On Our Next-to-Last Night We Took Our Interpreters Out to Dinner…..And Then It's Pekanbaru to Jakarta to Hong Kong to Los Angeles to Houston.....

…..and again it was the Kayu Manus and again, it was Country and Western Night. The interpreters have been a great help for the past four weeks. They were hired from a private company and were, for the most part, very capable and helpful assistants for the training.

Today we got all three programs together for a group photograph. It’s been a pretty good four weeks and I’m not at all anxious to leave here. I’ve had better jobs but I’ve also had a lot, lot worse and Indonesia has been a good one.

Yesterday the Australian and I walked nearly two hours after work—down past the Grand Mosque and along some busy streets eventually to the Siak River. The river runs through Pekanbaru but isn’t really any commercial waterway. It is badly polluted and has some maritime shipping. People still fish in it and I imagine that fish ends up in the street vendor’s carts.

The people here are so friendly—always ready with a smile. I caught these three imps filching sugar packets in the sports lounge one afternoon. They really don’t look all that guilty.

Speaking of imps, we were warned about the alpha monkeys here on the compound and I did see a few the past four weeks but never up close. This photo was shot by the Australian on the golf course. Didn't get to see a Sumatra tiger though--elephants and monkeys but no tigers.

I may or not post again before I leave. Tomorrow is the last day and we fly out Friday morning.

Wednesday Was “Country and Western Night” at the Kayu Manis Restaurant……

…..and these guys gave it their best shot all evening. And they really weren’t all that bad. They were performing in the center of the restaurant which has open sides all around and most people were eating outside but could still hear the music. We were the only people sitting inside with the band and, as they inevitably do, the lead singer was asking where we were from, what we were doing in Pekanbaru and the usual light banter for restaurant bands. When I told the lead singer (not in the picture) that I was from Texas he got all excited. It appears he and I have a common interest in Texas music and he started singing Lyle Lovett, Robert Earl Keen, Jerry Jeff Walker and when he asked for a request, I automatically suggested Willie Nelson and he broke into “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” I’m literally half-way around the world from Austin and this guy knows all the Texas musicians. Thursday night was “Latin Passion Night” but, unfortunately, we had to miss that one.

Saturday morning I did my daily walk early before it got too hot then went to one of the local malls with the other American trainer. I’m not really a “mall person” but I did get a head and shoulder massage which was ok but not nearly as good as in Thailand. Spent about an hour just walking around looking in the stores. I wear X-Large in most shirts and there’s not a lot of selection for that over here—lots of small and medium sizes.

It surprised me that a lot of people were wearing orange today—to support the Netherlands in their World Cup championship game with Spain. I was wondering about that and it kind of surprised me what with Indonesia being a former Dutch colony (Dutch West Indies) and the colonial/indigenous relationship was not very good in the old days. You really don’t see a lot of Dutch influence over here (as you do British legacy in Kenya) but they seem to be generally rooting for the Netherlands tomorrow night. This is a soccer-crazy country over here—I can’t believe how many people are really into the World Cup. Almost all the clothing stores have soccer themes and restaurants are offering World Cup specials. Personally, I don’t care for either the Dutch or Spanish but, just to get into the spirit, I bought a Netherlands T-shirt.

Sometimes a Picture Really Is Worth a Thousand Words......

Some Interesting Things About the Aryaduta Hotel Here in Pekanbaru…..

…..the hotel lists itself as a 4-star and it is with regards to restaurant, lobby, and facilities. The rooms are plain but clean and secure—but probably not 4-star. I’ve been really happy here and believe me; I’ve stayed in far, far worse hotels on these trips. The kitchen is good but we’ve pretty much ordered everything on the menu at least once and we still have two weeks left.

I have found it curious that the hotel elevator doesn’t have a fourth floor and finally asked someone on the elevator one day about it. He appeared to be Japanese and told me Asians are very superstitious about numbers and in Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures the number “4” is synonymous with “death” therefore most elevators throughout Asia don’t list a fourth floor. He also told me that the number 4 is avoided in telephone numbers and license plates on cars. Japan, for example, has no telephone prefixes starting with “4” and many people will refuse a cell phone number that contains it at all. In some countries, if you are issued a license plate containing a “4” you are allowed to return and exchange it. In Vietnam, where cars are issued a plate that remains on the vehicle even after it’s sold or traded, some Vietnamese will refuse to take possession of a new car because of the plate—others have traded vehicles just to get another set of numbers on the plates.

