2013-05-22T18:34:20-04:00 Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=scott-s-smith Copyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Scott S. Smith Good old fashioned elbow grease. tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.3096998 2013-04-19T12:34:20-04:00 2013-04-22T14:09:47-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/ AARP: The Magazine, I asked what his favorite vacation of all-time was. "I recently went on a safari in South Africa and it was like going back to the Garden of Eden," he responded, the memory lighting up his face.

My wife, Sandra Wells, and I decided we wanted that transcendent experience. But editors resisted: safaris had already been written about (and they wouldn't want to run another story about Paris, we assume). Or they argued that Americans think Africa is too dangerous because of disease, crime and terrorism (thank goodness it's safe here).

Finally, an assignment came through for just two days in Johannesburg and two on a safari. It was a daunting challenge: how do I write the story if the animals don't show up on schedule? But we decided this was going to be our only opportunity and embraced the risk of a journey of 21,000 miles. This is a summary of what happened.

When most people think of a safari, they picture massive herds of animals followed by smaller herds of tourist mini-buses on the plains of East Africa. South Africa offers a more intimate and uncrowded opportunity near major cities (which means you can experience the wild and still have the benefits of civilization). It's an underappreciated destination.

The climate is warm and dry much of the year, with seasons opposite to those in the U.S. The rainy season is November through March, but storms last an hour or two and tours continue in between at discounted prices. We decided to go in early April before the high season's prices and heat kicked in.

Our first step in preparing was to go to Passport Health in Los Angeles, which is owned by native South African Rayann Aziz, for a customized review of our medical history and needs, including malaria tablets and an emergency medical kit (see Resources at the end).

We chose South African Airways because it has the most flights at the best prices and provides much better customer service than the competition. We flew out of Washington, D.C. to O.R. Tambo airport.

Joburg (as locals call it) is the business capital of South Africa, with 3.6 million people. While some areas are potentially risky, the same precautions would apply to visiting large U.S. cities. The first impression is of a Mediterranean town, with its low buildings and red-tiled roofs (with solar panels), as well as low-key billboards. But it has six million trees, making it the world's largest man-made urban forest. The Gautrain is an easy, inexpensive, and safe way to get around to most areas and taxis are reasonably priced.

We stayed at the Saxon Hotel in the suburb of Sandton (where Nelson Mandela spent a year writing his autobiography, My Long Walk to Freedom, published in 1994 when he became South Africa's first democratically-elected president). It has been repeatedly ranked one of the best boutique hotels in the world, famous for its secluded location, beautiful grounds, original African contemporary art and wine cellar.

After sleeping off jet lag when we arrived on a Sunday morning, we still had time to make it to the Origins Centre, an excellent exhibition on early humans at the University of Witwatersrand. Rian Malan, author of the classic text about apartheid, "My Traitor's Heart," once said, "There is a possibility that Johannesburg was once the Garden of Eden, that our ancestors would have lived here 150,000 to 200,000 years ago." That reference was serendipitous, it would turn out.

Origins focuses on how humans spread across the globe after leaving Africa (the cosmic joke on the former racist regime is that the evidence that we share 99.9 percent of the same DNA came from South Africa; the university offers a test for visitors who want to know their ancestral details). Origins also shows what is regarded as the first indication of modern humans: art in the form of a carved rock and a necklace dated at 77,000 years.

The next day we were picked up by guide Chris Green of Cashan Tours for a day in the Cradle of Humankind, a World Heritage site an hour out of Joburg. It includes 300 caves, such as Sterkfontein, which has the world's longest archaeological excavation, producing a third of the early hominid fossils (human-like creatures, some of them our ancestors). Nearby, the first evidence was found of hominid control of fire as early as 1.8 million years ago.

We started at the Maropeng Centre, whose interactive displays show the progress of evolution after our ancestors diverged from apes back eight million years. Now we are so rapidly using up resources that we are failing to adapt to the new environment, which is what caused the extinction of our cousins.

The next morning we took a Federal Air hour-long flight onto the airstrip at Sabi Sabi Game Reserve. It is located in southwest Kruger National Park, the largest wildlife sanctuary in the country, and last year Conde Nast Traveler readers voted it the best safari camp in Africa.

At 4 p.m., Ranger Marcus took a small group of us in an open Land Rover for our first three-hour drive through the savannah of tall grass, bushes and occasional trees (take Dramamine or three ginger capsules a half hour in advance, since the roads are rough). While this area gave us the best chance to encounter the Big Five (lions, leopards, elephants, rhinos, Cape buffalos), there are visitors who visit for five days and encounter only one. For the first couple of hours we only saw impala antelope.

Then suddenly we came across a leopard and the hair on the back of our necks stood up as it majestically strolled so close we could have touched it, if we wanted to lose a hand (Marcus said that the only time one had attacked was when someone stood up to take pictures; wild animals tolerate vehicles unless surprised). Travelers know that if a picture is worth a thousand words, a direct encounter is worth a thousand pictures and this was one of those moments.



An hour later, as we turned a corner in the darkness just before arriving back at the camp, we nearly ran into a mother white rhino and her baby. Baby started towards us out of curiosity, as the mother snorted a warning and Marcus put the Rover in reverse, warning us not to take flash pictures. This was no zoo.

