On a Palshicruise

 This is the place. This is where the newest Disney ship will depart from very soon.  Soo... The question is, with something that I am this excited about, is anyone else? I mean, media accounts make it sound like all Singapore is excited!  So I went looking... I did find where the Disney Adventure will embark on its career as a theme park on the water. But she's not there today (I was hoping to get an early peek!) That is a massive cruise ship, but it's not the Disney Adventure! So... Where's the evidence of excitement in Singapore? Maybe they're somewhere I could see evidence of Disney excitement? Somewhere? I don't know... Maybe somewhere public? Oh! Oh! There it is! In the subway station on the way to the cruise terminal! Yaas! There it is!! "Where Magic Meets the Sea!" 

 When I visit a country on Sunday, I go to church! It is lovely to see the diversity of people throughout the world! Finding food is always a chore when traveling. But in Singapore's Little India, there's lots of tasty food to eat!! That said I don't need large meals. I have found a chain of machines that fresh squeeze juice, and that was a perfect way to start the day!  I want these in the US!! After church, it's time to explore, and see about taking the subway to the cruise terminal very soon!!

  There's a new Adventure!

It's only now that I truly feel like I am on my way home. Only a couple minutes into our flight, and the lights, glitz and squalor of Mumbai have been left behind as our jet races over the Arabian Sea. Briefly I spotted the lights of a cargo ship reflecting off the water but even that faded into the night, slipping over the horizon.  With a murmured "Goodbye Mumbai," my visit to India truly feels done. The one big difference this visit from other visits is in the past there has been this feeling of finality. When I was 10 years old, I had no real control over when or how I might return. Years later when I was 18 years old, I had some degree of autonomy but no true financial ability to return. Another thirteen years after that, I was lucky enough to have a brief visit but as a father to young children, raising them was the top priority for both time and money. Now it's different. My children are adults, now. They made space in their lives for in...

I'm not afraid of flying. I love flying! I'd like to get a pilot license some day! But when flying, I do feel vulnerable. I understand why early flight attendants were required to be nurses because anything can happen in that metal tube sailing between heaven and Earth. The only people there to help us is the flight crew.  I'm mentally preparing for 22 hours of flying, leaving at 0200 and flying west, chasing the sun, with a stop in Amsterdam, arriving in Portland at noon. It will be a 36 hour day. But I don't mind time zone silliness. What has me worried is geopolitics. Flying to Delhi involved flying to the Black Sea just west of Ukraine, and then along the Black Sea, past cities that have become notorious, such as Odessa and Zaporizhzhia, and over waters were Russian forces launch hypersonic missiles. The other half of my travel party that left a week ago had a flight alteration because of increasing hostilities between Israel and Iran. Again, I completel...

Set on a mountain top surrounded by wilderness sits the Tiger Fort, one of a chain of fortifications that the Marata armies captured. The Government of India placed warning signs to beware of big cats, including tigers and leopards. The word for leopard directly translates to "Spotted Tiger" so I can confidentiality say that tigers have been spotted near this fort! (Too much of a dad joke?) The complete opposite of Janjeera in many ways, except the availably of fresh water. Sinhagad was a huge sprawling fortification, on the top of a mountain. It was captured by Shivaji and the Marata army and became a key fortification in a chain of forts overseeing the valleys below. Over the years, many of the walls, fortifications and cannons have been lost, unlike Janjeera. But true to any good fortification, both forts had ample supplies of fresh water. Sinhagad had spaces for elephant bathing and watering, horse watering as well as a clear spring that is safe to human consumption to th...