Upright & Stowed

2008, A Year of Travel Highlights

This was an amazing travel year for me.    Especially on the heels of a few years which – by David Alport standards – were a bit thin in the travel department.  Herewith, my top travel moments of 2008.  I hope that you have your own list, and I look forward to sharing more adventures, thoughts and dreams with you in the year ahead.  Happy New Year!!!

March, San Francisco:  Standing in Civic Center Plaza as a member of the crowd of extras, watching Sean Penn deliver Harvey Milk’s soaring 1978 speech to come out of the closet. 

April, Bear Mountain, NY:  My first AIDS Lifecycle hill training with cycle buddy (and all-around buddy) John.  Reaching the top of the mountain made me realize that I was not going to have as much trouble completing the 7-day California journey as I’d been worrying about.

April, Vancouver: Though it snowed on April 20th (!!!!) and I complained through every flake, I loved spending time in this beautiful city, mostly because I was with beautiful Eduardo.

May, JFK-SFO: My first flight on Virgin America.  An experience that will be repeated many times.  This is an airline created by people with brains.

June, Lompoc, CA:  Riding up an insanely steep and long hill on Day 5 of the AIDS Lifecycle, drawing all of my energy by thinking about the many amazing people in my life, some gone, most still here.  By the time I reached the top, my face was streaked with tears.

June, Los Angeles:  Crossing the finish line in Los Angeles after riding 545 miles from San Francisco, seeing both sets of parents and so many friends waiting and cheering.   A highlight moment of my life.

June, Meat Packing District, NYC:  My trip down the block to Florent for closing night.  Bittersweet, but nothing like going out with a bang and a party.  All hail Florent.

July, Sebago Lake, Maine:  Jumping into a warm lake under a moonlit sky ... naked.  Pure, heavenly bliss.

August, Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya:  Traveling with my friend and colleague Steve on my first visit to the heart of Africa … and a refugee camp borne of  unspeakable civil strife.  Seeing the smiles and hearing the stories of these people was heart-breaking and soul-stirring at the same time.

August, Kibera Slum, Nairobi, Kenya: Touring the second largest slum in Africa, and feeling the light and hope that shines even in the most difficult of situations.

September, Masai Mara, Kenya:  Elephants and Giraffes and Tigers and Wildebeests and Rhinos and Cheetahs and Hyenas, oh my!

November, London: Rediscovering this amazing city after way too many years away.  Old friends, new friends, disco roller skating, the London Eye, the Tate Modern.  Urban doesn't get any better!

November, Times Square, NYC:  Election night, 11:05 in Times Square.  Need I say more?

November, St. Louis:  The blissful joy of being surrounded by family with nothing to do but eat.

December, New York, New York:  A month without a plane flight and the chance to soak in the rich diversity, creativity and culture that make this town my favorite place to return to in the whole wide world. 

Tipping Guide for Travelers

My last post was about tip misappropriation in NYC, so I thought this a good time to share some useful information on tipping abroad.  Tips can feel like a nuisance, and at fancy hotels, it often seems that you're handing out bills like water.  But tips are part of the system (in some places more than others) and you're smart to follow local guidelines.  

And smarter tipping has its payoffs:  Leave a few bucks on your pillow when you depart your hotel room for the day (even at a moderately-priced place), and you will often find the room made up with discernibly more loving care.  Slip a tip to your hotel bartender, and you’ll get a bit tipsier from that drink.   And make sure you adequately reward any concierge you plan to assign a serious task, such as hard-to-get tickets or reservations. 

Travel & Leisure recently published a nifty "World Tipping Guide” slide show.  It’s a great tool.    Now you have no excuses for under- or over-tipping.   

Photo credit

Delivery Gets Its Due

This is a familiar site if you live in New York City.   A food delivery guy making life a lot easier for you and me by navigating his bike on the city streets.  I love my delivery people.   They schlep to my place, trudge up four flights of stairs and never sigh, shrug or complain, despite (I’ve heard) living under some of the most awful conditions in the city.  I always round up delivery tips, to somewhere between 25% and 30%.   I think of it not as charity but as fair compensation for hard and low-paying work. 

A few weeks ago the, thirty-six delivery workers at two Saigon Grill restaurants in Manhattan were awarded $4.6 million in back pay for violations of minimum wage and overtime laws.  I’ve eaten at the Saigon Grill (once), and I thought the food sucked.  No surprise, throngs of baby stroller-pushing Upper West Siders were lining up to get in.  Never could I have imagined that the owners sucked so much more than the food.  Happily, justice has been served. 

Next time you get home delivery, remember how hard the delivery guys work and open up your wallet with a generous tip.      Photo by ShhPeKo on Flickr

Christmas Cactus

I was given the cactus (on the left) for my 30th birthday, 18 years ago.  It survived an initial 10 years with limited light ... a 3-year abandonment when I moved to San Fran ...  a near-fatal transfer from inside to out, when I got my place with a deck ... and various other bumps and falls.   It has also enjoyed a lot of love, attention and admiration from yours truly.

It thrives and it grows.

Just like me. And just like you. 

