I stay with my godmother for the first 3 days. Her name is Mary Yates Wallace and I was named after her. Imitation is the ultimate form of flattery. One always hears that New York is such a happening place. Well, I hadn’t been in town for 24 hours when I shook hands with a presidential candidate. It was early morning on “Super Tuesday”, the day a large number of primaries take place. At 7:30 in the morning Bill Bradley was making his final pitch was on a corner of the upper East side talking to everyone and anyway who would listen. Despite being rather sweaty from my morning jog, I sprinted up to shake his hand. He is a BIG guy – you can see why he played basketball. And he’s got a nice firm handshake – which is rather amazing when you think of how many hands he’s had to shake in the last few months. I think I met him in the last few hours where he had any hopes of winning. By the next morning the papers were full of the race between George Bush, Jr. and Al Gore. They were clear winners of the day.

Friday, March 10

I went to see Placido Domingo & Frederica von Stade in the Merry Widow at the Metropolitan Opera. It was so exciting to be swanning around the grand but slightly tired Lincoln Centre. New Yorkers showed their respect by dressing up for the occasion. I think it is so sad that the English think it is elitist and no longer politically correct to dress up for the opera. The sets were magnificent, the costumes gorgeous and Domingo and von Stade were such good actors as well as singers.

Saturday, March 11

Today my long time friend Tracy Chevalier’s 2nd book, The Girl with the Peal Earring made into the New York Times Bestseller list. Alvin and I were so excited that we were hopping up and down waving the newspaper around. We then went in search of a bookstore with a display of the bestseller list. We found both Tracy’s book and Alvin’s.

Alvin and I went to see a number art galleries. He does the circuit regularly. We saw Janet Borden, who specializes in photographs and George Adam who represents Leslie Dill who I was particularly interested in. Her work is often about women and usually includes quotes from Emily Dickenson poems. Later in the week there will be an auction of art at the Montgomery Museum of Art and I may bid on one of her photo/collages.

Monday, March 13

My museum day. I went to the new Rose Centre for Earth and Space at the Museum of Natural History. This really needs a lot of time. I only had 2 hours and you can’t really get much out of such a short visit. But it looked very impressive and I would like to go back. I also popped into MOMA and saw an exhibit of 1880-1920 art. I visited my old buddy Chris who trades USD swaps at Nord LB. They have a magnificent view of Manhattan from their offices. You can see the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State building and both sides of the water. He took me into his trading room and it all looked so familiar. I even sat down and sent a few Bloomberg messages to market friends.

Bilbao

My friend Howard and I took 6 days to travel to Bilbao and see the Guggenheim museum as well as some of Northern Spain. Bilbao is a depressing industrial city with little to recommend it except cheap flights from London with Easyjet, a fabulous museum building and easy access to the rest of Northern Spain

The Guggenheim museum in Bilbao is a confusion of curves and angles, reflections and shining panels which reminded me of dragon scales that glisten in the sun. From all sides the building looks magnificent. Around the museum are derelict buildings, a container loading area for trains and a graffiti covered bridge. At the front of the building is the Jeff Koons “Puppy” which is an enormous frame covered in flowers. There was an interesting exhibition titled “The Art of the Motorcycle” as well as some local installation pieces and other painters I did not recognize. Go for the building – the exhibitions are icing on the cake.

This is Jeff Koon’s “Puppy” sculpture made of flowers.

Northern Spain

We rented a car and drove to Rioja land. In the center of the vineyards is a town called Haro. We spent a few hours basking in the sun and watching a pair of regal looking storks who had nested in a chimney above the town square. The countryside of Rioja is beautiful – snow capped mountains in the distance, rich red soil with vineyard after vineyard. Each producer has a “Bodega” where you can sample and purchase their wines. The medieval walled tiny town of Laguardia has a wonderful hotel overlooking the plain called El Castillo Collado. Each room has a name and poem and is decorated in with appropriate furnishings for the subject. The hotel is lovingly run by its owner Xavier.

This is the parador Emparador in Hondarribia which we stayed in. It’s a magnificent old castle with stunning public rooms and charming bedrooms. The breakfast room looks out on the ruins which have been preserved in the courtyard and the rooms have views over the Bay of Biscay.

As this is as much as anything an experiment in seeing how easy (or otherwise) keeping this site as far as possible live with Maya working with a mobile telephone, a camera and a laptop while cavorting around Asia I would really like you to make your ideas availible, either via the comments or drop me (or Maya) an email. Cheers!

I expect that over the next few months as this projects develops the working methods will change on at least a weekly, and possibly a day-to-day basis depending on Internet Caf

Bangkok

After 2 nights at the efficient, friendly and luxurious Dusit Thani Hotel, I am now staying at the Rembrandt Hotel in Bangkok (1/2 the price). I HATE my hotel. No one speaks English well enough to get anything done. I asked them to make a restaurant reservation for me 3 times and ended up going to the restaurant to make the reservation myself. I wanted to go see the Thai Furniture Export Show at a convention center. I showed the ad to the concierge and asked her to write down the address in Thai for my taxi driver. She tut-tutted at me and said ?very far away; taxi expensive (about $7); better you go to nearer convention center?. ?What exhibition is showing there?? ?None at the moment? was the reply. They cannot provide taxis ?I guess no sane taxi driver would hang around this hotel. They suggested I walk a few blocks to the next big street ? which I did but it was far enough away that you melt in the heat.

