Throwback Thursday?

Grand Tetons and West Yellowstone - July 1, 2015

It was 1969. I had completed my five years in the Air Force, flying back and forth to Viet Nam. I was 25 and Mrs. Phred was 24. I learned to make beer that year with an 18 percent alcohol content and put up 15 gallons. It struck me that a party might be fun and I issued an open invitation to anyone living in Tallahassee.

Three of my beers would stun you. Six would cause unconsciousness. I am told that over 100 strangers came to the party, including a prize winning poet. I was unconscious before the party began. In the morning, as the sun came up, there were 15-20 people passed out in the living room and in the bushes outside.

Mrs Phred helps with the driving on the trip from Alpine to West Yellowstone.

After Gunnison in Colorado, we drove up to Vernal, Utah for one night and then to Alpine, Wyoming just West of the Grand Teton. The Tetons are always photogenic.

The best part of our RV park is that it's four miles outside of Alpine so I got to do several eight mile hikes in the morning....I bought a cowboy hat in the local tack store.

A Dam in the Teton National Park.

This bird was on my morning walks.

After three days in Alpine, we moved up to West Yellowstone. We're staying in a place where Idaho, Montana and Wyoming converge.

These horses were on my walk in Alpine.

We went on a five mile hike at 8,000 feet today. We went up to Cascade Lake.

In the morning we will do some whitewater rafting in Montana on the Gallatin River.

A Selfie....

The Golden Triangle

Northern Thailand - December 2012

The strange thing about these sculpted hands and skulls reaching up out of a pit where bad folk go, is that someone has painted a single fingernail red.

Where do bad folks go when they die?  

They don't go to heaven where the angels fly  

They go to a lake of fire and fry  

Won't see 'em again till the 4th of July

There's an Opium Museum up on the Thai/Laos/Burma border. It's mostly about the British squaring up their balance of trade with opium balls. It's a fine museum, but leave three or four hours to visit and take it all in. There are movies about the CIA and all kinds of Golden Triangle history things that you might find interesting. We had to cut it shorter than I would have liked..busy schedule.

The visit starts with a walk up a dimly lit long tunnel with eerie music and tortured human images carved into the tunnel walls.

There is no order to the pictures here today. Just another weird day in the Golden Triangle. Cooking eggs in boiling hot springs for breakfast, talking to bald-headed monks, seeing surrealistic strange structures, eating the local food...

The inside of this temple had a lot of white strings in it which created an interesting visual view of the Buddha. The visual view is not as redundant as it sounds. Consider spiritual view, overview, or other views...

This old, bald monk is building a new place for the young monks to sleep and cook. It's all open air. The weather does not require heaters for the most part.

This is an adjunct structure going up near an old temple along a remote river off the beaten path. It's sort of a boat-like temple thingy.

Our driver, Ken on the temple boat.

Carol and Bennett draw a stick in the temple which gives a number that leads to a written fortune. Their fortune says that the new baby is not expected anytime soon. Nailed it in one.

Ken tells me that the people who use the temple make these things and people vote for the most beautiful by placing money in them. The money is used for maintenance and additions...

The old temple next to the new boat structure on the river.

We are the only customers in this open-air restaurant. The food is good and very spicy. Fortunately, both Bennett and Ken are fluent in Thai.

Down the road, This ultra-modern temple has some odd images, including all the hands coming out of the pit. Maybe they are drawing on Christian images. Maybe we were once visited by really ugly aliens? Interesting use of Spanish Moss?

The temples vary greatly in design. This one is fairly new. It was built by a really wealthy businessman. As far as Bennett knows, it was built to make merit. He doesn't accept large gifts, support monks or do good works. We think we see him sitting by the temple entrance...

The Red Rose Hotel in Chaing Rai is built around a Disneyland motif. It is intended for only short-term occupancy (prostitution) We drive all-around at night to look for it because Ken and Bennett think we will find it interesting. We went into one very humid room that had some kind of bugs that bit Mrs. Phred. I wonder what Walt Disney would think?

This is the little mermaid room.

I think this room is the little engine that could.

