back to the travel story...

We were traveling from Turkey to Dubai, then New Delhi to end up in Nepal. All of this was to happen within 24 hours. A simple seamless nighttime jaunt to get us into Kathmandu so we could find a meditation retreat that we wanted to do. (Even this ended up not happening, as we eventually found out that we would be separated from eachother to be men with men and women with women for the entire 10 day retreat. Also, I was unfamiliar with the fact that I wouldn't have been able to talk for the entire 10 days...You see we had just gotten engaged only a month before in Greece, and there was NO way I was going without my woman for 10 days NOW...are you kidding me?!)

But I digress...We were late in our arrival at 3AM and were running through the airport to get to the gate to reach our connection. There running with us was a little man, not much older than we were at the time. He was keeping up with us every step until we reached the new gate. The plane was out the window, the door was open for passengers, and this Indian man showed his ticket and ran down the gangway. We showed our tickets and were halted. We stood there and watched our plane disappear into the darkness as we were told we would be set up for the night to figure out why we were not in the computer. It should be fixed tomorrow and we would be put on another flight...at 3AM tomorrow...or would that be the next next day?!...

They took the video camera and SLR camera from me. Or I could take out the film and give them that, basically ruin all of the shots...I was promised that it would be returned when we board the next plane. I gave them the cameras.

We were driven from the airport to a hotel. We were unable to see anything, literally, anything except the road in front of us as we left the airport as the night sky was BLACK! We approached the hotel. This amazing luxurious building coming out of the darkness was quite a site. We were greeted with smiles from everyone. It was an incredible place. Very high end! Not bad for someone traveling the world on only a few dollars a day! This was a country filled with money. We think that we have money here in the US...HA! We found later...

We were set up in a room. The porter dropped our bags, again with a big smile. We were both quite tired, but I wanted to see if I could put some direction as to where we were so I went on to the balcony to see anything...blackness. We went to sleep.

Upon waking in the late morning I opened the blinds that had totally shut out the morning sunshine. Yes, it was bright and daytime. I slid the door open to feel the wall of thick hot air hit my face. I walked out on the balcony and looked out to a horizon of sand. No plants, no life, nothing moving...sand. As far as one could see from this 5th floor.

We decided to go down to get some food and maybe head into Abu Dhabi. We figured we would probably never be here again, so it would be cool to get a cab ride into town and see a few things since our plane wasn't until the evening. We checked with the front desk to find that a ride into the downtown area, about 10 miles, would cost the equivalent of approx. $70. We found that our dollar was worth something in the ballpark of $.05 exchange rate at the front desk...What an eye opener that one was! We now know what it feels like to be financially strapped. We were unable to do anything except sit in the hotel room or walk the grounds.

The place was a grand type of palace with beautiful grounds, marble everywhere, wonderful plants and fountains, elegant. But, there was no one around. The place was empty. It was rather eerie. It was as if we were the only people in the place, excepting the staff. I couldn't quite place what was up...Everyone was pleasant and helpful, but it was weird.

We decided to walk a bit. We went down to see if there was a gym or a pool. We ventured to the basement and followed some signs, although we didn't know what they said. We could hear some music coming from down some hall so we followed that. The halls were long, narrow, and had few doors. As we turned another corner we could see someone sitting on a stool outside a door at the far end of this particular hallway. It seemed straight out of a David Lynch film.

We slowly walked down the hall toward the sound coming out of the room. The man at the doorway was dressed in full Arab attire with the head wrap and such. The middle eastern music coming from the room was getting louder as we approached. By the time we reached the door the man had stood up all the while staring at my woman. I looked into the room and saw a dark bar filled with Arab men. This was where everyone was! The Bar! The place was packed. A few of the patrons looked out into the hallway where we were and stopped and stared at Michelle. She was the only woman around. Hell, for all we knew she was the only woman in the building. The bar filled with men, down a long hallway in a hotel with no one around, with a doorman...It was a bit uncomfortable. We smiled and turned and walked away.

We went back to our room to hibernate and wait for our plane.

Very bizarre...

Freedom..of the press, search and seisure...

I find it interesting how a "civilized" industrialized country, such as the United States, is able to do the same things that a country like China does to their people, but get no serious thought about it from the American people dumbfounds me. We state that it is all because the government is doing its best to help keep terrorists from out of our borders. That is a line of shit.

Bush has the nads to go on a short foreign visiting spree, thinking this is to show the American people that he is a well traveled diplomat...right...(once he is out of office he will never leave Texas again)he then makes assertions of his disappointment with the Chinese government and how it handles the imprisonment of some of their people. What about Gitmo and the other secret prisons throughout the world our government has and the continued rationalizations this administration has done to keep the American people from looking past the end of our noses.

These are war criminals. But then when this case is brought up as to the Geneva Convention and its rules for the imprisonment of war criminals, the administration state s that they are in a gray area due to the fact that they are not from a specific country or army...

It is interesting on how if something is labeled as "a war on" it gives our government the constitutional right to do whatever they please through the power of the president. This administration knows this rule better than anyone and has run their entire Presidency on this issue. Yet, they still claim that they are looking for accountability...try the mirror!!

Freedom, my ass. There is nothing they cannot do, if they simply want to, anymore. You thought your life was safe and free...Safe is relative, free is a facade.

I found this article a bit interesting. It seems that there has been more and more incidents of this action occurring, therefore the civil liberties organizations and others have decided to bring this out more to the public.

Fri Aug 1, 7:31 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.

The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.

The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.

The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Alan Elsner)


I have traveled throughout the world and only once have I ever had something confiscated. That was when I was in Dubai, in the Arab Emirates. We didn't show up on the computer from Turkey to Nepal via India with this stop in Dubai. On our stopover to change planes at 3AM we were told that we would have to wait until tomorrow for a new flight as they needed to get things figured out...They took my video camera for the night...This was 15 years ago.

I'll tell this story further as that 48 hours was quite the experience...tomorrow.