viajando05
Hello, world!
I thought I'd use this page to reflect on items of interest in the places we go. So this page will pretty much change each time we travel someplace new.David and AE have signed up to go to Nepal next year. It's a hiking expedition through villages of Nepal, culminating at the base camp of Mt. Everest. Yes, David has already done that -- but from the Tibet side. I guess it's not as good. He has wanted to do the Nepal side for years. They now have lots of discussions about altitude sickness, etc. I'm not sure I want to go anyplace where planning and preparation are about the diseases one might incur there.
A Sign of the times
I had no trouble phoning home from all over the Mediterranean and Tunisia. Text messages were 50 cents, and phone calls from Egypt ran around a couple of dollars for 5 or 6 minutes. Not PER minute -- just a couple of dollars total. We have spent as much as $4.99 per minute from other countries. I think we really are becoming a global village. As long as we were in port, I also had no trouble with coverage or connections. At sea, I couldn't get a signal.
Recent observations
Prices in Europe are still really high. We paid 8 euro in Paris for a coke and 12 euro for a plate of fries. However, I have visited that particular sidewalk cafe since 1968, and it is always expensive. While things looked prosperous every place we were, everyone talks about the economy and how it has changed. I am not referring to other tourists; I am talking about the local people we met everywhere.