Leaning tower of Abu Dhabi

I am so fascinated by the insane architecture being done for AD that I wanted to post this most remarkable one. It now holds the record for the most leaning structure in the world. I read extensively about it and they used so much steel in the exterior walls (at least 3x normal) that the windows are tiny. They have no real use for it, so it is a museum for the City plus other incidental things.

You should look on google for the new Guggenheim and the new Louvre buildings being built in AD. They are on a binge of hiring the most famous architects in the world and building everything at no expense spared, just to try to put AD on the map.

Indonesia 2011

Photos: My hotel in Ubud, Bali attached to the world's most beautiful restaurant - the Lotus.

The whole room and porch had marble floors. The porch had a nice writing table and dining table. The view from the porch was of the wonderful garden and breakfast area. The bed was comfortable, bathroom so nice and service and food were perfect.This was $60 a night and well worth it.

I was scheduled to fly from Toronto to HK, then on to Singapore and then on to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe Jakarta), Indonesia on January 25th. I had paid for several onward air reservations and some hotel nights. But 11 days before, I fell ill with the worst chest cold I ever experienced. I was knocked down flat for the entire 11 days. I did get a five day antibiotic prescription which barely made a dent in my misery. I then had to decide whether to make this 36 hours initial journey and rest of the trip or to cancel. Because I always end up in Asia during the Chinese Lunar New Year, I know that for the entire month of February you cannot possibly change any reservation for air or train travel - the only option is cancel.

The alternative was to stay home indoors avoiding the wretched offerings of February. I decided to travel. When I arrived in Yogya., I had booked a really beautiful 4-5 star hotel called The Phoenix. It was a 100% renovated, modern, comfortable (max) colonial styled property in the middle of town for an incredibly low price (until I had to add one day and also a late check out which cost almost three times what other nights cost). I was concerned that I might get worse after the antibiotic wore off. I felt so terrible when I arrived that I could not establish alone whether I was worse or better. I asked the desk to find an M.D. for me. They have a special phone for foreigner medical problems on which I described my condition. They said they would have a doctor at my room in 30 minutes or less.

It was so like some old movie. The doctor pedals up to the door of this grand hotel within 30 minutes and is escorted to my room. He is young(ish), very thorough and professional and decides that I am not worse, but not improved either. He warns of indicators that I am getting worse and says I should go directly to a hospital, gives me 7 days of vitamins, collects his $70 and departs.

I did little the next days except lay in bed watching BBC, Al Jazeera, and a (horrible) Russian station go on about Egypt - until I did not care what happened there. Occasionally I would drag myself to the great pool and lay there for hours in the shade. I had no appetite at all and once a day would at least eat fruit for breakfast, and try to have soup or more fruit later. I eventually lost more than 10 lbs.

I was in Yogya mainly to go to the temple of Borobudur. I hired a car and driver and went out there. As usual, I do these things mostly for the drive and only a little to see one more pile of stone and another temple. The drive out there was really pretty. The troublesome Mt. Merapi is even visible from Yogya, but is highly visible all the way out. My driver swore it is still erupting constantly, but as the cone was wrapped in clouds, I could not see any effluent.

The temple was not a ruin - surprise. It is perfectly intact. It is a stupa shape, which is not esp. handsome - to me - and of minor interest. I struggled for breath to climb to the top, spent some considerable up there mainly contemplating Mt. Merapi, and the struggled back to the car.

Eventually, I left for Lombok. Of course, I have been there several times and I had plans of going to snorkel etc in more exotic places, but could not handle it, so I went to Lombok where I knew I would be comfortable.

From there, I took a high speed small ferry Back to Bali and Ubud. There I hired a driver to take me out to the botanical gardens which is a huge forest park where I walked slowly for hours. It is on a misty mountain peak. My driver took me over to the highest peak in Bali, Mt. Agung, and to some pretty and famous temples and small towns, and then back to Ubud. I took another driver and car up to Singaraja on a different route and stopped along the ocean at several pretty beaches. The rest of the time I hung out at the pool and walked and rested. It was not an adventurous trip. But it was not Toronto, was about 33 C. most of the time, and I did enjoy it.

