It was Saturday, a day before we were scheduled to leave NYC. We were walking near Astor Place when a sea of demonstrators came marching down the street, assumably from a protest that started in where else but Union Square.
It was good to see the large number of people of all races, young and old, all came together to protest Bush's dumb war. The bottomline is that America needs to start addressing real issues like global warming or anti-Americanism everywhere that could possibly lead to more terrorist attacks on their soil.
Blablabla.
People are sick of George Bush and his cronies' strategies on how to counter terrorism; they just seem like they want to bomb the shit out of every country in the middle east. That said, I am not so sure about the Midwest though. The'bible belt' of America is very loyal and supportive of Bush's agenda. The Midwest is an absolute shithole place to be.
Whatever happened to the civilized way of attempting to solve problems with diplomacy? Now ain't America a civilized country.
This entry is kind of like a tribute to one of my favourite travel writer Pico Iyer. If you've never heard of him, Pico Iyer, born in 1957, is a British-born essayist and novelist. His essays, reviews, and other writings have appeared in Time, Conde Nast Traveler, Harper's, the New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, and Salon.com. His books include Video Night in Kathmandu, The Lady and the Monk, Cuba and the Night, Falling off the Map, Tropical Classical and The Global Soul. They have been translated into several languages and published in Europe, Asia, South America, and North America.
So what is so special about Iyer? Well, for me I find his writings offer much to admire and emulate. He seems to approach the world with a fresh heart and wide open eyes - the two most important element of meaningful travel. People often asked me of my experience travelling alone in Southeast Asia; Was it dangerous? Wasn't I afraid?
I tell them of course you take standard safety precautions but the truth is, until you've learnt to travel with a fresh hear, your travel is unlikely going to be anymore meaningful than a compilation of photos in some faraway exotic land. As a somewhat jaded city-dweller, I was truly liberated when I found out that not everyone out there is waiting to rob me and that villagers on trains are more likely to share their lunch with me as oppose to stealing mine.
Going back to Iyer, I find that he looks closely and doesn't simply describe what he sees but constantly analyzes it, trying to understand what things mean and where they fit in the puzzle of the whole. As a traveler, I especially love his opennes, gentleness, kindness and vulnerability. I love the precision and music of his prose and his witty, insight-compacting turns of phrase. I love his relentless attempts to understand his experiences and encounters and his constant questioning of his own assertions and explanations, his ongoing quest for some deeper truth. Yes, yes he just absolutely amazes me okay.
Born in England, raised in California, and educated at Eton, Oxford, and Harvard, Iyer intrigues me in the sense that he has traveled widely, from North Korea to Easter Island, Paraguay to Ethiopia. He is the sort of global nomad that writes very interesting things about cultural minglings. The fact that he now base himself out of rural Japan and lives with his Japanese partner stirs my interest even more.
Definitely one to add to my 'people I'd like to meet' list!
"We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.
We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate..
We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge,
to those parts of the globe whose riches are differently dispersed.
And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again - to slow time down and be taken in, and fall in love once more."
Pico Iyer
Whilst Garf was here, we went for the Sex and the City tour. I had never been on it even though Peter has been saying that we should go since he is a big fan as well. Now ain't he a catch?!! How many guys do you know watch SATC huh?
At $35 per person, I thought it was a rip off but maybe it is because I live (or lived) in NYC and there was only 3 or 4 stops. They just mostly put you in a bus with a bunch of other SATC fans and point out the locations. You get to press your nose on the bus window and peer at those locations whilst being stuck in traffic. It was still fun of course doing it with Garf!
Garf in front of the Plaza Hotel. The fountain in front of this hotel is where Carrie was filmed saying, "Your girl is lovely, Hubbell." referring to his new girlfriend Natasha.
We also spotted your typical tourist with the walking Lady Liberty.
One of the stops include The Pleasure Chest, a sophisticated sex shop.
Gimme some of that!
Scout, or Aidan's bar is actually O'Neils in Soho. And unlike portrayed in the show as being on Mulberry St, it isn't.
Garf the dragon lady with her complimentary Pleasure Chest spanker.
Carrie's stoop in the Village.
We're sitting on Carrie's stoop! She apparently lives around the corner from here.
The cupcake. The oh so yummy cupcake! Garf, we went back few days ago and waited 40 minutes in line! It was Saturday and heaps of ppl dropped in to buy the special edition ones for Halloween.
This is undeniably a very 'belated' post but a must nonetheless. This was about 3 weeks ago, organized by US Campaign for Burma in support of the monks' protests in Burma by demanding UN Security Council action.
It was part of a worldwide event; in over 35 countries around the world on that day, people came together to condemn the Burmese military junta's violent suppression of peaceful protesters. We wore the colour Red and some brought flowers - used to create a public display of tribute to those who have sacrificed so much in Burma those past weeks - all of those untold hundreds of thousands who put their lives on the line to bring down the military regime. Many lost their lives, many are imprisoned, and many are in hiding. The Global Day of Action honoured their courage.
On top of that, postcards were distributed to give people the opportunity to pledge their boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games.
