I have resent the photo with a different email.

It just appeared. I'm trying to decide if that wink isn't maybe a little mischievous? I'm about to post it on my profile page, so you can all let me know what you think. (Those not in the know will now think I'm a young male hippie.)

But honestly, it's a great photo. That's my boy!

I can see that his fashion sense has evolved a bit - and I mean that seriously. It's one of the things about him that I find weird. He does have a certain style - I guess I see a bit of why you described him as "elegant." As mentioned before, he looks very, very much like his father, and his father was the world's biggest dork. Whatever a person would make of Greg, he's NOT a dork.

Other comments for the peanut gallery: He's also grown a more comprehensive beard, not just the goatee he left home with, and he looks to be in good flesh, so I know he has been getting enough to eat. When he was out of work for several months, he decided to economize by not eating and became a skeleton, and I know what that looks like on him!

(That episode came to an end when I took a look at him with his sunken cheeks and my hair stood on end. I went out and bought $200 worth of high-nutrient groceries and told him he had to eat, that otherwise he would be eating out of <i>my</i> pocket because I could not bear to see him looking like that. He discovered, once he began eating again, that his disposition improved remarkably - !!)

Thank you so much, kerouac, for passing this on.

I'm not sure why, but the previous photo of Scruffman on a mountaintop is still showing. Perhaps there's a delay? Anyway, I hope it will show up soon in its proper place!

Scruffman in Paris now on display!

He looks just as I imagined, artsnletters! What a great expression. His email and K's account of the Paris meeting really are treasures, very insightful & touching.

What a great photo!

Thanks to both of you for the visual. He looks really happy!

Great photo! Now I can put an image to the way I imagine him. This will help me vicariously share his adventures as he continues his odyssey.

You are going to continue to give us updates, aren't you?

:-)

Yup, Italy update coming soon, and then we'll have to shift forums. As long as I'm hearing from you, I'm afraid you'll be hearing from me.

I love this! Scruffman reminds me a lot of my son. In his beliefs (and appearance). Once I asked him why he was (is) this way and he looked surprised and said, "Because of you, of course!" Which took me aback I must say. I wish he could have had some of your son's adventures.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Artsnletters: We will keep following SCRUFFMAN and you, so let us know if you change forums! Thanks for the photo, and waiting for more. this is a lovely story.

If you change forum, could you please post the link to the new thread here for us? That would make finding it easier.

Yes, thanks for the photo. I had imagined him, well, scruffier... What a cute young man. An intelligent and sensitive face. Shame I am more than twice his age... (No worries, he'd find me totally boring even if I was 20, LOL.)

AnL:
I noticed your question on the India forum entitled "Flying Thru India without a visa?)
Is that for the Scruffman?
It's a pity if he's thinking about missing India (a far richer cultural experience than Nepal IMHO) (Although I'd personally prefer Nepal's mountains I've imagined him more into people's cultures-ways-of-being).
Is there not some way he could get a visa?

That is a great picture! And yes, artsnletters, please do give us a heads up if you switch forums. I'd hate to miss out on the rest of Greg's journey!

<b>The Scruffman has a vertical visit to Florence and finds serendipity in Milan</b>

The Scruffman took the overnight bus from Paris to Florence, leaving behind his new friend Kerouac and the joys of the City of Light. In Florence, he was finally reunited with his friend who is studying architecture in Florence this year. For some time he hadn’t been able to reach Russell, and it wasn’t clear if they were going to connect before he had to leave. This was troubling in part because I had mailed the infamous guitar to Russell at his school, lo those months ago.

Unfortunately, the guitar has not <i>yet</i> made it to Russell’s hands. Greg reported that it was hung up at customs and, try as they could, they could not shake it loose in time for him to carry it onward. While I’m sure Greg will miss his guitar, which he may be lucky to get back once he gets home, and his iPod, which was in the guitar case, my great sadness is that his camera cable was also in the bag, and despite my instructions to go buy a new one, I will bet dollars to doughnuts he didn’t. He had reported that his flash card was about full three or four weeks ago, so I’m afraid he isn’t going to come home with many photos of his many new friends.

