Date received: Thu Sep 06 2001, 12:27 AM PDT
I leave for Istanbul on Sunday, Sept. 9. Over the past few weeks, I have visited many friends, all of my family, and gone to the Burning Man festival in Nevada. Everything, that is, except actually get my bike prepared and ready to go. So now I am frantically putting my bike together, finding all of things I will need, and tying up loose ends before Sunday.
Unfortunately, one of the unexpected loose ends is that I have to file my taxes; I hoped that with huge losses in the market and no income, I wouldn't have to deal with it, but due to circumstances I don't want to go into, I now owe huge sums of money; gulp.
It has been great visiting with friends and family that I haven't seen in 10 months. San Francisco definitely has a better feel to it than when I left, mostly due to the fact that the internet economy has collaped and all of the golddiggers have left town.
Some things never change, however; in the past week, I have gotten *five* parking tickets and had my car towed. Not exactly a red carpet welcome from the city. I had better get the hell out of this city before I lose all of my money.
Once in Istanbul, I plan on hopping straight on a bus and going to Capridoccia. From there, I only have a few weeks to get to Iran before my visa expires. I now have visas for Iran, Pakistan, India, and China, which should cover all of my options for quite a while.
peter
