After four weeks, it has reached that point where I'd pay a hundred bucks for a clean toilet and/or a cold diet Pepsi. A final look at the Przwalski (sp) horses and reentry process begins. I've been tantalized reading topic headings here on a few occasions, and so I guess I'll have to look more closely on return August 6. Brief DL report, of the joyous kind. At Lake Baikal (so huge, it is as big as England and a mile deep), we took a rusty Russian tug to a remote locale, offloaded into rickety row boats, rowed ashore, then hiked 7 miles to a village of "Old Believers" -- those people who were thrown out of the Russian Orthodox churth 300 years ago when it came to them that God wanted them to cross themselves with 3 fingers, not two, etc. They have thrived after Catherine t. Great banished them to Siberia. And in this village, there was a woodsman who spoke English -- and, it turned out, is working on his Master's in ecology through the University of Idaho. He has been at it 6 years, with 4 or 5 more to go, and loves it -- and says that when he can tell people he is doing the work with a university in Moscow, it helps credibility! Cheers from Ulaan Baatar, John
How about a cold toilet and a clean diet pepsi? Well, anyway next time you are in LA, you are welcome to use the commode and raid the icebox. I take cash or travels checks. -me