2 October, 2015

Day 1 and we have survived multiple crises already.  We flew from Montreal on September 30^th and arrived in Doha Oct 1^st at 5:00 PM. As we prepared to leave the plane Joan discovered her wallet was missing. She had used it in Montreal airport to buy a newspaper. Sure enough it was not in either of our bags or her purse. Before we left the plane we waited till everyone had left and did a thorough search of the area. Joan found it wedged between the seat and airplane sidewall – thank goodness. One disaster averted! The second leg was from Doha to Columbo – the capital of Sri Lanka, We got off the plane in Columbo after traveling for 20 hours. We needed to get Sri Lankan rupees, so I left Joan with the luggage and found an ATM machine. I got my money and then we arranged a taxi ride to our lodging. I should have know that I was experiencing jet lag when the taxi driver told me I had negotiated a 30 dollar taxi ride up to 100 dollars (not 10 like I was thinking) I got the ride for $20 in the end, but when we arrived at our hotel I was missing my packsack witch had all my camera gear in it, We checked the car twice over and the driver phoned back to the airport - but no trace of my bag. The driver drove me back to the airport and I found my backpack sitting on the chair where I had left it.

Thank God Sri Lankans are honest!

I had the window seat when we flew over the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza and Saudi Arabia. I was amazed by the vastness of desert we flew over – hours and hours of flying, seeing no trees,no water, no towns.

It was fascinating .

Joan