What makes this even more complicated is that Asian buildings use the “British” method of labeling floors. In the US, the ground floor is the just that, and the next floor up is the first floor. But in Britain, the ground floor is listed as the first floor and then they count up. So here at the Aryaduta Hotel, I am staying three floors above the ground but, under the British system, I am on the fourth floor but the elevator lists it as the fifth floor since there is technically no “number 4” in the hotel. Since I have time on my hands, I went to the front desk and asked them exactly what floor I’m staying on and, without batting an eye, they told me that officially I am on floor five and “there are no problems.”

Other numbers have other connotations—the number “8” is generally considered lucky in Asia. Personally I find this interesting but not all that odd—I’ve stayed in American hotels that didn’t have a 13^th floor.

My room (#511 and no problem) has about a 12 foot ceiling and in one corner of the ceiling someone pasted an Arabic-looking decal. I later found out every room has one of them and they are actually arrows pointing the direction to Mecca. Since the vast majority of visitors to the hotel are Muslim, they can know which way to face when they pray in their rooms.

The restaurant and sports lounge sell beer and wine but there is no “bar” such as you would find at a lounge in the US. I haven’t seen advertisements for whiskey, rum or any other “hard” liquors anywhere over here. At the Argentina/Germany soccer game the other night the lounge was packed to standing room only and I really wasn’t aware of people drinking beer. That’s something you definitely wouldn’t see at the Richmond Arms in Houston.

They have a beautiful lagoon-type swimming pool here and the kids especially love it. There is also a walking/running path that winds around the tennis courts and through some trees and foliage. I’d guess it’s probably about a quarter-mile and I’ve been pretty good about using it for at least 45 minutes every day—even in the rain which happens at least a little bit every day. I really enjoy the freedom here.

Because of the climate, much of the dining is outdoor and since we’ve been here they’ve been constructing an overhead canopy over one area. The lack of safety standards here just astounds me and yesterday I shot a picture of a guy welding a steel beam wearing open-toe sandals and wearing dark sunglasses. No OSHA standards here…… The buildings here have an unusual emblem at the top of the roofs—nearly all the more traditional buildings have them. You see something similar in Thailand where the emblem has a Buddhist religious meaning but I’m told that here they have no special meaning—it’s just an old, old architectural style. Some of the newer emblems are made of plastic and others have lightening rods embedded in them. They’re usually painted yellow and often are perched over red trim. Yellow and red seem to be favorite colors over here. Just a few things I found interesting in the hotel here…..

Celebrated Independence Day with a July 3rd BBQ and a Game on TV…..On Sunday We Found a Quaint Little Restaurant on the Side of a Hill.....

…..Saturday nights are BBQ night here at the hotel and Saturday fell on July 3^rd so, what the heck, I celebrated a day early. BBQ over here means basically “grilled” but they do a pretty good job. You pick out the food you want grilled—everything from seafood to ribs—and the chef cooks it on the grill and brings it to you. They have about six different BBQ sauces—one that tastes like ours and five that are pepper-based and head-jerking spicy. The secret is to figure out which one is regular—kind of like Russian roulette. Not exactly Texas BBQ, but not bad either.

The game on TV was the Germany/Argentina World Cup match and the sports lounge was packed—standing room only. I think the Aussie and I were the only Westerners there and the crowd seemed about 50/50 for both sides. It was really a loud, raucous bunch with no trouble and a really good time.

We finished the first full week of work Friday and I had a pretty good group—as you can see in the photo, they weren’t averse to laughing it up for the camera. I have a really good interpreter (the one standing in the back) and he can literally translate into Indonesian as I speak which is a rare talent. I’m half-way through this job and it hasn’t been bad.

On one of my first blog posts after we got here, I questioned the distance to this restaurant with the directions of +/- one kilometer.

Well, it became a standing joke between the Australian and me: if we could actually find the place, we'd eat dinner there no matter how good or bad the food. Then, for some reason, the sign just disappeared one day.

