We are
sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is still e-mailing
strong and recently sent the Beetle a collection of travel
reminiscences.

A friend of mine reading my Guam notes was also
stationed in Guam whilst working in the Navy. He told me something
interesting about a couple of Japanese soldiers that had hid in the
jungles for many years not knowing the War was over. He said that one
was something like a private and the other a Corporal and they had some
kind of disagreement between them and did not speak to each other for a
period of twenty years while hiding out in the jungle. Ha!

I am still enjoying reading A Sense of Place about
travel writers by Michael Shapiro. I was surprised to learn that India
is Rick Steves favourite country although he writes and conducts tours
mostly in Europe. He said he would never take a tour group to India as
it is unpredictable: “I wouldn’t want to be in
charge of making twenty people happy in India”.

Me: I visited India three times taking India rail pass
and loved it and found it fascinating, but like Rick Steves, I would
not recommend it to others for fear they might get ill and blame me!
Rick Steves says the Reichstag (new one) building in Berlin is a new
glass dome that is open and free all the time so people can literally
look over the shoulders of their legislators and know what’s
on their desk and keep an eye on them. He has a building in Edmonds
Washington where he employs sixty people. Here, I thought it was just
him with a backpack on his back roughing it through Europe, well, maybe
along with a photographer! He says his tour guides for his tours are
the best paid in Europe. I suspect his tours would be good for someone
wanting to be with a group.

One of my favourite writers is Jan Morris. I started
reading her when he was James Morris. Morris had sex change operation
in Casablanca. He had been at one time an Intelligence officer in the
British Army and accompanied the 1933 Everest expedition that reached
the summit for the first time. He was married with four children. His
wife and he still live together in Wales. I was disappointed when I
heard he had become a woman as I prefer male travel writers. I guess I
will have to reread his earlier work when he was a male to see if I can
notice any difference in his travel writing as a woman.

The travel writer Eric Newby spent thirteen months in
POW camps in World War II. He escaped in September 1943 immediately
after the Italian armistice. A sympathetic Italian commander who was
later beaten to death by the Germans let the prisoners escape. Newby
who had recently broke his ankle left atop a mule. A Slovenian couple
with anti-Fascist sympathies sheltered Newby who became smitten with
their daughter Wanda. When it became unsafe for Newby to stay with
Slovenian family, he sought shelter in the maternity hospital of a
nearby hospital. But as the Germans closed in father of the family
risked his life to drive Newby through Parma to a mountain hideout in
the Po Valley. Ultimately Newby was recaptured and returned to prison
camps but survived the war. Interesting accounts (to me)!

On continuing on the theme of travel writers,
I’ve been reading Fodors’ Exploring India Author
Fiona Dunlop 1998. On page 14, she says, “When a desert woman
in Rajasthan (the most colourful and interesting section of India to
me. Mac) dons a pido, a yellow veil with a large red spot, it announces
her pregnancy and acceptance by the community. Simply being fertile is
however not enough. Vedic verses honour sons followed by more sons but
never daughters. When a boy is born conch shells are blown in Bengal
and Assam and drums are beaten in Makargshtra. When a girl is born the
women of Rajasthan retreat behind their veils and wail. In traditional
Hindu households throughout India an ancient rite to produce a male
child is still performed over pregnant women”.

In the 1980s a survey revealed that of 8,000 abortions
carried out in India after prenatal sex determination only one was a
male foetus. On page 15 the author talks about Muslims, who, unlike
Hindus believing in resurrection after death and in the existence of
heaven and hell. It is customary for Muslims to bury rather than
cremate their dead.

If you would like to contact Mac, he can be e-mailed
on: macsan400@yahoo.com