Slogan on the streets of Tehran

Sign on a building

Keeping a watchful eye

Former U.S. Embassy wall

The Mullahs’ mission

A clear message

IRAN
Mullahs May Preach Hate
But People Love America

Story and Photos by Tim Boxer

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O see how the ruling mullahs are imposing their own brand of hatred upon an unwilling people was frightening and disturbing. Everywhere I went in Tehran I was accosted by signs, banners and pictures extolling the aim to vanquish America.

I stood across the United States Embassy. It was seized by the revolutionary fundamentalists in 1979 and turned into a fortress of the extremist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Washington labels a terrorist organization. The block-long wall was covered with graffiti spewing anti-American and anti-Israel slogans and murals.

Without warning, someone grabbed my arm, pointed to my camera and barked orders in what I guess was Farsi. I didn’t understand a word. I kept repeating "What do you want?" while shuffling slowly away from his grip. But he wouldn’t let go.

Am I being kidnapped? Am I about to become an international incident—an embarrassment to my family and country?

I had no intention of being hauled through the embassy gate to be interrogated by the Revolutionary Guards..

I moved and the mystery man moved with me, holding my arm aggressively. I eased out of his grasp and he disappeared as surreptitiously as he appeared. I didn’t dare look back. I strolled slowly but steadfastly towards my car down the street. My guide and driver were waiting for me. I didn’t say a word. I don’t think they saw what happened.

I told my guide I was interested in seeing a synagogue. The driver stopped at a busy intersection and asked the traffic cop for directions. The smartly dressed officer in his clean white uniform peered through the window. I aimed my camera and asked okay, he smiled okay, I snapped a shot, and he told us how to find a synagogue.

I was shooting pictures on the main square in Tehran when two men in black jackets approached. I felt a shiver down my back. I turned this way and that, trying to spot my driver or guide.

"Are you Russian or American?"

"American," I said, with a tremble.

They made a sudden move … to shake my hand.

They offered big friendly smiles. "We hate Russians! We love Americans!"

Other locals would tell me proudly of family members who live in the United States. One told me he goes to America once a year to visit his daughter who works in Las Vegas. Another told me two friends, brothers, have homes in New Jersey. In Esfahan I was stopped at night by a young merchant outside his linen shop. "I haven’t seen an American in six months," he lamented. "I wish more would come."

The Iranian people I encountered in Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan and Kish Island live in a bifurcated world. The mullahs dominate society, yet many of the people reject the party line. The people I met repudiate the hate spewed by the ayatollahs. This will become evident as the Arab Spring gives way to the Persian Awakening.

My room at Gutenbergs (watch your head)
Old Town street
Art Nouveau Museum of Janis Rozentals and Rudolfs Blaumanis	Inside the Art Nouveau Museum
Animated faces adorn a door

LATVIA
Art Nouveau Colors
Expanse of Old Riga

R

IGA, the capital of Latvia, is celebrating its 810^th anniversary. It was founded in 1201 by a German bishop at the helm of a crusade that came to vanquish the northern heathens. Through the centuries the city became a thriving center of trade between east and west. The country survived under various foreign rulers such as Germany, Sweden, Imperial Russia, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia, until it gained independence in 1991.

I arrived in Riga on a balmy day in May. My room at the luxury Hotel Gutenbergs was in a part of the building that was a 17^th century warehouse. I stepped in and—wow!—almost collided with a thick wooden beam that ran low across the room. I had to keep a light on at night so I’d see where to duck on my way to the bathroom. Other than that surprising bit of inconvenience, the room was comfortable with all the luxury amenities you’d expect in a top flight inn. Lesson learned: ask to see your room before you sign in. www.gutenbergs.eu

Sheriff’s car, 1941 Pontiac

Smart car, Wild West style

Deadwood’s Main Street

DEADWOOD
You Saw It On HBO
Now See It In Person

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HE legend of Wild Bill Hickok lives on in Deadwood, in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The famed lawman was murdered on August 2, 1876, at age 39, as he played poker in Saloon No. 10. He always sat facing the door, but this time he took the only unoccupied seat, with his back to the door.

