| Submitted by: Mark R. LeeperUnited States |
| Submission Date: 09 February 2005 |
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The flight to New York was long and the air was very dry and we
were all pretty miserable. However, toward the end we got a little
more excitement. As we were circling Kennedy, a man in a uniform
came along and asked Binayak to get his carry-on stuff and accompany
him. We landed and Binayak was not back. I asked one flight
attendant what this was all about; he denied any knowledge of it and
said that the people in front didn't recognize Binayak's name. I
asked another, making sure that she knew we were all traveling
together. She said she didn't know anything about it either. I
decided it was time to do what I do best--get cranky. 'You mean you
just let people in uniform wander through the plane and take
passengers off without knowing who they are?' This got results.
Binayak had indeed been on the list of people called up, but they
were all off the plane and we should meet him in the terminal. We
got in and there was a huge line for non-United-States citizens,
while we got waved through. It turned out Binayak wasn't in that
either, since when they people called forward (mostly aliens without
visas) had gotten off the plane they lost track of him and he just
walked through the resident alien line, which was very short.
Our luggage was a while coming off. Ours seemed to be at the
end and mine was the last of all, making think that this was Chiang
Mai all over again and my suitcase (which I had checked) was in
Phuket. It wasn't, though, and eventually showed up. We piled all
the luggage on the cart that Barbara had gotten and headed for
Customs. We handed all four forms to the Customs official (Mark and
I get to share one). He waved us through. Then he looked at
Binayak. 'Where's your luggage?' We all gestured towards the big
pile on the cart and said, 'In there.' He looked at the cart,
looked at us, and decided either that if Binayak were traveling with
us he was okay or that he didn't want to have five people all moving
luggage and hanging around him so he could check one person's
luggage. So he waved us all through. (Someone at work claims the
reason Customs gives Indians a hard time is not that they think
they're smuggling drugs or anything like that, but that they think
they're bringing in fruits and vegetables. Still, it can't help but
look racist.)
Our limo (van) was there and we returned to Chez Leeper. When
I got in I told the driver that if we all fell asleep he should wake
someone up at the Raritan toll plaza for directions and sure enough,
we all did fall asleep, though we woke up in time to give him
directions after all. When we got back, Steve changed into his
costume and headed out for his party. Barbara discovered she had
forgotten her camera in the limo, and called the company to have
them page the driver. He came back about a half-hour later with it.
(Well, if she had to forget it, New Jersey was probably the best
place!)
And now I suppose I should make some final comments. I think
we probably didn't get as much out of Malaysia and Singapore as we
might have because by the time we got there we were getting a bit
tired. We also found ourselves with less time there than we had
originally planned because it took longer to get from place to
place. In Hong Kong, the New Territories were more interesting than
Hong Kong and Kowloon, which makes me think that getting out of the
big cities in Malaysia would have been nice. The friendliest
country was probably Thailand--maybe because it has no history of
colonialism which might generate resentment of Westerners. Not that
people were hostile anywhere, but in the other places they seemed
more involved in internal issues. This is understandable: Hong Kong
is looking at 1997, Malaysia was in the midst of national elections,
and Singapore is busy turning itself into the city of the future.
These are all laudable, of course--I'm merely saying from a selfish
perspective that we found Thailand the most receptive. I would
certainly recommend any of these countries to people traveling. I
would also recommend spending more time in any of them than we did.
As one travel guide sums up travel in this part of the world: 'More
time, less luggage.' I would have liked to get to Macau. I would
have liked to have seen the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. I
would have like to have seen Eastern Malaysia (Sarawak and Sabah).
I would have liked to have gotten to Sukothai in Thailand, and maybe
gone over into Laos. Oh, well, maybe next time....
Well, at the beginning I said we wanted to do this for under
US$2500 each. For Mark and me the cost came out to be:
Plane - 2610
Other Transportation - 276
Tours - 233
Lodging - 496
Film and Developing - 273
Food - 321
Souvenirs - 117
Miscellaneous - 325
TOTAL - 4651
or US$2325 each. Of course, we didn't buy much, but our film costs
help make up for it.
Oh, and the answer to the math quizzes were 13, 41, and I don't
know the last one. Sorry!
T H E E N D
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October 4, 1990: Where should I start? I guess it would be a good
idea if you, as a reader, knew with whom you were traveling. There is
me, Mark Leeper, frustrated mathematician and film and science fiction
fan. There's Evelyn, my wife and even more frustrating than the math
career. Steve Goldsmith used to be Evelyn's supervisor. He recently
moved to another project because he, no doubt, found working with Evelyn
frustrating. Then there is Binayak Banerjee. He used to be Evelyn's
office mate but he got frustrated and left the project. Finally there
is Barbara Iskowitz. As far as I can tell Evelyn has not yet frustrated
Barbara, but the trip is young. Barbara works in the local bell Labs
Product Center and that is connected to Evelyn's area. Barbara and
Binayak are good friends and often swap cats.
