vientiane, their pleas were eventually heard by the U. S. Congress, who had been kept in the dark about the bombing by the President. Hearings were held and the bombing finally ended. No one was ever punished for lying to Congress or for committing what most readings of the Geneva Conventions would define as war crimes.

The U.S. conducted the largest bombardment of a population in history in a few small provinces of a small country. More tonnage of explosives was dropped on Laos than in all of World War II. That deserves repeating: More bombs were dropped on the small country of Laos than during all of World War II. That is an absolutely staggering fact.

Historical view of the war in Laos…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXkF5YgZAX8

We recently visited Xieng Khuang to tour the Plain of Jars. Each site had areas marked off-limits because much of the province remains to be cleared of Viet Nam era ordinance. For their own safety, tourists dare not wander off the marked paths.

At the three sites we visited, bombies had been cleared. Most sites contained several large craters, probably created by 500 pound bombs. Many relics dating back 2000-2500 years were overturned or destroyed. It was a sobering sight to stand at the edge of one of those craters, and then later to see a man with no legs. It was hard for us not to become emotional, realizing that what we were seeing had been our tax dollars at work.

Let me back off for a moment and look at this subject less passionately. War -- any war or method of war -- seems like a good idea at its beginning. President Lyndon Johnson, who presided over much of the Secret War, was probably convinced by his advisors that the war in Indochina was a good idea. It is doubtful that anyone considered the long-term consequences of the bombies being dropped during that war. The workers at Honeywell probably didn’t think that the products of their labor would still be killing and maiming children forty years later.

In recent years, the Bush Administration used convoluted reasoning and language to justify torturing people, clearly in direct violation of the Geneva Convention. To the President, using torture probably seemed like a good idea. Sitting behind his big desk in the Oval Office, he was being pushed by smart and persuasive advisors, all afraid of an unknown enemy. America’s image as the champion of human rights has been damaged for years to come.  It seems that even the worst ideas always seem reasonable and appropriate initially.

Someone has to bear the responsibility for those decisions. Who should bear that burden? Maybe it should be you and I, because we didn’t speak up and demand better from our leaders. Maybe -- just maybe -- we all share the blame.

The Lao people bear us no grudges; they actually like Americans. They seem to understand the concept of forgiveness far better than we do. It’s interesting that our supposedly Christian country, one that preaches forgiveness to everyone else in the world, won’t help a small country we’ve injured, simply because they refuse to reject Communism. Laotian Buddhists are forgiving us, citizens of the country whose bombs are still killing them. We need to reconsider our professed values and compare them to those we actually live by. Our words are clearly at odds with our deeds; eventually there will be a price for us to pay.

Death and dismemberment continue to happen throughout the country. In Xieng Khuang province, forty to sixty people are killed or maimed annually, over thirty-six years since the bombings ended. Forty percent of the victims are children, mostly boys who pick up the bombies. Young males are attracted to dangerous things; they have no concept of mortality, believing they will live forever. Many will live long lives, but without their arms and legs. That’s a difficult sentence for any young man to serve in a poor country where physical labor is your only asset.

Laos found itself in the middle of the war between the United States and North Vietnam for over ten years. The Vietnamese used the Ho Chi Minh Trail that runs along the Laotian border and then took the war west into the agricultural central plateau of the country. The Laotians reluctantly found themselves drawn into the war by both North Vietnam and the Allies.

The people of Laos didn’t contribute much to the war and were officially considered neutral, but they still paid a heavy price for their involvement. In addition to the loss of thousands of Laotians, much of the country’s agricultural land is still unusable because of remaining live ordnance. The government of Laos, with the help of international NGOs from Britain, Australia and other countries, is managing the painstaking job of clearly unexploded ordnance.

The United States has reportedly offered to help with the cleanup, but our strident anti-Communism has blocked negotiations.  A flag showing the hammer and sickle flew outside the window of our guesthouse recently, but that is the only sign we have seen of a Communist society. The army’s presence is minimal, usually just a truck or two passing us on the highway, their soldiers waving and smiling to us like all other Lao people. Our passports are not checked at each guesthouse, or along the roads, as they were in China.

If the Lao system is socialist, like China’s, we haven’t seen it. It’s hard working people live by small capitalism. The government doesn’t seem concerned with controlling its people, or stifling their free market efforts. The government provides decent roads (better than China), and some sub-standard schools, but not much else. They certainly are not a threat to anyone, especially us. The Cold War Era “domino theory” was long ago proven irrelevant.

