Travel "Gollums"

I was reading this amusing article on a blog; http://eatingmyworld.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/the-sham/ by Eatingmyworld, about travel in the Holy Land, Israel, Bethlehem and so on and his disappointment in the sites, the commercialism thereabouts, the tackiness of it all. It brought a thought to me that almost never do things that one really looks forward to live up to expectations!
The human imagination is a monstrous grandiose thing that has limitless ability to construct a world without limits. I am reminded about stories of people, blind since birth, they had an operation to restore their sight. When asked their very first impression, on seeing the world for the first time, their invariable response is that they were disappointed. Instead of living in a dark velvety castle they discover they live in a single-wide mobile home, instead of colors beyond comprehension, the colors are muted and dull. Imagine their whole lives thinking about how a loved one would look and then seeing them for the first time, how could they measure up?
This is why a movie never exceeds a good book in expressing the author’s vivid imagination and storytelling. When I was in 7th grade we all read “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings” http://www.lordoftherings.net/ it was our Harry Potter, we loved Tolkien! We would go into the library and discuss excitedly various aspects of the books. I am sure we all had our view of what the Gollum looked like, it might have even changed with our moods. Is there any way the movie could capture the wonder we felt as young adults? Once the movie is made and Gollum is pictured, once there is a definitive image, imagining something else is difficult, at least for me.

I think this is why many love affairs don’t work out, the initial lust and excitement doesn’t hold up to the day-to-day grind of reality and early morning sobriety. Also the saying of “be careful what you wish for” has seeds of this sown in. Not only do few people really know what is even good for them, but their wishes have become unrealistic fantasies that can never be hard reality. I suppose that begs the question is reality hard?
So many people fantasize about trips and locations, they think about their dream vacations for years and years. They work and save all their working life till they retire (which is a bad idea IMHO, travel when young enough to enjoy it!), then, when they finally get there they are disappointed, I hear this often.

Remember those tacky folks selling tacky junk on the way to Machu Piichu, the Taj Mahal and the River Jordan have to make a living too. They aren’t there to fulfill your fantasy or vision they are there to feed their kids. So have fun and realize that the world is small and fragile and whereever you go to escape reality and live a dream, the one constant is that you will be there too! Your own face will follow along and keep an eye on you and remind you where you came from.

Thinking of Koh Phi Phi

This is written with five years of retrospect which might be a good thing.
We caught a cab in Patong and it was a small minivan thing which they packed to the gills with people from Israel and us two. At first we couldn’t quite catch the language which sounded like someone clearing their throat to spit, but eventually we talked a bit. I found the Jewish magazines odd, upside down and backwards, hmm.
On the boat trip over to Koh Phi Phi it was overcast and rainy, with lots of islands all about. Someone asked me what I thought of it? I remarked that it looked exactly like Puget Sound, overcast rainy, and lots of islands. They looked at me like I was crazy, no really, I’m not kidding!!
On landing we got advice from our Jewish friends about how to get the best and cheapest room. I told my buddy I was tired of cheap-ass rooms and wanted to get the best room on the Island. We had been running really budget sleeping it tiny beds too small for a nine year old boy, I wanted a real bed, sized for a fat American! The island itself is a narrow flat strip of land between two hills, this area where all the tourism and hotels are is only maybe ten feet above the ocean. We ended up at the Phi Phi Island Cabana Hotel. My traveling companion remarked it was the best room, with the best view, he had experienced to that point.
We had a view of the pool and a short distance from there, maybe 75, feet the ocean beach. The http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agCG-rPqM6A video below shows the view we had as the tsunami hits, (two months later) it was literally shot from our room’s balcony on the third floor. There was no elevator just stairs but it was nice for the view, in the future I will know there is also safety in height at this location. The giant Greek urn you see was in the center of the pool with a fountain on top. We could swim in the pool and stand under the fountain spray, it must have been 15 feet up from the surface of the pool so you can imagine the wall of water from the tsunami was a churning muddy mess full of “floating TVs fifteen feet high!
Also when we arrived people were doing the parasail thing on the beach. I figured I would do it the next day but they were gone. At one point on low tide I walked out on the tide flats and the water level was so flat and shallow a person could walk 5 or 600 yards out there looking at tide pools and tropical fish etc in knee deep water. This is the side the tsunami wave came from and it goes to show the water from the ocean’s depths had nowhere to go but straight up!

Looking at videos from 2009 at the Koh Phi Phi location, it appears five years later the area has still not fully recovered. There does not appear to be as many boats and tourism businesses working the area. I suppose many locals had such bad memories they moved away and of course some were never found. Needless to say it seemed very strange that this catastrophe could have occurred at such a beautiful place we had just left.

The Davenport Hotel- Spokane

To word it in a sentence, the Davenport Hotel is damn nice.

It seemed there were people everywhere waiting to help or assist in any helpful, friendly, way. Right from checking in and valet parking, we were treated like royalty. We had many conversations with the staff, several of which seemed to have just graduated from Gonzaga or Eastern Washington State University, about the surrounding area and directions, or recommendations. People were friendly and happy and there was not one tiny negative thing to report.

The room was great and all my expectations were exceeded. Looking through Expedia.com the Davenport is rated as the 10th best hotel in the world!? http://www.expedia.com/daily/promos/hotel/InsidersSelect/default.asp?mcicid=hp.tools_insiders&rfrr=-52636

There were three chauffer driven Lincoln Town Cars available, to ferry us/hotel guests, to dinner or destinations downtown, which was a very nice perk. It was fun just walking around inside the hotel and marveling at some of the ornate ballrooms and soaking up a little bit of the history. The hotel is a “spa hotel” as well if you are into that sort of pampering (who isn’t). I highly recommend the Davenport Hotel if you are in Spokane and want the very best you owe it to yourself to stop by and check it out.
http://www.thedavenporthotel.com/