We made a couple of walks down the road but didn't know how far to go and couldn't find it. He made it a personal project to track this place down and did Google searches, checked over Google maps, and on Saturday we set out to see if this place actually exists. It does, but +/- one kilometer is a long ways to walk. Using his Google maps we hiked probably close to an hour, made a couple of turns we weren't sure of, and darned if we didn't find it. It is the neatest little restaurant--built on the side of a hill in several sections in what I would call cabanas, or little rooms separated by hallways and stairs. It is really interesting and neat. The company that owns it also has a large resort in Bali so the place had that ambiance. We were hot and sweaty so we just looked around, checked out the menu and made reservations for Sunday evening. They also had a small art gallery with crafts and paintings and I bought some souvenirs--something I hadn't been able to find since we've been here.

Sunday--July 4th--we took a taxi back and ate supper. Really a nice place and good food. So, in the end, I celebrated the 4th of July with a New Zealand tenderloin steak.....

Sunday Morning I Took a Two-Hour Walk around Town in the Area Around the Hotel…..

…..and enjoyed myself except that my clothing was literally saturated when I got back. This is humidity that makes Houston look like Arizona.

Kind of strange, but I didn’t see any other Westerners the whole time. The Australian trainer and I basically walked the main streets in a large square route and saw nobody else who looked American or Australian. Everybody was friendly, however. I’ve found that the Indonesians will look directly at you (in Africa they often won’t on the streets) but will say nothing. If you smile or say hello, however, they break into a big smile and respond. In that sense I think Indonesians are more outgoing than in many other developing countries.

We walked down to the Grand Mosque which is a huge complex and a magnificently beautiful blue and white building. The largest mosque in Indonesia is in Jakarta and I think it may be the largest in the world. This one, however, is considered to the most beautiful in the country. We didn’t try to go inside—I had a good introduction to mosques while I was in Egypt—but walked around the perimeter.

Indonesia is the most-populated country in Southeast Asia with over 230 million people and nearly 90% of them are Muslim (which means no pork chops on the hotel menu) but there seems to be a high degree of religious tolerance here—there is a large Christian church directly across one of the streets from the Grand Mosque. There are some extremist problems to the south and near the coasts of Thailand and Philippines but here in Pekanbaru it seems to be an outgoing, friendly form of religious belief. We do break each day for prayers at the Chevron compound and Friday has an extended prayer break at mid-day but it doesn’t cause any disruptions—everything is planned around it.

I have only seen two burkas (the full face-covering head cloth) here but the hajibs (head scarves with open faces) are very common—in fact they are basically the standard. I find it amusing that the young girls over here will wear the conservative hajibs with skinny jeans. There doesn’t seem to be any negative extreme connotation to them—there was a rock music program here at the hotel over the weekend and most of the people were teen-aged girls wearing the hajibs and having a good time laughing and clapping. It was strange, however, to see a woman in a body suit and head scarf in the swimming pool.

The mosques here are of a design I’ve never seen anywhere else. When I was in Cairo they told me there are four main architectural styles for mosques but these are really different—I would call them “onion dome” kind of like the architecture of the Kremlin in Russia. There are minaret towers on some of them (like the Grand Mosque), but most here are of the dome design. Because of the weather, they are mostly open-air and it seems there is a small mosque on nearly every corner of the city. The calls to prayer over the loud speakers seem to occur on the quarter-hour and last about fifteen minutes—I can hear one right now from my hotel room.

Not far from the hotel is a large, Chinese-style building that is a hospital—at least I think it looks Chinese.

We came across a traffic circle (they call them round-a-bouts and they are very common over here) that had an old 1950s early jet plane displayed. If you look at the photo carefully, however, you will also see two palm trees. Only they aren’t really palm trees—they’re cell phone towers disguised as trees. The coconuts are actually electronic gear. I can’t imagine the range being too great on them but it’s not the first time I’ve seen these—they are quite common in Africa as well.

The Sumatra regional library is a massive, modernistic building—the photo only shows half of it. Literacy seems to be very high over here and children are selling newspapers at every street corner and there seems to be a wide selection of papers. The building with a hole in the top over a dome is a government building. Indonesia is not a wealthy nation but you find buildings like the library and government buildings in various places so the government does provide basic services pretty well it seems.

Like I wrote earlier, the walk was only about two hours but it was an energy-sapping exercise…..

Did a Four-Hour Drive Outside Pekanbaru on Saturday.....

.....and visited an elephant conservation area.

By our standards it wasn't much of a preserve, but in Indonesia it is at least an attempt by someone to save these animals. Unfortunately we arrived in the heat of afternoon and the adults were off in the trees but we did get to see up close three young--two females and a bull--all around two years or younger.

