Singapore

We went to the Australian embassy in Singapore to find out when our visa would arrive there. They again kept telling us next week just like in Bangkok. The weeks started to pile up.

We had a great time in Singapore. We went to the night market almost every night for great food. The night market was a collection of food vendors all in one location. It was a great international mix of foods. We pigged out big time on all the good cheap food nearly every night. During the day we would go to the zoo or wander around the wharf watching all the shipping traffic or just wander around town checking things out. Singapore was just beginning their clean campaign when we arrived. Historically Singapore was a typical filthy dirty port city but the current government was on a serious clean up push. They were cracking down hard forcing the people to clean up the place. They even banned chewing gum because so many people spit it out on the streets. They made littering a major crime punishable by getting whipped with twenty lashes and a fine. It worked, the city was the cleanest one I had been in yet. People on the streets would comment to us as we walked around asking us if we were impressed with how clean their city was. We always agreed with them. They cleaned it up "morally" also. In other words they drove most crime underground like prostitution and drugs. They made huge penalties for getting arrested for these types of crime. There was one part of town where it was allowed however, Boogie Street and Queen Street.

We usually went down to this area of town after we ate at the market. We would get a table at one of the outdoor bars and restaurants and just sip our beers and watch the world go by. This was the area of town where drag queens cruised for tricks. There were some straight girls and gay boys working the area too but the majority of the working girls were transexuals either with the operation already done or not. We got to know a lot of the girls there and we ended up partying with them many nights. They were very good looking girls. A lot of times I would watch them pick up a sailor and go do the deed with them then later when I saw the sailor I would ask them how their date went. They always told me she was hot or something to that effect. Then sometimes I would tell them that they just went out with a guy. They never believed me. They inevitably told me that it was real pussy they had. It wasn't but I always said oh my mistake then or something like that. The girls were talented. I had a bunch of good pics of them but my ex has all the pics right now. I will try to find some to post here later on to show you how good these girls were.

Kirsten and I were running out of cash now as the weeks started to roll by waiting for our visa. The next weeks kept coming but not the visa. We had to wait for it in order to get into Australia and earn some money to keep traveling again. To make some money we made a deal with our hotel that we would find them guests if we could stay there for free. The Chinese owners quickly agreed. We filled the hotel without any effort at all. The hotel was a bit weird though. There were peep holes in a lot of the rooms where the Chinese owners would peek in and watch the guests disrobe or have sex. We ignored the peep holes. I didn't care if some dirty old man got a kick out of watching me naked. I loved the bucket showers we took at the hotel. Kirsten and I would usually take them together so that we could pour the cool water over each other and wash each others backs. The dirty old hotel owner loved us taking baths together. I never found the peep hole for the shower but I am sure there was one, it was just well hidden somewhere.

I was hired to go check on an American company that was opening a manufacturing facility in Singapore. A friend of mine gave them my name and contact information and they asked me to go see how the construction was going on their new facility. I agreed to go check it out. I went over to the address and told them I was there representing the owners in the United States and that I wanted to inspect the new project's progress. The guy behind the desk almost choked when I said it. He jumped up and immediately started to wine and dine me and Kirsten at all the best places in Singapore but he never took me to the facility to inspect it. After a few days of this high rolling entertainment I figured that they had been less than truthful with their reports about progress to the owners. I reported that to the owners and they ended up flying in to straighten out the job. We got wined and dined and paid for doing it. We thought it was fun. This was the first time I had ever had a true Peking Duck served in a fancy restaurant. They brought the duck to the table for carving and carved all the skin off and served that then threw away the meat of the duck. I did not know Peking duck was served that way until then. We got a laugh out of my ignorance.

Kirsten went on a couple of forays on her own from Singapore. I think she went to Borneo and somewhere else. I just stayed in Singapore until the visa finally arrived. By the time it arrived I no longer had enough money to travel through out Indonesia like we had planned. So instead we just booked a flight from Singapore all the way through to Sydney Australia on Singapore Airlines. Now that flight was very nice. Singapore Airlines knew how to treat passengers. I loved the flight.

Istanbul

We ended up staying in the house of the taxi driver that gave us a ride the last little bit into the center of town. He offered to give us a tour of the town and marketplace and to take us to the Mosque. We took him up on his offer. His house was very nice. It had the walls covered in the little blue mosaic tiles with a complex design of offsetting white details. The floors too were covered in a geometric pattern of floor tiles. The bed in our room was a four poster one that I really liked. We quickly tried it out.

