We are sorry to say that Mac is not very well, but he is
still e-mailing strong and recently sent the Beetle a
collection of Mac reminiscences including those about a
hotel room with a vibrating bed and an Indian astrologer.
I am reminded in my correspondence about travel of a
vibrating bed I found one time on checking into a budget
hotel in Hong Kong. I discovered after I had checked
in that it was a rendezvous hotel for Chinese older
citizens. No young people checked in but older
Chinese that wanted a romantic interlude. I was slow
to catch on. There were mirrors on the ceiling and
on the wall and I thought gee this is unusual for a budget
hotel. I laid down and thought I was switching off
the light switch and I switched on the switch that started
the bed to rumbling. I at first thought it was an
earthquake. I am always slow to catch on.
I one time was on a bus in Mexico City when there was an
earthquake and I thought it was just a rough road and bus
with bad springs. When I got to my destination
everyone was out on the street from that budget
hotel. I knew a lady there that had been in same
hotel in San Miguel De Allende. The hotel in Mexico
City was run by a religious order something like the
Quakers. She volunteered there and laughed when I
asked her why everyone was out in the street to greet me!
Incidentally the hotel in Hong Kong was called The
Hilton. They swiped the name from the more expensive
Hilton Hotel. It is like calling a hotel The Ritz
when it is anything but the Ritz. I really liked
that hotel though. It had windows you could open and
look out on very busy street. I had been on a
package tour where the four or five star deluxe hotel in
Hong Kong that was included had been so cold and I could
never get the air conditioning off. My cheap hotel
had overhead fan which I liked better. The deluxe hotel
had a mat in elevator that gave you the day of the week
each day woven into the mat. They had a grand piano
on a float in pond but for some reason I was never
comfortable there so at the end of the tour I moved into
the unusual budget hotel and was happy there. It was
in a less touristy part of Nathan Road at maybe in the
direction of Nathan Road. Just ask for the other Hilton.
I just read that a writer wrote that Charles De Gaulle
Airport in Paris is a “Third World Airport” It
brought out some travel memories. After getting
radiation for prostrate cancer I started travelling before
I was completely well. At a stop on a tour bus in southern
India I started to get up from my seat when I realized I
had bled from my rear end onto the seat. I didn’t
want to panic the Indian tourists so decided I would sit
in my seat until they were all off and then run like
hell. All were off but one Indian gentleman who
stopped by my seat on way out and asked if I was alright.
For some strange reason I blurted out my problem. It
turned out he was an Indian doctor who was a cancer
specialist at Sloane Kettering Cancer Hospital in
New York City and just on vacation in India. He gave me
some medicine to stop the bleeding and gave me address of
where he was staying in New Delhi if I needed more help.
I continued on to Paris and at Charles De Gaulle airport I
started bleeding again. Although I had a ticket on
Air France for security reasons they would not let me use
their toilet. I went down the street to a police station
and by hand motions (not an easy thing to do) asked if
could use their toilet. They did not arrest me for
obscenity but directed me to their toilet that they
evidently had criminals use. It had no door so they
at desk could watch the prisoners when in toilet I guess.
I did not want them to know I was bleeding so had to wipe
myself as far as possible out of their sight. I then
went to a Protestant church (closer than Catholic) and by
chance there was an American Protestant minister there and
I asked him if there was a military hospital or American
hospital. He tried to get thorough to American Embassy but
couldn’t to ask them. By this time I had stopped
bleeding and went back to airport and still made flight
out. On that experience I too call Charles De Gaulle
airport a turd world airport.
In New Delhi at the YWCA (they took men as well as women)
I had to share my room with another Indian doctor. This
time a dentist. He said he could tell my fortune but had
to wait until the sun came up in the morning. He
told me I had cancer and that I had been in the military
and some other things that I had not told him (unless I
talked in my sleep) That too was a little strange.
Another experience I had with Air France was that in South
America they have a cheap flight from French Guinea to
France. People from all over South American go to French
Guinea to catch this flight. The flight started in Peru I
believe but I picked it up in Northern Brazil (the town on
the Amazon I cant think of its name) There was only three
of us passengers on this huge 747 and all they gave us was
a stale roll. When I asked if I could have a second one I
was told they did not have enough. So much for French
cuisine. Maybe they picked up their food in French Guinea
along with most of the passengers.
I was only going as far at French Guinea. They had French
Foreign Legion at their airport as guards. They wanted
each of us three to go in separate taxis into town. I
showed them my retired military ID and they let us all go
then in same taxi. Maybe they thought I was an official.
The hotels were full so we had to stay in a French whore
house. People from British guinea would come over to use
it. It was a hotel but the girls were upstairs. We could
not get a room until three AM when night’s
activities were over. I got to my room and I got a phone
call and I was told I had to go to a doctor. I was told
that the girl from that room was sick. I said there has
been no girl in this room. They apologized. I went
down stairs as it was now about six Am and there was the
other two from airplane and we decided to walk into town
to see if we could find open cafe. The other passengers
were a European that ran a taxi in New York City. He would
work long enough until he had enough money to travel
and then he and his wife would travel. The other passenger
was a European writer for Mad Magazine. He was
delighted with our unusual hotel and said: “this is
just like in the movies!” Travel can be fun, well,
at least interesting!
If you would like to contact Mac, he is happy to answer
e-mails: macsan400@yahoo.com
