Purchasing from Portugal Close to Home

Bem-Vindo on the door means Welcome

Fall River, Massachusetts claims the highest concentration of people with Portuguese ancestry in the United States. Almost 50 percent of Fall River's population have Portuguese heritage.

I had heard about the new Portugalia Marketplace, a supermarket of sorts, specializing in products imported from Portugal. I went to see for myself what the buzz was about. Was it worth a detour from Providence or Newport, Rhode Island?

Sem Duvida! (that means without a doubt in Portuguese). It's set up like a market, sort of like Eataly, with separate counters for bread, meat, cheeses, olives, etc. Vats of grains and nuts line the entrance. 

There are isles and aisles of wines, oils and other Portuguese products. I love it that the aisle end caps are decorated with azulejos (tiles). 

There's a separate section for the business of drying and exporting the salt cod fished off the shores of Fall River and New Bedford. The cartons marked "Bacalhau" are shipped all over the world.

Kara Walker's Fons Americanus Deserves a Close Look

An artist named Kara Walker created a sculpture on display in London that's a "do not miss".

Well, you can't miss it if you go to the Tate Modern because the sculpture is 13 meters high (or 42 feet, for Americans like me who freeze at measurements in meters).

The work is called "Fons Americanus". It's on display in the Turbine Hall in the former power station. 

But size alone does not make the piece. It's a loose copy of the sculpture that graces the circle in front of Buckingham Palace. 

The Queen Victoria Memorial was unveiled in 1911 in honor of her after her death, and glorifying Britain. The elaborate sculpture was funded by gifts from across the British empire---from Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

African-American Sculptor Kara Walker was inspired and angered by England's celebration of its holdings spanning the globe. As a descendent of African slaves, she refashioned the slant on British history. Her work showcases different symbols. Calling her version "Fons Americanus," the symbols decorating her memorial include a noose, sharks cruising the waters in search of slaves, and water spewing from the fountain of a severed head. 

The New York Times called Ms. Walker's work a "countermemorial," celebrating the uncredited proceeds from West Africa. 

Unless visitors look at the images, the imposing sculpture can blend into the background like any other giant memorial. People eat their lunch at its base and kids on a school trip look in the other direction.

Bored kids sitting under noose and sharks, not even looking at it

Antony Gormley Tangles with the Royal Academy of Art in London

I was drawn in to a temporary exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts in London open until December 3, 2019. Having to climb through spirals of wire to cross a gallery looked like fun.

And it was. It could have just as easily been barbed wire in a prison. But instead it was welcoming--bordering on joyful. If the attached youtube launches, you can hear the wires clanging as people climb through.

British sculptor Antony Gormley's work, "Clearing VII" reminded me of Ai Weiwei, the Chinese artist who peddles in bicycles (pun intended). 

I first noticed Ai Weiwei's work in the lobby of the Mr. and Mrs. Bund restaurant in Shanghai in 2013. A slew of bicycles hung from the ceiling.  

Not long after that, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston hosted an exhibit of Ai Weiwei's bicycles. Different bikes. Same medium. Tangles of metal that couldn't be used as intended. 

I wrote a blogpost about Ai Weiwei's two bicycle installations. https://worldgrazer.blogspot.com/search?q=weiwei

All of these works took me back to my roots in Philadelphia, where Marcel Duchamp's Bicycle Wheel is in the collection of the Museum of Art. It isn't much of a leap from Duchamp's stool to Weiwei's bikes to Gormley's wire in Clearing VII. 

I'm no art historian, but I'm seeing a theme. Things are not always what they were meant to be. And when they're not, they can puzzle. And they can delight. 

It Takes a Tractor to Wine-Taste at this Napa Vineyard

When you visit Napa Valley, it’s a safe bet that you will visit a vineyard or two. However, honestly, I do not like lengthy lectures around vats in noisy production areas. This one was different. It offered a twist. And it was terrific.

Our visit to Cimarossa winery started with downloading and printing out detailed driving directions to the location on Howell Mountain in Angwin, near Calistoga. The GPS does not work on the mountain for part of the trip, we were warned. The vineyard is small, with limited distribution and few visitors.

