The Voss Dufour World Tour

The 3rd world takes 1st world trash, junk and makes it useful. Not necessarily efficient or pretty to look at, but useful.

Everyone, no matter where they live, takes pride in their space.

People will live anywhere.

I (Johanna) have a small bladder.

I get cranky when I am hungry. Worse when I am hot and hungry.

A smile goes a long way and costs nothing.

You just have to believe, to have hope.

People never cease to amaze.

People can be happy anywhere, doing anything.

Holland has an “awesome” mortgage system.

It’s all relative.

Assume the best of people but never stop watching their eyes.

I sleep a couple hours less than James each day.

James likes coffee in the am when he first wakes up, while I would prefer it in the afternoon, if at all.

Never trust the baggage handlers.

There are very defined gender roles around the world.

No matter where you are on this planet, people will stare if you look different. The more homogeneous their society, the more they stare at what’s different.

Transiting from one place to another is physically and emotionally tiring and generally is less than ideal.

I have a need to know the time, especially when I am sleeping.

Just the other night, I received a late night call from James (one of our many daily calls) telling me that it all comes full circle. I too was a bit confused and wondered to what he was alluding.

Turns out while visiting a friend’s house, that friend pulled a book from his bookcase, handed it to James and said, “you have to read this.”

It was Shogun, by James Clavell, the first book in the Asian Saga series of 6 books (Shogun, Tai Pan, Gai-Jin, King Rat, Noble House and Whirlwind) and the only one we haven’t read yet.

This series was one of the few books/series that we took series-ly (!!) on our trip. Good reading was lacking to say the least. Travelers are at the mercy of what other travelers are reading and have left, sold or forgotten at hostels around the world. If you make decisions about what people are reading these days based solely on limited availability at hostels, it seems bad murder mystery authors are doing well for themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I love Patricia Cromwell, but reading her over and over and over again gets old REAL quick. (Am also happy to say that the Girl with a Dragon Tattoo series is pretty hot right on the traveler’s circuit–thank god as those were fab!)

Our foray into the novels of James Clavell began pretty innocently. James picked up Noble House, I believe, from a used book store in Chiang Mai, Thailand (which has GREAT used book stores) because it was the fattest book around. Typically Clavell’s books range from 1000-1400 pages so they can definitely keep you busy. James read it first and I attempted to read it, but jut could NOT for the life of me, get into it. I was told to hang in as the first 400 or so pages are slow and it takes awhile to get to the good stuff. What? The first FOUR HUNDRED PAGES?!?! Normally I wouldn’t have stuck it out, but seeing as how we had no other options I kept flipping pages.

And quickly got hooked! Then James and I encountered a situation where one person was reading one of Clavell’s books while the other was itching to read it. Yes, we actually fought and had to divide our reading time of this book. It became our mission to find them at hostels or in whatever random bookstore we came across.

I think our best acquisition of one of the books in the series came while we were in Indonesia. We had read 1/2 of the books with King Rat, Whirlwind and Shogun remaining. James and I had swung by this hostel while in a tiny village to see if we were interested in staying there. As the owner was showing me to a room, there, laying on a coffee table, in the hallway, on top of a stack of books, was King Rat. I heard it call my name.

So while the owner was showing me the room (which we didn’t end up taking) I was figuring out how to grab the book on my exit. I did it oh so casually as we walked past it for the second time, just slipping it into my backpack.

I was smiling like a cheshire cat to myself, James wrongly assuming I liked the room. He quickly was as skyed as I when he saw what I pulled out of my backpack. Yes, more reading of 1000+ pages!

“YOU STOLE A BOOK?” you ask. Not really. I figure it’s book karma. We have left enough books in random places for other’s enjoyment without picking a book in exchange. This was my opportunity to pick one without leaving one.

That left us with Whirlwind and Shogun remaining, the last and first books remaining in the series. Somehow in China or India we came across Whirlwind which left just Shogun on the list. But at this point, we were home and not poking around used bookstores anymore. To be honest, I had kinda forgotten about the series. So it seems all to appropriate as we are counting down to hit the road again, that Shogun crosses our path.

While our travels this time will keep us in Western Europe, I look forward to reading about places we visited. This series brought Hong Kong, China, Japan, the tea and spice trading routes, Asian culture and history alive for me when we touched down in places that are central to each book. I could close my eyes and picture the Chinese fishing junks sailing into the Kowloon harbor under the cover of darkness. Or imagine the apartment buildings on the Hong Kong hills where the sailors and traders kept their “ladies of the night” well clothed, fed and entertained. James Clavell did wonders for my appreciation of Hong Kong and Chinese culture!

Our New England adventures continued last weekend when James and I traveled north to beautiful Cherryfield, ME to visit with James’ dad Jim, and stepmom Caryl. Where is Cherryfield you ask? Oh, it’s up there. Northeast of Acadia National Park. (The eyebrows raise.) Oh yes, it’s not close.

I must say the few days we spent with Jim and Caryl were nice and relaxing as well as quintessential “Maine.” We ate lobster, went to a blueberry festival, saw a pie eating contest, sat outside and drank in the fresh, clean air, drove for hours without passing another car, climbed a clock tower to check out the clock, visited James’ father’s Church in Jonesport, watched the comings and goings of lobstermen and ate deelish fresh veggies from Jim and Caryl’s garden. (They supply the veggies to a restaurant in Bar Harbor whose main chef is Caryl’s son. I do believe it was where President Obama ate when he was in town a little while ago.) No moose sighting unfortunately, but that’s not to say I wasn’t looking!

We slept and ate well, spent time with family and were outside in Mother Nature who really shows her splendor in New England. I don’t think we could have asked for anything more!

Unfortunately our ride home was….well…..unpleasant and long doesn’t quite describe it. It took us over 7 hours to finally leave the state of Maine and then another 90 or so minutes to reach Beverly, MA. This was due to Sunday traffic, RT 1 being a two lane road, a 12 mile toll back up in York, an accident on RT 295 outside Portland and generally people forgetting how to drive and/or hauling RVs and campers everywhere.

I was chatting with a friend of mine from Oregon at one point on this ride home, complaining about the traffic. She said, “I didn’t know you could drive in New England for that long and still not be at your destination.” My reply was “the worst part is, we are still in Maine!”

Oh well. Luckily it doesn’t overshadow our great visit. Thanks to Jim and Caryl (faithful Blog readers!) for the great hospitality.