His first day in Florence, they began by going to La Specola, the Museum of Zoology and Natural History . This involved many animals preserved with taxidermy, plus wax replicas of human corpses, all over 100 years old. Somehow this one never made it onto my list of must-sees in Florence! He reported he was getting ready to go the Uffizi. This is really not the sort of museum I can picture him enjoying. I wrote and asked him, how did he find all those scores of Madonnas-with-child? However, he almost never answers any questions I ask him until I ask them the fourth or fifth time, in bolded capital letters, and then it's usually just a few words. (On one occasion, I sent ORDERS to respond to four important questions, and got back an e-mail reading in its entirety: <i>"Okay, yes, yes, I dunno."</i>) So this will remain a mystery for many months more.

In general, the Scruffman’s experience of Florence was very, um, vertical.

He took in the evening view from Piazzale Michelangelo. At some point during his stay, he and Russell also hiked up to a massive and <i>”quite spectacular”</i> graveyard. On a day when the sun was out, he decided to take a hike around the hills of Florence and check out the Boboli Gardens. <i>"I really wasn’t expecting to be very impressed by manmade nature, but I must admit that I was quite moved. If you look at the gardens as a building as opposed to a garden it is really quite spectacular, not to mention the unbelievable views from the top. WOW!”</i>

Another day, he and Russell woke early and took the bus to Fiesole. I’ve heard lots about the Roman theater and so forth, but did Greg go to see these things? Nope. Because most of the stone to build Florence was quarried in Fiesole, there are many caves carved into the hillsides, and this is what they had come for. They paid particular attention to the ones taped off and labeled “do not enter,” as he reported that these were the areas of interest. Scofflaws!

Feeling stressed out about his lack of preparation for India, he spent one day walking all over Florence, mapless, getting as lost as possible. When he returned to Russell’s, he found a huge e-mail from his couchsurfing host from Oslo, one of the half-dozen people he has met in his wanderings whom he now considers a lifelong friend, giving him <i>”tons of useful tips for getting through the first few days. There was info on hostels, guesthouses, transportation, food, and overall the hustle (negotiating prices). I feel much better now.”</i>

All in all, he found Italy quite relaxing – until it was time to leave.

His departure day from Florence to Milan was the day when almost everything went horribly wrong, but then somehow didn’t. The bus he was to take left outside of Florence, and by the time he got to the bus stop, he was already five minutes late, and couldn’t <i>"for the life of me find the bus stop – it was on a huge four way highway intersection with a roundabout ... pure chaos!"</i> (Note: Mom had told him about three times that the bus stop was not in downtown Florence and to ask about this when he bought his ticket, but then … the Scruffman is not a practical or detail-oriented guy.) He finally found the stop, but ended up waiting alone for about 45 minutes before the bus finally came - <i>"good thing it was Italy (where nothing happens on time)."</i> By the time he got to Milan, it was 11:30 at night and snowing. Then, because the driver didn’t speak English, he couldn’t figure out where the bus was going to drop him, so he couldn’t plan a route to his host’s home. Fortunately, he was dropped off next to the Cadorna Metro (which I also told him, but why remember everything in that e-mail …), which was on the exact line he needed. Then, the buzzer was broken on the apartment building, but luckily a couple English-speaking people who lived there let him in and took him to his host’s apartment – but not before taking him to the apartment of someone else with the same name. (Boy, that must be confusing for the postman!) Finally, he was bedded down for the night.

Crazy, but wonderful, Italy.

As I write, the Scruffman is on an EgyptAir flight to Mumbai, via Cairo - $435 one-way. Boy, this would have been absolutely impossible to manage just a few years ago!

Total expenditures to date, about $2,500 since the end of September, including airfare.

Anyway, he will arrive tomorrow. So this story will take up in a new thread on the Asia forum, once I have news to report. I will post a link to the next thread as soon as I set it up.

elbegewa, not to worry. He has a visa good until April 6, and yes he is hoping to see Nepal. I'm thinking ahead about how he will go (1) Kathmandu to Bangkok and (2) Bangkok to Istanbul, if that ends up being the route he chooses, and both of those routes appear to involve plane changes in India.

Just in case you want to fill in the details without waiting for months, I suspect the cemetery was the one behind San Miniato al Monte, quite near Piazzale Michelangelo. There's a photo at the following link (scroll down) that gives an idea.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/i...niato-al-monte

About that full flash card - I used to have mine dumped to CD. Shouldn't be that expensive in India - any Internet cafe or photo store should be able to do it. (I had a second CD cut so I could keep one until the first one was reported to have arrived in the US, but know that won't fly!)