The preserve itself is very basic but provides what the elephants need--a small river running through it, foliage to eat, and protection from poachers. Asian elephants are much smaller than the African species and these three were very tame and gentle. I think they were a little disappointed we didn't bring anything for them to eat because they got bored pretty quickly and took off but I got to hand feed one some grass.

The preserve itself is a pretty sad place--located right in the middle of an oilfield and really isolated from the main road but like I said, at least they're trying.

Another sad problem here is that in this area 65% of the forest has been cut down and replanted with palm trees in the past 25 years and palm oil is a major export in Indonesia. The problem is that elephants don't eat palm fruit and are quickly losing their habitat. It is really devastating the elephant population on Sumatra. The famed Sumatra tiger is also quickly disappearing.

On the way back, we came across a motorcycle doing probably 40-45 mph. The driver had a passenger behind him holding onto a wheelbarrow. If it had slipped out of his hands, the car behind them would never have been able to avoid it. Whatever it takes to get the job done, I guess......

Here’s What One Million, One Hundred Twenty Six Thousand Rupiahs (that's Ru 1,126,000.00) Look Like……

…..I can finally say I’ve carried a million around in my billfold. Makes me feel kind of like a drug dealer.

We finished up our first week of work today—actually two 2-Day training programs and all went very well. We have three excellent translators but frankly, most of the students speak more than passable English. The training facility is typical of corporate settings—I’ve seen them all over the world now—but more than adequate for what we’re doing.

The training vehicles are a really small model of Toyota that I’ve never seen before and although they are cramped inside, they get the job done. They drive on the left side of the road in Indonesia so the steering wheel is on what we would call the “passenger side.” By now I don’t have a lot of problems with left-side driving except that I keep reaching to the wrong side to put my seat belt on and use my windshield wipers instead of my turn indicators. I rarely try to get into a taxi behind the steering wheel anymore.

The hotel is more than adequate and we eat breakfast and dinner there but lunches are catered in and are definitely “local fare.” The attached photo shows a typical meal—everything revolves around rice here (as in most of Asia). The pouches contain sauteed sauces and usually an entrée—chicken or fish most of the time. Most of the sauces are pepper-based and so hot Westerners can’t eat them. I still believe Thai peppers are the hottest but many of these will literally jerk your head back if you bite into them. They are “hot” to the point they make jalapenos seem mild. You have to throw out all personal diets and cautions here and the three of us, Australian and Texans, have been pretty cautious about eating these meals. I generally don’t eat raw vegetables or salads outside the hotel but I have been eating these with no problems yet. The salad has a pouch of dark, thick brown sauce that does taste somewhat like peanuts and I’ve been using it on the salad as well as the rice. When they have chicken and it looks well-cooked I will eat that too but not the fish. The other Texan ate the fish the first day and was throwing up for two days. You just never know when you’re eating the local fare…….I’ve been sick twice on these overseas trips and it ain’t fun….. Maybe I’ve finally developed some level of tolerance by now—the sun-dried Tilapia in Kenya was a major test for me.

The local transportation here is typically Asian—thousands of small motorcycles, small mini-bus taxis, tuk-tuks (small three-wheel motorcycles used as taxis), and typical taxis. I’ve ridden all of them so I probably won’t try the local transit on this trip.

We have the weekend off and start a new five-day program Monday. If we can arrange it, we’re going to try to rent a taxi Saturday and see some of the city……..

Watched the US Soccer Team Beat Algeria in South Africa at a Sports Bar in Indonesia Wearing a Houston Dynamo Jersey.....

.....talk about a World Cup experience!!!!!

I was the only Yank in the place so I got the small-screen TV. The two projection screens had the England/Slovenia game which was important to the US team also so I watched both games at the same time. Fantastic finish in the final two minutes--the reason I enjoy soccer so much.....excellent result (as the Brits say).

The first 2-day class went ok and we finished up yesterday. This may not be a particularly interesting four weeks of blog materials--Pekanbaru is pretty remote and without much in the form of tourism. Walking around, I took a few shots of some of the local buildings. They are definitely Asian but not in the Thai style, more Chinese I think--and the Islamic tradition here also seems to affect their architecture.






































JUST HOW FAR IS IT TO THE KAYU MANTIS RESTAURANT ANYWAY?????

The sign says "plus or minus one kilometer"--just how far is that?