In the spirit of continuing to grow no matter how hard the challenges and how rich or poor the rewards, have yourself a merry little Christmas, a happy Hanukkah, a bang-up Kwanzaa, an excellent few days off of work, and a few moments to reflect on the wonders of life.

A Corner Turned

 Today is one of my favorite days of the year.  Because from today until June 21st, we gain a few minutes of additional sunlight every day.  Sure, it's going to get colder before it gets warmer ... today is also only the first day of winter.  But light is life, and I always feel a lot of life on the day of the winter solstice.    Photo credit: Barney at Flickr

Upside-Down

Here is my nephew Jeremy, in a picture I took in St. Louis over Thanksgiving.  As you'll note, Jeremy is upside-down.  I've posted this shot because it makes me smile on a day in which I feel kind of upside-down myself. 

Today Barack Obama announced that a homophobic, divisive, evolution-denying evangelist will give the inaugural invocation.  I was hopeful that after the gays accepted Barack's luke-warm (though understandable) embrace during the campaign, Obama would reach out more generously once safely elected.  Alas ... not to be.  The Warren selection feels like a gut punch.   So, while I'm prepared to be highly moved on inauguration day, it's all going to be a bit less rosy having to listen to a fat and misguided preacher at the podium.

Caribbean Nightmare

In 1976, my father and step-mother took me, my two brothers and my step-sister on what – by any normal measure – was a dream vacation: Three weeks island-hopping across the Caribbean, from St. Martin to Grenada. 

In fact, it was a trip from hell.

As the above picture  evidences, we are all miserable … and pretty hideous to boot (so much for managing my own press).  That’s me standing in the middle wearing a LONG-sleeved shirt, LONG pants, very bad long hair, hideous glasses and a “please don’t take my picture or come near me” pose.  This was one of our happier days.

Time changes everything.  Dad and Doris have been married for 35 years, and we all get along great now.   I am making this post because today they left their home in San Diego for a 4 week trip back to the islands, their first visit in years.  I hope they remember the hell they put us through (tee hee), and have a great trip.

Cultural Triple Becomes A Grand Slam!

I’ve had a fantastic New York City cultural week.  Unfortunately for you, most of the performances I saw were in limited runs.  Fortunately for you, each is (likely to be) an annual occurrence.  So mark your damn calendar and don’t miss them next year.  

First hit:  Fraulein Maria, at Joe's Pub, one of my favorite Manhattan venues. Doug Elkins’ choreographs a hilarious group performance to the soundtrack hits from the movie The Sound of Music.  Side-splitting.

Second Hit:  Pina Bausch’s Bamboo Dreams at BAM.  The Next Wave Festival is one of the greatest of NYC’s many cultural greats, and Bausch’s  work is always captivating and mesmerizing: Dreamlike, gorgeous, amusing, challenging, remote and accessible, this year’s India-inspired work sent me to heaven.

Third Hit:  Justin Bond’s Close To You: A Karen Carpenter Christmas.  My favorite downtown performer pays homage to the legendary Karen.  In a word, brilliant.  At the Henry Street Settlement Abrons Art Center, a new venue for me, on the way, way Lower East Side. 

The Home Run:  Bumping into my friend David W. at a party on Saturday night and having him tell me that he, too, hated Billy Elliot.  And he saw it with his mom, just like I did.   Redemption!!!!

Where Am I/What Happened?

 

In November 1998, I went to India.  The first shot is a picture taken from my hotel room at the Taj Mahal, in Mumbai.  As everyone knows, the Taj was at the center of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai two weeks ago.   You probably saw pictures of the Taj in flames. Sad, very sad.  The second picture is a shot of the door to my old apartment in New York City.   It was also taken in November 1998.  

Here's what happened:  The day I arrived in Mumbai, there was a horrific fire in the apartment one floor below mine, back in New York.  As I was preparing to head out for my first evening in Mumbai, the hotel room phone rang.  It was a call from home, telling me what had happened.   My place was pretty trashed, and one of our beloved doormen was very badly burned.  So my primary memory of the next three nights at the Taj is lying awake for hours and nearly having a nervous breakdown knowing what was happening back home.

What’s the point?  I guess it’s that the world works in strange ways, and when you look for the lines between people, places and experiences, you can usually find them.  We’re all connected, and when the earth shakes in one place, there are reverberations in others.

Despite the drama, India was one of the most amazing travel experiences of my life.  I can’t wait to go back and see all the changes of the past 10 years.  And I plan to stay at the Taj. 

Maybe/Really

I go through phases with my blog.  Right now, I'm struggling to find the time and energy to post.  I've got things to say, but I don't have the motivation.  Why?  Maybe it's because it's been a long and busy year.  Maybe it's because I'm tired.  Maybe it's because the election is over.  Maybe it's the economy.  Maybe it's my lousy dating life.  Or maybe it's something else altogether. 

Whatever it is, I apologize for the low-energy posts, and I hope to make it up to you by posting this really cute picture of me on a really happy day, with my really good friend Scott, under the really awesome redwoods of Russian River, CA.  The necklace by the way, was a really short-lived phase (about a week), but a really happy one.