The next morning we encountered a small group of elephants, which quickly disappeared. We also came across rare and colorful wild dogs playing, as well as zebras, not often seen this time of year. The highlight was when we parked at a watering hole and soon found ourselves surrounded by 200 Cape buffalo, which usually travel in groups of less than 15. They and leopards are the two creatures that cannot be bluffed to back away: if they feel threatened, they will attack. We very, very slowly made our way through the herd or we would have been trapped for hours.



During the evening drive, we saw nothing but impala, so we realized how lucky we had been.

As Henry David Thoreau wrote, "In wildness is the preservation of the world." We need to unplug periodically to get in touch with nature and the Eden within, otherwise evolution will move on to the next stage without us.

RESOURCES
Best book DK Eyewitness Travel South Africa
Tour guide Chris Green http://www.cashantours.weebly.com
Itineraries for visitors http://www.southafrica.net
Origins Centrehttp://www.origins.org.za
Maropeng Centre http://www.maropeng.co.za
Passport Health http://www.passporthealthla.com 323/297-0700 (or outside L.A. http://www.passporthealthusa.com)
South African Airways http://www.flysaa.com or http://www.flysaavacations.com 800-593-1318
Saxon Hotel http://www.saxon.co.za
Sabi Sabi http://www.sabisabi.com
Federal Airhttp://www.fedair.com for flight to Sabi Sabi]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.1356071 2012-03-19T07:00:00-04:00 2012-05-19T05:12:01-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
New Delhi has a vibrant nightlife and many excellent museums. Our favorite was the National Museum and a walk through it is a tremendous way to get an overview of Indian culture and history. It contains priceless treasures beautifully arranged, including some of the ashes of the Buddha, an illuminated Quran, textiles incorporating gold and silver thread, and 200,000 art objects spanning more than 5,000 years.

The city tour took us into the notably less clean, but still lovely narrow lanes of the bazaar in Old Delhi then to a mosque that holds 20,000 worshipers, an archeological park highlighting the early buildings of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers of the 16th through 18th centuries, and the Mahatma Gandhi memorial.

Royal Rajasthan

We then flew to Udaipur in Rajasthan, the state where the maharajas once ruled in unbridled luxury and Rajput warriors fought to the death rather than surrender against hopeless odds. We stayed at the Taj Lake Palace, a former royal residence in the middle of a lake, is considered the most romantic hotel in India.

The City Palace on the shore is now an enormous museum featuring numerous miniature paintings depicting the princely life. Created by using brushes made of as little as a single squirrel hair; the originals sell for as much as $400,000, but we bought small pictures for $100.

The next day we headed out through the picturesque countryside, noticing how obsessively neat Indian farms are. After visiting some finely carved 11th-century temples, we were allowed to attend a Hindu service at a "living temple" at Eklingi. The marble, gold, silver, incense, chanting, and bells created an atmosphere that many of us felt was electric.

We then flew to Jaipur, whose old city wall is painted pink, and were ensconced in the Taj Rambagh Palace, on 47 acres of gardens and fountains .The camels pulling wagons were the most startling sight on the streets of this bustling city. We walked through the City Palace, now an opulent museum, and the world's largest outdoor astronomical observatory, a vast array of stone structures finished in 1734 to enable astrological calculations.

Jaipur is the center of India's gemstone industry and is famous for its hand-woven wool carpets, so we spent time watching the craftsmen produce labor-intensive masterpieces at a reasonable prices -- made possible because the average urban wage, at least then, was $2 a day.

Awakened by the haunting first call to Muslim prayer at 4:30 a.m., we rode elephants up steep hills to Amber Fort, a massive citadel for Hindu rulers from the 16th to 18th centuries. The ceilings, covered in tiny mirrors with geometric designs in gold, silver, and gemstones, are awesome to behold.

Taj Mahal

After a stop at Fatehpur Sikri, capital of the Mughal Empire in the late 16th century under the enlightened rule of Akbar, we arrived in Agra, the location of the Taj Mahal, India's most famous building. We stayed in the Oberoi, which has the best view of it.

Although the city has done much to improve the immediate area, smoke from wood cooking fires made visibility imperfect. But up close the Taj was even more impressive than the standard pictures, covered with bas-relief sculptures of flowers (semiprecious stones compose the petals) and verses from the Quran in Arabic script. The Taj Mahal, the tomb Emperor Shah Jahan constructed for his beloved wife Arjuman Banu Begum, was designed to be a replica of heaven.

We spent all of Tuesday getting to the village of Khajaraho by train and bus, a difficult journey ending at a Radisson hotel. The remote location allowed Khajaraho's ninth- and 10th-century temples to be lost in the forest for 700 years and avoid being defaced by Muslim invaders.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Khajaraho is a model for restoration of historic landmarks, and its 25 remaining temples are most famous for their sensuous marble sculptures, made with great artistry. The Chandela dynasty, which created them, apparently adhered to the Hindu philosophy, which regards the cultivation of sexual energy, known as kundalini, as a religious practice. But the erotic elements are a small part of the art, and the temples can be admired for their celebration of life in general. The consensus of our group was that the temples were one of the highlights of the trip.