We wound our way up the hill, carefully making sure to keep “small gated olive grove on left” and to bear right at a certain fork and left at another unmarked road. After about a half hour drive from Calistoga’s town center, we arrived at the curlicue-gated entrance to Cimarossa. The gate swung open silently, allowing us through.

A red barn just over the crest of a small hill came into view and a friendly young woman named Michelle pointed out where to leave our car.  “Hop in,” she said, inviting us into a 4x4. 

She drove us through rows of vines as we ascended dirt paths to the tasting room perched on top of the knoll. Originally built as a hunting lodge, its rough wood walls and stone fireplace make for a cozy feeling.

The dining table in the center of the room was set with ten sparkling wine glasses for the two of us, along with a scrumptious lunch. Michelle tossed a delicious arugula salad with pecorino and olive oil, but it was hard to get beyond the truffle potato chips. We tasted but didn’t come close to finishing the charcuterie platter of meats, cheeses and olives. All delicious. Macarons from famous chef Thomas Keller’s Bouchon bakery in Yountville were for dessert.

The wines are named for their grapes’ orientation on the hillside. Our favorite was the western facing (Riva di Ponente – where the sun sets).

After we had our fill and heard the history of the place, Michelle drove us through the olive trees and grape vines, back to our car. The descent from the mountain was as easy going down as the delicious wines and lunch.

Ridin' the Rangoon (Yangon) Rails

One of the scavenges in the Global Scavenger Hunt was to board Yangon's Circular Train at Central Station and ride it for at least two stops.

We went to Yangon's Central Station and tried to figure out how to buy a ticket. I stood in line at the ticket window. The man who had been working there left his position behind the cage, walked around to the front and then pushed his way through the crowd. He jumped up onto the counter and squatted so that he could use his blue marker pen to write updates on the board.

Way up in the upper left corner of this photo, the small blue sign says "Warmly Welcome and Take Care of Tourists." Unfortunately, that sign is a rare specimen of any information not in Burmese.

Bought the tickets

Checked the Map

Waiting for the Train

Excellent People Watching

"Brimming With Optimism"

Riding the Train

The blue "Air Conditioned" sign over the doorway is a joke (and it's not funny)

One stop we didn't get off at

Trainman gives the "all clear" signal, waving a green cloth flag out the window

Which Buddha is the Real Buddha?

Which statue is the real Buddha?  I'll never know.
These photos are from just one day's visit to eight temples in Old Bagan, Myanmar. We saw all of these Buddhas. And many more.

It's hard to believe they are all the same person.

Terribly Toasty Temples

Cloth walkway doesn't reach all the way

There are so many temples scattered throughout the Archeological Zone in Bagan, Myanmar that from all the stuff I read, I can't find agreement on how many temples there are. One brochure said "over 2,200." Another guide said there are ruins of 10,000 temples.  However many there are, I can say this. They were all hot. Really, really hot.

You must remove your shoes to visit a temple complex. Only a few of the temples let you wear socks.

No socks allowed (see the sign with the red X's in the left rear of the photo?)

Most of the time, it's bare skin against sizzling stone. Some temples have laid carpet or placed cloth pads that you can hop onto for a moment, before braving the next step onto searing stone.

We found people resting inside the temples, where it was cooler in the shade.

Group nap

Hiding from the sun

Sally crossing the stones; gotta run!

Q. What's that Yellow Stuff? A. Thanaka

We noticed a smudge here, a dab there. At first, when we saw yellow paint on women's faces in Myanmar we didn't think anything of it. Dirt? Yellow Caladyrl instead of pink? 

But then, we saw women and girls with leaves drawn onto their faces. The girls in this photo clinched it that this yellow stuff is on purpose. Nobody has a leaf drawn on her face by mistake. 

The yellow pigment is call thanaka. It comes from grinding the wood of the thanaka tree, a species local to Myanmar. When the wood is scraped from the trunk into a fine powder, it is mixed with water into a paste. Women (mostly women; very few men use it) spread the paste onto their skin. Some paint their thanaka into leaf shapes for decoration. Thanaka is believed to protect against sunburn and to cool the skin. Some people also spread it over their arms. 