As you can imagine, my cold was so severe and hard to recover from due to a known underlying condition. A few days after my return, I was scheduled to see a specialist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre about starting treatment. I am probably going to be eligible to join a study which is supposed to be more gentle and effective than standard chemo. If I do not fit into the study, I will have no choice remaining except chemotherapy or to decline any treatment.

Indonesia 2011

I have never previously been able to get a clear and full shot of the A380. This is the one I flew on from Singapore to Hong Kong on the way home. You will notice two rows of windows, and on this flight I was on the upper deck, back, just over the red flag. The flight was full with 492 passengers of which 399 were economy and the rest business class plus a huge crew. I thought Emirates handled their A380 well when I flew that, but Singapore airlines is so superior to every other line that their food and service were way superior even to Emirates. The craft looks like a normal one - especially when you cannot get a comparative view of the length of the wings. But once you look at the immense engines, you can see it is a true giant.

Every Lunar New Year, many Chinese families buy a new outfit for their kids - often bizarre. This little boy was in a pure linen set of a formal vest (tuxedo cut) and shorts. He looked like he was from about 1890. His big sister was more Lady Gaga and truly bizarre, but she could not have been happier.

I think I will not ever return to Bali, and probably not to Indonesia. Indonesia only because I have done the easier parts. Now that I am not young, I am losing the appetite to go back to 12 hour bus rides in dreadful conditions to see marginal sights. But I had always thought I would like to spend much of my retirement in Bali; not anymore. It is so overbuilt, so much noisy motor traffic, so much damage to the environment, that I think it is pointless to return. The local people are making a little more money which allows some of them to build a (junky) house in what had been a producing rice paddy. They worry about tree branches falling from big trees - like the Banyan trees - during the annual typhoon, so they are cutting down all the great Banyan trees. Yes, you do see some, but they told me they are mainly the ones close to temples or historical sites and protected. As a result of so much building on what was their best arable land, they are switching from a 2x annual rice harvest to 3x - like the Thais. This means they use much more chemical treatments which has a toxic impact on the birds, snakes, frogs, fish etc. Of course, no rice farmer ever regrets the death a bird, not to mind their extinction.

The absolutely insane obsession of western women with "shopping" has tured many of these places into outdoor malls. Sometimes you see a wall of t-shirts six feet high and a block long. One day in Lombok, I ate a v. slow lunch in a seaside cafe. When I arrived, there were two mid-aged women eating and shopping by pawing thru walking vendors' display cases of earrings, rings, necklaces, bracelets, watches, fabricis, etc etc. They spent at least 90 minutes while I was there "shopping." I moved over to a lounge chair a bit back from the ocean and rested there another 3.5 hours and those same women were about 25' in front of me on the beach sand. There again, for the whole time they were shopping. Sometimes there were eight vendors lined up to sell them something. This is great for the locals who are poor and need the chance to make some income. But it does overwhelm any charm of the place.

It is common to all who go there and to many Asian places, that all foreigners, all day long face shouts of "Hey mister, Taxi? Transport transport." over and over probably 300-500 times a day. Every 20 feet there is somebody shouting at you. If you do nor respond, they quite often think you didn't hear, so they increase the volume and frequency or chase after you. It becomes so irritating and inescapable day after day every minute. You are no longer a person - just a set of dollar bills walking past an opportunity. The locals have by now heard it all and really have no sincere interest in who you are or what you are - just how much can you contribute to my personal economy.

If you happen to want to go to Bali, and can just do - or mainly do - resorts, they are amazing. Just look up Jayakarta resorts/hotels on the internet. They are all v. large and magnificiently groomed, and not that expensive ($100 day for a grand bungalow or room in a fantastic resort with several pools, activities, and restaurants). They insulate you from the irritants and give you the best of everything.

A funny thing to me was the huge number of white men and women there taking up local love affaires. One was an anorexic, bleached,face-lifetd French woman at least in mid-60s, with a giant brown guy who was obviously a model and body builder - I thought from Fiji. She actually was constantly crawling up one of his legs to kiss him. I heard her say they were travelling there for a month, so by now she probably has been at the bottom of the ocean for at least a week. There was no future in that relationship.

I saw a lot of men from early 20s to retirement age with Indon women - always over 30 years of age and some way over that age. The varieties were astonishing. I never (as usual) saw anything resembling prostitution.

It was a fortunate break to be out of Toronto in February and I am pleased that I went.