The next morning his wife made us Turkish coffee and breads for breakfast then we headed out to the market. I could not believe the size of the market. It must have been several miles in all directions. There was a maze of pathways through it that were all covered with the goods available in that section. It was divided up like a department store. We wandered aimlessly for the entire day. We didn't buy much just a couple of trinkets here and there. Then we came to the tailor made clothing area. Bingo! We had a bunch of clothes made for us, some shirts, pants, dresses and I bought a full leather suit just for the fun of it. We also bought some sheepskin coats to keep us warm and some sheepskin boots too. We had to go back the next day to pick them up and I would have never found the tailor again without our guide.

We pigged out on food. There was a food market that had all kinds of foods. I ate a bunch of different kinds of curry with rice. The roasted chicken was to die for. But my favorite food was a roasted eggplant sandwich on a flatbread with a soup and salad on the side. We also stopped and had quite a few cups of tea with various shopkeepers all of which wanted to trade me half their store for Kirsten. I respectfully declined their offers. I was tempted when the jeweler offered half of his gold and diamonds but in the end, I did not trade.

We went to the Mosque the next morning. We started out in Hagia Sophia, a massive one that was now a museum. The byzantine architecture was impressive for its size if nothing else. All the geometric patterned tile work everyplace made me feel like I was in a different world. Then we went to some other active mosques and watched people pray. It seemed to me like almost everybody was very serious about their religion. I have no idea what would happen to somebody here that rejected the religion. All the worship is so public that you would not be able to hide that you did not worship too. I asked our guide and he just said everybody knows how important religion is in their lives. Ok whatever that means.

I really wanted to smoke some hash here. Istanbul was the end point for the Orient Express Train. All travelers and stoners know about the Orient Express, Paris to Istanbul train ride. This town is famous for its hash I had been told. I quietly hinted to our guide what I wanted to do and he caught on right away and said sure it is not a problem here. He led us down through the market to a man that sold hash and opium right out in the open. I told him I wanted to try it before I bought it and he quickly closed a curtain and lit up a bowlful. I did not buy any because I did not want to go to jail for crossing a border with drugs. Turkish prisons have a bad reputation. I paid the guy for my little samples even though he told me I didn't have to pay him anything. We spent the rest of that day on a tour outside of town looking at some old ruins and at the waterfront which was interesting due to all the activity going on. I am sure there was some smuggling going on right in front of our eyes out there on those docks.

We ended our stay in Istanbul and packed up to hitchhike back to Athens and then on to Italy. I really enjoyed my stay in Turkey. The people were all friendly and hardworking. Nobody tried to rip us off or cheat us. I know there are problems there sometimes just like in all large cities of the world but we did not have a single bad experience in Turkey. The next morning our taxi driver friend took us out to the edge of town so we could catch a ride. We caught one before he even left.

Marsabit

We were lucky and hitch hiked a ride all the way up to Marsabit way up in northern Kenya. Marsabit was famous at the time for having the world's largest elephant in the Marsabit National Park. It is also famous for all the nomadic tribal people that come to the market in Marsabit. The first day there we went out to see the gigantic old bull elephant. He had two caretakers that stayed with him 24/7 to make sure poachers did not kill him for his huge tusks. He was like their pet elephant. He seemed to be happy and very gentle to be around.

I was used to seeing lots of wild animals by now. East Africa with all of its game parks has a chance of saving some species of animals from the wanton killings going on in most places in Africa. I loved seeing the large herds of antelope and wildebeasts grazing on the savanahs with the predators quietly watching and picking out their next meals. The cranes and buzzards that were common to see on a daily basis were always good to see also. The herds of elephants especially around Tsavo National Park in the south eastern part of Kenya were always exciting to see. There was always the chance that an elephant might charge so there was an element of danger to watching them. The elephants seemed to know this and sometimes would make sudden loud noises and do a short run at people watching them. I think they did it just for their own entertainment. I think they were silently laughing at the stupid humans backing away from them. An elephant can easily outrun a human. If they want to catch you you are in big trouble unless you have a vehicle to flee in. Their sense of smell is better than a bloodhound too so they can track you down if they want to. They kill many people all over their range in Africa.

