Randomness on the Road Part 3

 

Time for another entry in this series.  Here are some more random shots and stories that didn’t make it into the main posts.

This dude was a total mood!  I spotted him in a restaurant in Istanbul back in December and just had to take his picture.  Then I smashed him.

(Kidding.  There’s only one Turk who’s ever paid me any attention and I make sure to avoid him like the plague when I’m in the city.  No penis is worth $4000.)

Speaking of moods, I think this ape at the Lisbon Zoo says it all.

I have never seen a coffee set-up like this.  When the waitress set it on my table in Jaco, Costa Rica, I just stared at it for a while.  As simple as it is, the concept is no different from an electric coffee maker.  Pour boiling water over coffee grounds and strain the results into a container. No big whoop. It was decent coffee, too.  This contraption was sold at some of the souvenir shops, but I didn't buy one.

My flight was delayed getting out of Jamaica (just what I needed to cap off my trip).  A man in line next to me struck up a conversation.  He mentioned that he had recently had a stroke and his brush with the Jamaican healthcare system had him running back to America for treatment.  I questioned that move initially (dude, go anywhere but America for medical assistance!), but my opinion changed slightly as he told me more about himself.

He was an American lawyer turned musician who had married a Jamaican woman.  He loved the island but admitted that his status as a white man in the country affected his treatment.  While in hospital, the staff demanded he pay them $40,000 in cash for his care.  Yeah.  Like the sick dude coming for emergency care that had just experienced a major medical incident had that much cash in his wallet.  Then they came back to him asking for more money for gas for the truck that delivered his meds. 

In addition to trying to literally rob him, he mentioned that the meds they had prescribed for him seemed suspect.  He consulted a non-Jamaican doctor who warned him not to take the meds as the combo would kill him.  Apparently, that was par for the course for Jamaican medicine.  He said that a bunch of his buddies died because of mis-diagnoses of dengue fever, preventing them from getting the treatment for their actual maladies.

I still think he should’ve headed to Canada rather than the U.S.  The Jamaicans only tried to rob him.  And he was going to California?  Okay …

I thought this was a dumpster at first glance.  Located in Lisbon, it was only when it started playing music that I read the signage around it.  This is one of many art installations around the city, all part of some exhibition promoting literacy or something.  Can’t remember the specifics.

In Hilton Head, I was having lunch at a Mexican place that I’d never visited before.  The room was full of families and subsequently a bit noisier than I would have liked.  There was also another lone woman sitting at a table near me.  When she finished her meal, she stopped by my table on the way out.  She said she was so happy to see another woman dining alone.  She’d never been comfortable doing it and seeing me made her feel less alone.  Obviously, she had no idea just how much I’ve done by myself this year.  I didn’t go into it, merely telling her that everybody needs to eat.  All those families weren’t paying any attention to us, no need for us to feel self-conscious or pay any attention to them.

This is a scene that repeats on certain Turkish streets.  There are a lot of bakeries around that not only serve individual customers, but they also provide bread to all the local businesses.  The bakeries use wood-burning stoves so trucks will come by every few days and just dump all the wood on the street to be taken inside by hand.

All of the Hard Rock Cafes I've visited are unique in their own way.  Whether it was the elephant statue outside of the Chiang Mai location, the huge guitar outside of Phuket, or the full-size car suspended from the ceiling in the Lisbon location.  It was cool to see though I had to wonder about the safety of the people sitting beneath it if that thing ever fell.

An update on technology:  I’ve seen these puppies in a couple of places but could never figure out how to work them (same for all the radiators I've encountered).  This time, on my most recent trip to Türkiye, the towel warmers were already turned on and serve as the heaters for the bathroom.  Put your towel on there while in the shower and it’s nice and toasty when you’re ready to get out.