Robert Downes

Random Thoughts Robert Downes There’s something spooky about being jammed like jelly into a crowd of more than a million people. I decide that if all hell breaks loose, I’ll climb the nearest tree and wait for it to all blow over.
By dumb luck, I’ve arrived in
Bangkok, Thailand on the eve of King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s 80th birthday. The Thai people are nuts about the king -- even more so now that there was a military coup here last year and he represents a sense of stability. There are billboard-sized posters of his face all over town and arches over the main roads that are foiled in gold with his picture. The king is not exactly Mr. Charisma -- he’s a bookish-looking old man in gold-framed glasses -- but to the Thai people, he’s got more pizazz than a rock superstar.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes If any of you are weary of winter’s chill in Northern Michigan, I invite you to jump on a plane and join me on the beaches of Goa in southern India, where -- I must confess -- it’s a bit lonely going it alone under the pulsing sun.
After two-and-a-half months of constant travel on my way around the world, I’ve left my backpacking chums to roost for 12 days on the Indian Ocean as a respite from being constantly on the move.
The village of Calangute in the state of Goa is hardly the paradise it’s cracked up to be. I half expected to find 20 miles of high-rise hotels, similar to Cancun, but instead it’s much the same squalor and anarchy as the rest of India, with hotels, restaurants and shops (and hundreds of hustlers) packed into narrow lanes paralleling the beach.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes A fruit bat the size of a cocker spaniel wheels overhead in broad daylight and flaps off into a grove of coconut palms on lazy wings.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes The women of India are like wildflowers, each one dressed in colors to make a garden blush.
Canary and tangerine salwar suits; saris in coral, turquoise and royal purple, ribboned with silver and gold or spangled with sequins. Colors of sapphire, topaz and electric red... Most women here dress to kill, dripping with heavy, intricate jewelry of silver and gold and often wearing the tikka powder spot on their foreheads which marks them as Hindus.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes The last 750 steps up the Stairs of Repentance are straight up the crags of Mt. Sinai, but once at the top, you find yourself at one of the holiest spots on earth -- the place where God delivered the 10 Commandments to Moses.
It’s a 4.2 mile hike up the mountain which is the second highest in Egypt at more than 6,000 feet. There was no trail here when Moses made the climb thousands of years ago. You can imagine him clawing his way up through the loose rock on his hands and knees, searching for a way up through the cliffs. He must have been bleeding from head to foot and covered with flies by the time he reached the summit. But here, in a state of exhaustion and ecstasy, he spent 40 days and nights communing with God.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes With the full moon rising behind the ancient Temple of Luxor, I find myself in what was once the heart of Egypt, far down the Nile on a trip that is taking me around the world.
Arriving in Cairo a week ago put me into a state of culture shock. This is one of the world’s ‘supercities’ with a population of more than 20 million, and most of the people in Egypt are dirt poor. The city itself is the filthiest I’ve ever been in, owing to the fact that it only rains three or four times a year, so there’s nothing to wash away the grime. Then there’s the insane traffic, with no rules and few stoplights, and temperatures in the 90s. But I’m cheered to think that the grunge will prepare me for even scruffier places down the line.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Word has it that less than 20 years ago, the citizens of communist East Europe were still standing in line, waiting for potatoes and beets at truck depots. Maybe that was just Cold War propaganda, but it’s true that the museums here can’t seem to say enough bad things about the bad old days of life under communism.
Today, all that has changed. I walked out of the grungy, grimy train station in Krakow, Poland and through a tunnel into a huge three-story mall as big as the Grand Traverse Mall in TC. It had your typical mall babes walking around in the latest styles and many of the same stores found in the U.S. If it weren’t for the great Polish food and generous beer steins in the food court, you’d swear you were in Grand Rapids.
I’ve spent the past two weeks barnstorming around Central and East Europe on an extended trip around the world. Vienna, Austria. Prague in the Czech Republic. Krakow, Poland. And now, Budapest in Hungary. The streets of each town are filled with invaders -- foreign tourists from all around the world. In Prague, I heard more American voices downtown than those of the Czechs. East Europe is the new ‘in’ place to visit, owing to the (slightly) cheaper prices than France, Britain or Germany.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Greetings from Prague, the “Capital of Cool” in Europe during the ‘90s. I’m happy to report that it’s still pretty cool with its cobblebrick streets, mammoth castle, clock towers, coffeehouses and cheap beer. Also, hordes of travelers from every land crowding its colorful streets.
After biking 225 miles down the Danube in Austria and bushwhacking various ‘bandit’ campsites along the river, I now have the benefit of regular showers and meals. The downside is losing the privacy of my soggy pup tent, which means sharing hostel rooms with up to seven strangers.
As mentioned in previous columns, I’m fulfilling a lifelong dream of traveling around the world -- close to the edge -- starting out with Europe on a bicycle. So far, I’ve biked up the lush coast of western Ireland and from sea-to-sea across England; then down Der Donau, as we call it in Austria -- about 700 miles.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Have you ever been to Moyvore? Not many people have. It‘s a tiny village in County Westmeath in the very center of Ireland. It‘s not on any tourist route -- there’s nothing much to do there. It’s an anonymous place of lumpy fields, populated mostly by sheep and cows.
Yet it is was from here in 1850 that my great, great (great?) grandfather, Michael Downes, emigrated to the United States. I am his 259th descendant.
If you have more than a dash of Irish blood in ye, chances are that someday you’ll travel to the Emerald Isle in search of your roots. The place is teeming with American visitors, packed into tour buses.
We Americans mob Ireland searching for clues to our past in the picturesque pubs, which are as lacquered and ornate as antique music boxes. We look hopefully to the heather, the occasional thatched-roof cottage, and the rocky walls of the old country, seeking signs of our roots. It’s an impulse we Irish-Americans have, similar to the need of every good Muslim to visit the holy city of Mecca at least once in a lifetime, or the quasi-expectation of every American parent to take their kids to Disneyworld.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Great Britain has an idea that could be a good fit for Northern Michigan. It’s called Sustrans, which is short for “Sustainable Transportation.” It’s a charity which “works on practical projects to help reduce motor traffic.”
Sustrans has established a 5,000-mile National Cycle Network of trails that criss-cross England, Wales and Scotland. Bike-friendly routes such as the C2C Trail in northern England and the Reivers Route along the border of Scotland attract tens of thousands of cycle tourers every summer from all over Europe, and even overseas.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes The mice were quite inconsiderate at our cottage this year.
For starters, four of them had the poor taste to die under our bathroom sink cabinet, creating a stink like rancid gym socks (only far worse). I pried a board off the cabinet and found them all dried out in there. One got stuck in the vacuum cleaner hose, glaring defiantly with his little dead mousie eyes.
They also chewed up a bunch of stuff: a box of Kleenex was shredded for bedding and they gnawed a hole through a vinyl/canvas car top that was stored out in the garage. They chewed a hole in an expensive sail. Who would do such a thing?