From there, we flew to Varanasi, India's holiest city and continuously inhabited for 4,800 years, where we checked into the Taj Ganges. We took rickshaws to get to the sunset religious ceremony on the banks of the sacred Ganges River, where five priests chanted and swung torches, accompanied by the haunting sound of sitar and tabla drum.

Before dawn, we arose for a trip back to the river every Hindu tries to visit to bathe in before dying. Some of the city's residents go daily. Those who do not make it hope that their bodies will be carried there, to be cremated on its banks. Our boat went silently along the ghats, the steps down into the water, as hundreds of the earliest risers washed themselves.

After breakfast, we drove to Sarnath, where long ago the Buddha preached his first sermon. At the monument on the site, monks were chanting and we went through a museum of the world's greatest Buddhist sculptures. The Buddha's primary message was that the root of suffering was attachment to -- not possession of -- worldly things. That is a lesson more of us need to absorb.

]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.980430 2011-09-29T14:37:24-04:00 2011-11-29T05:12:01-05:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
We had assumed that the Toronto International Film Festival was over when we booked our flight to arrive the morning after its official closing. In fact, so many meetings continued that we were unable to get a good hotel room downtown for the first three days (Toronto has become the hottest film fest city this side of Cannes). We ended up at the superb Waterside Inn in the Port Credit section of the suburb of Mississauga ("missih-saw-guh," named after the local First Nation, as Indian tribes are called in Canada). We planned to go downtown after we recovered from jet lag the first day.

Knowing the first day would be rainy, we had agreed to a tour by car with Matthew Wilkinson of Heritage Mississauga, figuring the worst that happened would be we would fall asleep. Instead, his passion kept us wide awake for four hours! He got our attention with the story of "Hurricane Hazel" McCallion, a 91-year-old former pro hockey player who has been mayor since 1978 and has driven the amazingly enlightened development of nine villages (the first founded in 1836), united into the sixth-largest city in Canada, with a population of 750,000. Spread across 111 square miles, much of it is parkland, while 270 historic buildings are designated for preservation, and there are more than 1,000 sites for cultural events. All of this smart development is supported by the booming local economy.

Afterwards, the rain had stopped, so we walked around the charming Port Credit neighbourhood, full of specialty shops, art galleries, and restaurants (we had dinner at the appropriately named TEN).

The next day we toured The Living Arts Centre, said to be the first building in the world to encompass all the arts and be run in a way that isn't deeply dependent on government. The business community believes so strongly that its employees should be cultured that it paid for the 225,000 sq. ft. building, opened in 1997, while the city foots the utility bills and the Centre is expected to at least break even in its operations. It does so by hosting corporate events, filling up its two auditoriums with fundraisers for local organizations and fans of international stars (Punjabi and Tagalog are spoken by more locals than French), holding classes, renting studios to artists and selling their work. Articulate curator Cole Swanson blew us away when he showed us not only the talent that has been cultivated, but the advanced technologies being used for safety in working glass and wood. New CEO Ron Lenyk explained why he was excited by the challenges over lunch in the (profitable) restaurant.

Then manager Paul Damaso showed us the just-opened Celebration Square, which can hold an audience of 30,000 for outdoor concerts with directional speakers so neighbors aren't disturbed (the space is completely wi-fi-enabled and the neighbors include the stunningly-designed civic center and a state-of-the-art library which gets a million visits a year).

Mississauga is worth visiting to experience the fruits of citizen activism. That the locals appreciate what they have is shown by 5,000 turning out for a walking tour -- in the rain. We arrived in the middle of provincial election campaigns and were surprised by the number of lawn signs declaring their partisan allegiance in affluent, middle class, and poorer neighborhoods. But Canadian politics is pretty pragmatic compared with that south of the border and everyone from cab drivers to waiters in the Greater Toronto area seemed well- informed. The banking system did not fail and the economy was prudently managed, although it is threatened by the greed and gridlock of American institutions and the public debt in Europe.

The third day we went to Niagara Falls, a four-hour round-trip by VIA rail for $45 (the U.S. dollar is worth about the same as the Canadian these days). There are various packages to see the falls up close, from as little as $16 to walk behind the falls (where you really sense the meaning of hydropower) to Niagara Helicopters' overfly ($139). No matter how you look at it, you realize the Canadians have the much more impressive falls.

Downtown Toronto
Finally, we were able to get into the Sutton Place Hotel downtown (where Sandra's conference was being held), known for its service, security, and protection of privacy (which is why celebrities often stay there). What we were after is what guidebooks don't bother to rate: ultra-comfortable beds and pillows and quiet that comes from good building and management policies. It was also close to most of what we wanted to see in our hectic final two days (taxis are expensive, but mass transit is easy to use, and there are various passes to keep transportation costs down).

We did our homework using DK Eyewitness Travel: Top 10 Toronto, supplemented by www.SeeTorontoNow.com. Anyone could be entertained for weeks, whether the interest is food, shopping, theater, or music.