In walked a bloke who silently pulled a gun and blasted our hero in the back of the head. This ghastly scene is dramatized by actors every day in the summer at the same Saloon No. 10, with its sawdust on the floor and poker tables and slot machines all over the place. David and I sat with 40 other tourists and watched the reenactment of the killing. The original table and chair can be seen mounted above the door as you leave.

The town was teeming as visitors clustered around the amazing antique autos lining Main Street, following an auto parade.

We admired a sheriff’s car, a 1941Pontiac, and counted three bullet holes in the grill. This was the Wild West indeed. HBO showed how wild the early days of this gold mining town was in Deadwood (2004-06), which Lonely Planet aptly describes as a "swearing series of guts and gore."

We found Wild Bill Hickok’s final resting place at Boot Hill in Mount Moriah Historic Cemetery. His gravesite is surrounded by a wrought iron fence to deter vandals. It’s situated below Mount Zion (Hebrew Hill), the Jewish section. Calamity Jane is buried in a plot adjacent to Hickok.

An information sign at Mt. Zion included this historic fact: Harris Franklin was born Finkelstein in Prussia. His interests included mining, banking and cattle ranching. His son Nathan served three times as Deadwood’s second Jewish mayor. Harris died in 1923. His eulogy noted: "He was never known to foreclose a mortgage."

CHINA
Business Travel Conference
Expands With Third Partner

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RAVEL professionals, hoping to do business in China, find it essential to participate in China’s gargantuan Incentive Travel & Conventions, Meetings (IT&CM) business and networking event. The next IT&CM conclave will take place April 17-19 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center.

After six years, a third partner, China International Travel Service (CITS), has joined organizers TTG Asia Media and MP International to create stronger synergy and enhance the quality and reputation of IT&CM China next year.

"CITS is among the top 100 companies in China delivering one of the largest domestic and outbound leisure, corporate and MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions, Exhibitions) tourism business in the country," said Darren Ng, managing director of TTG Asia Media, in a statement.

More information at www.itcmchina.com.

Sally and Ivor ready to depart

The Truth About
Last Minute Cruises

By Sally Ogle Davis and Ivor Davis

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HIS summer you’ve been blasted by those  countless emails offering "blowout" deals on cabins—sorry, they call them staterooms now—with balconies and all sorts of onboard credit. Cruises with hot and cold running food and just about everything but belly dancers.

They scream "last minute bargains" and a multitude of other come-hithers should you ever have expressed an interest in getting a cruise deal online or on the phone.

We happened to find ourselves in Seattle and decided to book a cruise to Alaska. So we set out to find the truth:  Will the top cruise lines give away cabins? Are these deals pure hype or can you really make a killing should you decide to race to the gangplank just before the ship pulls anchor?

Of course, you don’t need a degree in travel to realize that the cruise lines prefer to lock you into your cabin long before they set sail especially since  during the past economic hard times those cruise lines have taken a bit of a bruising although smoother waters lie ahead.

So we did the Internet searches and spoke to friends who offered all sorts of guidelines but discovered shopping that way put us in tricky waters.

Norwegian Pearl

After bouncing from cruise line to online bookers and beginning to feel a bit shell-shocked, we finally settled for a travel agent. "Find us the best last minute deal you can."

And she did. We booked an interior passage Alaskan seven-day trip, a balcony stateroom on deck 8, forward on Norwegian Cruise Line’s  2,700 passenger Norwegian Pearl.

It cost us $1,324 per person. The ship sailed to Juneau (Alaska’s capital),  Sagaway, Ketchikan,  and Victoria, Canada, plus a magnificent stop at Glacier Bay where you could almost reach out and touch the ice as the captain circled the bay. The scenery is so magnificent it was sometimes hard to realize this was the real thing and we were not watching some wraparound Disney widescreen travelogue.