Made It To Indonesia But It Has To Have Been the Longest, Hardest Trip I've Done So Far.....

.....and surprisingly, the 17 1/2 hours from Los Angeles to Bangkok nonstop wasn't the hardest part--the layovers at three airports were the killers. We did our first day at work yesterday and I'm not sure right now what to expect for the next four weeks.

My initial reaction has been mixed--Pekanbaru is a city of about 750,000 people on the island of Sumatra which is the largest of approximately 1,000 islands that make up Indonesia. Flying in from Jakarta at low level, I could see the speckled dots in the water everywhere and I'm told many of the really small islands are uninhabited while other islands still haven't really been surveyed. The city is nice and clean but is very isolated and there is no tourism here that I've seen yet. I don't really think we'll be getting out from the hotel much even on weekends.

The hotel is nice but calling it a 4-star is a bit of a stretch. As was the case in Rwanda, the hotel grounds are really pleasant and even include a good sized jogging trail. My room overlooks the swimming pool and you can see the landscaping is really attractive. Almost nobody at the hotel speaks English which makes it a bit difficult at times. The restaurant is good although limited to Indonesian food which I'm still experimenting with but like what I've had so far. It does seem to be spicy in everything they prepare.

I only slept about three hours on the trip over so I got a good night of sleep the first night and my appetite seems normal so hopefully the effects of jet lag will be minimal.

The first day, we went out to the Chevron compound for a couple of hours to meet the interpreters and set the training up for the next four weeks and the compound is really a city in itself--very large with a commissary and even a golf course which doesn't help me but it does give you an idea how large the facility is. In lots of ways it reminded me of a military base.

Back in Pekanbaru, the Australian trainer and I walked around a little but frankly didn't see a lot of interest. There is a large building down the street from the hotel and we walked down and took some photos of it and a large statue in front of it. The statue was a bit unusual because as you see in the close-up, the soldier on the right has a Heineken beer bottle in his pocket.

The first day of work went pretty well but there were some major mixups--mostly language-related I think. For one thing, they didn't have training vehicles for us and that has to be straightened out today. Chevron hasn't been difficult to work with but they haven't actually greeted us or given us an orientation as to what to expect, what to avoid, etc. Kind of unusual for these jobs.

I had three students today, but like I said, we spent the whole day in the classroom. They speak pretty good English and my interpreter is really good so that part of the day went well. Back at the hotel, I had Thai green curry chicken for supper. So far, so good.....should know more tomorrow.

I’m Headed to Pekanbaru, Indonesia for Four Weeks in June/July…..

.....I’ll be doing multiple jobs for Chevron over there. It’s my first time working in Indonesia and Pekanbaru is located on the largest island—Sumatra—and is very near Malaysia and Singapore. I don’t know much about the area but I do know it’s a 33 ½ hour flight over there—Houston to Los Angeles to Bangkok to Jakarta to Pekanbaru. There will be three of us this time—one of those rare occasions when I’m working with other trainers. One of them is from Australia and I know him from my trip over there four years ago. We’re booked into what looks to be a really nice hotel and I think this is going to be a good job and another interesting adventure…..

They Have Texas Weather in Croatia.....and I Should Be Flying Out Tomorrow Morning.....

.....What a difference a day makes--yesterday was warm and sunny and this morning it was cold, rainy, overcast and strong winds. I mean cold like where people were wearing scarves and gloves today.

I finished up at noon today and got back to the hotel early so I walked around a while and decided to take a trolley to the Technical Museum. Its not something I would usually visit but I was killing time and it turned out I really enjoyed myself. Like all museums here, the admission is ridiculously cheap but the museum was fantastic and I ended up spending almost all afternoon there.

They had exhibits on old fire equipment--the photo above is a 1925 Chevrolet fire truck used by the Zagreb fire department. There were also exhibits on grist milling history, oil wells, old cars, airplanes, streetcars and all types of transportation. They even had a small submarine. I had good timing today and got to go into a coal mine and even though the guide didn't speak English, I enjoyed it too.

I checked with Croatia Airlines this afternoon and they said my flight tomorrow morning is scheduled to leave on time and my connection in Frankfurt should be ok too. We'll see.....

This evening I went back up to the Old Town and ate at a restaurant I hadn't been to before--pretty good but a little pricey. After that I took a trolley to the hotel to start packing. This has been a good trip and good job but it looks like I'm outta here.....