Personally, I just make sure I have extra flash cards when I travel (they have become quite cheap) since they take up absolutely zero space and weigh nothing.

<<I had imagined him, well, scruffier...>>

Well, he does have the world's ugliest dreads covered by a scarf (well, it's possible they look better now than they did four months ago). I'm surprised his beard is so neat - he has a beard trimmer at home, but it's electric so he didn't take it. I thought he might be working a big Santa-style beard.

And of course he may have tidied up for the big dinner so I didn't get a bad report about him.

The whole "scruffy" thing started because I thought he might give the impression of the sort of shiftless, social-support-draining ne'er-do-well the Brits don't want to let in, but really he is a charmer and didn't have a problem in the end.

<<What a cute young man.>>

Thanks for saying that - I think so too, but then I'm partial. :)

Just received a brief e-mail from the Scruffman letting me know he landed safely in Mumbai.

Yay! Now the "real" adventure begins!

Just received a brief e-mail from the Scruffman letting me know he landed safely in Mumbai.>>

is that relief that you are feeling, artsnletters, or trepidation at what he may get up to now he's arrived?

I feel your pain, though in a slightly less extreme version - my own "scruffboy" went off on the train [for anything other than a short journey] by himself for the first time on Friday, and despite delays and weather "issues" managed to get himself home again last night.

phew!

looking forward to hearing more of the adventures of Scruffman,

regards, ann

annhig, I'm not really worried about him at all. He's got money to come home if things go awry. He's always landed on his feet. I think there will be a period of adjustment, as India is quite different from Europe, but I know he'll make the shift pretty quickly.

My problem is that he doesn't write often enough - not because I <i>worry</i> about what he's up to, but because I'm curious!

I think that spending time in squats and spending as little money as possible in the previous month will be a major aid to adjusting to Indian conditions. What may come as a surprise to him is that most Indians will still consider him to be immensely wealthy, so of course certain elements will try every ruse possible to separate him from his money.

One rule that I do believe in following in India is not to accept an offer of tea or any other beverage from totally random strangers. Many travelers have awakened hours later with absolutely no possessions. With a little luck, Scruffman has a good 6th sense that will inform him of possibly dodgy situations.

kerouac, I hope you told him that when you met? I've wondered whether he's prepared to be as careful of potential swindles as he might be. He had a very consistently warm and fuzzy experience of Europe and may not encounter so uniform of response in India.

As others have said - and I too feel, this is where his adventure will really begin.
Barring anything untoward befalling him, I hope he will be touched and moved by what he sees and experiences. I sense Goa naturally calling to him, but there are a myriad of other areas to experience as well, particularly south India (Kerala). Let him know too that many of the sikh temples offer free basic (but tasty) vegetarian lunches every day and its an amazing communal experience to attend one (or more).

Did you say he was going to Africa as well ? Its a short flight to East Africa from India and there are some cheap flights to be had if the timing's right.

M

Yes, at dinner we tried to tell him that southern India was what would appeal to him, but for some reason he thought it was northern India that would be calmer and more laid back. I figure that he will meet other travelers his own age in Mumbai who will set him straight and not have to rely on questionable information from 3 codgers in Paris.

In any case, there is little pre-India advice that can prepare anyone for the immensity of the experience.

It doesn't look to me like his funds will hold out for Africa unless he figures out a way to make a little money on his way. If my work situation stabilizes, I might try to cobble up a bit for him, but right now I'm more likely to lose my job than start feeling secure in it. The visa situation seems possibly problematic as well. He only has a visa for India, and he dawdled so long about that that I had to mail his passport to him in New York after he had left. It looks like he <i>might</i> be able to get into Kenya without one. I know he doesn't need one for South Africa, but it doesn't seem possible to fly there without a stop and change of airline (and ticket) in Nairobi. Cost of airfare is what's really eating into his funds. On the ground he spends almost nothing.

Thanks to those of you offering tips for India. I will be sure to pass them on.

I love so many Fodors stories but this is seriously one of my all time favorites. I am not a Mom but have a soon-to-be divorced sister with an amazing 10 year old son, and I plan on forwarding her links to this. I would love for my nephew to have even a fraction of adventures similar to Scruffman's. I just finished reading Shantaram so am very excited to hop over to Asia and see how things are going in Mumbai!