We started with the aim of boiling down the metropolis of 4.5 million with a walk of the neighborhoods guided by the super-informed Bruce Bell (there are five Chinatowns and a Little Portugal). Particularly fascinating was the 27-mile PATH, an underground city for Torontonians who want to avoid winter.

These are what we liked best:
-World-class special interest museums: We thought we couldn't possibly be interested in the Gallery of Inuit Art (featuring the work of contemporary Eskimos) or the Bata Shoe Museum, but we could hardly pull ourselves away (Toronto has others covering topics such as hockey and the history of textiles).
-Royal Ontario Museum: Terrifically-presented displays on subjects from dinosaurs to First Nations.
-Art Gallery of Ontario: A museum strong on Canadian impressionists and Henry Moore sculpture; we loved the microscopic carvings on prayer beads.
-Fort York: Where Americans had their first bloody victory in the War of 1812, which resulted in the retaliatory burning of Washington, D.C. The bicentennial next year will feature many special events to highlight a war that should be better-remembered.
-The Distillery: The largest section of Victorian industrial buildings anywhere has been turned into a charming and educational outdoor mall for art galleries, specialty shops, and restaurants.
-CN Tower: At 1,815 feet one of the tallest structures in the world, from the top you realize how green Toronto is (the 360 Restaurant turns and has a wine selection that is award-winning).

Next time, we'll take our time and give Toronto the attention it deserves.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.889993 2011-07-04T22:22:57-04:00 2011-09-03T05:12:02-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
Seemingly everything, from the metro system to museum signs, is know translated into English and a majority of the city's 3.4 million residents speak it well enough to provide directions and are eager to be helpful. The entire city has been re-engineered to be easy to navigate, making it one of the most visitor-friendly city in the world. (North Americans and many other foreign visitors don't even need visas to get in).

The New Berlin is also perfect for travelers on a budget, delivering more top culture per euro than just about anywhere else. Here are some suggestions based on my time in the cultural capital.

There are several keys to saving money. Most important is finding a good hotel at a value price and my wife and I made a mistake by aiming too low our first night, staying in a hostel, was far too noisy to sleep. The next day we went to one of the Berlin InfoStores for visitor services and in minutes we had a reservation at Hotel Ambiente, with a comfortable double-bed room in a quiet south-central neighborhood of antiques dealers near the metro for $118.

Another tactic is to forego eating at restaurants. German food is available in every major city everywhere, so giving it up was no sacrifice. The hotel provided a robust breakfast buffet, so we put dinner from the grocer in the refrigerator and carried healthy Clif Bars to sustain us through the day.

Finally, we each bought a 5-Day Welcome Card on the Berlin website, which allowed us unlimited metro and bus travel through out most of the city (A and B zones) for $40. Five days is the ideal amount of time to see its highlights on a first visit and the Card also provides 25-50 percent discounts off museums and activities.

The first way we used the Card was to take the City Circle Sightseeing tour, which cost us each $20. You can get on or off the big yellow buses (which come every 30 min. on a convenient route) anytime you want during the day you buy it. We chose to stay on and completed the circle in under two hours. This is a good way to get the big picture of how the city is laid out and see many of the highlights, like the Neo-Classical Brandenburg Gate that is a symbol of Berlin and the innovative post-reunification architecture (such as the main train station, which is made of glass).

We spent the rest of the day at the German History Museum, located like most important places you will want to visit in the central city and easily reached by metro. The state-of-the-art exhibition allows you to absorb two millennia of the Germany story, with side displays that put this in the broader European context of each period. Influential individuals, from Protestant reformer Martin Luther to philosophers like Kant are explored in an easily-understood way. The most fascinating section was about the rise of the Nazis, which includes films such as one of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels speaking at a rally where banned books are being burned.

On Wednesday morning we decided to get two important trips to the suburbs out of the way. The first was to Potsdam, south of the city (requiring a small additional metro fee), where the palaces of Frederick the Great, the 18th century Prussian military genius, are located. First we took a guided tour of Schloss Sanssouci, a magnificent Rococo masterpiece, and then went on our own quickly through the Neues Palais.

After that, we took the metro 20 miles north of Berlin to see Sachsenhausen, the only concentration camp within Germany proper, which was designed in 1936 to show visiting foreign dignitaries that prisoners were treated humanely. It served as the administrative headquarters for all prison camps and a training center for the infamous SS. Most of the 220,000 who were housed there were political prisoners, especially captured Soviet soldiers. About 70,000 died from illness, malnutrition, and the cold, while 30,000 were executed by a variety of means, including the gas chamber. Especially shocking were the displays on medical experiments.

We spent all day Thursday on the world-renowned Museum Island. Foremost among the museums is the Pergamon, named for the large reconstructed Greek temple altar from 170 B.C. Equally impressive are the reconstructed Assyrian palace, with its half-human winged guardians, and the enormous Ishtar Gate of Babylon, which one walks to through the original processional way of painted yellow lions on blue glazed bricks.

Next door is the Bode Museum, which houses European sculptures from the Middle Ages to 18th century and has an especially strong collection from the Byzantine Empire headquartered in Constantinople.