Behind Carol is Burma. Behind Bennett is Laos. They are standing in Thailand. The three countries are divided by the Mekong and the smaller river that joins it from between them to the left.

Leaving Hanoi

Hanoi, Vietnam - December 27, 2011

Hanoi was an interesting place. We only had one day there to see things and now we are having breakfast in the Hanoi Airport and are 3 hours into our 36-hour journey back to Sarasota. The picture below shows Ray inspecting a column of NVA veterans. The veterans are visiting the Ho Chi Minh memorial complex in the center of Hanoi. Ray is now in his 80s. Ray is a veteran of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam and has his veteran hat on for the picture. Ray's wife passed away a year ago during the holidays. He's taking this trip by himself.

You can't take any pictures in the huge mausoleum. They move small groups though quickly. Ray comes close to collapsing from shortness of breath and I fall back and help him slowly move past the body. One of the Honor guards approaches and asks if Ray is all right. Another guard motions impatiently for us to move along more quickly. We ignore him and move past the body as soon as Ray can begin to catch his breath.

Uncle Ho wanted to be cremated and have his ashes spread in both halves of Vietnam after reunification, but they ignore his wishes and do a Lenin style display of his body in this giant mausoleum. They close the memorial two months a year to refurbish the body. Uncle Ho died in 1969 before he could see the reunification that occurred in 1975.

In the market, I see a street artist doing a copy of a stylized portrait of Hunter S. Thompson.

The wiring in Asian cities we visit always appears as if it would be difficult to troubleshoot. We really like our Vietnamese guide, Tony. Tony says that when they have an electrical problem, it is not uncommon to just give up and string a new wire.

We see the lake in the center of Hanoi. They fished John McCain out of it with a broken arm after he parachuted out of his Navy fighter jet.  This dragon is on the lakeshore.

The dragon seems to have a happy face (and so does the statue in the background).

They customize scooters and bicycles in very innovative ways to transport goods.

The weave and dance of vehicles through intersections and roundabouts are completely amazing. They all seem to ignore what traffic lights there are. A double beep on the horn seems to mean "watch out, I'm coming past".

We visit the Hanoi Hilton, where some American fliers were imprisoned. The building below was right at the edge of the little historic prison, which was also used by the French. It had a guillotine at that time. The prison itself is just not all that photogenic. The cells are very dark and do not photograph well. There is a video explaining how well the Air Force POWs were treated. I'm sure that when Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib become museums, we will produce something very similar. The victor gets to write the history.

Whittier, Alaska

Fresh Salmon for Dinner - August 5, 2013

 We're in the Williwaw campground of the U.S. Forest Service outside Whittier....according to Wiki, "a sudden blast of wind descending from a mountainous coast to the sea. The williwaw results from the descent of cold, dense air from the snow and ice fields of coastal mountains in high latitudes, accelerated by the force of gravity. Thus the williwaw is considered a type of katabatic wind."

The campground itself is very beautiful and there are salmon nearby...

You can only reach Whittier by sea, air or a 2.5-mile tunnel through which train and vehicle traffic take turns in a single lane....the tunnel was built during WWII to disembark troops and supplies...

Whittier has about 200 permanent inhabitants, but this swells in the summer with tourists, fishermen and cruise ship passengers. 

The tunnel costs $12 for a passenger car....most of the inhabitants live in a single building which was once the largest building in Alaska...It's a former U.S. Government structure which has been converted into condos...

The other large building has been abandoned. It's a wreck and full of asbestos, ice, bears and collapsed walls, windows, and pipes.

Right now the port is full of commercial and sport fishing vessels.

This is the Buckner Building. It was badly damaged by the 1964 earthquake and tsunami... Demolition is impractical since the debris would have to be removed by boat or through the tunnel...

There's not much to do in Whittier so Mrs. Phred and I explore the building. The stairwell leading to the basement is in total darkness and at the bottom of the stairwell is "The Door". Through the door is the basement which, although caved in, is still accessible. In the Eastern corner is access to an underground tunnel leading towards the city. It runs downhill for over 500 yards, ends abruptly and is completely immersed in darkness. We explore the tunnel for about 400 yards but are chased out by a large animal or creature of some sort....possibly a bear or troll...