Random Thoughts Robert Downes We tend to shy away from reviewing self-published books at the Express, because generally, they are - how you say? Not so good.
But there’s a poignancy to the story of Father Walter Marek that tugs at the heartstrings on almost every page of his memoir: “Cache the Czech -- A Divine Journey to America.”
It’s a small, plain-spoken book -- just 99 pages -- but its 89-year-old author weaves a tumultuous tale from simple threads as he takes us on a journey through war and peace. As a young man, he lived through the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germany, and then through the occupation of his country by the Soviet Union. The book tells of his calling as a Catholic priest and subsequent escape from the Communist secret police, narrowly escaping possible torture and execution. It tells how he made his way to America as a refugee priest to make a new life in western Michigan.

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Hey, whatever happened to old
what’s-his-name? The so-called Angry White Male of the ’90s? He swept the Republicans into absolute power and marched around for a decade or so, pounding his chest with his neoconservative views.
He’s been pretty quiet lately. These days, you barely hear a peep out of him.
Maybe he‘s rethinking a few things that used to send him into a tizzy.

Features Robert Downes Got an old computer that’s ready to be rebooted to the junkyard? Don’t be a polluter -- send it to Shawn Kasner for recycling.
Kasner, 34, has launched E Waste Electronic Recycling, a business that strips computers and other electronic gear of their components for reuse.
“A lot of people are starting to realize the necessity of not throwing their old computers in landfills,” Kasner says.
He notes that the cumulative effect of trashing millions of obsolete computers has made electronic waste a topic of national concern.
Kasner’s business is located at 515 Franklin in Traverse City, where he and his partner, Brandon McMaster, recycle outdated monitors, keyboards, computers, scanners, printers and copiers, “dead or alive.”

Random Thoughts Robert Downes Michael Vick‘s Bad Trip
Animal abuse cases are not unknown in Northern Michigan. Stories of abused horses or reeking homes filled with starving dogs and cats have been in the news here in recent years.
But each time a story of animal abuse surfaces, it touches the heart of our humanity and generates outrage. To have a sense of humanity means caring for those weaker than yourself -- be they children, the poor, the less fortunate, and even pets or farm animals.