I should mention, artsnletters, that one of my sons swears by Goa. He and his lady do Christmas markets in Germany each holiday season. They work their tails off for about six months a year organizing, setting up and tearing down the markets and then head for Goa to unwind with what they say is the most wonderful Vegan food on the planet. They practice their yoga, lay on the beach and, I'm sure, pollute their bodies with all sorts of chemicals --- but they love it. I'm sure Greg will, too, if he manages to get down there.

:-)

Artsnletters, one of my friends is an artist and spends a month away each year, volunteering in developing countries. Last year she was in the fistula hospital in Addis Ababa. Received this yesterday. She also travels "on the smell of an oily rag" and embraces the people of the world in a most wonderful manner. The way the universe works, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Slavica & Greg's paths cross. I'm picturing his reaction to scenes similar to these:

"Dear All

I am now back in Delhi full moon and all and getting ready to catch an early morning train to Deradun at the foot hills of the Himalayas.

Have just arrived back for a couple of days in Japuir the pink city made from sandstone; where rugged mountains surround the city, rocky out crops of pink rock and dry arid landscape transport me elsewere.

We spent the days browsing in the old city wandering and getting lost searching for those elusive treasures that surface in old dusty lanes and hidden stall holders.
Monkeys clamour to lofty roof tops above the city streets watching us passing by and seem to claim the best vantage points.

We found some escape from the busy streets in a roof top cafe that we discovered but as we were led through a labyrinth of stair cases and dimly lit rooms with rather exotic pictures of couples we were not sure if this rather quiet place doubled as a brothel at night.

We however reached the rooftop without any questions been asked and settled for a while looking at the city streets below and the mountains in the distance. Above us kites flew over the city; small colured squares simple shapes floating above us that showed no sign of any ownership, they simply drifted in the sky circling with the wind and the flying hawks. In some ways I felt a little like the kites; circling around the city without rhyme or particular reason but of course occasionally gathering tugs from all directions for attention by the locals.

Amidst the chaos there is always glimpses of beauty; bags of colured pigments that appear at the corner of your eyes , marigolds and roses threaded in full garlands gathered high near temples, bright yellow and orange rice sweets piled so high they themselves become mountains and always saris beautiful saris of every imaginable colour.
We decided to have our palms read; as you do when you are in India. A rather serious looking doctor of Astrology measured our hands and looked at the lines of our palms. Soon our personalities and future unfolded. Some comments were remarkable accurate and other predications left wide open, leaving many optionsat our doorsteps; not unlike our driver who has continued riding on the roads in no particular lane preferring straight down the middle with his options open.

Our driver has been a kind-hearted man form the village where we stayed. His name was Ayub and as we found out in the village had a nickname which happened to be
" mental" apparently he is little crazy. He is simple in nature with not great english. We ask questions he repeats them as if he has answered it. We try a different version and again like an obedient parrot he repeats again, he then utters a few words and we go around in circles with no conclusion. He then leads us into a conversation which is totally irrelevant to our original question and so it goes on.

We dance around like this in and all to familiar dance back and forth with a few words here and there. Somehow we manage to get to where we are going much to our own surprise. Somehow we give in and accept this little tango. If we sit in silence for a while and then ask the question again sometimes just out of the blue we get an answer. We suddenly make contact. Ayubs favourite saying is " No Problem" it seems a favourite saying fo all of India as to " Anything is Possible.

So until my next dance on Indian transport to get to me to the mountains I will sign off. The lady in the internet has just worshipped one of the many gods and waved a huge bundle of incense in the room I am slowly about to pass out although it is a sweet fresh fragrance that is refreshing form the streets of Delhi."

Bokhara, that makes me want to write Greg and tell him, go to Jaipur! He loves rock-climbing, so I imagine that alone would appeal, but it sounds fantastic. Slavica definitely has a way with words. There seems so much serendipity in the world, and so much resonant vibrating of certain spirits, that it wouldn't surprise me if they ran into each other. (And no, I'm not one of those New-Agers.)