I'm Heading Home in a Couple of Days.....Maybe.....

.....I'm getting conflicting reports--the embassy says all flights are still on hold but the travel agency in Texas says my reservations are confirmed so it's day-to-day right now.

The sunny weather has held since last Sunday and it starting to even get a little warm now. Finally!!! Because of the travel problems, I only had one student for today and tomorrow. His name is Vytautas Petravicihs and he drove down from Lithuania--a twenty hour drive. Do you have any idea what his name does to my spell checker?

Anyway, with just one person we got finished early and with the beautiful weather I decided to go back to Maksimir Park when we got back to the hotel. I had gone there briefly Saturday morning but wanted to do some walking around in a new area so I took the trolleys (I'm getting very comfortable making trolley transfers without even checking the maps now) out to the park.

It's a beautiful old park--built in 1862 and named after Emperor Maximilian--and shows its age but is still a real pleasure to walk around in. There are literally miles and miles of trails with occasional pavilions, obelisks and monuments. This obelisk commemorates the establishment of the park and was dedicated in 1863.

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Another monument of a large falcon is the Mogila--created in 1925 to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of the founding the the first Croatian Kingdom.

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Modern Croatia dates back only to 1995 and independence from Yugoslavia but the Croatian nation has survived the Ottoman Turks, World War I (which started in the Balkans), Nazi Occupation, and Communist rule. Croatian nationalism is resilient and very obvious around Zagreb today. I also stumbled across an old chapel on one of the trails--build in the late 1800s. Croatia is abut 85% Catholic and they don't hesitate to mix the church with the state here.

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I walked around for probably two hours admiring the trees, lakes and scenery. One thing I seem to remember from my early travels is that Europeans know how to design parks. Or maybe its just that they know how to use them. Although it was a mid-week afternoon, there were people everywhere--young couples, older retires, families with children, joggers and bicyclists. What I didn't see were drug dealers, graffiti, hookers, panhandlers or homeless sleeping on the benches. It was really refreshing just seeing a park being enjoyed by everybody.


I caught a trolley back to the main square and walked up into the Old City and ate at an outdoor restaurant called Leonardo's. It's build on a steep cobblestone alley and the seating looks a lot like a cable car. I had a table about half-way up with a nice view of the cathedral spires as the sun was going down. Had a Greek salad and a small pizza. Life is good......
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Absolutely Beautiful Day Saturday But Sunday Was Back to Grey Overcast Skies.....

.....as you can see in the pictures of my previous post. Last night was really nice too, turned cool but still a nice day all in all.

This morning, however, the sun was completely hidden and has yet to come out. When its gloomy here, it is downright depressing. I'm not sure if the volcano is causing this or just lousy weather. I'm keeping an eye on the volcano news--I'm scheduled to fly out next Friday but right now the airports here, in Frankfurt, and all over Europe are closed.

I did to to the soccer game Saturday night and enjoyed myself thoroughly. They take their soccer seriously over here and it was a different experience. I know most people who read this blog aren't into soccer, but I posted a more in-depth description of it--including a couple of videos and a lot of photos--in another blog where I communicate mostly with Devin. If you want to check it out, here's the address:

http://dynamotraveler.blogspot.com/

I visited an antique flea market today (Sunday) but didn't find anything I can't live without--lots of old Nazi and Russian military stuff but I can't tell the difference between authentic and replicas and nothing I'm particularly interested in anyway. It started raining so I caught a trolley back to the hotel and spent most of the afternoon just taking it easy in the room and getting my materials ready for Monday.

Monday morning was nicer weather and the Croatian airport is open today. I'm doing two short refresher courses this week and today I had students from Bosnia, Macedonia and Hungary. The student from Belgium was the only volcano ash casualty. It's really nice working with these guys because they speak excellent English--in fact they use a lot of slang terms.

We wrapped up the first refresher program this afternoon (Tuesday) and they were a really good group. As usual, I got back to the hotel, changed clothes and put on my running shoes, and hit the streets for a little over two hours walking. I've done really well with my exercising while I've been here and it dawned on me this evening that by know I know the Old City well enough to be a tour guide. I know all the narrow, cobble stone alleys between the ancient buildings, all the park areas, and all the neat views of the lower city. I also know a lot of good restaurants around town. I'm kind of going to miss this place when I leave. If the volcano blows again, maybe I can spend a few more days here.....