The Berliner Dom (cathedral) at the other end of the island is a good place to rest and admire the rich décor in the Baroque style, from the organ with 7,200 pipes to stained glass and mosaics depicting scenes from the New Testament. In the basement are the elaborate tombs of the Hohenzollern line of emperors.

Next to the Dom is the Altes Museum, designed like a Greek temple. It specializes in classical antiquities and is best-known for two sculptured heads: one of the Athenian statesman Pericles (the original was at the entrance to the Parthenon) and the other of the Egyptian Queen Nefertiti.

On Friday morning we walked around the former Nazi government district, including an outdoor display of period photos called "The Topography of Terror," before visiting the Mauermuseum, devoted to the history of the Berlin Wall, which one can see part of nearby. Particularly intriguing were the inventive methods that East Germans used to try to escape to the West, including specially-constructed suitcases and secret compartments in cars. This was also the location of Checkpoint Charlie, the gateway between East and West, which has been reconstructed.

A block away, at 80-90 Zimmerstrasse, is a large cluster of artist studios (there are said to be 25,000 working artists in Berlin) and we found the most interesting to be Naturemorte, which had some wonderful paintings.

In the afternoon and early evening we strolled through the nearby Hackescher Markt entertainment district, where we found lively crowds at outdoor restaurants, dance clubs, art galleries (we especially loved the "outsider" mixed media pieces at the Wilde Gallery, 7 Chauseestrasse), and quirky stores (custom-made corsets, Carnival costumes, dollhouses). No news of the recession had apparently been delivered to this neighborhood.

Museum junkies can find a wide variety of exhibits in the Jewish Museum, covering topics from Helmut Newton's photographs to the life of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. We picked three of the best for our last day.

The Gemaeldegalerie (Painting Gallery) has the works of the great European masters from the medieval period until the early 19th century, including Giotto, Raphael, Botticelli, Albrecht Durer, Breugel, and Vermeer. Grouped by period and country, nicely spaced and naturally lit, the selection is quite diverse and it's a pleasure to walk through the history of painting without it becoming overwhelming or duplicative, as at larger museums.

Famous for its unique, zinc-clad, serpentine building, designed by Daniel Liebeskind, The Jewish Museum has received acclaim as a world-class presentation of Jewish German history over the past two thousand years, using artifacts, paintings, dioramas, home movies, and multi-media to explore topics like what kosher means, the role of women in Judaism, early pogroms, what Judaism and Islam have in common, and the liberation of the death camps. Everyone, Jewish or not, should have this experience.

It would be easy to spend several weeks in Berlin and never suffer a minute of boredom. We'll be back to one of the world's most exciting and affordable great cities.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.833855 2011-03-10T23:42:46-05:00 2011-05-25T18:35:25-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
Turkey has more historic sites than the rest of Europe combined. There are more places mentioned in the Bible than any other country except Israel. Turkey has some of the world's most renowned cuisine. It's a shopaholic's paradise because prices are low for even handmade merchandise and Turks expect you to bargain. What follows are some highlights of our experience.

We joined our fellow travelers for the welcome dinner in the capital of Ankara in the center of the country. The next day we went to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, which has won a European Museum of the Year Award, with its well-organized, priceless treasures, and informative displays. They included the oldest-known statue from the world's first city 9000 years ago at Catalhoyuk, the world's first peace treaty (made between Rameses II and the Hittite nation), and inlaid tables from Gordion (the city King Midas was said to have ruled, also famous for the Gordian Knot, which Alexander the Great cut). Afterwards, we went through the Ataturk Memorial and Museum of Independence, which was surprisingly fascinating displays about how Mustafa Kemal Ataturk saved his country from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire after World War I (he was the commander who repulsed the eight-month Allied siege at Gallipoli and then he drove the Greeks out after the post-war occupation).

That night we entered Cappadocia, hills of soft rock that have been carved first by nature into fantastic shapes and then by man into ancient underground cities that were dug as deep as eight storeys. We stayed in the charming, 5-star Cave Suites and spent the next two days discovering remarkably-preserved, 1000-year-old Byzantine church frescoes. We also toured a government-supported center that keeps alive the vanishing art of hand-weaving the famous Turkish carpets and saw astonishing artistry for a fraction of the price one would pay in the U.S. One of the highlights of Cappadocia was seeing the Whirling Dervishes, Sufi mystics whose dance and music are mesmerizing.

The Turkish Riviera along the Mediterranean has year-round bustling tourism for its beaches, skiing in nearby mountains, innumerable shops and restaurants open late, and many historic sites. Moving up westwards along the Aegean, we saw the unique calcium deposits from hot mineralized water at Pamukkale, which make it look like a frozen Niagara Falls.

At Sardis, where rich King Croesus ruled, we saw the oldest surviving synagogue (and Sardis is one of the seven churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation). At Ephesus we saw the stone house where tradition says Mary spent her last days. Ephesus' marble Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the World and St. Paul spent two years preaching in the city before being driven out by the silversmiths, whose idol sales were being affected.

One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the remains of Troy. There were nine cities built on top of one another and the one Turkish archaeologists have identified as the object of the Trojan War is VI, from the 13th century B.C. It had a population of 400,000 and 60-foot-high walls, according to Homer (the ruins are still impressive at 20 feet).