Actually this whole trip came out of Binayak's comment that he
thought Americans travel wrong and that they need to have the whole way
prepared for them when they travel, that they need to have a hotel
reservation for every hotel before they leave the United States. Also
he claimed it is more expensive to travel that way. His sort of travel
is more flexible. 'Fine,' I said. 'Let's try a trip your way. Where
shall we go?' Originally we were planning on going to Bhutan, Sikkim,
and Nepal. We did a fair amount of planning on that trip before we
learned that Bhutan was going through a period of anti-foreigner policy.
Nepal also was having internal problems. So we had a style of travel
but no place to travel in that style. I think it was I who suggested
Southeast Asia since my parents had gone there and enjoyed it and also
suggested it was very inexpensive, especially Malaysia. Eventually we
decided on Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Of course,
this requires considerably more planning. Binayak, Evelyn, and I were
the original group. Steve wanted to come. He wanted to bring two more
people, but they canceled. Barbara and Sameer Siddiqui also thought
they wanted to come but then said no, they wouldn't. They were each
sort of on again, off again. I offhandedly called them Schroedinger's
members. This was after the Schroedinger's Cat thought experiment in
which it is indeterminate whether the cat is alive or not until the
experiment ends, you look at the cat, and in the terminology of the
physics 'the wave form collapses.' I am not sure what that means, but I
said we would only know if they were coming when we sat on the plane,
looked around to see if they were with us, and the wave form collapses.
Sameer eventually decided he did not think he could afford even so
inexpensive a trip. We expect to do twenty-four days for roughly $2400
a person. I have to say that the greatest share of the planning was
done by Evelyn and Binayak who are out two fastest readers so could
assimilate information the most quickly. Ironically it was Binayak who
was least anxious that we plan in advance. He did not want to spoil the
spontaneity. There was some friction between Binayak and me since I
wanted to get people thinking in advance what sites they wanted to
visit. To Binayak's way of thinking this endangered the spontaneity.
Finally I was able to point to a book Binayak likes, Asia Through the
Back Door, that recommends you do have a very complete plan before you
travel--just don't believe it all. It is like at work you set up a
schedule for when a task will be done. You don't believe every
milestone but you have a better idea of how you are allocating your time
and have a better appreciation for what effect slippage has on the
overall plan. We finally compromised. Less than two weeks before the
trip we made up an itinerary, at least of cities. And even that
required a few changes of plans.
Speaking of plans, this will be my first opportunity to see if my
jet lag cure works going west. Generally the night before I travel east
I stay up all night. Then I sleep on the plane. At least going east
this is good for jet lag. Our first morning in Amsterdam I felt pretty
fresh. Dale and Jo, our traveling companions, were still very bleary-
eyed. I admit I did doze a couple of times last night, but I got under
a half hour of sleep in all. I have dozed several times on the plane
(but I am getting a little ahead of myself). I stayed up almost all
night and was ready to leave by 7:30 AM. The limo was scheduled to
arrive by 8 AM. Steve showed up at 7:40 and I would have felt more
comfortable if Binayak and Barbara had also. At about 7:50 AM the limo
was there but still no B&B. They showed up about 8:10. That seemed to
be cutting things a bit close. It seems the three guys are each
bringing suitcases that double as backpacks. Actually Steve's is a
backpack, pure and simple. My backpack/suitcase is set up to be used
with a handle or a strap or as a backpack. It is borrowed from Dale
Skran, and it seems like the right sort of idea, particularly for a trip
like this. Evelyn has a nylon suitcase with a strap which will make
things a little more difficult. Barbara has more traditional suitcases.
This will give us an opportunity to compare. I slept what I thought was
only a little in the limo, but it must have been more than I thought
since I was surprised when we got to Kennedy.
We checked some of our bags and went to sit in the cafeteria. I
was not hungry but the others got food. I walked around a little. I
reflected that I was happy to be going to countries where I expected the
locals probably knew the local currency. This is not the case in the
United States, of course. Education is starting to fail in the United
States even in such basics as understanding our own currency. There was
a big sign up in the cafeteria that said if you bought an entree, you
could get a salad for just '.99 cents.' This was in an international
terminal. I pity the poor foreign traveler trying to figure out our
money when so many Americans say '.99 cents' when they mean '99 cents'
or '$.99.' I would imagine some wonder if there is a hundredth-of-a-
cent coin. God help us if '.99 cents' becomes an irregular but accepted
expression of '99 cents.' It is like saying this coat costs $5 when it
really costs $500 'and you should know we meant hundreds.'
We must have boarded about 11:30 AM. No sooner did Barbara step on
the plane than the wave form collapsed in front of everybody. |
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