We visited a thanaka market where logs are sold. Trees must be about 35 years old or more to be able to produce the powder for the paste.

Even babies get thanaka'ed (if you can say that). Even if you can't say it, that baby's pretty cute, right?

Kayaking in Abu Dhabi’s Mangroves

As a diversion from all the showy, gold-encrusted glitz of Abu Dhabi, Sally and I went kayaking. We rented a double kayak on the waterside walkway at the Eastern Mangroves Hotel and Spa. The name of the place alone suggests that kayaking in Abu Dhabi won’t involve roughing it. After strolling by the ATM, an inviting al fresco cafe and a luxury yacht dealership, we arrived at the kayak rental dock. The rental guy dragged the plastic boat down to the edge of the downward-tilting ramp, handed paddles to us and told us to get seated. He pushed us down into the water and pointed out the suggested course. We were lowered to eye level at the tangled thickets of mangroves. A soft breeze and the temperature drop felt great. The first thing we passed in our nature experience was a distant panorama of Abu Dhabi’s skyscrapers lining the Arabian gulf coastline. The buildings are very tall and very glassy. 

We paddled forward a little more. If you paddle sloppily and out of synch, splashing happens and you get wet. That was a good thing in this heat. 

We then turned a corner to follow the open channel within the mangroves. A piece of dredging equipment was parked on the side and we saw about 20 workmen nearby, all wearing green neon life jackets. After about 15 minutes, we had enough of nature experience Abu Dhabi-style. We retraced our path and returned to the dock. Next up: visiting the oldest building in Abu Dhabi. 

The Hard Part of the Global Scavenger Hunt

The Global Scavenger Hunt is for fun. It is like doing an exhausting and exhilarating puzzle. New and weird things come at you. You try to get enough sleep but can’t. When you finally hit the pillow, it’s hard to turn off your brain. 

But with all the running around fun, it isn’t until you sit still and talk with people that you can think about the issues just below the surface. 

I’m thinking about the female Filipino taxi driver who picked us up from the fish market in Abu Dhabi. She and her sister work to send money back home. But the pay isn’t nearly as good as it had been. They are thinking of New Zealand or Canada where they might try for better opportunity. But in Abu Dhabi as a woman driver, she enjoys an advantage. Under Abu Dhabi’s Muslim rules, it is extremely rare to find a woman driver. The local Emirati women and their husbands prefer that the women be driven by women.  But that isn’t enough to make a difference in her life. And what new hurdles would face her if she tried to move to a new country?

On a plane back to the United States, I caught a headline that the Myanmar government again ruled against the journalists whose work exposed governmental abuse of Rohinga people. I’m replaying in my head the conversation I had with the Buddhist meditation master. My guess is that he would not sympathize. He could say that the journalists wrote inflammatory stories. Perhaps they don’t deserve leniency. When he and I spoke, he had volunteered his opinion questioning whether there even was such a thing as the Rohinga people. He referred back to the time when the British ruled Burma, and the British imported Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to work in the colony. According to him, those were the legitimate immigrants into Burma. He got himself all worked up, angrily asking, "Who are the people that are called Rohinga? Where are they from?" 

Those are troublesome questions at this stage of this controversy. I have since learned that United Nations' probes revealed that a segment of Buddhists (maybe my meditation instructor?) incite hatred and religious intolerance against Rohingas. The Myanmar government is accused of human rights violations for arbitrarily arresting and torturing Rohingas. Moreover, the journalists’ basic rights are at stake. And the Buddhist master, who won’t hurt a mosquito while it bites him, is annoyed at the suggestion that Rohinga people deserve any rights at all. 

Grabbing points doing scavenges such as eating weird things or climbing pagodas is comparatively easy. When you try to process complicated political and economic issues, hunting globally is dramatically more challenging. And an appreciation of the issues sticks around a lot longer. 

Scoring the Global Scavenger Hunt

A Note on Competition as we moved across the world.

Sally and I are traveling as a team in the Global Scavenger Hunt competition. Our team name is Fillies - in part because we met growing up in Philly. 