Just had an e-mail from West's mother (West was Greg's hitchhiking companion across the United States and is still scruffing around the east coast - spent three months in the northeast (most recently staying in a communal space known as the Nut House) and is now in North Carolina, with plans to head for Florida before too long and to return to the Bay Area at the end of summer. West's mom mentioned that "Like Greg, he has a charm and kindness that engenders amazing generosity and a distinct lack of strife and 'trouble.'" They both really are extraordinary fellows. I just hope they can hang on to their youthful idealism and find good places in the world in which to do their important work.

Artsnletters, I could give you Slavica's email address for Greg if you drop me a line at bokhara77athotmaildotcom. I know they'd have a great sympatico if it happened that they did meet.

' "Like Greg, he has a charm and kindness that engenders amazing generosity and a distinct lack of strife and 'trouble.'" They both really are extraordinary fellows. I just hope they can hang on to their youthful idealism and find good places in the world in which to do their important work'

Your comments pique something I've been thinking about apropos those "kids" of all ages who have difficulty fitting into the expected moulds at school and afterwards. There's a thread on 20somethings still finding themselves on the Lounge just now. Some of these folk are not going to fit happily into the "Corporate suit" literally or metaphorically. Yet those attributes which set them apart and make them an awkward fit in many, if not most, traditional business careers, are often the very same values/appearances/attributes which make them tailor made for work with people in societies with a different world view. These societies might be on our own doorsteps or scattered around the world, but an important and common thread is the difficulty professionals can have in gaining the trust essential to help. Their open manner and genuine interest isn't hindered by their dress or mannerisms as it can be when most of us step outside our usual niches. And just as importantly to bring some of the positive attributes & values of "developing", marginalised and fringe societies into the "mainstream" society in which many of us dwell.

Imagine the alchemy if the skills "The Scruffman" & his compatriots employ to get around the world were put to use in solving some of the problems and enhancing the communication & understanding between those marginalised by geography or other factors and we who think we live in the epitome of a civilized society.

Bokhara, it's taken me a while to post here again because I wanted to give your last post the attention I feel it deserves.

So many people who value "hard" careers - business types, engineers, medical personnel, etc. - forget that, first, many people don't have the aptitude for those jobs, and second, that there are many other very useful functions that people can serve who have a different set of talents and a different kind of intelligence. Even the artistic types: would any of us want to live in a world with no art, no music, no fiction or poetry? Van Gogh sold what, two paintings in his lifetime? Would our world be richer if he had given up and gone into some other line of work?

"People" people will never make the money that the people with "hard" skills do, so they will never have as pretty of lives, but we need them and their gifts. As our economy becomes increasingly global, we will need people who can communicate and relate to a wider range of people, who can walk through the financial district or a slum with equal comfort and speak to whomever they encounter there, who can relate equally to a fellow-countryman or someone from the other side of the world, in our land or theirs. The world's becoming a smaller place, and someone like Greg will be more able to circumnavigate it than those who take the more conventional path of college-business suit-career.

It's worth my adding that both Greg and his friend West, who is so similar to him, have both been self-supporting and independent since they were 18. They don't expect to be taken care of. They are comfortable living close to the ground, their material wants are few, their imagination and energy and love are boundless. You could not wish for better friends, or for better people to walk the earth with you.

Because they are not bounded by conventional expectations, the world has far more possibilities for them than most of us can see - and those possibilities are not just personal, but also global. I wish there were more like them.

And now I will close this chapter, and open another:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...n-in-india.cfm

Hope to see you all there!

Arts, and who is to say that those of us who live more simply than the moguls with money don't have as pretty a life as they do? If you mean that we don't have a home that would grace the cover of a magazine or clothes that would fit a magazine, you are right. However, we have time to stop and marvel at the small beauties around us each day. Watching the earth come back to life after winter, feeling a cat go nose to nose with you, smelling all those things that make up each season, hearing a child exclaim, "Oh, I get it!" after you have spent hours trying different approaches to get across a concept needed for the next step in the curriculum, sitting on the grass watching the light change minute by minute in the garden, watching a poppy bud open to a full flower, hearing and seeing the excitement of a child as s/he shouts, "OH, Miss___ (or Aunt)come see_____!"

Your Greg will get all of this and so much more. He will contribute to the world in many ways. He is truly a young man of whom you can be very proud! Thanks for sharing him with us!

Just topping this in case anybody missed the transfer to the Asia forum, where the Scruffman is still having interesting adventures:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...n-in-india.cfm

This is great reading. What an adventure.