We experienced classic Islamic culture when we arrived in Bursa, the lovely, tree-filled original capital of the Ottomans, where we toured a dazzling mosque of white marble and elaborate tombs. Afterwards, we shopped at the famous Silk Bazaar before retiring to our hotel to experience a very relaxing traditional Turkish Bath and massage.

If you ask almost anyone who has ever been to Istanbul, it ranks as one of the world's great cities. The dynamic metropolis of 13 million has stunning architecture (remarkably free of urban ugliness) and a hot nightlife. The city was founded in the 7th century B.C., renamed Constantinople in A.D. 330 when it became the capital of the Eastern Roman (later Byzantine) Empire, then was conquered by the Ottomans in 1453.

Over the next few days, we toured the Topkapi Palace of the sultans, with its incredible treasures, the Versailles-like Dolmabache Palace that succeeded it (with a staircase of crystal), St. Sophia (beautiful mosaics in the most important church in Christendom for 1000 years, before St. Peter's Basilica was built), the massive Blue Mosque (famous for its stained glass and tiles), and the Istanbul Museum (with some of best ancient Greek statuary extant anywhere).

We'd rate Turkey as one of our favorite destinations and as word spreads, more Americans will be eager to experience it.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.824362 2011-02-16T22:48:55-05:00 2011-05-25T18:35:25-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
"I can go out alone at any hour in Cairo," said Sarah Houseman with tour operator Abercrombie and Kent. "I've been here a year and no one has so much as insulted me on the street."

My wife, Sandra Wells, and I spent a week in Egypt after 9/11 on a part group, part-customized itinerary arranged by A&K. We arrived at Egypt's finest hotel, the Four Seasons in the Cairo suburb of Giza, at 4 a.m. on a Sunday and slept until lunchtime.

The next morning, our group met Mona el Nahas, an independent tour guide and an independent thinker in Egyptology. Over the next several hours, she walked us through the 150,000 objects on display in the Egyptian Museum. These objects are rotated, with just as many in storage. Studying up on the country's 3,000-year pharaonic history in advance was necessary, even with a guide if you don't want to be lost. But, it is easier to grasp the essentials than it might at first seem. The best basic intro is the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Egypt.

Old Cairo
The next day, we headed off on our own for a section of downtown, with its traditional Islamic architecture, much of it built in medieval times. At the Khan al-Khalil, the largest bazaar in the Middle East, shopaholics could spend weeks in its medieval alleys. Block after block of gold jewelry sellers made us wonder how all of them could make a living. As we moved into the toy wholesalers and souvenir section, one of the hawkers caught our attention with the cleverest line of all: "Come over here -- everything is free today!" Well, it got us in the store, at least.

Then we headed for the hilltop fortress known as the Citadel, from which Egypt was ruled for 700 years. We came partly for the view over Cairo, but also to look inside two of the city's most beautiful mosques. The Mohammed Ali is built of brown and white alabaster and holds 5,000 people for Friday prayers. All of Cairo echoes five times a day with the call to prayer from its hundreds of mosques. The Suleiman Pasha mosque is much smaller, but has mesmerizing kaleidoscopic geometric designs in its ceiling tiles.

We capped the day with a visit to Giza's famous pyramids and the Sphinx. The Great Pyramid of Khufu, completed in 2589 B.C. required a very strenuous climb up its steep tunnels to get into the center. Despite having read up on pyramids, somehow we had confused the later pyramids and temples with the ones at Giza and were surprised to find that they consist of blank walls and empty chambers. Nothing much to see, but they are imposing up close. There remain many controversies about their construction and meaning: they clearly weren't just tombs, as has been traditionally thought.

The next morning, the rest of the group headed for Sharm el-Sheik for diving at the best coral reefs in the Northern Hemisphere. The guide flew with us an hour to Luxor, where we joined a bus convoy for the 10-hour round trip to the legendary temples of Abydos and Dendera (with many security checkpoints on the way -- the Egyptians really overdo it to make tourists feel safe). When you walk into either temple, you can almost hear the ancient chants of the priests, these are so atmospheric with their painted murals of the gods still showing on the walls. These created a better experience than the pyramids.

Temples, Tombs, Pyramids
We rejoined the group and our new guide, Ashraf Mohie El-Din, the then 27-year-old rising star of Egyptology, who had made special arrangements to get us quickly into some of the numerous tombs and temples in what had once been the capital of Egypt, then known as Thebes.

We started on the West Bank, and there were three must-sees in the full day that should be spent there. One is the Tomb of Nefertari, wife of Ramses II. But only 150 people per day are allowed in for 10 minutes at a time. It's worth getting up at dawn to get in line.

After $5 million in cleaning and repair, the murals are as bright as if they had been painted yesterday, an astonishing feast for the eyes. The Mortuary Temple of Ramses III (the last great pharaoh), with its painted pillars, gave one the best sense of how the original buildings looked. And, of course, one must go into Tut's small tomb, which holds his coffin of gold.