It’s time for America to pipe down, and pitch in – and help clear the remaining bombs we’ve left in our wake.

Bob has also included several videos of the friendly people of China.

For an even bigger treat, check out their “Shangri-la” photo gallery. Bob swears that he only has a cheap little digital camera with him, but some of the photos he and Claire have gathered are breathtaking and amazing.

Take five minutes out of your day and go view the amazing sites that the Rogers have shared with all of their readers and those of JustOneOpinion.com.

Link to NewBohemians.net Shangri-La Photo Gallery

Editor’s Note: As Bob and Claire Rogers continue their amazing cycling trip, our attention has been focused on all things “Asian.” Chi Newman offered to let us publish this adaptation of her article that describes her recent trip to Taiwan. I’m sure that you will be amazed as she describes the changes there since she last visited this beautiful island off the east coast of mainland China. Click here to go to Chi’s original article…

In 1594 a Portuguese ship sighted the main island of Taiwan and dubbed it “Ilha Formosa,” which means “beautiful island.” Although Taiwan (formerly Formosa) has been part of the Chinese empire for a very long time, the aboriginal inhabitants are not even related to the Chinese, but came from the islands of the Pacific.

The Chinese only arrived in large numbers after 1600, when the Dutch East India Company established trading posts and forts on the island. After they defeated the Dutch in 1662, they gained control over the island and stayed until the end of the 19th century when the Japanese took over. They also left their mark on the island, remaining in control until after World War 2, when they were succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang.

How can I begin to write about my trip to Taiwan except to use the Portuguese word “Saudade”? “Saudade” is a word that envelopes so many emotions: nostalgia, longing, yearning, love, friendship, desire, etc. No other language has a word like it. Taiwan was once called “Formosa”, another Portuguese word which means “beautiful.”

I was last in Taiwan when my husband, Richard, served in Vietnam between 1968-1970. Our family was not allowed to go to Vietnam, so I went to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, with my two young children. We were 180 wives with no husbands.

Since then Taiwan has changed so much that I did not know the place, but all for the better. It is a wealthy and vibrant island with hard working, polite people. They especially stress the importance of a good education for its youth.

I wanted to see my older sister, Amy, because her third son Michael had written to tell me she had been ill. It had been many years since I last saw her, as well as her three sons and their families. I did not want to linger over my decision for fear I might change my mind. I booked my ticket and left four days later. None of my family members could go with me, so I was quite nervous about flying half-way around the world alone. I had never gone anywhere without Dick, even on short trips. I closed my mind and refused to think negative thoughts, especially about the typhoon that was pounding the southern part of the island causing devastation and death.

I finally arrived in Taipei on China Air Lines around 9 PM. I was on the road for over twenty hours and was so tired that I did not even remember when my nephew Michael picked up my luggage, or the drive to my sister’s apartment.

Amy had surgery last year. She was fine, although she still had some breathing problems and coughed constantly. It was wonderful to see her again, and we made up for lost time. It was especially exciting to be speaking Chinese. Amy had thought of everything to make me comfortable. She even gave me a cell phone to make overseas calls and pocket money to spend. She also had a full-time maid and a chauffeur.

The next night a French banquet was given in my honor so that I could meet the family and Amy’s close friends. I had forgotten about all the protocol – the exchanging of gifts and the toasting that was exchanged back and forth before the meal was served. The liquors of choice were mostly “Johnny Walker Blue” and “Chivas Royal Salute.” I sipped on my half glass of white wine while I noticed with admiration and total awe the amount of liquor being consumed. It brought back memories of when I was a child in Beijing, and the many banquets my parents hosted with their Mahjong games. My mother was considered the perfect hostess and could drink to and toast each guest throughout the long meal -- but I never remember seeing her drunk. My sister certainly was as perfect a hostess as my mother.

While I was there, my oldest nephew Ricky, along with his wife and family, were vacationing in Massachusetts. Their three daughters have all graduated from the best schools in the United States and Europe. They were returning the day after I left Taiwan, so I was sorry to miss them. Amy took me to see their home located in Yangmingshan, a very exclusive area of Taipei. The houses and land there were amazing. The kitchens were equipped for either western or Chinese cuisines.

I took a tour of the manicured grounds and petted the three horses in their stables. Their youngest daughter now lives in Amsterdam and competes in horse shows in Europe. I was very impressed with everything.