We are competing, but not really. We are only participating in the first half of the trip. We will peel off after Day 12 of 23. Thus, it is not possible for us to win the game. However, each country we visit is a separate leg, with its own scores and rankings. We can and do compete in each country.

The data from the legs are rolled into overall scores after weighing them for level of difficulty and number of days spent in that country. For example, one day of scavenging in Vancouver was a par 1, versus four days in Myanmar, assigned a par 5. 

Our scores:

1. Vancouver- we are pretty sure we won, but the leg was a trial run. No scores were posted. In wrapping up the Vancouver leg, the trip leader, Bill Chalmers announced that the Fillies (that’s us) did the most scavenges and he called us overachievers. Alas, it doesn’t count. 
2. Vietnam- We came in 4th. (I was a little cranky because we thought we would be first. We were out the door at 5:00 a.m., hard charged strategically and followed the rules assiduously. But, we got dinged by an alternate interpretation).
3. Myanmar- dead last. No surprise, because we chose to break the rule limiting in-country flights to two. It cost us a 750 point penalty. We took three flights: Yangon to Mandalay. Mandalay to Bagan. Bagan to Yangon. We did it to position ourselves to be in Bagan before sunrise for the dreamy hot air ballon experience that I have wanted to do forever. Figuring we were in the red anyway, why not go deeper so we could maximize our visit and see the most of Myanmar? We broke two other rules: no internet research and limiting a taxi to two scavenges. All said, we got to see a lot more of Myanmar than we ever could have if we hadn’t decided to “go red.”
4. Bangkok- We came in 2nd. 
5. Abu Dhabi - No idea. We left before the scores were announced.  

Really, the scores don’t matter unless you win the whole competition. The prize for winning is getting to go again the next year for free. The fun is in doing the scavenges and in racking up points while playing.

Departure area of Abu Dhabi airport. This cheesy camel photo prop, is in the corridor on the way to US Customs and Border Patrol Preclearance. After clearing immigration in Abu Dhabi's airport, when you land in the US, it's as though you arrived on a domestic flight. No immigration or customs lines required.

Abu Dhabi's Attempt at Not Looking Nouveau

Maybe Abu Dhabi is trying to say, “Don’t call us nouveau riche. Hey look! We built a fort way back in 1765. See!!!!” 

In December 2018, Abu Dhabi opened a freshly renovated watchtower and fort. They are promoting it as a museum and national landmark to celebrate their history. 

Known as Qasr Al Hosn, the quaint two-story building is smack in the middle of downtown, surrounded by skyscrapers. 

We had read about the new attraction in Etihad Airways’ in-flight magazine and chose to visit for the explanation of United Arab Emirates history. 

Our taxi driver had trouble finding it and then finding an entrance, because he couldn’t believe that we wanted to go to the fort. He insisted that it’s under construction. He was right about the construction. He had to drive off of the street and into a sandy field of earth-moving machines. We had to pass through jumbled piles of building materials until we came upon a cut-through. We found a place to access a door by climbing over only a few ankle-high obstacles of rubble and rebars. 

Apparently it is not well known to locals that the museum is open for business. 

The museum is beautifully laid out. All postings are translated into English. Designed with a lot of white space and a “less is more” approach, walking through the museum is a pleasant experience. There are a handful of photos of the fort dating back about 100 years, showing a couple of camels milling around. Before the very first building (i.e. the fort), was constructed, the area’s people lived off of fishing and then diving for pearls. Trading in pearls brought wealth, leading to the need for defense. Hence, the fort. Nice clear explanation of history to that point. 

But then, we peered into the case displaying a supposedly 7,000 year old pink pearl button typical of the goods the people harvested from the sea. The button looked a little too perfect and much too shiny to be 7,000 years old. The holes were drilled symmetrically. Honestly, that button looked like something you could buy at a Michael’s craft store. 

I'm thinking that Abu Dhabi's attempt at a history museum should stick with the 250 year old building as its oldest artifact. The fort is a beautiful renovation. 

In my opinion, the pearl button is lame. Just stick with the narrative and let people imagine the rest.