The last month has been crazy - Paris - Tours -Porto Portugal - Tours - Paris - Amsterdam - Istanbul - Amsterdam - Paris...........

Arriving back from Istanbul late - Andrea and I stayed at a Hotel near the airport and her parents picked us up the next day. The four of us hopped on the train to spend the day in Amsterdam. Even though they are Dutch, they come to Amsterdam very seldom and find the City quite imposing. I had spent nearly a week there exploring so, in a role reversal, got to play tour guide for them. The weather was still cold and a little wet so we cruised around on the tram before I took them on a walking tour of the Red Light District. It was fun to watch her Mom and Dad gawking at the fat and skinny, white, yellow and black, male and female, sex trade workers who were beckoning. It is a sad place when you take the time to look behind the circus aspect of it. Most of the women are older and are from Russia or Eastern Europe. The oldest hooker in the District is 83 and supposedly she has lots of business.

 I said goodbye, stayed the night in a really great boutique Hotel, got up, caught the tram to the Station and caught the high speed train to Paris - 3 hours..

I arrived at Gare Nord and again headed down into the bowels of the Paris Metro to make my way across the city to CDG Airport.

 

People always ask me if I am afraid to travel alone, ask if India is super scary, or how I can be In Cambodia alone. I must say that I have not really had any frightening experiences in the many months of travel - not really - until my second to last day - in the Paris Metro. Even though it was midday Saturday, the station was crowded - I found my way to the CDG line and soon was surrounded by what I assessed as African gangsters. Really creepy young guys - predators - circling the predominantly African crowd like vultures looking for fresh meat. I stood out more in this crowd than I have in any place in India or China or Vietnam or Laos or Cambodia. I scanned the crowd looking for allies in case I was being considered as prey. Groups of women in full tribal wear - the long bright print dresses and matching turbans with infants strapped on their fronts and backs (the 'new' French), were doing their best to ignore the young guys and me. I decided on a big strong black guy with a nice face and sidled up to him, backing me and my pack up tight against the wall so I could minimize access and waited for the train. Watching these predators was unsettling to say the least. After about a half hour, the train finally arrived and we all boarded - I only saw three other people with luggage - seemed weird for an airport line.

Station after station, gaggles of gangsters were milling about on the landings - Paris definitely has some creepy feeling places - maybe I just was unlucky to see the few or maybe the good people have abandoned the Metro allowing these gangsters to rule the line. In Gare Nord, the military presence - army guys patrolling with huge submachine guns - is overwhelming and startling. I wished a few of them spread out to the suburbs with me.

About 20 minutes down the line there were two rapid sounds - like gun shots and when the train pulled into next station, a French message on the loudspeaker caused everyone to abandon the train and head for another line on a different track. I just wanted to get to my airport hotel and chill out - I didn't want any drama on my way home - just too tired.

The next train seemed to have a more balanced mix of passengers - including a couple of street kids and their vicious looking pit bulls. Somewhere out of the blue, three security guards in plain clothes, appeared as the train pulled into the next stop, and they hauled the guys and their dogs off the train and last I saw was them being shaken down on the sideline. I did feel a little better knowing that I was not the only one identifying this line as one that needed watching.

It has completely surprised me at how different the Paris Metro 'feels' from any of the Asian Metros I have been on in the past couple of years. How sad. And scary.  It is going to be a tough job to take this line back from the abyss. I would have never believed the depth of depression that I have seen in France and Portugal these past couple of weeks. Decline of the Roman Empire - the Asian Tigers have taken over.