That night, we went to the Temple of Amun at Karnak, for a sound-and-light presentation about ancient Egypt. The program has visitors walk through part of the temple's roofless 62 acres, a forest of massive pillars reaching up to the starry sky, before ending up at a small stadium for the dramatic finale.

Luxor Temple, which is smaller but still elegantly designed. It was started by Amenhotep III, known as "The Magnificent," for his 38-year peaceful reign, which saw Egypt reach its cultural height a century before Ramses II.

After a couple of days there, the group took off on a cruise down the Nile, while we flew back to Cairo because we were on deadline for a different story: we'd like to go back again for the cruise and a visit to Alexandria.

Our last night, we went out on own for what turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip -- the dancers of the mystic Muslim sect of the Sufis, known as the Whirling Dervishes. As soon as the exotic Sufi music began -- a hypnotic blend of Middle Eastern woodwinds, strings and drums -- we were entranced. As it ramped up in intensity, the dancers, dressed in multi-colored robes, whirled faster and faster in circles until you'd think it would be physically impossible for them to stay standing as they bring the audience with them into a state of rapture.

The next morning, we weren't eager to jump from eternity back into the mundane reality show.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.815899 2011-01-31T11:09:29-05:00 2011-05-25T18:30:24-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
Its location was why we were headed there: it was the center of the 7000-mile-long Silk Road of the Middle Ages, where goods were exchanged between the east and west, causing the area to flourish for centuries. Its rulers left behind impressive art and architecture, now preserved at four UNESCO World Heritage sites, which tourists are just starting to discover.

Uzbekistan reached its height as the center of the empire of Timur the Lame, or Tamarlane, in the 14th century, which stretched from northern India to southern Russia, from western China to western Turkey. He was to have a profound effect on subsequent history. His defeat of a sultan delayed the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople by 50 years, allowing time for books about the ancient Greeks and Romans to reach Europe and spark the Renaissance. Tamarlane's great-great-great grandson, Babur, would found the Mogul dynasty of India.

Since you lose a lot if you try to rely entirely on a guide to appreciate travel, we read the best book on the subject, Uzbekistan: The Golden Road to Samarkand by Calum Macleod and Bradley Mayhew.

We chose Bestway Tours & Safaris because of its reputation for providing terrific guides in exotic locations. "The Splendours of Uzbekistan" started out the eight days on the ground in the nation's sparklingly-clean capital, Tashkent, which has 2.3 million people. It is very modern, although roads outside the capital can be bad.

There is little crime in Uzbekistan and Islamic extremists would have a hard time getting a foothold: with an authoritarian secular govern, the entire time we were there we never heard a call to prayer in this ostensibly Muslim country.

Khiva and Bukhara
Our first destination was the most remote city of the Silk Road, Khiva, where the inner city, Ichan Kala, has been preserved largely as it was in the Middle Ages. The homes are adobe and the people on the street in colorful robes and scarves aren't dressing up for tourists: traditional clothing is worn widely, especially in rural areas.

The inner city has numerous sites of historic, religious and cultural importance, with the highlight being the 163-room Tash Hauli Palace of the khan, commissioned in 1830. By the time we got there, we were dizzy from going past tiles with geometric and floral art, perfected over 1400 centuries. The Koran forbids using figures of people or animals except for symbolic purposes, as well as mandating that nothing be a precise duplication of anything else. Every inch of the palace was covered with different designs and colors and we felt like we had walked into a kaleidoscope.

We then drove south to "Holy Bukhara," which once had a mosque for every day of the year. It also became a center for science. During the 10th century, its state library rivaling the one in Baghdad as the greatest in the Islamic world. This attracted Ali ibn-Sina (aka Avicenna in West), who cured the sultan and wrote a remarkably accurate medical handbook, used in the Europe until the 19th century (a museum devoted to him is in the suburbs).

Bukhara's bazaars were a primary destination for caravans and it still has hawkers of everything from cute puppets to handmade ceramics who are eager to bargain. Lord Curzon, the viceroy of British India, called Bukhara "the most interesting city in the world."

In the Ark citadel, there is a museum devoted to the city's history as regional power, with historic photos and artifacts, such as gorgeous robes used by the mystical whirling dervishes. There are lots of interesting buildings in the Old City, such as the 1000-year-old Ismael Samani Mausoleum, with its intricate brickwork, and the Nadir Divanbegi Madrassah, or religious school, whose front is covered by 11 million handmade tiles.

Samarkand
We were eager to move on to fabled Samarkand, from its founding in the 6th century B.C. an oasis of trees and trade between East and West. When Alexander the Great conquered it in 329 B.C., he remarked, "Everything I have heard about the beauty of the city is indeed true, except that it is much more beautiful than I imagined." Marco Polo and ibn-Batutta, the greatest pre-modern travelers, reported that even in ruins in the 13th century it remained one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Tamarlane made it his capital, bringing in artisans from across the empire to turn it into what was called the Jewel of Islam.

One of its highlights is the Gur Emir, where Tamarlane and some of his family are entombed. When we walked inside, the lights were dim, but then our guide turned on full lighting and it was like the heavens opened up. No set of even wide-angled photos could convey the 360-degree scope of what our eyes beheld, with every inch covered by stars and trees carved into copper and gold and Koranic phrases in calligraphic Arabic script. Gur Emir is more beautiful than the Taj Mahal.

