Sauerkraut Saft

4:05PM - Blame it on Hindus

We should all learn what to do, when your dish does not turn out well, from the restaurant of the Badlands Lodge. The deepfried piece of dough, for instance, can be named "Indian bread". If that does not work, try putting blame on several nations at once, as in the next item on the menu: "Indian taco".

2:35PM - Rambling wreck

Chicago - the Cities - Atlanta - the Cities - Badlands - Yellowstone - Grand Teton - Berkeley. For now.

I would have left for Wyoming, but it would not have been mamonning.

7:18PM - Le tour est fini

Our european voayge is over. Thanks to the supporters of the team.

 ... to be continued...

1:33AM - In the world of animals

Kharkov remains to be a city of animals. New species evolved over the years: from porcupines eating cucumbers to bears feeding on used tires. 


Some of the beasts start performance careers as is in case of Misha and Gesha, who do jumps as they are rewarded with fish, or that cat from the advertisement of the concert of a man dressed in white forcing a cat to hit the keyboard.


All in all the fauna of Kharkov beats that of Amsterdam, the latter being limited to horses.

 

7:42PM - Kiev-mama, Kharkov-papa

1:43PM - Our 5 cents

One should spell carefully when traveling, 'cause one may end up in Krakov despite the intention to visit the center of the universe (Kharkov). There is one thing to see in Krakov and it is actually outside of the city: salt mines of Wieliczka. Sculptures of various historical figures taste salty if licked -- it looks like one of our compatriots has licked the papal boot.

2:17AM - Evro-pa

The route is Barcelona-Krakow-Kiev-Kharkov-Amsterdam-Paris. I see many compatriots (or traces of) on every touristic corner in Europe. It could be because my radars catch even smallest bits of the language  ("Sho?") or, perhaps, 'cause of the bare fact that "Sashoosya was here" is in the air.
Now that cult-shock is behind us, we can appreciate 4 gloomy looking bayanists buttoning away their classic repertoir.

1:20AM - Under

Although Jamaican waters do not offer too many challenges -- most sites are relatively shallow (60- feet) -- the usual tropical splendor may be observed in selected places.

The reef is being destroyed by global warming the locals who dump all kinds of shit in the water and seem to have no regulations for fishing whatsoever. Beer bottles and fish traps could be found on any dive. The so-called "blind" traps -- the ones with no buoy attached so that the "fish pirates" can not discover them -- are the most depressing site: often they get abandoned and simply accumulate dead fish. 

 
The water temperature makes Jamaica a perfect place for easy relaxing dives (modulo trash). As they say,  "such @#$%@# winter"!

6:05PM - Scientology for poor?

One fact about Jamaica is that there are the most religions per capita here. According to some sources, one of them has been started in the first half of 20th century by people, who put a certain spin on a biblical prophecy saying that "a king will rise in the East". Apparently the "elect of God" was not particularly interested in taking part in this play, yet the movement got his name.
The access to the spiritual core is granted through a substance abundant on the island. The government is against the substance: according to locals, the rulers want to establish a stronger cocaine market...

Note: make sure the divemaster is not completely stoned.

1:58PM - What good for russian, death to german

I am in Jah-Jah-land studying local folklore. My favorite proverb so far: "I no come to hear about how horse dead an' cow fat".   

3:19PM - Loathing... in Cancun

Despite all recommendations I've decided to rent an automobile in Mexico for a couple days. The idea was to use a local company, which rents out vehicles in Playa del Carmen with a drop off at Cancun airport.
So there was a representative waiting for us as we disembarked the ferry coming from Cozumel; he took us for a 10 minute walk to a car and then drove it to the agency where the paperwork had to be filled out. All this done in complete silence -- no words on his part whatsoever. The manager of this joint gave us a big smile, "welcome amigos", etc. There was also a kind of chuckle that I came to hate in mexican vendors: it may well be untrue, but...

9:55PM - The best fish is...

The god's creatures that inhabit the perimeter of Cozumel happen to come in all possible irregular geometric shapes, let alone colors, sizes, and number of teeth. The small part of the trophies that the photo-hunt yielded can be examined by following the link in the previous post. Here are a couple of hard-to-find good-looking species and a couple on which the god "rested".

 

7:25AM - 800 PSI Jesus

For celebration of the Orthodox Christmas a righteous man has not so many options. Rediscovering Jesus underwater is by far the best of them. There are numerous proofs of existence that can be found around Cozumel (see pix).  
 

1:14PM - ...and from our window...

12:25PM - Finita la comedia

There are 5 days 10 hours and 23 minutes left for me in the land of Thai. By now I have become a certified Advanced Open Water diver and will spend the remaining time in Similans on a liveaboard.

My companions depart tomorrow and all the symptoms -- in particular, slurred speech making little sense as the time goes by -- show that they got nitrogen narcosis. That's why I'll be making a 3-day safety stop in the area of bay... Then there will be a long swim back to the boat as I don't expect to surface in any proximity of it.

11:23PM - The last samurai

Let me tell you that the last thing you want to see in the seat next to you on a transpacific flight is a japanese baby. The requests made by the baby and refused by its mother resulted in shrieks described best as those of a pig being cut. No wonder the name of the baby turned out to be... Salo.

Salo was a little boy - perhaps, 1 year old, but when he was bored with his mom he had jumped to his feet, stood in front of me, and asked for attention. I was ready to such a situation: I explained Salo how profoundly ashamed he should be of himself and, given his ancestry, as a resolution, offered him a plastic knife. Salo grabbed it firmly and... faced his mother. Not only the monster could walk, it could talk! Shaking the weapon Salo yelled "Titty!!!"

She looked at the stunned audience with the despair of a woman about to be abused. The help was not coming - the poor mom had to pull up the t-shirt.

P.S. Thai tel = 66 895094041... there will be no posts for a while.

6:30AM - Big up yourself

To do business in Japan you have to smoke crack. How else can you come with and think the following attracts customers...

On the other hand if you limit yourself to Xtasy this would limit your imagination only to new ways of naming things.

11:59AM - The mother of Japon

I woke up and the time on my clock is 2:22am, which shows that several things are thoroughly screwed up here. For instance, the concepts of night and day.
As the result, not so many people seem to get sleep at night; At least not the schoolgirls clad in uniforms and found in abundance on the early trains in Kobe. They have a peculiar way to position their bodies when drowsing with their legs as far apart as the skirt lets, backs bent awkwardly, and heads dropping forward and down -- in my hood only drunk men could achieve such a relaxed asana when riding the metro.
There are, of course, many things that Japanese got right and I don't mean the robots. My thoughtful host has placed me in the hotel with a view of a football field, which one can use to observe the miniature model of the society of remaining humans. And here is why

8:06PM - Hello, ass, New Year!

Not later than tomorrow yours truly embarks on a sequence of travels that is bound to generate an abundance of graphical material, both in the form of text and pictures. The action is going to be set in the land of the rising sun and several nearby countries where it never comes down. The operations base moves temporarily to the West Coast; Minnesota, I'll be back!

4:28PM - Comrade Shtirlitz -- a veritable Ar... Argentine?

Libertango is considered one of the classical pieces of tango nuevo. Many noticeable musicians have explored its theme and one can find its sheet music arranged for various combinations of instruments. However, I have always felt there is something missing... Perhaps, russian lyrics?