More Far-away Places (with strange-sounding names)Let's see. . . so far my Name Game here was led by Myanmar, Mandalay, Darfur and Zanzibar, "It's a big wide, wonderful world we live in," meanwhile humming in the Disney part of our brains. . . Jo writes, "John, why don't you join us in going to Ulan Bator?" Ulaan Bataar, whatever, however it's spelled. I replied that it "sounds fun! Where is it?" Then I remembered: capital of Mongolia. Where's that? Oh yeah, above the back of the big chicken on the map, that chicken being China, facing East. Back in the '90s we were traveling with a couple of Russian friends across the Russian Far East and I remarked that "I'd like to keep going for a few days and visit Mongolia." Vera Borisovna asked, "Why?" It's a good question, a fair question. Mongolia with its windswept grassy plains, a few yurts here and there containing Mongolian cowboys and their families. Some sheep, goats. Maybe a few camels. Why indeed spend money and time going there? The obvious answer: It's there, that's why. Less obvious: It's different. Really different from, say, Oregon or Wisconsin. Or anywhere else I've been. I've toured the American Prairie -- twice, in fact -- and it's not much like the lonely, almost eerie-looking desolation of Mongolia. As I understand Mongolia from stories and photos. So there's that. The new (to me), the strange, the exciting. . . Now comes another Peace Corpsman, Troy Etulain, who married a woman from Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, and immediately ran off to work in Iran and points east, west and north. Don't know about south. Troy said Hi while I was in the Republic of Georgia and he was passing through Azerbaijan, which is near Armenia and . . . Nice name, Azerbaijan, but what's in a name. In this case, other than sand and an oil pipeline that Russia has its eye on. I think. Georgia isn't really exotic to me, but then neither is it really European, which it seems like in some places. It's a study in itself -- check it out -- with many European touches along with some very old-time ways and even medieval ways; I have heard about clannish groups in the Lesser Caucasus (Caucasi?) mountains who build watchtowers to keep an eye on each other. Interesting -- Troy reported that Iranians really like Americans (this on the human, people level, of course). "We are absolutely their favorite country, no question." He enjoyed a visit there and never felt in any danger. Melissa Reed, also a Peace Corps graduate, actually got to prowl around the Casbah. What a name! "Come with me to ze Casbah. . ." Who said that, and why? More important, where IS the Casbah, and what is it? Answer: According to the University of Google, "it is the citadel of Algiers in Algeria and the traditional quarter clustered around it. More generally, a casbah is the walled citadel of many North African cities and towns." Algeria, in turn, according to Google U, "is a a country located in North Africa. In terms of land area, it is the largest country on the Mediterranean Sea, the second largest on the African continent after Sudan, and the eleventh-largest country in the world. (That in itself is worthy of note!) "Algeria is bordered by Tunisia in the northeast, Libya in the east, Niger in the southeast, Mali and Mauritania in the southwest, a few kilometers of the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara in the southwest, Morocco in the west and northwest, and the Mediterranean Sea in the north. Its size is almost 2,400,000 km, with an estimated population of about 35,000,000. The capital of Algeria is Algiers." OK, I'm convinced. That place is BIG, and its gateway is the storied Casbah in Algiers. So we've come from Zanzibar to the Casbah, by way of Tbilisi. Wow. And that's enough -- for now. LATE-BREAKING NEWS ITEM: Aforementioned Troy just turned up in Swaziland, prowling the streets of Mozambique!