The next morning we went through the Shah-i-Zinda mausoleums, which are of a small enough scale to allow an intimate appreciation. For centuries, Samarkand's ceramic masters experimented with colors, designs, and materials inside and out and they provided staggering variety. Genghis Kahn's troops were so moved that they refused to destroy these houses of the dead.

The highlight of any visit to Samarkand is the Registan, which Lord Curzon called "the noblest public square in the world." On three sides are madrassahs, each with a unique outer design. The combination of grand portal, turquoise domes, and elaborately decorated pillars is awesome and the whole thing is impossible to truly capture with photos.

We walked into the Tillya Kari, the madrassah in the center. Its far wall is covered in gold leaf up to the ceiling, which has what appears to be a vibrating sun surrounded by circles of leaves and flowers. We gazed upwards in awe and everything else in our lives was put into proper perspective.
]]> tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.811165 2011-01-19T15:00:37-05:00 2011-09-27T17:46:02-04:00

Scott S. Smith http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-s-smith/
Yet the International Music Festival in the coastal resort city of Cartagena just completed its fifth sold-out season with stars of the classical world flying in for a joyous celebration of Johann Sebastian Bach's work. Even those who aren't hardcore classical buffs would enjoy a few days of heavenly music while exploring the Old Town of this colonial capital.

But what about the cocaine cartels and armed rebels? In recent years, they've been pushed into faraway jungles so that Bogota, the Colombian capital, is now about as safe as Chicago. Cartagena ("carta-hey-nuh") was always a safe neutral zone anyway and remains one of the hemisphere's best-kept travel secrets, with wonderfully-restored 17-18th century buildings, a beautiful tropical setting, and a lively dining and club scene.

Which is why musicians tend to beg to come back each year to play at the music festival, even those from elsewhere in Latin America, where support for classical music education in schools is high and the level of popular interest is shown by the massive turnout for the festival's outdoor events. This ought to be embarrassing for those of us from the United States, where symphonies and opera companies struggle to survive.

My wife and I went to the fourth season in January 2010, which had a Mozart theme, and we were swept away by his inspired masterpieces, such as the "Jupiter Symphony" and the "Requiem." But we were also excited by the regional composers, who have combined the European tradition with Latin sounds.

We stayed at the five-star Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa, where standard rooms run $250 to $400. There are lots of good hotels in the area, but it's always hard anywhere in the world to find one where you can get a combination of very comfortable beds, a quiet location, and easy access to where you want to go at a reasonable price.

The hotel's restaurants are good, but we, frankly, had no interest, since we're on diets and South American cuisine can be had in any major U.S. city. Nor do we like to spend much time shopping--we have enough stuff already. And coming this far to lie on the beach strikes us as the ultimate waste of time.

We travel to places we're never likely to return to in order learn about their culture and history and Cartagena has plenty of both (for a helpful overview check out www.Colombia.travel). The second morning we were there, we joined a tour arranged by the hotel, which first took us to what was the largest fort ever built by the Spanish, which guarded the treasure collected from all over their American empire to take back to Madrid.

The Gold Museum of the Zenu was our favorite part because of its impressive artistic creations, including 2000-year-old mythical beasts carved into pendants. The film in English explaining the displays is excellent.

Another delight was the Emerald Museum (there are several similar places and all are said to be interesting, so just ask what is nearby). Colombia is the source of 65 percent of the world's emeralds and 90 percent of the best stones. The process of turning the raw minerals into gems that show their inner fire is fascinating. Prices in the U.S. for emerald jewelry tend to be two to three times higher and the Colombia government will rebate the 16 percent sales tax at the airport.

You don't really have to go to a shopping district to buy local crafts, since there are street vendors and shops everywhere featuring colorful woven handbags, flutes, scarves, hats, and the like.



The Palace of the Inquisition has imaginative displays of the instruments used to torture confessions out of those suspected of witchcraft and the tools to execute the "guilty," as well as exhibits on the slave trade that once thrived in Cartagena.

A bit more contemporary and pleasant is the surprisingly good Museum of Modern Art. Unlike too many of this type of institution in the U.S., this had a fair number of works by quite talented and original artists.

You can't visit Colombia without trying its coffee, even if you aren't much of a regular coffee drinker (and don't ask about Starbucks, which not surprisingly has no presence). We went to a coffee-tasting event on a hotel rooftop one afternoon, where samples from organic family farmers tasted quite naturally like they were flavored with hazelnut or chocolate.

After an outdoor concert one night, we dropped by a couple of the salsa clubs, and you can find the best by asking locals (we were too tired to dance, but it was fun to listen and watch). These don't open until around 11 p.m., so take a siesta before going out (there are also buses that will take you to several clubs to party into the wee hours).

As far as we could tell, the only violence in Cartagena is when someone gets too drunk at a local bar and even then you'd probably be much safer there than staying at home. And it's definitely worth the effort to treat yourself to maestros playing the most powerful music every composed.]]>