05-08-2011, 01:18 PM
1
Foreign Visitors
I've just returned from a 12 day visit to 5 American National Parks. Being my first visit to these parks it quickly became obvious that those sharing the experience with me were mostly from far away lands. On my tour bus of 37 people we had folks from Japan, China, Holland, Australia, England, France, Germany & the United States. Once in the parks an even bigger mix of the world was evident, with whole families from abroad enjoying the beautiful scenery.It's remarkable how well everybody got along. People were courteous and helpful as conditions were often crowded and congested as thousands hiked and viewed our scenic wonders.
I will always remember sharing a dining car on my train ride back home with a lovely couple from Switzerland. We exchanged contact information after breakfast.
Australia, France, United States, China, Germany
Japan - "Nanako"
Japan "Nanako", France "Sandrine", Australia
05-08-2011, 02:06 PM
4
Re: Foreign Visitors
Originally Posted by plantman
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Wow Bob, that's a lot of languages to learn in two weeks, good on yer mate .
05-08-2011, 03:36 PM
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Re: Foreign Visitors
What an experience of a lifetime Bob! Hard to believe how much you have squashed into two weeks. I looked through your album yesterday and did wonder about some of your group, especially the very pretty Nanako. Glad you're going to keep in touch with a couple of them.
05-08-2011, 05:10 PM
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Re: Foreign Visitors
Originally Posted by maryl
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What an experience of a lifetime Bob! Hard to believe how much you have squashed into two weeks. I looked through your album yesterday and did wonder about some of your group, especially the very pretty Nanako. Glad you're going to keep in touch with a couple of them.
08-08-2011, 10:47 AM
10
Re: Foreign Visitors
Quoting Bob: - "I've just returned from a 12 day visit to 5 American National Parks. Being my first visit to these parks it quickly became obvious that those sharing the experience with me were mostly from far away lands. On my tour bus of 37 people we had folks from Japan, China, Holland, Australia, England, France, Germany & the United States. Once in the parks an even bigger mix of the world was evident, with whole families from abroad enjoying the beautiful scenery.It's remarkable how well everybody got along. People were courteous and helpful as conditions were often crowded and congested as thousands hiked and viewed our scenic wonders."
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This reminds me of a time in Iran in 1978.
I was working there, based around the town of Ahwaz and I worked on various projects around that area while I was there.
I did some work on a pipeline down near Khorammshahr and there was a huge construction camp about halfway between Ahwaz and Abadan. We were invited there on a Friday once and there were so many nationalities there it was astounding and everyone got along very well.
We had people from nearly all of the Northern European countries, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Philippines, Japan, Russia, several Arab Nations, Iranians of course, and Israelis!!
There was a massive barbecue catering for all tastes and a big central bonfire that everyone congregated around as the evening drew in and it wasn't long before music was being played and people were dancing.
There were of course no women on this camp so it was all men dancing together around the camp fire. It became a huge circle dancing around to all sorts of music from all sorts of countries and at one point I had Israelis on one side of me and Iranians and Arabs on the other, all laughing and dancing - together.
That one incident convinced me that it's not people that cause rifts or wars, it's greed, religious differences and most of all, POLITICS!!
Pity they can't have a huge barbecue out in the remote desert and invite the world's leaders for a shindig. You never know!! stevmk2
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