The Pearl offered freestyle dining—eat whenever you fancy in two main dining rooms —as well as seven additional restaurants you can dine for a cover charge ranging from $10 to $25. There was also an almost nonstop buffet in the Garden Cafe where stations served almost every variety of food, from ethnic categories like Indian and Asian fusion, to good old American standbys as well as mammoth breakfasts.

Along the way we spotted  whales and bears sunbathing.  We skipped the organized land tours —we'd done that before— but they are plentiful.  On our ship we could go rock climbing, bowling (not my cup of tea), buy art, gamble or shop in the somewhat questionable tax free stores and learn whether or not diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

You can try acupuncture. We noticed that besides the spa treatments there are all the services of your neighborhood plastic surgeon or dermatologist—Botox, Restalyn or Juvederm.  No wonder people come off rested.

The Alaska stops are fascinating. We loved the quaintness of Ketchikan and our Canadian stop in Victoria—that wonderful little bit of England forty years ago. Afternoon tea and cocktails at the famous Empress Hotel left us wanting more.

Oh sure, the ships are inclined to nickel and dime you to death with charges for Internet usage, drinks, spa treatments,  exorbitantly priced happy photos, cappuccino or carrot juice, all with a 15 percent service charge added, but it has the considerable benefit of removing that "How much do we tip?" scramble at the end of the cruise.  The service was superlative from a staff that was heavily Philippine but included people from Indonesia, Malaysia, India and the Caribbean, as well as many European officers.  And if only the passengers were as neat and charming as the staff the whole thing would have been perfect.

Cruise for astonishing views

Passengers on the NCL need have no fear of the much talked about flu-like diseases that sometimes plague cruise ships. They've made disease prevention into a game. There's a cute steward at the entrance and exit of the dining rooms with a spray bottle to wash your hands: "Happy, happy , washy washy" they chant. Silly but the NCL ships have never had an outbreak.

We asked our travel planner and veteran cruise guru, Martha Jaffe, whether all those people who spend hours on the web trying to snare the bargain rates are successful.

"Most cruisers book a long way ahead of time, and you can save money doing that," she said. "Of course, early bookers snare the best cabins."

We will say that you can drive yourself silly bouncing from one website to the next, so probably the best way to go is still to find a travel agent you trust and let the agent do the work.

While she agrees that  cutting it down to the wire can result in bargain travel,  she does warn,  "Don’t be too clever. The cruise lines want every cabin filled but if you cut it too fine you can find yourself stuck on dry land."

Martha Jaffe, Travel Planners International in Ventura, California, booked our cruise. She can be reached at 805-642-6034, cell: 805-218-3324.

Rock climbing on board

Tips From The Experts
Gilbert and Wanda Au from Oahu in Hawaii know all about cruising. They’ve cruised 65 times with the NCL. We met them on the Norwegian Pearl at a dinner with the Pearl’s knowledgeable Finnish-born hotel manager, Kaj (pronounced Kai)Turunen who has been  running five-star hotels on sea and shore  for 30 years. Here are the Au cruise tips.

}Don’t overpack. And we did find—though we somewhat regret it—that cruising has become casual. No need for a new gown for every night.

}Do your homework when booking to learn which cabin offers the smoothest, noise-free ride.

}Bring liquid bandage instead of bandaids.

}Don’t worry unnecessarily about overeating. Pace yourself and don’t go overboard. Concentrate on small portions, with lots of fruit and vegetables, and drink in moderation. We noticed that at buffets guests go wild—and overload.

}Vegetarians and children do particularly well at buffets. Children because they can see exactly what they want and vegetarians because Chinese, Thai and Indian food is readily available and has lots of veggie dishes.

}Desserts are a delight—but try not to overdose on sugar. 

}Final tip. Some of the most extraordinary deals can be had on repositioning cruises where they are moving the ship from one base location to another and make fewer land stops. (check out  www.Repositioningcruise.com.) Only trouble is you might have to fly one way from California to Miami, and then hunt for a modestly priced one-way ticket from Barcelona home. And that could be pricey. Happy sailing.