My second nephew, Andy, is the CEO of several companies. He and his wife, Bonnie, have two children. Tiffany, who is 22, has a perfect figure, creamy white skin, and is very beautiful. I thought of Scarlett Johansson when I met her. She was leaving in two days to go to Hongkong and Shanghai to look for a job. She took me to the night market – a very popular tourist attraction. The market sold everything from shoes to trinkets and served every kind of food one could desire.Their son, Ian, is twelve. He told me he has too much homework, but it’s necessary because the education system is very competitive. Andy takes time on weekends to play tennis and be with his family, because during the week he spends many of his evenings  hosting overseas business guests. The whole family has luncheon and dinner together every Sunday.

Bonnie, my niece, and I had a delightful day together. She is very pretty and full of life. She speaks perfect English, and worked as an airline hostess for China Air Lines for seven years. She took me to a famous Chinese restaurant for lunch, where I ordered many dishes that I remembered from my childhood: drunken chicken, red-braised pork with skin that melts in your mouth, little steamed buns filled with pockets of succulent meat and juice, and specialty dishes from many provinces. These are called “Shia Fan” dishes, which means dishes that make the rice go down; they were so delicious, so well seasoned, so amazing that I wanted to remember the flavors forever. For desert, I ordered rice flour balls stuffed with black sesame paste.

She then took me to a massage parlor where I had an hour-long massage. I was totally satisfied with my day, but Bonnie had one more surprise for me. She was taking me to her favorite hair dresser to get my hair done. Before the girl washed my hair, I had another 15 or 20 minute massage of my head and shoulders. Bonnie was finally satisfied and I was ready to go home and take a long nap before the big dinner that night.

Michael, the youngest son, is an attorney-at-law for Baker and McKenzie. He is not married and lives close to Amy, so he came over every morning to have breakfast with us. What a charmer! I felt fortunate to see him so often. He is a gourmand and usually ordered the dishes and wines for the banquets and luncheons.

Michael and his friend, Gogi, who is a very well known fashion designer in Taipei, picked me up one Saturday morning and took me to the flower and jade market. I have never imagined so many variety of flowers, especially orchids. Then we went to the jade market, where I admired the great variety of jade, rings, pendants, and statues. These two markets are several blocks long and are only open on Saturdays and Sundays -- during the week they are transformed into parking lots.

We also visited “Taipei 101,” the tallest building in the world. Visitors can watch the multimedia show before riding the world’s fastest elevator to the 89th floor. The elevator has a high pressurized speed of over a thousand meters per minute. The observatory is equipped with high power binoculars, drink bars, image services, and recorded multimedia guides in eight languages. Visitors can observe the detailed structure and the heaviest wind damper which weighs 660 metric tons. Looking out the window one can see all of Taipei and its famous landscape. To reach the 91st floor one must take the steps from the 89th floor. You will feel the strong winds and see up close the spire to the building’s 508 meters high sphere. You can watch a theater film that shows the building’s construction and last New Year’s celebration with a fireworks display which emanated from all parts of the towering structure.

View of the National Palace Museum from the top of Taipei 101…

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhaaTViymUs

I also took a day-long tour of Taipei and surroundings with six other passengers -- two from America, two from Australia, and one from Japan. We visited some of the must-see historical sights. The first was the Chiang Kai Shek memorial park. Around the park, a 1200 meter corridor is built. A Chinese window taking the form of a lantern is seen on the wall every 4.5 meters. There are two ponds that take up 3000 square meters. It is surrounded by stones and landscaped with artificial hills, stone-paved paths, and arched bridges. In the ponds a great number of bright-colored carp swim back and forth. With an area of 250,000 square meters, the Memorial Park is a paradise for animals, plants, and birds. One can see the butterflies flying among the flowers and bees busily collecting honey.

We then moved on to Chih Fu Temple. The main god of this Temple is the God of the Land, Taiwan’s most popular god. This god has evolved into human form and understands all the hardships of the human being. He has the power to influence people and is always ready to help when needed. He has a healthy face, silver hair, kind eyes and laughing lips. The day to worship the “God of Land” is called “Ya,” which means to “welcome fortune.” It is held on the second and the sixteenth days of the lunar month.

The best visit was saved for last -- the National Palace Museum. It has a permanent collection of over 650,000 Chinese artifacts and other pieces of art -- the largest collection in the world. In 2008 it was the world’s 15th most visited museum. In 2001 the museum underwent a major overhaul that cost $21 million, making it more spacious and modern. The displays are rotated once every three months. If you were to see all 650,000 pieces, it would take you more than twelve years.

