The Hermitage museum in St Petersburg is one of the world’s greatest art centers. Six large buildings on the Palace embankment house some 3 million items, including the largest collection of paintings in the world. When we visited several years ago I was dismayed by the lack of first-rate maintenance for these facilities. Outside of the buildings weeds were growing. Inside some walls revealed peeling paint. However, the displays of priceless treasures seemed to be intact. [Read More]
Riding the Trans-Siberian Express eastward out of Irkutsk we were awakened one night by a terrible clatter. The car shook, and it sounded like people were hammering on the outside. Later we found that that was precisely what was happening. It seems that when the train crosses the Mongolian border it pulls into a shed where the cars are jacked up and the wheels are changed. This is necessary because of a difference in track gauge. This is but one of the reasons the Trans-Siberian is noteworthy. It traverses the expanse of Siberia, swings around scenic Lake Baikal, winds through beautiful terrain in Northern Mongolia and then ... [Read More]
It was our first night in Rangoon, Burma, in the 1960s. We had arrived from a cool climate to a suffocating 100-degree F day, and our sluggishness was further aggravated by jet lag accumulated during a flight half way around the world. We accepted the invitation of an official from the embassy who was familiar with the city to leave the hotel and go to a restaurant nearby. We walked alongside open sewers, which stank to high heaven, and turned into a street which could only be described as an alley. When we entered a small building, I couldn't believe we intended to eat there. Everything -- ... [Read More]
The famed Trans-Siberian Express offers an interesting means for seeing some of the more remote parts of the world. It did not gain its fame, however, from its food service. Perhaps one reason is that there are no competing restaurants on the route across Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. We learned quickly that one has two choices: eat what is served or don't eat. At each mealtime it was a tough decision. The standard fare was a dish of rice which had been colored gray by the addition of something. There were also dark-colored bits and pieces of something else mixed in, leading to considerable speculation among ... [Read More]