April 24-27 Chancery Hotel, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam;
April 27-28 Golf 3 Hotel, Dalat, Vietnam;
April 28-30 Que Huong Hotel, Nha Trang, Vietnam;
April 30- May 2 Furama Resort, Danang, Vietnam;
May 2-3 Century Riverside Hotel, Hue, Vietnam
May 3-7 Galaxy Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam
May 7-8 Halong Plaza Hotel, Halong Bay, Vietnam
May 8-9 Galaxy Hotel, Hanoi, Vietnam
May 9-10 Novotel Vientiane Hotel, Vientiane, Laos
May 10-12 Villa Santi Hotel, Luang Prabang, Laos
May 12-13 Novotel Vientiane Hotel, Vientiane, Laos
May 13-14 Empress Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand, May 15-19 Royal Princess, Chaing Mai, Thailand
May 19-20 Amari Airport Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
May 20-22 Nokor Kok Thlok Hotel, Siem Reap, Cambodia
May 22-23 Amari Airport Hotel, Bangkok, Thailand
May 23-24, LuSong Yuan Hotel- Beijing, May 24-28 Dong Hu Hotel-Shanghai, May 29 Suzhou Hotel, May 30 Shangri-La Hotel-Hangzhou, June 1-8 LuSong Yuan Hotel in Beijing
June 8-11 Hua Du Hotel in Beijing, China; June 11 Kowloon Hotel in Hong Kong, June 12 Orchard Hotel-Singapore

In August 1999, I lost my sense of humour. Not only that, I wasn’t sleeping; I was grumpy; I was unhappy and stressed. Basically – I didn’t recognize myself; I wasn’t ME. So over the next few months I decided a change needed to be made. In January, I quit my job and decided to take some time out to regain my sense of humour. After 13 years of being an investment banker in the area of derivatives, I was now footloose and fancy free. What a strange feeling. And who are all these people wandering around the city in the middle of the day? Don’t they WORK? What a bunch of goof-offs. And now, I’m one too!

I’m still getting used to the question –“What do you do?” I’m an adventurer, I’m a person looking for a new life, I’m a wanderer, I’m a lay-about. But most important I’m ME again. I have time to think, to communicate with and see friends and family, to sing and play music, to write, and last but not least, to travel. As my friend, Bernie says “It’s a hard life”.

Planning and the big baggage question

So the first project is going to be a round-the-world trip. I go to Trailfinders in London who specialize in round-the-world travel. So many places one can go! I agonize over my trip cutting out Australia, adding China, moving dates, moving cities, contacting friends to see if I can drop in on them, until finally everything is planned as you see it on my home page “tentative itinerary”. I get visas, shots (just call me a human pincushion), mosquito repellent, one of every medicine in the pharmacy, a Swiss Army knife and then comes the big question. Am I going to “backpack” around the world? ie. am I going to lug all my worldly belongings on my back from country to country? I don’t think so. I plump for a large but not gigantic wheelie bag and pray that everything will fit. How does one pack for elegant evenings in New York, a ski trip, the beach, the jungle, and temperatures ranging from 20-100 degrees Fahrenheit. Well, if you’re like me, you simply bring everything. My friends looked at my bags and just shook their heads.

This web site has been designed to record the details of travel around the world in the year 2000. It is in chronological order.

Please click on an area of interest to read and see Maya’s journal. If you have a message for Maya why not go to a relevant page and leave your comments for the world to see! (Good restaurants / bars / clubs / non-tourist things particularly welcome.)

Maya and the Webmaster

I just love saying, I have a Webmaster! I am delighted with the easy-to-use site that Liam created for me. I am responsible for all content, but if you want someone to design a website for you, contact Liam on liam@onlinesales.co.uk

Xmas in the US

As has become tradition after Mom died, I spent Christmas enveloped in the warmth and love of my Montgomery, Alabama relatives. Here is the Levy family with 2 new additions – Russell’s new wife, Sherry and Laura and Sam’s new puppy.

New Year 2000!!!

I saw in the New Year in the middle of the desert of Dubai. My friends Mariam and Jono moved to Dubai in the Fall and invited friends to a banquet under the stars.

About 18 of us met in the middle of nowhere. Mariam and Jono had found a perfect spot and drew maps to describe the dune where they had set up the campsite. Needless to say, there were no roads. Have you ever tried following a map which says “at this twig turn right” and “at this camel track, turn left?”. Most of us went in a convoy of 4-wheel drives. Once we got to the dunes, we had to let out about 25% of the air in the tires, so they could grip the sand more easily. We still got stuck in the sand. Dune driving requires courage and guts. You have to drive as fast as possible – especially when going up the side of a dune. It is exhilarating and petrifying. You feel like you’re on a rollercoaster without knowing that you’ll be safe. And to make it more exciting, you are driving with only moonlight and the focused beam from the car which cannot see much as the dunes are so high. Each car got stuck at least once. A Bedouin who appeared out of nowhere rescued our car. No, he wasn’t on a camel – he had a Land Rover! He had seen the campsite being set up during the day and had come back, guided by our headlights to find out what we were doing. In the passenger seat was a falcon, which he later brought out for us admire.

When we arrived, you could see torches burning at the top of a high dune next to a Bedouin tent. A long table had been laid and there were dozens of little candles burning. It was a magical sight.

The New Year’s Eve Banquet

Jono and Howard went sailing while Maya and Mariam shopped.

Dubai was a fascinating mixture of old Muslim culture and the latest high-tech modernity. The country was very proud of its newest hotel, Burj Al Arab, which was built into the water and had the shape of a Dow boat. We went for dinner in the hotel. I have never seen anything so over-the-top in my life. The d