We spent a lot of time hanging out around the local marketplace. It was a major trading post for all the nomadic tribes that wandered around the arid area with their cattle. The other local tribes that lived in fixed housing were also represented at the marketplace. The most famous tribe is the Maasai who are famous for their tall warriors dressed mostly in red. Then there are other unique tribes that stretch their necks or lips or ears and wear colorful clothes or have some other identifying trademarks. I enjoyed the diversity. The various tribes did not always get along. Two people were killed while we were in Marsabit over tribal disputes. We felt safe and the vast majority of the locals were all extremely friendly to us.

We met a group of crazy Italians living in Marsabit that were there to build a new road through the desert going north to Moyale in Ethiopia. It was a long way through desolate arid desert. The men worked during the day surveying and placing markers for their route to build the road and the rest of the day they got drunk. We joined them most afternoons for a few beverages after we had done whatever tourist activities for the day. We had a lot of fun with them and became good friends. They were all in love with Kirsten with her long blond hair.

We told them about our plans to go across the desert to Ethiopia and they told us we were crazy because the area is full of bandits that will rob and kill us or worse to Kirsten. Their solution was to give us a ride themselves so that we would be safe. We talked about it for a few days and then we got in a Landrover with them and took off for Ethiopia.

The Italians had several cases of booze with them and were cracking new bottles from sun up to sun up. In other words they were drinking the entire time. The driver was totally drunk. Luckily for us there was nothing to hit out in the desert as long as he could go around the large rocks and rare trees without hitting them. We basically just headed north with no plans or knowledge of what we were doing. Their excuse for giving us the ride was that they were surveying possible routes for the future road. Well if they used this method of surveying then this road would be going in circles and winding back and forth. It would be twenty times the length of a road that went straight as the crane flies. We were laughing all day long and having a blast. We ran into some trucks that were traveling through the desert one day and we all stopped and tried to talk. Our driver was totally smashed and could not even stand up when he got out of the car to talk to the drivers of the trucks so they had to get out of their trucks and come over to us to talk. Two of the Italians had guns in their hands and openly displayed them in case these were robbers. I don't know if guns and drunks should have been together like this but nothing happened so it was all ok. The drivers told us that there was a path through the foothills of southern Ethiopia that we had to find otherwise the foothills were impassable to get through. They pointed in the general direction of the pass and told us we could follow the tire tracks to find it. They must have thought that we were totally insane to be out in this isolated desolate place with no supplies except for booze and no idea how to get where we wanted to go. I admit it was stupid the way we were approaching this dangerous drive.

We ended up finding the pass. At least I think we did. We found a dry creek bed that cut through the sharp hills. It was basically just a boulder strewn dry riverbed that cut through a steep walled canyon in the hills. We headed up the pass in our landrover.

The climb up the pass was difficult to say the least. It required a skilled driver who knew how to use the four wheel drive efficiently and correctly. We had a drunken Italian with no experience of knowledge about this difficult part of our journey to Ethiopia. We made it almost all the way to the top before we had a serious problem. Right at the crest there was a rather severe climb that was very steep and covered with boulders. It must have been a waterfall when there was water flowing in this river. We stopped at the bottom and got out of the vehicle to examine the pathway. After much discussion in Italian and a few more swigs out of the bottle we got back in and made our assault on this final barrier. We twisted and turned upwards, sometimes on three wheels as we tried to get over this hump. Just before we crested the Landrover slipped on a rock and started to slide with a sideways downhill motion and before we could react we rolled. The vehicle rolled several times and finally came to a stop against a big rock. All the windows were broken. We were covered in glass. The roof was caved in, the side panels were all dented and one door was hanging open.

I looked around to make sure Kirsten was ok and then checked the Italians. Nobody was seriously injured. One of the men had his arm out the window when we rolled and his arm was clearly broken with an almost compound fracture. The rest of us were just bruised up. The broken arm was bleeding. I helped him get out of the wrecked vehicle and attended to his injury. He was feeling no pain because he was about as drunk as you could be and still be conscious. We stood around excitedly checking out the Landrover and we decided that if we just turned it back over on its wheels and pushed the top up from inside we could still drive it. That is just what we did. Everybody without a broken arm got inside and we pushed the top back up as much as we could and climbed back in for a second attempt. We made it all the way up on the second try. Kirsten and I both walked up this section just in case it rolled again.

From the top of the pass there was a more well defined trail to follow that was not too difficult to traverse. We drove on until we came to Moyale Ethiopia and we went looking for a doctor for the broken arm. We had made it across the desert. It was a really dumb method we used to cross but it worked out for us.