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The Drum Troupe takes over the Spotted Cat...

Back in the Saddle....again...

The year 2004 started off just like 2003, sitting on a bar stool beside Action Jimmy at dba, drunk and lusting after the cute bartender that had been serving us all night…dba’s newest and one that would replace my personal favorite….ahhhhh, change is good, keeps the senses alive….after all it’s a new year………….rrright!

Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, drunk at dba, new year, but it seems like last year redux…after the clock struck midnight and band started to play at dba, AJ and I decided to give up the bar stools we’d been sitting on for the past several hours for some fresh air….and fresh beers….both of which were right outside dba on Frenchman Street…

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Father T dancin' a funky beat in the Spotted Cat..

Father Time and the Drum Troupe at the Spotted Cat

As with every large festive event, Frenchman Street was awash with an extraordinary mix of people…we pick up a couple of Abita Ambers and walked out onto Frenchman where we ran into a drum troupe that was out and about banging on drums and walking into whatever bar had an empty stage…and that’s the essence of Nola, total happenstance, chaos theory at its finest. The drum troupe marched into the Spotted Cat and we followed…and that’s when we bumped into Father Time, drunker than Cooter Brown!!!

The night wore on and on and many more beers were consumed, I vaguely remember the long walk back home to the Warehouse District, a sort of New Year’s right of passage that I have started since moving to Nola….I figure that if I can walk (three sheets to the wind mind you) from the Faubourg Marigny in the wee hours of the morning through the French Quarter (typically on Bourbon St.) without being mugged or having a bullet fall on me (again, that’s on me, not having one shot at me) back to the relative safety of my beloved Warehouse District, THEN I should fair well in the coming year’s travel…Malaria, ha! SARS, you must be joking! OBL, kiss my….Ebola, ok, ok that one still scares…and so does Father Time dressed in pink boxer shorts....

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The step pyramid of Saqqara.

Egypt - January 2004

And waste no time…I had hardly sobered up from New Year’s Eve, when I boarded the plane to Cairo on January 3rd. A quick hop over to Hot-lanta for a slightly longer hop to Paris where I missed my morning connection to Cairo…Hoping this wasn’t an indication of things to come for my 2004 travel (after all, I survived the New Year’s Eve walk down Bourbon Street, right), I settled into my “Air France provided” hotel room on the outskirts of Charles De Gaulle Airport to phone my boss that I was going to be a bit late…and then a long nap over took me and peace was my friend…with the magical help of some Xanax I had bought in Angola…

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The Grand Mosque in Bur Dubai

Dubai - February 2004

After a long weekend diving in the Red Sea, I was on my way to the U.A.E. landing in Dubai. This would be my first trip to the Middle East; and, with that, comes all the feelings of anticipation of the unknown. What will the food be like, the landscape, the people, etc…My immediate impressions were that Dubai has lots of sand, dry and hot weather and new building construction everywhere; hell, I thought I was back in Dallas, Tex-ass….Dubai was every bit as “western” as I had heard, which, to some degree, is unfortunate…

On closer inspection, Dubai was incredibly diverse and unique in it’s own right. The Emirate has played a fascinating role in the history of the Middle East and continues to do so today. With all the sights, sounds and smells of the Souks, a walk through the back streets along The Creek in Bur Dubai and Deira gave me the feeling that I had been transported back in time to the Emirate’s earlier days of trade. But a drive out to Jebel Ali reveals Dubai’s transformation into the modern technology laden economy of today…

Although my stay in Dubai was short, I thoroughly enjoyed it. From the white sand beaches of Jumeirah on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the uber wealthy shacked up in the Burj Al Arab hotel to the merchants haggling over a few Dirhams in the spice Souks and the routine call to prayer floating over Bur Dubai and Deira, this little Emirate offered a unique view into the contrasting cultures of the Middle East.

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The dangers of hiking the Stawamus Chief...

Vancouver, B.C., Canada - May 2004

will update later...