Finally, my trip came to a close. I’m now back in Tucson with my loving family. I am again enjoying the glorious sunsets, the majestic mountains, and the quaint cacti. I will be playing tennis and duplicate bridge, cooking and baking, and enjoying the friends I love.

This simple life is good for my soul. I can truly say I would be satisfied if all my worldly goods consisted of a good tennis racket, a bridge table, an efficient stove, and a comfortable bed on which to lay my head.

I will always treasure my memories of Taipei and keep them stored in my heart to relive and savor: the distinctive food specialties of each province, the toasting before the banquets, the red envelopes with money for tipping, the gifts that are exchanged, and the protocol for each event.

I will also remember the kindness of my family and friends, the polite waitresses and service people in their neat uniforms, and the emphasis on education. I have fulfilled all of my senses -- from the exotic fruits and vegetables, the variety of sea food, fowl and meat (especially the exceedingly tender and flavorful Kobe beef), the beauty of orchids and other strange flowers, and the exquisite art and paintings.

I was also very impressed that everyone spoke Mandarin, which has unified all the Chinese people.

What a journey! What a vacation! What memories!

Thank you, Taiwan.

Attention! Attention!

The French accent did not disguise the intent of the word our languages share from the Latin.

Whirrrrrr! Clunk! Clunk! Gone! The melon-sized rock, falling from a French Alp at terminal velocity, would have taken my head off had I not been fully attentive at that particular moment and hugged the vertical ice encrusted rock with the intensity of a lover.

Climbing vertical rock and ice has a way of acutely focusing your attention while releasing a delicious sense of aliveness.

A mid-life crisis in my early thirties sent me off to Europe to spend a summer trying to kill myself by doing obscenely difficult Alpine routes. With just a few climbs on a small rock in West Virginia under my belt, I somehow survived and learned one of my most valuable lessons: the value of attention to this life.

This seemingly basic concept of “attention” deserves a closer look.

[From Wikipedia:]
William James, in his textbook Principles of Psychology, remarked:
“Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction, and Zerstreutheit in German.”

I wonder if our increasing tendency to multitask (of which I am guilty) is robbing us of the ability and affinity for focusing on the precious intense moments of living that are within our grasp daily.

If our brain is trying to accomplish several things at once, something is lost, and that something is the intense pleasure to be had from focusing on one thing: one simple beautiful piece or moment in the universe.

I don’t want to focus on the negatives of multitasking, but on the rewards of attention:

The day I wrote this, my wife Claire and I rode our bicycles to Ski Valley in the Santa Catalina Mountains near Tucson. We began our ride at sunrise in saguaros heavy with white blossoms and the faintly acrid scent of creosote, both signatures of the Sonora Desert, and ended at nearly 9,000 feet in aspens alive with the eager gobbling of a turkey in the deep forest.

Along the way as the saguaros gave way to bushy oaks, we caught the scent of dry grass. Then came the gin smell of juniper and the vanilla of ponderosa pines -- all punctuated by the liquid descending call of a canyon wren -- and finally into the clean sharpness of spruce and thin air.

You get the idea. I was paying attention -- very close attention -- to the subtle changes of the varied climate zones that span from Mexico to Canada, that we had passed through in just three hours.

Of course we could have driven it in a motor vehicle more quickly, and we do sometimes, but we would have missed most of the smells, all of the sounds, and the involvement of our own bodies.

Muscles working against gravity have a way of demanding one’s attention. Contrary to popular perception, that sensation is mostly pleasant if focused on, rather than trying to ignore the “pain.” Pain and pleasure can be interchangeable with the right attention and attitude.

On the way down the sense of speed was intensified by gusts tugging at the light bicycle and skinny tires. At this speed paying attention is not only rewarding, but required. Forty -- or even fifty miles per hour -- on a bicycle is pure joy, even if it is just on the edge of being scary.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXQJK57tus

While we were at a rest stop for a snack and to enjoy a view of the city, Claire was using her water bottle to wash a bug from her eye. I got close to her to see if it was gone. The aliveness and attention of our day together coalesced into my desire to hold her -- and I did. I focused my attention where our damp bodies met, the smell of her hair, the sun on my back. As I held her I told her something very personal that I’d been wanting to share with her about my desires for the end of my life. I’m not sure any other combination of circumstances would have led me to make that revelation.

Life is only fully appreciated through attention -- especially attention to emotions.

This subject deserves more than I am giving it now -- perhaps I will come back to it later. For now, those muscles I used so fully are demanding me to give full attention to a fade into a long deep sleep.