Date: 2005-02-04
To: I Really Do Like To Travel!
Miles today: 0.0

As noted in my last entry, I have had to do a fair amount of traveling over the past 35 years. Frankly, I¢ve always thought of it as one of the best parts of working for the World Bank. Growing up, I didn¢t have a chance to travel much, even within the United States. My first trip overseas came during graduate school when I was lucky enough to spend an academic year in India doing research for my dissertation. That was a trip I¢ll never forget. On my way out to New Delhi I stopped for two days in London. It was a night flight across the Atlantic, arriving at Heathrow Airport in the early morning. I¢d been told by student friends at Duke to just take ¢the tube¢ out to Russell Square and there I¢d be able to find cheap accommodations for a day or two at a boarding house. By noon, with lodgings secured and warmed by tea and crumpets, I determined to take a short nap before leaving to explore the city. I must have been more tired from my journey than I thought, as I awoke only after 10 pm to a darkened room in an unfamiliar house ¢ in a city I knew nothing about. I dressed quickly and slipped out the front door, retracing my steps toward the ¢tube¢ station. Along the way I passed a Wimpie Burger stand, and purchased probably the greasiest hamburger I have ever tasted in my life. I sopped up the grease with what the Brits call ¢chips¢, beginning my year-long sabbatical from American fast-food. Back on the ¢tube¢ and off to the center of town ¢ selecting Piccadilly Circus as the first stop of my night¢s itinerary. I¢ll never forget coming up the steps and emerging into the great, bright lights of the city ¢ beginning with that most ubiquitous of cultural icons, a bill-board sized flashing neon Coke Cola sign, accompanied by the blare of rock and roll from a music shop, the laughter of the strolling crowds, the wondrous and enticing smells wafting from restaurant doors as I passed by, the ladies of the evening inquiring if I¢d like to sample their wares. (¢No, thanks anyway, not on a student¢s stipend I¢m afraid¢ was my excuse.) A great adventure, my first time in London. Never to be forgotten, no matter how many times I¢ve gone back.I¢ll save my travels in India for another entry, but even before I joined the Bank it was clear to me that I¢d been bitten by the travel bug. It¢s infected me ever since, and is no doubt part of the appeal of this little walk in the woods I¢m planning. After joining the Bank, of course, which I did right out of graduate school, the travel only got better. By a stroke of luck I managed to get myself assigned to a relatively new Department, one that had just been set up scarcely a year before. It was called the Tourism Projects Department, and it was to be my home for the next six years. One of my first questions of my new boss was: ¢what exactly IS a tourism project?¢ The answer, it turned out, was that no one really knew, as the Department had yet to make its first loan. But not to worry...I would have an opportunity to help them figure out the answer to that question! In those days, as I quickly learned, the staff of the department liked to refer to themselves as tourism professionals. In our hearts, however, and as was obvious to even the most casual observer, we were really professional tourists.My first assignment was to work on a hotel project near the medieval, walled city of Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, a port on the beautiful Adriatic Sea. Later on, I had a chance to carry out a tourism sector review of the entire country, and traveled the length of the Adriatic coast, from Trieste to Budva, as well as inland from Zagreb to Titograd, and from the coastal isle of Krk to the mountainous area of Bosnia-Herzegovina.   It was there that I had the one of the most memorable meals of my life ¢ a freshly caught (by me) grilled mountain trout, accompanied only by fresh baked bread and a local white wine, eaten on the front porch of a mountain cabin, watching the sun set as we finished off the wine. Transported on to Pristina by car, I then spent the night in one of the most wretched hotels I have ever had the pleasure to depart from. Yugoslavia, as it was called then, was a country of contrasts, a country cobbled together of diverse cultures, held together by Tito for awhile, but with many tragedies since. I understand our hotel project was badly damaged during the war.They also forced me to go on safari in Africa. It was the Kenya Tourism and Wildlife Project, and we were supporting wildlife preservation, forest land conservation, and the participation of local tribes in the benefits of eco-tourism as part of an effort to ensure long term sustainability. Flying in a small plane from Nairobi to the Masai-Mara area, we saw from the air a most incredible sight: the annual migration of an estimated 750,000 Wildebeasts. These large and wondrous animals flowed in one huge mass over the plains, coming on occasion to a river crossing where, of course, the crocks lay in wait. Those at the head of the herd stop momentarily, concerned about what lies ahead, but the momentum of the on-rushing herd behind them offers no option but to surge over the banks and crash into the stream, with whatever attendant risks those in the lead must suffer. The scale was simply awesome.Then there was the Jordan Tourism and Antiquities Project. That one involved the old Nabbatean city of Petra, accessible only through a narrow defile called the siq. You can hold out your arms and touch both sides at certain points, with the sides stretching 200 feet up. And then suddenly you come to a widening and facing you, carved into the sandstone cliff, is a building ¢ complete with columns and several story high. They call it the Treasury. From this city, the Nabbateans used to go out and raid passing camel trains loaded with goods, and then rush back into their stronghold, protected by the strictures of the siq, where anyone following could be easily attacked from high above.   The project also involved the old Roman city of Jerash which was being excavated and partially restored. I had a chance to talk with some of the archeologists working on the site, and with others working near the Dead Sea. One of them gave me a carved stone implement from his personal collection that dated to 3000 B.C. (Since then, studying archeology and participating in a ¢dig¢ has been one of those items high on my life list, but only after the hike!)Did I mention the Bali Tourism Project? That¢s one I¢m most proud of, as it was way ahead of its time in terms of both environmental and social safeguards. It has been enormously successful and, since then, has been held up as a model for other parts of Indonesia of how to do tourism ¢right¢. If you ever get as far as Indonesia, don¢t leave without visiting Bali. I also did a tourism project in Kyong Ju in Korea, a Tourism Master Plan Study in Fiji, a Tourism Sector Review in Thailand ¢ including Phuket Island, recently in the news as one of the resort areas hardest hit by the Tsunami. Along with various and sundry other projects and studies too numerous to mention. Since my tourism days, I¢ve traveled other places as well, but it was never quite as much fun. Always interesting, though. China, especially. The Great Wall is really incredible!I like to travel. I really do. Like I said, I¢ve always been lucky, and having been able to travel as part of my job and my career had been a good thing, overall. Not without its disadvantages, as I¢ll note in a future entry, but overall, a good thing.   Of course, when I travel for the Bank, there are all those planes and trains and taxis. And there are porters, and doormen, and restaurants and hotels, with beds and pillows with little chocolates mints on them at night.   This is going to be different... isn¢t it? Stay tuned